Swatch & Review / Nail Art

   I can't resist a good minty aqua polish.  I have so many creme hues in this family that when I saw Music Box it only seemed right to branch out into the holographic end of things.  I'm wearing 3 coats of this pretty polish, and I found the formula to be agreeable.  This isn't a super-strong holo polish, but the effect is more prominent in person than it shows in photographs.  And out in the sunshine it really does serve up a dollop of rainbowy goodness.

Swatch & Review

   How awesome is this combination of polishes?  ILNP Animal Cookie is one of the first polishes I saw from the brand, and it immediately landed on my wishlist.  It took awhile for me to get it it, but it was worth waiting for!  I used one coat for my swatch, and the glitter spread nicely.  I dabbed a little extra into a few bare spots and then it was perfect.  The mix of white and pink glitters pops over my base of Zoya Rocky.  Rocky is a semi-dusty turquoise blue creme, and I only needed two coats.

Swatch & Review

   Hey everyone, important quick updates before I get into this swatch post.  First, my computer's screen is still being flaky.  It has decided to work for a bit right now so I took advantage of that by editing as many pictures as I could.  Replacing a bunch of parts has done nothing to keep it working and it appears that it must be a glitch caused by static, instead.  My husband is trying to find a permanent solution.  I'm just going to say that editing my photos on a CRT monitor (or our TV) is not my thing.  I've had a stern talk with my computer about it's behavior, so hopefully things will improve soon.

   Second, and more serious, my pregnant mommy check-ups are now happening twice-weekly.  The great news is that I'm basically feeling fine, and the baby seems to be good, too.  I'm being monitored closely because of my low amniotic fluid level, which can turn into a serious complication.  At any one of these check-ups there is the possibility that I'll be kept at the hospital, probably until our baby is delivered.  At this rate it's not looking like I'll reach my Sept 21st due date.  Personally I'm doing everything I can to hydrate myself and praying that the level will go up!

   So basically, if the blog suddenly goes silent, don't worry too much.  I'll try to keep updates going on Instagram if I can't post them here, so be sure to follow me there.

   Now on to the more frivolous and fun stuff.  ;D  Recently Michelle of the etsy shop Laquerlicious Unity moved some beautiful polishes into the clearance section of her shop, so this prompted a little spree on my behalf!  She was generous enough to send along a few minis, two of which are from her new All Things Diva collection, for swatching and sharing on my blog.  I'm really excited about the colors she surprised me with, because they are shades that I was curious about!

   First I tried Divine Doll.  The shop description is perfect: "a shimmery grape purple with an aqua shimmer and caramel and teal micro glitter" - yep, that's exactly what it is!  The purple tends to looks a bit like a blurple thanks to the aqua shimmer, and it's loaded with small glitters.  I used 2 coats for full coverage.  Application was a tad bit finicky but typical of this type of polish.  For best results you need to work quickly, applying a thin-ish first coat.  It wants to dry fast so if you mess with it too much the heavy shimmer pigment and glitters will start to drag and make bald spots.  So give that first coat a moment to dry and set up on your nail.  Then the 2nd coat applies perfectly!

   I took a bottle shot to try to show off the pretty glitters better.  Between the color purple and the heavy shimmer my camera was at a bit of a loss while photographing my nails.  I love the caramel and teal glitters in this polish!  They really pop, and I don't have anything like this shade in my collection.  This polish is a color combination that I would have never thought of, but totally works!  I was also very happy that it was friendly to my pale skin tone.  May I also point out that this super-duper shimmery polish shows not a single brushstroke?  Hooray for being frost-free!

   Being glitter-heavy, it does have texture when dry.  Not gritty texture, though.  I used 1 coat of Poshe to top this manicure off, and while it wasn't glassy smooth, I didn't notice my nails having texture.  Also, removal... actually not bad!  I soaked a cotton pad with remover, held it on my nail for a few minutes, and most the glitter wiped right off.  I advise against scrubbing at the glitter; then it does turn into a sparkle-splosion on your hands.

   The only complaint that I could mention about this polish is that it has a stronger smell than the other Laquerlicious shades I've tried.  It has the regular polish smell and a little something more.  A sort of sweet, chemical-y odor.  I'm guessing that these might use a different base to suspend all the shimmer, and that would be the cause for a different smell.  (My full-size bottles just smell like typical glitter polish!)  The smell disappears when you apply topcoat, so it is only a temporary suffering!

   Thanks for reading, princess!  Be sure to check out the Laquerlicious shop, and stay tuned for another awesome All Things Diva polish coming up next! =)

Laquerlicious Links:

Swatch & Review / NotD

   Yesterday I wore this manicure as a way to use some of my untrieds.  These are two really nice polishes and I was happy with them, but I wasn't really feeling drawn to the color combo right now, so my nails are bare again today.

   Pure Ice Scream is a really nice blue-green creme polish, sort of a turquoise, teal, or dark aqua color.  It dries just a little bit darker than it looks in the bottle.  It is easy to work with and has really good coverage.  I used 1 coat on all my nails except my ring finger, which took 2.  I also let this dry without topcoat, so you can see it levels nicely and has decent shine.  The only issue I had with Scream was when applying the glitter on some of my nails.  I had to use a light touch or it would start to smear and create bald spots.

   Pure Ice Over You is one of their newer glitter releases, and I really love the colors.  I think I will like this better layered over a pale base color.  It is made up of micro and tiny lavender glitter, and had holographic aqua glitter in small hexes and short, stubby bars.  I really like the bar glitter, it reminds me of splashing water.  I only used 1 generous coat on my nails and was very happy with the coverage.  The glitters spread well and I imagine this could easily be layered up for full glitter-bomb effect nails.  I used topcoat to smooth my glitter nails, and didn't notice any texture after that.  Check out the macro shot below to see it better!

   These polishes impressed me for $2 finds, with good formulas to match their pretty colors.  After realizing how nice Scream was to work with I might have to give a few of their other new creme colors a chance.  So, this is my short and sweet post for today.  As always, thanks for looking!

Swatch & Review

   Hello princesses!  In contrast to yesterday's bright and springy polish post I have a swatch of Orbital, another Different Dimension nail polish.  Part of Missi's ever-growing space themed polishes, I was honored to name this one!  Isn't it gorgeous?

   Orbital is a black jelly polish filled with a perfect mixture of aqua, pink, and purple holographic glitters.  As you can see from my bottle shot it is filled with about four different sizes in each color.  Sadly pictures don't capture just how awesomely sparkly this is!  Especially in lower light this polish twinkles like a rainbow-hued night sky.

   In these swatches I used three coats of Orbital alone, and one coat of Poshe to top it off.  The formula on this polish is phenomenal.  The glitter stays well suspended, you get plenty of it on each brushstroke, and it spreads over the nail evenly.  The black jelly base is never streaky and even looked decent at two coats, then opaque at three while still having amazing depth of glitter.  It is well behaved, dries fast and doesn't eat topcoat.

   I think this now one of my very favorite Different Dimension polishes based on the beautiful glitter and perfect formula.  I can't wait to try it layered over black, and even just one coat over a grey would be nice!  I definitely recommend this polish, go get a bottle!

NotD / Swatch

   Really loving the manicure that I have on today!  It gathered compliments from little girls to little old ladies.  Definitely feels like I have a fairy-princess nail thing going on.  And it was super easy!

   I started off with 2 coats of Zoya Zuza.  This is a very pretty aqua/turquoise polish with silver shimmer.  The formula was excellent, and could even be a one coater if I used thick coats, but doing two thinner coats was easier to control.

   Next I grabbed one of my most favorite purple glitters, That Is So Fetch! by Different Dimension.  (Full review here!)  Because my nails are long I started out just painting the free edge.

   I did a second coat starting at about the mid point of my nail to the tip...

   And tada, it's done!  Finished with a topcoat and ready to enjoy.

   What are some of your favorite glitters to use in gradients?  =)

Swatch & Review / Nail Art

   At first I was planning a regular swatch post for the few Layla Mirror Effect polishes that I picked up.  But the plain fact is that there are already awesome swatch posts out there with all the individual colors, my favorite example being at A Polish Addict.  (Here's part 2 from her, as well!)  All the polishes have an identical finish so rather than more plain-ole' swatches, I had fun with nail art!

   I bought my Layla polishes from FabulouStreet.  I managed to pick them up on sale, their regular price is $15.50 per bottle.  The special chrome formula is intended to be used without a base coat on freshly buffed nails.  (You can even buy a special Layla file for this purpose, which came out with their holographic collection.)  I ignored this.  Instead I used a peel-off base coat on my unbuffed (nonbuffed? buffless?) nails.

   As you can see these truly show every little imperfection in your nail.  They dry super-fast into a thin foil.  Personally I hate to go without a base coat, and these applied just fine over what I had on, so I think next time I will try tricking them with a super-thick glossy base!  I used a fast-drying drying topcoat on all my fingers and a thick topcoat on my thumb, no issues there either.  Wait for the polishes to dry before top coating them!

   The opacity on these metallics is wonderful despite their thin, almost watery consistency - you're looking at just one coat of each polish, both in the base and each layer of the cloud design that I free-handed with the polish brush.  The least opaque seemed to be Titanium Sky, which if seen at the right angle in certain lighting had a thin spot.  Can you tell?

  Layla did a very nice job with this line of polishes.  Finally, metal-finish polish without frosty brushstrokes!  They are the most chrome-like metallics I've ever seen, but nothing as shiny as their bottle caps.  Because of how they show every tiny ding and dent in your nail bed I will probably stick with using these for nail art.  I'll probably hold off on buying any more of them until they release more unique colors, though.

   Layla is an Italian brand, specializing in various "effect" polishes, and all Big 3 Free.  They are on the pricey side for my budget, but I've enjoyed every polish I've bought from them.  Have you tried anything from this brand?  Do you these metallic nail polishes?  Let me know!  =)

Swatch & Review

   Have you ever been on the fence about something that a lot of people say is great but you aren't sure you really need it?  So you almost don't get it?  I was that way about Different Dimension - That Is So Fetch!  I'm drawn to purple nail polishes.  That means I have several purple glitter polishes already, and I almost didn't get this one.  Finally I told myself that I would use it, so I should add it to my collection.  I'm so glad I did!

   LOOK AT THAT GLITTER!  Click the picture to see it up close!

   Here is a design that I thought up awhile back and recently got an excuse to try.  Chalkboard Nails is running a nail art contest for either warm or cool colors, and of course I picked cool.  My design?  Use heart-shape paillettes upside-down and tightly packed so that they look like fish scales!

   I used China Glaze Refresh-mint as my base and pressed rows of scales into the polish, starting with fuchsia at the tips, then a row of lavender, and finishing the nail in baby blue.  My thumb nail had the colors staggered farther up the nail one one side.  This took two coats of Tough Coat and a coat of Poshe to seal everything and there was still texture, but it was an interesting, smooth texture, and it wore like iron.  I didn't shed a single scale!

   Sadly having that many paillettes means quite a few bubbles.  They seem to form no matter how much time I take or how carefully I place the little spangles.  =(  Fortunately from a regular viewing distance they are hardly noticeable.  All the scales have a bright green-to-purple flash that shines and dazzles you in the light, haha.  No really, see the bright green flashes?

   So, this isn't a very difficult mani, it just takes some patience and many, many heart-shape spangles.  (So many hearts littered the table after removal.  @_@)  But, I do feel it is original, and attainable for someone like me who isn't very steady-handed.  Next time I want to do a dragon-scale manicure, with heart scales (Pokémon reference!) in red, orange and yellow.  =D

   Would you try this?  Leave me a comment!

   One of my favorite things to do when I get new cremes is to come up with a rainbow mani of coordinating colors.  It's so cute and gets tons of compliments!  And I get to try several colors at once, heheheh.  ;D

  The colors I used are China Glaze Lemon Fizz, Aquadelic, Dance Baby, and Bahamian Escape.  2 coats of each and they were all a dream to use.

   I'm so glad I got Aquadelic!  Yes, it is super-similar to For Audrey, but it is more green and doesn't have the dusty quality that For Audrey does.  They are both lovely colors, I know I'll use both.  Did you get any of the new Electropop colors yet?