Milani Cyberspace + Blue Iguanas!

  Firstly, Happy Happy Earth Day to everyone! I hope everyone is wearing their party pants, because it's a celebration! 

I sure am. n_n

Today's animal is the Blue Iguana. It also goes by the Grand Cayman Iguana.

    Blue iguanas can also be grey, green, or brown, but the blue ones are the prettiest, I think. They live on Grand Cayman island in the Caribbean, and were being wiped out because their homes were being used to build roads and houses. They also get killed by cats, dogs, and people driving in their cars. The good news is that people are working hard to keep the left over ones safe. But there are still very few of them on Earth and they have to live on preserves, which is sad. 

Since these iguanas come in so many colors and today being what it is, I went with Cyberspace, from Milani's amazing 3D Holographic Collection.

Cyberspace is a cornflower blue base with lots of flat and kind of flakey holographic particles in it. The particles come together to form a fairly strong and shattered but linear holo effect. If that makes sense. And as always, my camera dulled the holo some. Hater. -____-

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Gratuitous thumb shot. 

I like thumbs. They give you the power to tie your shoelaces and text.

Sunlight, no flash.

    Well, I have little to say about this guy. Clearly, it is gorgeous and fabulous. If holos get your motor running, I highly suggest waiting for a Milani BOGO and then marching to your nearest drugstore and picking Cyberspace up.  

    Formula-wise, Cyberspace was okay and application was straightforward. All I needed were three easy coats and a thin layer of topcoat for a perfect look. 

Then I had the brilliant (read: stupid)  idea to put some China Gaze Black Mesh on top. I like the color combo, but the holo-ness was ruined. *sad horns*

    I really hope that we can take out some time today (and every day) to really appreciate our spectacular planet. It truly is special...it's the only one in our solar system and most likely in our galaxy that can support life as we know it. So if we mess this place up, that's it. There really isn't anywhere else for us to go, and even if there were, it would suck butt. It would be like Wall-E or Pandorum or Bladerunner. Or even The Matrix. I don't want my descendants to live messed up lives because my generation couldn't get our shit together. So we should all do our very best (even if it's kind of inconvenient) to be nicer to the Earth and to get others to be nice as well. 

Also, if you have some extra time today, I urge you to calculate your footprint. And watch Planet Earth! It's fun and  educational too! ^_^)

Okay, I'm done now. Thanks for reading, and have a most beautiful Earth Day!!

Color Club Wild Orchid + Manatees!

    Today's animal is the manatee!

    I love manatees...they remind me of babies. Fat, grey underwater babies with flippers and a tail. So cute! Manatees like warm water and are native to the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the Amazon Basin, and the coast of West Africa. They're as intelligent as dolphins and are also super friendly and gentle. Unfortunately for them, they are also uber nosy and instead of being afraid of new things like most animals, they'll go closer and check them out. That's how they end up way too close to boats. People driving the boats don't see them or just aren't paying attention, and as a result, the manatees will often get slashed by the propellers and die from those injuries. Manatees are also very vulnerable to habitat destruction (oh hi there bp), algae blooms (caused by farmers using too much fertilizer) and poachers. It's very hard out there for a manatee, which is sad, because they really are sweet animals. They don't even eat meat. :(

  For such a special animal, I couldn't do a plain creme, so I went with Wild Orchid, from Color Club's Untamed Luxury Collection. 

Wild Orchid is a slightly lavender-toned grey creme base with silver, lavender, and purple microshimmer in it. I couldn't get the lavender or purple to show on camera, but in the right light, you can easily see it in real life.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

      Wild Orchid is pretty! The shade of grey is flattering and a little unusual because of the slight lavender cast, and the shimmer is a great touch. It looks silver to me for much of the time, but when the purple and greenness come out, they're a nice little treat. I think this is more of the amount of shimmer that I would have liked to see on Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid. It's subtle enough to not draw attention, but not so subtle that the wearer can't see it. 

     Color Club usually does a good job with their formulas, and Wild Orchid is no exception. I only needed two coats for full opacity, and there were no issues with streaking or dragging. I did have some unevenness, but that was probably user error, and was smoothed over nicely with a layer of topcoat.

And that's all for today! Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone is gearing up for a wonderful Earth Day tomorrow!! It's Friday too, so yeahhh double party yo. 

Zoya Lulu + Axolotls!!

     Today's animal is kind of weird, because people breed them for pet-keeping and research purposes, so it's probably not actually going to disappear from the Earth altogether. But the wild type of it is very endangered. Meet the ridiculously adorable and Pokemon-esque Axolotl, also known as the Mexican Walking Fish. And I guess people who breed them as pets call them Water Dragons:

They don't all look like that...they can also be golden, grey, black, brown, and olive green, but I think this kind is the cutest.

But anyway, these lovable little guys are amphibians native to Mexico, and are friendly and gentle. That's why people like to keep them as pets...they're like goldfish, but are cooler, smarter, and have better personalities. However, they are dying out at a rapid pace in the wild, due to water pollution in their habitats and intrusive species eating all their babies. 

  I didn't have a color that would match the Axolotl exactly, but the closest thing I had was Zoya Lulu:

Lulu is a pale peach jelly.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

      Lulu is beautiful. The color is demure without boring and pale without being stark. I also love the soft, dreamy, and appropriately squishy texture of the finish. This is actually the kind of finish that I would have preferred for Diamond Cosmetics Tranquility.

     However, Lulu's formula was pretty bad. It was very thin and sheer, and I had trouble with streaking and uneveness. I ended up needing four coats (and even five on some fingers) to get enough coverage and smoothness for my satisfaction. Bleh.

And that's all! Thanks for reading!

Earth Week!

       So as many of you know, Earth Day is only in a few days. Lots of people don't care about Earth Day, but I love it, hence Earth Week! Last year, I did a green and blue theme, but with St. Patrick's Day like just happening and the blue theme that I did last week, that was like no. So instead, I'm going to do a week of colors inspired by some of the gorgeous but endangered life forms on our planet.
       To start, I chose to do one of  my most favorite animals in all of life, the snow leopard.

Ahh I love these thingies. God was totally wearing his sexy pants when he cooked them up. They live in the mountains of Asia, and don't like people. Sadly for them though, people are killing them for their gorgeous pelts and their habitats are being taken over by humans, who want to use the land for growing ugly and uninteresting animals like yaks and buffalo. Isn't that stupid? Like how is this:

better than this:

?!

Ugh, look at the yak's eyes. It even looks dumb.

Also, cat breeders? Please start coming up with a cat that resembles a miniature snow leopard. I swear, you'll make like a million dollars. Okay thanks. 

Anyway, here's the nail look I came up with:

I used two coats of Color Club Pretty in Platinum for the base, stamped/drew on the spots with Color Cub Where's the Soiree?, and filled in the spots with Sally Hansen Blue Me Away and a dotting tool (read:bobby pin). 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunligh, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Did it come out rather ooglay? Yeah. :(

Should I have taken more time with it? Yeah. :(

Is it sad that a simple leopard print mani came out so ooglay? Yeah. :(

Does it shame the snow leopard? Hell yeah. :(

But I tried.¯\(°_°)/¯

Thanks for reading, and have a great day! :D

BB Couture Cleopatra

Okay, so first off, can we just sit for a minute and bask in the knowledge that Locavore will be returning to RBL's lineup at some point in the future? Ahh my heart is filed with exultation....I am truly the happiest of campers.  ^_____^


But in other news, this is the last day of Autism Awareness Week here at The Phalanges Files, and even though I didn't do alll the days in the week, I think it was pretty fun! To close it out, I decided to go with Cleopatra from BB Couture's Infamous Lovers Collection. 

Cleopatra is stuck somewhere between teal green and cerulean blue and features a fine azure blue shimmer. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     I like Cleopatra. The main color is beautiful, unusual, and will flatter many skin tones, and the shimmer is beautiful. The only thing with it is that I wish it were more complex. Cleopatra was such a fascinating and multi-faceted character, and a polish based on her should reflect that. This one definitely does not. 

   On the upside though, the formula on Cleopatra was good. It was smooth and controllable, and I only needed two coats for full opacity. 

And that's all for today! Thanks for reading, and have a great Monday! :D