Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine + Daring Digits Before Color

Hi again! I am going to try to finish up some of my backlogged posts before I leave the library, my internet at home sucks (it's Clear, pay-as-you-go internet, and my house is far away from the signal tower, so I can't upload pictures at home). I have Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine and Daring Digits Before Color! 

I looooove wearing colors "out of season". So bright yellow in the middle of winter is definitely up my alley lol! I will probably wear Nicole by OPI Ladies in the Limelight next, I love those kinds of colors when they are unexpected, when everyone else is wearing dark navy blue :) Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine is one of the best yellows I have ever used! I used very little of the 5 mL bottle as well, because the color was so pigmented! It has gorgeous, subtle shimmer but is mostly a creme, and goes on perfectly in 2.5 coats. I could have used just 2 coats if I had applied it more carefully, but I used the extra coat to cover up any bald spots. 2.5 thin coats, I might add, which is pretty much unheard of for me when it comes to applying yellows. 

I remember the last yellow I wore was Daring Digits Pink Lemonade, and this was in the summer (I don't know if I photographed it or not, it's been a while!). I am not a frequent yellow wearer, but I do love it when I wear it ;) Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine is definitely my go-to yellow now! 

I only have Daring Digits Before Color on my thumbs because I did not want to deal with glitter removal and I was kind of in a hurry to do my mani, so the glitter topping would have taken too long to dry had I put it on all of my nails. Before Color has black circles and smaller white hexes. I loooove that combo! I adore big circular glitter, so this one was perfect for me :) You can get Daring Digits' colors at ddpolish.com. She has great prices and awesome glitter combos!

Neon Rainbow Nail Art

This is my attempt at rainbow nail art. I don't really do it much because it takes me forever whenever I try, and usually doesn't end up as perfect as I wanted it to be. I have no patience for painstakingly painting Spongebob on my nails, leaning over and straining my neck for four hours! I did this time though (it isn't Spongebob however) because it was part of my costume. 

Every year my school has a festival to celebrate the end of classes, and this year the theme was "Genesis". Some people went as the game console Genesis (remember that? So long ago!), and some people dressed up as Abe Lincoln (I didn't understand the connection lol). I dressed up as a rainbow! I had a friend who went as a rain cloud, and we just happened to match together. 

I did my nails with neon colors, using a white base (RBL Underwear) and a bunch of bright, neon colors to represent the rainbow! I can't remember exactly what I used, but I remember using OPI Big Apple Red, Revlon Royal, Color Club Disco Dress, some Essie neons, China Glaze In the Limelight, a neon orange from Color Club. I apologize for the weird stains on my hands, there was a small Holi celebration and I got pigments all over myself!

Pictures using flash:

This is my left hand. I made different patterns on each finger on both hands!

My right hand:

If you were wondering how I did my nails this way, I used a small dish filled with pure acetone, and a very thin nail brush and just dipped and painted, like I would with watercolor. It turned out pretty neat! I even got some compliments from guys who were stunned and mesmerized by how intense and cool looking my nails were!

 The picture below is most true to life to what my mani looked like:

 That's it for now! I'll break up my post so there won't be a ton of pictures to load!

The Changing to Autumn - Chanel Peridot

Here's the haiku I wrote for this wonderfully mysterious duochrome:

The changing of leaves

Beautiful change to autumn

Chanel Peridot

I present to you Chanel Peridot (ETA: found camera, took new pics! This beaute is soooo photogenic). This color is a chameleon, gold with green around the edges , then green with gold edges, then lean it closer to the light source and it turns into a wonderful teal duochrome. I must admit I'm not as much of a duochrome lover as I am a holo or flakies lover because I generally wear cremes more often than shimmery/brushstrokey colors, and this falls under the "slightly brushstrokey" category.

I changed my mani on Wednesday because I Graphite dulled a bit and had some tipwear that I just couldn't stand looking at anymore. So I picked the next Chanel baby I ordered and voila! Insta magical duochrome. I saw a bush that resembed it, burnt goldish yellow down the middle and green on the sides, and it instantly reminded me of this color. It's a really beautiful color with flashes of pink sometimes as well, but the wear time is the only thing bugging me! Chanels generally get good wear time for me, especially if it's a color like Mimosa/Morning Rose/Mistral, those colors that take 3-4 coats to become completely opaque. Those lasts for 1 week + for me, no chipping. After a few days Graphite chipped off a little, but not to the point that required me to completely redo my mani.

Now...onto the PIC SPAM!!!!

There are a few little chips in my Peridot mani and some tipwear, but that's pretty good for a duochrome that feels like an Nfu-Oh holo (the original formula, thin and prone to chipping). All in all, it's a pretty darn good duochrome and a pretty cool color. I wish the sun had been out whe I snapped the pics. This is what summer in July looks like in the Bay Area

Oh, the dreariness of it all. It's not right to wear winter clothes in summertime!

Lagging on my NOTDs! Nail Polish Spam!!!

I've been so busy the last few months I neglected my blog! Here are some pretty pictures of my past NOTDs:

Asos Nail Rock Lace Print Designer Nail Wraps in Lace White. I loved the look of this but the not the application or the wear. It lasted about a night (I wore this to prom!) because they kept coming off. I think this is a personal problem for me though, because my nails are so long and curved it was hard to put on the wraps without cutting the sides of them. I know I burned the tips of my fingers a few times using a hair dryer to put them on correctly. Then anything I did would peel, off part of the sticker on the tip and it just became really fickle and annoying. If you have curved nails, STAY AWAY. It's really hard to keep them on unless your nails are pretty flat. The Sally Hansen Real Nail Polish strips work for me because I don't need to use a blow dryer, but these are pretty fickle for me to use. I'll stick with real n/p rather than shell out $14 on asos.com for these again. Curved nails and Nail Rock are are NOT friends. These really aren't made to last for more than a night on most people!

This was my birthday mani! Estee Lauder Ultra Violet with Lippmann Happy Birthday on the thumb. I wanted something purple for my b-day but also the traditional HB without the glitter removal, so I compromised with a blackberry manicure. Ultra Violet is so gorgeous! It's a microshimmer/glass fleck dark purple, with red-based undertones. Normally I stay away from red-toned purples but this one is to die for and works for most skintones!

Nicole by OPI Yellow It's Me (holding Mac Entremauve pigment). I love the contrast that they give! I couldn't get the iridescent orange glass fleck to show up in my pictures :( It's one of my favorite yellow polishes! Per usual, the application wasn't the best, but after about 3-4 coats, it evened out and was very pretty.

Summer's not over yet! Sephora by OPI - IM Beauty

Sephora by OPI IM Beauty is such a pretty yellow color, but has such a painful application =.= It was four coats. It was fine at three, but still a bit sheer and streaky. Four coats evened everything out and a thin coat of Poshe made everything perfect.