Gradient and Leopard Print!

I finally learned the trick to gradient nails!

 

Yes! The polishes I used are Sally Hansen Blue It, Sinful Colors Black on Black, OPI Alpine Snow and Milani Twinkle.

For the gradient nails, I did two coats of Blue It then took a make up sponge, painted a strip of Black on Black and a strip of Blue It and then blotted it on my nail until it looked blended. I could have blotted a little bit more, now that I look back.

Then I did a freehand leopard print on my ring finger. I did a coat of Black on Black as the base then made some spots of Twinkle (which took a little maneuvering of glitter), then used Alpine Snow and a tooth pick to draw the spot outlines. I found that it was much easier to use a toothpick than a detailing brush. A dotting tool would also work, I just don't have one. 

Then I did a coat of Essie Good To Go on every nail. This mani actually lasted almost a week and I did not pick at it once! I really like how it turned out and I'll definitely be trying out some other gradients!

Until next time,

The Wicked

Milani One Coat Glitter in Twinkle!

The other half of my BOGO1/2 Milani purchase

 

pinky- three coats of Twinkle over black

ring- two coats of Twinkle over black

middle- one coat of Twinkle over black

pointer- one coat of Tinkle

Twinkle is little blue hex glitter and small, round purple glitter in a clear base. As you can see it is kind of far from a one coat glitter. I did take a picture of about four coats on its own, but it was horrible and I didn't have the heart to put you through that. All I have to say is that it takes at least three thick coats and maneuvering to get it to be completely opaque.

Other than the lack of being one coat, the formula on it was good and dried pretty fast. I like the colors in the glitter, it's pretty similar to a nails inc. polish but not a dupe. I'm very attracted to purple glitter at the moment, not sure why... but I'm not complaining.

Until next time,

The Wicked

Milani FX Jewel Lavender

I've been eyeing some of the new Milani FX Jewel polishes lately, but haven't had the stomach to pay almost $6 each at CVS. But then! CVS decided to have a BOGO1/2 on all Milani products! Woohooooo, so I decided to be a creep and scope out the polishes that I wanted before the actual sale started.

 

Milani FX Jewel in Lavender over China Glaze Smoke and Ashes (I was too lazy to remove it, good thing it's a black background!) I believe this is one coat on pointer, two coats on middle and so on and so forth. It doesn't look like much a difference though. This is lavender larger hex glitter and smaller round glitter in a clear base. You can click the picture to enlarge it, and if the glitter looks a little blue that's just my camera. It's completely lavender in person.

I really love the color of it, and the formula is good. The glitter lies flat and dries pretty quickly. Not much more you can ask for from a glitter!

Until next time,

The Wicked

Nail of the Week!

Here it is!

 

The base is two coats of Zoya Dove, then I used Milani FX Jewel in Gems for the accent. It's supposed to be like a glitter half moon manicure. It came out better the first time I did it, this time I tried a different way of shaping the glitter. I also did a coat of Essie Good To Go as my top coat. 

The fist time I did it I used Brucci Alexandra's "Hot" Gray, which chips much more quickly than Dove.

I really like the combo of glitter and grey polishes, the grey was pretty boring by itself. It's not the season for greys.

Until next time,

The Wicked

Nail of the Day!!

First and foremost, Happy April Fools Day! So, this is more like my nail of the week because I'm liking it a lot. I really wanted something different.

  

Thumb- Sinful Colors Black on Black and one coat of Wet n' Wild Spoiled Pet My Peacock

Pointer- OPI Alpine Snow

Middle- Sinful Colors Black on Black

Ring- Zoya Sooki (red), Milani Racy Green (green) and an Art Club polish in white for the detailing

Pinky- OPI Alpine Snow

Thumb- OPI Alpine Snow

Pointer- Sinful Colors Black on Black

Middle- OPI Alpine Snow

Ring- Zoya Sooki (red), Milani Racy Green (green) and an Art Club polish in white for the detailing

Pinky- Sinful Colors Black on Black and one coat of Wet n' Wild Spoiled Pet My Peacock

I don't really know what inspired me, I wanted my ring fingers to be kind of tribal looking then kept the others just pretty normal, but then I added glitter to two of my fingers just to make them all a little different. I really wanted every finger to be different, which is also why I alternated black and white on each finger on each hand. 

I can't really see changing it any time soon, but I did buy Essie Good to Go to try out, so I'll have to redo some fingers (most like the black or white ones) just to test it out lol

Until next time,

The Wicked

Milani Jewel FX Gems!

Another one I've had in my stash since around September but just haven't swatched. Actually I did swatch it a few weeks ago but chipped it all off before I actually got photos. Womp. But I have them now so rejoice!

Gems, three coats. So this is a SUPER dense glitter in a clear base. There are large hexagonal pieces in silver, pink, light blue, green, orange and yellow and smaller round pieces in red, silver and dark blue. Being really dense it does take less coats to get it opaque, and being a glitter is dries pretty fast. So you really get the best of most worlds with this one. The glitter spreads pretty evenly, you may have to move a little bit around just to fill in any random empty corners. Also it lays flat of your nail which is awesome. I used two coats of Seche on top. I've never used more than one layer of Seche over anything, but it really does make a difference in smoothing it out. Since there is so much glitter, it is a little rough but the top coat definitely helps with that. And for me, the smoother is it, the less likely I am to pick at it! The one negative about it is because it is so dense it gets cakes on to the neck of the bottle and occasionally chips off and leaves glitter everywhere and it also makes the bottle a little hard to close/open and dip the brush fully into. 

While I'm in my glitter phase, this is a crazy must have. It's pretty much a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday, there are a few differences but I don't the differences are worth spending $16 on, but that's just me. I found this at a Duane Reade for $4.99 I think and it was the last one. There may be a few of these still floating around, but if you can't find them in person, I think cherryculture.com still has them in stock. 

Until next time,
The Wicked

Milani High Speed Fast Dry Nail Laquer in Racy Green!

I actually got this color a good while ago, around July when it came out and never got a chance to swatch it, which is really sad. But now that my halloween-fest is over, I have time to go back and swatch everything! Woohoo!

(natural light)

(sun light)

Racy Green, two coats. It's a green/ teal/ blue color, kind of peacock-esque. I originally thought that the color would be darker according to Milani's website, but you know how that goes. The finish is interesting, it's shimmery but not just pure shimmer. In some lights it looks kind of metallic and foily and in others not so much. I do love it in the sunlight.

The whole set of these are supposed to be fast drying, one coat polishes. Which makes perfect sense because if you only have to use one coat, it should theoretically dry faster. I happened to use two coats because even though the polish was opage in one coat, the color wasnt very saturated and was lighter than the bottle color. The color does build up with the more coats you add, two coats was perfect for me, I'm not sure how much more the color would build up with three. The dry time was very fast though, so I'll definitely give them props for that.

The formula on it was great. Even though it has all that shimmer and stuff in it, it's not too thick and is really smooth and has really nice coverage. And even though it is fast drying it spreads really easily.

And remember, the Urban Decay Friends and Family Sale ends tomorrow! 20% off everything with the code FFHOLIDAY11!

Nail Art: Cherry blossoms!

So after my minions I went on a nail art kick and I saw a picture of these cute cherry blossom nails, so I had to try it out.

The base is Orly Ancient Jade, two coats. Then I did the branches using a thin brush with Sinful Colors Black on Black. For the petals I used OPI Alpine Snow, and just made dots using a brush, a dotting tool would work but I forgot to look for one at the store. Then I used my unnamed Milani pink for the middle of the flower, and I just used a brush again to dot it on. I did prime each nail with a base coat before hand and then did a coat of Seche on top. 

When doing nail art in general, it is easier to do one hand completely and then the other hand. Also, it is best to do it stages, using one color at a time on each nail before moving on to the next color. 

I really liked how it came out, and I was pretty proud of myself for being able to do it with my left hand. It's all about practice! 

Until next time,

The Wicked

Pirates of the Caribbean!! Skull and Glossbones and Gold!

As you all probably know, today the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out and in celebration I have done this POTC inspired mani!

Here we have two coats of Skull and Glossbones of three of my finger and about 3 or 4 coats of Milani jewel fx Gold. Skull and Glossbones is an obvious choice and Gold reminds me of gold coins, which ties in to the 1st movie. I like it, it reminds me of pirate treasure and skulls and other piratey things. 

Now for the kicker! I got some Kiss nail art pens today (I'll review them another day) and I did my best imitation of the POTC font. The thumb also has two coats of Skull and Glossbones and a top coat and I did the writing over that.

Here is a semi blurry close(r) up of my thumb and the writing. I think I did a pretty good job! Props to me.

So I hope you all go see the movie! I'm not sure if I should do another POTC mani or a birthday one for sunday. Opinions? Suggestions?

Also, I want to remind everyone to follow us, there's a snazzy "follow" button on the right hand side at the top of the page, so totally click on that.

Annndddd, a special announcement, Zoya is having an awesome deal this weekend. Buy anything (besides their color spoons) and get Zoya polish in Caitlin and Dove for free! Yes! 3 for the price of one! Visit http://www.zoya.com/ for that!

Until next time,

The Wicked

Milani Jewel FX Gold

This is one the polishes that I featured on on of my the girl on a budget posts....Milani Jewel FX Gold!

Awesome? Yes. So, this polish has a clear base with lots of large hexagonal gold sequins. Love it. This took 3 coats. Sometimes the sequins clump together and take a little longer to spread out, so for full coverage like I have here you have to make sure to move the sequins around. Also, make sure each coat dries (mostly) before applying another coat otherwise it will get clumpy. After the three coats of Gold, I did a coat of Seche Vite to smooth everything out. Some nails will end up smoother than others, depending on how flat you get the sequins to lay on the nail.

A word of warning to all, if you like to chip and pick at your nail polish, this will probably cause a problem for you. I'm a chipper by nature and after a few days I really couldn't help but start chipping all my nails, especially because glitter/ sequin polishes don't always lay smooth and they are so easy to chip off! So, just be weary of that if you want to try this polish. Also, it is pretty annoying to remove. Since it's not actual polish its difficult to remove with nail polish remover and the sequins get everywhere, so chipping might just be easier lol

Until next time,

The Wicked

Girl on a Budget: Boom Boom Pow vs Only Gold for Me vs Gold

the gold edition! Today I'll be focusing on the gold glitter polish and I specifically chose ones that have bigger glitter, not super fine glitter, but sequin like pieces.

Ah yes, another fantastic Deborah Lippmann polish. What's special about this one, you ask? We'll I'll tell you. This is Boom Boom Pow (maybe she listens to the Black Eyed Peas?) and it was the other half of the holiday collection. If you recall, the other one had virgin diamond powder, and this one is has...GOLD! Indeed, it's supposed to have actual 24k gold. It has a clear base, with large hexagonal gold glitter and very tiny gold sparkles. It should also still be available and its $20.

This is OPI for Sephora Only Gold For Me. It's labeled as a top coat, but anything with a sheer base can be a top coat. Obviously, this has a clear base and it has larger hexagonal glitter and also the small sparkles. It seems pretty close to Boom Boom Pow, with out the gold of course. This obviously was available at Sephora at one point, I'm not sure if they still have it in stores, but you can get it online. It's retail price is $9.50.

This is Milani Jewel FX Gold. It's like the silver, clear base and very large pieces of glitter. I really like the look of this one, almost better than the silver. You can get this one at the same site as the others. 

Until next time,

The Wicked

Girl on a Budget: Queen of Beauty vs Today Was A Fairy Tale vs Silver

This is the silver edition! All these polishes are fantastic silver glitters!

Sinful Colors Queen of Beauty

The finest of the three glitters. It has a clear base and small silver glitter. The glitter is pretty sparse in each coat, so if you want full coverage you would have to do at least 4 coats. I have a separate post on just this polish, so you can check that out for a swatch. You can find this at Walgreens for $2.99.

Deborah Lippmann Today Was A Fairy Tale

This is definitely the fanciest of all three, not only is it Deborah Lippmann, but it also has virgin diamond powder! So yes, this polish has actual diamonds (in powder form) in it! Pretty impressive. It has a sheer grey base with large and small silver glitter. The glitter here is tinted a cloudy blue so it's not really pure silver per say. Really beautiful polish, kind of a mix of the 2 that are above and below it. This came out for the holidays, but you can still get it on various websites and at Nordstroms. It's retail price is $20, but it will probably vary among different sites.

Milani FX Jewel Silver

I love this one, it has a clear base and is all large silver glitter/ sequins. It's a little difficult to apply evenly, but when you get the hang of it, it looks like armor or scales. It's awesome, I need to get a bottle of this for sure! You can get for $4.99 at http://www.cherryculture.com/.

Don't you all just love silver glitter! I know I do!

Until next time,
The Wicked

Girl on a Budget: Party of Five Glitters vs Happy Birthday

I'm super stoked about this particular comparison. I think it's the closest of all the comparisons I've done so far. Today I'm going to show you guys Wet n' Wild Party of Five Glitters (left) versus Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday (right).

 

Holy similar! I spotted this when I was out getting Nail Junkie, I caught sight of it and it immediately reminded me of Happy Birthday. In this picture of Party of Five Glitters the colors are a little off, they're somewhat muted and not exactly right. It has large hexagonal silver pieces, smaller green, magenta and light blue hexagonal pieces and very small red, green and yellow round pieces. Happy Birthday has mostly the same color glitter, but it has orange and it also has more of a variety of colors in the bigger pieces. Happy Birthday does also have hexagonal glitter, but instead of having small round glitter is has small square glitter. They both have clear bases and the coverage is about the same.

On three fingers I have one coat of Nicole by OPI Razzle Dazzler and the other finger has two coats of OPI Alpine Snow, then on all fingers I have one coat of Party of Five Glitters. It can be kind of difficult getting an even coat of the glitter because they tend to stick together sometimes. I prefer it over the black, when its over white you lose the silver glitter. It does remind me of birthday cake when it over white, like Funfetti cupcakes! 

Let me just say that this is supposed to be one of Wet n' Wild's "fast drying" polishes, but oh man did it take FOREVER to dry. I did the base colors then the glitter and then Seche Vite to smooth it out and it just refused to dry. Seche Vite usually speeds up the dry time, but I have no idea what was up with this. I finished my nails at 7:30 pm and I went to bed at 11:30ish and when I woke up the next day my nails were all imprinted and ugh it was terrible. I would suggest letting every single layer dry before adding another one if you're going to use Party of Five Glitters. 

Also, I think its worth mentioning that Milani came out with a glitter  called Gems that is like this as well. It was even a little more similar to Happy Birthday. Gems isn't in stores as far as I know of, but you can find it here, cherryculture.com. It's $4.99 plus shipping, for Milani polish I'm not sure how worth it that is. You can get Party of Five Glitters probably everywhere and it's $2.99 which is great. Both are really good alternatives at really great prices.

Until next time,

The Wicked

Over The Rainbow Ruffian Style!

Everyone remember when I posted that Valentine's day ruffian mani? And I said that I had another one in the works? Well here it is!!

Thumb: 2 coats of Sally Hansen Cherry Red (Xtreme Wear)

Index: 2 coats of Sally Hansen Lightening (Insta-Dri)

Middle: 2 coats of Sally Hansen Green with Envy (Xtreme Wear)

Ring: 2 coats of Sally Hansen Blue It (Xtreme Wear)

Pinky: 2 coats of some unnamed purple Milani ( I think I tore off the name by accident a while back) 

After all the nails were painted I did a thick coat of Milani Black Magic over the color and over that I did a coat of Seche Vite. When doing the black coat, you need to make sure that its thick enough to be opaque so the color underneath does not show through. It was cool because from the underside of my nails you could see all the colors but from the top it was just black. Originally I wasn't sure if I should use a glossy or matte black, but I settled on glossy obviously. I think that using a matte top coat on the whole thing would be pretty cool too, maybe I'll try that one day. I also considered doing matching tips, but it was too much work for me lol

I love this. It is really simple to do (all it takes is a steady hand) and the top color glides on really easily if you have enough polish on the brush. So just make sure of that. 

ALSO! I have good news!!! I am awaiting a special package in the mail, it should arrive this coming week. Want to know what it is? DUM DUM DUM! OPI Black Shatter!! Definitely keep an eye out for that!

Until next time,

The Wicked

Double Valentine's Day Trouble!

Yeah yeah I know I have succumbed once again. The ruffian was kind of boring for me (I have another one in the works), so I had to change it up.

Here I have on 2 coats of Wet n' Wild Lust. I really was impressed with this color. I was expecting it to be really sheer, but it was actually really nicely pigmented. Way better than usual Wet n' Wild colors. It was pretty opaque with one coat, but I added another for good measure, and it dries super fast. Like wow fast. After that I used my Konad M57 plate with the black stamping polish and finally added some of the bigger sparkles from Revlon Galaxy. It was kind of tedious to put the sparkles on just because I had to fish out one at a time and place them all. After they were all placed, I did a final coat of Seche Vite to smooth every thing out. I think it was kind of a play on naughty and nice. The pink being nice and the fishnet type print being naughty. I thought it was fun lol

But as all my manicures, it didn't last long. So this is the next one I did.

This is my attempt at replicating the nails on the Illamasqua Throb ad (they used different colors of course, this is my take on it). I have 2 coats of Sally Hansen Red Cherry and for the black I used Milani Black Magic. It's supposed to look like the top of a heart, I did it free-hand and it took me 2 tries until it looked decent. It was actually harder than I expected. With the red and black it kind of reminds me of the Queen of Hearts so I was into that. I love Alice in Wonderland. I really like this but I'll have to do a bit of practicing. 

Actually Illamasqua was featuring all of their naughtily named products for Valentine's Day, its hilarious. Check that out here http://www.illamasqua.com/, and you can also find the Throb ad there.  

So there you go, some not too girly Valentine's Day looks. Hope you guys liked them!

Until next time,

The Wicked.