Hard to Find Friday: Color Club The Uptown

Wow, November has already flown by, it's already the 21nd.  Thanksgiving is next week then the holiday crunch starts.  Family, presents, and food galore!  Also holiday nail art.  That will be coming up soon too, so that's something to be excited for. :-P

For today's Hard to Find Friday I have Color Club's The Uptown.  If you may not have already seen the panic, Color Club recently changed the formula for this.  They said that they no longer had access to the flakes in this polish so it was replaced with glitter.  This is the original formula.

The Uptown is a purple jelly base with flakes that shift from yellow, orange, and green.  Let's just be honest here, The Uptown is one of my top five mainstream polishes.  The others would be Zoya's Dream and Odette, OPI Affair in Red Square, and Essie Wicked.

On my pointer and middle fingers I painted two coats and on the rest of my finger I painted one coat on top of Julep's Josephine, which is a dark, dusty navy blue cream.  I'm glad that The Uptown was able to be opaque in two coats, but my favorite way to wear it is a single coat over a dark color.  I feel the flakes pop a lot more and you can tell the shift better.  In the purple jelly they almost disappear.  The flakes are plentiful and are evenly dispersed.  I say if you can find it for a not ridiculous price, do it immediately.

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Untried Wednesday: Essie Trophy Wife and Peacock Portrait

Happy hump day all!  I had started writing this last night and was going to be very proud of myself that it was up on time, then I got distracted.  It happens.  But we're here now, and it's coming up!  So lets get started.

This is Essie's Trophy Wife.  It is a green leaning teal pearly polish that took two coats for opacity.  I love teal, it happens to be one of my wedding colors.  This polish does not disappoint.  If you are a fan of these kind of colors, go out and get it now.  I'm a little surprised it stayed in my untrieds basket for so long.  

I topped it with Finger Paints Peacock Portrait.  It is a glitter polish in a clear base with chunky holographic glitters and teal hexes.  I think it is a lovely topper for Trophy Wife and the formula is nice.  I did not have any issues getting the glitter on my nails and it spread out very well.  I'm going to have to check out some more Finger Paints glitters.  If they are like this one, I know I wouldn't be disappointed. 

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Mani Monday: Red Nails for #meetupinthe714 and a Giveaway!!

Hey all, sorry this is coming up a little bit later in the day, but yesterday kicked my butt.  In case you did not hear, yesterday Yvette from @blisspolish held a meet up in Westminster and of course @lacqueredmizzy and I had to go to represent San Diego.  It was a blast, I spent too much money, met some cool new people, and came home exhausted.  I had such a headache when I got home that I just passed out.  Too much excitement for little ol' me.  If you're interested, make sure you search #meetupinthe714 on IG to see all of our pictures and everyone's red nails.  I'm still a little shellshocked that I got to meet @SealorePolish, @PolishTBH, and @sloteazzy.  Yeah, I'm still fangirling a little.  Just a tad.

So for the meet up Yvette asked us to rock our red manis and I always use events like this to try to do something different for me.  

On my thumb and pinkie I am wearing Zoya's Jacqueline from their Spring 2013 collection.  I call it a vanilla cream and while the first coat was a bit streaky, like most whiteish creams, the second coat leveled this out perfectly.  Honestly, this is one of those polishes that I have boughten entirely because of the name, but I love it now.

On my pointer finger I have Julep's Myrtle.  It is a pretty solid red cream that was opaque in two coats.  I have two other identical red polishes, so I've been trying to use this one up for a while.  Luckily this mani finally finished off my bottle, so I can move on.  If you like it, I say go for OPI Big Apple Red or Essie Size Matters off the top of my head.  They are big bottles and cheaper.  I am sure that every brand out there has a red cream just like this.  

On my middle finger I am wearing wearing two coats of ORLY's Bling.  It is a gold holographic micro glitter.   It is the gold version of this season's must have polish, ORLY's Mirrorball.  Okay I love this polish, if you can find it pick it up.  Even indoors the holo is obvious.  It is totally worth it.  

Finally on my ring finger I am wearing two coats of OPI Magazine Cover Mouse.  It is a red Liquid Sand with a bit of pink shimmer.   I have yet to meet a Liquid Sand I did not love, and this one does not disappoint.  

On top of Zoya's Jacqueline I painted on some leopard print with my dotting tools.  The centers are a large dot of Myrtle and I painted "C" shapes around them with my usual black Cult Nails Fetish.  I filled in some of the blank spots with ORLY's Bling because I can't stop using it.  On my pointer finger I glued on a bow.  I randomly bought these on eBay, if you're interested just search "3D nail art bow" and you'll find lots of options.  I do use gel resin to get that on my nails instead of regular nail glue.  I would especially suggest it for something big like this.  Finally on top of Bling I drew a little heart in Myrtle and a heart in Fetish on top of Magazine Cover Mouse.

Yeah, I loved this mani and I'm actually of disappointed that my bows popped off after two days.  I could have totally rocked it for another day.

So here's my super exciting news!  In honor of my 100th post I'm having a giveaway.   I have most of the things for it, I'm just waiting on one part.  Hopefully I'll open it on Wednesday, if not Friday at the latest.  So stay tuned!

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Swatch Saturday: A England Fated Prince

Yay it's Saturday! I am so excited to have to tomorrow off and do a little bit of polish shopping with some of my fellow San Diegans.  Don't forget to check back Monday for what my 100th post surprise! I think it'll be nice.  :-)

This is A England's Fated Prince.  Excuse the picture, but we are entirely cloudy in San Diego and I had to hunt around for a sunbeam. Fated Prince is a black holo we all already knew, I love me some dark gray/black holos and this was my first one.  A England's site lists it as a "a mysterious grey base hue with deep olive undertones, throwing off valiant prismatic flashes to herald the arrival of a certain destiny" and I think that is a pretty apt description.  It is not quite black, which I have said before may be because of the Spectralflare that is used to make it holographic, as it tends to gray out a color.  I used two coats for complete opacity.  It is a gorgeous color and it makes me want to go make a giant order of A England polishes on Llarowe.  No, I have to exercise self control and at least wait until after the holidays.  ;-)

I also did want to throw in a quick comparison of my three gray/black holos, Bliss Polish Jax 2.0 (1), A England Fated Prince (2), and Color Club Beyond (3).  The largest difference between all there is the level of holographic glitter.  Jax 2.0 is by far the most scattered of the three, and I feel that Fated Prince has a larger grade of glitter.  They are all beautiful colors though, and I do not feel bad owning all three.

Photo from Elsa at Like a Candyshop

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Hard to Find Friday: Librarian's Shush

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope you all are happy a lovely day.  Here's a little LacquerVixen fun fact for you all.  This is my 100th post!  Crazy, I know.  I have a little surprise for you all, so make sure you come back on Monday to see.  ;-)

Today's Hard to Find Friday polish is Femme Fatale's Librarian's Shush.  It is a light gray crelly with white squares, black squares, hexes, and bars.  It is opaque in two coats, which is a little surprising for a crelly.  Usually they require at least three coats for full opacity, but it is nice to only need two.  I haven't seen too many gray crellies so I am glad to have swooped this guy up.  If you stumble upon it, I say go for it and get it.  It is totally worth it.  But then I am partial to the librarian name.  

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Untried Wednesday: OCC Electric Sheep and Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow!

Happy Wednesday all!  I hope that the week has been going well for you all.  I'm still managing to kick NaNoWriMo butt and blogging consistently, so go me.  Today I have two untried polishes to show you all, so I hope you enjoy them.  Also, what is up with my skin that I have lobster hands?  My skin is usually not this red.  I'm going to blame it on the dry air and fluctuating temperatures here in San Diego.  It is totally not fun.   

On my thumb, index, and pinkie fingers I have wearing Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics in Electric Sheep.  It is a dusty lilac cream with a bit of silver shimmer.  I love these kind of colors and the best part about this is that it is a one coater.  The formula is a little thick, but nothing that you can't work with.  Electric Sheep was released in OCC's Spring 2013 Sci-Fi Lullabies collection.  It was named after Phillip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which was the inspiration behind the 1982 film Blade Runner.  It is still available on Sephora's website, but not on OCC's site.

Now on my middle and ring fingers I am wearing Deborah Lippmann's Boom Boom Pow! from the Winter 2010 collection.  It is a mixture of gold hexes and actual 24 karat gold dust.  This works best as a topper, but I wanted to see if it would become opaque.  For my picture I used four coats and could still see a touch of nail line.  So this one you want to limit to topping polishes.  It is a beauty and totally glad I got my hands on it.  I bought this at Ulta on clearance and it is still available on the website.  It is also listed on the Deborah Lippmann website, but it is full price there.  If you happen to be in an Ulta, make sure you check out the clearance section.  I've found lots of other Deborah Lippmanns for at least 50% off, so don't ever discount it.

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Mani Monday: Glitter, Polka Dots, and Mint

Happy Monday everyone!  Did you all have a nice weekend?  I'm super excited right now because tomorrow I'm going to go pick up my wedding dress.  Whaaaaaaaat??  But LacquerVixen, you're not getting married for ten months!  Well yeah, but it wasn't supposed to be ready until January/February and then I got an email two weeks after ordering it that my dress had come in.  Apparently they happened to have my size in the warehouse.  Yeah, so here's hoping it looks all nice and new.   Cross your fingers for me y'all!

Today's mani was originally inspired by those Caboodles Nail Valets that are super nifty.  They have compartments to fit your polishes so that they do not wiggle around in travel and different areas for extras, including brushes and dotting tools.  And they look like this:

Now I love me some black with white polka dot, so I have been wanting this one for so long.  So my nails started out looking like the box, then I started adding extras.  What do you all think?

On my thumb and pinkie I have OPIs My Dogsled is a Hybrid from their Nordic 2014 collection.  It is a mint cream that was nearly opaque in one coat, I added a second to cover up a few bald spots.  Seriously, this is a great polish and it is still available in stores.  If you don't own it already, go out and buy it now.  I topped my thumb with Sephora Formula X in Chaotic which has black and white hexes and black bar glitter.  Now this Formula X is from Sephora's first and short lived launch of their store brand polishes.  I found this at Big Lot's for less than two dollars, so it's not particularly easy to find, but there are plenty of other brands that came out with the same kind of thing.  China Glaze and Hard Candy are the first ones that come to mind.  On my pinkie, I just have a coat of ORLY's Shine on Crazy Diamond which is a sparse holographic topper.  The glitters are slightly larger than China Glaze's Fairy Dust.

On my pointer finger I have two coats of Nails Inc in Noho which was from their Leather Effect polishes.  It is slightly textured and is probably my favorite black, glitterless texture polish.  I also added a silver square shaped stud on the base of my nail.  In the past, I have always just used a dot of top coat to glue studs on, but they would only really last about twelve hours before they popped off.  So today I used brush on Gel Resin.  So far it has lasted through a shower, sleep, and cooking, so it works pretty well for me.  

My middle finger is just two coats of Essie's Hors d'ouevers.  It is a dense gold glitter polish with silver hexes.  Finally, on my ring finger I painted one coat of my much beloved Cult Nails Fetish then made my dots with OPIs My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  

I am pretty happy with the over all result and I hope you guys like it too.  :-)

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)