NOTD: Easter Candy! OPI "Funny Bunny" with Lynnderella "Sweets to the Sweet"

Happy Bunny Day! Im taking a break from eating candy to show you my Easter mani -- you know I had to use one of those gorgeous Lynnderellas I got yesterday!!! "Sweets to the Sweet" is a slightly pink milky base with varous shapes and sizes of blue, red, lime green, purple, pink and true green glitters. Since the base is so light, I decided to try it over OPI's "Funny Bunny", a sheer white jelly (no shimmer, which is out of the ordinary for me!)

Here's the final product:

Look at all that glitter!!!!!!!!!!! This is 2 coats of "Sweets to the Sweet" over 2 coats of "Funny Bunny". Pardon the stray glitter, but the formula of SttS takes a little coercing to get applied somewhat evenly. I have true problems with scattered glitters -- my OCD does NOT like the fact that there aren't even amounts of glitter on each nail. But, I'm starting to appreciate the way these types of glitters look.

My thumbnail showed a great example of the glitters. I flooded my cuticles a bit, but I was so excited to see the final result that I was rushing! Also, hi lappy in the background!

Another thing about Stts is the glitter shades -- these are NOT colors I ever would have dreamed of putting together in the past, but it really does look like bits of candy. I can't stop staring at my hands!

With the exception of that one stray piece of glitter on my index finger, I really like this shot! This is a fairly true to life representation of the base color -- like an off white tinged with pink. I really like it -- pinks aren't usually my thing but this I can deal with!

How'd I do on this bottle shot????? Lynnderella bottles are very easy for me to hold (and look relatively natural) so I was fairly pleased with how this came out :)

Now just for fun....................

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Polish Peep Show: Candeo Colors & LYNNDERELLA!!!

Happy Easter and Happy Passover! I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful spring weather and the recent holidays . I am enjoying a day "off", meaning I am just being lazy and refusing to do anything more than cook dinner. Yaay!

Yesterday I received 2 awesome pieces of nail mail, and although the swatch sticks are STILL not here (shipping from Europe, takes foreverrrrrrrrrrrr) I just had to share!

Candeo Colors is quickly becoming one of my favorite Etsy polish sellers! The colors are absolute glitter bombs, which of course I am totally in favor of. This was my third order, which was the most fun because I caught the sale as soon as the Etsy shop opened, and got to watch everything sell out after I placed my order!

Unfortunately for me, one of my original color choices ("Rittenhouse", from the Philadelphia collection) was recalled after the sale due to an issue with warping glitter. This is a bummer, but I totally understand -- I wouldn't want to see an inferior product. I can't wait until the formula is revamped, but until then I have these beauties to experiment with:

L to R: Laser Light, Sprouse, Old City, Swoop, South Street

A brief breakdown of the colors:

• Laser Light: Clear base with silver holo hexes, bars, & microglitter, and iridescent purple glitter (its hard to describe but it totally looks like straight purple holo, not the metallic aspect but just the flash of purple)

• Sprouse: Black and white hexes and bars, and blue metallic glitter. Very pretty and similar to Lynnderella's "Connect The Dots", which I love! But, they are not dupes at all.

• Old City: Clear base with gold holo hexes/micro glitter, bars. Going to be a FABULOUS topper!

• Swoop: This one is weird. A mix of magenta, turquoise and dark blue hexes, silver shimmer, and large silver holo hex. Very pretty! I find I'm digging the unique color combos best of all!

• South Street: A rainbow mix of square, hex and bar glitters. Similar in color scheme to the ever-elusive Lynnderella "The Glittering Crowd", but as with Sprouse it's different enough not to consider it a dupe.

I strongly urge you to sign up for email notification when Candeo Colors returns from their vacation -- their polishes sell out fast and do NOT disappoint in real life! Additionally, I will do a post soon with some comparisons of Sprouse and CtD, as well as South Street and TGC.

Now............this is the one I've been waiting for. I'm sure anyone that is reading this blog is familiar with the drama surround acquiring Lynnderella polishes as of late. I finally received my "wish list" order yesterday, and I could not wait to rip into the package! Too bad I picked it up as I was running out of the house to do food shopping and had to wait hoursssssssssssssssss to look at everything!

Sorry, I'll stop whining. Here are my new pretties:

L to R: Lovey Dovey; Love, Lace & Lilacs; Chocolatta Love; Sweets to the Sweet; Connect The Dots; Nosegay; The Glittering Crowd

There have been SO many swatches and detailed descriptions of these shades, I'm not even going to bother trying (also because Lynnderellas are so complex and I generally give a crappy description). CtD was going to be my backup bottle, but I decided to swap it for Nerd Lacquer's Holy Grail, which was top of my list during the last NL sale but sold out before I got on the computer. I realized I have so much polish I'll probably never finish my first bottle of CtD! Oh, I also ordered Boy Girl Party but it's backordered :(

Lynnderella polishes can be found at Llarowe, a great supplier of international and hard to find brands. The polishes are sold on a "wish list" basis, and per the website they are not accepting any new wish lists at this time. I hear they will be accepting new lists next month, so keep checking!

So, that's the peep show for today. Im off to eat more candy and wear my bunny ears around the house like a weirdo. As a side note, I almost forgot to take them off before chasing down the ice cream man. That might have been awkward.................

EXTRA EXTRA: OPI "Minnie Mouse" Collection

Hey everybody! Today we have another new category of posts -- EXTRA EXTRA!!! This is where you can read all about it................"it" being upcoming color collections from various polish brands! Of course, since I'm just starting this blog I don't have too many releases coming my way, but luckily the nice people at OPI must have said "aw look at her poor sad little blog, let's give her the releases too".

Just kidding, they give it to everyone that asks. But still, big thanks to OPI for the information!

Here is some background on the OPI Minnie Mouse collection, straight from the press release:

"OPI launches Vintage Minnie Mouse, including four limited edition nail lacquers, for summer. Created in honor of Disney’s beloved character, the colors encapsulate Minnie Mouse’s irresistible charm in playful, pretty shades of pink and red.

'OPI is so excited to collaborate with Disney and draw inspiration from one of the world’s most popular characters,' explains Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director. 'This collection brings together the expertise of OPI and the iconic style of Minnie Mouse to inspire the distinct palette of vibrant, feminine shades for summer Nails will pop against summer skin in these classic, saturated hues – holding their own alongside the bold prints of the season.'

The line features a pink crème lacquer, one frosted red shade, a shimmery fuchsia, and a heart glitter confetti."

Enough blah blah, time for pictures!!!

Nothin' Mousie About It

"Don't squeak it - SHOUT IT! This confetti light pink is tops."

I'm All Ears

"Tell me how much you love this magenta shimmer"

If You Moust You Moust

"You gotta pink what you gotta pink."

The Color of Minnie

"You had this little mouse at 'red'."

As is standard with all OPI press release I've seen, the bottle shots are digitally created and not photographed. This makes it quite hard to judge the true color or consistency of a polish. This me no likey. I can't tell you how many times I have drooled over OPI press release photos, only to see the swatches later and think "that's not even the same color". But, at least we know the basics of what the colors will look like :)

I myself will probably get all of the shades except Nothin' Mousie About It -- I've already owned one of the Nicole by OPI polishes with pink hearts in it, and it's not something I ever found myself reaching for. At the very least I'll probably pick up The Color of Minnie because I don't own enough reds!

So what do you all think of this collection??

NOTD: Hits Mari Moon "Dreamy"

After my gigantic swatch fail in this post, I had to  do something to make up for the awfulness of that paint-job. I feel like I didn't do the Hits Mari Moon polishes justice with my swatchtastrophie (I MADE A WORD), and I was smitten with Dreamy....so.....................you know what happened..........

Yay!!

 

Check out that color shift! Note: the black stripes on my thumbnail are the reflection of my window bars on the surface of my nail. Yes, I live in the hood.

Purty!

I can not stop staring at my hands in the sunlight! The color shift in Dreamy is very obvious -- not to mention freakin' gorgeous! I took this picture just for fun -- Instragram App (normal filter with "sunlight" adjustment). I love how shimmery and deep it looks! Don't mind the stray cat hair..........

L to R: Cat hair, manicure

And one last shot of the purple aspect of the color shift -- weird angle, but you get the idea!

I really Dreamy for a solo mani -- not often do I wear just one color (wait till you see some of my posts on layering!!!) but with shifty shades like the Mari Moon collection, one is enough (for once!).

Get these gorgeous shifty beauties at Llarowe while you can! She's always adding new products - I can't keep up!

Polish Peep Show: Hits Mari Moon "Modern" Set + Why I Don't Do Swatches (On My Own Hands)

YAAY NAIL MAIL! I've been so busy creating polishes for my Etsy shop that I've barely done anything with this blog! Thankfully now I'm on a break while awaiting supplies so I can get caught up on all the sparklies I've acquired recently. Today I have part of an order from Llarowe, one of the best US sellers of hard to find and international brands. Hits is a Brazilian company, and I'm sure without Llarowe procuring it for us American chickies, we would have a hard time finding it in the states!

I picked up a 4 pack of the Hits "Mari Moon" polishes -- my first purchase of any Hits polishes since I passed on the holo ones (am I the only person who's not super thrilled with linear holos? I like them, but........meh). The set ("Modern") included Cool, Trendy, Dreamy and Cutie Pie. For some reason, I'm a sucker for cosmetics sets, so of course I picked this instead of just one or two polishes to test out.

The packaging is super cute! I've come to realized that in addition to being a sucker for "sets", I'm a sucker for cute packaging! I've bought all kinds of stupid things just because the packaging was pretty or sparkly. I love the heart-shaped window at the front. See?

L to R: Cool, Dreamy, Trendy, Cutie Pie

And the bottles are cute -- I dig the cylindrical bottle, and the cartoonish font is something I'm always drawn to! Here are the bottles alone, and you can already see the color shift!!!

L to R: Cool, Dreamy, Trendy, Cutie Pie 

Cool is olive that shifts to a dark green, Dreamy is blue purple to red purple, Trendy is a light green/gold to.......not much of anything (in my opinion), and Cutie Pie is a teal blue to purple.

I am awful at describing things.

This shot of the bottles was taken indoors, natural light with the "sunlight" filter on iPhone's Instagram app. Not really true to life (see above) but pretty!!

L to R: Cool, Dreamy, Trendy, Cutie Pie 

The color shift in these babies is INSANEEEEEEEEEEE! Im really digging all of them, but I have to say that Trendy has the least color shift of the bunch. And in accordance with my decision that Polish Peep Show posts need swatches, I present to you some swatches. Please also note that I am impatient and sloppy when I'm exicted, so these swatches are a *perfect* example of why I HATE doing swatches on my own hands *taps feet impatiently and waits for swatch sticks*.

Oh, did I mention I'm getting swatch sticks? From now on, all swatches on those little guys. Stupid shaky hands, stupid putting top coat on too early, stupid can't pose for shots because my joints hate me!

Enough complaining, on to the pretty! Well, pretty colors, at least. First here's all 4, natural direct sunlight:

L to R: Cool, Dreamy, Trendy, Cutie Pie 

The color shift on Dreamy and Cutie Pie is very obvious. Cool shows a bit around the right side (from this perspective). And as you can also see, Trendy took the most damage with my impatience to put on top coat and take pictures. Seche Vite will drag your polish if it's too wet. Moral of the story? PATIENCE CHILDREN.

Here's another shot of all four (and I'm cringing at my work.................)

You've gotten through the worst! Now I'll reward you with some nicer shots of the color shift (as best as I could capture it):

Dreamy, blue purple to red purple shift!

Another angle of Dreamy's shiftyness

The best shot I could get of Cutie Pie's shift from blue to purple

Overall, the formula is very easy to work with -- 2 easy coats and I had opaque coverage (hooray!). The brushes on the Mari Moon polishes are notorious for being wonky, but mine were just fine. No problems with application whatsoever.

As for the colors, I'm partial to Dreamy and Cutie Pie because I loooooooooooove purple. Trendy is my least favorite, most because it's a weird shade that's not really "me".  I think it might be good for stamping over, but not as a plain mani.

Did anyone notice my nubs are growing???? Julep Nail Therapy is working really well!!!!

NOTD: Sinful "Cinderella" with OPI "Super Bass Shatter" (AKA: Resuscitated Fail Mani)

I admit, I'm not usually one to follow trends when it comes to fashion or hairstyles. But, when it comes to cosmetics, I tend to follow the pack in terms of what's hot. Sinful's "Cinderella" has been getting love all over forums and blogs, so after seeing 1,234,201,382 swatches I decided I had to get it.

Unfortunately for me, it looked TERRIBLE on my nails. So sheer that even after 4 fairly thick coats I still had VNL -- and it looked awfulllllllllllllllll. Side note on VNL, I really only like seeing it with the occasional nude or pink shade. To me, Cinderella is NOT a shade I want to see VNL with.

I won't even torture you with the pictures. It looks like I have no idea how to paint my nails. Instead, I'll show you how I tried to save the mani -- by adding a shatter topcoat! OPI "Super Bass Shatter", part of the Nicki Minaj collection, is a pretty red based purple crackle topcoat -- WITH SHIMMER. Im never opposed to anything purple, or with shimmer. So on it went, and here's the result:

With flash

Crappy cleanup (again) :/

Sunlight

Sunlight

I think the contrast of the sky blue and the purple is nice! Also, kinda springy (I guess) -- boyfriend was helping me pick a mani when I chose Cinderella, and his suggestion was a robins-egg blue (you know, for spring) stamped over with white. Too bad I owned ONE pale blue (Cinderella) and no white polishes for stamping (I know, I know, what the hell?!?!?). Cinderella fit the bill for a pale blue, but i really just hated the formula. Plus, on its own it gave me super lobster hands (makes my skin look red). Pale blue is NOT a good color for me.

Whatcha think about this color combo?

Drugstore Score: Wet N Wild "Bejeweled" Collection

I have a slight problem with drugstores. I can't walk in one without buying polish! Yesterday I ran some errands and stopped at Duane Reade before I went home. All I needed was a pack of smokes (bad, yes I know) but then these beauties caught my eye.............

L to R: Born Into Privilege, Jewels For Your Highness, Bow In My Presence, Speak When Spoken To

The Wet N Wild "Bejeweled" Collection! I've heard that these are dupes for some of the China Glaze Prismatic collection, but I don't have that one yet to compare. Just to give a bit more info, here are some shade descriptions (by me, so of course they will be filled with made up words.......)

Born Into Privilege: Gold glitter base with pink duochrome effect, multi glitter specks

Jewels For Your Highness: Pink glitter base with green duochrome effect, multi glitter specks

Bow In My Presence:  Green glitter base with pinky-red duochrome effect, multi glitter specks

Speak When Spoken To: Blue glitter base with greenish duochrome effect, multi glitter specks

Its so hard to describe these! I haven't had a chance to swatch on my nails yet, just on paper (I sometimes use a coated paper plate to do quick swatches, the coating on the paper will keep the polish from being absorbed into the paper plate and lets you get a rough idea of color). I missed one color, The Crown Is Mine, but I'm pretty sure I'll wind up stalking Duane Reade until I get my hands on it!

Here's another picture with flash (colors messed with to give a better idea of the shades):

Gorgeous! I haven't seen them anywhere but Duane Reade as of yet, and they were $2.99 each -- not bad, but keep in mind the bottles are only 9ml as opposed to the standard 15ml bottles. So a little pricey, but SUPER PRETTY!

Now off to get ready for a pedicure and shopping with my BFF :)