Hump Day HARE: Hare Polish King of Carat Flowers

Purchased By Shelby Lou

Hey guys! I had such good intentions to get some swatching done this weekend but all I did was go to a Fleetwood Mac concert Saturday night--say what! I grew up listening to Fleetwood Mac since my parents were fans and have always loved them, especially my Stevie. My husband got me and his mom tickets for Christmas, which totally blew us away. I think this is essentially their last tour--they are pushing 70 now but they still rock it out like nobody's business. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience I will never forget. Thank you, hubby <3

Shelby Lou Nails
Hare Polish King Of Carat Flowers
Valentine-Spring Skittle

Okay, enough fan-girling, on to Hump Day HARE! I have been wanting to wear King of Carat Flowers ever since @swatchbucket, one of my nail buddies, posted this swatch on her instagram. I decided I needed something a little Spring-y since winter is really getting to me at this point. So a heart makes it Valentine's-y, too, right?

Shelby Lou Nails
Hare Polish
King of Carat Flowers Skittle (without flash)

Hare Polish King of Carat Flowers is a gray crelly with yellow, gold, and light purple glitters along with some magical blue shimmer Hare is famous for. I quite like how this skittle turned out! Usually I stay away from purple and gold since they were my grade-school's colors, but those usually ended up a weird royal purple and mustard... clearly these shades are much more lovely together.

Shelby Lou Nails
Hare Polish King of Carat Flowers (without flash)

Shelby Lou Nails
Hare Polish King of Carat Flowers (with flash)

Thumb, index, middle: Two coats Hare Polish King of Carat Flowers, two coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.
Ring: Two coats SquareHue Groovy Love (04/13), heart free-handed using Revlon Brilliant Strength Hypnotize and a teeny detail brush, all sealed with KBShimmer Clearly On Top.
Pinky: Three thin coats of Nicole by OPI Carried Away (texture)

Shelby Lou Nails
Hare Polish
King of Carat Flowers Skittle (with flash)

It is entirely possible I smashed too many themes into this mani. I still consider my nails to be in rehab at this point, but they are passable. This Hare is one that is periodically restocked, make sure you follow Hare for restock updates!

Products:
Hare Polish
SquareHue
KBShimmer

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Hare Polish for Fall 2013: The Coin Operation

I just wanted to write a quick note that my first giveaway is over, the winner has been notified and the prize sent! Thank you to everyone who took a look and decided to stick with me, it means so much :-)

How is it that my week off has become so busy? While I have been getting a lot done, unfortunately nails are not one of them. So I looked into my photos to see if I had any nail art to share and I found some Hare stuff I did in September, yay! I literally own every HARE polish, I can't get enough of what Nikole does! And also bunnies. I did these before officially blogging so I don't remember all the specifics and I think my color-adjusting was off.... I also think I ended up having to pull the green-blue one off of Pinterest because I lost it, too, so photo quality isn't the greatest. But I still love these manis and think they are fairly easy concepts for most people to try or get inspired from.

The polishes I used in today's nail art are from The Coin Operation. All of these beautiful polishes have "flakies of gold and silvery white" (in Nikole's words). These all have excellent formula and coverage, paint carefully though because the flakies can be tough to clean up.

Peepshow Magique & Test Your Love!

Peepshow Magique is a baby pink and Test Your Love! is a bright raspberry pink, both have the lovely gold and silvery flakies. I used a basecoat of a pale pink creme and painted Peepshow on, then sponged Love! closer to my tips with a cosmetic sponge. Love! isn't as bright as alone but I liked the look. I decided to go crazy and add gold studs, too.

So remember how I said earlier flakies can be tough to clean up? Yeah, I had flakie herpes BAD when I was done. I photographed these the next evening after clean-up, showering, and gently scrubbing to get the flakies off. I even used an Elmer's shield around my cuticles. So yeah, won't be doing that again, but isn't the gradient beautiful? If you are afraid to try gradients practice on paper to get the feel of it first. I use cheap-o sponges from Wal-Mart that I cut in half and then cut into even more smaller triangles.... I'll have to take a picture for a future gradient post.

Read My Biorhythm & Zoltar Speaks

Read My Biorhythm is a grass green jelly and Zoltar Speaks is a teal-leaning blue jelly, again both with the gold and silvery flakies. This was my favorite look, and possibly one of my favorite manis of all time.

Index: Read My Biorhythm with pale gold studs
Middle, Thumb (not shown): Read My Biorhythm
Ring: Zoltar Speaks, stamping with Vivid Lacquer plate VL005 and Revlon Gold Coin
Pinky: Revlon Gold Coin
I never tire of skittles--quick, easy, and high-impact!

I also noticed I used different hands for each set of photos. Some days the right hand somehow turns out better than the left, weird! I hope some of you feel inspired to try some nail art looks with indie polishes. If you come up with anything inspired from these manis post them on my facebook wall :-)
Have you loved your cuticles today?