Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Nostalgic Lacquer Date at Midnight with Nosferatu

Happy Halloween! I hope that those of you who are able to celebrate Halloween tonight are having a good time! I have another Halloween polish for you from Nostalgic Lacquer-- Date at Midnight with Nosferatu. This is a very cool Halloween polish-- it's described as a "medium grey creme with 2 different colors and sizes of hot pink glitter" and the color combo makes it pretty unique for the holiday in my opinion.

Erin suggests that this can be opaque by itself in three coats, but I decided to layer it over Julep Lisa (which I still have to show you, though I've worn it several times already!) to make sure I didn't have any issues with opacity. I used two coats here. Unlike Like Lovin' the Dead, I had no issues applying Date at Midnight with Nosferatu-- it went on easily and smoothly. This polish is much more subtle, but the glitter doesn't get lost in the base. The grey base covers pretty well, but I noticed it was a little streaky with the first coat.

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I love the color combo here, and I think this is a Halloween polish you could wear at other times of the year. I actually feel like this fits the vampire theme nicely-- it's got a very sexy feel to it but doesn't feel like a stereotypical vampire themed polish. This is probably my favorite from the collection!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Nostalgic Lacquer Like Lovin' the Dead

I have a fun Halloween polish to share with you today! This is from Nostalgic Lacquer's Halloween Collection, called Black No. One. Tonight's polish is Like Lovin' the Dead and Nostalgic Lacquer describes this as a "bright yet soft green creme with various shapes and sizes of white, black and green glitters. (Zombie skin!!!)" and she also says it should be opaque in three coats. I was hesitant to apply it alone, so I decided to layer it over Julep Popova. This is a slightly darker green that the base of Like Lovin' the Dead, which actually managed to a cover this quite well.

I love this polish and I think it's perfect for Halloween. The green is murky but also bright and the glitter looks really great in it. However, I found it a little difficult to work with Like Lovin' the Dead. I had to dab it on my nail to get the glitter on, and then move it around to make the base color opaque. It was a little frustrating, to say the least. Quite honestly, I will say this probably due more to my application skills than it is to the polish itself. I love way this looks, but wish I had had a better time applying it.

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I hope all of those of you who are in the region affected by Sandy are safe and dry, and hopefully have power! I was watching some of CNN last night and this morning and the images were pretty incredible. It's amazing how Mother Nature can sweep in and remind us tiny we really are, despite the fact that we often feel otherwise with our technology and our big cities. Continue to stay safe out there!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Wet n Wild Venomous Vixen

I have a very appropriate story to go along with the name of this polish, although it bears no relation to the polish itself. Saturday morning I was getting towels out of the dryer to take and hang in our bathroom, when I walked out of the laundry room and stepped on something sharp. For a moment I thought I had stepped on a pin, but when I looked down I saw a yellow jacket crawling on the carpet! And then of course, the bee venom was coursing through my foot and it hurt like heck!! So I was yelling for husband to kill the yellow jacket, in the midst of some hysterical crying/laughing. It's been so long since I've been stung by a bee-- I had forgotten how much it hurts. Wow! Now it's severely swollen and itching like crazy. The only thing that seems to help is ice. I hope it goes away soon. So don't play with venom! =)

Tonight I have Wet n Wild Venomous Vixen, the last polish I currently have from the Pick Your Poison collection (but I have another on the way-- you'll just have to wait!) and certainly not the least. Venomous Vixen is a shimmery gunmetal grey with some blue in it! The formula is great, just like the other polishes from this line, but a little on the sheer side so I had to use three coats here for good measure.

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I love this! I expecting just another grey shimmer (which is very pretty), but I love the blue shimmer in this and think it makes the polish more unique. 

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Wet n Wild Toxic Apple

I meant to post this yesterday, but ran out of time before the football game (we won!!) and even though I didn't go to bed right away when I got home, I was too tired to think about posting. Today I have another Wet n Wild Halloween polish for you, Toxic Apple. I would describe Toxic Apple as a dark blurple with red and blue shimmer. It's dark but never black and the shimmer doesn't get lost on the nail.

Toxic Apple has a more red-purple appearance in the bottle, the polish leans strongly towards blue-purple when applied on the nail. I can still it's purple (in certain lights) but the blue is much stronger than you would guess just by looking at the bottle-- and my pictures are mostly color accurate and you can see how blue this polish actually leans. Toxic Apple has a great formula and applies very smoothly and easily. Here I have used two coats and no top coat.

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While I wish Toxic Apple was a little more purple on the nail (similar to how it looks in the bottle), it is a really pretty polish and I love the shimmer. I don't know if this is a super unique polish-- there are other blue/purple polishes with similar shimmer, but if you can find it for $0.99, it's definitely worth taking a look at! 

Friday, October 26, 2012

Football Friday: Dam(n) it Edition!

I'll be honest... I'm not entirely enthusiastic about writing this post. Last week the Huskies played a terrible game against Arizona and it was just embarrassing to watch (literally, I had to stop watching and go to bed, it was so awful). This week the Huskies face the Oregon State Beavers (get it-- dam... ah, anyway), who are currently sitting at a surprise 6-0 on the season, while the Huskies are struggling at 3-4. It's extremely frustrating to watch and I love my team, but it hurts to watch them struggle and play like they don't care. After this week our schedule is comparatively easy, but it would be nice if we could pull out the upset this week (though highly unlikely). Additionally, the weather has turned into our typical Seattle fall with perpetual rain, so I'm also not enthused about a late kick-off (7pm) and being out in the cold and the wet for several hours.

Even though I'm feeling uninspired, I still have a pretty purple polish for you! This week's polish is Zoya Julieanne, which they describe as a "unique purple sparkles with gold, peach and yellow-green duochrome in a dark blue-purple base." When I first pulled this out, I didn't realize just how dark the base is-- it looks close to black when I look at it. Julieanne was also a little on the sheer side, especially with the first coat. Here I used three coats, plus the Cult Nails Wicked Fast top coat. I felt the duochrome was a little hard to see on the nail, but my camera did manage to pick it up a little, at least with help from the lighting.

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This is a really gorgeous color, and if you're looking for a funky kind purple polish, I don't think you can go wrong here. It applies easily, if a little on the sheer side, but is really pretty to look at. I hope you can forgive my picture here-- I swatched this awhile ago, while I was still working on my picture taking skills (well, I'm always working on those) and so they're not quite as good as some of the pictures I've been able to take more recently). Poor Julieanne deserves better than this, so I might have to reswatch her when the sun comes back!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Beavers!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Wet n Wild Root Of All Evil

I know it's supposed to be Pink Wednesday, but I have an amazing blue polish to share with you tonight from Wet n Wild's Pick Your Poison Collection (for Halloween. I found the collection on sale at my local drugstore for $0.99 and wiped out what was left of the display (three in total). Tonight I have Root Of All Evil. I would describe this polish a bold, shimmery metallic blue.

Root Of All Evil is stunning. STUNNING. And it goes on so smoothly and easily. It's so close to being a one coater-- you could probably get away with just one coat, but I have used two in my pictures (and no top coat). It's a metallic polish but it easy to handle and I didn't have any issues at all.

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While this color doesn't necessarily say fall to me, but it so gorgeous. This is a stunning blue and I'm so glad I grabbed it.