Before & After: Catching Fire

Hello!!

You knew it was coming.

You might remember that this month's theme in my Nail Challenge Collaborative is to do nail art using your favorite color. And, this week the second Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire, is releasing. Red? Fire? Of course it was coming.

So here it is, my Catching Fire mani, with a lovely red base.

I started with Barielle Dinner At 8; I showed you this before when I reviewed the collection so I won't say much other than to sigh over what a gorgeous shade of red it is:

Barielle Dinner At 8

Next I sponged some Dollish Polish I Survived The Fire Swamp (an orange jelly with orange flecks and glitters) about two-thirds of the way up the nail, and brushed some Models Own Golden Shore (an orange-tinted jelly with large yellow shards) over the whole nail; this was to create the look of the flaming cinders that come off of Katniss' dresses (all polishes except the Barielle were purchased with my own money):

Dollish Polish I Survived The Fire Swamp and Models Own Golden Shore over Barielle Dinner At 8

For step three, I stamped with Sally Hansen Orange Lightning using Mash 48, to create orange flames across the bottom of the nails. Next I busted out the acrylic paints to create yellow flames...and finally, I took one of those flames on the accent nail and tried to create something that looked like a flame coming up in the shape of the Catching Fire mockingjay pin:

I'll leave it to you to judge how successful that mockingjay is. But I'll just say in my own defense that the wings cut off in a very strange place on the cuticle, and the proportions would have made way more sense if the whole wings had been there, lol. At the end of the day, I was pretty happy with it, especially considering it's on my off-hand. No idea why I always forget and try to do nail art on my off-hand...I blame it on the fact that I still can't tell right from left because everyone told me that 'your right hand is the hand that you write with', and that really messes up left-handers like me, lol. :)

Hope you're having an awesome weekend,
M.

Comparison Thursday: Purple Holos

Today's Comparison Thursday may look like one I've done before, but it's not...  If you're interested in checking out my comparison of lavender/lilac/light purple holos, you can do so here.  Tonight's purples, however, are more pigmented and true purples than the pale almost silver holos I compared before.  So, let's get to it!

Dollish Polish Waiting for my Mr. Big, Color Club Wild at Heart, China Glaze LOL, Color Club Eternal Beauty, Layla Ultra Violet, and Kelara I Love Lamp.

All six polishes are very pretty in their own right, but I wouldn't say that there are any exact duplicates in the bunch.  Eternal Beauty and Ultra Violet are close, but not exact duplicates.

Waiting for my Mr. Big

I don't really know why I added this one to the comparison.  It's pretty clear in the bottle that it's not a dupe of any of the rest of them.  It's much more pink than blue on the scale of purple compared to the rest.  And while it's pretty and unique, it also isn't super holoy.  The rainbow effect just doesn't live up to the standards of the rest.  Mr. Big has been discontinued, but you can find other Dollish Polishes on her site here, as well as multiple etailers.

Wild at Heart

Wild at Heart is definitely the deepest purple holo I own.  It's absolutely gorgeous with such deep pigmentation that it only requires a couple of coats for full opacity.  Application was alright with a slight bit of dragging and balding.  I didn't use my Nfu Oh Aqua Base because I wanted to see how these would all work over regular base coats.  The rainbow takes on a more red, pink, and purple vibe while not showcasing the other colors as much.  It's also a bit more scattered than the other holos in this comparison.  I found my Wild at Heart at a Salon, but I've also seen it at the Bed Bath and Beyond near me.

LOL

Ahhh, the much coveted LOL...  Application for LOL, as with all of the OMGs I own, was atrocious.  Second in horribleness only to Ultra Violet, which we'll get to in a moment.  You have to work hella fast and you can't go over spots you've already painted, otherwise you'll drag and bald in a big way.  The holo for LOL is probably the most linear of the bunch as China Glaze used a smaller holo particle than is used in any of the other purples I'm comparing tonight.  However, it definitely isn't the most in your face.  It's very pretty and the depth is nice, but it's not really my favorite.  If you're a collector, by all means, see if you can dusty yourself a bottle.  However, I don't think that they're worth the price tag some people have placed on them in sales groups and blog sales.

Eternal Beauty

So now we've finally come to my favorite.  The Color Club Halo Hues collection has got to be my absolute favorite collection ever made.  Ever.  And that's saying something!  The holo is the most in your face of the six polishes, and it's also quite linear.  The best part?  Application was amazing.  Not only did it go on smoothly despite the lack of an aqua base, but it also was easy to manage while I was applying.  It didn't drag, clump, or bald, which is a huge improvement over their old formula.  I purchased my bottle on Amazon, but some people are finding them in stores and even in the clearance bins of stores.  I've never seen one in the wild near me, so that's why I went the online route.

Ultra Violet

Hands down the worst polish of the bunch.  The holo is beautiful and almost as vibrant as Eternal Beauty, but the application was a nightmare.  Again, I didn't use an aqua base, so it's probably my fault, but this polish definitely isn't made for someone who is just starting out in the polish world.  It balds as easily as George Costanza loses his toupee after pissing off Elaine!

(Source)

But really, it's a massive pain in the butt to work with.  As you can see, the color is almost the same shade as Eternal Beauty, but it's just a hair lighter.  They both have majorly intense holo pigmentation, but I can't help but come back to the application issues.  If I had to choose between the two, hands down the choice is Eternal Beauty.  I purchased this bottle from a friend at the request of a reader to compare it to Eternal Beauty, but you can purchase Layla holos at Ulta.

I Love Lamp

The last holo in this sextuplet of purple holos is Kelara's I Love Lamp.  It's on the lighter side, but still much darker than the pale purples I compared before.  It has a purple shimmer to it on top of the holo, which made it more difficult to capture the rainbow in my photos.  The rainbow is bright, but not nearly as bright as UV or Eternal Beauty.  Its application is also quite nice without any dragging, streaking, clumping, or balding.  You can purchase Kelara Lacquers at their online store.

My final verdict?  For the darks, I think I like LOL better than Wild at Heart, but it's not worth the cost.  For the lights, Eternal Beauty wins hands down.  I need to get a couple of backup bottles of that guy, stat!

So, what do you think?  Do you own any of these purple holos?  Which is your favorite and which could you do without?

*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.*

Phoning it In: Dollish Polish

I'm working on making furniture tonight, but I wanted to make sure I got at least something up for you guys tonight.  Tonight, we're going to take a look at Dollish Polish A Peachy Princess from Dolly's Super Mario Brothers Collection that she released last fall.

*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: Light pink jelly with holo and matte pink squares and hexes.

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

Bottle / Brush: Skinny round bottle – long cap with standard size wand.  Some of these brushes come bent.  Average application with standard non-bent brush.  Picks up glitter decently, but it isn’t the best.

Opacity: Medium – achieves opacity at three to four coats.  Here, I've worn it with one very thick coat over OPI DS Opulence.

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: Thick – thick or it can be clumpy, but is easily remedied with some polish thinner.

Overall Ease of Application: Difficult – pools at the cuticles.  Drags and clumps, streaks, or is bald in spots.  Does not spread well without massive manipulation.

Stampability: Not designed for stamping. 

Dry Time: Long – dry to the touch with minimal smudging in over 8 minutes.  It felt like this polish would never dry.  It was insane!  

Overall Thoughts:  This was a pretty decent combo, but the application was such a pain.  It took the dab method to get it on my nail, but it slid around and pooled ta my cuticles.  It took FOR.EV.ER. to dry.  

I didn't even get to wear it for long because they started popping off left and right!  Talk about frustrating.  It's such a pretty polish, though, so I'm going to keep trying.  Sadly, Dolly's Super Mario Brothers collection has been discontinued, but they do show up in swap groups and blog sales all the time.  If you're interested, definitely keep an eye out there.

You can purchase Dollish Polishes at her shop, Llarowe, and Overall Beauty.  Follow Dolly on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for news and updates on new collections.

Do you have any video game inspired polishes?

A Pirate's Life for MEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

I've been to Disney World a bajillion times in my life.  The one ride my family would always insist we ride every single trip was Pirates of the Caribbean.  We knew all of the words to the song, we knew exactly where the canon fire would land, and we knew every creepy animatronic character there was.  So, of course, when the movie came out my entire family had to go see it with the family friends who always went to Disney with us.  I loved the first movie, so much, despite Kiera Knightley's horrible pout [She really gives Kristin Stewart a run for her money.]  

(Source)

I mean, seriously.  She looks like the worst mouth breather EVER.

The rest of the movies were good, but not like the first one.  I was a little bummed when they decided to add elements of the movie to the ride, but I'm just a purist when it comes to my childhood favorites, I guess!  This story has a point, I promise.  And here it is: when I saw that Dollish Polish had created a polish called Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me, I knew I had to have it.  So stalk it I did.  

*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: Deep berry red jelly with gold, silver, navy, and maroon hexes.

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

Bottle / Brush: Round bottle – brush and wand are the standard width and length.  Easy to control and manipulate.

Opacity: Medium – achieves opacity at three to four coats.  This is one coat over Gelish Black Cherry Berry.

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: Quick – dry to the touch without smudging in under 3 minutes.  Granted, I think that's because I only used 1 coat over a gel mani, so I didn't have to wait for several coats to dry.

Overall Thoughts: The application of Yo-Ho was fabulous.  I'm not sure about multiple coats, but it was perfect over undies.  The glitters came out easily and spread well.  I'm sure if you want more glitters than what I've shown here, you'd most likely need to go with more than one coat.  I don't think it would be wise to load up the brush with a lot of glitters because that will probably cause you to flood your cuticles.  While I enjoyed the application, I'm a bit confused about the inspiration for this polish.  I don't really know why she chose the color combinations she chose.  I don't really feel like it evokes Pirates of the Caribbean.  It is a very pretty polish, though, and I'm glad I added it to my collection!

You can purchase Dollish Polishes at her store, Llarowe, and Overall Beauty.  Yo-Ho is only stocked at her store linked above.  Follow Dolly on Facebook and Twitter for news and updates.

Have you been to Disney?  What's your favorite ride?

Dollish Polish Dark Elf

This is going to be a quick post as I'm working diligently on updating my blog sale!  I am hoping to have it up tonight, so check back tomorrow.

*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: Pink base with pink, purple, and orange fine glitters.

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

Bottle / Brush: Tall skinny round bottle with average brush – long cap with standard size wand.  Some of these brushes come bent.  Average application with standard non-bent brush.  Picks up glitter decently, but it isn’t the best.

Opacity: Medium – achieves opacity at three to four coats.  Probably best over undies.  I have it layered over itself in my swatch shots.

Glitter Application: Medium – requires the dab method, but spreads evenly.

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

Overall Ease of Application: Medium – applies well with minimal pooling, dragging, streaking, or balding.  Spreads well with the dab method.  Doesn't shrink or pull back.  Doesn't thicken like many other glitter bombs.

Stampability: Not designed for stamping.

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

Overall Thoughts: Dark Elf is one of those polishes that makes you realize why you love indie polish.  It spreads well, isn't too gritty, isn't topcoat hungry, and sparkles like mad.  If you love OPI's Absolutely Alice, in my opinion, Dark Elf is the pink version of AA.  It applies well using the dab method without much trouble.  The only bad part is removal.  Since it's such a densely packed glitter, you'll either need to use some felt or the foil method for removal.

You can purchase Dollish Polish at Dolly's store and on Llarowe.  Follow Dolly on Facebook and Twitter for news and updates.

What's your most sparkly polish?

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?