Friday, November 30, 2012

Hare Polish Bisbee Reformulated Swatch and Review

It rained again today in Los Angeles and I regret not having my car outside to take advantage of it.  Hopefully it will rain a little bit more this weekend(yes, I'm wishing for rain) because I enjoy the cooler weather and it makes nap time with LO so much sweeter.

Finally! Today I have Hare Polish Bisbee in my hot little hands and I'm so excited to show this to you.  I'd been stalking this color for months and it kept slipping away each time I had it in my checkout basket, but this time I was at the computer with my trigger finger and managed to snag one.  Bisbee is lovely combination of a gorgeous turquoise jelly base and multisized gold glitter.  Gold and turquoise is a classic combination of colors and I love how the two contrast against each other.  I found the formula to be a bit thick but workable, with some instances of glitter clumping during application.  I resolved that by dabbing the brush to separate the pieces and it seemed to work out fine.  I used three layers in these pics and you can still see a little VNL through the camera but not so much with the naked eye.  I probably could have used only a layer of topcoat to add shine because it dried a little matte, but I used a layer of Gelous too for good measure.

Hare Bisbee
Hare Bisbee

Hare Bisbee
Hare Bisbee

Hare Bisbee
Hare Bisbee

Hare Bisbee
Hare Bisbee

Hare Bisbee
Hare Bisbee
Beautiful, isn't it?? Do you know of any other polishes that have a similar combination?  Butter London Two Fingered Salute comes to mind but it's more of a teal blue with copper flakes.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

KBShimmer Don't Teal Anyone Swatch and Review

Happy Thursday everyone!  I hope your week is going smoothly, and if it isn't, at least it's almost over! I have to prepare for some guests that are arriving on Friday, so that means some cleaning for me is planned today, plus restocking our nearly bare fridge. It's amazing how much food a grown man can consume in a few days. 

I have another untried pulled from my collection, this is KBShimmer's Don't Teal Anyone, a gorgeous blue leaning teal jelly with multisized glitter in fuchsia, gold, and blue.  I used three coats in these pictures and there's still a little VNL, but the formula was excellent.  It went on smoothly and I got good glitter coverage without having to fish any out.  I used a layer of Poshe to add some shine because it did dry a little matte looking.

KBShimmer Don't Teal Anyone

KBShimmer Don't Teal Anyone

KBShimmer Don't Teal Anyone

KBShimmer Don't Teal Anyone

KBShimmer Don't Teal Anyone  
KBshimmer is one of my favorite indies because of her excellent eye with matching colors and her great formula, and Don't Teal Anyone is a wonderful example.  I've already got her winter collection on my wishlist and I'm looking forward to seeing what she's got planned for us next year too.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Nostalgic Lacquer Date At Midnight With Nosferatu

Have you ever noticed that the line at the post office is always incredibly long?  I always try to avoid it at all costs and do most of my shipping through USPS.com or the Paypal Multi-order shipping option.  Worst case scenario I'll use the automated kiosk at the PO, but I'll never go in line for anything if I can do it myself.  Unfortunately the only time I have to go in line is when I'm shipping a package international first class(usually MUA swaps).  The last time I was in line an argument broke out between two men about who was first in line while an older lady spent 5 long minutes waffling over a book of forever stamps at the window(the automated kiosk was open).  Madness, really!

I know it's already past Halloween, but due to a shipping error I received my bottle of Nostalgic Lacquers Date At Midnight With Nosferatu later than I anticipated.  It's so pretty and I need to post it so you can see for yourself.  This is a sheer grey crelly base with small fuchsia glitter, a simple combination that looks so elegant.  Application was remarkable except for the base being too sheer - I used four coats in these pictures and I could have probably done a fifth.  It would probably be easiest to apply with a medium grey colored base to get the safe effect, however the formula was not too dense with glitter so I prefer using it alone to maximize the glitter amount.  I topped it off with a layer of Poshe for shine.

Nostalgic Lacquers Date At Midnight With Nosferatu

Nostalgic Lacquers Date At Midnight With Nosferatu
 
Nostalgic Date At Midnight With Nosferatu

Nostalgic Lacquers Date At Midnight With Nosferatu

Nostalgic Lacquers Date At Midnight With Nosferatu

Nostalgic Lacquers Date At Midnight With Nosferatu
Nostalgic Date At Midnight With Nosferatu

Sorry for the poor cleanup - I always have a hard time getting those tiny glitters off.  Does anyone have any recommendations?  In any case, I really liked this formula because it applied incredibly smooth, and I hope to see more glitters like this from Nostalgic Lacquers.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

China Glaze Exotic Encouters and Jessica Platinum Wishes

Did you have fun shopping on Cyber Monday?  Surprisingly I didn't spend very much time online so I missed a lot of the sales, like the Saks and Nordstrom's first designer cuts online.  Luckily I pre-saled what I wanted already so I should be getting those in the mail any day soon.  My day was spent going to the movies with LO to see Life of Pi(sort of a letdown after reading the book several years ago) and then walking around the LA County Museum of Art.  I discovered a new floor at LACMA at the end of the day and now I want to go back and explore some more.

I'm on a teal kick and today I have China Glaze's Exotic Encounters from the On Safari collection to show you.  This is really a gorgeous cream shade and the formula was flawless.  Only two coats and it went on easily and smoothly.

China Glaze Exotic Encounters

China Glaze Exotic Encounters

China Glaze Exotic Encounters
China Glaze Exotic Encounters
I wanted to layer something over it so I tried Jessica's Platinum Wishes, a sparkly blue holographic glitter.  It appears chunky in the bottle but surprisingly it's actually a really fine glitter topcoat. It's not dense at all either, and shown below is one coat over Exotic Encounters.  

Jessica Platinum Wishes

Jessica Platinum Wishes

Jessica Platinum Wishes

Jessica Platinum Wishes blurred to see sparkle effect
I love the color of ChG Exotic Encounters and I'm planning on adding that to my collection, whereas I was a little disappointed in the Jessica - I was expecting a denser more chunky glitter by appearance of the bottle but it was completely the opposite.  Very deceiving, Jessica!  I do like the sparkliness of it but at the same time I feel like I already have a similar polish in my collection. 

Monday, November 26, 2012

Hare Polish Antiquities Collection Ancient Affairs Swatch and Review

It's another shopping day upon us, and I have a feeling Cyber Monday will bring more tempting deals to empty my wallet further.  There are a lot of indies that are having sales, and ohthreeohfour has several of them listed here for you.  If you clicked, you're probably mad at me for taking you to that page, but all I can say is, Happy Shopping!  Please help support small businesses, most of whom are ladies that love lacquer just as much as we do.

I have another Hare Fall collection polish known as Ancient Affairs from the Antiquities collection.  This one is a lovely dusty blue leaning on grey color with iridescent microflakes.  This is an uncharacteristic polish for Hare because there isn't any glitter to be found other than the microflakes, and I've gotta say that I love this polish.  I don't know of many polishes that have this type of iridescent effect, and this sort of glitter/flake is quickly become a favorite for me.  However, I found the formula a bit difficult to work with because it was thick and probably could have benefited from a few drops of thinner.  I used three coats in these pics and topped with a layer of Poshe.

Hare Ancient Affairs

Hare Ancient Affairs

Hare Ancient Affairs

Hare Ancient Affairs

Hare Ancient Affairs
Despite the thickness of the polish, I adore this color combination and look forward to more of Hare polishes without glitters.  What do you think, should she continue with these sort of polishes or stick to her more characteristic glitter polishes?

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Lynnderella Attitude Adjust-Mint over Butter London Sloane Ranger

Sorry for the missed post yesterday!  It was the evening of Black Friday and although I didn't do any shopping in the malls, I did manage to take advantage of the indie polish sales.  Otherwise, the past couple days have been spent shopping for cribs with my MIL.  Who knew choosing a crib could be so exhausting?  My MIL wants to me to choose what I want, but every time I think I find something, she finds something wrong with it so it's back to the drawing board.  I can't argue with her either, because she's the one that is paying for it. It's a lose-lose situation for me and at this point I'd be happy with her choosing a baby cage without my help.

On a positive note, I realized when I was wearing Butter London Sloane Ranger that it would make an excellent base color for Lynnderella's Attitude Adjust-Mint, a pale mint green glitter that I'd been having trouble matching with other polishes.  I figured I'd give it a go and below are the results.  I think it turned out pretty well, because of the dustiness of Sloane Ranger, it didn't over power the sheer green of the Lynn.  I've tried it over other mint greens and found them to be too green so the Lynn ends up geting swallowed up by the base, if that makes any sense.  Attitude Adjust-Mint is a sheer mint green crelly base that is way too sheer to wear on its own but in this combo you can see the iridescent green hex and microglitter clearly against the base color. 

Lynnderella Attitude Adjust Mint

Lynnderella Attitude Adjust Mint

Lynnderella Attitude Adjust Mint

Lynnderella Attitude Adjust Mint
Lynnderella Attitude Adjust Mint

Do you like this combo or do you prefer it over a more traditional mint green base?  If so, what color do you recommend?  Thanks for looking!

Friday, November 23, 2012

Illamasqua Charisma Swatch and Review

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I'm thankful to have spent the day with my family and in-laws that flew in for the holiday.  This year has been really special for me and I couldn't be happier or more thankful for it.  We were out and about and I could tangibly feel the peacefulness that everyone we encountered exuded.  I wish that Thanksgiving was every day!

I've been rocking Illamasqua Charisma for the past few days and I gotta say, I'm really impressed at how well it's held up.  I haven't gotten a single chip with two coats and Poshe, and only very slight tip wear.  Charisma is a new color for fall and is a gorgeous shimmering deep red that's perfect for the season.  I had no trouble with application at all except that I was a little anxious with drying time.  I applied the topcoat too early and got a little bit of dragging on my right hand, so I would recommend waiting for it to dry completely before applying your next coat.

Illamasqua Charisma


Illamasqua Charisma

Illamasqua Charisma

Illamasqua Charisma

Illamasqua Charisma
This color is so pretty one the light hit it at the right angle.  I'm usually not comfortable wearing reds for whatever unexplained reason, but this color looks so good I don't want to take it off. 

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Sation Miss McTeal Swatch and Review

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  I can feel the buzz of Black Friday sales on the internet, and the shopaholic in me is getting that itch to spend some money.  I'm try to show restraint this year, simply because I've been on maternity leave and not making as much money as I normally do, and also because my in-laws are in town and as the responsible mother that I am, I can't show them that unrestrained shopaholic side of me.  Mama would love a new camera though!  One thing that upsets me about this year's Black Friday are the early sales that are starting at 9pm Thanksgiving day.  I wish they wouldn't start that early because Thanksgiving is really meant to be spent with family and not running around shopping or having to go into work.  Someone really needs to draw a line!

I am loving the new reformulated and reinvented Sation polishes.  After trying out Weed out the Wimps, I had to try another and decided to go with Miss McTeal because of its glowing teal goodness.  It's a color that's hard to describe, it's like a luscious teal blue with a lighter turquoise shimmer that makes it look almost duochromatic in some lights.  I can't get enough of it but I felt like the color was incredibly photograph properly because the color was always shifting.  I didn't have any trouble with the formula at all, and I used two coats in these pictures. I finished with a layer of Poshe for shine, which I think caused a tiny bit of shrinkage at the tips.

Sation Miss McTeal
Sation Miss McTeal

Sation Miss McTeal
Sation Miss McTeal

Sation Miss McTeal
Gorgeous isn't it?  I really love teal polishes - believe it or not I hated them about a year ago but then got a hold of Joe Fresh Teal and then it was all over for me.  Do you have any favorite teal polishes?

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Love! Illamasqua Rampage and Hare Supernova Springs Swatch and Review

Before the arrival of my in-laws, I had to clean up my nail polish work area, ie my kitchen bar area, where I had a rather large group of recent untrieds.  I had to stash them somewhere to tidy up the kitchen, and they ended up in one of the bottom drawers of my kitchen.  My Helmer is not an option because it's full, and neither is the unopened boxed Helmer that I have next to it because I don't have the space to put it anywhere once it's built.  Considering that we get guests staying fairly often, this hiding of polish is not a new process for me.  This means I end up with stashes of polish all over my kitchen that I end up forgetting about sometimes.  I would say that there's probably a sizeable collection of nail polish in my kitchen at this point and I'm afraid to think how many there are!  Does anyone else do this?  Please make me feel better and tell me I'm not the only one.

Recently I've been obsessed with buying sheer or jelly polishes because I want to do more glitter sandwiches.  It's a shame there aren't more out there because they're so pretty.  I know I could probably franken my own but it's so much easier to buy one.  This quest made me stumble upon Illamasqua's Rampage, a dark jelly green, on Sephora's website.  It was sold out for a few weeks but at the end of the VIB sale it came back in stock so I pounced.  Needless to say I'm over the moon with this polish because of the combination of the gorgeous deep saturated color and the fabulous formula that Illamasqua is known for.  Most times jellies end up streaking or going on unevenly but I had no issues with this at all.  It dried quickly between layers and it self leveled on its own.  I used two layers in these pictures with no topcoat because it dried so shiny on its own.

Illamasqua Rampage

Illamasqua Rampage

Illamasqua Rampage

Illamasqua Rampage

Illamasqua Rampage
As an added bonus, I realized that this would be a perfect undie for Hare's Supernova Spring, an untried that I had in one of my stashes that I found in my kitchen closet.  I'm kicking myself for not finding this earlier in my squirreled away collection.  This is a deep dark green jelly with emerald hex glitters suspended throughout.  I used one coat on top of Rampage and I had great glitter saturation and it dried shiny on it's own, so no topcoat in these pics.

Hare Supernova Springs

Hare Supernova Springs

Hare Supernova Springs

Hare Supernova Springs
Gorgeous isn't it?  I wonder why SS didn't sell that well compared to her other colors, but then again, I'm biased because I adore green.  I recently gifted this to a friend and I hope that she likes it as much as I do!  What about you, do you have any sleeper indies that you adore?