Tuesday, July 31, 2012

L'oreal Brit Invasion

I'm getting ready for fall! This is one of those polishes that screams fall to me. L'oreal's Brit Invasion is part of a Limited Edition collection by L'oreal called LONDONfall. Brit Invasion has a dusty murky purple/grey base with green/gold teeny flakie shimmer. Reminds me a lot of a darker version of China Glaze Fast Track, but for me, this color is more easily wearable because of the cooler, deeper base. The end result looks less purple and more taupe.

The formula on Brit Invasion was spectacular! Smooth, creamy, and pretty opaque. I only needed two coats, and it dried super fast with no bubbles using Poshe topcoat. I think I found my perfect brush in this polish, I only had to do minimal cleanup. This polish was such a breeze to apply after all the glitters I've been doing lately, it makes me want to go out and buy a ton of L'oreals!




Will you be picking up any of the London colors?

Monday, July 30, 2012

Franken Funky French + stamped

In honor of Lancome's new fragrance "La vie est belle," I made a franken inspired by the perfume's box. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture, but the box is white with a layer of red iridescent and yellow and green iridescent glitters, and then the edges of the box are a holographic copper. Awesome! The fragrance itself is a little heavy for me, but I hope it does well (so people will buy it at my counter, lol.)

The franken I made is just a white jelly base with red to green color shifting glitter and mini iridescent yellow/green glitter with a dash of spectra flair. Most of that wouldn't translate to pictures, but here you go! I did two coats of my franken over three coats of a creme jelly, then I added a funky french with OPI DS Vintage, to represent the coppery holo edges on the perfume box.

Please ignore the bubbles, me and white polishes don't get along.


And theeeen, because you know I can't leave anything alone, I added a fauxnad stamp using Sally Hansen Magical Nail Makeup in Mystical Mandarin and stamp number m20 from the Mash set.




Saturday, July 28, 2012

Rainbow Honey - The Worst Possible Thing

Here's my last Rainbow Honey polish to show you: The Worst Possible Thing! The name to me is pretty funny, because of all the Rainbow Honeys I got, this has the best formula. Whereas the other three had thick, gooey, unspreadable formulas, this one, while thick, spread nice and even. The only time it got difficult was when a couple flakes would snag on eachother. Because guess what folks, this polish not only has iridescent and holo glitter, it also has iridescent flakie bits in it! I layered two coats of TWPT over two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Grea Area.

I love that this polish has iridescent purple and blue glitters in it, those types are my faaaavorite. I could have done without the holo bits but it does give the polish a very fun feel. And the fact that these are named after My Little Pony Friendship is Magic just makes my day.






In this last picture you can see how the flakkie bits overlap and cloud the base polish a bit. Still pretty though! Next time I'm gonna try it over a pastel or a dark blue.

You can by Rainbow Honey at RainbowHoney.com, $10 for 15ml or $5 for 7ml minis.

Friday, July 27, 2012

NYC Peach Sparkle w/ Maybelline Blazes of Blue

Here's another gorgeous addition to my stash I picked up the other day. I found this beauty at Rite Aid, in a display for NYC's summer collection. Peach Sparkle has been rumored to be a dupe for NARS Orgasm polish. I don't own that one, or many peaches at all for that matter, but I looove the gold shimmer in this polish. It's so soft but not tooo pale. I wanted a contrast so I added a layer of Maybelline's long discontinued Colorama Blazes of Blue glitter on top. I loooove iridescent blue glitter. It's my holy grail of glitters. I did this mani during a power outage a couple weeks ago, so pardon any imperfections :).


This mani is three coats of NYC Peach Sparkle. Me and this formula did not get along. For whatever reason, lately all the polishes I've used have been super gummy, this one was no exception. I topcoated Peach Sparkle and let it dry for a bit. I find that that helps frostier polishes from absorbing the glitter and making it look all sunken. Then I added a coat of Blazes of Blue and NYC GCS topcoat.



Enjoy :)

Rimmel Hard Edged stamped

After seeing a swatch of this online somewhere, I had to insta-buy this on eBay. Rimmel Hard Edged is an intriguing multichrome polish. The base of this is a dark dusty grey/black with a predominantly purple/red/brown shimmer that shifts to golden orange to almost green in different lights. Super crazy hard to describe, so I'll show you in pictures. This is three coats of Hard Edged with a coat of Poshe on top.







Mmmm... like super fine red to green color shift pigment! And of course I had to spice it up for work, this is using m25 Mash plate and Sally Hansen Color Quick in Red Chrome.



Thursday, July 26, 2012

Revlon Moon Candy Orbit

ARRRGGHHHH! So beautiful!


Say whhaaaa??? More easy to find drugstore flakie polishes??? That's right, Revlon has released a line of dual ended polishes, Moon Candy polishes, featuring a thick, shard-like flakie side in a sheer base, and a super pigmented dark polish on the other side. I only picked up one of these because I don't really dig the shard-like flakies, they're way harder to work with than regular flakies. However, I've been searching for a purple/blue flakie for forever, and HAD to have this. I even like how it turned out with the dark purple base it comes with!

I loved the formula on the dark purple polish this duo comes with. It's a smooooth pigmented deep grapey purple that could have been a one coater, but I used two for maximum evenness. Then I did a quick dry top coat and then used about two coats of the flakie side on top.

Orbit features purple, blue, and aqua/green colored shards. These flakes are way thicker and pointier than the flakes in polishes like Essie Shine of the Times, and are also way more sparse. To apply them I just sorta swirled the brush in the bottle like I would in any shapey type glitter, and it worked fine. I brushed on the first coat and then dabbed on the second coat to get better coverage of flakes. After letting it dry for a minute I just pressed down some of the pointy shards that were sticking up.

And then toooons of topcoat! I did two coats of Gelous, then one coat of Seche Vite. Unfortunately, it was still bumpy the next morning, so I added another coat of Gelous and another coat of Seche. The result made it as smooth as glass! And the intensity of the blues and purples in the flakes was just sooo gorgeous. I totally love this polish even if it is a pain in the butt to apply.




D@mn you's a sexy bi+ch!

Models Own Aqua Violet stamped

MMmmm.. I love duochrome polishes. They just make nails magical. I picked up Models Own Aqua Violet at Urban Outfitters for only $5 on sale. Total win purchase. I have a bunch of duochromes but not one like this. It's a very mellow color shifting polish. It shifts from aqua with a bit of teal to blue to purple. Lovely. The formula was kind of thick and bubbled on me, but a little thinner and Poshe topcoat helped to smooth it out. This is four coats with one coat of Poshe.




And then I stamped it with Color Club Wild at Heart!






Mmmmm. Can't go wrong with duochrome and holo!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Smitten Polish Hydrangea & Aquarius

I finally took the leap and got a few Smitten Polishes! Smitten Polish can be found here. As far as the indie polish craze goes, I've tended to gravitate towards the super glitter bombs. But I do like the color combos in some of the Smitten Polish, and how you get the sparkle of the glitter without it overwhelming the base color of the polish.

This is three coats of Hydrangea. I looove the color of the jelly base. The only thing that made me a little sad was that the formula was kind of gummy and shrank when I put on the Seche Vite topcoat, but it's still pretty!

Hydrangea:


And Aquarius is another pretty one. A soft aqua teal jelly base with green, blue, and purple glitter. I loooved the base color of this one too, it seemed to make my pale hands actually look a little tan. The only thing I would have liked to see is some variation in sizes of the glitter, but it's still beautiful! I would totally recommend these Smitten Polishes by Noelie, they're so soft and lovely!



Thursday, July 19, 2012

Circus by Andrea Somersault + Rainbow Honey A Little Kindness

I have a brand new brand of nail polish to show you! Circus by Andrea's Choice in the color Somersault arrived as a nice surprise in my MyGlam bag. As far as I can tell, the whole line will be available starting in the fall, the only ones available now are random colors from the MyGlam bag for July. The one they sent me, Somersault, I was kind of iffy about. Yellows tend to be bad on my skintone, and cremes are also problematic for me. But I said eff it, and immediately did a mani with it.

The formula for Somersault was surprisingly opaque. Most yellows are usually thin and awful. The opaqueness was nice, but on the downside, it was pretty streaky/thick. With a little bit of thinner I think it would be stellar though. Also, the dry time was pretty spectacular. I waited between each coat at least a few minutes to prevent drag, and they dried really quick. I did end up having to do four coats because of the streakiness, but I was totally pleased with the application otherwise. It was thick enough that I barely had to do any cleanup around the edges! It didn't run or pool or anything! Just streak. Four coats + one coat of Seche Vite.


Super rich, buttery yellow! Gives me a liiittle bit of lobster hands, but the color is growing on me. Of course I wore it like this all of five minutes before adding a two coats of Rainbow Honey A Little Kindness.

A Little Kindness by Rainbow Honey is a MONSTER to apply! Thick, draggy mess. BUT SO PRETTY. It's one of those polishes that you love and hate at the same time. I just got a mini, but it seems that the formula has too much suspension base, and needs to be thinned like crazy. But I was determined to do the whole mani without messing with the formula, so you can see some of the gloppier places in the pics.

The color itself is amazing! It's a super sheer base with no discernible color to it, with a raspberry pink microglitter flash, large pink and gold hexes, iridescent smaller green glitters, white glitters, and smaller pink and gold glitters. I can imagine how awesome this color would look over black because of the pink flash and the white glitters don't show up as well on this lighter base.

Not to mention, this color is based on Fluttershy from My Little Ponies Friendship is Magic, one of my favorites! When I was putting this mani on yesterday, I had my Fluttershy tshirt from Hot Topic on, and I'd done my eyes in yellow, pink, and green. Total nerd moment, hah! Enjoy!








Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Jade Vermelho Surreal red holo! + last day Giveaway!




Hello all! I'm back from the beach! Just one more pre-vacation mani to show you, and then I'll be reviewing the awesome Rainbow Honey polishes I got! Today I have for you the red holographic polish from the Jade Holografico collection! These holos are sooo pretty. Not finicky at all. Pretty opaque, smooth formula. These swatches are two coats, with NYC Grand Central Station on top.


I like that this is a true red holo, it almost borders on the tomato side of red, versus most "red" holos are more pink toned. Swatches after the giveaway!


a Rafflecopter giveaway





Monday, July 16, 2012

Nails Inc Baker's Street + Jade Mystic Gold holo!

Another quick post while I'm on vacation! After hearing about Nails Inc Baker St for forever, I decided to finally pick one up. It did not disappoint! The formula was super pigmented and super rich looking. I wanted to accent it with something so I added a tape mani accent in Jade Mystic Gold. Enjoy!


Saturday, July 14, 2012

Lynnderella Cauldron Drippings + Orly Royal Navy

This post is from my iPhone, so I apologize for the briefness. I'm currently camping and sitting by the fire, but I wanted to post one of my favorite recent manis. This is Lynnderella Cauldron Drippins over Orly Royal Navy. And for once I shook up Royal Navy enough so the aqua shimmer actually showed up. Cauldron Drippings is super pretty to me but I wish that it had a little more variety in the non orange glitters. When CD came out I remember Lynn saying it contained the extra drippings of glitter from her other frankens, but whatever, it's still pretty. Here ya go!