A Very Merry Christmas Eve

I will be traveling A LOT tomorrow and decided that a pretty Christmas nail art mani with trees, snowflakes or any other such decoration would not hold up very well under all the luggage hauling and layovers I have to endure. With that in mind, I turned to an untried, Crow's Toes Black Widow, a blue-leaning black holo with glitter and red sparks. It took three coats to get it smooth, I blame the glitter, and two layers of topcoat, but now I feel as though my nails have armor on them! Office friendly, as they are pretty much black inside, but as you can see, flash and Ott light make them come alive with rainbows and flashes. I don't notice any color shift as some have reported, but I am thrilled with the results. And yes, half my quart bag is remover and polish :P

Untrieds ROCK!!

I've been polish challenged lately, having to try all the holiday polishes I've been sent for review. I'm not a swatcher, I wear polish for at least two days unless it's really really awful, so when I get a chance to wear anything I want, it's usually something FABULOUS! Colors by Llarowe Oh Christmas Tree fits that label nicely. It's a deep evergreen holo, perfect in two thin coats. A squooosh lighter than Glitter Gal Lizard Belly, and a tad bit less opaque.  I'm not as sold on Crows Toes Indian Summer, the purplish/red duo/multichrome. Even after four coats it's patchy and a bit lumpy. Stunning, but meh on application. Not sure what to do there, but it does take pretty pictures- these are all with topcoat in various lighting and flash.

Crows Toes One Trick Pony

In the spirit of "branching out" I got a few Not green, Not orange polishes from the darling Kim Snyder at Overall Beauty. (go, see, buy HERE!) Although I do love holos and duo chromes, with my all time faves being the now discontinued Ozotic Mish Mash polishes, I am less that happy always having to use black underneath to bring out all the lovely color changes. BUT indie makers have found the secret of multichromes without needing black undies, and this is a new offering from Crows Toes in the collection One mad crazy summer 2013! Two coats to opaque and deep purple holo that shifts to teal, green and silverish.
Dazzle Dry topcoat.

Crows Toes Blasts it Out of the Park!

I am pretty much over chunky glitters. Don't get me wrong, they catch my eye, they sparkle and sing sweet songs to me, but I have *enough* for now. What really makes me hit that "buy" trigger is complicated, unusual finish polishes that are different from what I have. And Crow Toes  One Mad, Crazy Summer Collection has a few of these! I applied three coats each of Last Rat Standing, a pink-leaning grayed taupe with rainbow microglitter (really, see the macros- it's not then usual pink/green we are used to seeing, it's got blue, gold, teal and purple as well). Very thin formula, it *might* take four coats, but I applied very thin ones and was happy with three. I did a few accent nails with the aptly named Mimion, a blue based purple jelly loaded with color changing glitters as well as purple shimmer pigments and tiny purple glitter. Impossible for me to photograph, but it does change from deep purple thru teal to golden in the right light/angle. Lovely, different, available at Overall Beauty.  Poshe topcoat (both are 1 coat smooth)

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

Frog's Breath-

Sorry for the lack of pics- I could NOT get a decent shot of this-
I was planning on layering Crow's Toes Frog's Breath from the 2012 halloween collection over a dark green Revlon when OPI Jade is the New Black caught my eye- this was my first ever OPI and I used it for at least half a dozen manis last year- I forgot the first coat applies streaky and sheer and almost gave up on it, but went back with a second and, except for my pinkies, two coats did the trick- I think it's the brush: my pinkies are slim so applying in a three stroke (or even two) pulls the polish and leaves gaps- so this is two coats with three on pinkies-

Then the MARVELOUS and ONLY Crow's Toes I own, the gold/green/holo Frog's Breath- the "dripping" was not originally planned, one finger got away from me so I went back and dripped them all! Frog's Breath was a very easy application, almost no placing of the glitter. Gelous and SV overall.
Just found out October is Depression Awareness Month- green manis!