Lush Lacquer Clowning Around

First off, let me just say how much I love Illamasqua Jo'mina. It's a beautiful bright lavender light purple. The formula is heavenly, smooth, and pigmented. I picked it up with my roommate Rach from Stuff I Swatched from Sephora in JC Penney as part of their $7 Illamasqua clearance. I thought it'd be a good base to try out my first neon glitter!
Lush Lacquer Clowning Around is a clear based polish fuuuullll of different colors and sizes of neon matte glitter hexes. I love it. I can't wait to put it over alllll the pastels I have. It's going to be great for the warmer months. This is two coats, dabbed on, over two coats of Jo'mina. Enjoy!

Ciate Trio swatches

Been away awhile again. I wanted to show you all what I've been up to. First up, I got a trio of Ciate polishes from Sephora in JC Penney the other day while I was scavenging for $7 Illamasquas. They caught my eye because they looked like versions of MAC Bad Fairy. One a brighter pink with glitter, one duller duochrome, and one a gold green shimmer with pink glitter. After swatching them, I'm not really thrilled, and they might have to go back. $25 for three mini polishes is pretty bonkers. But I've swatched two of them here for you. The third, Heirloom, was basically like Orly Space Cadet without the teal base, just purpley pink brown.

Ciate Love Letters, two coats over two coats of a Chelsea grey. Pretty duochrome, but basically like Sally Hansen Lava with extra hexes in fuschia and light copper.

And Ciate Antique Broach, one thin coat over Sinful Sugar Rush.

Over all, decent formula, pretty colors, but not worth $25. The only unique aspect of these is the addition of multiple sizes of hex glitters to brighten up the polish. I don't mind the glitters, I was afraid they would get too covered in the shimmer and get that frosty look. But  also didn't think there was enough contrast between the shimmer and glitter. Meh.

Long time no see... Spam

Hello there all you lovelies! October was one hell of a crazy month for me. I just couldn't get myself to sit down and edit some nail pics. But there are a few layering combos and Halloween manis that I really enjoyed, and would love to share with you all!

First up is Butter London Wallis. I wore a bunch of these olive-y greens in October, and got compliments every time! I was pretty surprised because I wouldn't have thought that this murky green would be appreciated by anyone other than nail nerds like us. Of course Wallis is gorgeous, just look at that warm green/gold shimmery goodness.

Now this mani was inspired by someone's combo on MUA who used Wet n Wild Creepy Pumpkin over black. I wanted to kick it up a notch, so I did one coat of Creepy Pumpkin over two coats of an Essence navy jelly. The sparkle was gorgeous and had a gold to green shift! And I stamped a pumpkin on top from the second Bundle Monster set for fun.

And next up, Nubar Raspberry Truffle with Orly Godiva glitter on top. I loved this mani soooo much. Depending on the lighting, it could look more brown or purple in the base, but I loved the contrast with the pinky/gold shimmer and the bronze-y brown glitter in Godiva. It was twinkly and subtle but awesome. I hadn't worn this Nubar for like, two years, and I'm super glad I pulled it out, it's lovely!

And this was my day after election celebration mani. This is a franken that I made using a pink shimmer Sinful, and then loose matte yellow and orange squares, raspberry small shimmer, and orange hexes. Mmmm. Juicy. Then I added OPI Take the Stage tips because I had horrible shrinkage from Poshe topcoat.  Very cheerful mani. Me likey.

And my mani for election day, featuring China Glaze Ride the Waves, Revlon Slipper gitter, and the starry Kleancolor. This was a thick non drying mess, but I loved the final result. Sparkly! And I like the contrast between the red glitter in Slipper and the blue base.

Speaking of election day, the voting process is completely messed up. It took me and my friend three + hours of waiting in line at the first polling place, being told we didn't exist in the system and had therefor never  registered... Well guess what, I have voted in every presidential election since I was legal, and they're telling me I didn't exist. So they told us to go to a different school that matched a previous address of mine. Got there, still not found, still not allowed to vote, provisional or otherwise. Had one of the election helpers call their voting masters and they told me to go back to the original school. OH THE RAGE. It is ridiculously hard to carry out your civic duty when the voting gods are against you. But the original school did let me vote provisionally, but it was so frustrating. Anyways, here's my mani!

Saturday Spam, Indie Edition! Lynnderella + Pretty Serious

So, I'm trying to spend the whole month with Halloween on my nails. I'm constantly chasing that joy that I felt  as a kid knowing that candy and costumes was just around the corner. I've got my Walking Dead marathon on right now, a few different Halloween frankens in the mix, desk covered in glitter, and I'm definitely feeling the season! My brand new keyboard finally turned up, so I'm able to type without having to press down on nasty, gummy keys. But I'm sure this one will be soaked with acetone and glitter soon enough!

First up for you, I have a really fun pairing: Lynnderella Cauldron Drippings over War Paint Beauty Purple Haze. Purple Haze is seriously one of my favorite polishes, definitely top 20. It's a deep gorgeous jellied purple with fuschia/purple and blue glass flecks. I thought it would give Cauldron Drippings a nice pop, and keep it super Halloween-y. For these swatches I did two coats of Purple Haze, (awesome formula), then dabbed on about 1 1/2 coats of Cauldron Drippings. CD had an ok formula, not too thick, but the glitter was kind of a pain to work with. That is to be expected with these types of chunky glitter though. I loved this mani because I had a sad coworker say that it cheered her up, and a few customers even dug them.

The next Indie polish I have to show you is from Pretty Serious. I lucked into this mani because my new roommate got a package of new Pretty Serious polishes and offered to let me try one. Awesome! And to keep in with my Halloween nail theme for the month, I chose an awesome murky brown polish called Morning Java. This color is so complex! It has a greenish brown/bronzey base with small gold glitters and smaller warmer micro gold shimmer, and I swear there are hints of teeny red/orange glitters in there as well. I only needed two coats for opacity, and it was a little thick, but not too hard to work with. I'm not complaining because there is a lot of goodness happening in this polish.

Glitter Herpes!!! Haha, excuse the mess, you can tell I've been frankening.

I love how it looks warmer or cooler, more green or more golden brown depending on the light! And of course I had to Halloween-ify it, so i added a coat of Orly Godiva, a brown metallic glitter, and a spiderweb decal. Love it! Thanks so much to my roomie Rach from Stuff I (S)watched for letting me borrow it!

China Glaze Halloween Spam and Comparison

Soo... you all probably get it by now that I freaking love this month. This month is full of change for me: I'm changing jobs, figuring out how to go back to school for a different career, living in a new place... it's a lot. So my posts are a lot more sporadic, but I'm picking colors that make me happy. Of course I had to pick up a few of the new China Glaze Halloween Wicked collection.

 China Glaze Cast-a-spell = I LOVE THIS POLISH. It is full of sparklies and makes me feel like a crow with my sparklies. It's so hard to catch the awesomeness that is this polish. It's rich, velvety deep dark blackened green base with gold and green and orange super small flakes. It glows. I normally hate green polishes, but something about China Glaze glass fleck + Halloween = win for me.

And for those who might want to compare this gorgeous green with last year's Halloween green, Zombie Zest, here are four coats of Zombie Zest next to two coats Cast-a-spell.

 And China Glaze Zombie Zest from last years Halloween collection on its own. This color is so ugly-pretty. Like Exorcist pea-soup vomit on your nails, but sparkly! I love it. But I don't love how sheer it is. This is four coats and it shrank on me.

 And another from this year's Wicked collection, Bizarre Blurple. This polish is just downright sexy. I loved wearing this. The formula was great, the color is great.  BB has a medium/deep rich purple base with just a hiiint of dustiness in some lights, with a GORGEOUS bright blue flash. Enough words, here's pics.

And the iridescent glitter bomb of this collex, Make A Spectacle. This one is kind of a greener/ orange-er version of China Glaze Snow Globe. I did one coat of MAS and three coats of Icing's Eenie Greeny Mine-y Mo (no idea how to spell that name, lol.). I know this doesn't really show off MAS to it's full potential, but I wanted dragon scale nails!

Yum, glitter :)

Fall-o-ween Franken

It's the most wonderful time of the year! I'm busting out the Halloween manis as early as possible this year, since my collection of Halloween polishes is bordering on the ridiculous (-ly awesome). I wanted to show you all my franken that's based on an old China Glaze polish that was a Sally's Beauty exclusive, Spellbound. I was never able to get a bottle of Spellbound, so I made one! Of course it's not exact, but it's close enough for me. I just mixed a little of a Sally's silver glitter mini polish with an LA Girl Addict Flamboyant polish. Shown here is two coats over Maybelline Cool Couture.

Fall-o-ween!

October Spooky NOTDs

 I'm so happy fall is here! Halloween is my favorite holiday and I'm not wasting any time this year before I start my Halloween NOTDs. First up is one of my most beloved polishes, OPI Man of La Mancha, over FingerPaints Black Expressionism, with Black Expressionism stamped on top using Bundle Monster Plate 224. I love MolM because it has a reddish pink base with color morphing red to green shimmer that makes the polish super multichrome, anywhere from red to orange to gold to green. This is two coats over black.

 And another couple polishes that I love together, the ones from Sephora + Pantone Universe Tangerine Tango collection: Tangerine Tango Creme and Tangerine Tango Glitter. This was super shiny and sparkly. I used two coats of TTcreme and two of the glitter, then made it smooth using Gelous followed by Seche Vite topcoat.

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!!