WetnWild Eggplant Frost

  Hello, everyone!!  One of my first major polish lems was Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Burgundy Orchid {HERE} and {HERE}, lol.  It is gorgeous in every sense of the word but the top photo in {THIS POST} from Munia's Nails has haunted me these years because that dark blue to red to purple flash does not occur without flash photography.  It's a color I've not been sure I'd find because of current nail polish trends.  Enter WetnWild Eggplant Frost, a 99¢ dealie from the Wild Shine line, one that I've seen around but not paid much attention to until a fellow polish lover posted about it in one of my facebook groups (follow her, MyOrdinaillyLife, on instagram {HERE}).  

WetnWild Eggplant Frost

Celestial Cosmetics Meteoroid and Aurora

  Remember when you first started your nail polish hobby, and every other color was just mindblowingly fascinating?  And your stash grew, and things just kind of got less exciting, just because you'd already seen so much, and more or less knew what to expect?  It's the whole magic of the first time thing and when you're years into a hobby, things just don't fascinate you nearly as often, nor in quite the same way.  Sometimes, though, a polish will come along and grab you to the point where you've just got to have it and BAM, that magic is back again.  That happened to me twice, recently, perhaps in part because they're both from one of my very favorite indies, so I already knew the formulas would be outstanding, but also because they both collectively share everything I love in an effects polish-- holo, duochrome, and glassfleck.  Allow me to present Celestial Cosmetics Meteoroid and Aurora.

Introducing Joss Affinite

*press sample

  Good morning, everyone!!  A package of polishes in a brand totally new to me arrived in my mailbox the other day.  Joss Affinite is an Australian brand of professional salon lacquers that come in glitter and holo finishes.

  Sudden Impulse is a straightforward, fun, and gorgeous quinacridone red linear holo. 

Nubar Indigo Illusion

  Hi all!!  Ever on the search for gorgeous duochromes am I, and Nubar's got some fantastic ones.  Indigo Illusion is purportedly one of the strongest, prompting fellow blogger Erika of Icy Nails to call it "death by duochrome" during a facebook conversation sometime last year.  I had to have it.

  The interesting thing about Nubar duochromes is that they seem to be more duochrome shimmers in a monochromatic base.  Most duochromes demonstrate flashes of color that permeate the entire polish, but Nubars have a surface change, still very strong on account of how much shimmer pigment is in each polish, but sort of floating on top with a subtle permeation; more of a suspension than a solution.  Anyway, here's Indigo Illusion, a dusty, medium toned midnight teal with a rosy pink, green, and gold flash.  Tasty.

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Swatch Spam

  

  Hi everyone!!  Happy Sunday!  I've been really wordy on a LOT of my recent posts so I'll give you all a break and just post some swatch spam :) You know I LOOOOVE my Sally Hansen Nail Prisms and I recently got a couple more duochromes off Amazon (including one I've been lemming hardcore, lol-- not Turquoise Opal or White Turquoise, alas, but maybe someday...).
  First up is my lem, Ruby Sapphire.  It's a jelly based blue violet to fuschia shifter with some shimmer.  Three coats. 

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Lava

  Happy Caturday, everyone!!  I don't think the Sally Hansen Lustre Shine duochrome collection is more than a year old, yet it seems it's being yanked from the lineup.  The colors weren't groundbreaking in any way, in fact three of them were copies of the China Glaze Bohemian collection (which contained copies of the Deborah Lippmann Mirrored Chrome collection, all of which contained a Peridot dupe and as much as I love my three, even I have my limits), but for Lava, which was rumored to be a copy of discontinued MAC polish Bad Fairy, but EVEN MOAR awesome. (Hey Emily, how's that for a run-on?! XD)

  Anyway, I have this thing against paying the same amount for a drugstore polish what I would for a Zoya, so much picking up and putting down of Lava occurred within the past 12 or so months.  Then, they turn up at one of my local watering holes with clearance tags on them, and $3.49 is a perfectly acceptable price to pay for a drugstore duochrome.  So this is what I've been sporting on my nailses for the past couple days, and ZOMGOSHHHHH I LOVE THIS POLISH SO MUCH!!!!  Not only is it an incredibly powerful bright retro pink to gold shifter, it's a glassfleck.  So, it's got a jelly base and a tremendous amount of sparkle and glow.  Observe.

New Indie Alert!! Baroness X

*press sample

  Good morning everyone!!  I'm excited to share with you all today a few polishes from an indie maker so new that her logo was finalized as I was in the process of reviewing her polishes.  Baroness X is no stranger to hand mixing her lacquers, though-- she's been doing it for years, for herself and her friends, and only recently decided to go public with her creations.  I get to show you five of them today, from two different collections.

  The first three are from the Holiday collection.  First up is Snowball Fight, a sheer and very pale jelly base filled with iridescent powder and mylar flakies that totally works as a classic French with a slight twist polish but really shines over a dark base.  I layered one coat of Snowball Fight over an indigo creme and I love the effect-- the opalescence over the deep purpley blue make it very Revlon Moon Candy-esque.  I finished this with one layer of HK Girl Glisten & Glow topcoat.

Julep Blakely and Some Small Life/Blog Musings... not necessarily in that order (word heavy!!!)

  Hi everyone!!  It's funny what a tiny little thing like a new nail shape can do for your outlook.  I've been in a bit of a reinvention mode and it's all just little things, but they feel all fresh and exciting for me.  First off, you may or may not have noticed that I've not done any posts beyond polish reviews for a solid couple months now.  Part of that is because I've been receiving a BUNCH of press sample packages and have been busy working those in around all the other life stuff, holidays, household upkeep, full time job, etc.  and part of it is because I haven't been motivated to do my makeup at all, lol.  So regarding the latter, one of my new year's resolutions is to try a little harder to look presentable.  I'm blessed with a husband who sees me get up late and walk out of the bedroom with messy topknot, greasy face, and big poofy bathrobe and tells me how adorable I look.  That, combined with unadulterated laziness has compelled me to spend less time trying to look polished and more time sleeping/blogging/spending time with aforementioned awesome husband, but I kind of miss the fun of putting a look together and the effort I used to put into looking my best.  So I went and bought myself some new makeup, organized my vanity, and branched out and got some accessories and a new outfit that are a little out of my comfort zone.  The plan is to elaborate more on both those things in the near future but for now I'll just say that I'm kind of feeling floral prints at the moment and I never thought I'd say that, lol.  

  Regarding the blogging/press sample thing, it's honestly the coolest thing pretty much ever and I feel equal parts highly fortunate and sort of dumbfounded that I get to do this and that people actually want me to review their polishes for them.  Some folks' blogs take on a life of their own almost immediately and some of us have the opportunity to develop over time and that's totally how it's been for me.  I'm approaching my two year blogiversary in March and the growth that's happened on here throughout the past 52 weeks has been crazy and cool.  So right now I'm at a point where I'm pondering what direction I want to go with this thing.  The blogosphere is super saturated with nail blogs, as you all know (sometimes I wonder if there are more gals with blogs than without, lol), and reviews over and over and over again can maybe get a little stale.  I've been wondering how I can begin to set myself apart even just a little in this world.  So, with my new year's resolution and my desire to spice things up around la blog, I hope to do more beauty posts (beyond red lippy posts, lol) and to incorporate some fashion.  Maybe some of you remember my Wantable acessories box review last September?  Well, I'm hoping to expand on that.  All this also means doing a little more time budgeting but I'm up for it :) A blog is an organic thing and I want to be able to grow, and I also don't want to ever, EVER become boring, to myself or to you guys.  That's not to say that polish swatches and reviews won't still be in abundance :)

  Anyoo, here's my last set of photos of my talon-ish squares, lol.  You know I have a love-hate relationship with Julep and it has nearly everything to do with how overpriced I feel their polishes are.  With my Maven membership I was able to pick up a couple of Julep's Black Friday specials for $3.99 each (they're totally worth that price, imo).  Blakely is Julep's answer to the dark green to purple oil slick duochrome that was kind of ubiquitous this fall.  Essie and OPI both released one similar, so it's not groundbreaking, but it is super pretty and how cool is it to finally see the mainstreamers coming out with duochromes again?!

A Franken Femme Custom Original

Hi everyone!  There are a lot of remarkably talented and creative minds in the polish world and this gives those of us content to write and take pictures plenty to be thankful for.  I'm one of the least creative out there when it comes to thinking in color and dreaming up my own shades, so when the fabulous Becca, aka the Franken Femme, gave me the opportunity to have a custom color made a few weeks ago, I needed to take some time to really think about what I'd want.  Becca has a plethora of beautiful and original creations, and I'm still floored and honored that she offered to make something for me.

In case you're unfamiliar with the term "frankening", Girly Bits Cosmetics blog has a comprehensive description of the phenomenon.  In a nutshell, frankening is taking different components, such as existing polish colors, eyeshadows, glitters, pigments, and mixing them together to create a franken polish.  It's a pretty awesome way to tweak certain colors to achieve a certain vision.  My vision, because Becca offered this at the beginning of fall, was a dark teal to midnight blue glassfleck and my gosh, did she deliver.  It's even got a bit of the purple duochrome flash that I love so much.  Observe.

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Pink Pearl

Hello, Happy Sunday, and welcome, new readers!  I'm stoked you're here and I hope you enjoy my blog as much as I do (really hoping that doesn't read like a line from Mean Girls, lol).

The unfortunately discontinued Sally Hansen Nail Prisms have been an obsession of mine since I first laid eyes on Burgundy Orchid two years ago.  I've made it my mission to own them all, and all means every light and frosty shade as well as their beautiful dark duochromes and saturated holos.  I'm kind of an oddball in that I actually really like light pearly colors but so many of the light Nail Prisms are copies of themselves.  I've intended to do a comparison post for something like a year and a half but in the mean time, I'll just show you one of my more recently acquired Prisms.

This is Pink Pearl, a pale pink to pale golden duochrome.

Celestial Cosmetics King Slayer

*press sample

Good morning, guys and gals!!  Duochromes seem to be having a moment in the polish world this fall, from the big names of Essie and OPI to indies I Love Nail Polish and Celestial Cosmetics.  The only thing that'd make me happier is if Sally Hansen decided to bring back the Nail Prisms line (or if Turquoise Opal magically fell into my lap for less than $40, lol).

I've got another fantastically beautiful duochrome from Color4Nails/Celestial Cosmetics collaboration collection The Seven Kingdoms gracing my nails today.  Remember a couple days ago I said each polish in this all around gorgeous collection has been better than the last?  Well, it rings true again.

This is King Slayer, a shimmery, blackened midnight blue to deep violet duochrome with a faint dark blue and silvery royal purple shimmer and a slightly metallic finish.

I adore this color; it's so deep, rich, dark, and dramatic.  Like Mother Of Dragons, King Slayer is reminiscent of my beloved Nail Prisms-- the shift isn't as strong, but it comes with a definite plus.  Celestial Cosmetics has set a precedent for itself regarding formula.  I have not tried one CC polish that didn't apply impeccably.  I used two coats of polish and one of topcoat.  Wear time is nice, too-- this made it through a rough day at work with very minimal tipwear.

LOVE.  Here's an outside shot.

The Seven Kingdoms is a collection of nine polishes and I honestly feel I got to try four of the best, with King Slayer being a standout even among those four.  You need this polish in your life.

King Slayer and the rest of the Celestial Cosmetics The Seven Kingdoms collection will be available for sale internationally within the next few days at color4nails.com.

  Like color4nails on facebook to stay up to date on specials and new releases.

Thank you for reading and carpe diem ♥♥♥

 *press sample

Celestial Cosmetics Mother Of Dragons

*press sample

It's a fun and rare thing when each polish you try from a certain collection is better than the last, and in the case of Color4Nails and Celestial Cosmetics' collaboration set, The Seven Kingdoms, this is most certainly true.  Mother Of Dragons is a classic and beautiful magenta to gold duochrome with a shimmery metallic, slightly pearly finish.

I seriously cannot say enough good things about Mother Of Dragons.  This will be my go to festive nails-like-Christmas-ornaments polish this year, something I've regrettably skipped out on in years past.  Of course, the difference between this and the red/cranberry metallics and foils we've seen in years past is the brilliant gold flash.

 The formula is outstanding-- very easy to apply, minimal cleanup (in fact, I had zero), rich and opaque in two coats.

Here are some outside shots.

This, ladies and gents, is why duochromes are in my top three favorite finishes.

So I've been thinking, and noticing, since my nails are all long and stuff now, that I perhaps need to switch my standard poses up a bit.  C decided to offer me some advice and suggested I hold the bottles as if I'm holding a guitar (he used to play bass so this is for real here, mkay?).

It's niiiice, no?  lolol.

Anyhoooo, Mother Of Dragons and the rest of the Celestial Cosmetics The Seven Kingdoms collection will be available for sale internationally within the next few days at color4nails.com.

  Like color4nails on facebook to stay up to date on specials and new releases.

Thank you for reading and have an amazing day!! ♥

*press sample

LynBDesigns So Changeable

 *press sample

One of the coolest things about indie polish companies is the fun and inspired pop culture collections that come out and say something about what the creator likes, music, television, and movie-wise.  Connecting with one yourself is even more fun.

Sherlock Holmes and I go way back, to sitting with my mom and sisters in front of the tube watching the late, great Jeremy Brett on PBS when I was a kid.   When I learned that Jenna of LynBDesigns has a Holmes-inspired polish collection, I was pretty stoked to get my hands on one.  This is So Changeable, inspired by the criminal mind of Sherlock's diabolical archenemy, Professor Moriarty.

So Changeable is a midnight blue jelly packed with tiny, color shifting navy blue glitters that flash teal and purple.  It's so packed that, despite the jelly base, this polish only requires two coats to be fully opaque.  The formula dries very quickly, and I needed to work quickly to apply it evenly.  I used a thin coat first, then I applied a decent sized dollop in the middle of my nail for the second and was able to maneuver it around to full coverage without any flooding or pooling.  It's a little bit thick and not quite what I'd call an "applies itself" polish, but it is dark, rich, and beautiful and totally worth the small bit of extra effort.  So Changeable dries to a satiny finish and I like everything to be super shiny so I used two layers of topcoat.

So Changeable and the rest of the Baker Street collection are available for purchase internationally for $8 at LynBDesigns' etsy shop.  Like LynBDesigns on facebook to keep up with specials and new releases.

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day! ☼

*press sample

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Fire Opal

Good morning!!  I have another Nail Prism for your viewing pleasure this ayem.  There's a word for my kind, something having to do with not being overly selective about certain things... let's just say that I'm of the opinion that any Prism is a good Prism.  Even so, I've been a little reticent to wear this one, as it's largely seen as the dud of the bunch and does not look like much of anything in the bottle.  I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it is on.

 

Fire Opal is a bright, very slightly coral-tinged pink jelly packed with light blue shimmer and giving off a subtle, pale cerulean flash.  It is very sheer and doesn't build much after three coats, but when a polish is this pretty, it's kind of a non-issue.  Some of the Prisms have pretty long dry times, but Fire Opal behaved well and did not make me sit through two episodes of Mad Men before being dry to the touch (though I did do that, you know, just in case).

Fire Opal was showing up pretty regularly in those five-packs we were seeing so many of for a while, and that's how I got mine.  It's currently available on amazon for $2.99 + shipping.

Thanks for reading, and have a marvelous day! ♥♥

A Little Catrice Spam!

Hellooo!!  Rather than inundate you all with a bunch of Peridot dupe photos, I thought I'd try to make it somewhat interesting and combine my new Catrice dupe with an older one that I've shown before but reallllly wanted to wear again.

Here's Genius in a Bottle.

 The lovely Christine from Polished Marvels sent me not one, but two of the green to gold duochromes I love so much and I could not wait to get one on my fingers.  The only polish I can personally compare Genius in a Bottle to at the moment is China Glaze Rare and Radiant, and Genius seems to be a little more golden and a lot less brushstroke-y.  This is two coats.  Love.

This one's Heavy Metallilac, one my awesome mamama brought me from her trip to Holland last spring that some of you've probably seen already.  It's an absolutely stunning and vivid shimmery violet.  Two coats here, too.

Thanks for reading!  Have a lovely Monday.  Seriously. ♥

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Lapis Amethyst

Hi kids!!  Today's entry in the Prisms parade is another Christmas gift from C.  I can't even tell you how stoked I was to open this one.  Here's Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Lapis Amethyst.  I officially call this my birthstone polish, not because of the name, but because of the stone it resembles.

Lapis Amethyst is a stunningly beautiful slightly dusty aquamarine to pink duochrome metallic with light pink and blue shimmers.  It's not the strongest shifter, but the best thing about this polish isn't necessarily the shift.  It's the absolutely gorgeous shimmery gemcolored hue.  The tinge of pink on the edges is icing on the cake.

I used three coats of this.  My only complaint about this line is the dry time, and when you've got places to go and things to do, you need to pull out the big guns (aka Seche topcoat).  I've already got some tip shrinkage on a couple nails.  It seems Seche is not particularly fond of non Big 3-free polishes.

Lapis Amethyst is pretty readily available on amazon and ebay for a reasonable price.

Thanks for reading! ♥

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Garnet Lapis

Good morning!!  It's been a couple weeks since I've had to be up this early (in my world, that's 6:30 am).  I'd momentarily forgotten how not fun it is, lol.  The cure?  More duochrome.  (Sorry.  Tired.  That's the best I can come up with at this point.)

This is Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Garnet Lapis.  The force is strong with this one.

Garnet Lapis is a shimmery, jelly like azure/cerulean to royal purple duochrome.  SO gorgeous, but not really garnet-y in any sense of the word.  It's more Lapis Amethyst, if you ask me, but that's another polish entirely.  It's not really lapis-y, either, come to think of it, because lapis is more of a darker, truer, dustier blue.  Whatever.  The color shift is beautiful and super strong.  If you look carefully at the bottle or submerge your nails in water, you can even see an outline of gold.  

Because it's more jelly, the formula goes on thin.  I used three coats here, which is adequate.  Four may or may not be better; I've had mixed results using more than three coats with the sheerer Prisms.  

Garnet Lapis is one of the harder to find Prisms, so when it appeared on amazon last summer, I dove on it, and I'm so glad I did .

Thanks for reading! ♥

Nubar Gold Feather

Hello!!  I'm trotting out another Christmas present today.  Nubar is a brand I'm not too familiar with, only that Reclaim is a sick green holo and that they have some really cool duochromes.  (Is it cool to say sick when you're not a skateboarder and you're in your thirties?) I asked for a few for Christmas, and C obliged.  This is Gold Feather.

I have such a weakness for these caramel golds with creamed honey finishes.  I have two other colors similar to this one, an indie from Polished Components that I believe is discontinued, and L'Oreal The Temptress's Power.  Gold Feather is the best of the three, the most opaque and the most duochrome.  But maybe you can't even call it that-- the base doesn't really change its color, but the irridescence becomes more pronounced at different angles.  Sometimes it's a bright gold sheen, sometimes it's a flash of chartreuse, and sometimes it's the palest blue.  The formula's great, too, not too thin, super easy to work with.  I used two coats here.  I think I like this Nubar stuff.

Thanks for reading! ♥

  

China Glaze Bohemian Collection No Plain Jane

Good morning!!  It's pretty awesome when you get up to take your swatch pictures and return only to find that your cat has taken your chair. :p

I didn't think I needed another polish from China Glaze's Bohemian collection, having already gotten Rare and Radiant & Swanky Silk.  Then I saw this post from Emma at Manicurity, a nail art mani done with the Deborah Lippmann Private Dancer and Sugar Daddy, the polishes ChG No Plain Jane and Swanky Silk are supposed to be reminiscent of, and I noticed something.  The two colors are like the light and dark versions of each other, like one's the negative to the other's color print.  How cool is that?

Clearly, I had to get No Plain Jane at that point and try a mix of the two for myself.  But first, here's No Plain Jane in all its glory. ;)  I used two coats. 

You've probably heard by now that No Plain Jane isn't quite the duochrome it claims to be, but the sage green/honey brown to purple shift you see in the bottle does translate onto the nail, and it does so by giving this metallic violet a delightfully and surprisingly demure, dusky appearance. 

The verdict?  I like this one on its own, way more than I thought I would.  Aren't surprises like this fun?

Here's my Sal Pal, before I unceremoniously removed her from my chair. 

Thanks for reading, and have a lovely Thursday. ;)