Avon Cosmic Collection Swatches & Review

One brand of polish I always forget about because it's not on stores' shelves is Avon. They have some fantastic nail enamels though, and tonight I'm showing you most of their Cosmic line, which features fantastic holographic polishes!

Holographic polishes, for those of you who may not know, are peppered with a fine holographic dust, which causes them to reflect tiny rainbows in light, and especially sunlight.

For that reason, I've taken all of these swatches in the sunlight, so you'll see that discrepancy from my normal photos.

The colors Avon gave me for review came in a gorgeous rainbow, and I thought they'd be perfect as a rainbow gradient across all five nails on one hand. The result is breathtaking!

The transition is subtle on the nails, but I love how perfectly they blended together! I can't decide if my index or middle finger is best. Which is your favorite?

These polishes were all fantastic! Almost all of them only required two coats for perfect opacity! The only one that didn't was Celestial.

Read on for all the swatches and reviews.



The first polish is called, appropriately, Eclipse. This dark navy, almost black holographic color is totally unique! In the bottle it's nothing fancy, but it really comes to life on your nails.

Next is Aurora, a purple-magenta polish. It's not quite a lilac, but also not a jewel color. Somewhere in the middle of those. I used this one, along with Eclipse for my thumb in the gradient.

Starburst is one of my favorites because it's such a rich and vibrant pink. Add the holographic dust glitter to it and it really does burst! It's blended with Aurora on my index finger in the gradient.

My other favorite is Super Nova. In addition to it being flawless,  it makes me want to yell "zetus lapetus" and go crazy over Proto Zoa. Zenon's my jam.

The warm colors of the Cosmic collection continue to be perfect with Saturn, this awesome orange! Why didn't I pull this out for a Halloween look?!

Starlight looks almost gold here, but it's actually almost a green! When I was putting together the colors for the gradient, I couldn't decide where to put this initially, because I kept trying to make it a green, when it's really a sort of green-gold-yellow. I feel like some people will hate this, but I'm a huge fan!

Radiant is another confusing color, but wow it's pretty! It's more of a muted gold, with definite hints of green. And when I say muted, I don't mean that it's any less holographic!

This is Celestial, the one color that I needed to use 3 coats on. It's thinner, but it still applies really well. It's almost like a misty color to me.

Finally, there's Galaxy, which is a rich turquoise blue.

There's one additional color in the collection, called Moonbeam, but I didn't get that for review. You can see Jen the PolishAholic's image of it though from her review post.

I loved these holographic polishes and I love the price they're available at even more! Right now, they're on sale through the Avon website for $3.95 each!

Have you tried holographic polishes before or is this the first you've heard of them?

These products were sent to me by Avon. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

Tribal Beach Gradient

A little afternoon delight for you. Not too long, not too short.

Tonight, I'll be attending my FIRST EVER nail networking event. Actually, it's really my first nail-related event ever. When you don't live on the coasts, you're not exposed to as much, so events aren't as common. Luckily, a reader told me about this event on Twitter a while ago, and tonight's the night!

In attendance will be nail techs and students from the area interested in networking about all things nails. Sponsors for the event include Elegant Glass, Famous Names, Frenchies Modern Nail Care, and Nail Talk Radio. 

If you're going, you can find me by looking for these nails!

The colors for the gradient are both OPI - Where's My Czechbook? and My Vampire is Buff.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

If you didn't know, my store is having a sale right now, and since I'm a dumb dumb that doesn't understand that technology stuff, the fixed code will be up until midnight tomorrow night.  All orders will receive 13% off with the promo code "Halloween" - so click here to order!  Also, there are only a few more hours to get your donations in to I Need a Lighthouse (or you can send them to me via paypal if you'd rather).  More information on that is located here, here, and here.

Ok, we won't be doing a Comparison Thursday today since it's Halloween, which is my FAVORITE holiday of the year.  Instead, I'm going to show you some of the Halloween looks I've been rocking this month.  Bear with me as these photos were taken with my iPhone and might not be the best quality coupled with the fact that my nails are a right mess. Without further ado, and in no particular order, my Halloween manis!

**All polishes were purchased by me.**

Lynnderella Are You a Good Witch over Rescue Beauty Lounge Piu Mosso.

Witch is a clear based polish with a blue shimmer and glitters in all sorts of shapes and sizes but that focus more on the darker side of the spectrum.  Part 1 of the Lynnderella Halloween inspired Twin Set.  Piu Mosso is a deep navy creme with a strong copper shimmer.  

Lynnderella Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun over Wet 'n Wild Fantasy Makers Darkest Hour, Once Upon a Time, and Ghouls Rush In.

Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun is a clear based polish with a pink to blue shimmer and multicolored glitters.  Part 2 of the Lynnderella Halloween inspired Twin Set.  Darkest Hour is a plain black creme.  Once Upon a Time is a silver foil.  Ghouls Rust In is a really nice bright orange jelly.  

Lynnderella Gotta Love Brains with Illamasqua Raindrops.

Raindrops is a grey based polish with silver-grey flakies.  Gotta Love Brains is a pale grey base with a pink shimmer and hexes and squares in silver, purple, pink, and blue.  This is two coats of Raindrops and three coats of GLB without undies.  I wasn't sure how I'd like either of these, but this may be my favorite non-art mani this year.

Lynnderella All Hallows Eve over Elevation Torres del Paine.

All Hallows Eve is a green polish with various shades and sizes of green and black glitters.  Torres del Paine is an amazingly luscious green creme that is opaque in one coat.  Flawless application!  I took it to the next level by using NYC Matte me Crazy.

Orange Gradient

I used 5 different polishes following this technique to get this look.  I was absolutely IN LOVE with this mani.  It's just sooo pretty.  I used (from cuticle to free-edge): Elevation Matsuda, Deborah Lippmann Footloose, China Glaze Riveting, Elevation Sarychev, and Elevation SBP Llulluillaco.

Candy Corn Holo Gradient

I used the same technique as the one above for the gradient (from cuticle to free-edge): Model City Polish Corn Maze, OPI Coral Reef, and Indigo Bananas Do You Have a Flag?  I then stamped on my accents with Konad Special Black using my new Bundle Monster Holiday plates (BM-H07, BM-H06).

So, if you celebrate it, what did you do for Halloween?  If not, what was your Thursday mani?  I'll be doing something a bit different next month, so check back tomorrow for that.  Also, please be aware that the Depression Awareness Giveaway will take time to verify as I will be awaiting the information from the charity, so please be patient as I get all of the verification information in.

**All polishes purchased by me.**

NOTD: Les Elephants

Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike! What day is it?

It's the day that Michelle manages to post not TWO, but THREE challenges on time!

That's right, earlier I got in my Mish Mash challenge post, and this post covers two challenges. The theme in my CNT's 33 Day Challenge is 'your most used color'. Mine is definitely red, especially in real life--I try not to deluge the blog in red, but it is mah signature color. In my Llama Nails 'Inspired By An Artist' challenge, today's artist is Dali.

I had a manicure planned for Dali that was more along the lines of 'inpired by' and not so much 'copy of', but I have been encouraged by a fellow blogger to practice my drawing, so I decided to do another attempt at a nail version of a painting. I hope to do the other manicure tomorrow, so stayed tuned for that (possibly).

For now, I looked through some Dali paintings to find one that had red as the predominant color. Here is the one I found and liked, although I was (and am) scared of copying it on nails:

(Source) 

This was a bit scary for me because to put the two loooong elephants on my index and pinkie was clearly going to be difficult; well, at least with the pinkie. Another challenge is I don't really have a brush small enough to get that teeeeny detail in--I need to invest in a better brush set, clearly. But, it's not a challenge if it doesn't challenge you, so I decided to go for it.

I took some artistic license by omitting the obelisks from the elephant's backs--it was either the legs or the obelisks, and I like the surreality of the long skeletal spider legs. I also decided to drop off the bottom of the horizon, and just focus on the colors of the sky, again so I could try to do the elephants themselves justice. You'll see what I mean.

I started with a gradient of China Glaze Igniting Love and Sun Worshipper; I first painted the Sun Worshipper on the bottom of the nail, and then sponged the gradient over it roughly, to get the sorts of lines you see in the painting. Then I busted out the acrylics, got frustrated with my brush, and ended up practicing not only my drawing skills but the fine art of paint mixing, since I only had one tube of white and one tube of grey-brown to make this work (I apparently also need to invest in a larger acrylics set now that I'm doing this more, lol).

Here is the result:

How can you tell when an elephant has been in your refrigerator?

Footprints in the butter. :)

If you look past the fact that one of the elephants looks like a wolf that's been in a nuclear reactor meltdown, I think it's not too bad. And the other one mostly looks like an elephant, except for the fact that I ran out of room for it's face. Turns out that it's much easier to have your elephant come out looking like an elephant and not a Chernobyl wolf if you don't have to worry too much about the face.

Anyway, I'll tell you this--trying to paint these was certainly a surreal experience for me.  Hahahahahahhahahahahaaa. Well, at least I crack myself up.

Don't forget to check out the other 'most used color' manis and the other Dali-esque manis, linked below!

Peace, hugs, and love,
M.

Before & After: Inspired by Monet

Hello!

First of all, OMG, my blog threw up on itself, and a bunch of posts got released that I hadn't intended! I saved them on the wrong date, and my apologies if you got a bunch of 'page not founds'. It was not a pretty thing. ::shudders::

Second, on to the real post for today! This week our theme in my Llama Nails 'Inspired By An Artist' challenge was 'Inspired by Monet'.

This is the big one for me--Monet is my favorite Impressionist, and Impressionism is my favorite type of art, so I guess by the transitive property, that makes Monet my favorite artist. Not that there aren't a bunch of other one giving him quite a run for his money...but he'll always have a special place in my heart. Which makes this one again fun but intimidating. :)

Here is the work I used as my Inspiration, Monet's Saint-George Majeur au crepuscule (San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk):

(Source)

I went on and on about Impressionism in my Degas post, so all I'll say here is that Impressionism is often about playing with lighting effects. And I figured, what's the most awesome way that nail artists play with lighting effects? Holos, of course!

So, I started out by doing a gradient to capture the sunset rainbow of the painting. I used two holos for the blue and green (Mentaliy Seduce, a Cerulean blue I showed you yesterday; Mentality Charm, a medium moss green holo); for the yellow-orange I used China Glaze Sun Worshipper (a neon), and for the red I used China Glaze Snap My Dragon. I did a very coarse gradient, didn't smooth it too much so it would look like little brush strokes where the color started to blend into each other. Finally, I busted out the acrylic paints, and painted the church in shades of red-blue-purple:

Ah, Venice...

I love the way the holo looks like sunlight reflecting off the sky and water, as it would in an actual sunset, and I love the stippled effect that aaaallllmost looks like it could be brushstrokes. I'm not sure if Monsieur Monet would like it, but I think he'd give me a quick, tiny approving nod for attempting to use my media to mimic the effects in the painting. :)

Thanks for taking a look! I'm also going to link below a post I did a while back that was done in the style of Monet; that manicure was one of the reasons I was so excited to do this particular challenge. :)

Big hugs and much love!
M.

Polished Pairings: Subtle Sparkle

(All products in this post were purchased by me.)

Hello!!

Eeek! Another post that got away from me!

I'll make this quick...because this is a very quick manicure if you're looking for some fun, fast sparkle for these last glorious days of summer. I've had some requests for fast, easy nail polish, so I'll be trying to do a series of polished pairings that target this. :)

For this manicure, I started with a base of Color Club Abyss, from the Kaleidoscope collection; it's a surreal sky blue creme, and this is two coats:

Color Club Abyss, indirect sunlight

Color Club Abyss, direct sunlight, horrible cuticles

Next I did a fast and easy gradient from the cuticle down with Wet n Wild Fergie's Mermaid curves; I topped it off with two half-pearls on the accent nail:

And there you go! Quick as can be, with a pretty, girly sparkle for any occasion. :)

Big hugs!
M.

Global Gradient pt. 2

Last year around this time, I posted a gradient of the nails I did for the Global Dance festival. This raver's fantasy is all about EDM and lights and good times. The ensembles are always bright and colorful, so my nails had to match.

I chose to do a gradient, which is super subtle in the shot I got, of Lollipop! Goes the Princess (Sation) and Purity (Zoya). The white is near the cuticle, and the pastel lavender is near the tip. Like I said, really really subtle! I think outlined with a triangle cutout of Sun of a Peach (China Glaze). The rhinestone accent is from my Born Pretty Store rhinestone wheel (reviewed here).

It matched my shirt, and as you can see in this blurry pic I snapped, glowed amazingly in black light!

Fashion Polish: Zoya Stunning and Irresistible Skittles!

Image via Fashion Polish

Zoya Skittles Manicure

How yummy does this manicure look? Fashion Polish shows us how to make a simply  
sweet Skittles gradient mani using Zoya Nail Polish Stunning Collection and Zoya Nail Polish Irresistible Collection.

"I applied a very small drop of polish near my cuticles, completely wiped off the brush and then gently dragged the polish, brushing it down irregularly and linearly." 

See all of the Zoya colors used by Fashion Polish on her blog here.

ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION!
www.zoya.com

ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION!
www.zoya.com

Before & After: Atomic Vernita Pines Shade

Hello!

This week's theme in my Hobby Polish Blogger's group is 'Gradient'. I actually did this back before my nubbins, and I wanted to try out something a little different by having the lighter color at the tip. Not too different for other people, I know, but I tend to put my darker colors at the tip for some reason. So this is a little mini-stretch for me. :)

I started with a base of Ruby White Tips Vernita Green, a pretty olive green polish with a scatter of holographic glitter, and a few bar glitters, in it:

Ruby White Tips Vernita Green, indirect sunlight

To make my gradient, I used another Ruby White Tips polish, Lonesome Pine Trails, which is a softer, more avocado color, and Misa Got It Made In The Shade right at the tips for a really light look. Finally, I finished the whole thing off with a coat of Orly Atomic Splash, which for some reason looks more purple than gunmetal against this gradient, and I like it!

 I do like the lighter tips; I was afraid it would look too French-manicure-y, but I think it has a soft, subtle shift that reads like a gradient still. I do also love the way these colors look together, although it's so weird that the glitter looks so different on this! That's okay, I take whatever happy accidents I can get, because honestly this is so much prettier than a regular gunmetal glitter would have been. And you can't see it too well here (you can if you look closely), but the holographic glitter still shines through with a little flash of bling. :)

Hope you all are having a great day, even though it's monday! And you can find more awesome gradient manis linked below. :)

(PS: I hope to be back later today with the results of the make-your-own polish remover later today!)

Hugs and love,
M.

On Beauty High: Crosshatched Tutorial

Stop by Beauty High today to see another neato tutorial for some sweet geometric nails in my guest post, Awesome Nail Art Idea: The Crosshatched Manicure!

The colors I used are both subtle, so the gradient itself is subtle, but you can punch it up to any mix you prefer. Don't limit yourself to just two colors either if you don't mind the cleanup. I decided to use Blu (Zoya) and Something Sweet (China Glaze).

Painting the straight black lines was really simple too. I recreated it on my right hand, no problem.

The full tutorial is available on Beauty High here, and I'll be teamed up one more time for Manicure Month this July with Beauty High, so keep an eye out for more! 

Review: InDecisive Nail Lacquer (Ichor, Ichor my nails...)

Hello!

I'm back with 4 more polishes from InDecisive Nail Lacquer, and I promised you something interesting today...and so I bring you InDecisive's Ichor line, sent to me for review.

Why are the Ichor polishes 'interesting'? They're temperature-sensitive...in a very cool way (no pun intended). You're possibly saying to yourself, as I did the first time I saw one of these, 'Isn't that just a fancy way of saying 'color-changing polishes?'. Well, technically yes, but in reality, no, they are absolutely not.

Ichor polishes are different for two reasons. First, the polishes change not from one color to another color, which makes a polish only a one-trick pony; rather, they change from clear to their target color, so you can put whatever color you like as your base color--and this means an extremely versatile polish with lots and lots of possibilities. Second, it's temperature that makes the color change, in a very particular kind of way...sure, if you're in a warm room, or outside in warm sun, the polish will be clear, and if you're in a cold room, or outside when it's cold, the polish will turn to its target color. The magic is where the switch happens--at body temperature (86 degrees, to be precise). What this means is that in medium temperatures, the polish will be clear on most of your nail, and colored at the tips. So, your undie color shows in cold temps, Ichor color shows in warm temps, and in moderate temps, you get a French manicure with the combination of the two colors.

That, in my opinion, is brilliant. And incredibly fun.

Aleksandra's original Ichor goes from clear to black. She has added three additional colors to her line: Blue, Red, and Purple, each shifting from clear to the target color. On her website, she shows you each of these polishes over naked nails so you can see the color shift; you can check these pictures out by clicking here. This freed me up to have some fun and play around with color combos, and that's just what I did!

Let's start with the original Ichor, which switches from clear to black; I put it over China Glaze Tart-y For The Party, a springy lavender purple:

Ichor Black over China Glaze Tart-y For The Party

In the second picture, the wind started to come up as I was taking the pictures in my backyard, an you can see how the gradient began to move higher up my nail. That was one of the things I loved best about these polishes--the type of the gradient I'd get changed with things like the wind, and it was so much fun to watch. I wore blue Ichor to an outdoor event, and got about 6 different effects over the course of the afternoon depending on the temperature, wind, etc. :)

Aleksandra suggests that you put two coats of Ichor over your base color, and recommends that you use cremes rather than shimmers, because Ichor dries a bit like a rubber-finish matte polish (my words, not hers), and she suggests you finish it with topcoat for the same reason. I actually love the matte finish it gives, and show it below. Also, I think that as long as you know it's going to have that slightly cloudy effect on the polish below it, you can do some fun things with shimmer and glitters, and I'm looking forward to playing around with that. But you should be aware of that when picking your base color, and factor it in accordingly. In all of my pictures I have two coats of Ichor over my base polish, as suggested.

One last point about original Ichor. As you can see above, in some temperatures, the pigment in the polish gives a flecked effect; this varies a bit from batch to batch. I love the dimension it gives to the gradient when it does show. :)

For the blue version of Ichor, I used Revlon Cloud as my underwear; Cloud is a very light blue with purple tones:

InDecisive Ichor Blu over Revlon Cloud

Seriously, how pretty is that! Of course this would look wonderful over white as well, and I can't wait to try it over a pale green. :)


For Ichor Purple, I decided to try something a bit darker underneath, to see how that would come out. Here I have it layered over Julep Sophie, a medium gray:

InDecisive Ichor Purple, over Julep Sophie; with topcoat

Yep, the color shows up even over a darker basecoat. :)

And here it is again, without the topcoat, so you can see how the finish dries on its own:

Outside semi-direct sun

I love rubber-finish mattes, so of course I love the natural finish of these polishes, and I like that you can leave the topcoat off for a different type of look. :)


For the final color, Ichor Red, I had to try something a little daring and fun. I put it over Zoya Arizona, a bright orange creme:

InDecisive Ichor Red over Zoya Arizona; with topcoat

My grandma and your grandma, sittin' by the fire

My grandma said to your grandma, I'm gonna set your flag on fire

Talkin' 'bout hey now! Hey now!

Ichor Ichor my nails!

Jockomo feena ah na nay, jockomo feena nay!

I love love love how this came out. Tell me that last picture doesn't look like some beautiful tropical drink you'd want to sip by the side of the pool or the ocean! Absolutely gorgeous, summery and fun.

And if you'd like your red to be darker, she can make that up for you, just contact her or let her know in your checkout notes that you'd like a darker shade of red. :)

The formula on all of these polishes is excellent, they apply easily and dry quickly. They can be a bit strange to work with because the polish turns clear almost as soon as you put it on, but it changed slowly enough that I didn't have any troubles applying evenly. However, Aleksandra warns that it can be easily to get some of the polish on your cuticles, have it turn clear, and then forget it's there until it turns colors later, so you may want to clean up your cuticles carefully.

All of these are available now in the InDecisive Nail Lacquer shop, which you can reach by clicking here. As with her other polishes, these are three-free, not tested on animals, and thoroughly human tested for months before she releases them.

I'll be back tomorrow with some nail art, and then I'll bring you the last (awwwww...big sad face) InDecisive Nail Lacquer review on Saturday.

Thanks for reading! Big hugs,
M.

(The polishes in this post were sent for my honest review.)