NOTD, yesterday and today - V-Day Theme Week Continues...

This is gonna be really quick, because I have much more important things to write about  :p  Do I say that all the time, or what?

V-Day Mani week, Day 2:  I wanted something red, to contrast the pink Nicole I had on the day before, so I reached into my drawer of reds and debated for awhile...  I'm scared of reds, though.  I love anything loud and bright, but traditional red nails just scream Grandma or Scary Beautician With Smelly Perfume to me... so I'm always looking for a fresh twist on red... or what I think is "fresh" anyway...

I settled on China Glaze Rose Among Thorns.  Wow.  Pretty.  And bright!  This is a neon cerise colour.  Slightly sheer - even after three coats I could still detect a hint of smile line.  But it's beautiful and vivid - reminds me of maraschino cherries.  I'd call this a neon red.  I love neon red.  And it doesn't dry to that yucky matte finish like all other neons.  It was pretty shiny - this is without any TC.

But I'm never satisfied.  So I decided to jazz it up a little more:

I added two coats of CND Gold Sparkle to it.  I liked the results (Gold Sparkle actually has a few gold FLAKIES in it!  Flakies!  For hurtin people like me [canadians] who are having a hard time getting their paws on Nfu Oh's... okay well, this doesn't even BEGIN to substitute, but still...) but I immediately wished I had added Raspberry Sparkle instead... it would have looked a lot more Valentine's-y (yes, I am using that as a real word now) with the pink sparkles over the red....  It's not showing up the greastest in either of these pics, either way...

By the way, I found this awesome article over at The Edge Of Sanity - it lists a bunch of the CND Colours and Effects and how they look over each other.  A lot of bloggers have said they "aren't totally in love" with the whole concept, and neither am I, but I will definitely be looking into it more, mainly because 1. I like layering and the idea of "the ultimate layering polish line" specifically designed for that purpose is attractive to me, and 2. They have the entire line at my local beauty supply for $6 each.  :p

And finally, this is what I did to my nails before I went to sleep.  I'm counting this as V-Day Mani week, Day 3:

Orly Opal Hope.  I regret to inform you all that I must take off this beautiful polish, even though it is oh-so-lovely and I love its tiny gold and pink sparkles and green and gold duochrome so....  No, it must come off, for there is a fresh TD order that just arrived with my name on it and all the pretty new colours are fighting for space on my nails...  post coming soon...  :p

V-Day Mani Week: Nicole by OPI You're An Angel

I was wanting to do a whole week of red and pink nails to celebrate Valentine's Day... which is weird because traditionally, I hate Valentine's Day.  In or out of love, single or not, this day has always sucked for me.  Except the past two years, in which my boyfriend has made the day exceptionally fun and enoyable by doing "anti V-Day" things with me  :)  Anyway, like someone said on the MUA boards, one of the best things about Valentine's Day?  Gaudy mani's!  :)  I wish I owned some Konad, so I could really get into the whole hearts and flowers theme, but I don't (yet..) so I'm bringing you the most Valentine's-y colours out of my collection  :)  Well, not all of them, since I'm kicking this off kind of late, but some.

Today I decided to test out one of the new Nicole polishes I bought the other day.  It's shimmery and pink and seemed V-day appropriate:

This is Nicole You're An Angel.  Of course my crappy sub-camera refuses to capture the real colour of this polish.  It's a deeper pink than it appears in these pics - not too much deeper, a medium pink, but not as peachy as it looks here.  It has a generous amount of gold and dark pink shimmer in it, and it looks very much like a lighter, more candy-pink version of China Glaze's Strawberry Fields.  You can't really see all the gold shimmer, but where all the white, shiny blobs are on my nails - that's shimmery gold IRL  :p  

 Preeeeetty.......  I was pleasantly surprised by this polish.  I did not expect to like it nearly as much as I did.  I mean, of course I thought I would like it, since I bought it and all, but its much brighter and makes a lot more of an impact than I thought it would.  This would be gorgeous on toes for summer.  So pretty and feminine.  They had a red polish with a similar gold shimmer finish, and it makes me almost want to go back and pick that up too...

That's V-Day polish number one.  I'll be back with more tomorrow.  My TD order is supposed to be here Thursday - can't wait!!!  I'm already planning my next order  :)