Hot and Burning Falloween

I have two undies from Hot Ticket and two glitters from LynnBDesigns to show you today.  They are all deliciously Fall-o-ween-ie!

First up, Root Beer Gloat by Hot Ticket (the Balm).  Oh, this polish was love at first sight!  Look at that inner glow, that caramel molten center... Hot Ticket polishes practically apply themselves, too - they just flow onto the nail.

I almost didn't want to cover it!  But I had just gotten two glitters from Lynn B Design's Halloween collection, and I thought that Wolf's Bane would compliment Root Beer Gloat perfectly.  The base colors are similar, I think, and the flash of blue is so much fun.  I love brown and blue together.

The next Hot Ticket polish, Candy Apple-a-Day, was a pleasant surprise on the nail!  I didn't expect it to be sooooo shimmery.  I've never seen MAC Bad Fairy, but I wonder if this would be a dupe or close cousin.  The orange/pink duochrome is so pretty.  Amazing formula, too.  This is two coats, and no topcoat.

It pains me to show you my flops, but I just have to be honest.  See that little flash of glowing red glitter in the bottle of Burning Leaves?  That's what made me think this glitter would look good with Candy Apple-A-Day.  The base color is all wrong, though, and I didn't like how it muted the wonderful fire of CAAD.

Burning Leaves is a gorgeous glitter, don't get me wrong.  I love Fall glitters like this with the oranges and browns and reds.  It just didn't pair well with the undies.

Into every life a little rain must fall! More winning manis to come!

Vampy Vampires

Enchanted Polish is quickly becoming one of my fave Indie brands.  They make such interesting holographic polishes, and I love a good holo.

This one is perfect for the season - Vampire's Dessert!

It's burgundy, then it's brown, then the rainbow flashes blue and even gold.. 

It definitely looks good enough to eat, and not just for a vampire!

This next polish is definitely vampy!  Essie skirting the issue.  I received this polish as a Klout perk.  Have you heard of Klout?  It's an app that gauges your social influence via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.  Enough people said I was influential about nail polish that I got a free one to share with you.

I didn't get to choose what color I wanted, but I was happy with this one!  I love vampy colors, especially dark reds. 

 

I decided to put Girly Bits Apparition over it.  This is a pretty white/silver holo glitter.  There are different shapes in here... even micro bars.  I don't like bar glitter, and I only own a couple of glitters that have them.
As you can see, though, they're really tiny.

I think it looks like blood on fallen snow.  If Dexter moved up north?

Halloween isn't just about purple and green! 

Guest Post over at Reflections, Sassy Nails, and Silly Diversions

I forgot! I guest posted last week at Reflections, Sassy Nails and Silly Diversions for her pink and gold mani-athon in support of pediatric and breast cancer months.

Check out my guest post to see how I finished this pink 'watercolor' mani!  Thanks!

KKCenterHK - Polishes!

I recently had the opportunity to review some polishes for KKCenterHK, and I was excited and a bit skeptical.  I didn't recognize any of the brand names, and I remember all too well that experience with that Nanacoco polish...

I was a little worried when the first polish that I opened actually broke in transit.  The polish bottle was shrinkwrapped, though, so it didn't get all over anything. I was able to salvage the polish for swatching, though I suspect the texture was a little thicker than it would have been if it weren't opened.

Ebalay Dark Orange Gold Dust is a completely unique polish to my stash, and I thought it was just gorgeous.

This is the polish that broke, so the brush is a little sticky, but I wanted you to see how thick it is.  Not as thick as an OPI, but definitely not skimpy.

Its a full-coverage glitter; this is two coats, no undies.  I love that it's not a bright Halloween orange, more of a cooked sweet-potato orange, so perfect for the whole Fall season.

The second polish I chose was this Myviven LC11 Sapphire polish. The brush isn't as wide as the Ebalay brush, but it's still thick enough to get the job done, and no wonky mop-tops here.

You've heard me rave about the dusty colors this season, and I chose another one, but look at that shine.  

I'm really impressed with this brand so far.  The formula was every bit as nice as the local heavy-hitters.  Smooth, shiny, self-leveling.

This polish was my fave of the bunch, and is probably one of my all-time favorite glitters now.  This is Myviven PA16, Metallic and Purple dots glitter.

This is another opaque glitter, two coats.  I love the unexpected bits of purple in this metallic gold base.  Pictures just don't do it justice.  This felt like a great handmade polish to me -  in formula, the amount of purple glitter, and the way it just glided on.

Over this gorgeous glitter, I tested ..... a crackle.  I admit it, I wouldn't have chosen a crackle of my own volition.  I never got much into crackles - they never worked well for me, or were worth the effort.  I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like this one, either, so I just ordered a color I thought would look nice.

This is Myviven BA05 Cracked Misty Purple over the Metallic Purple Dots.  It actually cracked! I rarely have had a crackle polish crack enough to see the polish underneath, so this one is definitely a winner.   

Nice color saturation, and a matte finish which looks great over the glitter.

I decided to put undies under the last Myviven polish, though I didn't need to.  This is Sally Hansen in Right Said Red.  Loved the formula, but the red was a little too cherry-leaning for me to love. I tend to like blue-toned reds more.

Over Right Said Red, is MyViven SG06 Copper Dots, a golden glitter with large and small hexes. "Copper" is a little misleading.. it's more of a champagne gold. 

 

You could probably build this to opacity in 3 coats, but this was more of a dabbed on 1, maybe 1 and a half coats.

If you haven't tried these Ebalay or Myviven polishes from KKCenterHK, I think they're worth getting.  The formulas were all great, easy to use, good payoff, and looked gorgeous.

KKCenterHK has created a coupon code for my readers to try their products for 10% off! 

LitFromWithin10 

will allow you to take a 10% discount off the price of your merchandise total!  Thanks, KKCenterHK!

These polishes were provided to me for review.  Nonetheless, the opinions are my own and as unbiased as possible.

Sunday Stamping - Getting ready for Halloween!

I love Halloween!  This year, we've been so busy, we haven't had time to decorate the house, but I can always bring the Halloween spirit to my fingertips!

I started with the China Glaze Wicked collection, and Cast A Spell, a beautiful shimmery olive green with golden tones.  This color isn't just for Halloween, folks - it's gorgeous, complex, and glowy. 

I followed up with a glitter gradient in Glitter Goblin, also from the Wicked collex.  This combo didn't photograph as pretty as it was in Real Life.  There are some red glitters in there that just look like they're glowing! This is two coats, but I probably would go with one for layering next time.  I only used two this time because I accidentally scraped one nail, and I just fixed it with more (MOAR!) glitter.  

I don't think anything stamps better than Maybelline Bold Gold.  I think that polish could stamp over *anything*.  I loved the little devils from this Bundle Monster plate, so they went on over the glitter.  It was unintentional, but I love how the glitter makes the devils' eyes glow.  The effect is even cooler in person.

Are you dressing up your nails for the season?  Are you going to try a 'glitter eye' stamp? 

Butter-ween

Happy Butter-ween!  It's almost Halloween, and what better way to get ready than by doing some lovely, crazy nail art?

I've used BL Gobsmacked in a few places now, and I'm going to use it again in this nail art, but I wanted to show you what it looked like as a full mani.

It is a really pretty charcoal grey glitter.  Like most glitters, it needs a little care in application, but it's not too finicky.  This one does look different with some topcoat, so I put on a nice layer of Seche to show you the difference.

You'll be seeing some more Gobsmacked in a minute.  But, now for something completely different! 
BL Yummy Mummy.  the nudiest of nudes.

Honestly, I thought it was a little boring.  I mean, I know it's a nude, but it just didn't do much for me.

Look how it changes when I added BL Hen Party to it, though.

Now that is a pretty nude.  That little bit of shimmer is what I wanted.  And it made a nice, ethereal glow for my Halloweenie mani!

The nail art I decided to do with these colors was based on a Robin Moses Diva Spiderweb design.  I changed it up a little, per usual, though!

Instead of using black polish or paint, I decided to paint with BL Gobsmacked.  I will tell you that as much as I liked this look, Gobsmacked was a pain to paint with.  I had to add thinner to it on my palette to get it to spread, and it took me quite a while to paint.

But isn't it PRETTY? 

Instead of black and silver rhinestones like the Robin Moses design had, I decided to do shades of pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month.  I mean, what's scarier than cancer?

These square rhinestones are from Cult Nails and come in many different colors.

 Are you dressing up your nails this season? Scary or pretty?

A "salute" to Butter London

Well, folks, we're nearing the end of our Buttery journey.  Tomorrow is the last day (for now) of Butters!  I didn't realize I had so many, and yet, I want more.  They really are some of the best polishes out there.

So, as a salute to the end of our BL exploration, I give you BL Two-fingered Salute:

BL is so cheeky, though.  No one really wants to get the two-fingered salute.  But I really wanted THIS Two Fingered Salute!

Get a look at those copper flecks.  It's so pretty, and fairly unusual combo!  I have Barielle's Falling Star, which has copper flecks in a French blue polish, and Girly Bits CU Blue, which is copper flecks in a cobalt blue jelly.  This one reminds me of an oxidized copper roof.

I decided to add some glitter to enhance the copper and add some more metallics, so I added Amour Jack-o-Lantern.

I like that JOL has some aqua holo glitter in it, too, which brought out the base color of TFS.  Such a pretty combination, though I do feel a little guilty covering up the subtle copper fleck of TFS. 

I think it looks good both ways, depending on whether you're in the mood for subtle or bling!  How do you like your Two-Fingered Salute?