Darling Diva Polish Swatch Spam

Hi guys! Today I have some Darling Diva Polish swatches to share with you guys! I have had some of these pictures for awhile and some others are more recent. I decided to wait and spam you with all of them at once!

First up is Space Beetle. This polish reminds me of a holo version of Orly Space Cadet/Hard Candy Beetle, which is exactly what this polish was meant to be. It is truly fantastic. I had it on my "to buy" list for so long and I don't know why I waited so long to pull the trigger. This is 2 coats over black.

Up next is Bitch Panties. This is a more recent release and it is a sheer holographic topcoat with a slight orange/purple duochrome shift. It is just gorgeous! I love it! This is 1 coat over Essie No More Film.

Next up is Slutty Pumpkin. This is an orange holographic polish with different sizes of black hexes throughout. First off, I absolutely adore the name of this polish, as I love the TV show How I Met Your Mother. This is in reference to a mysterious lady who was dressed as a "slutty pumpkin" at a Halloween party one year and one of the main characters from the show thought they were destined to be together. He didn't get her info, so he went to the same party every year for several years hoping she would show up again. Eventually she did...and turned out to be completely nuts! So anyway...back to the polish! What I really liked about this polish was that the base orange color was sheer enough to let the black glitters shine through. This would be a terrific polish to grab for Halloween! This is 3 coats, no undies.



Up next is Chunky PB&J. This is a rich purple holographic polish with different sizes of bronze hexes throughout. I really love the color combination of this polish. This is 2 coats,  no undies.

Finally I have Stripper Pole. This is a gold holographic polish with gold squares and holographic gold hexes throughout. For me, I liked to use 2 thin coats over a gold base coat (I used a-England Princess Sabra) because I found that if I did too many coats or too thick of coats of this it tended to drown out the gorgeous gold holo glitter.

Darling Diva Polish can be found in her Etsy Shop. There are some truly fantastic polishes in her shop (I have previously posted about Dreamy and Carrie as well) and she has stock available most of the time, so no stalking necessary! Also, she is constantly coming out with new polishes to suit your fancy. Check out her Facebook page for updates!

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

So...I decided not to go the obvious route and do an American flag mani since there were so many of those with the recent Olympics and the Fourth of July. Instead, I decided to do something more off the beaten path: PIRATES! Arrrgh!

So for my pirate flag inspired mani I chose to go full out pirate with inspirations from the flag, pirate clothing, and nautical things all in one. I won't bore you will the full details of this mani, but I will tell you that I used striping tape to help in creating the stripes on my index and ring finger and stamping on my thumb (the image plate was from the second Bundle Monster Set). I used a dotting tool to do the freehand anchor and crossbones. I thought it was fun!

Hee hee. Not your typical flag mani I don't suppose, but definantly fun! Thanks for looking!

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 27: Inspired by Art

Today's mani was inspired by one of my favorite pieces of art: Monet's Water Lilies. This mani was actually surprisingly simple to do. If you want to give it a try, don't be intimidated! It is impressionist art, after all, so it isn't precise work. I thought it was really fun to do!

I used this tutorial from Michelle Phan to get an idea of how to do the nail art. I started off with a base of Orly Snowcone and then sponged Nina Ultra Pro Cobalt around the edges for depth. I then used a small, flat paint brush and OPI Thanks a Windmillion to make the lily pads. I used white and a tiny detail brush to make random strokes which give the water movement. Finally I used a detail brush and dotted on a bright pink and then accented with yellow to make the lilies. It isn't exactly a Monet, but it looks pretty cool for nail art!



Who knew I was such an artiste? More like an artiste impersonator! ;)

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

Ok so today's mani wasn't so much inspired by a specific pattern as it was inspired by the fact that I have ALWAYS wanted to stamp a pattern over a holo. That counts, right? :)

I recently got my hands on some of the new Laylas and I have been itching to wear them. I started out with Misty Blush, which seemed to be a favorite. It did not disappoint. It is a very confusing color to actually pinpoint but I'm going to say it is a purpley brown holo. I used Finger Paints Black Expressionism and the Bundle Monster 203 stamping plate for the design. I really love the way it turned out.

And here is Layla Misty Blush alone. This is 2 coats over 1 coat of Jessica Retro Revival Aqua Base.

So what do you think? Was stamping a cop-out for the pattern challenge? Maybe so...but I still loved it! I purchased my new Layla Hologram Effect polishes from Ninja Polish.

Hits GRAACC Swatches

I recently received the Hits GRAACC collection to swatch and review and I wanted to share those with you guys today. This collection contains 5 glass flecked polishes in bright, summery colors. I found them all to be unique in my collection and very lovely. Another great thing about this collection is that it was created for a great cause. Hits is donating a portion of the proceeds from the collection to the GRAACC which is an organization in Brazil that raises awareness and helps to fund research for childhood cancer.

First up is Pega-pega, a red leaning purple jelly with glass flecks. This was 3 coats. The glass flecked shimmer within this polish almost looks like it is glowing pink within. A super pretty polish.

Next is Cirandinha, a vibrant hot pink jelly with glass flecks. This was 3 coats. This polish was so much brighter and gorgeous in real life. It is a real stunner. The glass fleck shimmer in these polishes is amazing! In this one in particualr, the flecks make it really glowy.

Next is Gato-mia. This is a vibrant blue jelly with glass flecks. This was 3 coats (although this was the most opaque of the collection). This polish is awesome! It almost looks metallic the shimmer is so vibrant. This was hands down my favorite of the collection.

Next is Cabra-cega. It is a lime green jelly with glass flecks. This was 3 coats. It was the sheerest of the collection and some people might even prefer 4 coats if you want more opacity (depends on how thick your coats are.)

Last is Queimada. It is an orange jelly with glass flecks. This was 3 coats. This one was my least favorite of the collection simply because it wasn't the best color with my skintone (reddish oranges tend to work better on me) but it was a nice polish for anyone who can pull off the color.



Overall, I really liked this collection. The glass flecked finish of these polishes was just to die for and the colors were really bright and fun. Also, I would say that these are the best Hits brushes I have found so far so kudos to Hits for listening to our complaints about previous brushes! They were a little sheer (3 coaters for me), but I think that the payoff is worth it! My top picks from the collection are Gato-mia, Pega-pega, and Cirandinha.

These are available from Llarowe for $6.00 each. What do you think of these polishes?

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

Today's mani was inspired by Fashion. I decided to use an amazing shoe from Betsey Johnson as my inspiration. I figured that I would probably kill myself if I actually tried to wear this shoe, so why not enjoy the pattern on my nails?

Image from: http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/betsey-johnson-diskko-rose-print-platform-pumps

For this mani, I started out with a base of China Glaze For Audrey. I wish I could have used a blue base closer to the color of the actual shoe (like OPI Fly) but I was afraid that it would drown out the roses. For the roses I used OPI Panda-monium Pink as the base of the roses and OPI Red Hot Ayers Rock for the rose stamping. Essie Pretty Edgy was used for the leaves. The tutorial I used for this mani can be found here on Rebecca Likes Nails. I used the stamping technique, but she also has a freehand technique for creating the roses if you would rather do it that way.

 

I absolutely adore how this mani turned out. I will definantly be doing it again in the future with different colors. Whew...only a few more days to go in the challenge! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 24: Inspired by a Book

Hi everyone! Today my mani had to be inspired by a book. What other book could I pick than the hottest smut around right now: Fifty Shades of Grey. I could not resist! I was only sad that I did not have a helicopter stamp so that I could do a Charlie Tango accent nail.

So the inspiration for my mani was Christian's grey silk tie that was Ana's favorite in the book...for many reasons. I used Zoya Kelly as a base on all of my nails and then did Lynnderella Fifty Shades of May-be as accent nails. For the other nails, I tried to go for the look of a striped silk tie with black, white, and silver stripes done with my handy nail stripers. It um...didn't really turn out looking very tie-like as I had imagined, but it looked pretty cool anyway. It was grey at least, right?

I hope you guys don't mind my smutty inspiration (c'mon...you know you've read it!).

LATERS!!!