NPC Day 7: Drugstore Untried

Hello polish lovers!

Today's prompt in the challenge is using a drugstore untried.  I decided to use three.  I started with a base of 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Coin Flip, a copper foil finish.

I am trying a new position so that I can show more polish detail.  Also you will notice this is my swatching hand again.  My broken middle finger nail has, although still broken, and held together with Super Glue, grown out enough that I cut down the other nails so they are almost the same length.  That weird bit on the side is the glue holding the split together,  I need to file it down more.

Once Coin Flip had completely dried I got out the Scotch tape and cut triangles to section off the nail.  The triangles that remained I filled with Mint Sorbet, a minty green creme, and Strobe Light, a pink and holographic micro glitter.

Strobe Light is not really showing well, except as the flash of sparkle.  Next time I will definitely use it with a creme to make it stand out more.  I was really impressed with the formulas on all the polishes used.  They were all Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear.  I am usually impressed with the Sally Hansen brand.  I can't believe I left them untried for so long.

That is all for today but I will be back on Wednesday with my Day 8, Boutique Untried...I really shouldn't have any but have more than I thought.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC Day 2: Pastel

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Pastel mani from the Never-ending Pile Challenge.  I was originally going to to a more intricate design with a gradient of three colours and then my stamping with a fourth but I ended up running out of time and did not wait long enough before the sponging and it removed my white base in spots.  There is nothing to do in this situation except start over, and since we were going to see the new Captain America after dinner, I did not have enough time.  So here is my simplified mani using 2 untrieds from the Formula X line.

I started with a base of 2 coats of Unmistakable, a pastel green-blue(looks more green IRL).

This is a very pretty polish and would not be untried except for the fact that the first time I tried the Formula X line the polish began chipping almost immediately so I avoided it.  This time I did not use a base coat and it adhered to my nail much better.  I will have to experiment with my base coats because I hate not using them, that last thing I want is stained nails.

Once this was dry I added my stamping, using another untried, Formula X Brazen, a pastel blue-toned pink.  If I did this again I would use a brighter polish for the stamping because the tones for Unmistakable and Brazen were too similar and the stamping did not show up as clearly as I like.  The plate is MoYou London Pro Collection 02.

You can see a slight difference in colour in the 2 photo's as one was taken using natural light and the second is in my light box.  The first is more colour accurate.

First ever close up, but I wanted you to see the prettiness of the flowers.

That is all for today, but I will be back on Friday...probably late...with the Day 3 prompt of Random Untried...I have no idea what that will be yet.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 27: Pointillism

Hello polish lovers!

Last post of the night, and the shortest, because I am tired and fighting a bad headache.

For the Pointillism prompt I decided, of course, to use my dotting tools.  I did not want to do anything representative, and so went to the basics and did overlapping dots.

I started with a base of 2 coats of Barry M Papaya(can you tell I want summer to come already?).

I then used a small dotting tool and SHID Lightening to dot all over my nails.

I repeated with SHID Lickety-Split Lime leaving an area bare.

And again with SHID Mint Sprint, moving out slightly again.

And lastly with Barielle Shades Girls Night Out, moving out again.

I then topped with SV(because I learned my lesson last time).

That is all for today(finally).

I will be back tomorrow with my final installment of this challenge, Art Nouveau.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 14: Sweets

Hello polish lovers!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Today marks the half way point in this challenge, Yay!

Today's prompt is Sweets, very appropriate for the date.  So I decided to create Valentine Message nails.

Dreaded thumb shot.  So from pinkie down through the nails the colours used are: Barielle Shades Joytini, LimeCrime Once in a Blue Mousse, Orly Mint Mojito, OPI Pink Friday, and LimeCrime Crema de Lemon.  This is 2 coats of each polish except for Joytini, which needed 3.

Once this dried, I again reached for the Revlon Parfumarie in Bordeaux(so good for Valentine's stamping) and BM425 for my text.

Even though these are pretty simple, I received numerous compliments on these nails while I was at work.  Sometimes simple is good.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my next prompt, Round and Square.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

33DC Day 24: Colour I Own the Most Of

Hello polish lovers!

So as I wrote on Wednesday I finally figured out a way to fix my photo compression on Blogger!  Unfortunately, the only way that I was able to do this was to switch to a Google+ account:(  So from now one any replies to comments will be with my name, Sandra Barry, and not Petite & Polish because Google will not allow me to change my name to the blog name.  The upside is that my photos will again look the high quality, colour accurate(as much as my camera will allow) and none fuzzy!

And now, on to the Challenge.  For day 24 we were to create a mani using the colour of polish we have the most of.  For me it really is a toss up between green and blue, so I decided to use both.  I started with a base of 2 coats of Barry M's Turquoise, which is really more bright blue, it has very little green in the formula.

I topped this with SV and once it was dry I added a gradient of Turquoise and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength  in Garter Toss, which is, I think, an even lighter mint green then Essie's Mint Candy Apple, I may have to do a comparison of my mints, that would be fun.

Again, I added SV and let dry before I began my stamping.  For my stamping I used Klean Color Metallic Jungle(don't ask me why it is jungle when it is blue, it should be Metallic Ocean!) and GALS GA33 plate for the image.

I really like how well all the Klean Color Metallics stamp and I would love to get more of them, since the only ones I have are a mini set I found at Winners(win for me!).  I thought the metallic added a bit of shine and sparkle to an otherwise creme mani.

That is all for now but I will be back on Sunday with my next Falling for Nail Art mani, the theme is Baked Goods, and I didn't stamp!  Although I do have an apple pie image and a doughnut image!  I restrained myself and the next mani if freehand.

Until then, polish happy!

Crisp Colour and Stamping

Hello, polish lovers!

Today I want to share with you the mani that I am currently rockin'(not literally rockin' because I am feeling pretty laid back, but metaphorically rockin' because they are awesome and I am totally in love with them).  I started with a base of 2 coats of Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine polish in Greenberry.  I totally fell in love with this polish!  It was pretty much a 1 coat-er but, as I have said before, I am a habitual 2 coat-er.  Greenberry is a bright, fresh, almost neon green with a hint of blue that is really unique. (Sorry I didn't take a photo before I did the stamping but I did wear this alone for a day before I stamped over top)

The stamp is Pueen plate 45 from the Love set.  I stamped using Konad Special Black and I love how crisp the stamping turned out.  As usual I topped with SV.

Tomorrow I will probably be changing my polish again, its also Canadian Thanksgiving so we will be having lots of turkey and pie(mmmmm...pie).  I do have an apple pie stamp but I think that may be going too far.

I will be back tomorrow with my post for the next day of the Falling for Nail Art Challenge, which is Cloudy Skies.

Until then, polish happy!

Crumpet's DC33 Day 1: Dots

Good morning fellow polish lovers!

Today I have the first mani from The Crumpet's 33 Day Challenge for you, and it is dots!  One of the first mani's that I ever did once I got interested in nail polish was a dotticure so I am really happy that the first challenge is the same.

China Glaze VIII, Nubar Lemon Sherbert, China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint, natural light

I started with my dotticure with 2 easy coats of China Glaze VIII(which I found on the clearance table at Sally's and did a little dance).  I absolutely love this colour!  It is such a dark aubergine that in some lights it looks dark, but more sophisticated.  To contrast with the lovely darkness I added a random pattern of Nubar's Lemon Sherbert and China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint, two pastels that I probably wouldn't have used without the darkness of the base to offset them. As usual this is topped with a coat of SV.

Between this challenge and the #fallingfornailart challenge that I started yesterday I am going to be trying to post Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, lets hope work doesn't get in the way too much.  I am a few weeks ahead in the execution of the mani's so I just need to edit and compose my posts.

Until Wednesday, polish happy!

Lucky 13 Lacquer, No Power in the 'Verse Can Stop Me, swatches and review

Told you I would be back, fellow polish lovers!

I have a really special treat today.  When I was in uni one of my roommates, Laura, made me watch this little sci-fi fantasy show that wasn't even on for one full season.  That show was Firefly and quickly became one of my favourite shows(I cannot tell you how many times I have re-watched the DVD's and Serenity), along with Veronica Mars and Doctor Who, two others I attribute my fandom to Laura.  Firefly also was the beginning of my love of  Nathan Fillion, which will never die and continues in my love of Castle, but that is another post for another day.

Today I am talking about Firefly and a polish inspired by River Tam, one of my favourite characters from the show, played by Summer Glau.  No Power in the 'Verse Can Stop Me is from Lucky 13 Lacquer's Ballad of Serenity collection and can be found here.  I was lucky enough to pick this up during her 15% off lady inspired lacquers sale that she had in August(look forward to future posts featuring Bad Wolf and Golden Snitch).

No Power in the 'Verse Can Stop Me, two coats, one coat Seche Vite, artificial light

Love, love, love, love, love this polish!  So gorgeous! So much depth! So much sparkle! my camera really couldn't handle the sparkle.  The above is two coats only, the polish is thick, but workable, no problem getting the glitter out or distributed on the nail. It's a minty green shimmer base with with tiny silver and fuchsia glitter with larger silver and iridescent fuchsia hex glitters.  This polish is awesome!  It wore like iron on me and I wore it for FOUR days!  FOUR DAYS!  I don't wear any polish for four days! Usually by the second day one nail(usually my wonky thumb nail)has chipped and its all over, but not this polish.

No Power in the 'Verse Can Stop Me, two coats, two coats SV, sunlight

This polish was also a lot smoother than I was expecting, most glitters that I am used to are so rough you can't even think about top coating them without specialty top coats, which I do not have.  This polish did slightly eat the first coat of SV, but not nearly as bad as I was expecting, and the second coat stayed very smooth and shiny.

No Power in the 'Verse Can Stop Me, bottle shot

I couldn't leave you without a shot of the bottle and all of its gorgeousness.  I really cannot wait to try Golden Snitch and see if the wear time is comparable for me.  Please remember that having a polish last for four days is something that is pretty much unheard of on my nails so someone else's wear time could be much longer than mine was.

Until next time, polish happy!