giveaway winners' custom pieces are fantastic!

These are what the giveaway winners chose, and they are great choices if I do say so myself! On the left is China Glaze's 'Kaleidoscope Him Out' and on the right is the Buchanan tartan. Two of my favorites! (Although any holo and any tartan with yellow are automatically in the favorites running.) These are now on their way to their new homes and I can't wait to do another giveaway. They're so much fun! 

150 facebook 'likes' giveaway!

To thank you guys for 150 likes, here is a little bit of fun! I love doing giveaways, even though I never win. Good luck to you all!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Vending! Like, in person!

Last night I had my first experience vending at an event rather than online. It was pretty neat, even for a introvert like myself. And I made enough to cover the entry fees, so I consider that a success! (And considering that it was a pretty low-key event, that was good!)

My major failure was forgetting my cellphone. It's pretty hard to use one's really cool Square credit card reader on your phone if your phone is twelve miles away. This also meant that I was unable to take pictures of my final set-up. :( To add insult to injury: I thought about bringing my camera but didn't because I'd be able to take pictures on my phone. Next time!

Here are a couple of pictures from while I was getting things together in the living room.





Final set-up was different than both of those, and it's sort of amazing how much jewelry I actually have!

Nfu-Oh Gelist 'Twinkle Gold Silver Black 08'

This is three coats of Nfu-Oh TGSB08 with Gelish base and top coat.

This stuff is really pretty. If you're into dark colors (obviously I am!) and you're into gel, I highly suggest this one. The only drawback is that it's a little goopy, and that makes the super-thin gel layers thing harder to do. I can't decide if the glitter is holo or just iridescent or what. It's one of those polishes that I end up just staring at my hands with, watching the colors change. (I swear, I'm not on drugs!)

And because there is large glitter, sometimes you get pieces of glitter hanging over the edge of your nails. One of these was the reason that my pink ended up "chipping" (i.e. lifting up and then being broken off), because it caused the edge to un-seal.

Nfu-Oh Gelist polishes are available in the US here: http://www.fabuloustreet.com/

Where TartanHearts Jewelry has gone domestically.

Where TartanHearts Jewelry has gone within the US.

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

I hope some day I can get all 50 states! (I think if I do, I'll have a 50% off sale!) That would be really freakin' cool. 

Where TartanHearts has gone, worldwide!

Where TartanHearts has gone!

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Pretty neat! I wish the Luxembourg showed up on the map because I thought it was pretty flippin' cool when I got that order.

http://tartanhearts.storenvy.com/
http://tartanhearts.etsy.com/

Fourth of July mani!

Fourth of July is my favorite holiday for manicures! I love the creativity that's involved; you can go a lot of different directions with it.

Okay, let's get into the nitty-gritty. This one used a lot of polish!

Two coats RCM 'Midnight Affair'
taped corner/diagonal French with Milani One Coat Glitters 'Red Sparkle'
ring finger accent nail with Pretty & Polished 'Freedom Calling'
touch-up on red with LA Colors red striper
white dots with dotting tool and LA Colors white striper

The blue is darker and more opaque in person. The red isn't see-through in person. (It's interesting what the camera picks up!) Overall, I love it! I'm considering doing an opposite thing on my toes, which currently have China Glaze 'Ruby Pumps' on them.

Happy (early) Fourth of July to any other Americans, and happy Tuesday to anyone who isn't.

This is last year's mani for July 4th:

RCM 'Dress for Success'

This gorgeous polish is from RCM's new Shimmering Nights collection, which is amazing. I checked out all four at Ulta and settled on 'Dress for Success' initially. Filled a void in my small but growing gel collection, and is now my only green.

(photo from RCM's facebook)

RCM calls this color a yellow, which I completely disagree with. I'd call it chartreuse, sure. These colors were designed to wear over black, but I don't have a black gel (yet), so aren't super opaque. I wore this over two coats of ProGel 'Trophy Cup', which is an opaque gold glitter. It covered it quite well, and on a couple of edges where the green doesn't totally cover the gold, I get a real idea of the opacity of the green, which is much better than what I expected. I'm left wondering whether I could have just done 3-5 coats of 'Dress for Success' with no VNL.

The glitter almost looks like a holo, but isn't. The label is a holo, and you can see the difference in the second photo. There is a bit of a range in the glitter that almost verges on being a duochrome. (Maybe like a very light version of 'Zombie Zest'.)

Verdict: in a world where there aren't a lot of green gels available, this is a gem!

RCM 'Who Are You Wearing'

I love glitter as much as the next girl, possibly more, but after the last couple of super glittertastic crazy manis, I was pretty excited to put something simple on my nails. I own a TON of blues/aquas/teals in this color range because I LOVE THEM!

This is three coats of Red Carpet Manicure's 'Who Are You Wearing' from the new Neon collection. (Which, if you're into gel and into neons in the least, you need to check out!) It's a little more yellow (teal) in real life, although the swatch on my nail wheel looks just like the bottle. (I assume this is due to my skin tone and nail actually showing through.) I'd call it a darkened sky blue. This color is very jelly-like, and totally squishy-looking. It looks more see-through here than it actually is, and I'm not sure why it looks like my nails are dirty. They aren't!

I'm starting to formulate a plan for my Fourth of July mani! Everything's up in the air at this point, but I'm really excited for it. (This was one of last year's.) It's my favorite holiday for nail polish! Do you have any plans for a special July 4th mani? I'd love to hear about them if you do.

China Glaze 'Optical Illusion'

China Glaze 'Optical Illusion', a photo by TartanHearts on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
this mani was:
one coat Gelish base coat
two coats RCM 'Midnight Affair'
two coats China Glaze 'Optical Illusion'
two coats Gelish top coat

more sandwiching gel and regular polish. 'Midnight Affair' was the only blue gel I had, so I used it even though it was WAY too dark. Didn't show through, through. There was a little bit of a hot pink duochrome with this polish. I couldn't capture it in any of my pictures.

This is a polish I probably won't wear much, but I LOVE it! I spent a lot of time looking at my nails for the week I had it on. The glitter in this one seemed to show way more than the glitter in the purple 'Prism'. And there was duochrome here, which was absent with 'Prism'.