Sookie St. James over Red

Hello lovely readers! Today I have a special layering combination for you. My first KelBel Cosmetics customer, Jason, had let me know that he layered over Sookie St. James over red and that the combination looked great. Since Sookie St. James is an orange polish, the combination would not have crossed my mind. I was intrigued and decided to finally try it myself.

For the base red, I decided to use China Glaze Poinsettia. I used two coats, which applied very well. After applying Seche Vite and waiting for it to dry, I applied two coats of Sookie St. James and another coat of Seche Vite. 

Let me just say, I absolutely love this combination! Sookie St. James covers well enough that you can't see much of the red base coat, but something about these two together just makes the color pop. I was just doing it as a swatch, so I only polished one hand and I did not want to take it off! It's probably one of my favorite layering manicures ever. Thanks Jason!

Sookie St. James is available in my Etsy shop, KelBel Cosmetics in both mini and full size. This polish is limited edition, so be sure to pick it up while it's still available if you want it!

What do you think of this combination? Is there anything else you'd like to see Sookie St. James layered over?

Capitol Colours: Fast Track

The much anticipated Capitol Colours collection from China Glaze (aka the Hunger Games collection) has finally arrived! My order from SallyBeauty.com arrived on Wednesday and I had to try at least one as soon as possible. It was a tough decision because I wanted to wear them all at once!

Unfortunately, I couldn't do that because our Board of Trustees was in town. I needed something subtle, but not boring, so I went with Fast Track. It's a gorgeous beige with golden shimmer. This polish is packed with shimmer. At first the color seemed a little underwhelming, but after wearing it for two days, I am in love with this color.

I used Orly Bonder for the base coat and two coats of Fast Track. Depending on your preference for opacity, Fast Track could possibly use three coats. I topped it off with Seche Vite, as usual. China Glaze did not disappoint on the formula with this one and I can't wait to try the other Capitol Colours that I picked up. 

The Capitol Colours collection is available now. I got my haul from Sally Beauty, but some other websites have them as well. It goes without saying that I'll have to choose one to wear when I actually go to the see The Hunger Games.

Once again, have you picked up any of the Capitol Colours? If not, what are you waiting for?! 

Leap Day Hunger Games Haul

Happy Leap Day everyone! Leap Day holds a special place in my heart. I met my husband on Leap Day four years ago. We were both at a party and the rest, they say, is history.

But enough of my sappy love story. In addition to today being personally special, my Sally Beauty order of the China Glaze Hunger Games polish finally arrived! Here's my haul!

I also ordered Orly Bonder base coat since I've heard some great things about it. The Hunger Games polish I ordered came in these three pack boxes. 

I didn't get all of the Hunger Games collection, although now I'm kind of regretting not getting Agro. From left to right they are: Fast Track, Harvest Moon, Riveting, Luxe and Lush, Smoke and Ashes, and Stone Cold. They are all gorgeous! I've been waiting for this collection for months and it's great to finally own most of it.

Fast Track, Harvest Moon, Riveting

Stone Cold, Luxe and Lush, Smoke and Ashes

After getting to see these in person, I think I'm most excited about Smoke and Ashes. In the bottle, it has this surprising blue green shimmer to it. I can't wait to wear it. I'm currently wearing Fast Track and a review will be coming soon! I may have to pick up the rest of the collection if I get to a Sally Beauty anytime soon.

Does Leap Day have special meaning for you? Have you picked up any of the Hunger Games collection? Which are your favorite? Let me know in the comments section! 

My Funny Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone has enjoyed their day. I always like to think that Valentine's Day isn't just for couples. It's a day to spend with whomever you love, no matter if it's a significant other, family member, or friend. While I understand why many people dislike the holiday, it's a nice day to fill with love.

Anyways, today I have a Valentine's themed mani. I didn't have time to do any nail art, but I like my results none the less.

These are the two polishes I used for my Valentine's Day layering. On the left is China Glaze Princess Grace and Wet n Wild Sparked.  I had a few different combinations of Sparked (pink and silver glitter) on a nail wheel and actually let the hubby decide which he liked best. I was surprised that he picked this one, I was sure it would be Sparked over China Glaze Liquid Leather (which looks awesome by the way).

I used two coats of each polish. Princess Grace is the perfect light pink and applied very nicely. If I were wearing it on it's own, I probably would use three coats, but for layering two is perfect. Sparked also applied well for a glitter polish and provided good coverage in two coats as well. I think the combination is perfect for Valentine's Day. It's subtle, but not too subtle. I love it so much I'll probably keep it on all week. It's already been three days and no chips!

I hope you all enjoyed my Valentine's Day layering!

What did you wear on your nails for Valentine's Day? Did you have any special plans? Anyone out there get engaged? Let me know in the comments section!

Let's Go Giants! A Super Bowl Mani

Last week I decided to do a NY Giants themed manicure in honor of the Giants facing off against the Patriots in this year's Super Bowl. It turned out to be a busy week, so I didn't have time to go all out with the design. I ended up keeping it to a simple color scheme using Essie Aruba Blue and China Glaze Poinsettia.

I added the football using Picnik just for fun. 

Aruba Blue is basically the perfect Giants blue. It's also probably my favorite blue nail polish that I own. It's so bright and perfect. I used 2-3 coats of Aruba Blue for this one.

China Glaze Poinsettia likes to photograph more on the orange-red side, but it is a pretty red in person and went well with the Giants theme. I used 2 coats of Poinsettia.

I had some wear from cleaning before our guests arrived. 

Now I did this before the actual Super Bowl, so little did I know that the Giants would actually beat the Patriots! It really was a great game and came down to the last 57 seconds to determine the winner. 

We had some friends over to watch the game, ordered some pizza and wings, and just enjoyed the spectacle that is the Super Bowl. The commercials were entertaining, half time was a circus, and the game was (literally) a nail biter. I was doing so well on my nails lately, but that game just destroyed them. I'm now down to little nubs, which makes me sad, but I am very excited the Giants won! 

I hope you like my Giants mani, even if you don't like the Giants. Did you do a football themed mani this year? Did you watch the Super Bowl? What was your favorite part? 

Let me know in the comments section! Thanks for reading! 

Lorelei's (Blue) Tiara

I doubt anyone has been keeping track, but I'm up to untrieds #8 and 9. Although I can't say that's great progress because my resolution completely went out the window and I've purchased even more nail polish lately. Sales are my weakness and that's what's gotten me. But I am resolving to do a no buy right now. Let's just see how long that lasts.

For this manicure I decided to do some layering. My base color was two coats of China Glaze Blue Year's Eve from my Christmas haul. Blue Year's Eve is a shimmery royal blue that I would classify as a jelly from the Let It Snow collection. I was really excited about this polish because I love the color blue, but ended up being a bit disappointed with the formula. In all fairness, Time Traveler was a tough act to follow. I found Blue Year's Eve to be a bit watery and definitely needs 2-3 coats if you want to wear it alone. Luckily I was covering up my two coats.

Next I layered one coat of China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara over Blue Year's Eve. Lorelei's Tiara is a glitter polish made up of small silver and light blue hexagon glitters from the Eye Candy collection. I also got this one for Christmas and I love the combination. I also can't help that it reminds me Lorelai from my favorite show, Gilmore Girls, so it automatically has an edge over other polishes. I thought I would need 2 coats of LT, but there is sooo much glitter in there. I'm pretty sure that Lorelei's Tiara could be opaque on it's own without any layering. 

I couldn't just stop there. On my ring fingers as an accent, I added one coat of OPI DS Coronation. The difference of my ring fingers to the rest of my nails is very subtle and didn't work as well as I would have liked. 

I'm not going to include DS Coronation as an untried just yet, because I think I need to give it it's own post. I finished off everything with a coat of Seche Vite and the glitter has smoothed out nicely. 

Layering with Blue Year's Eve

Layering with Lorelei's Tiara

I still can't help staring at this combo. It's glitter packed, but also has a wintry feel to it. Perfect for this time of year. Despite my minor troubles with Blue Year's Eve, I'm still a fan of these two China Glaze polishes. 

 

What do you think about this layering combination? Do you own both of these polishes too? Let me know in the comments section!

New Year's Resolution

I don't normally do New Year's resolutions, but for the sake of my bank account, I needed at least one this year. Don't worry, it's not a "I will go to the gym", "I will quit smoking" (mostly because I don't smoke), kind of resolution. It's nail polish related and that's why I'm posting it here.

My New Year's resolution for 2012 is to not buy a new nail polish until I have tried all my "untrieds" at least once. I know, I know, I can hear the gasps from all the terrified Polish Addicts out there. How could I?! Why would I torture myself like that? But as I said, my wallet needs a break and I'm also running out of room for all of my nail related supplies. I've purchased and received a lot of polish over the last 3 months (by my standards) and the majority of them have been sitting neglected around my house.

Now this isn't to say that I can't buy other fun supplies such as micas and bases, but already made nail polish will be a no-no.

Hopefully I can resist picking up anything new for a while. Although resisting the OPI Nicki Minaj and China Glaze Hunger Games 2012 collections will be difficult if it comes to that. Let's hope it doesn't! I have a lot of nail polish to wear before then! (I counted and put all my untrieds in one place and I only have 16. That's not bad, right?)

Do you have any nail polish related resolutions for 2012? Or any other resolutions for that matter? Let me know in the comments section!

Sally Beauty Supply Post-Christmas Haul

I guess you can call this my part two of my Christmas present/gift to myself segment for this year. Pretty much every store had some type of sale on December 26th and Sally Beauty Supply was no exception. I was armed with a $5 off $25 coupon and the hopes of clearance items up to 70% off. Upon arriving in Sally, I noticed that the polish on sale were from the China Glaze Let it Snow Collection and Color Club as well.

Above is my nail polish haul. Not including the giant bag of cotton balls, some Pure Acetone, Nail Polish Thinner and Seche base coat that I picked up too. I got everything for under $35! (Singing up for a Beauty Club membership for $5 was basically free because of my coupon.)

Starting from the left is China Glaze's Liquid Leather. Before picking it up, I didn't own a black other than my Kiss Nail Art polish. I've seen lots of great nail art using Liquid Leather and figured it would be a great core color to add to my collection. Plus, black polish is great for a base under all the glitter polishes I now own.

Next was China Glaze Poinsettia from the Let it Snow collection which was on sale for $3.29! All of the polishes from this collection were on sale for that price and I couldn't resist picking up Holly-Day and Champagne Bubbles as well. 

I also picked up Orna-Minted by Color Club for $3.99. It's a silver glitter-fest that looks so unique. The glitter almost looks like it's bent. 

I think I did pretty well on my Sally Beauty haul. I won't spam you all with bottle pictures because the China Glaze holiday colors have already been praised enough. 

Did anyone else take advantage of the day-after-Christmas sales? If you haven't, check out www.sallybeauty.com to see what's left on sale! 

Merry Christmas Haul!

Santa and his elves were very good to me this year. I received a lot of great presents that were non-nail related including a Keurig and a Soda Stream (I love my beverages). But of course I also received a good amount of nail related presents. Among them was a glass nail file, which I really needed. I lost my old one somewhere in my last apartment. I also got my much wanted Bundle Monster nail stamping plates, some Konad stamping accessories, a Bundle monster brush & dotting tool set and some glitter and pigments. My husband sure did spoil me and I felt like a kid on Christmas.

I took a few pictures of the polishes that I got because I'm so excited to use them all!

First up are the two Sinful Colors polishes I got. On the left is Fiji and on the right is Frenzy. I think they will be a great layering duo. My mother-in-law has great taste! I actually didn't ask for any specific colors for Christmas, just nail polish in general and I'm very pleased with the results. I did specifically ask for the Seche Vite Dry Fast Top coat, which I got and also can't wait to use.

Among my presents were these adorable Christmas themed decals by cina. I forgot to take pictures of my purple and white cina nail art pens, but you get the idea. I may have to save these decals for next year. I'm already onto the New Year's mani!

Christmas also made me the proud owner of a few bottles of China Glaze. I'm excited to see for myself how great China Glaze is. The first color up is Princess Grace. I think it will be a great base for nail art. 

My sister-in-law apparently also knows me very well and gave me For Audrey. I've been wanting this color for a while, but with Christmas coming up didn't have the heart to buy it for myself. I love this new addition!

So pretty together!

Finally, the last two are Lorelai's Tiara (left) and Blue Year's Eve (right). Lorelai's Tiara is from the China Glaze Eye Candy collection and is oh-so pretty. Blue Year's Eve is from the Let it Snow collection. Again, so excited to try both of these. All of the polish and nail art supplies I got for Christmas will keep me busy for months, not to mention the shopping spree I went on today at Sally Beauty Supply (but more about that another day). 

Lastly, I got some awesome Franken bottles or Franken Juggs as they're called. They're sold here on Amazon by ManGlaze and I think they will be great for frankening. I may even have to pick up some of their polishes one of these days. 

So what did you all get for Christmas? Did you get lots of polish goodies? Merry Christmas!

Districtly Speaking: The Hunger Games Collection

Yesterday I was catching up on some of my favorite blogs and came across some very exciting news on All Lacquered Up. Well, it’s exciting news if you’re a fan of The Hunger Games trilogy of books and looking forward to the release of the first movie in March 2012. I myself am a fan and cannot wait until the movie. Although I hope the movie can do the books justice and it must be at PG-13 movie, at least, none of this PG stuff. But that's a post for another blog.

Along with the movie, nail polish enthusiasts will be able to purchase a collection by China Glaze that is inspired by the characters and events of the books. You can read the post and see the first preview of the colors here!

I am very excited about this collection and have a feeling that I’ll have to splurge in March to buy the Hunger Games China Glaze collection, or as much of it as I can. I think that it will be very hard to find given their popularity, but I’ll try my best.

My favorites so far from the one picture I have seen are Primrose, Catnip, Cinna-mon, Fire in Flight, and Flaming Gems. Okay, they all look amazing, but I think those will be first on my list to pick up and then share the swatches with all of you!

Inspired by the news, I even took a picture of my Hunger Games trilogy. The books are just so pretty.

Who else is excited about the movie and the nail polish collection?