Monday, November 28, 2011

Cult Nails - Clairvoyant (Unicorn Puke) and Time Traveler

The day after I received the Super Powers collection from my pre-order, I removed my old manicure and polished my tips just before the big Thanksgiving preparations. I used the beautiful dark blue creme, Time Traveler, from this collection. Time Traveler had the perfect consistency and applied so wonderfully smoothly in one coat. I was SO tempted to leave it on by itself but...

Cult Nails - Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant

Ta-daaaa - Unicorn Puke (aka Clairvoyant) in all it's multicolored shimmery glory. I can't stop staring at my nails to find hidden blips of purple, flashes of pink, sprinkles of green.

Cult Nails - Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant

(Oops, colors are a bit off in the photo above)

CND Stickey | Cult Nails Time Traveler | Cult Nails Clairvoyant | Seche Vite

Blue, green, orange, pink, purple flakies with a bit of a multichrome flash at certain angles in direct light. Truly unique and definitely a complement to Unicorn Pee (aka Clarins 230) and easily makes its way onto my Top 10 list.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Cult Nails - Super Power Collection

Look what I got in the mail today! The Super Powers pre-order from Cult Nails! Yayzer beams!

(L to R) Time Traveler, Power Thief, Mind Control, Clairvoyant
Cult Nails - Super Power Collection

I missed out on the pre-sale of Unicorn Puke, but when Maria from Cult Nails/R3Daily offered up a pre-sale of the entire Super Power collection, you bet I jumped on that so fast my credit card smoked a bit. :P

Here's my long-awaited Clairvoyant (aka Unicorn Puke) in all her sparkly, flakie, multicolored glory:
Cult Nails - Clairvoyant (Unicorn Puke)

Cult Nails will be running a Black Friday sale this coming weekend (November 25 - 28). All polishes will be $7.75 each, nail treatments $6, and glass nail files $10.


Cult Nails - Super Power Collection

I can't wait to try these beauties out!

HITS and Ozotic

Some deliciously holographic goodies I purchased from Llarowe recently:

HITS and Ozotic

Love.

Friday, October 28, 2011

OPI Zom-body to Love

Hello...

Life and work got just ridiculously crazy busy. I have quite a few manis to share but I'll start off with my first Halloween manicure.
Light:
OPI Zom-body to Love + OPI Black Shatter

Poshe base coat | Zoya Gemma | OPI Zom-body to Love | OPI Black Shatter | Seche Vite base coat

I purchased my Zom-body to Love at a local beauty supply store and had Black Shatter from when it was released though they can be purchased in a 4 pack or a Pair Em and Scare Em duo. Zom-body to Love dried rather sheer and matte so I used a base color so as not to have to build up the glow in the dark polish.

Dark:
OPI - Zom-body to Love

The glow in the dark effect was hard to photograph but the polish really did glow. Caveat: the effect lasts for only a short period of time and fades over a few days. The glow in the dark is best viewed after exposing the polish to bright direct light. The photo amused me - I'm a biochemist and this shot reminded me of fluorescent-labelled cells. :)

Anyway, I've had this mani for about 3 days with only minor tip wear to note. I'm going to try to do a different Halloween-themed mani this weekend and I hope to post results then!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Ozotic Pro Elytra 528 over Zoya Raven

Hello everyone,

Boy, did I get backlogged in posts in a short period of time! That's okay - it just means I should have more material to post soon. ;)

I want to share this amazing polish that I ordered from an Australian company called Picture Polish: Ozotic Pro Elytra 528.
Ozotic Pro Elytra 528 over Zoya Raven

Different angle:
OzoticPro529

Gorgeous, huh? I received so many compliments on this polish. Bonus: my manicure last 7 days while i was in SoCal for the Long Beach International Dragon Boat Festival (eek, salt water + harsh conditions) plus a day of indoor rock climbing. I love it when a mani endures my frequent handwashing and hard workouts.

I promise to get more photos of this next time to show how amazing this polish was, especially layered over a glossy black polish such as Zoya Raven. The formula of Ozotic Pro Elytra 528 is a bit on the runny side but still manageable. Since the base color is clear, I layered the multichromatic glitter over a black creme base though I will have fun experimenting with layering combinations. I think Elytra 528 will look great over a creme base with similar tones as the glitter (blue, green, turquoise, purple, red). I think 2-3 coats for a more even glitter finish would be nice as well.

Manicure: Poshe | Zoya Raven (1 coat) | Ozotic Pro Elytra 528 (2 coats) | Sally Hansen Insta-Dri
Wear time: 7+ days

Friday, July 22, 2011

Clarins 230

I thought I'd start my nail polish blog out with a bang. Why not with the ever-so elusive Clarins 230 (aka Unicorn Pee). Not only elusive, but $$$ on eBay.

The theme for this week on tPF (if we/I chose to partake), was HTF or rare nail polishes. I don't have too many HTF or rare polishes since I have a relatively young collection and missed out on some awesome polishes this past decade. However, I participated in an RAOK (random act of kindness) on the nail care subforum on tPF and was gifted an dazzling set of simply gorgeous and a-maz-ing nail polishes. When I opened the package containing this...my jaw dropped.

Clarins 230

Beautiful, huh? A vial of bottled sparkly rainbow!

By itself, Clarins 230 is a bit sheer with a sheer violet base with a multichromatic shimmer. The formula is thin and easy to control. I chose an untried purple I purchased in Vancouver, BC to layer under - Joe Fresh Orchid. I didn't photograph the base color by itself (doh!) but it is a medium red-based purple. My gripe about the Joe Fresh bottles were the larger diameter bottle cap with a short brush. My small stubby fingers can't grasp and control the polish as well as I'd like though the formula itself was pretty smooth.

Poshe | Joe Fresh - Orchid | Clarins 230 | Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

In sunlight:
Joe Fresh Orchid w/ Clarins 230

With overhead halogen lighting:
Clarins 230 over Joe Fresh - Orchid

I love the rainbow of shimmer particles that change colors with different lighting and angles. I'm definitely going to play more with Unicorn Pee in the future (tee hee).

Hi.

My name is Manda and I'm obsessed with nail enamel.

Whew. Got that off my chest.

After a 12 year hiatus from all things manicure-related, my passion for polish became reignited on the Nail Care subforum on tPF (The Purse Forum) back in February 2011.

Reignited? More like a firestorm.

I've managed to expand my collection from 5 in mid-February to 284 in mid-July. Yup, acquiring 279 polishes in 5 months would be considered by many as obsessive. Or crazy.

Or as I like to say, I'm just making up for lost time.