Amy's Nail Boutique Liberty

I have started to add a top coat to my manicure on the 7th day that I wear it, just before I take it off the next day to do a new manicure.  I do my nails on Sundays, so the 7th day is Saturday, and because it is not a work day for me, I don't have to worry about whether the top coat is work-appropriate or not.  So, after wearing Hits Speciallita No Olympo Ares, a red holo, I tried Amy's Nail Boutique's Liberty as an accent nail on each ring finger.  Liberty has red, white and blue matte bar and hex glitter, and it has matte stars, too.  I was trying it out to see if I would like the look for July 4th.  I had wanted Nostalgic Lacquer's Pride, but that was limited edition and is not sold anymore.  Liberty has satisfied my desire for a patriotic top coat, though.

Here are some pictures:

You can't really see the red matte glitter, but it's there.

I wanted to show how thick this many layers of polish gets.  I had base coat, one thin and one thick coat of Ares, six layers of top coat (I add one each day), one coat of Liberty, a coat of Gelous, and a coat or two of Seche Vite.

You can see that the glitter lies pretty flat and smooth.

In indirect sunlight, left hand.

Sunlight, right hand.

Sunlight, left hand.

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What an Unexpected Mess: Hits Speciallita No Olympo Ares

I wanted a more mainstream color to wear at work after wearing the in-your-face Lynnderella Cauldron Drippings the week before.  I also didn't have much time for my manicure and wanted something easy to apply.  I love the Hits Speciallita No Olympo holo polishes, and I had not had any trouble with the formulas before.  I picked Ares because the Hits No Olympo holo polishes I had tried before resulted in quick and easy manicures.  Not so with Ares, but I still love it because the red holo shade is beautiful.

The polish is appropriately named after the god of war; I felt like I had been at war with the polish to try to apply it.  My brush was mop-like which made it difficult to be precise. I have not had that issue with any other No Olympo holos, so I assume I just had the one bottle with the bad brush.  It happens.  The polish was thick like syrup, and it forms a "skin" quickly as it dries, so if you like to use an orange stick around your nail edges as you go, you can rip off a bunch of connected skin-like polish . . . like I did.  My first coat was streaky, but a very heavy second coat covered that and any bald patches up.  I still had the issues with the tricky skin-like polish threatening to rip as I used an orange stick around the edges as I went along.  There was no way I was going to suffer through a third coat, though, so I just tried to be as careful as I could.  I still love the polish because it's so pretty.

It is a very attractive shade that's between cherry red and thickened blood red, depending on the lighting. The HBO series True Blood started back up the day I put on this manicure, and the blood red manicure seemed appropriate, although I had not planned it that way.  The holo is noticeable.  Seche Vite as a top coat did not dull the holo.  Cleanup was not too hard.  I developed a new technique in my cleanup routine; I used the side of my cleanup brush bristles to smooth out polish bumps (some from my use of the orange stick as I went along) on the edges of my nails.  The wear was pretty good.  It lasted a full week until I took it off.

Here are some pictures after a day of wear:

Sunlight.

Sunlight.

Sunlight

Indoors, office lighting, without flash.

Indoors, office lighting, with flash.

Indoors, office lighting, with flash.

In indirect sunlight.

Sunlight.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Who is on Copious?

Who else is on Copious?  I need to "expand" my "network" on Copious.  So far I'm only following Kim from College Polished.

If you haven't used Copious yet, apparently it's like etsy and ebay, and there are lots of good nail polish deals to be had.  If you haven't used Copious yet, you can click on this link to get a $10 credit.

Lynnderella Cauldron Drippings and Star Trinkets Jewelry and China Glaze Cross Iron

I received my nail polish jewelry from Star Trinkets about 10 days ago and have been dying to blog about it, but I've been very busy at work this week, and I had a bunch of doctors' appointments, too (not for illness, just regular follow-ups and check-ups) and errands and chores, and I also spent some time with family, so I have not had time until now to blog about the gorgeous jewelry Susan made for me.  She made a set of earrings and a bracelet for me using Lynnderella Cauldron Drippings.

Here are some pictures of the package from Susan:

The black bag was such a pretty touch!  And, everything was securely bubble-wrapped.

I had to adjust the earring loops to make them longer because my ear piercings are set in far from the edge of my ears.  I also adjusted the length of the bracelet.  Sometimes you just can't know how you're going to want to wear a bracelet until you have it on.  I took out about ten or eleven of the extension links.  It was easy enough to do just using a pen at my desk to pry open links.  A few days later, I started wearing the bracelet with the clasp on the end of the actual larger bracelet links with the smaller extension links hanging down from the clasp.  I liked it that way because then it didn't move much and stayed nicely centered on my forearm a few inches above my wrist.  Originally I had ordered a toggle clasp because it's manicure-friendly.  But, Susan had to substitute a lobster clasp instead. I am so glad!  With the lobster clasp, I was able to try out different lengths on the bracelet easily just by changing where I hooked up the clasp.

I took some of the pictures below as I did my manicure, so some of the pictures don't have any clean-up yet.

It took me a long time to choose a polish to use underneath Cauldron Drippings.  I finally settled on China Glaze Cross Iron.  The color, with its brilliance and glow, is gorgeous.  It's an orange that looks metallic.  It did not dry quickly, though.  I messed up a few nails on my first try and had to redo them.

I used a coat of Sally Hansen Age Correct Growth, one coat of China Glaze Cross Iron on my left hand, and two coats of China Glaze Cross Iron on my right hand (that's the hand I start with, but I thought it looked too dark, so I didn't do a second coat on my left hand), two coats of Lynnderella Cauldron drippings, one coat of Gelous, and one coat of Seche Vite, and it dried smooth and glassy.  The next morning I added another coat of Seche Vite.  The next four mornings I added a coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.  I had some shrinkage from the Seche Vite but none from the Revlon.  Usually it's the other way around for me.

The colorful manicure made me think of Mardi Gras.  With the Seche Vite, the manicure was much shinier than the jewelry and therefore difficult to photograph.

I wore the jewelry on Monday to work with an orange suit, I wore it Tuesday with an orange top, I wore it Thursday with a blue top, and I wore it Friday and yesterday with blue tops.  I got complimented on the manicure yesterday by a woman at the post office, and I showed her the matching jewelry!

I have been wearing this polish for a week, and I have no chips, just tip wear.  I will be taking the polish off later today.  Wish me luck!  This will be my first time removing this much chunky glitter.  If I can't get it off with just a cotton ball and acetone, I will try the foil method.

Here are some pictures of the manicure and jewelry:

One coat of China Glaze Cross Iron
(manicure in progress, no cleanup)

One coat of China Glaze Cross Iron compared to the color of Cauldron Drippings

One coat of China Glaze Cross Iron and one coat of Cauldron Drippings

One coat of China Glaze Cross Iron and two coats of Cauldron Drippings

The finished manicure a day later.
I had forgotten to take a bottle shot of China Glaze Cross Iron the day before.

In the sun, day after manicure.

In indirect sunlight, day after manicure.

Sunlight

Office lighting

Office lighting

Office lighting

Office lighting

Office lighting.  You can see a bit of my orange top,  part of a three-piece pants suit.

Sunlight, day three of manicure

Sunlight, day three of manicure

Sunlight, day three of manicure

This was the ring finger of my *right* hand.  I don't usually photograph that hand.  I love the glitter piece near the bottom with two other little glitters on it; it looks like a button to me.

Thumb of my left hand, trying to get an angle shot so you could see the dimension of the layers of glitter.

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Woohoo! I've reached 50 followers!

It was such a surprise to wake up this morning and see I had my 50th follower!  I had been at 49 followers (through Google Friend Connect) for about a week or so.  I haven't been able to post for about as long because I have been very busy at work.  So, I figured that I would not get more followers until I added a new post.

When I reach 100 followers or 100 posts (I'm close to 70 posts right now), I'll have another giveaway.  I would love to have an extra Lynnderella Connect the Dots to give away by then, but I don't even have one for myself yet.  I signed up for the waiting lists, though, and I should be getting an e-mail with the new waiting lists soon.

Even though I haven't been able to put up blog posts in the past few days, I did wrap and mail out my first nail polish packages, one for the giveaway winner, and one for Kim at College Polished (blog) with a Lynnderella that will get some love at its new home.  I'm looking into international shipping for my next giveaway.  If anyone has any information on that or has shipped nail polish internationally, please let me know.

My goal now is to be more active on my Facebook page.  I have been trying to do posts for the blog at work during lunch, but sometimes the pictures are just backlogged waiting for editing, and I only edit pictures at home.  But, I can easily add a short post on my Facebook page during lunch.  Maybe I will mention what I'm wearing on my toes (without pictures) on my Facebook page.  We'll see.

Thank you all so much for following my blog!  And, thank you, stutterxkiss for being my 50th follower!

Melody is the New Winner of My First Giveaway!

Yay!  Melody, I just sent you an e-mail.  Please send me your mailing information so that I can send you your prizes!

May Pick a New Winner for My First Giveaway

I have not heard from Dulcie, the winner of my first giveaway. At some point after 5:00 p.m. today, I will have Rafflecopter pick another winner. I'm giving Dulcie the full 72 hours from when she was picked as the winner.