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!

Wet n Wild Cougar Attack

     Happily, today's mani is more Halloween-appropriate. Here's Wet n Wild Cougar Attack, also from their On the Prowl collection.

Cougar Attack is a black jelly base stuffed with little copper hex glitter. I was rushing during application of this, so I layered it over Diamond Cosmetics Matte Black.

Sunlight, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    Although I initially had some reservations about how it looked on me, I ended up liking Cougar Attack. The name is dumb as hell, but the color is pretty to behold. The glitter is nice and sparkly, and it does give a really palpable Halloweeny/autumny feeling. It makes me want to eat some spiced applesauce and then jump into a pile of leaves. 

   Cougar Attack's formula seemed pretty agreeable. It went on smoothly, and didn't dry too gritty. I can't accurately comment on the opacity, since I layered it, but it seemed like it would be fine in about three coats. The glitter was quite dense, and with only two coats, my nails looked adequately covered in glitter.

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

Zoya Cheryl + Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit

          Happy Easter everyone!! 
          With today being what it is, I thought it would be fitting to look at an adorable and completely non-creepy little bunny. Meet the Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit:

     

    Although people in the U.S. generally think that we have too many rabbits, this particular one is in some real trouble. It only eats the plants that are found on the mid to high marshlands of the Florida Keys, making it particularly susceptible to environmental pollution and habitat degradation. The Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit also gets into altercations with cats and dogs, with the household pets usually winning. :(

  Based on the Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit's beautiful chocolate brown fur, I chose to wear Zoya Cheryl, from their Wicked Collection.

Cheryl is made of chocolate brown and like...rose-ish? flat and metallic shimmer pieces in a deep mahogany base. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     Cheryl will always be very near and dear to my heart, because it was gifted to me by the wonderful Kris over at My Lucid Bubble. But even if it had been a regular polish, I would still like it. Cheryl is so pretty! The shade of brown is strong and flattering, and it does that beautiful bright in the center, dark at the edges thing that I love so much. The flecks of shimmer also give it some nice sparkle and depth.. I still don't like brown polish, but Cheryl can be the exception to that rule. ^_^

     As far as formula goes, Cheryl's was quite good. I needed three coats for the opacity and depth that I like, and it went on nicely. I also found the dry time to be quite agreeable. 

And that's all from me today. n_n

 Thanks for reading, and I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Easter!! 

Diamond Cosmetics Cherry Tobacco

            As part of my birthday bender present to myself, I placed an order from Diamond Cosmetics. I'd been wanting to try their stuff for a long time and the prices were going up, so it seemed like a good time. One of the polishes I got was Cherry Tobacco. 

Cherry Tobacco is a rich, blackened red creme base with tons of burgundy and amber shimmer in it.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     Cherry Tobacco is vampy, shimmery, sexified goodness. It has that gorgeous effect where it's black on the edges and bright in the middle, and I love how it's hard to really tell what color it is. Sometimes, it looks burgundy and other times, it's more of a deep chocolate shade. It reminds me of dark cherry wood, actually. Ahh I couldn't look away from my nails when I had this on...it's just so freaking hot. 

   Cherry Tobacco also boasts an amazing formula. I was doing my nails kind of close to bedtime, and this polish was actually opaque in one generous coat. I went with two and a layer of topcoat, but both were unnecessary, since Cherry Tobacco also dried with it's own little sheen. The polish also went on uber-smooth and was very controllable. My only complaint was that the brush was a little bit stiff, but I guess I'd rather it be too stiff than too loosey-goosey. 

But that's all I've got for today! I hope everyone has a beautiful Friday, and thanks for reading! 

Sephora by OPI 212

          Happy New Year's Eve!! I know I said this already, but I just can't believe that the year is almost over. I made my resolutions and cleaned some stuff, but it's still so crazy to me. I'm a little sad too, because I hate odd-numbered years...terrible, awful things always happen to me in odd-numbered years. Except for that time I was born. But on to more relevant things, like the color I've been wearing for the past couple of days, Sephora by OPI 212. 

I know this is not the best picture...with the snow, it's hard to take pictures outside, and the lighting inside is kind of...iffy. But anyway, 212 is a hazy black creme base with lots of gold microglitter, lots of multi-sized duochrome flakies, and a little small holographic hex glitter. The flakies shift from orangey-gold to green, a la Nubar 2010. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

In this one, you can see a little bit of the holo glitter.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

     Even though 212 leans extremely brown on me, I love it. The base is perfect in color, and instead of swallowing up the elements, it showcases them. In all lights, you really get to see the shimmer and flakies, and because the glitter is so spaced out, it completes the look instead of taking it over the top in a bad way. 
  Additionally, I love it as a representation of Manhattan (which it was named for). Manhattan is a cool place in that it really has split personality disorder. Sometimes it's Ru Paul and sometimes it's Jack the Ripper, if that makes sense. And I think this polish did a good job of displaying both of those sides. So claps and snaps for Sephora by OPI. 
  212's formula was okay. It went on smoothly and dried pretty quickly. I did find it a bit thin and runny, but it wasn't uncontrollable. And it was opaque in only two coats, although I ended up using three to get a bit more depth. Additionally, I only needed two layers of topcoat for a glassy finish, which is better than I expected. 212 did eat the first layer, but the second did the trick. 
  Even though I generally don't mess with $OPI, I would recommend 212, if it's your thing. The color is so utterly unique, and for me, worth the price.


I hope everyone has an amazing and safe New Year's Eve!! :D

Rescue Beauty Lounge Anne

           For today, I have Anne from Rescue Beauty Lounge's the Real Housewives of the Tudor Dynasty Collection. I actually wore this for a few days, and then took it off to try out Revlon Perplex. But since I had time and nowhere to go today, I put it back on and finally took pictures.

Anne is a murky, deep olive green base with multi-sized gold and fuchsia shimmer. 

The base color here is way too dark, but it was the only lighting where the shimmer accurately showed up. The other pictures are color accurate, but unfortunately, don't really do this polish justice.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

       I don't know how many of you guys are fans of Showtime's The Tudors, but if you are, then you might remember a quote from a scene between Tom Boleyn and Anne. In it, he says, "There's something deep and dangerous in you, Anne. Those eyes of yours are like dark hooks for the soul." This polish immediately brought that quote to mind for me. It's dark and dangerous looking, but at the same time, it's so beautiful and complex that it immediately attracts you and doesn't let go. The base color is one of those confusing ones that can look green, brown, or grey depending on the way that the light hits it, and while subtle, the shimmer is wonderful. It mesmerizes in sunlight and in lower lighting, it gives the polish an incredible depth and sense of opulence that just makes me want to stare all day. I really love Anne the polish. Like...for real. Anne the person was my second favorite Tudor wife (which is what pushed me to purchase this color), and Ji did an absolutely killer job interpreting her. It's gorgeous, and I don't even care that it looks not so good on me.

      Anne also boasts a perfect formula. Some of the reviews on the site complained that their bottles were a little too thick, but that wasn't a problem for me at all. Anne was the perfect consistency and applied smoothly and easily...there was no dragging, bubbling, or other sorts of polish tomfoolery. And it was extremely well-pigmented, being perfectly opaque in two coats. In the pictures, there are two coats of polish and one layer of topcoat. Also, this is another one where you will want to break out your shiniest, glassiest topcoat, as it will really showcase the polish.

    I did buy Anne in the sale, but as many of you know, it wasn't actually on sale, which means it was listed at $18. I still feel like I got a bit of a discount, because if you divide the amount of polishes I got by my order total, it comes out to about $12 per polish. But even if that hadn't been the case, I wouldn't have regretted this purchase at all. $18 is a shitload of money for one polish, but to me,(and I can't believe I'm saying this) Anne is 100% worth it. If you've been lemming it and know that it would make you happy, I'd actually recommend grabbing it, maybe as an early Christmas present to yourself. Especially since according to Ji, Anne is almost gone. 

That's all I've got for today though. Have an awesome Sunday night, guys!