Swatch: Cult Nails Nakizzle's Shizzle and ILNP My Private Rainbow

Happy Monday!

I had been looking for a blue to replace Julep Claire, which is one of my favourite colours and I've almost finished (imagine!!) and when the Cult Nails clearance sale I scooped up Nakizzle's Shizzle, which I had been coveted despite its terrible name.

It was opaque in two coats, smooth finish.

I didn't have topcoat on hand so I used ILNP My Private Rainbow, which really does not have much holo even in the sunshine and I would not recommend.

Nada. It's still kind of pretty and it makes a good topcoat. There's a tiny bit of sparkle but it's subtle. Not for me. OH WELL. Get one of the other holos if you're going to order from ILNP.

This was the base for my Pride nails from the weekend :)

Swatch: ILNP Charmingly Purple with Rainbow Honey Cotton Candy Meringue

I'm loving my ILNP holos for the summer. I still have a list of colours I want that I can't justify given the terrible CAD-USD exchange rate right now... Rainbow Honey has released some gorgeous new collection too and I just have way too much polish (wow, never thought I'd type that...).

I can't complain too hard, I'm still swatching through my last few orders, heh. So here it is, ILNP Charmingly Purple, well accented by Rainbow Honey Cotton Candy Meringue from their La Patisserie collection. Those cute little stars, guys!

Natural light looks way better:

And sunshine rainbows!

This shade of purple is one of my favourites. I've got another darker one that's going to be perfect for fall too.

Check out both ILNP.com and RainbowHoney.com for their latest collections and tell them I sent you!

Swatch: ILNP Atlantis

This post takes off with a nail fail, then the retry so bear with me. I thought putting some glitter over ILNP Cutie Pop would look good and I attempted a glitter gradient with ILNP Atlantis...

Needless to say that looked terrible, so I took it off (immediately, which almost never happens, ugh) and replaced it with Cult Nails Time Traveler. I still needed to swatch Atlantis, so I popped that on top and they were a much better match for each other.

The shift is very beautiful, though I couldn't capture the little gold at the edge like I could in the bottle.

ILNP.com has a new summer collection out right now with some gorgeous holos that you should all check out too :)

Happy Pride 2k15 Vancouver!

Happy Pride, Vancouver! I might be going to the parade today and then Bard on the Beach after dinner downtown with Branden's parents. MAY also take my towel and a change of clothes and makeup down with me and dunk myself in the ocean - my first time swimming this summer. It has not been good times for me lately, man.

Anyway, y'all know pride means rainbows so here's the toolkit from left to right:

OPI Alpine Snow, Julep January, Orly Old School Orange, Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine, Julep Leah, Julep Marisa, Essence Passion for Fashion, Cult Nails Nakizzle's Shizzle (swatch forthcoming), ILNP My Private Rainbow (not pictured), Rainbow Honey Royal Fruits topcoat.

After swatching CN Nakizzle's Shizzle and covering that with ILNP My Private Rainbow, I frenched the tips with OPI Alpine Snow, the best white ever.

Manually! Freehand! (I didn't have time to wait for the polish to dry enough to put down paper reinforcements.)

Then, just on the tips, a dab of each of those colours.

Because there was no way to get the white strip even, I used the dotting tool to give the sense of fluffy clouds.

Pre-cleanup!

Look at that glorious mess.

Post cleanup :D

I like it! It's a little bit subtle but still pays homage to Pride.

Gonna stand on my soapbox here for a second. It's pretty great that the US finally joined the rest of North America in allowing its citizens to get married, but in many states it is still perfectly legal to be fired immediately upon exercising their civil rights. On top of that, with queer visibility increasing children are coming out younger and younger which leaves them vulnerable to the wills of last-generation bigoted parents. In the US, estimates of homeless queer youth (limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender in their studies) approach 40%, with an incredible overrepresentation for trans* youth. Many are driven to suicide. Pride, and visibility, is a celebration of life, a challenge to the laws and societies that oppress people based on who they love and important in the light of the terrible laws being passed in places like Uganda which allows a lifetime jail sentence just for falling in love (or for fucking, and whose business is that?). My point is Pride is important. And whatever you dis/agree with, if you ever vote to change laws to take people's rights from them, you are a piece of shit.

For the sake of visibility, I'm bi. Queer rights are human rights. Keep fighting and if you're not straight/cis and struggling, remember there's resources to keep you going until you can get out of the terrible place you're stuck in at the moment.

Resources for Canadians

Resources for US

If you have links, please comment them below so I can add them to this post!

This weekend, celebrate, have fun, exist and be safe!

Swatch: Rainbow Honey Gateau de Citron

Starting off August with something sweet!

Summer is time for strawberry lemonade, a delicious treat I can get from Red Robin with my free birthday coupon ;D

Anyway, ILNP Cutie Pop reminds me of sugar and strawberries which needed something bright and sunny to really drive the summer-ness home.

I also splurged on the whole Rainbow Honey La Patisserie collection so I had to swatch Gateau de Citron. The colours looked really well together!

Bubbly :D