Saturday Summary

This weeks summary will be a little short.

Having been off the radar for a few days this week, I am playing catch up on blog reading and so my news section is very small this week. 

• My good friend Angi from Angelina's Nails & More has a terrific post on the history of nail polish. Hers is a German language blog, so you may need to translate it.
• I've been very excited about the upcoming OPI Germany Collection, now you can see the Promo photos courtesy of Swatch & Learn.
• Speaking of new collections - Body & Soul shows us the Fall 2012 Color Club Collection: Rule The Runway.
• The Daily Varnish shows us some tips for polish lids you can't open! Man, this is perfect timing for me, I have a bottle of Alpine Snow I can't even budge open!

Ok. Sorry that's such a short amount of news up there..BUT I did plan a little something different for today's summary. Sadly...it was going to be an Instagram feature. Then as I was typing this out and going to my Instagram profile to pull the pics, it appears to be down due to storms. SORRY!

P.S.
Don't forget to enter the Gnarly Gnails 400 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 7.31.2012 and is open Internationally!

And also the Gnarly Gnails 500 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 9.01.2012 and is open Internationally!

Swatches - Kleancolor Metallics

I don't imagine you noticed, but I had to take a couple of days off from blogging and the world in general. I have a weird hormonal disfunction, coupled with endometriosis, so every now and then I am set out of commission with terrible childbirth-labor-like cramps. No fun.

Even though I'm still dealing with it, I've at least got the momentum to sit up and get on the laptop for a bit here. So today I've got some Kleancolor swatches for you as we try to get through the stash a little more...

^Kleancolor Americano - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Americano - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Americano - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Black - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Black - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Black - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Black - 1 coat + Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Black - 1 coat + Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Black - 1 coat + Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Green - 2 coats, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Green - 2 coats, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Pink - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Pink - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Pink - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Red - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Red - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic Red - 1 coat, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic White - 2 coats, No Top Coat^

^Kleancolor Metallic White - 2 coats, No Top Coat^

Kleancolor Metallics are some of my favorite polishes. I normally only use them for stamping, which they are SUPERB for, I've hardly used them for straight up manis, and they really do look amazing! Most are one coaters (except metallic white which is very sheer in comparison).

P.S.
Don't forget to enter the Gnarly Gnails 400 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 7.31.2012 and is open Internationally!

And also the Gnarly Gnails 500 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 9.01.2012 and is open Internationally!

Independence

Nouveau Cheap has done another awesome holiday round-up of manis.

This time for the Independence Day Holiday, and mine was one of the ones chosen!

Go check out all of the great nails these ladies did and get inspired for yours next week!!

Since this mani was meant to be posted on my blog next week, I'm only showing you the one I submitted. The others you'll have to wait for lovelies!

P.S.
Don't forget to enter the Gnarly Gnails 400 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 7.31.2012 and is open Internationally!

And also the Gnarly Gnails 500 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 9.01.2012 and is open Internationally!

Swatches - China Glaze Pinks

Doing a little more swatching today on this joyous humper of a day.

This week is already flying by, sheesh!

Anyway - still working through all of these swatches for China Glazes and Kleancolors, today I'll be showing you a few pinks!

^China Glaze Dance Baby - 2 Coats, No Top Coat^

^China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic - 2 Coats, No Top Coat^

^China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic - 2 Coats, No Top Coat^

^China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic - 2 Coats, No Top Coat^

^China Glaze Innocence - 3 Coats, No Top Coat^

^China Glaze Innocence - 3 Coats, No Top Coat^

^China Glaze Innocence - 3 Coats, No Top Coat^

^China Glaze Princess Grace - 2 Coats, No Top Coat^

P.S.
Don't forget to enter the Gnarly Gnails 400 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 7.31.2012 and is open Internationally!

And also the Gnarly Gnails 500 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 9.01.2012 and is open Internationally!

Video! Tutorial!

I did it! The video took ALL day to upload and awhile to figure out my new software, but it's up!

The Teal Holo Gradient I posted this morning, go check it out!

P.S.
Don't forget to enter the Gnarly Gnails 400 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 7.31.2012 and is open Internationally!

And also the Gnarly Gnails 500 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 9.01.2012 and is open Internationally!

How did I end up with 5 colors I don't even like?

The title seems weird, yeah?

Basically this is how it all went down.

Last week I was starting to grasp the full realization that I probably have a lot of dupes in my stash.

I sort them by brand so I don't really get the big picture sometimes on my colors/shades because I just don't see them altogether. So..I decided to re-organize by color. This drives me insane because I really much preferred the look of seeing same bottles together...but for the sake of purging some of this down and getting rid of things I just won't ever use, I had to do this!

So...in my journey of reorganization, I saw tons of dupes!

I spent about 2 hours swatching just my pink, red and orange drawer last night so I could find some and I came out with FIVE shades of red-orange that looked really similar.

How did this happen? I don't even like orange much, and I almost hate red.

What has happened here is friendship.

And money.

One was on clearance, 2 were given to me by friends, one was on sale and one was limited edition.

Here are our contenders:

L to R: Milani Techno Red, Sinful Colors Timbleberry, China Glaze Make Some Noise, Icing Heavenly Hottie, LA Girls Disco Inferno

L to R: Milani Techno Red, Sinful Colors Timbleberry, China Glaze Make Some Noise, Icing Heavenly Hottie, LA Girls Disco Inferno

2 coats of each polish EXCEPT Milani Techno Red, which was 3 coats.

Here are my takes on these shades.

Disco Inferno, Make Some Noise and Timbleberry are all almost identical. Disco Inferno was the sheerest of the three, Make Some Noise was slightly darker and was the thickest and most opaque with the worst formula. It was thick AND it pooled.

Icing Heavenly Hottie dried matte and while I will keep it, I am going to do another comparison on it against the Sephora/Pantone Tangerine Matte polish.

Milani Techno Red - sheer sheer. Jelly. And almost orange.

Overall - I will be keeping the Sinful Colors Timbleberry and Icing Heavenly Hottie.

I am tempted to keep the Milani for the jelly factor, but I don't like this color, so I don't think I quite see the point. But I love jellies..so I'm on the fence with that one.

I wanted to love Make Some Noise because it's Limited Edition but the formula sucked and it was so thick it never fully dried.

P.S.
Don't forget to enter the Gnarly Gnails 400 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 7.31.2012 and is open Internationally!

And also the Gnarly Gnails 500 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 9.01.2012 and is open Internationally!

Teal Tuesdays - Gradient!

Yes, Gradients ARE everywhere. I even see them all over Facebook and Instagram now...but by people who aren't crazy nail bloggers like me.They don't seem to be going away soon, and for that I am thankful because I love how they look and I love how easy they are. And I love that every time I do one, it looks better than the last one.Needless to say, I definitely was hopeful that Gradients would win this weeks challenge vote and they did!
So...as I was doing this gradient, I took some video of it and am "hoping" to make a tutorial from it. With that said, this will be my first time so I'm trying to find some software to edit it...it may show up on the blog, or I may not get it figured out - if you do video tutorials or have knowledge in this area - please feel free to leave me any tips!

For this mani I used A England Saint George and Catrice's Dirty Berry.NOW you know it's gonna be awesome, right?Right.

I know...it's like photo overkill. But you can't just take one photo of a holo polish. You absolutely can't take just one or two of an amazing holo gradient, even more if it's an A England holo!I used my standard gradient technique, painted on the sponge and stamped across, then up and down to blend. Like I said, hopefully I'll have a video on it soon.

If you are interested in participating in Teal Tuesdays, just drop me a line in the comments with your blog address so I can add you to the participating blog list. And there is also a FB Group! Please join in the conversation!

Please visit my other Terrifically Teal Teammates:

Nails Beautiqued

Geeky OwlMandy's PolishFancy PhalangesColorsplash NailsGaga for NailsPersistently GlitterySimple & BeautifulNo Holos!Cherries SweetsThe Frenzied Polisher

P.S.
Don't forget to enter the Gnarly Gnails 400 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 7.31.2012 and is open Internationally!

And also the Gnarly Gnails 500 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 9.01.2012 and is open Internationally!