Butter London The Black Knight

Butter London The Black Knight is probably in the top 5 of Butter Londons most popular polishes. I know that ever since I first saw it I had wanted it but at first it was a limited edition color. Thankfully they were smart enough to make it a core color! Another reason I wanted this polish is because the name really just reminds me of Batman and I love Batman! Make sure you look out for the picture of the two together.

The Black Knight is a black base with tons of different colors of glitter thrown in but mostly blue, fuchsia, and some gold. All you need is two coats to get it completely opaque. It will dry a bit matte and definitely has a rough texture because of the glitter so a top coat is needed. In fact it eats top coat a little bit so you will won't two coats for the best shine and optimal glitter gleaming! For this I used two coats of HK Girl. I am very happy I got this polish and it completely lives up to the hype and all of my expectations of this polish. If you have a chance make sure you try this out!

Also don't forget to enter the giveaway that is going on with 8 different blogs including mine! There's only a few more days left to enter for a chance to win some amazing prizes. You can enter a few posts down on the blog giveaway post. Good luck!!

Orly RIP

Ever since I saw this color released I knew I had to have it. I have said this before but Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday! So of course I go to every Sally's in my area and none of them actually have this color. Last week I was super excited when I got a package from my friend Samantha and this was a huge surprise in there for me along with the Nfu-Oh she let me borrow.

R.I.P. is a sheer black base polish with large pieces of orange foil glitter and small gold/coppery glitter. This is the absolute perfect fall/Halloween color for me. The glitter pay off is great too I only had to use one coat for all that glitter. Pictures are shown with one coat of Orly R.I.P. over one coat of Cult Nails Nevermore then topped off with one coat of HK Girl.

Base Coat Comparison for Holographic Polish

My friend Samantha of Just One More Bottle let me borrow her bottle of Nfu-Oh 65 and I have to say I am now addicted to Nfu-Oh. They just make the most perfect holographic polishes of any I have tried. Ok so this is only my third holographic polish and two of those are Nfu-oh but still! These are amazing! This is a light blue aqua holographic polish that really makes me feel like I have mermaid nails that I just can't stop staring at. Application was really smooth and it was good to go in two coats. Holographic polishes do dry faster than normal polishes which is a good thing but also means you have to work quicker.

She also was super sweet and sent me Nfu-Oh Aqua Base to try out. Aqua base is a specialty base coat that is really supposed to make the holographic action pop! Surprisingly aqua base is not aqua but a milky color and dries clear. I wanted to test out how this would compare to using no base coat like my post on Nfu Oh 61, the LA colors nail hardener which is a aqua tinted base coat, and Rimmel base coat which is just clear.

For the first coat I would say that Nfu Oh Aqua Base is the clear winner for the most holo-ness with no base coat and LA colors coming in close second. I had a little trouble with the pinky that had the clear Rimmel base on it but I think that may have been because my bottle is a little older.

For the second coat of Nfu Oh 65 they all ended up pretty much even and very holographic!! The top two would be either using no base coat at all or the Aqua Base. Considering the cost though I would say you are much better off going without a base coat at all because the holo is pretty much equal. In a very close second place I would say the LA Colors aqua tinted base coat is a good choice especially at only $1. You get tons of holo with that and it is pretty much equal with the first two. The clear base is the one I think that worked the least but I still blame that on the old base coat. Still all these methods came out really close so it then just comes down to personal preference.

I think that the first coat of holographic polish is acting as a basecoat those at this point for the second coat and creates OMG amazing nails!

Also, don't forget to enter the giveaway in the post below! Only 6 more days to enter!

Huge Collective Blog Giveaway!!!!

I've teamed up with some awesome nail blogs to give you some great chances to win some amazing prizes!

I will be giving away a mini set of The Bondettes from the new Skyfall 007 collection!  This includes a mini of GoldenEye, The Spy Who Loved Me, The World is Not Enough and Live and Let Die.

Casey will be giving away the China Glaze Wicked 4 pc. set to one lucky follower of her blog Saving the World One Nail at a Time!

This set includes full size bottles of China Glaze Bizarre Blurple, Roughish Red, Glitter Goblin and Ghoulish Glow.  You may recognize China Glaze Ghoulish Glow from my glow in the dark ghost mani I posted a tutorial on earlier!

Each blogger is giving away an equally fantastic prize! Vicki from Nail by Vi will be giving away a nail stamping set complete with scraper and multiple nail plates.

                                            

Samantha from Just One More Bottle will be giving away this China Glaze/Seche Vite Support Awareness set. 

Kari from Finger Glaze will be giving away two Butter Londons in The Old Bill and Pillar Box Red as well as Butter Londons Hardwear Quick Dry Topcoat.

Jill from Glisten and Glow will be giving away an amazing set of her own brand!  In this set you can win a 4oz body was in Sangria White Peach, an 8oz body butter in Sangria White Peach, a Glis-tcs Cuticle oil in Chamomile and HK Girls famous top coat!

Michelle from Rain Down on me Beauty will be giving away an elf nail file, Zoya fast dry drops, nail stickers, a jar of nail stars and a Deborah Lippman Tiny Dancer.

Fiorella from Fiorellas Closet will be giving away Orly Buried Alive, Tokidoki Sandy, China Glaze Stone Cold and Orly Mysterious Curse.

What are you waiting for!  Enter using the Rafflecopter widget below to get as many entries as you'd like to win one of these amazing prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Halloween Serial Killer Nail Tutorial

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday of the entire year. Fall is finally here, the weather is not trying to melt my flesh, and there is a new scary movie out in the theater every single week! Plus costumes and candy! This nail tutorial is inspired by Halloween, my favorite serial killer that is finally back for a new season Dexter, and this awesome nail design by my friend Samantha that can be found here.

First you are going to paint your nails with two coats of a white polish. I chose to use Essie Blanc. Then you are going to to want to top coat this so that when you add red they don't bleed together to turn into an awful strawberry milk color. Don't really worry too much about cleanup because it is about to get really messy!

Next you are going to add blood spatter! There are lots of different methods and tutorials but this is just how I do it. Take your bottle of polish, for this I used Zoya Rekha, remove the cap and put it to the side. Now you are going to take a drinking straw and dip it right into the bottle of polish. You do not need to stick the straw all the way to the bottom just stick it in far enough for the tip of the straw to become covered. Quickly aim the straw at your finger and blow through the straw with one big breath. As as much or as little "blood spatter" as you like. This can get very messy so clean up your skin and around your cuticles as you let the spatter dry before you add top coat for the next step.

Now you could stop here or continue on to the next step to take the creepy up to another level. I thought it would be cool to have a little note on my nails in the classic serial killer type ransom letter style with cut out letters from a magazine. For this you will need to work one nail at a time. Add a layer of top coat to your nail and then add your letter clipping to your nail and position it. If it keeps peeling up push it down and hold it in place for a few seconds. Also as the top coat dries it will be easier to push it into the topcoat and make it stick. Once you have it successfully pushed down add another layer of topcoat to seal it all in. You should end up with something creepy like this!

Breast Cancer Awareness

The month of October is breast cancer awareness month and I would like to ask you all to please support this cause this month. Whether it is just painting your nails or sharing information with others please make sure to spread the word and make others aware of this horrible disease that effects hundreds of thousands of women each year.

Today I wanted to do a little something to show my support so I used Bundle Monster place 321 to stamp awareness ribbons on my nail with the classic pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness. The nails painted white were painted with Essie Blanc and the pink nail is painted in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Presto Pink. For stamping I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White and Presto Pink. For a topcoat I used HK Girl.

Please spread the word and show your support!

Nfu-Oh 61

Nfu-Oh 61 is an amazing polish that I received this week in a swap. I was so excited because I never thought I would own one of their amazing holographic polishes so needless to say it was going on my nails within minutes of pulling it out of the package. I have heard that you are supposed to use Nfu-Oh Aquabase or any basecoat that is tinted blue to get the holographic glory to really pop. I didn't use a basecoat at all and had absolutely no problems with it being any less wow. The formula is so easy to work with and I used three coats for the photos below. I also didn't use a topcoat for the pictures either because I was worried that it may ruin the holograph but have tried the topcoat since and it doesn't change the polish at all. I literally could not staring at my nails they just didn't look real any more. If you have a chance to buy or swap for this polish - take it!

Indoors photos with flash

 

Outdoors with no flash