Swatch: ILNP Cold Fusion (T)

Hi guys! Sorry I haven't been posting a ton lately, my students just had another midterm so I was helping them all last week and now marking all this week! On Sunday I went skiing with my boyfriend and his dad and they KILLED me!! Hahaha I'm in so much pain!

So anyways, I'm still working through my big ILNP ultrachrome flakie purchase from December (I know, I know, so slow!!) but its been really nice to sit back an savor each and every one, if that doesn't sound completely weird.

Cold Fusion. Holy crap this one is underrated. I have seen swatches of it in bulk posts and everyone seems to just breeze by it and note that its "not as shifty as the others". It's flipping gorgeous is what it is. It looks like the Caribbean Sea in a bottle. Turquoises, aquamarines, brilliant true blues, indigos and even a touch of purple at the edges. Perfect for summer beach days! When I first put it on I was kinda meh about it, but every hour I wore it I fell more in love. It grows on you so much. Its not super shifty on the nail at one specific time, but its like a mood ring, it shifts tones throughout the day. Gorgeous.

Ok so this is two sponged layers (to keep the thickness down) on top of OPI I saw you saw we saw Warsaw (dark navy blue creme). The sponging is making a huge difference to me, thank you More Nail Polish for the idea, it really keeps the thickness of the layers down. Clean up sucks though, I need that liquid palisade stuff most desperately.

Can you see the touch of purple at the edges!?

Hope you guys have a great rest of your week! Cheers!!

Swatch: GOSH Ocean

OKAY! SWATCHES! Here they come! Today is GOSH Ocean, one of the only brands that Canada gets that the US doesn't. These are usually the ones I offer up for swaps (back when I had any extra income to do swaps D;) but Ocean is one of my picks out of the lot. I think I have quite a few like it (W&W, Essence Out Of My Mind, maybe RH Waves), but it is gorgeous and the formula is ace. A little thin, but dried quickly and only required 3 coats.

It wold look great matted I think! It made the perfect base for RH Deep Heart Sea!

NEXT.

Swatch: Rainbow Honey Deep Heart Sea and Modern Hearts (S)

I thought this would be fitting! In light of RH's new full size set and Valentine's Day I dug through and found some old mystery bag goodies that included Modern Hearts and Deep Heart Sea!

For the undies I used GOSH Ocean (swatch coming soon) and did one layer of Deep Heart Sea, dabbing over any parts that I thought required more glitter. The blue jelly is absolutely lovely and I really wish RH would release a pure jelly base that I could use for sandwiches.

Those hearts were a little elusive but I got one on my thumb! The whole thing was VERY squishy.

My first idea for an accent was to add some flower stickers floating on top of the water. Unfortunately it did not give the effect I wanted.  Maybe I needed more layers.

Eh.

So I took that off and put down RH Work It Out before dabbing on some Modern Hearts. This combination is flawless and the glitters coherently complement each other, especially because both contain white hearts.

I wish I had a better photo!

I hope you all had a nice Valentine's, alone or with your SO. Show me what's on your nails!

Yellow Roses: Homage (S)

Blah blah blah, Sharra's tragic backstory, blah.

My mom liked yellow roses, which you may have gathered from previous posts. This time I started with Rainbow Honey One Moment More (swatch & review forthcoming). I used paper hole reinforcements to get the half moons. From Tiffany's recommendation, I sponged on Electric Carnival to get coverage. It took about four or five times but I am impatient about dry time. It also created a smoother effect than I was aiming for so I swiped over it as well.

Sharpie for petals!

The other hand is less beautiful.

That shift and saturation is really nice, I don't even have access to filters on these!

They look kind of like carnations but I feel better now. I hope everybody had a good day! Good luck tomorrow :)

Rainbow Honey Jan Mystery Box (Tiffany's review)

Hi guys! So I got my very first Rainbow Honey mystery box this month and I was not disappointed at all!!! These are such a good deal!! I got 3 mini polishes that are the new giant 7.5 ml size, an adorable little flower shaped soap, lip balm and a lip scrub all for $10. Its a great deal!

So the lip balm, scrub and soap all have the scent "Lemon Sorbet". Its a sweet, sugary lemon scent that smells like lemon cake to me. I'm not a huge lemon fan personally so this isn't my favorite scent, but I really like each of the products. The lip scrub is fairly moisturizing and more fine grained than my lush one, which is nice because the lush one can be a little harsh. The lip balm is a really nice formula, its moisturizing, smooth, its doesn't leave any white residue (I hate that!!) and lasts pretty well!! I haven't tried the soap yet because its just too cute!!

The polishes are:

Rosey Bot -a pink/coral microshimmer polish. This one was opaque in 2 coats but was a little thick and difficult to get smooth. I ended up thinning it twice. It also dried kind of matte which made the uneveness show up more. Top coat helped a lot. I really liked the color for nail art, but by itself it wasn't the best on my skintone.

Lemon Sorbet -a packed microshimmer topper that has the same lemon sorbet scent! I could smell it through my top coat!! This one was a teeeeny bit too thick too, but it wasn't a big deal. It worked really well with 1-2 coats on top of a neutral polish.

Dirty Mintini - a mint green polish with a mix of tiny brown glitters and microshimmer. This one took 3 coats and was a little thick too, but I just love it!! Its really springy and fun

I think these polishes go together really really well! They have a very classic, vintage, spring vibe!

My right hand actually turned out as well as my left! That never happens!

 

Hope you guys are having an awesome Wednesday!! I'll be posting a Valentines Day nail art soon!!

Swatch: ILNP Luna Nail Art

Hi guys! So I'm still going through my selections from the ILNP ultrachrome flakies and I thought I'd do something more fun than just a standard swatch! So I did a little chevron nail art for you using tape.

For the base I used two coats of Essie Lapis of Luxury, its a sheer periwinkle creme that looks really pretty on my pinkish pale skintone (at least I think so) I have it swatched here with Rainbow Honey Papillion if you want to see it. I used two coats of OPI Alpine Snow for the accent nail base as well.

I used pre-cut chevron tapes that I found at a dollar store to make the chevron pattern and then I sponged Luna on top. It took about 3 sponged coats to get it opaque, but as you can kinda tell in the pictures, some of them got more coats than others. Next time I'd probably use 4 coats. I sponged it on because I wanted to get the flakes without the thickness of the clear base.

So Luna's shift is turquoise - blue - purple - fuchsia - orangey - yellow at the extremes. I found that it stays as a pinky purple in all lighting conditions and shifts either in the yellowy direction or in the turquoise direction depending on the light. Both are equally gorgeous, this polish just loves any and all lighting conditions.

Luna is probably the most "me" of all the flakies I bought. I love purples and this one is so unique to me. And the name reminds me of Sailor Moon!! :) I love how versatile these are. I think I've said that 3 times now, but its true!! They can be glitter toppers, solid colors or sponged on for nail art!