31dnac day 4: Garland on a tree!

Hello Friends! Auto posting didn't work! So you're getting this a day late, sorry. I'll double up on one of my later posts. I stopped trying to remove the nails from the sticks at this point, and so from here on out all of the manis will still be stuck on the sticks. Today's mani was inspired by garland on trees. This was originally going to be my yellow post because I had no inspiration. Then the yellow inspiration hit and I changed it. Sadly you didn't get to see my actual mani for yellow, but that's okay. The following is 3 coats of China Glaze Winter Holly and then I used the spun sugar method with Color Club Daisy Does It. The strands turned out a little thick, but otherwise it's a neat effect. There hasn't been sun for DAYS so I couldnt capture the speckled goodness.

Enjoy!

Have a safe day!!

LynBDesigns: Swatch a thon

Hello Friends! Today I am bringing you swatches of these amaaazing polishes from LynBDesigns. Seriously...one of these is now in my top ten. They're awesome. Anyway!!! I have to say ahead of time...but I've been testing out different places to photograph because of the weather. It's been really cloudy all month which does not help with lighting. That and it is cold. I don't like cold. So some of these are taken in my bathroom straddling my bathtub and holding the shade back so I can get some sun, and some of them are taken in my shoddy light box with a crappy light (I asked for a better lamp for christmas so hopefully that will be remedied soon). All of these are over a glue basecoat, and Zero is over a white glue base coat (will explain later) and I had to blur out some bits (sometimes very obviously) I am telling you this now, so that if you are anti-photoshop then you can click out now. No hate. I honestly didn't see any of the stupid in real life. I was swatching and doing another project at the same time so I probably missed it. I want to show you these, even if they aren't the greatest swatches, because damnit, they're awesome and I can't wait any more.

TLDR onto the swatches!

First off is LynBDesigns Weeping Angel I believe this is 3 coats, but it may be four. This polish is verrry sheer. But worth it! I think the next time I wear this I'll layer it over a similarly colored grey.

The glitters in this were a bit hard to work with, but the effect is nice. I love this polish, and with a little work or some layering it can be amazing. It's a dove grey polish with silver hexes, white squares, black diamonds, white hexes, black and white bar glitter and holo squares. Plus the grey base has a very pretty shimmer in it, which looks holographic in the bottle shot below, but doesn't translate. Despite it's problems, I still love this polish and I would recommend it to any Doctor Who lover out there.

Next is Frogs Breath. This polish has a murky green base (a la Zoya Dree) with tiny black glitter, larger black hex glitters, black bar glitter, and black heart glitter (that I didn't even know was in there! l2R robyn). This is definitely more color accurate than the swatch on the etsy shop.

 I had some difficulty with this polish. I tried really hard to get more of the hexes out but didn't end up with too many on the nail. I love the polish without all that stuff though. It looks uneven because of the fishing. This polish would have been better if there were a greater amount of the different shapes so that it wouldn't be as difficult to get them on the nail, or if they were left out, because honestly I loved it with just the tiny glitters.

Words cannot describe how excited I was for Zero to join me in my home. I am not going to lie though....I'm disappointed. I wore this once before as a mani and it seriously lasted 4 days, and for me that is saying something because I can barely get a polish to last a day before I have serious tipwear. This polish has the same problem as Frogs breath there isnt enough of the extra stuff to get it on the nail properly. This polish has a white base with white hearts, stars, and bar glitter, black hexes, and red hearts. With tiny red glitters. Shown here over a glue basecoat that I added white acrylic paint to (applies a bit streaky, but I wear it under all my neons because it actually DRIES unlike regular white polish tends to do for me.) I still love this polish for the name and it's beautiful in the bottle. Just a bit of a PITA to get to look like what you want.

 Ah the star of the show. My new favorite glitter. Don't Blink. God it is so amazing. I mean look at that. and my pictures don't do it justice. That's how amazing it is. I'm going to copy what the etsy site says about this polish ". This polish is loaded with pink, purple, and teal squares in different sizes, small purple holographic squares, large and small iridescent hexes, blue and copper ultrafine holos" 2 coats over a black creme.

LOOK AT THE HOLO. *girly squeel*

LynBDesigns can be bought Here and she is currently running a $5 sale! Thats how I bought these!

I love these, despite their problems, I want to buy more of her polishes!! What I love about the bottle is the labels have cute little pictures that correlate with the collection the polish comes from. The two that reference Nightmare before Christmas (Zero and Frogs Breath) have a photo from NBC and The two Doctor Who polishes (Dont Blink and Weeping Angels) have a tardis on them!

Do you own any polishes from LynBDesigns?

My First Indie: KBShimmer Oh Splat!

Hello Lovelies. I want to show you my first indie polish. I've been wanting this polish since I first saw it, but I try not to buy polish online because I can't actually SEE it. I am SO glad I did. Now I want to buy every KBShimmer polish that has ever been made...Ever...MUST BUY ALL POLISHESES. Ok that's extreme. You get the point though! I saw swatches of KBShimmer Witchy Way, which I also bought, but haven't been able to photograph properly because the sky has been like this:

...for the past week or so. I know that the weather is awful on the east coast, but it is awful everywhere else too? I'm just curious. /End Tangent. Anyway, I saw the swatches of WW and decided I must have it, and wanted to add another polish to make the shipping worth it and I picked Oh Splat! 

Indoors, light through window

Same as above

Same as above

*dies* it's beautiful. Reminds me of pop tarts, or legos floating in milk. My fiance said it reminds him of the malted easter eggs that are speckled, what are those called? I have no idea. The white jelly base is perfect, it doesn't streak, and I want a bottle of just the base, lol.

Outdoor crappy weather light

same

 The glitter pieces come in the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow-gold, green, blue, and purple), and in varying sizes. I didn't realize that I had a purple one sticking off my nail until just now, ha. My favorite color of the glitters is the green. Its. soo. preeeettttyyyy.

same

same

One thing that I hadn't noticed in any other swatch of this polish (or any other post for that matter) is that the glitters are, in fact, metallic. Not matte, which i was disappointed with at first, but the white base takes away the shininess and therefore Robyn= Satisfied.

What I liked: I think you've gathered what I liked from the post above, lol.
What I didn't like: The fact that I don't have 8 bottles of it. I need a backup bottle. I need a backup of my backup bottle.
Overall:  Love. This. Polish. I feel elegant, yet quirky, when I wear it. It's fantastic. Christy Rose deserves an award.

KBShimmer Polishes can be purchased here
What are your plans for this upcoming week? This tuesday is my man's birthday and I'm trying to think of something nice to do for him that doesn't require money. Other than that I have a math final I have to study for. I've been in this stupid remedial math class for 3 semesters now (that's how long it's supposed to take) and I'm completely over it. It's a self paced class, and it just does not work for me. I want a real math class where I get taught actual things, instead of guessing.

I will leave you with a picture of Mr. Squirrel, the persnickety squirrel that lives in our tree and hates my dog and happened to have been walking by when I was taking photos of this polish.

Swatches of my recent buying regrets.

I still feel oogie, but I am feeling up for posting today. Today I have some polishes I bought recently that I wish I wouldn't have. You'll see why in the following pictures and descriptions. Have you ever bought a polish that you loved in the bottle, and in concept, but it turns out to just suck? That's what these are.

First up: Piggy Polish Lightmare

Direct Sunlight

Indirect Sunlight

Now at first glance you may think "It just looks like you didn't clean your cuticles" but I assure my friends, that there was much scrubbing of the cuticles involved. This crap WOULD NOT COME OFF. Nightmare, I tell you. I wore this polish one other time (thankfully with a glue basecoat) and the formula was great. The second time. Agh...lumpy disaster. It was so thick it was almost unusable. That makes me sad, this polish is such a unique color. Maybe if I buy some thinner I can save it, break it out next halloween, wear it once, and put it away. lol.

The next two, one is a formula suck and the other is a brush issue. Mind you I forgot to take pics of the actual brush. Lol. 

That's right. Colors from the L'Oreal Project Runway collection. I'm sad that I don't have cable right now because I LOVE THAT SHOW and it isn't on Hulu or Netflix.

First up, The Temptress's Power. This was the one I was more excited for. It looks soooo horrible on its own. I look diseased. Also, that is not dirt under my nails, That is some weird space that isn't white or the color of my nails...I don't know, I've always had that. I think this is four coats.

So diseased....ugh. And notice Lightmare is STILL stuck on my cuticles. Still. That crap would NOT come off.

Over black it turns into a very pretty green color. If I ever wear this polish, this is how I would wear it. I haven't tried wearing it over a nude, to get the bottle color. Can anyone recommend a color to wear underneath it to get a similar color to the bottle? I like the color, it's just way too sheer for my liking.

Now, The Mystic's Fortune is beautiful. It's gorgeous. These pictures don't do this polish justice. Enlarge the bottom one to see all the gorgeous purple, pink, and blue shimmer. The brush on this however, was jacked. It was cut at an angle so extreme it made the brush smaller than an Essie brush. Another reason I regret buying this is:

How many dark purples with shimmer do I need? I'm sure this isn't even all of them. From L-R: The Mystic's Fortune, Opi Ink, Unnamed color club (any ideas? I got it from Walgreen's for .99), Wet N Wild Toxic Apple, Orly Mysterious Curse, Deborah Lippman Dancing in the sheets, and  The Mystic's fortune again.

Sigh. Have you bought anything recently that you wished you wouldn't have?

I hope you guys have a great day!

Halloween nail art spam

Hello friends!! Today I have for you a random sampling of some halloween themed nail art that I have done in the past two weeks. Some of these are pretty effed up. Lol. I just wanna share them, good, bad or otherwise. Here we go!!

This is one of my favorites. I did not realize it was chipped until I was editing these photos. Whoops!  For a base I used L'oreal Park Avenue Luncheon (2 coats) then I used a coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Glass slipper, followed by a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-dri Beige Blast. Not satisfied with Glass slipper, I added a coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength White Veil, and A coat of Jordana Bronze Fest, and finally a coat of Beige Blast again. It reminds me of fall!!!

 The next day I added some stamps! I stamped using BM 13 from the first Bundle Monster Set. For the polishes I used OPI Chop Sticking to my Story for the webs, and Wet N Wild Black Creme for the spidies. SPIDIES!!! squee.

My camera is making these look different, but this is my orange ombre! Yay! From thumb to pinkie I have OPI Chopsticking to my story, Sinful Colors Citrine, Essie Orange, it's obvious!, Essie Fear or Desire, finally Essie Action. I must have been on an Essie kick when I bought all those oranges. That and orange was popular this spring.

Halloween tribal!! Yay!! Actually this looked way worse in real life. It looks bad here...but it looked worse...For the base I used Essie Fear or desire? The green is OPI Hot Fun in the Summer-lime, the purple is just a purple from one of those sets you get at Burlington Coat Factory, the yellow is Sally Hansen Insta-dri Express-so Yellow and the White is Milani White on the spot. The black lines are just acrylic paint.

This one is from a tutorial! This one from ArcadiaNailArt. I used L'oreal The Mystic's Fortune as my base, and then used Sinful Colors Happy Ending for the slime. The glitter is Orly Spazmatic and Can't Be Tamed/ The rest of the "art" is paint. I can't paint small details to save my life. The following picture is my left hand doing the same design.

This was too funny not to share. Are those supposed to be spiders?! they look like blobs, or some sort of pictoral representation of germs. This is too funny. The blue is actually the paint from my paint brush handle coming off onto my hand. Ugh. lol.

Did you do anything fun for halloween nail art?

Thanks for reading! I appreciate all of you.

Julep Kate and Mila and Glitter challenge day!

I've made a decision my fine ladies. I'm still going to do the 31 days of a nail art challenge. But at my own pace and in the wrong order. Yes. WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!?!?! I get to a day in my photos and I say wtf I don't want to do gradient nails today I want to do glitter! (OK that one doesn't happen, despite all the pics of glitter that I have up right now, I don't care for it. But you get the point). Then I sulk for 4 hours and by then it's too late for me to actually do a mani that is worthwhile. So I'm gonna do it when I feel like it. lol. I know that isn't the way it's supposed to go, but with my health and energy levels being up and down I just can't guarantee anything at this point. It will get better and it can always be worse!!!

So: 

This is how we will keep track! And onto the mani!

I know what you're thinking "Is that toilet cleaner in the corner?" yes it is. I had to take these pics in my bathroom because I normally take my photos outside on my neighbors side of the porch, and they were outside ALL FREAKING DAY the day I was taking these pics. They already think I am weird, and I did not want to add to it.

I also know what you're thinking again "God Robyn, learn to clean up your cuticles before you take photos" You are only partially correct. I tried. Oh Lordy I tried. More on that in a bit.

Ok, so on my pointer, middle, and pinky fingers is Julep Kate. Julep calls it a "Soft White Pearl" ehhhhhh. It's white. Not soft. Pearl-y.....if you stare really close in very direct sunlight. It's not what I was expecting at all. Color me disappointed.

On my Thumb and ring finger is Mila. It's kinda pretty...Idk. Not so much into the multicolored glitter really. I have a few. Rarely wear them.Julep Calls it: "Charcoal, multi-colored glitter"...Um...is anyone's actually charcoal? Mine is in a clear base. Did I get the wrong color labeled Mila?

Ok let's talk about application and removal. Application of Mila was fine, the pics above are 2 coats over Kate. Mostly opaque. That is FOUR coats of Kate. FOUR. and it was STILL streaky. Ugh. And taking Kate off was like taking a glitter off. It's a freaking regular polish and I had to scrub vigorously to get one layer off. It was easier to get Mila off, in fact when I was removing those nails I had used the foil method and It took all the glitter off and left Kate. But, I still could not get Mila off of my skin, hence the glitter left around my cuticle. There also was no way a q tip was going to remove Kate.

Overall, disappointed with these two colors. Luckily I did not pay full price for them because of the Julep Maven program.

Did you get these colors? Do I have extremely defective bottles? Should I continue with the Julep Maven program? Idk. I'm disappointed.