Strawberry Milk

So I rarely come across a color that I dislike, so when I do it comes as a surprise. The color in question is Essie Pop Art Pink, and what prompted me to buy it was Scrangie's swatch which made it look like milky pink perfection.

Where to begin...first of all this looked much cooler-toned than I anticipated, which I'm not fond of. Pop Art Pink is a light milky pink jelly. My skin is very warm and cool toned reds and pinks always seem to clash horribly. It's also a very "Barbie-ish" pink, which while pretty is just not my style. I lean more toward the blush and antique-pink hues.

The formula is very sheer and rather streaky. Shown here is 4 thin coats, because it was patchy and uneven at 3 despite my best application skills. I do love the milkiness and slight translucency of it, though. If I don't swap this away I'm considering tinkering with the color a bit to more suit my taste.

Funnily enough, since this bottle is the "retail" version sold at drugstores rather than the "salon" version, the sticker on top of the cap reads "Poppy Art Pink". I've noticed these changes between the retail and salon versions--i.e. "Lapiz of Luxury" rather than "Lapis of Luxury". Why the unnecessary name changes, Essie? Is it supposed to make the names more personable to the barbaric masses who don't know what Pop Art is and sub Z's for their S's? Hahaha.

Pinkie Promise!

I have a sparkly, stunning confection of an indie polish on today: Rainbow Honey Pinkie Promise! I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a fan of My Little Ponies--yes, it's a kid's cartoon, but something about the series is just so, so fun and kooky and endlessly entertaining, even for a 20-something like me.

"Nopony breaks a Pinkie promise!"-Pinkie Pie

I really want to collect all of Rainbow Honey's Equestria collection someday, but Pinkie Promise is by far my favorite! It's a spectacular party mix of fuschia, pink, gold, and light blue hex glitter and fuchsia, gold, and holographic bar glitter in a fantastically sparkle-packed pink base. I'm showing it here 2 coats over 3 coats of Wet 'n Wild 2% Milk, because I wanted neutral undies so that the base color of Pinkie Promise can be seen clearly. Even though Pinkie Promise looks to have a very light colored, sheer base, the color is actually quite vibrant!

Pinkie Promise has the very thick formula characteristic of polishes as chock full of glitter as this one, which makes it tricky to apply. The dab technique doesn't utilize itself well here since it has a colored base; I handled the application simply by getting a good amount of polish on the brush and soldiering on. I won't lie, it got a bit painful at times, but the results were SO worth it that I'll probably just add a few drops of thinner to it next time and keep on swimming.

It's worth noting that this baby STAINS--I'm currently sporting a myriad of electric fuchsia splotches on my nekkid nails--so be sure to use a suitable basecoat, even if you're wearing this with undies, because 2% Milk did absolutely nothing to prevent ol' Pinkie from bleeding right through.

You can get Rainbow Honey Pinkie Promise for $10/15ml or $5/7ml on her site rainbowhoney.com!

Valentine's Day

So V-day is a commercialized holiday. Still doesn't mean it's not fun to dress up! I'll be wearing my heart backseam tights and red cardigan at work today, with Revlon Candy Apple Lip Butter...and on my nails, OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston topped with Happy Hands Cadance.

Cadance is filled with pale pink and hot pink glitters of various shapes and sizes, blue/purple iridescent glitter, and pale pink heart glitter! It's a perfect pairing for Guy Meets Gal-veston. Cadance has a nice, easy formula and was very easy to work with. It was a limited edition polish created by by my pal Kristi of Happy Hands, with proceeds being donated to Covenant Pet Trust, a local non-profit organization!

This is 3 coats of Guy Meets Gal-veston with two coats of Cadance. You can get your own bottle of candylike goodness for $10 from Kristi's Etsy shop!

Holographic Pokemon cards are better than regular, so I figured that applies to nail polish.

This is a mani done with Urban Outfitters Holo Pink. It's so pretty and shimmering and rainbow-y that I can't stop staring at my nails. I started a new job yesterday and even my coworkers noticed it--and when I mentioned what a hard time I'd been having finding employment, one guy said "well that's because you didn't show them your AWESOME nail paint"...hahaha.

in sunlight

in artificial light

with flash

These had a lovely, thin, easy-to-work with formula, very pigmented and packed with holographic pigments. It took only 2 coats to achieve opacity! One of the more expensive polishes in my collection, but to me it's completely worth it.

Urban Outfitters Holo Pink is $10 at your local UO :)

FRANKEN: Crystal Ink Sweetsleep

This post features one of my own creations, named "Sweetsleep" after the sweet poison in G.R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire world.

"A pinch will bring sound and dreamless sleep, while three pinches brings death."

The above picture is 2 coats of Sweetsleep over POP Foggy.

POP Foggy by itself

3 coats of Sweetsleep by itself--a sheer lilac-tinted jelly with pink glassfleck and pink and blue glitter.