Facets of Fuchsia

I'm in love and SO thankful that a wonderful friend sent this polish to me from back home in the States!!!  As we all know, it's a dead on dupe of Deborah Lippmann's, "Bad Romance" but without the hefty price tag.  For those of us who longed for our very own "Bad Romance" but didn't want to shell out the $22 bucks for it, well.... now we can have it thanks to Revlon!  I'm so excited and happy to finally have this on my fingertips.  <<Squeal!>> 

Halloween "Sponge" Manicure

This was my first attempt at a sponge manicure.  Not bad.... but I think I need a bit more practice.

Polishes used:

Revlon - Clear
OPI - Atomic Orange
China Glaze - Grape Pop
Nicole by OPI - Razzle Dazzler
Sephora by OPI - Traffic Stopper Copper

Halloween Nails!

Nails - (China Glaze) Fairy Dust

Tips and Design - (Nicole by OPI) Razzle Dazzler (IP) BM13 and m28

Chinchilli

Nails - (Essie) Chinchilli

Design - (KSP) Black and White (IP) BM06

CG in the City over Bogie

A wonderful friend of mine sent this to me (and she didn’t even know that it was on my wish list.... Bonus!)  It’s lovely.  I couldn’t wait to try it out.  The glitter is in a clear base which made it difficult to achieve the bottle color.  Even after 4 coats it was still very transparent.  So, I went through my stash and found that “Bogie” (From last year’s fall collection by China Glaze) was in the same color family.  I applied one coat of Bogie and two coats of CG in the City and Viola!  Bottle color.  L.O.V.E. 

Thank you!

Thank you, http://supercutesupereasy.blogspot.com/ for this lovely award!

NOTD

China Glaze - Agent Lavender

Show it and Glow it - Funky French

Nails - (OPI) Show it and Glow it
Tips - (OPI) Pueblo Plum

For Audrey

Nails - (China Glaze) For Audrey
Design - (KSP) White (IP) BM224

Color Club - Broken Tokens

Spa Ritual - Drop Dead Gorgeous

Color Club - Broken Tokens

Navy Shatter

(Essie)  Splash of Grenadine
(OPI)  Teenage Dream
(OPI)  Navy Shatter

White Shatter

(China Glaze) Cheers to you
(OPI) White Shatter

For some reason, I am not able to post responses to your comments.  There is some sort of glitch keeping me from doing so.  It’s been going on for a while now and I’m not sure what the problem is.  I’m not ignoring you and LOVE reading all of your comments.  Hopefully this problem is resolved soon!  Thank you all for following my blog and supporting “Ditch the Mittens.”

4th of July Mani

Red - (China Glaze) Phat Santa

Blue - (China Glaze) Bermuda Breakaway
Glitter - (China Glaze) Shooting Stars

White/Design - (KSP) White (IP) BM20 and 21

Canada Day Mani

Nails - (Wet n Wild) Prancer

Tips - (China Glaze) Phat Santa

Electric Pineapple

Nails - (China Glaze) Electric Pineapple

Design - (Avon Mirror Shine) Blaze (IP) BM 205

Miley

Nails - (Zoya) Miley

Tips - (China Glaze) White Out

Design - (KSP) Violet Pearl (IP) m36

Comparison - Simply Smashing and Gleek Out.

Here is a comparison that I did a while ago...  Sephora by OPI - Gleek Out (from the Glee Collection) and OPI - Simply Smashing (from the Serena Williams Collection).  Close, but not dupes!  Can I justify having both?  You know I can!  Gleek Out leans more green while Simply Smashing has a bit more yellow to it.  Reminds me of a sparkly tennis ball!  But, then again, I’m sure that’s what Serena was going for.  Love them both!
(Remember... pix are clickable to view them larger.)

Frenzy!

Nails - (Sinful Colors) Frenzy
Tips - (China Glaze) Grape Pop

Glee Season Finale!

Tonight is the Season Finale of Glee... So, I did a mani for the occasion.

The black polish that I used for the music notes smeared when I put the top coat on.  Grrrr.... but, I wasn’t about to take it all off and do it again!  It’s not too noticeable in real life but, you can see it when it's zoomed in.  (sigh).

Nails - (Revlon) Clear

Tips - Pink (Sephora by OPI - Glee Collection) Miss Bossy Pants

          Blue (Sephora by OPI - Glee Collection) Sue vs. Shue

Design - (KSP) Black (IP) m73

Gorgeous

Nails - (Sinful Colors) Gorgeous

Design - (KSP) Pastel Green (IP) M63

What a disappointment...

On a recent trip out to civilization I was so happy to find a bottle of Guy meets Gal-Veston by OPI.  It had been on my wish list since I first saw swatches of it on the blogs.  As you can probably guess, it’s not easy to get nail polish up here in the arctic, so when I saw one lonely bottle of GMGV on the Spa shelf, I gladly forked over the 12 dollars that they were asking for it and went on my merry way.  The entire week that I was on holiday, I couldn’t wait to use it and see what the new "sorbet" finish was all about.  Once I got home and pulled it out I was immediately let down.  It applied smoothly, but it looked like tinted water.  After 4 coats I still had a terrible visable nail line.  So, I ended up taking it off and starting again.  I layered it over another polish that I had of the same shade (Avon Mambo Melon).  As I was layering it I thought to myself, “how stupid is this?  Layering one color of the same shade over another.  Did I really pay 12 dollars for this?  Sigh...”     

So, here it is... layered.  Such a disappointment, OPI.     

Happy Mother's Day!

Nails - (Sephora by OPI) Call Your Mother

Design - (KSP) White (IP) BM 16

Yesterday's Mani

OPI - The Show Must Go On
OPI -  Black Shatter

Splash of Grenadine

Nails - (Essie) Splash of Grenadine

Design - (KSP) White (IP) BM16

Austin-Tatious Turquoise

I was really "wow-ed" by this color!  When I first saw swatches and promo pictures, I wasn't too interested in it.  But, thankfully a good friend sent a bottle to me and I'm SO glad that she did.  I LOVE this color!  I would have missed out on its awesomeness had she not surprised me with it. 

Nails - (OPI) Austin-Tatious Turquoise

Design - (KSP) Black (IP) m69

Here it is before I added the nail art.  Look how it glows!

Playing with Katy Part 3

Originally I had two pictures of this mani.  One with the OPI mini bottle of “Last Friday Night” and the picture you see below with Sally Hansen “Pacific Blue.”  But,  I deleted the OPI pic thinking that I had a copy of it in my Blog Folder of Pictures.  Guess I should have double checked that folder before emptying my recycle bin!  Grrrrrr.  Lesson learned.   Anyway, it’s the mani that counts, not the bottle you’re holding. 

I really like "Last Friday Night" but I wouldn’t wear it alone.  It would take WAY too many coats which would equal a total nightmare come removal time.   This is just one coat on top of the Sally Hansen on my ring finger. 

Nails - (Sally Hansen) Pacific Blue

            (OPI) Last Friday Night

Design - (KSP) White (IP) m60,63,79

Playing with Katy Part 2

Not like the Movies -

This is my favorite color of the collection.  If I were to purchase any of the Katy Perry colors in a full size bottle, this would be the one.  I love the interesting duo chrome of purple and gray and the fact that nothing in my collection comes close to it. 

The One That Got Away -

This is my least favorite of the collection.  I wasn’t impressed by it at all.  It’s not a bad color, but it doesn’t seem terribly unique.  It reminded me a lot of "Let Me Entertain You" which was part of the Burlesque collection that was released just prior to this one.  In my opinion, "Let Me Entertain You" is WAY better! 

Playing with Katy

Recently, I got the mini set of 4 Katy Perry collection by OPI.  While I’m not a Katy Perry fan, the colors intrigued me.  First up is "Teenage Dream."  I used it as an accent on my ring finger on top of "Taupe Drawer" by Pure Ice.

.

I Absolutely Love it!

This is a recent NOTD - Absolutely Alice by OPI.  LOVE.

Banana Bandanna

This is a mani that I did last year.  It's the same design as my previous post, but with different colors. 

Nails - (OPI) Banana Bandanna
Design - (Petites) Pink Crush (IP) m64

Vintage Blue

Nails - (Avon) Vintage Blue

Design - (Princess Polish) Chic Blue (IP) m64

Think Spring!

While most of the world is enjoying the first signs of spring, here in the Arctic it’s still white and <freezing> cold (and it’s gonna stay that way until JUNE... Ugh).  At least I can enjoy a little bit of spring on my nails, right? 

Nails - (Spa Ritual) Emerald City

Design - Nail Stickers

This color is a lot like “Four Leaf Clover” from China Glaze as it doesn’t photograph true to color.  It’s one of those greens that turns blue on camera. 

St. Patty's Day

I did this mani back at Christmas time, but after taking the picture I realized that it looked more like St. Patrick’s Day than Christmas.  So, I filed the pic and saved it for now.  Enjoy!

Nails - (China Glaze) Mistletoe Kisses

Tips - (China Glaze) Jolly Holly

Shorty Swatches - Thank you Natalie!

The left hand is back!  My crooked nail grew out.  Yippee!  And way faster than I had anticipated.  <Smile>  I'm growing a bit bored with "Shorty Swatches" and my plain nails.  I can't wait to start doing nail art again!  Hopefully, this will be the last of the Shorty Swatches for a while.

Natalie from http://onbeautyandpolish.blogspot.com/ sent me the following polishes (and also the coveted wet-n-wild, Prancer) a few months ago.  I’m really enjoying them all!!!  She’s such a sweetie.  Go and check out her blog!   

Snowman Polish - Neon Green (Semi Holo)

This is a Franken that Natalie made.  Nice!

Shorty Swatches - Pink

Avon - Cotton Candy

China Glaze - Preppy Pink

(This is SO not my shade!)

Shorty Swatches

Nubar - Gem

Nubar - Gem

OPI - Black Shatter

Shorty Swatches - Holos and Shatter

Ulta - Material Girl

China Glaze - Kaleidoscope Him Out

China Glaze - Kaleidoscope Him Out

OPI - Black Shatter

Shorty Swatches - "Reds"

Essie - Masquerade Belle

I love vampy colors on short nails.  This may not classify as a "red" but, close enough!

OPI - My Kind of Brown

I ask, what is "Brown" about this color?  Sometimes I wonder who makes up these names!

Spa Ritual - Spellbound

I think it's safe to say that this is Ruby Pumps twin.

Adding insult to injury

To add insult to injury, the side of my index nail (that I glued) became brittle and ended up breaking off.  So now, not only do I have an extremely short finger nail, I also have a crooked one.  Sigh...

While I’m waiting for my crooked index nail to grow out, (which is probably going to take a few weeks) I will be using my right hand for pictures and keeping the rest of my nails short.  And since I probably won’t be doing any nail art for a while, I figured that I would start something new:  “Shorty Swatches” using random polishes that I have in my “unworn/untried” box.  Here is the first instalment.  Hope you enjoy!  

Nox Twilight - Disco Darling

China Glaze - Grape Juice