L.A. Colors - Aqua Crystals (05/22/2011)

Run! (don't walk) to your nearest Dollar Tree for this blue glittered beauty.  I picked this up while on a mini-vacay with my sister last week in San Diego and I'm so glad I gave it a chance.  Of the four glitters I picked up (including: Glistening Purple, Jewel Tone and Sparkling Diamonds) Aqua Crystals is my absolute favorite. :)


Color Description:  Aqua Crystals is medium blue jelly with glistening glitter.  If you can imagine the blue equivalent of Orly's new Bubbly Bombshell, then you got it!  And you can get away with one coat of this baby.


This Look:  One coat of Starting Over After Artificials, two coats of Aqua Crystals (went on pretty thick) and one coat of Z Super Fast Dry top coat.

Similar To:  I pulled a few bottles from my stash to compare this with and overall I really like Aqua Crystals (index) the best.  It's the most rich and regal of the bunch, which are, Milani Blue Flash (middle), China Glaze Dorothy Who? (ring) and Claire's Twinkle Twinkle (pinky).  All are two coats and as you can see, Blue flash (middle) is the closest match with Dorothy Who? being too sheer, and Twinkle Twinkle (pinky), though nice, was too dark.


Price Point/Availability:  I found L.A. Colors Aqua Crystals at the Dollar Tree for $1.00.  It's also available online at various e-tailers.


Thanks for stopping by and let me know your thoughts...  I hope you like this color as much as I do!  For one dollar this is a great purchase and if you have any questions please let me know.  I will do my best to point you in the right directions.

L.A. Colors - Solar Gold (5/16/2011)

Today's manicure was inspired by a picture from a Yahoo! article on the web Sunday morning.  I was so in awe by this golden tipped bride that I set out on a quest to recreate the look.  A few thought this was minx and though that may be true, I wanted to see what my stash had in "store" for me, so I went shopping in my own collection.

Color Description:  L.A. Colors Solar Gold is a very pale, yellow,14k-like, gold frost.  Nice but not opaque enough for the look so I layered it over an pale yellow from Maybelline called Bamboo Yellow, (click here to see Scrangie's pic). 

Yahoo! news pic

Similar To:  This gold was the only gold like this that I own.  A few other suggestions were Orly Luxe, OPI Glitzerland or Maybelline's Gold Guitar.  I own two of these and they didn't quite have enough yellow in them and both contained shimmer, which the pic does not.

This Look:  Two coats of Miss Marion's Superbase, one coat of Maybelline Bamboo Yellow, one coat of Sally Hansen NailShine Miracle and one coat of Shine and Hold top coat.  I think I overdid it a bit with the topcoats because there's some bubbling happening which I'm not happy with but overall the color was close that I tried to achieve.

Price Point/Availability:  Both Solar Gold and Bamboo Yellow are discontinued but please let me know if you try to recreate this look what you come up with!  This was my best shot but it's not nearly as pretty as my inspiration picture.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to hear from you soon!