Halloween 2016: Coven Swarm.

This is an incredibly half-assed version of the Halloween nails I did last year. Not great, but good enough, since Halloween tends to sneak up on me. 

While Coven wasn't my favorite season of AHS, the aesthetic was gorgeous, and I came away from it loving the combination of black and dirty, taupe-y lavenders. I own both in spades, but sadly I cannot for the life of me do a good glitter gradient anymore, so what's on my nails is a poor facsimile of what I wanted to do. Also it's my left hand so it's going to be naturally messier (southpaw here) since my right is recovering from a pretty outstanding nail breakage. 

I used M.A.C. Modern Movement, which is a gorgeous enigma of a polish. Is it taupe? Lavender? Grey? Pinky-beige? The answer is all of the above, dependent upon the lighting. It's in my top ten favorite polishes on earth and I wish I'd bought a back up. The black glitter is Sally Hansen Ruffle, which was (is?) part of their Luxe Lace line. The suspension is pretty viscous so they don't spread as well as I'd like, but it's black glitter, which you don't see every day. I tried to do a swarm-type gradient, but like I said before, I've lost some of my touch. If I hold my hand far enough away from my face it looks ok, and I can at least pretend my cuticles aren't as neglected as they are. 

As far as Halloween goes, not going to be doing much. I've got a couple movies I want to watch, but since I'm off sugar (45 lbs. down so far, woo!) no baking or treats. Whatever you end up doing, have fun!

Sally Hansen In Full Blue-m

Go home, Spring. You're drunk. 

I don't know why I like spring. I shouldn't. The allergies, the onslaught of warm sunshine, the explosion of life all around me...all these things should make me very grumpy. Call me weird, but I LIKE winter. I like stillness, leafless trees, and a feeling of life in stasis. It's nice. It feels like time has stopped and you can just relax for a bit. But when spring begins I get a little giddy in spite of myself. 

It's barely March and life in my garden is in full swing. I've got buds on my pomegranate trees, a little bird building a nest in the bushes in my backyard, and flower-themed, pastel polishes on my mind. I'm going to start with one I wore a lot last spring but never got around to photographing. 

In Full Blue-m (while I like the effort, Sally, the execution is a little sloppy) is a really lovely, watery periwinkle. I say periwinkle because there is a drop of lavender that just doesn't translate well on the camera. It's there though, I promise. I feel like I've seen this exact shade in a Monet painting somewhere. It's soft, beguiling, and is going to look amazing on everyone. 

When I first bought it I was worried it would be too close to Zoya Kristen, but it's much more color-saturated, and has much less grey. There is also that elusive lavender undertone. Their only similarity is finish, which is a nice, dense creme. And while I am not one to kick a creme out of bed, I almost feel that a shade this ethereal would have looked better with a more jelly-like finish (think Zoya Miley, or Orly Bon Bon, just more blue). 

I noticed they're re-promoting this shade this year, so it should be easily found at the drugstore. This was 3 perfect coats with Essie Better Than Gel on top. I never thought I'd see myself buying a $10 top coat and justifying it, but that ish is GOOD. 

Sally Hansen Something New

Coral fever. I has it. 

The weather has dipped down to a bone-chilling 79 degrees, so I'm feeling up for a proper manicure. Ignore the boo-boos on my ring finger-when it's super hot like it has been lately, hangnails are the least of your worries. 

Also I took these pictures with my iPhone, just to see how they'd turn out. Nice, jah?

Something New is from the Diamond Strength line, which seems to have wedding-themed names. It's a delightful coral jelly that photographs slightly more opaque than it is in real life. I used three coats plus top coat. Dry time was on the slow side, but the superb brush more than made up for it. 

Off to get a million things done. With cooler temps comes energy. Whee!

Sally Hansen Solid Love

So here come a series of really bright manicures. I’ve been craving color quite badly since my palate cleanser, but it’s been too hot to polish-every time I try to sit down and do a manicure, it immediately bubbles up and looks disgusting. I probably should just start wearing glitters and get some texture polishes for the rest of the summer because I really don’t see how I’ll be able to keep a manicure smooth through August and September.

The pictures of Solid Love do it no justice. The brightness really freaked my camera out. It’s is a very bright, hot, berry pink. I’m not sure that’s the best way to describe it. I don’t wear pinks like this very often so I’m not entirely sure how to explain them. It’s blue-toned and very cool-my camera is showing Solid Love much warmer than it really is.

It surprises me how much I really like this. Screw that, I love this. Usually I only see this color with heinous electric blue shimmer thrown in, and that combination just makes my skin crawl. But as a creme, it’s downright fierce. It’s going on my toes tonight!

So…I made a really rash decision yesterday. Remember my rant on how much I dislike most indie polishes and the fact that you can’t get your hands on them ever? Well I saw a chance to own the entire Last Queen of France collection from Hare Polish. I took it. Every polish in that collection is genius. Rococo Grandeur especially made me lose my shit.

It really, really hurt my wallet, but I consider it my graduation present to myself.

Sally Hansen I Lilac You & Sally Hansen Hi Ho Silver

I’ve really grown to love the CSM line. The colors are a good blend of staple and unique, and the excellent formula balances out their awful paddle brushes. I decided to retry a lavender polish and while this one did want to bubble, it was minimal, and ended up looking absolutely lovely.

I Lilac You is a gorgeous blue/grey-based lavender polish with a nice, even, thin formula. Despite the brush, it went pretty much where I put it and self-leveled beautifully.

Hi Ho Silver is your standard silver shimmer. The formula was the same-thin, smooth, and quick to dry. It was surprising that I didn’t have silver in my collection-this one seemed as good as any.

I just wish they’d do something about the brush. Maybe not even the brush itself, but the stem? I don’t know. My nails are not small-not large either, but with those huge, wide brushes I was able to cover practically the entire nail-I like to do the 3-stroke method, which is hard when the brush is so wide.

Enough nitpicking though. I added the silver polka dots with a bobby pin-I’m too cheap at this point to buy a dotting tool-and I think they came out really well. I’m useless when it comes to nail art, but I think I can do a pretty good polka dot. Might even buy some striping tape one of these days…

I spent today at my boyfriend’s work, getting acquainted with some of the most adorable dogs on the face of the planet. He works at a really nice boarding and doggy daycare center and basically gets paid to play with dogs. There’s one-no joke-that is all of a pound and a half. He’s TINY. I guess he’s a Yorkie/Pomeranian mix and all he wanted to do was snuggle in my arms. It literally broke my heart to leave him-it was all I could to to not drop him in my purse and run. Kidding. Maybe.

After that we had some truly amazing burgers, and swam for a bit in his pool (!), and ended the day with a Richard Dawkins documentary that I fell asleep to (not because it was boring-I was just uber sleepy). Tomorrow will be similar. Then I start a quick 3 week summer school class which should prove interesting.

Time for Cheerios and falling into bed!

Sally Hansen Barracuda

WHEEEE, SPRING BREAK! A lot of it will be spent working on my thesis, but I don’t mind; it’ll be soooo nice to wake up when I want!

So to celebrate, here’s a color from the new Sally Hansen CSM spring collection. It’s a re-release from last year, really REALLY popular if memory serves; the Tracy Reese colors seem to be hot commodities amongst the polish obsessed. And it’s perfectly understandable-they’re gorgeous.

Barracuda is a really pretty baby/tropical ocean blue. It looks a little dustier in the bottle than it does on the nail. As with Maximillian Strasse Her, there is a slight translucence (you’ve gotta look for it) that is reminiscent of tropical sea water. Only with the name and all, I see creepy silver barracuda fish swimming through it. 0_0

I think it’s really funny how the color I least liked on my nails is the color I’m wearing most of the time right now. I’d love to see how Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow looks over this!

Off to laze for the rest of the day. And maybe pick up some junk food, cause damn it, I’M FREEEEEEE!