Urban Decay Cult

            This past summer, I bought three old school Urban Decay polishes and posted about two of them here. I meant to do the last one, only I kept on getting distracted by other shineh things, so I never got around to it. But today, I'm going to rectify that situation, because I am wearing Urban Decay Cult. And I'm gonna show it to you. Muahaha. 

I took this picture a few months ago, which is why my thumb looks like that. But anyways, Cult is a seagreen to blue metallic polish (I'm reluctant to call it a foil) with a ton of gold shimmer. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

        Cult is such a pretty polish, and to me, it's very unique. It's like a mermaid-y foil, which I've never seen before. In most of the pictures, it looks blue, although it can look very green too. It's not a duochrome, but Cult is one of those polishes that is highly affected by the lighting situation. In sunlight and natural light, it looks blue. But I notice that in artificial lighting, it will go green. Like right now, I'm in my room and my nails look perfectly seagreen. I just couldn't capture that in a photo. :( Anyway, it's an awesome color. 

    Cult applied okay too...it was a little on the thick side and for a minute, I was a little concerned about brush strokes. But it went on okay and without bubbling, and with the help of one layer of topcoat, it dried quickly and evenly. I don't know if it's B3F though...it doesn't smell of chemically goodness, and that + the label is how I usually tell.

   I paid $4 for this (that includes shipping) and I'd definitely say it was a bit of a steal, especially because this color is discontinued. It's still available on ebay for a reasonable price too. 

  

  My internet acting up again, and I'm tired of fighting with it, so I'm going to go burn this shitty dorm down do non-virtual things. *shudders* I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing Sunday! 

Nubar Raspberry Truffle

           Yesterday, I was feeling like fall again. I wish it would just come already. So I dug out Nubar Raspberry Truffles, from the Chocolate Truffle Collection and put it on. It was created for fall. Literally. ^_^

Raspberry Truffle is a deep chocolate brown creme base with a bunch of shimmer. The shimmer is a little hard for me to pinpoint...for the most part, it's wine colored and gives the base an attractive burgundy-ish cast. But I think it's a little duochromatic, because it does look gold to me in some lights. It's more obvious in the bottle though. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

This was the best picture I could get of the shimmer looking gold...you probably have to enlarge it, because it's pretty...subtle. 

Sunlight, no flash.

        Okay, confession time....I don't wear brown things. I don't wear brown nail polish, and I don't wear brown clothes. It's not that there's anything wrong with brown things. After all, I am a brown thing. But something about the color brown makes me not want to wear it. So I was really surprised when I noticed that Rasberry Truffle, from Nubar's Chocolate Truffles Collection was calling out to me from my computer screen. And I'm even more surprised to find that I really like it! I think it's because of the burgundy-ish thing that it has going on. And also because the shimmer is gorgeous...in sunlight, it sparkles and pops from the base. It doesn't sparkle in low light, but it still makes its presence known. The color of the shimmer is perfect too...it makes me think of fall-ish things, like apple orchards, Cabernet Sauvignon, and changing leaves. I get changing leaves especially when the goldish thingy comes out. 
       My only complaint about the color would be that something seems a little...off with Raspberry Truffle's base. It's dark, but for some reason, it's not like....rich. I don't know. It just looks a tad bit muted to me. I was hoping for a slightly more robust brown. And I wish the shimmer duochromish thing was more obvious. 
       Raspberry Truffle applied really nicely though. The formula was a nice consistency, and went on smoothly without dragging or bubbling. I used three coats for these pictures, although it might have been fine in two. Nubar makes such nice things. 
      But that's all I've got for today. Have an awesome weekend, everyone! 

Blog Awards + A Giveaway

         Yesterday, The Phalanges Files won two cute awards from Blu11 at Polish Drops!! So big thanks to her and to the people who read and/or leave comments!  Here are the awards and rules:

The Sunshine Award

Rules:

1. Save the image above and post it on your own blog.
2. Pass the award on to 12 fellow bloggers.
3. Link the nominees
4. Let nominees know they have won this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person you received this award from.

and

The Happy 101 Award

Rules:

1. Post who gave you this award
2. State 10 things you like
3. Give this award to 10 other bloggers and notify them with a comment

   The Happy 101 Award asks for 10 nominees, and the Sunshine Award asks for 12. I thought about doing 22, but that's too many for a lazy like me. And then 10 is too small. So I'm going to split the difference and pick 16 nominees. Also, I'm going to only choose blogs with fewer than 300 followers...some of my absolute favorite blogs are bigger than that, but I wanted to highlight some smaller blogs like mine. So here we go, in no particular order:

1.  Another Bottle Of Nail Polish?!

2. Polish Wasteland

3. Playing With Polish

4.  Nail York City

5. Nailspotting

6. Alabaster Lacquer

7. Amused Polish

8. Lunatikitty

9. Crystal Visions

10. Squovalicious

11. Glaze Craze

12. Shortwidenails

13. Nail Galore

14.Tinna Nails

15. A Splash of Serenity

16. Lacquer Lady

  And then ten things that make me happy:

1. Nail polish, and everything involved in it! I'm extra partial to glitter.

2. Art

3. ANIMALS

4. My family...sometimes, I want to beat them with sharp sticks, but mostly, I love them.

5. Really good television shows

6. Good looking men

7. Water (not the kind you drink, but like pools and oceans)

8. Tasty food.

9. Stiletto heels.

10. Winter

11.  Money (I just couldn't not put that one in ^_^; )

And for the second order of business, there's a giveaway! And surprise, it's actually mine! :D

Yeahh, the first giveaway at The Phalanges Files!  It's only a small one, because I'm still unemployed and can't really afford a big giveaway. But I wanted to show how much I appreciate you guys! 

Here's the stuff that will go to one lucky (sort of) follower:

A set of four L.A. Colors Metallic Polishes

and

A small group of Sinful Colors Polishes. 

L-R: Rise and Shine, Bali Mist, All About You, Secret Admirer, What's Your Name?, and Green Ocean

For this giveaway, I'm going to take it back to the playground and lock the game...now nobody else can play. What that means is that if you are not a follower at the moment that this post goes live, you can't enter the giveaway. It's not to be mean, and sorry if that seemed mean. It sounded a little mean. But I just want to give special consideration to the followers I have now. Everyone can play next time. ^_^

 If you did qualify and want to enter, all you have to do is write one comment containing the name you follow under and an active email address.

Super easy, right?

The giveaway will be open to errybody on Planet Earth, because we are the world. AND we are the children.

I'll be taking entries until September 25th, and the winner will be announced on the 26th.

Have a happy Friday, everyone!!! 

Borghese Plumaggio Purple

           Thanks to certain professors who will remain nameless, this will have to be a quick but hopefully not so dirty post. Today, I've got on one of Borghese's core line colors, Plumaggio Purple. 

Plumaggio Purple is a bit of a misnomer, as the polish is actually a deep blurple. It's a little more purple than the color here (my camera is obsessed with blue), but still...it's blurple. Plumaggio Purple also features that fabulous purple and blue shimmer that I love so much, although in person, the shimmer isn't that visible most of the time. I mean, you can plainly see that there's shimmer, but you can't really distinguish what type.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

The color in the bottle is accurate, which is strange. 

      Plumaggio Purple is really pretty. It's not $8 pretty, but if you have some Extra Care Bucks saved up or one of those $3 off Borghese coupons, I'd recommend picking up this color. The shade of blurple is rich and flattering, and never looks black, even in low light. 

     Application was good. I love the Borghese double brush, and the formula was smooth and very pigmented. In fact, it was a little too pigmented...my cuticles on my left hand look a hot faintly blurple mess. But anyway, the pigmentation was helpful too...this is two coats, and it's perfect. Dry time was also very good...I went to bed about twenty minutes after painting, and I didn't have marks this morning. 

   That's all I have for today! Have a great day, everyone!

China Glaze Dorothy Who?

          I was digging through my stash looking for a color to wear when I unearthed China Glaze Dorothy Who? from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz Returns Collection. I've worn this a few times, and even featured it here a long time ago, but I've since gotten rid of that post. The pictures sucked butt. So I decided to wear it again, in hopes that I could get decent pictures this time. But even the best laid plans. 

Dorothy Who? is a cobalt blue jelly base, stuffed to overflowing with silver square glitter. It also looks like there's blue glitter too, but I can't decide if it's actually blue, or if it's silver glitter that's just slightly beneath the surface of the jelly, making it only look blue.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     Dorothy Who? was such a disappointment to me. It's a pretty polish....the shade of blue is nice, it's a cute interpretation of Dorothy, and I can't hate when glitter and jelly are involved. But in the reviews I read prior to buying this, people were like....giving birth over how beautiful this polish is. And then I buy it, slap it on the day after it comes, and BAM. It's actually a little bit boring. I think I would have liked it better if it had a deeper base and less glitter. Or what might have been cool was if there were a little bit of red glitter in here, for Dorothy's shoes and hair. 

    And how come Toto didn't get a polish? Toto made the whole movie! It could have been black jelly...with black glitter. Something like Fortune Teller, just all black. I want one of those so bad...I'd rather have it than Dorothy Who?. But I digress. The bottom line is that I felt like Dorothy Who? was pretty, but boring. Much like Ruby Pumps.

    Application-wise, Dorothy Who? was okay. First coat was a little difficult...it was kind of streaky and draggy, but it wasn't anything too horrible. After the first coat, things improved. I ended up with four coats of color and one layer of topcoat, and everything dried fairly quickly. 

I have lots of homework to do (teachers finally got serious) so I'm gonna run along now. Have a great night, guys!

OPI Princesses Rule!

           A few days ago, the lovely Li Lian from Shortwidenails asked me to swatch OPI Princesses Rule! from the Princess Charming Soft Shades Collection. I had some time and light this past weekend, so that's what I did. Here it is:

Princesses Rule! is a sheer rose pink base with a ton of fine crystalline silver shimmer in it. There's also pink and green shimmer scattered in, although they didn't show up in the picture. They do on the nail, however. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

When not in the sun, the shade of pink tends to cool down a bit.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. 

        Princesses Rule! is a color that perfectly fits its name. It's delicate, girly, demure, bright, and above all, very very pretty....essentially, it's a princess in a bottle. The shimmer is amazing...indoors, you can see all the different colors, and in the sun, Princesses Rule! is sparkly and dazzling. It just looks very...sweet. Like a cupcake covered in tiny sugar crystals. 

     On the application front, Princesses Rule! did not disappoint. Being a sheer polish, of course the formula was on the thin side, but the coats went on fairly easily and dried quickly. The pictures are three coats of Princesses Rule! with one coat of Barielle Natural Nail Camouflage, and there's still a good amount of VNL. But it somehow adds to the beauty and charm of this polish, so I wouldn't want to keep applying to opacity. 

     Overall, I'd definitely say that everyone needs to own this color. It's just so gorgeous, and can be worn by itself, layered over other shades of pink, layered over corresponding shades of pink for more opacity, layered over black, and used for french manicures. I can definitely see it creating a gorgeous french mani, especially.

   After I was done with the picture taking, I wanted to compare Princesses Rule! with some other pale pink shimmers, to see if I had any dupes for it. Here's the cast of characters:

L-R: OPI Princesses Rule!, Zoya Bebe, Sinful Colors Glass Pink, and Sally Hansen Pink Promise

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: OPI Princesses Rule!, Zoya Bebe, Sinful Colors Glass Pink, and Sally Hansen Pink Promise

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: OPI Princesses Rule!, Zoya Bebe, Sinful Colors Glass Pink, and Sally Hansen Pink Promise

     Clearly, none of these are the same. They aren't even similar to one another, each featuring a distinct shade of pink and type of shimmer. But out of these, I like Princesses Rule! the best, followed by Bebe, followed by Pink Promise, and then Glass Pink brings up the rear. 

    And with that, I am done for today. I hope you all had good Mondays!