Showing posts with label metallic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label metallic. Show all posts

Essie Nothing Else Metals


Next up in the Essie Mirror Metallics is Nothing Else Metals, a pale lavender foil. Again swatch photos are shown two coats over one coat of Essie Grow Stronger with no top coat, unless stated. The formula was the same on this one as Blue Rhapsody, you can see the Blue Rhapsody post here. Slightly temperamental in application but second coat came out good. Very pretty, very light lavender color.




I decided to add and accent nail and stamp over Nothing Else Metals with the silver from this collection, No Place Like Chrome. I used Mash-40 image plate. I was a little disappointed that the silver and lavender were so similar in color, but after a while I decided I kind of like the subtle stamp effect. However, I think I will have to do a side by side of all five colors when I'm done so you can more accurately see the color differences. These photos are with one coat of Seche Vite over the stamp.





Much Love, The Dragon Lady


Essie Blue Rhapsody


Yesterday I asked which of my newest polish additions you wanted to see first and it seems like the new Essie Metallic polishes were the most wanted. So here's the first one, Blue Rhapsody, an icy blue foil. All swatch photos are shown two coats over one coat of Essie Grow Stronger (upcoming review of this nail treatment in a few days) with no top coat.


I was a little worried when the first coat on the first nail came out REALLY streaky and any attempt to correct it only made it worse. On the next nail I applied a thicker coat to start with and didn't seem to have the streak problem. On my thumb and middle finger I realized that this polish dries fast and you can't dally in your application. Once I figured these things out the rest of the application and the second coat were just fine.



This is definitely one you'll want to use some underwear for, maybe a ridge-filler if you have it. I noticed it shows all the flaws in my nail underneath, but that it pretty common for metallic polish.



Now how many of you saw these online or on the shelf and though what I did..."Metallic...hmm, I wonder if they stamp? " Well, I had huge hopes that they would, and I can't speak for the other colors yet but...this one does. Woo Hoo!!!
With top coat



I re-did my ring finger nail as an accent nail (Essie Grow Stronger - 1 coat, unnamed Cosmetic Arts pink creme - 2 coats and with one coat of Seche Vite). I used one of my new MASH stamp plates (Mash-49) for the star pattern.


So what do you think? Is this one you are going to add to your collection? Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Swatch & Review Saturday: Wet n Wild Chrome Hog-Quartz School

Natural light

I picked this up yesterday even though I am currently on a No-Buy for the month of April. There were several other colors in the display. Here's the picture of a Wet n Wild Chrome display from Nouveau Cheap, this is the picture that had me grabbing my wallet and keys and heading out the door.


As you can see from the picture, there is 2 blues (a light and dark), a green, a pink, a light purple, a gold, a bronze, and a silver. After finding the display case at my local Rite Aid, I was a little disappointed to see that the blues, and the pink looked like dupes of the Color Club foils (Lumin-icecent, Cold Metal, & Hot Like Lava) which I already have so I didn't need. I'm not really a gold wearer so I passed on that one too. I thought about grabbing the copper one because I don't have a copper foil (still might go back for it). I had the silver one in hand and realized it was a warm, gold-toned silver or a cool-toned gold however you want to call it, so that went back to the display as well. The green is a brighter yellow toned green so it's not a match to Color Club's green foil, Perfect Mol-Ten so I may make another excuse to go and retrieve that one as well. There was one bottle of the bunch though, that I absolutely knew was coming home with me and that was Hog-Quartz School, a lavender foil. Notice I call them foils not chromes. To me a chrome is smooth and more reflective, these are not. They are frosty like foils.


Now I feel I should mention that these aren't normal Wet n Wild price, they retail for $3.99 a bottle. If they'd been $1.99 I probably would have just grabbed them all! Also, the bottles are small, not mini small but somewhere between mini and regular sized. Again if they'd been full sized I may have bought more. Anyway, I went to put this beautiful looking polish on this morning and was surprised to see how thick it was (maybe it's just my bottle, I don't know) and the brush was kind of crappy and flared a lot at the end. Surprisingly though, I applied just wonderfully. Go figure! It went on smoothly with no hiccups and was opaque in 1 coat, but I gave it 2 just out of habit. There was no dragging or bare spots and it actually dried pretty quickly on it's own. I also tossed on a coat of Seche Vite (not photographed) to see if it changed the look at all and it doesn't. Also unlike chromes, this polish didn't show every little flaw which is nice.

Lightbox

Lightbox
I tried to mattify this mani but it was almost impossible to tell that it was matte. Also, my light box hates this polish, I don't know why. The true color shot is the top most one taken outside with an overcast sky. The ones in the lightbox make it seem a dustier lavender.

Final thoughts, if you have the Color Club foils you may want to run out and snag the non-duped colors and if you don't I'd recommend grabbing them up while they last. I hear these babies are Limited Editions. =(

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Pink Wednesday: Petites Color Fever Raspberry Ice


For today's Pink Wednesday post I used 2 coats of Petites Color Fever Raspberry Ice over my frankened nail treatments (I really need to name it, how about Uber Base, LOL). Raspberry Ice was opaque in 1 coat but that 2nd coat deepened the color a bit more. The formula on this one was awesome. Smooth, even, non-draggy. Loved it!





So Color Club Hot Like Lava was my brightest metallic pink until I bought this. This is way brighter! I think I will be using this one a lot. The next thing I want to do with this is try it with stamping. *Drools*

My middlest daughter, Sweetie Pie, wanted to do a Pink Wednesday mani too. She used Color Club Warhol and Nubar Star Sparkle (accent nail). She painted her own nails, mom just helped clean up a "bit." Sorry for the crappy lighting but I couldn't get her her into the lightbox and take the picture at a decent angle.



Much Love, The Dragon Lady


Week 9 - "Vintage" Mani


I realized the other day that I am now a week behind in the Year's Challenge and that last Sunday was Week 9: "Vintage" Mani. I googled 'vintage mani' during one of my class breaks last week and was not too happy with what I found...

Here's one of the photos that came up under 'vintage mani':

Cosmopolitan - December 1936
I'm sure it was just fantabulous in 1936, but meh for 2012. Needless to say I wasn't too thrilled to do this mani, which is one of the reasons I wasn't stressing about not getting the post out on time due to homework overload.

After more than a week of thinking about this mani I decided that the "" around Vintage on the challenge list meant that "vintage" was open to interpretation. So here's what I came up with. It reminds me of vintage wallpaper. Like this:


For this mani I used one coat of China Glaze Admire (light metallic rose), stamping over it with Konad Special Polish in Black & using image plate BM21. I finished it all off with one coat of China Glaze Matte Magic Top Coat. What do you think? Is this "Vintage" enough?


  






Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Valentine's Day Mani - part 1

Sorry about the late start to the Valentine manicures but I have been trying to be good and get some homework done. Anyways, here is the first one I came up with. I was going for sweet and innocent with Baby Barbie (my light pink franken) and stamped it with Color Club Hot Like Lava (metallic pink) using OB18.



I thought it was cute, but probably not something I'd wear for long.





Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Week 6 - Half Moon Mani

Ok, confession time. I really don't (didn't) like the way half moon manis look. I really can't explain why I don't like them but I don't. Or at least I didn't. I'm am once again glad that I am participating in this 52 Week Manicure Challenge. Without it I am not sure that I would have done a half moon manicure.


Lightbox


For my half moon mani I used China Glaze Emotion (metalllic pink) and Harmony (metallic purple) for my two main colors. I also used Konad stamping polish in black and the whole nail rose pattern from m65, and Sally Hansen's Celeb City which I dotted along the line with one of my new dotting tools.

I really like it with the konading on one of the colors. I like the black roses on purple, kind of reminds me of some vintage damask pattern!

 






Much Love, The Dragon Lady


Fellow Challengers:

Pink Wednesday - Color Club Hot Like Lava


First things first, just before I sat down to write this I realized that I am sitting at 105 followers. You know what that means! So a big thanks to all my followers and keep an eye out for a 100+ follower giveaway in the near future. Now on to the my mani.

Being as this is my first Pink Wednesday post, I decided to not only use one of my favorite pinks, Color Club Hot Like Lava, which is a foil to boot, but also to konad some dragons in there too (index and ring). I decided to use the dragon image from my XL Special Plate K and used Konad Special polish in black. Then I dabbed some of Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter on the tips of my pinkies, middles, and thumbs just for the heck of it.








Some one else kept saying we were painting our nails pink today, so here is the baby's mani. I used my semi-unnamed pink creme franken (older two kids want to call it Baby Barbie because it's a cross between Barbie pink and baby pink) and Sinful Color Pinky Glitter.





Much Love, The Dragon Lady