American Apparel Factory Grey & BM05 with China Glaze Awaken

I just want to say that after having tried many of the American Apparel polishes, and owning almost all of them (except 3: Rose Bowl, Coney Island, Palm Springs), they are absolutely fantastic. The quality and wear is superb. I love that there is a collection of amazing creme colors, because I feel that, for some reason, creme polish is always chic. No matter the color. Worn right, it's just it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of shimmer, glitter and holo, but a good creme can be fun, loud, classic, edgy, anything.

You may have heard that American Apparel is coming out with 5 new polishes and a topcoat. This is the promo image:

L to R: Topcoat, Malibu Green, L'Esprit, Summer Peach, California Trooper, Butter.

I rarely say this but with the exception of the pink, I know that I need these. Hell, throw the pink in there, I don't care. I already have my fiance on the lookout for these. Despite the fact that I'm from NY, where there are a bajillion AA stores, there is not a-one anywhere near Albany yet, so I have my fiance who currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (my little home away from home) literally a block and a half from an AA store pick them up for me. He's visiting on the 23rd, so I hope to have them soon! And possibly some of those Joe nail polishes.

Gosh, do I ever shut up? OK, here's the fabulous Factory Grey:

Uber love. A blue leaning grey, more along the lines of say, China Glaze Recycle or MAC On The Prowl. I own lots of greys... so gorgeous. Chic. Must be my word of the day.

The next morning, I added the star stamp from Bundle Monster plate BM05, I used China Glaze Awaken from the Romantique collection for the stamp and it came out super shiny! I'm really liking stamping with a similar-hued chromatic polish. I like the effect.

And that's all! Hope you guys are all having excellent days out there, wherever you are! Thanks for reading :-)

KnockOut Cosmetics Flatte Black & BM19 with China Glaze Millenium

After yesterday's borefest, I tried to do something cool today. I started with one of the KO KnockOut Cosmetics Flatte polishes. I have three of these, for which I paid way too much. The other two are Calamine & Karen. This is a seriously matte black. I love it, it's my favorite of all that I've tried. I decided to use it as a base for stamping with one of my new Bundle Monster plates.

Here's a super-messy, not yet cleaned up pic of what this polish looks like on its own:

OK, so then I used the leafy full nail image from BM19. I've been sorta fiddling around with these plates since I got them, and I'm not certain how I feel yet. Yes, the full nail designs are much smaller than Konad's. If you place exactly right and don't have very wide nails, you can get away with one stamp. I did on all except my thumbnails which I took a stab at double-stamping. I think my nails are average width, so your milage may vary. Also: the designs. For some reason I have trouble getting these images as crisp as Konad's. I've used their Special Polish but honestly had better results using China Glaze's Millenium, a metallic silver. I almost feel as though I have to wait to stamp or it gets smeary. As in, after I scrape it, I let it sit for a few seconds before rolling the stamp to pick up the image. If I do that with Konad, forget it--I might as well start over, it'll be dry. I didn't have too much trouble with the more line based images (such as this one) but the larger, thicker stars and swirls and such--this is where I had a problem. More to come on these, just giving you guys my preliminary thoughts.

Here's my non-cleaned up stamping job, still mattified:

And my double-stamped thumb. I think it works best to stamp the image twice horizontally across the nail (whereas usually you'd use the image vertically). I think it's easier to line up.

So after all this I wasn't totally happy. Little pieces of dried up polish from the edges of the design were sticking up (does this ever happen to anyone else?) and they wouldn't stay down so I decided to throw a coat of Seche Vite over it all and shine the darn thing up. I ended up liking it even more this way because it really made the silver and black contrast pop.

Here's the finished, cleaned-up (thank god, right??), shined-up, manicure:

I actually kind of love it! But after two days of black polish, I'm ready for some color tomorrow, I think.

Thanks for reading!

Milani Dot Com

Oh, what a gorgeous color. This appears to be from a new collection called Liquid Metal, which I mentioned the other day. I immediately zeroed in on this one as the star of the collection, and indeed, it was the only one I bought. It's a crazy shimmery polish--not frosty but with an almost foil-like finish. It's finish kind of reminds me of Hard Candy Mr. Wrong. But deeper and more complex shimmer-wise. So it's not a full-on foil. Very shimmery and metallic. It sort of defies description in that area. Also in the area of color: it's plum, bronze and flashes a bit of gold and pink here and there. Very fall looking. But fall be damned, it's Spring and I will rock it because it is gorgeous!

2 coats, excellent formula, dried fast and shiny with Seche Vite, I present to you Dot Com:

I'm not sure if these pictures really capture its gorgeousness. But it rocks! I highly recommend seeking it out if you can. Also, due to its intense shimmer, I may go back for one of the others, because this was seriously stellar.

Thanks for looking!

Orly Rage

Another offering from Orly's Foil FX collection. I love the name of this polish. Rage. Awesome. It's a rose gold, perhaps a muted cooper/bronze, if you will. The formula was excellent and required two coats for opacity. This is another keeper, I'm loving the super metallic finish of these. I think this would look a bit better and wash me out less if my nails were just a smidge longer. I can't wait for them to grow!

Anyway, here's a look. Mind the cleanup, with the metallics, it's kind of a bitch:

Lovely, no? I've got some Orly pastels up for you next... stay tuned.

Thanks for looking!

Orly Blue Suede

So I'm a cheaty-McCheaterpants here and decided to try one of these so-called Ruffian manicures that I see floating around these here Internets. This is sorta like a backwards French but better because it involves metallic and matte so I took yesterday's Orly Luxe and put over it a polish I have been itching to try, Orly Blue Suede. This came out a while ago with a purple and a black, and they're matte. Well, the purple and black are, and the blue is supposed to be, but it is actually satin. It's satiny and sort of cushy looking, very cool! It also has a very thick and pigmented texture and I didn't quite work fast enough as you will soon see. It was a bit tricky in the application area. It wasn't really that uneven looking in real life, it just picked up weird with the flash. It also looks kinda uneven... oh well, it was an experiment.

I don't think I like this type of manicure on my shorter nails. It needs space... and I don't have enough at the current moment. Love the color palette though, and the idea. It's not that hard to do, you just have to be very careful and work very slowly. Which I only sorta did. Oh well. Kind of lame today, but that's all I've got.

Thanks for looking!

Orly Luxe

Wow. I love metallic polishes, and this is my favorite type of gold. Being cool-toned and incredibly pale, I like silvers on me. This is a very, very, very cool toned gold, and super awesome gorgeous. It's part of Orly's new Foil FX collection. This is metallic done really well--it's not a super smooth chrome finish but a foiled finish with large particle shimmer. Supposed to be Minx-like, apparently. I'm not so sure about that but I am sure that this is both incredibly eye-catching and beautiful. I used 2 coats, the formula was perfect and dried very nicely. Seche Vite didn't dull the shine at all, which I was a bit worried about. I put this on after my High Hopes debacle. I can't wait to try the rose-gold, Rage, from this collection.

Prepare yourself for ultra-gold:

I attempted Konading with these polishes and didn't have much lucky. Other people have. Maybe I need to use mine a few times and let 'em thicken up. Loved wearing this. Also, I'd just like to say that I've sadly discovered something: Orly Shine (the silver from this collection) is equal to Orly Dazzle, a permanent shade in their collection. Which I have already. I swatched them, they're identical. BOO! To return or not to return? That is the question...

Thanks for looking!

Orly Sweet Collection & Orly Foil FX Collection

So, I may or may not have gone out today. These may or my not have followed me home. For once, Sally's had everything I was looking for. I love Orly polish, and I just got done swatching all of them... they are to die for. When will I get sick of pastels... I almost bought all 6 of the Sweet Collection before I regained my composure and realized that I would likely not wear Cotton Candy and that Lemonade was an exact dupe for China Glaze Lemon Fizz. Pixy Stix I bought mostly for the name, but the color is pretty unique. It's also a jelly, which I didn't know until I swatched it. Gumdrop is the bluest mint I've encountered, but keep in mind I don't have Essie Mint Candy Apple. I feel like this would lean towards that end of the mint spectrum. Snowcone is gorgeous, might be a dupe for Maybelline Pie in the Sky, but who cares? Awesome. Lollipop is also so pretty, not a dupe for China Glaze Light As Air, not sure about Essie Lilacism.

L to R: Orly Sweet Collection in Pixy Stix, Gumdrop, Snowcone & Lollipop.

And then these... ah, yes. These. These gorgeous shiny little babies came home with me as well. No way in hell was I letting myself miss out on these. The only one I might have dupe for is Shine, the silver, but I don't even care. Rage is completely unique, and the name is awesome. And Luxe is just hot. Yay!

L to R: Orly Foil FX Collection in Rage, Shine, Luxe.

I don't usually share bottle pics, but these are so great. Those little lip glosses on the Sweet bottles? They smell like their namesakes. It's actually kinda creepy.

Thanks for looking!