Anyway, I'll try to do 2 posts back to back so I will be up-to-date w/ my current mani. Of course, I totally forgot to do comparison pics with Essie VLV and SD, but I will try my hardest to remember to do that, even if I have to do it quick and dirty before I take off my current nails.

Before I get to my current and previous mani, I want to mention a quick note on my nails. I picked up 500 assorted tips from a HK seller, and like an idiot, I ordered white rather than natural. I went ahead and tried them to make sure I liked them before I placed another order for the natural tips. So that's why it looks a little funny at my cuticles. I do like these tips, aside from the color (though I can see that the white would be useful for pale polishes that streak). If you are interested, search full nail fake nails 500 on eBay and you should get many pop up. You'd probably want to get natural, though. If you want the exact auction I ordered my white or natural nails from, just let me know and I'll hunt it down.

This first post of the 2 is a mani I did a couple days ago. It's CC Sakura Glow which is one of the new limited edition Japanese glitters that I've only seen at VNS. H2T may have them, too, as they sell CC, but I haven't checked. Here's a pic of the final product and then I'll ramble on for a bit more:

I like this color, it's a very pretty soft pink with holo glitter. I paired it ChG Emotion from the Romantiques warm collection for a tonal konad. I used plate m64 (I know, I use this one all the time). And then... because I'm a nail polish Border Collie, I added the matte top coat. While I liked it shiny and glittery (no pics, I always forget to get the transition pics), the look of it mattified is awesome. It captures the color in the holo, so it looks like I have a smattering of blue, green, and pink dots under my konad. Matte glitter rocks the house.

As for application, Sakura Glow took 3 coats to reach bottle color. It made a pretty, glitter wash at one coat though, so I think it would totally rock over black.

All in all, I really liked this look. It was a pale pink that didn't look assy on me, and that's a big feat. :P