Mermaid's Birthday nails! Island Girl Red Sun is a party in a bottle

Island Girl Red Sun over OPI Ink, natural light

Here's a look I sported on my nails recently. The layered dots on the accent finger really remind me of a mermaid's tail and the glitter makes me think of birthday confetti, so I called the look "Mermaid's Birthday."

 Red Sun is an awesome glitter polish from Island Girl brand. Island Girl is a polish brand that is found only in certain locations. As far as I know, Island Girl is only available in Hawaii and and Las Vegas.  I'm lucky that Esmeralda Pearlfinish's travels have taken her to both places. It's only because of Esme that I own any Island Girl polishes at all. Check out more pictures of this unique polish after the jump!

China Glaze Whirled Away over a bright purple

China Glaze Whirled Away over Island Girl Aloha Luau,
 sunlight

It appears China Glaze has been paying attention to the surge in popularity of indie polishes in the last year. The proof: its new glitter from the Cirque Du Soleil collection. Whirled Away is a combination of large black hex glitter, black bar glitter and huge white hex glitters in a clear base. It should sound familiar, since a series of black and white glitters has been around for months from different indie vendors. For a comparison of a bunch of these type of black and white glitters, check out this incredibly thorough post at Chalkboard Nails.

I knew I wanted to layer Whirled Away over a bright color, and I ended up going with one of my favorite new polishes of late. Island Girl Aloha Luau is a bright, nearly neon purple with a silver shimmer. It’s super vivid and saturated, the perfect backdrop for the simple colors of Whirled Away. Join me after the jump to find out what I thought of the glitter, plus a few more pictures.

Lazy 15 Day 2- Half Moon gradient with Pacific Blue

Half moon gradient featuring Sally Hansen Pacific Blue and Island Girl Aloha Luau

Calling all nail detectives! If you know the originator of this design, I'd love more information about it. All I know is that someone on the Makeup Alley nail board posted a picture of a mani like this, and I loved it so much that I knew I had to recreate it. Here's the original picture that I saw, it's from Pinkie G on Beautylish.  (Thank you to Jennifer Q for helping me find the original post. This is what I get for using the image search option on Google Images instead of entering key descriptive words.)

I chose 2 of my favorite polishes for the look, Island Girl Aloha Luau and Sally Hansen Pacific Blue.  Island Girl Aloha Luau in an amazing purple, it's almost a purple neon with a bit of a shimmer. I first learned about it when I saw this beautiful gradient with it from Canvas Nails.  I actually put in a special request to Esmeralda Pearlfinish for her to pick it up when she visited Hawaii recently.  Sally Hansen Pacific Blue is another amazing color, one that is much more readily available than the Island Girl. Pacific Blue is available at drugstores everywhere as part of the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear line. Pacific Blue is a gorgeous bright periwinkle blue, I can't express how much I adore it! In combination with the amazing Aloha Luau, it's one stunning manicure!

Join me after the jump for more pictures and a quick description of the technique involved.

Island Girl Surfer Babe with Cover Girl Fireworks glitter

I was in the mood for some green the other day, so I decided to try out one of my untrieds. I hadn't used it in part because its matte finish had put me off it. I figured adding Cover Girl Fireworks would give it that extra shine and sparkle it needed, so I combined both.  Find out what I thought of this combo after the jump.