Holiday Week: Mardi Gras!

I'm sorry I've been neglecting you, dear readers!  I've been working over 60 billable hours a week for the past month, which has me passing out early almost every night.  This project is almost over, though, and I suspect that I'll be back to my normal hours soon.  Today's entry for Holiday Week is Mardi Gras!  I wore Nail-Venturous Lacquer Joker over Color Club Glitter Wonderland.

Color: Purple jelly with chartreuse, white, blue, and gold hexes.

Finish: Glitter Jelly – glitter in a colored jelly base.

Bottle / Brush: Round bottle brush (i.e. Seche Vite) – standard width and length.  The cap has a ridge at the bottom, which for me, made it easier to control and manipulate.

Opacity: Medium – achieves opacity at three to four coats.  Although, I wore this as one coat over Color Club Glitter Wonderland.

Glitter Application: Easy – Spreads evenly without much manipulation.

Consistency: Medium – applies easily and doesn’t flood the cuticles.

Overall Ease of Application: Easy – applies well without pooling, dragging, streaking, or balding.  Spreads evenly and smoothly.

Stampability: Not designed for stamping.

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

Overall Thoughts: Holy crap.  I absolutely freaking love this polish.  It makes me so sad that Amy of I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous is no longer making polish, but I do understand the need for a break or to stop when it gets overwhelming or loses its enjoyment-factor.  Joker is extremely pigmented, so it looked great at just one coat over undies.  Plus, the glitters were so easy to get out with the perfect glitter to base ratio that I didn't need to dig or manipulate the glitters.  This is a seriously well made polish, and I'm so glad I found someone selling it.

Unfortunately, you can't purchase Nail-Venturous Lacquers from the source anymore.  You can, however, occasionally find them on blog sales or sales pages.  If you do see them, grab them as quickly as you can and don't look back.

Did you do your nails for Mardi Gras?  If yes, what did you use?

*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.*

Comparison Thursday: Blue, Yellow, & Green Matte Glitters

Today's Comparison Thursday will be short and sweet.  Stupidly, I sat around my house all day long without actually working on this post...  Instead, I swatched my Frankens for tomorrow!  Either way, I should've done this post earlier when I had the time instead of so late.  Ahh, well.  There's not really much to say about these polishes.  All three applied well with the dab method and looked great over Girly Bits Glo Worm.  I present to you for comparison: Nail-Venturous Lacquer Floam, Pretty & Polished Sand Art, and Lac Attack Jewel of the Nile.

All three of these polishes have blue, yellow, and green matte glitters, but Sand Art and Jewel of the Nile both have some pink and purple.  You can't see the pink and purple as well in Jewel of the Nile as you can in Sand Art, though.

Here they are up close and personal.

Floam

Sand Art

Jewel of the Nile

And there you have it!  I adore Floam and am very thankful to the Polish Monster for having it as a prize in a giveaway!  I made the decision to sell Sand Art, but I do really like the way it looks.  Sadly, I just can't justify keeping so many similar polishes.  For that reason, I'm probably going to sell Jewel of the Nile as well.  It'll pop up on my sales page probably Sunday.

You can purchase Girly Bits at her store, Llarowe, Overall Beauty, and Mei Mei's Signatures.  You can purchase Floam at Ninja Polish.  You can purchase Pretty & Polished at her store and Llarowe.  Lastly, you can purchase Lac Attack at her store.

Which of these three do you like best?

Depression Awareness

As I mentioned last week, I have been running around like a crazy lady getting my business set up, so I've had little time to really work on my nails.  I'm glad I have on SOGs right now, otherwise, my nails would be a hot mess!  I had this whole week planned out with green manicures for Depression Awareness, but it looks like I won't be able to wear 5 different manis this week.  I'm going to try really really hard to at least swatch when I can, but I can't promise much.  I have a continuing education class that starts tomorrow and goes through Wednesday.  Then, I have my first real potentially paying client (HOLY YES, FINALLY!) consultation on Friday, so I'm pretty much stuck with boring nails for the next week.  Funnily enough, I actually had to redo my gel French because I didn't do a great job with the Simple Sheer layers.  It's hard to tell you've missed a spot when the polish is clear!  I also toned down the glitter, so now I'm wearing a very subdued mani.  Snooze.  Anyway, let's get on topic!

I have suffered from clinical depression and severe anxiety disorder for pretty much my entire life.  For a very long time, I was so deep in my own hole that I refused to get help.  I made my life, as well as the lives of the people around me, a living hell.  It effected my sleep, my concentration, my ambition, my weight, and my relationships with my husband, friends, and family.  It took plummeting off the deep end last summer to force me to open my eyes and realize that I needed help.  I'm not saying all of this to get sympathy.  However, I know how alienating depression can be.  

You may think you're alone, but you're not.  Depression lies.  If you are suffering from clinical depression, anxiety, another depressive disorder, or suicidal thoughts, please get help.  Friends and family care about you, so go to them!  Getting help does not make you weak or stupid, and your family wants to help you.  Trust me, help works.  I started seeing a therapist and a psychiatrist, and I'm so glad I did.  My depression is so permanent that I will probably be on medication for the rest of my life despite everything I do to try and curb my depressive feelings, but I'm ok with that.  It's a much better alternative than living the way I had been living for so long.  If you'd like to read more about clinical depression and other depressive disorders, please head on over to the National Institute of Mental Health.  You can also always contact me about depression or anxiety.  No one should ever feel alone.

Because October is Depression Awareness Month (as well as Breast Cancer Awareness Month), I had planned to do green manicures all week.  (Green is the color for Depression Awareness.  I'm not really sure why green, but ok.  I'll go with it.)  I've been dying to wear Nail-Venturous Floam ever since I won it in a giveaway from the Polish Monster months ago, but I haven't had the chance until today!  I paired it with Girly Bits Glo Worm, which looked perfect together!  Since it's so close to Halloween, I wanted to spice my mani up with some polishes from the China Glaze Wicked collection, so I chose Glitter Goblin and Ghoulish Glow.

Like all Girly Bits, Glo Worm applied perfectly.  Since I was wearing it over my gel mani, I needed three coats to get complete coverage.  I applied one coat of Floam with the dabbing method and one coat of Glitter Goblin with the dabbing method.  I then topped it all off with one coat of Ghoulish Glow and NYC Fast Dry top coat.

I've mentioned before that I'm a Halloween nut, so I had to add a few nail decals to this mani to help get into the spirit of the season.

Here is one coat of Ghoulish Glow under black light and glowing in the dark.

I really love this mani!  You can get Girly Bits at her store, Llarowe, Overall Beauty, and Mei Mei's Signatures.  You can get the China Glaze Wicked Collection polishes at Sally's Beauty Supply.  Lastly, you can purchase Floam at Ninja Polish, who has purchased either the license or the recipe from Amy at I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous.  Sadly, Amy no longer sells handmade polish, which is a total bummer.

Do you have any Nail-Venturous polishes?