A is for A-England Elaine and Digital Nails My Violet Crown

I'm horrible at playing along with challenges, but I really am trying hard to keep up with my Red Coat Tuesday, and now the #alphamani challenge I'm doing in one of my Facebook Groups.  Last week's "theme" was A-England.  I only have one, Elaine, so I decided to pair it with a special Digital Nails polish that went really well with Elaine.  I received the Digital Nails polish in a special swap I did with Raph, the maker, and I seriously love it!  Let's take a look at Elaine with accents of My Violet Crown.  

Purchased by or gifted to me.

A-England Elaine is a deep almost eggplant purple creme.  Application was smooth and super easy.  I didn't need to do much cleanup at all.  The layers went on smooth, and I only needed two coats for full opacity.  I topped it off with a layer of Seche Vite to make it nice and glossy.

My Violet Crown is an indigo based polish with a strong purple to blue shift, silver micro holographic glitters, and a dash of holographic pigment.  It was a tad on the thicker side, but I added some thinner, and it was perfection.  I used three coats with one coat of Seche Vite, and it had a gorgeous glossy finish.

As you can see, I've cropped my nails short again.  I find that I tend to like them shorter in the winter time since the cold and wind can really kill them, my cuticles, and my skin.  If you follow Born for a Storm, you're probably already familiar with the Cutie phenomenon.  Cuties are nails that are intentionally short.  Those of us who like to wear our nails super short never have a nice name for our nails.  People call them nubs, but that's such a pejorative term in the nail community because usually after nub the words ugly, boy hands, or gross closely follow.  To counteract that mentality, Sara and I decided to come up with a new name to describe intentionally short nails - the cutie.  So, if you have cuties, we welcome you to post your manis on IG or FB and tag them as #cutienailclub and #clubcutie.  That way we can all celebrate our short lovely nails!

Anyway, you can purchase A-Englands in several places including Color4Nails.  While My Violet Crown isn't available for purchase, you can grab other Digital Nails polishes at her shop here!  So, how would you describe your nail shape?

My First Reverie!

I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has wished my kitty well or sent positive and healing vibes, thoughts, and prayers for him.  He's finally at home, but we had to keep the feeding tube in since he's not quite ready to eat on his own yet.  Here he is napping on the blanket next to me shortly after we got home.  You can see his little shaved belly where they did the surgery as well as a bit of the feeding tube.  He goes back in for a checkup in a week, so please keep sending those positive vibes until we get a clean bill of health!!

Tonight, I'm going to show you a brand that I've loved for a while as well as a brand that is new to me!  I've been a fan of Peita's Polish for quite a while, so it was only natural that I try to grab a What's Indie Box every month that I could!  Reverie Nail Lacquer is new to me, so I was pretty excited to give it a shot.  I received this bottle from a swap I had with a few other indie makers, which was a super fun way to try out each others' brands!  Let's take a look at Peita's Polish Solar Flare with accents of Reverie Nail Lacquer Giant Toxic Algae Bloom.

Purchased by me or gifted to me.

Solar Flare is a lovely medium teal creme with a bit of shimmer and silver micro flakies.  I used two coats with one coat of KBShimmer's Clearly On Top.  Application was super easy and didn't require much cleanup.  

Giant Toxic Algae Bloom has a lightly tinted teal jelly base with a slight shimmer loaded with a ridiculously insane amount of glitter including teal, blue, mint, white, silver, and blue in various shapes and sizes.  I didn't need to layer this over anything as it was fully opaque in two coats!  I probably could've easily layered it over undies, but I am in love with this squishy look with just GTAB.

GTAB was a custom created for a swap, so it's not available for purchase.  You can, however, find more Reverie Nail Lacquers at her shop here.  Solar Flare was from the September What's Indie Box, unfortunately, but you can still find them on blog sales or sales in Facebook groups.

I love how bright it came out.  Do you have any Peita's Polishes or Reverie Nail Lacquers?  Which are your favorites?