Mani Monday!

Hello again! Hope you guys had a great weekend. I've been itching to do some nail art lately so I decided to do some striped accent nails. I used Black Creme by wet n wild Wild Shine for the black stripes and piCture pOlish's Vampire as the base. To do the gold stripe I just mixed some gold glitter from the craft store into a bit of clear polish. I cut some scotch tape into really thin strips and used a thin nail art brush to paint the black and gold on. Not the neatest job but I'm happy with it!

piCture pOlish- Vampire

Good afternoon! Today I swatched an indie polish- it's been a while since I last swatched an indie. I love piCture pOlish. Their bottles are adorable! Anywho, Vampire is a deep blood red (almost a bit purple-y) jelly polish. The formula is a slight bit thicker and applied kind of patchy. You would need 3-4 coats to get it opaque and even, but the color makes all work worth it! The photos show 3 coats without top coat.

One Coat

Two Coats

Three Coats

essie- Dress to Kilt

Good evening! I'm sorry, I'm slacking. I've just been so busy lately. I hope I can make up for it with an amazing polish! Here is Dress to Kilt from essie's fall 2014 collection. It is a deep berry red creme with a phenomenal formula. It can totally be a one-coater if you do a slightly thicker coat. It's so smooth and dries super glossy. essie's polishes haven't been too great formula-wise lately, but they really hit it out of the ball-park with this one. As always, I do crazy thin coats so it took me two to hide my nail line. Otherwise, it's opaque in one coat. No topcoat.

Tutorial- Water Marble Layering

Hello! I am so excited to tell you this! I was playing around with the idea of water marbling and realized that (1) you can use the concept to create your own color without actually having to mix polishes and (2) you can use it to apply neons or any polish that has a tricky formula! I hope this is something new to you and that you enjoy!


So, for the first idea all you need is two different colored polishes and all other materials needed to do any kind of water marble (cup, water, toothpick). There are only three steps to this. First, apply the lighter color onto your nails (and make sure its even otherwise any streaks and patches will remain visible). Then, drip just one drop (or more but you'll have to be careful of the rings that appear) of your second color into the water surface and allow it to spread enough so that when you dip it'll cover your entire nail. After it has spread evenly, dip your nail (or as many finger as you can completely cover) in as you would with any other water marble mani, clean the surface with a toothpick and remove your finger. Tadaaaa! You made a new color without having to go through the trouble of mixing polishes in a separate bottle and without having to worry that you didn't mix enough of the color to paint all your nails! I personally never have any empty nail polish bottles on hand and find it hasslesome to mix it on tin foil or a palette (the polish get thick really fast and I always seem to make too much/little of the color). I like to use this method to create pastel colors by putting darker colors over white. It works to apply metallic colors (I'm thinking OPI's "Push and Shove", but I don't have it) without getting any streaks, too! Just apply the metallic like normal then add a layer or two with the water marble method.

As for number two, it's basically the same process except you're using it for a different reason/to get a different result. I've heard people talking about how neons are hard to work with because often times you need to layer them over white to make them bright and fluorescent. However, sometimes putting them over white is hard because it might get streaky or you might not completely cover the white around the cuticles. I find that if you just water marble it on, you can get an even application! (The coats/layers dry much faster too.) You can also control how dark you want your color to be- if you want it darker, just repeat and add more layers until the color is to your liking. You can use this method to create ombre nails as well! This also works with sheer polishes or jellies should you ever want to put them over white.

The possibilities are endless! I really hope that you'll give it a try, if you do I would love to see it (my instagram is @swatchingly)! Thank you so much for stopping by!