Monday, January 30, 2012

Addicted to Holos

I was a little late to the holo party and only got into them recently, and sadly it seems like many were limited collections and are now pretty hard to find. But fortunately this gem is gorgeous and still easy to get your hands on. Meet the magnificent lavender linear holographic, Fashion Addict.

Color Club Fashion Addict




Isn't she shiny? Makes it difficult to focus on other tasks, like not staring at all the awesome colors! It's available at a few different e-tailers online, I ordered mine at Nailsupplies.us for $3 (they also carry Misa, Orly, CG, Essie, and Barielle). And yes, it's this amazing in person, too.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Diamond Mine

Diamond Cosmetics Chainmail Charm, a wonderful charcoal linear holo. And you know what they say-- if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls! Okay only Effie says that. But yes, this polish is simply beauteous. Excellent formula, and (in my opinion) comparable to the HTF My Private Jet, and for a fraction of the price. Also I've been trying out a more vintage-y look to my photos, you know, to give them character and stuff. Charming? Annoyingly hipster? Let's look:

Diamond Cosmetics Chainmail Charm (Artificial light)


(Sunlight)


(Indoors)


Unless you are outdoors, where this color is absolutely stunning, it has the appearance of a relatively plain sparkly grey polish, with the occasional flash of holo. It's available for purchase online at Diamond Cosmetics and for only $2.50 is well worth it. They have a great selection of other colors as well, a few of which I'll be posting sometime in the future.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

OCNPD Giveaway!

Obsessive Compulsive Nail Polish Disorder is having a 50 Follower Giveaway, and it is amazing:


Barry M Mushroom, Mavala Pure Diamond, Revlon Star, Max Factor Fantasy Fire, Barry M Silver Foil


It's open internationally, so go check it out! Thank you Zoe, and congrats on 50 followers. ♥

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Now You Sea Sparkly Pink!

Ah, layering. Why have just one color when you can have several, all at once? As much as I love the shade of L'Oreal Now You Sea Me, I couldn't resist adding one of my favorite shimmery duochrome-y polishes, simply named "Blue Multi" from Forever 21's line of polishes, Love & Beauty. Oh, *and* I put CND's Crimson Sparkle over that, just to give it a little more sparkly.

L'Oreal Now You Sea Me + Love & Beauty Blue Multi + CND Crimson Sparkle


So much duochromatic shimmering goodness! I am love.


But wait, there's more! I decided it also needed some pink glitter as a "subtle" accent.

+ Forever 21 Blossom



Mmm... glitter jelly sparkle sandwich!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

My Favorite Hue, Robin's Egg Blue

I was excited to see the new colors L'Oreal recently released, and found a nice display of them at my local Walgreens. There is a wide range of colors, but none terribly unique, so I just picked up a lovely shade of dusty turquoise I had seen photos of on Noelie's blog, Now You Sea Me. At first glance I wondered if it might be very similar to Sally Hansen's Gray by Gray, but here you can see that is not the case:

Sally Hansen Gray by Gray, L'Oreal Now You Sea Me


Top to bottom: NYSM, GBG, NYSM, GBG


L'Oreal Now You Sea Me



I really love both of these shades, and am glad to be able to justify owning both as they're clearly very different blues. Now You Sea Me is such a striking color, and I think works well with my cool, pinky complexion. The formula was excellent and needed only two coats, and the texture almost has that "squishy" look, I think. Glad I picked this one up, and may grab one or two more if just for the great formula and pretty bottle!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Have you joined the Cult?

Talking of course about Cult Nails and her amazing colors! This one I picked up a few months back, and there are still a few others I would really love. Iconic is such a perfect combination of complementing colors-- berry red with bright fiery red flakes and a gold shimmer to top it off. Absolutely love. This is how it arrived, a little polish burrito:


And here it is on the nails!


I apologize for the somewhat washed-out color, my camera is very finicky about certain lighting.


My only complaint would be that, as you can see, I did experience tip wear rather quickly, but I'm also not very good at wrapping my tips (when I even remember to...) so that would probably help!


Every now and then Maria does specials on the polishes, so keep an eye out for those, but don't wait too long or the color you want may just sell out. This has such a beautiful base, and the flakes really pop and come alive in it! Definitely a unique, must-have color.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Sally Hansen - Gray by Gray + Shimmer & Sparkle and RAINBOWS

Since I can't just leave a pretty color alone, even the lovely Gray by Gray, a beautiful muted azure blue, I decided to sparkle it up with some CND Copper Shimmer. See below:



I wanted something similar to Rescue Beauty Lounge's Piu Mosso, but this is a much lighter and more muted blue. Don't they look lovely together? I love these complimenting colors! But, I still wanted to add more...


So naturally, I grabbed my favorite flakey: Nubar 2010.


The iridescent oranges and greens really pop!


I just love layering over cremes. It's so fun to take a somewhat plain color and see what you can transform it into!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

It feels gritty, oh so gritty...

A while back I picked up one of Elf's Glitter Glosses in Glam Guava. I've never owned a glittery gloss before-- shimmery, but not full of flecks of glitter, so I gave it a try.


The color is very nice, kind of a melon-y pink, and the coverage is good (I have to be careful not to get too much!), but the glitter makes it just a liiitle gritty feeling on the lips. It isn't terrible, or painful, or going to stop me from using it, but it is a noticeable grit.



It's very sparkly, and fun, and pink and girly, so why not deal with a little grit?

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

It's been a while!

Well a lot has happened in the last few months. At the end of September we moved from Colorado Springs to Charleston, South Carolina, and stopped in Ohio to visit with the husband's family for a few weeks along the way, and just had our family come down to visit us for the holidays in our BRAND NEW FIRST HOME, yayy! Of course, during this time many polishes were accrued, and today or tomorrow I plan on going through my stash and organizing/setting aside for swap or sale/taking pictures of said holiday haul. In the meantime, I have pictures of awesome cool new spring collections and pictures of my first and favorite franken-polish.

First, check out Zoya's True & Fleck collections, available for pre-order January 10th (only a week away)!


Cho: Vanilla shimmer metallic
Farah: Latte beige cream
Bevin: Pale sage green cream
Skylar: Silvered slate blue metallic
Tru: Gilded purple orchid metallic
Lotus: Light lotus purple metallic


Maisie: Blue tint with mylar green fleck effect
Opal: Green tint with mylar green fleck effect
Chloe: Pink tint with mylar green and gold fleck effect

Images and descriptions courtesy of Zoya.


Another amazing bunch of colors is from OPI's Holland collection, take a look!


Red Lights Ahead...Where?
A Roll in the Hague
Vampsterdam
Thanks a WindMillion
Kiss Me on My Tulips
Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?
I Don't Give a Rotterdam!
I Have a Herring Problem
Pedal Faster Suzi
Wooden Shoe Like to Know
Gouda Gouda Two Shoes


Images courtesy of OPI.

Aaghh, those blues! Those shimmery, glass-flecked blues! Plus more killer purples from Zoya. Yeah, they're amazing. And I'm so happy Zoya is making flakies, because theirs look stunning. Only a couple of bloggers have swatches up, and they are worth taking a peek at because these promo pics just don't do these colors justice.

And until I upload and go through and finish posting many other manis, franken fun!


Dusty turquoise is one of my absolute all-time favorite colors (hence the squealing over these upcoming blues), and I can't get enough of it! I have a couple that are similar in color (Butter London's Victoriana, Rescue Beauty Lounge's 360), but I wanted a subtle yet visible shimmer (plus a little holo, why not?) so I mixed this up!


Here are the polishes I used:

L-R: Wet n Wild Blue Moon, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Wet Cement, Sinful Colors Mint Apple, Wet n Wild Blue Wants to be a Millionaire, Forever 21 Love & Beauty shimmery teal

My inspiration for this color was a mix between Cult Nails' Let Me Fly and Rescue Beauty Lounge's 360. I recently acquired 360, after mixing this color, only to find the subtle shimmer that made me love it so was basically nonexistent except in direct sunlight. Oh well! It's still a gorgeous color. Maybe I'll just have to pick up Let Me Fly, too. ♥