Ombre Nails

This week I tried something I've seen around for a while, and you guys have probably heard of it too: the ombre manicure.

For those who don't know, it's based off a hair color trend where the ends of your hair are light and gradually it gets darker towards your roots, or the other way around. For the manicure, used 5 or 10 different shades of one color, like I did yellow and green, and do them in order of light to dark or dark to light.

Sorry about the bandaid in this photo, I had a nasty hamster bite. Too bad I didn't have a green one lol

Here's the colors I used, from light to dark:

- Sally Hansen complete salon manicure, Yellow Kitty
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, Mellow yellow
- Revlon Electric
- Nail Duo, unnamed yellow
- Colorshock, unnamed gold

(green photo)

-Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, Mint Sorbet
- Nyx Girls polish, Boho
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, Going Green
- Revlon 30 seconds, Camouflage

French tip with Rhinestones

This one I was just experimenting with making rhinestones into a flower shape over a french manicure I was already wearing, and it turned out great, imo :)

I did my right hand different, of course

Here's the rest of the pictures:

I just wish I'd done gold glitter on my left hand since the middle rhinestone of the flower is gold, and the silver glitter on my right matches the middle silver rhinestone, but I did silver on both. What do you guys think?

Green with Gold Flakies

This is a polish I haven't worn much, Chartreuse Chase from Sally Hansen Insta Dri, and I topped it with Essie's topcoat As Gold as it Gets from the luxeffect line.

I absolutely looooove this combo, here's a bunch of photos:

CC on its own

What do you guys think of these two together? Does CC's own sparkle interfere with the top coat's effect?

Shine of the Times swatches

Here it is the post you've all been waiting for!

I'm mostly gonna let the photos do the talking, but I do have to say this is my favorite top coat of the collection of 5. Here's all of them together (with my remover and nail polish storage in the background lol).

From left to right: Pure Pearlfection, As Gold as it Gets, Set in Stones, A Cut Above

Comparing the 2 flakies in the collection:

What is your impression of this top coat?

Metallic V-Gap

This manicure was sooo much fun, and the first real success (I think) that I've had with tape manicures. Koodos to Jane from Nailside for the idea for this, I totally copied her idea because it looked so awesome and I had to try it for myself.

And as usual, my left and right hands are done with different colors.

Here's the supplies I used:

-Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, Gray by Gray
-Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure,Yellow Kitty
-Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure,Gilty Pleasure
-Revlon Metallic
-Scotch tape or French tip stickers
-Base/Top coats

First paint all your nails the color you want underneath the V shape.

Next, after your nails have been dry for at least an hour, cut tape strips and place them on your nails. I used some french tips I got in a set of polish but regular tape works just as well. I stuck them to the palm of my hand once before putting them on my nails to get some of the sticky-ness off. Place them as high or low as you want depending on the size of triangle you'd like to see of the other color.

Then paint inside the triangles, careful not to get it over the edge onto the untaped part of your nail.

Wait 30 seconds, peel them off and you're done other than a top coat :)

And if you guys are interested, I though I'd let you know about a couple giveaways from 365 Days of Color. Visit Sunny's blog page here.
For the second giveaway, go here.

Essie Luxeffect topcoats

My very first essie polishes!!! And they're from the Luxeffect special topcoats collection. This is only 4 out of 5 because I'm still waiting on Shine of the Times in the mail from eBay. The left 2 I bought at shoppers drug mart and the right 2 at Walmart.

From left to right their names: Pure Pearlfection, As Gold as it Gets, Set in Stones, A Cut Above

I did some swatches for you guys so here they are on a nail wheel:

Pure Pearlfection and As Gold as it Gets over black (Black Out by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear)

Set in Stones and A Cut Above over black

Pure Pearlfection over Colorshock's white (no name) and Revlon Lily

Set in Stones over Revlon Ocean and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Wet Cement

As Gold as it Gets over Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Yellow Kitty and Revlon Camouflage

This gorgeous flakie is soooo hard to photograph :(

 A Cut Above over a NYC pink with no name and Revlon Peachy

And here's a Pure Pearlfection over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet (left)
As Gold as it Gets is over an unnamed nude by Muse (right)

Set in Stones over Dark Blue and Reign by Billie

A Cut Above over Mango by Kleancolor and an unnamed fuchsia by Colorshock

*if it looks like some of the glitter pieces on the orange nail are silver, it's because they are, lol I was putting another coat of Set in Stones on the nails in the pic above and then decided these ones needed a bit more too but forgot I needed to switch to the right polish haha!

That's it! I'll post some swatches of Shine of the Times when it comes, let me know which one of these FABulous topcoats you're wanting the most :)