I'm Back with a Gradient, some News and a Haul pic!

Hey all!

Right now I'm in that bittersweet post-vacation mood. So happy to be home relaxed but still wishing I was on vacation so I imagine I'll be a little slow for a couple of days. At least I managed to get this post up :D

Today I'll show you the mani I wore on my trip to NYC! This has to be one of my most complimented manis ever. A girl at the pharmacy wouldn't charge me until I explained how I did them and a girl at Sephora was too busy looking at my nails instead of telling me if they had the Nails Inc. Sprinkles polishes! The best part? It's something that you probably know how to do already.

It's just a simple gradient! I did two coats of Illamasqua Radium and gradiented-sponged Illamasqua Muse and voila! I apologize for the pics, they look a little rough since I took the pics before top coat. The idea was to layer the black Fergie glitter over this, but then I decided to stamp, and then I never really had time to do either.

The fact that the gradient looks so smooth without top coat is really something to me. Gradients usually look loads better after top coat, but this time I used Sammy's tutorial (from the Nailasaurus) and it was amazing! I do feel I waste more polish with this method than my usual (painting the colors directly onto the sponge) but the results are too good to resist!

There's MOAR after the jump! A haul pic, mini-rant, survey and some exciting news for all ze readers!




Now, the haul! Mini-rant first: Can you believe that the one mission I was most excited about the trip was to get my hands on some Zoyas and I DIDN'T EVEN GET THEM! I used the Where to buy page from Gotham Polish, and the one time I headed to the store that was near to me, it was closed. I was FUMING to say the least. It was a Saturday and they closed at 5. WHO DOES THAT?! They have the weirdest hours for being in NYC. Anyway, as a "I'm sorry we took so long at lunch that you found the store closed" apology, my boyfriend got me my first two butter LONDON polishes (Blagger and Wallis)! Not that it was his fault per se, he just hates seeing me sad/mad (I also believe he's a tiny bit afraid of me). 

I also got some Mattise Elite polishes from Ricky's (they were BOGOfree), a random Jessie's Girl from Rite Aid and something called 'Ying's Color'. I haven't heard/read anything about this brand and a quick googling didn't really help much. They were selling them at a random corner for $2 each, but since we made conversation with the man selling them he threw in one for free. They have very decent formulas and some interesting colors so I'm happy with the purchase! The Illamasqua is Monogamous and the two Nails Inc. Sprinkles polishes. These last three aren't actually part of my NYC haul because I got them when I was back home. I cannot believe the Sephora here in Puerto Rico got these before the Sephoras in NYC and, believe you me, I looked in plenty of them.

You can also see there that I kind of duped myself with the three blues I got, but since 2 of them were so cheap I don't really care. I'll probably do some nail art with all the colors eventually, but if there's any one you'd like too see first, let me now! (< that was the survey).

About the news, you might have noticed I reached 100 (+1) followers just recently and I wanted to thank all of you with a giveaway! I've been slowly stashing random polishes to give away and have a couple of ideas of what else I want to get, so be on the lookout for that soon! (Also, if you're a blogger and have any advice to share on how to do a giveaway, I'm all ears. Feel free to e-mail me or leave me a comment).

Sorry this was so wordy, I had a lot to get out! Have a good day!