Ride, Sally Ride

Hello, Fireflies!

Today is the last day of the Challenge Your Nail Art Space Challenge!  I grew up knowing about Sally Ride, but I didn't know she had her own day.  And, I learned a little more about her while doing research for this challenge.  The More You Know...

Butterfly Garden, Waiting

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's Sunday Stamping challenge was to use to plates that corresponded to our birthday month and day.  I pulled out one of my first stamping sets - Red Angel - and picked 102 and 109, because I was born on February 9th, if anyone wants to send me a birthday present..

OMG Nail Strips!

Product provided for review.  All opinions are my own.

Hello, Fireflies!

You could say that nail art is my first love in the beautysphere.  I started blogging because I wanted to share my nails, and talk polish, and polish-related accessories (points if you heard that in Hank Hill's voice.) 

That being said, when I was approached by OMG Nail Strips to check out their decals, I wasn't on board right away.  I mean, isn't that cheating?

Go Blue Lightning, Go, Go!

Hello, Fireflies!

No matter what polishes I use, I seem to always come back to blue.  I love blue nail polish - and it always reminds me that I could never wear it as a kid.  How normal it seems now!

I picked a couple of different blues to wear together, both from Indies.  First, I picked Dollish Polish It's Bigger On The Inside, an homage to TARDIS blue.  It has micro silver glitter in it.  Can't go wrong with that combination!

I knew I wanted a silver glitter division between Bigger and my next color, but I wanted to make sure the glitter looked opaque, so I lined it with silver first.

I think it looks like lightning.  I also think I am a doofus for making the same line on my index and middle finger. 

Maya Cosmetics Stargazing is supposed to be a dupe for Essie Starry Starry Night.  I don't know if that's true, but I do think it's gorgeous.  It's a little on the thick side, but a few drops of thinner took care of that.  Really thick polish is just a pain for nail art!

I think the silver glitter looks so much better over the silver base, don't you?  I knew you would.

I have a soft spot for Maya Cosmetics - I love all of their polishes that I've tried, and the packaging is really nice, too.

Midnight blue is really hard to capture in nail polish - too often it just looks black.  Not here, it's a true Midnight blue, my fave color.  sigh...

Bottle shot:  Dollish Polish It's Bigger On The Inside, Maya Cosmetics Stargazing, silver and silver glitter liners.

Ready for a little blue on blue action?

Ay, Ay, Maya..

Maya Cosmetics is one of those Indies that just arrived on the scene with a Bang!  Everything of theirs that I've tried has been awesome. 

Like A Boss.

"'Cause she walks like a boss, talks like a boss, manicured nails to set the pedicure off; she's fly effortlessly"

I don't know if that's what Maya Cosmetics had in mind, but I can't get that song out of my head every time I hear the name of this polish.  A nude, subtle holo, it's definitely appropriate for the workplace.

Cookin' Creole.  Two coats by itself on my ring finger, 2 coats over Like A Boss on my other fingers.  Like a rich gumbo, this polish has a jelly tan base with floaty bits of glittery goodness.  I would like a little more glitter; you can see on my ring finger that the glitter is more sparse.  Without undies, the base gets too thick before I can get enough glitter.

Graceless Lady.  Nothing graceless about it - this is the polish that made me buy all these others.  What a beauty.  Love the dusty blue quality to the holo - but the shine is all the polish; no topcoat.

It Can't Rain All The Time.  Two coats by itself on my ring finger, 2 coats over Graceless Lady on my other fingers.  These two polishes look like they were made to go together.  I remember that about the first collection I bought from Maya, and this one is the same - these polishes compliment each other.

It's Not Easy.  A lovely grass green, with different green and white glitters.  This is another polish I wish had a little bit more glitter in it, because it was getting thick, and the glitter was dragging down the tip.  

Greyscale.  I wouldn't normally think to go black and white over green, but I'm glad I did.  I loved this combo, and it made the green take on an olive hue.  It probably would have been opaque on its own with a third layer, but I really liked it like this.  With a microglitter like this, the combinations are endless.

I love the combinations that go together so easily in the Maya collections.  Any faves for you?

So many different looks, most of them with a subtle side this time - but there are lots of others available from Maya Cosmetics.  If you'd like more info, you can check them out on Facebook, or on their storefront.

Indie January - Maya Cosmetics

Maya Cosmetics is a new-to-me Indie, and I fell in love with their collections.  I have a bunch of their polishes to show you today!  In addition to the great formulas and colors, I was happily surprised to see that so many of their colors complimented each other in my nail art.

First up, Smolder.   Plummy-brown with a shimmer.  Yep, it made me smolder.

I used Voodoo for a glitter gradient over Smolder.  I love how the base colors compliment each other, and the glitter brings out the red tones in the polish.

For this look, I started with Enigma and accent nails in Hex.  I'm learning to love these chartreuse colors that are so popular.   This one isn't quite as yellow, so that makes me love it more.  And brown and green together is a win for me.

I wanted to bling it out a bit, and Treme is very blingy!  I wasn't expecting it to be so opaque!  You can only clearly see the base colors at the top of the nail.   I think the gold in Treme brings out the best in Hex and Enigma.

I fell in love with Tranquillis the first time I saw it!  Like deep, mysterious ocean water, with dark teal and green and gold.  Gorgeous.

I was really in the mood for glitter gradients with I was playing with these Maya polishes!  This is No Big Deal over Tranquillis.  No Big Deal is a dark blue-black glitter, and over Tranquillis, it pulls more black, which felt like the ocean floor in this nail art...

... which is probably why I painted seaweed-like fronds on my nails in Hex and Smolder.  Don't all these colors just look like they belong together? 

It's no secret that I love my holos, and of course I had to buy Nefarious Aquarius!  Teal and holo, yes, please!

I paired it with Hootenanny, a dark, multicolor glitter.  I love the contrast in textures, and the way the holo brings out the blue glitter in Hootenanny.

For the last look, I paired Hootenanny as an accent with Baby, It's Cold Outside.  These two glitters are going commando - no undies, and they are full-coverage.  You can see that they're not chunky or thick, either.  Very well-made microglitters.

Baby, it's cold outside, so there must be snow, right?  Massive, deformed snowflakes.  Radioactive snow?

This Indie brand is amazing - for me, they hit all of these polishes out of the park. You can find Maya Cosmetics on Facebook and on their webpage.  Which is your fave?