Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

I don't usually get into Halloween too much, so this is stepping out for me.  As I am currently seven months pregnant, I figured a jack o lantern would be an appropriate costume.  I went all out for that, too: a $5 Tshirt from Walmart ;)  I plan on spending the evening going trick-or-treating with my son and nephew, who are both three, and my brother and sister-in-law.  

This is OPI Jinx and Orly Liquid Vinyl.  Jinx is from the Bond Girls liquid sand collection.  I love this polish.  It's a bright orange with gold shimmer and kind of a pink/coral undertone.  It's unbelievably sparkly with or without topcoat (I used topcoat in the photos below), which most pictures don't seem to really capture.  I'm not usually a fan of the liquid sand polishes because of the odd texture, but this one has much less of that.  It's closer to Zoya's Pixie Dusts in that it's more sugary sparkle than texture.

Color Club Harp On It Review

This is two coats of Color Club Harp On It. Your basic silver holographic polish, if a holographic polish can be called basic. This is probably one of the best holographic polishes you can buy.  It's a strong linear holo that goes on easily and evenly and doesn't require any special base coats or nail prep.  I used Seche Clear as my base for the photos below, but I tested it over several others as well as bare nails and didn't notice any appreciable difference in application. I also didn't notice any significant dulling of the holographic effect with topcoat.

The best part is that it really doesn't take much for the effect to be visible.  Many other holographic polishes look completely dull in anything but direct sunlight. This one is best in bright sunlight of course, but I even see quite a bit of the rainbow shift indoors.  The only time I've seen it completely flat so far is in the shade outside.

I wanted to do a little nail art on this, but I decided to keep it simple so as not to overshadow the gorgeous holo-ness. And of course I had to go a little crazy with the pictures.  Because holo.

NOTD: Honeycomb

Oh yeah.  I have a blog.

Life has been a little crazy lately.  We're in the process of moving, a process which started earlier this year and won't be complete until at least January of next year.  We're currently living at my parents house while most of our stuff (including about two thirds of my polish) is in storage.  Also, I'm pregnant!  It's a boy, due January 7th.  So with all of that going on, I haven't really had the time to do much with my nails or been in the mood to photograph them.

I'm getting back into the swing of things, though! This is Milani Gold Glitz stamped with L'Oreal Downtown Chic and plate VL002 by Vivid Lacquer on Etsy.

I love Gold Glitz.  It's part of their One-Coat Glitters line, although I prefer two coats of this one.  It's a blend of fine gold and copper glitters in a clear base.  The glitter is very dense, but it goes on very smoothly and evenly.  It will tend to settle if left for a while, but mixes up very easily again with a little shaking.  I don't know what voodoo they used on this stuff, but it's one of the easiest glitters to apply I've ever used. It is a thirsty glitter, so I recommend a couple coats of topcoat.  Interestingly, though, without topcoat it has a little bit of that sandy, textured finish that's popular right now.  Below is two coats of Gold Glitz.

I am the Swarm

I meant to post this earlier last week but got a little caught up in other things.  The Starcraft 2 expansion, Heart of the Swarm, was released on Tuesday and so I present: Zerg creep.

That is meant to be a creep tumor on my ring finger.  My dotting tool tried to run away on me, so it's got one huge spike.

For those not following the conversation, here's a translation:  geek geek nerd geek nail polish geek.  

Tiny Buttons

Tiny buttons

On my nails

Make me happy

Make me feel fine

I used Essie Marshmallow, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue, Jade Jump, Mint Sprint, Lightening and Vigorous Violet, Revlon Midnight, Color Club Lavendarling, Zoya Carmen, OPI Got the Blues for Red, and L'Oreal The Perfect Trench.

Gold Flake on Blue

 This one's been floating around in my head for a while now.  It didn't turn out quite like I wanted, but the result's not bad.

I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue and Orly Luxe.

Hard Candy - Crush on Tin

I picked up a few of the new Hard Candy polishes at Walmart the other day.  I didn't have a chance to swatch all of them, but this one was begging me to wear it.

Crush on Tin.  This is a metallic charcoal gray in the bottle, but on the nail it turns into more of a blackened green.  The finish is a little hard to describe: somewhere between a metallic and a glass fleck.  There's a good deal of gold shimmer, and in bright light there's almost a bit of a holo effect. In the right light, it absolutely glows.

ALL THE POLISHES!

Ah, new toys.  I just got a new light box and tonight was the first chance I've had to really try it out.  To say I'm quite happy with the results would be an understatement.  Holy crap, y'all.

These needed zero color correction. Zero.  For the life of me, I couldn't get enough light into my homemade light box and needed to take zillions of photos to end up with one or two that could be photoshopped into decency.  I could find no location inside or out of the house at any time of day with or without the light box that yielded the results I was looking for.  What can I say, I'm a little bit of a perfectionist.

In case you're wondering, these are swatches of all my polishes.  My favorite part is the multichrome rainbow:

So. Pretty.

I'll admit the process and result of swatching  my polishes totally appealed to my nerdy side.  I love to organize.  These are being stored on binder rings, arranged by color and finish.  And yes, I bought a label maker specifically for this purpose.  Okay, I've been wanting one for a while anyway, this was just a good excuse.



Also, I just want to mention that I've created a Facebook page and a Pinterest page for this blog.  They can be found at www.facebook.com/ColorHappyNails and pinterest.com/colorhappynails/

Runaway Yarn

Lots of changes happening with this blog.  The most important one that I'd like to point out is that the name has changed from Color-Happy to Color Happy Nails.  The address has changed as well to colorhappynails.blogspot.com.  I'm hoping this doesn't cause too much confusion.  I'm still tweaking the overall look, so expect to see a few more changes in the future.

And now for today's nails.  I was in the mood for something simple and  I realized after I finished that I should have used Zoya Neely instead and had Ravelry nails.  Oh well, maybe next time.

This is Zoya Blu stamped with Zoya Carmen and Vivid Lacquer plate 004.  This is probably the most perfect pale blue ever.  Not chalky or streaky at all, just lovely creamy blueness.

Pure Ice

I've been waiting what feels like forever for the new Pure Ice polishes to hit my Walmart.  I ran in the other day for a few essentials while my car battery was being replaced and guess what I saw!

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with this collection.  It's nice to see something besides a wall of cremes.  I picked out the four shades that seemed the most interesting to me because, lets face it, I really didn't need to spend that much in one trip. Below are Saddle Me Up, I'll Never Tell, Irreplaceable, and Twisted.

Saddle Me Up is a grass green glass fleck with a bit of yellow/gold shift. This one was a little runny and I had issues with keeping it from flooding.

It's a little more sheer than I prefer, but it looks fantastic over black.

I'll Never Tell is a chocolate brown jelly with copper shimmer and small white-ish flakes.  This one was difficult to photograph, but in person the color is warm and rich with an interesting frosty edge from the flakes.  It reminds me of salted chocolates.

Irreplaceable is a black jelly with silver shimmer, teeny black glitter and medium silver hexes.  The silver shimmer almost looks like it might be holographic, but it's not enough to really pop out.  The formula on this one was a nightmare: thick and goopy and hard to control.  I'm hoping I just got a bad bottle and that a few drops of thinner will straighten it out because I love this color.

Twisted is by far my favorite of the bunch.  It's a blue/green/yellow multichrome glass fleck.  The color shift doesn't translate well to the nail, but the formula of this one is the best of the four I chose.

And again, excellent for layering.

I used two coats for each of these, except for the ones layered over black.  They all seem to be fairly topcoat-hungry, so an extra coat wouldn't hurt.  Overall, the selection is great if you're looking for something a little more unusual from a drugstore polish and at $2 each, they're well worth the money.

Vacation Nails

Christmas is lasting a long time this year. I'm currently at my in-laws house in Colorado and we opened presents a couple nights ago. Amongst my gifts was a new stamping plate: Konad m66!  Thankfully I remembered to bring my stamping supplies so I got to try it out today.   This is NOPI Khloe Had A Little Lam-Lam stamped with Essie Good As Gold.