Holo in a Dotted Frame

Hello, Fireflies!

For the third installment of the 3rd Anniversary copycat challenge, I chose a simple, but fun purple dotted frame mani from A Girl And Her Polish!

Glitter Flakie-splosion!

Hello, Fireflies!

Time for another round of undies and glitters, but today I have some iridescent or flakie glitters.

Sigh.  My faves.  Something about those flecks of color-changing goodness.

First up, the metallic blue of OPI Seventh Inning Strrretch with Zoya Manhattan - which looks yellow, but is really full of sparks of color and changes the blue to a funky, flashy green.

Above The Curve Adriel is a pretty rose pink with a subtle holo, and becomes a juicy raspberry flakie pool with Sweet Color WO12.

Flakies over black is one of my favorite combos. Wet 'n Wild Black Creme isn't really necessary, though with CrowsToes Helheim - it has a black jelly base all its own. Love those subtle purple flakies.

Another black/flakie combo is Wet 'n Wild Black Creme with Dance Legend Anna Gorelova #12.  Reminds me of Finger Paints Twisted! Love the multicolored flakie rainbow goodness!

Are you a Flakie Fiend like me?  What's your favorite flakie?

Vampy Hellhound

Hello, Fireflies!

I have a Simple, Smoldering, Sultry look for your this Saturday.

I love alliteration.

Take a gander at this gorgeous burgundy shimmer - Zoya Kalista. 

On my thumb and ring finger, I accented with CrowsToes Hellhound.  It looks like they have the same base color, but Hellhound has a fuchsia shimmer and a slight gold duochrome, so it changes as my hands move and the light hits it from different angles.

The shimmer is incredible! I love it in both polishes, actually, even though it is more subtle in Kalista.

Oops, forgot to take a bottle shot! Do you like your accent nails to be more pronounced, or would you wear something like this where the difference was really only noticeable in a certain light?

Army of Sheep?

Hello, Fireflies!

If you can't have a duochrome, have a polish with a heavy shimmer.  It's almost the same...  well, kinda.  CrowsToes Me and This Army is a greyed-out Army green with a heavy purple shimmer.  I love this combo!

I didn't expect it to be this sheer, though!  This was 3 to 4 coats, and you can still see nail line.  That will never dry on me. If I use it again, I'll try it layered over a grey or dark green.

Ok, I know that yesterday was the end of the tutorial challenge.. but it will never end for me! bwahaha! I used Chalkboard Nails' Sheep Tutorial for this nailart.

It kinda looks like I'm drawing noses when I start out.

Then, I use a dotting tool and Milani White On The Spot to add a big, fluffy ball of cotton candy on top of the two sticks.  Like a weird popsicle.

The same dotting tool goes first into Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, and then into the Milani White for the eyes.  Ghost cotton candy!

A little taupe from Nikka K NY112 for the ears, and OPI Pussy Galore for the noses.  I had a little trouble with the noses.  One sheep looks like a fluffy pig.  Another, more like a cat.

A little topcoat to smooth it all out, and the shimmer comes out to play, too. 

Bottle shot:  CrowsToes Me and This Army, Milani White On The Spot, black striper, Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, Nikka K NY112, and OPI Pussy Galore.

This isn't a fail - it's a multi-purpose tutorial.  You can use it to either make Cotton Candy Ghosts, Fluffy Pigs, or Sheep.  Everyone loves a multi-tasker.

Feelin' Mellow Yellow

I don't wear yellow very often, but I did find a few different swatches from over the past year, so I decided to lump them together into a giant yellow post-it.

Claire's.  Like all of Claire's minis, this has no name.  I wonder what it must be like to work at that factory.  "Can I have more of that color?  You know, the most recent blue?"  Anyway, it was not so good, as you can see.  Streaky!

Model City It's My Birthday.  I layered this over the Claire's polish, but its yellow base was opaque on its own.  I like this one, it's a fun, fresh take on the milky glitter polish with multi-color confetti glitter.

CrowsToes Asterope.  I love a good orange/pink/yellow multichrome, and this is excellent.  Great coverage, nice, easy shift.  The bottom pix shows more of the golden yellow.

LynBDesigns Quincy.  This was a polish I got a while ago, and it sat in my untrieds... for way too long.  I really like it!  The name is cool, too, from her line of polish that has boy's names.  This is a fun, unique polish!

Jessica Banana Peel.  I like Jessica polishes, and they did their best with yellow, but it's still a little streaky.  It's a different yellow, too - a little vintage, maybe?  Nice glossy finish, and I really liked it as undies for the next glitter.

Glitzology Princess Buttercup.  I think Glitzology polishes are pretty cool, but they are usually very thick.  This one applied very nicely, and I was surprised to find that the flowers came out without any digging.  I really liked the pale green glitters and how they looked against the base color and with the yellow glitters.  Probably my fave Glitzology polish to date!

Would you wear a yellow mani?  Do you like the yellow creme or a glittered look?

Purple Indie Goodness!

Continuing with the January Indie Trend, I have 4 different purple looks I want to share with you today.

The first one starts with a Brazilian polish from the HITS line, Perolao. Some of the Brazilian polishes have a ...um, well,  strong smell.  They're not all on board the 3-Free train yet.  This color purple is bright, shimmery, and bold. 

I decided to pair it with Crows Toes Cheshire, which evokes the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland.  Can you see his smile?  I'm wearing it when I wear this polish.  Gorgeous!

The next mani starts with purple.  China Glaze Grape Juice didn't grab me right away, but I was hooked once I put it on.  I have a lot of purples, and this one has a finish that is unique.

I couldn't bear to cover it all up, so I did a glitter gradient and one accent nail in The Nail Junkie Fish.  I know, the base isn't purple, but the shimmer evokes grey and periwinkle to me, and I thought they'd go well together.  As you can see, Fish is perfectly opaque on its own, and doesn't need undies, but I think it looks good paired with Grape Juice.

I didn't even bother with undies for this next polish - Darling Diva Polish Angry Beaver.  Jelly purple!  Opaque in two coats, and you can see all the different bright colors of glitter.  Let's go piss off some more beavers if they produce polishes like this, I say.

I took a bit of a risk on this last combo. I don't normally wear a lot of foils, but I couldn't resist Butter London Lilibet's Jubilee.  This is one coat, and it applied like buttah.  It's almost silver, but it leans lilac, which is why I thought it might be a good backdrop for Sonoma Nail Art Steampunk.

I don't usually pair dark glitters with shiny base coats, but I really like this combo.  It really makes the black stand out, and the little copper bits just glow.  Sonoma Nail Art is known for excellent formulas and creative glitter mixes, and this one is no exception.  This is a fun polish.

Are you rockin' the purple look?  Which is your fave?

Have a Crows Toes Christmas!

I am fairly new to the Miss Pro Sation line of polish.  I reviewed a cobalt metallic blue polish sometime back that I found to be thick, and this one, Morning Haze, was the opposite.  I found it to be really sheer!  I didn't expect that.  Definitely a layering polish.

Only instead of layering it on top, I put it underneath!

There are a slew of Indie 'Christmas' polishes out right now, and most collections have a red/green glitter with gold or silver.  I decided I didn't need all of them, but thought that this one was one of the prettier of the bunch.  Didn't hurt that it's chock full of holographic glitter, which are my favorite.  This is Crows Toes Making Christmas:

As it turns out, it was opaque in 2-3 coats, so I didn't really need much of a base color anyway. I think it would look nice over different colors, though, especially if you have really long nails and don't want to put so much glitter on to cover any VNL.

I used Deborah Lippmann Honey Bee as a base color for the next Crows Toes glitter.  Deborah makes smooth, lovely formula polishes, and this is no exception.  It's maybe not the best color for my skin tone, but it's a very pretty polish.

Christmas Crow was pretty opaque in 2 coats as well, but if you look closely, you can see that some of the glitters reflect the same color as the DL Honey Bee.  Such an unexpected holiday polish color, but I love it.

Dark, brooding, but with such sparkle, perfect for a celebration.

Are you wearing more traditional colors like Making Christmas this holiday season?  Or is Christmas Crow more your style?

Mysterious Murder by #'s

Crow's Toes is a new-to-me brand that is getting some good press.  I'd seen swatches of Murder by #'s and I'm so excited right now by the dark base/holo glitter combos that I knew I'd want it.. and quick, because it soon became discontinued.

I started with a base of Sally Hansen Olive Branch because I thought it matched the green sheen in MBN pretty well, and because I've been wanting to try it since I picked it up.  It's even more beautiful on that I'd thought it would be, and like most Sally Hansen CSM, it has a wonderful, easy-breezy formula.

I wanted to show you the Olive Branch next to it layered because I thought, as beautiful as it is, it didn't seem to affect the deep color of MBN, which actually has more of an emerald glow compared to Olive Branch.

In this pix, MBN is taking on a purple shimmer!  It's a duochrome.  I love polishes with surprises.

I painted on some butterflies with Sally Hansen White Tip, and brushed on some L'Oreal Silver Sparkle on the wings.  I tried to copy a technique I saw on a Robin Moses video, but I need a little more practice!

Right hand:

Why so mysterious?  Seems I have a disappearing bottle shot, and where's the full mani shot?  I always take them, so it appears that Murder by #'s was just being camera shy that day.  Makes sense for a wanted murderer, I guess.  Can't be too careful.