This is absolutely Indigo Bananas

I never thought I'd say this, but now I like bananas.


Indigo Bananas, that is!

I was immediately taken in by Maui Wowee, which is a Special Edition color. It is both a duochrome and a holo, and somehow it manages to look like both a foil and a smooth polish, depending on the angle.

I have never tried this brand before, and I got a few mini bottles so you are going to see a few changing accent nails.

In the first we have Maui Wowee, with Halcyon as an accent nail.
I like Halcyon- it's a very nice, dark purple color- but since its finish can't compete with Maui Wowee I had to layer another color over it.

This picture is taken inside with flash. I think it shows the linear holo very well.

Outside- now with Electric Unicorn

Inside: with Electric Unicorn (looking totally smooth)

Now.. I guess I said I'd also show when I had some not-so-good swatches. so this will end up being re-done in the future. I used Wednesday as an accent nail on my left hand.. this is one of the mini bottles I got since I wasn't sure if I would like the color..

(I was born left-handed... my grandmother switched me to being right-handed since when she grew up, she was told that left handed people were "Sinister." But I guess some things just come naturally and you know how they say it always turns out better when you paint your nails on one hand than the other? Well. . .

At least the sun hit my hand really nicely in this picture, though? Look at my pinky glow!

Crows Toes Chess. . .You Dog! & Storms Never Last

I've been trying to make this post FOREVER... but I can't get fotoflexr to work in Chrome. My flash keeps saying "Movie not loaded" and I've tried everything.. uninstalling, deleting the files, etc... so if anyone has suggestions, let me know. I broke down and used Firefox for this post, but I'm a creature of habit.

I got 2 of the new Crows Toes polishes during the Llarowe restock.. (yes...  like everyone else, I wanted Minion and One Trick Pony, but they were sold out.)

But I love blue (and green. and purple.)! So of course I got Chess!.... You Dog! & Storms Never Last (which is a multichrome including blue, green, and purple!

I am wearing- Emily de Molly Blueprint on my thumb, index finger, & pinky, and Storms Never Last with Glam polish Star Candy over it on my ring finger.

I did Star Candy again since some people have said it's close to Enchanted Polish *69 and I hadn't noticed! Also, I managed to place the stars and glitter in a pretty cool way this time.

I have Chess!..... You Dog! on over a blue gradient.

Inside 

Outside

My left thumb, with Storms Never Last by itself (sorry, my thumb is still a little swollen/gross looking :( )

Look what happens when you put Djinn in a Bottle over Storms Never Last! There's a Double Rainbow on my nail!!!

Seche Rebuild is dangerous

So... my posts got a  little few and far between. If anybody is wondering why, it's because I sprained my thumb.

It has been hurting since about last Thursday, and I've been putting ice on it. I already have a prescription for Mobic (an anti-inflammatory/NSAID) so I thought that would have fixed it by now, but nope.

Guess how I hurt it?

I was trying to open a bottle of Seche Rebuild where the lid got stuck on!! Can you believe that? I went to the walk-in clinic yesterday for something else and they looked at my thumb too, since it looks a little weird (not sure how well you can tell by the picture, but I think it shows where I hurt it in the middle bottom part and in the upper knuckle) and they confirmed that it's a sprain.

The nurse said my left thumb feels about the same as my right. That isn't good, because I sprained that one at my old job and had to go on workman's comp/modified duty for over a month. I was working with cell phones and we had these plastic tools to open older phone cases.. and sometimes people sent in phones that were literally stuck together with dirt and unknown substances.

Well, one fine day I was trying to open an old motorola v3 and my thumb hyperextended. I thought all I would need was a splint but I ended up having to use this and do filing:

The funny thing is the nurse asked me if I got the bottle open. I didn't.

Lilypad Lacquer True Blood + Let's take Planet Caravan to the Funhouse!

I'm sure that most of you have heard about Lilypad Lacquer by now.

True Blood is one of their most popular colors- in fact, I had to get this one in a group order because I forgot about the launch on Llarowe! I was just a few minutes late (which may as well be a century in the nail polish world LOL) but True Blood, Fairy Footprints, and probably a few others had sold out right away!

I usually don't wear colors like this. But as soon as I put True Blood on, I fell in love. This is one color that I can truly understand people paying crazy amounts of money for if it is ever discontinued!

 I am wearing:
True Blood (thumb, ring finger and pinky)
My middle finger has Respect by Mentality (Isn't that funny?) Respect is a matte purple, but it still picked up some shine from my bathroom light.
My ring finger still has Planet Caravan by Cirque.

Look at the beautiful blue and purple in the holo! It makes this a truly amazing color.

This is in my living room light- Respect looks more matte now.

You can also see how True Blood has some duochrome-like appearance in different light- in fact, I think this picture demonstrates why some people say this could be a dupe for Enchanted Polish Mr. Burgundy.

This lighting picked up some beautiful red sparkles in the holo as well!

The next day, I put Funhouse by Dandy Nails on my middle finger.
Funhouse is definitely the right name!
It has beautiful fuschia, pink, and green glitter that looks like shards of glass from a mirror.

This one is a little blurry- it shows how the glitter twinkles in real life. It also picks up the green that the other picture didn't.

Lilypad Lacquer can be found on her etsy page and Llarowe.com.

Menality Polish can be found here.

Dandy Nails can be found on etsy and Ninjapolish.com.

Cirque Erda, Lonesome George, Cypress, & Planet Caravan- please help!

Because my bottle of Fascination Street seems to be a dud, I tried on some of the other Cirque polishes I got around that time to see if they look how they are supposed to.

         

Indoor lighting with flash

From thumb to pinky- Erda over black, Lonesome George, Cypress, Planet Caravan, and Erda on its own

Erda is supposed to be a duochrome green/purple/blue. Layering it over another color is supposed to bring out the duochrome more in some polishes, but I'm not sure it made much difference in this case. I guess on my thumb, you can see some slight purple tint as opposed to my pinky.

I like Lonesome George, although it is very similar in color to Erda. It's holo and I am obsessed with holos.

I am not usually one to wear bronze/copper colors, but Cypress was surprisingly my favorite color from this mani! The holo shows up very well. 

I also think Planet Caravan is very pretty. In the right light it also has a copper shimmer, so it compliments Cypress.

So if you have any of these polishes, can you please let me know if these look how they are supposed to? Thank you!

(Not so) Fascination street

I am sure that if you have been reading my blog, you may have slightly noticed that I love blue and purple.

Well, even though I was really excited to get Cirque Fascination Street, I hadn't gotten around to wearing it yet. But I saw someone post a beautiful swatch of it and I decided to put it on.

Everyone loves this color. I even saw The Swatchaholic name it color of the month!

Also, I was introduced to the song "Fascination Street" when I saw a good friend of mine singing it at karaoke. He is also a very talented dancer- so all things considered, this polish was a must have for me!

Well. . . I wasn't sure if it was my skin tone or what, but it looked grayish-purple on me. I thought maybe it's because the holo is so strong, but I haven't seen any other swatches where it looks like this.

Also, even though these pictures are after only having had it on for one day, I have tip wear. Is that normal?

Indoors without flash (notice how my camera picked up a big silver/gray chunk? It almost looks like water marbling.. very odd!)

Indoors without flash (if you are wondering- the other colors are Lilypad  Lacquer Lilac Lovely [ring finger] and Dance Legend Moondust with Revlon FX over it [middle finger])

Dance Legend is a textured polish, but the Revlon polish has a shiny base underneath all the glitter, so it smoothed everything out.

I had fun applying the Revlon polish- if you look really closely can you see how there is a sort of diamond shape on my nail? I tortured my boyfriend singing "Diamonds in the sky" after I put it on.

Indoors with flash

See how much more purple the Lilypad one is?

If anyone else has this color, can you please let me know if this is normal or not? I emailed Harlow & Co but so far I haven't heard anything... but I got them there instead of directly from Cirque because there was a sale at the time, and also on Cirque's site you have to spend $75 to get free shipping. Otherwise you have to pay more shipping for each bottle- but now that I have seen their fancy packaging on other blogs, I understand why.If anything, Cirque is an excellent brand at presentation!

Black holo comparison

I know, I know, we've seen these before. But I did one of my own once I realized that I had enough black holo polishes to do this with!

I wanted to ask which one was the closest to Emily de Molly Chasing Rainbows. (so I could use it as a consolation prize to myself.)

From thumb to pinky, I have- Glitter Gal Brain Freeze, Layla Flash Black, Jade Magia Negra (my favorite) Colors by Llarowe Black Gold, Texas Tea, and Color Club Beyond.

Bear with me- I'm describing 5 different polishes here!

 Indoors:

In indoor lighting, the Glitter Gal and CbL appear to be the only true black- then the Jade and Color Club seem kind of charcoal, while the Layla looks more gray/silver. The Layla is the only one with every color of the rainbow, however- if you look really closely, you can see the purple part of the rainbow!

I love Layla Holographics- they are the first ones that really started my passion for nail polish as an adult- but as you can see (even though I used an aqua basecoat) there is a bald spot on my nail. Layla dries kind of patchy, unfortunately. Unless you were lucky enough to catch a sale, I think Layla and Glitter Gal were probably the most expensive when Laylas were first released, because Layla is an Italian brand and was extremely popular (blame sneekpeeq.com for getting me hooked on them.)

The Jade one is my favorite because it makes my nail so rainbowy, and that is just in indoor lighting. They are from Brazil, but they are half as expensive as Laylas (when they were first released) and they have a huge color range. They even have gold holos, which I have rarel seen.

Colors by Llarowe is my 2nd favorite- and I am so glad that she re-relased Black Gold, Texas Tea- which is a limited edition polish she made to donate some of the proceeds to help tornado victims.

Outside:

Look at how crazy the sun makes the polish look! (Except for the color club, but my pinky was at a weird angle, boo.)

Sunlight hitting your nails is what gives holo its magic- and these holos all seemed to play nicely with my topcoat, (I believe I used FNUG Igel topcoat this time- and look how shiny and glassy it made my nails look.)

Black Gold, Texas Tea reminds me of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" album cover because it's so black- and inside, the holo really did just make a perfect triangle prism like this: