connect the... diagonal neons?

Afternoon everyone!
Here's the mani I mentioned in yesterday's post about Lynnderella's Connect The Dots - a fun neon mani with CtD on top!

Tada!
I think CtD is best over a neon color... And even better over two of them!

This mani started out with two coats of Julep - Hayden, one of the few Julep colors I love.
I then painted half my nail with Color Club - Poptastic, which I had to do 2 coats of to make it even.
I added 2 coats of Lynnderella - Connect The Dots on top.
And this fun neon mani was born!

I got a ton of compliments on this mani just because it is so eye catching!
Several people were really confused as to how I "did" the black and white - they don't believe it's just glitter.

What do you guys think of neons + black and white glitter? I basically can't get enough.

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Lynnderella - Connect The Dots

Hey everyone!
I neglected posting all day today just because I'm lazy so I decided to do a quick little post before I go to bed so I don't feel guilty for not posting 2 days in a row... Haha!

A few weeks ago I got a bottle of the infamous Lynnderella's Connect The Dots.
Black and white glitters are all the rage and there is really no questioning why. They're just so freakin' cool on your nails!

I layered CTD over two OPI polishes I wore just to try some layering combinations! I'll show those to you tonight along with one small comparison.

Lynnderella - Connect The Dots over OPI - I Don't Give A Rotterdam!
I loved this combo, the muted blue color really looks nice with the crazy glitter and added shimmer of CTD. I think CTD is best over bright colors but I like seeing it over more soft things for a change. It's versatile.

Lynnderella - Connect The Dots over OPI - Paint My Moji-toes Red
I tried out CTD over a coral red, seeing as coral/tangerine is supposed to be the color of the year, or whatever that nonsense is. As usual, it looks great.

My one complaint about Connect The Dots is the bar glitter. Good grief, the bar glitter likes to poke out of topcoats and annoy the crap out of me. I end up picking most of them off with tweezers in a few hours. They lie flat at first... And then go rogue.

You may remember my post before about Cover Band - Sticks 'n Stones, an amazing creation made to resemble CTD.
If you're not crazy about polish, you would probably think these are identical. But for us polish lovers, you can totally see how these are different when they're next to each other. and I love them both in their own way. I don't think I could part with one, like I previously thought I might.
Here's a quick comparison I did:

CTD has some pretty shimmer going on and overall more glitter, but overall smaller glitter. I also found my CTD to be pretty heavily white.
SnS has no shimmer, lots of big glitter pieces, and a pretty even black/white mix.

They give two different looks. You know, if you've got polish-eyes. I can't pick a favorite.
I saw this picture on Pinterest earlier and thought it would be appropriate for this post:

Photo from Like A Candy Shop. Soooooooooo true.

If this black-and-white-glitter-post wasn't enough to fill your glitter appetite, please head over to Chalkboard Nails and check out her massively huge comparison post.

Tomorrow I'ma be posting a neon CTD mani I wore last week sometime. It's a good one. See you then!

More about → Lynnderella - Connect The Dots

as seen on... I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous!

I've said it before but I'll say it again - Amy from I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous is a total sweetheart.
You may know her from her blog or from her amazing franken polishes. Either way, she's great. (And so are her polishes! I've previously shown you guys Floam and I am so delighted to say that there are two more on their way to me!)

Aside from being sweet as pie and making kick-ass polishes, she does all kinds of amazingly unique nail art. She's always up to something I would never come up with on my own. Such interesting combos. Of course I had to include her in my "as seen on" series!

Back in October, Amy did this really unique and cool looking combo. I knew then that I had to try it as soon as I got my hands on Gotta Love Brains!

Look, I tried to pose like Amy. Hahaha!

If you can't already tell, this mani involves putting crackle polish on a bare nail and then adding milky glitter over it!
Crackle on a bare nail is a pretty cool look! The trick is that you must wear a base coat or clear coat underneath because crackle polishes do not work without a layer of polish underneath.

I used all three of the same polishes Amy did:
Color Club - Clean Break (a white crackle that works!)
China Glaze - Crushed Candy (still a favorite crackle of mine but not working as well as it used to)
Lynnderella - Gotta Love Brains (pretty polish, but, nowadays they are not worth the drama!)

 
Amy's crackle patterns were much smaller than mine (and the stupid blue one needed some "help" cracking... I had to make some breaks myself with a dotting tool) but I think it looks pretty cool both ways!

Look at that massive glitter piece on my index finger! I kinda wanted to get it off because it looks awkward but it didn't wanna move once it sat there.

I can't wait to get my next two Nail-Venturous polishes, they might even be waiting for me when I return from vacation! Of course I will show them to you guys as soon as I can!
Now go check out Amy's blog and stalk her Etsy store for the next opening.

More about → as seen on... I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous!

Lynnderella - Happy Holo Daze!

Happy Holo Daze! everyone.  Sure, I know it's not Christmas, but it is the Easter holiday's ok.

This here is the last Lynnderella I have to show you.  I know some of you thought I had a magic Mary Poppins bag full of Lynnderella polishes that would never end, but sadly the saying is true, and all good things do come to an end.

But if my run of Lynnderella's had to end, wow what a polish to finish on.  Happy Holo Daze is chock full of different sized and shaped red and green glitter, as well as gold holo hexes and bars and small silver holo squares.

Here I have two coats of Peripera Crystal Gold with two dabbled coats of Happy Holo Daze!  I was able to press down and smooth out all the glitters in the polish while it was dry on top, but still squishy beneath and I actually left it without top coat when I went to bed.  In the morning I applied a coat of Ulta3 non chip and a layer of Seche Vite and it was glassy smooth.

I had a lovely lady comment today that my nails looked like opals from where she was standing. It was such a wonderful compliment as I thought my nails were just screaming Christmas.

Well, that's all the Lynn's folks! I'll be back with just good old regular polishes, as I have accumulated quite a pile of untrieds in the few months I have been wearing nothing but Lynnderella's.  But I am looking forward to removing nail polish the normal way and not having to wrap up in foil in acetone!

But I also will continue to post other Lynnderella mani's when I try different laying combinations.

More about → Lynnderella - Happy Holo Daze!

Lynnderella - Attitude Adjust-Mint

Lynnderella's Attitude Adjust-Mint was actually one of her polishes that I just didn't know how to wear.  Pretty much every swatch I'd seem had it layered of a lovely minty green creme. But you seen I don't actually own any mint green cremes except one I frankened about two years ago, and it wasn't really winning me over, but was going to have to do.

But then, as I was putting my Picture Polish bottles in their Helmer drawer, I saw my bottle of Peripera P027 Metallic Green, with it's little cat's bum facing me, and I had a light bulb moment.  The metallic green polish that shifts blue seemed to have the exact same shifting properties as the iridescent green glitters in Attitude Adjust-Mint.

This mani is one coat of Peripera Metallic Green, two coats of Attitude Adjust-Mint and one coat of Seche Vite.

I can't explain how much I loved this mani.  I loved that I could clearly see the glitters in Attitude Adjust-Mint, they weren't lost in the base colour, but they also matched the base colour.  I loved how the milky base of Attitude Adjust-Mint dulled the metallic finish of Metallic Green. I loved how both the base colour and the glitters shifted from minty green to blue.  I just LOVED it!

Attitude Adjust-Mint was also a really smooth glitter. No tamer or double top coating was necessary.

I have such a huge unexpected love for these two polishes together.  Wow I love it when that happens, it's usually the other way around, when something looks so awesome in the bottle and doesn't translate to the nail. But this time it was so much more on the nail than I expected it to be! 

If you have these two polishes (or Missha HGR01), you have to try this combo!

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Lynnderella - Very Pretty Vampire

When I was wearing the Picture Polish Opulence polishes over the weekend, I noticed that Monroe was the perfect match for me to wear as undies for one of the last three untried Lynnderella polishes I had.  That made the choice really easy as to which one I would wear next.

This is two coats of Very Pretty Vampire over one coat of Picture Polish Monroe.  I think I had two layers of top coat on, Ulta3 non chip and Seche Vite.  

I found this polish tricky to photograph, because the glitters are really quite dark.  I don't have a fancy light box (although Kristy's fridge shots make me think that might be an ok light box), and the only time for me to photograph my nails is at about 7:00am in the morning, just after sunrise. I feel my photos lack a bit of oomph!  This is such a pretty polish and I want to do it justice.

Geez I miss Lynnderella's blog where she details what is in each of these polishes, cause I liked to copy and paste her exact descriptions for you all.  But I also like the fact that she doesn't have the full list of glitters in these polishes up any more, cause it means the copy cat creators have to make dupes from photos and not her list of glitters.

I've only got one Lynnderella polish left untried *sad*  I'm wearing Attitude Adjust-mint today ready for tomorrow's post and I still have Happy Holo-daze to wear.  Happy Holo-daze is such a Christmassy combo I think I'm going to feel a little weird wearing it, but I tell you I can't leave it sit there untried until Christmas.

More about → Lynnderella - Very Pretty Vampire

Lynnderella - Chocolotta Love

When I first saw Lynnderella'a ChocoLotta Love, I knew instantly I needed it.  I mean look at this polish.  It's so unique and edgy that it's verging on weird, isn't it.  A chocolate brown glitter polish - hell yeah.

Did you guys read Scrangie's April Fools post about her new line of flavoured polishes.  Well if there ever were flavoured polishes, this would have to be one.  Can you just imagine what this one would taste like.  Clearly it's chocolate based, but the teal green bits would have to be mint chips. What what flavour would the red and purple bits be?

This was just one coat of ChocoLotta Love layered over Ulta3s new Cocoa metallic crush polish.  A match made in both colour and name heaven.

I really liked this, but over a perfectly matching base colour it doesn't totally blow you away.  After seeing swatches of it over gold, I'm going to have to revisit it again soon.

More about → Lynnderella - Chocolotta Love

Lynnderella - Love, Lace and Lilacs

Do you remember me telling you about my dark green franken that I called "Perfect green undies" which I wore under Lynnderella's Funny Money, Green of Hearts and I Can Afford It?  Have I told you yet that that polish and I are no longer on speaking terms!  That dirty hoe polish stained my lovely pinky coloured nails a horrible shade of yellow.  I didn't have stained nails at all, but after I took that polish off I was horrified.  I have a good basecoat on but I'm guessing my mix is just too pigmented!  It's really only the top half of my nails, and I've tried scrubbing the peroxide and baking powder but it hasn't made a difference.  Does anyone have whitening ideas that actually work??

I shared that story because you can see the yellow tinge to my nails in the shots of the very delicate and pretty Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs.  Here I am wearing Nail Tek Foundation II base coat, two coats of Bourjois Rose Lounge (yes again, it's my go to sheer pink nude) and two coats of Love, Lace and Lilacs.  Rose Lounge on the base did a good job of hiding the yellow, but I can still see it.

I loved this look because it almost looked like it was LLL just on it's own, but Rose Lounge made it not look naked!

Love, Lace and Lilacs has various sized opaque white hexes and translucent white hexes, as well as opaque white bar glitter.  There is also a micro fine silver shimmer in this that is similar to the shimmer that is in Connect the Dots.

Taking inspiration from the polish name, I decided to wear this polish as a lace mani.

I started this mani with stamping a lace design across my nail.  Then I painted my index finger on both sides of the lace stamp with Love, Lace and Lilacs.  Then I did my middle finger on the bottom corner, and then as I twisted my hand around to do the top corner, I somehow painted the next finger.  Of course then I realised that I really loved just the half nail look, so I had to work out how to finish the design using some full lace and some half lace nails.  I totally loved this mani, I was so happy with the final look.  I can't believe how much like real lace this polish looks like. 

More about → Lynnderella - Love, Lace and Lilacs

Lynnderella - Sweet to the Sweet

Today I have Lynnderella Sweet to the Sweet.  I've layered this over two coats of Bourjois Rose Lounge, which it a very sheer pale pink.  I then layered two coats of Sweet to the Sweets, then layered on my three standard top coats for Lynnderella's, Ulta3 non-chip, Glitter Tamer and Seche Vite.  

I was trying to finish this mani off before going to bed, so I was a little rushed applying the top coats, as a result I got a little bit of wrinkling , nothing too bad, but I could have avoided it if I had waited longer between coats.  It also finished a littler thicker on my nail that usual, but considering it was a total of eight layers, it's ok.

I notice that my bottle of Sweet tot he Sweet is rather cool toned, in that it mostly has blue and purple glitters.  There are a few fuchsia, pink and red glitters in there and of course lots of iridescent white glitter, but I don't seem to have any yellow or green like I have seen in other swatches.

Does you bottle have yellow and green glitter? 

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Lynnderella - Mercurial

I'm into my home stretch of Lynnderella polishes now.  Less than a weeks worth left to show.  I'm a bit sad that I have almost worn all of them, although I know I will be wearing each again many times with different layering combinations (or the same in some cases).  I've received a few new polishes in the last month that I'm really looking forward to putting on those too. Oh and I'm on day three of the Lansinoh cuticle treatment. I can definitely see a difference, but wonder if I need gloves on when I sleep, I think I get it all rubbed off within 30 minutes.

Onto today's Lynnderella, Mercurial. This one has multiple sizes and shades of gunmetal, black and silver hexes and squares in a metallic grey base. The little special surprise is that is also contains lavender hexes, but my favourite glitter pieces have to be those huge silver hexes.  They are a little tricky to get to lay flat, but they are like metal armor for your nails.

I layered two coats of Mercurial of one coat of Ulta3 Metal, which is nearly an exact match for the metallic grey base to this polish.  Finished with a coat of Ulta3 non-chip and Seche Vite.

More about → Lynnderella - Mercurial