Darling Diva Polish - Reef Fish and Ringer

I just got a couple polishes from Darling Diva Polish on Etsy so I decided to take a break from the challenge to do a couple swatches.

First up is Reef Fish.  Above is one coat alone and one coat over Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Mint Sprint, white, and black.  This is large and small multicolor hex glitter, white square glitter, small round green glitter, and silver microglitter in a slightly greenish blue base.  There seems to be a little bit of shimmer as well, which adds an interesting dimension.  The large glitters are fairly concentrated and it's not too hard to get a few on your brush.  It went on very easily aside from the large glitters which needed to be dabbed on so they didn't stay on the brush.  I love the combination of glitters in this and I actually like how it looks alone, something I very seldom say about sheers.

This is four coats of Ringer.  This is apparently a dupe for Max Factor Fantasy Fire, although I don't have Fantasy Fire to compare it to.  Based on others' comparisons (google Darling Diva Polish Ringer to find them), it seems to be spot on.  Which is the whole reason I bought this!  I am all for cheap alternatives to expensive/hard to find polishes.

Ringer is a purple jelly with duochrome red/green shimmer.  It is extremely sheer and  I'd recommend layering it over something dark and opaque to bring out its beautiful glow and depth. 

This is one coat over Revlon Royal.  Two coats of Ringer would have shown the color shift a bit better, which is why I was unable to capture it in my photos.

Overall I love both of these polishes.  I'll probably be ordering a few more from her in the future.

Day 22 Redux and Duochrome Swatches

That's better.  This one really needed a little something more.  And the song, for those not familiar:

While I had the black on, I figured it would be a good time to try out some duochromes that I've been neglecting.  From left to right, this is Kleancolor Chunky Holo Black, OPI Just Spotted the Lizard, Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Amber Ruby, Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Lapis Amethyst, and on the thumb is Ulta Jaded.

 

If you ever ask yourself if you need Chunky Holo Black, the answer is always "Yes".  This is various sized glitter that flashes every color of the rainbow.  Every color.  Seriously.  Mine is extremely thick and goopy, but it goes on fine. This is one coat.

OPI Just Spotted the Lizard is reportedly a dupe for Chanel Peridot.  This is two coats.  To be honest, unlike most other duochromes this one loses something when layered over black.  

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms is a discontinued line, but the polishes can still be found on Ebay and various other places.  I bought Amber Ruby years ago when they were first introduced and in an I'm-an-adult-must-wear-boring-nail-colors purge, I threw it out.  I recently bought another bottle on Amazon and I'm so glad I did.  Mostly you'll see red, orange, and yellow, but a little bit of green comes out at certain angles.

Lapis Amethyst is another gorgeous one from the Nail Prisms line.  I found this one at Ross in a collection of random discontinued Sally Hansen colors and ever since I found it, I've been stalking the store looking for more. The black underwear really helps the purple/blue color shift to come out and unfortunately my photos don't really catch the blue.  

Ulta Jaded is a very subtle duochrome.  Mostly it's just a shimmery blueish green but at the right angles it shifts to a deep purpley blue. Black underwear is definitely a must for this one

I loved wearing all these together.  I felt like my nails were jewels.  

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 22 - Inspired by a Song

Inspired by The Rolling Stones - Paint It Black.






Ok, yeah, it's kind of a cop out, but I thought it was funny ^_^   Mostly I just wanted an excuse to try out this black.  It's two coats of Wet n Wild Black Creme.  I've heard it makes a good stamping polish, so I'll have to experiment with that another time.  On its own, I'm not impressed.  The first coat was pretty streaky and it's very easy to get too-thick layers, which I guess is why it's recommended as good for stamping.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 21 - Inspired by a Color

This is inspired by my favorite color when I was a kid: pinkandpurple.  Just about anything I owned or wore had to be pinkandpurple.  As a matter of fact, this manicure reminds me of a pair of dress-up shoes I used to have.  Seven-year-old me would have been in love with this mani.  Who am I kidding, grown-up me is pretty enthralled with it. It's just about the girliest thing I've worn in a long time.

This is three coats of Color Club Lavendarling. It's a lovely dusty medium purple.  It applied pretty smoothly and evenly, but seemed a little bit thinner than some of the other Color Clubs I own, thus the three coats.  This is from the Spring 2012 Blossoming Collection.  I found a place nearby that has some Color Club polishes, so I picked up this one and Diamond Drops, the flakie topcoat from the same collection.  It's a really interesting chunky holo flake/glitter.  I'll get around to swatching it some day if I ever finish this challenge.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 20 - Water Marble

Not happy with my color choices on this one, but whatevs.  This is only my second water marble ever, so it's not bad, considering. 

This is Sally Hansen Forbidden Fudge, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Teal-y Fast, Essie A-Crewed Interest (what's with all the puns in nail polish names?) and e.l.f. Coral Dream.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 19 - Galaxy

 I don't really get the Galaxy nail trend.  They do look pretty cool, I guess it's just not something I want to wear for more than a day.  My biggest issue with galaxy nails is that it usually doesn't end up looking like a galaxy or even outer space at all. Interesting sponging?  Yes. Galaxies? No. That said, here's my attempt at it.  I went with more of a nebula look instead of galaxies.

 I might have been more happy with these if I had used a solid black as the base.  I used Sally Hansen Black Diamond thinking it would give a "field of stars" effect.  Fail.  It just made everything grainy. To be honest, I'm not too happy with Black Diamond itself.  It doesn't have nearly the sparkle it shows in the bottle and even with a nice, thick, shiny topcoat like Seche Vite, it looks grainy and dull.

 I did totally get into the mood while doing these, though.  I was watching Star Trek with my husband and later tried to paint a tiny Enterprise on one nail.  It ended up as a big silver blob because I was rushing, so no pictures of that.