a-England St George! Oh and I'm back!

Hi. *hangs head*

I've been gone for awhile, I know. But I am back now! I have a stunner today, a-England St. George. Holy crap, this is a good polish. Deep green-y teal. Perfect formula. Smooth and glides on. If you're careful it is a one coater. Its got a scattered holo that comes alive in the sun. It is super gorgeous!

a-England can no longer ship worldwide due to silly Royal Mail and their polish laws but it is available at Llarowe and Ninja polish :)

Thanks for reading!

Old School Sally Hansen Saturday! Nail Prisms Ruby Diamond Swatch

Happy Saturday everyone!

Is anyone else getting the snowstorm that I am? I am seriously NOT looking forward to getting out and shovelling the driveway for the 10th time :P It is a whiteout outside! 

Today I am showing off a swatch of an old Sally Hansen polish, Ruby Diamond. Sally Hansen really had some gems back in the day. The Nail Prism line had some awesome holographics, duochromes, multichromes, and layering polishes! 

Ruby Diamond is a warm pink linear holographic. Two coats would have been fine, but I did three. These pictures were taken indoors in natural light so it doesn't really show off its true beauty! It is much more holo in real life and in the sun :)

This polish is older, I think released in 2002 (don't quote me on that). Keep in mind this means it is not Big 3 free! However, it IS awesome. Sally Hansen really hit the nail on the head for polish lovers with the whole Nail Prisms line. I think they are getting back on track with trends now as well with the release of their new lustre shine sparkly duochromes!

Thanks for reading and if you are in the middle of the big storm like me, stay inside and stay safe :)
xoxox

Layla Emerald Divine Swatch

Hello!

When I saw that Layla came out with more holos a couple of months ago, I couldn't resist this green. Its what I imagine Nubar Reclaim would be if I could ever find it in stock anywhere. Haha.

This is Emerald Divine. While not as holo as Mercury Twilight or Flash Back, the colour is much more deep and intense. It really is a stunning green. Don't get my wrong, it's VERY holographic, just not as in-yo-face as the silver or black. Its much more holo than my pictures are usual. There wasn't any sunshine so these were taken inside.

This is three coats, floated on gently to avoid pulling baldy patches. The first picture is inside and the second picture is with flash!

I dig this colour. Im a big fan of greens and I like that this is holo but still retains a lot of deep colour. The formula is bitchy but you get used to it like the rest of the Layla holos.

Thanks for reading!

NOTD KB Shimmer Berry Patch & HITS Apolo

Happy Monday!

Today I am showing you a quick NOTD I wore a few days ago. In the pictures are three coats of KB Shimmer Berry Patch with an accent nail of HITS Apolo.

I was really impressed with Berry Patch. Milky pink crelly with pink, holo, & a splatter of navy glitter. It had great application. HITS Apolo is a fantastic dark blue linear holographic. It had an excellent formula and the holo was WAY better in real life than in my crappy lighting in these pictures!

I liked wearing this look!
Thanks for reading :)

Last 5 days of Halloween Rolled into ONE post! PIC HEAVY!

Hey polish people! 

I finally got my camera and computer to work together and I guess this post is better late than never! So without further ado.. here is the last five days of my Halloween series rolled into one post!! I'll let the pictures do the talking and keep my descriptions to a minimum.

DAY FIVE

OPI Flit a Bit & CG Stone Cold. Flit A Bit is the perfect pumpkin orange and stone cold is the best charcoal grey matte ever!

DAY FOUR

WnW Fantasy Makers Rest In Pieces. Fuchsia microglitter in a black jelly base. Looks way better than this picture in real life.

DAY THREE

CG Riveting and CG Stone Cold in a half-moon halloween mani. I love the gold glassflecks in Riveting and CG stone cold is so opaque that it was easy and ended up looking quite cool! 

& Here it is with topcoat.

DAY TWO

OPI Alpine Snow and OPI Big Apple Red in a drippy-icky blood manicure.

Then I turned the blood into HOLO blood with Jade Vermelho Surreal! I think this is pretty cool.

DAY ONE

& Here is my last Halloween mani. This one might have been my favourite :)

Zombie-esque gradient nails using:

OPI Gargantuan Green Grape Matte

a-England Dragon

Dollish Polish Zombie Flesh

I think they turned out pretty good! But then I sponged on some red blood to add some EXTRA gross-ness. Cool, right?!

& There you have it. This is my 10 Days of Halloween series completed! Sorry that the last half was late but I am glad I finally got to post them. I hope you all had a safe & happy Halloween!

a-England Dragon! I love this polish!!

Todays post is of one of my new favourite polishes! I love a-England and I love green.. therefore I had been lemming a-Englands Dragon since I first laid eyes on the swatches (HAT TRICK, I love dragons too). I don't know why it look me so long to bite the bullet and buy this bad boy but I sure as heck am happy with my purchase!

A perfect dragon green with a scattered holo finish with flashes of gold. One coat covered wonderfully, and would do in a hurry, but two really builds up that finish! Applied perfect, like I expect my a-Englands to do. I only have wonderful things to say about this bad boy! It is going to frequent my nails often, especially since I think it looks perfect for fall :)

Nerd Lacquer Holy Grail Swatch :)

Hi everyone!

First off, sorry for posting sporadically and being so MIA lately. I am still at work up north and it is kicking my ass sideways and silly. SOOOO To make it up to you, I have a swatch of one of my most coveted polishes.. Nerd Lacquer's Holy Grail.

This is one special polish...

Its a LINEAR HOLO muted, silvered seafoam green base with many different sizes of silver holo hex glitter. I'm pretty sure there are some aqua-ish colored micro glitter in there as well. The holo gives it a bit of a light blue cast in the light and in the shade the green is more apparent. This is three coats on its own.. AND OH YEAH IT GLOWS IN THE DARK. ITS GOT EVERYTHING I LIKE. It's gorgeous. I would marry it if that were legal. Freakin' gorgeous. It really is the Holy Grail of polishes.

Here are some pictures in all kinds of lighting. I did my best to capture its many faces.

The first time I tried this I was a little disapointed in the glow-in-the-dark effect. Wasn't very strong. However after some googling I found out that the glow in the dark particles are really heavy and will settle to the bottom of the bottle much like heavier glitter does. So now when I wear this I will keep it upside down for awhile and give it a really good shake before applying. Here is a shot in the dark :)

Awesome, right?

As you probably know, NLs are hard to come by now since the disappearance of Amanda.. I have accumulated some more of Amanda's creations from ebay, blog sales, and swap groups. They can run for a pretty penny now though :( I hope Amanda is okay.. and I would welcome her back to the polish world with open arms if she did decide to return. Her creations were amazeballs and my interactions with her were nothing short of fantastic with her. I wish her well and hope she is okay, wherever she is.

Lynnderella Shape Shifter - Swatch!

HI:) Today I'm posting Lynnderella Shape Shifter. This was an archived swatch and I intended it to stay that way after the way that everything ended up unfolding but whatever, I went through the trouble to make the original post so here it is. Let it be noted that for me.. I won't be supporting her brand any longer. I won't force my decisions on anyone else though. To each their own. None-the-less... Shape Shifter is a pretty cool polish.

Lynderella Shape Shifter is not for the faint of heart when it comes to glitter. It is a mix of every shape of holographic glitter packed in a clear base that you could ever imagine. These are the ones I spotted:

-Microglitter

-Small, medium, and large hexes

-Small, medium and large squares

-Bar glitter

-Diamonds

-Stars

-Moons

-Hearts

-Butterflies

-Flowers

Whew, that is a LOT of holo glitter!

Here is a close up of a bottle shot. Soooo much holo.

I have done a number of manicures with Shape Shifter, and it is possible to just have a complete nail of holo glitter goodness, but today I wanted just one coat to add some sparkle where you can really see all the different shapes! It is definitely not for everyone, because of all the butterflies and flowers it almost appears childish, but I think its fun.

This is just one coat over Nails Inc Baker Street. It is a bumpy, gritty, thick glitter with all the huge and unique shapes. The unique shapes all tend to curl up on me.. snagging in things if I don't topcoat it enough. I needed a coat of Gelous and two coats of Seche Vite to make all (most) of the glitter lay flat and make it smooth. I dont think I was ever going to get it ALL to be smooth but it was wearable and decently flat with this combo.

Artificial Light

Indoors, Natural Light

Shade

Sunshine

This was one Lynderella that I wanted for as long as Connect the Dots longggg longggg ago.... and I finally got it through the wishlist system (seems like forever ago in polish world now). However Lynnderellas are only available through Lynns shop on ebay now (US only- stupid) because of all that craaaaazyness.  For me, I won't be buying her polishes anymore. Don't get me wrong, they are pretty polishes.. and I'm sure she is was well-intentioned.... but I can't support her business practices with my hard earned chedda. There are plenty of other gorgeous glitters out there for me, plenty of fish in the sea ;) However I will be using the ones I did acquire.. I used to feel a moral dilemma about using them but now I have adopted the attitude of "I practically walked on hot coals to buy them, I'm darn well going to wear them". I won't be purchasing any others from her though. HOWEVER I won't push my opinions on you so if you're interested, she is back to updating her blog. www.lynnderella-lynnderella.blogspot.com and I believe her ebay store is something along the lines of lynnderella-lynnderella.

What do you think of Shape Shifter? Is it too random or do you like it? Are you completely done with Lynns or are you still lemming some more?

Quick NOTD. Four Lead Clover goes Beyond the Mistletoe

Hi there :)

Today is quick a quick post to show what I added to yesterdays swatch post! I added Color Club Beyond The Mistletoe sponged on in a mediocre gradient.  It did add some nice holo sparkle but it didn't scream summer to me.. my brain was all like "Y U WEAR HOLIDAY POLISH IN JUNE?" so I didn't keep it on too long but I will definitely be using the Color Club glitters for gradients more often. It worked super well.

I'd like to apologize for the crappy picture quality :( My internet connection will not let me upload my large macros here at work :( It is so depressing. I'd also like to apologize for rambling etc.. work is really taking its toll on me. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to be busy and making money.. but roughin' on the tundra and working 12 hours everyday in a split shift with 24 hour bright-ness can be really difficult to get accustomed to.

Anyway, have a great day :)

HITS Atena - Swatch! ...& some good news in my life :)

Hi everyone!!!

Yesterday I got some great news!!! I am going back to work on Wednesday :D :D !!!! I work all over northern Canada in mining and junior exploration drilling camps as a camp cook and medic/first aid attendant. I usually live in a tent, travel by float plane/helicopter/charter flights etc. It is pretty cool. The work is mostly seasonal and I am really excited to get back to it as I have been off for the last two months! I'm a little nervous because I am headed to the middle of Northern Quebec and I have never been there before :P It's great thought because I am out of money, have some big bills to pay, and lots of nail polish to buy :)

Here is a picture of me on the tundra last summer leaving one of my work tours in Nunavut! The blades on that chopper were actually still spinning when this picture was taken! Also, look at the pretty rainbow :)

I'm not allowed to wear nail polish at work as I am dealing with food, etc. But don't fret, I have been saving up lots of photos to blog about while I am up there if the internet connection is good enough :)

So in light of this happy news, I needed a manicure that represented my good mood! I picked HITS Atena from the No Olimpo holo collection! 

Atena is a gorgeous deep pink linear holographic polish. It isn't the strongest linear holo I own, and the bottle is a little smaller than average, but the colour and effect still packs a punch :) In comparison to some of the other holo out there (Layla, Nfu Oh, etc) the formula on these HITS holographics is EXCELLENT. I felt like it was almost creamy! The first coat of Atena went on quite sheer and I was scared I should have layered it to conserve the polish but I got full coverage with two coats.

This is not the nicest picture, but it is the most colour accurate.

Here is how Atena looks in the shade, still very pretty if you ask me :)

This last picture is taken in the shade alongside one of my Moms flowers in the garden :D

I would also like to note that wear time on these HITS holos is MUCH better than my laylas. With no base coat/top coat this polish did not chip until day three. DAY THREE. That is the best wear I have gotten from a holo thus far. :) In fact, it is comparable to the wear of any run-of-the-mill creme for me.

HITS is a Brazillian brand and I got it from Llarowe! They retail there for 10 dollars but can often be found a couple dollars off in the SALE section on her website.

Thanks for letting me ramble on about work today, I needed it :)

Layla HOLO Mercury Twilight - Swatch

Ohh looky a silver holo!!

Layla is blowing my mind lately. Big fan of how they listened to my polish holo prayers. Today I'm sporting Mercury Twilight, a gorgeous silver linear holographic that makes my eyes pop out of my face. I'm not sure how this compares to other silver holos because I actually don't own too many, for some reason my holo collection is mostly colourful.

Anyway! This is three very careful coats with no basecoat or topcoat. I floated it on carefully to avoid too much pressure so I could avoid patchy bald spots. I'm getting better at applying these the more I practice!

I would just like to point out that this picture is inside.. and ITS STILL SO HOLO!! When I tried to take pictures outside my camera basically freaked out because it was SO shiny and SO holo.

Do you see what I see?!?! Double rainbow!!!!! That means goodluck where I am from :)

This last one is outside. It is insanity. All rainbows and unicorns and sunshine!

These layla holos are hard to apply, and don't wear very long.. but I love them anyway.

Ta-ta for now!

Layla Retro Pink - HOLO! Swatch & Review

Holllla!

Today I am showing off one of my favourite linear holos - Retro Pink! Last month Layla cosmetics really listened to my nail polish prayers and put out an entirely linear holographic collection! I picked up four of the shades and today I chose the pink :)

These pictures are three CAREFUL coats and no topcoat. I have heard rumours that topcoat dulls the holographic finish and to be honest, I was too scared to try it because I love the holo so so much! Some day I will see if I can myth-bust that rumour though!

HOLY RAINBOWS BATMAN! 

These were taken in my bedroom and simply cannot do this polish justice. Outside it was simply spectacular!

The pink shade is sort of softer and more feminine and then the rainbows slam into you like a unicorn! So awesome!

I will say this though, application is a bitch. I've been trying a million different base coats etc and have managed to find a couple ways to make it a bit easier. 

First, if you dont have an aqua base like I dont.. I find its easiest to use a topcoat as a base coat, one like Seche Vite or Sally Hanson Insta-Dri that leaves a really smooth finish (will hide all nail imperfections and give you a smooth starting point). 

Second, I almost float the nail polish on instead of applying a lot of pressure and letting the brush fan out. When the brush fans out, it leaves bald patchy areas.

Third, let your coats dry COMPLETELY.

Also, wear time.... I don't want to bring any negativity to the polish but wear time is not good. Maybe it is because I don't use a top coat with these, but they don't last me more than a day.. day and a half before they are chipped.. especially if I wash my hair or do the dishes or something like that. Boo :(

Now that I got that all off my chest, I will say: ITS WORTH IT. These make for a spectacular manicure even if it is only for a day. Perfect special occasion shade, especially if its sunny out! Now look at the rainbows again so you forget the bad stuff :)

You can pick up Layla cosmetics from their website here, but keep in mind it is mostly in Italian.. translating becomes an issue. You can also pick them up at one of my favourite websites, Harlow & Co where they carry tons of awesome brands as well. Where I live (Canada) you can see them floating around most Shoppers Drug Marts, and Lawtons drugs for $15.00! 

Pssst. Layla is coming out with a new "mirror effects" collection, AKA CHROME!!! Real chrome looking not foils!!! And from what I've seen from swatches thus far.. we are all in for a very nice treat.