Stamping Saturday: Chromatic Candy Clouds

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

I hope all the Americans had a great Thanksgiving! I will be celebrating today with my parents and my husband. On Thanksgiving I went to my in-laws but my husband worked, boo. I'm still a little bitter. I had a lovely visit with my MIL though, I really lucked out with her!

Today I'm doing that mean thing where I show you polish you probably won't be able to get. I lemmed this so hard and was ecstatic when it was offered once again: Pahlish Chromatic Candy Crunch. CCC was a Bespoke Batch that Shannon, the creator of Pahlish, offered for a second round via pre-order by popular demand. CCC is a metallic silvery lavender metallic holo with all kinds of brightly colored flakies. Gah! I just have no words. Here is the polish alone with flash to show off the holo. I used three thin coats and did add just a lil thinner, as I tend to do.

Pahlish Bespoke Batch
Chromatic Candy Crunch

Isn't that lil ghost adorable? So seasonally inappropriate at this point but who cares, the polish is amazing! I will be trying this over some different colors, I'm sure it would be stunning over black. After wearing this for a day I chose to stamp CCC with one of my favorite images from Nailz Craze NC02 and Rica Whiteout.

Pahlish Bespoke Batch
Chromatic Candy Crunch
Stamped with Nailz Craze NC02 & Rica Whiteout

I always tell myself I should freehand something or use vinyls... but stamping is just so damn quick and satisfying. I'm enjoying Stamping Saturdays, let me know what you think!

Products: 
Pahlish
Nailz Craze
Just Ricarda

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Hump Day HARE: Reverie In Rubellite

Purchased By Shelby Lou

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, that time for Americans to reflect on what they have and are grateful for while they gather and feast with family and friends. Unfortunately there is this horrifying trend of stores now being open AT DINNERTIME for Thanksgiving. My husband has to be at work at 5pm. So now I am officially doing nothing for Thanksgiving, except for maybe my nails, and celebrating Saturday instead. I don't even have words to describe how disgusted I am. I'm as good an American consumer as the next, but really? There is now officially nothing sacred. One day. One day a year for people to count on to be able to be with their families. I understand some types of people must be available (I've worked many a holiday as an essential mental health service provider and am volunteering that morning) but that is a voluntary sacrifice. Retail is just not that important. I beg everyone to please stay home on Thanksgiving and made it an unprofitable day for big business! Okay, #endrant.

Here is my HARE mani of the week and what will also be my Thanksgiving mani: Hare Polish Reverie In Rubellite. The base is a pink-leaning violet-ish red jelly with orange metallic glitters and shimmer. I wanted this color to be really deep and intense so I layered it over OPI Kiss Me--Or Elf! (Yeah, I kept saying I wasn't going to buy any of the OPI Gwen Holiday shades but then Ulta had a 2 for $16 sale... and I bought 6).

Hump Day HARE
Hare Polish - Reverie In Rubellite
Shown over OPI Kiss Me--Or Elf!

I have the newer formulation of RIR and it is a glorious jelly. I didn't do any dabbing for this glitter, just slapped it right on. I added a lil gold rectangle stud and two coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top. I could get lost in this polish! The orange glitter just does it for me, I haven't seen anything else quite like it.

To all the Americans out there, have a wonderful holiday and please celebrate it at home with family and friends if you can. Happy Thanksgiving!

Products:
HARE polish

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Stamping Saturdays: Winter Sweaters

Gift
Purchased By Shelby Lou 

Oh Buffalo, I love you and your bipolar weather. It's raining today. All that snow is starting to melt and we are anticipating ridiculous flooding right before the holidays, ugh. The snow really did get me into the winter spirit though and I decided it was time for some sweater stamping. Jenny from Lavish Layerings recently pointed out how great it is to use a matte as a base for stamping since they dry so fast. Which is awesome because I love the instant gratification of stamping and this makes it even faster!

I started with ManGlaze Royal Mattermoaning, a gorgeous royal blue matte shimmer. My polish bestie IG@joyrserio gifted this color to me and I'm only just getting around to wearing it! Shameful. Especially because it is so flipping gorgeous and a great formula. Dummy me, I didn't take a proper swatch photo before covering it up with my stamping, just trust me that you need this if you love blue and matte shimmers. I used Rica Whiteout with an image from MoYou London Festive 04. I topcoated it all for a glossy finish.

Stamping Saturdays
Winter Sweaters
Manglaze Royal Mattermoaning
Rica Whiteout
MoYou London Festive 04

I really need to practice getting my images more radially centered on my nails. When I have a pattern like this I use the XL squishy white stamper from Vivid Lacquer. I can get everything centered left to right but still working on up and down.

I highly recommend at least visiting the ManGlaze website just to giggle at the rampant inappropriateness. I love irreverent humor ;-)

Products:
ManGlaze
Just Ricarda
MoYou London

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Hump Day HARE: 11th Dimension Interloper

Purchased By Shelby Lou

So today is going to be a quick post! Literally 10 miles from my house is a raging lake-effect snowstorm that has buried the towns south of Buffalo in 3, 4, even 6 feet of snow! My parents are officially snowed into their home 30 miles from me. Check out this picture I shared on instagram of the storm system from the 12th floor of my workplace looking right towards downtown Buffalo on Lake Erie, A State of Emergency has officially been declared by the state and counties in my area. I have no idea what I am going to wake up to!

I have been wearing today's Hump Day Hare all week. 11th Dimension Interloper is "a neon magenta jelly with a mix of beautiful golden iridescent hexes, blue iridescent squares, gold+blue+charcoal flakies and bright blue shimmer!" I used four coats--I know, but flakies!--and two thick coats of topcoat. The squares are from Daily Charme.

Hare Polish
11th Dimension Interloper

What is it with me a purples lately? 11th Dimension Interloper is part of this year's Fall/Winter Interstellar Invasion collection. I'm wondering there will be a special holiday duo or some such excitingness?!

Products:
Daily Charme
Hare Polish

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Zoya Matte Velvets for 2014

Press Sample 

Today I have the Zoya Matte Velvets! They originally came out in 2009 and have been re-released much to the delight of polishaholics everywhere. I've had these waiting to be swatched but I've just felt that my nails have not been in the best of shape to show these off. I've officially nubbed and rounded out my corners for the winter though and I'm done being a baby about it.

So the 2014 Matte Velvets are still freakin' gorgeous. All of the formulas of these polishes are amazing, and I really expect no less from Zoya at this point. I did swatch all of these using Zoya's Get Even basecoat for a smooth canvas, because these babies will show every imperfection on your nails. I know I'm not supposed to use basecoat but I can't help it! It makes them slightly less matte but are still velvety. I also think these would matte up more when they have been drying for a few hours. All of them apply like butter. I used thicker coats since thinner ones start to dry pretty quick and cause an uneven finish.

My only problem child was Zoya Posh--she was a stainer with clean-up. I've shown all of these matte and then with topcoat and flash in the upper right hand picture. I have the color description in the photo caption noting the color and also the shimmer colors I saw in each polish.

Zoya Loredana
Gunmetal Gray Matte Velvet
Silver metallic shimmer

Zoya Dovima
Smoky Black Matte Velvet
Silver metallic shimmer

Zoya Veruschka
Evergreen Matte Velvet
Green and blue metallic shimmer

Zoya Savita
Purple Matte Velvet
Red and gold shimmer

Zoya Posh
Bright Red Matte Velvet
Red metallic shimmer

 

Zoya Harlow
Red-Violet Matte Velvet
Silver and pink shimmer

Fun side-note: Zoya also re-released four of these colors in 2013 and of course I bought them all and posted a few then, too. (Click here and here to see the two posts, yikes that lighting!) So what do you think, are you a fan of matte or do you like them with topcoat better? I love them all both ways, and surprisingly I think Harlow is my favorite because of the prominent shimmer! Now if OPI would take a hint and re-release their suede line from 2009 I think my life would be complete.

Products:
Zoya

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Guest Post from Hey, Darling Polish!

I kinda missed Hump Day Hare on my blog, but I did post A-Positive on instagram! I just got my American Red Cross vest on Tuesday and thought it was an appropriate polish to show off. I start one of my first shifts this weekend and I can't wait to get out in the trenches. I'm learning that the Red Cross can literally find a volunteer job for anybody who wants to volunteer no matter their skills or experience. Or, you know, just give 'em some blood! Okay, I'll stop being a social worker and be a nail blogger now.

October was such a fun month with all of the guest posts that I decided to keep having them once a month. Today's post is from Hey, Darling Polish! She always has these wonderful, whimsical little freehand designs that I can't get enough of. She also shows off a lot of lovely indie swatches which is always good with me!

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Hello lovelies!

I'm super excited to be here posting for Shelby Lou today! Funny story, she actually asked me to write a guest post for her back in September for part of her one year blogiversary celebration but I completely missed the message because Facebook sent it to my "other" folder. I didn't even know that folder existed! Not cool Facebook, not cool haha. Welp, at least I know now and I still get to write a post for you all!

A quick, little bit about me, my name is Marisa and I run the blog, Hey, Darling Polish!.  I love doing nail art, indie polish, and fun colors.

So, lets get onto the nails!

Here's what I used:

I know that I had to use one of my Hare Polishes for today's post because I mean, Shelby is the queen of Hare Polish! I always love reading her Hump Day Hare posts even if they make my wallet cry. I don't own that many but my little collection keeps on growing and I'm not complaining (:

These nails started with two coats of Magic Mist. When that had dried, I used the white acrylic paint and my detail brush to paint on the flowers. The inner dots were done with the grey paint and the same brush. Everything was sealed in with a layer of HK Girl.

I really love how these turned out and I got a lot of compliments on them. Hopefully you guys enjoy them as well! Thank you Shelby Lou for letting me taking over your blog for the day! 

-Marisa! (:

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Thank you so much for your post today, Marisa, I'm glad I still got to have your nails on my blog! These flowers are completely adorable and I love them over this polish. I'm so glad you chose to use a Hare, and I promise to continue making your wallet cry because I only believe in enabling when it comes to polish ;-)

Make sure you follow Hey, Darling Polish! to see all of her lovely nail art!

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Ugly Curtain Nails

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

I am pleased to report that my nubs from last week have already grown out to a length with which I am more comfortable! Do you ever see a nail polish color that you know is totally ugly but so different and unique you must wear it? Today I bring you SquareHue Savanna Sundowner, a golden olive-y metallic which may remind one of baby poop. This was one of the polarizing colors from September 2013 that I think turned some people off. But look what glorious ugly curtain nails it makes!

I used two coats of Savanna Sundowner then a quick-dry topcoat. Then I used my holy grail black stamper Rica Blackout and an image from MoYou London Fasionista 07. I love how even over such a dark color Blackout lives up to its name! I am also entirely too obsessed with this plate, I can't stop. I'm not entirely happy about my stamp placement, but I already redid one nail so I just went with it. I love dark colors on shorties and I kept looking looking at my nails all day.

Ugly Curtain Nails
SquareHue Savanna Sundowner
Rica Blackout
MoYou London Fashionista 07

I did the SquareHue box for a year and I really enjoyed it. I suspended my subscription for this year because I wanted to try other sub boxes, but I'm thinking of starting it up again for 2015. I know SquareHue gets a lot of mixed reviews but I liked the variety of colors I got. They were a mix of expected, seasonal, and fashion-editorial.

What do you think of my gorgeous ugly nails? Other thoughts on SquareHue and/or sub boxes?

Products:
SquareHue
MoYou London
Just Ricarda

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Hump Day HARE: Martian Mutiny

Purchased By Shelby Lou Press Sample

Hey all! Has anyone else noticed how Halloween was barely over before Christmas music was blaring over every store speaker this year? Has it always been this way and I've just never noticed? I'm not ready yet.

And before I forget, here are the First Blogiversary Giveaway winners! Congratulations and please check your emails if you might be one of these lucky ladies. Thank you everyone who entered and I look forward to our time sharing polish together.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

I feel the need to address my nail length in the upcoming swatches. I bring this week's Hare to you on nubs (dun dun dunnn). I may or may not have decided earlier this week to try rounding out my nails. I also may or may not have realized I suck at making all of them look even. I will admit I decided I hated the round shape and filed off all my free edge to be square again. I am not really all that comfortable with my nubs. They feel weird and are not what I am used to seeing. But! Polish waits for nothing, especially nail growth. I will celebrate my nubs as we all must, and I admire you ladies that rock them on a regular basis.

Today's Hump Day Hare is Martian Mutiny from the just released Fall/Winter 2014 collection called Interstellar Invasion. Firstly, I highly recommend reading about this collection on Hare Polish's blog just to see the outer-space bunny artwork. Martian Mutiny is a dark teal jelly with fuchsia, neon red and gold glitters along with gold flakes and iridescent blue flakies.

Hare Polish - Martian Mutiny
Fall/Winter 2014: Interstellar Invasion

I did three thin coats. It looks like I forgot to add a third coat to my pinky or something? User error, sorry! I did an accent of an Essie polish, which I will simply refer to as Stainy McStainer Stainington, with a texture stud from Daily Charme. I seem to demand flakies in all of my polishes lately, which Hare has been really rockin'. I am pleased!

Products:
Hare Polish
Daily Charme

Have you loved your cuticles today?

October Guest Review

Wow, October was such a busy month for me! Thank you to everyone who participated in my First Blogiversary Giveaway. I am verifying entries as fast as I can and plan to announce winners on Wednesday. I'm also doing a major destash, check out my Pinterest Blog Sale and Make-Your-Own-Grab-Bag if you're looking for some new pretties cheap! You can email me at shelbylounails AT gmail DOT com.

I wanted to do a compilation of all my lovely guests from October who helped me celebrate. I plan on having guests more regularly and reader manis in the future!

Be Happy And Buy Polish

Dagadelic

Boom Shaka Lacquer

The Dalai Lama's Nails

Will Paint Nails For Food

JoyRSerio

The Polish Playground

Polished To Precision

Thank you everyone and I look forward to sharing many manis with you all!

Have you loved your cuticles today?