50 fairy stars

-->It’s been a challenge to write this post—not because it’s hard to describe the content, but because the holidays can be stressful for many, because I had a birthday, I missed my monthly blogging goals due to stupid hospitalization, and because it’s the end of the year and here I am with a lot of beautiful, wonderful things in a time of turmoil. Isn’t it strange how tragedy and loss can bear beauty? 

This year has given much.

Magic Fairy Stars is a polish I was fortunate enough to get from Lynnderella and all the people of Lynnderella (and the help of the ever marvelous and wonderful special amazing thanks to Joni most faithful blog reader). The proceeds from this polish are being split between two charities in NY and NJ communities affected by hurricane Sandy.

Here it is shown over RBL Grunge, though it looks great over a variety of shades.

This beautiful polish features a ridiculous amount of glitter shapes and sizes. There are squares and hexes of course and a large dose of beautiful tiny stars--also thrown in is a dash of moons and large-sized stars. I wish these pictures were better, but I swear if you click on the FULL SIZE they look better.

Magic Fairy Stars, Grunge. Natural Light.

Magic Fairy Stars, Grunge. Natural Light.

Magic Fairy Stars. Macro Bottle.

Oh...

So these pictures are absolutely terrible. But I adore this color. I know it gained a mini cult status in the "nail world," so I picked it up at Walgreens. I figured since it was a pastel it would be a pita, but it wasn't so bad. 

I only used three coats and it is not completely opaque, however it's a sheer jelly-ish formula and I like the sheerness of it. I let the coats dry a lot in between each one to make sure that it wouldn't be too goopish. 

I left this on for three days with minimal tip wear and it wore really well. It does make me look a little red, but not nearly as red as in the photos. These just turned out so badly :( I definitely foresee wearing this and posting more in the future!

Cinderella. Artificial Light.

Cinderella. Artificial Light.

Happy Holos pt. 3

One of the most holo-ey holographic polishes I've seen is from the makeup store. They have a great line of holo polishes and I'm lucky enough to have Madeleine, a light gold or nude-ish holo. This polish is so fiery that it even glitters in the dark. 

However, it chips very easily and requires an aqua base for proper application. The first time I wore it, it chipped overnight. This time it didn't chip until the next day, not bad at all.

I forgot to mention! The fourth finger (ring finger) has no topcoat and the rest are wearing HK Girl Topcoat from Glisten and Glow. Once it dried, I didn't find it to dull the effect whatsoever. Awesome!

Madeleine. Natural Light.

Madeleine. Natural Light.

Madeleine. Artificial light with flash.

Madeleine. Artificial light with flash.

Happy Holos pt. 2

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This doesn’t look like much in the bottle, I’ll admit. I swapped for it because I wanted a Jade holo so much, but it was my least favorite of the pinks and reds. I thought it looked mauve and old lady in the bottle but when I put it on—bam!! Somewhere between sweet, yet seductive Barbie and every so slightly dusty rose office appropriate yet eye-blinding rainbow fire in sunlight holo (I was lucky to catch about 30 seconds of semi-sun on a rainy day for this). It looks even better and fire-ier in true sunlight.

What a fantastic surprise! I can’t really recall a time when I’ve felt…sexy? Wearing nail polish, haha! Whoever named this polish hit the nail on the head. Seducao it is. If you’ve worn it, I think you know what I mean.

As for wear, it did chip the next day (sorry about the ugly chipping D;), but not as quickly as some holos have on me (ChG OMG collection and MUS come to mind). I used NFU-oh aqua base under it and that worked very well for adhesion, though I didn’t try it without a base.

I cannot wait to get the rest of the collection <3 happy holo to all! And to all a good night :)

Seducao Rosa. Natural Light.

Seducao Rosa. Natural Light, shade.

Seducao Rosa. Natural Light.

  

Seducao Rosa. Natural Light.

Happy Holos

I wanted to post a couple of holographic polishes to celebrate the season.

Here's Glitter Gal Lizard Belly, a deep, dark Green holo from the Australian line Glitter Gal. 

The only thing I don't like about this polish is the price ;) Small bottles are priced similarly to normal sized mid to high-end priced bottles. Otherwise everything is great--I didn't need a special base coat like with other holos and application was gorgeous in just two coats. Chipping was minimal as well. 

Because it's darker the holo doesn't flash quite as bright, especially in these pictures, but a dark green holographic is pretty special and in very bright sunlight it looks very fiery.

Lizard Belly. Natural Light.

Lizard Belly. Natural Light, shade.

New Year's Eve Eve already!?

I'm lucky enough to have two new and beautiful polishes to show today--New Year's Eve Eve from Lynnderella's Season's Glitterings collection over Nicole Up and Kim-ing Pink (dupe for OPI Pink Friday).

I love the color of Pink Friday but had a ton of issues with the formula. I'm not sure if the Nicole formula was much better or if I'm just more skilled now. The polish isn't terrible to apply, though it's streaky and takes at least three coats to even and still has a somewhat chalky look. Also, it chipped like a beotch (sorry for the tip wear!) after half a day. But this color can't be beat!

New Year's Eve Eve, December 30th, I think ;) From Lynnderella's website: "363 days of glitter. We expected it to have some relationship to The Glittering Crowd, and it does. But the addition of new matte and satin glitters add an extra whallop. Just like 2012."

The satin glitters are really different--I think these were used in Sweets to the Sweet as well. A sort of pearlescent effect. A beautiful rainbow of glitters in a clear base which is great for anytime of year, really. The main differences I notice between NYEE and tGC is the satin glitter, diamond glitter, and yellow flowers. Of course the overall color scheme is also different. I haven't actually worn tGC yet either, but will compare soon <3

Up and Kim-ing Pink. Artificial Light.

New Year's Eve Eve and Up and Kim-ing Pink. Artificial Light.

Up and Kim-ing Pink. Artificial Light.

Lynnderella New Year's Eve Eve. Artificial Light.

return of the grunge

I first saw Rescue Beauty Lounge's Grunge on Scrangie's site and since I had swatched a friend's bottle I had been wanting to get my hands on some. When it was finally restocked I jumped at my chance to grab it.

I tried to capture the white shimmer, but had trouble due to grey weather. It's very faint and hard to capture on camera. I love this unique neutral.

Grunge. Natural Light.

Grunge. Artificial Light.

Doh...

I realize I only did four posts last month! Boo. Hoping for more this month despite holiday madness. 

Here's Nicole Just Busta Mauve, a Target exclusive. I would love to have the other glitter colors from this collection. See Scrangie's swatch of this, it's much better than mine. I probably should have used four coats and she may have...I only used three and there's some vnl. I think a dreaded four coats would have given a bit more depth and color here, as the polish was surprisingly sheer.

I found this to be a pretty awesome and different glitter. If I remember correctly it's a super concentrated fine tiny plum (I don't see mauve but I guess it could be dark mauve) and cobalt blue microglitter in a sheer base. I'm going to double check this though.

Double awesome is that even though it's a glitter, it has a duochrome effect. Yes! It shines warm plum, deep copper, and a strange sort of grey in different lighting. Amazing. Have you been tempted by any of the awesome Nicole colors lately? I love some of the holiday colors.

Just Busta Mauve. Natural Light.

Just Busta Mauve. Natural Light.

Just Busta Mauve, blurry sparkle. Natural Light.

Just Busta Mauve, close up. Natural Light.

Just Busta Mauve. Bottle shot. Natural Light.

Not Quite Yet...

I forgot to use China Glaze's new green holiday polish which I can't remember the name of and grabbed Wet n' Wild Poison Ivy from their Fall Pick Your Poison collection, one of the most beautiful greens I've ever seen. 

Some issues with Poison Ivy are that it has the WORST BRUSH EVER. In the world ever. See picture. Then if you want to clean up with a brush, it stains skin really badly so you walk around with greenish black skin for a day. I'm considering switching the bottle out, because then it would almost be the perfect polish :)

I'm almost on to holiday colors, but not quite yet, so right now I'm sorry that reader(s) will have to settle for seeing another Lynnderella Inner Space mani. I was going for a subtle gradient effect here. I still haven't done pictures of this with the perfect base color (I've got to ration my Inner Space from now on and save it for perfect bases ;p), but I *loved* it with Lippmann's Fashion. What do ya like to wear with multicolor glitters?

Lynnderella Innerspace, Wet n' Wild Poison Ivy. Natural Light.

Lynnderella Innerspace, Wet n' Wild Poison Ivy. Bottle shots. Natural Light.

Wet n' Wild Poison Ivy. Bottle shot. Natural Light.

Wet N' Wild bad brush! :(

Gobble Goblin

I'll call this my Thanksgiving mani though it wasn't. China Glaze Glitter Goblin and Essence Colour & Go Gorgeous Bling Bling. 

Glitter Goblin is an indeterminably colored (to me) little glitter (not micro glitter though?). The only glitter I can really determine the color of in this polish is the deep orange/red ochre colored glitter. The other glitter may just be a very holographic silver that flashes green, purple, and a bit gold. It's surprisingly sparse and patchy in application despite it's super glittery nature. Here's three coats. GG was SO HARD to remove. SO HARD! Also, it dried to a fairly gritty finish so I used two coats of my favorite HK Girl Top Coat (see picture) after waiting for it to dry a bit

Gorgeous Bling Bling is...well, a strange name for this polish. It does have yellow gold flakies and a bit of a shimmer, but it's not the polish I'd think of when I hear "bling." The base color is a somewhat burnt orange and reminds me a little of that Crayola crayon, "Bittersweet." The formula is great though--super smooth, opaque, and easy to apply. I love these Colour & Go polishes because even though their staying power is pretty bad, they dry faster than anything else I've used. I hope you've been able to try some, even if it's a funky color like this one ;p

Have you been seeing a lot of these orangey colors lately? RBL Santa Fe, OPI Schnapps Out of It...perhaps there are more?

Glitter Goblin and Gorgeous Bling Bling. Natural Light.

Glitter Goblin and Gorgeous Bling Bling. Natural Light.

Glitter Goblin and Gorgeous Bling Bling bottles. Natural Light.

Glitter Goblin and Hong Kong Girl Top Coat!

Miso Excited!

It's been a really long time since I posted...and for a good reason! I am currently employed and though it is very part time right now, I've still been busy and adjusting to a new schedule has been tough on my nails, believe it or not. 

It took me a long time to find this polish for a reasonable price (ie not on eBay) and I really *needed* to--I mean, you've gotta understand because I've read it's the only dupe/semi-dupe out there for RBL's Plie (see crappy comparison pic). As you can see in the picture, the pink in Plie appears to be a bit more saturated. 

Plie, a color I adore and think of frequently, is a color I have almost never been able to apply well. It nearly always requires three coats to cover streaks, gets thick and gummy, and takes 12 hours to dry even with a quick dry topcoat. I'd given up at one point and taken it to a salon and wished I hadn't.

I really hoped Miso Happy with this Color would *not* dupe Plie's application and it didn't. Application was so smooth and easy. While a bit sheer, with three thin and easy coats, this applied like a toxic, black-label dream. Why am I not wearing this right now, actually?

And oh my gosh. With the sunset starting at 2:30pm and me waking up at 8am at best--I am so sorry for this one terrible picture :( More to come!

Miso Happy with this Color. Artificial Light.

Miso Happy with this Color. Bottle Shot. Sunlight.

Miso Happy with this Color and Plie bottle comparisons. Sunlight.

Yesterdays Nudes

I thought it’d be fun to do a couple of posts on older neutral shades, as nudes and neutrals were my first loves, and today I have Borghese Almondine. It took me quite awhile to track down this one since I first saw it. I had seen some old Borghese displays when they were being discontinued in Rite Aid around the same time and didn’t really relate the two.

Almondine is a unique polish—a yellow-toned nude with black sort of tiny flecked texture. It also has a very, very faint pinkish flash that is more easily visible in the bottle. It’s very difficult to see while wearing, though possible in some lights.

I was not disappointed when I finally snagged this—the formula was great and it wore well. It required three coats and the only difficulty was presented by the crazy brush, which is flat, wide, paddle brush :( which I can usually manage, but just didn’t work with this formula.

Paddle aside, I’m happy to have finally added this unique neutral to my collection.

Almondine. Artificial Light.

Almondine. See the pink flash? Artificial Light.

Almondine. See the black flecks? Artificial Light.

Almondine. Bottle Shot. Artificial Light.

October Pink

Since I didn't really take the opportunity to celebrate Halloween this year, I thought I would reserve the last post of October for a special pink polish. I was also going to talk about boobs. But I thought that might be weird, despite the breast cancer awareness month. I thought to write about my maternal grandmother, who had breast cancer, but no...so pink nail polish, awareness...breast cancer.   

Starry Pink/Popular came out I believe around the same time as some of Revlon's dupes for higher end polishes such as Naughty/Perplex for Chanel Paradoxal and Revlon's Facets of Fuchsia/Scandalous (Lippmann's Bad Romance), Revlon's Whimsical (Lippmann's Glitter in the Air)...and others, but this chunky glitter in a sheer base is, to my knowledge, totally unique. To me it definitely screams Glinda, fairy princess, or at least vintage lurex. 

The formula is easy and I would say requires a sure three coats, though I wouldn't knock experimenting with one or two over a pink or lilac shade. Three coats gets a little...I don't know. Lumpy. Chunky? Maybe it's just me. I don't like three coats, but it's necessary for opacity. Partially I think the application problems are because of the quality of the glitter--if you look carefully, particularly on my pinky nail, the hexes are not lying flat and are taco-ing a bit. This is where I do start to feel like it may be worth spending a little more for the higher end glitters. 

However, this color, lying somewhere between pale pink and lilac with cool silver glitter seems to be unique only to Revlon, so unless they shell out for some higher quality glitter--this is what we have. It's still a very pretty polish and pretty special. I haven't seen anything like it. 

Starry Pink. Artificial Light (strangely focused, like a "Glamour Shot").

Starry Pink and a fail sandwich of Urban Outfitters Dust :(

Bottle Shot

Grass-fed

I'd had an acute lemming for this color--seeing it at stores--I used to dislike it, though now, I really can't remember why. It wasn't quite what I was looking for, yet now, it seems to be exactly what I'm looking for. I wanted it so much I considered Revlon's Posh--quite similar--then finally ordered it on eBay for $5.

It's a fairly evenly applying creme-jelly hybrid that required three coats for full coverage. I hate applying more than three coats, so you know it requires the three ;) 

As for the color itself, I asked a colorblind "friend" what color this was from a distance in a somewhat dim setting and he said, "blue-ish green." It can look blue in some lights, but is a pretty even green. It reminded me of the two greens I photographed the bottle with--Prismacolor Grass Green marker and colored pencil (not quite a match). Brilliant and vibrant.

Pretty Edgy. Bottle Shot and comparison.

Pretty Edgy. Sunlight.

Pretty Edgy and Happy Holo-daze accents. Sunlight.

green g8torade

Just some quick bad pictures of the amazing polish from China Glaze, L8R G8R--a gorgeous linear holo. 

I took these awhile ago with my phone when I couldn't find my camera and I didn't have an aqua base so, there isn't much to say except, "daaaaaaaaayuuuufjdkl;ajgira;j this polish is pretty" and ...oh these pictures are not. Sorry. Will post new pictures WITH aqua base and better camera :) I wanted to keep the greens coming, though. 

L8R G8R, Sunlight.

L8R G8R, Artificial Light.

L8R G8R Bottle Shot. Indoor Sunlight.