Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters

Man oh man, do I have a polish for you today!  I think this one is back-up (or two) worthy!  I have tons of photos for you because I wanted to capture the teal holo in all it's glory.

I only recently became aware of Literary Lacquers through a swap group I belong to on Facebook.  It is a birthday group where we each send to the birthday girl during her month.  Due to a drop out (I am SO glad now), I got May even though my birthday is in October.

The mastermind behind Literary Lacquers, Amy, did not even know until today that I had a blog. That is how lacking I have been!  Amy sent three of her polishes to me in the swap and this one has not even been released yet.  It is Lake of Shining Waters from her Green Gables collection.  The collection is inspired by Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  More photos and information about Amy and her polishes after the jump.

Paris Sparkles Election Day ~ Perfect for Memorial Day

Surprise!  Did I shock you with my appearance?  

Today, I have brought you a polish perfect for holidays such as Memorial Day.  Paris Sparkles Election Day. This one turned out better than I had anticipated after seeing swatches online!  I am happy to see that I got a reformulated version.  I really like this polish and am so glad I chose it.  I have nothing like it and there are many possibilities with it.

I swatched this three different ways so you could see the variances based on what you decided to do for undies.  I think the thumb is my favorite but I imagine this polish would make a great jelly sandwich, too.

Per the Paris Sparkles etsy store, this is a "white base with beautiful holographic glitter and tiny blue and red hex glitters" and needs no base or top coat or undies.  Take a look at my pictures and judge for yourself.

I used Seche Base on all nails, various undies as noted below, varying layers of Election Day, Out the Door top coat on all nails.  These were all taken outdoors.  Pardon the "claw hand".  I don't like those images and I don't want to do them but when I've done such varying swatches on the same hand, it may be a good idea to do a claw hand so you can see it all at once.

• Pinkie Finger: no undies, three thin coats of Election Day
• Ring Finger: same as pinkie finger but attempted to make less jelly sandwich
• Middle Finger: two thin coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu, two thin coats of Election Day
• Index Finger: three thin coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu, one thin coat of Election Day
• Thumb: two thin coats of a Color Club white stamping polish, one thin coat of Election Day

You can visit Stacy's store, parissparkles, here.  I hope you have enjoyed the post.  Not until last night did I realize other bloggers only swatched one hand for their blogs.  Maybe that was why I felt like it was a tiring process. I thought it would look odd if I ran to the store, for example, and only one hand was complete. I am new to blogging; can you tell?!

Feel free to give me your input, via comment or email.  Should I have jumps for my posts?  Are the photos too large?  Do you prefer to click on them to make them larger?  Are my posts too long?  Should I make the photos smaller and more compact?  Do you like the collages?  Do you think I need less or more photos or are there just enough?  Do you prefer darker backgrounds?  Would you like photos taken indoors with indirect sunlight instead of outdoors?  I have an awesome camera but am a newbie to the features so future posts may be some playing around with different settings, backgrounds, locations.  Hope you all don't mind being guinea pigs!

Have a safe, happy Memorial Day! 

Disclosure: Election Day was sold to me by Paris Sparkles at a discounted price for review. All of the opinions in this review are completely my own.

Paris Sparkles -- Celery Stalker

You know how you always have good intentions to do something specific but then life gets in the way and those specific things have to be put on the back burner?  That is what has happened with my blogging.  It has been put on the back burner.

On to the good stuff without any more ado.

I was recently playing around with the Paris Sparkles Celery Stalker indie polish.  I was trying to decide if I wanted to do undies (a polish under the Celery Stalker) or not.  I thought about doing green but ended up using Sinful Colors Candy Coated.  Candy Coated is a lavender with shimmer.  I didn't realize there was shimmer in it until I had it on my nails.  Nice surprise!  However, I do now regret using underwear that was a different color family from Celery Stalker.  Hindsight is 20/20!  Next time, I will use a green underwear or no undies at all!

All photos are after 45 hours of wear.  I had hoped the Paris Sparkles Celery Stalker would be milkier than it is.  I used one coat of Seche Base, two coats of SC Candy Coated, three coats of Celery Stalker, one coat (which was not enough) of Out the Door top coat.  I thought one coat of INM would be enough to make the manicure slick and shiny.  It did not.  I did not like how the manicure looked after one coat of Celery Stalker probably because of the lavender underwear.  I was not too fond of how it looked after two coats of CS either.  So, I opted for three coats.  The first coat was thin and each coat after that got a little bit thicker.  I see I failed to completely cover the undies.  I also see there is tip wear after 45 hours but I did hand wash dishes and do every day tasks during that time frame.  Celery Stalker also pooled in some areas around my fingernails.  I didn't clean this up during clean up just so my readers could see this.

The photos were taken in the sun and in the shade.  None were taken indoors or using artificial light.  Stacy describes Celery Stalker as "a soft green base with beautiful holographic glitter and tiny explosions of color."  Per the etsy listing, "Paris Sparkles nail polish stands alone [and has] no need for a base coat, top coat or anything in between like so many other polishes."  I will try Celery Stalker again with no underwear but not sure about the base coat or top coat.  In my opinion, a top coat is most certainly needed.  

Do you always use undies in the same color family?  If so, why?  If not, why not?  Do you have Paris Sparkles Celery Stalker and does it look like mine?  You can see Stacy's creations here.

Disclosure: Celery Stalker was sold to me by Paris Sparkles at a discounted price for review. All of the opinions in this review are completely my own.

Close up of bottle

Blurred close up

Blurred

Shade

Sun

Shade

Sun

Sun

Sun

Shade

Shade

Glitzology -- Cotton Candy

Sorry for my absence as of late.  We have all been sick in my house.  I may have gotten the worst of it.  I am still not back to 100% but am much better than I have been in the past week or so.

With that said, here is Glitzology Cotton Candy over Color Club Hydrangea Kiss.  I like this combination.  Cotton Candy was easy to apply (my first time using a Glitzology polish).  It was not too thick nor too thin.  I used two coats of top coat but could have used three, or added Gelous to the mix.  If you want your nails to be completely smooth, you will have to use more than two coats of top coat.

Per the Glitzology shop on etsy, which you can find here, Cotton Candy has a very light lavender jelly base with pale blue holo glitter, white and pink satin glitter, matte and satin pastel blue, white, pink, lavender squares, hexes and shreds in various sizes.  I purchased several mini bottles of Glitzology polishes because I wanted to try them out before investing in full sizes....and because I found so many I wanted!

These were taken three days after application.  I did not do any clean up since I was not feeling well. Not too shabby if I must say so myself.

This is one coat of Seche Base, two coats (I think, I was ill remember?!) of Color Club Hydrangea Kiss, one coat of Cotton Candy, two coats of INM Out the Door.  None of the indoor photos turned out well.  No where near close to being usable.  Therefore, all of these are sun and shade shots.

Sale at Paris Sparkles

I just wanted to share a sale with you guys.  Better hurry, though, because there is only one more day left!  Stay tuned for swatches of Paris Sparkles polishes once I get them.

For every two polishes purchased, you will get one free!  At checkout, just note in the comment section what you'd like for free (don't add it to your cart).  Buy multiples of two and get the appropriate number of bottles free.  For instance, if you buy four bottles you will get two free.

Stacy has said the sale will not be back for a while so order now while you can!

Visit Paris Sparkles on etsy here.

An Epic Manicure Failure, Twice

This post will be short and sweet.  I did this manicure twice.  What a time-consuming waste it was. The glitter polish I used on top was so thick, it caused air bubbles.  I used (or tried to use) thin coats but that didn't remedy the problem.  Removed the polish, added lots of thinner to the glitter polish and tried again.  Below is the result.  See it and weep, or laugh if you so choose.

What do you do when you get a manicure full of air?  I know I didn't use thick coats; I think it is the super goopy, thick polish. 

This is with no clean up and no top coat -- why waste products!?

TreasuresByTan -- Dolphin's Cove

I hope everyone had a good Monday!  As promised, here is my swatch of Dolphin's Cove from TreasuresByTan.  Tanya told me this is one of her favorites and was her second creation ever. I can't wait to see this over a light blue, a lavender, a white and a black!  

I chose American Apparel Coney Island as the undies.  Due to the AA polish being so streaky and thin, I used three coats on top of Seche Clear base coat and I followed everything with INM Out the Door top coat.  

Excuse the cuticles ~ they are currently under construction.  I have short fingernails but don't a great many of us?!  I do a lot around the house and can't seem to keep long fingernails.  I think it is a refreshing change to see a nail blog with not so perfect hands, don't you?!

The polish was super easy to apply.  The glitter was easy to work with and move around when I wanted to.  I did thin coats on my index, ring and pinkie fingers; thick coats on my thumb and middle finger.  Therefore, I had to apply another thin coat to the three fingers while the thumb and middle finger remained at one thicker coat.  

Tanya's store describes Dolphin's Cove as being made up of blue and turquoise glitters in varying sizes and shapes.  There are also multi-color shifting glitters (which I tried to show in my pictures). The base is clear....my favorite "color" for a glitter base!  Her polishes are all custom blended using cosmetic grade mica, glitter, stainless steel balls.  They are all made from scratch -- no store bought polishes are used!  Tanya's polishes are also 3 Free (meaning they do not contain any Toluene, Formaldehyde or DBP) and they are cruelty free.

Be sure to check out Tanya's shop on etsy and tell her 10FickleFingers (or 10FF for short!) sent you!

Outside

Inside using artificial lighting

Shade

Sun

Inside using artificial light, blurred

Sun

So, what do you think about Dolphin's Cove?  What do you think about my photos?  Too many? Not enough?  Need more lighting options?  Email me or leave a comment here!