Tribute to Blogger Colorful Crack: Manis for Gosia

Gosia of popular beauty blog Colorful Crack recently announced her retirement from her blog due to other commitments.  Her friends from the blogging community are coming together to create manis to wish her good luck on her next endeavors.  #manisforgosia

One of Gosia's favorite indie polish brands is Superficially Colorful Lacquer.  She swatches the new collections for the brand, and I noticed a trend of her creating an awesome accent nail for each swatch.  Pulling from my own SCL collection, I created a monochromatic mani using Eye of the Storm and accented the ring nail with a sparkly coat of Imaginary Narwhals to create my mani in honor of and inspired by Gosia.

Eye of the Storm is a very dark and cold blue, somewhat metallic, with a little bit of holographic glitter. In some lighting it leans more navy and in others it leans more blue.  It dries semi-matte with a hint of sparkle.  Imaginary Narwhals is a silvery holographic micro glitter polish with occasional silver stars in clear base. It's fun and sparkly, but you have to fish a little for the stars.  After two days, you can see there's minimal tip wear!

Indirect lighting on the pool deck

Shade lighting on the lawn

Disclaimer: all products were purchased by me.  No affiliation with Superficially Colorful Lacquer and its products.

Monday Mani: #52WPNMC with Girly Bits Just My Cup of Tea'l and Polynesian Sunset

It's Week 34 of the 52 Week Pick N Mix Challenge with this week's prompts being lilac and teal or pastels. Considering I have a most-likely-diagnosable problem with the amount of blues and purples I buy, I figured why not give the lilac and teal a shot. Luckily for me, I have the perfect duo of untrieds to fit the bill.  From my stash I picked from one of my favorite indie handmade brands, Girly Bits. Pam released a custom polish trio in June 2014 exclusive to the GBCF Facebook group, two of which happen to be a purple and a teal. For the purposes of this nail art challenge, I'm arguing it's a lilac. ;) 

Since these were released as customs, they were available only one time to a select group of people and did not have an official description. As provided by Pam at the time of preview for purchase: "This teal leans slightly more blue than #islandtime and it has more aqua shimmer and less gold. This purple is slightly darker than #endlesslove, with prominent pink shimmer and silver holo sparks in addition to the base holo." I applied both colors in thin layers (with top coat), and both, as is my usual experience with GB, were super easy to apply and dried quickly. I had not discovered the pink shimmer (which I thought at the time was a pink flash) of Polynesian Sunset until later under the lighting of my bedroom light fan, a very pleasant surprise. I enjoyed Polynesian Sunset for two days with very minimal tip wear (only one minor chip), which is also my typical experience with GB, as a monochromatic mani. I later applied Just My Cup of Tea'l ruffian style, mimicking nail art from this post.  Both are jam packed with holo and stunning colors.

As you will see in the nail art photo, my index finger is not pictured.  To my surprise, the lilac layer pulled up with my vinyl upon removal.  While I patched the screw up with the teal polish, I felt it wasn't camera ready.  I have had the teal on since Thursday with extremely minimal tip wear, only one chip (I'm sensing a theme).  Girly Bits polishes are VERY hardy.

In the shade with indirect lighting

In the shade

In the shade with indirect lighting

In the shade

Monday Mani is about showcasing beautiful indie polishes that I've purchased through lifestyle shots. So many swatches out there are captured under lighting and conditions that aren't common of every day. My intention is to show mani's under typical lighting and wearing conditions so you can decide if the beauty is right for you or not. Please note that although colors are accurate on my computer monitor (Macbook Pro), colors do vary among devices. Professionals blogger swatches are perfect - here's my life lessons from a handmade artisan.

Disclaimer: All reviews and opinions are my own. Products were purchased with my own money. No affiliation with Girly Bits or their products.

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Mani: Only You and Wind's Indecision by Pahlish

Two beautiful handmade polishes are featured today from indie maker Pahlish, a 5-free polish small business located in Arkansas.  I debated about going for a monochromatic look with Only You, but decided to do tips with Wind's Indecision because it's so beautiful, and later regretted not doing monochromatic with each because they're just SO gorgeous.  These photos show one day of tip wear, and I have been impressed so far with their resilience.

Only You is a soft rose pink linear holographic with rose-gold and metallic gold microflakes.  The camera captured the pink more easily than the microflakes so I had some difficulty getting to color accuracy.  It is simply a stunning color in all lights.  Even though the description doesn't speak to holo, I swear there must be because there is so much sparkle to it when the light hits it!

Wind's Indecision is a bright blue soft holographic with a mix of pink, gold, and electric blue flakes. Wind's Indecision is one of their Special Editions celebrating Pahlish's third anniversary. It was inspired by the Pahlish classic "Train Underwater" using an updated twist.  Blue is my favorite color so of course I was all over this one.  Now, I only did the tips so I can't fully speak to its awesomeness until I do a full mani with it, but by gosh is this color beautiful.

I initially didn't have application issues with Only You, but started to when I got to my other hand.  However, I think I didn't shake my bottle up enough or something so the difficulties with application may be due to user error.  After all, it is chock full of flakes and sometimes those suckers can be difficult when applying or settle together in the bottle.  No problems with Wind's Indecision.

In the shade outside - Only You bottle shot

In the shade outside - Wind's Indecision bottle shot

Under direct sunlight outdoors

Monday Mani is about realistically showcasing beautiful indie polishes that I've purchased.  So many swatches out there are captured under lighting that we simply don't use every day.  (I typically am not admiring my nails under Ott lights.)  My goal is to show mani's under typical lighting and wearing conditions so you can decide if the beauty is right for you or not.

Disclaimer:  All reviews and opinions are my own.  Products were purchased with my own money.  No affiliation with Pahlish or its products.

Day3JNAC - 13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge: Half and Half

So this is turning out to be *quite* the learning experience.  Things I learned yesterday: the answer to the question "Do I still need to wait several minutes after applying quick dry top coat before trying nail art with Scotch tape?" (the answer is yes); pulling tape off not-completely-dry polish creates a cool, but undesirable effect; sometimes doing lines freehand is easier; using a second color to completely cover the basecoat color is easier said than done.

However, like usual, Girly Bits did not disappoint.  Although My Ten Friends will always hold a special place in my heart, Girly Bits is quickly becoming possibly my second favorite indie brand.  The formula is so amazing that it doesn't require clean-up if you've got good technique.  Unless I slip, I'm able to paint with BOTH my hands without clean-up being warranted.  Dries quickly and the wear on it is AMAZING.  Tomorrow will be my third day wearing it and I'm willing to bet I'll end the day with hard-to-notice tip wear.  Oh, and she also makes pretty colors. ;)

Today's nail art is half and half.  Of course, this was WAY cooler in my head... also would've helped if I was patient with the tape.  Ah well, live and learn.  I used What Happens in Vegas Ends Up on Facebook (2014 version) and What Happens in Vegas Ends Up on Instagram (2014 version).  I wish the camera would capture the stunning glitters in this better - they're a gorgeous surprise.  The purple glitter in particular is breathtaking.  Maybe tomorrow's sun pictures will do it justice.

Indoor Lighting

An InLinkz Link-up

Day2JNAC: 13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge - Happiness

So apparently I can't read and thought today's prompt was a tape mani.  Whoops!  BUT french tips *do* make me happy, so this still counts, right?  This was my first time using decorative tape so I still need some practice on using it right.  Also had trouble getting it to stick.  And WOW I did not realize how poor a clean-up job I did - once again that darn camera is unforgiving, huh?!

Although I prefer to freehand french tips, I used some tape guides to help me create tips on three nails, and accented my pointer with two strips of silver decorative tape.  I used BEWBS! and Ashes Ashes for the mani, both by Darling Diva.  Formulas are on the thicker side, but boy are they rich, deep colors kissed by holo.  Despite the formulas being a smidgen thick, it creates a solid finish - almost reminiscent of rubbery, perhaps - that is not prone to chippage.  The following are indoor pics from tonight, I'll do outdoor pics tomorrow if my mani survives well enough.

And outdoor pics in the shade!  With a JUICY bottle shot of BEWBS.

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Mani: Colors by Llarowe in Nice Melons!

Today's handmade polish mani features Colors by Llarowe in Nice Melons! (from the Summer 2014 collection), a 5-free indie nail polish company located in Colorado.

Right now I have nubbins, which I hate, so I decided I needed to celebrate with a nice juicy color before fall sets in here.  I forgot at the time I picked it out, but I've actually already worn this color before.  Doesn't matter, though, because it's SO amazing!  I love me some coral palettes, and Nice Melons! from Colors by Llarowe captures the yumminess of a cantaloupe while also looking coral-y.  In low lights, it leans pink, but in warmer lighting it leans orange.  LOVE IT.  Plus it's *holo* and what's there not to love about that?  Colors by Llarowe applies beautifully on my nails and dries fast with my body chemistry.  As always, I use Zoya Anchor and Zoya Armor as my bottom and top coats, respectfully.

These photos were taken outside on an overcast day to demonstrate the polish's midrange tones of color.

Disclaimer:  All products were purchased with my own money.  All reviews and opinions are my own. Not affiliated with Colors by Llarowe or Llarowe.com.

NOTD Handmade: Haleakala by Elevation Polish

I'm currently wearing handmade indie polish by Elevation Polish called Haleakala.  This absolutely gorgeous shade is a purple holo that lands somewhere between a berry and a wine shade.  My photo doesn't do it justice!

Earlier this week I wore Darkest Storm. I can never get enough blue!