The Girl On Fire Nails

I’m not sure about everyone else but uh.. Fire is freaking hard to draw. However, I wanted to do my own version of the Girl on Fire nails, so I present to you fire nails for the artistically challenged!

I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Black Heart, then topped it with a coat of Essie Matte About You (which I’m quickly running out of :( ). Once that was dry I took scotch tape and cut tiny triangles out of it to make jagged zigzags/spikes. I put the tape on the back of my hand first so it’s not sticky, then I put it on my nail, painted over it with a coat of China Glaze Riveting, then I peeled the tape off before letting it dry. 

Also, how amazing are black matte nails? And Riveting is friggin’ gorgeous. I’ll do a legit review of it sometime in the future.

China Glaze Go Go Pink and Pretty and Polished Valentino

Before I picked this up I owned approximately one pink polish, so I figured it was about time to get another (it helped that this came with a bottle of Seche Vite and was on clearance for $7). Go Go Pink is a warm-toned sheer baby pink creme. Pictured is three coats, and I would have definitely done another if I wasn’t going to go over it with something else anyways. I had some problems with it being streaky, but it wasn’t anything too horrible. It was thin, but not so thin that I couldn’t do thick coats, which was nice. AND even though I did semi thick coats and didn’t wait very long in between coats, I had no bubbles! I have the worst luck with getting bubbles so me = happy.

I’m not much of a pink person but I do really like this color. I’m not sure how I feel about it with my skin tone, but oh well. Its a nice springy color and I’m sure I’ll be able to use it a lot with nail art. 

This is the part where I tell you how much it retails for and where to get it, but I’m fairly certain it only comes in the set I mentioned above, which looks like this:

Because it was on clearance I don’t even know how much the original set costs. I got this at Sally Beauty Supply, and there was another one there, so it would be worth checking if you live near a Sally’s. You can definitely find this on Amazon though, and the set itself can be found on eBay.

Oh my gosh I’m obsessed with black and white glitter. Lynnderella Connect the Dots is something I’ve wanted since I first saw it, but of course the availability of it is low and the demand is high. I’m a pretty passive person so I’m not going to fight my way to it, I’ll stick to heavily hinting to my boyfriend about it. He can deal with the nail polish crazed ladies :)

ANYWAYS, Valentino is awesome! It has large, medium, small, and fine black glitter as well as medium, small, and fine white glitter. The white isn’t flat white, it’s more pearly, and I find that the small and fine white glitter gets kind of lost, but that could also be because my base color is so light. Also I didn’t get any of the large black glitter :( I still love this though! It has satisfied all of my black and white glitter needs! My only regret is buying the mini instead of the full size, but alas, jobless student.

Oh, and this is one coat, I should probably have mentioned that.

Pretty and Polished Valentino Mini (7ml) sells for $4.75 here. I forget how much the full sized costs or I’d include that too. The shop is currently on vacation, but it will be fully restocked on Wednesday April 4th. 

What do you do when your gradient is a hot mess?

You cover most of it up!

I started with a base of China Glaze Electric Pineapple, then sponged on Sinful Colors Dream On for a gradient effect. I should have done it the other way around, because Dream On is much more opaque than Electric Pineapple. I didn't like how that looked so I topped it with a glitter franken of mine. When I still didn't like it I made scotch tape V's on my nails and did a thick coat of Sally Hansen Black Heart.

China Glaze Electric Pineapple

I picked up this color at Ulta in January because it was on clearance for $1.99 so I figured, why not? At the time I didn’t have very many bright colors, and I didn’t own any China Glaze either. 

Electric Pineapple is part of the Summer 2011 Island Escape collection, which may be why it was on clearance. Or maybe no one wanted it. Or there was something wrong with it. Either way I like it. Electric Pineapple is a yellow-green creme and it can look more yellow or more green depending on the light. The formula was kind of thin and runny, so I needed to use three coats. I’m sure a coat of white polish underneath would have helped a lot though. 

Overall I like this polish, its not *amazing*, but it’s nice to have in my collection, and I’ve used it a few times with nail art already. Now that summer is coming up I’ll probably be using it even more!