Enchanted Polish Congratulations

Let's kick off the week with a bang, as it were! Today I have an older Enchanted Polish, Congratulations, which is actually happens to be available right now-- it was re-released this year and has been in stock for awhile. I believe it was originally released in 2013. Congratulations is a beautiful bronze holographic with a slight gold/green duochrome shift. I've had this sitting around for some months, but the color seemed appropriate for the fall season so I decided to wait until fall and then grabbed it to use!

The formula on this was a little thin, compared to some other Enchanteds, but not difficult to work with. The first coat was a bit sheer, but built up nicely. I ended up using three coats, but that's pretty standard for me, as I have probably mentioned a few thousand times. You might be able to get away with two coats but I felt three was what I needed to get the opaque coverage I wanted! But other than being on the thinner side, I had absolutely no issues and it applied easily.

The rainbow on this is just stunning, isn't it?! So freaking beautiful. I love how strong it is, it's just entrancing. I didn't find the duochrome to be very strong in this polish, compared to others from the same collection (like The Youth or Future Reflections) but it was still hard to tear my eyes off it. So beautiful! 

Purple Friday: Different Dimension Raindrops on Roses

And here we are, the last game of the season: Apple Cup!! As always, the last game of the season pits us against our in-state rival, Washington State University. This promises to be a fierce game as each team only has one loss in-conference and the winner will make it to the conference championship game. Added to being state rivals and there are of course a lot of taunts being thrown around from both sides and a lot of heated feelings. So we'll see what happens! I suspect this game will go down to the wire! I'm afraid for the Dawgs because we've been slow to start the past few games and we can't afford to do that here, as the Cougars will strike fast and a lot given the chance. Hopefully the UW defense (and offense) will bring their A game! Considering I never thought we'd be this good, it's awesome to be playing for a shot at the conference title! 

Different Dimension Raindrops on Roses was a recent custom (I think from October) for the FB group Fantasmic Flakies. Of course, being purple, there was no doubt that I had to get this. When it arrived, I quickly decided I wanted to wear it for one of my Purple Friday posts! Even though this won't be the final Purple Friday post of this football season (the Dawgs will go to a bowl game regardless of the outcome of this game) my thinking was "save the best for last" because this is a truly stunning polish so it felt fitting to use it for our last regular season home game. Raindrops on Roses is a medium violet jelly with a strong blue shimmer, scattered holographic and blue flakies! There's a lot going on but it's worth it! Being a jelly the first coat was a little sheer, but not bad. It built up nicely and while two coats probably would have been fine, I used three due to my giant nails. 

This polish is so fabulous, I'm glad I got it. The blue flash is pretty strong but adds a lot of depth to this polish. I love everything about it! 

Go Dawgs! Beat the Cougs! 

Different Dimension Buttersweet Symphony

Hey look, it's another polish from last fall! Throwback post! Although I feel like almost all of my stuff is throwbacks because I never get around to posting it on time, haha! Buttersweet Symphony was from the Different Dimension Fall 2015 collection, and I got it on sale this past spring I think. Given that it was from a fall collection, I figured I would wait until the fall to wear it! And then in the aftermath of the election I was looking for something to wear and the name and the color called to me, so here you go!

Buttersweet Symphony is rich butterscotch yellow with a strong green tone and a holographic finish. This had a pretty good formula; the first coat was a little on the sheer side but it built up nicely and I didn't have any issues applying it at all. I used three coats here, though I feel like you could maybe get away with two depending on your polishing style/nail size.

I think this is a fabulous color! It does a lean a little green which some might not find all that flattering, but I enjoyed this a lot. It's just a smidge more unique than most golds. I found that this mostly looked gold on me, but did have a stronger green tone in certain light. So this is a huge winner for me, I love it!

Polish 'M Autumn's Palette

Well last week I got sick and felt terrible, so I didn't post as much as I intended-- I have more posts planned for this week but of course am already running behind! Today I have a fun bit of sparkle to share with you! This is actually a polish from Polish M's 2015 Fall collection, but same old same old with me: I'm finally getting around to wearing it! Like with many of polishes, it's really a shame because this one is beautiful! Autum's Palette is a glitter bomb that has a “clear base with copper-gold-fuchsia UCC mega flakes, gold galaxy holo glitter and copper galaxy holo glitter.” That's a lot going on! 

Despite the clear base, Autumn's Palette is jam packed and while it definitely wasn't full coverage on the first coat, it built up nicely. I used three coats here. I love how the magenta flakies stand out against the copper base; it really does feel like fall in a bottle! 

The blingtasticness of this polish freaked my camera out just a bit! While I'm bummed I waited so long to wear this in the first place, it was definitely worth the wait because this polish is beautiful!  I loved wearing it and couldn't stop staring at my nails while I did so. Autumn's Palette is just stunning and really captures the feeling and colors of fall! I love it! 

Colors by Llarowe Summer Always

Hah, it's a little late to be posting this but time has been getting away from me (not a good feeling heading into the holidays)! Another week and I'm totally unprepared with posts and pictures etc etc! Ugh. Football season is almost over and then the holidays are upon us-- can you believe Thanksgiving is next week?! I'm starting to panic just a little. Today I have the Colors by Llarowe POTM from September(?), which is called Summer Always. Seems pretty appropriate for that month, when we are generally clinging to last of the warm weather. I have to say we had a pretty nice fall out here in Seattle, with lots of sunny, crisp days. Hard to beat that, especially when the rain comes! Summer Always is a very pretty mint green holographic with a strong pink shimmer. 

CbL Summer Always falls right in line with other polishes from this line-- no complaints. I wore this a month ago so I can't remember all the details but I probably used three coats here as that's what I usually do! There certainly aren't any issues that standout to me as I think back to it. 

Because I'm blogging this so late, the color is a little off for the season but it's still a gorgeous color! I love that the pink shimmer doesn't get lost in the base. I also like that it's a slightly deeper mint base too. I feel like this color may not be totally unique these days, but I love the combo of holo and shimmer and am always happy to have more of those in my collection! 

Hope your week is off to a good start! 

Purple Friday: Love Angeline Laying Under Midnight Skies

Despite my lame attempts at blogging this week, of course I needed to get a Purple Friday post up! This week is a big one for us-- we face USC, who even though they are having a "down" year and are sitting at 6-3, are still a strong and fast team that can't be overlooked. I'm not exactly sure if I would call it bad blood, but this game generates a lot of feeling, given that our former coach left UW for SC (and then was subsequently fired) and I have no doubt they would love to knock us out of the number 4 spot. Honestly, the election pushed a lot of thoughts about this game out of my mind and so now I am getting a little anxious about it. Luckily we're at home but we'll definitely need to come out strong to take a win over the Trojans! I'm actually skipping the game to go wedding dress shopping with my sister, who got engaged last month! I feel like that might be a better way to direct my post-election anxiety (which will turn into football anxiety tomorrow).

I was debating about which purple polish to use and finally settled on Love Angeline Laying Under Midnight Skies, which was part of the fall collection. In the bottle this polish is a medium purple holographic with scattered holographic glitters. On the nail, the color deepens-- I did use three coats though two would have sufficed. The first coat was a little sheer and had a slight jelly feel to it, but I didn't have any issues and as you can see, builds up nicely! It's not quite as shiny as it could because I was lazy and didn't use a top coat here.

Lovely! I love the flame-- it's present but still has a softness to it that I can't resist. The holo glitters are harder to see, but they are and sparkle in just the right light! I was a bit worried because this looks a lot lighter in the bottle, which really wasn't what the swatches showed, so I was happy when it darkened up as I applied more coats. And even though the game tomorrow kicks at 4:30, it's practically a night game now that we're off DST so the name works too!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Trojans!

Lucky 13 Lacquer Valkyrie

I can't lie, I am feeling pretty devastated after the election results on Tuesday and have not been motivated to do a lot. I'm mostly staying off social media because I'm tired of people arguing and/or gloating. I don't want to turn this into a political blog, but I'm tired, sad, and worried. And maybe you're happy about the results, and that's fine too-- we live in a big country and we don't have to agree on everything. I do hope we can come together and things will get better but I still feel very raw emotionally. And with that said... let's move on to the polish. I have a nice subtle palette cleanser today.

At some point recently, I was having a hard time picking a polish and was being very wishy-washy and then I saw this bottle and decided to go with it! I wanted a brand I hadn't used recently and was leaning toward a nude polish, so Lucky 13 Lacquer Valkyrie fit the bill! I've actually been wanting to wear this polish for awhile, but kept pushing it aside for other things so now here we are! Valkyrie is a neutral beige holographic and a subtle pink shimmer. I used three coats here, but I probably could have gotten away with two. I was expecting this to be a little sheer, and while the formula was a little thin, it covered very well. I didn't have any issues! I wasn't really able to capture the pink shimmer in any photos, but it was visible in person.

This is a really lovely polish. First of all, it's a gorgeous neutral-- very sophisticated and elegant. Secondly it has a gorgeous subtle pink shimmer and holographic finish to help elevate it and give it more depth. Thirdly, the formula is good! So winner winner chicken dinner! I love these elevated neutrals (as opposed to say, a plain creme) because they have just enough of a twist to keep things interesting-- though of course I love a good creme as well!

I hope everyone is having a relatively okay week (it's been hard for me, I can't lie) and I'm looking forward to the weekend because we're going wedding dress shopping for my little sister, who just got engaged last month!! Eeeee! Very excited to have a brother-in-law and see them get married! That will be a nice distraction! 

Girly Bits What Happens in Vegas... Ends Up on Twitter

Ugh, trying to get back in the groove of blogging. It's hard when you get out of practice for any length of time! This post was supposed to go up last month but I kept putting it off and off and here we are in November! Today I have this year's LE Cosmoprof shade from Girly Bits, the fourth in a series entitled What Happens in Vegas... Ends Up on Twitter. This was a LE shade released this summer for CosmoProf in Vegas, so if you missed, unfortunately you are probably out of luck for the time being (though previous shades have made a return before, so maybe it'll be released again in the future). Sorry it's taken me so long to get it up!

What Happens in Vegas.... Ends Up on Twitter is described as a "denim blue holo that shifts from pink to gold, with an added sprinkling of gorgeous aqua holographic glitter." I guess this is mostly accurate? I see a lot of purple in the demin blue base and I feel there's a slight overall green shift to the polish.I only used two coats here. I probably would have used three to be thorough, but the brush was giving me some fits and two coats looked pretty good. 

As you can see, my camera picks up a lot of purple, but its kind of a dusty blue-purple. I couldn't really catch of the shift but I did manage to get some of the turquoise (errr, aqua) glitters: 

Pardon the one chip and focus on the glitters! What Happens in Vegas.... Ends Up on Twitter is just gorgeous; I'm really glad I snagged this! These polishes never fail to disappoint! I can't wait to see what color Pam comes up with next year!

Purple Friday: Zoya Iris

The Huskies managed to pull out a win over a top-25 ranked Utah... really I feel like we could have run away with the game, except for an early turnover helped give Utah momentum AND points and we had to do some catch up! But luckily we swung the momentum back in our favor and ended up with the W! I was getting very anxious and ended up almost finishing a puzzle in an effort to avoid watching the game, hah. This week we have another away game, the Cal Bears, and my husband and I are actually headed down to the Bay Area to watch the game in person! We're trying to hit at least one away game a year and we were initially also going to go to Arizona in September, but it didn't end up working out (aka we got lazy and didn't our shizz together). But we're going this weekend! I'm worried about this game too, but really all of UW's games in November are killer. Hopefully the Dawgs come out strong and it's a good game! 

Traveling has thrown me off and I'm pretty unprepared for blogging in general right now! I got back from my trip to Wisconsin and hadn't even changed my polish, let alone picked out a new purple for Purple Friday... I was casting around to think of what purple polishes when I remembered that I had Zoya Iris lurking in one of my boxes and I thought "aha! A brand I haven't worn in awhile... I'll use that!" Iris is described as a "deep amethyst with a fuchsia pearl fleck in the traditional MatteVelvet finish." I was a little concerned when I applied my first coat and it looked more red (or perhaps magenta) than purple. I would say that Iris leans a lot more red than I expected but as you layer it, it deepens and takes on a more purple tone. I ended up using three coats, though two probably would have been sufficient. I liked the depth that three coats had. The formula was smooth and not too thick! 

Because Iris is a matte, I also decided I needed to show it to you guys with a top coat:

I'm not sure if I would have chosen Iris if I had more time, solely for the fact that it leans a little more red than I was anticipating-- the color itself is gorgeous and flattering. The formula was good and it looks good either matte or with a top coat! 

Go Dawgs! Beat the Bears!