Who needs a galaxy mani, when you can have a Nebula?

Sure, you may know that Ninja Polish sells lots of international and Indie Polishes, but did you know that they also make their own brand?  And it's pretty amazing?

I started with a great black, so shiny it's hard to photograph:  Cult Nails Nevermore. 

Ninja Polish Nebula.  And, bring on the bling!  If Nevermore was too glossy to photograph clearly, this one is too glittery.  Can something not photograph well because it is just too pretty?

I'd like to say that I blurred this on purpose, but let's take advantage of it to see how sparkly this is.  Truly, it's even better in person.

Do you like it with a matte topcoat?  I think it's pretty interesting!

If you'd like more information about Ninja Polish, you can find them on Facebook and their webpage.

Have you ever done a Galaxy mani?  Would you do it with this polish?  What do you think of Nebula?

Can you Dance All Night with Cult Nails?

I'm a Cultie.  I stand proud and say it. 

What I don't want to say is that this is not my favorite Cult Nails collection. 

Not that it's all bad.  The creams are, as always, amazing.  They are the stars of this show.  The glitters... not so much.

Faded.  This is totally on trend for right now - these barely-there colors are so pretty and are the new neutral. 

Dance All Night.  The namesake of the collection, it was my least favorite.  Which is so hard to say, because I love green and blue!  The formula was thick, clumpy, and hard to apply.  It just doesn't look like anything I can't pick up in the drugstore now.

I grabbed my new favorite glitter, Orly Sparkling Garbage, and gave it a little oomph.  I liked it better, but it still wasn't enough, ya know?

Love at First Sight.  Lovely Lilac creme.  Flawless.

Center of Attention.  The formula on this pink and copper glitter was better than Dance All Night.  I like pink and copper together.. so much, in fact, that I must have 2 or 3 other glitters exactly like it.  

Nakizzle's Shizzle.  An homage to the nickname of one of the founder's daughters, Snoop would be proud that someone has continued the 'shizzle' trend.. And, it's a gorgeous polish.  Bright, almost electric, sky blue.  I can't decide if I like this or Faded better.

Walk of Shame.  This was my fave of the glitters.  It actually applied pretty well, and I like the tiny holo glitters.  The gold glitters have some reflective curling, though they do lie flat on the nail. I would probably try this over a black for maximum impact.

If you'd like more information on Cult Nails, you can find them on Facebook, or their webpage.

What do you think?  Are you like me, loving the cremes but underwhelmed by the glitters?  Do you love it all? Or, are you going to pass on all of them? 

I think this should be a wakeup call to the Indies that even the big brands can stumble occasionally.  The drugstore and salon brands are doing more innovative collections, and there are a lot of Indies making polish now.  So, you need to do something better or differently from the rest!

Orlys and Whimsies

Sometimes I dig through my stash of untrieds, and certain combinations just speak to me.  I had 3 new Whimsies that I had gotten through blog sales, and I had some new Orlys from the Mash Up collex, and I thought they made good pairs.  Let's see what you think...

Orly Melodious Utopia and Whimsies Hatched.  I don't wear a lot of yellow by itself, and I didn't need another yellow.... but did you see that pink shimmer?  Me = sucker.

This I wasn't expecting.  I love this.  So... Spring.

Check out the bottle shot - definitely not as yellow, more beige.  I love how the Orly brings out the perfect Spring yellow in this glitter.  Sometimes, you make a combo that is better than either of the two original polishes by themselves!

Orly Coachella Dweller and Whimsies Wicked.  That green... I love that mint green.  I could have used another coat, though.  It's a little thin, but I love Orly formulas for the most part. 

This may be the first Whimsie that I've tried that I didn't love.  What I did like - the green.  Especially how it mixes with the mint and looks a little mottled.  What I don't like is the sparseness of glitter, and how each glitter is so big.  I just can't pull that look off with my widdle tiny nails.

Orly Boho Bonnet and Whimsie Flower Child.  This is such a sweet periwinkle!  It does lean a little blue, but it seemed to enhance the purple of Flower Child.

This is a simple, pretty glitter.  The fuchsia is a great color, the tiny glitters in the background are groovy.  Where, though, are the flower glitters?  Seems like an obvious choice to me with this name.

Do you also pat yourself on the back when you score a great find at a blog sale, or make a combo of polishes that you end up loving?

On Wednesdays, the Mean Girls Wear Pink

I've probably mentioned that, as a little girl, I was only allowed to wear pink nail polish.  So, when I got back into polish, I rebelled a little at the idea of wearing pink.  I mean, why wear pink when I could wear BLUE?  or GREEN?  or *whisper* black?

So many rebellious choices, and I chose them all. 

And, by the way, I'm over 40, and it STILL drives my mother crazy when I wear crazy colored nail polish.  *evil cackle*

But, anyway, I decided that I liked pink again.  So here are some recent pink finds.

Illamasqua Pink Raindrops.  Oh, how we waited for this to show up on the UK website, paid our shipping costs, and then.. well, I like it, but I'm not sure it lived up to the hype.  It's not a pink version of Raindrops, as touted.  It is a pretty pink with flakies, but it's not a jelly. 

Smitten Polish Snowberry Gumdrop.  When I saw another blogger say about this polish that she wished this is what Pink Raindrops looked like, I knew I wanted it!  This is more of a crelly, with fewer, but larger white flakies.  I really like this.

365 Days of Color Make Me Laugh-y Taffy.  This is more jelly than I was expecting.  I would recommend wearing this with undies.  It's a thin formula that I think would take way too many coats to become opaque.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  This one has shredded glitters, too.

Feenix Pasadena Rose.  Pay no attention to the glittered ring finger, we'll get to that in a second.  Are you seeing that blue shimmer?  I hope you can find this in a blog sale, because Feenix closed its doors. 

Glitzology Priscilla. Ok, so you couldn't ignore the glitter.  But now I can tell you that it's Glitzology Priscilla.  It has a very sheer base - it might even be clear, but with a slight iridescence.  It looks like it was made to go with Feenix Pasadena Rose.  The blue shimmer plays nice with the pink and purple glitters, and the two sheer polishes together reach opacity without getting chunky. 

LynBDesigns Jarvis.  We're all guilty of buying at least one polish just for the name.  I have a friend whose name is NOT Jarvis, nor any derivation or similarity to Jarvis.  Yet, that is one of her nicknames.  She doesn't wear nail polish.  I knew she'd never wear this.. so I wear it for her.

Elixir Lacquers With A K.  And, we end on a hot pink note. This one is not for the shy and retiring.  It's bright and fun and shiny.  I have no idea what the K is, and why it has one.

I've included links in the polish titles to the Indies that are still with us.  If you'd like more information, you can find them all on Facebook.

Do you wear pink?   Do you wear a particular color when you're feeling rebellious?

Celiac Awareness - Not Just a Picky Eater

This is Celiac Awareness Month, and some of the beauty bloggers are posting green and yellow manis to help raise awareness, and I decided to do one as well.

May is Celiac Awareness month and its colors are yellow and green. Celiac Disease is more than an allergy to gluten. Gluten is an ingredient found in bread, pasta, anything wheat-based, and even items such as soy sauce. Basically gluten is in much of our daily food. From the National Foundation from Celiac Awareness, “Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disease that damages the villi of the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. What does this mean? Essentially the body is attacking itself every time a person with celiac consumes gluten.” When someone with Celiac eats gluten, it can take the intestine up to a year to heal from the gluten attack. You can find more info at http://www.celiaccentral.org/

I used Julep Daisy for my yellow.  Even at 3 coats, I still have VNL.  I do like the bright, jelly quality of this polish, but I can't wear it by itself.  I loved it with a little green, though..

I did a glitter gradient with Nail Potions by Kunimitsu Mamacita.  This is such a pretty green polish, with a neat iridescence. 

I wouldn't normally wear such a bright combination, but I really liked this.

If you'd like more information about Celiac Disease, please visit the Celiac Central webpage.

If you'd like more information about Nail Potions by Kunimitsu, you can find her on Facebook and her Etsy shop.

One woman's Garbage is another woman's Gem

I've become a nail polish hoarder.  I can't tell "normal" people how much polish I have, because they just don't understand.  In all my polish, in all my untrieds, it is rare for me to find a polish I love so much I just have to wear it again and again.

I have found such a polish.

Orly Sparkling Garbage.  It's such an amazing scattered holo, Soooo pretty.  Here it is over Priti NYC Blue Wedgewood

Here's Blue Wedgewood by itself.  It's a jelly, with that great shine and sheer texture.  Another win for Priti NYC.

Wait, did I say jelly?  How about a jelly sandwich?  One more coat of Blue Wedgewood over Sparkling Garbage.  Kinda looks like one of those newfangled texture polishes.

Here's another look - over a dark blue with a few glitters of its own:  LynBDesigns Time and Relative Dimension in Space.  TARDIS blue, natch.

Liquid Lacquer Rain Song is almost exactly the same color as the base color in Sparkling Garbage.  Rain Song is a sheer jelly with a subtle scattered holo.  It's a great pairing with Sparkling Garbage, don't you think?

Three different blues, three different looks with the same gorgeous glitter.  What's your fave?  What would you wear it over?

If you'd like more information about LynBDesigns, you can find her on Facebook or her Etsy shop.

If you'd like more information about Liquid Lacquer, you can find her on Facebook or her BigCartel shop.

I know why the Caged Bird Nail Lacquer sings..

I'm a sucker for a sale, and Caged Bird Lacquer finally had one.  I picked up a few of her polishes to show you.

Mint Macaron.  I know it's wrong, but to me, it should be Macaroon.  I guess we was unedumacated as chilluns, 'cause that's what we's called 'em.

This polish is as delicate as it's namesake, though.  I love a pastel with white glitters.

Idylle.  Gorgeous green scattered holo, but whoo! Stinky.  I think some Indie makers were buying some base that stink, stank, stunk, but because they smell chemicals all the time, they couldn't tell.  I've seen many makers apologize and switch away from this stinky base.  Only two of the four of these polishes had the odoriferous affliction so I hope she's not using it anymore, either.

Get a load of that blue shimmer.  That is unique enough to suffer through the smell for a moment.

Midnight In Paris. I have another weakness.  My Achilles heel is a good holo, but my other weakness is a black with glitter.  I love how the blue and red glitters just glow from within the black.

Blurry shot, trying to capture that glow.

The next glitter has a clear base, so I picked an undie with a little punch to it.  This is Urban Outfitters Westside, a bright cantaloupe cream.  A little patchy, but I knew it would even out with the glitter, and it did.
 

Every once in a while, I get a combo really right.  I love this so much.  If you don't, I will secretly judge you for having no taste.

Maybe you just need another look to really show you how awesome this combination is.  Don't get too close, though, this is another stinky base glitter.

 If you'd like more information about Caged Bird Nail Lacquer, you can find her on Facebook, and her store on Etsy.

Do you know why the Caged Bird Nail Lacquer sings?