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!

O.P.I. Taupe-less Beach

Not much to say about this color, except it's perfect. I'm just so in love with mellow, quiet colors right now. 

3 coats. 

Essie Take It Outside

Halloween's only a day away, but I'm just not really in the spirit of it this year. I should be, since I go basically ape shit over Halloween, but I'm just sort of tired. I've decided not to decorate or hand candy out, which was a tough decision because I really hate to be that house, but it's just too much money and effort right now. Instead, my boyfriend and I are opting to eat pizza, drink cider, and watch old horror movies. If there's one thing my friends and loved ones know about me, it's that I love love love old movies. I keep the t.v. in my bedroom on Turner Classic Movies almost all the time. He's not the biggest fan, but he's sweet enough to indulge me. Pretty cuddly too.

I'll try to rustle up something for the 31st, but for right now I needed a soft, quiet color. I always look forward to the taupes in fall Essie collections, and Take It Outside is, in my opinion, the best taupe Essie has done since Miss Fancy Pants. It's like nothing I have, and I've got a LOT of neutral, taupe polish. It's very greyed out, with a bit of a pink-white undertone. It's perfection. 

The formula was perfect, I only needed two coats for opaqueness, and it self-leveled beautifully. 

O.P.I. I Sao Paulo Over There

Feeling super under the weather today, so this'll be nice and short. 

Most of the brights from the O.P.I. Spring collection really appealed to me, so naturally I walked away with ALL the nudes/taupes (and the dark green one, I really don't have enough green in my stash). I'm thinking of going back for the two corals, we'll see. 

I Sao Paulo Over There is a PERFECT example of colors that confuse me. It's clear there is both purple and brown in it, however, I interpret it as a very much purple-grey. It's sort of a bruised color, with maybe a hint of chocolate milk (or Dutch cocoa). Whatever it is, it's perfect, both in color and composition. The formula was obviously perfect (I can't think of another brand that applies as well for me, except maybe Ciate) and basically applied itself. Seriously, I'm not exercising poetic exaggeration when I say this. You're looking at a manicure done under the influence of both Advil P.M. and Nyquil (I was super achy and snuffly last night). Also no clean up. Yep. 

It's got a nice, squishy formula on the first coat, and a bit patchy, but of course leveled out perfectly in two. I did three because it is rare when I don't do three. 

Hope everyone's Thursday is going better than mine. I'll probably show another neutral from the Brazil collection within the next few days when I'm feeling better. Also I was nominated for the Liebster award, so I'm working on a nice post for that! 

Till next time!

Nails Inc. Porchester Square

So this has been my manicure for the past two days. One of my polish idols featured this on her blog recently and it reminded me of my dear little bottle languishing on my bedside table. I'd bought it weeks back but hesitated to put it on because my nails were short. I said as much and she urged me to try it anyway. So I did, and I'm glad. 

I hadn't noticed how much my nails had grown. Lately they've been quick to tear and chip, and slow to grow back. I assume it's a combination of diet and stress (when I'm stressed my eating habits are shameful-I'll eat one meal a day and usually it's something comforting like pasta. I know it's not healthy but until I develop my coping skills more, that's all I've got). And when they're short and chipped like that not even vamps look good to me. My fingers are long and they're pretty plump.

ANYWAY. 

As I said, I'm very glad I did put Porchester Square on, because I hadn't realized how much my nails had actually grown. I must have been too preoccupied with the texture glitters on them. I picked this up at Sephora (along with some Anastasia clear brow gel-that stuff is MAGIC to those of us whose eyebrows grow about a yard a week) with a gift card my boyfriend's parents gave me for Christmas. I'd intended on picking up a Deborah Lippmann polish, but there wasn't anything there that was on my wishlist (it's a tiny Sephora inside JCPenney) and nothing they had seemed to grab me. I was vaguely thinking of looking that the new Formula X's, but the tiny Nails Inc. display popped out at me from the corner. I zeroed in on Porchester Square so fast that I completely missed the bottles of normal polish and instead was agonizing because they seemed to only have it in gel. I went up to a salesgirl and asked her desperately if it came in a regular formula and she gave me a weird look before pointing it out to me on the shelf directly below the gel bottles. It's very hard to try and look casual when you're that embarrassed. All you can really do is snap it up fast and scuttle home. 

This is the most interesting neutral I own. The base is most certainly grey, but everything else is up for debate. In the bottle it looks like a grungy pink-grey. When you get it on the nail, the grey becomes more prominent, but depending on your lighting situation it can be any number of colors: dirty lavender, grey-mauve, soft pink-brown...at the moment it looks like clean taupe. My pictures show it as mostly soft grey, but there is definitely pink in it in real life. 

I can't express how much I love it. It's just perfect. Literally perfect. The only thing that slightly disappointed me was the brush. It was a bit on the floppy side, and though it fanned out nicely, it didn't go exactly where I wanted it to go. But what's that to me when I have the most perfect neutral in the world?

This was three coats with Duri Rejuvacote as a base and top (I'm seeing if that will help with the tearing while I try to get my eating back on track), and then a coat of Gelous. Textures have spoiled me I guess; I'm so used to them being dry in about ten minutes that I forgot cremes take longer. The morning after I put Porchester Square on, I had magnificent sheet marks on every nail, and only Gelous could smooth them out. 

butter LONDON All Hail the Queen

It’s been a tough couple of days. My grandpa was in the hospital for the last two days and although nothing was seriously wrong, his age combined with my precarious mental state and the fact that I have no coping skills to deal with situations like that flung me into a sort of mini-freak out. I couldn’t do anything except hide in my room with the lights out, and cry. I felt horribly alone, yet I didn’t want anyone near me. He’s home now so I’m relieved, but my stomach keeps clenching. I thought polish would take my mind off things. It didn’t.

All Hail the Queen (or All Hail McQueen) is one of my favorite bL’s. It’s a lot of things: office appropriate, chic, toned down, and stylish. You could wear it for literally any occasion. It’s a gorgeous brownish-taupe that turns butterscotch in the sunlight. It has a bright pink shimmer cast that my camera was unable to capture (I think it’s more prominent in the bottle than it is on the nail), as well as a subtle holographic shimmer. The holo is definitely not linear, but rather speckled and flashes noticeably in the sun, and is much more toned down but visible in artificial light.

Formula was much better than Jaffa. It was smooth, thin, and went exactly where I put it. It was also surprisingly glossy on its own, I probably didn’t even need to apply top coat.

3 coats of All Hail the Queen, with Grand Central Station on top.

China Glaze Stellar

Sorry for showing my left hand today, my right thumbnail sustained a really, reeeeeallly bad break.

I can never decide whether or not I like Stellar. In theory I should-it’s got several things I really like in a polish: it’s a lovely butterscotch taupe, there are gold and silver glitters that sparkle like mad, and the formula is divine. But whenever I see it in the bottle, or on my nail, I hesitate.

I dunno…I feel like it has something to do with the glitter. Just when I’m sure it’s predominantly silver, it flashes gold. And when I want it to look warm and gold, it turns distinctly cool and silver. And the heaviness and coarseness of the glitter is a bit off putting. With a China Glaze glitter like Ruby Pumps, the larger glitter bits look wonderful-they catch the light and sparkle and look like the ruby slippers. But with something this neutral and subtle, I feel that maybe a more toned down glitter would have looked better.

This was three coats. And even though it is a very smooth glitter (no topcoat eating, I really love that about China Glaze glitters) I opted for Gelous as a topcoat rather than my beloved Grand Central Station.