Body Merry Age Defense Neck Cream #bodymerry

Product provided for review.  All opinions are my own.

Hello, Fireflies!

It's been said that there's nothing sexier than the curve of a woman's neck.  If you're like me and gravity is turning that curve into a wattle, maybe it's time to look into a neck cream like Body Merry Age Defense Neck Cream.

Sunday Stamping - Here Comes Pastel Peach Peter Cottontail

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's stamping theme is pastel. I went rooting through my Indies and found this LE from last year -  Dollish Polish Peter Cottontail.  Oh, what a lovely peach! In the bottle.  I think this polish took a cue from China Glaze Love Letters. Visually, they are both the Iocaine powders of the polish world.

I took my trusty Milani White On The Spot and stamped this tribal-esque pattern from my Pueen 10 plate.
 

This is more white than peach - or even clear - not really pastel.  So far, totally bombing this challenge on so many levels.

It's peanut butter jelly time! Well, just jelly sandwich time! I added a few more layers of Peter Cottontail on top of the stamping.

The white brightens up Peter Cottontail, and now it's looking more peach.  I really like the bold print with the pale pastel and the delicate glitters! Almost like a wedding mani.

Bottle shot:  Dollish Polish Peter Cottontail, and Milani White On The Spot.

What do you think about stamping jelly sandwiches?

Sunday Stamping - Are you Jelly?

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's challenge was a jelly-stamping-sandwich.  Not a PB&J sandwich, although those are quite nummy.  This invention is made by stamping a design in-between layers of a jelly (translucent) polish.

Weird, I know, right?  See if you like it.

I started out with Liquid Lacquer Spaced Out.  It dries matte, which I didn't know before I started.  It was fine for the bottom two layers of the mani, but it was kinda hard to finish the top layer before it dried.  So, word to the wise, unless you're super comfortable working with mattes, I wouldn't recommend them for a stamping sammich.

I hate to go there, but I have to be honest.  This was not Liquid Lacquer's finest moment.  I love her polishes, and have for a while.. but this one has chunks of pigment in it, which you can plainly see in the pix.  Not a good look.

"Spaced Out" made me look to this stamp from DRK-A.  I thought it looked like a swirling black hole, or other space-y thing. 

I used Milani White on the Spot for the stamp.  I thought that would be a good color to start with because I knew the final layer of polish would change everything.

Those of you who remember 45 records will understand that after I stamped this, it no longer looked like a black hole.  It looked like the spacer we used on 45s to be able to play them on a regular record player!

If you don't know what that is, then I have just become REALLY old to you. 

One last layer of Spaced Out, and a piece of glitter in the center of the 'black hole'.  I definitely need some practice with this technique, but it has some interesting possibilities!

Bottle shot:  Liquid Lacquer Spaced Out, and Milani White On The Spot.

So, does this mani inspire you to try this technique, or does it make you want to go dig out all your old 45s from the back of your closet?

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?

No, not green eggs - green jelly sandwich!

I didn't realize that when I was taking these pix, that I was working with vampyric bottles that don't photograph.  Why are there no bottles?  They are pretty bottles.  I don't know why they were shy that day.

I started with Le Chat Dare to Wear in Enchanted Forest, a gorgeous forest green jelly.  This is my favorite kind of jelly polish - you can see depth and texture, but it doesn't take forever to get opaque. 

I'm not sure what glitter I used.  It may be Wet and Wild Party of Five, or an unnamed Claire's glitter, or an Indie.  I'm completely blanking.  In a jelly sandwich so dark, I think the most important thing is that it have a lot of silver and light glitter.

By covering it up with such a dark jelly, I did lose some of the glitter, but it wasn't a big deal.  There is still plenty of shiny coming through.  And I love how some of the glitter looks like buried treasure in a green ocean.  

 Right hand:

 Do you like jelly sandwiches?  Will you do one with a dark color like this green?

Every Cult Nails tale should have a Happy Ending

And so, we come to the end of the week, and the end of my showcase of Cult Nails.  But, let's not be sad!  There are still a few wonderful polishes to show you today.

The first mani is a combo of two beautiful polishes with neat names:  Iconic and Enigmatic.  Iconic has been reformulated, and this is the new version -a raspberry base color with golden shimmer.  I love it.  It's a one-coater, people.  Look at that glow.  The shimmer is amazing.

I've paired Iconic with Enigmatic, a dark violet/eggplant color with amazing depth.  I like the way the two colors go together - I do wish that I had made my ring finger 2-toned as well as the thumb.  That's an easy accent - I free-handed the Enigmatic over the Iconic (though if I were doing this again, I'd reverse it.  Iconic is one-coat, Enigmatic is more like 3.) and then added a little piece of striping tape that I then cut to fit, and covered with Wicked Fast topcoat.

A bit of a weird angle, but all the better to show that shimmer.  Look how I'm willing to contort myself for your viewing pleasure.  That's dedication, I tell ya.

As we ride off into the sunset, I give you a color that reminds me of the first color of a new morn - Scandalous.

Obviously, this is a jelly.  This is two coats, I believe.  I love jellies, but I get bored putting on 3+ coats of polish, and tend to rush them - which leaves me with dinged/scraped nails.  I decided to try a jelly sandwich with this beautiful pale cantaloupe color.

Here it is with Captivated, a beautiful reddish-orange flakie on top:

And, sandwiched with another layer of Scandalous.  The glow still shines through, but muted.

What would this Cult Nails tale be without a Happy Ending?  Here's Scandalous with Happy Ending on top:

And as another jelly sandwich:

I hope you've enjoyed being a Cultie voyeur as much as I've enjoyed being a Cultie exhibitionist!

You can find Cult Nails @ www.cultnails.com and it is also being sold at Overall Beauty.