Early TIOT with Utopia's Polish "Coral Reef" and Sinful Colors "Clementine"

My last manicure lasted almost a week!  I really love "Band Geek"!!  

I finally changed it tonight, keeping in mind that tomorrow is "Try It On Tuesday" on Jilltastic Designs FB Page., and picking "untried" polishes that have been malingering in my stash.

I also chose "untried" polishes with names that begin with "C", so I can participate in Lustrous Lacquer's "Alphabet Challenge" too.  

So I started with Sinful Colors "Clementine"

This is a perfect shade of orange for me, because it's not too bright against my skin.  But the formula was thick and streaky and it took 3 coats to even it out.  If a polish needs 3 coats, it is not welcome in my collection.  So I added about 4 drops of polish thinner, and I re-painted my pinkie with only 2 coats, and it went on much, much smoother, so it can stay!  

But this is a pretty tame manicure for me.  So I searched my polish names, and came up with Utopia's Polish "Coral Reef".  Because of the thickness of the glitter, I decided on trying partial glitter coverage except for the accent nails.

 With Flash:

Oh my glitterness, this is one serious bottle of sparkly explosion!  I used only 2 coats of polish, and my accent nail is almost completely covered.  I actually added some glamour base to my bottle just to dilute the glitter a bit.  I absolutely love these colors!  

You can visit Virginia's shop on Etsy HERE.  She's very nice and makes amazing polishes!  I have 2 more of her polishes that are "untried" too, so I'll have to keep them on the radar.  

Hope you like this combo as much as I do!

Playing Catch-Up!

I feel so badly for neglecting my poor little blog!  But I have been very busy painting my nails, and spending waaay too much money on new nail polish that I can't fit into my current storage situation...guess it's time for a new storage situation ;-).

Anyways, here's a quick look at what I've been up to since my last post...

I entered this mani into the "Wedding Belles" contest hosted by Dazzle Dry Quick Dry Polish.  I used China Glaze "Dress Me Up", then stamped and painted pointed french tips with CG "White on White", then hand-painted roses with CG "Fifth Avenue" & Pure Ice "Love".  This is the first time I actually did a mani with a particular contest in mind.  I think they came out mah-velous, but the other entries are pretty awesome, so we'll see how I do...

Anyway, those didn't last long, cuz I wanted to use some of my newest Darling Diva Polish "Sugar and Spice".

This is the Pure Ice "Love" with a Pure Ice purple shatter (sorry, I'm too lazy to look it up right now), and of course the others are covered with Sugar & Spice.  I LOVE the butterflies in this polish!! And they were actually pretty easy to get on to my nail...I only had to go fishing for 2 nails.  2 nails even had multiple butterflies.  Anyway, this was a SUPER-girly mani, which, I guess, is appropriate for this polish :-)  BTW, I love her little saying on the bottle: "The Happiest Girls are the Prettiest Girls. Be Happy!"  AMEN, Sista!! 

My current mani is going to be removed as soon as I finish this post.  I painted Cult Nails "Iconic", and then topped it with Essie "Shine of the Times" flakies top coat.  Then, I took off to the Colorado River for a weekend of fun.

It was pretty in the sun, and reminded me of red dragon scales.  But, the River is not the place for a nice manicure, and this is how my nails look now:

Yup, I ripped my thumbnail off, and my ring finger is chipped.  And this is my "photo" hand!  And I was planning on entering a "Star Spangled" contest.  Grrrr.  Anyway, I've cut them all down, although not as short as that thumbnail.  Short nails make me want to do dark mani's >:-)

I've also hit Sally's, some blog sales, and Zoya's website lately, so now I have Orly's "Dark Shadows" collection, some more China Glaze "Hunger Games", 9 more Zoya's, another Lacquistry (woot-woot), and some other Indie's.  I also discovered Utopia's Polish on etsy, and she is my newest favorite indie!  Her glitters remind me of Lacquistry, so there you go! ;-)

OK, that catches you all up.  I'm not sure what I'm doing for my next mani, yet....