Black History Month Nails!

    With February drawing to a close, I wanted to do a nail look to commemorate Black History Month. I always plan to do a really pretty and complicated look for this, because BHM is near and dear to my heart, but then I'm always too busy and end up rushing it at the end. This year was no exception unfortunately, but I did like what I ended up with.

It was as easy as it looks LOL.

I started with two layers of China Glaze Go Crazy Red and let that dry for about twenty minutes.  Then I put a thick layer of Gelous on my ring finger, let it get tacky, put in the green and black gems, and finished off all my nails with a layer of Barielle's quick drying topcoat. 

Easy peasy. 

Ottlite, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Close up of accent nail.

I hate how I always get bubbling with jewels. -__-

Ottlite, no flash.

    After finishing it and thinking about it, I do wish that I had done some things differently, because it did come out kind of overly simple, and doesn't really read Black History Month. Like, I feel like you would have to think about the colors to get the connection, which isn't good. The one I did last year was more obvious, so I think I liked it better. But besides that, I think this came out pretty well and enjoyed wearing it. I also got some good wear out of it...I've had it on since Monday, and it still looks pretty presentable, so I am satisfied. 

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have an awesome Friday!

I'm going to go watch Coral Reef Adventure in IMAX at the Smithsonian, so I'm really excited. ^_^

Zoya Kissy

   Umm...Happy Valentine's Day guys!! LOL I know I am late as hell with this, but I actually did paint my nails for Valentine's Day. I'm forever alone, so to counteract the inevitable Valentine's Day depression, I wanted to wear something happy. So I chose Kissy (such a good name for a V-Day polish, no?) from Zoya's Gems and Jewels Collection. I meant to put some lovey-dovey decals on there too, but I forgot. My bad.

Kissy is made mostly of small red hex glitter, with lots of pink and holographic bar glitter scattered throughout. There's much more pink bar glitter than holo though.

Bottle shot. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

       Kissy is pretty and actually made for a fun Valentine's Day color. All the glitter is really sparkly, and although I generally don't like pink, Kissy's shade wasn't vomit inducing. I also think it looked pretty good on me. My only gripe is again, the fact that the holo bar glitter isn't as visible as I would have liked. You can see it straight on, but not that well. To really see it, I had to do finger Cirque du Soleil or look at it in lower lighting conditions. However, it does show up more in Kissy than in Rina or Twila (I'm planning to post that soon), so there's that. 

    Putting Kissy on was kind of tough though. The glitter isn't too sparse, and covered in three coats, which was nice. But I had a hard time getting it to stay put and it was pretty messy...little bits of glitter hanging off my nails and such. In the future, I'll probably just layer it over a similar color. 

   And a note on Kissy's wear, I had several fingers where the polish just popped off in a big nail-shaped chunk. The same happened with Twila and Rina. I didn't use Zoya's Anchor base with any of them, so maybe that would help, but I just thought I would mention it.

And I wanted to quickly put it out there that my giveaway is closing in one week, so don't forget to get your entries in if you want to play!

And that's all from me today! (Haha that rhymed.)

But anyway, thanks for reading and have a happy hump day! (HA I RHYMED AGAIN. I'm a poet and didn't know it. ^___^)

Diamond Cosmetics Chainmail Charm

    I've been having serious holo cravings lately. I don't even know why, but I want to see rainbows goddamnit. But anyway, I decided to take Diamond Cosmetics Chainmail Charm out for a drive and see if it would satisfy my desire.

Spoiler alert: It didn't. 

Chainmail Charm is a charcoal black - brown with a mild holographic effect. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

This was the most holo I could get it. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Look at them lies. 

Sunlight, no flash.

      Oh Chainmail Charm. I bought it a while back from a blog sale, and it was one of those things that I wanted to save for a special occasion.  Thank God I didn't go through with that plan, because this polish is such a dud. You get some holo at random times, but most of the time, there wasn't really much of anything. There was some, which my camera removed mostly (you can get a glimpse of it on some fingers), but it wasn't much. It's really painful too, because it looks great in the bottle. And then the brownish-black color is kind of weird. Ugh...my desire is so not sated right now. 

    Formula was really agreeable though. It was opaque in two coats and dried pretty quickly, so I was pleased about that. I'll probably get rid of it though...can't have a holo that won't work for its keep.

If you have Chainmail Charm, do you like it? Or is it lame for you too? 

And that's all from me today!

Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Catherine Arley 673

   Hi guys! I'm sure many of you remember the Catherine Arley craze that hit the nail world last year, and although I generally try to stay out of the flow of those kinds of things, this time, I broke down and ordered some Catherine Arleys. Like five thousand years later, they arrived, but I was really over their shit at that point, so they sat in my room for another five thousand years, unloved and untouched. That all came to an end recently, because I finally decided to take 673 for a test drive. 

673 is a mid-toned red-based purple with a mostly scattered, but still vaguely linear holographic effect. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

I left it a little out of focus to bring out more of the holo. 

Natural light, no flash. 

Ottlite, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     I am kind of underwhelmed by 673.The holo effect is kind of mediocre, and the base color isn't particularly pretty or special on its own either, although it is flattering on the hands. And then there's the whole having a number for a name thing, which sucks, because now I have to come up with a new name for it. If I could do it again, I don't think I would include it in my order. 673 is adequately pretty, but I'm just not sure that it's worth the wait or the hassle, unless you actually like the more subtle scattered holo look. 

    Formula-wise, it was pretty good though. I used some aqua base under there (the stuff that Jessica sells with their silver holo polish) and it slid onto that really nicely and effortlessly. I used three layers for full opacity and depth of color and put some topcoat on top. It dried quickly and without incident, so that was nice. 

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading!

Thank You Giveaway!

    

Giveaway is over!! Thanks for entering everyone!

Okay, so that took more than a couple of days, but better late than never, right? This is just a small giveaway because I'm broke right now, but I still wanted to do something to thank and show my appreciation for you sweet people who didn't abandon The Phalanges Files when I was off being a terrible blogger lol.


So here's what's up for grabs:

Prize 1: WnW Believe Me, It's Real; Diamond in the Rough; and Back Alley Deals

Prize 2: Funky Fingers Sand and Stilettos, Baby Baby Baby, and Golden Coast

And the rules are:

1. You have to be a current and visible follower of The Phalanges Files. Meaning, if you follow after this goes live, I'm happy to have you but I can't count you for the giveaway. Sorry!! You guys can play next time, kay?

2. You gotta have a valid email address! Please make sure you type it correctly and it works, because if you get picked but your email doesn't work, I have to pick someone else. :(

3. Only one entry per person lol.

4. International polish lovers can play. 

5. Giveaway closes March 1, 2012 at 11:59:59 EST. If you enter after that, you won't be able to be counted, so make sure to get your entries in before!

Giveaway is over!! Thanks for entering everyone!

And that's all from me today Thanks for following, reading, participating,  and just generally being beautiful people! And I hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!! ^_^

Some Layering Stuff

   Hi guys! Yes, I am still alive and even better, I'm starting to feel some interest in nail polish again, which means that I'll probably be back to posting regularly in the near future. I won't have anything current to show because I haven't bought polish in a month (seriously), but maybe that will change soon too. But anyway, a few days ago was my 21st birthday, and I needed some sparkly nails to go with it. I didn't have much time though, so I did some quick layering. 

This is two coats of Zoya Phoebe and two layers of Sapphire Shimmer. Sorry about the cracks...I guess Phoebe wasn't all the way dry before I put the glitter on top. It dries so slowlyyy. -___-

Ottlite, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, with flash.

I blurred it to show some of the holo sparkle, even though I felt like there wasn't much this time around I remember the first time I wore Sapphire Shimmer in early fall and I wanted to marry it. Not sure what happened. 

Ottlite, no flash.

    This combo was okay. It was bright, glittery, went on quick and dried quick, and that was pretty much all I wanted, so I am satisfied.

But better than my nails were these awesome cupcakes I got from Sweet Themez Bakery. If you live in DC, I would definitely recommend paying them a visit and getting their sweet potato cupcake. All their cupcakes are delicious (except maybe the marble, which is a little too delicate for me) but the sweet potato one brings tears to my eyes. It's the one in the middle and is magically delicious. 

Also, the giveaway post should be up in the next couple of days, so look out for that!

And that's all from me for today! Thanks for reading guys, and have a great Sunday!!