More Claire's color changing polish!

I had so much fun the first time I wore Claire's Earthy/Happy, I decided to wear it again over the summer. I stamped some cute konad flowers on it, and then the whole thing reminded me of 70's bedsheets or curtains! Haha!

No flash:

Flash:

In a lot of lightings, for some reason, it looked almost exactly like my picture without flash. Kind of weird-swampy. I'm not sure why that happened this time, but in bright light it looked the way I remembered, all neon and happy. :) I forgot that I had said last time that I wouldn't put topcoat on it if I did it again, whoops. That really ate some of the brightness of this fun polish. Maybe third time's the charm?

No More War

Sorry about the delays in posts! For some reason both Lacquermuse and myself have been having internet connectivity problems. :( I'm uploading a bunch of pictures all at once today, so hopefully updates can continue as usual for a while now! :)

Anyway, I wore No More War with a couple stickers for my birthday back in May. I really like this color and wore it once last winter. It's a very interesting swampy color and it goes on pretty well, although I realized after looking at these pictures that there are a couple places where you can see through the polish. It doesn't really dry, either, which was annoying. I ended up having to take it off the next day because it was just getting wrecked by packing up and moving out...

No flash, shadow:

Flash, shadow:

Another interesting thing about this polish is that it's the exact color of artichokes! I cooked a couple artichokes (trying to empty out the fridge, haha) and they really were the exact same color. I wanted to take a picture, but by that point they were in pretty bad shape and I didn't want to scare everyone. ;)

Flash:

I think I bought these stickers on a Sally's run. I like them! They're on the thicker side, though, so I had to choose fairly flat nails to place them on. They're quite long, too, so I was glad that my nails had grown out enough to be able to use them!

edit I just found out that RBL will be bringing back No More War soon and it's now available for preorder on their website. :)

Rainbow Nails!

Hello! I'm really excited to show you these pictures! During spring break, Lacquermuse and I walked to all sorts of places where we thought we might find nail polish. (Fear the determination of us car-less students!) One of these places was a Ross, where we found a set of Color Club Poptastic. :) I used them right away, but couldn't settle on a single color so I decided to use five of the seven. Check it out~

No flash:

Flash:

From left to right this is: Color Club Poptastic, Pucci-licious, Almost Famous, Twiggie, Chelsea Girl Blue

The flash picture is much better, I think, but they're both pretty true to color. The other colors in the set were Warhol and Wham! Pow!, a bright magenta-y pink and a neon orange. I actually like both of them best (although I'm also really fond of Almost Famous), but they were too neon and didn't go with the rest of them as well. ...Chelsea Girl kind of sticks out too, but I stuck it on my pinky so it didn't bother me so much.

I got a bunch of compliments on my nails when I wore this. On the first day I had them painted this way we rode the train to Portland and both ways someone asked about them. ^^

No flash:

Flash:

I had a lot of fun deciding what animals to stamp on what color. It's a zoo! I ended up putting bunnies on pink because they had hearts, cats on purple because... they just looked like they would like that..., chicks on yellow, pandas on green for the bamboo, and dogs/sheep on blue because that was the animal design I liked next best, lol.

I actually really like those chicks. I was so sad to see them go. But then I stamped them on my toes twice in a row. They're just so cute. They say "pi"...!

Celebrating Earth Day: Zoya Suvi

Happy Earth Day! Today I thought I would share a polish from Zoya, since they are known for being more eco-conscious. I chose Suvi, a lacquer I got from the Green Friday sale back in November. Suvi was thick and a bit goopy, but very pretty. The base is actually charcoal with an intense amount of green shimmer which turns it into a blackened emerald green color. I like how soft the Zoya brush is. With a little thinner I think it would be a dream to apply. This is three thick coats with no topcoat.

As you can see, I chopped my nails down to nothing. They feel very very short, I'm not sure I like them. They looked alright when I was filing (they were bare) but once I put some color on them they looked ultra-short! I hope they grow back soon!

Speaking of Zoya, they have brought back their famous Nail Polish Exchange for a limited time! From today until the 30th of June, you can trade in your old/unwanted colors for brand new Zoyas of your choice, and Zoya will properly dispose of the polishes sent to them. Unfortunately I think this is available only for those in the continental US. Find out more here.

Not only is it Earth Day, but it is also the birthday of my sweet "wild" abyssinian Gil. He turns 6 years old today! I thought I would show you a candid we took of him a few months ago. He has a special towel for when he eats catnip because he can be very messy with it!

Are you going to exchange some old polishes for some new Zoyas? What's on your list?

Until next time~!

Claire's Earthy/Happy

I'm here to share some pictures of Claire's Earthy/Happy! I didn't think the color changing effect would be so much fun to play with, but it really is. This polish was super distracting for me in class, as I would play around and see if I could get the green to change to that bright highlighter yellow...

Check it out!

No flash:

Flash:

Sorry about the wear and the huge chip on my pointer. I put Zoya Armor on top of this and later wished I hadn't. It ate some of the brightness of this polish. It was still very bright and fun and went on without problems (I think this is three coats), but you can see by my cuticles where the top coat started to chip off and the yellow is just a little bit more blinding...

This reminded me of those shirts that were popular in the 90s that would change from a black and white design to something with color~! when exposed to sunlight. It's not really the same thing, but equally fun. All in all I was really pleased with the way this worked.

Zoya Midori + Dutch Nail Blog Giveaway

Firstly, I love this color. Wow. A perfect spring green with yellow shimmer. A bright green that doesn't look terrifying on my skin! The yellowish flash in it matched the daffodils wonderfully, so I used that as a backdrop.

My one complaint with Midori, however, is the formula. I can't remember using a gooier, gloppier formula. The brush didn't spread well, and didn't dry quickly (I believe this is because of the thickness), so I ended up banging my nails before they had fully dried. I tried to even it out with another coat, but it didn't self-level, so it just looks a bit blobby, my apologies for that. I am convinced that with thinning this polish would be perfect, but this one really drove me crazy.

In other news, Kirsten at The Dutch Nail Blog is having a surprise giveaway! In honor of her new puppies, she's put together a neat giveaway. Ever wish you could pick your own prize? The winner of this giveaway gets to select the Catrice polishes she's got her eye on, I believe for a total of 9. Open internationally. This ends on the 3oth of April, find out more here.

Until next time!

China Glaze He's Going In Circles

I recently obtained China Glaze He's Going in Circles, from the Kaleidoscope collection. It's a beautiful sea-foam green, a really delicate color. It's very feminine, and I like it a lot.

The holo in this is apparent even when not in bright sunlight.

But with sunlight (or, in this case, flash, since it is dreary out) it really glows! Beware of driving (or biking, jogging, walking...) with this on! It's really quite distracting, because it twinkles nearly constantly.

I assumed this would be on the bumpier side, and I would need to soak my nails to get it off cleanly. Wrong! This is very smooth, even though it looks quite glittery, and it comes off just as easily.

I actually wore this for about three days without much tipwear or chips, and was not tempted to stamp over it at all. A great polish. This is three thin coats, because it is on the sheer side, but it dries fast and it totally worth it. This collection has been discontinued, but I know some etailers still have a few bottles, so it's still around. I love the design on these bottles too, they just look so snazzy.

I'm hoping to get up some swatch pictures of Kaleidoscope Him Out, the only other polish I got from this collection soon.

Until next time!

More Giveaways and a Slytherin Manicure

If you aren't interested in the giveaways, skim down for a simple Slytherin manicure. Otherwise, read on.

My goodness, there are giveaways happening all over the blogosphere! Here are a few more to be on the look for:

Lyra at Nail Junkie is having her first giveaway! She's compiled a huge amount of really fantastic looking polishes for one lucky winner. Check it out here, but hurry because this ends on Saturday, March 20!

Laura at Sawan is giving away all FIVE of the new Claire's Mood polishes! Aquajogger is wearing the green (earthy/happy) right now and it is really quite amazing! Three people will get to try all five, so hurry and sign up! This ends on March 28, and can be found here.

Jacie of You've Got Nail is having another giveaway! This one is for a Nailtrixx kit (like Konad) and an adorable ulta3 lacquer. This ends on March 29th. Find out more here.

Mari and Lissi of Nail Addicts Anonymous are having their first giveaway! The winner will receive nail polish from Essie, Orly, OPI and China Glaze! This giveaway ends on April the 9th, check it out here!

AllYouDesire is having a giveaway for having reached 500 followers! As a gift to her readers, she's put together a package of some of her favorites things, from nail polish to perfume. This ends on April 10th, so check it out here!

Trincess at Emerald Sparkled is having a neat giveaway. Since she's reached 200 followers, she's put together a bunch of fun polishes for her giveaway/contest. Find it here! This ends on March 27th.

As part of the giveaway she suggested recreating one of her manicures, and my St. Patrick's day one was getting a bit chippy and too lurid for me, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I didn't want to be scared off greens forever, so I tried Zoya's Veruschka. I've never worn a matte manicure before (I know, where WAS I last fall??) and I've been wanting to try Konad plate m28, but I never had a good reason to do either, until now. Envy might have been a better choice, but I wanted to explore my untrieds. Here is the original. :)

I love it. The color work well for me, I think it's a very wearable green. Application was a bit thick and tricky, but fine and very opaque once I got used to it. The snake on m28 was a little harder to capture, and its little tongue wouldn't come up at all, but it's still recognizable as a snake, so I love it. It wasn't anything complicated like a lot of the other manicures on Emerald Sparkled, but I think it's still pretty snazzy. :)

What do you think? How do you feel about snakey manicures?

Until next time!

St. Patrick's Day Manicure

Happy (Belated) St. Patrick's day! My apologies for the lateness, I should have posted this earlier but unfortunately I caught an icky cold. :( Here's what I did for St. Patrick's day.

I used Sinful San Fransisco, and stamped the vine/flowers (or clovers, as I was going for this time) using China Glaze L8tr G8tr. I finished with a coat of Kleancolor Peaceful Heart, a green glitter with blue hearts, and topped the whole thing off with Nubar Diamont.

I did have to do a bit of fishing to get the hearts out, but it wasn't bad. I haven't worn a green this vivid in months, so it was rather shocking at first! I felt a bit like Poison Ivy, haha. Greens can be hard for me to wear, so this was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I wanted to do something with a bit more pizazz for the holiday.

Are you a fan of emerald greens? Did you do something special for St. Patrick's day?

Until next time!