Halloween Part Two: Hits Zeus

Hey everyone! So, today I have a polish I'm going to classify as Halloween, but really it's only because: a) it's black and b) I was dying to wear it because it was holo :P I got Hits Zeus from llarowe and it's straight from Brazil! This beauty was $10 plus minimal shipping, and I also got Hera and Hestia, which I'll be showing soon!

Zeus is a gorgeous dark gray/blackened holo. I layered two coats over a layer of a black creme to conserve it, since the bottle is small (only 6 mL). However, it was totally worth it, in my opinion! Since I use polishes so infrequently (since I have so many), this is a perfect size for me, in all honesty: it's small enough that it doesn't take up a lot of room, it's enough that I will still probably never use it all, and it's perfection. Behold:

Zeus was a bugger to photograph, which I think is because it was a dark holo, but you can definitely see the sparkle and the linear holographic-ness, especially in that bottle! *drools* Now I'm off, it's my Halloween party tonight and I'm so excited! I'll be showing you guys my costume nails, but would you be interested in seeing my makeup too?

xoxo,
Amanda

Halloween Part One: Cougar Attack!

Hi ladies! With Halloween being my favorite holiday, I'm shocked I have yet to post a Halloween mani! All the posts I show you guys are NOTDs so for a while, I thought it was too early for Halloween... then the end of the month snuck up on me! I'm having a party this weekend and I'm so excited! And that is why this post is scheduled: I totally slacked on preparation and I'm spending the day prepping! haha

Anyway, here's my homage to Halloween part one, Wet n Wild Cougar Attack, which was part of this year's hard-to-find On the Prowl collection. This applied kind of awkwardly, this is three coats which was perfect for opacity but some nails were okay in two. The brush on Wet n Wild is perfectly sized to cover my whole nail in one stroke but that means sometimes I get pooling on the edge of my nails from the brush pushing excess over there, if that makes sense? On to the polish.... first, without topcoat.

And with topcoat...

In my opinion, this absolutely requires a great topcoat. It will dry on its own fine, but it will be dull and lack dimension. Once I added topcoat to this, I LOVED it (I usually take my pictures pre-topcoat so you guys see what it actually looks like, not what the topcoat adds). Very Halloweeny, no?

xoxo,
Amanda

More Blue: Nox Twilight Talon

Hi ladies, I have more blue for you today! It's Nox Twilight Talon, which is a deep navy blue that glows from within. It looks black in some lights if you look quickly, but most always is noticeably blue. This was two easy coats and the formula was great. I also love the brush, which made it really easy to contour around my cuticles - this is following minimal cleanup (which, in retrospect, could have been better).

In my room, which is what I typically call "low light"



In sunlight

So I'm a big fan of this polish. Even if it wasn't Twilight related (yes, I'm a Twi-hard... I'm even going to see the next one at midnight. Don't judge me... move on! haha) I would still love it for its formula. It was a really nice, wintry/fall color and it really glowed. I caught myself staring at it during sessions with clients haha. What do you think? This is my last blue for now, but do you like these themed weeks?

xoxo,
Amanda

Blue Week Continued: Models Own True Blue

Helloooooo! I have another pretty blue for you today, a color that actually kind of surprised me. You see, when I saw True Blue on the Models Own website, I assumed it would be a squishy creme/jelly, and really (as you'll see soon) it's like a neon finish. A little matte, I guess I'd call it satiny? Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself here...

Ahhh pre-cleanup picture! Don't judge! Don't judge!

And I actually planned this color specifically to support a local team, so I added some random polka dots with my Migi pens (what I affectionately call "nail art" because it's about all I'm capable of so far) once that was dry and attempted some cleanup:

With topcoat and nail art :)

Warning: this polish stains ya! (For evidence, please see my middle finger in the picture above.) You gotta be careful, but it's a pretty polish! I'm not sure it's one of my favorites, but it was worth trying out and I didn't hate it (although the team lost so that was a bummer). What do you think of True Blue?

xoxo,
Amanda

Blue, Blue, and More Blue... Lex Cosmetics Atlantic

Hi guys! I have a confession. I think I'm addicted to blue polishes. I uploaded my pictures from last week and like four of them are blue manis... so... it's officially blue week! Or at least blue 5 days, or until I run out of blue manis ;)

Anywho, today I have another Lex Cosmetics polish: Atlantic. This is a medium blue-green creme polish that was a snap to apply. Seriously, Lex makes some great formulas with these polishes. Below is two coats and topcoat:


In low light



In sunlight (!! yes, contrary to popular recent belief, we do get sunshine in New England)

So I realize this is between blue and green but give me a break, let's call it blue-ish and let it count for blue week/few days ;) What do you think of Atlantic?

xoxo,
Amanda

Giveaway Winner!

You guys, I totally forgot to tell you the winner of my 128 follower giveaway! Emma of Whimsical Glam from Canada! Yayyy! Congratulations, Emma! I just sent her package out Friday and it just occurred to me that I never announced it. I'm sorry! Also, I compiled most of the answers for all of your favorite things and put them in a list:

The most popular answer was, of course, nail polish, to nobody's surprise. It was really great reading all these answers; it made me so thankful for the little things in life, the things I might not necessarily notice even though they are special to me (spaghetti, homemade chicken soup, childhood pictures, etc.). So thank you all for giving me these little things to appreciate, hopefully you read the list and it points out something you're thankful for too! And especially thank you all for reading and supporting me <3

xoxo,
Amanda

First Giveaway Winnings and Boyfriend's Pick: Zoya Noel!

Hello dear readers, I have great news! I won a giveaway from Mommy Does Her Nails and the prize was a Zoya of my choice! I picked Zoya Noel (I have a bad habit of ordering every polish I ever wanted from Zoya during their promotions, so naturally I had to pick a newer one!) and it came in recently.  She also sent me a Burt's Bees set for being so patient while the Zoya shipped to her :)

Here blogger goes flipping my pictures again...

I put Noel in my untried bin and asked my boyfriend what I should wear, and he picked it immediately. It was a good pick, too. Behold:

Zoya Noel, 2 coats in low lighting and no flash

I saw it in the bottle and thought "a metallic?" but when I put it on, it had so much depth. It reminded me of the consistency and look of the new magnetic polish trend we're seeing: lots of small bits of silver and blue within the color. It was truly gorgeous and I was very thankful my boyfriend picked it and MDHN sent it on to me! Thanks!

xoxo,
Amanda

Quick Comparison: China Glaze White Cap vs Orly Winter Wonderland

Hey hey hey! How is everyone out there in the interwebz?! It's Friday, which is always great anyway but my one client of the day canceled - so I'm pretty pumped to have the day off now! :) Today's post is a quick comparison. I recently bought China Glaze White Cap, thinking it might be a backup bottle for Orly Winter Wonderland, which happens to be one of my favorite polishes for lightening up or refreshing a mani. Here they are layered over a black creme, in front of their respective bottles:

Immediately you can see that, nope, they are totally different (well, to a nail polish addict; my boyfriend thought they were comparable). ChG is much more sheer than Orly, and Orly pretty much takes over the scene. (What an attention whore!)


Bottle shots; Orly has much larger chunks of glitter, it seems



And up close, you can really see the difference: ChG has a golden glow whereas Orly is all silver. I prefer Orly, but that's because I prefer silver; but both are pretty! Which do you like?

xoxo,

Amanda

Lex Cosmetics Seashell

Hi ladies! Sorry for my lack of posting, I'm lazy lately! Today I have Lex Cosmetics Seashell, which is inspired by the inside of a conch shell: oil slicky. This is a blackened base with scattered, sparse holo and it's a beaut!

Flash

Low light

For some reason, this polish didn't play nice with my topcoat and the "tip wear" you see is actually shrinkage :( it wasn't noticeable in person though, so I wore it for a few days! This is two coats and it was really easy to apply. I love Lex's polishes and this one was amazing. I love the caps, especially. If I wasn't crap at nail art, I'd attempt the pattern!

xoxo,
Amanda

Some Fall Hauls *pic heavy!*

Hey ladies... I know I've been a really irresponsible and unreliable blogger lately. I'm so busy between work and friends and boyfriend and tweeting the Crazy Cat Ladies that I have been neglecting my blog, I'm sorry. I plan to get back to it soon! Meaning... NOW! And when I come back, I come back in a big way. Here's a million recent haul quickie (hehe) swatches.

China Glaze BFF (someone on MUA included this as an EXTRA! fbasjbfjajkfhkj), Nicole by OPI Sensational Scarlet, piCture pOlish Sparkle, piCture pOlish Jealousy

China Glaze BFF, Nicole by OPI Sensational Scarlet, piCture pOlish Sparkle, piCture pOlish Jealousy; one coat each

Lex Cosmetics: Atlantic, Seashell, Sweetie Pie



Same order as above, one coat on Atlantic and Seashell, two on Sweetie Pie



Color Club: Otherworldly, Jingle Jangle, Beyond the Mistletoe

One coat each of Otherworldly, Jingle Jangle, Beyond the Mistletoe; Insiders tip: I ordered the latter two on Transdesign. They aren't listed as a collection, but you can find them alphabetically in their A-Z page... go forth and order, my fellow addicts!

Color Club Foil Me Once (I kinda love that name haha), Lumin-Icent (don't love that one), Perfect Mol-TEN

One coat each of Foil Me Once, Lumin-Icent, Perfect Mol-TEN

China Glaze: Ring in the Red, Tinseltown, CG in the City



Two coats each of Ring in the Red, Tinseltown, CG in the City (which, by the way, I thought I'd love and I don't)



Amour Black Glitter, New York Summer Multi-Glitter, China Glaze Snow Globe, China Glaze White Cap

Black Glitter (two coats on its own), Multi-Glitter over Lex Cosmetics Seashell, China Glaze Snow Globe over Lex Cosmetics Sweetie Pie, China Glaze White Cap over Color Club Otherworldly

I actually have gotten quite a few things since I took these pictures, including lots of swap goodies! I have Absolutely Alice coming my way soon which is exciting! Anyways, which ones do you guys want to see more of/full swatches?

xoxo,
Amanda