Lunar New Year's manicure

새해 복 많이 받으세요! (saehae bok mahni badeuseyo) Many fortunes in the New Year.

I based my manicure on one that I saw before, but I can't find the website. If I do I will link to it here. The photo I saw had a much more subtle gradient, but I didn't have the polishes that were used in the photo. I think mine kind of looks like fire.

The colors are a little off here, it is snowing so there is no natural light, not even through the windows.

Here is what I used:


From left to right: Sally Hansen Super Shine, Pure Ice: Siren, China Glaze: Ruby Pumps, and Jordana Pop Art in Golden Artist.

The base coat was Pure Ice: Siren, and then I layered half of my nail with China Glaze: Ruby Pumps.


I put a layer of top coat, and then layered the lower half with the Jordana (which is actually a stripping polish, but it is the only gold glitter polish I have.)


What do you think? Do you celebrate the lunar new year?

These products were bought with my own money for review by myself.

Glittering top coats

I've finally been able to take a picture of my nails in the sunlight, it really does make a difference.





I think the sunlight helps my camera capture the true color of the nail polishes that the flash on the camera cannot do.

So, since my nails already have some wear on them I decided to try out different top coats on them just to check out the looks. Here are China Glaze: Ruby Pumps and Finger Paints: Sketch N Etch with two coats of Northern Lights Hologram Gold Top Coat.


And here is from left to right: Confetti: Party Palace Blue (blue in the bottle with hexagonal glitters and smaller fine glitter), Pure Ice: Don't You Wish (clear/white gloss with opalescent glitter), and an unknown Sally Girl mini nail polish (it has no name or number on it, and I couldn't find it on the Sally Hansen website either, it is has a bluish tinge withe opalescent glitter.)


Here's a picture of the unknown Sally Girl.


Then on my other hand, this one is a little hard to see, I have Finger Paints: Sparkle top coat.


And here I have the Finger Paints: Sparkle top coat over the Sketch N Etch, but on the right is the China Glaze: Ruby Pumps that has Pure Ice: Busted over it, I think they look awfully alike in this photo, but the Sparkle is opalescent in the bottle and the Busted is a light purple.


These products were bought with my own money for review by myself.



EDIT: I found out that the unknown Sally Girl is #812029. They don't have names on the bottles or at the store, but the website lists this as "Way 2 Disco." 12/22/11

Quick and easy Christmas nails

I took my last final today, so hopefully I'll get to take pictures of my nails in sunlight now, instead of just with a flash.


So, here is my Christmas nails. I took two colors, China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Finger Paints: Sketch N Etch. I put the Ruby Pumps polish on every nail, except on my ring finger. On my ring finger I put Sketch N Etch.


You can see some wear on my pointer and middle fingers, but I think that is because I have been working like crazy on my finals. I put three coats of polish on each nail and two coats of Sally Hansen Super Shine on top.

I hope you like this!

These products were bought with my own money for review by myself.

China Glaze: Ruby Pumps swatch

I don't know why I love this color so much. Maybe because of the sparkle? the shine? the red? I can't decide, but it is an awesome color.



Here is the bottle of awesomeness.

And here is a picture of the nail.


This is three coats of China Glaze: Ruby Pumps and two coats of Sally Hansen Super Shine .

If you are looking for a fun red color I would definitely recommend this color.

You can see my swatch of Dorothy Who? here

This product was bought with my own money for review by myself.

China Glaze: Ruby Pumps swatch

This is for my friend Jessica, who just stared a make-up video blog on Youtube that you can view here.

So, I don't know, but if you are like me I don't normally have the time or money to afford a manicure, plus I really had having someone jab an orange into my cuticles. I find it extremely painful and I did get an infection once, but that was from a pedicure.

Anyway, I started out by cleaning my hands thoroughly. I had been using acrylic paints earlier in the day and tried to make sure that I scrubbed off all the excess paint. I also put lotion on my hands since they were all nasty and dry. And, as you can see in all the pictures, I took off my wedding ring.


Then I put on a coat of Sally Hansen Super Shine I don't think this step is completely necessary, but I saw it on a Korean nail art blog, and the lady's nails were gorgeous, so I thought I'd give it a try.


Then I started painting my nails with the China Glaze: Ruby Pumps. I need my nails to dry quickly, because you never know what kind of mischief a five-year old can get up to, I only painted thin coats.


As you can see there isn't much difference between three or four coats, but I do think there is more of a shine with a top coat on the pinky finger that is needed.

One thing I have read on other blogs, and I think is true, is that the glitter is very hard to get off. That is true for most nail polishes that contain glitter, but especially true for this nail polish.


This is my thumb, which only had one coat of polish, and I scrubbed with nail polish remover.

If I do more of these it is going to have to wait until after I can get the rest of the polish off.

This product was bought with my own money for review by myself.