Zoya Wishes-- Winter 2014

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Zoya Wishes-- Winter 2014

  I've had some trouble trying to figure out exactly what vibe the Zoya faeries were going for when they created this year's winter collection, titled Wishes.  It's equal parts rich, dark, and cold, anchored by another trio of Pixiedusts and supplemented by a complementing creme, frost, and microshimmer.    

Honey Bunny Lacquer Alice In Chains Collection

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Hello and happy Caturday!!  If you follow on facebook or instagram, you might have seen that not only am I down to nubs AGAINNNNN, but I've been enjoying wearing my favorite OPI Softshades colors on said nubs this week, and I've been reminded of why I love those creamy, glossy sheer polishes so much.  One of the other things I like using those polishes for is as bases for colorful and chunky glitters, as they highlight the variances so nicely and just make the colors extra vibrant.  

Honey Bunny Lacquer's newest collection is one full of such glitters, and anchored by two stand alone colors.  This collection is inspired by creator Deb's favorite band, premier grunge artists Alice In Chains.  It you're a fan of the band, or of grunge in general, you might recognize a few of the names.

Celestial Cosmetics Mercury Rising & The Pink Planet

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Hi friends!!  Yesterday I showed you one of indie newcomer Celestial Cosmetics' collaboration polishes and today I've got two from the core line.  Celestial Cosmetics polishes are beautiful and conceptual, with finishes ranging from creamy glitter to frost to linear holographic.  The most recent additions bear fun and imaginative straight from sci-fi names.

This is Mercury Rising, a practically-applies-itself frosty, silvery blue packed with periwinkle glitters.

I love my light frosts and Mercury Rising is a delicate and updated take on the pearly finishes of yore.  It has the same sheen but this finish is  light, airy, and whipped, like a light, iridescent foam.  It's a modern pearl, if you will.  The formula is wonderfully easy to work with.  I used two coats of polish and one layer of topcoat.

This is The Pink Planet, one of those gorgeous dark pink-red shades I'm so wild about.

The Pink Planet is a quinacridone red jelly base packed with tiny holographic glitters and medium sized holographic hexes.  This polish is beautifully romantic and looks like Valentine's Day in a bottle to me.  The Pink Planet is one of loooove, lol.  Doesn't it look like it could be the atmosphere of a planet in a distant galaxy?  So much awesome imagery surrounding this one.  The Pink Planet has another easy as pie to apply formula.  Again, I used two coats of polish and one layer of topcoat.  My only real complaint is that those gorgeous hexes don't show up as abundantly on the nail as they do in the bottle... but that could be user error.  Make sure this one gets a really good shake before application.

 Celestial Cosmetics Mercury Rising and The Pink Planet will be available internationally at color4nails.com within 1-2 weeks.

Like color4nails on facebook to stay up to date on specials and new releases, and Celestial Cosmetics' exact release date.

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!! ♥

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China Glaze Frostbite + Ruby Pumps

I've got an 8 year old's luau birthday party to attend today, so I've been torn on what to do for my manicure.  I decided to go patriotic and honor Memorial Day with two of my favorite China Glaze polishes, Frostbite and Ruby Pumps.

 The thing with Frostbite is that it flat-out refuses to photograph accurately. If you own it and have attempted to photograph it, or have googled swatches of it, you know this.  You see a nice, saturated, dark cerulean leaning icy blue frost, and that's not entirely inaccurate.  The color in real life is darker, more royal blue, deeper, and slightly shimmery.  Something about the bottle reminds me of a gigantic iceberg in the middle of a cold northern ocean.  It's just stunning and if frosts aren't your thing, know that the frost is less apparent in real life, too.  I used two coats.

Ahh, Ruby Pumps.  How many times I've seem swatches of this red jelly packed with red shimmers and tiny red glitter and needed to own it...  I found myself a mini this winter at Sally Beauty Supply.  I didn't know ChG did minis and it was just too tempting to get the adorable little bottle, lol.  The polish is deep and rich and overall fantastically beautiful.  I used three coats.

When I was a kid, every Memorial Day started out the same-- my family would go to church in the morning, then head out to the cemetery to pay our respects to passed family members and to our local fallen heroes.  We'd return home and commence rainy day barbecuing activities (because if it's not pouring on Memorial Day, you're probably not in Oregon) but the light cast on the day was always one of grateful remembrance.  I guarantee that there was much complaining coming out of my mouth at the time but I'm so thankful to my dad for instilling that sense of reverence for the day in my heart at a young age.  And to those of you who have served and to those of you with loved ones who have served and given the ultimate sacrifice, THANK YOU.  From the bottom of my heart-- thank you.

♥

OPI Black Label-- Abbey Rose

Happy Caturday!!  While I'm on my OPI spring lovefest, I thought I'd trot out one of my oldest polishes, OPI Abbey Rose.  I'm not sure how long I've had it, but I do know that I wore it on my toes for my bachelorette party nine years ago, and that it was my favorite pedi color for a long time.  This might be the first time I've ever worn it as a mani.

  Abbey Rose is a frosty, dusty mauve that comes from the British collection... anyone remember the year and season?  I'm pretty sure this was 2004.  This means the brush is nice and thin, aka non-Pro-Wide, and much easier to handle when you've got small nailbeds, as I do.  I used two coats.  Man, I used to love this polish :)

In case you're wondering what "black label" means... A few years ago, there was a brouhaha surrounding certain chemicals found in polishes/nail products and how bad for our bodies they are.  Apparently, there was never any rock-solid evidence supporting this (correct me if I'm wrong) but some companies decided to change their formulas to exclude these chemicals, which became known as the "Big 3", dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde, and toluene.  OPI was one such company, and as they changed their formula, they changed the color of the font on their labels from black to green.

 old, new

Got any black label OPIs?  I know some of them are pretty highly sought after, Abbey Rose not included, lol.  I have five or six older polishes and each of them is a frosty finish.  I can't decide if I've just always liked this finish or if that was all that was available, for a while.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend! ☼

Julep Maya

One of my favorite collections of 2012 was Julep Resort.  Back then I was a Maven and it was hard to choose which box to get the month it was introduced.  Julep didn't offer add-ons so I thought I missed out on Maya.  My friend Candice at Mommy Does Her Nails generously surprised me with it this past summer, though.  Here it is in all its frosty, peachy-pink glory.

C and I just started watching Arrested Development on netflix and Maya somehow reminds me of Lucille (the mom, not Liza Minelli) in a disconnected from reality, slightly tackily yet expensively dressed, ladies who lunch sort of totally good way.  Yes, totally good.  It really is a pretty shade and you all know how I like my light, pearly polishes.  It's not often a lacquer evokes a very specific persona or feeling, and when it does it's extra fun to wear.

I should really have a shot of these nails with a martini glass or something, but the color looks just as much at home next to some (cheap) tortoiseshell sunglasses. ;)

One of my sisters and I got together this morning and she liked the color so much she wanted her nails done in it, too.  Now I know how maligned the frost finish is in the polish community and this is terribly brushstroke-y.  Like I said, though, the peachy pink shade itself is divine and it's got perfect, full coverage which is truly rare for a light pearl.  Thanks for allowing me to add this fun one to my stash, Candice ♥♥♥

Max Factor Deep Mauve

Good afternoon, from the comfort of my pjs and bathrobe!  Middle of the week days off are awesome, lol.

So in light of yesterday's post, while I'm on the subject of traveling family members/Max Factor, here's the third polish my mama brought home for me from Holland this past spring.  It's Max Factor Deep Mauve, which isn't really mauve, but rather an incredibly juicy looking opalescent raspberry red.  I used three coats in the first two photos, two in the third.

I love this color.  And, it's fun to try out a Max Factor beyond Fantasy Fire.  Deep Mauve is a little bit vampy, just this side of frosty, raspberry jam colored blue-red-pink with very subtle red-pink shimmer to give it some nice depth.  These Max Factor polishes apply like a dream, too.  Because they're minis, the brush is adorably short and so very easy to control.

So, there you go!  It's 1:15pm in my neck o' the woods and time for me to maybe shower/get to the grocery store/do some laundry/take a nap.  Thanks for reading. <3

Cover Girl Violet Vamp

Hello hello!!  Remember when Cover Girl made nail polishes?  I've got one of them on today, called Violet Vamp.  In hindsight I could have/should have used today's polish for the letter V, because this one's got them in spades, but instead it gets to be my W color, for Wayback machine. ;)

My very favorite polish from the turn of the century :D was a frosty, shimmery CG nude called Sand Dollar.  The line was called NailSlicks and they came in thin, square shaped bottles.  I eschewed all things makeup and girly for a couple years, and when next I paid attention, CG's polishes came in a little triangular bottle and some nice, on-trend colors.  Violet Vamp was one from the fall of 2005 or 06.  Here it is, in two coats.

Violet Vamp is a dark, frosty red-purple with silver, red, and purple shimmer.  It's really a pretty shade, but frosty-shimmery is not what I would associate with vampy.  Maybe eight years ago it was, lol.  I wasn't even painting my fingernails back then, just my toes, and I felt so terribly trendsetting in this color.  The formula's stinky, but still really nice to apply.  There's one available on ebay right now for $12.99, not including shipping.  

Rainbow Favorites Day Five: China Glaze Frostbite + WetnWild Stars & Stripes

Good morning!!  Before this challenge started, I planned ahead and made a list of the colors I'd use, and I totally had not settled on a blue until sometime yesterday afternoon.  I almost did wear my favorite again, which is Rescue Beauty Lounge Cuprum, but in the end I decided to do a test run of my Independence Day mani.  Christina at Amoki's Corner used China Glaze Frostbite in her Memorial weekend pedi, and I thought it looked absolutely perfect with her handpainted stars and decided that's what I'd use for my nails come the 4th. 

Frostbite is a gorgeous, chilly cerulean blue frost that's actually waaaaay darker than it appears (is it my camera, or is it me? Hmmm....)  I haven't used a China Glaze polish in years, and I didn't remember what to expect; the formula here was a little thin, and the brush a little small for my liking, but it covered perfectly in two coats and did I mention the color is gorgeous?

  

Also, I love stars.  My bedroom ceiling at my parents' house is covered in those tiny glow-in-the-dark sticky ones.  When I saw WetnWild Stars & Stripes at the grocery store one evening, of course I had to pick it up.  They're tricky, and need to be fished out, but they're so cute!  And they're holographic!  I can't wait to add a shimmery red to the mix in another week. 

So, what lovely blues are my fellow participants sporting?

~on beauty stuff and what else’s...~

9ml Universe

atlcatsmeow

Captivating Claws

Fancy Phalanges

Fe’s Nails

Follow the Yellow Polish Road

Football and Fingernails

Fresh Air & Fashion

Happy Nails

 iHeartPrettyPolish

Kelly’s Kolors!

Lacquer Dreams

Liesl Loves Pretty Things

Light Your Nails!

Manicurity

My Life in Polish

Nail Polish Lane

Nailpolish is Alive

Nubbin Nails

Of Color n Music...

Polish and Such 

Sincerely, Obsessed With Polish

So You Think You Can Paint

The Rantings of a Nailpolish Hoarder

Tomorrow is purple day, and I seriously CAN'T WAIT!! :)  I'll be wearing what might be my Holy Grail.

Thank you for reading, and have an awesome day. :)