Pink Indie-esque glitter layering experiment

Orly - Lollipop (2 coats)

Milani - Lavender (1 coat)

Revlon - Popular aka Starry Night (1 coat)

Essie - Grow Stronger as base, Seche Vite after Milani Lavender and again after Revlon Popular

I was originally going to wear Orly Lollipop and Milani Lavender together but somehow it just didn't look right when I put Milani Lavender on. I can't really pinpoint and describe what was wrong with it - I just wasn't feeling it at all. It was really late and I had to work the next day. I already stayed up way later than I was supposed to trying to scrub off the glitter from my last manicure so redoing my nails wasn't an option. I originally thought of adding matte top coat so the glitter wouldn't be so blaring and shiny but I didn't think that mattifying it would really do it for me. My next thought was glitter sandwich so I threw Revlon Popular over this. I'm really loving the end result. I think it looks like something an Indie polish brand would make. I can't think of a specific Indie polish that looks like this, but I think it has that milky glitter sandwich kind of look to it. 

Orly Lollipop is a very pigmented light purple/pink creme. It is a bit thick and goes on lumpy on the first coat. It was fully opaque and smoothed out at two coats. Milani Lavender is purple/blue large hex glitter with fine purple glitter in a clear base. The large hex glitters are purple but flash more blue under certain lighting. It applied quite well and evenly for the most part. I should have gone over that one side of my ring finger again and it's really bothering me now. Oh well. Revlon Popular is sheer milky light purple/pink with fine silver shimmer and larger silver hex glitters. See my post on Revlon Popular on its own here.

I hesitated a lot before posting the in progress pictures below. Like I said, I was in a huge rush when I was doing this mani. I didn't have time to clean up before taking these so please excuse the polish all over my skin. I also didn't bother pulling out the light box for these so the lighting isn't that great either. Btw normally my painting isn't this bad but I'm right handed so this was painted with my non-dominant hand. I normally use my left hand for nail pictures but I broke a nail on my left hand so I'm taking pictures of my right hand until it grows out. Anyway here are the in progress pictures.

Orly Lollipop (2) + Milani Lavender (1) + Seche Vite

Orly Lollipop (2) + Milani Lavender (1) + Seche Vite + Revlon Popular (1) on index finger only

JENsations Sticks 'n Stones over Essie Mojito Madness

JENsations - Sticks 'n Stones (1)
Essie - Mojito Madness (2)
Essie Grow Stronger as base, Gelous on top (2)

I was really behind on my nail blog reading list before I went on vacation. I finally caught up and realized that October is Depression Awareness month. The color for Depression Awareness is green and many nail bloggers have posted green manis in support. I happen to be wearing green nail polish anyway so here is my late post for Depression Awareness month. Please read Scrangie's post about depression for more information. As a psych major I probably should be writing my own but I'm a bit short on time and I feel like her post covered everything and was quite moving.

Anyway on to the nails. I had much better luck with Sticks 'n Stones this time than I did the first time I used it. Sticks 'n Stones is another Indie polish very similar to the famous Connect the Dots by the now infamous Lynnderella. It consists of black and white glitter in a variety of shapes: very small circles, small hexes, medium squares, bars, and large hexes. The base is clear with some subtle shimmer, The first time I used this polish I found I had to dab it on in order to get good coverage. This time, I kind of stirred the polish with the brush before each nail to get more glitter on the brush. I found that this way I usually got a good amount of glitter coverage on the first try, and didn't have too much clear base on my nails. On my middle nail however, the glitter kept sliding to the tips of my nails and I tried to prod the glitter around to fix it. This made the clear coat a bit lumpy and you can see this in my pictures. It's not too noticeable in real life however. I also didn't have any issues with the large hexagon glitter pieces lifting off this time. Only one of the bar glitters came off on its own. I think the curling and lifting was due to using Seche Vite on the glitter.

Essie Mojito Madness is a gorgeous Kelly green creme. It applied well in two thin coats. The first coat was a bit sheer and lumpy and looked like it would be a three-coater, but everything evened out at two coats. I think it worked really well as a base color for Sticks 'n Stones. Both the white and black pieces really stood out. 

JENsations - Rainbow Sprinkles over China Glaze - Coconut Kiss

JENsations - Rainbow Sprinkles (1 coat)

China Glaze - Coconut Kiss (2 coats)

Essie - Grow Stronger as base, Seche Vite (1), Gelous (1) on top

Rainbow Sprinkles is a very fun glitter. It is made up of very small round glitters, medium sized square and hexagon glitters, and larger hexagon glitters in a variety of colors. I ended up with mostly red, green, and blue on my nails but there is also teal, yellow, white, purple, and pink. Rainbow Sprinkles applied much more easily than Sticks n Stones (also by JENsations).    For the most part, the glitter came off the brush easily and covered evenly. There were a few spots that I had to go over again, but dabbing this glitter on was not necessary. Seche Vite doesn't really seem to work well with JENsatoins. I think maybe Seche Vite is making the glitters curl at the edges since it can shrink when it dries sometimes. I think that may be why some of the glitters in Sticks n Stones lifted off last time I wore it. Rainbow Glitter became a bit bumpy a few hours after applying Seche Vite, so I applied Gelous over it. In those few hours however a few of the glitters had fallen off so I had a few glitter shaped indents on my nails. I will need to find a new glitter topcoat :(

I don't think I made the best choice when picking a base color for Rainbow Sprinkles. The base color is pretty much the same color as the purple glitters so they didn't show up in this mani. Also, the base color is about the same darkness as the glitters so they don't stand out as much. Next time I'll try Rainbow Sprinkles over a light color (like Oooh Shinies), or maybe black (like Fashion Polish). 

I chose Coconut Kiss because I wore this mani when I went on vacation to Las Vegas for 5 days. I wanted something fun for Vegas and I knew that Coconut Kiss usually lasts about a week before chipping. JENsations Sticks n Stones also lasted quite a long time last time I wore it. The base that Jen uses is awesome in terms of not chipping! As I'm writing this, I'm at the airport now waiting for my flight back home. (This will probably be posted later though since I still have to edit pictures) I really don't want to go back home and go back to work! Boo! Anyway my nails are doing pretty well considering I've been wearing this polish for 6 days now. My thumbs both have a chip at the side of them. There is no tipwear on my other nails but the free airport wifi keeps cutting in and out and I've started to pick the polish off when it's off and I'm bored. I think this mani got a little thick with all the top coat so it's peeling off pretty easily. Don't do this kids! If the polish (especially a glitter piece) is stuck to your nail and you try to pick off the polish it can take a layer or two of your nail off with it. Anyway... I'm blabbing lol

Coconut Kiss is one of the first polishes I bought when I got really into nail polish and started taking pictures of my nails and posting them. I didn't really know where to get good nail polish at the time, especially China Glaze, but really wanted some! I saw this at a local spa and ended up buying a bottle of Coconut Kiss that they had been using for mani/pedis. It had about 2/3 left and I bought it for half regular retail price (not the best deal in hindsight since it's almost that cheap at Sally's for a new bottle anyway but oh well). The bottle is almost out now but the formula and application is still excellent. Coconut Kiss is a purple shimmer in a purple jelly type base. It is not as sheer as a jelly though and only required 2 coats for opacity. I need to pick up a new bottle next time I head to Sally's. Probably my favorite purple ever.

Revlon - Popular

Revlon - Popular (2 coats)

Essie - Grow Stronger as base, Seche Vite on top

4 coats of Revlon - Popular

Essie - Grow Stronger as base, Seche Vite after third coat, Gelous after fourth coat

Popular (previously released as Starry Night) is a really light, delicate, pretty polish. It can be used to create different looks depending on how many coats you use. One coat of Popular creates a natural "your nails but better" look with glitter. I would have worn it like this originally except I hit one of my nails and had a bruise on it. (I'm so behind in posting that I've now worn it a second time already before posting it!) It was also a bit difficult to get it even at one coat. At two coats it is light pink, partially opaque, but the nail line is still visible. I really liked it at 2 coats too but again it is a bit difficult to get completely even coverage without it being thicker in some parts. At three coats it was opaque enough for me, although there was still slight VNL. I would have stopped here but when I was applying SV I accidentally dragged the pink base off some of the glitter so the glitter was bright silver (like essie set in stones). I put on a fourth coat to get back that light, airy, glitter sandwich look. I then topped it with Gelous. Unfortunately, it became a thick dough type layer that dented and moved after an hour even though the surface felt dry. I think this tends to happen when i use OPI Rapid Dry spray but then again it was also quite thick. I usually don't pull out the OPI Rapid Dry spray unless I have a lot of thick layers so it's hard to say whether it's the spray or the thick layers that causes this dough type layer that smudges/dents easily and doesn't fully dry through.

Christmas wrapping paper

Orly - Snowcone

Konad m64

stamped with Nicole by OPI - Light a Candle

Seche Vite on top, Essie Grow Stronger as base

I wasn't going for a Christmas wrapping paper look when I did this mani, but one of my coworkers said it looks like Christmas wrapping paper. And after he mentioned it... I think it totally does too! So I went with that as my title. Still really early for Christmas but oh well.

Orly Snowcone had an absolutely amazing formula! It only needed one coat! I was really impressed especially considering that it is a light creme color. The brush was thin and a little bit stiff. As long as you apply it "floating" like you would Seche Vite it is a one coater. I had to  go over a few spots again to cover but I'll still consider it a one coater. 

Nicole by OPI Light a Candle is a light purple tinted silver. When used for stamping, it just shows up silver. It stamped quite well, although I think I accidentally smudged the image a bit while stamping. I think with this image though it's not very noticeable. I didn't really like this image much when I was just looking at the plate. I like it a lot more on the nail. I'm loving the organic swirls and dots. Kind of looks like a simplified paisley print.