Purple Friday: Salon Perfect A Royal Affair

We prevailed last week over Oregon State and even though I'm out of town this week, I'm still rooting on my team from afar! And not only that, this week ESPN Gameday is in Salt Lake City for the UW-Utah showdown! It would be a lot of fun to travel down there, so I hope the Dawg fans who do have a great time. This week will be a tough challenge for the Dawgs; frankly, the back half of our schedule is pretty brutal at this point, with at least four good teams that will be chomping at the bit to take us down. I just want the Dawgs to keep their heads down and grind out one game at a time! Hopefully we take the same magic that we had in Oregon down to SLC and come back with the win!

This week I chose Salon Perfect A Royal Affair for my purple polish. I'll be honest, I picked this polish partly for selfish reasons-- I'm traveling with it and wanted a polish that I wouldn't cry over if it got lost or broke in transit. No offense to A Royal Affair, but I believe it's a perennial polish and even though I hate to lose a polish in any circumstances, I would really hate to lose a special indie. So there you go! A Royal Affair is a neon grape purple. This was my first experience with Salon Perfect, and alas, perfect was a misnomer in this case. The formula of this polish was pretty finicky and my first coat was a nightmare; very sheer and pooled all around the edges. Luckily, three coats gave me pretty good coverage; it's definitely not completely even and there are some thin spots but it looks mostly good.

The formula of A Royal Affair leaves a lot to be desired sadly, but the color is very pretty. It's not neon as the color in the bottle seems to suggest, but it's still a lovely color. I'd be curious to see how it looks over white (though not this week) to see if that would make it pop more. I certainly wish the formula was better; hopefully my next experience with the Salon Perfect brand is better!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Utes!

Purple Friday: Fairytale Finish Picking Huckleberries

Hah, apparently when I talked about taking a brief hiatus, I actually meant this week because I completely forgot to get anything together for blogging! Whoopsie!  Sorry about that. I will try (and probably fail) to have some stuff up next week, when I am actually traveling, but this month has turned absolutely crazy so I make no guarantees.

Well, I could not have asked for more in regards to the UW-Oregon game! If I were writing a report card for UW football (in regards to that game) it would be: exceeds expectations. We just walloped the Ducks, and I don't feel sorry about it at all, given how they've beaten us 12 years in a row! I'm trying not to get too excited because there's still a lot of football to play. But the Dawgs are already bowl eligible and things are looking good! I'm loving how this team looks! It's a lot of fun to watch them! This week we play the other Oregon school, the Oregon State Beavers. OSU has suffered a lot of injuries, though they did just beat Cal, so I would call them a sleeper team and we've been surprised by them in the past! Hopefully the Dawgs are rested and ready after their bye week and haven't fallen asleep at the wheel.

The polish I picked for this week if Fairytale Finish Picking Huckleberries, which is described as a "lovely purple jelly with micro silver holo flakies, and scattered holo." To me this is a kind of reddish purple, though with the jelly formula it does deepen and darken as you layer it. With the jelly formula, it does go on a little bit sheer at first, but builds up nicely. I used three coats here and didn't have any issues! 

Picking Huckleberries is very pretty; the scatter holographic flakies make this a more unique purple polish in my collection. It's really lovely and again, makes me sad that Fairytale Finish has closed shop. Because this polish was part of a collaboration celebrating Washington, it felt right to pull out as we play another Northwest school.

Go Dawgs! Beat the Beavers! 

Enchanted Polish August 2016

Happy Thursday! My posting schedule is shifting a little again, like I mentioned in Tuesday's post I will either have a reduced number or no posts the last couple of weeks in October due to some traveling, but also I realized I need to wear some more polishes! I'm running out of previously worn/photographed polishes to talk about and so my posting schedule will also probably be a bit lighter. Currently I'm only changing my polish about three times a week just due to scheduling, and I don't have much in reserve right now! I honestly need to go back into my old hard drive because I'm pretty sure I have unworn polishes there that I need to share with you, so maybe I'll have time for that one weekend soon. Today I have one of the Enchanted Polish monthly mystery polishes to share with you-- this year the monthly mystery polishes are shimmers (instead of holographics) and the one I'm going to share with you now is August 2016.

August 2016 is a neutral toned beige with pink shimmer. I only used two coats here!! That's pretty impressive for a nude polish. Honestly, though, I only used two because I knew I would be layering a glitter topper over it-- if I had been wearing it alone I would have put on a third coat just to be thorough. But really, it almost doesn't need and I'm really happy with the formula. I did use a lighter touch, anticipating possible dragging/streaks which may have helped, but it does look really good!

Sometimes a clean, elegant nude manicure is what you need and August 2016 fits the bill. I think the pink shimmer gives it a nice depth and keeps it from being just another neutral polish. I think this would be flattering across a wide range of skin tones as it walks the line between being too pink or too yellow. The formula was great, which is plus because the base is so light. Even at two coats this is mostly even and there is maybe one minimal thin spot. I'm impressed!

Girly Bits Sun Dog

For the life of me, I am just feeling so uninspired to write lately! It's a bummer because I really loved the polish that I am sharing with you today, but finding the words right now is so freaking hard! If you blog, do you ever go through periods like that? I guess I'm in a rut and need to find a way out of it! Not sure exactly what I'm going to do, but hopefully I can come up with something! Today's polish is one of the Girly Bits COTM polishes from August, Sun Dog. I really loved this duo (I'll have the other half to share with you later) but Sun Dog is the one I wanted to wear first. Not only is the color right up my alley, but the name, though totally unrelated, makes me think of my alma mater (UW), the mascot of which was originally the Sundodgers (get it, because it rains a lot in Seattle?!) and our current mascot, the Huskies, or as we also say, Dawgs. The strange things we think of when looking at a polish, am I right? 

Sun Dog is described as a "light golden copper shimmolo, with bronze micro flakes and copper shimmer." Think this is pretty straight forward and accurate, don't you? This is truly a color for all seasons, but I think the colors definitely capture the sun drenched, heat soaked days of summer and the golden, changing days of fall, so it's perfect as a summer to fall transition shade. But really, a metallic is always in season! The formula on this was good, which is generally what I expect for a Girly Bits polish. The first coat was a little sheer, but built up nicely and I used three coats for the coverage I wanted.

I'm a sucker for colors like this and so it's no surprise that I love this, a lot. The holo is gorgeous, I love the flakies... it's a flattering and wearable shade. I love everything about it! I think it will definitely be going on my "best of 2016" list!

On a programming note: I will probably be taking some time off blogging at the end of October due to some traveling. My grandma was recently diagnosed with cancer and while we're still getting details/information/a timeline, my sister and I have decided we need to spend some time with her so we'll be traveling to the Midwest this month to visit! I'm really looking forward to it and we'll see if I can get some content up and running before I leave, but I make no promises (except that I will definitely make sure I have a Purple Friday post planned)! Just wanted to let you guys know in case I vanish and you actually think "what the heck is going on?"

Purple Friday: Daily Hues Angelface

Well, I gotta say... last week was above and beyond what I expected for the UW-Stanford match-up. Seriously, that was one of THE best football games I have watched in recent memory. Of course, it's that way because the Huskies put on a dominant performance all around but man oh man-- what a game! This week I'm hesitant to say anything at all, because I want to keep my expectations low and not get too excited. The Dawgs head to Oregon to face the Ducks this week and they are currently our most hated and bitter rivalry. Back in the 90's (and up through the early 00's) the Dawgs dominated, but since then our program fell into the basement and the Ducks have risen to national prominence. It's been 12 (!!) years since we've beaten them, ugh. I have no idea what Saturday could look like. It'll either be heartbreaking or amazing... no way to know until it's in the books! I think I will be watching from behind my hands, eek! 

Daily Hues Angelface was originally from the spring collection, which focused on blue and purple polishes and is named after a purple flower. Angelface is described as a "royal purple linear holo." Pretty straight forward, right? In my mind, royal purple might be just a titch darker, but this is a nice purple grape holo. The first coat was a little sheer, though not terrible so, and it built up nicely. I did get a little pooling at my cuticles, but I think that was more due to my sloppy application and not because of the polish. I did end up using three coats, though probably could have gotten away with two.

I think this polish is gorgeous. It's not as deep as some of the other purple holos I have, but the color is great-- it straddles the line between being too light and too dark, and honestly, I don't think there are a ton of purple holos that actually do that! The holographic flame is good and so I'm pleased all around with this! I'm still hoping to do some nail art for some upcoming Purple Friday posts so it's not just swatches of purple polishes... just trying to get motivated and inspired! Maybe with a bye week after this I can come up with something fun!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Ducks!

Top Shelf Lacquer Sarasota Lemonade

Today I have beautiful polish, Top Shelf Sarasota Lemonade to share with you! This is another polish from the Hella Holo Custom FB group, but from earlier this year before I had joined the group. Sometimes when makers have extra polishes from previous months, they offer them for sale to the group. Sarasota Lemonade was one of those polishes, and it intrigued me. Plus, I had never tried a Top Shelf polish before, so it was a win-win for me!

Sarasota Lemonade is another unique color. It seems like just another pink holographic, but I feel like it's got more. I would call this color a "tawny pink"-- there's just a hint of brown (or copper) to this polish that gives it a rose gold (but not quite) feel and it's very sophisticate and lovely.  I used three coats here but probably could have gotten away with two. The formula was good; went on smoothly and easily-- no issues at all!

 

This was my first experience with Top Shelf Lacquer and I'm pretty pleased! It was easy to use and I liked that there was more to this color than meets the eye. Sarasota Lemonade was a color I could have easily worn for days; it's a beautiful color that works as a neutral with a twist of sparkle and a lot of sophistication. I'm looking forward to exploring Top Shelf as a brand; this was an exciting first purchase!

Love Angeline 08/16

Today I have another of the monthly LE polishes from Love Angeline to share with you! This is 08/16, which means it's from August. We're only just into Otcober here (I know I've skipped July and really, a ton of other months) but I think the color works as a transition color for fall.

I've seen 08/16 described as an aqua holographic, but to me this polish leans so green that aqua doesn't quite fit, even though there blue tones to the polish. Perusing Wikipedia to see their list of green shades, it occurred to me that I would describe 08/16 as a spruce green-- think Christmas trees; it's a dusty greyed green with blue tones. It's a bit of a chameleon in that sense; the color shifts around from green to grey green to blue green depending on the lighting conditions. I didn't have any problems when applying this-- I think I used three coats, though I probably could have gotten away with two! No issues to report!

The holographic flame on this is just lovely; this might be one of my favorite polishes from Love Angeline! I find 08/16 to be a unique green (holographic or otherwise) in my collection, and I loved wearing this and studying it. I thought the color was very flattering and I'm really glad I picked this one up!

Hope everyone's Monday is off to a good start!