Pretty Serious Khepri's Amulet

And here we are at the last day of March (how did that happen?) and here is my last green polish-- at least for a the time being! Today I have another polish from the Pretty Serious Naileontology collection, Khepri's Amulet. This polish is a mermaid teal green with a strong golden green shimmer.

I swatched this awhile ago (before St. Patrick's Day) but I didn't have any issues with this. I'm pretty sure I used two coats here, but it's possible one more could have helped give it more depth. I didn't have any issues and it was easy and smooth to apply. My photos of this are a source of disappointment for me. I feel like they are very washed out, don't truly capture the depth of the color, and there is visible nail line in my photos when there isn't one in real life. Argh!! Seriously, my photos don't do Khepri's Amulet any justice at all! Though you can see how glowy and beautiful it is.

Artificial light (flash):

This would make a seriously stunning pedicure for summer. Can you imagine staring at this underwater? I feel like a mermaid already!

Daily Hues Hawks

Hope everyone is having a good weekend so far--mine was not off to a great this morning, because I discovered that between getting on the bus last night and getting home, I lost my waller! UGH! Luckily it appears that no one found it and tried to use any of my cards, but man, what a pain in the butt to call and cancel all my cards! And now I also need to replace my license blah blah blah. I'm so annoyed with myself-- what a dumb thing to happen. I hope it will turn up in the Metro lost & found, but they are closed until Monday so that's a bust right now. But the day did get better because we have friends in town and celebrated the impending arrival of a new baby at a shower, so that was fun.

Tonight I have one green polish to share with you-- if you are sick of greens I am almost done, I swear! Today I have Daily Hues Hawks, which is part of her Seattle Seahawks Trio. Hawks is a bright, vivid green with a strong linear holographic finish. This polish is on the sheer side, and definitely has a syrupy, jelly-like quality like. I needed three coats to make this mostly opaque, and there was still a hint of visible nail line. I would recommend using a light hand to prevent any dragging and leaving this a few minutes to dry in between coats.

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I think my photos here are a little washed out-- the green, while it does have a yellow tint, is definitely brighter in real life. I wish this was a little more opaque, but really, I didn't have many issues with it. This is such a fun color and will be great to wear in the fall for Seahawks games (when it doesn't clash with wearing purple for Husky games, of course).

Colors by Llarowe Julia Roberts 1967

Whew, I'm finally back! I had what I thought was another cold-- haha, turns out it was tonsilitis! Ugh, I was so miserable! But now I have antibiotics and am feeling much better, thank goodness. But feeling terrible meant that I didn't feel like blogging, hence the no posts!

This is a discontinued polish, so my apologies for that. Julia Roberts 1967 (a play off OPI Damone Roberts 1968) was released last spring/summer. This polish is a pistachio green with silver flakies. As I recall, I didn't have any issues with this at all and used two coats here. I'm pretty sure this dried a little on the matte/satin side so you definitely need a top coat to get it all pretty and shiny.

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I really like this polish-- I think the green is flattering with my skintone and I love the flakies. Have a good night!

Two-fer Tuesday: Zoya Vespa and Chita

I have a fun Two-fer Tuesday today! (And two posts because I'm a dope and forgot to hit publish last night.) This summer, it was announced that Zoya was discontinuing their Pixie Dust line. They were offering a BOGO at the time, and because I didn't have any these polishes at the time, I splurged (really really spluged) and bought all the original Pixie Dust polishes. I'll be honest and say I'm not a fan of the chunkier textures, so I'm not really sad to see those go, but I really love the original ones. I figured St. Patrick's Day would be a good time to break into them!

There are two green Pixie Dusts, Vespa and Chita. Vespa is described as a "mint kiss with a sugared sparkle", while Chita is a "forest green in a matte, textured, sparkling finish." Can't argue to much with that. They have a strong silver sparkle to them, which is especially visible in Chita due to the darker color. The formula on these was pretty good, though Vespa was on the sheerer side. I am pretty sure I used three coats for Vespa and two coats for Chita, which was almost opaque in one coat. They dried down to the matte finish fairlyquickly, as textures tend to.

Zoya Vespa:

Zoya Chita:

Did you do something fun with your nails for St. Patrick's Day? Are you feeling the green textures or not?

Pretty Serious The Dragon's Curse

*Edit: this was supposed to be posted yesterday, whoops!* Today I have my first Pretty Serious polish on the blog; one from their newest collection Naileontology collection. This is the polish I'm actually wearing for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, but I have another post planned for tomorrow, so you get to see this one today! The Dragon's Curse is a lovely apple green polish with an intense gold shimmer running throughout it. 

This is the first polish from Pretty Serious I have tried (though I did pick up a few others on sale awhile back) and I was really impressed with the formula and application. It went on super smoothly and easily-- almost too easily, as I have to be careful not too pick up too much polish and flood my nails (and I have fairly large nail beds). Because of the intense shimmer, I would suggest using a light hand when applying it because the shimmer can look slightly slightly brushs-strokey. One coat covered very well, but was not quite opaque-- two coats was perfect!

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My photos here are a little washed out-- the green is much more vibrant and brighter in real life. This is such an awesome shade and I am totally in love with it! The Dragon's Curse is currently available for purchase for $9.95 at Pretty Serious (and with the conversion rate, you're actually winning right now). This polish is definitely unique to my collection so if you're a green polish fiend, this is definitely worth having!

KB Shimmer Pretty in Punk

Woo, my first KB Shimmer polish on the blog! I recently bought some polishes from their discontinued section, including this polish, Pretty in Punk. This was part of the Winter 2013 Collection and unfortunately it's no longer available. Sorry!

Pretty in Punk is a multi-chrome that also has a linear holo. It's described as shifting from "a pretty pistachio green, to a bright green, to silver, to a soft pink almost lavender color." You can wear this alone or layered over a darker color for a base-- in my photos I have it layered over Cult Nails Flash. I used one coat here and had absolutely no issues.

Ok, you're going to see the first picture and think, this isn't green! But trust me, it is! The flash really picked up the silvery lavender color (which to me almost looks a little brown, or am I crazy?) and you can see a hint of green on the edges. You can definitely see how green Pretty in Punk is in the natural light photos. It's so gorgeous in real life and definitely seems a lot more green there.

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Natural light (shade):

So pretty! I'm really glad I snagged this one-- I love that is has both the mutli-chrome and holographic finish! Do you prefer one or the other or both?

Cult Nails Flash

Today brings us a sad story, sob. I have one of the last polishes ever from Cult Nails, Flash. Back in December, they announced a Secret Collection of three colors but didn't release pictures of them. Flash was one of the polishes from that collection. Unfortunately, Cult Nails announced in January that they were liquidating and closing their doors, which was a huge disappoint for the nail world. Personally, I love (loved?) Cult Nails so I am definitely sad that they are gone-- they made great polishes (and treatments... god, what I am going to do without their Wicked Fast top coat?!) and they were a great company to support. So sad! 

Flash is a medium green creme and it dries with a slight satin or waxy finish. I honestly can't remember now if I used three coats or two-- I think it was three. This was decently pigmented, but definitely not opaque in a single coat; there were a few patches that needed to be covered up. I didn't use a top coat here-- you can see the waxy finish. I didn't have any issues!

Artificial light (flash):

I think this is a nice creme polish and great green, though nothing necessarily out of the ordinary. It's still a bummer that Cult Nails has closed up shop, though. I will miss their collections! I still have a bunch of untried polishes waiting to be used, so you will still see them on the blog!

Sally Hansen Plush

Ugh, my apologies for not blogging all week-- my house was struck by another round of plagues, this time aimed at my kids and husband so I've been dealing with a whole lot of crying babies, hah. I was too tired to think about writing up blog posts. But since St. Patrick's Day, let's kick off a week of green polishes!

Tonight I have Sally Hansen Plush, which is a vibrant teal velvet texture. Plush was definitely thinner in formula than the other Velvet Textures I have tried and worn so far-- I needed three coats to get the opaque, even coverage where most of the other polishes from this collection needed two. The other big problem with this is that it wants to stain. I only swatched this, and even in the short time between applying it, photographing it and then removing, it definitely wanted to leave pigment behind on my nail. And I was wearing a base coat! So I would suggest doubling up on base coat if you're going to be wearing this.

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Overall, this wasn't my favorite polish from the Velvet Texture collection. With the formula on the thinner side and the potential for staining, I think this could have been better. It's very pretty and the color is fun, but it's not my favorite.

Julep Glam Roc

 Ugh, this post has been kicking around since forever, basically. I can't seem to muster the energy to write about this polish. Which isn't very inspiring to you as a reader, I'm afraid. But I need to get this published so let's go!

Today I have a textured polish from Julep-- termed a "stardust finish" by the company. Glam Roc is described as a "midnight purple & gold stardust (matte glitter)." This has a deep blackened purple base that has a lot of purple and gold sparkle and dries to a textured finish. According to my Julep email, Glam Roc was part of a trio that was curated and named by Jay-Z's Roc Nation for Grammys... back in 2013. Heh, only a little behind.

As far as I recalled, I had no issues with this polish in terms of application. I think I used two coats here, and of course, no top coat! As I recall, this wore like iron on me, which is always a nice benefit, especially as I do not get to change my polish very often these days.

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Natural light (shade):

I actually think Glam Roc is a really pretty polish and unique for a texture, especially at the time it was originally released. It's still pretty unique, but companies have gotten creative with their textures and I think L'Oreal has a very similar texture polish available for a drugstore price if you do like this! I'm

Mentality Taffy

I have a new-to-me brand to share with you today! Mentality Nail Polish has actually been around for while, but I only bought my first polishes from them last summer. I actually wore this in July but of course the pictures have been sitting, completely forgotten. Well, not completely, but I kept forgetting to post about it! This is Mentality Taffy, from the Jelly Holo collection. Taffy is described as a "soft yellow jelly holographic." I would say that Taffy is a green-leaning yellow gold color, but predominantly shows up as yellow. It's a weird quirky color that fits into the "ugly pretty"" category.  I would think of soft yellow as more of a pastel, while the green in this gives this an edge.

I confess, I'm not quite sure what a jelly holo is, other than I that I suppose they are jellies with a holo effect. I will say that Taffy was a bit on the sheer side, but I didn't really get the sense that it was a jelly polish when I applied it. I used three coats to make it opaque and it built up nicely, despite some initial sheerness. The holo effect is not incredibly strong, but it's there and is especially pretty in sunlight.

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Natural light (sun):

While I initially expected this to be a little more green (don't ask me why, I have seen some swatches of  Taffy that lean pretty green) but I like it the way it is. This is my first Mentality polish so now I need to try my others!

Colors by Llarowe 2015

Hope everyone has had a good weekend! We had a good one, though we didn't get as much done around the house as we should have. Ah well-- I did get four loads of laundry done, which is something. Tonight I have another polish from the New Year, New CbL Collection, 2015. When I first saw this collection, I definitely thought this polish was one of the more unique polishes in the collection. so I decided I needed to have it. Buy all the polish, am I right?

2015 is described as a "silver linear holo with silver and gold flakes and holographic micro glitters." I would also add that the silver and gold flakes gives this polish a greenish tone, which definitely amps up the uniqueness. I think polish looked beautiful in all lighting-- the holo effect was definitely more prominent in high or direct light while the glitters came out to play more in low light situations.

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Sorry I'm not very inspired in my writing tonight-- I do find this polish to be very pretty, but am currently lacking the words and imagination to say as much. I did get a lot of compliments on this polish, which I always love. Have a good Sunday and Monday everyone!