Nail Art

   Oh, readers, this post is a fun one for me to share!  You may think that with all the pastel colors around here that I am simply a girly-girl.  Not true!  Beneath my frilly, lacy outer layer you will find a cold, hard nerdy comic book geek.  Hey, sometimes your knight in shining armor is actually a knight in really tight spandex.  Don't complain, fellow princesses, you know a spandex spidey-suit is easier to clean than a full suit of armor.  Yay for wash-and-wear!  ...Moving on!


   See what I did here, channeling the vintage comic book cover style?  I'm pretty proud of it... not nearly as proud as I am of these nails, though!!  I painted them on May 3rd, in preparation of my my 2nd wedding anniversary day-early dinner & movie celebration.  (What a mouthful.)  See, I really am a geek - I totally felt this was a sufficient romantic date for an important occasion.

   So yes, this was nail art for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie - wait 'til you see the other hand! - but  promise that I will reveal no spoilers.  I hate spoilers!

Swatch & Review / NotD

   Here is a quick swatch post of my nails from this weekend.  I did them in our hotel room so I didn't have my usual lighting setup.  Not the best photos but this was a really simple combo, so I'm letting them pass.  I used 2 coats of My Pointe Exactly from the OPI NYC Ballet collection, which is a sheer grey jelly.  My nails were more grey-toned than they appear here.  Then I used 2 coats of I♥NP Silver Spoons, and I used one more coat of My Pointe Exactly on my ring finger to create a jelly sandwich.  These nails were subtle but very shiny!

   My Pointe Exactly is a very good neutral jelly that I am so glad to have finally found in stock on Drugstore.com.  Glad I picked it up because it will definitely see more use in both French manicures and layering for "jelly sandwiches".  Coverage is quite good.  Also, I think I have finally made peace with OPI's wide brushes; we didn't get along before this.  The above photo shows my results without any clean-up!

   Silver Spoons is unique among silver glitter topcoats thanks to those awesome little silver shards!  They aren't gigantic, lay flat and don't create texture on the nail.  (If I could find a topper of just these well-behaved silver shreds I'd be quite pleased!)  The silver microshimmer also has a wonderful sparkle that I love.  I was surprised at needing two coats for good coverage, however.  Sadly this polish is discontinued and gone forever... sorry!

   I wish I could have better captured the sparkle and shine of these nails - you'll just have to imagine it!  The look reminds me of Cinderella for some reason...  What do you think?

   After so little buying of STUFF this summer, this month's haul feels HUGE!  I've been quite happy with "shopping my untrieds", but I did pick up some really awesome new goodies as well!

   If the above picture seems a little bare in the upper right corner, that's it is.  I missed a polish!  Fortunately I managed to include it in the "close-up" photo...

Pure Ice Fairy Godmother and Salon Perfect Kaboom.

   These were both found at Walmart.  I've already swatched Fairy Godmother, which I love.  It's a perfect shade of purple and only $2 for a bottle!  Kaboom is a Floam-type glitter dupe, and the only one I found from Salon Perfect's summer neon glitter collection.  I'm really surprised that China Glaze didn't decide to put out these colors under their name, and make them more widely available.  Oh well.  I figure it should be handy for nail art!  Between one polish being a tricky purple and the other a neon these are very hard to photograph, but this quick picture is actually pretty accurate on my screen.

Color Club Beyond, Over The Moon, Kismet, Cosmic Fate, Miss Bliss and Eternal Beauty.

   The entire 2013 Halo Hues collection!  These were a gift from my husband, which makes them even more special!  I had the collection on my wishlist and he snagged them right away (without my knowing) when I found them at a decent price on Amazon.  The colors are awesome and very holographic.  I hope that Color Club keeps releasing more Halo Hues because they are so good for the price!

I♥NP Once Upon A Starry Night, Angel Burp, A Nice Chianti, All Gold Everything, Purple Stuff, 11:59, and (still boxed) Silver Spoons

   I snatched up polishes on my wishlist that were being discontinued when I Love Nail Polish announced them going on sale.  So far I've tried Once Upon A Starry Night and Angel Burp and shared them here.  I really love these polishes, from the super-cute but practical packaging they come in to the pretty bottles with their thin grippy handles.  The shipping was fast, too!  So glad to finally have these pretties in my collection~  These came right from http://www.ilnp.com/.

Cirque Dark Horse, Galinda, XX, Lullaby, Iris, and Kaleidoscope

   Finally, I splurged and bought all the Cirque Colors polishes on my wishlist.  They were actually all in stock at the same time (they never are during a sale... =( sigh!) so I gave in.  Didn't want to miss them if they get phased out or something!  I can honestly say that these babies are STUNNING.  They've been swatched on a lot of great blogs already, but I'll be sharing my own creations with them, too!  I have a sneaking suspicion that photos aren't going to do them justice, though...  These came from http://www.cirquecolors.com/home/.

   So, that's the damage for this month.  So many very nice polishes, it's hard to know what to try next!  If you have any requests for what you would like to see layered, compared, or reviewed in particular leave a comment below!

   Or, why it's going to be easy not to buy any polish during February.  (So long as China Glaze doesn't release their new holographic polishes in the US.)

   I ended up with over 35 new (or new-to-me) polishes this month, the above photo is missing a few because they are either on loan or scattered through my house.  January was a good month for polish because all my end-of-the-year sale purchases arrived along with a few sakes that took place right at the beginning of January.

   I snagged some Black Cat Lacquer polishes from my wishlist, they are: I Want Candy, Let Them Eat Cake, Put a Bird On It, and Women & Women First.  These came from etsy.  These are all so, so pretty!

   I had a most wonderful package of Different Dimension nail polish arrive.  Mostly colors that I've helped name, but a few other pretties to swatch and review, too!  I've gotten to try most of these already, and their posts are up on the blog.  The polishes shown above are: Honesty Feels A Lot Like Mean, Orbital, Vervain, Aorta Miss You But I Don't, All Red-y In Love, A Love Hue, and Love Her? I Don't Even Lacquer!  Not pictured because it is on loan to my Mom: Yours, Mine, and Flowers.  You can find these polishes on etsy.

      I picked up a couple discontinued polishes from Laquerlicious, Invitation Only and Mint N Chip Frappe.  Along with those I was sent three minis to review, Melted Ice Cream, Rainbow Sugar, and Tart Taffy.  Go check out those swatches!  These also came from etsy!

   Lush Lacquer had a sale, so I picked up my first polishes from them.  The colors I picked are Glitter Girls, Mr. Bubble, Oopsie Daisy, Pebbles, Pink Panther and Slumber Party.  These are all so cute!  Visit the Lush Lacquer shop on etsy.

   I snagged a couple OPI polishes from my wishlist, My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Don't Touch My Tutu!

   When Zoya had their promo for three polishes my husband got me a few cremes from my wishlist: Breezi, Jolene and Wednesday.

   These polishes were partly from a trade and given to me.  Pure Ice Material Girl, Milani Hot Pink, China Glaze Peachy Keen and Luna, KBShimmer Oh Splat!

   And nail polish in another form - jewelry!  Sweet Tips Nails had an amazing sale, so I picked up some necklaces and other accessories.  These are really cute!  The shipping prices are really good, too.  And yes, these came from etsy, too!

   So, a pretty good haul, I'd say!  A lot of polish to keep me busy this month and a lot of it from indie sellers.  The plan this month is to be good and not buy much.  ;P

Swatch & Review

   Here is another polish from the Different Dimension Love's A Punny Thing collection.  I was happily surprised when Missi chose my name "A Love Hue" for this polish.  It fits it more perfectly than I would have thought!  I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls as my base, a super-pale grey creme.  My nails above have one coat of A Love Hue over top, and I adore it!

   This polish is a mix of pink glitters, mainly this perfect holographic rose color.  The larger pieces are squares and hexes, and there are lots of teeny glitters in both the rose color and a deeper pink.  It makes for a perfect blend, all floating in a clear base.

   Here I took a macro of my thumb because I was trying to show the depth of the glitter at 3 coats.  While it doesn't reach opacity it is very dense, and would probably appear opaque if you put it over a matching pink base.

   Once again this is 3 coats of A Love Hue.  Pictures don't come close to showing just how sparkly and eye-catching this color is.  The formula is very good.  You get a lot of glitter on your nails even at one coat, and that is how I will wear it most.  I was happy to see that even three coats didn't become a top coat devouring mess.  The formula is thick enough that it never feels gritty and always spreads evenly.  Whether you paint just one one coat or layer it on for glitterbomb nails you would need two layers of top coat for it to be perfectly smooth, but I'm just wearing one for these swatches.

   What do you think of Different Dimension A Love Hue?  I personally love it!  It has taken first place in my collection for favorite pink glitter topper.  You can find it at the Different Dimension shop at etsy.

   My second monthly haul post and I've already managed to be late!  Well, not really, I'm aiming for end of the month or start of the new month, but I did want to post this two days ago.  Technical difficulties botched my plans.  I wanted to put up another Different Dimension polish today.  You will get to see Different Dimension polishes here too, at least.  So, let's see what I got!

   A My Little Pony calender for next year, yes!  I was thrilled when I spotted it.  Now I'll have more ponies in my sewing room during the coming months.  Also, it probably ties with second-hand nail polish as the cheapest thing I bought.  =P  Let's see the little things up close...

   One of my blogger friends, Maria from Nails Made Simple was having a blog sale to clear out a bunch of polishes.  She had a couple colors from my wishlist, and some things that were just too pretty to pass up!  On Friday this box arrived in the mail:

   So I was sorting through my photos to upload and I found these sitting around from August!  Yes, August!  I was planning to post this up but never did - shame on me!  Shame on me because now I don't remember 100% of what I used to create this look.  =(  But I will share the pictures with you, at least.  I will always remember taking these pictures because it is the day that huge earthquake happened in Virginia.  As I was taking them I felt the house swaying from the shockwaves reaching all the way up to NE Pennsylvania.  =O

  This picture was taken without flash, just indirect sunlight.  The colors came out really well.  A couple more pictures (using flash) and what I think I used after the jump!

   Blasted.  Crackle.  Shatter.  I told myself that all the fracturing topcoats were too trendy to bother with, and a fad that I'd kick myself for falling into.  Sometimes they just looked so cool, though!  With the right colors they could be very catchy, maybe edgy, or even sweet and pretty.  And finally, when I saw that Sephora had their own version done by OPI, I chucked a bottle in my basket for the sake of trying it out.

   I bought the "safe" color option of Blasted Black, I've used it a few times and have tried applying it different ways to find that sweet spot of perfect application.  So, onto my pictures and review!