"This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

So I love Halloween. And I love nail art, but I'm not very good at it. So I've decided to try my hand at a Halloween nail art challenge! It's not one that goes every day, so I think I'll be able to manage it. It starts tomorrow and is from Lacquer Dreams:

Stay tuned!

Wing Dust Collections: Mongu at Midnight

I have a beautiful blurple based lacquer from Wing Dust Collections this evening -- Mongu at Midnight!

Mongu's base is amazing (I could have a polish with just the base color, no glitter!) and contains white and silver holographic hexes and blue and white bar glitter.

 I was able to achieve full opacity with two coats:

Consistency of Mongu was great and I love how rich and vibrant the base color is. There are bar glitters in this polish though, and as you can see in the photos these bars like to peek out of the base and require a generous coat of Gelous and a generous coat of a thicker topcoat. If you're okay with bar glitters then you'll really like this one.

 

If you are interested in purchasing this or other colors from Wing Dust Collections, visit the Wing Dust Collections Etsy shop. Make sure to become a fan of the Wing Dust Collections Facebook page and check out their blog as well!

Note: The product featured in this post was provided to me for my honest review.

Wing Dust Collections: Zambezi Sunset

I have another beauty from Wing Dust Collections. This time is Zambezi Sunset, which is inspired by the gorgeous sunsets of Zambia. 

 

When I first looked at this lacquer, I thought it had an orange base. But upon closer examination, I would say it leans more toward a salmon base with a golden micro glitter shimmer. Zambezi Sunset is a buildable jelly that you can wear on its own or over another color. It has gold, pink, yellow, and red hexes throughout in hexes and bars. It really does look like a sunset caught in a bottle.

I chose to wear Zambezi Sunset on its own and it was opaque in two coats for me. Check it out!

 I love all of the colors in this one! It's very glowy.

Application was great. I didn't have any issues whatsoever and the glitter disbursed very easily. I like that you have the option of wearing this on its own (as you can see, coverage was great) or over something else. I opted to wear Zambezi Sunset on its own to show you all of the glittery goodness.

If you are interested in purchasing this or other colors from Wing Dust Collections, visit the Wing Dust Collections Etsy shop. Make sure to become a fan of the Wing Dust Collections Facebook page and check out their blog as well!

Note: The product featured in this post was provided to me for my honest review.

Wing Dust Collections: Crocodile Farm

I've never been to Zambia but I can imagine all of the inspiration that one could get from making a trip there. And Stephanie of Wing Dust Collections was able to gather a ton of inspiration for her polishes on a recent trip to Zambia. One such polish is Crocodile Farm. 

 

Crocodile Farm is described as being inspired by the crocodiles that Stephanie say on a river safari in Chobe National Park in Botswana. From Etsy: "We found ourselves literally feet away from crocodiles that were almost the size of our boat as they lay sunning themselves in the hot African sun. Truly a heart-racing and incredible moment being that close to something so deadly!"

Crocodile Farm is a green jelly base with a golden micro glitter shimmer. It has gold, yellow, brown, and multiple shades of green glitters. There are holo glitters, matte glitters, and metallic glitters in a variety of shapes and sizes.

 

 Photos show two coats of Crocodile Farm with one coat of Poshe fast dry topcoat.

Application was great. I didn't have any issues and the glitter disbursed very easily. I like that you have the option of wearing this on its own (as you can see, coverage was great) or over something else. I opted to wear Crocdile Farm on its own to show you all of the glittery goodness.

If you are interested in purchasing this or other colors from Wing Dust Collections, visit the Wing Dust Collections Etsy shop. Make sure to become a fan of the Wing Dust Collections Facebook page and check out their blog as well!

Note: The product featured in this post was provided to me for my honest review.

Kawaii Nail Lacquers: Starlight Starbright and A-England Guinevere

Here is a gorgeous finished product using a-england Guinevere and Kawaii Nail Lacquer Starlight Starbright. 

And here is how I got there. I started off with two coats of Guenevere, which is a dusty purple creme.

Next, I added one coat of Kawaii Nail Lacquer Starlight Starbright, an incredibly fun topcoat with matte and holographic glitters -- even some sassy red stars!

And ta-da! Here is the finished manicure. LOVE THIS.

 As you can see, I have a lil orange peeking through to remind the universe that I want it to be hoody season right this minute. Fall is by far my favorite time of year and I love nothing more than being cozy in a hoodie and taking a walk with some coffee and my Punk. We tried doing that this weekend, but my stubbornness resulted in me having pitstains because I refused to take my hoodie off in the hot sun. Oh well.

Both polishes were great. No complaints here! I love the versatility of Starlight Starbright and think it has a lot of layering potentials.

a-England lacquers can be purchased here (shipping from England) or here (shipping from the US, but to many countries). Make sure to like the a-England Facebook page, too! 

Kawaii Nail Lacquer can be purchased on Etsy. And make sure to like the Kawaii Nail Lacquer Facebook page so that you are current on updates and new releases!

Note: Starlight Starbright was provided for my honest review. 

How I Feel When . . .

How I feel when . . . 

you can't be bothered with cleaning up your manicure before posting it on the intrawebs.

Source: Reality TV GIFs

Blue Mondays with Kawaii Nail Lacquer: Blueberry and Zoya: Song

I'm just going to dive right into this manicure because I love it so much to waste time typing about it before sharing. This is Kawaii Nail Lacquer Blueberry over Zoya Song. 

 

Zoya Song is from the 2012 NYFW Diva collection, made for New York Fashion Week. It's a shimmery, deep blue.

 

 This is two coats of Song, no topcoat. It's so reflective and almost glows, which isn't something you normally see in a cool color like blue.

And here is Kawaii Nail Lacquer Blueberry, a sheer blue jelly with different-hued blue hexes disbursed throughout.

The finished look has two coats of Song, one coat of Blueberry, and one coat of Seche Vite topcoat. And it's amazing.

I LOVE Blueberry. It's blue, so it would be kind of difficult for me to not love it, but it's very squishy, paired excellently with Song, and has a nice variety of blue-colored hexes in it.

Zoya polishes can be purchased here. And if you use this link and create an account, you get a FREE bottle of Zoya polish.  

Kawaii Nail Lacquer can be purchased on Etsy. And make sure to like the Kawaii Nail Lacquer Facebook page so that you are current on updates and new releases!

Note: Blueberry was provided to me for my honest review.

Kawaii Nail Lacquer: Gryffindor

Today I have another great lacquer from Kawaii Nail Lacquer. This one is Gryffindor, also from the Harry Potter collection. 

 

Gryffindor is a clear topcoat with red hexes and squares and gold hexes, squares, and bars. 

I started off my manicure with OPI Danke-Shiny Red, a red lacquer from OPI's Fall 2012 Germany collection. The bottle shot leans a little more orange than Danke-Shiny Red actually is, but the swatch reads more true to life.

 This is two coats of Danke-Shiny Red, no topcoat.

I used two coats of Gryffindor over Danke-Shiny Red and then applied a coat of Seche Vite topcoat.

Application of Gryffindor was good. I was able to get a good mix of the different glitter shapes on my nails and nothing was curling. I like the red-on-red in this manicure and think that the glitters in Gryffindor pull out more of the high shine that Danke-Shiny Red has on its own.

Kawaii Nail Lacquer can be purchased on Etsy. And make sure to like the Kawaii Nail Lacquer Facebook page so that you are current on updates and new releases!

Note: Gryffindor was provided to me for my honest review.

Feenix Polish: Falling For You (2 Ways)

Falling For You is the third polish I've had the honor of recently reviewing for Feenix Polish and I have it shown two ways so that you can see how it might look over colors you have in your collection.

Falling For You has a Falling For You has a shimmery, dark gold/light brown base with lots of different glitters in gold, red, orange, and brown. Some of the glitters are matte, some are not. The combination is wonderful.

This is an awesome polish with a lot of versatility. As Feenix Polish suggests on Etsy, you can try this over Twigs, which I reviewed here. I decided to try it over a couple of colors. 

First up is Zoya Carmen, a gorgeous red creme.

 

This is one coat of Falling For You over Zoya Carmen:

And then I tried Falling For You over OPI Schnapps Out of It! In the bottle, Schnapps looks like a "mature" color (read: something your grandma probably owns). But on the nails it's actually quite lovely and is appropriate for almost every occasion. It's a sort of dusty, muted brick red with some orange and pink tones. There is also the slightest bit of shimmer.

 And here is one coat of Falling for You over Schnapps Out of It!

I really, really enjoyed Falling For You. It's a great layering color and I'm certain that everyone has a color in her collection that's going to look great with some Falling For You layered on top of it. I would highly recommend that you pick this color up before the leaves change color and fall off of the trees!

Feenix Polishes can be purchased on Etsy and you can keep up to date with Feenix Polish on their Facebook page and blog. Make sure you show some love for this great brand!

 

Note: Falling For You was sent to me for my honest review.

Kawaii Nail Lacquer: Slytherin

I really love the Harry Potter series. I'm in the middle of re-reading them and it amazes me that they're so well written. I bet that J.K. Rowling can be credited with getting a lot of kids to read who wouldn't normally be interested in sitting with a book. And they aren't just good for kids. I'm in my 20s and still appreciate them. 

So when I received Slytherin from Jamie at Kawaii Nail Lacquer, I was super excited. Slytherin contains hex glitter in silver and green -- the colors of the Slytherin house -- in a clear base.

I decided to pair Slytherin with OPI Don't Talk Bach To Me from the Fall 2012 Germany collection that I'm working my way through. Don't Talk Bach To Me is a funky sort of avocado color that I thought would pair really nicely with the emerald green in Slytherin.

 Here are two coats of Don't Talk Bach To Me, no topcoat.

And here is one coat of Slytherin over Don't Talk Bach To Me. A coat of Seche Vite topcoat glosses off the look.

I really liked this pairing, if I do say so myself. The greens play well together.

Application of Slytherin was great. I didn't have any issues and I thought that it had just the right amount of glitter in it for a glitter topcoat. You could probably build this for a glitter-only manicure, but that would take quite a few coats.

Kawaii Nail Lacquer can be purchased on Etsy. And make sure to like the Kawaii Nail Lacquer Facebook page so that you are current on updates and new releases!

Note: Slytherin was provided to me for my honest review.

Rainbow Honey: Hoof Wrassle & Koi Pond

I love OPI's Germany Collection. The color variety is great and it still manages to be a cohesive collection. One color included in the collection is a fiery orange,  Deutsch You Want Me Baby? The swatch photo shows two coats. No topcoat. It's so shiny on its own that it doesn't need one.

 

 

 Click "Read more" for swatches of Hoof Wrassle and Koi Pond over Deutsch You Want Me Baby!