My Favorite Things Nail Art Challenge Day 3: My Favorite Animal

Day 3 of the challenge by Ooh La La Polish asks what is your favorite animal. I don't really have a favorite animal (Are we noticing an indecisive trend yet?), but growing up, I always wanted to be an elephant trainer. Why you ask? Well not because I was in love with the elephants, I wanted to wear the trainers pretty/sparkly costumes!! Now of course, I really do love elephants. I think they are amazing creatures, but to a five year old, the sequined costume looks better. Apparently I have always had a love for the more sparkly things in life! I used  China Glaze Elephant Walk for my base color. Appropriate name for the polish, right?  I used Wet n Wild Black Creme for the black detailing, White On by Sally Hansen for the toe nails and tusks, and I Believe in Amour by Color Club for the pink nose. Then, I topped the whole shebang off with Seche Vite. I must say, I really love Elephant Walk, It is a medium grey with a very subtle shimmer to it. I can see a full manicure with this color alone in my future! I had full coverage with two coats with normal drying time. I really like how this turned out. I might redo this one day before going to the zoo!

Do you like my elephant feet?

I was scared to paint anything else and ruin it.

Red Comparison

When I was picking out my red base color for my Hello Kitty manicure, I realized I have a few "similar" reds. Isn't it amazing when you are at the store trying to pick out a new color and you just know you don't have that at home. Unfortunately, when you do get home, you have 5 different versions of it. Well damn it all if that isn't what happened. Sadly, I did have more reds that were similar to these colors, but these were the closest looking while still in the bottle. The reds I am showing you are similar, but divided into two different groups : Cherry Red and True Red. The cherry reds lean on the almost orangy, but not quite orange side. They are very bright and cheerful colors. The true reds lean neither towards the blue or orange side of the red spectrum, it sits right smack dab in the middle. I notice every single one of these polishes had amazing coverage with just two coats. I probably could have gotten away with one thick coat, but I try not to do that so I get a more accurate manicure. Does that make sense? I did not use a topcoat in the picture, but the base coat I did end up using was my Posh Quick Dry Base Coat. I had no nail staining using that with the Zoya Sooki. Now, on to the comparison!

Wet n Wild I Red a Good Book , Zoya Sooki, China Glaze Hey Sailor , OPI, O'Hare & Nails Look Great, and Color Club Cadillac Red

Thumb Wet n Wild, Index Zoya, Middle China Glaze, Ring OPI, Pinkie Color Club

Cherry Reds: Zoya Sooki, China Glaze Hey Sailor
True Reds: Wet n Wild I Red a Good Book, OPI O'Hare & Nails Look Great, Color Club Red Cadillac

What do you think of the difference? Do group your reds based on what color they lean towards or is it just red like my husband would say?

On a random side note, look how shiny they all are. I can see a reflection of me in them!!

Wet N Wild Believe Me, It's Real

Wet N Wild Believe Me, It's Real a blue glitter with purple hexagon glitter in a clear base from the 2011 Color Icon Series. It took three coats for full opacity. Now as beautiful as this glitter is, you have to use a topcoat! It has a weird matte (not in a good way) look to it, like you painted your nail with glue and dipped it in glitter sort of thing. Now having said that, with a topcoat, this stuff is beautiful. It will add so much more depth, sparkle, and shine to your manicure you will be distracted so be careful.

Now this was before any topcoat was added. It had a nice bling but wasn't quite there yet.

 This is one coat so I could show you opacity.

Still no topcoat so wait for it ...

 BAM! Look at the difference.

Tell me it doesn't look better with a topcoat. I used 1 coat of Seche Vite quick dry topcoat. I think the purple hexagon glitter gives, what would be a basic bright blue glitter, that added umph!

This polish was purchased by me.