Perfectly Polished Tips 255 - Essie Stroke of Brilliance

A few months ago I picked up Essie A Cut Above which was very unusual for me. It's a fun polish but so out of character for what I normally put on my tips. A couple of months ago I saw a promo image for a blue version and I knew I had to have it.

I layered Stroke of Brilliance over OPI Russian Navy Suede. I wore this combo last weekend and I really enjoyed it. I didn't wait long enough for the OPI to dry before applying the Essie. There is quite the bald spot on my index finger. I used two coats of the Essie and one of RN. I don't think Stroke of Brilliance would be opaque on its own. I want to say that I tried with A Cut Above and after three coats I still had some nail space visible. I prefer to layer glitters but that is just me.

OPI Russian Navy Suede was an untried for me, I have almost the entire Suede collection. I am missing Ink and it has been on my wishlist for a while. I don't know if these are still available any where. If anyone knows where I can acquire Ink please let me know!

Perfectly Polished Tips 254 - NOTD Monday Darling Diva Polish Anime Day

Carrie from Darling Diva Polish sent me a few of her polishes to try out recently. I was going to swatch all three and do one post but after applying the first one I decided to make it my NOTD.

This is Anime Day over Zoya Reagan (you can see Reagan on its own here)

Anime Day is made up of multicolored glitter, I believe some are matte. Although the base looks green it is actually pink. You can see the pink tint in the third photo. The glitter in this reminds me of those little, round, multicolored sprinkles. The above photos are two coats of Anime Day, this one you have to use the dabbing method of applying. I found that I couldn't just brush it on because it carried the glitter away.

I think this is the first time I have worn pink on my tips in a really long time LOL. Save for that horrid SH nail strip mani I did a few weeks ago. I like it, I find that I am always wearing blue, teal, or purple. Time to stop neglecting the other colors :)

DDP just recently released a new collection based on the movie The Craft. If you are a fan of the movie you need to check out the collection. The polishes are amazing.

You can find Darling Diva Polish on Etsy and check out DDP's facebook page to keep up with news, restocks, and pictures.

(this was sent to me for review - all opinions are my own)

Perfectly Polished Tips 253 - Smitten Polish Aquarius

Smitten Polish is another new to me brand. Noelie is amazing, she has found the perfect balance between glitter and creme. I had always admired her polishes but the whole glitter in a milky base did not appeal to me. Aquarius had caught my eye a few times but I had convinced myself that I didn't *need* it, until the word "discontinued" was mentioned. Then it was OMG I NEED THIS POLISH NOW OR I WILL MISS OUT AND BE SO SAD. Ok, so not that dramatic but I know you guys know what I am talking about.

What I loved about this polish was that it was opaque in three coats. No layering needed. I am really lazy when it comes to polishing my nails. I want it to be done quickly with whatever will dry the fastest. I have been trying to do a jelly sandwich mani for weeks now and I can't get it right. I have great combos but they never dry.

On to the photos:

This polish has this wonderful green glitter that really makes the polish IMO. I'm not even a green lover but I thought it gave a nice balance to the polish.

You can find Noelie's creations on her Etsy shop - Smitten Polish.

Perfectly Polished Tips 252 - Busy Bee

These two lovely children have been keeping me busy busy. I have still been photographing all of my NOTDs. I need to upload them and water mark them. Please stay tuned, I'll have some new posts soon!
xx

Perfectly Polished Tips 251 - Polish Revolution Vegan Zombie

Another glitter mani? Seriously I think an alien has taken over my body. I do not think I have ever worn this many glittery manicures in a row. I am enjoying it though, they are different (for me!) and fun. I do think though that the next polish I choose it going to have to be a creme, maybe even a neutral band aid creme.

I posted a link to an etsy shop on my facebook page a couple of days ago. The link was for Polish Revolution, another lovely indie company who is just getting started. Her first releases were all glitter polishes but for my team creme stash I had nothing even remotely similar. The one that really called out to me was called Vegan Zombie. It's a sheer grey base with different sizes of green, teal, and silver hex glitters. I'm a vegetarian and my son is obsessed with zombies. So color aside I knew i *needed* it for the name alone.

I found it to be very sheer, I did a test nail to see how it would look not layered and I still had a very VNL and I'm not a fan of that. I ended up layering it over two coats of Carolyn New York Handball Courts. ( side note: I miss CNY so bad, they are seriously some of my favorite polishes, everything about them is perfection.)

Here is Handball Courts on its own - 2 coats

Here is Vegan Zombie - also 2 coats

Polish Revolution polishes retail for $9 plus shipping. I am not sure when she does her restocks so you may have to email her or just keep an eye on her shop.

Perfectly Polished Tips 250 - NOTD Monday!

What is better than blue nail polish? Blue nail polish topped with hearts and stars of course :)

Happy Hands Ditto over RBL Dead Calm

This polish has amazing, glowy, blue shimmer. I didn't have to fish for hearts, I did only have one star though which unfortunately was on my right hand so it's not pictured. 

If you are looking for some new reading material check out Happy Hand's blog. I believe she started it only recently but she has some pretty manis and fun stuff to look at.

Perfectly Polished Tips 249 - How to Remove a Glitter Bomb

I have been wearing a ton of glitter polish lately and to be honest the reason I used to avoid it was because I hated having to struggle with removing it. The nail community is always coming up with clever ways to remove polish. For a while using foil was very popular, I tried to to do this and failed miserably. Basically you soak a cotton ball in acetone, put it on your nail, and then wrap in foil. For whatever reason when I did this all I accomplished was a mess.

Recently a gal on a nail board I frequent posted about using silicone finger tips. They are meant for filing papers. The premise is pretty much the same as the foil method but you can reuse the tips.

You need:
*something to remove the polish with
*silicone finger tips
*acetone (or your remover of choice)

 I used felt, you can use cotton balls or rounds too.

these are the finger tips - I got them in the section with the pens, pencils, and such. they were a little over $3 

Soak each felt strip, wrap around your nail, and top w/ a finger tip

After 5 minutes I removed every thing & ta da! To remove these bits I just swiped the same piece of felt over my nail a couple of times. No scrubbing required.

After! No more glitter! 

I am really happy to have stumbled upon this method. Previously I was just peeling off the glitter and really doing a number on my nail beds. They were all rough and peely. Hopefully I can nurse my nails back in to better shape now.

Oh! Make sure to moisturize after! This left my cuticles looking a little sad.

Perfectly Polished Tips 248 - NOTD Lilacquer Schrodinger's Catastrophe

Lilacquer is another new to me brand. The owner/creator mostly does duochrome top coats. That is not really my thing. However she recently announced a new collection called Science! and it is more duochrome topcoats but they are made with hex glitter instead of shimmer. Since I am on such a glitter bomb kick I decided that I could not pass this one up. I believe Lilacquer will be releasing one new polish for the Science! collection each month. Please don't quote me on that though!

Schrodinger's Catastrophe has hex glitter that shifts from blue to aqua to green. It's very pretty and applied very easily. With most glitter polishes you have to dab to get a good coating of glitter, for this polish I applied it like a normal polish. I found that the amount of glitter varied by how much I had wiped the brush before putting it on the nail. I was very happy about that, fishing for glitter makes me sad.

I wore it over 1 coat of Illa bOOsh. It would probably look great over blues and teals too.

with flash to show the green side

I wrote this up and took photos a few days ago when it was cloudy and blogger crapped out on me. Next time I wear this polish I will be sure to get sunshine pics and post them here or on my facebook page.

Lilacquer is available on Etsy and depending on what you buy price ranges from $9-12. This particular polish was $9 plus shipping.

Perfectly Polished Tips 247 - NOTD Pahlish Typewriter Keys

I have already gushed about how much I love Shannon's polishes. Typewriter Keys did not disappoint! I wore it over OPI Don't Touch My Tutu. For being a glitter polish I found this manicure to be almost subtle and chic. It felt very elegant and not so in your face as some of the other glitter bomb polish that I own.

Typewriter Keys contains ultra fine silver and holo shimmer as well as black and pearly white shard glitter in a clear base. The holo shimmer really makes the polish IMO. I found this mani to be neutral but still fun. It was a nice break from all of the blue, green, and purple I have been wearing. :)

This is two coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu and two coats of Typewriter Keys.

Pahlish retails for $9 a bottle and can be found on Etsy.

Perfectly Polished Tips 246 - Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips

Last week I used Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail strips for the first time. The package comes with 16 strips in various sizes, a nail file, and an orange wood stick. They claim that the stickers can last up to 10 days. There are a ton of neat patterns, colors, and designs. It's an easy way for someone not so great at nail art (aka Me) to get decorated tips.

I googled some tutorials and watched a bunch of youtube videos. Application looked easy enough. You start out with clean, dry nails. They recommend swiping your nails with polish remover before beginning. The sticker is double ended to accommodate different cuticle shapes, I didn't really find this to be helpful. I have small and narrow nail beds. Once you stick on the strip you use the orange wood stick to seal the edges, then you file off the excess from the tip. I had a very hard time making the cuticle area look nice, it probably equated to my manicure clean up. I guess it didn't bother me that much though. The strips were all smooth and looked as if I had used nail polish.

These only lasted about three days before they began to chip and lift. Most of the time I follow the nails are not tools rule and I think I was overly cautious because I didn't want to ruin my nails. Three days is also typically what I get out of a regular manicure. I don't think I would use these often or even pay full price for them. You can only get one manicure out of a box, unless you have small nails and clip the stickers in half. Even then there is a warning on the box that unused stickers should be discarded. It appears that they dry out very quickly. Maybe putting them in a ziploc immediately would help? I didn't want to take any chances though.

I used a hot pink color called Crybaby.

Neons make my camera freak out, it was a bit more pink IRL and not as washed out. These photos are immediately after I had applied the strips. You can see it's a bit rough around the edges.

You can find Sally Hansen nail strips pretty much everywhere these days. I think they are about $8-9 at drugstores but they can be found for less at Fivebelow and Big Lots.