China Glaze Prize Winning Mare

Here's a polish from China Glaze's Fall 2008 Rodeo Diva collection. Prize Winning Mare is a rich gold with a strong hint of brown.  It's got complex, multicolored shimmer.

China Glaze Prize Winning Mare

China Glaze Prize Winning Mare

I used two coats and application was fairly easy. This collection came out around when companies had just switched over to the new B3Free formulas, and it has a little of that odd runny/thick texture, but it's easy to overcome those issues with a little extra attention and care.

How To Do A Simple Glitter Gradient Manicure — No Sponges Necessary!

Lately I've really gotten into browsing Pinterest. It's a cool way to discover beautiful, interesting things. There are plenty of fellow nail fanatics on there, and I'm having fun finding them and following their pin boards. This manicure was inspired by all the glittery manicures people have been pinning up on Pinterest.

This is a manicure that looks fancy but is super easy to do:

 — Paint the base color. (After your base coat, of course!)
Use any color you like. I painted my nails with four coats of OPI I'll Take The Cake. It's a sheer pink with very fine multicolor shimmer. Four coats seems like a lot, but this polish goes on so smoothly it was no trouble.

— Let it dry.
It doesn't need to be completely dry, just let it dry for a few minutes. You want the base color to stay in place without wrinkling when you add the glitter.

— Add the glitter.
Use any color glitter polish you like. I used Wet n Wild The Gold & The Beautiful. It's glitter in a clear base, which made it perfect for this technique.
- dab a small to medium drop of glitter at the base of the nail.
- wipe the rest of the polish off the brush and back into the bottle.
- lightly drag the drop of glitter outward in small, short strokes.
- fade the glitter by making short strokes starting partway up your nail. This will drag some glitter particles to the middle of your nail, but will not catch too many by taking glitter from the densest part at the base of the nail.

— Finish the manicure.
All you need now is a quick drying topcoat and some cuticle oil!

Here's what I'll Take The Cake looks like on its own, for good measure:

I hope my instructions made sense. Tell me if anything needs clarifying! What color combinations would you try? I want to try taupe with silver glitter, but I have to buy some silver glitter polish first!

Orly Sugar is a golden, sweet topping

Just one coat of Orly Sugar gives you a dense but delicate layer of tiny golden flakes. This polish is perfect for adding golden sparkles to any color you want. I added Sugar to my William Tell Me About OPI manicure.

I purchased this bottle several years ago at the beginning of my nail polish obsession. Since it has a black rather than silver cap, I think that indicates it as an old non-B3Free formula. I don't know if this polish was limited edition, or if Orly reformulated it and added it to their permanent line. There might be a CND Effects topcoat that would be similar, though I don't own any myself for comparison.

L'Oréal Owl's Night — New LE Project Runway Collection

Here's Owl's Night, the second of the two L'Oréal polishes I picked up yesterday. This one belongs to the Watchful Owl subsection of the new Project Runway collection.

I swatched this with three coats, but you could easily get coverage with only two. Owl's Night has a deep, dusty plum base with lots of gold shimmer. I think this is a perfect fall color and I like it a lot. It looks like it might be a cousin of Chanel Or de Russie, but I don't have that one for comparison. In any case, it's a very luxurious color.

Wet n Wild The Gold & The Beautiful

Here's a polish I picked up in CVS last week for about $2. Wet n Wild is a pretty awesome brand; they make nice polishes and they're very affordable. The Gold & The Beautiful is basically just dense gold glitter. I swatched it with three coats. It covers pretty well, but the nail line is still visible.

I think this polish is best for layering. You could layer it over a gold foil if you just wanted extra blingy gold nails. I layered one medium coat over four different colors to get a sense of the possibilities. (Index: Misa Heaven White; Middle: Wet n Wild Black Crème; Ring: Wet n Wild Teal of Fortune; Pinky: Zoya Mimi.)

This is definitely not a delicate gold shimmer, as you can see. I also think this polish would work very well for adding gold sparkle to a frankenpolish. If I can find an empty bottle, I may come up with something!