Cute Blog Award!

Thanks to Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road (cutest blog, btw!), for nominating me for the Cutest Blog Award!  Squeee!!  I still get excited about these things :) Thanks so much, girly!

I love owls!!

For this award you:
1. Link back to the person who awarded you
2. Answer the award questions
3. Tell something about yourself that you haven't told anyone on your blog yet
4. Award as many blogs as you think are worthy of this award
5. Make sure to let those you gave this award to know that you awarded them.

The Award Questions:
1. What is your go to makeup product?
Mascara.  I can be okay with wearing no other makeup but mascara!  My go to is still Maybelline :)
2. What was your favorite fashion trend of 2011?
Uhhh I actually had to google trends from 2011 to figure out what was hot, hahaha.  Feathers was one of the things that came up, I love feathers!  I've added many a feather to my jewelry collection!
3. What is your favorite dessert?
Oh. My. Gosh.  Creme Brulee.  All the way.
4. Favourite color?
Yelllllowwww.  But not for nail polish...pink for polish ;)
5. What is your middle name?
Ann
6. What was the last song that you listened to?
Honestly, I can't remember. Ah Just kidding, it was Stronger by Kelly Clarkson
7. Cats or dogs?
Both!  I like cats because they're simple and easier to take care of, but I love pupppiess!

Let's seeee something that I haven't told anyone on my blog?  Uhhh I ate a whole sleeve of girl scout cookies yesterday...my bad, lol.

Ohhh dear I always have a hard time tagging bloggers because they're all great, but I'll tag the ladies that have been helping me out with my frankens!

Sarah @ Chalkboard Nails
Rebecca @ Rebecca Likes Nails
Jennifer @ Fingers Polish Mania
Carly @ Lacquered Lover
Li Lian @ Short Wide Nails
Amy @ I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous

Congrats ladies!  And thanks for allllll your help :)

<3 Whitney

Announcing the Opening of my Etsy Shop!!

Weeeeeeee!  I've finally opened my Etsy shop!  You can check it out here: Elemental Styles on Etsy.

Everything on there is what I've pre-made so far so if something you want is out of stock don't be discouraged!  It'll be back up soon, and if you want, you can shoot me an e-mail and request it: estyles.ww@gmail.com.

Horray!

<3 Whitney

The last of the Halogens...Unuseptium!

Okay, so here's the last of the Halogen Collection that I promised you guys :D

It's called Unuseptium, named directly after the element.  It's element 117 and doesn't have an "official" name yet!  So since there's nothing creative I could think to do with "unuseptuim" (although I tried to use a play on "septium" but it sounded too much like septic, which just is not appealing), this polish is the same name as the element!

Anywho it follows the suit of the other Halogen's and is a white-ish layering polish, but this one is a glitter!  Check it out:

Over black, over CG Turned up Turquoise, over CG Flying Dragon, over SC Pink Cream

Turned up Turquoise does not even remotely look like it does in this picture, hah!

I think that it looks best over darker colors, I like it both over black and purple, although I think it does work pretty well with the pink.  Over the teal it looked great in person but since on it's own Turned up Turquoise is a neon, it just doesn't photograph correctly.  Unuseptium has a mix of different colored iridescent glitters all in a clear base.  Only one coat is needed to add a nice glittery topcoat to any color.  I really like this glitter a lot and I think it completes the Halogen collection quite nicely.

Anywho, my shop should be open and running tomorrow!  Stay tuned, I'll post about it :)  Or you can check it out here tomorrow.

Wam Blam! Introducing: The Halogen Collection!

So I've been MIA since last week sometime.  I actually had a few posts auto-updating, thank goodness, because otherwise I wouldn't have updated at all.  I've been pretty ill since last Sunday and found out yesterday that I've got pneumonia :(  It sure does suck!  Not only do I feel like complete crap, I haven't been feeling like doing much of anything lately, let alone blogging or doing my nails.  I was planning on having my Etsy store open this past weekend, but obviously that was not done either.  Hopefully as the week goes on I'll get to feeling better and will get around to it.

BUT enough whining, what I've got to show you is another collection I've made that will be out with my first Transition Metals collection, as well :)

There are SIX polishes in this collection and all are meant for layering.  All of my pictures will be shown layered over black.  And actually, I've only got 5 of them to show you today, the last one will be shown later ;)

First up: Fluorine Green

Fluorine Green is a white shimmery polish with a green undertone and a slight duochrome-ness to it.  It appears a few shades of green in different lighting, but the duochrome is quite subtle.  This polish is named for the 9th element, fluorine.

Next: Chlorine Sheen

You can see a bit of the duochrome-ness here

Chlorine Sheen is probably my favorite in the collection.  It's also a clear/iridescent shimmery polish, but it's got a deep royal purple undertone.  The duochrome in this polish is more obvious and ranges from a bright purple to a dark purple, almost blue color.  It's very bright and shiny, which is what I like about it!  These pictures are without topcoat.  Chlorine Sheen is named for chlorine, the 17th element.

Next up: Easy Bro!-Mine

Booo I messed this one up a little

Easy Bro!-Mine is another shimmery white polish with blue undertones.  On the nail, over black, it's a bright metallic blue with some added shimmer.  Easy Bro!-Mine only has a very subtle duochrome look to it, much like Fluorine Green.  This polish is named for bromine, the 35th element!    

Next: Iodine-ing Out

Iodine-ing Out is a different color, I think!  I like yellow a lot, so it's also one of the polishes I like most in this collection.  Unfortunately while I thought I got a lot of good pics of this, up close only one really turned out well.  This polish is a shimmer with yellow undertones and like Easy Bro-Mine! has a slightly metallic appearance over black.  In my chemistry labs, iodine, the 53rd element, that we dealt with was in solution and was yellow, which helped me in naming this polish!  

Lastly: Red Queen Astatine

Red Queen Astatine is the most duochrome polish in this collection.  The color you see in the bottle is generally how the other polishes look, with their respective color undertone (in the other pics, the bottle is tilted so you can see the shimmer).  Red Queen Astatine is a white shimmer polish with a reddish-purple undertone.  On the nail, Red Queen Astatine changes from orange to red to purple.  This polish is named for the 85th element, astatine.

Okayyyyyy and here are some additional pics I took of my whole hand, I skittled these on my nails because I was too lazy to do a whole mani with each one :)

Artificial Lighting

Natural Lighting

Bam!  Okay, once I am feeling a little better and can breathe without coughing, I'll get started on pre-making these so I can open my shop.  So stay tuned!

<3 Whitney

Last Franken in my Transition Metals Collection: Copper-nicus!

So I realized that I'd never swatched the last polish in my first franken "collection": Transition Metals! 

This polish is called Copper-nicus.  It is named after the 29th element, copper, and is a play on words with the mathematician/astronomer Copernicus (yes, if you haven't noticed I am a nerd).  For those of you with science backgrounds who might have noticed, yes there is already an element actually named for Copernicus (copernicium..), but that's okay, hah!

Anywho, Copper-nicus is a duochrome copper/yellow/red polish, that in my opinion looks all right on it's own, but looks amazing over black!  Check out some pics:

Copper-nicus in natural lighting alone, over black, over white, and over red

Copper-nicus under desk lighting by itself, over black, over white, over red

Copper-nicus under desk lighting by itself, over black, over white, over red

Copper-nicus in natural over white, over black, by itself

Copper-nicus in natural lighting alone, over black, over white, and over red

 
You can't see the duochrome as much when Copper-nicus is layered over a white or red polish as much as you can see it when it's by itself or over black.  Alone, it needs 3 coats for opaqueness and to be able to see the red/gold/orange flash, layered over black, just one coat is needed.

Soo what do you guys think!?  I'm close to opening my Etsy store (as soon as I get the rest of my supplies!), I'll let you all know when I do :)

<3 Whitney

OPI DS Coronation!

Sooooo DS Coronation has been on my wish list for the longest time and I was lucky to receive it in a Secret Valentine's Day swap I did with some ladies in a Facebook group I'm in. 

Initially I put it on and I wasn't as excited as I thought I'd be, but once I got in the light and sun, it was awesome!  I wore this on my plane ride when I went out of town for work, and it was ridiculously holo in the lights on the airplane for some reason (I need to get me some of those things).

I seriously couldn't take a bad picture of this polish.  Check it out!

I couldn't capture the scattered holo of this polish very well, you can see it kind of in the first and last pictures if you blow them up.  If I'm not mistaken, I believe that the Sally Hansen Nail Prism Diamond is a dupe for this polish!  I've pulled up their pics side by side and they look pretty similar, Diamond may be a bit darker than Coronation, but I haven't swatched them next to each other.  Regardless, I'm happy to have both in case I run out of one :) 

DS Coronation went on smooth in 2 coats and I love how it sparkled enough to pull me out of my winter blues for a few days :)  Have you guys tried this DS polish?  Which one is your fav?

<3 Whitney

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Suede...Ruffian!

Hello pretties.

Sorry for the delay in posts, I was out of town for business all last week!  BUT I spent last weekend swatching a ton of polishes and editing photos so I could update in the evenings from my hotel, but the internet turned out to be something like $14 bucks a day, which I refused to spend, haha.  But now I'm back!

I've got a mani to show you that I did with Lincoln Park After Dark Suede, which is much prettier than I expected.  I first put down two coats of OPI Glamour Game, a pretty gold with slight glitter flecks, and added a coat of LPAD suede as a ruffian.  I was super psyched to get pictures of this right away, but I only got two pics before my camera died and I couldn't find my camera charger, so some of them are from my iPhone.

 

 

I really liked LPAD suede.  I have OPI Ink Suede, which I've only used once and had a really hard time with, so I was kind of reluctant to try another suede.  BUT, I looked up some tips for mattes and suedes and I think I must have just been trying to apply it too slowly.  Since they dry so quickly, you have to be quick in your application.  They are pretty opaque and go on usually in one coat, but I could still kind of see the gold underneath the first coat, so I added a second after the first coat had dried. 

I don't think I'd be opposed to owning more suedes now that I had much better luck with LPAD!  What suedes are your fav? 

<3 Whitney

Nail Fail: Needle Marble

How do you lovely ladies like the new look of my blog!?  The new logo was designed by the super talented Sarah from Chalkboard Nails! She's very sweet :)  The rest of the color change was my doing...I haven't decided if I'm going to keep it like that or hand it back over to Sarah to play with.  What do you guys think??

Anywho, onto the (fail) nails! After I saw Jackie from Adventures in Acetone put up this fabulous needle marbling mani for a Cult Nails contest, I instantly decided I wanted to try it.  Hers turned out SO beautiful I was like "psh I can do that."  Not.  Haha.

I used this tutorial from Liquid Jelly.

I decided to use a white base, China Glaze White on White and then marble ORLY Fowl Play.  I thought that the lovely flakes in Fowl Play would show up, but sadly they did not.

There's a few nails I DO like, but since they were so inconsistent and I really kind of hate the color combination (sadly since Fowl Play is one of my faves) I consider the whole mani a fail.  I think maybe if I would've used a black base....or Fowl Play as the base and maybe a silver on top, it would've been better.  Meh.  We'll see if I try this again, haha.

Have you guys tried needle marbling?  It's less effort than water marble, which is why it appealed to me :)

<3 Whitney

P.S. I'm going out of town for some training for work for a week tomorrow!  I'll have my laptop, so hopefully I can update, but I may not have much time.  We'll seee!

Excuse Moi, I have another Muppet's OPI for you!

Oh dear, did I seriously not ever post this mani?  I'm so bad, hah.  I just noticed it was on the top of my list and I've been ignoring it all this time.  I'm pretty sure I did this around Christmas time...

Anywhoooooooo this is three coats of OPI Excuse Moi, a pretty, bright pink and silver glitter polish from the OPI Muppets Collection:

Dang, back when I had nubbins.  Although they've gotten back to that recently 'cause I've had a lot of breaks :(

I really loved this glitter, but it was a B to clean up!  As you can see from the pictures, I still have glitter everywhere lol.  It's jam packed with fine pink glitter, but it's also got a decent amount of holographic silver glitter, you can see in my thumb pic that in the light it shows a whole bunch of colors!  I'm in love.  Definitely my favorite from the collection.

Did you guys pick up Excuse Moi?!

<3 Whit

Pink Wednesday! Color Club Hot. Like. Lava.

Woo I'm so bad at keeping up with Pink Wednesday, but it just so happens I had a pink swatch for this week!

Sooo I thought since I had such luck with the Color Club Cold Metal from the Foil'd collection, that I'd reach into my "selling" pile and use Hot Like Lava. 

I don't often do that, but I haven't had much traffic to the blog sale page lately, and I'd been eying it in the basket for a while so I thought I'd try it. 

This is two coats of Hot Like Lava:

Overall, I loved the application and the formula...but I just don't know how I feel about metallics/foils.  I loved the blue, but I think I'll put this back on the sale page as used 1x.  It is a pretty color, I just don't see myself wearing it, and I still do a decent amount of clean up and the metals don't clean up as well as creams.  SO if any of you ladies have been looking for this (or any of the other CC foils), check out my blog sale, hah.  I hear they're good for stamping, which almost makes me want to keep them...but I don't do that too often either, since I'm so bad at it :)

Did you guys pick up the Foil'd collection?

<3 Whitney