Maybelline Color Show - Downtown Brown

I think I'm falling in love with chocolate colored nail polishes! I only have a couple browns, but this is one that I can really dig into. Downtown Brown is the first polish I've picked up from Maybelline's new Color Show line, and a really unique color to my collection. It's part of Maybelline's Limited Edition fall collection which has a few awesome duochrome colors, but only one that I thought was really unique. Downtown Brown has a rich warm brown base with a green to teal to blue/violet duochrome shimmer. In most light it looks brown with a silvery shimmer, but in the right light, magic!

This is three coats (though it looked pretty awesome at two) with a coat of Seche Vite for shine. The formula was good, which is a refreshing change from the goopy messes I've been using lately.

Yummy! It reminds me of mint chocolate chip icecream and Ande's mints.  If  you're looking for a good fall polish or love browns, I definitely recommend picking this one up!

Dior Shadow NOTD

Hello! Finally got moved in and settled in to my new apartment that I'm sharing with Stuff I Swatched's Rachel. One of the first things we did as roommates was to do a Dior haul. I've never purchased anything from Dior and this is one of my first high end polishes. But when I saw the pictures of Dior Shadow I knew I had to have it. Dusty dark purple base with orange and red shimmer? Yes please!


The formula on this polish was pretty good, just leaning sliiightly into the thick side, but covered almost completely in one coat. I still did three coats for depth. This is also my first time using a Dior polish brush and I think there was a bit of a learning curve there. The brush was more rounded than I'm used to. But overall I love the smoky mysteriousness of this polish. I think it will be awesome for fall, and I definitely felt super chic and awesome while I was wearing it. Depending on the lighting, this color went from looking super dark almost dusty grey, to reddish violet in brighter light. I LOVE IT. I apologize for the less than awesome pictures, by the time I got to take pics of this mani, I'd already done a lot of unpacking and scuffed my nails a bit.

Shadow is an exclusive Dior shade for Nordstrom, and was released as part of their Les Violets Hypnotiques collection during Nordstrom's anniversary sale.This one is sold out at a lot of stores, but you can still order it on the Dior website for $23!

Saturday Spam-fest! *lots of pics*

Sorry for the inactivity lately, I've been getting ready to move into a new spiffy apartment! I've got the big move tomorrow, then after that I should be getting into a better rhythm for posting. However, I still wanted to show you what I've been doing lately, because even if I'm quiet on here, the nails are still gonna be colorful.

Layla Cloudy Violet, three coats over one coat of Aquabase. This is what I wanted China Glaze LOL to be, good color, big holo flame. I like.

These were the nails that I did for my first LARPing adventure where I played as a wizard. The base is OPI Paris Couture for Sure, four coats, and then the swirls are painted on with acrylic paint. The stars are from a little Nail Art jar I got from Five Below that had these and green cutout stars. This mani lasted pretty well considering we were very active on the field of battle!

This mani is four coats of Essie Turquoise and Caicos and a new Rainbow Honey polish called Sakura Matsuri. Bah, I did not like the formula on T&C, it was still streaky at four coats. The application might have been better if it had been thinned out. I like the Rainbow Honey on top though, very delicate but colorful. I see lots of possibility for this color over pastels and deep colors like grey and black. I love the flower glitters in this!

Butter London Knackered! I've been waffling on this color since it was released the beginning of this year. I'm so glad I picked this up during the Butter London BOGO sale! The formula is okay, but pretty watery. I foresaw the definite possibility that this polish could turn into a frosty glittery mess because of the metallic shimmer and holo glitter, but I actually like the combination! The holo wasn't too obvious, except in bright light, and the multichrome is pretty subtle too. This could be a good or bad thing depending on your tastes. Now be prepared for entirely too many pictures!

Finger Paints Plum Startled is another polish I couldn't make up my mind about. I have a toooon of purple polishes, but this one isn't too dupey to anything else in my stash. I ended up liking this color a lot, even if my first mani was a fail and I had to do a total redo. I think the bright purple and indigo shimmer against the dusty wine purple base is just super gorgeous. I think Plum Startled also makes a good transition color from Summer to Fall. This was four coats I believe.

 The gorgeous sparkle in this REALLY comes out in the sun. Check out how pretty!

Now this is a random layering I did the other day using a jelly sandwich technique with Revlon Royal and a blue Quirius glitter polish the has red, blue and gold micro glitter. I loved this mani because it reminded me of superhero/Superman themed colors.

Alrighty, I think that catches me up pretty much for the moment. Thanks for reading!!

Indie Monday! - Rainbow Honey - Hanami and Koi Pond

 Hello all! Today I have for you a couple belated swatches from the indie brand Rainbow Honey. I keep waffling over how I want to review these because I haven't been super happy with the service I've received from the site. The polishes are pretty but I don't believe that Hanami was described well, since the description didn't include holographic glitter. Don't get me wrong, I love holographic goodness, but not when I want a delicate layering glitter which to me was what Hanami was described as.

Anways, Hanami is gorgeous, and has the best formula of any of the RH's that I've tried. The Equestria polishes were ridiculously thick, but these two coats of Hanami (shown over Layla Red Taboo) were pretty easy to apply. This polish is really complex and has holo glitters, iridescent glitters, matte white glitter, pink glitter, white shards, and has a pretty twinkling effect.

Next up is Koi Pond. This is another pretty polish, but one that I wish didn't contain holo glitters. To me they just throw off the whole aesthetic, but that's just me being picky!  The pictures speak for themselves, this is a super fun layering glitter. This swatch is two coats of Koi Pond over two coats of Orly Sapphire Silk.

What do you think?