Monday Blues & The Neverending Pile Challenge: Cygnus Skittle

Hello!

Today again we are going to stretch the boundaries of Monday Blues with a Blurple duochrome that turns red and bronze at the edges. I give you I <3 Nail Polish Cygnus Loop, which is also the most expensive untried in my pile (today's theme in The Neverending Pile Challenge):

I <3 Nail Polish Cygnus Loop

I <3 Nail Polish Cygnus Loop

I <3 Nail Polish Cygnus Loop

I <3 Nail Polish Cygnus Loop

I've been in a skittle state of mind, so I decided to skittle this lovely, inspired by the colors she flashes:

For the index finger, I stamped using MoYou London Greek Mythology collection 02, and Sally Hansen Red-io Active. For the middle finger, I added a coat of Different Dimension Penny!!!. For the pinkie, I used red and rust and orange-copper glequins, and a light purple triangle sequin. And of course, I left the ring finger plain, so the original polish could shine on through. :)

So there you go--a sexy skittle to help you through your Monday. Hope you're having a good (or at least short) one!

Hugs,
M.

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Polished Pairings: Zoya Adina

Hello!!!

Today is the first day of a new challenge for a new group I've joined, Kimber's Amazing Challenge Ladies! We're doing a Mish Mash challenge with a bunch of themes put together to stretch our polish musckles. The first theme is a simple, one: Purple.

I have one of the coolest purple duochromes ever that I've had in my queue to show you for a while, and this gave me the perfect reason to bump it up: Zoya Adina, a purple-to-green duochrome wish a pretty glow. It has a great formula, applies like a dream; this is two coats:

It has such a soft, ethereal beauty to it, it's like being in a soft fairy science-fiction dream. I could stare into it all day. :)

I wanted to give it something extra, but not disturb the beauty, so I did a simple pairing on an accent nail with Different Dimension That's So Fetch, a glitter topper in a translucent purple base, with a blend of iridescent glitters that flash in mainly purple, but also blue, green, and pinkish:

This is the sort of mani I generally wear when I have certain types of work meetings I have to attend, where I can have a little flash, but don't want to be over the top. This is pretty and feminine, and special enough to keep me happy. :)

Thanks for looking, and please check out the other purple manicures linked below!

Hugs and loves,
M.

Before & After: 'W' is for Whimsical Ideas by Pam Peanut Butter And Jelly

Hello!

I think most people have seen this polish, but I love it and I haven't seen it around the blogosphere in a while, so I had to feature it as my 'W'...which is for Whimsical Ideas by Pam Peanut Butter And Jelly. This is a deep wine jelly with golden glitters; despite my love/hate relationship with jellies, I love this one and don't have to struggle with it too much because the formula is very nice. :)

Whimsical Ideas by Pam Peanut Butter And Jelly

For some reason when I was staring into it, it made me think of pretty coins in a fountain with colored water...not that I've ever seen such a thing, mind you! So I decided to turn it into a surreal pond with gold water lilies and copper shimmer and hexes at the tips:

I stamped the pattern using Magno nails plate O, and China Glaze Passion. I decorated the tips with Different Dimention Penny!!!, one of my favorite copper glitters. :)

There you have my 'W'! Hopefully I'll have my 'X' up within a few days because I'm lagging a little bit on the challenge...:/

Thanks for looking. Xoxox,
M.

After & After: Snowflakes

Hello!!!

Guess what?? It's time to begin my Winter Challenge!!

After doing two challenges for Halloween, I've decided to keep it to one challenge this time...I'm hoping this will give me more time to include reviews and simpler manicures, since I'm sort of in a simple layering phase with my nail art right now. We'll see how it goes...

Anyway, the point is, I'm in one challenge, and it begins today! Here is the list of the prompts I'll be doing:

As you can see, today's prompt is snowflakes or snowfall, and I've been really into snowflake manicures, so I'm excited about this one.

I started with a base of Sally Hansen Lustre Scarab, which is a really pretty blue duochrome. Over this, I layered Different Dimension Rock, Paper, Scissor, Lizard, Spock (indie alert!), a subtly pretty glitter with white, silver and green glitters:

Different Dimenstion Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock over Sally Hansen Scarab

This already looked like snowfall to me, but it needed something...hmmm, what does it need...hmmm...oh, I know! BLING!!

So I stamped on it using Cheeky XL plate L, and Bundle Monster plate BM14, with Sally Hansen White On and China Glaze Metallic Muse. Then, I threw on a couple of rhinestones:

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

I really can't stay...

Baby, it's cold outside!!

I'm in love with how this came out. Yes, I know there's a lot happening. I know it. But it's so sparkly and pretty, and snowy. I guess because I don't get snow where am I, I just had to have an hyper-snowflake snow manicure. :)

Thanks for stopping by to take a look--and please check out my fellow Crumpets' manicures, linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.

Indie-Licious Dupe Or No Dupe: Sizzling Hot vs. Bazinga!

Hello!!!

Welcome to the very first Indie edition of Dupe Or No Dupe! I thought I'd take a break from fall and winter colors here to bring you a comparison based on one of my favorite color combinations. :)

For some reason, I love me some yellow-red-orange together. Doesn't matter which is the base and which is added, I just love them all combined. So, I recently bought two glitters that contained red and yellow, perfect for putting over orange polishes.  I can try to play like I meant to do it, thought they were different, yada yada. But the fact is, I bought one, forgot I had purchased it, and bought the other one. And when they showed up and looked alike, I thought to myself...'Now, that wasn't too bright. But the upside is, it makes perfect content for a Dupe Or No Dupe post!'

That's me--always finding ways to make lemonade out of stupid.

But enough about me. Here are the two polishes in question, Lush Lacquer's Sizzling Hot (on the left), and Different Dimension's Bazinga! (on the right):

Lush Lacquer Sizzling Hot vs. Different Dimension Bazinga! in the bottles

Both polishes are clear-based, and have yellow and red-orange hex glitters of different sizes, from micro glitter to medium. Both are densely packed and yummy. In the bottle, Bazinga! seems to have a bit more contrast between the colors, with a bright yellow and deep red, while Sizzling Hot seems to have more complementary orange and yellow shades. Also, Bazinga! seems to have a few more of the larger hexes. Let's see how this shows on the nail.

To test them out, I layered them other Misa Sisterhood:

Misa Sisterhood

Here they are layered over the base polish:

I applied both of these without any futzing--the glitters went where they went--and they both applied with similar ease. Sizzling Hot is on my index and ring fingers, while Bazinga! is on my middle and pinkie fingers.

So what do you think? I say No Dupe, but man, awfully close. The deeper red in Bazinga! does come out, and the difference in hexes showed up a bit even with my non-careful application. But, I'm not sure it's different enough to justify buying both; they both give similar effects. The difference might show up more if I'd put them over another color, say white--if you'd like me to try this let me know and I'll be happy to do it.

In the meantime, I think either of these pretty gems will make you happy. Lush Lacquer charges $8.75 for full-sized polishes, and Different Dimension charges $8.50, so the price difference is minimal. And both shops have holiday polishes out now that are worth looking at. You can visit Lush Lacquer's Etsy shop by clicking here,  and you can visit Different Dimension's Etsy shop by clicking here.

Thanks for reading! :)

Xoxox,

M.

NOTD: 'I' is for Irene: Zoya Irene + Different Dimension Penny!!!

Hello!!

First, my apologies that my draft version of this posted first rather than the completed version. :(

Second, today's post is the 'I' in my Llama Nails weekly alphabet challenge.

Because of Zoya's holiday collection, Logan is getting a lot of attention, and rightfully so--it's a beautiful holiday green polish. But, it got me thinking about another Zoya green that I love, and that might be my favorite green, ever: Zoya Irene.

Irene is a pretty deep grass green with shimmers of lighter green and overtones of copper. Yes, I know that sounds fake--'overtones of copper'--but I'm not quite sure how to describe it. It's not quite a flash of copper, because the copper is always present, but subtle. It plays off the light and dark greens and creates a rich play of color that I can stare at for hours:

Zoya Irene in the shade

Zoya Irene in direct light

Zoya Irene in indirect light

Zoya slightly darker indirect light

One of the things I love best about this polish is that copper, so I decided to complement it with an accent nail of copper glitter. I used Different Dimension Penny!!! (INDIE ALERT!) on the accent nail; Penny!!! is a clear-based glitter with a ton of copper micro glitter and a moderate amount of copper hexes:

You can tell I love both these polishes just from the sheer number of pictures! Hope you like them too. :) Please check out the other 'I' manicures from my fellow Llamas!!

Xoxox,
M.

MSMD Monday: Skittle Nail Art

Hello!

I'm excited about today's MSMD because it's something I've wanted to try for a while, skittle nail art. One of the queens of this technique is Sammy of The Nailasaurus, in my opinion, so I'm using one of hers for my basic inspiration. You can see it by clicking here.

I've been having a yen to pair a moss green with a pretty purple in a manicure, and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity, so here's what I did:

Skittle mani!

Skittle mani in the shade

Skittle mani--direct sun

So here's what I did. All fingers have Revlon Muse as the base color:

Index finger: One thick coat of Different Demension That's so Fetch (Indie Alert!)

Middle finger: gradient done with Zoya Tru, topped with Ulta Purple Xing

Ring Finger: Stamped with Zoya True using LeaLac plate LLC-A (I will review this plate shortly), centers dotted with Ulta Purple Xing

Pinkie finger: purple gleequins, with one coat of gelous on top, and a coat of Seche Vite

I really love the way this came out! This type of manicure is so fun, with something different going on with each nail, but it still looks clean and pulled together. I also really love how That's So Fetch looks over Muse--the color combination is amazing. :)

I hope you saw something here you like! Please check out all of the other MSMD manicures, linked below. :)

M.