Belated Holiday Mani

Holiday insanity has ensued.  That, with my birthday coming up I just don't feel like making a real post.

Here's what I wore for Festivus and for the following few days.  The photos were taken in a hurry, and my right hand's candy cane nail got jacked up =[

Colors used:

Orly Ma Cherie

Orly Au Champagne

Revlon Posh

Sonia Kashuk Golden Ticket

China Glaze Twinkle Lights

Snowman Christmas Glitter

Orly Androgynie

This color is from the Orly 2011 Holiday Soireé collection.  I feel like I remember this particular color being the buzz of the collection.  I also picked up the satin matte white shimmer, and the red jelly.  

Androgynie is a grey-black jelly with silver glitter, gold irregular glitter, and iridescent pinkish/green and blue hex glitter.  This is AMAZEBALLS in the bottle.  But the good glitter sinks to the bottom so it's sparse on the nail.  Next time I think I'll do some vigorous mixing and layer it over black since the second coat pretty much hides the first, making it kind of pointless.  I was a bit underwhelmed, so I added a matte top coat instead of the usual and it really made all the difference.  I really wanted to take a bottle shot of this one, but I am notorious for doing my nails and then misplacing the color for a while.

It's still available on Orly's website here for $8.50

P.s. I would usually crop out a broken nail, but in this case I decided to leave it because it makes for a funny story.  What did I break my nail on, you ask?  Brown sugar.  Snapped half of my pointer tip right off.  That sugar did NOT want to declump.

Outdoors:

 A little bit blurry to show the colors.

With flash:

RBL Plié

image credit: pinterest

Plié is one of my favorite neutrals, although I don't wear it often because I tend to want bolder colors on my tips.  The description on Rescue Beauty's site is "As the curtain rises on Swan Lake, a very soignée woman peers through her opera glasses and realizes the satiny slippers on the prima ballerina are the exact shade of her own satiny nails."  Plié really is the color of ballet pink slippers.  I used to dance in my youth, and my daughter takes classes at BalletMet.  I have been going to see The Nutcracker pretty much every year for as long as I can remember.  So this color is reminiscent of something that is very dear to me.

Ballet pink is a neutral-leaning light pink.  Greige and pink mixed together.  And Plié is exactly that with a creamy finish and a dusty quality to it.  These aren't brand new slippers we're talking about, it's well loved slippers.  Impeccable formula that is standard with RBL polishes.  Two coats, and about as even as I'll ever get a color that light.

Plié is still available on Rescue Beauty's site here for $18.

Image credit: tumblr

Julep Morgan + EOTD + nail polish ring

So I've been a Julep Maven for a while.  I have skipped a few boxes here and there, but for the most part I have a decently sized Julep collection.  But as it turns out, I almost never grab for them.  The colors are alright, and the formula is nothing to complain about.  And in fact, I really enjoy the bottle shape and how it makes getting polish on the brush easier when the bottle starts to empty.  Yet, I always find myself picking other colors over Julep's.  

Yesterday, I glanced over my bottle of Morgan, and it sang to me.  So here it is!  It's a grape purple with some blue and purple shimmer.  The color is described as a frost, but it does not really have a typical frosty appearance.  Morgan is not brush strokey, it has more of a shimmer metallic look to it than frost, but it's most definitely a frost, if that makes any sense.  The color sort of reminded me of A England's Avalon, but they're different enough to warrant owning both.

This was two easy coats, used with Julep's nail therapy and fast dry topcoat.  Morgan is still available on Julep's site here for $14 or $11.50 if you're a maven.  

Outdoors:

 With flash:

My sort of matchy EOTD using colors from UD's Fun Palette.

December's Julep Maven box came with a DIY nail polish ring, I used one of my favorite polishes in it.  A England's St George.

Butter London GOOP

Did I hear someone say limited edition Butter London trio?  And it's on a website called goop?  Uh, yes please.  I actually didn't realize goop was a Gwyneth Paltrow thing until after I was browsing the site a bit, but that actually just made me want the polishes even more.  I love Gwyneth Paltrow.  And I really don't get the hate boner people have for her.  I think she's sweet and lovely, she seems like a the type of mother I want to have and be, Apple is an adorable name, and the recipes on her site are pretty amazing.

So anyway, nail polish.  I've never done one of those "package opening" type of posts, but this was just too adorable.  I opened my box and squealed, I almost didn't want to dig in it was just so dainty and cute.  I don't have have any proper swatches, I had just done my nails for a second interview right before the mail came.  So this will have to do, I suppose.

 A well made, adorable bag.  The bottom says the bag is made of "natural wood pulp from sustainable, managed forests" the ink and handles are environmentally friendly, too.  An encouragement to reuse, and I'm basically in love with this little bag.

 A thank you card that has the invoice also neatly tucked away in too.

 Look at this box.  LOOK AT IT.

Cute color names.

 Bottles with and without flash.

 I went to take this picture to show how sheer Bread and Butter Pudding is, my mind almost immediately went to the gutter and I can only hope I'm not the only perv.

 Wheel swatches.

Hampstead Heath is a mossy green with gold shimmer and iridescent flakies.  Obvs, it's my favorite.

Abso-bloody-lutely is a warm-leaning deep blood red cream jelly.  It went on the old, gritty nail wheel with minimal issues, shown is two coats.

Bread and Butter Pudding is a super sheer pinkish ivroy.  I bet it'd be lovely for a clean, sophisticated look.  Or great for a base in a french manicure.  My nail wheel is obviously white, so you can't really see much of anything.

I was a bit concerned that Hampstead Heath would be too much like Wallis.  Obviously I was worried over nothing.  

And for extra fun, I found this on AudreyEleven's flickr, I really like the way Bread and Butter Pudding looks.  It was a nice addition to compliment the two other colors.

RBL Bella

Long time, no blog.  The semester is finally at an end, so I am no longer hunched over books studying for finals.  I've scarcely had time to even read my followed blogs, and I'm pretty much wearing the manicure to death.

What manicure is that, might you ask?  I'll tell you, baby birds.  I decided to don Rescue Beauty Lounge's Bella for the sake of a job interview and a funeral.  Bells is a bone white cream jelly.  It's not typically a color I'd grab for, but everything has a time and a place for me.  Bella is elegant and feminine, I feel so girly wearing it.  On my nails it kind of has a pinkish hue to it.  The formula is awesome.  I needed three coats for evenness.  For a white, the color was relatively streak-free and easy.  While three coats photographed looks streaky, in person it's a solid milky pinkish white.  I've been wearing this with the RBL base and top coat for a week now, which is unheard of for me.  Some nails are starting to get fissures, but so far no chips.

Bella can be picked up here for $20.  I can't really compare Bella quality wise to other similar whites, so I don't know if you'd find the price tag worth it.  But I can say that I don't regret buying it at all.