Hololoooooove!

I'm writing this post in the comfort of my pj's and all bundled up in covers.  Alas, I'm sick.  Again.  I'm not sure why I haven't gotten used to this by now as it is an every day norm for me these days.  Still saving up for my surgery, so working my butt off with all of my jobs.  It never gets old...  Although, I now wish I would've invested in one of these instead of my legal education, lol!  Click the link.  Go on.  I'll wait.  Ok, now that we all feel a little bad for ourselves, let's take a look at one of the manis that made me super happy to see again while going through my old photos.  Yes, I'm still going naked for Naked November and still going a little stir crazy because of it!  Tonight's post is Color Club Cloud Nine with an accent nail of Lynnderella Ghost of a Chance.  The proper review will be on Cloud Nine, and I'll talk a little bit about Ghost of a Chance in the Overall Thoughts section.  Ready?  Ok, get your polarized glasses on, these pics are a bit blinding.

*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: Lilac linear holo that leans pink in some lights and purple in others.

Finish: Holographic – pigment gives polish a rainbow in the sunshine.

Bottle / Brush: Color Club – square bottle is not too hard to hold.  The wand length and brush are average.  Easy application.

Opacity: High – opaque at two coats.

Glitter Application: N/A

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

Overall Ease of Application: Hard – applies with some dragging and balding.  Spreads well with manipulation.  Requires quick work to get a smooth result.  Unlike most holos, the Color Club Halo Hues don't need an aqua base to go on smoothly.  They do, however, require quick application and a little extra time to dry between coats to ensure a smooth finish without dragging.

Stampability: Not tested for stamping, but I'm hoping to play around with some holographic stamping soon!

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

Overall Thoughts: Look at how gorgeous Cloud Nine is.  I mean, wow.  This is in my old lighting setup with less direct sunlight and more artificial lighting, and it's still blindingly holographic, despite the lackluster lighting setup.  This means that it's still very holographic in most lights, which makes this bad boy suuuuuuper awesome.  Application was relatively easy, too, so that's a huge plus in my book.  So many holos are a pain in the butt to apply, so this was a nice change of pace.  Lynnderella Ghost of a Chance is a glitter topper with a cloudy shimmer base with tiny iridescent glitters, white hexes and squares, yellow, lavender, pastel green, and baby blue hexes, and light pink hearts.  The milky base dulled the holo, but I still really liked the effect it had as an accent nail.  The glitters came out of the bottle very easily and spread nice and evenly on the nail without clumping.  I need to wear this for real sometime, but I'm not sure exactly what color I'd wear as undies.  Overall, I really liked the daintiness of this mani.  As my friend Sara from Born for a Storm would say, it's dainty as f^@$.  I think that sums this mani up nicely.


I purchased my Color Club Halo Hues on Amazon.  You can purchase Lynnderellas at their store here.  Follow their fan-run Facebook, Twitter, and IG pages.

*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.*

Before & After: Rocky Horror Vampire

Hello!!

Today's theme in the Lacquer Dreams Halloween Challenge is Horror Movies! And I've decided on a manicure that revolves around the move Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Okay, I hear you. You aren't quite sure if this qualifies as a 'Horror Movie'. I see where you're coming from...I can undertand your hesitation. Let's work through this together.

1) It is as much a fixture of Halloween as any other Horror movie.
2) Some of the acting and writing is deliciously Horrific.
3) It's a deconstruction of the Horror genre which takes into account the social norms upon which many horror movies play, and flouts them in a way that is so intelligent it fools you into thinking it's just silly and possible inane at times.
4)  Hey, the word 'Horror' is right in the title! ;-)

There have I convinced you? Or do I have to send Frankenfurter after your husband? Still no? Then all I can say is, Dammit (Janet), just lean back and enjoy the mani!!

I started out with a base of Color Club Berry And Bright, a wonderfully confusing color that is neither fully red nor fully not red--oh, how appropriate:

Color Club Berry & Bright, 2 coats, indirect sunlight

Then I stamped on it first with Bundle Monster 323 and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes (and Konad black on the accent nail); then I stamped with HD01 to add on the vampire mouth:

I forgot to moisturize before I took the shots, so my apologies if the cuticles are a little gnarly. Wait a minute--that's very UN-Rocky Horror, to apologize like that!!! I take it all back!!!!

Hope you enjoyed it...I'm off to do the Time Warp again...

Hugs and lots of toast,
M.

My favorite Halloween polishes: Part 1!

Hello!


Ah, the colors of Halloween. Sure, fall colors are acceptable for Halloween, but the canonical hues that we all love are different, special and fun. Today I'm going to present you with the first half of my favorite Halloween polishes, the ones I've tried that I believe are the best for festively celebrating the season, whether you like to wear a single color or nail art. When I went through and picked out my favorites, I realized there were many more than I'd thought there were, so I'm going to show you 8 today and 8 tomorrow. :)

Let's start with the building blocks!

My vote for awesomest Halloween Orange: Misa Um You're Too Delicious

Misa Um You're Too Delicious, 2 coats, artificial light

Bright. Bold. Saturated orange with a hint of red. Perfect for pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, and as a base for all of your holiday madness.


Most slime-a-licous green: China Glaze Def Defying

China Glaze Def Defying, indirect sunlight

This is also bright and fun, but it has just that bit of edge to it, the one that makes it suitable for puss or slug slime or zombie drippings. Love it.


Most spooktacular purple: Zoya Keiko

Zoya Keiko, 2 coats, artificial light

The perfect complement to Def Defying and Um You're Too Delicious. Orange and green and purple, oh my!!! Particularly for manicures that are kid-friendly or more on the fun (vs. scary) end of the scale, these three colors are ideal.


Most bruise-tastic polish: Finger Paints Plum Startled

Finger Paints Plum Startled, 2 coats, indirect sunlight

Oh yeah, now we're headed into darker territory. Let's say tonight you're going to an adult Halloween party or haunt, where things are a little spookier and the decorations are a little scarier. For this, you need something with a little more bite. Plum Startled has bite--and looks like the bruise left behind where it bit you. Perfect for graveyards, night skies, and things that go bump in the night.


Bloodiest polish (base polish edition): Orly Grave Mistake

Orly Grave Mistake, 2 coats, indirect sunlight

What is Halloween without blood? And not just any red will do. It can't be too orange-based, or too bright. It has to look thick and fresh to be truly terrifying--and Grave Mistake will do just that for you. :)


Most disgustingly zombielicious polish: China Glaze It's Alive!

China Glaze It's Alive!, 2 coats, artificial light

I return to this polish again and again, both as a base and for nail art purposes. It's delectably chunky, like bits of zombie flesh festering and molding--but it still applies beautifully and layers well. Practically makes you look like body parts are gonna start dropping off at any minute! But If you prefer something that is a little less glittery, try Zombie Zest--it will also fill your undead nail needs.


Most amazing Halloween duochrome: Color Club Portfolio

Color Club Portfolio, 2 coats, indirect sunlight

With a Herculean-strength shift from purple to green, this polish captures two of your requisite Halloween colors and lets them slip and slide through one another. Throw a little nail art on it if you can bear to cover it, and you'll be the envy of all the gals and ghouls at that Halloween party. I personally think this would be an amazing polish to wear with a witch costume. :)


Most Vampire Vamp: InDecisive Sparkly Vampire

InDecisive Nail Lacquer Sparkly Vampire, direct sunlight

Let's admit it. Halloween is also a time to be a bit vampy, a bit sexy-with-a-kick. Whether you're dressing as a vampire, a queen, a witch, a sorceress, or Little Red Riding Hood, this polish will amp up your look in the best possible way. And of course it's the perfect base for any red-based Halloween nail art that strikes your fancy. Go ahead. You know you want to rock that look.

That's it for now, but stayed tuned for part two, which will feature lots and lots of specialty polishes for your Halloween evil, twisted nail wardrobe...muah hah haaaahhhh...

Hugs and love,
M.

Before & After: Sparkly flower dotticure fail...

Hello!!

I'm starting a new challenge today, and while I don't think I'll be able to do every single day, I'm going to try my best. So in that spirit, I present you with Crumpet Nail Tart's 33 Day Challenge! Yes, 33 days! Why? Because 31 days is not enough to contain a Crumpet Nail Tart!

Today we kick off the challenge with dots. The start date snuck up on me, so I'm pulling one out of the vault, and I apologize up-front that it was done back when my cuticles were...struggling. :(

I started with a base of Ruby White Tips The Sword, a sparkly lilac scattered holo:

I am on a continuing journey to perfect my use of dotting tools to accent the center of flowers...this seems like a simple thing, but I always manage to mess it up someway, with the wrong color, etc. For this attempt, I stamped using Pueen 19, with Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime. Then I used my dotting tools to create the centers of the flowers with Sally Hansen Lively Lilac on three of the nails (which I like), and Color Club In Theory (which I don't):

While I don't like how the dots worked out on the ring finger, I do like how the orange picks up the sparkle in the holo. :)

I wasn't sure if I should share this manicure both because of the horrible state of my cuticles, but because I wasn't completely happy with the results. However, back in the day when I started this blog, part of my mission was to show the struggles as well as the wins. So today we have a struggle, lol!

Thanks for taking a look; don't forget to check out the other dotticures below. Hugs, peace, and love,
M.

Dupe Or No Dupe: Color Club The Uptown vs. Nfu-Oh 51

Hello!

I recently showed you my picks from the new Color Club Girl About Town fall 2013 collection (which you can see here) and I mentioned that The Uptown reminded me a bit of Nfu-Oh 51...so of course I had to do a Dupe Or No Dupe to see just how close they are. :)

Here they are in the bottle; seriously now:

Nfu-Oh 51 vs. Color Club The Uptown

Pretty darn similar. The color, the rainbow around the edge, the flakiness...Yeah. But...the true test is how they look on the nail...

On my index and ring fingers I have The Uptown (two coats), and on the middle and pinkie I have 51 (three coats):

Color Club The Uptown vs. Nfu-Oh 51

Okay, so pretty clearly we have a case of NO DUPE. Let's break it down:

• The Uptown has a much higher density of flakies. You could possibly get a dupe of this look with Nfu-Oh, but it would take 5-6 coats, minimum--ain't nobody got time for that. Plus, if you're using them as a topper over another color, you'd completely lose your base color if you put on that many coats.

• The purple seems to be a bit darker (and maybe more blue-based?) in the The Uptown than in 51.

• The look is a more delicate with the Nfu-Oh, so possibly better for glitter sammichs or the like.

• The Uptown covers completely with two coats, but you'd need three for the Nfu-Oh to be fully opaque with no VNL. 

So, you could certainly justify owning both. But there is a possibly more interesting question here, since 51 has been discontinued. Is it worth hunting down one of the few remaining bottles of this flakie? If you prefer the less-dense effect and are willing to pay $12 a bottle for it (or more, since you may have to work to find it now), then, yes. But if you're okay with, or even prefer, the larger density of flakies, you can get The Uptown for about $3.00 through outlets like Head2Toe Beauty. And if you were in love with Nfu-Oh 51 and were depressed about the possibility that you might not be able to get it anymore, well, this is certainly a workable alternative. :)

Thanks for taking a look--hope this was helpful! Hugs and love,

M.

Favorites: Purples! (or, watch how my swatching has changed, lol!)

Hello there!

We're down to the last of my color-based favorites posts--after this I'll turn to my favorite specialty polishes, and possibly my favorite fall, Halloween, and holiday polishes, if people are interested. I can also do a series of my favorite nail art if people are interested in that; just let me know in the comments what interests you. I always prefer to focus my attention on things I know people are interested in! :)

For now, I've saved one of my favorites for last--purple. From magentas to plums to grapes to blurples--who doesn't love a good purple? Interestingly though...As I started going through all of my favorite purples, I realized a lot of them are duochromes, and I was hoping to do a separate post on duochromes. Looks like I might just have to do a post just for purple duochromes!

So let's see what I come up with when I rummage through my bag of pretty non-duochrome polishes...

::rummage, rummage, rummage::

Ah yes! Here we go! Let's start with something on the soft side...

China Glaze Tantalize

Soft and feminine, a rich lilac with an icy blue shimmer. I have no idea what one would wear to have tea with the Queen of England, but I think this color might just work.

Enough of that soft stuff...let's go to the dark side!!!


Color Club Glitter Wonderland

Strangely misnamed, this polish doesn't have glitter in it; it has a fleck finish. And, to top it off, my best pictures of it, in retrospect, suck. Probably because the bottle is in focus and the polish isn't--how that made it through, I just don't know. Ah well--live and learn...and along the way, wear this polish, 'cause blurple in a flecked finish doesn't get better than this.

Grrr...focus fail...

Color Club Winter Affair

I hope you like this polish, because you'll probably be seeing it again if I do a 'favorite holiday polishes' post. This is a rich burnished plum polish with a fleck finish...and again, I can only find out-of-focus pictures of it. Looks like I'll be swatching it again...But in the meantime, you get the gist, I hope.

Focus FTW!

Zoya Carly

Okay, this post is quickly turning into an extremely humbling journey through some of my worst early swatches. This one's in focus, but the clean-up is atrocious--clearly this was before I discovered acetone and a nail brush. ::shudders::

If there is such a thing as a reurple (red+purple), this is it. Okay, it's more like a magenta+grape sort of purple, but I like that coinage and I'm going to stand by it. No matter what you call it, though, you have to agree that the rich flashes of color here are beautiful.

Clean-up needed on aisle one...

Zoya Lotus

One of my favorites of the favorites, this is a smoky, deep lavender with red-purple flecks in it. This polish has amazing depth and beautiful flashes of light. It truly is a work of art.

Fergie by Wet n Wild Ferguson Crest Syrah

Horrible name, beautiful polish. This is a bit of a cheat on my part, because this really is a subtle duochrome, that shows gold and brown at the edges in certain lights. But, in most lights, it doesn't, so I'm going to include it here. The thing is, the duochrome that peeks out now and then is like finding a $20 bill on the sidewalk while walking to pick up the $1000 prize you just won--it's awesome, but you didn't have to have it to make it a really good day. This polish is, in essence, a blackened plum--but with a fleck finish that keeps the colors dancing through one another from all angles. That this comes from Wet n Wild just goes to show that you don't have to pay a ton of money to get a stunning polish.

Was this tip wear or Seche shrinkage? Either way...>.<

a-England Avalon

Do I even need to say anything about this polish? Is there anything that can be said about how amazing it is that hasn't already been said? This shows exactly why purple is the color of royalty--a luxurious blurple in a smooth-as-satin finish that just envelopes the nail in muted light. Even in my less-than-skilled swatch, the stunning beauty of this shines through.

Clean-up, aisle two...

Windestine Heartbeat

Last but not least, a stunning beauty of a polish (and the swatch doesn't make me twitch all over when I look at it!). Including this polish in this post also might be considered a bit of a cheat, since I'm going to do separate posts on my favorite glitter polishes. But this glitter is so tiny and fine, I think it can easily fall into more of a fleck-type category, and darn it, I'm sticking with that.  The base color of this polish, a deep, sugary plum, is set alight with magenta purple glitter...it's pretty here, but so much more stunning in person. If you think you might like it from the pictures, go get it, because I guarantee you, you will gasp when you see it IRL.

Finally...a decent swatch

And, that's it...for now. I have a swatch spam post that I'll be showing you in the next few days that I realized, completely coincidentally, contains almost all purple polishes, several of which would have certainly been included in this post if they weren't already ear-marked. So there is more purple hovering on the horizon.

Thanks for taking a look--and thanks for your patience with my old, yucky swatches! This post has truly made me want to go back and completely reswatch every post from my first year blogging, lol!! If only I had infinite time...

Hugs and loves,
M.

Review: My picks from the Color Club Girl About Town fall collection

(All products in this review were purchased with my own money.)

Hello!

The fall collections are rolling in, with gorgeous, deep, rich, gemstone colors all around me. You know I love my fall and winter colors, so you know I'm starting to drool over collection after collection. Ah, to be independently wealthy...sigh...

The first one I dipped into is the Color Club Girl About Town collection, their fall 2013 offering. Three of the colors were a bit confusing to me for a fall collection--they had a decided summer feel to me--but three of them were warm and fuzzily fall, so I snapped them up. :)

First up is Pearl District, a burnished gold shimmer/metallic; here it is with two coats:

Color Club Pearl District, direct sunlight

I don't normally wear gold polishes. I use them as accents in nail art and the like, but rarely wear them directly on their own, or even as a base polish. I'm not sure why this is; I think most golds are just too flashy for me by themselves. While this polish isn't likely to be one of my favorites any time soon, it is a warm enough gold that I can see myself being comfortable wearing it and feeling luxurious rather than flashy. The formula was great--it went on smooth, wasn't too brushstrokey for a metallic polish.


Next up is Williamsburg, a dark blueberry with shimmering micro-flakes inside:

Color Club Williamsburg, indirect sunlight

Color Club Williamsburg, direct sunlight

This is two coats of Williamsburg. I want to really love this, but I have to admit I stop just short of loving it. In some lights, it just looks like a deep inky blue; there's nothing wrong with that, but what makes this polish unique is the microflakes that make the polish look like it's shining from the inside. And when it's in lights where the flakes come out, it's gorgeous. The formula on this was again excellent--and as I think about it, I can't remember ever getting a Color Club polish that had a bad formula.


Finally I have the polish I was most excited about: The Uptown. This is a purple jelly polish with a multi-color flake in it. As you know, I'm crazy 'bout a flakie, so I couldn't resist it. When I first got it in my hot little hands, it made me instantly think of Nfu-Oh 51, and I'll do a comparison post for you within the next few days. In the meantime, I layered it over the other two polishes for your viewing pleasure. Here it is first with one coat over Pearl District:

Well there's your fall in a bottle, right there. I didn't expect this to look good over gold--I just threw it on as an experiment--and love was fallen into. The gold shines through the purple jelly, and this looks like some soft, fluffy pile of fall leaves, waiting for you to jump right in. 

Not surprisingly, it takes on a completely different look over Williamsburg: 

Wow. This is just...wow, wow, wow. The flakes...they shine! The flakes...they glow! The flakes...they have stolen my heart!

Yes, this really is only one coat. The polish is packed with flakies, and they go on evenly without effort. If you're a flaky lover--this is for you.

So there you have the three polishes that called to me from the Girl About Town collection...and stay tuned for the comparison of The Uptown vs. Nfu-Oh 51! :)

Hugs and loves,
M.