Gourds in the desert? Finger Paints Gourd or Bad? over Kalahari Kiss

Finger Paints Gourd or Bad over ver China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, sunlight

Here are my swatches of Finger Paints Gourd or Bad, a multi-colored bar glitter over China Glaze Kalahari Kiss. BTW, in case you're curious, "gourd" is a specific plant but it's also sometimes used to describe squash, which I'm sure is what the name is a reference to. Finger Paints Gourd or Bad? came out as part of the Finger Paints Fall '12 collection.  It's a collection of silver, light blue, light orange and lavender bar gitter in a clear base. Kalahari Kiss is from China Glaze's On Safari collection. It's an awesome neutral camel color, in my opinion. 

Finger Paints Gourd or Bad over ver China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, shade

Here's the same combination in the shade. Please excuse my uneven nails, I had just had a break and hadn't evened everything out when I wore this combo. 

Lazy 15 Day 5- Galaxy nails featuring Finger Paints Plum Startled

Finger Paints Plum Startled galaxy nails, sunlight

Here is my version of galaxy nails, which started with a Finger Paints Plum Startled jelly sandwich with China Glaze Make a Spectacle.  It's largely inspired by Rebecca's purple nails at Rebecca Likes Nails, but it has a lot to do with laziness. I could not find my black nail polish and since I remembered how pretty Rebecca's purple galaxy nails had been, I just pulled out my Finger Paints Plum Startled instead.

Finger Paints Plum Startled galaxy nails,natural light lamp

Lazy 15 Day 1-Tape mani featuring Jordana LA City Nights

Tape manicure with Jordana LA City Nights glitter over Boy Oh Boy

Gah! Today is the first day of the Lazy Bloggers challenge and it's also the perfect example of why I don't participate in these kind of things. Anytime I try to do nail art for a particular occasion, I tend to fail spectacularly. This experience was unfortunately not an exception. I tried 2 failed manis that I had to take off before finally succeeding with this one. It's a bit more simple than what I originally planned, which is why I decided to kick it up a notch with a coat of Jordana LA City Nights.  LA City Nights is a really pretty mix of purple microglitter with turquoise glitter. I thought it fit really well with the purple of the square and the bluish color of the base. For this manicure, I started with Jordana Boy Oh Boy as teal base color and added Finger Paints Plum Startled after I taped off the squares. I topped it all off with Jordana LA City Nights. I love the colors in LA City Nights, I can't believe I haven't worn it before this. I definitely plan to change that very soon! I will definitely see you guys on Monday for the gradient mani in the challenge. I've learned from my mistakes and will start way ahead of time for that one. I may even head home and start it now, LOL!

Tape manicure with Jordana Boy Oh Boy and Finger Paints Plum Startled square

 Join me after the jump for a couple more pictures.

Impoverished by Paw-lish- New Kitty!

I'm so happy to finally be able to share some pictures of my new kitten with you guys. I got her back during my trip to Los Angeles at the beginning of July, but have been too busy to sit down and edit all the pics I have of my little Audrey. I named her after the nail polish, and also because I've always liked that name. :) Join me after the jump for a lot more pictures!

1/01/12 Weekly Blog Roundup: more flakies and lists!

-Several blogs have posted the press release for Zoya's Spring 2012 collection, which features 3 flakies! Scrangie has already posted some swatches.
-More bloggers have gotten their hands on the Finger Paints Special Effects collection, including myself. THe master of watermarbling, Colette at My Simple Little pleasures has posted a  video  which has each over black and one color complimentary color apiece.
-There were lots more favorite nail polish lists as the year drew to a close. Everyone did a different format.  Let them Have Polish had a top 10 for major and indie brands, plus and honorable mention post, Swatch and Learn did a top 10 for polishes, nail art, makeup, skincare and cosmetics. Rebecca and Kayla finished their lists, Imperfectly Painted did her top 20 in several separate posts and also had her readers weigh in,  and the The Polishaholic didn't specify exactly how many favorites she chose. 
-Meanwhile, the Manicure Addict and iPolished chose their favorite manicures of the year and Enamel Girl did both a top 11 and a favorite manicure list and The Polish Insomniac reviewed her 5 most visited posts of the year.
-I enjoyed reading all these lists immensely, but I'm sure I'm missing some of them. I'm just doing the best I can based on what I can remember/find best at this time. I"m actually planning to do an uber-lazy version of my top 10 later this week, as well.  
-A final reminder to visit Sally's to check out their clearance section. I visited a location near work on Saturday and found some stuff that my local one didn't have, still at 50% the red tag price. 

More of Finger Paints Asylum

I tried out Finger Paints Asylum over various colors on the nail wheel. After limited success with the two colors I did try it over initially, I did another mani with it:

1 coat Asylum over 2 coats Artist's Sapphire, both Finger Paints polishes

Join me after the jump to see pictures of Asylum over various other colors on a nail wheel.

Finger Paints Asylum-Flakie Flakiness

Finger Paints Ayslum over China Glaze Near Dark

After swatching Finger Paints Asylum over a variety of colors, I'm less than impressed. This pic is what I think is the most interesting, join me after the jump to see Asylum over more colors.

Edited to add: also, be sure to check out Asylum over several colors in a later post.

Curse you, Library! I.e., please vote for a flakie!

Which Finger Paints flakie would you like to see first?

-Motley(blue)

-Flecked(green)

-Tainted(purple with green and gold) 

-Asylum(purple with green and gold and more blue)

-combo of some kind

I'm pretty new at this blogging thing, so I have no idea how to do a real poll. Vote for a favorite in the comments.  (If you want a reference point for the colors, follow this link to the Nail Polish MD, who did all of them over black.)  Also, let me know what you think my base color(s) should be. Remember that flakies do better over darker colors. 

How did I end up with all these flakies? What other polishes did I get-for $2 or less?  How does the library figure into any of it? Find out after the break!

12/18/11-Weekly Blog Roundup-Flakies Edition!

So this was not the most eventful week for me as far as having multiple links to share, but it was an eventful one for flakies!

Finger Paints is coming out with a new collection called Special Effects, and several blogs have featured their press release. The collection is scheduled for release in January, but a couple of people got ahold of the polishes early and swatched them. They are The Nail Polish M.D.. and the Nail Phile.

Several blogs posted the recent press release about the China Glaze Hunger Games collection. There is a flakie in that collection as well! Anyone besides me thinking that flakies will be the next trend in nail polish? 

In non-flakie news, if you missed out on Wet n Wild's limited edition polish, Correction Tape, you're in luck. The new Spoiled collection from Wet n Wild features the same polish under the new name "Trust Fund Baby." You can see them for yourself on Polish Fixation, which has a swatch comparing the two.

Zoya Twila over Finger Paints Where Art Renoir?- I chose this manicure

a)     because I was inspired by an awesome layering experiment over at Swatch and Learn.

b)     because of stamping gone terribly wrong

c)     as a physical manifestation of my internal joy at finding Sally Girl cuticle oil again

d)     to show off my very first Zoya

e)     all of the above! 

Natural light

I just got the Zoya last night, and was itching to try it out. I love turquoise and liked the color I already had on my nails, so I used CND Stickey as a basecoat, 2 coats WAR?, 1 coat Twila and Seche Vite on the base, not on the full mani. There's tipwear because I had hastily applied Finger Paints Where Art Renoir? a few days ago.

Sunlight

Finger Paints Where Art Renoir? is a pretty cool color I found at Sally's. It was on sale at the time for $3.99. I had been looking for Orly Goth but this looked like a total dupe at a lower price. I love how the glitter adds sparkle and girliness to what could be a harsh black. As far as the Zoya goes, it's a clear base with turquoise micro and hair glitter. Turquoise is my all time favorite color, and glitter is one of my favorite types of polish, so it was only a matter of time before this beauty ended up in my collection.