Candeo Oceania

PHEW!  I've spent the past three weeks working on my blog sale, which I've finally put up!  You can check out my goods here.  I just typed "check out my goodies here," but decided that sounded a bit...  Wrong.  Anyway, I'd love for you guys to buy my stuff so I can purchase more polish-making supplies and a new polish desk for my new house!

I also decided that I was mad at my nails tonight and chopped them all off down to the meat.  There were two with really bad breaks and several others with severely weak spots, so I thought it would be a great idea to just chop them down to try and get rid of the weak spots.  I'm sure I haven't gotten rid of them all, but I think I got at least most of them.  But yeah, my nail meat is really sore.  As such, you won't be seeing my super-nubs very much until they grow out a little.  Luckily, I've been taking swatch shots like a fiend, so I've got tons of pics to tide me over.  I may take this opportunity to re-wear some of my favorite polishes that won't need to be photographed!

Anyway, tonight we're going to take a look at Candeo Oceania.

*I was not financially compensated for this post.  All items in this review were purchased by me for my own use.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.  For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy in the tab above.*

Color: Clear base with matte lavender, aqua, teal, and white hex glitters.  (Layered over OPI Parlez Vous OPI)

Finish: Glitter Top Coat – glitter in a clear base to be worn as a top coat.

Bottle / Brush: Round bottle brush – standard width and length.  Easy to control and manipulate.  Longer cap than normal polishes in the round bottle, making application easy.

Opacity: Glitter topcoat – not designed for full opacity.

Glitter Application: Hard – difficult to dig the glitters out of the bottle, spreads well with the dab method, but pools at the cuticles and bubbles when dry.

Consistency: Super thin – runny and floods the cuticles easily.  The base-to-glitter ratio is off.  You need to do two thin coats to achieve the look I have here.  Otherwise, the polish will bulge and run into your cuticles.

Overall Ease of Application: Difficult – applies with some pooling.  Spreads well with thin coats.

Stampability: Not designed for stamping.

Dry Time: Medium – dry to the touch with minimal smudging in 3-8 minutes.

Overall Thoughts: Oceania is a pretty glitter, but nothing too unique.  As I said above, the base-to-glitter ratio is more in favor of base than glitter.  Two thin coats will give you the same look as most glitters with one coat.  If you try to get all of the glitter you want on the brush, you'll end up with a bulge that dries leaning on one side of your nail, and that just isn't pretty.  Also, you'll run the risk of smudging because it takes so long to dry.  While I think this is a pretty polish, it just wasn't my thing.  I love glitters, but I prefer them to be in a colored base.  I'm not too picky if it's a creme or jelly, either, but I'm just not into glitter topcoats like I used to be.

You can purchase Candeo at their store and Llarowe.  Also, follow them on Facebook for news and updates.

Do you like glitter toppers?

Oldie but Goodie: In the beginning...

Tonight's post is going to be a little bit different as I'm not going to do a review.  Instead, I thought I'd show you guys my transformation as a swatcher, photographer, polisher, and blogger.  These photos are technically part of the Oldie but Goodie series I used to do, but I'm running low on pictures to dedicate a whole post to each polish.  Therefore, I've decided I would just put them all in one post!  Get ready for some heavy picture spam!

Here's a little bit of history to go with these old pictures.  I was always a polish fiend, but I strayed away when I went to law school.  I didn't have time to do them myself, and I certainly didn't have the money to spend on getting manicures.  When I was little, I would go over to my Grannie's house all the time, and every time, we would do our nails.  She had this amazing selection of all different colors mostly from Wet 'n Wild, but including Nina, Sinful, Revlon Street Wear, and some Sally Hansen.  We would always have festive manis (and pedis for me) during each holiday.  Those are times I sincerely cherish since my grandmother has since passed away.  She's who got me started on my road to polish ridiculousness when I was just a young girl.  Even through school, I always had a pretty decently sized stash for a teenager - especially for a teenager during the non-polish mania years.  My nails were horrible, though, and still are to a certain degree, because of all of all of my health issues (Hashimotos thyroid disease, hypoglycemia, and intolerance to several different foods that I didn't know about until recently).  I peeled them.  Not bit them, but peeled them off.  They flaked, they wouldn't grow, and I had ridges.  But I'll be damned if I didn't have paint on them all the time!  Now, I try to have polish on my nails every day.  I typically do a mani every or every other night unless I'm doing a wear test, simply because I went crazy buying last year and am still trying to catch up on wearing them all.  Still nowhere close, though.  Hah!

These photos are from around this time last year when I first started getting back into polish.  Some are before I started the blog and was posting photos on Facebook and another polish forum.  Some are from after I started the blog last summer but before I was very good about moisturizing or using my camera.  At the end, I'll add a photo from a few weeks ago so you can see how I've transformed through this process!  Let's get started!! 

Zoya Minka - hated this polish!  It went on horribly and just wouldn't dry.

Gelish French marble with Tiki Tiki Laranga, Shake it til You Samba,  Stand Out, and Light Elegant.  This photo is taken with the vivid color mode on my camera, but it's pretty close to accurate for the color on my tips.

Playing with my new stamps using regular polishes including NOPI, OPI, and WnW.

More stamping practice pre-cleanup.  I actually attempted a two-tone stamp that came out pretty decently!

Gelish Jet Set.  One of my all time favorite Gelish colors.  Also, one of the few polishes my hubby bought for me.

More stamping.  I'm unsure what the base is (maybe CC Puccilicious?) topped with NOPI Pink Flower Power.  I really like this combo.

Nails by Laura (now Joyful Noise Cosmetics) Bedazzleberry White.  The glitters in this one sank, but they were fine in the regular Beddazleberry.

OPI If you Moust you Moust topped with Dandy Nails Wonderwall.  Not a fantastic combo, but I wanted to give it a shot.  Wonderwall is a bit hard to apply, as you can tell, and the glitters didn't spread very well.  I'll bet it would look awesome over a pale blue like Elevation Alphubel.

Dollish Gym Tan Laundry.  I wasn't sure if I'd like this one when I bought it, but I really really love it.  Good impulse buy!

Rainbow Honey Celestia topped with Sonnetarium Snowfall.  I <3 Sonnetarium.  'Nuff said.

My first water marble.  Not exactly a rousing success, lol.

My second water marble attemp; OPI DS Sapphire topped with Dollish It's a me Mario, and Girly Bits Star Spangled.  There are so many things wrong with this picture...

Rainbow Hone Celestia.  I'm looking forward to trying this again once I've thinned it...

Dollish Sweet Dreams are Made of Glitter.  Mint greens aren't my fave.

Rainbow Honey Pinkie Promise.  Pretty color.  Wore this at Disney World.

Candeo Glacier.  Such a pretty color and the glitters haven't sunk or turned to sludge.  Yay!

Nails by Laura (now Joyful Noise Cosmetics) Alice Who?  Pretty close dupe to Absolutely Alice.

Pretty and Polished Cancer Moon.  Discontinued, but not really my kind of polish.

Wet 'n Wild Diamond in the Rough.  Very gritty, even with two coats of topcoat.

Pretty & Polished Peace Camp.  Applied easily without clumping or pooling.

OPI Thanks a Windmillion topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust and stamped with Nfu Oh 61.  One of my all time favorite manis despite the ridiculous SV shrinkage.

Now, let's take a look at a more recent shot: Zoya Pixie Dust Nyx.  I'll have a wear test of this beauty sometime in the near future!

So there you have it!  I think I've come a long way, and if I can do it, so can you!  Just keep moisturizing, figure out the best way for you to handle your cuticles (I love my SH Cuticle Remover Gel), and keep your nails at a manageable length, and you'll be good to go!

How did you get into nail polish?  What's your story?

Comparison Thursday: Fuchsia Glitters

Today's Comparison Thursday is a biiiiiiit of a stretch.  It was one of those things where I was sitting staring at my Hare Dog Day Dream mani and started wondering how close it was to Candeo Orchid and Elevation Pata Puffer.  Why not try it out and see?  Yeah, they're all totally different.  Each one is beautiful for different reasons.  I present to you: A-Not-Very-Good-Comparison Thursday: Fuchsia Glitters.

They each have a berry jelly base, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.  Pata Puffer has micro and medium fuchsia holographic hexes.  Dog Day Dream has red, purple, and fuchsia hexes and purple squares.  Orchid has silver holographic hexes in three sizes.

Here's what they look like with a little intentional blur to see the bling-factor.

Pata Puffer applies well, like almost all of the Elevation Polishes I've used so far.  Its holographic glitters are gorgeous, but tend to muddy up the base a little making it look cloudy.  It's not cloudy, though, just super saturated with micro glitters.  The larger hexes flash between fuchsia and purple depending on the light.  It's very flashy, and I really like it!  Sadly, it was a limited edition polish and is now discontinued.

Hare Dog Day Dream, like I posted on Monday, applies well and builds nicely.  It looks great over red, but I'm sure it would look pretty good over other bright shades.

My Candeo Orchid has sinking glitters.  It is irritating.  Apparently, this is a widespread problem with Orchid, which is totally weird!  Unfortunately, because the glitters sink, they are extremely difficult to get out of the damn bottle despite shaking and rolling until I was blue in the face.  They were also pretty hard to spread.

Honestly, you could probably get away with only having one of these, but I think that you could also get away with keeping all three.  If I had to give one away, it would probably be Orchid.  Which is your favorite?  You can purchase Candeo at their store and on Llarowe, and check out their Facebook page for updates.  You can purchase Elevation polish on her Big Cartel site and Etsy on the 7th and 22nd of each month.  [HOT TIP! Lulu still has some of her Kickin' it Ole School collection on both sites!  After this month, those guys are going back into retirement, so snag them now now now!]  Follow Lulu's blog for updates.  Lastly, you can purchase Hare on her Etsy store, Overall Beauty, and Llarowe.  Check out Nikole's Facebook page and blog for updates.

In other news, Nerd Lacquer is back!  Check out her post here for more info.  I hope she is able to get back on her feet with a positive support system soon.

Do you own any Nerds?

Comparison Thursday: Black and White Glitters

Wow, guys!  You kinda rock my face off!!!  Welcome to my new readers who were guided here by Kyoti's Nails' giveaway!  I'm a lucky gal to have so many followers, and I hope to repay you guys once a month (with the reader of the month giveaway).  Let me hear your beautiful voices and see your shiny talons!  If you haven't already, come and check out my Facebook and Twitter pages.  Thanks for coming along for the journey!

Two quick announcements before we get to the comparisons.  Firstly, my big Halloween giveaway is still going!  It ends at midnight on Friday, October 19th, so if you haven't entered, hop to it!  Second, I wanted to announce that I am participating in Kyoti's Nails' Halloween giveaway as well!  My prize is a brand new bottle of OPI Coral Reef, which is a discontinued orange linear holographic polish, plus some Halloween decals, a file, and tons of candy!

There are several bloggers and polish makers involved with this epic giveaway, so go and check out Kyoti's post with all of the prizes.  Enter below or at Kyoti's blog.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ok, now let's get on to the comparisons!!  Today, I'm showing you the four black and white glitters I own.  I used Nicole by OPI I'm Be-Cider Myself for undies, which is a peachy-orangey-pinky multichrome polish that, I believe, has been discontinued.  I've had this polish since college, which has been a very long time.  I was trying to decide if I wanted to keep it or sell it...  Needless to say, I'm keeping it.  The polishes I'm comparing today are Cover Band's Sticks 'n Stones (a dupe of Lynnderella Connect the Dots), Candeo Sprouse, Pretty & Polished Valentino, and Dollish Polish Putting on the Ritzzz!

Here are macros of the bottles.

Here they are side-by-side on my hand.

Sticks and Stones is a clear based polish with several sizes of black and white glitter, fine holographic glitters, and black and white bars.  It has the best application of the four.  Plenty of glitter came out on the brush, so I didn't feel like I had to gob it on to get enough to cover my nail.  I've had this polish for several months, and so far the bars show no signs of curling.

Candeo Sprouse has extra fine holographic particles which make the base look a little cloudy, plus various sizes of black and white hexes, black and white bars, and gorgeous blue holographic hexes.  It applied well, spreading out easily without having to dab.  Unfortunately, it did pool a bit, but that was user error.  I wasn't really sure how much I needed to put on to get enough glitter, so I went a little overboard.  Because of the pooling, there are a few bubbles, but most of the cloudiness you see is from the holographic particles.

Pretty & Polished Valentino has fine, medium, and large black hexes and medium and large white hexes.  If you don't like bar glitters and want a black and white glitter polish, this is the one for you.  I had to dab this one to get enough glitter on the nail and to place them where I wanted them.  Since it required a bit of work, I have some bubbling.  I have decided not to keep this one, but if I had kept it, I would apply two thin coats next time instead of trying to pile it all on in one.

Dollish Polish Putting on the Ritzzz! was the hardest one of the four to apply.  The glitters were extremely shy and refused to come out of the bottle despite storing it upside down for hours before I painted the just one nail.  There was significant pooling and bubbling because I tried really hard to get as much glitter onto the nail as possible.  PotR is a clear based polish with three sizes of black and white hexes.  Like Valentino, PotR also does not contain any bar glitter, but, after the application hassle, I would recommend Valentino over PotR any day.

So, there you have it!  I'm constantly trying to weed out the dupes/near dupes, so I have decided to only keep Sprouse and Sticks 'n Stones.  I feel that the pop of blue makes Sprouse just different enough from the regular black and whites to warrant keeping both.  I probably could've tossed Dollish Polish Something's Up with Jack in with these guys, but I totally forgot!  Check out my swatches of Something's Up with Jack here.

Here's purchasing information for the indies: Cover Band can be purchased at Ninja Polish, and you can follow Ninja Polish on Facebook here.  Candeo can be purchased at their store and Llarowe, and you can follow them on Facebook here.  Pretty & Polished can be purchased at their Etsy store and on Llarowe, and you can follow Chelsea on Facebook here.  Lastly, Dollish Polish can be purchased at her store, on Llarowe, and on Overall Beauty, and you can follow her Facebook here.

Don't forget to enter both Halloween giveaways!  There are tons of amazing prizes to be had!  Check back tomorrow for part two of the Dollish This is Halloween collection.  Have a great night, all!

Do you have a black and white glitter from another maker?  Which of my black and white polishes would you rather have?

FINALLY Comcast Fixed My Shiz!

That only took 7 days.  Literally.  So now I can be an invalid in the comfort of my own home.  I swear, I just can't kick whatever this crud is.  It's the strangest thing.  My throat isn't sore, and I'm not congested.  I feel like I am walking around in a dream.  My head is almost medicine heady, but I haven't taken anything.  The closest I could come to describing it to my husband was it's like when I get overheated.  It's a little harder to breathe, I feel super weak, and I get light-headed when I stand up / walk around.  It's the strangest f'ing thing.  I'm hoping I can go in to work tomorrow, but I'm not really optimistic.  

Anyway, onto today's manicure.  This will be Untried August mani number 9.  Since I'm working hard to thin my stash, I'm going through polishes I think I may not like very much or that may be close enough to another polish that I won't need both.  You may be asking, well, Julie, why in the world did you buy something you don't like or that you already have?  Yeah.  Beats me.

(Source)

Yeah, I don't get it either, Sami...

Today's mani uses 3 polishes that I have dupes / similars of that I already like.  I have for your viewing pleasure Color Club Metamorphosis from this summer's Take Wing collection, Revlon Royal from like all the time, and Candeo Divebomb.

They're pretty, but I've seen better...

Like the other polishes in the Take Wing collection, Metamorphosis was on the thinner side and had dragging and balding galore.  This is three coats.  I love the flash of purple/blue in the bottle of Metamorphosis, but as you can see, it does not translate well onto the nail.  Revlon Royal, however, applied really well and probably could've used just one coat, but I did two just in case.  I went a tad too think, though, so I got some bubbling.  Ugh.  Another awesome thing about Royal - it doesn't stain your nails or cuticles when taking it off.  That's a huuuuge bonus in my book!  It has a gorgeous squishy texture that just begs to be squeezed.  Although, you'd probably be disappointed if you did squeeze it since it's just polish on a nail.  Not really squeezy friendly.

Mani skeleton

I then applied Candeo Divebomb, which is a clear base filled with different sized teal, blue, copper, and larger brown glitters.  It showed up much better on Royal since Divebomb is chock full of teals that were sort of drowned out on Metamorphosis.

Pretty, eh?

How about this closeup?

Excuse the bubbles and errant glitter on my cuticle.

You can really see the holo goodness of the fine teal and blue glitters in this blurry shot.  It's really very pretty.

It's not about the ba-bling ba-bling.  Right???  Oh, it is?!  Ooops...

But, to be honest, I already have a few polishes with similar color schemes that I just like better.  Such as, Rainbow Honey Koi Pond and Crows Toes Absolum, they are both in the same blue/teal darker glitter family as Divebomb, but I'm just not that into browns.  While Royal is a nice and squishy royal blue, I have Elevation Pic de Sotllo that I like so much better.  It's easier to apply, has an amazing texture, and is so pigmented that it is just breathtaking.  As for Metamorphosis, I have Zoya Zuza that is a very similar teal, but it applies so much better - just 1 coat versus the 3 for Metamorphosis.  That being said, I have decided to add all three to my sale page.  If you're interested in purchasing any of these three polishes, head on over!

Oh, and can I just say, every time I hear or use the term "such as" all I can think about is that poor child from South Carolina in her Miss Teen pageant answer...

Seriously, genius!

(Source)

And because I love you guys...  I am planning to do a giveaway once we hit 25 GFC / email followers!!!!  :D  I'm still holding on to the Dollish / OPI / Essie giveaway for 50 followers, but I thought I would reward those of you who have been with me since day one.  :)  So, without further ado...

I present to you the Color Club Starry Temptress collection from Ross!

From left: Covered in Diamonds (not the right collection, lolRoss); Space Case; Ultra Astral; Wink, Wink, Twinkle; You Got Soul-ar; Otherworldly; and what I can assume is a top coat.

The giveaway will go live once I hit 25 followers, so please share my blog with your friends and readers!  I also now have a Facebook page that I would love for you guys to follow, plus my twitter.



Do you buy polishes you don't like just because of the hype?  Do you have a type of polish that you tend to buy all the time just to realize after you get home that you have 5 or more already just like it?