Indie polishes - Scofflaw David Bowie's Bulge

Sometimes the name of a nail polish can make it just that more awesome.  For me, that name is from the Scofflaw polish called David Bowie's Bulge.  Inspired by the Aladdin Sane album cover, this polish is one of a kind.  I am a huge fan of crelly glitter polishes and this baby is no exception.  Described as a rich, deep coral polish with subtle shimmer. It's accented with matte and holographic teal glitters of various sizes and also features small dark red glitters and a bronze microglitter." it really has a lot going on.  I love the complexity of this polish.

I have so many untried polishes and David Bowie's Bulge was on that list.  I decided I wanted to do something special when I wore it.  I purchased some nail plates recently and have not used them either so it was a perfect fit.  I used the Special Edition plate from My Online Shop to create my own stamping decals.  I plan on doing a post about that soon.

The Little Mermaid stamping decals

I used my favorite creme polish, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, for the remaining three fingers.  For each decal I used a very tiny dotting tool to paint on the polish.  I used 100% nail polish for all the decals.  For Flounder I used mostly Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes.  His fins are a combination of Blue-Away and Blue-ming Fast.  His tongue as well as Sebastians are Fuschia Flare also from the Insta-Dri line.  For his body I used my go to yellow in Lightening.  His eyes are Milani White on the Spot.   For Ariel I used Sinful Colors in Poudre for her skin and first layered Sinful Colors in Citrine for her hair.  I thought it was a bit too orange and since Citrine was almost jelly like I layered Sinful Colors Laced Up on top.  (err actually underneath).  For Sebastian I used Laced Up on most of his body with his face in Essie Mamba and his shell in OPI Painted Desert Cinnamon.  I topped everything off with a coat of KB Shimmer Clearly On Top because it's my favorite top coat in the history of ever.

Macro of Scofflaw David Bowie's Bulge

Indie Spotlight: Dashing Housewife

I recently discovered a new to me indie brand Dashing Housewife from one of my wonderful friends over on the MakeUp Talk message boards.  I was initially drawn in because of Rockin Housewife a hot pink, glow in the dark polish with black and white glitters and some larger white skull glitters.  This polish screams "ME".  The day I discovered this brand I liked them on Facebook and carried on my life as normal without making a purchase or really looking at any of the other polishes she had including the ones in the Pink Isn't Just a Color, It's an Attitude collection.

Fast forward a few months.  On Valentine's Day there were a ton of indie polish sales going on.  I hadn't planned on shopping that day but noticed Dashing Housewife was one of the ones who was having a sale so I went back to the site and actually started looking at the polishes.  I selected three that looked interesting and placed my order. 

My polish arrived in the most adorable packaging.  There was a hand written note and a cute patterned duct tape strip along the back.  Inside was all 3 polishes packed up in individual bubble wrap with cute tape holding it together and then placed inside a lovely bag with glitter ribbon tying it together.  I am a sucker for this level of detail.  Dashing Housewife won cool points with me there.

The polishes I chose were all from the Pink Isn't Just a Color, It's an Attitude collection and included a white crelly polish, a glow in the dark polish and a thermal.  I had some weird issue with my thermal.  Best as I can figure it may have gotten in some extreme temperatures in the shipping and it didn't work when I got it.  Well, that's not true... it worked only when sticking an ice cube on my finger and the moment I removed it the effect disappeared.  I only mention this because the service I received upon contacting Dashing Housewife was second to none.  I was given a replacement bottle that works perfectly. 

After seeing a flash sale via Instagram I went back and purchased two more polishes from Dashing Housewife.  This time one was a glitter polish from the This Is Halloween collection and the other is a special polish created for someone battling Lymphoma.  This polish is not only beautiful but the reason behind it struck a cord with me having lost some loved ones to cancer recently.  I received these as well (along with my replacement thermal) in the world's cutest packaging.  Once again I was smitten by the bag my polish was wrapped in.

I will have a post for the polishes themselves up shortly.  This brand is one to keep an eye on and one you should certainly try. The polishes are fantastic.

Pretty in purple nails

I have been dying to try some tone on tone nail art lately after seeing some amazing designs online.  I thought this would be the perfect way for me to use two of my recent acquisitions.  I chose to use Emily de Molly Cosmic Forces, Zoya Carter and Polish TBH Alice After Eight.  My original intent was to do some stamping on my accent finger but that didn't turn out so I scrapped that entirely and grabbed Alice After Eight instead.

Cosmic Forces, Alice After Eight & Zoya Carter

Pointer and middle are Cosmic Forces, ring is Alice After Eight, pinkie and thumb are Zoya Carter

I love the way this turned out.  Alice After Eight is a thermal holographic polish that changes from a pink in it's warm state to purple in the cold state.  This polish has a great formula.  Shown in two coats no top coat.  Carter is shown in three coats.  Of course there is no top coat on that one.  Cosmic Forces is three coats as well and one coat of KB Shimmer Clearly On Top.  I may use it over another polish in the future but I wanted to see the depth of the polish on it's own.  I had no issues fishing for the larger glitters.  I actually purposely took any large glitters off the brush the first two coats anyway because I wanted them on top.  I set the bottle upside down maybe five minutes before the last coat and was able to get them on the brush with no difficulty at all. 

Storing the Stash

I have been seeing a lot of bloggers and nail polish makers posting pictures of their nail polish stashes and polish rooms lately.  I love seeing how everyone's looks!  There are a quite a few that leave me speechless and in awe but I have to say my own polish room pretty awesome in it's own right. I have spent the majority of my life without a space that was just mine.  With the exception of a bedroom I had in my house where I had a Hide & Sleep Bed Tent, I have always had to compromise my idea for someone else.  Not anymore!  When we bought our house 2 years ago, my boyfriend and I purchased a house with 5 bedrooms and a few other really great spaces like the loft and the room we turned into a library.  With the exception of our furry housemates and the room my mom uses when she spends 6 months with us, it's all ours!! The second largest room in the house was painted pink with one accent wall in pink and white stripes.  I initially liked the room until I started to work from home and the pink was just way too obnoxious for me.  I added some IKEA furniture, painted all the walls but one gray and TADA... my perfect sanctuary was born. (the other wall is Chroma Key green for doing green screen work)

I turned this into the polish haven sometime in the past 6 months.  I love this room.  It's so perfect for me.  I continue to try and find solutions that fit not only my style and aesthetic preferences but my budget as well.  The more money I spend on places to put my polish, the less I have to spend on polish itself! 

Nail art table.  Oscar the cat is guarding a binder full of stamping plates.

The nail polish/office is in two parts.  First is the nail art center as I like to think of it.  This is where I do most of my stamping, decals, photos, and where I store the majority of my supplies.  My light box is in progress right now but does work OK for now.  There are extra supplies in the drawers under the table as well as bins for my stampers, extra brushes and tools or anything else I might need to create.  The bottle of water is there for nail art too as it's what I use for water marbling.  In the corner are my two Melmers that are almost full.  I got them at Michael's on Black Friday for 50% off.  I am going to get a Helmer or two when I next make the hour long trip to Ikea then move these to my master bathroom for my makeup.  (or just fill up the Helmers with new polish!!)  The green binder is filled with stamping plates as is the one on the table with the cat.

Top drawer is full of minis.  I have a ton of Hit Polish minis as well as LA Colors and Kleancolor.

Drawer 2 is my nail art supplies and treatments.  I keep all my Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in there because I use them the most in stamping and decals.  Also any nail art stickers, rhinestones, studs etc are kept here along with all my top coats, base coats and treatments.

Drawer 3 is Sephora by OPI, Essence, LA Girl, Revlon, Fingerpaints and Nails Inc.  There may be a few other brands in there too!

Drawer 4 is Sinful Colors, SinfulShine, Sally Hansen Magnetic, and Maybelline Color Show

Drawer 5 is Essie, Orly, Sally Hansen textured, Sally Hansen HD and a few misc Sally Hansen, Hard Candy, Rimmel, Wet n' Wild Megalast and L'Oreal

Drawer 6 is all kinds of different polishes including LA Colors, Sally Hansen Prisms, Hard as Nails and Salon Complete, Milani, Candies, old Sinful Colors, Hot Topic, Wet n' Wild Wild Shine, LOUD Music scented polish, Nail Fetish, and some really old mall polishes.  I think there's some Max Factor in there too along with Pure Ice and NYC.

 I have another smaller 2 drawer unit that houses all of my nail striping polishes and my back ups as well as the other drawer holds all of my vintage polishes.

Nail stripers and some older back ups of Revlon Streetwear and L'Oreal Jet Set polishes.

My back up and some back ups to the back ups are in this side.  I had more but recently added some to a swap box.

Vintage Revlon, L'Oreal, Nail Savvy, Cover Girl, Sally Hansen, Maybelline and tons more.  

 

The second half of my room is where my wall rack is.  My table used to be on this wall and there is still a table here but I don't do as much nail art on it because I have 2 floor lamps over by the desk and the table lamp and my polish storage on my walls right now are foam racks.  I won't lie.  I am not the best at hot glue carpentry so they are pretty terrible.  As you will see one whole shelf is completely empty because it's falling down.  I have tried to repair it several times but I get cold easily when I am working from home so I shut the vent and the room heats up and the glue gets soft.  I want to replace them with acrylic racks some day.

My racks of awesome!

Zoya, Color Club, and indies including Liquid Afterglow, Dollish Polish, Button Masher Lacquer, Jindie, Polished by KPT, Pop Culture Cosmetics, Crows Toes, Polish Nail Addict, KB Shimmer Cult Nails, Eight4 and Nubar.  There is also one Salon Perfect on there because it's a dupe for Floam

Nicole by OPI and more indies including Lacquer Lust, Dance Legend, Glitter Daze, Dashing Housewife, A England, Hit Polish, Glam Polish, Alanna Renee, Polish Me Silly (formally Lush Lacquer) Emily de Molly, Nerd Lacquer, Happy Hands, Scofflaw, Ozotic, Polish TBH, (not shown Love, Angeline), Pahlish, Smitten, Laquerlicious, Mentality, Darling Diva and Girly Bits

My OPI's!!!  I separated them by finish.  I also put my L'Oreal Jet Set in Lightening that I just bought on Ebay (it's my 3rd bottle) and my Butter London's on this rack. On the top is my one spill over Nicole by OPI as well.

China Glaze!

Lastly I have a spice rack that was where I kept my indies when I started collecting them.  They have far exceeded the space and I kept it for my Hit Polish collection.

My Hit Polish collection is special to me.  She was one of the first indie brands I purchased.  I am sad she is no longer making theses beauties anymore and while a lot of my polish is irreplaceable these are especially so.

You may be wondering with a polish collection this size how do I ever know what I have.  I am pretty OCD when it comes to it but I mostly keep track of my polish using a spreadsheet in Excel and my nail wheels.

Each wheel belongs to a color category.  I have a corresponding page in my Excel file that lists the polish.   The wheels are numbered so I can find them easily.  I pretty much know what's where since my polish is organized by brand not color.  It's not hard finding it once I know where to look.  I like that I can have all 1000 + in one small place that I can carry around from room to room.  

Zoya Rebel & Monet

I took advantage of all of the Zoya promotions so far in 2014 including the free topper Monet with purchase of any two polishes from either the Awaken collection or the new Magical Pixie collection.  I ordered Rebel and Cosmo so I could try one of each.  After nearly 2 weeks of delays due to weather and the polishes not being ready, I finally received them today.  I am only posting swatches so if anyone is interested in finding swatches of these two can look at them while I work on more detailed information.  I have not seen any swatches yet of this one while you can find them now for the Magical Pixies.  I didn't even have time to watermark these yet.

Zoya Rebel 2 coats with 1 coat KB Shimmer Clearly On Top

Zoya Monet over Rebel

Zoya Monet over Rebel lightbox

My favorite way to wear Monet is actually over black.  It looks like a stained glass window or Christmas lights.  It's amazing.

Over China Glaze Liquid Leather

2014: A new year for blogging and nail art.

Even in writing this I realize I am ten days behind the new year in making a resolution to blog more.  Well, quite frankly blog at all it seems.  I started this blog with the intention of doing a lot more but I tend to end up posting all my stuff on the Make Up Talk nail forums and do not invest the time to do things here instead.  I plan on changing that.  I would like to do more in depth swatches of my many recent polish acquisitions.  I find that part of my hesitation is a lot of what I have is discontinued or completely unavailable for purchase.  I don't want to start putting up pictures of things and disappointing any readers that might happen on this page.  With that being said, I have to laugh at myself.  My first real posting was on vintage polish which is, in most cases, gone forever.  I guess that makes me a liar.  I have tons of wonderful polish in my collection as I have been blessed in 2013.  I have met some incredible people though the aforementioned MUT forums and even participated in a Secret Santa nail swap!  It was an amazing experience and through it I received as one of my gifts the polish most on my want list.... OPI Black Spotted. 

I would like to focus more on my nail art.  I have an entire thread dedicated to reverse nail stamping and creating your own nail decals that I would like to put on here as well.  I am obsessed with stamping but haven't done much in the way of it lately due to too many new polishes I just have to use.  I also was gifted several rhinestones and tools for Christmas and am thinking about venturing into the land of 3D nail art as well. 

I look forward to the possibilities that 2014 holds for me.  I hope to grow my indie collection to epic proportions.  I just got a Melmer recently and am looking forward to some acrylic shelving to replace my foam racks. 

Indie Polishes - Hit Polish The Dark Crystal Theme Collection

I am enamored with indie nail polish this is no secret.  Just visit the indie lovers thread over at the Make Up Talk forums and you will find me posting constantly.  I first tried Hit Polish because she made a Green Bay Packers glitter polish and I had to have it.  I am so glad I did.  I can not say enough wonderful things about every single experience that I have had with Hit Polish.  The wonderful master behind Hit Polish is Rachel.  While I do not personally know her, I feel like she's a long lost friend.  She's incredibly dedicated to her customers and is really genuine.  Her shipping is ninja like and her interaction with her customers is one of my favorite things about the brand.  I feel like she's making polish just for me and my closest polish loving friends. 

Today I am featuring the Dark Crystal collection that was offered as a mini themed grab back late last month.  I had wanted to review it but since it was a limited edition I didn't want to get anyone excited for something they couldn't have.  This line has been slightly reformulated and is being reintroduced and will be available for purchase very soon.  There will be full sized versions as well.

As always shipping was incredibly fast.  Granted, mine only has to come about 8 hours away but I placed an order on Friday and by Monday afternoon it was sitting in my mailbox!!!  It was wrapped in the signature zebra print baggie with an adorable Dark Crystal sticker adorning the front.  I must confess I tore through the packaging on this one so quickly as I was incredibly eager to see what was inside.  I love mystery bags.  Especially ones themed after movies I adore.   The Dark Crystal does not disappoint.

Aughra's Orrey is a golden jelly packed with tons of golden glitters.  It also has what look like holographic pastel glitters.  In the light it reflects a teal and purple shimmer for a completely unique combination that makes this golden gem stand out.  This is shown with three thin coats but it can easily be layered over other polish.  I didn't have a gold base at all to use.  There appears to be a defect on the middle finger but in fact that is my reflection while taking the photo.  I actually really like it layered over black. 

I'm Skeksis & I Know It is a beautiful glitter polish.  It's packed with blue and silver glitters and even some burgundy circles and smaller scattered purple glitter all in a clear base.  I am wearing one coat over two coats of Essence Grey-T To Be Here. 

The Dark Crystal is the namesake of the bunch and truly lives up to it.  It's a purple polish with holographic glitters, purple shard glitter and gold glitter.  This polish stands out.  I searched my stash to realize I had no purple glitter polishes that were not top coats.  It's unique, rich, and so incredibly dense with sparkle.  In my swatches it appears almost blurple but that is not what this really looks like.  It can be worn alone or layered over something which is what I did here.  This is over one coat of Wet n' Wild Spoiled in 2 Weeks Sober.

I saved my favorite for last.  We Are Again One is a milky white/tan polish crelly with gold and what I would call charcoal colored glitters.  It has a shimmer quality that is extremely subtle but really helps this polish stay that one step above the competition.  This is in the same vein as the recent Hard Candy candy sprinkles line that was relaunched this spring.  What makes We Are Again One different is it's simplicity.  The use of just a few colors keeps this from being just your every day jawbreaker looking nail polish and gives it a sophistication that similar style polishes do not have.  I think the base not being stark white is a smart choice.  The formula is fantastic on it compared to the Hard Candy which get thick and very difficult to use very quickly.

These should be released on October 26th at 3pm with her relaunch.  It appears I'm Skeksis & I Know It won't be being re-released which is unfortunate but I am sure she's going to have something amazing to take it's place.  This collection just touches the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Hit Polish is capable of.  I have, by far, more polish from her than any other indie brand.  The prices are good and she often does sales.  Her service is excellent and shipping is second to none. 

Now stop reading and go get yours!