Summer Shake - Essence Mellow Yellow, Ulta3 Honolulu, Lush Lacquer Glowsticks

Here's a sunny summer manicure that I did last month.

[Summer Shake]

What better combination than yellow and neon glitter! 

[Bottle to nail: Essence Mellow Yellow, Ulta3 Honolulu (2 coats)]

I started with a base of alternate fingers using Essence Mellow Yellow, a pastel yellow creme, and Ulta3 Honolulu, a bright yellow creme. Both were opaque in two coats, but in the general way of yellows, were a bit streaky.

[Bottle to nail: Lush Lacquer Glowsticks (1 coat)]

That's where the glitter topper comes in! A popped on a coat of Lush Lacquer Glowsticks, an awesome mix of semi-translucent neon glitter in a clear base.

[Base (2 coats): Essence Mellow Yellow (index and ring), Ulta3 Honolulu (pinky and middle)
Glitter: Lush Lacquer Glowsticks (1 coat)]

 Here's the finished look! I did have to do a bit of dabbing to get the glitter pieces exactly where I wanted them. My favourite bits (as I've mentioned before) are the bright blue bars so I made sure to fish up some of them for each nail!

[Base (2 coats): Essence Mellow Yellow (index and ring), Ulta3 Honolulu (pinky, middle, thumb)
Glitter: Lush Lacquer Glowsticks (1 coat)]

All in all, a super easy look to achieve and one that got lots of comments and compliments from people! =)

Bewitching Waves - Chi Chi Fully Sic

Someone was telling me good things about Chi Chi and so I decided to pick this up when I found it in the bargain bin at Target.

[Bottle of Chi Chi Fully Sic]

[Chi Chi Fully Sic]

Chi Chi Fully Sic looks to have a blue-purple duochrome microglitter in its bottle, but alas, there is no duochrome goodness when it's on the nails. Fully Sic is a jelly vibrant blue polish. It might lack the duochrome sheen, but it's pretty enough for a bright blue shade.

Harlequin Hilarity - Zoya Crystal, China Glaze Hi-Tek

I haven't done stamping for so long - here's a shameful first attempt after what has got to be years!!

[Base: Zoya Crystal (3 coats); Stamping: China Glaze Hi-Tek]

After a few days (okay, really more like 1 day) of wearing Zoya Crystal as posted last week, I was getting all excited to try something else so I decided to ease back in to stamping...

[3 coats: Zoya Crystal]

Just a quick refresher of Zoya Crystal, three coats of a blue and gold fleck foil finish polish.

[Base: Zoya Crystal (3 coats); Stamping: China Glaze Hi-Tek]

Since I was easing myself into it, I picked out one of the polishes that has been my go-to in the past for stamping. Here's China Glaze Hi-Tek a bronzey rose gold chrome from the (You guessed it!) Khrome collection.

[Base: Zoya Crystal (3 coats); Stamping: China Glaze Hi-Tek]

Oh gawwwd, I was so bad at it! I finally got the hang of it right at the end so now I'm inspired to keep going! Didn't help that I was using one of the old Bundle Monster plates (BM16) which had absolutely tiny designs for the full nail so even though I had little nubs, it was pretty hard getting a design on the whole nail. Nevertheless, I'll keep going and finally make use of allll the gorgeous plates I have sitting around with blue plastic still over the top, eek!

All That Glitters Is Gold - Lacquistry Amazeballz: Original

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh, look at this!

[3 coats of Lacquistry Amazeballz: Original]

Lacquistry Amazeballz: Original is this amazingly dense pale gold flakes in clear base. Amazeballz is opaque even without a base, and the dense flakes creates this absolutely gorgeous, gleaming gold manicure. It catches the light beautifully and is such shiny distraction.

I only have good things to say about this polish. Now admire the gold, gold, gold! <3

[3 coats of Lacquistry Amazeballz: Original]

Scatter Shades - Sally Hansen BLU; Red, White and Hue

Happy Australia Day!! Hope you're all having fun at the beach, pool and/or barbeque with friends and family!

[Oy!!]

Here's a festive manicure for today!

[Bottle to nail: Sally Hansen BLU (4+ coats)]

Starting off with a base of Sally Hansen BLU from the HD collection. This is an... "interesting" polish. Most people write it off as I did when I first got it... the formula is terribly sheer! What you're seeing in these photos are 4+ coats on each nail, and I don't even have long nails! Add to that the fact that dry time is fairly long for such a thin formula, it's quite a bit of trouble...

[4+ coats: Sally Hansen BLU]

You can see in my photos that it isn't fully opaque but this is less visible in person. HOWEVER, despite these drawbacks (or because of them), it's a really interesting finish! It's a very glowy effect giving an electric cornflower shade which I can definitely say I have no dupe of. 

[Bottle to nail: Sally Hansen Red, White and Hue]

With my base in place, it's time for glitter! This is Sally Hansen Color Frenzy in Red, White and Hue. This one's a fun one, because it's matte glitter, yay~ =) Obviously in patriotic shades of red, white and blue hexes of different sizes.

[Base: Sally Hansen BLU (4+ coats); Glitter: Sally Hansen Red, White and Hue (1 coat)]

And this is my mani for the Australia Day long weekend! Hope y'alls having a great one toooo!!

Peacock Flame - Dance Legend Phobos

More Dance Legend!

[Dance Legend Phobos]

This is Dance Legend Phobos, a purple-blue-teal multichrome polish with small gold flakies. Photos of Phobos from the website looks like it has blue-green flakes, but I find that the flakes have a gold-green shift instead. The flakes are more visible in real life than in the photos, but they're not densely packed in.

I have to admit that I'm not too fond of this one. It looks great here, but the flakes actually caused the finish to feel rather bumpy despite my thick quick dry top coat. The shift is great, as with all Dance Legend multichrome polishes, and there's no need for a black base coat to make it opaque.