Swatchfest Saturday!

Hello, Fireflies!

Today, I reach back into the vault and pull out some polish swatches!  Some were used for group challenges, some for nail art that didn't survive photographing, some were polishes I just *needed* to wear that moment.

TRI it With A Purple Shimmer

Hello, Fireflies!

This polish, Urban Outfitters Pink Holo, is the kind of polish that makes me a little crazy.  As in, how can Urban Outfitters put out such a crazy awesome rainbow-shiny holo for $10, and OPI can't bring back any of their awesome DS holos?  It's so pretty!

I painted Pink-Dipsy-Bulle Water Lily on 2/3 of the nail.  I think this color should count as both my green and my purple.  Look at that crazy awesome purple shimmer!

LynBDesigns It's Mauve And Dangerous is a light mauve purple scattered holo.  It's really a little too sheer to cover Water Lily with a reasonable amount of polish.  It should be worn as the first layer, or over another light purple.

I think the purple is the unifying color in this, as either part of the holo rainbow, or shimmer, or on its own.  Purpleeee!

Bottle shot:  Urban Outfitters Pink Holo, Pink-Dipsy-Bulle Water Lily, and LynBDesigns It's Mauve And Dangerous.

I'm loving these stripes, but I need some new ideas for these TRI-polish challenges.  Any ideas?

An InLinkz Link-up

Striped and Glittered Midnight Blue

Hello, Fireflies!

I've snuck in a few more blue manis lately, but this is the last "official" Fave color mani for this month's challenge.  It's been a lot of fun to see how many different types of dark blue polish I have.. and believe me, I have a lot more. 

This mani starts with a crelly blue I picked up from Urban Outfitters' Spirit Duo sale.  It's called, aptly enough, Midnight.  Isss sooo prettty.

I was inspired by this diagonal French tip mani I saw by Bedizzle, and I thought it would be interesting to pair Midnight with a glitter in the same family.  This is Orly Macabre Masquerade.

I have a lot of trouble getting striping tape to stay put, so I usually don't use it the way Bedizzle did.  Instead, I took a silver nail art striper and delineated between Midnight and the glitter.  And... well, I added another stripe, because that's how I roll.

Seems a shame to use so little of the glitter, because it's so pretty.  Maybe next time I'll give it at least an accent nail.

Bottle shot:  Urban Outfitters Midnight, Orly Macabre Masquerade, and a silver striper.

What's your favorite nail color?  How many different bottles of nail polish do you have in that color? Or do you buy backups of your one fave polish?

Sunday Stamping - Ready for Autumn!

Who's ready for Autumn?

This girl is, for sure. Autumn in Florida is so nice - well, once hurricane season is over, anyway.  I look forward to turning off the A/C, opening the doors, burning some nice-smelling candles, and cuddling on the couch with my sweetie and a nice, soft blanket.

Hopefully, this mani will help get you in the mood for it, too!  I started with Urban Outfitters Girrl Like You, a nice pistachio green creme.

Oops, I forgot to take a pix of the plate.  It's Anna's Nail Art W228, a branch with 5 leaves on it.  I had some trouble getting all the leaves to pick up every time, so I did a scattered leaf effect.

I stamped first with Layla Softouch Effect 11, a tan with a little bit of pink shimmer to it, and then with Zoya Channing, a gorgeous orange metallic.

Here's the bottle shot:  Urban Outfitters Girrl Like You, Layla Softouch 11, and Zoya Channing.

What nail colors do you associate with Autumn?

I LOL at your Purple Holo Comparison!

Every once in a while, the nail polish gods smile on me, and I score a lemming.  I got a used bottle of China Glaze LOL! 

So, of course I had to put it on right away.

And, then, I had to see if any of my other purple holos even compared.  So, I picked four that I thought were closest, and here's how they looked:

NONE of them were a dupe for LOL.  LOL actually had the weakest linear holo of the bunch, but the most beautiful and strong color. 

In Real Life, I couldn't tell the difference between Color Club Eternal Beauty and Urban Outfitters Purple Holo.  The Jade was a little bit darker, a little bit bluer... but you can't tell in the pix.  The Born Pretty was kind of a disappointment.  It had neither the rich color of LOL, nor the fiery holo of the others.  It's more lilac than purple, and needed three coats to reach opacity.

I took my trusty Finger Paints Black Expressionism and my jumbo Cheeky XL plate and did a little stamping.  I wasn't ready to take these gorgeous purples off yet... but they were a little too different by themselves.  The stamp sorta evened everything out, especially from a distance.

I love the way a holo looks from under a stamp.  It just glows.

Here's the bottle shot:  Born Pretty Holo #9, Jade Fascinio Violeta, Urban Outfitters Purple Holo, Color Club Eternal Beauty, and China Glaze LOL.

Which would you choose?  Will nothing but LOL do? 

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?

Ruby White Tips - Girls and Bats

When Ruby White Tips had a sale, I came running to try out her new polishes, and see what these new square bottles were all about.  As Huey Lewis once said, "it's hip to be square' but it may not always be your thing.  If you make it to the bottom of this post, you'll find out why.

Kim.  One of her new polishes from the Custom line, Kim was named after an angry Pomeranian doggie. It's first name was actually Angry Pomeranian.  I understand not wanting to name a classy nude holo after a yippie-bitey dog, but I can't help but think of the dog now when I see this polish!

I decided to pair Kim with another polish from her Custom line, Gracelyn, named for the owner's daughter.  I love these together, but doing nail art with Gracelyn wasn't easy.  It's a very sheer glass fleck, and takes about 4 coats to reach opacity, even over Kim.  So trying to stay in the lines to make my chevron tip was challenging, but oh, so worth it.

These are my new "Princess Nails."  Named for a little girl and a pampered pooch!

Man Eater.  Two polishes named for girls, and one named for a *woman* Man Eater is a red jelly with a glass fleck.  I don't buy too many reds these days, but I couldn't resist this one.  It's really beautiful, and has such interesting depth and shine.  My camera doesn't do it justice.

I decided to do a glitter gradient with Ninja Polish Nebula.  This pairing looked amazing in person.. and later this week, I'll show you Nebula over black in a full mani.  This just glittered and changed color all over the place.  Very eye-catching!

Boo2.  I'm growing quite fond of the Batworld polishes, and the bats they help.  Half of the proceeds of this collection go to help rehabilitate these bats.  Boo2 was born in the sanctuary after his mother was rescued from a bad zoo.

Boo2's polish is a light and ethereal purple scattered holo.  If you liked Dandy Polish's 'Bathed In Light' then you would like this.  It has a misty quality that I love.  I couldn't bear to take it off, so I embellished it with a cloud mani using Cult Nails Nevermore (glossy black) and Urban Outfitters Bandeau (neon purple)

Bottle shot:  Boo2, Nevermore, Bandeau.

Even if you think bats aren't your thing, you should check out Batworld and read about how important they are to our ecosystem.  I have to give props to any Indie that is putting their money where their mouth is and giving a portion of their profits to a charity that is doing good works. 

If you'd like more information about Ruby White Tips, you can find her on Facebook and her webpage and  store.  And now, until May 1st, if you use the code: FROMWITHIN, you'll get 25% off your order!  RWT has decided that the square bottles aren't going to work for her, so she's offering my readers a discount to move the stock out.

Etsy code: FROMWITHIN for 25% off!

Northern Outfitters.. or Urban Star?

I picked up most of the Northern Star As You Wish collex (inspired by the Princess Bride) at a blog sale, luckily!  I love them.  I paired each of them with a polish I picked up from Urban Outfitters.  Some of these combos work better than others, but some were surprisingly great!

Moonstone.  This UO polish was impossible to photograph.  It's iridescent, but also has a nude base, so enough coats would become opaque on the nail.  It has a gold-pink tone to it.

I paired Moonstone with Northern Star Storybook Love, which has a pale yellow base.  On my thumb, there are no undies under Storybook Love.  It does build to an almost-opaque (but really glitter-packed) density, so you don't *need* undies.  I liked it both ways, actually.  It's lighter and brighter by itself, more golden with the undies.

UO La Ciel.  Oh, teal, you are a tease.  I love this color.  It was so shiny I couldn't get a good pix, too.
  

One of these nails is not like the other!  Can you tell which nail has Northern Star Inconceivable by itself?  The rest are layered over La Ciel.  I could hardly tell in Real Life, too.  The thumb polish went commando in this pix.  If I was going to get just one polish from this collex, it would have to be this one.  Look at that golden shimmer.

UO Hot tub!  It's a neon pink, matte finish and all.  Searingly bright!

I paired this with Wuv... Twoo Wuv.. and it surprised me how much I loved it!  I actually love it both sans undies (on my thumb) and with the hot pink.  On my pointer finger, I only went with one coat of WTW, and the pink base is still bright.  On the rest of my fingers, I have two coats, and it makes the pink more of a bubblegum color.  Two polishes - multiple looks!

UO Voodoo.  Metallic gunmetal, but with micro holo glitter.

I forgot to get a pix of Drop. Your. Sword with no undies.  The sheer black jelly base probably would build up on its own to opacity, but look how much glitter is in just one coat!  I think the undies help this polish be even more gorgeous.  I love the subtle red and blue glitters that support the large silver glitters. 

This was my first experience with Northern Star polishes, and I have to say, I'll be back!  These aren't boring glitterbombs that I've seen over and over again. 

If you'd like more information about Northern Star Polish, you can find them on Facebook, and on Etsy.

It's jelly sammich time!

I recently picked up Zoya Paloma and Katherine from the Gloss collection, a series of three jellies.  Time to try a jelly sandwich!  If you're not familiar with the term, it's where you layer glitter in between either a jelly or a creme and another layer of jelly polish.

Zoya Paloma.  This is only two coats, and you can see how sheer it is.  This is when it's nice to have nubs, even though I'm bummed that I broke two nails.  The upside is that there isn't much VNL!  What a gorgeous, squishy color!

I couldn't decide what to use for my mani, so I tried three different glitters, all from Urban Outfitters.

The polish on the left is Scorched, a silver microglitter with colored hexes.  The one on the right is Unicorn, a clear base with iridescent squares and small holo glitters.

On my thumb is Mystic, a dupe for Deborah Lippman Ray of Light. It's a blue jelly with pink flakies. Oooh, I'm liking this.

Now, another layer of Paloma, and then some topcoat.  The pointer and ring fingers are Unicorn, middle and pinky Scorched.

Zoya Katherine. Though it almost looks black in the bottle, it is a dark mulberry/wine color on the nail.  As you can see, two coats isn't quite going to do it for this polish.

I had received this Island Girl as an accident in a blog sale.  It had evaporated quite a bit, so I added some thinner and Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food (Fix A Flat) to spruce it up.  It gave the glitter a bit of a matte finish, but it did work to loosen it up and make the polish usable again.

Another layer of Katherine to complete the sandwich.  I love this.  I would buy this if an Indie made this in a bottle, I think.

 

Which is your favorite?  Would you wear any of them?  Do you like to buy glitter in a colored base - a "jelly sandwich in a bottle" or make your own?