Monday Mani: Polar Bear Club by Paint Box Polish

I've got some glittery goodness for you! This is a beautiful blue chock full of blue, purple, and green glitters. YUM! This was part of a collab box so the polish is not available by itself, and I think all the boxes are gone now. If you want to get your hands on this beauty, try searching in nail polish sales groups on Facebook or eBay. Check out Paint Box Polish for a lot of other glittery goodness today!

Shade

Shade

Full sun

Shade

Disclaimer:  products were purchased for personal use.  All opinions are my own.  No affiliation with Paint Box Polish.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Week 3 Geek

This week's prompt is Geek, which brings to my mind geeks vs. nerds vs. dorks.  However, I was seeing others in the nail art challenge pursuing art that honors their favorite "geeky" tv show.  So I started thinking about Dr. Who, Harry Potter, Big Bang Theory as geeky shows I know....  Then I realized I geek out over Friends!  I own the original boxed set and I put it on in the background when I craft so I literally have seen it over 50 times, easily.  So I tried recreating the iconic logo.  I used multichrome rhinestones as the dots because the color pattern varied too much on the logos I was looking at on Google and even on my own box set.  I apologize for the streaking on the white - I'm used to indies drying quickly and this is a mainstream polish that appears to dry VERY slowly and I keep mis-timing when to put on the top coat.

Tell me in the comments what's your favorite tv show or what you "geek out" about!

Disclaimer: all opinions are my own.  Products were purchased by me for my own personal use.  No affiliation with Zoya or other products used in this post.

An InLinkz Link-up

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Week 2 Teal + Pattern-on-Pattern

We're underway and getting down to the nitty gritty of the nail art challenge. :)  Hoping I didn't mess up my assignment!  Prompts are assigned in a really cool, but seemingly complicated, way so crossed fingers I'm on track. ^_^  This week, the color is teal and I was assigned the pattern-on-pattern prompt.

I am actually not a fan of pattern-on-pattern so I sort of dreaded this one, and creativity was difficult as I am uninspired by the prompt.  I feel like it can turn ugly and messy really quickly - I've seen even the best of nail art bloggers struggle with it.  I wanted all my colors to be teal, but I discovered I did not own as many teal shades as I thought.

Inspired by the experiment on my thumb in my last faux ombre pattern post, I used Just My Cup of Tea'l by Girly Bits as the base; Teal We Meet Again by Sephora OPI as the second color; and Swoon flakies by Girly Bits as the tips.  As my second pattern, I layered on mermaid scales vinyls by What's Up Nails using Teal Oops by Colors by Llarowe.  Per usual (ha), this didn't exactly turn out how I envisioned, but at least the scales are visible over the SOPI layer.  Because life is cruel (jk), you can see I accrued some tip wear before taking photos.  Too many layers of polish. :/

So I'm curious to know - what are your thoughts on pattern-on-pattern manis?

 

Shade with indirect lighting

Shade lighting

I used Dazzle Dry by Girly Bits before putting on the vinyls layer.  Trust me, this lives up to the hype.  I was blown away how much richer the color popped after putting it on.  Definitely am going to have to do a comparison post to show you what I mean!  Not only that, but I was pleased to see it dried very fast and created a very hard, resilient top coat.

Disclaimer:  I am in no way affiliated with the products mentioned in this post.  All opinions are my own.  All products were purchased for my own usage.

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Mani: CbL Rainbow Connection Birthday Exclusive Loving Every Moment

This past week, I have had the fun of spearheading a group buy for Rainbow Connection's exclusive Colors By Llarowe polish called Loving Every Moment that was made for RC's 2nd anniversary.  When I opened the box, I was blown away by the gorgeousness.  Seriously, this is some CbL to the next level.  And I instantly knew this would be hard to photograph.

Application was on the thicker side than I'm used to for the CbL's I currently own, but that may be due to the rich complexity and intense holoness of this polish.  It's opaque enough that you could probably get away with it being a one coater with the right application technique, but I did two to really pop out that richness.  My nails like CbL so the polish dried quick, and slightly gel like.  My kind of polish!  Depending on lighting, it can lean pink or blue.  I've noticed natural light it leans blue and artificial light it leans pink.  And the times it's a straight up purple the richness and depth is drool worthy.  This polish is one of those you appreciate even more in person and can't capture it fully on camera.

I tried taking lots of pictures in several types of lighting.  As a result, some are a little blurry - it wouldn't play nice with the camera and sometimes the blurry ones capture the essence best (perhaps you've heard sometimes blurry photos capture intense holo best?).  This beauty you can purchase from the Rainbow Connection site.  It's been selling fast and I don't know how many restocks there will be!

 

 

studio lighting

 indoors, direct sunlight

outdoor shade

outdoor shade with indirect lighting

These last two shots really highlight the pink, purple, and blue!

Disclaimer: I am no way affiliated with Colors by Llarowe or Rainbow Connection.  Products were purchased by myself.  All opinions are my own.