Showing posts with label Hard Candy. Show all posts

A Month in Mani's

A Look back at all my manicure looks for December 2013.


It's time for my last A Month in Mani's for 2013! I really like doing this recap -I hope you do too!- , so I think this is a series that I plan on keeping for 2014. Like always I will have links below each look, which will take you to it's corresponding post. I also will have manicures that I shared on Instagram. 
I actually did a lot more manicures than I thought in December! I was pleasantly surprised. Hopefully I can do even more this month.

Hard Candy Sweet Tooth
My first manicure for December was this review of Hard Candy Sweet Tooth. This was the first time I had ever tried Hard Candy polish. I was not too thrilled by the formula, but I was pleased with the final look. I just love the multicolored round glitters. I used four coats of Sweet Tooth over a coat of white polish, then finished the look with a coat of my Revlon Quick Dry top coat.

O.P.I I Theodora You
This soft, pale pink polish is from the O.P.I Oz the Great and Powerful Collection. It was very thin, so I used five thick coats over a coat of white polish. Then finished it off with my Revlon Quick Dry top coat. While I hated the formula, I really like the look of this shade.

O.P.I Don't Burst My Bubble.
This nude/taupe polish is also from the Oz the Great and Powerful Collection, and a total pain to apply. I applied five thick coats over a coat of white polish. Then one coat of my Revlon top coat. This shade was a thin, streaky mess, and very disappointing. Though the name is adorable...

I'd love to stay, but I really mustache...
My first design of December was this super cute mustache design using Milani A Rose My Lady as my base, NYC Black Lace Creme for most of my mustaches, and Zoya Tomoko for my ring finger's mustache. For the mustaches I used a stencil set by Revlon that I stumbled upon at a local store -And bought for $1!-.

O.P.I Glints of Glinda
This nude/light tan shade is the third polish in the Oz the Great and Powerful Collection. As with the other two polishes in this collection, it is very thin, so I used five thick coats over a base of white polish, then my Revlon top coat.

O.P.I What Wizardry is This?
This green, holo-glitter shade is the final polish from the Oz the Great and Powerful Collection, and my favorite. It had much better coverage than the other three shades, so I only had to use four coats over a base of white polish. And again, my Revlon top coat.

Let it snow...
My final design of 2013 was this wintery snowflake theme using Sally Hansen Grey by Grey as my base color. Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and Milani Art of Silver for the snowflakes, stripes, and dots. And Sally Hansen Triple Shine Sparks Fly for the glittery accent nails. I finished the design off with a coat of my Essie Matte About You top coat on the stripes and snowflakes, and my Revlon top coat on the glitter polish.

From Instagram
I made this manicure using four coats of Maybelline Clearly Spotted over NYC Black Lace Creme, then two coats of Essie Matte About You top coat.
From Instagram:
Instagram


From Instagram
I applied two coats of Wet n Wild I Won't Repel You and Drawn Together by Force, followed by my Revlon Quick Dry top coat.
From Instagram:
Instagram


Thanks for reading! To check out November's manicure round up click here
I think my favorite look from December is a toss up between my manicure using Clearly Spotted from Instagram, and my Mustache nail art. I can't decide!
-xo Brittany

Which one was your favorite? What was your favorite manicure that you did in 2013? Let me know in the comments!

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Askruk46

Hard Candy Sweet Tooth Swatch & Review

Today I have a new polish I bought during my recent Ulta haul (here) to review for you! I actually didn't buy this polish at Ulta, I bought it at the Walmart across the street while I was grocery shopping... But hey, polish is polish. And this one is super cute, and I couldn't pass it up.

Hard Candy Sweet Tooth - $4
Hard Candy Sweet Tooth is a creme-jelly semi-glossy formula, with a blueish lilac base, and pink, blue, and silver round metallic glitters.


One thing I was disappointed with was that at first look this polish looks like a jelly polish, and looks like it would almost have the appearance of cake frosting on the nail. However, what I got was some cute glitter, and a clear, thin, milky base, masquerading as a colored base.


I do love the metallic glitter though. The mix of pink, blue, and silver is pretty, and unique. The glitter was also pretty easy to work with. It didn't clump together, or stick to the brush.  The glitter was also pretty densely packed in the bottle, which made application even easier.

Hard Candy Sweet Tooth glitter close up.
For my application, I applied a coat of white polish as a base, because I had a feeling this polish was going to be a bit thin. And man, was I right. The first coat of Sweet Tooth was so sheer, you wouldn't have even known I applied it if it wasn't for the glitter. I ended up having to apply over four thick coats to bring out the lilac color, and get good coverage. After drying, I applied a coat of Revlon Quick Dry top coat.

Hard Candy Sweet Tooth under lamp.


Hard Candy Sweet Tooth with flash.
Hard Candy Sweet Tooth in natural light.
Sadly, the sun decided to hide on photo day, so I have no sunlight shots to show off how bright the metallic glitter is. But I will have a video on Instagram of the glitter in light by the time this post is up, so feel free to check that out. My Instagram link is on the right.

Overall, while the look does slightly remind me of frosting, and I like how the slight tint covers the previous coats, creating some depth, I wish the lilac tint was much more pronounced. I had to apply way more coats than I normally do, just to prevent bald spots and streaking.
While I am not crazy about the formula, and wish the overall shade was a bit bolder, I love the pastel color, the interesting metallic glitter, and the end result.

Thanks for reading! To check out my previous Swatch & Reviews click here.
- xo Brittany

What do you think of Hard Candy Sweet Tooth? Would you add it to your polish collection? Let me know in the comments!

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Mattifying

Hello, lovelies! How do my nails look? These are the first pictures since I broke the index nail of this hand and did an emergency teabag fix. It's holding up great!!

As for this post, I bring you a new product today. Or rather, New York Color (NYC) brings you a new product. It's a mattifying top coat (yep, they called it mattifying) they've named Matte Me Crazy.



I was stunned to find this on the shelf. The only matte top coat to be found around here is Hard Candy's, Matte-ly in Love, found exclusively in Walmart. Hard Candy will cost you about $4 for a .35 fl oz bottle. It will even get you a cute little cardboard topper that fits over the cap. This makes finding it in a polish drawer very easy!


But, the reason I was so excited to find this new matte top coat is that NYC costs under $2 for a .33 fl oz bottle and can be bought in a multitude of locations. Sadly, it doesn't come with a cardboard topper and is not so easy to find in a polish drawer. :(


Now for the nitty gritty. Hard Candy has a much thicker formula. Hard Candy passed the drip test with flying colors. NYC ... not so much. It gave two very quick drips and a slower third before leveling out on the brush.


While on the subject of brushes. Hard Candy has a short, rounded brush with a slightly short and round cap. It fits in my hand okay but its short length may not be comfortable for everyone. NYC has a longer and wider brush that's attached to a round cone like cap. My preference in brushes have always leaned towards the wider and flatter. I adore the Sally Hansen flat brush and the new Wet n Wild megalast Pro brush so I prefer the NYC brush.


I don't think Riveting was the polish to go for when testing out a new matte top coat. I know it turned matte but I'm not sure just how matte. I can however tell you that NYC mattified slower than Hard Candy. I was actually kind of pleased about this though. I've had trouble with one part of my nails turning more matte than another with Hard Candy because it dried and turned matte too quickly. I don't know about anyone else, but I paint backwards so my pinkie nail was just settling into fully matte by the time I started my thumb with NYC. I had no streaking or blobs of darker matte with NYC.

I will definitely give you a more thorough answer on just how matte is matte when talking about these two in another post with another mani. NYC may just be a good substitute for the more expensive Hard Candy. We'll see ... probably sometime next week.

Askruk46

Vintage Inspired

Can I just say thank you for all the wonderfully sweet comments on my Spring mani? I know I don't answer the comments as often as I should, but I just want you guys to know that you really know how to turn a bad day around and make a girl happy!! I treasure each and every comment.


I decided to stick to the theme and do something with flowers again. I know this has been done a thousand times before by others but this is a mani I haven't tried before.  So, I figured, why not give it a try? Vintage inspired, here I come!


Natural Evening Light
I tried to keep everything soft without bright sunlight. It just felt right with these nails.

Yep, that's a broken nail. Both index nails broke yesterday and contributed to my very bad day. Sadly, this hand, my left, is by far the worst. And it just grew out from the last break too!! :(


I did a Google search for vintage and came up with this vintage floral wallpaper. That and the tons of other vintage floral nails are where this idea comes from. With this design, I really don't think I can claim anything as mine since it's all been done before. So I give credit to all the nailers out there who have done this design before me!!

I think I'm finally getting the hang of swirled roses. It only took two days of near non-stop practice.

Is there anything you guys would like to see me do on this blog? I'm open to suggestions. :)

Polish Used
  • Borghese - Brillante
  • Sinful Colors - Beautiful Girl
  • Wet n Wild - French White Creme
  • Sally Hansen - Mint Sorbet
  • Sally Hansen - Green With Envy
  • OPI - Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window
  • Hard Candy - Matte-ly In Love

Askruk46

Wet n Wild - Disturbia

Pink may be my favorite color but purple is definitely my go to nail polish color. When I'm feeling down, can't decide on a polish, or am just feeling lazy I grab the closest purple and am perfectly content.


This time, the closest purple just happened to be Wet n Wild's Disturbia. I didn't even know I had this color! It was a gift but, while the Disturbia bottle isn't miniature, it is small and a bit short so it got lost in the chaos of my nail polish drawers.


I am so glad I grabbed it this time though because it was just what I was looking for. The polish is thick and creamy and goes on like a dream. Wet n Wild (recently?) switched their Megalast brushes over to their new ManiCurve Pro Brush. Their bottles have also gotten bigger, now holding .45 fl. oz compared to the smaller .30 fl oz bottle I own. However, the Disturbia I have is an older bottle—smaller and without the Pro Brush. That's not to say the brush is small though. It's a goodly sized brush, like a miniature Sally Hansen brush, that holds a lot of polish and smooths it on nicely. It took two coats for full opacity.




As for the polish itself, besides having a great formula, it looks absolutely gorgeous in my opinion. The color is somewhere between a deep purple and a plum that can look completely different in different lights (as seen in the vast differences in purple shown in the pictures). Much like the very pretty shimmer the polish carries. The shimmer is nearly unnoticeable in certain lights but when you can see it sparks with what looks like flecks of red-violet and indigo. You can't really see the indigo here but the red-violet certainly sticks out.




You know me though, I'm not usually one to leave a nail polish to stand alone. First, I gave Disturbia a coat of China Glaze Snow Globe. I will definitely use this combination again. It was absolutely stunning!




Still, that wasn't enough to satisfy me. I took it a step further and gave it one more coat of polish, this time with Hard Candy's Matte-ly in Love matte top coat. Glitter polishes look awesome when you turn them matte. The flakes of glitter don't subtly shift colors anymore but they still shine and pop from a dull background in the light.




The nails got a bit streaky when I was applying the glitter. I didn't want to swamp them in glitter as I have with some previous nails so I was extra careful—probably too careful since the clear got tacky before I was done layering the glitter. I just had to keep going though or there would be large glitter free gaps. The matte top coat smoothed the streaks out fine and I'm sure a regular top coat would do the same.


Disturbia has now taken it's place among my favorite purples and will be in the top three choices next time I'm feeling down, uncertain, or just plain lazy. :)



  • Now, just a reminder of the giveaway coming up very soon. There will be three nail polishes, all bought by me. I am unsure about international shipping at this time. I'm pretty sure US laws state that nail polish has to be sent through ground shipping due to it being labeled a hazardous materiel. With this in mind, this first giveaway will be open only to those US residents or those who have a US address they can have it shipped to. When I ship the prizes for this giveaway, I will ask about the laws at my local post office. Either way, I promise I will have a giveaway of something open to any international followers in the coming months. I won't forget about you guys!!

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