Under a Harvest Moon

It figures that as soon as I look outside, see how sunny it is, and decide to swatch something, the sun runs and hides by the time I'm ready to go outside.  Ah, well.  Indirect light will have to do!

Today I have one of the China Glaze Hunger Games series, Harvest Moon.  I love colors like this and I originally picked it up because it reminded me of one of my favorite polishes ever, O.P.I. DS Glow.  They actually look quite different, since Harvest Moon has a lot more brown in it, but I can't decide which I like better!

Three guesses why I like it... Glitter!

You see no staining on my finger, none at all... *attempts Jedi mind trick*

I'll definitely have to get pictures in direct sunlight sometime, because this is just not doing the color justice!

Shatter the Sky

Honestly, I grabbed Pure Ice Celestial off the shelf because I am in a never-ending quest to find the perfect Tardis blue.   This isn't it, but it's still nice!

It's a little streaky, and there are a couple of bubbles, but I was also in a rush and glopped the polish on rather carelessly.

For some reason, I love layering glitter and such over this color.  It's just a good, solid blue.  It does stain a lot though, which I always wind up forgetting about when I wear it.  Boo.

Then, just because I was bored, I put a coat of China Glaze Cracked Medallion over it!

This was the first time I used a crackle polish and I think it went pretty well!  I can't say I'm a huge fan of the trend, but this was on clearance at Sally's for $2 so I couldn't pass it up.  I almost want to go back for the other colors I saw... almost.

I really love the color of Cracked Medallion.  It's gold, but almost antique-y rather than in-your-face yellow gold.  Don't you love my technical terms? :D  In any case, the gold looks really nice against Celestial.  I want to go hunt around for more interesting colors to layer it over now!  Maybe a really dark, stormy grey?

Double Mani Catch-Up!

I'm getting a little behind on the posting! For some reason uploading the pictures seems like more of a hassle than actually doing the manicures in the first place!  Long-ish post here and then I'll do another tomorrow with one of my new a-england beauties!

First up is... China Glaze Liquid Crystal!

If Ray-diant is like a crushed gold ring, Liquid Crystal is like a silver sapphire ring crushed up and sprinkled on my fingers.  Above is three coats by itself.  I feel like the polish is thick and I'll go through it fast, but the sparkle alone is worth it.  Work has been stressful, but looking at this polish makes me happy and I feel like the richest girl on the block! :D

And finally... O.P.I. It's My Year.

So I finally decided to give in and get a bottle of Seche Vite (LOVE IT, by the way--makes my nails feel so smooth that I keep petting them!) at Target, looked up two shelves, and spotted It's My Year.  It took all of about a half second for the bottle to be in my hand.  Just the night before I'd been combing the interwebz for a dusky rose polish with gold and given up without finding one that I liked, and then here it was a few hours later right in front of me!  Funny how that works!

In the bottle it's one of those I could just spin round and round forever watching the light play off the sparkles.  Looks great on the nail too, though my camera picks up a bit more purple that it appeared in person. The last picture is probably the most representative of what I see in person.

Bonus pic of my Ulta haul:

That store is dangerous!  I went in just to get a bottle of Butter London West End Wonderland for my mother, who saw it last time we were in and said she'd like it for Mother's Day.  After wandering around the store and deciding to buy one Zoya and some Rimmel eye shadow, I made it to the BL display... and promptly grabbed Knackered, Tart With a Heart, and The Black Knight.  THEN I decided that I just HAD to splurge and get the Too Faced palette that I'd been drooling over the last time I was at the store.  I'm off to see Wicked next week with my mother, and I have a fancy dress, so I needed fancy makeup to go with!  Right?  Right?

I was really surprised to not love Knackered when I put it on, at least alone.  I've been drooling over the swatches and I adore it in the bottle, but when I put it on it just wasn't working.  It took four coats to get it the way I wanted it (no pictures since it was evening when I did it), though it went on nicely.  I just need something a little more... bold on my nails.  Something that draws my gaze when I see it out of the corner of my eye.  I may not have liked it on me by itself, but you'd have to pry it out of my cold dead hands--it's going to look great layered over other things.  I don't regret the purchase at all.

Three-In-One!

Lately I've been changing polish like... like... a person who changes polish fast, so today there are three to show!

First is one of the new China Glaze Prismatics called Ray-Diant.

Just one indoor picture, unfortunately.  I was going to try and get some outdoor pics but it chipped and I felt like changing it instead of patching it up for another day.  This is two coats over two of CG Foie Gras.  It felt like there were crushed diamonds on my fingers all day!

Next up is one of my favorite polishes, China Glaze Riveting.  As amazing as it is on its own, I couldn't resist adding a little bit of extra sparkle, so on went Wet n Wild The Gold & The Beautiful.  It's always hard to capture just how glowy it is.  I am absolutely going to have to order another bottle of this soon, just so I know I won't be running out for a long time!

And finally, the mani from last night I have dubbed Mermaid Skin.  I knew I wanted to do something with Zoya Maisie since I bought it at Ulta and a mermaid mani was the obvious choice!  The base is two coats of Essence Choose Me! with one of Maisie on top.  The Maisie blends in a lot, but when it catches the light just right it looks like scales.

That's all for now!  Expect complete spazzing when my a-england order shows up... and I ordered St. George and Dragon too, so they should be here in a couple of weeks.  Can't wait! :D

China Glaze Riveting & Essie Shine of the Times

Welllll, after a completely botched manicure that looked pretty but peeled right off, I decided to break out a color I've been meaning to try: one of the Hunger Games polishes, Riveting.  And riveting it is!

The pictures are with Shine of the Times on top.  Riveting is one of my favorite colors, though I've been having some serious problems with it bubbling no matter how long I wait between coats or how careful I am during the application.  But Shine of the Times adds a slight texture and hides the bubbles nicely.  Perfect!

First post!

Well by golly gee, ain't that exciting!


Right.  First attempted mani:

Three coats of ORLY Space Cadet and one coat each of Essie's Shine of the Times and As Gold as it Gets.  With base and top coats, that makes six.  Mixed feelings about how it turned out. Space Cadet was wonderful on its own, and Shine of the Times didn't stand out as much as I'd hoped.  A couple fingers got bubbles really soon after--with base and top coat, that's six coats of polish.  Made it through work with a bit of careful prodding, but I peeled it off right after to put something else on. 


Still pretty messy, but I was in a little bit of a hurry and I fail anyway. Oh well.


Also, bad bonus pic:

China Glaze Electrify over Revlon saucy.  Wore it to the Hunger Games midnight showing and wanted to look at it all night instead of the movie!