FNUG - Psychedelic

Hello my dear friends!

I would like to start by wishing you a belated Merry Christmas! I wore this manicure for Christmas and really wanted to post it on or before Christmas Day, but I failed miserably. Oh well, here it is now.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I am a big fan of reading books. When I get on a reading kick, I can be a "zombie" for prolonged periods of time. This means that every spare moment I can find is being spent reading my book, and I even try to read while performing certain tasks like cooking or brushing my teeth (I'm not joking). I usually can't be bothered with silly things such as sleep or speaking to my husband when I'm REALLY into a good book or series, so that typically means that blogging gets pushed aside as well. Fortunately I eventually snap out of the book trance and catch up on blogging at some point, and here I am now. :) I hope you can all forgive me, and also know not to be worried when I disappear for short bursts. In case you are a fan of reading too, here is a link to my Goodreads account where I keep track of what I'm reading.

Onto the good stuff:

PLEASE click to enlarge!!

The gorgeous polish you see in all these photos is FNUG Psychedelic. This is my very first holographic nail polish and I cannot believe it took me so long to get my hands on one. Of course, I was being picky about WHICH holographic I wanted to own first. I didn't want to settle. So I waited until I could get my hands on what I've read on other blogs to be one of the best holographics out there. I'll give you more information on how to get your hands on this polish at the end of this post. 

What you see above is 1 coat of FNUG Aqua Fix Basecoat and 2 coats of FNUG Psychedelic. No top coat. It seems as if the top coat can tone down the intensity of the polish a bit, so I photographed it without top coat. After doing the nail art you will see below I added one coat of top coat to protect it all, and it didn't seem to change noticeably. 

I used the Aqua Fix Basecoat because that is what the manufacturer recommends. I read that a lot of holographic polishes tend to drag and leave bald spots, which can require you to use a lot more than two coats. However, they claim this special base coat will help the holos stay put and allow you to use fewer coats. I researched this claim quite a bit and I found a lot of bloggers that recommended the use of a base coat like this, so I spent the extra money. I did not test the holographic without the special base coat yet, but I CAN say that with the base coat I only needed two thin coats of Psychedelic. 

I added a tiny little santa hat because I was feeling festive. The red is OPI The Spy Who Loved Me and the white is Finger Paints Paper Mache. The santa hat was free-handed with a small nail art brush.

Above is a quick photo of Aqua Fix Basecoat and Psychedelic. 

FNUG is an international brand that I wasn't originally able to get my hands on. It was extremely frustrating. If you are also located in the US and cannot seem to acquire some of those hard-to-get international brands, you MUST check out Harlow and Co. This website is so wonderful and is how I managed to get my hands on this Scandinavian brand. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

--Dixie

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Halloween Nail Art

Hey you guys!

Here is my second attempt at Halloween nail art. I'd say it is a bit of a step up from my Frankenstein nails, huh? It sure took longer!

Left Hand

Below is a list of all the polishes that I used for this manicure. 

Thumb and ring finger: OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Hear? as the base, Pure Ice Black Rage for the accents, and silver loose glitter from the Born Pretty Store. 

Index: Pure Ice Black Rage for the base & China Glaze Orange You Hot? for the pumpkin.

Middle finger: Zoya Charisma for the base and Pure Ice Black Rage for the bat. 

Pinky: Pure Ice Black Rage for the base and Finger Paints Paper Mache for the ghost. 

Right Hand

I freehanded the characters on my index, middle, and pinky fingers using a variety of nail art brushes and dotting tools. I used scotch tape for the designs on my thumb and ring finger, and then placed the loose glitter (dubbed "glequins" by Sam at The Nailasaurus) along the border with a toothpick. 

Left Hand

I'm really happy with how the nail art turned out. I wasn't sure I'd be able to accomplish such a large undertaking, but I keep surprising myself. 

If you read my blog, I'd love to have your feedback on what you think about this manicure.

Also, what types of posts keep you coming back? Is it the nails, the beauty box reviews, or other product reviews? Would you like to see me write about anything else? PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Thanks!

--Dixie

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Sephora by OPI | Traffic-Stopper Copper & Finger Paints | Paper Mache

I have some sparkles to show you!

The glitter I am sharing today is a glitter that caught my eye quite some time ago. I can't even remember... maybe 6 months or so? Anyway, I passed it up because I didn't want to spend $9 on a glitter, much less a glitter that makes me fish it out of the bottle. HOWEVER, I couldn't stop thinking about it. If you're not a HUGE fan of nail polish like I am, that will sound nuts, but I'm serious. So I finally purchased the glitter... and I don't regret it. Thank you very much. 

Finger Paints - Paper Mache

The first photograph is of the base color that I decided to use. I swatched this glitter on about 9 different colors to see which one would show it off the best and I ultimately decided to go with a clean, crisp white. The photo above is 2 coats of Finger Paints Paper Mache on top of 1 coat of base coat. No top coat. Application of this color is pretty easy, however, it seems to dry very slowly. I ALMOST decided to just stop at this step because the plain white nails were quite pretty. If you keep reading, you'll notice that I couldn't resist the sparkles.

Sephora by OPI -- Traffic-Stopper Copper

What you see above, as well as all of the photos that follow, is an attempt to show how pretty this glitter is. Of course the name Traffic-Stopper Copper indicates that the glitter is a copper color, but it also looks like a rose gold shade to me. As you all have likely noticed, rose gold jewelry has become quite popular recently, and I LOVE it. I may as well have some nails to match my jewelry, right? Yes.  

Sephora by OPI -- Traffic-Stopper Copper

As I mentioned at the very beginning of the post, you have to fish this glitter out of the bottle. It is not very densely packed, so it is a bit of a pain to get on the nail. However, once you get the hang of it, you can get a decent amount of sparkles to cooperate. In all of the photos, there are two coats of the glitter and one coat of fast-dry top coat. 

Sephora by OPI -- Traffic-Stopper Copper

You'll see better in the macro shots above and below that there are two different sizes of glitter: larger hexagonal glitters and smaller micro glitters.

Sephora by OPI -- Traffic-Stopper Copper

Sephora by OPI -- Traffic-Stopper Copper

I took photos at several different angles with various amounts of lighting to show you the color of the sparkles. What do you think? I quite like this glitter. :)

Later Gators

--Dixie

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OKC Thunder Fingernails: China Glaze - Splish Splash & Orange You Hot?

Hello Thunder Fans (and everyone else)!

After posting my last "OKC Thunder Fingernails" manicure, I stumbled upon several other far superior versions of Thunder manicures. I felt a little silly for calling my plain blue fingernails a themed manicure, so I'm back again with some improvements. 

My best rendition of the basketball in the Tunder's logo

I started by applying 2 coats of China Glaze's Orange You Hot? to my thumbnail. After that was dry, I used a smaller brush to paint the blue portion (China Glaze's Splish Splash) you see in the photo above. I then used a fine-tipped nail art brush I purchased from Sally's Beauty Supply to draw the black lines of the basketball and then outlined it in white to mimic the logo as much as I could. It's not perfect, but I think I did pretty good for my first try at free-hand nail art.

Other thumb

The black lines were done with Pure Ice - Black Rage, and the white outline was done in Finger Paints - Paper Mache.

China Glaze Splish Spash & Orange You Hot? from the Summer Neons 2012 Collection

Here's a shot of the rest of my hand. I did an accent nail in orange with three different colors of polka dots using my dotting tool (also purchased from Sally's).

Other accent nail

 The dark color is Essie - Midnight Cami. It is actually a dark blue, but it always looks black. The middle color is Splish Splash. And the last color is Pure Ice - Silver Mercedes.

After letting things dry as long as I could stand it, I topped everything off with Sally Hansen's Inta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat. Tada!

Also: The Thunder won again! :) :)

Thanks for stopping by...

--Dixie

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