Favorites: Blue!

Hello again!

Oh yes oh yes, it's time for the next installment of my favorite polishes I've found over the past year! I thought it was only fitting that I do blue this time, given the focus on Autism awareness this month.  There are so many blurples that I love so much, I'll do a separate post on them. I'm also not doing any glitters; I found I have a bunch of blue glitters I fell for, so I'm going to do them separately, too, otherwise this will be far too long! :)


China Glaze Deviantly Daring

China Glaze Deviantly Daring in the shade

This is from China Glaze's Bohemian collection, and is a slight green-blue duochrome. Honestly, in most lights it's just blue, but it's a gorgeous blue and when the green does show, it's like a bonus. Plus, it stamps!!


Barielle Blackened Blue

Barielle Blackened Blue; indirect light

Bad picture of a very pretty color. Dark and darker blue flecks in a blackened finish, going almost black at the edges. Sublime. :)


China Glaze Hanging In The Balance

China Glaze Hanging In The Balance; direct sunlight

A brilliant, energetic, fun blue creme from China Glaze's Cirque Du Soleil collection. This is such a versatile blue; it looks great with a lot of my wardrobe and is amazing for nail art. Yum yum yum.


China Glaze Man Hunt

China Glaze Man Hunt; direct sunlight

Oh yeah. That'll work. Deep like the lapis lazuli in an ancient Egyptian necklace. It pulls me in and I can get lost just staring into it. So rich and elegant and amazing. One of the many beauties from China Glaze's Safari Collection.


Zoya Zuza 

Zoya Zuza; direct sunlight

This is such a happy color, it makes me smile when I wear it. It's almost like a dark robin's egg blue with silver shimmery flecks in it. And the formula was so amazing I have nothing but positive associations with it.


Zoya Crystal

Zoya Crystal; in the shade

Slate blue with gold flecks. I went back and forth about including this one here, not because I don't love it, but because it's such a unique polish. It's not *quite* right to call it a blue, because the gold is such a force, but it's not a glitter or anything like that, so I stuck it here. Because it has to be recognized somewhere, it's such a beauty. :)


Sinful Colors Ciao Bella

Sinful Colors Ciao Bella; partial sunlight

Sinful Colors Ciao Bella; in the shade

I don't quote catch phrases that often, and I'm not a huge Rachel Zoe catch-phrase fan, but when I look at this polish...well...I die. I mean, like, bananas. Totally Maj.

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, ahem, seriously, this polish is transformative. Gorgeous in any light, and it makes my nails look flawless. All for $1.99, $1 if you get it on sale? How can you argue with that? I have $20 polishes that are nowhere near this maj. Oops, another one slipped out...Sorry!!


Layla Green Fever (CE07)

Layla Green Fever (CE 07)

Another one I wasn't quite sure where to put, and the (unofficial) name makes it even more confusing. It feels pretty blue to me, although it clearly has a strong green flash. I'm sticking with blue on this one...It reminds me of the ocean with that shimmer and green flash...I can hear the waves and feel the sea breeze on my face.


A-England Tristam

a-England Tristam; direct sunlight

This one flirts with the line between purple and tries to reach over it, depending on what you put it next to. A deep holo blue of that special sort a-England makes. Another richly pigmented polish that makes me think of precious jewels. :)


Polished Components Psyche

Polished Components Psyche; indirect sun

Polished Components Psyche; direct sunlight

And to end with a stunner, I give you Polished Components Psyche. This is a electric blue that feels like it's gonna zap you when you touch it. It has a sort of a satin, matte-ish finish, but isn't a full-on matte. It also has a pinky-purpley shimmer that makes it extra special. It's the sort of polish I hope for when I buy a non-glitter indie--something that has the extra components (no pun intended) that make it just a bit more special. If you need a lift in your day, a prance in your step--this polish will give it to you. :)

So there you have it! My favorites of the blues I've encountered the past year. I hope you saw something here you liked!

Thanks for reading. Big hugs!
M.

NOTD: Festival Of Lights

Hello!!

Today is the next prompt in my Winter Holiday Challenge, and it's 'Festival Of Lights'. I tend to think of this as a peaceful, beautiful celebration, and wanted to try to capture that in my manicure. Here's what I did:

Festival of lights

Shows the gold a little better

Here's how I did it:

1) I started with a base coat of Barry M's silver foil.
2) Over that I layered a coat of Polished Components Future.
3) I stamped the candles using plate HD07 (from Bunny Nails) and Sally Hansen Cobalt Blue.
4) I put a dot of Barry M's gold foil in each candle flame, and sponged gold around the edges of the nail to make it look like it was glowing from the candlelight.

I am so happy with how this came out...it feels peaceful and serene to me, filled with quiet wonder. :)

Thanks for looking.

Xoxox,
M.

Before & After: 'M' is for Mattress Mambo Magic

Hello!!

My alphabet Llama Nails challenge is now up to 'M', and for my M, I decided to do some nail art on the beautiful Mattress Mambo by polished components.

I love vampy colors and I love flakies, so of course I love this polish:

Mattress Mambo by Polished Components

When I was staring lovingly at this, I couldn't help but wonder what it would look like with a gradient of Barielle's Elle's Spell on it:

Gradient of Mattress Mambo and Barielle's Elle's Spell

Elle's Mattress Spell?

I love how it looks...it's almost like the little flakes are snowing down into a big pile of larger flakes at the bottom. :)

I wore it like that for a while, but then decided I wanted a stamp on it, so I used my go-to China Glaze Passion and Bundle Monster plate BM12:

Elle's Mattress Magic

Magic Mattress Mambo?

Oh, man, I don't have words for how much I love this mani. It has a wintery antique-y feel like some sort of turn of the century jeweled pin. Or maybe that's just me, lol--but I certainly do love it. :)

Thanks for taking a look, and please check out the other 'M' manicures by the other Llama-ettes, linked below.

Xoxox,
M.

Indie-licious Review: Polished Components

Hello!!

Today I have an indie brand to review...Polished Components. I've been wanting to try out her stuff for a while now, and finally had the chance to grab some. Ah, the stuff you can justify to yourself during the holiday season, hee hee hee...

First is Future, a pretty flakie topper that I've been eyeing for a while. It has blue and grey flakies that can look light lilac-y purple in certain lights Here I have one generous coat over two different colors, first Barry M Silver Foil, and second Revlon No So Blueberry:

Polished Components Future over Barry M Silver Foil

Polished Components Future over Barry M Silver Foil

Polished Components Future over Revlon Not So Blueberry

Polished Components Future over Revlon Not So Blueberry

I've never seen anything else like this. Future is not your mama's flakie--it has a bit of edge and a lot of fun.

Next  is The Green Fairy. This is a light apple-green shimmer-jelly with matching green flakies in it. It's named after the fairy in Moulin Rouge which is a symbol for absinthe, and I just love that name for this. These flakies don't hit you over the head; they're subtle, so if you like subtle, this is the flakie for you. :) I have three coats on in these pictures (plus topcoat); this was opaque inside, but when I went outside there was some VNL as you can see, and if you're worried about that, four coats would be better:

Polished Components  The Green Fairy

Polished Components The Green Fairy

With light bringing out the frosty shimmer a bit more

I wanted to see what this would look like over undies, so I put China Glaze Holly-Day on all nails except my accent, and put Running In Circles on the accent nail, then put two coats of The Green Fairy over it. The individual flakes show up a bit more over the darker polish, but not really over Running In Circles, but that may be because that's a sparkly polish already, lol:

The Green Fairy over undies

Next up is Mattress Mambo, another name I love! This was a leap-of-faith polish for me--I wasn't sure how it was going to look in real life on me, I was afraid it might be a bit too dark. Turns out, I absolutely love it. It's a black crelly-type polish with a ton of red and purple flakies in it. This polish made me want to scream because it was so hard to take a picture of! I did the best I could here, but the flakes are even prettier in person. As a flakie fanatic, it's not surprising I fell head-over-heels for this one. This is three coats plus topcoat: 

Polished Components Mattress Mambo

Oh, yeah, mambo the night away...::swings hips::

The last polish I have to show you is a different type--no flakies...but that's okay, 'cause it has micro-glitter. :) It's called Psyche, and it's a matte-ish type of finish in a dark electric blue--with teensy pink micro-glitter. I have three coats of it here, but it would have been fine with two, and I didn't use a topcoat so you could see the finish, which I think is really beautiful:

Polished Components Psyche

And the sun decided to come out, how pretty is that color in the sun!!

This is a really unique, complex polish, although I wasn't sure about that when I saw it in the bottle. Between the beautiful shade of blue, the unique matte-ish finish, and the pink glitter, this has enough going on to be really interesting but not overwhelming. I love it, and I can't wait to wear it again.

Overall, I really like these polishes. The formulas were good; some of them took a little attention, but nothing that was problematic. While I like my polishes to cover opaque in two coats, for specialty polishes like flakies, that's an unrealistic expectation, so it didn't bother me that it took three coats for The Green Fairy and Mattress Mambo to get to opacity. Most of all, I think all of these are unique, special polishes that give oomph without being over-the-top. They're fun and pretty, and I'll definitely be buying more from this maker in the future. :)

You can find the Polished Components Etsy shop by clicking here. Her full-sized polishes are $8.75, and she has a wide range of polish types in her stop, something for everyone. :)

Thanks for taking a look!

Xoxox,
M.

(These polishes were purchased with my own money, except for Psyche, which was sent for an honest review.)