Nails Inc Hampstead Gardens- aka The Ugliest Polish Of My Dreams

Holy crap! Literally! I've finally found the perfect shade of baby poo yellow and it's the ugliest polish in all the right ways. I've been searching for this exact color for over a year and I've finally found it thanks to the wonderful and quirky Concrete and Nail Polish. The second I saw her post I knew I had to have it. Hampstead Gardens from Nails Inc is a perfect match for this ridiculously ugly kitty shirt that I found at a yard sale, and yes, I wear it all the time... because cats.

Last fall I tried to franken a matching shade for this top, but couldn't quite get that dark mustard base that it needed. I didn't have any luck finding this polish though websites that normally carry Nails Inc but it was on eBay for a reasonable price. I don't know if you can really put a price on a polish this unique though. I probably would have paid much more to add it to my collection.

The brush was a little wonky right out of the bottle as you can see. I trimmed those long pieces off with a tiny pair of scissors and the brush worked much better afterwards. The formula has a nice consistency, not too wet or goopy. Two coats gives a perfect shiny finish.

This is my perfect shade for fall. It's so much different from anything else in my collection. I don't often wear the same polish twice in a year, but I can see myself wearing this one again soon. Maybe some art to match the kitty shirt next time?

It looks brilliant next to that blue sky too. Seriously can't get enough of this. What's the weirdest shade you've ever fallen in love with?

Summer Stripes

Moving day is quickly approaching and I can't wait to get back to a more normal blogging schedule (and of course hug my cat). Without my desk and nail cave I've been less motivated to blog as much as I'd like. It's going to be a toss up... set up my nail stuff first or the bed? I'm definitely going to need a nap. I might be MIA for a little longer while we get things settled, but I hope to be back in full force soon.

My love of matching nails and clothes inspired these nails. I stamped stripes over colors matching the ones in this cute summer dress. My stripes came out a little wonky though. The stamping image wasn't wide enough to cover my long nails so I had to double stamp it and didn't have the best luck lining up the stripes. I don't have it in front of me right now, but the plate is from one of the newer Bundle Monster sets. I stamped with white Mundo de Unas. My base colors are as follows: 

Tan- ?? ugh.. moving sucks.. I think it was Finger Paints, Don't Make a Scene

Red- Sation, Sparkling Ruby

Teal- Finger Paints, Art Dealer Teal-er

Yellow- Sally Hansen, Expres-so Yellow

Blue- LA Colors, Reckless

Mind The Gap

It occurs to me that I'm kind of a jerk blogger. I hardly ever buy current collections. I wait for everything to go on clearance and then post about it a month or two later- just enough time to assure that whatever awesome polish I've posted is completely sold out. The worst part is that I don't feel bad enough to actually change anything. I'll tell myself that my blog is more about the nail art than the swatches. And it is... except when I'm feeling lazy.. which is pretty often these days.. which results in me posting swatches instead of nail art because they're less time consuming to write about. Ehhh. Sorry everyone!

Sooo... this is Mind the Gap from the China Glaze All Aboard collection. There's a bit of art involved so it's totally ok that I'm posting this Fall 2014 collection polish about four months late. I got it on clearance right after Christmas so chances are you won't be able to find it in stores now. Thank goodness for the internet and the fact that this color is more than just a little bit drab. It's a golden-brownish polish with a hint of olive green and a slightly green shimmer. Isn't it hideous? I kind of love it. I'll admit I bought it just for the name, but the color grew on me. 

It turned out to be a near perfect match for this dress I bought myself during the after Christmas sales ($8.. crazy!). The dress has little gathered lines sewn into the fabric so I painted on some corresponding lines for my nail art to match the pattern.

I started with two coats of Mind the Gap. This is a slow drying polish! Even with my fast dry top coat I got those annoying sheet marks after going to bed an hour later. It also made the nail art a little tougher to pull off because the polish was still very soft and dentable, but the formula wasn't too bad otherwise (you know, besides this one giant glaring problem). It didn't drag or pool which is always a plus. I painted on the lines with Sinful Colors, Black on Black and a nail art striping brush. For the finishing touch I wadded up a bit of saran wrap, painted some polish onto it and used it dab some of the base color on top of the black lines to tone them down a bit and blend them in. Since the little gathers on the dress still had the gold color I wanted to soften the black lines on my nails too.

How do you feel about drab polish colors like this one? I wouldn't want to wear them every day, but I like having them as part of my collection.

Pastel Gradient & Holo Birthday Nails

Happy Birthday to me today! I can't believe I'm 32 already. When I was a kid I totally thought I'd have this life stuff figured out by now. At least one thing is turning out well- I always have awesome nails. If I could only get one thing about adulthood right I'm glad it's this.

For my birthday I wanted to paint something that would make me happy. Screw you holidays, I'm taking a break to do these very spring-like pastel gradient nails, and because I'm lazy and didn't want to work too hard on my birthday here are also some holo nails.

 This holo polish is Milani 3D Holographic- HD. The pictures I took in my light box with my fancy camera don't really show off the holo to its full potential. The picture above was taken in my kitchen with the stove as the background using my iPhone camera. Who would have guessed it'd be the most holo-tastic picture? HD is a scattered holo with chunky (but very smooth) particles in a clear base. It looks gold and silver at the same time depending on the light and angle. This is probably the most unique holo polish I own. It took 4 coats to build it up, but it has an awesome depth and rainbows that you can see much better in person than I was able to capture on film.

For my gradient I used Sinful Colors- Candy Coated (lavender), Spoiled- Mar-zi-panna (blue), and Ulta- Mint Condition. I started with two coats of Mar-zi-panna and then brushed all three colors onto a makeup sponge and rolled it over the nail to create the gradient.

This dress from Victoria's Secret was my gradient inspiration. I saw it over the summer and it was way too expensive to risk ordering it and then looking exactly 0% like a VS model in it. But guess what?? If I ever change my mind I can still order it on eBay. Only $80-$200 depending on the listing! I think I'll stick to wearing it on my nails only.