New Year's Manicure

I'll be honest, I wasn't sure what to post first after the introduction. Only one thing I could think of, my New Year's manicure. Now I apologize in advance for the photo quality. I'm still trying to figure this out with lighting, background, etc. And please, if you have any tips, feel free to comment!

Freshly taken December 30, 2012

Loves Me Not

What I haven't photographed are the polishes I use for my base and my top coat. After prepping my nails, I applied a new base coat; Nicole by O.P.I. Strengthener Plus which I actually got from a store called Five & Below for $3.00

Next came the base polish, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Loves Me Not. I'm not actually sure if this is still available any longer or not as I don't see it on the website, I also bought this when it was on clearance at Target. I applied two coats to make sure it was opaque. The one thing I did notice with the first application was that there was slight balding (mainly by the cuticles) depending on how much product was actually on the brush.

Going Platinum

After letting that dry, I contemplated between sponging on the tips a gold or a silvery color. I ended up going with the silver-ish color instead. I used from Fergie's line from Wet n Wild, Going Platinum. In my opinion, this color is absolutely gorgeous, not a pure silver, it seems to have a gold tint to it as well as silver, it just depends on how much you layer on. I used a cosmetic sponge to get that onto the nail, trying not to go all the way down the nail. I believe I sponged on two coats, the second coat I tried to concentrate closer to the tip of the nail. In my experience, this polish can be rather opaque, especially with sponging onto a dark color. Getting a gradient effect can be achieved providing you have a light touch (which I didn't because I didn't know how this was going to work before I started on my nails).

Strobe Light

Before the final touch, I cleaned up around my cuticles with nail polish remover (with acetone) and an EcoTools eyeliner brush (love this method instead of using a Q-Tip).

Finally, the polish that I've been in love with ever since I picked it up near the price scanner at Target (yup, that's exactly where I found it). Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Strobe Light. No words can describe how beautiful this polish is. It seems to have micro-fine glitter that comes across as mauve/pink in the bottle with larger flecks of glitter mixed in. The larger flecks though, are holographic pieces. No matter how many photos I took of this polish, both on my nails and the bottle alone, my camera couldn't do it justice. I applied one thin layer all over the nail, then applied a thicker layer over Going Platinum.

Last but not least, I applied my top coat of choice Inn Out The Door. I actually prefer this top coat over Poshe which I used to use. Preforms the same exact way and the price, in my opinion, is better (between $3.99-$4.99 depending on where you look). This is all personal preference though.

It's now past midnight where I live on January 3rd and the manicure is still holding strong, no chipping has occurred, just a bit of nail growth and I'm not even sure if that's visible.

Taken on January 3, 2012

So, there's my first real beauty post. Hopefully it wasn't long.

Thank you for stopping by!