Too Much Glitter? NEVER!!!

These are two spectacular, glitter-over-the-top, polishes I like...

One word to describe: SPARKLE. One word not to describe: boring.

If you were to ask me to pick you out one super sparkly polish, it would be one of these two. It's only when I see them together that I can make any comparisons, but no preference...

On the left is Icing's 'Pop A Bottle' and, on the right is Color Club's 'Sugar Plum Fairy.' Fairy dust and pixie powder!

'Pop A Bottle' has gold, magenta, and teal micro-glitter in a translucent, very light beige base. The beige helps the glitter become opaque after the second coat. The application of this one, at first, wasn't quite so smooth. It had a habit of bunching up at the tip. I worked at getting more of the glitter to adhere towards the base of my nail by dabbing the brush. After the first coat, however, the other two applied very evenly.

This is 'Sugar Plum Fairy' and it is an iridescence of all Holiday colors. The glitter appears to change color as the angle of view changes. Think of a soap bubble, and there you have it. The refracted light is all over the place so your eyes can't help but to look at it.

Now, comparing them on my nails...

'Pop a Bottle' is on the thumb, middle and pinky. I have 'Sugar Plum Fairy' on the index and ring finger. Are they just not the stuff from a Winter Wonderland?

Using 3 coats made these polishes opaque and awe-inspiring all alone with no color base coat necessary. No fooling, these are gritty. I am showing them to you without a top coat so their own, true shine comes through. And as with almost all glitter, there is the price to pay to remove the stuff. I didn't have to use the foil method but I did scrub, and scrub a lot.

With a closer look, 'Sugar Plum Fairy' photographs like a silver glitter polish. Regular photography doesn't have the ability to give a true depth of a holographic item. Since holograms are most noted when they are moving or light is moving across them, it just doesn't show the true nature. But, I think there are plenty of readers of beauty/nail bloggers that know just how magnificent holographic glitters/polishes can be.

I don't have a favorite between these two. Much like my two cats, I don't have a favorite but love them each for their own existence. So, in all fairness, don't ask me to pick one over the other. :)

Can you say which one is your favorite?

Halloween's Starry, Nocturnal Night

The giveaway ends tonight, don't forget! Click here.

Halloween is tomorrow and I don't feel I have gotten through all my holiday manicures. Bummer. Don't be mad at me if I start, like, Tuesday with my Christmas/New Year's Eve looks.

I wasn't able to get my grubby hands on Wet 'n Wild's On the Prowl collection. Boo! But I did find this polish from last year...

This is Wet 'n Wild's 'Nocturnal.' It is the loveliest, inky blue. With no top coat, it remained shiny through the next day but, I did get tip wear.

Before I removed 'Nocturnal', I wanted to test out a glitter top coat. I like dark base colors to accentuate the glitter so I thought I'd give it a shot...

I went with another Wet 'n Wild polish, 'Kaleidoscope.' If you click here, it will take you to a post by friend Gianna, Nouveau Cheap's, blog where she discusses a re-issue of some of Wet 'n Wild polishes. 'Kaleidoscope' is one of them. It is called 'Whose Lips Are These?' (Like someone 'lost' their lips? *scratches head*)

Here is a close up of 'Kaleidoscope'...

 

 A gabillion microscopic iridescent and silver glitters.

This makes me think of the photos from the Hubble. Nerdy, yes. But at least I'm consistently nerdy about what subjects I pick. ;)

What got me thinking about using 'Kaleidoscope' was a post on Kelly's Vampy Varnish blog. If you haven't seen her blog, that's another one you should follow. So, what Kelly was reviewing was Nails Inc. Special Effects 'Electric Lane.' This isn't a dupe, but it remains me of 'Kaleidoscope.' Take a look and see if you know what I mean.

A whispery, starry, nocturnal Halloween night. Perfect for the night when the veil between the physical world and the spiritual world is lifted. :)

The Lime Starts Here for the Crackle Effect

This manicure was so cool looking, I moved it up for today's review. The one thing that I really, really love about crackles is that they can cover up flubs and a rescue a lukewarm polish. Now, this is not a lukewarm polish, by no means. So, take a look...

This is the smelly-scented 'The Lime Starts Here' from Color Club's Wicked Sweet collection. And this is the first time I have used a scented nail polish. It seems weird to me, though. I can only smell my nails in private. Which, by the way, is something I would always suggest.

Even in the shade, 'The Lime Starts Here' looks like it glows. Super vibrant.

But, picking a neon green to use wasn't so easy. I didn't realize I even had a choice amongst my stash.

The far right polish is a green from Popstastic called 'Twiggie'. The polish on the left comes from the Wicked Sweet collection and is 'Get Your Lem-On'. This one looked green before it was let up with the other two shades. I wanted the most neon green shade as I seem to have made a mini series of them so far on the blog. So, 'The Lime Starts Here' was the neon winner.

Looks like a 'GEE!' color to me.

This is really odd, I know, but my eye will find something right away that matches the color of polish I'm wearing. This is one of my dish towels...

Libby wants to match the neon green too...

Next, I wanted to add something sparkly to it and boost it up to a 'DAMN!' manicure. I got this polish from the local flea market...

J2's 'Light Snow.' Very interesting name to go with an interesting bottle and color. What you see is what you get; I don't know any more about this one except that I got it for $1. It made my heart race when I laid eyes on it. A distinct yellow base with the bluish/green iridescent glitter and some pink/lavender iridescent shifts too. As striking as it is to look at, it is just as smelly. Any lime fragrance that was on my nails previously was run off by J2's stink-ola.

'Light Snow' is very subtle. It was harder to photograph too.

 

But wait! I'm not finished...

I've been looking for an opportunity to show off this yellow crackle from LCN named 'Blazing Yellow'. And I must tell you, it came out looking way better than applying this crap crackle. It was gloopy and very thick. It still moved the manicure on to a 'YOWZA!'...

Snap! I'm sorry for the crackled cuticles too. I just put 'Blazing Yellow' on without clean up or cuticle oil. I was wanting to beat the sunset for lighting.

Just a bit of disrespect for 'Blazing Yellow' but only on the consistency of the polish. I think it resolves itself with the crackle effect. Yowza, that's awesome looking! Sorry, no humbleness for me today.

I haven't seen a lot of swatches of LCN's crackles. What do you think about its looks/effect?

Today's Southern Orlando Haul

I woke up today feeling pretty yucky. I had a 'recovery day' scheduled from running, so I pushed myself into that. I had a feeling of a fever but I did my 'pretend' jump rope workout anyway. (I jump rope but don't have a real rope to use; just go through the movements with my arms.) I had a work project scheduled early this morning, it was already 80 degrees before 10 AM, but I went and did it anyway. I wanted to come home and be inside where it is cool. However,  I went to Ulta (it really is on the way home) and made sure I used my $9 in points and my $3.50 off $10 coupon today.

Even then, I went to a large mall do finish up more work so I wouldn't have to do it tomorrow. But I stopped in Forever 21 anyway and found some polish.

Semi-soothing, here are the goods...

 Sparkle babies. From left on: Currant, Silver and Coral.

But you have to check them out up close to get a good looky...

Currant. I merlot shade with red and gold glitter.

Silver. It is a much lighter shade of silver IRL, with iridescent micro-glitter.

Coral. A pinkish coral shade with red and fuchsia micro-glitter. This one might be a jelly. I'm not sure yet.

BUT WAIT!!!!! THERE'S MORE!!!!!!

Early July 4th sparklers! From the left on: Purple/Silver, Green/Clear and Red/Black/Silver. Oh, those names got me excited!!! *rolls eyes, one way then back the other*

 Silver/Purple. The base is clear with chunks of silver and a red-purple hexagon glitter.

Green/Clear. A clear base with chunky leaf green and silver hexagon glitter.

Red/Black/Silver. Again, a clear base with chunks of very red, black and silver hexagon glitter.

Any one of these three hexy glitters could make some interesting nail 'sammich' manicures.  I'm ready to experiment!

I did stop by CVS in the mall to check to see if I could find anything new. I found the new Limited Edition NYC polishes...

The coupons at the front expired on 6/1/11. Not nice. But one polish did come home with me (where at least 2 unexpired NYC coupons are)...

This is 'Gramercy Glitz.' It's a pink, almost totally clear, base with tons of baby girl pink and iridescent micro-glitter. Not exactly a new shade but the kind I tend to gravitate to.

I'm a chick from the Midwest, I had to look this one up: Gramercy Park (/ˌgræmᵊrsi ˈpɑːrk/) is a small, fenced-in private park in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States.

It looks lovely. I'd like to visit it. Some day. When I go to New York. Where my hubs is from. NYC, where he got his Masters. Yea...some day.


See any shades that tickle your fancy?

I'm Having A Purple Phase

This is quite by accident, but maybe I should run with it. Here's another purple that I swatched...and loved...

This is Color Club's 'Wild Orchid' and it is from the 'Alter Ego' collection. I found that I loved a LOT of the colors in these 2 collections from CC.

The tipping point for me, on this shade, it's the iridescent sparkles that live inside a dark putty color. Sparkles that are elusive this time around.

Oh, just a hint of them here.  I have on 3 coats and no top coat here. Very easy to apply. The above photo is in the shade.
This one is spot on in the sun...

A bit of that pinkish sheen...

It's one that looks so much better in real life. And I can see this one working with lots of different shades of crackle too.  In fact, I am lining that one up to do!

You can end right here if you are just here to see the polish. The next part is my soap box..

Thanks to my dear readers for following along. With so many great, talented bloggers out there, it is hard for me to not be intimidated. I want to have my nails look like theirs, my blog to be as professional and to have thousands of followers holding their breath for my next post. I'm inspired daily!

So, when I come back down to earth, I step back to the beginning of my blogging days. I started blogging because I wanted to have a hobby that not only would help me stop picking away at my sorry cuticles but also to just have fun. What I didn't expect is to join in a sub-culture that was filled with beautiful women, from all over the world! There is an entire group of bloggers that I enjoy following and they are on Twitter and they talk with me. And many of them have allowed me into their circle(s) with love and friendship.

This doesn't escape me because every day, I think about this hobby and the circle I have joined. And, a truly supportive community. I'm right there to stick up for a fellow blogger that has her photos and/or copy stolen from her; I know how hard it is to come up with great photos, skilled copy and putting it into a format that expresses oneself. It's still elusive to me! I'll continue to step up and speak when I feel that a blogger has not been treated fairly or professionally. There are haters out there, sadly. And their lives are twisted around the erroneous belief that there is NOT ENOUGH TO GO AROUND. I don't, for one minute, believe that. There is always room for more; it will never run out.

My thanks and gratitude will never run out for having you be a part of this blog. :)
Libby agrees. Here she is saying 'WORD!'