GOT Me Some Lime Green Buttons

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's GOT challenge is pretty simple! I put on Nubar Sour Apple, a bright lime green, and placed these ginormous button-esque studs on! 

When I order these things off the Interwebs, the studs seem like normal stud size, but when I get them, they're Amazonian/Gigantor studs.  Who are the people who can wear these?  I mean, I know I have small nail beds, but one button covers almost ALL of my middle fingernail.

I took these off right after I took the picture.  There was no way I could function with these things on! What do you think of these huge nail studs?  Should I just put backings on them and turn them into earrings?

An InLinkz Link-up

Beauty Box 5 Review - That Awkward Moment

(My #NailArtForNubs post goes live at 9am Eastern!) 

Hello, Fireflies!

It's an awkard moment.. um, I mean, that's the theme of this month's Beauty Box 5 - the movie, That Awkward Moment. 

I signed up for a subscription to Beauty Box 5 in February, and when they found out I was a blogger, they sent me January's box, too.  Of course, they sent January's box to a bunch of people as a promotion to sign up in February, so I'm not suffering under any delusions of grandeur.

It's a pretty cool box, and so far, I'm liking the subscription.  Let's take a look at the box:

I love oils, I'm completely obsessed with hair, skin, cuticle - any kind of oil.  This Nubar Vanilla cuticle oil smells nice, and absorbs relatively quickly.  I like it!

Another lotion sample, and not even an exotic one - just Jergens Daily Moisture lotion.  We all have a bottle of Jergens somewhere in the house, right?  Or in our parents' or grandparents' house.  Nothing special about this sample - no interesting fragrance, no special formulation, just good ol' lotion.  Works fine.

I really enjoyed this sample of  SPA H20+ Sea Lotus Body Wash! It smells incredible - like the sea, like a spa, like someplace relaxing with hammocks.  I want more.

Sub boxes love lip balm! At least it's not another chapstick.  I actually like this Epic Blend Hemp Coconut lip balm.  It's pretty slick, and feels moisturizing.  I wish it were a little more coconutty, and a little less hemp-y, though.

I was pretty excited about these Twistco Bath & Shower Exfoliating Gloves.  I have one from Sephora, which I like, so I was hoping these would be as good.

I should say, even the ones from Sephora, I don't like wearing it as a glove.  For some reason, it's just too much work to put a glove on in the shower.  The major pro of this glove is that it's washable.  I can't stand using the plastic loofahs because they harbor a million germs - and I'm no germaphobe.  I just think it's icky.  I feel like these are more sanitary.

The cons - too scratchy and rough.  The Sephora glove has a side that's smooth and one that's rough.  This one is alllll rough.  No escape.  Also, I wish they'd put a tab on the cuff for hanging it up to dry.

The box also included a branded Compact mirror with the movie logo.  It's cute, thin, and very lightweight.

I thought it would be fun to model a polish color that matched the box.  This did NOT come in the box - it's one I purchased myself.  This lovely polish is Sinful Colors Crystal Crush Treasure Chest, a turquoise texture with a gold shimmer.

So, not everything was a winner for me, but that's how sub boxes usually go.  For the price, though, it was absolutely worth it.  I really loved the shower gel - it's completely unique to anything I've tried.  The cuticle oil was nice, and the other products were at least useful.

If you're interested in learning more about Beauty Box 5, they can be found on Facebook, or their website.

(My #NailArtForNubs post goes live at 9am Eastern!) 

Fakin' a stamp with Aly's Dream Polish

Hello, Fireflies!

So, the other day, I saw this Pinterest of a mani by Liloo that looked like it was stamped.  And, foolishly, I thought, "Hey, I don't need a stamp to do that! I got mad skillz."

And then I woke up!

But, I tried it anyway.... I started with the lovely, lovely Aly's Dream Polish Rumpleberry.

Like most Aly's, it's a scattered holo, great formula.  The Macaron collection is less holo than most, probably because they're pastels.  It's not a straight creme, though.

First, I took my trusty black striper and drew the lines.  I decided to refill my striper with Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.  Don't do this.  It's not as opaque as a striper polish, and you'll have to go over everything twice...

I made the dots with a dotting tool and Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.

I tried to add some flakies with Sally Hansen Glass Slipper, but it didn't really work.  I did use the sponge technique with Nubar Black Polka Dots to get enough density to fill the areas with black dots.  Worked like a charm...if a little hard to do on my right hand.

Bottle shot:  Aly's Dream Polish Rumpleberry, Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, black striper, Sally Hansen Glass Slipper, and Nubar Black Polka Dots.

If I ever find a stamp in my collection that looks like this, I'll have to do another mani! This one took a little longer, but I like how it came out.  Would you do this without a stamp?

Hobby Polish Blogger Challenge - Summer Fruit

How can I possibly pick *ONE* fave summer fruit?  It's like asking me to pick my fave way to eat potatoes.  Just can't do it (Wouldn't be prudent)

So I picked *A* fave.  I started with a brand that is new to me - Chaos & Crocodiles.  This is Nothing Sweeter, and when it comes to ripe fruit - or this pink polish, I guess that's true!

Really pretty shimmer!

Not too many pinkish fruits, I suppose!  There is usually some red coloring, too, which I emulated with Sally Hansen Beautiful Berry (how apropos) and some black dots, which I made with Nubar Black Polka Dot.

Have you guessed what fruit I'm trying to paint?  For a regular mani, I would have left it like this.  I rather like it!

But, this is a challenge mani, and I had to go the distance.  So I cut some fimo slices.

When I showed this mani to my hubby and asked him to guess the fruit, he said, 'Watermelon?' smh.

Yes, dear.  Because watermelon looks exactly like strawberries.  This is one of the reasons we do the grocery shopping together.  I should tell you that this man has a Ph.D.

Bottle shot!  Chaos & Crocodiles Nothing Sweeter, Nubar Black Polka Dot, and Sally Hansen Beautiful Berry.

Have you done a fruit mani?  Do my strawberries look like watermelons?!

Sunday Stamping - Skittle Me This!

This week's challenge is to stamp over a skittle mani.  With all the polishes I have, I was having trouble deciding which 5 colors I wanted to use. Then, I remembered I had just gotten the Sweet Escape collection from Nubar.  It was so hard narrowing down the eight great colors to just 5.

From thumb to pinky:  On The Radar, Forbidden Fruit, Into the Wild, Sour Apple, and Resort Yellow.

These colors are awesome for summer.  So shiny, even without topcoat! I don't usually wear skittles, but these colors were so much fun together.

I stamped with my trusty Finger Paints Black Expressionism, and the DRK-B plate.

Now that I look at it, I wish I had added some colorful dots with the dotting tool afterwards.  Pow-Bam!

That would have been one craaaazy dotticure.

Don't you love Nubar?  They are such unsung polishes.  They deserve more love! 

Fancy, Flakie Browns

Ok, class, when we met yesterday, I told you there would be a polish you would get a glimpse of then, but you'd see again today.  Do you remember what it was? 

That's right!  Takko Opium.  I knew you could do it.

I think this polish is pretty unforgettable, myself!  Brown with a reddish-orange shimmer, it looks like burning embers.

I love brown and blue together, and I thought that this icy blue and pink glitter from Hit Polish, Retro Chic, would set it off nicely.  I really like the combo!  The blue looks so light, almost translucent, and the pink is so delicate with the brown. 

The second brown I want to show you today is from Koh Colours - Chocolate Brown!  Yes, with an exclamation point!  Apparently, all their color names are very exciting! Because they all end with exclamation points!

Love that goldent shimmer, but I wish it was more obvious on the nail, especially for such an expensive brand.

I added a little Nubar 2010, and....

....gorgeous.  Love the orange and gold flakies with the brown.  Here's a bottle shot:

The last fancy brown I have could be a brown, or a black, or a blackish-brown.  It's dark, so it's hard to tell!  I think it's brown, though.  Contrary Polish Candlelight.  Another subtle gold shimmer, but with larger particles than the Koh.

A little bit of Orly Shining Star, and there's gold shimmer... and blue?  I didn't see any blue in the bottle, but some of the glitter turns blue on the nail.  Surprise!

Browns are the unsung heroes of the polish world.  They're so versatile!  And they look great with a little bling, too.  Any fave browns out there?

Blue Holo-splosion!

My love for holos is no secret, and it seems that I have a hard time NOT buying one, even if I have many of a similar (they're not the same! really) color.

I think the 2013 collex of Color Club Holos has really raised the bar for all holos.  They are super-pigmented and yet don't lose any of that wonderful rainbow. 

Color Club Over The Moon.  I am, over the moon.  This polish is gorgeous, and easy.  No special undies, no buffing.  You do have to apply in thin layers and wait for each to dry completely before applying the next, or you'll get bald spots.

I saw this design done with glitter and black, and decided to try it with this sparkly holo.  I need a little practice with my zigzags, but it's still a fun design.

A new-to-me Indie called Cameo Colors Lacquers put out a holo collection, and I picked up a few of them.  This is the first one I've tried - Welcome to the Universe.  It applied like most Indie holos - smooth, thick, with a scattered holo.  This one leans a bit towards greenish blue, which makes it more unique to my stash, though.

This did make me a little curious to see what other Indie holos I had that might match, and since I'd also just played with my Above the Curve polishes, they seemed a natural choice.  Bottle shots of the polishes for the first comparison:

If you missed out on the Above The Curve Prototype Blue, it's fairly close to their Blue-eyed girl polish.  It's not the same, though.  Blue-Eyed Girl is a little lighter, and may have a little bit tighter holo rainbow.  Divine Angel and Fiddle-Dee-Dee are really close in color, but the finishes are completely different.  FDD leans more metallic, and has a very sparse holo.  Divine Angel has a very strong holo finish.

Cameo Colrs WTTU lies between the two.  In the top photo, it's more blue, like the ATCs in the middle.  In the bottom photo, it pulls more aqua/teal, like the outer ATC polishes.  It was also more sheer, and required 3 coats for opacity.

One more comparison for today: 

These are all either icy blue or dark blue.  None here compare to the dark cobalt blues of HITS Apolo.  Poseidon, Absolute, and DS Sapphire are closer to each other in color, though Absolute is a scattered holo, Sapphire having a bit more linear, and Poseidon having the strongest linear rainbow of the icy blues.  Over The Moon is alone in both color saturation and rainbow. Gorgeous!

Are you 'over the moon' for holos, too?  If you could just pick one, which would you get?