Happy (Extra Belated) Earth Day! + Maui's Dolphins

Hey guys! Sooo almost one absolutely miserable week later, I finally have the last post for Earth Week for ya'll. 
This time, it's Maui's Dolphins:

I love their nubbly little fins and chubby bodies.

    Maui's Dolphins are a tiny group of dolphins endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. They're a sub-species of another Kiwi species of dolphin, Hector's Dolphin. Like most dolphins, these guys are a really social and clever species and can be observed playing and chatting with each other as they go about their business. They're also really cute, unless you're one of those people who are terrified of dolphins. But anyway, a combination of the Maui's Dolphin's tiny living space and reproductive cycle, which includes waiting like 9 years to have kids and then only having one baby every 2 - 4 years means that its numbers have traditionally always been on the low side, compared to most dolphin species, but they've been steady. But lately, their numbers have been declining at a crazy fast rate with there only being 55 of them left the last time anyone checked. 55! In the whole world. The reason is that fishermen will use nets to catch other fish and will end up catching the dolphins instead. Dolphins caught in a fishnet can't get to the surface to breath, so they drown to death, which is a terrible way to go for anyone, but even more sad for marine mammals like Maui's Dolphins. Of course, an easy way to stop these guys from going extinct is to make stricter rules about or outright ban the use of nets in the dolphins' habitats, but nobody wants to do it. Why are people so mean and selfish to the animals? ;___;

For their vaguely greyish-blackish coloring (which up-close is apparently quite beautiful), I decided to wear Sephora by OPI If You Got It, Haunt It, from their Halloween 2010 Collection. 

If You Got It, Haunt It is a bunch of tiny black and silver glitter in a black jelly base, with larger pieces of blue-green opalescent hex glitter mixed in. It's pretty interesting. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

      If You Got It, Haunt It is quite pretty...it looks a lot better in person lol. Sometimes, black-grey glitter comes out kind of dull or bleh-looking even with topcoat, but I find that's not the case with this. It's not super-sparkly or anything, like Milani Silver Dazzle, but it sparkles just enough to get a hint of the glassphalt look. The opal hex glitter is also a nice touch. It's kind of subtle and doesn't come across too well in the pics, but in real life, I can look down at my nails and get little glints of other colors amongst the black, which I love. 

    Formula-wise, I didn't have any trouble with If You Got It, Haunt It. It was opaque in three coats, went on easily, and dried quickly. Cleanup was also a snap because it was pretty easy to control, and I actually found that it wasn't as gunky as some other glitter polishes. So yep, I am a happy camper. 

And that is the end of Earth (Semi)Week! 

Sorry for missing so many days, but I will try to post some pretty things this week to make up for it lol. And I'll be posting a giveaway soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Thanks for reading, and have an awesome night!

California Condor

Hello people! The animal we're gonna look at today is the California Condor. Warning, there's nothing cute about it.

Except for the baby. The baby is kind of cute. 

     The California condor is a gigantic bird that lives in Arizona, Utah, and of course, California. It's a carrion bird, so it pretty much only eats things that are already dead, being particularly partial to the bodies of large mammals like livestock, coyotes, and deer. The California condor is perfectly content to live its life minding its own business and peacefully eating dead things, but it is facing extinction today because of dumb people. Dumb people killing them to put them in museums and dumb people hunting them out of fear that the condors were killing domestic animals. A quick trip to the library would tell you that these animals are lazy and don't even like to hunt. Finally, the condors were dying from other things like lead poisoning, flying into electric wires, and eating meat poisoned by pesticides The government has been trying to bring their numbers up by breeding them in captivity and teaching them to avoid dangerous things, but these birds are still very close to extinction right now, which would be sad because in a way, they're the last of their kind.

 For my California condor nail look, I did this:

This was about as easy as it looks. I did two layers of Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Radiate, and then put one thick layer of Zoya Loredana on top, in a v-shape. Lastly, I put a little yellow gem at the bottom of the V. I didn't use any topcoat, because I wanted to keep the flatter texture of the colors. 

This time around, I didn't want to do a literal thing for the bird, but more wanted to represent the colors on the condor in the same proportions that they appear on the actual animal. My index finger came out kind of janky and the lines on the other fingers are not straight (I should have used tape), but all in all, I'm happy with how this turned out. In real life, you can't see the imperfections, so it looks a little smoother. I also like the contrast of Radiate's brightness against Loredana's darkness and the flatness.  So I'm a pretty happy camper.

And that's all from me today!

Thanks for reading, and have a great Monday!

The Hungry Asian Who Gave You This Black Eye?

        First off, bit thanks goes to everyone who entered my giveaway! I need a couple of days to validate the entries and then I should be ready to announce the winners! Yay!

 For today, I've got another franken from The Hungry Asian. This one is Who Gave You This Black Eye?, which I got a while ago. And no, I am not seething at the question mark, because the title is a question and should be punctuated as such. It's not a random sentence that is punctuated for fun. Seeee how that works, Suzi? 

Black Eye (as it shall be known henceforth) is a black creme base with tons of gold microshimmer and some larger blue glitter pieces. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

I just like the little face on the label. 

Sunlight, no flash.

      Black Eye is fabulous. It's very cool and is also quite unique in my collection. The shimmer makes the base look more...olive green or brown than black, and the small blue glitter pops and sparkles so beautifully against the black base. I also really like how none of the elements get swallowed up...black-based colors are notorious for that, but with Black Eye, everything is nicely showcased, which is a testament to Kae's frankening power.
     Formula-wise, Black Eye was okay. It was thinner than I expected, so three coats were necessary. But they went on very smoothly and gave me no trouble at all. 


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

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!

Strange Layering Stuff....

    Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday guys!! I hope you all had amazing Thanksgivings

, with lots of love, food and fun. I had a good one...I ended up doing a good chunk of the cooking, but it was fun and delicious in the end. And it's so nice to be away from school, I can't even explain. For today, I have that Facets of Fuchsia layering experiment that I mentioned at the end of that post. I put one layer of Diamond Cosmetics Chunky Red Glitter on top, and here's how it came out!

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. 

    So, like I said, I think it came out a little strange. I don't dislike it, but it just looked funny to me. Especially up close...the red glitter is just sitting on top of the purple and it just looks...funny. Maybe I would get more of the look I expected by frankening the two of these. But I do think it looks kind of cool, especially in lower light,  because the red glitter really pops out. 

And with that, I am all done for today!! I hope everyone has an awesome and fun Black Friday!  I know that I need a coat, and some new hair products, and I'll probably get in on the e.l.f. sale going on today. What are you guys gonna buy? ^_^

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia

Hi guys!! Long time, no see right? School has been kicking the living shit out of me, but thank goodness break is around the corner and then the semester is almost over. Anyway, for today, I have Revlon's Facets of Fuchsia. Yess, I know that everyone has seen it already, but I only just got around to wearing it, so yeah. 

Facets of Fuchsia is fuchsia large and small hex glitter, suspended in a black jelly base. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

      Facets of Fuchsia is nice! It's simple but looks pretty and the colors work well together. However, it's definitely not as eye-catching as it ought  to be. With it being a dupe for DL's Bad Romance, I immediately started mentally comparing it to my other DL glitters and they are way sparklier. Maybe Revlon used a lower quality glitter or maybe Bad Romance is just not as sparkly as its brethren (in which case, I'm glad I held out on it), but either way, I'm a bit disappointed in that aspect of the polish. But  besides that, I liked it. And I love that it saved me some good money. 

     Facets of Fuchsia had a good formula. It went on smoothly, the glitter wasn't problematic to apply or spread evenly, and it dried pretty quickly. However, it did need extra topcoat...I only used one because I was running short on time, but it really could have done with two or three. I also did some layering over this, so stay tuned for that!

*Spoiler alert: It didn't turn out awesome.*

And with that, I am all done for today! Thanks for reading (and for sticking with me even though I've been the worst blogger in life lately) and have an awesome weekend!! 

(Lame) Halloween Mani

   For Halloween, I wanted to do something cool and interesting, but I didn't have any time. I hate how there aren't enough hours in the day. So I will just show you guys the nails that I slapped together, and we can just move on to more fun things. Like CHRISTMAS!! Eeeee. 
Also, all pictures are under an Ottlite with no flash.

This was three coats of Color Club Wham! Pow! (damn unnecessary punctuation), with one thin layer of China Glaze Black Mesh on top. 

      So yep...that was it. Orange creme with black crackle. Way unoriginal, but it came out well so there's that. And it was the first time that people have stopped me to try to guess my nail color! I embarrassed myself with the first person because I assumed she was also a nail fiend and started blabbing away until I realized that she was staring at me like I was some kind of sick freak. I played it cool with the other people though, so lesson learned.

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