Rainbow Clouds

We had some awesome summer storms here so I was inspired to do this nail art. I used Zoya Dove topped with Candeo Colors Sprouse for the main nails. The accent nail with clouds used various colors.

Monday Mani: Easter

This week's Monday Mani theme at PAA (Polish-aholics Anonymous) is Easter. I decided to go super cutesy for today's mani, and I love how it turned out. It was super fast to do too!

On my ring finger I used a base of 2 coats of Sinful Colors Candy Coated. The formula is really nice on this, and the dry time is decent considering it's a pastel.

On my index finger, I used a base of 3 coats of Sinful Colors Unicorn. Since it's a yellow and a pastel, dry time was pretty slow though the formula was decent.

I used 2 coats of Candeo Colors Jellybean on my other fingers. I knew I had to use Jellybean for this mani, because well the name is jellybean! Plus the yellow base matched Unicorn and the purple glitter matched Candy Coated.

I painted on the bunny and the chick shell using Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner and just the brush from the bottle. The black details on both are done with Wet n Wild Black Creme and a nail art brush.

The chick's beak is Zoya Arizona, and I just used the brush that came with Arizona. The pink details on the bunny are Ulta Encore Pink, and I again just used the bottle brush to add in those.

I topped everything off with top coat after I let it dry for a while (to prevent dragging of the colors), and tada!

I love how this turned out!

Top Polishes of 2012

Several bloggers have been doing lists of their favorites polishes/manis/products. It seems the end of the year always brings these best of or countdown lists. Well, I decided to do my own! It was so fun reviewing through my blog posts and seeing the awesome manis I did over the past year.

I've decided to bring my list up into two different posts: one with just my top polishes and another with the top nail art designs I did.

For today, I have my top polishes of 2012. These aren't polishes that necessarily came out this year, just polishes that I collected this year. I tried to narrow it down to 10 but couldn't quite do it. So here they are in no particular order, my top polishes of 2012!

Candeo Colors Sprouse: A perfect blend of black, silver, and white glitter, a hint of blue, and silver microshimmer. It applies beautifully with no need to dig out or place glitter.

Zoya Isla & Dollish Polish It's A Me Mario!: This is a two-fer! Zoya knows how to do red polish, and Isla is no exception! Dollish Polish really hit the scene this year with her amazing polishes, especially her glitters. The Mario collection was super popular, and you can really see why here!

Zoya Phoebe: Phoebe is stunning neon blue matte polish. I'm a sucker for matte polishes, and this neon one makes it super fun.

Dollish Polish Expecto Patronum: I couldn't help putting another Dollish Polish on this list! I love these milky white polish bases with glitter. Expecto Patronum is jam packed with tons of teal/aqua glitter.

Candeo Colors Jellybean: And another Candeo Colors!!! This one is based on the same concept as the milky base with glitter, except it's a milky light yellow with glitter.

OPI Chop-sticking To My Story & Dollish Polish The Koopa King: Here's another two-fer and another Dollish Polish (I told you it was her year!). Part of the reason why I choose this mani is not just for the color but the combination of colors. Both polishes play of each other nicely without one dominating the other.

Enchanted Polish Across the Universe: I don't even know what to say about this polish! Holo, color shifting, and named after a Beatles song, drool!

 Smitten Polish EMERAHGERD CANDY CORMS: I really am obsessed with these milky bases. This time we have another white with candy corn colored glitter.

Nicole by OPI Khloe Had a Lam-Lam: My favorite polish of all time. Hands down. I love green, dark colors, and dusky tones. This polish has it all including a great formula. If only it wasn't that weird Nicole by OPI bottle...

ManGlaze Santorum: I bought this color on the suggestion of a friend, and I'm so glad I did. ManGlaze makes the best matte polishes around. Santorum while being a totally gross name is beautiful dark brown matte polish with tons of micro shimmer. Try this one topcoated. Seriously.

Candeo Colors Orchid

Orchid is the final Candeo Colors that I bought. I got this one in a mini when she did a huge restock of minis only.  I also used my final Disney Villain polish as a base coat to preserve Orchid.

This is Disney Villains #16. The ring and pinkie fingers are what the color looks like, while the middle and index fingers show off the shimmer that is present.  I need 2 coats of this.

Orchid lightened up the Villain polish quite a bit, and I like the effect they have together.  They larger glitters in Orchid had to be dug out of the bottle, but I'm going to guess it's because of the mini bottle.  I needed 2 coats on most nails, but did do some dabbing/glitter placement on some of them for a 3 coat.  Onto some swatch spam!

Candeo Colors Sprouse

I love Candeo Colors polishes. They are beautiful, well-made, not impossible to get, and apply nicely.

For this mani, I used Essie Marshmallow as my base. I had to use 3-4 coats to get it not streaky and full coverage. And then it never dried even though I waited in between coats and even used a fast dry top coat between the final 2 coats.

I put 1 thick coat of Sprouse over it which made this mani beautiful! Sprouse contains tiny holographic glitters (kinda like what is in INM Northern Lights, but with TONS more), small white and black hexes, bigger white/silver/blue hexes, and black and white bar glitter in a clear base. With the glitter on it, Marshmallow took on a grey tone, but that's okay with me since I love grey polish.

On with the pictures including a close-up of the glitter fabulousness.

Candeo Colors Jellybean

Jellybean is the other Candeo Colors I managed to snag when she had a sale on her full size polishes. However, I've since received the 2 minis I've also managed to get in her latest sale which was minis only (I also got 5 others, but those were for some of my blogging friends).

Jellybean is a such an amazing indie polish. The base is wonderfully opaque.  The glitter is very nicely suspended, and I never had to dig it out. It wasn't goopy and had a good dry time. Candeo Colors certainly know what she is doing in creating her indie polishes.

This closeup is awesome (other than the Seche Vite pull) because it shows the layers of glitter. I love how some are brighter and right on top and some are more sandwiched in the middle and paler. It creates a really nice looking polish.

Candeo Colors Poison Frog

A little bit ago, Candeo Colors had some more polishes set to sell. I managed to snag this one and one other (I'll leave you all in anticipation of that one) even through all the chaos and madness! Snagging indie polishes is tough but so worth it. 

Poison Frog is a bunch of different kinds of gold glitter (tiny squares, tiny/small/medium hexes, and diamonds) all mixed together in a sheer olive green base filled with tons of gold micro glitter.

Poison Frog is shown here with 3 coats. It went on beautifully, and I didn't have to fish glitter out of the bottle.  The base on it is sheer though. I was hoping it would build up more, but it didn't do that for me.  Next time I will layer it over a green or even a gold.