Layering with Elevation El Cap

Elevation Polish El Cap was the runaway star of the 180 Degrees South Collection with good reason. This polish is so gorgeous on the nail it practically glows and there's the whole is it blue? Is it purple? Do I care when it's so pretty? Nope! Check it. I think this is 3 coats so it's a bit sheer but so worth it.

And while it's a shame to cover up such a pretty polish, it was just screaming to be the base of a couple glitters. First we have HARE Twilight Savings. I love how El Cap lightens it and makes it pull more purple than blue but you can still see the purple glitter. And of course the squares are love. One coat over El Cap.

And then we have Smitten Polish Hydrangea which I picked up in her recent pre-order (which was my first Smitten order and I'm in love. Already placed another with her new collection). Hydrangeas are my favourite flower so I had to get this one and son it does not disappoint. One Coat over El Cap.

The Nail Junkie Grape/Banana/Orange Jelly Shimmer

Ok before I get into these fabulous Nail Junkie polishes I have to say, I FINALLY got my UP house finished!

How gorgeous is that? My artist is so good with the fine lines (he also did my Harry Potter tattoo). I can't wait to get started on the next part although I'm so going to have to curtail my polish buying first since this is going to be the big one. The one that ties it all together. There'll be a few more smaller ones once I get the big one done to really cement the scene but this is going to be the one that turns it from some random cartoony tattoos on my leg (you can't see it but there's a dancing hippo from Fantasia too) into the dream scene I've been envisioning for the last 3 years. Anyway, enough about my ink, let's talk polish. Originally I was going to just get 4 of Aleta's Summer collection but the second my order came and I put on Orange Jelly Shimmer I decided fuck it, I need them all and got the last two. First I wore Orange Jelly Shimmer with my Cult Nails Feelin' Froggy/Dollish Polish Hero of Time Mani. It was one of those hoh shit, fucked up the mani at work moments and I happened to have Orange Jelly Shimmer with me so I took off the nails that were messed up and put this beaut on instead. I'm pretty sure that all the colours go with orange even if most people won't admit it.

Next I decided on Banana Jelly Shimmer because I'm such a whore for yellows.

So gorgeous! I think this was 3 or 4 coats and applied super smooth. But I'd also recently gotten dotting tools and saw Chalkboard Nails Gradient Dotticure and decided I wanted to try to replicate it. Used a-England Ascalon and Zoya Lolly for the dots and kinda failed in the Gradient department since I was just all around to heavy on the dotting but I still like how it turned out.

And finally we have Grape Jelly Shimmer. I had to *sniff* nubbinize after 4th of July weekend due to all the drunken shenanigans breaking a couple nails and this is the first mani I did after cutting down (I think...) First it was Grape Jelly Shimmer alone and then I decided to do a light gradient with CrowsToes Cheshire as an accent.

But I loved the combo so much I had to do the whole hand with Cheshire. Primarily as the gradient but did one finger full glitter. Those purples just go so well together! But I think it's the gold hexes that really make Cheshire. I miss my long nails for glitter gradients, good thing they grow fast!

Illamasqua Baptiste + Girly Bits Daddy's Little Girl

It's definitely that time of the year where you're all worn down by the neons and brights and need to take a vampy break, or at least it was for me a couple weeks ago. Bought myself both of these for my b-day and I'm so in love.

Ugh, this polish, I can't even handle her. She's so freaking gorgeous, I had her on for a week and it was so the vampy break I needed (immediately went into a highlighter yellow mani XD). So hard to photograph though, most of the pics just made it look like a dark purple when Baptiste is far more complex than that. Also, I'm kinda loving the pointy nails, especially with the vampy. I know some people don't like them because they're kinda claw like but that's kinda the reason I love them. Anyway, after 4 or 5 days I broke the nail on my thumb by being a clever girl and punching a punching bag without gloves. Decided to add a little bling to cheer up the poor shorty so used Girly Bit's Dadddy's Little Girl. Loved the combo so much I put it over the rest of my nails (sorry thumb! You were still the first?)

Part of Pam's Calendar Girls collection, I think it may be my favourite. This is one coat over Baptiste. One! Check that glitter coverage. Working on trying to figure out my Fourth of July mani now. If I'm not lazy tomorrow and I figure it out before I get super drunk, I'll post. If not, have a Happy 4th!

Cult Nails Charming and Feelin' Froggy + Dollish Polish The Hero of Time

Cult Nails released it's gorgeous Fairy Tale collection and of course I had to have it all so I went and pre-ordered it.

Wore Charming first, absolutely gorgeous! It is very sheer but totally worth it. Sorry about my super gross fingers. I was at work and am sooo bad about wearing gloves so my hands always need some TLC after.

And then I wore Feelin' Froggy and stayed deeply in love.

And then I put Dollish Polish The Hero of Time on as an accent. I ordered the Zelda Duo because well, Zelda, but I didn't really expect to love it. Oh how wrong I was, it's absolutely gorgeous! This is two coats.

The Nail Junkie Matte Violet

Well Aleta over at The Nail Junkie announced her Summer 2012 line (gorgeous jellies! Check them out, they go on sale Friday and she's got a giveaway up!) so I figured now would be a good (bad, extremely late) time to post about the Spring 2012 collection. She's going to have the mattes for sale too! So far I've only done a full mani with Matte Violet but I loooooooooved it! Great application, great wear (2 coat, 4 days and no chips) and it's sooooo pretty! (colour in the first pic is more accurate)

And then right after I got them I skittled all 3. Please excuse the mess. And then I went to put the Green Grass glitter on top and managed to ruin the Matte Violet finger before doing so so it's only on Matte Daffodil and Matte Rose.

And Aleta is a genius with the packaging, look how pretty it came!

The polishes are amazing quality, I really love all of them and I think if you go for some you really won't regret it!

A Little Cell Phone Pic Spam

I have better pics for some of these that will be posted later and some of them I just nabbed on the phone, oops.

a-England Princess Tears

Ok these may have been snapped at a stoplight whilst driving home from work because they were just holoing so well that I had to try and capture it. Good thing too since I totally spaced about taking pics later even though I was outside all freaking weekend and it was 85+ and sunny the entire time. I looooooove this polish. a-Englands are tops in my book and the Legends are just so stunning. Here, have another one.

a-England Order of the Garter

Put this lovely on right after I broke yet another nail (bringing the total up to 4) and decided I couldn't put off cutting them down any more. Obviously vampies are awesome with shorter nails but while I did want something dark, I wanted something bright too. I know, it's a contradiction but I think OotG navigated it perfectly. A deep rich glass fleck blue that's sooooo blue it practically glows. Even the bf who never ever notices my manis was like "wow that's some blue nails"

Cult Nails - Manipulative

Picked up this lovely from the $5 sale back in April. Such a pretty colour and an amazing formula. This polish lasted me 4 days! (Be proud, that's two manis in a month I wore for more than 3, the other being Princess Tears for 5, amaze)

Dollish Polish - GTL

Pretty and Polished - Galactus

Nail Junkie - Matte Violet

This lovely was part of Aleta's spring 2012 collection and is the first one I did a full mani with. One of these days there will be a proper post with all of them but for now I just have to say, love the colour, application was fabulous, wore for 3 days and could have gone for longer if it weren't for the polish ADD.

Fixation Poppy + Fixation Blood of the Dragon

Today I have two amazing polishes from Fixation Polish which make me really regret not ordering all 4 polishes she had in her last opening. Trust me, Day Dream and Lime Crush and anything else Kristin has will be mine next opening! I happened to be wearing Butter London Trout Pout the day these two arrived and I was in awe at how well the base for Poppy matched Trout Pout. Trout Pout itself is a dream, I'm so happy all these corals are so in, I just love them (although my camera doesn't so I apologize for the colour. It's been a bit since I wore these so I can't remember which is most accurate)

Well once I ripped open my package and was holding them in my hand I knew Poppy was going on immediately. It's a shame I have no self control since I was just about to fold laundry and make dinner then too. Had to wait, Poppy was just too demanding. Still, she was worth it no?

Now as much as I adore Poppy, Blood of the Dragon truly owns my heart. I mean first there's the name and the fact that it's Game of Thrones inspired, but then there's just how gorgeous it is. I can't even get over how much I love the colour combos there. Now I wore this over a strange combo and it was totally unintentional but I'm kinda in love with how it came out. Intuitively it seems Blood of the Dragon belongs over a nice green, something to match the base right? Yeeeeeah I put it over MAC Bad Fairy over Dollish Polish Goonies Never Day Die. I kinda wish I had pics of the undies but the whole reason I put on BotD was because I was so bored with my mani. I mean GNDD is a nice gold and of course I love Bad Fairy but it needed jazzing up and oh did BotD deliver.

It's weird right? But there's so much depth. The Bad Fairy coat was really thin so the green really comes through over the parts where the gold was peaking through and I just really love the way everything comes together. And yes that's both hands, my poor middle finger is being slow to grow out again. Come on dear, match all the others! Promise I won't get drunk and destroy you again(...maybe)

Illamasqua Nomad and Stance + Nail-Venturous Floam and Pinkerbell

Wow am I total failboat pseudoblogger! Well there will be spam and some more indie manis as that's my obsession but ho, on to the nails. Last week (maybe? I think it was only last week, time really blurs sometimes) I got out of work on time (a major rarity) and had time to kill before heading to the gym. Ended up at the shopping center between work and the gym and somehow managed to make my way over to Sephora (I know, it's a puzzle). I'd heard they had these fancy schmancy new nail bars at some and low and behold, they did at mine. I was weak and had to pick up Stance and Nomad.

I really wish Sephora sold more Illamasqua than just nail polish. I really like the entire Human Fundamentalism collection and even though I don't wear much makeup, I'd so get it. I just can never stomach the cost of shipping from the UK, not when I can be spending that money on more pretty polishes! Anyway, they looked so pretty together that I just had to do a colour block mani with them.

The formula was lovely on both of these! I'm really in love with Illamasquas now even though I only have 4. I see that number inflating quite a bit in the near future. You can see I broke some nails up there =( Pinky left I got caught in a drawer at home. Middle left I was at a bar and drunk and waving my hand wildly and smashed it right into the table. The nail kinda just caved inward. The boy found it incredibly amusing when I whipped the file out of my wallet and started trying to fix it. I also ruined my thumb right a few days later putting a new regulator on a gas cylinder at work. I'm death to long nails. And yet I can't convince myself to nub so I'm just suffering through the uneveness. Anyway, you know me, can never leave a creme alone so on went the matte glitters! I'm soooooo pleased with how Floam looks with Nomad. I really think it's the perfect base. Pinkerbell on Stance on the other hand? Not so much. I'm really convinced Pinkbell just doesn't work with anything remotely pink. The glitter just gets lost in the base and it ends up looking like a sparse Floam.