Brazen Butterflies

Today's manicure began with a base coat and two coats of Sephora X Brazen. Next, I painted small amounts of Starrily Euphoria onto a piece of cosmetic wedge sponge, and dabbed that to the tips of my nails until I achieved the desired glitter gradient effect.

 Euphoria has adorable little butterfly glitters that I just had to have!!

Lastly, I added a layer of Gelous gel top coat to smooth out the glitter, and finished with a coat of Sephora X top coat.

Products Used

Sephora X Nail Cleanser

1 coat Nailtek Foundation 1

1 coat Sephora X Base Coat

2 coats Sephora X Brazen

Starrily Euphoria

1 coat Gelous Advanced Gel Top Coat

1 coat Seohora X Top Coat

Happy New Year - 2014

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you all have a safe and happy transition into 2014. Below is the manicure I will be wearing to ring in the new year :)

I am wearing black slacks with a red top and a silver clutch, so red with black and silver glitter just seemed like the right way to go!

This is two coats of Sephora X Flashy, with China Glaze Razzle Me Dazzle Me dabbed onto the tips, sealed with Sephora X Top Coat.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

For this manicure, I began with a base coat and two coats of Sephora X Thrilling. Next, I used Zoya Chita to draw in the trees. For the ornaments, I dropped a little bit of white polish onto a metal stamping plate, and used a dotting tool to make white dots where I wanted ornaments to go. Then, I dotted each ornament color onto the white dots. I sealed the design with two coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Products Used

1 Coat Nailtek Foundation 1

1 coat Sephora X Base Coat

2 coats Sephora X Thrilling

1 coat Zoya Chita for the trees

Zoya Purity, Zoya Solange, Zoya Liberty, Zoya Chyna, and Zoya Destiny for the ornaments

2 coats Seche Vite Top Coat

30 Mani Marathon - Manicure 27: Inspired By Artwork

X-ray Roses

I bought this painting and the one below it several years ago from a man in a van who said he was selling model home overflow. I'm told they are X-rays of actual roses, and they look great over my couch.

I began with Sephora X Cleanse and Base, and added two coats of SX White Matter. I used a nail art brush and SX Radioactive to paint on the leaves, SX Dark matter for the stems, and finally SX in Flashy for the roses. Next I added details to the roses with SX Dark Matter, and finished with SX Top Coat.

Formula X For Sephora - The Twenty-Two

Formula X For Sephora - The Twenty Two

The Twenty Two is a set of Sephora X brand mini polishes in a variety of colors and finishes that retails for $55.00. The website (here) describes it as "A stunning, 22-piece collection of mini nail lacquers in an array of classic creams, bright neons, cool chromes, and splatter-effect top coats. 

This is the ultimate collection for nail connoisseurs. Creams provide ultralong wear and incredible saturated color in just one swipe. Neons are mega bright and dry down to a matte finish. Chromes glide on creamy and dry to a smooth, reflective finish. Xplosive top coats create the ultimate splatter effect with a matte confetti glitter that can be worn alone or over any nail color. "

At 0.16 oz, these adorable mini polishes are a little smaller than 1/2 of a full sized bottle (0.4 oz), which runs from $10.50 to $12.50 in a Sephora store and on their website. The site says that the set is worth $103, but I got $99.60 when I calculated the volume of each polish in the set against its full sized counterpart.  

And now, the colors! Everything below is two coats of the polish alone, except where otherwise indicated.

Rocket Fuel - Metallic Graphite Green

 Vroom - Metallic Rose Gold

Racy - Metallic lavender

Need For Speed - Metallic Silver

Omni -Beach ball blue

Infatuated - Powder Blue

Unmistakable - Pastel Jade

Brazen - Petal Pink

Zap - Electric limoncello (3 coats)

Radioactive - Electric Jungle Green (3 coats)

Indelible - Rich violet

Haphazard - Electric Purple

Extraordinary - Iceberg Grey

Thrilling - Cloud gray

White Matter - Paper White

Dark Matter - Patent leather black

Flashy - Bright red

Eureka - Hot pink

Wham - White Confetti (2 coats over 1 coat Dark matter)

Bionic - Lime and black confetti (2 coats over 2 coats White Matter)

Turbulent - Turquoise and black confetti (2 coats over 2 coats White Matter)

Meteoric - Black, white, and rainbow glitter (2 coats over 2 coats White Matter)

I am extremely pleased with this purchase! There's enough variety in colors to keep me entertained for a while, it includes staples like a great white and black, and the glitter top coats are interesting over just about any color. Though I would have preferred more variance in glitter colors. Three out of four are predominantly black, with not a lot of difference between them. After going to a Sephora and seeing all the beautiful glitters they make for this line, I would have really liked to see some of those in this set. Maybe they will do more sets like this with other colors in the future, I sure hope so! Sets like these are an awesome way to try lots of polishes without the $10 - $12 price tag per bottle, and I rarely ever pay that much for one polish, but I'll always be first in line for mini value sets! 

Unwhamable

I recently received The Twenty Two Sephora X mini polish set, and couldn't wait to put it on my fingers! 

The manicure I chose today began with two coats of Unmistakable. Over that I added one coat of Wham, a variety of white glitter. 

Lastly, I applied one coat of  Gelous Advanced Gel topcoat to smooth out the glitter, and one coat of Dreams Lacquer top coat to seal the manicure.