Sunday, February 28, 2010

Friday Franken - Bronze Medal

Yeah I know its not Friday.  I wore this Friday and took the photos Saturday night but I got distracted and forgot to post it.  Has anyone seen Up?  "My master made me this collar so that I could SQUIRREL!"  Well that is me lately.

So the Olympics got me in the mood for some metallics so I am declaring this week metal week, well I might save a couple days for Alice in Wonderland themed polish since the movie is out Friday.  I realized after watching the USA take the bronze medal in woman's bobsled that I don't own a bronze polish.  So I set out to make one that matched the bronze medal from this years games.

 
2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Bronze Medal
Materials:
  • Wet n Wild Shine Clear
  • Sinful Colors Mercury Rising
  • NYX Ultra Pearl Mania Loose Eyeshadow (Oro or Mink, the label is missing)
  • Ballz
  1. Mix 1/2 a bottle of WnW clear with 1/2 tsp of NYX eyehadow and 3 ballz, mix well.
  2. Add 20 drops Mercury Rising (this just adds some depth and makes it less gold)
  3. This only makes about 2/3 of an ounce.
This was by far the easiest Franken I have done, the NYX dissolved instantly.  I will definitely be buying more of it in different colors for future mad scientist, frankening pursuits.  Anyone have a favorite NYX color?
 
Bronze Medal
 
Bronze Medal (3 coats) and top with flash , excuse the tip wear I wore this for over 24 hours before I remembered to charge the camera batter.
Bronze Medal in sort of sunlight, minimal tip wear after almost 36 hours, pretty amazing actually.

Since the actual medal is a combination of  brushed and shiny bronze I decided on day 3 to Konad using CG Matte Magic. This was utter fail as the Matte Magic kept drying before I could get it stamped and then I ended up with white film hanging off my nails.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Eureka! I Have Found it - OPI Merry Mignight

Ok so some of you know that I have been traipsing all over the city looking for Merry Midnight from the 2009 OPI Holiday Wishes Collection with zero luck.  I checked nail mecca.....nada, Trade secret...zip, Pennys and Ulta also came up big zeros.  I even tried stopping by some of the local salons and just asking, "Hey do you have a bottle I can buy, I don't even care if its new."  One lady told me to check Sally's.  SALLY'S!  Seriously?!  I had to tell the nice lady that Sally's doesn't carry OPI.

I was sad.  I made the decision to order it online and was really surprised to discover that I could only find a couple bottles on Ebay and 2 random online vendors that listed it.  I wasn't familiar with either vendor so I was dragging my feet hoping it would magically appear and had basically given up on it.  Luckily a fellow nail polish crack head reminded me that Victoria Nail Supply might have it....DUH.  So we set up an order of things we didn't need and prepared to send it in.  That afternoon we happened to be stopping by a store new to me that carries Zoya (I posted about that earlier this week) and the gods of nailpolish must have smiled down on me because there it was in all its purple, foil, glittery glory....Merry Midnight.

 
OPI Merry Midnight (3 coats) and top

The formula on this was perfect, even I was able to apply nice thin coats.  I had full coverage in 2 coats but the color was more pink than the bottle so I added a third.  Let me just say this...I love foils, they go on so nice and thin, and smooth, and holy nail polish batman...they dry in no time flat.  The glitter in this is really small also so there isn't any of the lumpiness of a normal glitter.

Can anyone recommend any other foils? I just picked up Orly Glam Rock and Iron Butterfly and I have Finger paints Icy Iris and Easel Come, Easel Go but I want to try some in other colors.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Zoya Ciara

The Zoya sale last week prompted me to go track down a bottle of Zoya so I could try it out before deciding if I wanted to order or not.  I stopped by Blooming Beauty, which carries the full range of Zoya and a ton of OPI and Nubar (though no Prisms yet darn it!).  I walked in expecting to buy a bottle of Gwin but decided that it was too bright and that I should really try a creme first rather than a duochrome or frost.  I tend to have better luck with creme application and there is usually fewer brush marks and  drag issues so to be fair I picked up Ciara.  This is not a typical color for me, it is a lot brighter than it looks in this photo. Well in daylight it is, in dim light it looks almost like a red plum. 
 
Zoya Ciara (2 coats) with top.  The ridge line on my ring finger is from poor application of Seche, I was in a rush to get my dog to his best friend's birthday party.....yes birthday party for a dog.

Let me preface this by saying that I like thick polishes, it lets me be lazy and do 2 coats. Besides I fail at applying thin coats so thick polishes make me feel like I am doing something right as there isn't any streakiness. This polish applied like cement, or white out...remember painting your nails with white out in middle school?  Anyway it was REALLY viscous and didn't flow off the brush at all and was very slow to dry.   Next time I use this I am definitely going to add thinner.  On the positive side the color was very vibrant and it really didn't smell as much strongly as many other polishes.  I mean it smelled still, just not as much.  

I really like the idea of investing in some less stinky polishes, I feel like I am gassing my poor husband and friends regularly.  Does anyone know if all the Zoya's are thick or did I just get a partially dried out bottle?

And just so you believe me....
 
My puppy Indy...yes we named the dog Indiana

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Lemming Luck - OPI My Private Jet

About two weeks ago I was trolling through my favorite nail supply store in DFW looking for OPI Merry Midnight.  It was nowhere to be found but as I strolled down the discontinued OPI polish aisle I saw a dark bottle sitting in an old OPI Brights display tucked away on a top shelf.  As I picked it up I got a little excited....could it be?  I flipped the bottle over...YES.  OPI My Private Jet, the holo version, and it looked like the old version.  I am not 100% sure though on whether this is the original batch or not as this is the only bottle of MPJ I have ever seen in real life. 
 
OPI My Private Jet
Initially I tried this with a top coat but it was just not as shiny or holographic that way so I slapped another coat of polish on top.  I like this but I think I like Color Club Revvvolution better from looking at it on other people.  I still want to try Revvvolution and Daimond Cosmetics Chainmail Charm.
 
OPI My Private Jet
OPI My Private Jet with flash

 
OPI My Private Jet sunlight

 
Close Up

So what do you guys think, is this the original My Private Jet Formula?

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday Franken - Panama City Beach

The last three weeks of snow and rain have resulted in a fairly severe case of spring fever....when is spring break?  In my quest to cheer myself up I am focusing on all things vacation...aka, the beach!  My husband and I try to spend some time every summer at his mom's house in Panama City Beach and the inspiration for this Franken is a combination of Rescue Beauty Lounge 360 and the deep, blue gray of a summer sky in PCB.

 
Materials:
  • China Glaze Up All Night
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green With Envy
  • Wet and Wild French White Creme
  • Sinful Colors Out of This World
  • Wet and Wild BlackCreme
  • Ballz
  1. I used an empty New York Summer bottle and added 1/4 Up All Night and 1/3 WnW French White Creme.  
  2. Add 1/4 bottle Sinful Colors Out of This World
  3. Mixed in 20 drops Green with Envy and 30 drops WnW Black Creme
  4. Add 3 ballz, shake.
 Panama City Beach
I am very happy with this color.  It looks pretty gray in some light and much more blue in other light.  It ended up being super pigmented (even though I didn't add any raw pigments) and was bottle true with one coat.  I used two coats here anyway and a fairly thick layer of the store brand top from my local nail supply mecca.
 
PCB 2 coats with top

 
PCB in sunlight

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Not Nfu Oh.....Sad Panda

OK, I am seriously lemming for several of the Nfu Oh opal flake polishes.  When I picked up NYX Pink Ave earlier this week it was with the hopes that I could layer it over a duochrome and come up with something that has the same feel as Nfu Oh 51 or 52.  Along those lines I put together a really quick manicure.
Glacier bay Blues (3 coats), NYC Pink Ave (1 coat), and top
 
My pointer in this photo show a bit of the green in the Glacier Bay Blues.
I used 3 coats OPI Glacier Bay Blues as my base and put a coat of NYX Pink Ave on top.  Glacier Bay Blues is a fairly fantastic polish as it looks blue straight on but has both green and purple duochrome tendencies.  The Pink Ave is much less opal flaky and much more giant glittery, but it is still iridescent and I got several compliments on this for the 5 hours I left it on.

I had two problems with this mani.   The first was that the glitter looked lovely iridescent  right until I put a topcoat on, then it just looked rainbow, and frankly kind of dull even beneath a coat of Seche.  The second, and much bigger issue, was that this manicure never fully hardened.   Five hours later I was still having dents and fingerprints in my nails.  I am not sure if it was the combination of NYX and OPI or the Glacier Bay Blues itself.  About 2 months ago I used the Glacier Bay Blues with Color Club topcoat and had a similar issue.

Has anyone else had issues with either OPI or NYX not curing properly?

Mardi Gras

You know what the best part about a Mardi Gras manicure is?  I FINALLY got to use my week old bottle of OPI Jade is the New Black.  The entire week of Valentine's Day I had this green gem sitting on my nightstand taunting me.  I just couldn't bring myself to put it in the Helmer with the rest of my stash, it provided emotional support in a sea of red, pink and purple (and I really love red and purple). 

This color is simply luscious....I didn't know green could be luscious but this is.  Application was smooth, though it was a bit thin and required 3 coats.  This is one of those colors you just can't help looking at all day.
OPI Jade is the New Black (3 coats) with top
Initially I wanted to do something simple, a nice 2 color blended stamp on just part of the nail.  I choose floral cluster from plate M51 and painted Rimmel Night Before (purple) across the base of the design and New York Summer Hot Metallic Gold across the top and then stamped it at the end of my nail.  This resulted in kind of a striped effect...green. purple, gold.
The photo is complete crap and frankly I didn't really like the effect.  I think it would have been better with purple at the tip and gold in the middle.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Beauty Credit Haul

I stopped at the local Korean Market on Monday and found a bin of "clearance" Beauty Credit nail polishes.  Will power in the face of untried foreign nail polish brands escapes me.  Oh and while I was there I picked up a couple NYX polishes too.

Beauty Credit Lovely Art Nail Spring Pink (yes I know it is lavender), Ice Green, Black Drop (oooooh gold glitter in there), and Sugar Orange.

I am fairly certain that the Ice Green and the Sugar Orange would be sheer with 7 coats but I bought them to layer.   The Black Drop is so cool my husband actually suggested that one.


NYX Pink Ave and Jungle....do I smell a blue/green duochrome?  Fingers are crossed, actually I have a feeling I will be frankening these together.

I found a brief thread about beauty credit on MUA, but there wasn't really much on the polishes.  Has anyone used Beauty Credit nail polish?

Monday, February 15, 2010

Nail Maintenance Blog Link

Ok I am in the process of moving my office/craft room out of storage and my husbands office into my own space.  I am very excited as this will give me space to keep my stash, all my sewing junk and my dance costumes.  The only down side is since I am furnishing the room from Ikea I have to put all the furniture together.  So this weekend I built 2 desks and moved a bunch of stuff and in the process split 4 nails (2 on each hand).

Luckily for me I had read Colette at My Simple Little Pleasures tutorial on repairing split nails with silk wraps on Thursday.  So off to Sally to pick up supplies, and happily I only had to cut one of the 4 down.  The split was close enough to the side of the nail that the wrap wasn't supporting the nail well and it finally just broke despite the wrap. 

If you haven't checked out Colette's tutorials pop over and watch/read a few.  She has some really amazing holo water marbles in addition to great nail care tips.

Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year Manicures

I am late posting these because my parents were in town this weekend (a major production since the airports were non functional part of the weekend).  They thought me photographing my nails was funny but I didn't want to push my luck by busting out the Photoshop and starting to Blog.

This is my manicure from Saturday the 13th.  I have been a belly dancer for the past 10 years and Saturday my troupe danced at a Mardi Gras fund raiser so I wanted to get in the spirit.

I started with a base of Fingerpaints Icy Iris, which I have had for a month but hadn't had an opportunity to use yet.  EVERYTHING you have heard about Icy Iris is true.  It applies smooth, with full coverage in 2 coats and it is freaking gorgeous.  For those of you that haven't seen it, this is a deep purple with lighter purple/raspberry foil particles.  The foil is very small so it looks like very small glitter but it is sooooo much smoother, it also dries really fast. It was slightly dull to my eye once it dried but nothing a layer of top didn't fix.
 
Fingerpaints Icy Iris 2 coats with top.  The foil is pinker in person.  Yes that is 12 inches of snow in Dallas in the background.

Once I had a nice purple base I grabbed Rimmel Camouflage and New York Summer Hot Metallic Gold and Konad plate M69.  I painted the bottom of the ribbon design (well they look like ribbons to me) green and the top half gold and as Emeril would say BAM!
 
   Mardi Gras konadicure with flash, yes I am that pale.  The light box comes tomorrow hopefully photos will improve.

By Sunday I was tired of all things Valentine's Day and was really looking forward to a nice Chinese New Year mani in red...thats enough Valentine's Day cheer right?  Last week on my snow day I grabbed a new Konad plate I have been wanting to experiment with, M66 the one that shows parts of an Asian landscape.

I borrowed this picture from http://www.thenailart.com/ but I have never used their site for anything but looking at Konad plates, they have HUGE pictures of each.

Anyway I had been wanting to use little bits and pieces of the whole plate on different nails so each nail was different.  Chinese New Year gave me a great excuse to buy the plate and try this out.
 
China Rouge (2 coats) with top

I began with 2 coats of my favorite red creme, China Glaze China Rouge and then stamped New York Summer Hot Metallic Gold (hey its my go to gold stamping polish).  The overall manicure ended up being very subtle as the lines on most of these designs are very thin.  Black or silver would have provided more contrast.  It looked nice but you didn't really notice the designs unless you were close to my hands.  Photographing this was a complete nightmare, I couldn't get pictures that showed the details at all.
This is the best one I was able to get:
 
pinky - chrysanthemum (I think thats what it is)
ring - bamboo
index - woman
pointer - lotus
thumb - cherry blossom (not in picture though) 
I almost didn't post this as the photo looks like poop but I like the idea, I just need to use colors with more contrast between them.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Diamond Cosmetics Drift Away and Valentines Manicure #3

After the pink extravaganza from earlier this week I needed something more subdued.  I am a huge purple fan and have been meaning to try out Diamond Cosmetics Drift Away.  This is a standard Diamond Cosmetics formula and applys like butter, though I did 3 coats instead of the two I can normally get away with for a Diamond polish.  SHAKE THE BOTTLE, yeah I know I am supposed to do that for all polishes. I mean it for this one.  I don't know if it was because its so cold here or what but there was quite a bit of settling/seperation when I first opened it.  I did my normal couple shakes and the first stroke seemed watery and streaky.  After about 30 seconds of mixing it was back to what I am used to from Diamond.

This is an unusual color purple, it looks like a dusty, grayish purple in the bottle but on the nails it has a brownish tint too.  Its really hard to explain, just know its not your standard purple.  It is subdued but interesting at the same time, I really like it. 
 
Drift Away (3 coats) with top slightly more red in real life
I have been waiting to try a monotone hounds tooth pattern from Konad plate M63 so I grabbed my China Glaze LOL and stamped that over the Drift Away.  The LOL is only slightly lighter than the Drift Away and when the light hits the holo its pretty amazing looking.  It was a little plain though for Valentines Day, so I added a flower from plate M21 in China Glaze Millennium off centered on each nail.  The end result is pretty cool looking and I am happy enough with the whole manicure that I have left it on for two days. 

Drift Away base(3 coats), LOL hounds tooth, and Millennium flower, with top coat and flash so you can see the holo goodness.  Excuse the tip wear I took this after I had been wearing it for a while

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Mothership....

Snow days are great!  So I live in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex and we have this incredible nail supply store about 20 minutes from me.   Its seriously the mecca of nailpolish....my husband calls it my new mothership.  Since school was canceled today I decided to go on a hunt for my latest lemming, Merry Midnight (which I somehow missed last fall).

The store is literally walls of polish, and everything you could possibly need to open your own nail salon.  The specialize in discontinued OPI polishes but the also have a ton of discontinued China Glaze, Orly, Essie, Color Club, Jade, CM, and New York Summer.  They have most of the current collections of CG, OPI, Essie, Orly and, CND.  I have been meaning to bring my camera by the store so I could share its awesomeness with everyone but I keep forgetting.  These were snapped on my cell phone.

 OPC Nail Supply
 
The Discontinued OPI Aisle

They didn't have Merry Midnight, I think I am out of luck on it, but I did find a bottle of OPI My Private Jet.  I am pretty sure it's the good one, it looks amazing in the bottle I will have to try it out this week.

I also stopped by the Korean supermarket on a hot tip that they carried Konad plates.  Amazingly the Hello Kitty store at the local Super Hmart does in fact carry Konad plates and some basic special polishes and stampers.
 
Here is my haul for the day
 Plate M3, M51, M54, M66, and M69

Franken of the Week and Valentine Konad #2

I am a little behind on posting Valentines manicures so I am using today's snow day (yay) to catch up a bit.  Earlier this week I decided to work on a franken a little outside my comfort zone....light pink.  Well actually I made two frankens this week, one is a dark pink and the other is a much paler version of the same color.

Materials:
  • Sinful Colors Social Ladder
  • OPI Marooned on the Subway
  • Fingerpaints Chroma Coral
  • WnW French White Creme
  • Pure Ice Gold Mist
  • random clear topcoat
  • 2 bottles
  • Ballz
 Franken 1 (dark pink):
  1. Mix 1/3 of a bottle of Social Ladder with 1/5 bottle of Chroma Coral and 15 drops Marooned on the Subaway.  
  2. Add 30 drops WnW French White Creme
  3. Shake well
Franken 2 (light pink)
  1. Pour 1/4 of the mixed franken into a new bottle
  2. Add 1/4 of a bottleclear
  3. Add 1/5 of  Social Ladder and 1/4 of a bottle of French White Creme to lighten the polish.
  4. Add 20 drops of Gold Mist 
  5. Shake well

     
    Bubblegum (left) and Bugbite (right)
    So the polish on the right is really outside my wheelhouse, its very ummmm....pink.  When I first put it on I thought is was a pepto bismol color, but then I smudged my thumbnail and had to take the polish off to fix it.  The polish on the cotton ball looked exactly, and I mean EXACTLY, like Calamine lotion, so I am calling it Bugbite.  The darker polish is pretty much the color of bubblegum.
     
    Bugbite in sunlight, it has a slight shimmer from the Social Ladder and Chroma Coral

    I frankly couldn't handle this color solo for an entire day (really, really pastel pink) so I decided to Konad over it. First I stamped the fishnet pattern from M57 using the Konad Special polish white and then used the flowers from the same plate with the Bubblegum franken.
    Bugbite base coat, Konad White, and Bubblegum

    Always remember that nail polishes don't always play well with each other.  If you are going to play mad scientist proceed at your own risk and use proper safety procedures....yes I am a science teacher.  I am not suggesting that frankening is risk free and my franken recipes are just me recounting how I mixed up my latest potion. I take no responsibility for your mad scientist experiments.

    Tuesday, February 9, 2010

    Diamond Cosmetics Naughty Intern and a Valentine's Konad

    Ok I am going to try really hard to get into the whole Valentine's Day thing and do holiday themed manicures.  I am not sure that Valentine's Day counts as a holiday, I mean who determines holiday....Hallmark?  Regardless its an excuse for themed nails and trying out some of my unused polishes.

    My first attempt at holiday cheer is a simple konadicure using Diamond Cosmetics Naughty Intern.  This is a beautiful wine colored polish.  It makes me want to go open a bottle from my wine closet now....that could be the long day at work too but any excuse that combines wine AND nailpolish can't be all bad.  Anyway, this is a really good color for me.  Truly epic on me, made all the better by the fact that it matches the maroon in a lot of the spirit wear for the high school I teach at.  The first coat was pretty streaky but a second coat seemed to even everything out.  In certain lights I may have had a bit of uneveness, next time I will do three coats.

    Naughty Intern (2 coats) with topcoat in sunlight

    I stamped the hearts french tip pattern on M73 with New York summer Hot Metallic gold.  I am really awful at stamping the French tip patterns on the tops of my nails...its pathetic, so instead I tried stamping across the bottom of the nail.  A couple of the nails looked nice but all in all it wasn't great.  I think the interlocking heart pattern is a bit to abstract for the base of the nail, you couldn't tell what it really was on smaller nails.  The color combination is a winner though...how can you go wrong with gold and red.  As a side note, Hot Metallic Gold is a pretty close dupe to Bling Dynasty I think.  I am going to test that out later.
     
    Obviously yellow lighting, this is an awful picture but I had a really difficult time photographing this mani.

    Monday, February 8, 2010

    Fingerpaints Sketched and Etched

    This is just a real quick review of Fingerpaints Sketched and Etched.  I wear it pretty regularly under glitter and as a base coat for a Konad and I thought I would go ahead and just swatch it alone while I had it on. 

    I only have two Fingerpaints polishes but the formula on both is good, applying smoothly and covering fully in 2 coats.  Sketched and Etched is a nice fuchsia lacquer with a slight shimmer.  The best part about it is that it has that glowing from within appearance, which you of course can't see in this picture because winter hates me and the sun.  Occasionally I do have visible nail line if I only use two coats of this but since I normally layer something over it doesn't bother me.

    Sketched and Etched 2 coats and topcoat (indoors), this is much brighter in person.

    Does anyone have any Fingerpaints favorites?  The formula seems to be pretty solid and I like the colors but I haven't seen a lot of swatches.

    Saturday, February 6, 2010

    Photographing Holos is a PITA

    So photographing holos is a total pain.  I am totally going to get/build a light box as a result of today's polish.  A month ago I bought a bottle of China Glaze DV8 and has very excited about it.  Two days after buying it I accidentally knocked the box holding it onto the cold, hard, porcelain tile...shattering the bottle and sending gorgeous teal holo everywhere.  I was very sad.  On the positive side it gave me a reason to go buy a new bottle.  I was on a No Buy....ok I still officially am on a No Buy, but I'm not very good at it.  While at the local Vietnamese nail supply store (OMG!  I need to do a whole article on this place) grabbing a fresh bottle of DV8 I also picked up a bottle of LOL.  Its discontinued, if I don't get it now I might miss out.  Right?

    Since I have had so many blue polishes on lately I decided to swatch the LOL first.  LOL is a purple linear holo.  I am obsessed with the linear holos like those in the OMG and OPI DS collections, they actually started my polish addiction and I have no willpower when it comes to them.  I was expecting really god things from LOL and I was needless to say giddy about trying it out.

    Much like my experience with OPI DS Glamour, initially I was unimpressed.  It wasn't as dark a purple as it looked in the bottle and it didn't really have any of the holo goodness under fluorescent lighting.  Once I caught a glimpse of it under some nice recessed lighting or sunlight though....OHHH MAMMA!  Not as obvious as Glamour but still pretty fantastic.

    Giddy and filled with purple, hologram cheer I grabbed my camera and started snapping pictures.  I normally try to take photos without a flash as my pasty white fingers reflect too much light with a flash.  Unfortunately there was no way to see how awesome this polish is without a flash or a better lighting set up than I currently have.  I resigned myself to taking one with and one without a flash, and a close up of the yumminess.

     
    Three coats CG LOL and topcoat indoors without (L) and with (R) flash. 

     
     Ohhhh sparkly!
    Because it was so overcast and gray out I wasn't getting a lot of light reflected back from this (well, the ladies room at work has great lighting but its just weird to hang out there and look at your nails), so I decided to add some hot pink and a little sex appeal for a Valentines-y konadicure.  Leopard print is romantic right?  No well my idea of Valentines day is skewedt, so this next week's mani's could be very boring or incredibly out of character for me.

    CG LOL (3 coats), Fingerpaints Sketched and Etched, M57

    Friday, February 5, 2010

    Buried Treasure - OPI Bling Dynasty and CG Cleopatra

    I am sure many of you have seen the swatches of the OPI Hong Kong Collection on other blogs by now.  Yesterday I snagged a few of the colors using gift cards from my mom (go mom) and rushed home to test out something I had been musing about... 

    All Laquered Up described Bling Dynasty as a "burnished gold" that an "ancient queen" would wear, which by the way I totally agree with.  Its beautiful.  It looks a bit green on me, but I think with a bit of color this summer it will be fabulous.  This is a nice gold metallic shimmer that applies great and stamps for all you Konad fanatics. Also since this is the first OPI I have reviewed let me just say this....I LOVE the pro wide brush.
    OPI Bling Dynasty (3 coats) and topcoat.  There hasn't been sunshine here in a week so excuse the crappy photos.  I am getting a light box.

    Anyway, All Lacquered Up's description got me thinking about my other favorite ancient queen polish, CG Cleopatra. Cleopatra is gold glitter polish in a clear base, but this is no ordinary gold glitter.  Its an almost coppery gold...don't get me wrong its gold but in certain light it just looks deliciously tarnished, and it has holo glitter!  As soon as I saw Bling Dynasty for the first time I knew I wanted to layer Cleopatra over it.

     
    One coat of CG Cleopatra and topcoat over Bling Dynasty.  This was taken the day after I did the mani, once the sun FINALLY came out so there is a bit of tip wear.

    Close up of sparkly goodness

    My nails are crazy sparkly!  The Cleopatra blends almost perfectly with the Bling Dynasty, its like they were made for each other.