Holiday Week: Valentine's Day v.2

So yeah, I know that Holiday week was last week and that I should've posted this yesterday as promised, but I wasn't feeling well and hubs was using the laptop to do our taxes.  From the outside, it would appear that I'm the sickest person in the world, huh?  I promise, it's all related to one issue, sinus disease, that will be remedied later this year.  Until then, though, I'm dealing with a chronic sinus infection causing me to run low grade fevers from 99.7-100.4.  At least I'm able to work from home right now, so that's good.  I'd hate to annoy everyone in my office with my sniffling and coughing.  It's kind of obnoxious right now!  Anyway, let's take a look at my epic Valentine's Day mani.  

I started out with a base of Color Club Halo Hue Miss Bliss, which is an ultra-holo barbie pink.  Unfortunately, I apparently didn't take any pictures of it.  Womp womp!  After my undies, I did a skittles using the following polishes:

Lynnderella Don't Drink this Pink, Glitzology Cupid's Arrow, Lynnderella Matter of the Heart, Rainbow Honey XOXO, and Lynnderella Angel Food.

Here are closeups of the bottles as well as macro shots of each polish.  I am in lust with pretty much every one of these polishes.

Miss Bliss

Don't Drink this Pink

Cupid's Arrow

Matter of the Heart

XOXO

XOXO blurry to see holo glitters

Angel Food

All of these polishes are so dense that you can't really see my holo undies at all.  

Don't Drink this Pink and Cupid's Arrow were both packed with so much glitter that they required the dab method.  The glitter to base ratio was heavily balanced toward glitter than base.  XOXO, Matter of the Heart, and Angel Food, however, were perfectly easy to apply.  You couldn't see the holo undies under the creme polishes for obvious reasons.  The only one that gives you a peak of holo goodness from the whole mani is XOXO.  

Here's another shot of them all together.

You can purchase Lynnderella here, Glitzology here, Rainbow Honey here, and the Color Club Halo Hues on eBay or Amazon.

Which of the six here is your favorite?

*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.*

Holiday Week: Mardi Gras!

I'm sorry I've been neglecting you, dear readers!  I've been working over 60 billable hours a week for the past month, which has me passing out early almost every night.  This project is almost over, though, and I suspect that I'll be back to my normal hours soon.  Today's entry for Holiday Week is Mardi Gras!  I wore Nail-Venturous Lacquer Joker over Color Club Glitter Wonderland.

Color: Purple jelly with chartreuse, white, blue, and gold hexes.

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

Bottle / Brush: Round bottle brush (i.e. Seche Vite) – standard width and length.  The cap has a ridge at the bottom, which for me, made it easier to control and manipulate.

Opacity: Medium – achieves opacity at three to four coats.  Although, I wore this as one coat over Color Club Glitter Wonderland.

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

Overall Thoughts: Holy crap.  I absolutely freaking love this polish.  It makes me so sad that Amy of I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous is no longer making polish, but I do understand the need for a break or to stop when it gets overwhelming or loses its enjoyment-factor.  Joker is extremely pigmented, so it looked great at just one coat over undies.  Plus, the glitters were so easy to get out with the perfect glitter to base ratio that I didn't need to dig or manipulate the glitters.  This is a seriously well made polish, and I'm so glad I found someone selling it.

Unfortunately, you can't purchase Nail-Venturous Lacquers from the source anymore.  You can, however, occasionally find them on blog sales or sales pages.  If you do see them, grab them as quickly as you can and don't look back.

Did you do your nails for Mardi Gras?  If yes, what did you use?

*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.*

Comparison Thursday: Neon Blue/Teal

Tonight's Comparison Thursday is brought to you by the color teal.  I have a comparison that I'm actually pretty excited to show you tonight.  One is an easy to find drugstore brand, while the other is a foreign brand.  I received both from swaps, and I really like both of them.  Without further ado, I present Sinful Colors Savage and Kiko 341.

I'm not sure why, but the colors aren't showing up very accurately.  My photos lean more towards bright blue than a solid neon teal, so keep that in mind when you're taking a look.

Savage is a true neon that dries matte.  With that, though, comes application issues.  Mattes are very tricky for me, for some reason.  If you don't go fast enough, you'll get clumping when you go back over semi-dry polish with fresh polish.  However, if you go too fast, you'll lose accuracy.  For the price, though, this polish is fantastic, and a great alternative to the next polish, Kiko 341!

Kiko 341 is an Italian brand polish that I received from a swap with an awesome lady in France.  It is so ridiculously pigmented that it looks great at one coat, but I used two for photos.  It dries super glossy and applies so easily.  I didn't use a top coat in these photos, so that gloss is all 341.  It is a touch darker than Savage, but they're close enough that Savage could definitely squash a lemming if you toss on some top coat!

Here are both topped with Lac Attack Jewel of the Nile, which is a fine matte polish with blue, yellow, and purple hexes in the style of Floam.

You can purchase Kiko on line here, or you can do what I did and swap someone for it.  You can purchase Sinful colors at Walgreens.

Which do you like better?

Holiday Week: Christmas!

When Christmas came around, I did a bunch of nail art that I posted at the holiday.  I never got in this little mani, though, because I was all focused on nail art.  Tonight, however, I'm finally going to dust off the mani that I actually wore on Christmas.  Lynnderella Candy Wrapper, Lynnderella Spumoni, and Elevation Mount Yu.

Candy Wrapper is a bright fire red with varying sizes of red hexes and red holo hexes in a red jelly.  There's so much glitter in this bad boy that it required the dab method to spread onto the nail.  It's one of those glitter bombs where the glitter to base ratio is seriously off, but in the right direction.  I hate polishes with more base to glitter.  This definitely doesn't have that problem.  Here, I've used three coats of Candy Wrapper without any undies.  Be careful, though, because it builds up very quickly.

Spumoni is a very lightly tinted mint green based polish with mint green hexes, white diamonds, bright red hexes and squares, black hexes and squares, and matte cherry red squares with a green shimmer.  It's not as tightly packed as Candy Wrapper, so it didn't require as much manipulation for the glitter to spread evenly.  I also didn't have to fish for anything, which was nice.  I used one coat on top of two coats of Elevation Mount Yu.  It's a match made in heaven!

You can purchase Lynnderella at her store here.  You can purchase Elevation at her store here.

What's your favorite holiday mani?  What did you use or did you do any nail art?

Holiday Week: Valentine's Day v.1

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been pretty bad about posting my holiday manicures.  That being said, I thought I'd post the ones I hadn't gotten to yet this week!  Today, we're going to take a look at my first Valentine's Day manicure: Rainbow Honey Sweet Talk and Zoya Pixie Dust Chyna.

I'm going to do a typical review for Sweet Talk below.  I haven't worn Chyna properly yet, so I won't say much more than that it is gorgeous, super sparkly, and just all around awesome.  I've become smitten with the Pixie Dusts.  I wish I had more!

I used a base of RH Sweet Talk then did a couple hearts on my accent nail with Zoya Chyna.  I made the hearts and the dots using my dotting tools.  It was fairly simple to do, but I did go overboard with the dots.  See a theme?  This lasted for about 4 days before a horrible break caused me to take it off.

Now, let's review Sweet Talk!

Color: White creme base with pink shimmer and pink, aqua, and purple hexes.

Finish: Glitter Crème – glitter in a crème base.

Bottle / Brush: Round brush with round cap (i.e. Cult, Rainbow Honey, Lucky 13) – brush and wand are average giving average application.  The cap is a little hard to hold if you have problems grasping things like I sometimes do.

Opacity: Medium – achieves opacity at three coats.

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 tested for stamping.

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

Overall Thoughts: Normally, I have the worst problem with Rainbow Honey polishes and thickness.  Sweet Talk, however, was totally different.  I did put in two or three drops of thinner, but it honestly probably didn't need it.  Application was great.  The glitters spread well.  The overall effect was nice.  I was very pleased with this Rainbow Honey!  It was the perfect sweet concoction for Valentine's Day.

You can buy Zoyas at Ulta, their site, and salons.  You can purchase Rainbow Honey at their shop.  Follow Dee and the crew on Facebook, Twitter, and IG for news and updates.

Do you do your nails for the holiday?

*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.*

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I thought I'd post a special St. Patrick's Day mani since I've been horrible about posting my holiday manicures. I'm planning to do a massive post soon with my Christmas and Valentine's Day manis that I've neglected to show you guys. 

For my St. Patrick's Day manicure, I used a boatload of polishes to try my hand for a second time at a dotticure and, for my accent nail, what I like to call a glitter swoosh.  For this look I used the following polishes: 

Elevation Tindur, Elevation Mount Yu, China Glaze Keep Calm and Paint On, China Glaze Winter Holly, Picture Polish Pshiiit, Lynnderella Funny Money, OPI Thanks a Windmillion, Sinful Colors Mint Apple, and OPI Don't Mess with OPI. 

First, I did a normal manicure using Picture Perfect Pshiiit, which will receive it's own review later. 

Next, I added my Winter Holly and Funny Money swoosh. I call it a swoosh because it's a streak that starts thick at the bottom and tapers as it moves towards the tip, kind of like the Nike swoosh. 

Finally, I used the other green cremes/shimmers to create my dots. 

Ugh, stupid topcoat smearing!

I wasn't sure how I'd like it as it didn't turn out the way I had hoped. It's growing on me, though. You can get Elevation polishes here, China Glazes at beauty supply stores, Sinful Colors at Walgreens, OPI at Ulta and salons, Lynnderellas at her store here, and Picture Polishes at Llarowe (as well as a few other etailers).

Did you do a St. Patrick's Day mani? Share them on my Facebook page or tag me in a tweet or IG post @blueeyedlawyer!

Comparison Thursday: Pink Glitter Toppers

Today's Comparison Thursday post is all about pink glitter toppers!  Tonight, we're going to take a look at a discontinued OPI black label and a Butter London that's still available: OPI I Love the Holidays Topcoat and Butter London Rosie Lee.  My middle name is Lee, true story!  That was random...  It's been a long month, so you're going to be seeing some randomness and gibberish for the next few weeks.  Both polishes contain fine light pink glitters in a clear base.  I've swatched them over white and OPI My Very First Knockwurst, which is a pale neutral pink creme.

Here they are side by side.

I Love the Holidays Topcoat

ILtH was a polish that came out as a part of the OPI Victorian Holiday Collection in 2002.  I actually purchased this new as well as a set of minis for my mom.  I haven't seen it while out dustying, either, so it may be pretty hard to find.  Application was amazing.  Even after 10 years, it didn't even need thinner, just a good shake to get it going again.  The glitters spread evenly and with great coverage.  In my opinion, it was the superior polish out of these two.

Rosie Lee

Rosie Lee has larger, clunkier pink glitters than ILtH with a much thicker base.  It was my first BL, and, to be honest, I wasn't impressed.  I received it in a swap, so I'm glad I didn't spend money on it.  I have another BL glitter that I haven't tried yet, but I'm not really sure if I'm looking forward to it.  Application was difficult.  The base is thick and clumpy, and the glitters were still rough after a generous topcoat.  

I like the smaller glitters in ILtH much better.  They twinkle subtly over other polishes, versus being in your face like RL.  Plus, application was easier with the OPI than the BL.  In the end, though, I decided neither of these were really for me and sold them both.  I do have a little bit of sellers remorse for getting rid of ILtH now, but I have so many other polishes I haven't even worn yet, so I'm glad it went to a good home.

Which is your favorite?