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! 

Purple Friday: Fairytale Finish Purpsicle

Look here, it's Purple Friday AND our game is actually tonight! Tonight we play Stanford and both teams are currently undefeated so it's a bit of a big match-up. Stanford has a Heisman candidate running back and quite honestly, the Huskies are going to have an uphill battle, especially when we struggled last week on the road (though ultimately came away with the win, whew!). We do tend to bring our A-game against Stanford so hopefully tomorrow proves to be an excellent game, at the very least. In any case, we're taking the day off and doing some tailgating, so I'm looking forward to some beautiful fall weather and some pumpkin cider!

Well heck, you're getting two Fairytale Finish polishes in the same week! Whoops! Today's Purple Friday polish is Purpsicle, which was from the July sub box! Purpsicle is a gorgeous grape holographic polish. It has a slight jellyish feel to it, but goes on smoothly. The first was a little sheer, but two coats was pretty good! I used three coats to make sure there weren't any thin spots. It was very easy to use and I love it!

This is gorgeous! All around this is winner-- formula, color, everything! I definitely made the right choice saving it for a Purple Friday post. Makes me even more sad that Fairytale Finish is closing their doors, wahhhh! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Tree!

Fairytale Finish Enchanted F

A little while ago Amanda of Fairytale Finish announced she was selling mystery polishes on her site called "Enchanted Polishes" (not be confused with the brand) and so I decided to buy one because, hey, why not?! The polish I got is called Enchanted F so I'm guessing they are lettered? Now that she has announced she is closing up shop I suspect this was a way to clean out prototypes etc, but regardless, mystery polishes are always a fun surprise!

Enchanted F is a denim blue polish silver and holographic glitter of various sizes throughout. The base does have a touch of purple to it, but I would say overall is still pretty blue. The formula is good, as far as I recall-- sometimes polishes like this can be thick and while maybe it tended to lean that way, was still easy to work with. I can't remember exactly, but I am pretty sure I only used two coats here! I don't like to build up glitter polishes too much unless they a) have a white base or b) are super sheer because they tend to get gloopy (due to the thicker formula) so I'm pretty sure two is what I went for here.

While I tend not to be a glitter person, I really liked this polish! It helps that it's blue, for one, because I pretty much love all things blue. The base color is gorgeous and I think the silver/holographic glitter really works with the base. All around this was a winner for me and I'm very happy I picked it up!

Fairytale Finish Dibs on Your Lips

Today's polish, Dibs on Your Lips by Fairytale Finish is another polish I wore a long time ago (this polish was released for Valentine's Day as part of an LE trio and my photos say I wore it in late February) and just got lost in the shuffle when my laptop died. But I have it for you now, in what will be a short and sweet little post! Dibs on Your Lips was part of a Valentine's Trio, as I mentioned earlier, and is a bubblegum pink with a strong blue/violet shimmer.

As far as I remember, the formula of Dibs on Your Lips was good. Sorry, failing at being a good blogger. Seriously, though, I don't recall having any issues with this when I painted my nails. I can't remember how many coats I used-- it was probably three because that's how I tend to role!

So pretty! I love how strong the shimmer is! Sadly, Fairytale Finish is closing up shop at some point in the near future. The announcement was made at the end of August and September is the last month of subscriptions. I'm sad to see Amanda close up shop; I have always loved her polishes and I like that she is a local maker! It's a bummer for all of us polish lovers but I'm sure Amanda has some exciting things planned in the future! Dibs on Your Lips is a very pretty polish and I enjoyed wearing it; I have other unworn Fairytale Finish polishes that I will still be showing you even after Amanda closes up shop, so stay tuned!

Two-fer Tuesday: Fairytale Finish Neverending Fairytales June 2016

Today I have a Two-fer Tuesday post, the first in about a bazillion years (or so it feels). I have the June 2016 Neverending Fairytales subscription polishes to share with you! June is Amanda's birth month (and mine too) and so she made some polishes based on her favorite color: teal!

The first polish is Glittering Peep Toes, which is a "dark teal with silver micro holo and larger silver holo." This had a nice creme base and applied smoothly. I seem to remember this was made a bit on the thinner side so I ended up using three coats, but didn't have any issues. I love the various size holographic glitters and how well they pop against the teal background.

Next up we have Sparkly Pumps, which is a super sparkly teal glitter in a teal jelly base. The first coat was a bit sheer, but the second covered nicely. I ended up using 3 coat but I actually think I should have stopped at two, because it felt a bit thick and draggy on the last coat and I think was way overkill. Ah well, next time I know better! This was super lovely and squishy looking in real life. 

This was a great sub month! I love teal and these polishes are both beautiful. They were easy to apply and looked great and I really enjoyed the two different takes on the same color! This is maybe the best sub box so far!!

Fairytale Finish Fairy Iconic

Happy Monday all! Hope your week is off to a good start; we got back from five days of vacation and the reentry into real life has been a bit rough. Today I'm starting a teal themed week, featuring some gorgeous teal polishes. I know I've mentioned on my blog before that I am not a huge green fan, but I do love certain shades of green, especially teal. It just happened that I had a bunch of polishes that fit this description and I decided to make a little themed week for kicks! Shake things up a little!

Today I have Fairytale Finish Fairy Iconic to share with you! Fairy Iconic is (I believe there are still bottles left) group exclusive to the Fairytale Finish facebook group. I'm a big supporter of Fairytale Finish so I jumped on this immediately. It was voted on by the facebook group and the winning combination was Tiffany Blue and holographic, and this is what Amanda came up with! It has a rich teal creme base with a subtle holographic finish.

This had a wonderful formula! It was super creamy and smooth and went on very easily. I actually think I used two coats here instead of my usual three, that's how good it was! In any case, it was a dream to work with and I don't have any complaints! My only (very) minor quibble is that it was difficult to photographic the holographic finish, which was very nice in person but apparently too subtle for my camera!

This is such a gorgeous color; I actually ended up wearing it for a few days longer than I originally intended! Ok, so truthfully some of that was just due to timing and/or exhaustion but it's such a beautiful color that it wasn't an issue at all. But I could have worn it a lot longer, in all honesty! As the first group custom I am really impressed and definitely look forward to future releases!

Fairytale Finish Cider By The Fire (Snafu)

Hey look! I said I was going to only post three times this week, but surprise! I lied, haha. I had these swatches kicking around so I figured, why not?! No time like the present because these swatches aren't getting any younger! Today I have Fairytale Finish Cider By The Fire, which is from Amanda's Hello Fall collection (from this past fall). I wore this polish back in... March, I think. This version of Cider By The Fire is actually a mistake batch-- Amanda didn't add enough of the holographic pigment but decided to release it for purchase anyway as a "snafu" polish. I missed the collection the first time around, so I grabbed this immediately. 

Cider By The Fire is a deep, plummy red with a strong holo finish. There's a lot going on here-- this polish has red, brown, and purple tones! As mentioned above, there is actually less holo in this version compared to the original, but I personally thought there was still plenty of holo action to enjoy. The formula, as far as I remember, was good and I didn't have any issues. I can't remember how many coats I used-- because of the dark color I may have just used two, but it's possible I added a third for good measure. 

I feel like this one of those polishes I couldn't for the life of me photograph well! Cider By The Fire is absolutely gorgeous in real life, even if I'm not thrilled with my photos! I hope you can appreciate it! I think is a really unique color and I don't have many like it in my collection. It's so rich and cozy-- it definitely invokes warm drinks, a crackling fire, a cozy blanket and a good book. Now I'm kind of wanting fall to come again (kidding-- I want to enjoy the summe sunshine for a bit)! 

Happy Friday everyone! 

Two-fer Tuesday Fairytale Finish Neverending Fairytales January 2016

Catching up, catching up! Today I have the January 2016 Neverending Fairytales sub box to share with you! The theme for this month was The Little Mermaid, which is perfect for Amanda because she is a huge mermaid fan! I mean, her labels feature a mermaid! Now, truth be told, I don't love The Little Mermaid. Quite honestly, I'm not even that big of a Disney fan, except I of course have a fondness for all the animated films and they were an integral part of my childhood experience. But despite that, I was looking forward to seeing how Amanda interpreted the movie into nail polishes and I was not disappointed!

Treasures Untold is a sheer grey base loaded with silver and grey glitters of various sizes and shapes. Despite the sheer base, this builds up very nicely and I used three coats here to make sure I had the coverage I wanted. This is a perfect grey for the currently very moody March weather in Seattle! Even though it's a monochrome shade, there's a lot going on and a lot of depth to this polish!

Wish I Could Be is a gorgeous deep teal jelly base with a mix of glitter; red, orange, yellow, and purple to name just a few! It's such unique color combination; I love it! Despite the jelly base, this was pretty opaque and I only needed two coats to get the coverage I wanted. This went on very nicely and the glitter had a nice distribution and I didn't have any trouble getting it on the nail.

I think Amanda really did a great job capturing the feel of The Little Mermaid and she makes fabulous glitter crelly polishes, so this was a win!

Two Random Seahawks Manicures

This is going to be a totally random post because I did these manicure back in January for the NFL play-offs and then the Seahawks lost (womp womp) and my laptop was dead and so of course they weren't posted. But if I don't post them now, even though it's not football season, you'll probably never see them! So this will be short and sweet! 

Up first I have a manicure I did using solely Lucky 13 Lacquer polishes! I picked 12th Woman as my main polish, and it's a deep navy blue crelly polish. I'll have a review later! I then used a Born Pretty Stencil and added Unleash the Beast, a blue/green duochrome flakie for the pattern.  

The second manicure I have to share with you is one I unfortunately I didn't love. Not because the polishes were bad, but because the colors were off from what I had imagined in my head and I just wasn't really thrilled with the whole look. It happens, right? I used Pahlish Winds of the Cloud City and Fairytale Finish Turning Over a New Leaf for this manicure.

I'm just going to call this my retro Seahawks mani and leave it at that, because the colors match better with the retro (aka 70's and 80's) Seahawks uniforms. Both polishes were great but it wasn't the look I was going for. Ah well! 

Hope everyone is enjoying a nice weekend! 

Two-Fer Tuesday: Fairytale Finish Neverending Fairytales November 2015

Hey look, I'm back!! My computer is finally back and fixed-- aka it's pretty much a brand new laptop. But I'm here, woo! Today I have the November subscription box from Fairytale Finish! The theme was magic and both the polishes are very gorgeous! Let's get on to the polishes!

Mystical Realm is an icy periwinkle shimmer. That description doesn't really do any sort of justice to the polish, though! It's a very pretty pale periwinkle with a strong shimmer and a soft holo finish. While not really metallic, I did have to be a little careful while applying it to avoid a few brushstrokes, though honestly I don't think they were very visible in real life. I think I used three coats here, just to make sure I had complete coverage. I didn't have any trouble with this at all. As a side note: one of my two year old sons saw this color and immediately wanted it on his nails! Super cute! 

Crystal Ball is a deep blue jelly stuffed full of tiny holographic glitter and some larger silver flakies. This is kind of blurple, though I would say it's mostly blue. This is super gorgeous. The formula was good-- I probably used three coats here again, because that's kind of my go-to number! (And also I can't remember, sorry!) 

Even though I am so stinking behind on well, just about everything-- especially my subscriptions-- I hope I will be able to catch up eventually. I always love the subs I get from Amanda and this box has definitely been on of my favorites!

Two-fer Tuesday: Fairytale Finish Neverending Fairytales October Box

I initially meant to get this posted last week, but discovered that I had somehow deleted pictures of one of the polishes and so I had to go back and reswatch it this weekend! How annoying! But it was easily remedied, at least. So this week I can show you the October box, which was inspired by fall!

This first polish I have to share with you is Leaf Jumping, which is a salmon pink crelly with a variety of different colored glitters in there, including turquoise, blue, red and yellow. I needed to give this a good roll to get the glitters mixed up again because it had been sitting for awhile, but it applied very well. I probably could have gotten away with two coats, but used three coats here to make sure I had the glitter and opacity I wanted. I didn't really have to dab, though the first coat was a bit sparse in terms of glitter, so I made sure that I had more glitter on my following coats.

This next polish from the box, and the one that I think is the true standout is Autumn Twilight. This is a difficult polish to describe, but I'll give it a try! Autumn Twilight has a deep, blackened purple base with mix of shimmer, purple and bronze glitter. I honestly can't quite remember how many coats I used here-- I think maybe two, but I might have used three, as that tends to my MO these days. This was packed with glitter and went on very easily; no issues at all! Perfection!

Another great sub box from Amanda! I kind of wish Leaf Jumping had of a more autumnal base color, but I like the unique color combination of the glitters. Autumn Twilight is definitely the winner here, but again, I like them both!

HPB Presents Green Monochromatic Polka Dots!

So I ended up missing last month's Hobby Polish Blogger's Link-up, which was Halloween themed. Between my kids' birthday and getting sick I just didn't have the energy to come up with any manicures! But this month I wanted to get back at it and participate! The November theme is monochromatic, which means using one color in various hues. At first I thought I would do purple, but I already do Purple Fridays, so I scoured my "to be used" polish pile and was inspired by some new Fairytale Finish polishes that had just arrived and decided to go green, which is highly unusual for me! Green is not my favorite color and one I don't tend to wear often, but for some reason this week I had the hankering for green!

My base color is Colors by Llarowe Onesies, which is a soft mint green holographic. I then chose three darker green shades and grabbed my dotting tools and decided to randomly layer on polka dots. The darkest green is Fairytale Finish Turning Over A New Leaf, a dark forest teal green holographic, then CbL Believe in Miracles, a bright teal holographic, and then FF Autumn Reflections, which is a deeper wintergreen mint holographic.

Artificial light (flash):

 I am generally pretty happy with the way this looks. Sometimes trying to make something look random is very difficult, hah! I definitely want to tweak a few things, such as varying the layers if I'd known just how opaque looking Autumn Reflections was going to look over the others, but like I said, I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out! Guess I'm going to have work on my doting skills.

An InLinkz Link-up

Two-fer Tuesday: Fairytale Finish Neverending Fairytales September Box

I am catching up on my polishes! Today I've got the September Neverending Fairytales subscription box! The maker, Amanda, celebrates her birthday in the month of September and so the polishes in this particular box were made in honor of her birthday! Definitely a great theme for the month! The September box also included a lot of special bonus codes to other polish shops which was really cool and awesome!

First up: 27 Cupcakes! Like the sweet treats (mmm.... cupcakes), this polish is a sweet combination of a creamy ivory crelly base with a confection of brightly colored glitter in a multitude of colors-- green, yellow, pink, purple, and blue in different sizes and shapes. I did need to give this a good roll to get the glitters resuspended, as they sink and want to cling to the sides of the bottle. The first coat was a little sheer and sparse on the glitter, so I ended up using three coats to make it opaque and get the glitter coverage I wanted.

27 Cupcakes:

Every birthday girl needs a party dress, and boy does After Party Dress deliver on the sparkle and shine. This is a black crelly filled to the brim with holographic, multicolor shimmer and sparkle. The first coat was a bit sheer, and two coats gave me pretty good coverage but I added a third for good measure. The formula was great and went on very smoothly. This actually dried fairly shiny, but I did add a top coat for my photos. This was kind of hard to photograph in my lighting conditions, but hopefully you can see the sparkle.

After Party Dress:

Another great subscription box! I think After Party Dress may be favorite just due to all the sparkle, but they are both fun and the names fit perfectly.

Next week, stay tuned for the October Neverending Fairytales box! (See, I'm almost caught up!)

Purple Friday: Fairytale Finish A Fairytale Began and Girly Bits Selfie Bomb

Another Friday, another late post. Sorry! Tonight's a real quickie because everything has gone to hell in a handbasket with my husband's work, which is no fun for either of us. So basically, no one is happy. Tomorrow the Huskies play the Utah Utes. They are currently ranked #12, so it has the potential to be a challenging game, though the teams are fairly evenly matched on paper. Should be an interesting game, which we hopefully win!

I was having trouble deciding on a manicure this week and tore up the house looking for a polish that I then ended up not using at all. Ah well! At least I found the polish I was looking for. I settled for a simple accent nail this week, something I haven't done in awhile, so that works out well! I went through my purples and picked out Fairytale Finish A Fairytale Began, which is from the Fairytale Finish one year anniversary duo. It was a little streaky on the first coat but evened out nicely with two coats-- I ended up using three to cover a few thin spots. For my gold accent nail, I used Girly Bits Selfie Bomb, which was released last year and is a gold holo microglitter. It is a little sheer but builds up nicely-- I used three coats here. Both dry down quickly (I've actually worn Selfie Bomb alone before and will review it later). A Fairytale Began ended up being a little darker than I initially wanted, but it still looks good!

Artificial light (flash):

Hope you enjoyed my quickie manicure! Have a great weekend all!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Utes!

Fairytale Finish August 2015 Neverending Fairytales Box

I'm running so behind, as per usual. I keep thinking maybe I'll catch up, but hahahhaha I think we all know the truth. Maybe if I could take a week long vacation with my kids and my husband. ;-) Not likely! This week I have the July Neverending Fairytales Box from Fairytale Finish. This box had the theme of "baked goods" so the two polishes are inspired by that! There was also a fun little mani bomb included that was lemon cake scented and it smelled so good I wanted to eat it (I did not, though, don't worry!).

First up we have Triple Berry Tart, which is a hot pink crelly with a mix of blue and white glitters and a fine shimmer to it. It applied pretty well, though I did feel like the glitters were a little more sparse when I applied it (though it doesn't look like it in my pictures, so I think I'm just a little crazy). I mostly applied this like I would a non-glitter polish, though I done a little bit of dabbing to make sure the glitters were where I wanted them. I used three coats here, just to make sure I want the coverage I wanted. I probably could have gotten away with two!

Triple Berry Tart:

For some reason, this photographed a lot brighter and more red/orange than pink. You can clearly see that the bottle has a much pinker base, and that is what it looks like in life.

Next up we have Choc Full of Holo, which, if you can't from the name, is a chocolate holographic! It's a cooler leaning brown, and really gorgeous. The holo is linear, but not particularly strong. It does give it a really nice sparkle, though! I wore this polish for several days, though I felt like I needed to wait until fall to do so because brown just does not read summer to me. Sorry, brown, but it's true. It looked great and held up really well.

Choc Full of Holo:

Another great box from Amanda and Fairytale Finish! As per usual the polishes were awesome, and the packaging was great (though I never manage to get a picture of it). I have really been enjoying this subscription box! Hopefully I'll get a review of September's box up soon, though we'll see if that actually happens! Will I catch up? Tune in to find out!

Fairytale Finish Neverending Fairytales July 2015 box

Ok, I'm super late with this, especially because it's already September!! Wait, how did that happen? I feel like it was just July. ANYWAY... let me show you the polishes from the Never Ending Fairytale Box from July, which have sadly been lanquishing in my untrieds pile for a month (I did take these pictures awhile ago, but hadn't gotten around to editing and writing). The theme for this box was birthstones. Let's see what I got!

Crushed Garnet is a dark red jelly base with a variety of sizes of pink glitters. I used three coats here, but the jelly builds up nicely and wasn't too thick. This went on easily and smoothly and I didn't have to dab any of the glitters on. It dries down to a slightly textured finish. 

Macro:

Sweet Sapphire Sky is a metallic blue microglitter with a smattering of larger pink glitters throughout. I assume this is to replicate two of the colors sapphires come in, the main one being blue, but you can also get pink sapphires. Fun fact: my engagement ring contains two Yogo sapphires, a type of sapphire found only in Montana and these were mined from my husband's uncle's claim (he is a gem dealer). And I do know that Amanda's birthday is in September, of which sapphire is the birthstone, so I'm guessing that's why we have a sapphire inspired polish. I did use three coats here, but maybe could have gotten away with two. This went on easily and dried down to a pretty smooth finish.

Macro:

I'm not thrilled with my pictures of Sweet Sapphire Sky-- I feel like it looks bumpy when it fact it was smooth. Sorry about that! This was another winning box from Fairytale Finish and I've enjoyed the polishes I've received to so far.

Seahawks Sunday: Fairytale Finish Can't Stop Won't Stop

Time for another Seahawks Sunday post! Once again, they played this past Friday and once again, we lost. What gives, guys? Anyway... there's always next week! This week we played the Kansas City Chiefs, which always brings back memories for me. 10 years ago this August, a very close friend and his wife were killed in a horrific car crash while driving through Wyoming. He was the youth director for my church (in fact, several churches in the area) and they were great mentors and support during those tumultuous teen years.They were from Kansas and accordingly, their favorite football team was Kansas City. One of the most memorable moments I have of him is from the second to last Seahawks game in the Kingdome, where they played the Kansas City Chiefs. I was a junior in high school, and my band had been invited to do the halftime show, which happened to be the day after Christmas. My friend showed up in a Santa Claus outfit, shirtless, to cheer on his team. All my schoolmates couldn't believe I knew a crazy, shirtless guy in a Santa outfit but it is a memory that makes me smile-- his enthusiasm was always infectious and I still miss him even after ten years. So I'm sad the Seahawks lost, but I also know my friend is smiling somewhere.

Let's get on to the polish! This week I broke out another Fairytale Finish polish, Can't Stop Won't Stop. This is a crelly glitter with a grey base and blue and neon green glitters in different sizes. The first coat went on very sheer. So sheer that I was a little worried it wouldn't build up. Luckily, I didn't have to worry too much! With the second coat, I had pretty good coverage and I added a third coat just to make sure it was completely opaque. That was all I needed! It dried down quickly and had a slightly textured finish, as glitters tend to-- so you definitely need a top coat to smooth it out. But otherwise, absolutely no complaints (aside from being slightly worried about the first coat)! This polish just needs a first coat to cling to, though I also used slightly thicker coats given my large nail beds. The glitter distribution is good and I didn't have any issues there.

Artificial light (flash):

I really like this! The Seahawks have used grey as a part of their uniform scheme in the past, which I don't necessarily love, but I think this works and captures it perfectly! So far I have yet to be disappointed by a Fairytale Finish polish, so I really need to get my hands on this year's Seahawk's duo! Hope everyone is having a good weekend!