Tagapalooza!

     I was recently (jk, it was like months ago smh!) tagged in a few stuff and have been meaning to complete them and pass them on. This past weekend, I finally finally got off my ass and got them done, so let's get right into it, shall we? n_n


First, I was given a handwriting tag from Anna over at Loodie Loodie Loodie. Which btw, if you haven't been reading, you should definitely start. My nails are like 10x healthier because of her.
But anyway, for the tag, I had to handwrite the answers to the following questions:


1. What is your name/blogger name?
2. What is your blog's name/URL?
3. Write,"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
4. What's your favorite type of food?
5. What are some of your favorite makeup brands?
6. What are some of your nicknames?
7. What are some pictures you like to doodle?


And here are my answers:

 Yes, I know. My handwriting looks exactly like an one-armed fish wrote it while being electrocuted. I know.  

I also know that I'm like uber tardy for the party with this tag and consequently, I'm 99% sure that everyone has done this already. But if by chance you haven't, consider yo'self tagged. 

The second tag came from Rory at Varnish Vixen, and it was for a nail art challenge.
The rules were:
1. go to your lacquer stash
2. CLOSE your eyes and pull 3 random items - JUST 3


And from those three polishes, I had to create a mani, presumably a non-ooglay one. 
Because I am the polish gods' favorite joke, I ended up with:

China Glaze White Cap, L.A. Girl Punk and Nubar Earth. -____-

And here's what I made out of those:

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     To create this, I started with a layer of milky basecoat and then applied three coats of China Glaze White Cap. I used topcoat on it and let it dry for an hour, before proceeding to stamp on the ivy-ish pattern from Bundlemonster's BM20 plate, using L.A. Girl Punk. Punk is so thin that you can barely see it, but it's there. Finally, I used Nubar Ocean to randomly stamp on the little flower thingies from Konad's M20 plate. I was surprised at how much I liked this. Too bad the tip shrinkage ruined it. ;_;

The last rule is that you have to tag 3 bloggers, so I'm going to tag Another Bottle of Polish?!, Concrete and Nail Polish, and anyone else who wants to do it but hasn't been tagged. If you do choose to do it, please send me a link or leave it in the comments! I love seeing the stuff that people have come up with for this challenge. n_n

And the last tag was for the Top 10 blog award, and came from Beauty Shades! Thank you for the tag, girl! I really appreciate it! 

Purpley. n_n

The rules of this tag are that I have to name 10 of my favorite cosmetics and tag 10 other bloggers to receive the award. 

So my top 10 cosmetics would be:

1. Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

2. Shiro Cosmetics Eyeshadows (I own most of them and love all the ones I have)

3. Fyrinnae Eyeshadows

4. Reviva Labs Makeup Primer

5. Covergirl Lash Blast Fusion

6. Wet n Wild Cream Eyeliner

7. Wet n Wild Palettes

8. Milani Color Brilliance Eyeliners

9. Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Foundation

10. Maybelline Volume Express Falsies Mascara

And in no particular order, I shall tag:

Silence is Loud

Loodie Loodie Loodie

Spaz and Squee

Maricza.com

C's P's

My Lucid Bubble

Nailtastic

Spooky Nails

Candy Coated Tips

Haute Lacquer

Wooh that was long, huh?

Lesson learned though....noo more procrastinating on tags.  x_o

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!!

Nubar Purple Beach

         Firstly, I'd like to take a quick minute to say hello to all the new followers! There are now over 300 of you, which is like...flabbergasting, man. So thanks for coming to my little corner of the interwebz! n_n 

Okey doke, now down to business, which today is Nubar Purple Beach.

Purple Beach is a wildly multichromatic purple polish. It shows a smokey shade of purple mostly, but you'll also get gold, silver, bronze, a hint of blue, and a couple of shades of green. Yeah, this is serious business. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

       I'm not going to say much about Purple Beach. Although the pictures don't really do the polish justice, hopefully, they give you a good idea about what a fabulous color this is. The duochrome shift is so obvious without the need for finger cirque du soleil or magical lighting, and even the base purple color has this lovely hazy, nebulous quality to it. Nubar did a fantastic job here. 

     Purple Beach's formula was a bit thin but not uncontrollable and the pigmentation was okay. I used three coats of color and a layer of topcoat for full opacity and some shine. 

And that's all for today! Thank you for reading and have a most beautiful day! ^_^

Nubar Going Green Collection

          So, as many of you know, a few days from now is St. Patrick's Day. I love St. Patrick's Day, not because I'm Irish or know any really cool Irish people, but because it is the one day where I can wear all green everything and not be looked at as a complete freak. And I sure do love green. So I thought it would be fun to bombard you guys with lots of green polishes in the following days. To start the party off, I battled clouds and other such weather-related tomfoolery to re-swatch the polishes that I own from Nubar's Going Green Collection. I think it's the only all green collection in nail polishdom, and it celebrates our lovely planet to boot, which makes it so very near and dear to my heart.


So we'll start off with my least favorite, Conserve. 

Conserve is a slightly light emerald green polish, with green shimmer.

Sunlight, no flash. 

Natural light, no flash.

      Even though Conserve is my least favorite in the collection, it's still pretty. I think it's just a little bit plain...the color itself isn't very arresting, and although the shimmer is nice to look at and adds depth, since the color of it is not dramatically different from the base, it's not particularly interesting. 

Next up is Earth.

Earth is a blue-leaning green base with green and turquoise shimmer.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     I like Earth much much more than I like Conserve. It has a more interesting and unique base color, and I love how the shimmer is more contrasting, even though it doesn't really come across in the photos. For me, Earth evokes images of the ocean and frolicking sea mammals, and it's so glowy! Nubar did a nice job with this one. 

Third is Greener.

Greener is a deep foresty green with lighter green shimmer.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     I can't resist a good dark and dangerous green, and Greener is a great one. It's just so sexy, and the shimmer with the base gives some really lovely depth and plenty of glow. Ahh it's so hot. 

Next is Forest.

Forest is a slightly dark blue-based green creme. Those gold thingies are not part of the polish....they're reflections of something. Sorry. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

        Forest is a great green. I really can't explain why I like it so much, but I do. I just like to look at it on my hands. ^_^

And finally, I have my favorite, Wildlife.

Wildlife is a duochrome with a khaki green base and that flashes different shades of copper and green. There's also a rose pink/gold shimmer in there. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     Wildlife is such a beautifully unique polish. The duochrome is really strong, and although it looks best in lower light, you can see the color shift all the time. I also really love the color combination...watching the greens and browns dance across my nails, lions and cheetahs running across a yellow Kenyan plain comes to mind. I love this one so much....definitely one of my favorite greens ever. 

   So pretty much, the whole collection is awesome. Every color is lovely to behold, and I appreciate that it covered a range of shades and finishes. The real must haves for me would be Greener and Wildlife, although buying the whole shebang is perfectly justifiable, and if you are an ardent green-lover, advisable. I myself wish that I had just bought the whole set, because I got them separately across several hauls, and it ended up costing more. Plus, I still don't have Reclaim. And I didn't get no Diamont.  -___-

   The formula on all of these were quite good...I used three coats or color and one layer of topcoat for all the polishes, although three was only necessary in Wildlife's case. For the others, two sufficed. They all went on smoothly and easily, and dried quickly as well. 

And that's all for today!! Thanks for reading and have a good night! ^_^

Black History Month Nails

    As many people know, February is Black History Month in the U.S.  I didn't want to let the month end (I know I'm cutting it close) without doing some kind of nail thingy to commemorate the occasion.  So using the colors of the Pan-African flag, I came up with this:

Sunlight, no flash.

Sorry for all the glare...I took these later than I normally do and the sun was acting funky.

 -___-

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     To do this, I drew a diagonal line across my nail and filled it in with Nubar Unfaithful Red. Then, I covered the other half of my nail with Nubar Greener.  After letting that sit for an hour, I used a thin layer of China Glaze Black Mesh on top, let that crack up for like ten minutes, and finished the whole thing with topcoat.

   I wish I could have done something better conceived, but there just wasn't much time. In any case, I like it. I got lots of compliments on it too.

And that's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading!!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle Comparison

     So, we're having some really shitty weather here in DC. It's cold (which I like) and super cloudy (which I don't like) and it's not even snowing or anything (which I hate). What the point of cold and clouds if there's no snow? Smh!
    But anyway, without any sun or a lightbox, pictures can't happen. So I'm just gonna post a comparison that I did a little while ago between Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle and some other greens in my collection. No one requested it or anything, I was just curious. ^_^;

First, we have the cast of characters: Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle, Illamasqua Rampage, Nubar Forest, and Orly Enchanted Forest.  

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: Recycle, Rampage, Forest, and Enchanted Forest. 

Natural light, no flash.

L-R: Recycle, Rampage, Forest, and Enchanted Forest. 

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: Recycle, Rampage, Forest, and Enchanted Forest. 

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: Recycle, Rampage, Forest, and Enchanted Forest. 

     Clearly, there are no dupes here...everyone is different! n_n

     Overall, my favorite here would definitely be Rampage, followed closely by Recycle, then comes Enchanted Forest, and Forest brings up the rear. Also, it's kind of funny how colors look next to one another...back before my addiction spiraled out of control, I thought Forest was a dark green, and it's really not! And Enchanted Forest is so grey! I never noticed how grey it is.

    In terms formula and application, Recycle was the clear winner. It needed the fewest coats (two), was the most controllable and dried the fastest. Forest and Enchanted Forest tie for second place as they essentially have the same formula and needed three coats to look perfect. And Rampage comes in last, needing four coats to be opaque and streak-free. 

  But even with the application issues, I love Rampage the best out of all these polishes. You get the most bang for your buck with the generously portioned Enchanted Forest, the most cheerful color with Forest, and Recycle boats the highest quality and the most wearable color. But something about Rampage, man...it just speaks to me, and I can't say no. 

Which one do you like best? ^_^

     

And So The Lion Gobbled Up The Lamb, Like It's Supposed To

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I don't care about Halloween, but everyone makes such pretty manis for the occasion that it's hard to not want to join in. One of my favorite blogs for Halloween-themed designs is Deez Nailz. Her nail art is always so neat and freaking adorable, and I especially like her Dracula post. So I went ahead and copied it. Or tried to, with disastrous results.

Please don't laugh!!

I started with two coats of Color Club Pretty in Platinum. To make the faces sparkle, I applied a thin coat of Nubar Angelic Glitter over each nail. Then I used the Kiss Brush-On Nail Art in black to put on the hair and mouth. The fangs were done with Kiss Brush-On Nail Art in white, and then tipped with Milani Ruby Jewels. I then used a red oval gem for the eyes, and put a dot of black in the center of each gem for pupils. I put angry eyebrows above the gem-eyes, and that was it. No topcoat or anything.

I wish I had used Icing Peacock for the base though, because I think you can't really see the fangs.

Sunlight, no flash. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    I meant for them to look menacing and evil (as vampires ought to be, vicious bloodthirsty creatures that they are), but they just look....special. Especially the pinky one. Its eyes are so crazy, among other things. I feel like if I were accosted by a vampire that looked like this, I instead of dying of fright or exsanguination, I'd die of laughter. Smh!

On a more cheerful note, there's a blog award!! I was tagged for it by the lovely and talented Varnish Vixen, so a giant thank you goes to her. The rules are that I gotta answer some questions, so here we go:

I love Spongebob so much.

1. Why did you create the blog?
 Well, firstly, my polish stash was getting out of control, and I needed a place where I could keep organized pictures and detailed thoughts about each polish. I considered fotki and flickr, but ultimately decided on Blogger. Plus, I wanted to make friends with other nail bloggers because this seemed like such an awesome community (it really is), and I wanted another hobby, because crocheting was getting boring and obsolete since spring was coming. 

2. What kind of blogs do you follow?

Mostly nail blogs. I also follow some weight-loss blogs, some hair blogs, and one very special and hilarious blog, Hyperbole and a Half. 

3. Do you have a favorite make-up brand? 
I like covergirl (hate their animal testing though) and milani. 

4. And a favorite clothing brand?
Nope! If it fits and looks okay, it's good enough for me.

5. What make-up products are essential for you?
I don't really wear makeup, but I need to have my Wet n Wild liquid eyeliner, Maybelline Dream Matte Mouse foundation, and Covergirl Lash Blast Luxe or Volume. They make me look human. ^_^

6. What’s your favorite color?
 In general, blue. For nail polish, it's a tie between purple and green, although blue is a close third.

7. What’s your favorite perfume?

Britney Spears Fantasy....don't look at me like that. 

I'm extremely partial to Hidden Fantasy, with Midnight Fantasy running a very close second.

8. What’s the film you liked the most?

Bleh....too hard. But a rule of thumb is if Tim Burton made it, I love it. With the exception of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Favorites specifically are Big Fish, Pan's Labyrinth, Constantine, Zombieland (great Halloween movie), Memoirs of a Geisha, 300, Wedding Crashers and a Beautiful Mind. 

  
9. What countries would you like to go to?

Heehee...you don't even have time to hear this list. I'd love to visit Egypt, South Africa, Australia, Greece, Cyprus, Ireland, India, Slovenia (Slovenians seem so sweet and friendly), Ecuador via The Galapagos Islands, Peru, Spain, Italy, Russia, The Phillipines, South Korea, Tunisia, Greenland, Brazil, Norway, The Maldives, Tibet.....I just want to go everywhere. ^_^


And now I get to tag people, but I'm gonna be a little unorthodox with it and tag all the blogs I follow. Is evil, no? I blame the Halloween spirit. (n_n)
So if I'm your follower, and you haven't been tagged with this award yet, then consider yourself tagged. Muahahaha! (That's an evil laugh, not a mirthful one.)

Wishing you ladies and any munchkins in your lives a safe and happy Halloween!