2013 Holiday Nails #1

For this Holiday look, I used Santa Red My List by China Glaze as the base color and Essie's No Place Like Chrome for the stamp color:

China Glaze Monsters Ball Groupon!

I thought you all might want to know that, for the next two days, there is a groupon available for the entire China Glaze Monsters Ball (2013 Halloween) collection.  For a limited time, the entire collection, which includes 6 polishes, will be available at the discounted rate of $22.99!!  Get it before they're gone!

Shot of the Day: Sinful Colors "High Strung" + Stamping

For this look  I used "High Strung" from Sinful Colors and stamped with China Glaze's "Liquid Leather," which is my favorite black stamping polish.

For the accent nails, I used "Clearly Spotted" from the Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots collection

Shot of the Day: Bejeweled Barbie Mani

I recently purchased a bottle of China Glaze's "You Drive Me Coconuts" and I absolutely adore the color.  Usually I'm not into so much Barbie pink, but when I added a layer of Essie's "A Cut Above,"  the glam factor skyrocketed as you can see:

It's so fancy, I'm calling it my Bejeweled Barbie look.  Well, I guess I still can't decide between bejeweled or bedazzled.  Either way, it's pretty fabulous!

Coral and Gold Stamped Mani with Glitter

Shot of the Day: Giraffe Print Nails

It seems like China Glaze's Lemon Fizz has been a huge hit with nail enthusiasts this summer.  And as soon as I got a bottle of my own, I knew it would be the perfect base color for a giraffe print mani.  Here's 2 coats of Lemon Fizz:

And I was right!  It is the perfect base color for a Giraffe print:

Please excuse my bad cuticle day...But other than that, pretty nice, huh?

Shot of the Day: Magic Carpet Nails

Base color is by Urban Outfitters, and I believe the stamping polish is from the China Glaze Romantique collection:

After I did this design, one of my friends commented that it looked like a magic carpet or something from Aladdin.  What do you think?

Shot of the Day: Tiger Stripes

So I've kinda gone a little stamp crazy this summer, and to be honest, I've stamped my nails so frequently that I couldn't keep up with all the products I was using.  So for the next few weeks, I'm basically just going to dump a bunch of stamping photos here.  It would take me forever to go back and figure out exactly which polish and product I used in all of my pictures, but if you really want to know a polish color name or stamping plate ID, just say so in the comments and I'll do my best to track it down.  Enjoy!

China Glaze base color:

And now for the tiger stripes:

So what do you think of my mani?  Pretty wild, huh?  :)

Stamping Success with MASH 26-50 Plates

If you follow Polish off the Bottle on Facebook and Twitter, then you know that I have been super pumped about getting started with nail stamping.  Well, my MASH 26-50 Plates arrived last week along with my Konad double ended stamper, and I have been having a ball!  It's a much easier process than I thought it would be, and there is so much variety you can do with your manicure.  I feel like I'm an all-star nail artist now thanks to nail stamping.

So my first attempt wasn't perfect, but I wanted to try a small design instead of a full pattern first just to get used to the application process.  Here's a pic from my first nail stamp manicure attempt:

Shot of the Day: Celebrating with China Glaze (Champagne Bubbles) and Gold Glitter

Well, I found out this week that I passed my comprehensive exams for my graduate program so I am celebrating the fact that I will have my master's degree in just three weeks!  I wanted to make my nails fit my mood, so I thought China Glaze's Champage Bubbles would be a perfect base for a sparkling celebration mani!

The gradient isn't perfect, but it sure does shine!  I used a base coat of OPI Nail Envy, then I used China Glaze Angel Wings as my first glitter layer toward the tips.  Angel Wings is a gold/green fine glitter with slightly holographic undertones. My second coat was Color Club's Gold Glitter, which is a slightly chunkier glitter that is very pigmented, and it has an amazing application.  It's very smooth and offers pretty full coverage.

The final coat I used for this glitter gradient look was Nicole by OPI's Kissed at Midnight.  It is a part of the Selena Gomez collection and it's one of my new favorite glitters.  The application is comparable to Essie's Luxeffects glitters.  It has a clear base with various sizes of gold round glitter, which are plentiful and easy to apply with the brush.  I seriously love this glitter and I will definitely be buying more glitters from the Selena Gomez collection!  It isn't goopy and thick like most highly pigmented glitters, and I think it added the perfect touch to my champagne celebration nails!

I used Seche Vite as my top coat.  I love this top coat with glitters because it makes your nails smooth to the touch, not grainy or bumpy, which happens a lot with glitters.  Anyway, I think it's time to get this party started.  I'll begin by mixing a pitcher of Sangria!

Welcome!

As I mentioned in the About page, I'm here to blog about two of my favorite things - nail polish and cocktails.  I've been a book blogger for years, but I recently decided to join the nail blogging world and it's really exciting.  I'm not completely sure how I'm going to organize this site yet, but I will definitely be posting pictures of my manicures, which will include lots of glitter and polka dots by the way, as well as nail polish reviews and swatches.

 I'm a big fan of China Glaze, Essie, Kleancolor, OPI, Revlon, Orly, and Sinful Colors polishes, but I'll wear almost any drugstore brand if the color catches my eye.  I haven't delved into the realm of designer polishes yet, but I'm hoping my graduate school budget will allow for a few polish splurges here and there.  And just to start things off on the right hand, here are some sample photos of my most recent manicures.  In the future, I will improve my photography methods and post the base coat, polish names, etc.  Also, please be patient with my cuticles...Enjoy!