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.

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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.

Mani plus Recycled

Thanks to the precious Bee at BeePolished, I was able to snag the Zoya Gilty trio with the 18K gold flake- every manufacturer and their sister is making these this year- I wanted to pick a worthy undie, not the black and white it came with, so I decided on China Glaze Glittering Garland, a deep emerald green with a gold/green glassfleck. And it was glorious. I had to daub the gold flake a bit, and was worried about it being chunky, but it lay down nicely and was nearly smooth with one layer of HKGirl alone.

THEN I got some new polishes in the mail from Darling Diva and just HAD to try Fa ra ra ra ra ra over the green- like so:

What makes this unique isn't the red/green/silver/holo mix, although large red matte is interesting and most of the larger glitters are square, it's the silvery shimmer base- this should be opaque in three easy coats but just made me happy with one very thin coat over GG. And as you can see the micro shimmer even flashes blue!!

So Fine SpectraFlair

 I had bought the whole set of China Glaze New Bohemian when it first came out, promising to rival Ozotic in its duochromeness. Fail. I swatched, then sold/swapped them away. I came upon a couple, Unpredictable and Rare and Radiant at a 50% off Sally's sale, and already marked down, so I picked them up with an ulterior motive-
With a bit of my dwindling Spectraflair 35, I repurposed no big deal polishes into nearly MishMash splendor. The color change is subtle, but there, and the holo is linear and amazing. HKGirl topcoat doesn't hurt this at all.

Fall Manicure- One of my top 5 favorite polishes

China Glaze Brownstone, how do I love thee? let me count the ways:
1. You are/were reasonably priced- $5
2. You are brick red without really being red
3. You are deliciously creamy and two perfect coats of coverage
4. You cleanup like a dream with no staining
5. You remind me of when I was a small girl growing up with neighbors that had a huge chestnut tree. We would take the downed scratchy nuts and peel off the thick green husk to reveal smooth, shiny, brown red chestnuts your exact color.

This is one of only 4 or 5 I have bought a back up for. So  glad.

Accent nail is Lynn Change- and tc is HK Girl- very shiny and easy to apply- may be becoming a new fave topcoat. And yes, I broke a nail :(

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Here is what I was doing in my early days- but I was trying and LOVE polishing- enjoy (or not)