China Glaze Shocking Pink

Hello dearies!

Just a quick post this evening featuring a new-to-me China Glaze...

 Colors Used: China Glaze - Shocking Pink, Formula X for Sephora - Blast Off, Sinful Colors - Time Off

I started with my base of Shocking Pink.  I loved how bright it was in the bottle and had just had to buy it.  The formula... it's shockingly bad!  After 3 runny coats it was still quite streaky and I was very annoyed.  I gave up after the 4th coat and threw some black glitter on stop to cover up the bald spots...

Once it all dried, I used striping tape and transparent tape as guides for my tips.  all was topped with my "mystery top coat".  Overall I really love the way this turned out...

But that formula tho!

If you haven't done so already, be sure to check of my 2 year blogiversary giveaway!  It ends at 12:00am PST on Friday :D

Until next time!

Stef <3

I Did It!!

Good morning, dolls!

Today's post is centered around a nail art tool that I have always struggled with... striping tape.

 Colors Used: Zoya - Morgan, Maybelline - Pretty In Polka, Rimmel - Black Satin

Striping tape been the bane of my nail experience for quite a long time.  I bought a whole pack of the stuff over a year ago and have never been able to manage the clean lines that they're supposed to create.  I'd utilized all of the tips and tricks that fellow blogger's have posted about, and yet no matter how hard I'd try it would end up a big ol' mess.  So I shoved the tapes in the back of my nail art drawer and gave up.  And then last week I read a post from Casey Lane Loves Polish where she talked about struggling with tape manis.  I was inspired to try again...

I started with my ring finger.  Once my base coat dried, I put down my 5 strips of tape and painted a thick coat of Black Satin.  I then very quickly removed the strips of tape and viola!  Clean-ish lines!  Haha :)  I then did 2 coats of Pretty in Polka (a newbie in my collection) on my middle finger and 2 coats of the lovely Morgan  on the rest of my nails.

While it's still not perfect, it's leaps and bounds better than how my tape manis used to be.  So I'm deeming this a nail success :D

Do any of you struggle with tape manis?  Have you thrown in the towel??  I highly suggest keeping at it.  You'll get there, I promise.

Until next time!

Stef <3

Think Pink... Tape Mani! (kinda)

Hello hello hello!  Happy hump day!  Lol.  I can't believe it's already Wednesday!!  One more day of work and then it's the weekend for me (and I get paid on Friday which means I will most likely be buying more polishes haha) :D

For today's mani I decided that I should try out the taping technique, taping off sections of my nails to create a fun design.  And I failed miserably!  I couldn't paint fast enough, so the polish would start pulling up with the tape and I ended up with stringy/gloppy lines.  It irritated me to no end!  So I took it all off and started over freehand.  This was much much easier for me to do.  Any lines that weren't quite straight I fixed with acetone and my angled brush.  I then added some striping and glitter to dress it up and this was the final look...

Colors Used: JLB - 02 (light pink), JLB - 05 (pepto pink), O.P.I. - Pirouette My Whistle

I know, I know... I use Whistle a lot :\  But it's the perfect glitter in my collection because it's not overwhelming while still adding some pop!  I really like it :)  Here are some more pics...

 

And one final shot...

 

I realized last night that I said I would have pics to show you of my polish storage and I never posted them... how terrible am I??!  So here it is (after the jump of course :P)...