This was a halloween-themed mani for me. I'm still trying to catch up to the present, if you will, with my pictures. I'll get there - one day, by golly!

I started with two coats of Maybelline Chic Chocolate. They did something crazy to the brush. It was cut at an awkward and strange angle. It made it rather challenging to apply the polish!

I added a coat of China Glaze Spellbound.

I picked up Spellbound last year from an e-tailer (I think it was only available online), but never got into Halloweeny manicures then. I guess I just wasn't feeling it!

I'm really glad I have this, though, because it's quite unique and super fun.

Can you believe how long my nails are here? Spooky. :)

The sad part here is that Maybellines wear like crap on me, as far as I can tell. It began chipping pretty significantly in under 24 hours.

Maybe I just need to find the right magical combination of base and top with it, huh?

That's okay, anyway. I usually change my polish every day or two at any rate. Sometimes I think it would be nice not to need to, though!

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This manicure started with two coats of Maybelline Gray-T Glamour. I have to say, the brush on this polish is very odd. It's cut sort of at an angle, but almost looking like it was accidental!

I have some older Maybellines and they have seemingly normal brushes, so it was a little unsettling - not to mention rather difficult for me to use! In any case, I added a coat of Revlon's Belle.

I think this is a very pretty combination and I loved how it turned out. Unfortunately for me, it started chipping and peeling within 24 hours! No go, Captain!

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A really kind person on MUA sent me Maybelline Vanishing Venus, along with two other polishes! How did I get so lucky?!

Here it is in three coats, topped with $OPI Only Gold for Me.

I love the green shimmer in Vanishing Venus. It's so spectacular and unexpected!

The same person also sent me H&M Electric and Cover Girl IceSlicks Anti-Freeze! I used them together, below. It's four coats of Electric and one coat of Anti-Freeze. Electric has an insane silver shimmer and Anti-Freeze has iridescent glitter that is pretty hard to see in this picture, but also just on top of Electric. It would probably be more noticeable over another color of polish and I will definitely be trying it over others soon!

And my last mani is with $OPI Midnight Mambo. It's an online exclusive, and I believe LE, so hurry up and get one!! :)

I used two coats. This polish is very thick but yet not hard to work with. I also finished it with two top coats and you could still feel the bumpiness of the glitter underneath!

Pardon my poor middle nail that broke. I love the bright blinginess of Midnight Mambo! So lovely!

In my next post I will spend a little time going over nail care and tips/tricks for application, as suggested by a most welcome comment from Morgan. Thanks for the suggestion, Morgan! Stay Tuned!

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Hello and Happy Tuesday to everyone!  I'm having a pretty great day, I'm glad to say, and hope you are, too.  Right now it's thundering outside and looks quite ominous.  But my heart is filled with sunshine from my awesome and ever-growing nail polish collection!  I sound so dorky, I know.  I had some exciting nail polish finds today while out shopping.  ;)  You will see....soon enough.  Mua-ha-ha!

This is the dainty Maybelline Express Finish Pink Pixie.  I did three coats here because half of my nails are still stained pretty badly from Orly Mint Mojito quite a while back!  It's rather sheer, but did build up nicely and is very pretty on its own.

You know I had to add some pizazz.  Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Strobe Light seemed just right.  One coat on top of the Pink Pixie.

It has really awesome super chunky holo glitter.  I adore this!!

I cannot overstate the blinding quality of the glitter in this polish.  Especially in the bright Florida sun.  BLINDING, I say!  Be warned!

The picture below is in shaded natural lighting.

And this is my artsy flash picture to try and show the rainbow bling of the holo.

More?  What's that?  You want more pictures?  Okay.

This next mani is special and strange.  Stay with me on this one, okay?  First I started with two coats of Icing My Blue Heaven.  It's a really cool mid-darkish grayed-blue creme.  Got that?  The next couple of pictures in outdoor lighting best represent it, but I did also take some indoor pictures with a flash.

The first time around I got some significant bubbling.  I ended up redoing it and let each coat dry for 5-10 minutes before going on.  This seemed to fix almost all of the bubbling.  Patience - is something that I'm not great with!

Now is where things get a little bit interesting.  Below are the pictures indoors with a flash.  Same polish.  Can you believe it?  Looks totally different.

I added one coat of Nubar Morning Glory, a sheer blue duochrome.  

I also decided to try out Love My Nails Violets Are Blue.  I added one "coat," if you can call it that.

For those of you who have used crazy chunky funky shaped glitter polishes before, then you know what a challenge they can be.  It took a lot of patience to get a heart or two to cling to the brush and then I quickly dropped it onto the nail and tried to smooth it out into what you would hope is a somewhat normal coat.  

The unevenness you see is from me getting one heart, blobbing it on in a stripe, it taking me a while to get another (kind of like fishing for hearts!), and then blobbing it on in another stripe to cover the nail.

All in all, it was cute and fun.  And I'm going to have to call it my Patience Crazy mani because the whole thing from start to finish with my d0-over, took waaaaay too long.  

These sunlight pictures show it off a little better, I think.  The layer of Morning Glory really changed the tone completely!  It took it from gray-blue to a strange frosty lavender-pink something-or-other.

One last picture in the shade.

Did you get your nail polish fix yet?  No?  Okay, one more then.

I did $OPI Underwater Fantasy, two coats, with french tips.  I used my white Stripe Rite to make the tips.  It wasn't too hard but I could obviously use some practice!  :)  I snapped a few pictures of this in natural light, too, just a bit ago, and might post them later this evening.

Thanks for looking - I know it was a lot!  

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