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.