credit- leehansen.com

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Blue holo & Nail fails!

Lately, I've been having a lot of nail fails- with holos I've had shrinkage and had the black basecoat becoming very visible around the edges, I've had polishes refuse to dry and become smudge city- just basically hot messes!

I actually started writing this on the 25th because I just wasn't happy with anything I've done with my nails lately, but I decided I'll post anyway- especially since now I broke one of my nails pretty badly. It cracked in the corner and I tried to repair it, but it didn't really work so well.

Does anyone have tips on how to fix your nails when they crack in the corners?



The other day I took a picture of my nails under a blacklight and that was really the only way they looked decent.


This was when I was outside. I had decided to compare a Jindie Nails holo (Blue Ivy), a Joss Holographic (Carribean Blue) and on my ring fingernail I tried the blue Sally Hansen Sugar Coat color- although the texture isn't really standing out in the picture. I also put some Ozotic Sugar on the top of that nail but that also isn't standing out. When I was inside, I thought my nails looked kind of wintery- but not outside! These are some blindingly bright colors!

By the way, I'm still kicking myself for not getting the white Sally Hansen Sugar Coat when I was at CVS because now I can't find it anywhere else! Target doesn't carry it and neither Kroger I've been to even has the Sugar Coat collection yet.

 
You can see the difference between the colors (as well as the Sugar Coat texture and Ozotic glitter on my ring finger) much more clearly inside.

The Blue Ivy color is darker and is on my pinky and index fingers. The JOSS Holographic is amazingly bright and is on my middle finger.


Thursday, May 16, 2013

My first Enchanteds and NFU-oh's!

I was able to get my very first Enchanted Polishes, thanks to the lovely Leah at llarowe making sure people could only get one bottle of each color. I got them in the mail yesterday!!

I have been wanting to try some of these colors for months! I wasn't able to get Ocean Potion, since it seemed to sell out in .02 of a nanosecond. I also wasn't able to get any of the Dance Legend holos.

From left to right (over Layla softouch effect in black)- sit back and get comfortable, since I went a little buckwild this time!

I think the thumb is Magical Mystery Tour? It looks so similar to Across the Universe (on my pinky) that I was having difficulty telling. My thumbnail got a crack on the side and broke beyond repair. I tried using the teabag method to fix it, but I couldn't get the glue to stick right.

Hey Jude is on my pointer finger. That was my rogue wonky nail, but it broke :( I don't know why Hey Jude looks so silver in the pictures. I thought it would look more similar to my ring finger.
My middle finger has Ciao Milano on it (similar colors to Magical Mystery Tour and Across the Universe, but made entirely of glitter!) It reminds me of Jupiter Aurora by Coco Allure. Has anyone done any comparisons?
I also put a holo I got from Pixie Polish on top of Ciao Milano to add some extra rainbowy-ness.
My ring Finger has Deviantly Daring by China Glaze. Then I added Cosmic Forces by Girly Bits to add a blue tint. I also got my first NFU-oh's (I heard the flakies are being discontinued soon!) I tried doing a split of  the flakies #54 and #56.

I guess you can see the flakies more from this angle:
(Excuse the cleanup- at first I tried using Orion by Crowstoes on my pointer finger but I didn't like the shade of green it turned out as.. but for some reason the green in Hey Jude is not wanting to show up in these pictures at all!)

Enchanted is also known for their lovely packaging. They have a castle on both the bottle an the box.

With flash in my bathroom lighting, there's too much glare to see it: (Holding a bottle of Hey Jude- notice my pointer fingernail now looks purple instead of gray/silver? The bottle also looks kind of purple)
With the flash off, you can see the famous castle logo, and the bottle and my pointer finger FINALLY look green!

The logo also reminds me of a cool Gothic clock that style.ly had on their Facebook page the other day. That picture is here.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Purple experiment

My purple experiment has good timing, since it is coinciding with  Fibromyalgia Awareness Day and Autoimmune Arthritis Awareness day. May is also World Lupus Awareness Month. If anyone is interested in attending, there is a Facebook event here.

I had a good friend named Gwen who had lupus. I also am personally affected by fibromyalgia and arthritis (non auto-immune), and my grandfather has rheumatoid arthritis. I know a lot of other people who are also affected by these painful, life-changing conditions as well.

I used Dangerous Driver by Darling Diva which is always described as a purple/pink duochrome in swatches and usually looks that way. I also pulled out an old Glitter Gal holo called Dark Purple (it might be named Crushed Ego now?)


Please excuse the cleanup! Camera closeups always catch a few specks the naked eye can't, especially with holos!

I used Layla Ceramic Effect #10 as a base for these. and Layla softouch effect in  #12 (black) with Jade Magia Negra on the ring finger. My pointer finger is the only one that has Dangerous Driver on in these swatches, and it looks more similar to the Glitter Gal than I expected.

I did discover that over black, Dangerous Driver has a surprising effect- almost a brown tone. I will have to post another swatch later.


Sunday, May 5, 2013

Ninja Polish Mystic Glacier and 100% Columbian

I am absolutely obsessed with duochromes and multichromes! When Ninja Polish released new colors to the Enigma collection, I was thrilled- especially because I missed my chance to try Alexandrite (which has my favorite colors, blue and green in it.)

Mystic Glacier is stunning and magical. It looks like the amazing underwater shots I have seen other bloggers post-- but in normal lighting.

Somehow, just in normal inside lighting, it looked different on all my fingers!!!

L to R- Mystic Glacier- pointer finger is layered over Picture Polish Warning and Layla Ceramic Effects #64. Middle and Pinky are over Revlon Royal. I think my pinky is reflecting the colors in 100% Columbian (which also has a holo made by Pixie Polish on top)

This is one coat with no top coat!


This polish is so amazing, I am totally speechless. If you could imagine this song being about this nail polish, it would tell you how I feel about it.