Pahlish Fleur de Sel

Hi everyone! I have a Pahlish that I'm obsessed with for you today! There is a special place in my heart for polishes that are very literal representations of things, and this one certainly falls into that category. Creator Shannon says that Pahlish Fleur de Sel was inspired by raw, unrefined pink sea salt and it TOTALLY is that in a bottle. It has a soft blush pink jelly base with assorted microflakes throughout including red, white, and iridescent violet. This is 2 coats of Pahlish Fleur de Sel (after 4 days of wear, I might add...still flawless!) Neutral colors usually don't get me this excited, but this one is just fabulous! It's a very flattering and different neutral that I bet you could get away with at work (if your work cares about polish...which thankfully mine doesn't! LOL!).

And I had to take a pic with some pink sea salt! LOL!

Fleur de Sel is part of Pahlish's Fall 2013 collection and is available in Pahlish's Big Cartel Shop. Be sure to follow Pahlish on Facebook and on their blog for details about restocks and new polishes.  Pahlish is also available from Llarowe, Overall Beauty, Rainbow Connection, and Edgy Polish. Thanks for looking everyone!

Falling for Nail Art: Halloween, Featuring Chaos and Crocodiles and Pahlish

Hi everyone! I have been so sad this week because I was going to do so many Halloween things on my nails, but I've been so sick (AND I've had to work every day) so it has been a task to even get my nails painted! I did manage to pull this out at the last minute, just in time for Halloween today (and my 13 hour shift...blahhhh). I HAD to use Chaos and Crocodiles Pumpkin Patch Extravaganza for the big day because it is just crazy Halloween goodness in a bottle. This polish has ever sort of glitter imaginable going on in orange, purple, green, black, white and even gold in all shapes and sizes (there were even some skull glitters in there...but I left those in the bottle because I do not get along with those!). I layered 2 coats over Pahlish Kalanchoe Luciae. On my accent nail, I did a little Frankenstein for my "Falling for Nail Art" Halloween challenge. He turned out pretty cute, I think! As you can imagine, there was a little placing going on with the glitter and loads of topcoat was necessary to smooth it out since there were a lot of larger glitter pieces, but I think it is such a fun special occasion polish so the extra effort was worth it!

Here is Pahlish Kalanchoe Luciae on its own. This was recently released as part of Pahlish's Fall 2013 Collection. I thought about doing a separate post for it because it is so amazing! It is a grassy green holo with a bit of golden shimmer and tiny red flakes throughout. The red flakes are amazing! Creator Shannon was inspired by succulents when she created this polish. The holographic effect is very nice as well and I adore the shade of green. I did three coats here, but it would have been fine at two if I had been more careful.

Here it is in the shade so you can see the flakes better. They are more apparent in real life. 

Chaos & Crocodiles Pumpkin Patch Extravaganza was a limited edition polish released for Halloween 2013 and is currently sold out. Other Chaos and Crocodiles polishes are available from their Big Cartel shop and you can keep track of info on restocks and releases by following their blog and Facebook. Thanks for looking everyone!

Pahlish Kalanchoe Luciae is available in Pahlish's Big Cartel Shop. Be sure to follow Pahlish on Facebook and on their blog for details about restocks and new polishes.  Pahlish is also available from Llarowe, Overall Beauty, Rainbow Connection, and Edgy Polish. Thanks for looking everyone!

CrowsToes Chess!...You Dog!

Hi everyone! Sorry for being a bit absent, but I have had a nasty cold this week. I've actually been wearing the same polish since last Saturday (which is some sort of record for me). I will share that one with you next. Today I have CrowsToes Chess!...You Dog! from the One Mad, Crazy Summer Collection. This is a clear based glitter polish with a mixture of royal blue, blue, and turquoise glitter (some metallic and some holographic) with a sprinkling of black diamonds. There are even some large turquoise circle glitters which are fantastic! I always love a good CrowsToes glitter bomb. Lauri has made some gorgeous polishes in all different finishes as CrowsToes has grown, but the glitter bombs always hearken back to old school CrowsToes for me (so I adore them). The formula on this polish was very easy to work with and the glitters spread nicely. I did do a bit of placing with the large dot glitters (personal preference, I like them more in the center of the nail), but there was no fishing necessary to get them on the nail. This is coats (maybe 1.5...if ya know what I mean) over OPI Road House Blues. The darker base doesn't highlight the black glitters as much, but I love the way it looks.

CrowsToes polishes are available at Llarowe. Be sure to follow CrowsToes on Facebook for updates and details about new collections. Pay extra close attention on October 30th for the reveal of a new CrowsToes collection!. Lauri has already given a sneak peak on her Facebook and Blog, and they look amazing so far so I can't wait to see the entire collection! Thanks for looking everyone!

Falling for Nail Art (Fail): Bump in the Night featuring Illamasqua Omen

Hi everyone! I almost didn't post this "Falling for Nail Art" challenge since it was a mega fail, but I loved the base color I used so I figured we could focus on that. This challenge was for Wednesday and it was "Bump in the Night" inspired. Now my grand I idea was to use the bats and creepy eyes stamps (from the Bundle Monster H08 plate) and then use OPI Black Spotted on my other nails to make them look creepy/rustic (whatever) but I guess I layered it too thick (even though I was careful to wipe most all of it off of my brush) so the spotted effect was very minimal. This makes me angry because I have used it playing around before and it worked so well! So anyway...boo for the final result. The stamping was cute though!

But let's talk about the base color: Illamasqua Omen. This polish is part of the limited edition Paranormal Collection and the polishes here are all UV reactive. Now unfortunately, I do not have a black light at my house, so I can't take super awesome pictures of polishes like this (or of Glow in the Dark polishes for that matter). I do think I will pick one up for the future so I can take cool pictures if I ever have polishes like this. But, I really just wanted this polish because I think it is gorgeous. I wasn't too concerned about the UV reactive part because I do no go out to clubs (but if I ever go Galaxy Bowling...I'm definitely reaching for this one...I live and exciting life). The shimmer in it reminds me very much of Illamasqua Poke. This is 2 easy coats.

In the end, I wanted to make it glow in the dark since I don't have a black light to showcase the UV reactive element of Omen, so I used 2 coats of China Glaze Ghoulish Glow over Omen. It glowed so well, but I failed at capturing it on film. I guess you really need a black light to show any sort of glow polish, even those that glow on their own in the dark.

After it was all said and done, I really wish I had just worn Illamasqua Omen by itself because it is so gorgeous and just abandoned all of the other nonsense. Oh well...c'est la vie. Thanks for looking everyone!

Darling Diva Polish Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Hi everyone! Prepare yourself for many pictures. I put on Darling Diva Polish's Crazy Little Thing Called Love and I am completely enamored. Seriously...this polish is nuts. I wore it for almost 3 days and I stared at my nails pretty much the entire time. I layered 2 coats over Essie No More Film for this mani. It shifts from pinky purple to blue to coppery orange. Just. Unnnfffff. This is my favorite so far from Darling Diva's Queen Collection. And they all pretty much rock, so that is saying something.

Darling Diva Polish is available at creator Carrie's Big Cartel Shop as well as from Llarowe. Crazy Little Thing Called Love is not one of the limited edition polishes from the Queen Collection so it should be around for awhile, but there is one more limited edition that isn't sold out yet if you want to grab it before it is gone (We are the Champions) plus two more permanent ones and they are all gorgeous multichrome holos. Thanks for looking everyone!

Musings about Nfu-Oh 51

Hi everyone! I've heard a lot of talk recently about Nfu-Oh 51 in reference to it being a dupe for Color Club The Uptown. I've been thinking about it a lot so that gave me an overwhelming desire to wear it. I think that the major thing that people forget about Nfu-Oh 51 is that there are not only flakies present in the purple jelly base but also a LOT of red/green color shifting shimmer a la Clarins 230. Now I don't have The Uptown, but I do have Layla Ceramic Effect 52 (aka The Butterfly Effect) and these look super close to me based on swatches I have seen. The big thing to note: NEITHER of these have the shimmer that Nfu-Oh 51 has. It almost takes over the polish and obscures the flakies somewhat because it is so dense (especially in pictures). I have always thought of Nfu-Oh 51 as more of a layering polish, and the shimmer really pops when you layer it over dark colors. I went with a navy blue for this mani, Barry M Blackberry. This is 2 coats of Nfu-Oh 51 over Barry M Blackberry.

Gah! So pretty! I was reminded again why this is one of my favorite polishes! It never disappoints! I do think that Nfu-Oh 51 and Color Club The Uptown/Layla CE 52 are kissing cousins, but based on what I've seen I definitely do not think they are dupes. Thanks for looking everyone!

Falling for Nail Art: Creepy Crawlers

Hi everyone! Today's (or rather Sunday's) Falling for Nail Art Challenge was inspired by "Creepy Crawlers". I have always wanted to do a silver and black spiderweb mani, so I took this as an opportunity to make it happen. I started off with a base of LA Girl Black Illusion, which has those wonderful scattered holo shards throughout. Then I stamped using Bundle Monster H07 plate and China Glaze Millennium. It turned out just how I imagined (although it did not please my husband since he really hates spiders). I used the same image on all of the nails, but on the accent nails I chose to do the bottom half of the image that included the spider and on the rest of my nails I used the top half of the image which was just the web.

Thanks for looking everyone!!

CrowsToes One Trick Pony

Hi everyone! Today I have the gorgeous CrowsToes One Trick Pony from the One Mad, Crazy Summer Collection to show you. One Trick Pony is a holographic polish with a blackened base and a shift from purple to forest green. The forest green shift is so difficult to capture on camera, but it does occur at certain angles. This polish is very easily made opaque in 2 coats with no need for a base color. The holo effect is magnificent as you can see. This polish is so pretty and I stared at my nails all day when I wore it.

Here are some shots with an OTT light

Here are some outdoor shots in the sunlight and in the shade (you can really see the green shift in the shade shot).

CrowsToes polishes are available at Llarowe. Be sure to follow CrowsToes on Facebook for updates and details about new collections. Thanks for looking everyone!

Darling Diva Polish Bohemian Rhapsody

Hi everyone! Today I have another fabulous polish from Darling Diva Polish's Queen Collection. Not only am I a fan of multichrome holos, I'm also a huge Queen fan so this collection was a must have for me. I wore another polish from the collection, We Will Rock You, recently sans undies and it was really pretty, but I have decided I like these better with undies. HOWEVER, I don't prefer them with black undies. I actually like them with a color that is represented somewhere in color spectrum of the polish. I think they look dynamite this way. And here I have worn Bohemian Rhapsody this way. It shifts from taupe to green to even purple at certain angles. For my mani, I layered 2 coats of Bohemian Rhapsody over a sage green Sinful Colors polish (that I can't remember the name to at the moment) and I adore the combo! I feel like it looks less harsh, especially around the edges, than when using black but it still intensifies the multichromatic effect.

Darling Diva Polish is available at creator Carrie's Big Cartel Shop as well as from Llarowe. Bohemian Rhapsody is not one of the limited edition polishes from the Queen Collection so it should be around for awhile, but there is one more limited edition that isn't sold out yet if you want to grab it before it is gone (We are the Champions) plus two more permanent ones and they are all gorgeous multichrome holos. Thanks for looking everyone!

Pipe Dream Polish Tomorrow's a Mystery

Hi everyone! Today I have a polish from a new to me indie called Pipe Dream Polish. I saw their polish, Tomorrow's a Mystery, posted on Instagram and I ordered it immediately. It has a blue jelly base full of blue, green and silver metallic and holographic glitters (including dot glitters). I was actually lazy and layered 2 coats of this over my previous mani Elevation Polish Muztagh Ata and it served to hide visible nail line, although you can see that the jelly base of Tomorrow's a Mystery has completely hidden the base color so it would likely be pretty opaque on its own. The formula was great and the glitters spread really easily. Such a lovely polish!

 

Pipe Dream Polish can be found here in their Etsy Shop. To see updates on restocks and new polishes (and also to see more swatches) follow Pipe Dream Polish on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for looking everyone!