China Glaze - Grape Pop

I've been wearing the mani above for almost two weeks now, which is why I haven't posted anything new.  I started with two coats of China Glaze Grape Pop and then stamped the flower pattern from GCOCL K04, which I used last month.  I thought it still looked a little unfinished so after that dried, I used tape to cover the flowers and painted a stripe of light purple using OPI Do You Lilac It? along the left side of each nail.  Loved the way it turned out!

Orly Witch's Blue

I was surprised by how shimmery and vibrant Witch's Blue looks outdoors, because it looks darker (and murkier) in the bottle.  I used two coats in the pic above and since I still had GCOCL plate K04 on my desk from Monday I stamped one of the flower designs using China Glaze Milennium:

The design I chose (in the center of the plate above) is pretty big but I didn't want it to cover the entire nail of every nail, so I rotated the design around and stamped only parts of it.  Each nail ended up looking different but they all matched since they are from the same design:

shades Secret Encounter

I'm so glad the sun is out so I can start taking pictures again!  For the mani above I used Secret Encounter from shades (by Barielle), which is a shimmery wine / magenta.  It reminds me of Just Dancin from Confetti except with more shimmer.

I taped off part of the nail to add a swipe of Orly Rage from the Foil FX collection, which is a rose / bronze foil, and then I stamped the big white flowers using GCOCL plate K04.

Edit (4/17): I posted a pic of GCOCL K04 here

Confetti Masquerade Ball (compared to I'm With Brad)

Masquerade Ball is another great color from Confetti.  It's a black base with dark red shimmer and the formula was super smooth and pigmented.  I think it's comparable to I'm With Brad from Sephora by OPI:

I can't really tell the difference when I look at my nails and I thought the formulas for both were great with no issues.  If you're interested in a comparison of the brushes you can check out my old post on Metro Chic where I have the brushes lined up.

Confetti - Show Stopper

I did this mani with Confetti Show Stopper and stamped a design along the edge of each nail from GCOCL plate B01 with gold (China Glaze 2030).  The design is only fully visible from the side profile which I thought made the design more simple and elegant.  See pics of Show Stopper pre-stamping after the jump.

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More Crimson Cutie

After I posted a swatch of Crimson Cutie yesterday I was experimenting with one of my new GCOCL plates and came up with this:

All the images came from GCOCL plate E02:

I really liked the designs on this plate!  I'll definitely be using these again with different colors.

Sephora by OPI - Personal Shopper

I was in the mood for a classic red so I chose Sephora by OPI Personal Shopper.  I got Personal Shopper as part of a free gift set from Sephora that also included Dear Diary (a light pink) and I'm with Brad (a black with red shimmer).  The first picture above is more true to color; the second was taken in really bright direct sunlight.  See close-ups after the jump:

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China Glaze - First Dawn

The dark grey charcoal metallic above is China Glaze First Dawn.  It has tiny flecks of multi-colored glitter in it that don't show up very clearly but make for a nice overall shimmer.  As with most metallics I've tried, there is a little bit of streaking but I like the look of it.

Here's the polish before I started stamping:

I used flowers from GCOCL (fauxnad) plate F01.

If you don't have the GCOCL plates, there are very similar flowers on Konad plates m51 and m57:

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Cherry Love

I ordered Cherry Love from Rescue Beauty Lounge ($18) because the description was so intriguing:

"Popsicle-fuschia, the love child of hot pink and sizzling red. When pink is too tame and red is too expected, give this glamorous shade a try." --Rescue Beauty Lounge

The cherry red color was great, but the formula wasn't as amazing as other RBL polishes I've tried.  What I usually love about Rescue Beauty polishes is how the polish magically levels itself out so that there are no ridges, but I thought Cherry Love was a little bit streaky and my bottle has gotten kind of goopy since I first bought it about a month ago.  Disappointing for $18, but I obscured the streaks with a thick layer of top coat so it's still usable.

The rose is from GCOCL plate A01: