Lagoon + Sprouse

Another Dior post for you!  I really love this one (just as much as I loved Calypso, and just as much as I am sure I will love the rest of the Diors from the summer collection).  
Lagoon is a beautiful vibrant blue.  It's not dusty, it's not neon, not royal.  Maybe close to a cyan blue?  It's a mixture of a creme and a jelly, what is referred to as a crelly.  It's a fantastic formula.  It's easy to apply, awesome color pay off in 2 coats, extra squishy and glossy.  I love it.  Lagoon didn't need it, but I threw a layer of topcoat to make it even more shiny.
I decided to put Candeo Colors Sprouse on my ring finger as a accent.  Sprouse is black and white glitter mix.  But it's so much more.  There are holographic micro glitters, silver hexs, blue holographic hexs and of course black and white hexs, glitter and bars.  It's a fabulous mix of awesome.  It applied easily in 1 coat.  There as plenty of glitter pay off, no digging at all.  I received my mini bottle of Sprouse from my Beach Bunny swap friend Jessica!  Thanks Jessica!!
You can get Candeo Colors from their etsy store.   Dior is available at Dior counters.  

First Stamping!

The other day I was cruising through the beauty section in my local Ross store and I happened upon a stamping kit for $6.99.  This isn't the first time I have seen it, but this is the time I decided to buy it and give it a whirl.  I'm so glad I did because the darn thing actually worked!  Not a bad find for the price!  If you see one I highly suggest you purchase it and play around with learning to stamp!
I started my mani with 2 coats of Catrice King of Greens, which was a polish included in a swap package from my friend Dulce at Miminihos Que Eu Gosto.  This is a beautiful green with a green/gold shimmer.  The formula was slightly think, but not hard to work with.  I could have gotten away with 1 coat, but because I am so used to using 2 I did just that.  
For my next step I sponged 2 coats of OPI Catch Me In Your Net on my tips.  CMIYN was a very exciting birthday surprise from my good friend Gina at My Dirty Little Obsessions.  CMIYN is a a stunna!  It's blue-teal with teal glass flecks.  It's a polish that is slightly hard to find, but it also has a few dupes (Zoya Charla, Jesse's Girl Glee).  I was afraid this color would be sheer when I used it, hence why I layered it.  But I think layering it over the green took away from the pretty blue and made it a more green glass fleck polish.  Live and learn, right?  
Finally I used a black to stamp a design on all my nails.  The design reminds me of one of those weeds you pick up, bow all the little floaty pieces off and make a wish.  
So have you tried stamping?  What do you think of my first attempt at it?

Dior Calypso

What can I say other than I'm in love.  Dior has been all the rage in one of my polish groups and I owned none.  Gasp, for shame.  I felt so left out.  My dearest husband recently went to Las Vegas and I promptly called up the Dior boutiques and put a few (or 10) items on hold.  He came back home with a bag of goodies for me and I literally squealed with excitement.  
I decided to wear one of the new summer colors first.  Calypso is a gorgeous bright red-orange, jelly finish, which they refer to as sorbet.   It's gorgeous.  It went on like a dream.  It's ultra shiny and squishy.  It is a jelly/sorbet so you will see the nail line.  Don't get worked up trying to get it opaque, it ain't gonna happen.  I used 3 coats, could have gotten away with 2 but I nicked one nail and added another coat.  I finished off with one layer of topcoat to give Calypso even more shine.

Uh, As If! + Black Shredded

I'm enjoying these bright summer colors, can you tell?  Today I'm wearing a neon pink with a pink shimmer.  It's Spoiled Uh, As If! and I really really like it!  This neon didn't dry nearly as matte as most neons do.  And a quick coat of topcoat really brought out the shimmer and shine.  UAI went on smoothly and evenly in 2 coats.  The formula was great and even better, the brush seemed smaller than the one in Are Mermaids Real? which I reviewed here.  So maybe Wet N Wild is listening to its consumers and improving that gosh-darn-awful brush they were using.
I've seen a lot of pink and black lately…Pretty & Polished Punk'd Up Betty, Nailventerous Evil Barbie, Lush Lacquer Pink Panther, F4 Polish Pink Penguin, etcetera etcetera.  I decided to make my own version of all the pink and black fun!  I put a coat of icing Black Shredded over UAI and I love how it looked!  I don't have Lacquistry Black Shredded so I have no idea how the icing version compares.   I believe it's the same general idea though, randomly sized and shaped shards of black matte glitter.  Maybe this is the scrap left over from the glitter punching machine and some evil genius thought, I bet nail polish hoarders would like this stuff - I'll throw it in a clear base and sell it!  Viola, shreddeds were born.  
Back to reality…Black Shredded was not at all difficult to work with.  The shreds went down easily and laid flat on my nails.  I only used 1 coat, wanting to go for a more minimal look while not covering up too much of the pink base.  If you were lemming after the Lacquistry version you may as well pick up a bottle from icing!  Trust me, you will like it.
You can get Spoiled at CVS for $1.99 and icing at icing By Claire's for $4.99.  

 

FEVERshadow Beach Night

I recently won a contest run by Casandra at The Mani-Logues/FEVERshadow/Wishful Bath & Beauty.  I received a professional nail art brush set from MASH!  I can't wait to use them and try out some nail art - which I have only tried once before.  
my prize!!

I was also sent a sample of one of the new FEVERshadow Summer 2012 eyeshadows, which will be coming out soon.  I received Beach Night and it's uncanny how perfect it is for me.  Chasing after 3 young kids has made me deeply appreciate makeup that is no fuss no muss, and this color is perfect for that!  It will look great on many skin tones, you can wear it in the daytime with shorts and flip flops or at night with a little eyeliner and lipstick for a more dressed up look.  
I personally always lean towards shimmery, sandy taupes and tans and Beach Night was really spot on!  Beach Night is a silvery taupe with green and gold shimmer in it.  I used a concealer colored creme shadow as a base to help the powder stick and I think it really helped keep the eyeshadow on my lids all day long.  Mind you I was out in the heat at a theme park and the shadow still looks great!  It's a really perfect shadow for wearing makeup, but not looking like you are wearing too much.  Personally I am keeping my fingers crossed that Casandra makes this in the cream formula because I'm a just that kind of girl!  

Sorry for the missing letters - I must have smudged them off at some point.

Color Club Take Wing Collection = Skittles

Take Wing is the Color Club Summer 2012 collection.  Oooh I wanted this set badly!  It took me about a month to acquire them all, slowly, one by one.  But they are all finally home with their mama.  And they are a bunch of lookers, lemme tell you!
Since I couldn't decide which color to wear first I picked them all and did my first skittles mani.  Both hands are the same so I only took pictures of my left hand.   The colors are as following: Wing Fling-pink (thumb), Sparkle and Soar-orange (index), Daisy Does It-yellow (middle), Fly With Me-green (ring), Metamorphosis-turquoise/teal (pinky).  And I have Sky High-blue, on my toesies but won't post the pictures since I know there is some animosity to toe pictures on the internet.  (:  This collection is made up of beautiful bright colors, jam packed with glass flecks in colors that coordinate to the polish base (i.e. pink base, pink flecks).  FWM and DDI seem to have some extra colors flashing in their flecks - pink and blue on top of the main color. 
I used 2-3 coats of each color, Daisy Does It, Sparkle and Soar, and Fly With Me were the most sheer and required 3 coats.  Even after that I could still see my nail line.  The coats went on smoothly, not too thick or thin.  But next time I may try to layer the more sheer colors over similar colored underwear.  You can find Color Club Take Wing at Rite Aid (at least in the area I live in), and I have heard of a few people spotting it packaged as a set at Ross.  

Sparkle and Soar, index finger

Daisy Does It, middle finger

Fly With Me, ring finger

Metamorphosis, pinky

Wing Fling, thumb