Apparently I like to buy blue glitter toppers

Why do I have so many? It's not as though I even wear them all that often-This isn't even all I have, just trying a few untrieds before I took off GB Banana Hammock-

from left- top-Glimmer by Erica- Ethereal, Dollish We're Simply Meant to Be, Hits Blue Christmas, Sonoma GO to Napa for Auto Parts

second pic- Northern Star Kaleidoscopic, Hits Blue Christmas (again ), 
Lacquistry one off from grab bag-  I (heart) Homikoho-latka, Utopia Blue Lagoon.

I probably have 10 more of these- must get a nail wheel and do a better swatching job/comparison.

Happy New Year to all- my NYE mani coming soon!!

A Perfect Winter Manicure- Yellow!

Girly Bits released a collection this past summer with 5 summer brights, this one is a banana/lemon yellow jelly with a blue green shimmer (impossible to photograph for me, but google it- well worth it) I've done three thin coats here- easy to apply, no streaks, still a tad bit of VNL but less visible IRL. Love this- and you may see this again very soon with something fun over it!

Travelin' Nails- Retro Leopard!

Going to be seeing some family over the holidays and you just know they're going to expect something over the top from me- Leopard is easy, albeit a bit time consuming, but I wanted to stay away from the glitter I would normally use- I'm going majorly bling on Christmas and didn't want to worry about removing a manicure while out of town, so I picked three dense, creamy 70's colors- Kiko doesn't have the manners to name these polishes, they're just numbered 369 and 393, the Finger Paints is Cordur-Orange. I think they look straight out of a kitchen from the late 60-s early 70-s- Harvest Gold, Avocado and Burnt Umber, am I right?  All three were easy to work with and gave great coverage. HK Girl over.

Missing the Sunshine-Bettina Sherbet

It's been chilly and damp for days now, so instead of a winter/holiday/Christmas mani, I decided to do more of a summer one- this is Bettina Sherbet, a bright coral leaning pink (think non-holo China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy with a tad more orange) accented with Candy Lacquer City Girl, a sophisticated topper of all matte glitters, mostly black and white with pink, red, blue, green and purple as well. The Bettina was a bit sheer and needed four coats to cover all bare patches (the polish is quite thin and a little runny) and the glitter had to be dabbed on- I did Gelous over the glitters and Cult Nails Wicked Fast for topcoat. My mood is perking up already!

Beauty Never Fails-a england

OK I'm going to need a backup. I was very wary at first, a thin first coat like I normally do was patchy, sheer and dragged clumps of polish around. But a heavier second coat, and all was forgiven. Everything settled, no patches, no bruch strokes, a perfect creamy opaque covering of deep dark olive with green, copper and golden shimmers. Oh, Adina, you are a genius!
HKGirl over.

NAIL MAIL!!

So, I had a swap going with the Mother of the Year Debbie Crumpet (go follow her....NOW!! Go! Go! and I *think* we were swapping for Crows Toes Last Call at the Crow Bar and *maybe* a yellow indie or two- but LOOK what I got!! 6 Kikos (my first!!) and the coveted HTF Opi Holiday Glow!! Someone loves me very, very much! ((muah darling)))

Darling Diva FUUUUUUUDGE!!!

I can't JUST wear a nude polish, you should all know that by now- and I'm not feeling orange glitters (too close to H'Ween and Thanksgiving) so I went with a more holiday-ish topper for my Sally Hansen Salon Choco-Latte three coat base- Darling Diva's 2012 Holiday collection FUUUUUUUDGE!! This is one coat with a bit of daubing followed by Enkelini Flakie Friend then HKGirl. Carrie's description is:
Brown shimmery based polish with multiple copper, brown, gold glitters along with some multi colored hexes and shreds.

FUUUUUUU (yeah 7 "U's") DGE! is available in her shop  here. What makes this special to me is first the ease of application, then the micro bronzey shimmer base, then the random colored glitters/shards, some matte. Very unique, very pretty!

Actually, The Grass IS Greener!

Another palate cleanser from all the holiday glitters- Enkelini had a 50% Black Friday sale and I jumped on the chance to try her holos- The Grass is Greener is a deep emerald/forest green linear holo- slightly jellyish, so I layered 2 coats over 2 of Nubar Forest. I may be headed back to her shop here very very soon- This is so deep and dark it would make a perfect Christmas green-I hope it's not sunny out tomorrow- this is going to make driving dangerous.

RAINBOWS!!

http://spectraflair4u.storenvy.com/

It's Bigger On The Inside- Wedding nails!

Going to a wedding today and I wanted to wear something extravagant- I've been hoarding Dollish Polish It's Bigger On The Inside for a while, waiting for a special occasion, and this is it! IBOTI (from the Dr. Who collection)is a deep royal blue jelly filled with micro blue glitter and a scattering of frost- not metallic at all and no brush strokes- in fact, I dabbed a bit to cover some dragging and it melted right in. This is three thinnish coats. I accented with Crows Toes Christmas polish Maxxed Out- a mix of gold and silver holos in assorted shapes. Gelous and HKGirl to top.

The top I'm wearing

Anti Glitter Earth Tone Ombre

Needed another break from heavy glitters- I went with some of my most favorite China Glaze polishes- so fave I have back ups for three of these- this is two coats of the darker colors, three of the others, HKGirl topcoat. Ahhhh creamy goodness!

Kalahari Kiss, Desert Sun, Mahogany Magic, Brownstone, Midtown Magic

That's Right, PURPLE!!!

My bestie-I've-never-met Debbie of the one and only Crumpet go here and like has been doing a 30 Days of Purple and in her honor I've decided to try the one purple I think I can wear for a few days, KBShimmer Sugar Plum Faerie. Probably because it has green in it, both holo and shiny lime green hexes in a couple shades and sizes, added to a soft murky light purple crelly base loaded with many sizes and shades of purple and pink glitters.  I have to say, though, this really is an astonishingly complicated and beautiful polish, part of her Winter (Holiday) 2012 collection, available on her site here. I think this makes a total of maybe 12? of Christy's polishes I now own, each one special and wonderful. I used three thin coats, no shoving or placing of glitters, then Gelous and HKGirl topcoat. Purple. Yeah.

Thanksgiving Nails

My nails are hacked up from glitter and glitter removal- I broke my rule of every-other-mani being glitter due to all the new glitters in my stash. I wanted a cream easy manicure that would be kind to my nails for a few days.
I settled on an untried, Zoya Tamsen, and WOW! application on this was a dream- a dense tomato red/orange crelly with absolutely no brushstrokes, even when I had to touch up a few places. I wish every polish was this smooth.  I did two coats then dotted with Zoya Envy and Jancyn, (my fave Zoyas) A bit of vnl in pics, but not irl. Topped with HKGirl, my new go-to topcoat.

The Crumpet: The Great Crumpet Readers Poll 2012

The Crumpet: The Great Crumpet Readers Poll 2012: Well Helloooooo Goddesses It's nearly the end of the year, and what a year it's been in polish world!  At the start of the year, I w...

Elizabeth's Bad Curtains

Why, yes, that IS my name on a bottle of Lacquistry glitter nail polish! Thanks for asking! This story begins early this year when the brilliant Jenna of Lacquistry (go, like, here) randomly asked her facebook followers if anyone had ever wanted a polish named for them, like some brands that use girl's names?(but never mine) and she would consider making some polishes with names. I pounced and clawed and scratched and got my name second on her list. Then she started making customs with the intent to design the name polishes in summer, THEN SOME glitters in a few of her previously sold polishes apparently melted/bled and she took it upon herself to replace EVERY SINGLE BOTTLE of polish that had those glitters in them, bleeding or not. Hundreds of polishes. THEN she had to get a fall and Halloween collection out, THEN she started on the names. Whew! So here may I present, all credit to the wonderful, generous and amazing lacquiteer Jenna, MY polish based on the 70's- Elizabeth's Bad Curtains. I layered two thin coats over a single coat of Nubar Tiger's Eye, a reddish-copper duochrome. I was aiming for the glitter alone, but the base is only slightly tinted and I didn't want to use three or more coats. I added Gelous and HK Girl over.

Here is Jenna's description:

Oh the colors of the 70's! And the decor- oy vey! My Uncle used to have these curtains in his house that were this thick scratchy brown material with orange and yellow threads woven throughout. They were hideously Bad Curtains!
Elizabeth's Bad Curtains is named after Elizabeth Stern who was one of the winners of the Facebook "namegame" contest back in the beginning of the year.
Elizabeth's Bad Curtains is a darkened cool brown jelly with fine brown with brown holo, orange, and matte yellow mini hex. If you are a fan of polyester this polish is for you!

Plowing through the Untrieds

I've been accumulating many many glitters and not swatching them :::hangs head in shame::: so this was my night to try a few of them. Apologies for cleanup and cuticles, blah blah blah you know the drill.....

Here was my plan:

 Back row: Orly Frisky, Gumdrop, Green Apple, Sally Hansen Yellow Kitty, Orly Spark

Front Row: KBShimmer Shipwreck, Sonoma 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Glitzology Key Lime, Sonoma Mustard Fields, Glitzology Lemon Crush 

and here are the bases:

and the final pre clean up: Gelous and HK Girl over: (and Essence Glitter base- basically glue-) under:

I used two coats of each base, the best coverage BY FAR was the Orly Gumdrop, almost a one coater. And those glitters! Glitzology leads the pack in glitter coverage- one very easy coat and my nails were completely coated in glitter, the KBS and Sonoma took two and still did not have the coverage- Glitter gals, RUN to etsy and getcha some of these- here! She is currently having a sale for $5 and $3.75 for FULL SIZE!! Glitter payoff is insane-

Disclosure- Key Lime and Lemon Crush were sent for review, the others I purchased for full retail.