Guest Post - Nails and Threads

Today I am so excited to share a a guest post from Mandy at Nails and Threads! She is just starting up a new blog and I'm sure would be so happy if you went and checked it out. Read what she has to say below! 

Hello everyone! My name is Mandy and I am the author of Nails & Threads – a blog dedicated to fashion and nail polish. I am so honoured to guest post for Gina today and I cannot wait to show you what I came up with for this post! Before I get into the polish though, here is a little more about myself! 

I am a senior in high school living in Alberta, Canada and will be moving to Ontario for University starting this fall. Being a girly girl my whole life, I have always been exposed to fashion and beauty through my mother and it has stuck with me since. Nail polish was something that I really started to pick up around 7th grade, but now my collection has grown to over 300 bottles! Since creating a blog and joining the nail community, I have had so much fun sharing my passions with the world and wish that this could be my full-time job. I have found myself transitioning towards more nail art than straight swatching, so I hope you enjoy what I have for you today!  

OPI is releasing a mini summer collection this July featuring 4 intense neon shades. One of my favourites from this collection was Blue it Out of Proportion, a striking royal blue crème. The trick with neon polishes is to always apply a white base so that the colour shows up more vibrantly. I used three coats of Blue it Out of Proportion as the base colour of this design. I then mattified it with OPI’s Matte Topcoat, which instantly made the colour pop even more. What I like about this topcoat is that it dries insanely fast and to a completely chalkboard matte finish. Finally, I took some glitter (I love glitter!) and painted just the tips for a unique French manicure. The glitter polish is Urban Outfitters Dust. 

This is a super simple design that can be used with any polishes so have some fun with it! You can see swatches of the entire Neon Revolution Mini Collection on my blog at: nailsandthreads.blogspot.com 

Thank you to Gina and her lovely readers for having me today! 

Enjoy,

Mandy

xoxo

Nail Polish Collection Storage

Hey guys! I have not made a post in a while now and I wanted to show you what I have been up too. I am in the process of moving into a different room in my house and I have been having fun re-finishing old furniture that we have had in our family for ages. This particular set of drawers was build by my Great-Grandpa and has been in my Mom's room when she was little, in our bathroom, and eventually ended up in my closet. I saw it the other day and though how perfect it would be to store my nail polish since my previous storage system was running out of room. 

This set of drawers used to be a cream color with wooden knobs. I decided to go with a turquoise color from Valspar called Rainforest Mist in a satan finish. I plan on painting my room orange and I really liked this color complementing the walls. I was very happy with the paint I chose and it covered the old paint super well in just one coat. I also bought some new silver knobs which definitely tied everything together and made these drawers look like a brand new piece of furniture! As you will be able to see in the pictures below, I also bought some cork shelf paper from Target which I lined the inside of the drawers with which helps my nail polish stay in place. 

Let me know what you think and if you are planning on doing something like this in the future! It was so fun and easy and the end product was so worth it. I am in the process of painting an old dresser right now to match these! I am continuing to re-do my bedroom so nail posts may be slow for the next couple weeks but I will try to keep you updated on my progress as I go along.

Gina

Bottom Drawer - OPI and China Glaze

Third Drawer - Essie, Zoya, Milani, NOPI, SP, Sinful Colors, Hard Candy, NYC

Second Drawer - Revlon, Sally Hansen, Wet and Wild, Pure Ice, Mini's, AE, Forever 21, Stripers

Top Drawer - Base and Top Coat, Nail Art Supplies, Nail Treatments, Nail Files

Nail Polish Lottery Club #21

This week in the Nail Polish Lottery Club the polish I got was Brownstone from the Metro collection by China Glaze. I bought this polish a while ago from the sale bin in Ulta. I was never too fond of the dark brown color, as I usually go for something more fun, so I had never tried this one before. 

Brownstone is a basic dark brown creme polish. I actually really liked this color and the formula was great too. I used 3 coats in the picture below but 2 thick coats would have worked as well. The sun was setting when I took these pictures so I had a little fun with it but the first picture below is the one closest to the actual color. Thanks for reading! -Gina

Salon Perfect Neon Collisions

Hey guys! I am so excited to show you the new Salon Perfect Neon Collision polishes! I believe there are 6 in the entire collection and yesterday I picked up 4 at Walmart. These polishes consist of round matte glitters suspended in a clear base. The finish is pretty gritty but nothing horrible. I used three coats in each swatch and finished each with a coat of Seche Vite. Enjoy!

Kaboom This color was one of the easiest to apply. It went on pretty smoothly with very little hassle. From far away this polish looks like a dark turquoise but on closer examination it actually only consists of blue and yellow glitter. I think that this color is fun and definitely one of my favorites. 

Zapped I want to say that this color was the hardest out of the four to apply, but it was also the first one that I swatched so that could have something to do with it. Overall I did find that the brighter colors were generally more thick and harder to work with. The color is beautiful though and I probably will try this again someday. 

Jolt This was another color that was thick and difficult to work with. It is also probably my least favorite out of the collection. This polish consists of bright yellow and orange glitters which isn't my favorite color combination in the world so that is also another reason why I was not a big fan of this one along with the application. 

Shocked This color was probably the easiest of the four to apply. It went on smoothly and you can probably tell from the picture that it was an overall different texture from the rest. I had no major problems and I really enjoyed it.

Overall, this is a fun collection from Salon Perfect and I am glad that I picked them up. In the future I will probably be wearing them in one coat overtop of another color but as you can see they can be worn alone and work that way too. Thanks for reading! -Gina

Great Gatsby Manicure

I have been a big fan of The Great Gatsby ever since I read the book in High School and I recently went to see the new movie and loved that as well, so I decided it was only fitting to try my hand at 

my own Great Gatsby manicure. I used 2 colors from OPI's Skyfall collection: Golden Eye for the gold and Live and Let Die for the darker color. I am in love with both of these colors and think they were a good choice for this manicure. My design however missed the mark quite a bit I'm afraid and looks more like an egyptian design in my opinion. I had a really good time doing this look however and really want to try again sometime for a better outcome. If you haven't checked out any Great Gatsby manicures I highly suggest you do so because there are some amazing ones out there. Thanks for reading! -Gina

Nail Polish Lottery Club Week #20

Hello! Today I have a post I am very excited about because it is the start of a little series I will be doing on my blog. I have joined the Nail Polish Lottery Club which is a club that offers nail polish lovers a fun way to use up their untried polishes. Every week, a number is drawn from 1 - 365 and members paint their nails with whatever color they have on their untried list that corresponds with the number chosen. Then everyone shares what color they got either with a blog post, pictures, or a video on the Facebook page. Here is a link to the official Facebook page if any of you want to try it out. ( They also explain it better on there than I did here). I would also like to explain that the colors I put on my list are not just my untried polishes but also my unswatched polishes because I am using the club as a fun way for me to get more swatches up on my blog of colors I might not have thought to swatch before.

 Nail Polish Lottery Club

This week I ended up with OPI's Bright Lights Big Color. I do not think this was ever part of a collection but it is definitely comparable to OPI's Are We There Yet? which you can see swatched here. Bright Lights Big Color consists of a salmon color polish densely packed with golden glass flecks. The formula of this polish is good and shown is 3 coats although I did achieve opacity at 2 coats. I forgot how beautiful this polish was and am really happy with the end result of this manicure. Let me know if you plan to join the Nail Polish Lottery Club and what you think of the idea! -Gina

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Milani - Hi-Res

Hello! Today I have another  Milani 3D Holographic polish to show you. Hi-Res is the purple color of the collection and is just as stunning as the Cyberspace was. This color was more opaque than Cyberspace however and I got full coverage in 2 coats this time instead of 3. Hi-Res was extremely hard to capture on camera as it shines like crazy in person but I think I was able to get a couple good photos which you can check out below. I know I am a little late with these polishes but I am absolutely in love with them and if you have not tried them yet I suggest you go out and get them next time you have the chance! -Gina