My 4th of July Manicure: Orly Royal Navy and a Patchwork Accent

Happy Independence Day to all the American readers out there!  And a belated Happy Canada Day to the Canadian ladies!  ;-)  I wanted to do something festive to celebrate, so here's what I came up with!  

I started with Orly Royal Navy - a royal blue jelly with aqua blue shimmer.  It's a smidge deeper in color than my photos show, but every bit as vibrant.  It just screams summer!  The formula is amazing, and I used two coats.  It's a jelly, so there's a little VNL (visible nail line), but I promise it's not nearly as noticeable in real life as it is in these photos. The only weird thing about this one is that the shimmer settles to the bottom of the bottle, and it's really hard to shake it back to life.  I usually shake the heck out of it, and then let it sit upside down in a cup while I'm filing, pushing back cuticles, etc.  Then by the time I'm ready for color, it just needs one more shake, and it's good to go!  :-)

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I really love Royal Navy, and I think it's a great jelly for anyone who's new to jellies and looking to get their feet wet.  Makes a great pedi, too!  You can pick it up for about $7 at Sally's or Ulta.

I was going to just leave my mani at Royal Navy, but I just had an itch to kick it up a bit for the holiday. My original idea was to do red and white dots across the tips of my ring fingers.  I don't have a dotting tool, so I tried using a toothpick.  NEGATIVE.  Bad idea.  I ended up getting polish everywhere and having to redo both ring fingers.  Argh!!

Next idea - a patchwork manicure!  You can find a way better tutorial on patchwork manicures than I could ever show you here from Erika at Chloe's Nails.  She pretty much pioneered the patchwork manicure, and her work is incredible!  The basic idea is to use Scotch tape to block off areas of your nail, then add other colors on top.  I think there's a bit of a learning curve when using tape for your manicures, but overall, it's a pretty simple process.  I used Milani White and China Glaze Ruby Pumps over my original Royal Navy manicure, and I'm pretty happy with the result!

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WOO-HOO!  I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Fourth of July!  May the fireworks be abundant and beautiful!!  :-D

My Beach Manicure: Milani HD and OPI Paris Couture For Sure

Hello lovelies!  The hubby and I just got back from celebrating our two year anniversary with a fabulous weekend at the beach in Ocean City, Maryland.  YAY!  Okay, it was really more like a few hours at the beach and then hitting up bars with friends, but same difference, right?  ;-)  Knowing I'd finally be exposed to more sun in one weekend than I had all year, I had to do a manicure that thrived off the sun - holographics!!

I started with Milani 3D Holographic polish in HD.  HD is a silver scattered (meaning the rainbow/oil slick effect is weaker and kind of dispersed, or "scattered" on the nail) holo, and was surprisingly sheer.  I used three coats for what you see below, and I still had some VNL.  Application was easy, and I didn't need to use any special base coats.  Scattered holos are a little tricky to photograph, as you need the light to hit them in just the right way to really show off their beauty, so I took a ton of photos.  I'm sure you guys don't mind.  ;-)

The first two photos were taken under my Ott-Lite.

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 And since holos love sun, the next two photos were taken in sunlight.

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The Milani holos are really great and super affordable.  I'm pretty sure Milani made these permanent, so you can find them for less than $5 at your local CVS, Rite Aid, etc.  You can also get them from Milani's website, along with a few other favorite Milani hard-to-finds, at www.milanicosmetics.com.

I loved the look of HD, but I wanted to spice it up a bit.  I found OPI Paris Couture for Sure on my first dusty hunt with Jessie and had been dying to try it out.  This was the perfect opportunity!  PCFS (that name is way too long to type out over and over again) is an old black-label OPI that was released with the Shopping Around the World holiday collection back in 2005.  It's labeled as a "glitter top coat," but it really isn't a glitter at all.  It's more of a very fine irregular holographic flakie to my eyes.  I'd call it a scattered holo, but it certainly has some linear holo qualities.  (Linear holos have a very pronounced rainbow/oil slick effect on the nail.  They're not as sparkly, but the overall effect is jaw-dropping.  I have a few to show you - just waiting for a good sunny day!)

OPI PCFS is very sheer - even more so than Milani HD - which makes it perfect for layering.  I added just one coat of PCFS over HD.  It applies extremely well, and I was so happy with the result!  You can see how much more pronounced the holographic effect is!  The first three photos were taken under my Ott-Lite.

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And then in sunlight.

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PCFS is so awesome!  I hate that it was limited edition.  Your best bet for tracking this one down is swapping, dusty hunting, or shelling on on eBay.  There's no listings currently, but I see them pop up all the time.  It's one of the few that I'd say would be worth it.  It's just too cool!

OPI Paris Couture for Sure and Milani HD say hello from the beach!  :-D

Essie Mink Muffs

My skin tone hates me.  I originally intended for this post to be about OPI Tickle My France-y.  The other day hubby and I were invited to a dinner party, which made me incredibly short on time for my manicure.  It's a nude polish that walks the line between creme and sheer.  Nudes are extremely forgiving in their application, which made it perfect since I didn't have all the time in the world to be cleaning up my inevitably sloppy manicure.  It's a fan favorite on MUA as an "interview-friendly" polish, and I was all excited to finally try it out after getting it for Christmas.  Sigh.

You guys, it was bad.  SO terribly bad.  It was so terrible it was turrible.  I got one coat on one nail and couldn't get it off fast enough.  I didn't even want to take a picture of it.  It looks SO good on everyone else, but my skin tone is the wonkiest skin tone on the planet.  It finds every weird mauve-y pink tone it can to pull out of my polish colors to mutate them into something hideous.  I'm never going to find my perfect nude.  I've pretty much just given in to that fact.  Maybe if I stop trying, it'll just find me.  

Plan B:  Essie Mink Muffs.   If OPI Suzi Says Da! was like dark chocolate, think of Mink Muffs as smooth milk chocolate.  It's another one of those addictive neutrals that I had on my list for a while.  I was pleased to find that it applied quickly and easily in two coats with no problems.  The cuticle drag on my ring finger was my fault, not the polish.  I was applying this polish like a madwoman.  Excuse the scratches in the finish and the mild tipwear - this photo was taken the day after I applied it.

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Simple.  Nothing too fancy here.  This isn't one of those polishes that I'm gonna say you need to have or should go run and get it now.  It's not that amazing, but it is nice.  As soon as I applied it, I was curious how it compared to Milani Teddy Bare (an almost dead-on dupe for Chanel Particulière).  Here's a bottle comparison:

(L) Essie Mink Muffs; (R) Milani Teddy Bare

Similar, but let's take a closer look...

(L) Essie Mink Muffs; (R) Milani Teddy Bare

Mink Muffs is a bit darker and more red-toned than the lighter and more yellow-toned Teddy Bare.  The real difference here is in application.  No surprise that the Essie is a thinner formula.  It applies smoothly, but the application on Teddy Bare is to die for.  It's like butter, and it's a one-coater for folks with careful application.  They're different enough to own both, but I would say if you weren't able to track down the limited edition Teddy Bare, Mink Muffs may satisfy your lemming.  It's in Essie's core line and you can pick it up for $8 at Ulta.  :-)