HARE Cast in Bronze

In the aftermath of Sandy messing up the ENTIRE METRO SYSTEM (eff you Sandy, please go get a yeast infection), I decided I needed some cheering, and nothing does the job like my first-ever indie! HARE is one of the first indie polish makers to catch the nail community's attention, and she remains one of my favorites. I have a lemming for Bisbee that began practically the day of my indoctrination into polish hoarding, but I opted to pick up one of her new creations this time, the very amazing Cast in Bronze from her Fall 2012 Finder's Keepers collection.

Gorgeous. This was two coats of Cast in Bronze by itself, a beautiful lilac jelly packed with tons of shimmer and bronze colored hex and square glitters. If you look hard in real life you could probably see visible nail line, but to me the sheer, squishy jelly-ness of this is part of the charm so I opted to wear it alone.

Formula-wise, I had no problems at all. The base is thicker than most polishes to better suspend the glittery goodness, which is normal and expected and can be fixed by a few drops of thinner, but even without thinning I didn't have much trouble getting this on my nails. There was a brief moment after applying the first coat during which I feared the sheerness might also result in streakiness, since the distribution of color seemed a bit uneven, but the second coat erased all those doubts (and frankly it was probably my own fault anyway because I was using Revlon's 2-in-1 TC/BC, which is a terrible basecoat--so slippery, doesn't help with even polish distribution at all).

All in all, I had a great experience with HARE and can't wait to get more!

Dear Sandy

You don't scare me!

I have another franken today; this one is named "Sting-Me-Not".

“I made him a poultice of firepod and sting-me-not and bound it in a lambskin...There is great healing magic in fire, even your hairless men know that.” -Game of Thrones

3 coats of Sting-Me-Not by itself.

 

Closeup swatch--Sting-Me-Not is a teal jelly with multi-sized gold hex glitter, iridescent square glitter, and clear flakies.

Study in Knits

Nothing fancy, just staying home and working on sketches. It's been getting chilly and my heating hasn't come on yet, so a sweater + beanie keeps me cozy.

Indus+ry sweater
Piu by Celapiu teddy bear beanie
Blank NYC Big Melons pale pink jeans
Deena & Ozzy multi-strap wedge sandal
Random white ruffly dress from China


Will probably go get McD's later. Klassy.

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.

The Big Reveal

I may be the most inconsistent blogger ever, but I am pretty good about keeping my nails polished. This was a nail-of-the-yesterday, Orly Royal Navy. 3 coats, an amazing vibrant blue jelly with turquoise shimmer. The best parts of this polish likes to hide itself away indoors, where it simply looks like a shimmery navy, but once you step into the sunlight...BAM. It's electric! Believe it or not in full sunlight in real life the color is even more intense than this, bordering on indigo, practically searing your retinas with its intensity. This polish probably has a touch of neon pigment in it, seeing as it dries to a satin finish, and it definitely needs to be topcoated.

Sugar Skulls

I was supposed to meet a friend in Midtown but he bailed at the last minute because he had a train to catch...it's starting to get pretty chilly up here in the North East.

I wore my new Zara Skull Print Scarf for the first time, and I really adore it. The pattern is reminiscent of Dia de los Muertos sugar skulls. They're currently out of stock on Zara's website, but are marked as being restocked, so there's still an opportunity to pick one up.

Piu by Celapiu Teddy Bear Beanie
Zara Skull Print Scarf
Asos Navy Wool Coat
Romwe Backless Nude Dress
Sock Dreams O Chevron Black over the knee socks
Jeffrey Campbell Back Offs

Sun Faded

I'm really not a fan of flip-flop stye shoes, I feel uncomfortable wearing any sort of loose shoe out of doors--I prefer something firmly attached to my foot. Pretty much the only time I ever do is if I'm just running out to pick up something from the drugstore or a forgotten dinner ingredient.

E&You ivory Sweater
Forever21 white racerback tank top
Forever21 pale pink shorts
Deena & Ozzy Multi-Strap Wedge Sandal

Opening Fall

My outfit for an IKEA run--breezy top and comfy flats.

Everyone in the world has IKEA furniture, but I don't think popularity always signifies a bad thing despite the trendy thing right now is small companies, local farms, and indie brands. I like IKEA's simple, sleek styles and some of their designs are actually pretty clever. Until I can afford my more expensive love, MUJI, I will be sticking with IKEA.

White tiered spaghetti-strap dress
Neue grey open back T-shirt with silver stars
Gomax Days 01 black suede pointy toe flats

St. Patrick's Day2

OPI Jade is the New Black + Sinful Colors Green Ocean

I see what people were saying when they said Green Ocean's mylar flakies are chunky...a few flakes decided to wrinkle up in horrible lumps on my nail, and it took FOUR coats of GCS to smooth it out! Yikes. On the plus side my nails have achieved a glassy perfection that they rarely do thanks to all the extra topcoat.

OPI Save Me

OPI Save Me, from the Nicki Minaj collection.

I originally bought this as a "secret santa" gift, only to check my giftee's spreadsheet to see she already had it! Drat.

It's super cloudy today so I couldn't capture how super-holo the bar glitter is, so you'll have to just take my word that it is SO HOLO-Y. Very fun to watch change colors.

That being said I've had this on for two days and it just hasn't grown on me...as hard as I try to love bar glitter I think she and I just weren't meant to be. Every time I look down on my nails it looks like there's hair on them. Rainbow prismatic unicorn hair, but hair nonetheless. And something about this doesn't satisfy me somehow--it needs a base color other than clear, perhaps, or some other color glitter to give it some depth. It's too dense to layer well, and the bar glitter just looks messy to me over another color. This one's probably going on the swap list...