Some Dollish Polish Mario Swatches: Dino-mite Yoshi and Toad-ally Awesome

Hi everyone! I am a total Mario freak, so when Dollish Polish annouced their Super Mario Collection, I knew I had to own them all. I bought them all before I had even seen swatches, but luckily, they are super pretty! Here are some manis I did with two of the polishes from that collection.

First up is Dino-mite Yoshi. This polish is a mix of large soft yellow matte hexes, matte pink squares, small matte white glitter, small metallic green hexes, and pink and gold metallic microglitter in a clear base. It isn't a particularly dense glitter polish when compared to some other indies I own, but this is 1 (dabbed) coat over OPI Stranger Tides. I also find that the Dollish Glitters I have tried don't need Gelous to smooth them. I typically just use two coats of my regular topcoat, NYC Grand Central Station and my manis are smooth.

 

 

 

 

Up next I have Toad-ally Awesome over China Glaze First Mate. This polish has white, red, and blue matte glitter (although I wish there were more blue matte squares), small metallic yellow gold glitter, and dark blue metallic microglitter in a clear base. I found the formula and application very similar to Dino-mite Yoshi (although I think I used 2 coats of this over my base color).

 



 

 

 

 

 

I've also worn A Peachy Princess from this collection and really enjoyed it, but my pictures turned out awful, so I will reswatch it for you guys one day. These polishes can be purchased from Llarowe and from Dollish's Big Cartel Shop when it is stocked. Thanks for looking!

 

 

 



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Jessica Pumpkin Delight

Today I have for you a polish that screams fall: Jessica Pumpkin Delight. As soon as I saw this polish on Scrangie's Blog I knew I had to have it. Pumpkin Delight is from the Jessica Fall 2012 Spicy Dream Collection. Pumpkin Delight is a complex sparkly, foily polish with all sorts of colors in it including orange, red, gold, bronze. It does have a slight red/orange duochrome aspect to it as well. It is so gorgeous and a must have for fall. This is 2 coats. Also, please excuse the random piece of silver glitter that got in there some how (from my topcoat, I guess?)

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to add a little interest to this mani with some black stamping and a leaf design from the second Bundle Monster set (BM 210).

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Jessica polishes are available from their website, but I actually snagged this one off of eBay. Thanks for looking everyone!



Crowstoes Last Call at the Crow Bar and Morticia

I had a little indie swatch-a-thon recently and I wanted to share some of those with you. First up are some polishes from CrowsToes.

Last Call at the Crow Bar (1 dabbed coat over Color Club Revvvolution). This is a crazy mix of gunmetal glitter with multicolored glitter. I think that it is just made with leftover glitter so every batch will be a little different. So neat!

Morticia (1 dabbed coat over China Glaze Crimson). Morticia is filled with different sizes of red, black and silver glitter with some holo thrown in there. It looks really cool over the vampy base of Crimson.

For both of these manis, I used 1 coat of Gelous and 1 coat of NYC GCS on top because they are hungry glitters. Also, these polishes have the typical thicker texture of CrowsToes polishes because they are packed with glitter in uncut suspension base. The dabbing method works best for application but you get maxium glitter payoff (these swatches were 1 coat over the base color for both polishes).  CrowsToes polishes are available from Llarowe. Thanks for looking!

230 Pick-Me-Up and HK Girl TC Review

Hi all! Do you guys have a certain mani that you wear if you are needing a pick-me-up? Well I have a weakness for red-green color shifting topcoats (and if you've followed my blog for any length of time, you know this) so what better for a mood booster than the holy grail of red-green color shifters, Clarins 230. I love it layered ove everything, but especialy purple shimmers. It just makes them glow!

For this mani, I started out with Bettina 28, a purple shimmer that was a gift from perhaps the biggest purple shimmer lover I know, Kristy over at The Polish Haven. It is so lovely! It reminds me of a hybrid of two of my most loved purple shimmers: OPI Diva of Geneva and Claire's Magic. Then I layered 1 coat of Clarins 230 on top.

 

 

 

Now I will show you the Bettina on its own. It was really lovely...until the Hong Kong Girl topcoat struck. I had heard about how this top coat was supposed to be super shiny and quick drying like Seche Vite but without the shrinkage problems. Now, I broke up with Seche Vite ages ago due to shrinkage issues so I was very excited about to hear about something comparable. It dried quickly like Seche Vite, but it dulled the polish as it dried. It also had the most offensive smell I have ever encountered with any polish or topcoat. It literally made me nauseous. So...yeah...I'm not on board the Hong Kong Girl Topcoat train. I'm gonna stick with my super cheap and easy to find NYC Grand Central Station.

 

 

 

 

Has anyone else had experience with the HK girl topcoat? I'm interested to hear how others have liked it because I have heard rave reviews as well as people with similar experiences to my own. Perhaps it is a body chemsitry thing? Thanks for looking everyone!

 

 



 

 

Orange and Blue Stamping

I have been on a quest for some nice cremes to add to my collection. I have a lot of cremes, but I have found with my recent nail art ventures that I really needed to expand my creme color palette. One creme that I desperately needed was a navy blue creme. I am constantly using OPI Road House Blues for dark blue creme manis, but it is really more of a blurple. It was suggested to me to invest in some American Apparel cremes because they have a nice color range and formulas, and there was the perfect navy blue creme I was looking for: American Apparel Passport Blue.

I used 2 coats of Passport Blue for the base of this mani (although I could have stopped at one coat, it was more out of habit that I did two). The formula was indeed lovely, so I am definantly going to be picking up some more of these polishes. I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri Brisk Blue for the stamping (using Bundle Monster plate 213) and Zoya Heidi for the dots.

 

 

 

 

So what are your favorite creme polishes in your stash? Especially yellows, oranges, and greens. I really need more of those for my nail art adventures. Thanks for looking!

Flakie Gradient

Hi guys! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I was super busy last week and then I went out of town this weekend. I'm hoping to catch up with posts this week. Today I have a mani that I actually did a little while back and never shared with you guys. I was inspired by the lovely Jamie from The Posh Polish to do a flakie gradient.

For this gradient, I started out with a purple shimmer polish from Barry M called Vivid Purple. Then I dabbed Finger Paints Asylum on the tips with the brush, using 2-3 coats towards the very tips for a denser look. I find the Finger Paints flakies to be a little on the sparse side when it comes to flakies, so you have to really build them up if you want more coverage.

 

  

 

Here is Vivid Purple on its own. It is a pretty polish, but I wouldn't say it is super unique in my collection. But me being a hoarder of purple shimmers, I can't let it go! This is 2 coats.

 

 

 

 

 

 



 Thanks for looking!

Purple and Gold Jelly Sandwich

So I have yet another jelly sandwich for you guys. This past weekend was my 10 year class reunion and since my high school colors were purple and gold, that was the obvious choice for mani colors.

I decided to use Lynnderella Golden Rules from her Sweet Somethings for the Summer Solstice collection for my glitter. This is pretty much a gold version of Shape Shifter, one of her original polishes. It has all sorts of crazy shapes going on including hexes, bars, stars, and diamonds of varying sizes (and they are holographic). Now I take a little different approach to my jelly sandwich manis sometimes as I cheat and use a non-jelly polish for my base coat. I do this because I often like for there to be some glitter or shimmer underneath the glitter instead of just a jelly polish to give the mani more interest. I started out with 2 coats of Zoya Mimi, then 1-2 coats of Golden Rules (dabbed on), then finished off with 1 coat of my jelly, Verity Deep Violet.

 

 

 

 

This is Zoya Mimi on its own.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought it was festive for the reunion! Thanks for looking everyone.