Sonoma Palette Cleanser

Hello, Fireflies!

Have you ever just needed a breather from bright colors or patterns, and wanted to take your nail color down a notch?  Painting my nails a neutral color can be like putting on my favorite yoga pants or comfy t-shirt.

Daphine's Wild Ponies

Hello Fireflies!

I recently tried a new Indie called Daphine Polish.  I have one to show you today, with some fun nail art - and two for tomorrow.  So, if you don't like today's post, you can skip tomorrow.

Just kidding.  I hope you come back.  I like to think I'm not just talking to myself.  Even at home, I talk to the dogs, and I pretend they answer back.

Sooooooo..  This is a beautiful polish!

This is A Herd of Beautiful Wild Ponies Running Free Across the Plains.  It's a mouthful, huh.  Apparently, this collection is inspired by the show Daria, and this references an answer she mistakenly gives on a psych evaluation. 

This nail art is inspired by one I saw on Boombastic Nails.  I loved the scroll and the glitter over the soft colors.  For the glitter, I used Sonoma Nail Art (jokingly renamed Tacoma Nail Art for this special release) Roca of Tacoma. 

Bottle shot:  Daphine Polish A Herd of Beautiful Wild Ponies Running Free Across the Plains, Sonoma Nail Art Roca of Tacoma, and Cult Nails Nevermore.

I thought that the formula on this new Indie was really good.  I loved the color, too.  I only have two critiques:  one, she packs the bottles in sticky bubble wrap, so the bottles all have sticky residue on them.  And, two, though it's not a problem for this polish, all of her labels have black writing. You'll see tomorrow how it makes it hard to read some of the labels over darker polish.   I've already been in touch with her, though, and she's getting rid of the sticky bubble wrap, and will get more labels as her shop expands.  If you'd like more information about Daphine Polish, you can find her on Facebook and her Etsy shop. *Update 8.23.13* Daphine has let me know that she has new white labels available! 

I've been a fan of Cult Nails and Sonoma Nail Art for a while.  Nevermore is a flagship polish, the ultimate 1-coat black.  Cult Nails is on Facebook and her own website.  Sonoma Nail Art makes some really awesome glitters, and her formulas are flawless.  Sonoma Nail Art can also be found on Facebook and Etsy.

Shades of Grey

Let's just address the elephant in the room, shall we?  Yes, I read the books.  Yes, they were trashy and unrealistic depictions of consensual S&M relationships.  Yes, I know they were originally written as Twilight FanFic...  bad FanFic. 

Yes, I kinda enjoyed them anyway. 

I also love grey polish, and have lots of different versions of grey to wear.  I'd like to show you some today.

Different Dimension Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty.  This is the palest grey, almost white base, with white, grey, black, and holo glitters.  Maybe it was the kitty who scratched my index polish, because I have no idea how that got there.

Hare Dead Man's Bones.  Slightly darker, but still a light grey base, with tiny black and white or light blue glitters.  I love this one, and like other Hare's I've tried, great formula.  

Sindie Pop A Black and White Christmas.  This is actually a metallic silver base, with black and holo glitters.  This one would really benefit from a thick topcoat to keep the shine.  The metallic base does tend to hide the holo glitter, but it's still very pretty and easy to work with.

BG Cosmetics Black Ice.  Another silver base, this one has really cool iridescent hex glitters that look like shards of ice floating in the mix.  Not something everyone would notice, but a nice touch for the polish aficionado.  Nice formula, too.

Sonoma Nail Art Very Small Rocks.  From the 'Don't Eat The Polish' collaboration with Silly Bee's Chickadees, this polish is a medium grey with lots of white, black, and grey glitters.  Probably my fave formula, it was easy to apply with lots of glitter and no dabbing needed.

Liquid Glam Girl Next Door.  A medium-dark grey jelly base with lots of holographic sparkle.  Right up my alley.

Fanservice Nails I'll Wait for you.  A microglitter melange - dark grey and holo and blue.  I love the depth the glitter gives it, and it all came together nicely.

Sonoma Nail Art Chalkboard Nails.  An homage to a blogger, this is reminiscent of a chalkboard.  Not that you kids know what a chalkboard is anymore.  (Someone fetch me mah cane!)  Dark, dark grey - almost black, with white glitters.

Because there are so many Indies in this post, I've included either a link to their Facebook page or shop in the name of each polish, rather than at the end of the post like I usually do.  Also, if you're interested in the cute silver hammered ring I'm showing off in many of the pix, it's what actually inspired this post.  I got it from a fellow lacquer aficionado's Etsy shop of vintage things. 

If you like grey glittery polishes, there's a lot out there to choose from.  Do you like the light or dark grey? silver or jelly base?  Do you have a fave from this group?

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?

ma, ma, ma, my Sonoma

Oh, how I have been wanting this glitter for a while, and it finally came up in rotation, and I snagged it.

I almost didn't.  My paypal was giving me issues.. one of my other polishes was cartjacked before I could get it fixed, but luckily, Clockwork was still in my shopping cart.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to try it layered over, but I finally settled on SpaRitual Fall In Love.  Because I had.  Fall in Love is a color I'm not sure how to describe.. it's a little bit pink shimmer, some gold shimmer, kinda terracotta, kinda copper...

Sonoma Nail Art Clockwork is a glitter melange of copper, bronze, and gold hexes and a few bars.  I think I got one in this mani... and I picked it off.  To me, bars are not worth the hassle.

Fall In Love did seem to match some of the coppery glitters, but I think I'll try this next over something darker to make the metallics pop. 

Sonoma Nail Art is one of those Indies that can be hard to come by, so you need to stalk her Facebook page to see when the next restock is.  Will you be stalking Sonoma Nail Art?  Or did you already get your favorite Sonoma polish?