Revlon Transforming Effects Top Coats

Hello, Fireflies!

Isn't this blue gorgeous?  It's actually a little deeper in color and so beautifully shiny and jellied in person.  It's KB Shimmer Low And Be Bold, a cobalt blue-lovers dream.  Though absolutely gorgeous on its own, I decided to see how the color was transformed by using the new (and not LE!) Transforming Effects topcoats from Revlon.

NYE Nude Nails

Hello, Fireflies!

Happy NYE! Whether you're going out and partying, or bringing in the New Year with the TV, you can still have fabulous nails, right?  For me, the trend was nude, with a little (or a lot) of bling!  I reached into the vault to bring up some looks you might want to try to ring in your 2015.

Blue Glittersplosion!

Hello, Fireflies!

Time for another round of Undies and Glitter!  Today's polishes are some kind of blue.. mostly.

First up, Different Dimension Dewing It Right and Rainbow Polish Summer Storm.  I love blue and grey together.  Notice the water theme here?

Gorgeous though it is, OPI Amazon..Amazoff is a bit of a stainer on me.  I did a couple of accent nails with Shimmer Polish Cristina, which could build to opacity, as many of Shimmer's microglitter polishes do, if you like.

A while back, I did a post about trying to recreate a pinned look that claimed to have been made with OPI Cuckoo For This Color and Essie Shine of The Times.  When I did it, I couldn't make it look like the picture.  Imagine my delight when this combination actually looked like it!  I give you OPI Amazon..Amazoff and Color Club Galactic Garden!

I loved the sparkle that Finger Paints You Yacht To Know Better had in the bottle, but it's so subtle on the nail.  So I added Finger Paints Sparkle In The Sky.  I didn't realize that it's a texture and completely opaque on its own! Instead of boosting Yacht, it obliterated it.  Still pretty, though.

I love dusty colors like Rescue Beauty Lounge 360.  I'm not sure I did it any favors by putting a matte flakie over it like Orly Green Flakie Topcoat.

My heart still sings over the combination of Amazon..Amazoff and Galactic Garden.  Any fave glitter combos for you?

Textured Flowers

Hello, Fireflies!

Y'all know that I don't have many original ideas when it comes to nail art.  This is why I love Pinterest so much.  Every now and again I'll paint from a pin without seeing the original inspiration (why do people remove the original source info from their pins, I don't know.)

So, I was inspired to do this art from looking at the tutorial, and it wasn't until I went digging around that I found out that this is from The Beauty Department's interpretation of Anna Rifle Bond's art.

I started with this beautiful holo from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer:  Dorkhead? You Slash Me with Your Words! a pale green with a green flash.

I love the interplay between textures, and thought it might be fun to paint these flowers with a textured polish.  So, I made the branches in the stunning Zoya Pixie Dust Chita.

I made the blossoms with a dotting tool and Zoya Pixie Dust Sunshine, a sparkling denim blue.  Why that blue is 'Sunshine,' I don't know, but okay.

Love, love, love that green flash in Dorkhead!

That green glow just makes the whole mani for me.  The glow, the holo, the texture, the sparkle.. oh, my.  And, the textures weren't hard to use for nail art at all!

Bottle shot:  Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer:  Dorkhead? You Slash Me with Your Words! Zoya Pixie Dust Chita, and Zoya Pixie Dust Sunshine.

Do you also like mixing and matching textures and finishes?

Falling for Nail Art - Early Sunset

Hello, Fireflies!

I'm a little bit excited about how this mani came out!  I wasn't sure that my sunset vision was going to come to fruition..especially when it started like this:

I knew I was doing a gradient, so I wasn't too worried about even coverage, but up close, this looks a hot mess!

I wanted the grey background for that twilight feel, so I used Maybelline Impeccable Greys.  Bootie Babe Honky Badonky gave it that purple shimmer. 

Orly Berry Blast added a sheer pink shimmer, and Butter London Silly Billy gave me the bright orange tips.

I may have dabbed on a little more Berry Blast and Honky Badonky.  Look at that shimmer! It glows.

For me, it was that shimmer that perfectly captured the essence of a gorgeous late summer sunset.

Bottle shot:  Maybelline Impeccable Greys, Bootie Babe Honky Badonky, Orly Berry Blast, and Butter London Silly Billy.

That Bootie Babe is gorgeous, but the name and the bottle just slay me!

This new Orly collex is...Surreal!

Hello, Fireflies!

Fall is coming, and a lot of the Fall collections have started coming, too!  I picked up a few of the Orly Surreal collex that I thought looked interesting. 

Angel Rain is a sheer blue with a purple shimmer.  My pix show three coats, and there's still VNL, though in Real Life it isn't as visible.  I figured this would be great layered over a dark color, so it's over OPI Black Onyx on my thumb.

The purple really comes through over black! By itself, it's light and dainty, and the shimmer is more evident than I could capture with my camera.  I do suspect that those who either don't like layering or don't know about it might be disappointed with the sheerness of this polish.

Pixie Powder is purple and gold glitter and purple shimmer in a clear base.  It really isn't dense enough to wear alone, so I layered it over the Angel Rain.  The ring finger is a full nail of glitter, the rest have a gradient.

It's very dainty and pretty, and in this slightly blurred pix, you can see how the gold holo glitter sparkles, and that purple shimmer builds up on the ring finger.  I think it just looks amazing.

The last polish I have for you needed undies, so I busted out my first Rescue Beauty Lounge polish, Catherine.  It's a dark plum with a subtle shimmer.  Great, easy formula, too.

I layered Digital Glitter over the entire ring finger and did another gradient on the other fingers.  The thumb is Digital Glitter by itself so you can see it a little better.  It's gunmetal, holo, and purple glitters in a clear base with a purple shimmer.  I sense a purple theme.

That purple shimmer is so beautiful, it makes all these manis just glow.

All of these Orlys, even the glitter, had really nice application.  I don't particularly like the new bottles that much, but I love the grippy cap, which makes up for it. 

If you'd like more info about Rescue Beauty Lounge, you can find them on Facebook and their website.

Are you ready for Fall?  I'm so ready for Fall nail colors, especially these purples!

Ruby White Tips- Oh, the shimmer!

Hello, Fireflies!

I have some really pretty polishes and nail art to show you today.  I'm so excited, I had to bump this up in my scheduled posts!

This beauty is Jane's Lemming.  The base is ...grey? taupe?  Who cares - look at that incredible blue shimmer.  I have a LOT of polishes, and none like this.

I decided to play off the blue, and take a tip from this pix from the Manicurator, and use striping tape and a texture to amp up the mani.  This is OPI Alcatraz Rocks! from the San Francisco collex.

Math sucks! Yes, in my opinion it does, but this polish doesn't.  This berry jelly has lots of blue flecks just swimming in it.

This nail art is a bit outside the box for me, but I just had fun.  I liked how the glitter in NerdLacquer All Of Time And Space went with the berry color in Math Sucks! so I did an accent nail... and then another.. and then tips... and then added a blue striper.  Play with your polish!

If you follow Ruby White Tips' Facebook, you may have seen that this is one of her newest releases, Me O My O.  I received it as a prize *before* it was released! Woot!  She liked my swatch, so now it's on her Etsy page for this polish.  This is my first time that this has happened to me, and I couldn't be more flattered.

I saw Mr. Kitty in a blog sale, and snatched it up.  The shimmer!  Oh, the shimmer.  I couldn't resist.  It's amazing.  Also, this polish is one of the Batworld.Org polishes, and when you buy it from RWT, 50% of the proceeds goes towards helping this bat sanctuary.  Mr. Kitty (and Miss Kitty, his namesake) have a really cool story!  A rescued cat that rescues bats?

Bats eat bugs, especially mosquitoes.  Mosquitoes hurt me and spread disease.  MOAR Bats, please!

I thought that Mr. Kitty and O Me O My O would look great together.  The color separating them in this cloud mani is Illamasqua DWS, a grey creme.

I had a blast playing with these great polishes from Ruby White Tips.  If you'd like more information about Ruby White Tips, you can find her on Facebook, webpage, or her Etsy shop.

I must really like RWT and her bats, because I have two other posts I've dedicated to her polishes.  If you like these, please check out Girls and Bats and Bats and Bill? to see my other reviews.

Indie January - Takko Lacquer

There used to be a hilarious web cartoon about Tako the Octopus, which is what I think of every time I see this nail polish!  I also heard a great octopus joke on the internet the other day:  How do you make an octopus giggle ten giggles?  you give him ten tickles (tenticles! get it?) *rimshot*

Electric Apple NYC.  This was how Takko lacquer burst into my Indie scene.  Crazy, sexy polish that is electric.  It's sort of grey, it's sort of gold, it's sort of taupe.  It's all and none of them.  I could wear this color for days and never tire of it.  It applies like a dream.

To Infinity and Beyond.  This polish also caught my eye.  I love multichromes, and one with a holo effect is even better.  I can see teal, blue, and purple, and maybe green.  Gorgeous.

A friend convinced me to buy Sephora for OPI Opalescent Blasted, even though I was sooo over the crackle trend.  Or so I thought.  This is such a neat way to add texture and shine without an obvious crackle effect.  I loved it and can't wait to try it over even darker colors, which I think will look fabulous. 

I can't wait to try some more of Takko Lacquer's unique finishes.  You can find her blog HERE, and her Etsy shop HERE.  What's your fave Takko?

Week of Suedes

At first, I didn't know what to make of this 'suede' trend.  From the pix I could see online, it wasn't clear if it was glitter, or textured, or what...

Then, Avon put their suedes on sale, and I jumped in, and boy, am I glad I did.

Avon Sumptuous Rose is delicate, rosy, with a golden glow.  Suedes are smooth to the touch, not textured, and they're not really glitter, either.  The only way I can think to describe it is like a matte foil polish - there are multiple visual layers to the polish, like a foil has the color and the silver layers.

As my first suede, of course I had to see what it looked like with a glossy topcoat!  It looks more like a traditional microglitter here, not as delicate, more bold.

The second Avon Suede I tried was Fuchsia Feel.  This one has the same great suede finish, the formula was a little thicker, but not unmanageable.  I love that suede look.

I decided to pair this one with Shimmer Natalie.  I freehanded the glitter half, and only did topcoat on the glitter.  I love the contrast between the suede and the glitter!

I guess I couldn't take it off without trying it with topcoat over the whole thing.  I have no ability to edit myself...

Are you into the suede trend?  I'll be showing you different suedes all week long... stay tuned!