Valentine's Day Nails: Cult Nails Nail Polish in Evil Queen

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My Cult Nails collection

Hi everybody!  Happy Valentine's!  Today I'm sharing my Valentine's Day nails, and also my Cult Nails haul that I purchased during their closing sale.  I've had my share of Cult Nails, but I 'd not been buying from them all that much because they didn't have colors that weren't already in my stash.  Their cream formulas are excellent, though: they have great pigmentation, and are perfectly opaque in two coats.

On my nails today is Cult Nails Evil Queen, a vampy red that is perfect for Valentine's Day.  I added some heart images from PUEEN 2013 Nail Art Stamp Collection Set 24E - LOVE ELEMENTS Set of 24 Nailart Polish Stamping Manicure Image Plates Accessories Kit.

I am just sad that Cult Nails closed.  They've had a great run and a lot of nail bloggers and nail polish enthusiasts loved the quality of their polish.

Watch out for more nail art from this blog!

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Milani Enchanted Garnet Halloween Themed Nails Swatches, Review

Press sample

I'm currently loving vampy polishes as the weather gets colder.  One of my favorites is the Milani Color Statement nail lacquer in Enchanted Garnet.  I just love blackened or dark res!  This is a nice dark red that looks black in low light.  I think this is the perfect Halloween nail color.  I stamped some Halloween images using China Glaze I'd Melt For You from their upcoming holiday collection.   I used my Cheeky jumbo nail plate for the images.  I love the combination, as the silver images stand out really nicely against the dark red background.

Milani's Color Statement nail lacquer in Enchanted Garnet has a good, easy-to-apply formula.  It didn't streak and was opaque in two coats.  It was also has a pretty good staying power.  This lasted a full 3 days on me without a chip.  That's good considering that most nail polishes last only a day or two on my nails.

This blackened red is truly spot-on for the season.  What are your favorite nail polish colors for fall?

(Media sample was provided by PR for consideration.  All opinions are mine.)

JulieG Neon Nail Color Polish Swatches, Review

(Media sample)

Even though fall is fast approaching, that doesn't mean we can't wear bright nail polish anymore.  In fact, where I live, it's still in the 100s and with the monsoon season, it's unbelievably humid.  I've tried a lot of JulieG nail polishes, and I can honestly say that many of them have amazing, vibrant shades that apply beautifully on the nails.  However, I have not tried JulieG's neons till now.  Here are some neon shades from her line, as well as a glitter topper.

JulieG Nail Color in Bikini

Nail Stamp Art: Cupcakes Using DRK-B Jumbo Image Plate

DRK-B image plate







I am a fan of XL or jumbo image plates for nail stamping, so when I saw this DRK-B image plate at Ninja Polish, I just had to get it. It had - gasp - cupcakes! Some of the images were not that unique, but I really liked the cupcake design, and a few others, so I snagged it.  Note: You need to peel off the blue film on the plate prior to use!





I used one of my Sally Hansen Chrome polishes (the ones in bottles). I also used China Glaze in Wicked Style as the base color. The image transferred okay on the stamper, but you need to wait for a few seconds for the nail polish on the stamper to dry a bit before stamping, or else you will get smudged images.

Can't wait to try out the other images!

Thakoon for NARS Nail Lacquer: Ratin Jot Swatches and Review

Nail Stamp Art: China Glaze Capitol Colours The Hunger Games Polish in Riveting With Red Angel Image

I am just loving this polish called Riveting from the China Glaze Hunger Games Collection, otherwise known as Capitol Colours. It's the most vibrant out of the 12 polishes from that collection, but I think it's also the prettiest and most coveted. It's this fiery orange-coral with shimmer that looks spectacular on any skintone, I believe. I never used to wear oranges and corals because I thought that the shade looked dirty against my skintone, but Riveting is just one of the prettiest corals I own, and it looks great on my warm olive-toned skin.



I also used my Red Angel plate in RA-121 for this nail look with Konad Special Polish in White. I really like the end result. Very vibrant yet feminine.

If you want to check out my China Glaze Capitol Colours for the Hunger Games swatches, see Part 1 and Part 2 of my Capitol Colours posts. I can't wait to see the film!

Nail Stamp Art Using Zoya Nail Polish in Carey

I got several of these jumbo plates from Chez-Delaney almost two years ago, and I am still enjoying the images to this day. I didn't use this exact plate for the image below, but it belongs to something like this from Chez-Delaney. I opted swirls like this one, but I used a more subtle image color to almost blend with the background.







I used my most favorite shade from the Zoya Feel collection, Carey.  It is a beautiful dove grey creme, so pretty for winter.  For the image, I used China Glaze Sci-Fi which is a chrome polish, so it transfers quite easily from the stamp onto the nail.  The effect is quite simple and you really wouldn't notice the design unless you're observant.  I will be posting some more of these "fauxnad" designs using my new beautiful creams from Zoya (True collection swatches will be up soon!).

Halloween Nails Using China Glaze VIII and Bundle Monster Image Plate

I got these Bundle Monster plates off Amazon for only $21-something for 21 plates. I bought Bundle Monster plates last year, but these new ones are different from the ones I previously purchased. I think BM heeded a lot of people's suggestions to make the images wider, because their full-nail designs were too narrow to cover the entire nail bed. Now I think they widened their images just a tiny bit. I picked a weird skull image as my Halloween image:

Nail Stamp Art: Finger Paints Nail Polish in Purple Pinstripe and XL Image Plate B

Remember these XL plates I purchased at Magnonails.de earlier this year?









I used one of those full nail designs from XL plate B. These are like machine cog wheels, so cute! I used one of my favorite nail polish brands, Finger Paints, a Sally Beauty exclusive. I used Purple Pinstripe which is a purple cream that is very pretty. I used Konad special polish in Pastel Violet. I missed a spot on my ring finger, but I think it still looks nice. The good thing about using an image polish in the same color family as your base polish is that the design turns out a lot more subtle, so you can actually wear it to conservative venues like the workplace without attracting too much attention.

I'll be using more of these full-nail images from my XL plates for you to see how pretty the designs are. Stay tuned!

Nail Stamp Art: Orly Rio Nights and XL Image Plate D

Here's one of my favorite nail images. I love purple polish so I find Orly Rio Nights amazing. It is a jelly though so it took a few additional coats for me to get the opacity I wanted. I used one of my favorite image plates of late, the XL image plate D:



I used China Glaze khrome polish in Millenium for the image, and I added a couple of lilac rhinestones in each nail to complete the look. So fun and easy!

Nail Stamp Art: Orly Sapphire Silk from Orly Spring Collection 2011

Here is one of my favorite shades from the Orly Spring Collection 2011. Sapphire Silk is a deep muted teal which they say is similar to MAC's Blue India. I have the latter as well and Blue India has a bit more greyish undertone, sort of more dusty:


MAC Blue India

Anyways, they are not complete dupes and I am happy I have both in my collection. In the nail stamp art using Sapphire Silk, I also used my lovely XL image plate "D" with China Glaze Millenium to stamp the image:


XL image plate "D"

I love my XL image plates, the images transfer really well onto the stamp. I accessorized it with cobalt rhinestones.

Have a great weekend!

Nail Stamp Art Using China Glaze Tronica Nail Polish in Digital Dawn

So remember when I received the XL image plates a few days ago? I used XL plate "D" for the images:


I used the bottom left image.

My base color is China Glaze in Digital Dawn from the Tronica collection. It's a nice burnt orange holo, very pretty. I used Konad special polish in Black, which was probably a mistake. I didn't like the overall nail look because the image was too dark. It would have been nice if I didn't use a stark black polish for the image. A lighter grey or pewter would have worked better. I added red rhinestones to add some dimension to the polish. Not a favorite, but at least I found out that the XL plates do work wonderfully.