Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers

Another oldie today. Almost out of old ones, phew. But in the advent of all the new Nordstrom exclusive Lippmann glitters, here's the one that seemed to start it all: Ruby Red Slippers. I've worn this polish before, but never blogged about it, so I slapped it on for a few new pictures. I like to layer this over a coat of an opaque black. For these photos, I used KnockOut's Flatte Black, a matte polish. I like to use it for layering because it's opaque and dries super fast, due to its matte properties. I love the effect of this polish. Like crushed jewels. I got so many compliments when I wore this.

This is one coat Flatte Black, and 2 coats of Ruby Red Slippers:

I mean, there's really not much more to say about this, is there? It's brilliant. It means I probably should've ordered the new polishes (but I didn't). Oh well, hopefully they'll be released separately later. Anyone order any of the new ones?? Bad Romance and Across the Universe are calling to me...! Thanks for reading :D

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!

Zoya Swatches Part 2

OK, here's my second batch of Zoya swatches! I just want to profess my love for this brand. I love their freebies and have excellent luck with their customer service. I love their color and finish selection and the quality of their products. I love the bottle, brush, and generally the formula. I love that they're "green." Yay Zoya! Enough of my babbling, onto the swatches :-)

Here's a few links back to polishes I've already featured:

Zoya Verushcka

Zoya Nova

Zoya Rea

And the rest....

Dominique. One of my favorite reds, very opaque, very bright. More orange toned than blue, but not overly so. 2 coats.

Deidra. Kind of a toned down version of Zara, but more taupe. Very cool. I never wore it before this swatch and I underestimated it. 2 coats.

Meadow. 2 coats. Like Zara also, but pink. 2 coats. Not my speed but a pretty polish.

Avril. Very opaque pink based neutral. 2 coats.

Buffy. Bought this just for the name (Huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan). Frosty beige shimmer, not that flattering on me, but perhaps so on darker skintones. 2 coats.

Demi. 2 coats. Pinked mauve creme. Nice formula and opaque.

Trixie. Silver foil, photographed terribly. Very blingy and pretty. 2 coats.

Emme. Awful light pink frost. OK formula, just awful looking on me. 2 coats.

Juicy. A neon red purple jelly. 3 coats.

Dakota. One of my favorite pedicure reds. Didn't realize how sheer it was until I put it on my nails. I can't remember if this is 2 or 3 coats. Very pretty blue based red.

Pippa. Yellow creme (not neon). Tricky formula. 2 coats.

Paz. Neon orange creme. Very sheer. This is 3 coats. Definitely needs something under it. Very bright.

America. A muted coral-red, very pretty. 2 coats, great opaque formula.

Goldie. A super shimmery (frosty?) gold, hate this shade of gold on me, but nice polish.

Harlow. Matte velvet. Pink shimmer, a bit purple too. Love matte velvet formula. 2 coats.

Dovima. Shimmery matte velvet black. More matte than this, it wasn't totally dry. 2 coats.

Loredana. Ultra shimmery matte velvet grey. 2 coats. Love this one.

Posh. ONE coat. Gorgeous matte velvet red shimmer. One coat. LOVE.

Dita. Gorgeous saturated fuchsia creme. 3 coats.

Katy. Pretty medium bright pink shimmer. 2 coats.

Also, on another note, if you're experiencing any difficulties viewing anything, let me know! I recently moved this blog from my old gmail account to its own gmail account, but I think I've got everything working. I'm excited for sparkly paints. to have its own identity though!

Thanks for looking!

Zoya Swatches Part 1

So, my friends, here is my first installment of my Zoya swatches. They were sorta quick 'n' dirty, meaning that I used only basecoat and however many coats of color it took to be opaque. No topcoat, no cleaup. I wrote a couple thoughts on each just to be helpful. Without further ado, here's the first batch!

Savita. Matte Velvet. 2 coats. Medium purple shimmer, kinda pinky duochrome in certain lights.

Ali. Neon pink creme. 2 coats.

Renee. Neon pink, leaning more coral. 3 coats.

Blair. Awesome velvety blackened red shimmer. More depth than pictured. 2 coats.

Sloane. Deep shimmery purple/wine color. 2 coats. Beautiful.

Envy. Deep green creme. Mine is very obviously green, some say it's very blackened. I disagree, but that's me. 2 coats. Gorgeous.

Sofia. Pinked purple. Maybe magenta? 2 coats, lovely.

Ginessa. Gross shimmery white with silver glitter. Pooled and looked lumpy. 3 coats.

Racquel. Warm red creme, 2 coats, great formula.

Sam. Deep blood red, so gorgeous, 3 coats, excellent formula. My most used Zoya.

Roxy. Medium fuchsia jelly with glitter. I only put on 2 coats but you need three. GORGEOUS.

Zara. Light lilac with intense gold shimmer, so pretty and understated. 2 coats.

Lael. Slightly darker than this, a straight up plum creme. Great formula. 2 coats.

Rihana. Medium pinked purple shimmer with a definite gold flash (can't see below though). 2 coats. Like Blair, much richer in person.

Jo. Medium periwinkle shimmer. 2 coats. First time I wore it I hated the formula, but while swatching it was nice! Hit or miss, I guess. Cool color.

Yasmeen. Definitely one of Zoya's stars, a deep shimmery purple with strong gold flash. 2 coats, deep, rich, velvety gorgeous (like Blair & Rihana, better in person). Love.

Tallulah. Wicked bright shimmery blue. Love this!! 2 coats. So happy and pretty.

Pinta. A blue toned plum creme (Lael leans more red). 2 coats, another gorgeous Zoya creme.

Richelle. A gold foil shimmer, mine had the WORST formula, similar to Ginessa. Lumpy and pool-y, I hated it! The color is so neat. 2 coats.

Midori. Shimmery spring green with strong gold shimmer, 2 coats. Very fun.

Phew!!

I've got another whole batch coming at you tomorrow! Thanks for looking :-)

ALSO!!! There is a wicked RBL giveaway happening here. GO ENTER for a chance to win all three new Surf Collection colors!

American Apparel Mouse & Konad M65

So, here's Mouse. As I look back on this, I really wish I left Mouse alone and wore it as you see it below: un-mattified and un-Konaded. But I didn't because I wanted to experiment with a technique I saw on Laquerized's blog.

So this is Mouse, my second favorite taupe color (first is Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge). It looked so divine and classy with shiny Seche Vite. Here's 2 coats (and no clean up, whoops):

Don't you love it? I happened to wear this polish on a day I saw my friend Amanda, and it made me think of her. Amanda and I very different and if you saw us together you might wonder why we're friends. I'm a tattooed, pierced, kinda "bad girl" looking chick (though I am not!), with a penchant for stuff that leans heavily on the rock'n'roll side of life. Amanda has this elegant, polished way about her I've never been able to pull off. She always looks classy in an understated sort of way, from her chic haircut to her elegantly understated wardrobe--we are as different as different could be. But we get along because we're both kinda bitchy! I think that is what attracted us to eachother (we used to work together), a mutual understanding. BUT, anyway, when I wore this color, I felt so... elegant... which, though I am many things, elegant is not one of them. I was totally pleased when I saw her the day I wore this, and the first thing she did was grab my hand and profess her admiration for my nails.

Digress much?? OK, back on topic. So, I mentioned above that I wanted to use a technique I saw on the Lacquerized blog that involved mattifying a color and then Konading a design over it in clear polish. Hers came out way better than mine, but I was pleased with the understated look that I achieved. This is from M65 and I used Barielle Manicure Extender for the clear.

It's kinda hard to do because even "slow dry" topcoats seem to dry wicked fast when they're scraped over a Konad plate. So give it a try but don't even bother attempting Seche Vite--that's a joke! (Trust me, I tried).

That's all for now :-)