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.

Vivid Lacquer Woo:Tangent

Vivid Lacquer Woo: Tangent from the I'm Thankful For My Console collection.  I love Katamari Damacy, so this was hard to resist.  And it's everything I've been looking for in a multicolored glitter polish:  a little bit of everything!  This is over a base of Sinful Colors Jungle Trail.

Ketchup

Sorry about the long absence, y'all.  I took a break from blogging while on vacation and had a hard time getting back into it when I got back.  Part of the problem is that I suddenly developed very brittle nails and horribly flaky cuticles.  I blame overuse of acetone and cuticle remover. My nails and skin aren't too fond of either.  Anyway, I had chips and peeling all over the place and just didn't feel like doing my nails much.  They still aren't back in top form, but at least they've stopped breaking so much.

I do have a little bit of a backlog of pics from the few times my nails actually looked good lately, so it's spam time!

Ludurana Show.  This is a gorgeous multichrome that shifts between green, blue, teal and purple.  The polish is scented, but I didn't notice any scent after it had dried. It's a little sheer, like most duo/multichromes.  I used four coats for this photo and I'll probably layer one or two coats over black in the future.

Nail strips from Dollar Tree.  Okay, these are kind of crap.  I'm not sure what I expected for a dollar, really.  They're plastic-y (obviously not actually polish strips) and don't last long at all, even with a base and top coat.  Basically, if you want a quick manicure and only need it to last a day, they're fine. The color was a little surprising.  In the store and at home I thought they were navy, but when I went outside, they looked green.  

Unnamed Franken.  This is a fairly sheer sage green jelly with micro silver and teal glitter and larger silver hex glitter.  The photos above are three coats and there's still a little more VNL than I care for. I can't remember what I used in this one, but I'm pretty sure it involved at least half a dozen different polishes. 

I've been experimenting with my photography lately, working with different lighting and hand positions.  This is my homage to Chalkboard Nails. 

 

Unnamed Franken Number Two.  A deep purple jelly with various sizes of iridescent glitter and a small amount of holo glitter.  This one reminds me of grape candy.  

I've got a few more frankens I'll swatch one of these days..  I'm really happy with how most of them turned out and I've been thinking of opening up an Etsy shop and creating my own indie polish line.  Need to do some more research on that one, sourcing materials and whatnot.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 24 - Inspired by a Book

Technically, this is inspired by a set of books:  Encyclopedia Britannica!  I used to love paging through our set of encyclopedias, especially the section on the human body that had the various systems of the body printed on different transparencies.

For this, I used Color Club Rebel Spirit, China Glaze Brownstone, L'Oreal The Perfect Trench, and Orly Luxe.  Stamped with a piece of the chandelier on BM8.


And here's a surprise bonus.  I don't have my camera with me so I couldn't take a good picture, but I doodled this the other day and wanted to share:

This is OPI Java Mauve-a, Pure Ice Super Star (white), something I don't remember the name of (and I'm too lazy to go check right now) and a teensy bit of China Glaze Passion.  Passion is dotted in the center of the circles, but it's hard to tell unless you look very closely.  Stamped with BM04.

Taking a Break

And again I disappear.  I'm currently out of town for about six weeks - without my camera - and thus will be taking a break from blogging for a couple months.

I have one more post in the 30 Day Challenge coming, so watch for that in the next couple days.

Vivid Lacquer - PMP, Daisy, and Ocean's Pixels

I'm sure those of you who read this blog regularly are tired of hearing me rave about Vivid Lacquer, but you'll have to suffer through another review today.  Anni is very generously offering minis for bloggers to review, so I had to jump at the chance.

Vivid Lacquer Paint Me Patriotic, Daisy, and Ocean's Pixels.

Paint Me Patriotic is a variety of red, white, and blue glitters  in a clear base.  Again, the glitter is fairly dense and I had no problem getting a little of everything on the brush.  And here's something I didn't realize before I got the polish:  this one has stars in it!  They appear fairly often without any fishing required.  I honestly didn't expect to love this one as much as I do.

Daisy is a white jelly with white diamond glitter, small round green glitter, and matte yellow hexes.  There's also a teeny bit of gold shimmer in the base.  It's subtle enough to be hard to photograph and is not immediately apparent, but it adds an overall richness to the polish that a plain white jelly wouldn't have.  The formula on this was great.  It went on a little streaky but it self levels if not applied too thinly.  I used two coats over Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Jade Jump.  This one is really gorgeous and is definitely my favorite of the bunch.  It's soft and delicate and pairs so well with other colors.

Ocean's Pixels is a clear base with small blue and pale green matte glitter.  This went on very smoothly and the glitter is fairly densely packed so it doesn't take much.  You could probably get full or nearly full coverage in a few coats. This is one coat over Revlon Buttercup. 

Vivid Lacquer can be found on Etsy.