Don't Mind Me.....Just Gonna Mosey on in Back Here

Oh hai there.
It's mee Chaosbutterfly, back from my exciting and completely unannounced tumble off the face of the Earth. While I'm sorry that I didn't give a proper explanation (or any explanation at all really) before my swan dive, I definitely needed the time away from blogging and nail polish to sort out my life. Life has changed so much in the past year...I got my first post-college job, moved to DC, was forced to leave my polish babies behind in NYC, found a place to live, started financially supporting myself, discovered that one of my roommates was handcrafted by Satan to destroy my spirit and that my apartment was cursed, lost 60 pounds (and counting), discovered how difficult it is to make friends as an adult, got really into makeup again, quit relaxing my hair, and am currently in the midst of my third house-hunt and move in the past year.

It has been absolutely exhausting in every way possible and I haven't had any time or energy or money to devote to nail polish. Actually, I still don't. And with a portion of my job being packing, shipping and logistics, my nails are going to be too shitty to photograph most days anyway. But I miss the therapy of painting them, I miss having beautiful nails that I could be proud of, and I miss the nail blogging community, so I figured I'd take another swing at this.

So I guess I'm back. Definitely sporadically at first, because I am moving and that's never a good time for nails. But hopefully, I can be back to a more regular posting schedule before too long.
I'm looking forward to reconnecting with my beautiful phalanges friends and getting myself up to speed on what has happened in the nail world over the past year!

And just so this isn't a word post, here are some nail polish swatches that I found in the vault today.
These are of Studio M Fast Play, which is a nice little opalescent glittery topcoat.

I don't remember much about this polish; I took these a million years ago, but I do know that I liked it.

Thanks for reading (if anyone still is lol), and have a great weekend!

Earth Week 2012 + Polar Bears!

      Hi guys! So Earth Day is exactly one week away, on April 22, which means that it's time for Earth Week around here. Last year, I did a week of nail colors based on endangered species and people seemed to like it okay (plus it was fun to do) so I thought it would be good to have that as the theme again. I can't promise a post every single day, with the way my life is going nowadays, but I'll do my best lol. 


The first animal we're gonna look at is one that everyone is probably very familiar with, the polar bear!

      Polar bears are really great animals. They live in the Arctic Circle and spend most of their time strolling across sea ice and swimming in the ocean. They eat mostly seals, although they will eat other kinds of meat if they can't find what they normally like. They're also very smart and surprisingly gentle, unless they are hungry or someone is bothering them, which is when they can get angry and vicious. And since they are huge and powerful creatures, the last thing anything wants to deal with is an angry polar bear. Unfortunately, these guys have alot to be angry about. The ice that they depend on for pretty much everything is quickly becoming a thing of the past thanks to climate change, as as a result, polar bears are starving to death or are having trouble caring for their young properly. Of course, this means fewer polar bears in the future, so if we don't want to lose these guys forevah, we have to take better care of the Earth so it won't be so damn hot anymore. 

I don't think my nails came out quite as cute as I intended, but here they are:

   To do this, I started with two layers of Color Club Pretty in Platinum, and then applied a layer of Studio M Fast Play on top. When that dried, I used Color Club Where's the Soiree and a dotting tool to draw the bear faces. Then I put topcoat on, and that was it. 

 In retrospect, maybe I should have left the faces off? Or made the lines finer? Or put on ears? Something. 

Oh well though..what's done is done and that's my polar bear look. 

To wash the sight of my nails from your eyes (even though what has been seen cannot be unseen), here are some gratuitous shots of adorable polar bears doing adorable polar bear things:

I love this. 

And that's all from me today!! 

Thanks for reading, and have an awesome Sunday! 

Studio M Slammin' Red

       For today, I have Studio M Slammin' Red.

Studio M is a very dark pink (it's not reallyyy red) base, densely packed with multi-sized silver and holographic glitter. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

And slight blurring for the sake of sparkliness.

Sunlight, no flash.

      I was kind of disappointed with Slammin' Red because I really wanted it to be legit red. But once I got past that, I really enjoyed it. The base color is pretty and feminine and the glitter sparkled so beautifully in the sun. The sparkle and holo effect were not as pronounced on the nail as they were in the bottle though...I think the base ate them up a bit. But that's okay. I still like it and will be keeping it. 

     My only real issue with Slammin' Red is the formula. It was so terrible...gloopy, thick, and hard to work with. It also dried uber gritty and needed like three layers of Poshe to finally become smooth. On the upside though, it was perfectly opaque in just two coats, dried quickly, and was totally worth all the trouble.

And that's all for today! Thanks for reading and enjoy your Friday!

Studio M Purple Medallion

          For today, I've got Studio M Purple Medallion. 

Purple Medallion is a bold and saturated red-based purple jelly base, packed with medium-sized silver and holographic hex glitter. The color in these pictures is not perfectly accurate...in real life, the purple is redder and brighter. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Blurred for sparklies. 

Sunlight, no flash.

    Purple Medallion is a really fun and cute color. It's nice and bright, and the sparkles are lots of fun, because as long as there's even a hint of light, you can get some holo goodness out of them.

   I also found Purple Medallion's formula satisfactory. To be so full of chunky glitter, it went on pretty smoothly, and didn't gunk up at the neck of the bottle. I was also surprised at how smoothly it dried. I used three coats of color and one layer of Poshe for the pictures, and it felt and looked good to me. 

    But with all that said, I don't think I'm going to be keeping this polish. It should be right up my alley, being purple and super sparkly, but I just don't feel like I really need it, you know?