Peppermint Stripe Nails

Have I talked about how much I love when things look like things? Like, things that don't ordinarily look like the things they're currently looking like make me so happy. For example, human nails that look like candy canes. Loooooves it.

I applied 2 coats of Scherer Chameleon - Dreams (which in its own right is pretty sweet. I haaaaayeeeet pearl finishes, but this one wasn't so awful, plus the color shift from pink to green with the white base is, like, pretty, you know?) with a coat of Essie - Waltz over it. Waltz is transparent enough that you can see Dreams under it, but opaque enough to hide the pearl finish and add some substance. The result looked like pulled candy, or like a candy cane with the red off. Exactly what I was going for, which never happens the first time around.

Some striping tape, a layer of China Glaze - Ruby Pumps and a couple coats of Essie Good to Go finished the jorb.

I hopped on the DIY nail polish ornaments bandwagon too. That guy has 2 coats of China Glaze - L8R G8R all up ins. YOLO!!!

So anyway, I probably won't post again for another like 8 years, so uh, Merry Christmas (or whatever) and Happy New Year and all of that. XOXOXOXO

Lynnderella - Mlle. Violette de Bleu Swatch & Review

Yo! No hotdogs on this day.

So here's that Lynnderella I was telling you about.
It's a vaguely pigmented blurple base (is that on purp-ose?) with a couple sizes of blue and, like, violet and holographic periwinkle hex glitter... except I believe the blue is the only color that is multi-sized. And by multi-sized I mean there's a small kind, and a super small kind. This is kind of ridiculous, but I honestly cannot tell if there are violet AND periwinkle holographic glitter. I'm looking right at the bottle, right? And I'm like 85% sure there is. How can I not just tell? Because I'm getting old, is how. Old eyes. So anyway.

This is one dabbed-on not-terribly-thick coat over Mentality - Moe (do you remember that post?). I've heard pretty righteous things about Lynnderella and her glitter sorcery. So, obvs the glitter payoff was solid. Didn't dry insanely lumpy but I still used a pretty hefty layer of Essie G2G over it.

I read about the cloud of dramaaahhh surrounding Lynnderella and wasn't convinced that the polishes were worth the money (or the hassle in some cases). I'm also not a huge fan of glitter toppers, so I guess in a way this was working out in my and my financial lameness's favor. That being said, I'm quite thrilled with Mlle. Violette de Bleu and I'm delighted in getting able to wear a polish I likely would never have gotten otherwise. I'm starting to sing a different tune about Lynnderella as a whole...

Read: new obsession a-brewing.

Mentality Nail Polish - Moe Swatch & Review

"Well, if I'm gonna have one hot dog, I may as well have two hot dogs". -Boyfriend

So hi guys.
I have a very pretty nail polish on my fingers on this day. It's by Mentality. Mentality Nail Polish. It's called Moe. There's also Eeny, Meeny and Miney, but I only own Moe. So here's Moe.

Moe's, like, this lavender base with a strong blue flash and subtle linear holo. It was pretty much opaque after two coats but there's three here just in case. Applied like a champion. Also a coat of Essie Good to Go topcoat is on top... coat.

And here it is with flash:

Is this even a review? I don't know. The brush was nice and wider than your average, normal brush (but not OPI wide) and I already told you that it applied nicely. And it's pretty to look at. So, I guess the bases are covered. I'm pretty sure. I really like it, though, like a lot. I'm going to be owning quite a few more Mentality Nail Polish polishes in the future. But hopefully not too far in the future.

Fun Story: I got my first Lynnderella in the mail today (which I shall show you tomorrow because that's how I do things, okay?) and it's called Mlle. Violette de Bleu. Do you want to know how I got it, even? Well, I sold a polish to a girl, and this girl, she decides to send me this Lynnderella JUST BECAUSE. Jenne, you are my spirit animal. That's pretty much the highest compliment I can give to a person.

Hey. I'm pretty excited for Christmas.

OPI - La Boheme & Royal Rajah Ruby

I found La Boheme in a nail salon that I've passed a thousand times! Ayyayayayayaya!
I also picked up Royal Rajah Ruby. The perfect Christmas color for me if ever there was one.

<3 La Boheme <3

My index and middle are RRR whilst my ring and pinky are La Boheme; 3 coats of each with 1 coat Seche Vite. Hey, look! My nails are finally happening again. :D

Sunlight.

Sunlight.

Sunlight & flash.

Flash.

Not that I'm not in love with La Boheme, but my favorite from this collection is still Movin' Out. Or maybe Man of La Mancha is. Although I don't own the whole collection (yet...) so maybe neither of those are ACTUALLY my favorite... or maybe one of them is... but maybe not... or maybe...

Nail Tape NOTD: Turquoise & Green Chevrons

My favorite sweater in the world is this color-blocked green and turquoise, super soft, comfy and warm thing (that pills like a maniac). I love turquoise to begin with, but the green yarn that was used to make the sweater is so pretty, it almost makes me like green.

But I still don't like green all that much. DEAL WITH IT.

So, um, this girl can't get enough nail tape chevrons in her life, right? I used Gap - Bright Pool and Layla - CE54 (which is seriously the only "true green" polish I own... I ain't playin' around with that not liking green thing) and Fingr's nail tape and anyway, chevrons.

Note: I understand that there isn't anybody in the history of the world who holds their polish bottles in such an obtuse way. Unfortunately for me, this is the only picture where my thumb was present that didn't super suck (I think my hands were made in a strange way... it's super awkward for me to get my thumb in pictures, like, ever). So, if you could just ignore the bottle, that'd be greeeeaaaat.

Flash. Why? I don't know, really.

Bright Pool does have a pretty pink shimmer to it that I completely failed to capture, which I guess works towards my, um, vision? as my sweater doesn't have a pink shimmer either.

In other news, I want my dang nails back.

Colors by Llarowe: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Swatch & Review

Hey, Friday, hey!

I took advantage of Llarowe's most recent pre-order (which seemed to really work out nicely) and picked up Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (a Starry Starry Night dupe, if you didn't know) and a really lovely holo that I'll show you later.

TTLS is a midnight/navy jelly with tons of tiny silver glitter. It builds nicely to full coverage in three thin coats. I've used Essie Good to Go topcoat with these swatches:

Sunlight. Note: magenta reflection because of magenta camera. :/

Shade.

Shade.

TTLS definitely satisfies my lemming for SSN. Out of all the salons I've checked out in my area, only one used Essie polish, and there's no way I could afford SSN otherwise, so I'm quite happy with how wonderfully similar the two are.  

For the record, this was my first experience with CbL, and I'm impressed. I feel like Llarowe restocks are a little cray, but Leah Ann is communicative with her customers at least. I quite like the new bottles (without knowing what the old bottles were like) and I couldn't care less if they "only" hold 12ml instead of 13.3ml. I have over 300 bottles of nail polish in my possession currently, most of which I've only worn once, if at all, and that amount seems to be on the lower end of the spectrum in polish world. ANYWAY alls I'm saying is if you're going to bitch-out about 1.3ml of nail polish, then, like, you need to truly evaluate the quality of your life.

Brandy said, judgmentally.

Rimmel: Mania Swatch & Review

One step forward, two steps backwards.

So, these are my little nubbins again. It's also about to be winter here (boo hoo hoo) so the clouds are ever present and I just need a dang lighting setup, you know? Not even just for nail polishy things!

I picked up Rimmel Mania, like, I don't even know when. Lotsa years ago. In the bottle, it looks like one of those velveteen Christmas ornaments that are all satin-finish glass but have this weird depth to them. Do you have any idea what I mean?

Wis Flash!

Of course, I didn't capture what I'm talking about in the photo. But it's kind of pretty anyway, right?

This polish is kind of a super deep blue with that weird gold/yellow shimmer that makes it appear dark green on the nail, but it's like your brain knows it's not a green polish even though the shimmer blends into the base. Also in some lights you can really see the blue. It's thisclose to being a duochrome.

Cloudytimes. See the blue though?

Blurry flash.

That picture kind of shows what I'm talking about with the Christmas ornament thing. I don't have a lot of polishes that have that kind of effect.

Cloudy.

Flash.

It says on the bottle "Perfect coverage in one coat". That was almost true with this guy. It was just slightly patchy in some places because of how pigmented it is, so that it just looked blue. The formula is thick, but in a really pleasant, workable way. Of course, this color isn't sold in stores anymore so my review is soooort of irrelevant,  but I mean. I used to use my polish to paint all sorts of stuff (like pretty designs all over my caboodles, RIGHT?) so this bottle is running kind of low, which bums me out, as it's a downright awesome polish.

So... hi guys. Hi the four of you that might glance at this blog now and again. I can't promise I'm going to be updating frequently yet, but this is a start, now that my nail depression is settling down.

Nails Goed Bye-Bye, Sad Faces Forever

I just wrote the downeriest blog post ever about having nail-depression since all but 3 of my nails broke. I even filed them down a whole lotta bunches to ensure that they wouldn't break. But they all did break, except for three. Three! Thus my hiatus.

It's not even a good three! It's not even a three that I can still have somewhat reasonable looking swatches with! I'm just!

Anyway. I only have like 8 indie polishes which I feel lame about.

Um, I guess maybe I'll try to, like, do this again soon. Do this blog. Blog things.

OPI: DS Extravagance Swatch & Review

OMG the sun finally happened!! It's the middle of October and we haven't seen snow yet... maybe I'm not giving enough credit to Ohio. I talk about weather a lot, yeah?

My Pinterest shopping addiction has brought me DS Extravagance today. I love the particle action going on in these types of DSs... I don't even know what to call it. It's the same things that DS Fantasy and DS Illuminate have, which are the only two other DS polishes that I own besides DS Mystery, which is different. I am so helpful. I am so helpful blogger.

ALSO it's deep, jewel-toned raspberry/fuchsia color which looks just divine on my pale, spindly fingers and it has scattered holo, you know, things happening. And is opaque in two cats (keeping that) but isn't so pigmented that it's impossible to clean up without getting all up in yr cuticles (coughDSFantasycough).

OH I CUT ALL MY NAILS OFF DO YOU SEE THAT? I broke one (1) out of the three actually substantial nails remaining (on both hands, mind) so I was just like, f&*@ it. Now they're all kind of the same length, at least. WEEP.

Um, so, these swatches are 2 coats DS Extravagance with 1 coat OPI Sec n Dry (which I still kind of have mixed feelings on).

 

 

<3Sunlight<3

Sunlight, and like, karate hand.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Shade

So, yeah. I think this is a pretty appropriate fall color, but also feels kind of Christmas-presenty to me. It borderlines bright and deep, which I feel is a nice change from your standard "vampy" colors.

Dollish Polish: Expecto Patronum Swatch & Review

I've been an HP fangirl from day one, for realsies. There's nothing that gets me in the feels more than fantasy and magic and blah blah pushing my glasses up and living in my mom's basement and all of that. My patronus would for sure be, like, a potato. So, anyway...

Expecto Patronum is a (not too) sheer milky white base with small aqua hex glitter in varying degrees of smallness (some of which are holographic!) and magical iridescent shards. I know I rave, like, a lot on this blog, but I LOVE THIS POLISH.

Sunlight

Cloudlight

I bought this polish from a Pinterest sales board and it's slightly older, round-bottle style. Some of the glitter has settled against the side of the bottle (and I will be googling methods to correct this shortly), but the glitter payoff was still good. I didn't struggle getting an even dispersion of glitter at all. I used three coats for full opacity, but you could probably be fine with just 2. Also, I'll probably just layer this over while next time. It applied super smooth too.

This polish is definitely made of happy thoughts, man.

OPI: Peel Me a Gobi Grape Swatch

What a seriously perfect fall day in NEO. I'm pretty bummed that I have neither car nor stroller to be able to take advantage of it with the wee one. We explored the yard for a little while, but he's not so good about not running towards the street and all that. So it goes.

This'll be my first time wearing PMAGG (do people abbreviate this? It's kind of hilarious... pmagg...) since I bought it when I first started dusty hunting all those (What? Like 4?) months ago. The first bottle I had was BN but I ended up trading it and a BN bottle of China Glaze DV8 for some pretty righteous polishes. It was my first swap, as a matter of fact, and to Canada to boot! After swapping I bought the bottle the salon had on the shelf and it was still 3/4 full, so I pretty much lucked out there.

ANYWAY, here are some swatches. Of Pee-mag. In the sunlight. 2 coats. With SV.

Plum/bronze is my JAM, yo. Isn't it just delicious? And this came out in 1998 when pretty much everything was horrible.

Okay two things:
1. It took me a solid month to realize that DV8 was deviate. I kind of h8 myself.
2. The first time I went to that salon (it was the 3rd salon I had been to and the first that was willing to sell polish off the display shelves) I almost peed when I saw a big chunk of the CG OMG collection. I only bought DV8 that day. I went back like 3 days later and gathered the courage to start going through every single polish (because I was, and still pretty much am, completely ignorant when it comes to be able to spot HTF polishes) and when I picked up Peem-ahg I almost fist-pumped right there, with all the judge-y nail techs eying me. Man. I wish I didn't move an hour away from that place. There're still some polishes I want to pick up. I really need to check out the salons around here. But I get so derrrrvusssss. :(

Okay bye!

Leaf NOTD (China Glaze: Budding Romance & Striping Tape)

Firstsies, this is the best picture I have ever taken of my nails, or possibly anything:

"I'm Leafnails and I approve this picture."

Secondsies, it took me 948293841983749 tries before actually coming up with something leaf-inspired that didn't suuuuck. And it was the least, like, doing-things idea that I had the whole time.

Totally real pine cone.

I wasn't smart enough to do a toot-torial, but I can explain things super good so here you go.

How-to-do Leafs! <3
Step 1: Put striping tape on your bare nails in a leaf way.
Step 2: Paint your nails a leaf color.
(Optional Step 2.5: Keep going over the polish until you accidentally start dragging it to the edge of the nail but by some stroke of luck it totally works for what you're doing. Make sure you cannot successfully duplicate that happy accident on any other nail.)
Step 3: Don't let the polish dry all the way because it's getting late and you're tired and have already tried 948293841983749 things.
Step 4: Remove striping tape.
Step 5: Use acetone to fix all of the wonky parts from the goopy polish gooping all over the place.
Step 6: TOP COAT TIMMMMMEEEEE.

My nails are so stained. It's pretty horrendous. But!, that kind of worked out for this. Plus Budding Romance is, like, the perfect shade for leaves-just-about-to-turn for Autumn. I love that it's more yellow-toned the less layers of it there are. I don't like green polish usually, but this is my jam.

Speciallitá Hits No Olimpo: Ares Swatch & Review

Back when I used to have the shortest nails in human history, I always used to paint them red. I didn't care for red cremes as much as red crellies (although I didn't know what a crelly even was) and I preferred the red to be toned more tomato than magenta if I couldn't find a true red-red.

Anyway, if I would have had this polish back then I seriously doubt I would have worn anything else, and I would have grown my nails out much sooner.

When rainbows get into knife fights, this is what's left.

Ares is the color of straight-up blood. Blood red. Like, seriously. With holo, obvs, but man it is the perfect red. Did I mention that it's, um, like, super red? RED!

Okay, and it applies like angel kisses. Not a 1-coater, probably a 2-coater if you're not me. I applied 3 coats just to be, I don't know, ridiculous. Thin coats, by the way. And a coat of Seche Vite because that's what I doooooo.

Direct Sunlight, FINALLY.

Less-direct Sunlight. REEEED.

I. Need. To. Get my paws on the rest of the Hits no Olimpo collection because, duh. I have a soft spot in my heart for holos to begin with, but holo in a super-pigmented sheer base? For-GET it. This and the Jade Holografico collection. GAH. Too many polishes, not enough funding. Amirite?

LynBDesigns: All Holo's Eve Swatch & Review

I WON A THING YOU GUYS!
I don't win things, like, ever. And I didn't even -know- this was going to be a winning-things-thing when I left the comment!

Storytime:
LynBDesigns came up with a polish color, but not the polish's name. She wanted the polish to have a Halloween-themed name to celebrate the upcoming holiday, so she asked her Facebook fans for suggestions. I couldn't think of a clever Halloween+Blue name (because Spell on Blue is pretty stupit), and the other in-your-face detail about this polish is its lovely linear holo, so I suggested "All Holos Eve". She liked it enough to pick it as the name for her polish, much to my absolute delight. Even absolute-er to my delight was her sending me a bottle of the new polish before it was even released!!

So, All Holo's Eve is a legitimately ballin' shade of blurple-far-leaning-blue thanks to the impossible-to-photograph bright pink shimmer, with a medium-strong linear holo.

This is 3 coats with SV. Of course it's been dreary since I received it in the mail 3 days ago, but I couldn't wait any longer to swatch!

Cloudlight

Artifical Light. <3 Holo <3

Artifical Light... different room.

The pink shimmer is much more apparent in real life. It literally would not show up on my camera. Application was a little patchy with the first coat but filled in nicely by coat 3.

All Holo's Eve is being released October 11th. There are only 30 bottles being made (AND I ALREADY GOTS ONE OF THEM, SUCKAS!) so jump on it if you want one! LynBDesigns' Etsy shop can be found here.


*Note: I am in no way being compensated for reviewing this polish by LynBDesigns or, like, her biggest fans, or anything like that. I did receive it for free, but because I won it fair and square. Bam! Winning things rules, especially when you don't even know you're going to win things. I feel like "win" is a weird word to use for this situation. I was graciously sent this polish as a righteous token for my name suggestion. That's better, I think.

Maybelline Color Show Nail Stickers: Divine Crocodile Review

Fun Fact: I got 22 polishes in the mail today from 3 different sources and it was AWESOME. Did I take pictures? Nope!

I was at Big Lots the other day and saw some Maybelline nail stickers for $1 per pack, so I was like, yep! I bought this one and one called Metal Prisms, but I haven't read great things about the metallic kind so we'll see how those go.

Awkward Hand Alert!

Divine Crocodile, however, has been awesome for the last 48 hours. I've washed dishes and showered twice, changed countless diapers, picked price stickers off of polish bottles and lots of other, you know, hand-things whilst wearing these and they're still stuck fast with the most minimal of tip wear, which is even less noticeable thanks to the pattern.

I did, however, put a coat of Seche Vite on over top of these, making sure to focus on coating the tips to prevent peeling. None of the edges are currently peeling.

This is my first experience with full-color nail decals, and I'm really happy with them. I looooove the color and that bare nail is peaking through the decal. They really were super easy to apply (directions say to pull the decal over the edge of the nail and file off excess but I have suuuper thin, bendy nails so I used cuticle clippers to get rid of excess) and the result is awesome. I was able to get good results on both the longer-length nails on my swatch hand -and- on the short, nubby bummer-stumps on my right hand, so I think that these nail stickers are a pretty good product for whatever length of nail you have. As a bonus for shorter nails, since the sticker itself is so long (even though one end is more rounded and one end is more squared) you might be able to get 2 uses from one set of sizes that fit you. Plus there are 9 different sizes per pack, so you should be able to find a good fit, whatever your nail length/width.

I definitely plan on picking up some back-ups of this pattern.

Adventures in Nail Stamping: My First Success!

I bought a Konad double-sided stamper and a brand-unknown stamping plate (it's octagonal and is labeled KD28... I googled it and found nothing, and when I googled "Russian Doll stamping plate" a round version of what I had by a company called Nail Craze came up. So I don't know) with the cutest little triplet of Russian Dolls, this winter sweater pattern and a pretty floral pattern (and a mouse? And a flower "sprig," if you will). I wanted to do a fall-themed mani, so this is what I came up with.

I used Hard Candy - Crush on Lava (which is this really neat sort of burgundy-rust to gold duochrome... sort of like Orly - Space Cadet without the blue base) and stamped with Essie - As Good As Gold, then lightly brushed on some Zoya - Maria-Luisa.

It doesn't shift to quite as green of a hue the pictures are showing you in real life. The macro is really the most accurate in terms of color. As Good As Gold was awesome to stamp with. I haven't done a lot of experimenting with stamping yet, so it was nice to actually have something work out pretty early on.

Well, all right. I'm going to go play some GTA5 while the kids are asleep.

Parlez-vous OPI? NOTD

Dear Blog,

This NOTD didn't turn out like I had wanted it to. I intended on using striping tape but when I sat down to do my nails I realized I had left the striping tape in my room which is also the room the (teething) baby was napping in at the moment, so I free-handed it.
Also, It wasn't just s'posed to be a standard triangle-tip manicure but that's what it looks like. I needed to make the second stripe further down on the nail, etc etc blah blah etc.

I USED THESE COLORS:
1. Parlez-vous OPI?
2. Layla: Softouch 11
3. OPI - Wooden Shoe Like to Know? (Tee-hee, cute named polish alert!)

I like the subtle orange sparkle/shimmer in Wooden Shoe.
Layla dries to a semi-matte finish (hence Softouch!).
Parlez-vous is kind of runny, IMO. Ee-moe.

Aaand that's what I have for you.

Love,

Your Friend Brandy

PS The last 4 blog posts I, you know, post... they show up +1'd. Like, immediately. And I'm certain that someone isn't just refreshing their browser waiting for my next post to +1 it. And I'm not trying to actively advertise every single post I make. I guess I'm just this about it: ?