Franken, Bibbity Bobbity Blue

BBB, shade.
BBB, sunlight.
BBB, indoors
So I was artsy fartsy about two days ago and I'd just about used up my CND Speedey. I dumped out the rest of it, washed it with acetone, and decided to try frankening for once. I'd been lemming blue glitters like nothing else and I put together half Nfu-Oh 119 with half Color Club Sex Symbol (in the empty bottle, I mean) in hopes that I might get something that would be similar to Starry Starry Night.

Well, it isn't, and normally I'd be altering a bunch of stuff to get it as close as possible: drops of black, a whole lot more clear to space out the glitter, but I kind of like it the way it is right now. It's a true blue glitter with an astounding amount of depth due to the jelly base--it layers the glitter, you see, which is why it doesn't look silver as much as the flash looks teal. You can see glitter underneath the glitter and in shade when it's not reflecting light and generally being blingtastic, it looks like outer space. In the sun and in light, it's just a cool blue blingtasm.

I rather like cool blue blingtasms more than I thought I would. It's somewhat obnoxious and I've become a bit of a traffic hazard and a distraction in classes, too, but it's gorgeous. Mixed easily without ballz, too, which I like, and a totally buildable, fast-drying piece that didn't run or get goopy. It's three coats to get it as opaque as I did; I don't know if four would make a difference. I imagine that layering this over white or black could also look amazing, but I'll let you know; I haven't tried it yet.

Besides, isn't a normal blue glitter going to be THE HUGE THANG in a couple months or so, due to the re-shelved Wizard of Ooh Aahz collection and the new Alice in Wonderland collection also? Thass what I thought. Trends, I frankens them.

Oh! Bibbity Bobbity Blue is just a working name for now; if anybody has any suggestions, please let me know!

Essie, Mint Candy Apple

MCA, indoors. The only good indoors pic I've ever taken! (color isn't true, though; MCA is greener than that.) MCA, sunlight.
MCA, shade.
MCA far off.

I think the only picture where the color is true to what I see on my hands is that last one: the color pretty much looks just like that. It's the exact color of mint ice cream! Nom nom nom. This is two or three coats, depending. My left hand is entirely three coats. Right, not so much.

Anyway. MCA was the biggest lemming of the holiday season, other than Merry Midnight (which I also have), so receiving it in the mail was kind of exciting. The color is absolutely gorgeous in the bottle. I kind of want to put it on display everywhere. So pretty. Anyway, I'd wanted Mint Candy Apple since I'd seen the Chanel fall collection, with all the black and tweed and sudden green pops that I wanted to emulate (which I did, today, to an effect I love). So I got it, and now I have it, and it is lovely and I hope to wear it all the time come winter and spring.

I've heard people complain about the difficulty of putting on MCA, but for me MCA applies exactly like St. Lucia Lilac: it's a tad watery, a tad runny but dries on thick. A little bit of cuticle pull, but that can be fixed. Again, I like Essie (*hide*) so none of this bothers me much.

So um, yes. I love this color. I can't wait to wear it with sparkles or with black polka dots or with black funky french or with a hot pink or or or yeah. A lot of things. Teehee. :3

Secret Santa

OMG IT CAME GUYS IT CAME. And it is AWESOME: Judy, thank you SO MUCH for this! It's everything I possibly could have ever wanted; you are so kind.

So. I joined an Elfster polish bloggers' secret santa gift exchange, where the requirements were either twenty dollars on polish or two bottles. I hadn't expected nine--NINE--polishes, along with all the other goodies! (Note: I mean twelve, includin' the minis. :D)

Let's take a look:

A super-cute Ulta and OPI mini set of PINKS--just in time, too, since I'd been spending an inordinate amount of time gazing at pink polishes! (Dunno why. I'm usually not a pink person, but I am THRILLED to have these)

Vivid topcoat from colorclub, CHAINMAIL CHARM from DIAMOND COSMETICS, and a blue and pink bar glitter from Jesse's Girl

Two out of these three are surprises, but very pleasant indeed! I'm just about ready to shell money for a new topcoat just as this one came strolling by and that glitter looks so fantabulous! I want to wear this for new year's over black polish or something. It will be awesome.

A color club white creme ( no name ), CHINA GLAZE FOR AUDREY, and Nicole by OPI Shimmy Shimmer. Awesome. Needed a white creme, dreamed of For Audrey, and Shimmy Shimmer just...well, looks -amazing-. I think, judging from what I can see under my weak lamp, it's a dark purple with a light green duochrome. I really wanted a duochrome. Sigh. :D

CHINA GLAZE WAGON TRAIL, COLOR CLUB SEX SYMBOL, CHINA GLAZE 2NITE

Omg wagon trail. It is far more glorious in real life than in pitchers. Truth. It glimmers and glitters and tempts but truthfully I've had waaaay too much dark color in the past two weeks. It will have to wait. Sex Symbol looks awesome for parties, layering, and frankens (which is why I wanted it!) and 2nite! ANOTHER HOLO! I can't wait.

And she topped it all off with a grape-flavored gloss, a tootsie-roll lip balm (not pictured) and this awesome leopard print file. And see that white thing? That's FELT. The classic way of taking off glitter for the fussy personality! I've never had or used felt before, but you know that now I will! Ha! I can't keep away from the exclamation marks!

So. Judy. Judy Judy Judy. You are an incredible secret santa (and I just strolled through your blog, hah, and discovered little hints of what you got me in there) and such a wonderful person. This was a wonderful happy way to end what was a downer of a day (midterms, spills, general frowns and sad faces etc) and I can't wait to use all of these. You are amazing. I can't thank you enough. :)

NOTD: Sugarplum

Two coats of We'll Always Have Paris, one coat of Dodoclub nameless.

This is how I kill a lemming: I'd been wanting Holiday Glow, right? So I look at a lot of pictures of it. So I think I have a vague idea of what it looks like. It seemed to me to be a dark vampy brownish color with silver glitter and I made do with what I had.

It's kinda pretty; looks like an OPI Suede with topcoat. Wears like iron, but most polishes do with glitter, for some reason. I actually like it best in shade, when the silver takes on this cold cast and becomes very distinctive more than I like it in the sun, when it looks like sugar melted on my nails--a unique and attractive look, for sure, but I just like it in shade better. The mani strikes me as being something really cool for a grey day. :)

Anyway. All my new polishes for the end of this collection has come!!! So this is probably the end of NOTDs for a while, as I start trying to keep up with what I have. More on this later!

Sephora by OPI, Metro Chic

So, 212 wears REALLY well. I realize that this probably doesn't belong in this post, but I needed to clarify: I was wearing it because I was lazy, but about three days in I wasn't feeling the glitter anymore. It has nothing to do with 212--it wore as though I'd put it on just hours before for THREE DAYS, amazing--it has to do with me being totally ADD and wanting to wear something somber and moody and plain. And not black. I'd been wearing black for the past one and a half weeks. Too long.

It comes off like every other glitter: painfully. Be very careful or use the tin foil method or buy the acetone tub that sells pretty much anywhere. I happened to have the tub before, so I used it to get rid of the glitterfest that is 212. It's a sponge though, not mini-brush.

Enter Metro Chic. Metro Chic, if you hadn't been paying attention in 2008, is the SOPI color that kept being out of stock and was scalped tremendously at evilbay. Anyway, it's more or less always in stock now. I bought this during the F&F sale last week.

Indoors.
Outdoors, sunlight.
Outdoors, shade.
Further off. Please excuse the frazzles and the bump on my ring finger; the causes of that is both sudden cold and peelies. :D (yaaay, peelies.)

This is two coats (you need both; it's a translucent wet concrete color at first coat, but you probably don't need more than two) and oh BOY does it apply perfectly. The first polish in a long time that I hadn't had to clean up at ALL--it is just how you see it. It dries quickly, too, for a creme, and so I am incredibly impressed. And what a color! Just what the doctor ordered--moody, neutral, sophisticated, surprisingly complex. I didn't bother taking a picture in near-darkness or under yellowy light, but basically in shadows, Metro Chic looks like a taupe. In light, the purpliness is totally evident. And, of course, I will always see the grey in it. :)

Basically my point is that I love this polish. Somehow, it's sort of perfect. Kind of pricey at 9 bucks (admittedly, I seem to be the type that hardly pays under the retail price of five) but I think the quality of this polish is comparable to RBL (we'll see about the wear later, though: I can't report on either this or 212 atm, mostly because I'd changed polishes before they chipped and because metro chic will have to be removed on halloween for a manicure that matches my costume). Here's to hoping that $OPI seems to be worth the investment!

Sephora by OPI 212

... What a strange old polish, you guys. I mean, look at it. It's like a frankenfail, or fairy puke all over asphalt more than it's like ultra-glam district of New York. Don't you think? There's something about this polish that hardly seems cohesive in what it looks like. It really is like Suze and company just threw together a bunch of extras and called it a day.

And yet... it's kind of awesome.
Outdoors, sunlight.

Outdoors, shade.

Indoors, angle.

Please click on the pictures for full-size glittery awesomeness.

It doesn't remind me of the cosmos, or of city lights, or whatever poeticism seems to be popular in defining 212. It reminds me, very very specifically, of the way a street looks after a party. The gritty remnants of confetti; the smoky sparkle in the sky after fireworks. If it reminded me of the cosmos, it'd be one of those dusty galaxy pictures with yellow clouds. It reminds me of happy things long gone, with the fuzzy memory of it left behind.

Which is probably why I like this polish. It strikes me as being a party polish not because it's blingy and fantastic but because its blinginess is so messy and nostalgic. I'm wearing it for halloween madness this week (and also because I'm lazy and can just paint it over the aforementioned Raven--by the way, the pinky is all 212 without an opaque black base, but it needed three coats. The rest are two), but I imagine that I'd wear this during New Year's.

Or maybe--right after holiday madness. Just to reflect what the rest of me feels like after it's all over and done.

... Yeah. I like this polish.

Zoya Raven

So. My first non-pink polish was a black one and I'd used it up--oh, last summer. So when I went on search for a new one, I'd decided to splurge during Zoya Insanity on the Raven, who is the reported Chanel Black Satin dupe. Of course I went for it.

I'm kind of in love with it, too, but details on that below:

Indoors--I can NEVER give indoor pictures clarity, for some reason.
Far off.
Sunlight.

This is two coats of Zoya Raven: it only needs two coats, but it most definitely needs two coats: the first coat is sheer. What makes this polish unique from the average flat black creme is first its lack of pigmentation: this is clearly a base color polish; not a complicated nail art polish at all. Second is the "satin-y" silver finish that glimmers just so on the surface of the nail: I think you all can kind of sort of see it on the pinky finger on the last picture. It's there. It is indeed reminiscent of black satin ribbons. It is also reminiscent of that strange silver sheen in raven feathers. It is very glossy and very sophisticated--given that you can make it not chip.

This is fun, because a lot of people complain that Zoya is chip-effing-tastic. I actually found that it stayed pretty well on my fingers for a dark polish--I'm changing it now after three days or so because my thumbs have chipped badly and needs more protection. I don't necessarily think it's bad, but... I'm not fond of black polish anymore. I don't know why; I'm just tired of it. Maybe I need to put Raven away unless I need a good base for another art experiment--I can't imagine just wearing this just because.