Crowtoes Tequila Sunrise Over Revlon Jelly Swatch And Review

Back to the daily grind again!  I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.  The weather here was delightfully fall-ish, with sunny skies and cooler temperatures.  We spent the day over in Little Osaka and walked around that neighborhood and spent time at the park.  I was stoked to have a caramel milk tea with pudding - it tasted exactly like flan in drink form.  Delish!  Next time I want to go back and try the okonomiyaki restaurant, they've got all sorts of toppings from pork belly to corn.  Oy, now I'm hungry again.

Rumbling tummy aside, I started today's mani with Revlon Jelly, a bright coral red crelly that went on smoothly with no streaks or pooling.  I haven't used a Revlon in ages and I was really impressed how easy it was to apply.  I used two coats here with no topcoat.  It has a squishy quality to it but it's not a true jelly, despite its name.

Revlon Jelly Swatch And Review

Revlon Jelly Swatch And Review

Revlon Jelly Swatch And Review

Revlon Jelly Swatch And Review

Revlon Jelly Swatch And Review

And now, the pièce de résistance, I used a layer of CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise that was given to me by a wonderful fellow blogger, Liz from Lacquer Slacker Liz.  I fell in love with Tequila Sunrise after seeing her swatches here, and she was generous enough to share that beauty with me.  Tequila Sunrise is magnificent pink sheer jelly with contrasting green shimmer.  I had a little difficulty with the formula, but I'm blaming myself because I was super tired at the time.  I used one coat over Jelly, and with my no not so steady hands I ended up with a little pooling and some brushstrokes.  This is finished with a layer of topcoat.

Crowtoes Tequila Sunrise Over Revlon Jelly

Crowtoes Tequila Sunrise Over Revlon Jelly

Crowtoes Tequila Sunrise Over Revlon Jelly

Crowtoes Tequila Sunrise Over Revlon Jelly

Crowtoes Tequila Sunrise Over Revlon Jelly

Crowtoes Tequila Sunrise Over Revlon Jelly

Holy Shimmer Batman!  I love the golden green shimmer popping against that pink base.  This is such a unique combination of colors, and I don't believe I've seen anything similar to this.  Crowstoes is a creative genius(or mad scientist!) and continues to produce beautiful polishes like this.  Now that I've gotten a taste, I need to have MOAR!   

#31DC2013 Violet - Purple Ruffian Rainbow

Purchased

I almost didn't make this post because I nearly fell asleep with LO when I put her to bed.  I persevered and dragged myself out of bed to get this violet themed mani up for you and complete day 6 of the 31 Day Challenge.  Aren't you proud of me?  I think I deserve a toast for that.... where's my margarita?

I've been seeing ruffian rainbow manicures sporadically and thought it would be nice to try a gradient rainbow using the ruffian technique.  I started with a dark purple, Matesse Elite Pumped Up Purple.  It took two coats of semi-opacity and applied streaky.  I didn't dwell too much on that though because I knew I was covering that up with a medium shade of purple, Color Club Puccilicious.  My light lilac-ish purple shade was Sinful Colors Candy Coated, and to finish I added some dots of Zoya Purity.  I topped it all with Pure Ice Busted to add purple shimmer, and finished with a layer of NYC GCS.

#31DC2013 Purple Ruffian Rainbow

#31DC2013 Purple Ruffian Rainbow

#31DC2013 Purple Ruffian Rainbow

#31DC2013 Purple Ruffian Rainbow

This mani was really easy to create and I freehanded most of it with the bottle brushes except for the dots, which I did with a dotting tool.  If you're looking to do some nail art and you need something quick, this method is something you need to add to your arsenal.  Pure Ice Busted is one of my favorite shimmer toppers as well, and I love how it sets off the entire mani.

Thanks for checking out my day 6 purple mani!  Please make sure you check out the other ladies' creations.

Purchased

Guest Post: Hare Mad Chill By Lacquer Slacker Liz

Say what, another post today?  Why yes it is!!  I'm excited to introduce a fellow nail blogger, Lacquer Slacker Liz.  Her blog is always a pleasure to read daily because she is incredibly eloquent and has wonderful swatches and layering combinations.  She's helping me out by presenting to you the last Hare Polish from The Tropics Are Calling collection, called Mad Chill.  This is perfect timing for today's #31DC2013 Blue Challenge.

It's all yours Liz!!

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This is my first guest post ever and I am commensurately thrilled and proud to be asked. Especially by Thithi, who has been so helpful and encouraging to me starting out as a polish blogger.

Thithi's been doing a fabulous job featuring Hare Polish's latest collection, The Tropics Are Calling, here on pretty tough nails. So far you've seen Neon Palm, Dancing Bird of Paradise, Washed Ashore and Flight of the Flamingos. Today I have for you the final polish from that collection, Mad Chill. Mad Chill is a royal blue jelly polish filled with neon blue, ice blue and white glitters in various shapes and sizes plus silver microglitters and silvery shimmer. I like to layer glitter polishes so I set out to pick a royal blue to serve as underwear for Mad Chill. I decided on Sation Suede Shoes, a medium royal blue shimmer polish with scattered silvery shimmer flecks. Suede Shoes is a bit sheer with buildable coverage, and I used two coats plus a topcoat of Seche Vite as a base for Mad Chill. Were I to wear this by itself, I would definitely apply a third coat.

Sation Suede Shoes By Lacquer Slacker Liz

Sation Suede Shoes By Lacquer Slacker Liz

I applied two coats of Mad Chill over my Suede Shoes manicure and added two coats of Seche Vite to smooth the glitters. I did have a few instances of glitter stacking with Mad Chill, but I attribute this more to user error (overmanipulating the polish) than to any fault with the formula of Mad Chill, which I thought was excellent. There were a few errant glitters wanting to hang on the free edge of a couple of nails. My remedy was to gently file them away with a glass file and a rounding motion like the one used to seal the free edge of the nail after filing. I did this in between the two coats of Seche Vite, so that with the second any tiny scrapes would be coated and camouflaged. It worked quite well.

Hare Mad Chill By Lacquer Slacker Liz

Hare Mad Chill By Lacquer Slacker Liz

Hare Mad Chill By Lacquer Slacker Liz

Hare Mad Chill By Lacquer Slacker Liz

Hare Mad Chill By Lacquer Slacker Liz

Mad Chill is a gorgeous highly decorative polish. On the nail it is a brilliant saturated sapphire, the kind of color that makes you hold your hand out at arm's length and waggle your fingers while gazing at them in blissful fascination. I love Nikole's ability to combine analogous colors, and she does it beautifully here. The blues she uses in Mad Chill give the impression of an iced Blue Curaçao liqueur cocktail, exotic and maybe a little dangerous. The glitters and shimmer appear to float over the blue pigmented base. This polish has amazing depth, reminding me of tissue paper collage. The silver microglitter is very reflective and sparkly in direct light and plays very well with the opacity of the colored glitters. 

All in all a beautiful and engaging polish as you'd expect from Hare, and such fun to wear. I especially love those square glitters, they really hit my sweet spot!

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Wow!  Fantastic job Liz!!  I really love your choice of base color and your pics of Mad Chill really show off its multifaceted sparkling gorgeousness.  

Hopefully you've enjoyed this post, and if all goes well, we'll be seeing more of Liz from Lacquer Slacker Liz.  Big thanks to Liz for helping me out!!

Hare Polish Dancing Bird Of Paradise Swatch And Review

Purchased

Have I mentioned that I'm a Food Network junkie?  I think I watched three hours of Food Network tonight while catching up on some bills and internet time.  Aside from triple D, I caught a couple new shows such as Cutthroat Kitchen.  I like that they're exploring new show formats, but the two new series I saw didn't really work for me.  I'll stick to my Top Chef and Chopped.  Now if only I could only figure out how to cook!

Are you ready for another new Hare Polish?  Today I have for you Dancing Bird Of Paradise, a jelly glitter with a hot pink base.  From my last Hare Polish review, I realized that these may be better layered over a colored base to minimize overloading on glitters, so for this Hare I used New York Summer Hot Magenta, a hot pink jelly base.  This was fairly opaque for a jelly, and I used two thin easy coats for these pics with no topcoat.  There's still some visible sheerness but this will be covered up later with the Hare.

New York Summer Hot Magenta

New York Summer Hot Magenta

New York Summer Hot Magenta

New York Summer Hot Magenta

Now for the star of the show, Dancing Bird Of Paradise.  Did I mention how I love Nikole's play on words and combining two phrases into one name?  DBoP is a pink jelly based glitter polish showcasing different sizes and shapes of matte pink glitters and mini gold hex glitters.  I love the giant hex glitters and had no trouble getting them out of the bottle.  No clumping of the glitters here either, unlike the last Hare - maybe because there aren't as many matte glitters, and because I didn't use as many coats. I finished this with layer of Essence Gel Look Nails and NYC GCS.

Hare Polish Dancing Bird Of Paradise

Hare Polish Dancing Bird Of Paradise

Hare Polish Dancing Bird Of Paradise

Hare Polish Dancing Bird Of Paradise

Hare Polish Dancing Bird Of Paradise

I love how this turned out!  By using New York Summer Hot Magenta I didn't sacrifice depth but managed to get lots of color in the base.  The pretty pink is perfect for summer and the gold and white glitters really play well off the hot pink.  I don't quite see the "Dancing Bird Of Paradise" but I can see a dancing pink flamingo when I look at this polish.  This is definitely pink that I plan on wearing again and again.  Is this a pink that you can wear?

Bettina Purple With Sally Hansen Pink Grape-Fruit Swatch And Review

Whew! I finally caught a minute alone to work on a post, unbelievable!  Work and chasing after LO has tuckered me out all week.  Two nights I ended up passing out super early and sleeping nearly 10 hours both nights.  Today I was hoping for an easy day but somehow I still managed to reorganize some of the living room and bedroom.  Tomorrow the in-laws will be here to help baby proof, and then later we're going to the park to check out the layout for LO's upcoming first birthday.  I'm excited to plan her birthday!

I've been wanting to try Bettina polishes forever, and luckily my BF was in Puerto Rico recently and picked up a bunch of them for me.  Of course the first one I need to play with is the straightforward purple cream, aptly named Purple.  Application was super smooth and easy, and I only needed two coats for full coverage.  If this brand ever becomes more available in the states, then watch out Sinful Colors!  This is with no topcoat.

Bettina Purple

Bettina Purple

Bettina Purple

Bettina Purple

 I thought this shade would be the perfect base color for Sally Hansen's Pink Grape-fruit from the Limited Edition Xtreme Wear Beach Brights collection.  Pink Grape-fruit is a shimmery glitter topper that is too sheer to wear on its own.  It's got a purple tinted base with glistening bits of gold to fuchsia shimmer.  I used one coat and had no problems with application.  It went on smoothly and evenly and I finished with a layer of Poshe.

Bettina Purple With Sally Hansen Pink Grape-Fruit

Bettina Purple With Sally Hansen Pink Grape-Fruit

Bettina Purple With Sally Hansen Pink Grape-Fruit

Bettina Purple With Sally Hansen Pink Grape-Fruit

Bettina Purple With Sally Hansen Pink Grape-Fruit

I had a hard time getting the gold shift in the light tent, but managed to capture it while in the car.

Bettina Purple With Sally Hansen Pink Grape-Fruit

I thought this mani was really stunning IRL and couldn't take my eyes off the gorgeous simplicity.  I haven't worn such a lovely straightforward purple in a long time and the shimmer was really eye catching.   I bet Pink Grape-fruit would look great over a variety of colors such as navy or black - perhaps one of those colors would help coax out the gold a little more.  I haven't used SH Xtreme Wear polishes in a long time and this was a wonderful reminder how great the formula performs.  Have you picked any other colors from the Beach Brights collection?

Lynnderella Mysterious Ways with SH CSM Greige Gardens

Today I have on one of my favorite Lynnderellas of all time, Mysterious Ways.  I ordered this back when she was doing her own orders and I believe it's been discontinued.  I haven't worn it in a while and thought that it would look great over another CSM polish I bought during the Walgreen's clearance, Greige Gardens. Mysterious Ways is multisized holographic, gunmetal silver, and white glitter pieces in a holographic shimmer base.  Forgive me for the Lynderella shots - I applied Mysterious Ways after a day of wearing Greige Gardens alone and there is some slight tip wear visible.

SH CSM Greige Gardens

SH CSM Greige Gardens

Lynderella Mysterious Ways over SH CSM Greige Gardens

Lynderella Mysterious Ways over SH CSM Greige Gardens

Lynderella Mysterious Ways over SH CSM Greige Gardens

Lynderella Mysterious Ways over SH CSM Greige Gardens

Lynderella Mysterious Ways over SH CSM Greige Gardens

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Commander in Chic

I've got a classic for you today, Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in Commander in Chic.  Believe it or not this is the first time I've tried this line of nail polish but since Walgreens currently has these on clearance for $2.29 a pop, I had to grab them while I could.  I picked up a variety of colors and of course I had to choose one of the line's most popular colors, Commander in Chic, a great taupey neutral that has a hint of purple to it.  This color can be worn for any occasion, work or play.  I don't normally use colors like this but it really complimented my skin tone well, and being a neutral color, I imagine it would look great on anyone.  I found the formula for CSM to be pretty good, with nearly one coat to become opaque.  I'm a habitual two coater so these pictures are all two coats, topped with one coat of Poshe which probably wasn't necessary as Commander in Chic had a shine on its own.  The formula was on the slightly thick side for my taste, which limited how well it self leveled but I'm willing to forgive that since it's a one coat polish.  These are all taken indoors under natural lighting.  Overall CSM is a line that I would be happy to use again.  You may want to grab these while you can because SH's facebook page says that these are getting phased out and they are releasing the line with a new formulation this December.  Besides Walgreens, there have been sightings of these on sale at Big Lots, Dollar Tree, and Ross.

CSM Commander in Chic

CSM Commander in Chic

CSM Commander in Chic

Bonus pictures!!  I loved how neutral Commander in Chic is and how well it can work as a base for a variety of glitters.  I layered over a glitter that I had a hard time trying to find an undie for, and I think it works great - this is one coat of Lynnderella's Lucky Numbers, a fun red and black multi-sized glitter in clear base with holographic shimmer.

Lynnderella Lucky Numbers over Commander in Chic

Lynnderella Lucky Numbers over Commander in Chic

Lynnderella Lucky Numbers over Commander in Chic

Macro shot of Lynnderella's Lucky Numbers