Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Nail-Venturous Lacquer Swamp Princess Swatch and Review



That cutie in the picture is my LO in her pumpkin costume.  We sent this photo out in a photo card to all our friends and family.  I figured out what costume I'm wearing tonight too - Abby from NCIS.  I have Dr. Martens, a labcoat, and a lot of goth like pieces that I can put together to create one of her outfits. 

This is my final Halloween mani installment.  I've got Swamp Princess by Nail-Venturious Lacquers, a polish with a name that gives me the shivers!  I've had this hidden away since spring time and unfortunately the glitters all sunk to the bottom of the bottle.  This polish lives up to its name, with gorgeous green jelly base, gold, pink, and silver multi shaped glitter.  I layered one coat over Sinful Colors In the Mist - application was standard for an indie.  I had to place a few glitters on the nail to evenly space the glitter out and I had to shake the bottle a couple times to fish out some of the larger hex pieces.  You can see on my thumb that I didn't get any larger pieces on it at all.  I completed the mani with one coat of Poshe to even the glitter out and add some shine.


NVL Swamp Princess closeup

NVL Swamp Princess shade

NVL Swamp Princess shade
NVL Swamp Princess shade

NVL Swamp Princess shade

NVL Swamp Princess closeup
Do you have any NVLs hidden in your collection?  I'd love to see it!

Lynnderella Early Halloween Swatch and Review

Happy Halloween everyone!!  I hope everyone is excited for tonight, I know I am.  I'm taking the LO out trick or treating for her first Halloween with another family.  I know she's too young to really enjoy it, but think of the photo ops I'll have!  Plus I'll get to see all the amazing decorations that I know people put a lot of work into.  LO has two outfits this year, a pumpkin costume that I photographed her in at the pumpkin patch and a skeleton outfit that my DH's colleague gifted her.  I can't wait to see how she'll look in it!

My last Lynnderella from this collection is called Early Halloween.  This is a glitterbomb featuring multisized purple, silver and black glitter, square orange glitter, and silver moons and stars.  I really love the combination of this and layered it over Illamasqua Nurture to contrast with the purple and black glitter.  Surprisingly the clear base doesn't have any holographic microglitter like so many of her other polishes.  My only gripe with the application is that the orange squares are curled.  If you look closely at my pinky, you can see what I mean - I chose not to use any topcoat in these pictures so you could see the curling clearly.  And as per Lynnderella's disclaimer regarding the polish quality, there's not much I can complain about since she does warn buyers about this possibility.

Lynnderella Early Halloween indoor natural light

Lynnderella Early Halloween indoor natural light

Lynnderella Early Halloween indoor natural light

Lynnderella Early Halloween indoor natural light closeup
Lynnderella polishes can be purchased on Ebay at her seller's shop lynnderella-lynnderella.  She has the entire Early Halloween collection up available in sets or as single bottles. 

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Lynnderella Evermore Swatch and Review

I hope you're having a wonderful Tuesday!  I'm so proud of myself - I made my own boba milk tea.  Well sort of, if you consider using an instant mix to make the tea itself and then boiling up the boba to add to it.  I didn't know there was an instant mix available until we were at the Asian market this weekend, and the boba can be purchased there too.  Super easy and much cheaper than buying it at the tea houses.

Today I've got another installment of Lynnderella's Early Halloween collection, a stunning black glitter topcoat called Evermore.  I've layered it over Illamasqua Prosperity to keep the manicure in a Halloween color theme.  This is my favorite of her collection because of the chunky black multi sized glitter, which I think makes it really versatile and can go with many colors. This black goodness comes packed in a clear base with holographic microglitter.  I used one coat with no topcoat in these pictures.  Application was good except glitter dispersion was on the sparse side.  The brush didn't really pick up as much as I would have liked and sometimes I had to place the glitter strategically to get enough coverage.  You can see on my pinky that it's a little bare.  Regardless, I definitely plan on using this more in the future.

Lynnderella Evermore direct sunlight


Lynnderella Evermore direct sunlight

Lynnderella Evermore direct sunlight

Lynnderella Evermore direct sunlight

Lynnderella Evermore direct sunlight closeup



Can you think of any other polishes that are similar to this and have a black color scheme?

Update! Hare Polish restock tomorrow Oct 31st


From Hare's facebook page:

Hi all!

Lotsa good stuff for you!

First things first, we will be having a special Halloween SALE at the HARE polish Etsy shop! We will be stocking The Monster and (another oldie) Dead Man's Bones TOMORROW, October 31st at 3pm California time. These polishes will be available in a duo set and also individually.
...
PLUS, we've got a little coupon action going on! Enter "HALLOHARE10" at checkout for 10% off your order! (coupon code applicable 10/31/2012, from 3:00pm - 11:59pm CA time.)

I will post a (new) swatch of Dead Man's Bones ASAP, most definitely before the sale :)

We will begin shipping these orders on Saturday, November 3rd.

Next order of business: we will be stocking all shades from the Fall collections (The Illuminated Life, Antiquities and Finders Keepers) and The First Collection: Reformulated in our Etsy shop on Monday, November 5th at 3:00 pm California time. These polishes will be available in sets by collection and also individually, and orders will begin shipping no later than November 6th.

We are working on stock for Llarowe at the same time and I believe she will be restocking HARE polish sometime in mid November!

I think that's all the news I've got now. Stay tuned to http://www.harepolish.com as we will be posting some new blog posts soon :)

Back to mixing I go - Thanks so much! ♥

xo,
Nikole
HARE polish

Monday, October 29, 2012

Lynnderella Ghost of a Chance Swatch and Review

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a great weekend, especially those who got a chance to go out and celebrate at one of the many late night celebrations.  As for myself, I stayed in with the LO, but this morning we got a chance to go to a Mommy and Me movie and see Cloud Atlas, a very unique story about love through the ages.  I must say, I felt like I was part of the real world again for a small window of time.

Halloween is upon us and it's time for me to break out the Early Halloween Lynnderellas.  I'm starting with Ghost of a Chance, a hauntingly beautiful white based glitter topcoat.  There's multisized and shaped white glitter mixed with iridescent and yellow glitter as well, all in a clear base with holographic microglitter.  I used this over Butter London Two Fingered Salute as I can never resist pairing a light colored polish with white glitter.  This is only one coat of Ghost of a Chance - it spread evenly and had the perfect glitter density.  There's no topcoat in these photos although I'm sure it could have used a coat of Gelous and Poshe.

Lynnderella Ghost of a Chance indirect sunlight

Lynnderella Ghost of a Chance indirect sunlight

Lynnderella Ghost of a Chance indirect sunlight

Lynnderella Ghost of a Chance closeup with bottle
I always seem to pass up white glitters but now I think I'm going to have to get some more!  What do you think of white glitter polishes? 

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Hare Polish A Positive Swatch and Review

I finally managed to score some of the elusive re-releases of the original Hare polishes despite getting cartjacked on a couple that I wanted.  Today I'll be showing you A Positive, a polish I thought would be perfect for Halloween.  True to most of the Hare polishes, this one was no exception and had perfect application.  I used two coats with no undies and got great coverage of color and glitter density.  The base is a stunning fuchsia red jelly and there are multisized silver glitter dispersed throughout.  In these photos I used Elmers as a base for quick removal and Gelous to smooth the glitter before finishing with Poshe.   I love that even though this is a glitter polish it doesn't come across as juvenile.  I heart Hare so much!

Hare Polish A Positive indoor lighting

Hare Polish A Positive indoor lighting

Hare Polish A Positive indoor lighting

Hare Polish A Positive indirect sunlight
Hare Polish A Positive indirect sunlight

Hare Polish A Positive indirect sunlight
 Does this make you envision a macroscopic shot of blood?  What is your favorite indie brand?


Saturday, October 27, 2012

Illamasqua Rubber Finish Polishes: Prosperity, Serenity, Nurture, and Devotee

I decided to try something new today - the Illamasqua Rubber Polishes.  I have four of them for you to see, and they were all fun to wear because of how bright they all were.  Application for most of these were a breeze.  These are all available through Sephora, and they're currently on sale for $11 a pop.  If you've got a Friend and Family discount, you'll get 20% off additional!  What a deal!


First is Prosperity, a bright neon purple.  Application was great, it took two coats for opacity and it self leveled extremely well with very little streaking.  I was worried that the rubber finish may show off any flaws, but I don't think I had that problem at all with this polish.  The photos are a bit bluer than what the actual color is in real life... it's always difficult to photograph purple accurately!

Illamasqua Prosperity indoor lighting

Illamasqua Prosperity indoor lighting

Illamasqua Prosperity indoor lighting

Illamasqua Prosperity direct sunlight
Next I have Serenity, a bright turquoise blue that reminds me of a refreshing deep blue pool.  It's still warm here in SoCal, so it makes me wish I could jump into one now!  No problems with this polish in terms of application either.

Illamasqua Serenity direct sunlight

Illamasqua Serenity direct sunlight

Nurture is a beautiful neon green color, a color that I think is perfect for a Halloween mani - it reminds me of the Wicked Witch of the West's skin tone.  This one however, was the most difficult for me to apply.  It was very streaky and it took me three coats to even it all out.  Despite all that, I'm sure I could use it in some nail art sometime in the future.

Illamasqua Nurture indoor lighting

Illamasqua Nurture indoor lighting

Illamasqua Nurture indoor lighting

Devotee was the most surprising of the bunch for me.  It's a stunning bubblegum pink color, a color that I normally dislike but I ended up really liking it on me.  This one had no trouble with application either.

Illamasqua Devotee indirect sunlight

Illamasqua Nurture indoor lighting

Illamasqua Nurture indoor lighting
My favorite of these were Devotee and Prosperity.  My least favorite was Nurture.  Have you tried these yet?  What do you think of them?

Lynnderella Love Potion 99

Here's an oldie yet goodie, Lynnderella's Love Potion 99, layered over China Glaze No Plain Jane.  This is probably one of Lynderella's less complicated glitters, featuring multisized purple glitter in a clear base with holographic microshimmer.  I really like how this one sparkles!!  Next time I'll try it on a contrasting color to make the glitter really pop.

Lynnderella Love Potion 99 indoor lighting

Lynnderella Love Potion 99 indoor lighting

Lynnderella Love Potion 99 indoor lighting

Lynnderella Love Potion 99 indoor lighting, blurred to see sparkle

Friday, October 26, 2012

Halloween nail art: Bloody splatter

Happy Friday everyone!  So far today has been off to a great start for me.  I woke to my lovely LO smiling at me and played with her until her nap time.  As for my computer woes, I received my new computer yesterday and was able to set most of it up.  Today I purchased the new Windows 8 for $15 upgrade price and I'm installing it right now.  I'm not sure if I'll like it - I played with it at Best Buy on Tuesday and it seemed user friendly, especially with the option to revert back to the original Windows Start Menu window, so I figured I'd give it a try.  I'll let you know what I think.

During my computer downtime, I decided to try some nail art to celebrate Halloween, one of my favorite holidays of the year.  I've always wanted to try the splatter technique, and figured that it would look great in red to create a bloody nail effect.  Walgreens is having a sale this week on Sinful Colors, 99 cents a bottle, so I'm using that brand for this mani.   I started with two Sinful Colors White - I've never used a white before and I hope there's less streaky brands out there.  Next I used Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby, a nice true red to dip my straw in and use to blow the red splatter across my nails.  I had a little trouble with the splatter because it kept wanting to drip large drops across my nails rather then the lighter streaks I wanted but I'm sure it's something I need to keep practicing to perfect.  The large drops were probably better for this mani anyway, especially since I want it to appear like blood.  The only huge mistake I made was not taping my nails.  Ugh, what a mess!!  I had major cleanup to do, but luckily I figured out that I could use the Expert Touch Lint Free Nail Wipes to clean most of it up neatly.  I followed all with a layer of Poshe, albeit a little too early on some nails since the splatter took longer to dry than normal.
Right Hand

Right Hand

My favorite nail from this mani, middle finger right hand

Left Hand - more bloody looking because of bigger splatter



So what do you think of my first splatter mani?  I definitely can use some improvement!!  Hopefully next time it'll be much cleaner looking.  What are you wearing for Halloween?