Silver, Yellow, & Black

Hello hello! Today I have a quick post featuring a manicure I wore a couple of weeks ago (before trimming my nails down). It's a colour combination I'd had kicking around in my mind for a while, but I wasn't sure how I wanted to put it all together. Then one day it came to me!

eww, tip wear. Damn you, topcoat.

I knew I wanted to do a silver base with yellow on top. Here, the silver I used is two coats of a no-name from Hot Topic. I don't think they sell this brand anymore, but it's the kind with the bottles like this (image courtesy of Steph's Closet). It's a very cool metallic-foil shade with just the right amount of sparkle. I want a car in this colour!

The small finger is painted with white + two coats of Orly Glowstick. Best neon yellow ever. It's SO BRIGHT and I'm glad it photographed properly here.

I then used yellow acrylic paint and a thin striping brush to paint on the random stripes. I wanted something kind of retro and laser-light-esque. The black was added at the end when I felt it just needed a little something else. The silver star-shaped stud is from this wheel I got at Born Pretty Store. Before applying these, I press them against a pen and wrap it around to gently bend it into a curve that will fit perfectly against my nail. This way they stay longer and aren't catching on everything!

It's all sealed in with Seche Vite, which unfortunately caused quite a bit of shrinkage with that silver.

Sort of a dark awkward pic, because I wanted to show how much that neon yellow pops! It really lives up to the name Glowstick (though it does not actually glow in the dark).

I hope you liked this one! It's going to be a busy weekend, but I hope I can get another post in soon. Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you next time! xoxo

Nails Inc. Bling It On Rebel Nail Art Kit: Review & Skittle Mani

Hello! Today I have a manicure that stands in stark contrast to the almost angelic look of the last one :) I picked up the Nails Inc. Bling It On: Rebel kit not too long ago and have been itching to try it out. I used it as well as a few other polishes to do a punky skittle manicure. Check it out!

badassssssssss :D

I'm really liking this look! Nails Inc. has several cool nail art kits, but this "Rebel" kit is the only one so far that I felt really compelled to pick up. The kit comes in a box that looks like this:

It comes with a bottle of black "leather" textured polish called Soho, ten small silver square studs, ten small Swarovski crystals, ten large ones, ten small black stones, and four silver skulls with crystal embellishments. It also has a bottle of nail glue, but it is a regular squeezy bottle and doesn't have a brush, so I promptly emptied it into one of my other bottles that does have a brush--ha. Oh yeah, and a couple of orangewood sticks for picking up the decorations :)

The leather-effect polish is COOL :D  I didn't think it looked leathery in the pics I saw online before, but in person, totally does. I'm super diggin' it!

Similar pose to above, but with flash--I think it shows the texture better.

I used a few other polishes as well, obviously. Let's go down the list!

Thumb: Nails Inc. Soho Leather Effect polish + skull decoration
Index: Hot Topic brand silver polish. No name, but it's really nice. And the bottle has fishnet pattern and a skull on it, so it's kind of fitting for this mani :D Then of course, two of the small black stones.
Middle: Nails Inc. Soho, one silver stud, one small crystal
Ring: Hot Topic silver polish, then a coat of OPI Black Shatter
Small: Zoya Dahlia, one of the Pixie Dust matte-glitter shades

The Leather Effect polish says that for best results, one should apply it without basecoat. I never go without basecoat though, so I ignored this, but followed the rest of the instructions, which was to allow the first coat to completely dry before adding a second. The texture looks great to me, so I don't think my basecoat (which was Seche Retain, btw) negatively affected it.

Zoya Dahlia is similar, in that you're meant to apply 2-3 coats while letting them dry fully in between. The results are spectacular! I didn't think I'd like these Pixie Dust shades as much as I do.

Anyway, the non-textured nails were topped with Seche Vite and... now I'll stop blathering and just show you more pics, since that's what you came for! :P

Click to enlarge--you can really see the texture of the leather-effect polish here, as well as the difference between it and Dahlia. They feel almost identical, but the Pixie Dust shades all have silver sparkles included.

Close-up of the thumb with the wee skull accent. They stayed on surprisingly well, despite getting caught on absolutely everything. Didn't budge until I was ready to remove the manicure and (carefully) pried them off.

So... yeah! Hope you enjoyed this rockin' look. I will definitely play with this kit more in future posts. If you're interested in picking one up for yourself, they can be found at the Nails Inc. website, or at Sephora (for a lot cheaper, if you happen to be in their shipping area)! Or you know, the actual store, but that involves scary things like "leaving the house" and all. ;) Anyway, see you next time! xoxo