Sinful Colors - Secret Admirer

I've been wearing a lot of lighter colors recently so I figured I'd go for something a little darker. Sinful Colors can be hit or miss but this is a big winner! Secret Admirer reminds me of graphite, a black base with lots of silver shimmer in it. Almost like sparkly coal. It's also very pigmented and could probably go on in one coat if you're careful! I did two.

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Space Nails!

So if you've been paying attention to the US space program lately, you'd know that yesterday was the attempted launch of STS-134, Endeavour's last flight. I was there! Unfortunately the launch was canceled due to some mechanical problems, but I'm hoping I can make whatever the rescheduled flight date will be. In my excitement for the launch I did these space-themed nails. I started with 2 coats of Zoya Raven (black with faint silver shimmer), then used 1 coat of Nicole by OPI Let's Get Star-ted (clear base with big holo glitter and purple stars), 1 coat of Nicole by OPI Pitch-Black Glimmer (black glitter with micro silver and holo glitter) and 1 coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust (clear base with holo glitter). I wanted something shimmery with depth that represented the tons and tons of stars in the sky and I think I got it! If I were to do it again I wouldn't use the Fairy Dust, it adds a little too much rainbow to it and obscures the stars more than I'd like.

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Bejeweled

This is somewhat of a swatch, but more like me playing around. I've been thinking about ruffian/moon/reverse French manicures a lot lately (more info here) and decided to do one with my existing Zoya Happi manicure. To do this, I placed adhesive French tip guides on my nails to give the black a nice clean line. Then I added my first coat of Zoya Raven, a beautiful inky black with subtle silver shimmer. It's very important to remove the tip guide immediately after painting this first coat. If you remove it when it's dry, it can ruin the polish! After that dried, I carefully painted on a second coat of Raven and I was done!. But that wasn't enough, oh no.. I had these Cina nail art decals (available at Sally Beauty) that are essentially rhinestones on a sticky back. I stuck them along the black line, smothered the whole nail in top coat to help the decals stay on longer, and presto! They're kind of edgy princess nails, I think. 

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