Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Nailing The Book: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Hey there! Soooo.... City of Bones nail art today. HOLY SHIT. CITY OF BONES <3 Probably one of my favorite books ever! It is soo intense and funny. I need to give you a little background so you can understand the nail art (no spoilers though, I promise!). The main characters in this book are "shadow hunters". Shadow hunters are half-angel half-humans, who fight demons. They draw runes on their arms for different things like protection and strength. Some of the runes are shown below!


So I was thinking of nail art for the City of Bones. Duhh, runes! I probably came up with that idea in about 3 seconds flat. I didn't want to just do runes on all my fingers, so I did two on each and added glitter. The glitter you see is Revlon Meteor.




 So like I said before, I used Revlon Meteor for the glitter. I used #1 on all my nails for my base then topped my pointer, middle, and pinky with #2. For the runes I used a nail art brush and NYC French White Tip. I topped them all of with Seche Vite.





Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles 3) by Kami Garcia Review






“When I first met you, that's what I remember. I looked up at the sky and thought, I'm going to love this person because even the sky looks different.”

Oh. My. God. My heart. I think I lost it. I keep thinking that maybe, just maybe, I could give one of the Caster Chronicle books a 4 star, but no. Garcia has a way of pulling so many different unique things together beautifully. I would have laughed if someone had told me that you could fight supernatural beings, southern accents, a small town, and a great romance into one book. They just don't seem to fight. Fitting together casters (or witches) with an obsession with the words light and dark and southern church goes? Oh yes, it works very well.

I like the plot, the setting, the romance, the characters, well damn, I like everything about this series. The plot is exciting and the setting makes it all its own. The romance between Lena and Ethan is completely believable. Its really beautiful actually. The characters are hilarious and spot on brilliant.

I like how Garcia actually made it so that I don't hate any characters in this book. For some reason, it always seems like I hate at least one character in every book. With the Percy Jackson series, it was Annabeth. With The Vampire Diaries it was Bonnie. With the Twilight series.... wait. I hated everybody but Alice and Jacob in those damn novels. I could go on and on. But really? With this book I was trying to find someone to hate but I just couldn't.

I have to talk about Ethan (The main character and hottie). Sorry, I might start to ramble. He seems like the only non-badass hero that I actually swoon over. Ethan is a smart, romantic guy that you just want to cuddle with. But he is really selfless too, in a "I need to protect everyone I love kind of way". He is just... awesome.

Oh and did I mention that I went to the ER tonight? I hit my head really hard and have a concussion. But I still finished this book and am writing a review at 2 am. That is how good this book is. Do yourself a favor and go and read this beautiful piece of literature.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Nailing The Book: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson


Speak

Hey. There are some books where I really need to do my nails based on the outside, because the inside is soo depressing. Here is my review, if you want to check it out.  That is where I had a problem with Speak. If you have read this book, you know what I mean. So then I was left to make some art out of the front cover. I mean the front cover itself isn't bad.
But making nail art out of it? Well that was a little difficult. I knew right away that I was going to do a tree somewhere, but then I was fresh out of ideas. 

I ended up with a tree (maybe?), a gradient like the leaves and some good old glitter to come to the rescue.




I used Elf Desert Haze, L.A. Colors Black Velvet and Elf Smokin' Hot for the tree. I drew it with a nail art pen and dabbed on some red to brighten it up!
The glitter is Elf Gina Girl. Its so beautiful!
For the gradient I used Elf Smokin' and Elf Mod Mauve.
I topped all of them of with Seche Vite top coat!




 Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Friday, January 3, 2014

Christmas Nail Polish Haul

This is late. So late. Christmas was what, a week or two ago? I have had these gorgeous polishes just sitting in my blog folder on the computer, edited and everything, but then I had new years stuff, and 2014 stuff, so this came last. I went a little polish crazy with my Christmas money. I didn't get a lot of polishes, but I love most of them I got! My wallet was fighting with me because I wanted to buy the 3rd and 4th Mortal Instrument books, so polish got placed in second. But I adore most of the polishes I got!

X Formula Grandiose:

Grandiose is a shimmery duochrome that switches between a redish pink and orange. This is an incredible polish it shifts so well. Its one of those polishes where you see it in the bottle and it looks even better on the nails. The formula is great and it went on in two coats. As you can see, I took a ton of pictures of this one, in different lights. Here is two coats without top coat.







X Formula Infamous:

Infamous is another beautiful duochrome that shifts from bluish teal to purple. This polish is incredible! Like Grandiose, it shifts like nobody's business. It goes from teal to a bluish teal to purple. The formula is great and it goes on in 2 coats perfectly. Ready for more picture spam? Here is two coats without top coat.







Zoya Dhara:

Dhara is a shimmery orange textured polish. It is from the Zoya Pixie Dust 2013 collection. I got this one at Ulta for a sale price of 5 dollars. I gotta say that I love this one. This is the first Zoya polish I have tried and I'm super impressed! Here is two coats without top coat.




China Glaze Lightning Bolt:

Lightning Bolt is a creme white crackle polish. It was kind of lumpy when I first applied it, but then it smoothed out when it dried. I've never seen that with any other crackle polish, so I'm not sure if its just the bottle I just or if it just has a bad formula overall. Here is one coat over L.A. Colors Black Velvet.




Revlon Mistletoe:

Mistletoe is a shimmery black and blue and green polish. This is one of those colors where it is kind of hard to explain, so I'll just let you guys look at the pictures. But the formula was good. Here is two coats without top coat.




Revlon Meteor:

Dang. I probably just found on of my favorite all time polishes. Meteor is totally stunning. The formula is great as well! Here is two coats of 1 and one coat of 2 without top coat.





Sephora by OPI Happy Earth Day to Me:

Happy Earth Day to Me is an really gross shimmery greenish brown. Okay OPI, I see what you were trying to do here.. kind of. But I really really really dislike this color. Honestly? I think it looks like puke. I'm not sure what OPI was thinking with this one? Here is three coats without top coat.




Sephora by OPI Looks Like Rain, Dear:

Looks Like Rain, Dear is a top coat with gold and holographic glitter. This polish is pretty but the formula really isn't. I truly thought that this one would go on by itself, but after 4 coats I said no. I ended up putting it over black and then it looked thick. So I just took pictures and gave up. Here is one coat over L.A. Colors Black Velvet.




Sephora by OPI Lights, Glammer-a, Action!:

Lights, Glammer-a, Action is a clear top coat with small blue glitters and bigger silver glitters. This one didn't have any formula problems. I didn't think it was very unique though. I put it over L.A. Colors Black Velvet. Here is two coats over Black Velvet.




Sephora by OPI Beam Me Up, Hottie!:

Beam Me Up, Hottie is a clear top coat with some medium holographic silver glitters. First may I say, what is up with this name? *Giggles at how stupid it it* Second, the polish has like no glitters. When you look at the bottle, you will be like "Awee! Look at all that glitter" but no. Really I was lucky to get 2 or 3 on the brush. So I had to do some major digging. I guess its okay if you like subtle. The formula was good though, I'll give it that. Here is two coats *and lots of fishing* over NYC French Tip White.





Thanks for reading! I am super unimpressed with Sephora by OPI. I don't know if its just these polishes, but I did get four... What do you think? Let me know in the comments below! Have a great day!
Copyright © 2014 A Polished Bookworm