Rimmel Mignight Blue and Essie Trophy Wife Gradient

This is the last manicure in my Rimmel Midnight Blue manicure evolution.  I added shimmer one day and did matte/shiny stamping the next day and then did the one pictured above.  If I were to start from scratch with this manicure, the shimmer would not go all the way to the cuticles, but would also be a gradient.  I used Essie Trophy Wife and Pure Ice Oh Baby (teal glass fleck shimmer that shifts to fuchsia at some angles).  I used a make-up sponge to apply Trophy Wife.  I like this one.  I'll definitely do it again. 

Spring Nail Polish Trends 2013

I'm going to mention a couple trends in nail polish.  First is the texture polish trend.  This probably isn't a trend just for this spring, but a new trend in general.  OPI has Sands (from the Mariah Carey collection), Zoya has the Pixie Dust collection, and Milani has a Texture collection.  The OPI and Zoya versions are matte and glittery all at once.  Milani is more texture and not glitter (I'm pretty sure).  These are not my pictures.
Zoya Pixie Dust collection.

From Allintheblush.com

From Modcitymag.com

A couple of the Milani Texture polishes.

From http://glitterandunicorns-angiebee.blogspot.com

Another big trend is light mint polishes. 
Zoya Neely

From www.fabfatale.com

OPI Coachella Dweller

From nailtastic.blogspot.com

Nicole OPI Alex By the Books

from www.lacquerologist.com

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue

This is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue.  The Make-up Ally Nail Board picked their top 20 polishes in December and this one was on the list.  The color that won was a different brand, but the exact same color.  When they counted all the similar colors as one color, this color won.  Similar colors include Butter London Baker Street and Essie Butler Please.  My point being, this is the color of the moment and all the cool kids are wearing it.  :)  It looks especially chic on short nails.  It is a bit out of my comfort zone, but I like it.  The color applies a bit darker and brighter then in the bottle.  Xtreme wears slightly less then O.K. for me, 4 days (I get 6-7 with other polishes).  Sally Hansen Xtreme wear is $2.50 a bottle.  I'll add that this is the stinkiest polish I own.  It smells like nail polish mixed with sulfur (rotten egg smell).

I added Pure Ice Heartbreaker over the top.  Heartbreaker is green micro glitter in a sheer blue/green base.  One coat gave my polish subtle shimmer, two coats was perfect for my taste.  It gave Pacific Blue a sort of turquoise feel. My sad pictures do this pretty manicure no justice.   Heartbreaker is great layered over blue and green polish (and likely other colors too).  I'm not as totally enamored with this Pure Ice sheer overlay polish as I am with other Pure Ice sheer overlays (like Pure Ice Busted, which is one of my all time favorite polishes), but I still really like it.  It is definitely worth the 2$ price tag at Walmart.

Valentine's Day Manicure: Hearts and Kisses

This is my second Valentine's Day Manicure this year.  I used Wet 'n Wild Sugar Coat and OPI Big Apple Red.  If I did this again next year, I'd do the heart french tip and the kisses as an accent nail.  The french tip hearts were easy.  I used the OPI brush itself to create the heart shapes.  I used a dotting tool for everything else.  For the kisses, I made an "m" shape for the top lip and then a smaller "c" shape for the bottom lip.  That was also really easy.  The pinky hearts are upside down (oops).
I love Megalast polishes, but Sugar Coat is a dud.  It is sheer and streaky.  It takes 3-4 coats before it isn't streaky. And, the color makes me look dead.  :(

Valentine Manicure: Stamped hearts

Here is the first of my Valentine's Day themed manis.  This is Wet 'n Wild Megalast Candylicious stamped with the Salon Express (as seen on TV) kit and Sally Hansen Instadri Whirlwind White.  Next time I will actually enforce my three stamps per finger max rule.  
I'm a huge fan of Wet 'n Wild Megalast polishes and this one is no exception.  Candylicious is a very pretty barbie pink color.  When I kill this mini bottle, I'll be buying a big bottle.  I love the wide brush on Megasast and it wears like iron for me.