Skittles! Marbled and Stamped

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Hi all. I've done a couple of skittlette manicures, but I've never shared a true skittles manicure on here. Today I remedy that. It has been very cold and grey around here and a colorful manicure was in order.

Nfu Oh 61 and the Perks of Aqua Base

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When I first purchased Nfu Oh 61, I thought, "I don't need an aqua base. It will be fine without it." And for the most part it was fine. I could apply the holographic polish, albeit very carefully to avoid dragging the polish. I had to add three coats for even coverage. I could have gone on like this, but I decided not to.

China Glaze Smoke and Ashes with a jelly sandwich

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Howdy. When "The Hunger Games" was released on video, my girlfriends and I had a viewing party. Of course, I had to wear one of the Capitol Colours and as you may or may not recall, when I went to see the movie at the theater, I wore Riveting (my favorite nail polish). So, this time, I wore District 12 on my nails instead. I love this polish. The pictures don't do it justice. They don't show all the blue and green glass flecks in the polish. Because the polish is so very dark, it is a little unforgiving of a less than perfect application and to me, it seemed to chip a little bit faster than my other China Glaze polishes. I still like it a lot though.

I decided that I wanted to use some of my other new polishes on this manicure too, so I topped my ring fingers with a coat of China Glaze Glitter Crackle in Jade-d, then a coat of Orly Glam FX Mermaid Tale and finally used two coats of Nfu Oh Jelly Syrup JS-01. If I were to do it over again though, I would only have added one coat of the Nfu Oh Jelly Syrup. I liked it, but wanted the glitter to show through a bit better.

I forgot to mention last time that I was the lucky winner of Holly and Polish's China Glaze On Safari collection giveaway. I wore one of the glitters, "I'm Not Lion" as an accent in another manicure (I just hate trying to remove an entire glitter manicure, but I love glitter polishes). What are your thoughts on glitter accent nails, like 'em or do you like a more uniform looking set of nails?

Got to go. Happy polishing.
~Alexis

Nfu Oh Jelly Sandwich

Pin It Hello lovelies! Before I get started, I would like to ask you a favor. I am crazy for the Olympics. I love watching the US athletes, but more than that, I love the fact that so many of the world's athletes join together and share their talents and abilities. I know that I have some followers from other countries as well as from the USA. If you have done a manicure honoring your home country during the Olympics, would you consider sending me a photo? I would love to share some of those manicures on here before the closing ceremony. If I receive any pictures, I would make the post on Friday, August 10, so please send pictures by Thursday, August 9. Please just tell me how to credit your photograph. Send to lexissarah (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks so  much. I'm looking forward to seeing what you've done!

This manicure was inspired by a beautiful Nfu Oh jelly sandwich by the Swatchaholic. I love how all the layers show through and how using Nfu Oh JS-24 transformed the colors of both the base color and the second layer, a crackle polish.

I started off with  one layer of Orly Gorgeous. I then added a layer of China Glaze Cracked Medallion crackle polish, one coat of Orly Can't Be Tamed from the Glam FX collection. I finished the manicure with two coats of Nfu Oh JS-24. Can you see all those layers?

Seven days later and about typical chipping for me, maybe slightly better than usual. I expected more chipping with so many layers of polish though, so I was pleasantly surprised.

What do you think of jelly sandwich manicures? What has been your favorite part of the London Olympics? I love seeing people winning for the very first time, especially if they weren't favorited to win.

Enjoy the week.
~Alexis

A Few of My Favorite Things Giveaway!

Pin It Apparently my husband thinks I sound like Oprah with this giveaway title . . . I don't remember; is that what she called her giveaways? I am certainly not Oprah, or else I would be giving this to all of my followers. I can only give out two prizes packages this time. Maybe when I win the lotto . . . I probably have to start playing the lotto though. Moving on.

Since I began blogging, I have collected some of my favorite manicure products. I have talked about some of these on here, but I wanted to really share them with you. This is two giveaways in one. Only US residents are eligible for Prize A or US residents could select Prize B, which is opened internationally. You must be a GFC follower of this blog, you must choose a prize and you must provide an email address to be eligible to win.

Entries will be accepted until Monday, July 23.

Prize A:

New bottles (L-R):  Nfu Oh 51, Sonia Kashuk Fairy Princess,  Aili's Violet Dream (a franken by me), China Glaze  Surfin' For Boys, and Sinful Colors Green Ocean

New containers of Badger Cuticle Care and JASON Natural E.F.A. Hand & Body Lotion

Prize B:

A set containing 12 floral water decals, 2 packages of nail stickers (14  stickers in each)

3 new stamping plates

A set containing 16 gold nail foils

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All products are new and were bought by me. The winners will be selected within a week following the end of the giveaway and notified by e-mail. Winners must respond to e-mail within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected.

Good luck!
~Alexis

Stamped art on Nfu Oh 61 and Julep Renee

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Hello again. Here is another mangled manicure. I was truly smitten with this manicure. I think that Julep Renee is a perfect spring polish. The formula was a little thicker than most, but still super smooth and creamy. I stamped over Renee with Revlon ColorStay Amethyst using bornprettystore's m69. I had some trouble getting the image to pick up and apply completely, but I was pleased with how the two purples complimented one another. The purples brought me right into the springtime mood. I don't have a holographic polish basecoat, so I used essie matte about you as the basecoat. I topped the tip of the nail with Nfu Oh 61. The application was a little streaky and difficult, but I think that it's just a matter of practice to determine how much polish you need on the brush to get even coverage. I then stamped over the join of the purple and holographic polish with bornprettystore's M19.

Here is where I made my mistake. I will not use a topcoat over holographic nail polish again. The manicure looked nice, but would have looked worlds better with the full holographic effect of the polish. As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, topcoat eliminated the purple flash from the holographic polish.

This was definitely a short-lived manicure. After only 4 days, I experienced some significant chipping. I tried to touch up the tips, but the polish just wanted to keep chipping. Normally, when a polish chips so quickly, I don't wear it again except as accents, but Nfu Oh 61 is so spectacular that I will accept it as a one to three day manicure and just enjoy staring at its flashiness for those few days.

What polishes or colors bring your mind to spring? Any favorite holographic polishes?



Head over and take a look at some of the beautiful manicures at the nail files-week 16.

I'll be sharing my TARDIS Galaxy nails next week. I am in Doctor Who withdrawal right now, so I decided to soothe my longing with some nail varnish therapy. Happy polishing.

~Alexis

How to turn your holographic polish into a flat, boring manicure

Pin It . . . Or "Why I didn't follow the instructions of many wise bloggers who know tons more than I do about getting the most out of holographic nail polishes."

I read it on several blogs. "When using a holographic polish, do not use a topcoat." But then I found a single commentary suggesting that once a topcoat is completely dry, your holographic polish returns to its stunning appearance. Lies!

Two facts about holographic polish that bear repeating: 1. Holographic polish chips very quickly. Do not expect to get a week's wear out of it. 2. Adding a topcoat to holographic polish dramatically decreases the holographic effect of the polish.

I figured, given fact number 1 about holographic polish, that the diminished flash of the polish would be worth it if a topcoat increased wear time. Topcoat didn't add wear time. The polish had chipped on several nails by the end of two days. And the topcoat completely eliminated the purple flash from the polish. It was still pretty, but compared with the beauty of the pure polish, it looked like a flat grey. So, please heed my warning. Enjoy your holographic polishes topcoat-free.

I now want to take a moment to thank two wonderful bloggers for nominating me for "The Versatile Blogger Award." Thank you Ria of rialovespawlish.com and Emma of emmas-advice.blogspot.com for really making me feel the love.

There are a number of great blogs out there and I enjoy all of the ones I follow. Here are a couple that I really love visiting:
Nail Polish Anonymous: She makes me drool over gorgeous indie polishes.
Konad & Me: She never disappoints with her creative stamped nail art and her "eye of the day" pictures are beautiful.
Colores de Carol: Her manicures cover the entire spectrum, from elegant and ladylike to whimsical and fun. Tons of inspiration to be found there.

Have any of you found a good way to increase holo wear time? What are some of your favorite blogs?

I will show you the complete manicure pictured above later this week. Despite it's quick chipping and some other little problems, it has to be one of my favorite manicures so far. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

~Alexis

I got polish in the mail today!

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The weather today is grey and cold, but it is a beautiful day. I got my Julep April Mystery box and my order from Fabuloustreet.com. First, Julep: In my mystery box, I found a nail file, a couple of candies, a bottle of fast drying top coat, a bottle of cuticle oil (which smells lovely with lavender and feminine ylang ylang) and three bottles of nail polish. Gayle is a lovely dark purple; I like it a lot, but I have so many purples that I think this will be a gift for one of my best girlfriends. Kelly is a light pink creme polish. I received Kelly as part of my Julep Maven intro box, so it will be another gift . . . my friends are so lucky today! The highlight of the polishes was Melissa. I've been wanting that color so now I can take it off my nail polish lust list. It is an irridescent creamy colored polish with a sheen of blue-green and pink.

Now onto my order from fabuloustreet.com. The company supplies Nfu Oh polishes. I stalked the website, waiting for Nfu Oh 61 to come back in stock. If you've been yearning for that polish, it is available right now, but tends to sell out quickly. I also bought a bottle of the ever popular Nfu Oh 51. I like how the colors of 51 were captured in the above photos, but the amazing holo effect of 61 did not really show up in these pictures . . . like I said, it's pretty grey here today though, so when the sun is out, I'm sure that the holographic effect will flash like crazy. I think that these have to be the prettiest nail polish bottles I have ever seen. I just want to put them on display.

Did anyone else get the Julep mystery box? What was in your package? Or is everyone rushing over to fabuloustreet to get a great holographic polish?

~Alexis