Essie - Lot of Lux

Another post.  I completely FORGOT to work on my holos when I came home.  Wasted day light.  Instead, you're seeing this.

Gorgeous, potential one coater.  I did two for good measure.  Texture dries down well and it dries quickly.

Sorry this post is so short.  I had something written up and it disappeared.  Ugh.

NailMates - Review

Hey everyone! I'm back with another fun one (I think).

Edit: This posting was meant to go up after the holo post, but what happens EVERY time I wear a holo? Yep. It rains. Holo post has been postponed until further notice. I wasn't quite done testing this, so I had to hop to it sooner than expected. If I leave something out, just leave a comment below with your question.

So...I had been hearing a little about nail caps from Julep, which are rubber caps you slide over your nails, along with cotton or some other material soaked in acetone to remove your polish, or gels.  I was interested in these, but I'm not a maven and really, I didn't want to pay $28 for them at Sephora (see:Julep glitter nail off).  So, I decided to wait it out. This seemed like something dupe able and I was just hoping something would come along. Well...luckily, I saw someone blogging about these by NailMates.  And even better: they're not even a dupe, because they're the original.

Nail Mates has been at it for while, making nail caps for those who get tans (I don't purposely tan so I had no idea these existed). They've done a slight redesign just for nail and gel polish removal.

I received these after just under a week of ordering.  I got no email to let me know they shipped, but they did provide contact numbers for those of us who are too antsy.  I was pleased with how quickly they came.

My order included ten pink caps (all same sized) and 40 foam acetone soakers.  

They recommend using their foam soakers, and to only soak the rounded ends of them, so as to prevent dripping.  I did this and they did not drip. But I have to admit, I don't care for the foam.  I was hoping they would be more felt like, but they're a soft foam, which easily tears.  I felt like they were just hard to work with and I was surprised at the easy tearing (I was wearing a foil, with glitter only on accent).   Additionally, the caps are a teeny bit big on me.  I have very slender fingers so they don't feel terribly secure on me.  They didn't fall off at all, however, cotton balls might work a bit better for the skinny finger girls.

I decides to do a "live" test of these, using pieces of a cotton ball. I did only test three fingers. My base is an old one, Zoya Bridgette and I topped it with a coat of Rainbow Honey Neon Blossom. A couple notes: this topper took a long time to dry. I'm still not convinced it was set but I did wait a few hours to remove it. I didn't mess with my ring finger because I'm nursing a patch. Cotton was a lot easier to use, but it is much more drippy, especially if you don't sort of form the cotton to your nail first. The first finger I tried with cotton dripped everywhere be because I kind of jammed the cotton inside the soaker. Don't do that. But it does fit a lot better with cotton and it removed so quickly, I was kind of surprised. I am excited to keep using these.

While you won't have your normal dexterity, you do still maintain some (for instance, I can still operate a remote control and browse the web without too much trouble). This is also a whole lot easier than foil. No more clumsily trying to wrap my fingers up and then be held prisoner to the foil.

One thing I did notice is that the pink does leach from the rubber. I had no trouble with the dye on my fingers or nails but did notice it in the foam and was a little confused as to why my polish looked so pink for a minute before I figured it out. This is a non problem since it doesn't stain you, but just a fair warning.

I have to say that I would repurchase these again, since they're easy to use and affordable.

Check out http://www.nailmates.net to learn more and purchase. These are currently $14, including extra soakers.

Dance Legend plus a comparison!

I'm sad to say that this is my last Dance Legend that I have to show you.  I hope to rectify this problem soon.

Today is Zmei Gorinich, a jelly based black with lots of different color flakies.  This is a great polish, with a nice variety of flake colors.  I think green is the predominate color, but it covers a nice spectrum.  Formula on this was like the others, excellent.  I did end up smudging my ring finger while cleaning up, so while the other nails are two coats, that one is three.  The third made a difference, but really it might not be worth it if you aren't just staring at your nails all day.  This does need top coat to get that glass smooth look.

I decided to swatch this with my other Llarowe grab, Picture Polish's Festival.  I don't own a jelly black polish, so I just used a black polish (WnW Ebony Hates Chris, which is a really good black, btw).

index, middle, ring, pinkie

Festival on on my middle and pinkie fingers.  You might notice that Festival is brighter; indeed it is.  The flakes are different, and I like the Dance Legend because it's much deeper and there is more variety, but it is duller because the flakes are sitting in a black base.  The Picture Polish needed two coats, but it was a very easy polish.  I'm pretty happy with both of these.

That's it for today.  I'm going to try to start doing an aqua base project tomorrow.  I hope I can have that all finished by Saturday *crosses fingers*, so I probably won't have anything Friday.

Dance Legend - Anna Gorelova

Yay for a new day and a new post! Today I've got two of my three Dance Legend polishes to show.  The third will be coming soon, but I wanted to give my nails a break from all the removal.

First up to show, Chudo-Udo (Miracle Yudo), a deep purple jelly with golden flakes. The flakes remind me of the flakie top coats from Zoya and NYC, though it's hard to tell if they're the same as those because they are tinted by the base. I used four coats, but it was surprisingly easy to apply and dried quickly enough. The formula was excellent.

(looks very blue here)

Next, Vodyanoy (Merman), a royal blue jelly (not unlike Royal by Revlon) with a gorgeous blue-purple flakie. It's seriously...gah. I thought the purple would take the top for me between these two,  but nope. The flakes have such a glow-y nature about them. I can't wait to wear this one as a whole Mani.  This required three coats, application was similarly easy to the previous polish, but did seem to dry slower. I do think I didn't wait as long between coats because they otherwise were the same formula.

The bottles on these are quite nice, with a rubberized thick handle. Brush is well cut on all of mine. I did decide to compare bottles to my Cirques because I thought the bottle supplier might have been the same, but realized they're not. Cirque bottles are more weighted and just have a higher quality to them in general, but these are still very nice bottles. The bottles themselves do not have names on them, only the number, but the Russian name is on the box. After trying these, I'm pretty ready to get my hands on some more.  I purchased these from Llarowe, and it was a good experience. They probably have the biggest collection available of Dance Legends in the US and frequently restock, so I don't really see much reason to order direct from Russia.

I'll be back as soon as I can with the last of my trio.

Llarowe haul

Just wanted to give you a preview of what's to come.

This is my first Llarowe order, but won't be my last.  The customer rewards coupled with their fast shipping makes me a believer.

Coming up first will be the Dance Legend swatches, then I hope to do a comparison of the black against the Picture Polish against black.  Finally, I have a lot of testing to do with my first aqua base.  Going to try testing as soon as I can.  Woo hoo!

Rainbow Honey - May Mystery Bag review

Finally.  Sorry it's taken so long to do swatches of these.  I did wear Waves already, but I only did a two coat mani, and it really needed three...not suitable for close ups.  So here we are.

First up in the trio is the aforementioned Waves, a gorgeous turquoise foil.  This was a hard color to capture in my camera.  It turns a bit bluer and loses some of it's shimmering beauty.  This is a beautiful color, worthy of getting a full size.  Formula wise, it was on the difficult side to work with.  The first time I used it, I ended up thinning it substantially but it still needed thinning this time around as well.  But honestly, it's worth it.  I've honestly thought both times that I've used this that I just might need a full size of it.  Ugh.  Show is three coats.

Next up, Neon Blossom. This is a complex mix of glitters, with chunky blossoms and hearts in both a neon (ish) yellow and pink, as well as smaller squares, and much smaller white hexes, and what appears to be shimmer floating in a clear base.  Very pretty.  This was pretty thick, as you might imagine to suspend those big glitters.  It's not too bad, though you may have to go fishing in this.  Show is one coat over Waves.

Finally, Petit Four.  This is a pastel jelly yellow with beautiful minty blue, rose and red (dark pink, magenta maybe) glitter mix.  This has round, squares and hexes, as well as a lovely reddish shimmer running through it.  Formula was ok but I recommend layering this over something similar because I did end up needed three coats to cover the nail well, and it was pretty thick at that point.  This reminded me a little of scrambled eggs before you cook them.  It's actually a really cool color and looks pretty good on.  I layered a thick layer of Gelous on top and it helped to smooth it.

That's it for now.  I'll try to churn some more posts out this week.  I've recently put up a storeenvy to destash and it is seriously the biggest pain.  I feel like it's not even worth my time at this point.  I feel like they could streamline it for us users but oh well.  I'm hoping not to waste too much more time trying to get my pics up so that I can blog more and maybe have time to practice my instrument.  See y'all next time.

Rainbow Honey Monthly Mystery Bag - May

Hey everyone! Sorry for such the long absence. I've no excuse, other than being generally lazy once I get home from work.  I'm never really sure when I'm up to posting, but I've still been painting my nails regularly (on the weekend, at least), so I'm still in the game.  

I digress.  Today I've got something really exciting that I couldn't wait to blog about.  Rainbow Honey now has a regular subscription service available in two sizes.  Both full size and mini size bags are the same contents, just a big size difference. I've never tried Rainbow Honey before so this is a little bit of an adventure for me.  If you DO NOT want to be spoiled on the contents, please stop reading NOW.

I'm glad I decided to try this sub.  SO GLAD.  This is seriously...the coolest package I've received in a little while.  

Here are photos!

Bubble mailer with a cute sticker

Really well wrapped and cute

Bubble wrap with all the contents

So...what we got here?  Beautifulness, that's what we've got.  Farthest left, Waves, a GORGEOUS (I mean, my kind of color) glass fleck teal.  I don't know if a color could be more me.  Next to it, a complex glitter mix (neon pink, green and yellow glitters...blossoms, hearts, hexes, etc) called Neon Blossom.  Last polish is a yellow pastel with various glitters (including some rounds) called Petit Four.  I have not swatched these yet, but I did open them all to see the formula.  I was expecting a thick formula, but nope.  They all seem to be really nice thin formulas.  The brush was able to hold plenty of the glitter despite the thinness.  Very nice.  I will be reviewing these pretty soon so stayed tuned.

Next, a mini Summer Juice soap and Summer Juice parfume.  These smell amazing, very fruity.  I don't know the notes, but there is a bit of sharpness, like orange, coupled with something like mango.  Smells so good, it reminds me of Escada style scents.  There is a bit of alcohol scent that dries away quickly.  

She also included a full sized lip balm in Enter Lime!  It truly smells like lime but also has a hint of herb.  Smells great and seems pretty moisturizing.  Can't wait to start using it more, I LOVE lime.  

Finally, she also threw in a little baggie of mini orange sticks and eye shadow sponges.  This is truly a wonderful bag and the best part is the cost.  

Mini bag is $10 plus shipping, full size is $25 with free US shipping.  I'll continue to get the mini and I actually may upgrade eventually.  I think I'm also going to need a full size of Summer Juice at some point.