Ulta Envy - TIOT & ABC "E"

I have it bad for dark greens right now. Like, really really bad. I think that's my biological Christmas clock kicking in for the year.

Enter Ulta Envy that I got with Copious credits. For those who don't know, Copious is a site where you can post beauty products, shoes, jewelry, clothes etc. for others to buy. They give out free credits once or twice a month, free nail polish, yay! If you don't have an account yet you can use my link to sign up and get a $10 credit to use.

Moving on, I expected this to go better than it did...Envy was as gorgeous as I had hoped, a rich dark green shimmer. I had a gold nail art pen I got from Sephora back when they were on clearance for $3. This is a weird pen, the color didn't want to flow smoothly and I had to go over the lines about 5 times. I was going for a gold vine-y, foresty look but since I had to revisit the lines so much they didn't turn out delicately like I'd  wanted. Also, I misjudged how big the rhinestones were. Oops.

But long story short, Ulta Envy...well worth getting! I think I got an older bottle, because it seemed a little gloopy. Nothing thinner won't fix. The below pictures are 2 coats.

Haha, and the ring was another $2 off eBay China special. Before I forget, I ordered 2 sampler packs of cuticle oil rollers from 365 Days of Color. I love ordering things from Sunny, they get to me ridiculously fast in a cute blue padded envelope and her attention to detail is great. I know I'm going to get something packed with thought and care when I order from her. Anyway, because I'm obsessed with Christmas (see above) I chose all her Christmas smells for my cuticle oils. The oils come in rollerball containers (YES YES YES) and a sampler comes with 3 5ml bottles. You can pick the scents you want. I got Christmas Cookies, Toasted Marshmallow, Christmas Morning, Christmas Memories, Country Christmas and Christmas Tree. Phew.

I've only tried Toasted Marshmallow, Christmas Cookies and Christmas Memories thus far but YES! I love them! The smell lasts foreverrrrrrrrrrrr. With Solar Oil and Avoplex the smell is gone in 5, what a bummer because they smell good. I put on Toasted Marshmallow around 8pm last night and I woke up with marshmallowy scented hands this morning. 365's Big Cartel link is above, but she also has a blog and a Facebook...check her out!

Thanks for reading! K x

ABC Challenge "D" + TIOT: Julep Daphne & Elevation Polish Ama Dablam

Hi friendsies! (is that less lame than nailistas? Probably not.)

You maaaaaay have noticed but we have a new layout, it's sort of weird I guess but if anyone has any comments please let me know!

Anyhow! For this overcast, muggy TIOT (which also happens to be ABC Challenge "D" week) I had just gotten Elevation Polish Ama Dablam in my mailbox and really really needed to wear it. But that doesn't start with a D, you say! So I hunted through my spreadsheet and figured out which "D" named polish would work underneath, and settled on Julep Daphne. Daphne reminds me of Zoya Wednesday, but just not as nice. More on that later :/

It was also time for Round 2 of PVA Basecoat Fun. I found some Aleene's Tacky Glue in the back of my storage closet, and according to Duncan's site it's a water-based polymer emulsion. The bubbles in the below pic are totally my fault, guys, I tried adding some water to the glue and shaking it was a bad idea. Oops. Once the basecoat, polish and topcoat go on you can't tell, but Round 3 will be focused on eliminating the bubbles.

Drying time was about 10-15 minutes for both hands. The water in the glue made it sort of lumpy, I don't recommend this for even drying times. I followed the glue with Barielle basecoat, then Julep Daphne. I just don't like these colors on me. I love them in the bottle or on other people, just not me. Plus it had my usual complaint with Julep polishes, which is the runny + globby, crappy brush problem. I had to slap this on in 2 thick coats to get it to look OK. Like I said before the color reminds me of Zoya Wednesday but I like both the Zoya color and formula better.

I feel like my camera makes it look a little brighter and less green here than it really is.

After loading that up with SV I used tape to do angled Ama Dablam tips. AD is awesomeeeeeee. Elevation Polish describes it as being packed with micro multi-colored glitter, micro copper colored glitter, green teal square glitter, blue teal holographic hex glitter and copper colored round glitter. It makes me so happy to look at. Here are bottle shots of both, isn't that just amazing?

This is 2 coats of Ama Dablam brushed over the tips, I didn't need to place the glitter at all.

Julep polishes can be purchased at their site for $14. Elevation Polish announces her releases on her blog, but you can also check out her Etsy or their website. Unfortunately Ama Dablam is no longer available and will not be restocked, according to the preorder page, but her other polishes are gorgeous as well!

So far I see no difference between the glue basecoat and normal basecoat (and I've showered, washed dishes, etc. since last night) but I will follow up with removal either later today or tomorrow.

Has anyone else tried the PVA basecoat?

Thanks for reading!

 K x

Darling Diva Polish - Channeling Coco: Alphabet Challenge "C"

Hello lovelies,
Tonight's post is very special! It marks the culmination of an epic trifecta: finally changing out Brummie, Lustrous Lacquer's ABC "C" week and my first on-time contribution to Try It On Tuesday!

For this I chose Darling Diva Polish's Channeling Coco. I saw this on her Etsy shop and had to have it (along with like 10 other of her polishes :p) Her polishes range from $8-12 per full size bottle and have some seriously cool/hilarious names. Plus the girl has a Battlestar Galactica collection, ok, let me hand over my wallet now, thanks. /love

Isn't this cute? She describes this as a pale warm pink base with small black and pink glitters. Yup, that's about right.

So, this didn't turn out very well on me. I shook it, turned it upside down for a while and fished like crazy but I could barely get any glitter. The Etsy picture for the item has a decent amount of glitter but I just couldn't coax it out. I was sorta bummed about this :(

This is five coats!

First of all, I probably should have put this over a nude base coat...but on the other hand, the only reason I got as much glitter as you see above is because I had to coax 5 coats onto my nails and be careful not to sweep the glitter off with the brush. It looks pretty and milky and only a tiny bit streaky, which is most likely due to me babying the glitter :p Topcoat is a must for this one because without it looks a bit uneven. However, it dries smooth, this glitter doesn't eat topcoat :) I feel like if the base was a little thinner and the glitter a little more dense in the bottle I could have gotten the results I was expecting, but don't get me wrong - I do think this is very pretty.

I've also picked up Ringer, Space Beetle, Princess Celestia, Fancy Nancy, Cherry Jubilee (LOVE) and Enchantment and can't wait to try them. 

Thanks for reading!
K x