Shellac Asphalt

So the black gel manicure got a nasty chip on day 12 :(

But the upside is I get to try out another new soak off colour!  I chose Shellac Asphalt and it took 2 coats.  I also added a layer of Gelish Structure underneath, which is just a clear gel that adds strength.  The accent nail is one coat of Ez Flow TruGel in Winners Circle over Asphalt. Winners Circle is a clear base with silver, pewter and pink glitter.

2 days later I decided to add a stamp since it's been awhile since I've worn any nail art.  I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pink Aluminum and plate BM224.

I think Shellac Asphalt will probably be the first gel polish I empty.  It's pretty awesome.

Later
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Random Swatches

It seems like I'm all over the place here lately but I swatched some of my recent purchases:

This is Jessica Iridescent Eye, the Chanel Peridot Dupe.  It's very cool, I really like it.  I like that it looks mostly green instead of gold.

I stamped it with Kleancolor Metallic Brown and plate RA-118.  Yeah I also ordered the Red Angel stamping plates from Amazon and had them delivered to my sister in Delaware.  My US haul post was already so big I didn't see a reason to include them at the time.

This is a swatch of another polish I picked up in the US - Kleancolor Holo Green, 2 coats over my black gel manicure.  Even with a coat of Seche Vite this is gritty as hell.  It reminds me quite a bit of the Color Club Mistletoe Collection.

And finally we have Duri Purple Rain.  This is the blackest purple I own and it has a really nice shimmer under light which you can barely see on my middle finger.  This is my second Duri polish and can I say that I friggen love these!  Nice application, nice brushes and ZERO staining!  I honestly couldn't believe that there was not a single stain on my fingers even after a light swipe of remover.  Amazing brand and I look forward to more.

Later
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Winning at Winners

Ok so Winners has pissed me off with their recent price increases on Color Clubs but I will still shop there because they still have decent deals on stuff.  And my most recent steal was this:

Sorry I didn't realize the lighting was so bad when I took these photos.  This was another Barielle 5 pack but even though I already have 2 of the polishes I did a double take when I saw the price tag - $6.99!  This was clearly mislabeled because I paid $16.99 for the set containing Elle's Spell and when I bought Slate of Affairs it was $4.99 for just the one polish.  This set contains another bottle of Slate of Affairs that I'm hoping I can trade or sell.  It also contains the awesome Decadence, U Concrete Me, Passion Pirouette and Gold Digger.

Next up is Duri Purple Rain for $2, Unnamed Cosmetic Arts for $1 and Jessica Iridescent Eye for $5.99.  The Cosmetic Arts doesn't compare to anything in my collection really and I would say it's most comparable to drywall compound in colour.  The Jessica polish is the famous dupe for Chanel Peridot and it looks amazing in the bottle.

And lastly this is a Color Club nail art set for $8.99.  It comes with quite a few goodies - 3 striping brushes, 1 gem wheel, 2 gem pots and 2 sets of stickers.  I bought it mostly because I love the copper striping brush and the petal shaped gems look like fun.

So over top of my black gel manicure I added a coat of Color Club's Ready To Wear.  You can still see the Vegas Nights glitter through it.  This reminds me of the Nubar Prisms Gem and Jewel - duochromes with fine holo glitter.

And then I broke out the new striping brushes to test them out.  I really love that copper polish!  FYI, this was Day 7 of the black gel manicure.

Later
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Some things to share

Another somewhat random post here...

My black soak off manicure reminded me a lot of space so I decided to take a crack at galaxy nails...sort of.  I didn't use a tutorial and just kind of dabbed bits of colour on.  I think it just looks messy.

This is my SOG collection.  Before I left for the US I had already decided that my SOG collection was starting to annoy me since I had no real organization to it so I bought this basket which fits all my SOGs perfectly and also, fits very nicely inside the container I bought to store my CND lamp.  What this tells me is that I have no more room for any more polishes though lol.

This photo is Sally Hansen Black Tie on the left and Borghese Stellar Notte on the right.  Colour is exact but I don't consider these to be 100% dupes since Stellar Notte is super sheer compared to Black Tie and took twice as many coats.

Later
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Random

I have an accumulation of small things that I haven't gotten around to posting, so here goes...

Before I hacked my nails down and after removal of my last soak off I painted 3 coats of Sinful Colors Cinderella.  Not a fan.

The Princess of Poo was the first to try one of my new soak off gels and she chose Ez Flow TruGel in Racy Red (3 coats) with a coat of Gelish Vegas Nights on top.  No her fingers aren't really dry and cracked.  That's what happens when you rub 99% alcohol all over your fingers (we forgot to clean it off before taking the pics lol).

This was part of my US haul that I forgot to post.  A nail brush for $1, an extra dappen pot from Sallys, Broadway Nail Wraps from the clearance section at Rite Aid (I must have hit at least 50 drug stores while I was there lol) and the silicone finger tips which were less than $5 at Walmart.  So why did I buy these?  To use instead of tinfoil for soaking off gels and glitters!  And they work great!  No more fussing with tinfoil and a whole lot less waste!  I can't take credit for the idea though since I got it from the fantastic girls at the Nail Care board in the Purse Forum.  These girls are a wealth of information and you should check them out if you haven't already!

Also a bonus photo because I thought it was hilarious:

My sister and I walked into a Walmart and we noticed something strange was going on.  We asked a clerk and she told us that they were relocating to a newer store so they were liquidating what was left.  Unfortunately we were about a week too late since this is how we found the makeup aisle lmao.  Never seen anything like it!

Later
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