Best Of: March 2015

Naked Rainbows

promotional samples ahead

My obsession with shiny naked things rolls on. When I tried Bare It All, I knew it needed more...but what? Then I got a swatch package from Demi at Baroness X, and she included this as a thank-you (really, I should be the one baking this chick cookies!) and I knew my shiny-thing prayers had been answered.

Accidentally Warts

I'm not sure what I was thinking here. My brain is sometimes weird. But I had this matte Zoya sitting in my untried bin, and I had to just do something with it...and of course glitter. I don't always make the best decisions. But if you like glittery warts...read on.

Better Together

Sometimes I feel like The Beard and I have been together forever, years and years.  It's weird to think that yesterday was only the fourth anniversary of our first date.  We did our usual thing, going back to the diner at 12:30am like the first time.  We kissed in his car before we left, also like our first date.

Four years and he's still my favorite prop...

the food at this place is way better than the lighting

I kinda feel like this pose should have gone the other way, with my hand on top, but oh well.  It works.  It's become a part of our anniversary tradition.  Two years ago I wore FingerPaints Late Night Rendezvous.  Last year I used the two polishes that he and the boys picked out for me for xmas.  This year I was scrambling to figure out what would be right, when it struck me...Contrary Polish Better Together!  I know I'm better with him, anyway.

I didn't get a great photo of it, which is a shame because it's pretty and it's also the only one I have from them so far.

I'll admit to putting it on over a previous mani.  I haven't been sleeping well lately and I couldn't be late for such an important date!  This year's was the best anniversary we've had so far, full of laughs, love, and nostalgia.  He's one of the few things I'll always pick over polish...I think that says it all.

Baroness X Mirror, Mirror

promotional samples ahead

Mirror mirror on the wall, what holographic black is the badassest of all? Oh, that's right. It's this one. I have a softspot for black polishes, and an even softer one for unique blacks. This one from Baroness X checks both of those boxes...and then some.

My New Favorite Nude: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Bare It All

This is another polish from the lovely and incomparable Jeanette. She posted a picture in a fb group of this polish, and my obsession with flesh-toned polishes forced me to ask about it. As I was in the process of buying the ILNP polish from her, she offered to pick me up a bottle if she came across one...and thankfully she did.

Digital Nails What Color Is This Polish?

The internet is ridiculous. It is. Kim Kardashian's bum, stupid memes...and now color shifting dresses. I admit that the husband and I did bicker a bit over the color. When Digital Nails released this novelty polish, I had to grab it. Just for the sheer ridiculousness. As it turns out, its a beautiful polish even without the cheek.

A Perfectly Cloudy Day

I have had this dream of a perfect stormy sky manicure in my head for years. I've tried it repeatedly, but it never turned out how I wanted it to...this isn't quite perfect either, but it is definitely getting closer.

Baroness X Outre Violet Opal

 promotional samples ahead

I love jellies. It took me a long time to come around to them, but now I am obsessed. When Demi from Baroness X sent this polish along with some regular swatch stuff, I instantly fell in love. But some other polish always came in between us. 

ILNP Peace

So many pretty things have been hiding in my bin of untrieds! I am starting to feel a little guilty. This one is fairly recent, so it isn't so bad. I bought this and a few others from my friend Jeanette. She's a doll, and told me I would love and adore this. She was definitely right. Prepare yourselves for spam.

Sally Hansen Royal Reign and Poison Ivy

 purchased by me 

Am I nuts or does it seem like Sally Hansen is really picking up speed with new collections?  I don't even know if I should call this collection "early spring" or "late winter" or what, since it came out in January.  It's one of three or four new Insta-Dri displays to turn up in drugstores since xmas, some core and some limited edition.  This bunch is LE.  There's actually been another LE one that's only just started turning up and is definitely a spring collection.  I'm leaning toward calling it early spring, if only because there's a similar Xtreme Wear collection that came out right around the same time and has butterfly-ish names.  (Two of those will wander onto the blog soonish.)  It's not just the lack of season that's hanging me up here.  This collection doesn't actually have a name.  Hmm.  Well...whoever these two are, let's get a better look at them.

Royal Reign is a deepened cornflower blue, softened without being dusty.

One thing I feel like I always say in Insta-Dri reviews is that they (almost?) never seem to live up to the claim of being one-coaters.  Royal Reign is a two-coater for me, which is still perfectly acceptable.  The formula is good, thickish and creamy.  I think this particular shade can almost make the claim because one thicker coat on shorter nails would probably give decent coverage.  I think.  Pretty either way, and easy to apply.


Poison Ivy is a dark bottle green crelly.

From pretty to downright beautiful...  Wow!  I'm always falling for greens like this and I know I must have something dupey, but I couldn't resist!  Poison Ivy is along the same lines as Nars Zulu, Illamasqua Rampage, Sinful Colors Last Chance etc.  I'll try to get a comparison done if anyone's interested.  It's also a two-coater.  The only gripe I have with Poison Ivy is that recurring issue I have with some formulas, pinprick bubbling.  Not a huge deal for a polish this gorgeous.


Bottom line: Both are good and I'll be stamping with them soon to see if this "improved" formula works as well for that as the older ones.


Did you get anything from this or any of the other bajillion new Sally Hansen collections?

 all products in this post were purchased by me 

Bottle Shots: Holographics

Ludurana Aurora Boreal

Continuing with the stash busting today! This one a dear friend (Hi Barb!) hooked me up with when I started asking about good multichromes. She told me I had to get this, and it was such a low price, I was sorta obligated to buy it. I'm a sucker for a good sale. I had never heard of this brand, and now I find myself wanting a few more.

I DID IT!!!

I water marbled!!  Kinda.  Mostly.  I did this by the decal method, instead of dipping.  I think it counts.

It's better than my first attempt anyway.  This time around I used...well...stuff I had under my desk.  The Sinful Colors Flight Patterns shimmers are still in the bin of stuff to bring upstairs and put away.  Sally Hansen Royal Reign (preview) was waiting to be swatched.  They were just what was convenient, but they wound up working really well!  If you're unfamiliar with it, the decal method is the same as the "normal" way of water marbling right through the marbling part.  Then, instead of dipping your finger into the design, you let it dry on the surface of the water.  After about 15 minutes the polish is dry enough to be lifted out and laid on a plastic sheet (I use cut-up dollar store report covers) to dry some more.  Once it's dry, you apply it like any other homemade decal.  It avoids most of the mess and lets you pick precisely the part of the marble that you want to use.  I'm too new at this to say if it's easier, but it might be.

There was some strong serendipity at work here, considering that I didn't even go up to my full stash to grab polishes.  The shimmers, especially Prized Plume (the blue), play with the light really beautifully.

I spent a long time just wiggling my fingers around and being impressed with myself for finally doing something that a lot of you have done for years.

The downside to decals is that the whole thing got really REALLY thick.  Don't care.  Water marbled.  Woo!


Have you learned any "new" polish tricks lately?

 all products in this post were purchased by me 

ILNP Supernova Spamagheddon

Sometimes, you find a polish and you want to cover everything in it. For me, that polish is Supernova from ILNP. It is a multichrome flake topper and my first pre-order. All the pictures feature a random polish with one normal coat of Supernova on top. I am not sorry. Enjoy the spamming.

Today is Ultimate Pi Day!

A day like today won't happen again for another century!  3/14 has been Pi Day every year for the past twenty-seven years, but this is a special one.  It's 3/14/15...and check the time of this post if you want an additional nerdy chuckle.  I had to commemorate this special moment with pie nails!

This started with Sephora by OPI Neutral Beauty, which is about as close to pie crust color as a polish could get.  Then I stamped it with the lattice image on Vivid Lacquer's VL 009 plate (currently out of stock), using Ulta Steppin Out and an accent of OPI...Eurso Euro. I "baked" the crust with a small, flat nail art brush and Sally Hansen All Bark.  Next I dotted cherries and blueberries with OPI Got The Blues For Red and Essie No More Film.  For the goo around the berries, I dotted on L'Oréal Jolly Lolly and Miss Pixie for the two "flavors".  OPI Matte Top Coat applied with a dotting tool to just the crust parts finished the look.

Know what else turns twenty-seven this weekend?  My sister!  If you like things that look like food, but aren't, follow her.  She makes cute clay jewelry and other accessories.  Between these pie nails and this watermarble, I feel like I've accidentally channeled her lately.  Happy birthday, kid!

 all products in this post were purchased by me 

Digital Nails Count Your Shadows

I posted this picture on facebook on Wednesday of my epic (and growing) collection of untried polishes and cosmetics. Some of the stuff there has been sitting since Christmas! It is time to start digging into the stash. I might as well start with something Whovian.

Squared Up Leadlighting

It's been forever since I did any leadlighting.  Almost a year!  I've been dreaming of various manis ever since I bought a bunch of Dance Legend's Aquarelle tints from Llarowe, but it took me forever to actually park myself and do one.

Llarowe always seems to be out of at least a few of the Aquarelle tints, which was good because it kept me from buying ALL of them.  I managed to snag pretty much all of the ones I wanted though, so I can't really complain.  For this I used Rafael, Sisley, Dali, Malewicz, Botticelli, and Levitan.  The white base is OPI Angel With A Leadfoot.  The stamping is Sally Hansen Night Fright with Winstonia's The Carnival plate.  I had to have it after seeing a mani that Nkem of Another Bottle Of Polish did with one of the images.  Good excuse to buy other Winstonia plates I've been eyeing for ages too.

I feel like Night Fright came out a little...well...soft.

It doesn't make a ton of difference once it's tinted, but I figured that since the contrast wasn't as sharp as I'd hoped, I might as well color the whole thing.

I love how it turned out, though there are a couple of flaws here and there.  The Aquarelle tints get sticky quickly, so you have to work really fast.  The colors are bold and gorgeous though, so it's a fair trade-off.  You'll be seeing a lot more of these, I think...but probably with a different black polish.  I had really wanted to try the Mundo de Unas black and white, but they're also out of stock on Llarowe.  Oh well.


What are your favorites for leadlighting?

 all products in this post were purchased by me 

Burnished Metals

Multichrome flakes are still big. I think that 2015 is going to see loads of them. I even picked up ILNP Supernova (as did Amanda) though I haven't shared all of my pictures with the world yet. I am not sorry I grabbed the ILNP topper, but I wish I had waited a bit. There are so many different ones now!

KleanColor Shadow Swatch-a-ganza

 purchased by me 

Dunno...it just felt more like an "-a-ganza" than an "-a-rama".  I went on a mini spree buying KleanColor palettes last month, while trying not to buy something else that I wound up buying anyway.  We've all been there, right?  The High Drama palette had been lurking in the back of my mind ever since G. posted about it on Nouveau Cheap.  I did a lot of poking around on the KleanColor website, but their shipping is $8 (dafuq!?) unless you spend $40 or more, so I eventually wound up getting High Drama for $5 and shipping on eBay and a few more from Miss A for $1 each.  Shipping for both orders and all, this haul cost me under $15 for 28 shades total.  Was it worth it?  Read on...

The two in the center are from a matte collection called Fab Cult (there are four shimmers too) that describe themselves as "amazingly saturated with pigments" and they look somewhat promising, right?  

Hotlist

bare skin / Fergie primer

Maybe I went a little too light here.  This was the first one I swatched.  They're really hard, so "starting" them is kinda challenging and I probably should have used a bit more elbow grease.  Three of these four shades are virtually invisible on me.  I think it's partly that they're close to my skin color and partly that they're just not that pigmented.  Still worth the $1 I spent for it, since I wanted pinks to play with, to bring out the green in my eyes.  The plummy shade (third from right) is also almost dead-on for the color I bruise.  Mental bookmark for Halloween.

bare skin / Fergie primer

Confidential

bare skin / Fergie primer

The "black" shade is actually a deep teal!  I'm gleeful!  It's like the shadow version of LASplash's Envy lipstick, so you know I love it.  Overall, the color payoff seems better for Confidential than for Hotlist, but that might be because the colors are bolder in general...aside from the barely there beige.  The blue (left of center) is bonkers!  It is SO blue!  Even without primer it's intense.  This palette's a total winner, but that $1 would be worth it for just the blue.

bare skin / Fergie primer

High Drama is one of four in the Your Highness collection.

bare skin / Fergie primer / NYX Milk / bare skin

Holy shit, right?  I had my fingers crossed that High Drama would be a poor girl's version of Urban Decay's Electric palette.  It's about a tenth of the price but more than a tenth as bold and bright.  Without white underneath them, most of the shades are a bit washed out.  Over white they just scream!  The yellow, teal, and orange are actually fairly bold with just primer or even on bare skin.  It's not a shade-for-shade dupe of the Electric palette, but it more than kills whatever lemming I had for it.  I kinda want High Drama's shimmer sister, High Voltage, now though.

bare skin / Fergie primer / NYX Milk / bare skin

Color Playlist is one of KleanColor's baked shadow collections.  (There's also a big palette.)  I ogled all of them, but wound up with the mermaidy Trance.

bare skin / Fergie primer / NYX Black Bean / bare skin

The shimmer is even more impressive in person.  These four are gorgeously coordinated and this is easily the most pigmented palette of the four on bare skin.


Bottom line: Gotta love cheap thrills!  I'm trying to ease myself out of my comfort zone and these are ideal.  Aside from the softer shades in the two Fab Cult palettes, the color payoff is impressive for such inexpensive products.


Now to actually wear these...  Hmm....

 all products in this post were purchased by me 

OPNL Petal to the Metal

promotional samples ahead

Springtime is in the air, and it is time for restocks! Who doesn't love a good restock? Especially when it is from OPNL!

My Favorite Cuticle Saviors

Winter is a hard time, even over in my neck of the woods where we have about a week of chilly but not all in a row. But our normally humid climate dries out, and everywhere you go people have their heaters cranked up...drying the air even more. It is hell on my skin. Thankfully, I have a collection of things that help me out.

Bleached Neon Ikat

promotional samples ahead

Remember when I said there would be lots of arty things with these polishes? Yeah...I wasn't just blowing smoke. I really love a good cream. I find them to be super versatile for projects like this...plus this whole collections just goes so wonderfully together I can't help it.

Carpe Noctem Cosmetics: The Always Greener Collection

promotional samples ahead

Are you ready for spring yet? Most of the northern hemisphere is by now, I'm sure. Where I am we haven't had a lot of weather...but I'm still ready for springtime color. Happily, Carpe Noctem Cosmetics has us covered.

Sinful Colors Kiss Me I'm Stylish - My Picks

 purchased by me 

It's only March, but Sinful Colors has already put out more than ten new shades in various seasonal displays.  This year their St. Patrick's Day display even has a new shade!  I think that might be a first.  Novelty glitter usually isn't my thing, but I decided to give Shamrockin' a try anyway.  I was pleasantly surprised...

Baroness X Pastel Grunge

promotional samples

Continuing with the glittery majesty that is Springtime, I have another wonderful topper from Baroness X today. If in-your-face neons aren't your thing, then you should definitely keep reading. I'm about to show you the more delicate side of awesome.

Dance Legend Sword Of Mercy

 purchased by me 

There's a special kind of frustration when a breathtakingly gorgeous polish isn't as impressive in photos.  Sword Of Mercy is as frustrating as it is beautiful.  Chrome finish polishes are almost always more impressive in person because of the way they reflect what's around them.  You never know quite when they'll look their best.  I think that moment this time around was when I was about to get out of the car a couple of nights ago.  Sword Of Mercy caught the dome light and another light at the same time and spun them into this magic.  It's a bit grainy because of the low light, but that photo does more justice to the beauty of actually wearing this polish than any of the photos I took at home for this post.  It happens.  Keep in mind as you read this review that it's even better in person.

Sword Of Mercy is a gunmetal chrome.

The Steel collection came out last summer and I'd been eyeing Sword Of Mercy since then.  It found its way into my cart when I ordered several of the Aquarelle tints from Llarowe, along with NY NY.  I don't know why it took me so long to wear it.  Now that I have...well...I might need a second bottle.  I love it that much.  I don't ever want to run out or stop using it because the fill line is dropping.  Mini bottles like this make me extra nervous.  A gunmetal chrome is something I've wanted for years.  Chromes tend to be such bright, soft colors, which can be a little dismaying when you prefer darker stuff.  It's not as reflective as OPI Push And Shove or the Sally Hansen Color Foil shades, but it makes up for that in depth of color.  It's almost black at the edges.  There's also something else going on, subtly.  Every once in a while there's a tiny speck of red, green, blue, whatever.  It makes me wonder if there's a touch of holo pigment.  This is two coats, by the way.  No undies needed, and it doesn't need the coddling that more reflective chromes do.  It goes on like "normal" polish.  I did use slightly thicker coats to reduce brushstroking, but otherwise it was easy to apply.

I wore Sword Of Mercy for a couple of days and wanted to play with it a bit before taking it off.  Stamping's my go-to thing, but I seem to be in a slump lately.  I used Sally Hansen Platinum Star and the new-ish BM-706.  Kinda...meh...isn't it?  I should have used a bolder image.

Bottom line: I caught myself wishing that the Steel collection had come out this year so that I could include Sword Of Mercy in my Best of 2015 post in December....or that I'd bought it last year.  Instant favorite.  Good formula , high shine, and bold color.  Pure win.

...unfortunately it's out of stock on Llarowe right now and Dance Legend's site is on hiatus for at least another couple of weeks.  Sorry!  It's a must-have though.  You need it.

 all products in this post were purchased by me 

Mmmacros

Digital Nails Questionable Browser History

My least favorite things to do generally involve cleaning. I don't care if its housework, cleaning at a job, or cleaning polish off my fingers...I hate it. I love nail art, but I'm a messy person by nature. When I do water marbles, I spend precious minutes applying foot after foot of tape...and hating it. But it was better than the alternative. I always thought to myself "there has to be a better way!" And guess what!? There is!