Purple Friday: Lollipop Posse Lacquer A Party for Calming All Your Nerves

Hey all! My probable last Purple Friday post! Tomorrow is the big day-- UW meets Alabama in the Peach Bowl as part of the college football playoffs! I feel like there's a lot riding on us to do well because the rest of the Pac-12 has been playing very poorly in their bowl games (overall the conference is 1-2 right now... not a pretty picture). The Dawgs are big underdogs in this game and most don't expect us to have a chance. I'm waffling being pessimistic (Alabama is so good, no one can beat them!) and optimistic (if anyone can beat them, Chris Peterson can!). Hard to know! Needless to say, my husband and I have a baby-sitter all lined up so we can go off and cheer on the Dawgs with some adult beverages. Hoping it's a good game, regardless of the outcome-- though of course I want the Dawgs to pull off the big upset! Let it be known that my husband picked this polish because of the name (which I picked because of the color, of course)-- it was this or one other polish so we'll see if this brings UW any luck!

This is my first experience with Lollipop Posse Lacquer.  I felt like the shipping took a really time, though to be fair I did order Thanksgiving Weekend, which is a busy time with sales and such. A Party for Calming All Your Nerves is from the Christmas Kiki collection and is described as a " matte, royal purple shade filled with blue-violet shifting shimmer." Yes, that's pretty spot on. The first coat was a bit sheer, but it built up. I wish it had been a bit more opaque but it wasn't bad. I used three coats here and there is maybe a hint of visible nail line but you can't really see it. In applying it again I might try to use slightly more polish on the second and third coats to really make it opaque. 

 Apparently I forgot to take pictures of my other hand pose without top coat! Whoops! I will try to get some later. I did add a top coat and you can really see how the shimmer pop!

This is a gorgeous color! I'm a little sad that it started off sheer but was happy it built up! The color is pretty stunning and I love both the matte and shiny finishes of this! The shimmer is really strong and I'm a sucker for that.

Go Dawgs! Beat the Crimson Tide! 

Purple Friday: Different Dimension Aster Purple Dome

We did! We stomped the Cougars in the Apple Cup just as I hoped (and maybe was praying for, haha) and by doing so, claimed the Pac-12 North crown. After the last regular season Pac-12 games were played on Saturday, we're facing Colorado in the Pac-12 Championship game that happens to be tonight! While we'd love to be there in person cheering on the Dawgs, traveling to California wasn't in the cards this time around. But we are fortunate that our regular babysitter was available and she's going to watch the kids so we can have a nice date night and watch the game! Colorado will definitely present a challenge-- they started in the Pac-12 as one of the worst programs but have turned it around, as evidenced by the fact that they won the Pac-12 South and are currently ranked in the top 10 themselves. I'm not really sure what to expect from this game-- I definitely know Colorado will not be push over, but I'm also not sure their defense can match ours, which may give us the edge (I hope)! But they have a very good offense and the Dawgs will have to work hard to keep them contained. Fingers crossed! I suspect I will have severe anxiety over this game as the day goes on!

While I was searching  my extensive collection of purple polishes (and I do mean extensive), I was having a hard time deciding which purple I felt I should pick for the championship game. Nothing seemed quite right (and I had swatched several) until I pulled out Different Dimension Aster Purple Dome. This was a fan group custom that was released sometime this past spring and I was hoping that the purple with gold combo would be what I was looking for: BINGO! Exactly I what I was hoping for. Aster Purple Dome is a deep grape purple creme with gold and holographic glitter scattered through out. I had no issues with this; it went on smoothly and the glitter is perfectly distributed. And I only needed two coats! TWO! Practically unheard of for me, you guys!

In the bottle, I thought this might lean too blue, so I was really happy when I applied Aster Purple Dome and it was a nice rich purple. I love how smoothly this went on. The gold and holographic glitter takes it to the next level. Purple and gold is always a great combo, so it's not really surprise that I love this! I love how deep the purple is-- it is definitely blue leaning but I have no problem seeing that it's purple.

As a final note, the name on this is totally confusing. I've seen it as Aster Dome Purple (another review) and Aster Purple Dome (on my bottle/order) so I picked the latter because seems to be more common.

Go Dawgs! Beat the Buffs! 

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! 

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!

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!

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! 

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!

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!

Purple Friday: Colors by Llarowe Giant Giraffes In My Yard

It's Purple Friday again, yay!! This week had has some ups and downs but it's ending on a high note as my husband and I are going out to celebrate our ninth anniversary tonight! Crazy how much time has already passed! We had initally thought we might celebrate by going down to Arizona for the Husky game but it ended up not working out. While it would have been fun, I'm not totally bummed out because there's always stuff to do around the house! This week's game kicks off conference play and I'm a bit anxious about it. This is our first real test of the season and we haven't won in the desert for 10 years. But given our uneven play over our first three games isn't giving me a lot of hope for a win. I mean, on paper we should be able to do so, but paper means jack when it comes to game time! So we'll see! Hopefully the Huskies can get it together and bring home the W! 

This week I picked CbL Giant Giraffes In My Yard for my purple polish, which is described as a "bright, deep grape purple scattered holo with intense pink shimmer. This polish glows!" They're not kidding when they say this glows. It has that "lit-from-within" quality that makes it sing. This started off a bit sheer, and while two coats looked pretty good, I ended up using three to give it a nice depth and to make sure I had completely opaque coverage. The formula has a jellyish feel to it but was fairly easy to apply and built up nicely. 

Truly, the photos don't do this justice at all! The red glow is very prominent in real life, and it's stunning. Run out and get this immediately! I mean, if purple polish is your thing. The holo in this did not really stand out under my lighting conditions but we'll see if I get some sun on Saturday so maybe I can catch it. I'm really happy with Giant Giraffes In My Yard! 

Go Dawgs! Beat the Wildcats! 

Purple Friday: Polish 'M The 4th Year

It's that time again: Purple Friday!! Last week's game against Rutgers was pretty perfect except for our weird weather, which was incredibly rainy in the morning followed by intense sun. Oh fall, never boring! (Though it sure does make it hard to plan, hah!) The weather forecast for this Saturday says sun, so hopefully it will stay that way and we can enjoy the game without getting rained on. This week we play Idaho, which, realistically, should not present much of a college. Most "power conference" teams (aka any of the big conferences: Pac-12, Big Ten, SEC, etc) have an A-B-C non-conference schedule (or some variation thereof) where A is another power conference team, B is another FBS school from a lower conference and C is usually an FCS school. Rutgers was our "A" game, so now we move to our "B" game. In the past several meetings between UW and Idaho, it really hasn't been much of a game; most recently in 2009 we beat them 42-23, which looks close on paper but was probably not as close as the numbers would suggest. Of course, with football, there's always a chance for an upset but I'm rooting for the Huskies to roll to an easy victory and our second/third string can get some more practice. For this week I chose Polish 'M The 4th Year as my purple polish, which was made to celebrate the fourth anniversary of Polish 'M! 

 
The 4th Year is described as a "eggplant base with 3 different colors of UCC mega flakies, electric blue micro flakies, neon purple micro flakies, a teal/pink flash shimmer, silver galaxy holo glitter and magic holo micro flakies." So this polish has a lot going on! I didn't have any issues applying this and it went on smoothly even though it's packed with flakies, though I think I used threee coats here. (I say I think because I swatch these polishes for the post and then wear a full manicure for the game and I swatched this a couple of weeks ago and don't remember. Bad blogger!) A lot of other people have said they used two coats, so I probably just used three because I'm crazy like that! 

 

Again, I'm not in love with these photos because it felt very difficult to get anything in focus or color accurate, but it is what it is! I think you can tell how sparkly this is! And that I absolutely love! Hopefully with some sun (fingers crossed) I can add some sparkly pictures later. I love this; the color, the sparkle, everything! It's awesome! 

Go Dawgs! Beat the Vandals!

Purple Friday: Colors by Llarowe A Galaxy Far, Far Away August POTM 2016

Ok, that title is a mouthful but the important part is... Purple Fridays are back!! This week is the start of college football, which I've basically been waiting for since it ended in January (the Olympics helped get me over the hump of sports drought). So here we are, back again! To open the season, the Huskies are playing Rutgers, currently a member of the Big Ten-- a little random given that they are in New Jersey but I guess if you've got Penn in there already, why not stretch a little further east?-- and these teams have never played before previously, so that's pretty cool! I like it when there are interesting match-ups instead of the same old same old. So-called experts are touting UW as poised to have a great year, but I am trying to keep my expectations low because I know what it's like to be utterly disappointed! We're doing a "big" tailgate to kick off the season, but the game is at 11am (sooooo early) so we're doing breakfast burritos! Should be fun!

If you thought I was going to pass up a purple polish called A Galaxy Far, Far Away, well, you gotta be your damned mind! =P And because it was the August POTM from CbL, I decided it should be my first Purple Friday post, though technically we're in September now. A Galaxy Far, Far Away is described as a "purple jelly base with shimmering holographic flakes." This is definitely a jelly, so the first coat was a bit sheer and I used a light hand so as not to drag the polishes and create streaks. But it built up nicely and I used three coats here. Pretty easy to use all around, though I would suggest waiting for the layers to dry so you don't risk dragging any of the polish!

It seems to be a common theme this week, but this polish caused me a lot of frustration while I was photographing it! Actually, in the end I don't think my photos look terrible but while I was taking them I thought I might tear my hair out! I love how AGFFA sparkles; the coarse holographic flakies really bring out a rainbow on your fingers and it's actually one of my preferred finishes (over a linear holo). In any case, this is a truly gorgeous polish; I'll try to add some pictures of it out in the wild if I get a chance (and hopefully there's some sun to capture the awesome sparkle)!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Scarlet Knights!

Purple Friday: Apple Cup Edition: Enchanted Polish November 2014

And... here we are what will most likely be the last Purple Friday post of the year! Today is our big rivalry game (the Apple Cup) against our cross-state university, and this year they are doing quite well, while UW is only doing okay... which could make it a very painful game. I certainly hope it's a good game, and that we win, but I'm trying to stay realistic (but still optimistic). We are having brunch with friends and then doing a quickie tailgate (aka just drinking) before the game. We have friends visiting town from California (we were all in band together) and it will be fun to spend some time with them-- away from the kiddos!

I initially had grand plans to do some amazing nail art for the Apple Cup, but with Thanksgiving and my mediocre nail art skills... yeah, it wasn't going to happen. I wish! Maybe next year! So once that idea fell through, I wasn't feeling particularly motivated or inspired to pick a polish. With the help of my husband, who occasionally has a passing interest in my polish hobby, helped pick one out. We settled on Enchanted Polish November 2014, hoping that this will bring us some good luck because the Huskies won the Apple Cup in that month and year. November 2014 is a deep, eggplant purple with a strong linear holographic flame. The formula was good, and went on very smoothly-- I just needed two coats! Love that.

Artificial light (flash):

This is such a gorgeous, deep, dark mysterious purple-- I think it's so lovely! The holo flame is nice and deep (though not totally overwhelming) and it's such a beautiful color. Why have I waited so long to wear this?! At least that tragedy has been remedied!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Cougars!

Purple Friday: Colors by Llarowe Grape Jelly and Enchanted Polish Rainbow Juice (with pulp)

Another Purple Friday post eeking in before the clock rolls over-- but not for lack of effort on my part, though! I got my manicure done and took pictures and then my internet wouldn't work! Darnit! But we're rolling now, so quick, let's get on with it! This week we're playing a team with a worse record than we have, so hopefully we can win!

This week I actually did have a manicure in mind-- specifically, making a jelly sandwich because I was wanting to play with some polishes I had lying around. I pulled out Grape Jelly from Colors by Llarowe, which is a sheer, deep purple jelly. I applied two coats making sure to let them dry in between coats!) and then layered a coat of Enchanted Polish Rainbow Juice (with pulp) on top of that. Rainbow Juice (with pulp) is a holographic glitter topper with small holographic glitter and larger flakies. Then I layered another coat of Grape Jelly on top of that! Grape Jelly is definitely a bit on the streaky side, so my coats aren't terrible even, so I'll have to work on that. I don't think the finished product looks too bad, though! It may not be the most unique look out there, but it does have a nice sparkle!

Artificial light (flash):

I really love this look! It's not perfect, but suddenly I have a great urge to buy a bunch of jelly polishes and make jelly sandwiches with Rainbow Juice (with pulp). I think this would look fabulous with pretty much any color!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Beavers!

Purple Saturday: Julep Danica

Welp, didn't get this up last night. And now I'm posting as the game is being played, haha. In this week's I-can't-catch-a-break story, on Thursday I managed to take an extremely graceful fall in the middle of a street while I was walking to work and rolled my ankle, causing a nice sprain. Luckily it didn't seem to swell too much, nor is it turning any nasty colors, so I'm managing by swallowing Aleve and taping it to keep it stable. It's definitely still tender, but I can walk on it. And then yesterday the terrible terrorist attacks in France happened, and I just wasn't feeling up to posting last night. But I did want to paint my nails... and that didn't really go as planned either. I started late and the polish I originally picked end up not being what I was looking for. So I just wanted something that would work, and quickly. So I grabbed Julep Danica, which is a gorgeous "blue violet iridescent chrome." Danica is definitely blue leaning, though it has a duochrome aspect to it that makes it more red purple at some angles and lights, thanks to the pink and blue shimmer running through out this polish.

I did not do an excellent job of applying this polish. I didn't let the polish dry enough in between coats, and applied probably slightly thicker coats and I had some bubbling issues. Argh. My fault. The formula on this was good-- easy to apply, not too thick or too thin. As it is a chrome polish, you have to be a little careful not too load too much on your brush to avoid streaks. It's a very pretty polish and my photos below do not really do it justice.

Artificial light (flash): 

I wasn't really happy with these photos-- I snapped some with my iPhone that might give you a better hint at the duochrome nature of Danica.

I think this is a polish I will need to reswatch at some point, haha! I'm not very happy with my paint job or my photos, but Thursday and Friday were such crappy days that I can't really work up the energy to care at this point. I painted my nails!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Sun Devils!

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!

Purple Friday: Colors by Llarowe Rest in Pieces

Another Friday, another week eeking out a Purple Friday post right under the wire. This definitely wasn't my plan. I came down with a very terrible bout of food poisoning (or a stomach virus) on Monday night and spent 7 unpleasant hours getting rid of everything in my body. Not really a great way to spend the night, let me tell you!! I did manage to recover fairly quickly, thank goodness, but it really threw a wrench in my week. I didn't get any Halloween manicures done, didn't feel motivated to post, everything. I'm feeling like a lame-duck blogger right now, but oh well.

Tomorrow is Halloween night and a black out game at Husky Stadium. Due the late start time (8pm, are you kidding me?) and the holiday it's practically impossible to find a babysitter. So I'm staying home and watching from the couch while my husband attends. Which actually suits me ok, because now I don't have to deal with rainy weather or getting home at 1am. We're playing Arizona, and in the past some of these games have been pretty crazy-- so I might miss something. But I'll take that chance.

When I realized there was going to be a Halloween night game, I immediately thought of Colors by Llarowe Rest in Pieces, which is a polish from the New Year, New CbL collection. It's described as a "deep purple linear holo with blurple holographic micro shimmer." The formula is pretty good-- it was just a teensy bit streaky in the first coat, but two coats gave me perfect coverage. It dried down quickly and with a shiny top coat, looks gorgeous. My photos show it as a blue leaning purple, but in real life in has more red tones. I might try to snap some pictures in natural light to see if I can get a more accurate color shot.

Artificial light (flash):

This polish is perfect for Halloween night-- deep and vampy with the holo sparkle. It's moody and mysterious. The formula was great and even though it's a shame I waited so long to wear it, I think I'm putting it to good use now! And with that-- I'm beat!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Wildcats!

Purple Friday: Cover Girl 300 and Wet n Wild Happy Hour Hop

Hey all!! We're back at Friday, woo! I feel like I did not get much of a weekend last week, probably because I didn't get near enough sleep. Hopefully this weekend will-- helped by the fact that the Huskies have an away game this week. They are down in the Bay Area, playing Stanford. It was a tough (and close) loss to Oregon last week and this week will be an even bigger challenge. I don't really expect a win, though you never know, right? I also didn't expect us to beat USC and that happened. Maybe something equally miraculous will happen this week! (Fingers crossed.) But despite my lack of optimism, of course I will supporting my Dawgs. I was debating about what polish I wanted to wear. Initially I thought I wanted to wear Wet n Wild Happy Hour Hop, which is a dusty medium purple loaded with gold flakies, but it ended up being more sheer than I wanted, so I cast around for a purple polish to layer it over and settled on CoverGirl 300 (boo numbered only polishes), which I received in my Christmas stocking last year. 

CoverGirl 300 is a blue-leaning grape purple creme, which was a little on the thin side and wanted to streak. I used two coats here, though the second coat was pretty thick. It seem to do the trick, though! Then I layered one coat of WnW Happy Hour Hop on top of it. Confession: I did buy my bottle of Happy Hour Hop from eBay, and while the swatches I have seen online seem to indicate that HHH was more opaque, but mine was definitely not. When I initially swatched it, I did have longer nails, so maybe it's better on shorter nails.

CoverGirl 300:

My photos make this appear brighter than it is in real life. It's 

Wet n Wild Happy Hour Hop:

 You can see that HHH does leave some visible nail line. It's not terrible, but it's also not my favorite. I don't know if something was done to the bottle I purchased, but it is what it is. I could have worn this alone

Wet n Wild Happy Hour Hop over CG 300:

Because HHH is on the sheer side, the finished product does take on a more blue-leaning aspect thanks to the base color, but again, these photos are brighter than it actually appears in real life. I really love the gold flakies in the purple base. It's soooooo pretty. Next time I might try to find a base color that is slightly closer to the base of Happy Hour Hop, but it looks great regardless.

Go Dawgs! Beat the Cardinals!

Purple Friday: OPI Do You Have This Color in Stockholm and Zoya Gilty

Not going to lie, I took the lazy route out this week and modified my manicure from last week. And speaking of lazy, I totally forgot to write up this post before Friday and schedule it! Ugh, sorry! I don't know how it slipped my mind, but I totally forgot. One of those weeks! Let's get to the post!! This week the Huskies play Oregon, one of our most better rivals. The last time we beat Oregon was 2003... 11 years ago!! So long ago my husband and I looked like this:

OMG BABIES!! Where are these people now?! Hahaha, anyway... we hate Oregon. For a variety of reasons, but now mostly because they have beat us 11 times in a row and seriously, could we just freaking beat them already? Oregon is floundering right now, so there's hope for us. I mean, we did beat USC last week! That was a pretty amazing game.

As for manicure, we were out of town last weekend and I decided that I didn't have to time to come up with something super unique. So I pulled out OPI Do You Have This Color in Stockholm?, which is still an amazing purple (and I feel like I've got a handle on applying it now) and then pulled out Zoya Gilty, which is an 18K gold topper that I've had for at least two years. I have too many polishes (haha said no nail polish addict ever). I did have to do some fishing for the flakes, and definitely had to dab them on my nails. My photos are a bit sparse-- the actual manicure I ended up with has a bit more as I got better at getting the gold out.

Artificial light (flash):

Personally, I think the purple and gold combination looks incredibly royal! The gold flakes really pop against the purple base. It was a little annoying to get the gold flakes out of the bottle, but worth it for the final look.

Go Dawgs! Beat the Ducks!

Purple Thursday: OPI Do You Have This Color in Stockholm?

And for another switch up, we're having a Purple Friday on Thursday! The Huskies are playing tonight down in LA against the USC Trojans (and former coach) so of course it's a big game! And of course I have a purple mani to show you! It's a Husky game day! I'm not super optimistic about the game, but am hoping we play well and maybe, just maybe, pull out a win. That would be amazing!

This week I decided to go with a classic purple creme, mainly because I'm lazy and wanted something quick, but also because it's well, really, it's a classic! So is the UW-USC rivalry and we've had some awesome (and heart-breaking) games. So I grabbed a polish from the company that started my nail polish addiction: OPI. This is Do You Have This Color in Stockholm? and was released as a part of the 2014 F/W collection. This polish, which has an insanely long name, is a deep right purple with blue tones. The color is incredible. However... the formula leaves a lot to be desired. It's decently pigmented, but it's thin and watery and so goes on very streaky. Womp womp. It's workable, just not would I would have hoped for. I used three coats here and I would recommend using a light hand to avoid dragging and creating more streaks. I basically tried to "float" the third coat on there to make sure I got rid of all the streaks, because there were still there after two coats. On the upside, it did dry down quickly and does dry to a shiny finish (I'm not wearing a top coat here).

Artificial light (flash):

I wasn't thrilled with these photos with my photos-- you can tell it's purple, but it looks a little washed out. So I took a couple photos with my iPhone-- they're not great quality, but I think the color looks a lot closer to real life.

So that's it for this week! The color is fabulous, but the formula left a lot to be desired. Which is a shame, because I expect more from OPI in general and they generally deliver. Bummer! But... I'm willing to forgive them because this is a pretty fabulous purple. And so with that, I'm signing out!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Trojans!