Indies - fruity goodness

The theme today is that all of the Indies have something about fruit in their names!

First up, some colorful red jelly undies with Chi 24k red.  Love the flecks.  It's a lot like OPI Animalistic and other red flecks.

This Indie had a small marketing problem - they didn't put their name anywhere on the bottle!  I think it's 2Chix Holo Berry, but I could be wrong.  They might have changed their name, too.  People, if you're selling something, put your name on it...

I used Essence Grey-t to be here to do some nail art.  I was going for flowers, but I think they look like zombie/skeleton arms reaching out.  Yeah, that's what they are, that's the ticket.

The next mani starts with China Glaze Immortal, which was released around Halloween.  It's a beautiful medium grey with flecks of blue and purple.  I love grey, and this grey is pretty awesome.

I wanted to emphasize the blue, so I added Lilacquer Blueberry Pi.  I am loving those iridescent blue glitters.  So pretty!

The last look starts with a polish I had to find on ebay - Revlon Royal Cloak.  I love the flakies in this purple polish, but I do wish they were a tad more pronounced.  Still, it has all the wonderfulness of a Revlon polish.

I did a glitter gradient with Hit Polish Pomegranate Ice.  I don't always like to wear red and purple together, but this polish is pretty cool.  The red makes the mani a little more interesting.

So, there you have it - berries, blueberries, and pomegranate.  Sounds almost good enough to eat!

Indie January - Wing Dust

I like a little surprise in my life, so I bought a couple of polish grab bags last year.  One of them contained these two pretty polishes from Wing Dust, but no labels for the names.  I went over to Wing Dust's Facebook page with a pix, and within minutes I had an answer from the creator herself. 

This first one is called A Day Without Rain.  Turquoise base with white and gold glitters, it's very subtle and delicate and pretty.  I do usually like my glitters to be a bit more pronounced, but the gold shimmer in the polish helps to draw attention to the gold glitters, at least. 

To emphasize the gold, but continue with the delicate nature of the polish, I stamped subtle, rolling clouds with Maybelline Bold Gold.  I love the effect!

The second polish is Crazy For You.  This has had me singing Heart's song by the same name for *days*.  This is my type of glitter - dark blue/black jelly base, and bright glitter.  I really am crazy for this polish.

I wanted to emphasize the spots of color, so I dotted a diagonal stripe with Revlon After Party (sage green) and Dress Code (shimmery purple).

Are you a fan of the subtle, hidden glitters, or do you like them to jump out at you?

Wing Dust Collections can be found on her Facebook Page or her Etsy shop.

Indie January - KB Shimmer

One of my faves this past year - and many other bloggers also praised this Indie brand - KB Shimmer. Her polishes are beautiful!  Let me show you a few of my faves:

Snow Way.  This one made my list of fave polishes of 2012, even though I hadn't blogged about it yet.  Yes, it is just that special and beautiful.  I will admit, it took 3 coats to become opaque, though, so next time I wear it (oh, and there will be a next time, and a time after that, and many more..) I will probably put undies on because I don't want to waste it. 

Which Way.  This was part of her Halloween collex, I believe, but I'd wear it year 'round.   I love a pretty scattered holo, and how different to have it in a dark purple jelly base?  The second pix is a little blurred to emphasize the depth of the polish and the sparkly holo.  Which Way is a Winner Winner!

Elle.  Oh, these grey jellies.  With the soft pink glitters, among others, it's so sweet and unobtrusive.  I love it, it's one of my faves.  This is another one that would likely benefit from some undies, though in Real Life, you couldn't really see any VNL. 

Oh Splat.  I believe that this polish was one of the original 'milky' glitters to really take off.  For some reason, I used to avoid these glitters, but I'm glad I came around.  I love them now, likely even more than glitters with a clear base...

Cocoa Nut.  I love brown polishes, and it's so unexpected to see brown paired with hot pink glitters, not to mention this was a part of her holiday collex.  When everyone else was doing red and green, KB Shimmers put this out there, and I ate it up. 

No Whine Left.  Last, but not least.  This was another KB Shimmer that made a big splash.  Another unusual pairing - burgundy and cobalt blue - that just works so well.  

In this now-saturated market of Indie glitters, she is still putting out unexpected and beautiful combinations, which is why she's one of my fave Indie polish makers. You can find KB Shimmer on Facebook, or on her own webpage. 

What's your fave?

Indie January - Pretty & Polished

If there is one cue that the major brands are taking from Indies, it's putting out a great milky-based glitter, or a jelly-sandwich in a bottle.  This is one area where a lot of the Indies shine, and I have three from Pretty & Polished to show you today.

First up, Dalmation Nation. 

It's a little weird, right?  I feel like I have googly eyes on my nails.  I've seen there's an actual polish that *has* googly eyes in it, though.

I really like the white with small black glitters, and I like the concept of large circle glitter, but they required a lot of fishing and placing.  It took a loooong time to get one out for each of my nails.

Next up, Power Cosmic.  Oh, if the white is good, the black is awesome.  I love these black jellies with glitter floating through them - like a galaxy nail in a bottle.

It looks even deeper with topcoat.

I couldn't resist adding a little China Glaze Fairy Dust to really give it that 'galaxy' nail look.

I saved my fave for last:  Private School.

The grey jellies are my fave of the milky-based glitters, I do believe.  Foggy and mysterious, bright and naive.  I could take or leave the little red glitters, but this polish is a stunner all the way around.

Are you a fan of the jelly sandwich/milky-based glitters, too?  Which Pretty & Polished is your fave?
You can find Pretty & Polished on Facebook or on their website.

Sunday Stamping - Book I'm Reading

I just finished watching the HBO Series 'Game of Thrones' and it inspired me to start reading the books.  My husband is a fan of the books and has already bought and read them all, so I just had to visit his bookshelf.  I'm only about 100 pages in, but it's very much like the TV series so far. 

I wanted to portray one of the families in the series.  I started with this Darling Diva polish, Blonde Tornado, not as much for the color, but for the name.  This family is renown for their blonde hair, and are certainly a force to be reckoned with, leaving a mess in their wake.

It's a gorgeous holo, though, isn't it?  A rose-gold color, it's pretty different.  It applies wonderfully - no special basecoat needed.  And, it keeps with the Indie theme for January!

Next, I added a layer of real gold flake topcoat, because it seemed extravagant, and this family is just swimming in money.

This stamp is from the W222 plate of Anna's Nail Art.  Royal Skulls seemed appropriate, as they are both royal and deadly.

If you've seen the show or read the books, I hope it's obvious by now that I'm depicting the Lannister family from the Game of Thrones book.

Have you seen the series or read the books? 

Indie January - Maya Cosmetics

Maya Cosmetics is a new-to-me Indie, and I fell in love with their collections.  I have a bunch of their polishes to show you today!  In addition to the great formulas and colors, I was happily surprised to see that so many of their colors complimented each other in my nail art.

First up, Smolder.   Plummy-brown with a shimmer.  Yep, it made me smolder.

I used Voodoo for a glitter gradient over Smolder.  I love how the base colors compliment each other, and the glitter brings out the red tones in the polish.

For this look, I started with Enigma and accent nails in Hex.  I'm learning to love these chartreuse colors that are so popular.   This one isn't quite as yellow, so that makes me love it more.  And brown and green together is a win for me.

I wanted to bling it out a bit, and Treme is very blingy!  I wasn't expecting it to be so opaque!  You can only clearly see the base colors at the top of the nail.   I think the gold in Treme brings out the best in Hex and Enigma.

I fell in love with Tranquillis the first time I saw it!  Like deep, mysterious ocean water, with dark teal and green and gold.  Gorgeous.

I was really in the mood for glitter gradients with I was playing with these Maya polishes!  This is No Big Deal over Tranquillis.  No Big Deal is a dark blue-black glitter, and over Tranquillis, it pulls more black, which felt like the ocean floor in this nail art...

... which is probably why I painted seaweed-like fronds on my nails in Hex and Smolder.  Don't all these colors just look like they belong together? 

It's no secret that I love my holos, and of course I had to buy Nefarious Aquarius!  Teal and holo, yes, please!

I paired it with Hootenanny, a dark, multicolor glitter.  I love the contrast in textures, and the way the holo brings out the blue glitter in Hootenanny.

For the last look, I paired Hootenanny as an accent with Baby, It's Cold Outside.  These two glitters are going commando - no undies, and they are full-coverage.  You can see that they're not chunky or thick, either.  Very well-made microglitters.

Baby, it's cold outside, so there must be snow, right?  Massive, deformed snowflakes.  Radioactive snow?

This Indie brand is amazing - for me, they hit all of these polishes out of the park. You can find Maya Cosmetics on Facebook and on their webpage.  Which is your fave?

4 blue undies with 4 Indie Glitterbombs

I love blue polish, it's probably my fave color to wear.  I have some polish combinations today that start with a mainstream color, and then layered with an Indie glitterbomb on top.

Oh, dark blue, how you stain, but how I love you anyway.  Orly Star of Bombay didn't stay on me long enough to really stain much, though, because I was swatching.  If I could have, I would have left it on, though.  It's gorgeous, and has that great Orly formula.

I layered with with Above the Curve Peacock 4Play.  Every time I think I have enough blue/green/mermaid glitters, something comes along with just a little something different to tempt me.  Purple.  sigh.

My only complaint about this polish was that it was quite thick, and gritty without topcoat. I added a layer of NYC Grand Central Station which smoothed it out beautifully, but the polish was too thick, and with the glue base it peeled off quickly.

Impala Polaina Fun is a great summery Caribbean blue.  Loved it.  The distortion on my thumb is due to the glue base, not the polish.  Can I just say how much I love these bottles, too?  

I love the Big Bang Theory, but I may love this BBT-themed polish from Different Dimensions even more.  What a great combo of glitters in Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock!

L'oreal Jet Set to Paris is a French Blue, as you might expect!  I thought it would make great undies for this next Indie, but it totally got lost in the blue jelly, so you'll just have to admire it on its own.

Makeup Your Face I Need Blue Tonight is a jelly sandwich in a bottle.  Deep, squishy royal blue with white and silver glitter. A fave shade of blue, and a great way to wear it.

I liked Essence Date In the Moonlight so much, I accidentally bought it twice.  These dark colors with the shimmer that glows from within get me every time.

Pahlish Prayers for Rain is another mermaid glitter I had to have.  I really like the blue/green combo in this glitterbomb.

Do you like your blues layered?  Are you like me, attracted to mermaid-type colors like a moth to a flame?