Orange is the new ...blue

Hello, Fireflies!

Do you remember that really cool turquoise gradient nail art that I did a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away?

I mean, yesterday?  Well, I built a look around it to go hang out with my friends and watch the new season of Orange Is The New Black!

My little green monster decal is peekin' out from behind me.  He has a blue friend hiding behind my head. They have cartoon bubbles that the husband and I use to write notes on.  I thought you might want to know this.  Fun behind-the-scenes tidbit!

My face makeup started with my trusty stable of Cover FX products, including the Mattifying primer, the Eye primer, the BB Gel, and the Setting powder, which I used to warm up my face as a subtle contour.  Jouer blush in Dahlia, which is one of my new fave cream blushes, gave me a little color, and so did Too Faced La Creme in Believe.

For my eye makeup, I used the Tarina Tarantino Emerald Pretty palette, which I'm now a huge fan of. I love these buttery eyeshadows! I also used my Physicians Formula black liquid liner, and Rimmel ScandalEyes RetroGlam mascara. 

I tried the Mally Poreless Face Defender for the first time, instead of powder.  It still dried with a powdery finish on me, and looked a little more cakey than I would have liked.  I'm going to try it with a different combination of products next time.

Because I'm watching this show with friends, and we made a pact to ONLY watch it together, I still have a few more episodes to finish season 2 - so no spoilers, please! It's killing me already to not binge watch it, but I do try to be a woman of my word.

Are you having viewing parties for any shows? Do you cheat and binge on your own?

I GOT Cuckoo For This Scene-Stealing Water Lily!

Hello, Fireflies!

Time to pull out a Golden Oldie goodie: Orly Water Lily, a lovely, smooth, silky turquoise cream.  I'm a little nostalgic for the old Orly bottle!

I remember when I discovered ordering polish online, and I had to have this cute 'paint can' bottle of Jessica Scene Stealer.  Great polish, but it's a little awkward to use that large cap.  Still, it's so CUTE!

OPI Cuckoo For This Color is just a little darker teal than Scene Stealer, but the same type of shimmery/metallic finish.  I think they look great together!

I'm digging these striped gradients lately - such an easy nail art, I like how it looks, and it's so much easier and less messy than sponges!

Bottle shot:  Orly Water Lily, Jessica Scene Stealer, and OPI Cuckoo For This Color.

Have you ever bought a bottle of nail polish (or any cosmetic) for the bottle/packaging it was in?  Have you ever wanted a cosmetic but refused to buy it because you hated the packaging?

An InLinkz Link-up

Above the Curve Spring, Part II

If you missed yesterday, you missed two other polishes and nail art from this Spring collex from Above The Curve!  Luckily, nothing is ever really gone on the internet, and you can just go back one day and see it.  You'll be glad you did.

Cherry Blossoms.  I grew up near Washington, D.C. and the cherry blossoms there are magical.  It's an amazing spectacle to have all these cherry blossoms blooming.  This polish is a nice reminder of those days!

I did a diagonal French tip with Jessica Gingersnap, an orangy-brown glitter reminiscent of, well, a gingersnap cookie.  In a brazen decision, I used a bright orange striper between the pink and brown. BAM!

Looks like it could be the flag of some wacky country.

Bottle shot:

I saved my favorite for last.
Mother Earth.  This is a nude holo, but it has flashes of other colors.  So not boring.

 I love the complexity of this holo.

I decided to use all the other colors in this collection as chevrons on top of Mother Earth.  I had to lay the polish on rather thick to get each color opaque and distinct, but I kinda like the texture.  I wish I had done another layer of Mother Earth at the bottom to make it look the same thickness.

Bottle shot of the whole collection:

So many great spring polishes this season, and I'm loving these.  Mother Earth is a must-have, in my opinion.  Which is your fave?

If you'd like more information about Above The Curve (including their charitable donations to Shriners and others) please visit their Facebook page, or their shop on Big Cartel.

Feelin' Mellow Yellow

I don't wear yellow very often, but I did find a few different swatches from over the past year, so I decided to lump them together into a giant yellow post-it.

Claire's.  Like all of Claire's minis, this has no name.  I wonder what it must be like to work at that factory.  "Can I have more of that color?  You know, the most recent blue?"  Anyway, it was not so good, as you can see.  Streaky!

Model City It's My Birthday.  I layered this over the Claire's polish, but its yellow base was opaque on its own.  I like this one, it's a fun, fresh take on the milky glitter polish with multi-color confetti glitter.

CrowsToes Asterope.  I love a good orange/pink/yellow multichrome, and this is excellent.  Great coverage, nice, easy shift.  The bottom pix shows more of the golden yellow.

LynBDesigns Quincy.  This was a polish I got a while ago, and it sat in my untrieds... for way too long.  I really like it!  The name is cool, too, from her line of polish that has boy's names.  This is a fun, unique polish!

Jessica Banana Peel.  I like Jessica polishes, and they did their best with yellow, but it's still a little streaky.  It's a different yellow, too - a little vintage, maybe?  Nice glossy finish, and I really liked it as undies for the next glitter.

Glitzology Princess Buttercup.  I think Glitzology polishes are pretty cool, but they are usually very thick.  This one applied very nicely, and I was surprised to find that the flowers came out without any digging.  I really liked the pale green glitters and how they looked against the base color and with the yellow glitters.  Probably my fave Glitzology polish to date!

Would you wear a yellow mani?  Do you like the yellow creme or a glittered look?

Indie January - Girly Bits Extravaganza

Girly Bits was one of the first Indies I found and fell in love with.  I remember stalking her site for Shift Happens.  I want to share with you some of her other lovely polishes that I've bought.

Fathomless.  Fathomless is a very sheer jelly, so I layered it over Julep Eloise.  Wow, this is a beautiful creme blue. 

Fathomless didn't really take on any of the blue of Eloise, but it did give it a base.  You could probably use any number of polishes without changing the look.  I loved this, probably one of my fave Girly Bits in a long time.

 I love it mattified, too.  Maybe more!

For fun, I painted the side with Above The Curve Divine Angel, and then used a nail art striper in gold.

Canadian Eh?  Again, I started with a Julep, and it's another winner.  Brandt, from the Trina Turk collex, is a dark grey.  Look at that shine, no topcoat!

The red and white glitters just popped on that grey.  I did not want to take this off.

Indian Summer.  This look starts with another fun blue, L'oreal Now You Sea Me.  This is a great 'Caribbean' style blue.

I love blues and browns together, and the pink/copper glitters just bring this all together.  So very pretty.  With a nice thick topcoat, it looks even better.

January Morning.  This is a sheer frosty white with white and blue glitters.  I used OPI Here Today Aragon Tomorrow on my thumb, Orly Enchanted Lagoon on my index finger, Joe Fresh Moss on my middle finger, Joe Fresh Lime Juice on my ring finger, and just January Morning on my pinkie.  You can see in the bottle shots that the three darker greens look pretty different, and they did on the nail, too. Not after a coat of January Morning, though!  It made all three look very similar by lightening and bringing out the blue.  

Long Winter's Nap.  This polish made it onto my faves of 2012.  I love grey and blue together so much!  I started with Zoya Marina, a soft metallic grey with blue shimmer.  I would have used another coat if going it alone, but left it at one to use as undies.

 Eggnogoholic.  Very classy!  White milky base with gold flecks. 

I decided to embellish with a dotted frame in Above The Curve Aslan, a gold holo. 

Stormy Skies.  This is another GB polish that I wanted for so long, and it kept flying out of stock before I could get one.  It's sheerer than I thought it would be, but that delicate grey blue with blue shimmer was worth the wait.

I decided to camouflage the VNL with some funky French tips I saw on I Love Manicures, only she did it with pink, and maybe acrylic.  I used Jessica Indigo Glow and Midnight Moonlight and a small nail art brush.

Gentle Ginger.  This polish was created to help a community pay for an unexpected funeral for a boy in her community.  I bought the blue holo, Roger that, too, but I couldn't find it in time for this post.  This is a metallic orange, and is bright and radiant!

Visions of Sugar Plums.  This purple glitterbomb was part of the holiday 2012 collection.  I wasn't going to order it at first, but I'm glad I did.  I love the colors together, and application was a breeze.

Razzle Dazzle.  This is another pink I didn't order right away.  But then I saw it on a friend, and fell in love.  Pictures do not do it justice - I've never swatched a sparklier, blingier pink polish.  This is a show-stopper.

Heirloom.  Another from the holiday 2012 collection, this was GB's representation of a Victorian holiday.  I wanted to try it over Razzle Dazzle to see how the pinks worked together.

Then, I wanted to try it over a blue, so I chose Orly Frisky.  So pretty, with that amazing Orly formula.

Which do you like better?  Pink or blue?

I'm a fan of Girly Bits!  So many great glitters, and her formulas rarely disappoint.  Her shop does have something for everyone - and if you want to make your own polish, she sells a starter kit with bottles, suspension base, bbs, and glitter - everything you need to get started.

If you would like more information about Girly Bits, you can find her on Facebook and on her online shop.

Whew!  I can't believe January is over.. I still have many more Indies to swatch, but look for them intermingled with other polishes I'm looking forward to showing you.  Hope you enjoyed Indie January! 

Stamping on a red base - a red, hot mess!

I enjoy my Stamping Sundays, I do.  But, more often than not, I'm not very good at this stamping thing.  When you see those really pretty stamped manis, you should know that they're not as easy as they look!  There's all kinds of techniques and color choices, testing formulas, and understanding the tools.

And, patience.  Which I don't have.

This week's challenge was to stamp over red.  I had just bought this Jessica polish, Heart's Desire, part of their holiday collection.  It is one of those reds that glows from within - my fave, as you know.

I used a bow stamp from my Cheeky Mega-Jumbo-VERYLARGE plate, and Kleancolor Metallic Green and Revlon Sequin.  To be quite frank, this is why my husband does all the present-wrapping at my house.  My Real-Life presents also look a hot mess when I try to wrap.  

Maybe next week! Happy Holidays!