Hunger Games Mani

Hey guys, I know a lot of you have been wondering why I haven't made any posts, part of that reason is that I got really lazy as far as blogging is concerned and also my computer has just been nuts lately.  Now while I haven't posted on this blog I have been putting some of my swatches up on Pinterest and on Instagram (larsoncarter).  Onto the mani!!!!

This is my first attempt at nail art and I think for a newbie its pretty good (and it only took 1 1/2 hours!).  I did this before seeing the Hunger Games with some of my friends (GREEAT GREEEEEEEEEEAT MOVIE! BUT YOU *MUST* READ THE BOOKS FIRST.  THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!!!!!).  It's a base of China Glaze 'Smoke and Ashes' (one of the most beautiful colors my eyeballs have had the gift of seeing) with layers of acrylic paint.  What do you guys think?  Did you see the movie? Read the books?  Did you have a special manicure for it?  Comment below!

Essie 'Shine of the Times'

 WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY POST

So 'Shine of the Times' (hehe that name is so funny) is a duochrome flakie layering polish.  It is not holographic.  THIS is holographic.  Duochrome is when from different angles the same polish looks different colors.  And flakies are these little misshapen glitter like things, but they don't 'sparkle'.  And you cant wear a flakie by itself because there clear, but when layered over colors (especialy black) they look really pretty.  This specific flackie flashes from orange to yellow to green and ontop of different colors you see other colors too.  So all the pictures show all the different angles.

Island Girl 'Aloha Magic' 5 Pack

This is the 'Aloha Magic' pack shown here.  Umm I love my dad and am extremely grateful, but do u see the awkward bald spots on these nails.  These are all 4 coats.

First up is this magenta color (btw non of these have names). Now this is very unoriginal, I  have two exact dupes in my hoard and have seen many a more in the stores and online. (sorry but for the life of me blogger would not let me center that picture!)

This is another unoriginal color.  I have an L.A. Color that is IDENTICAL!  And while I haven't used that nail polish probably better than this.  Also not to big on this color any ways.

I really like this color. But no matter how many coats, there was always a bald spot.  

My favorite color of the bunch a really pretty teal-blue kinda color. although not very opaque.  Oh Island  Girl, you pretty colors and- oh no I can't say that on the internet- bad formulas depress me.

Best formula.  No awkward spots nice color too! So while not the best color it's defiantly the best polish!

This is a picture of all of them. 

What do you think?  Is this set worth the $12?  Do you have dupes for any of these colors?  Comment below

Day 9: Rainbow Nails

Well Mimi was supposed to put up to extrmely simple post this weekend but she didn't.  So I'm angry.   GRR!  Well to day was rainbow nails and I saw Rainbow Nail Art and Holo Rainbow, but i don't have anything fancy like that.  I don't even have Red, Orange, and Yellow glitter polishes.  Blogging really shows the gaps in my collection :(.  So I did rainbow skittles on each hand.

UP CLOSE:

Blue: Ulta 'Blue Streak'

Green: Sinful Colors 'Innocent'

Yellow: AVON 'Sunshine'

Orange: Orly 'Sol Cabana'

Red: ALDO NAIL LACQUER 'Pampered Patent'

And I did the rainbow reverse on the other hand so that when you go like that they make a DOUBLE RAINBOW!!!

This is such a basic mani but I like it.  Tomorrow Gradient Nails and I'll post the Day 7 & 8 posts.  That's what's make this lack of post even more of a fail because I had all the pics for one of the post set up for one of them and it's not like I was asking for a essay or anything!!

BTW all of these were 3 coats and cremes

Proof of Challenge day 3

Sorry big project due tomorrow and my dad's coming home late so i can't use his better camera so i just used the Photo booth camera on my mac.

This is 3 coats of Sally Hansen High Definition Nail color in 'Lite'

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry 'Lightning'

My favorite color is yellow.   I love it.   In fact my room is Sherwin Williams Daisy.   So of course I love yellow nail polish. It's really easy to find a yellow shimmer but it's harder to find a true yellow creme.  Most of them are slightly orange or green.  

And I love Sally Hansen Insta-Dry.  While they aren't what they claim (One coat! One Stroke! and your done!), they're still really good (Two strokes! Two coats! and then a top coat!).  I had already had 'Brisk Blue' and 'Lively Lilac' (I'll swatch and review those another time).  So when I saw 'Lightning' it was a perfect match!

    

Well, it would have been if the formula wasn't crappy.  I used four coats and could defiantly have used a fifth.  And there was weird black things on some of the nails (shown below)  and also on the middle finger you can see these bald spots.  errr  this polish bothered me so much.

here's an up close on my crusty looking middle finger D:< 

And to make matters worse I had decided to matte them.  Because while matte nails are "over" I still like the look (Chanel's coming out with a matte top coat).  When i say the matte made it look bad that is a understatement.  There was so many weird spots and blotches that randomly showed up!  I was so disappointed in this polish.  Guess I'll have to continue on the quest of finding the perfect yellow....