Darling Diva Haul: Part Two - Colorful Glitter

I've had so much fun playing with the Darling Diva polishes since I got them! The two I'm swatching today were added in as surprises in addition to the four I purchased.

The first is Witchy Woman, a sheer black jelly base with multi-colored rainbow glitters and a generous addition of blue holo glitters.

The Etsy page featuring Witchy Woman says it's "so much prettier in real life", and I'd have to agree...

 

I layered one coat of Witchy Woman over Catrice Jade Is Not My Name, and I think they worked very nicely together. I also really liked that Witchy Woman applied very smoothly and easily, with the glitter distributing well without more than a good roll of the bottle before polishing.

The second polish I'm swatching in this post is Apple Crisp, which has green, red, and brown/copper glitters in a clear base. I was really intrigued when I saw it's vanilla scented!

I applied one coat of Apple Crisp over two coats of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons from the Germany Collection. It applied a bit less easily than Witchy Woman, but only because of the large red hex glitter that I had to fish for and place on a couple of fingers. Still, it was easier to apply than most other polishes I've tried with large glitters in them.

And my fingertips did indeed have a yummy vanilla bakeshop smell for the 2 and a half days I had this polish on, even with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

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Darling Diva Haul: Part One - Drop Dead Sexy Glitter

So maybe it's a bit late in the game for me, but I finally decided to take the plunge into indie polishes. Turns out not a lot of them ship to Germany (apparently most are located in the U.S.), including Etsy sellers, and if they do the shipping costs can be as much as the polishes themselves!

Among the first indie polishes on Etsy that caught my eye was Darling Diva. Since shipping rates would be lower if I got a few bottles, I decided she'd be my first indie polish buy. With almost 60 different polishes to choose from in her store, it was tough to narrow it down to a few choices.

Turns out my mistake was that I didn't buy more!

Of the 6 bottles chosen, I decided to do three blog posts with 2 polishes at a time, because I was just blown away by them. So let's get right to the pictures...

I took so many! I was mesmerized by how these swatches looked in person and the ones in this post were my favorites. I so wanted to really capture the depth and shine these polishes radiate.

The first polish I swatched was ELECTRIC SEX (all caps via Darling Diva) a juicy black jelly base loaded with big gold holographic hexes, gold hexes, gold squares and (the part I was looking forward to most) gold holo bar glitter!

I figured it would make a great topcoat but I really wanted to see it on its own, and got a great result from three thin coats.

Very nice coverage, but still sheer enough that you could tell it was a yummy jelly polish polish that looked amazing with the glitters layered.

The second polish I swatched was Auld Lang Syne, a mix of silver and gold micro glitter, glitter powder, and just the right amount of gold hex medium glitters thrown in for fun in a clear base.

I played around with this one a bit until I settled on a gradient.

For the background color, I used two coats of Catrice Drama Queen, a black with gold powder to make the blending of the gradient smoother. Then I lightly dabbed on a very thin coat of Auld Lang Syne about 2/3 of the way up my nail, then a bit more dabbed on about halfway after I'd already done a round on both hands, and I went a little crazy at the bottom, going for a few of those precious medium gold hex bits on the bottom 1/4 to really amp up the drama. 

I loved it so much I wore it for a few days, including to a Christmas party where I got loads of compliments.

I began both looks with my usual base coat of CND Stickey. I also have to add that while these Darling Diva polishes are smoother than quite a few other glitter polishes I've used and were both easy formulas to work with and apply (just make sure to give 'em a good shake and roll in case the glitter particles settle a bit!) a thick topcoat like Seche Vite not only smooths out but gives these already show-stopping polishes that much more of a wow factor. 

I'll be swatching the other four over the coming week, so stay tuned...

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Glitter haul and swatches!

This is my first "haul" post, and it was sort of unplanned. Funny how things happen sometimes.

A few weeks ago I got a mini bottle of ANNY Timeless Love, a blue glitter that I thought would make a good topcoat. Today I decided to try it out. So I applied two coats of a light base color, then started to apply Timeless Love...and it's NOT a topcoat.

It was even better!

Mid-week quickie: Catrice Blues Brother Vol. II

For this Mid-Week Quickie, I started with a coat of CND Stickey Base Coat. I then applied two coats of Catrice Cosmetics Blues Brother Vol. II, a deep cobalt blue with fine glitter. It photographed better than I thought it would! I then applied a coat of Seche Vite to finish.

It's a good color on its own, but it really pops with a good topcoat.

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Mid-week quickie

I've been so busy the last week with the start of school again! The kids in my class have been trickling in for their second and last year with me, and before that I spent two days setting up my classroom. That included A LOT of lifting. Meanwhile after school I've been preparing materials and projects for my class, writing up our monthly newsletter...anyone who thinks teaching Kindergarten is just singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and coloring should probably try it for a day ;-)

But, as much as I do love my job and the kids in my class, all that hasn't left me with much time for a proper manicure.

However, this afternoon I played around with an ANNY polish I got recently.

To create this look, I started with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.

I then painted on two coats of ANNY One and Only, a smoky lavender creme. The bottle I'm holding in the photo is one of their minis, which I really like because they're sold individually and not in sets, so you can get a smaller bottle of a color you want to experiment with or that you know you won't use too often, but without committing to buying or storing a full-size bottle.

I added a coat of Catrice A Million Styles in Have an Ice Day (can you tell how much I love that topcoat?) for the ring finger accent nail.

I then applied one coat of Essie To Dry For as a topcoat.

The Essie base and topcoats aren't my favorites, even though I have them. I still love the staying power CND Stickey Base Coat gives me and the shine, protection and quick but thorough drying I get from Seche Vite. But I'm guessing I'll change this polish in another day or two, and the Essie base and top coats should be fine until then.

I'm looking forward to trying more looks with this shade. It's a softer color than it photographs as, not quite as dark. And like all the ANNY polishes I've tried it has a great formula and applies easily.

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Glitter topcoats - Part One

So I decided to do a short series on glitter topcoats and why I think they're so awesome. Probably the most obvious reason is versatility. You can turn a more sedate creme polish into a much more eye-catching look with just one coat. It's almost like doubling your collection of polishes with that extra bottle of topcoat!

The glitter topcoat I'm using in today's post is the same one I used on my ring finger accent nail in my previous post, Catrice Cosmetics A Million Styles in Have An Ice Day.

To show a few of the possibilities, I chose (clockwise from top left for all photo sets): Essie - Bikini So Teeny (a pastel), Essie - Sand Tropez (a muted neutral), Catrice Cosmetics - Caught on the Red Carpet (a classic starlet red), Chanel - Vendetta (a dark, vampy color; one coat).

So here's what I started with...

Just polish, no topcoat.

Nice enough colors on their own, right? Now these are the same colors coming up in the next group of photos, with one coat of Have An Ice Day, taken in regular indoor lighting.

Oooooh, glitter!

The topcoat definitely amps up the polishes and they take on a beautiful, fine particle glitter. 

But hang on, it gets better! 

In my previous post I wrote about how in direct sunlight Have An Ice Day takes on a fiery, prismatic shine. There haven't been too many sunny days in Munich recently, but the bright halogen bulbs in our entryway provide a pretty close comparison in the next set of pictures.

WOOOOOOOW, glitter!!!!!

Pretty cool, right? Even still photos don't fully do it justice; it looks gorgeous in motion. That's part of why the photos in the last set all look a bit different from each other, since I was moving my hand around trying to get a photo that captured the light best.

I've worn this topcoat with Bikini So Teeny twice (once on all fingers, the second time with one glitter accent nail) and really liked it, but I was really happy with how it turned out on the Vendetta. It almost looks like a photo of some of the "nebula" nail art photos I've seen, but not nearly as time-intensive!

A topcoat like this would be great not only for evening, but would also be fantastic for a daytime wedding outdoors. Bikini So Teeny could be a cute and easy "something blue"and the Sand Tropez or a similar neutral would be just muted enough even with the glitter to still be festive but not too distracting.

Now go out and grab yourself a bottle of glitter topcoat and start having some fun!

Thanks for visiting!

Orange you glad you got this polish?

Ok, that was an awful pun. I admit it. But I guess summer makes me a little goofy sometimes. All the heat.

Speaking of summer, I'd been looking for a juicy orange polish and picked up a bottle of Catrice Cosmetics Exotica, a limited edition color from their Coolibri range.

My collection of Catrice polishes keeps growing, since they're about three Euros a bottle, they make a ton of great colors and the polish itself is usually very good. The photos I took were three days after I first painted them, and there's almost no wear, including on the tips.

Right hand with glittery ring finger accent nail ;-)

To create this look, I started with my usual one coat of CND Stickey Base Coat.

I then added two coats of Exotica. It has a very fine shimmer in it and applies well with no streaking. The glitter accent nail was one coat of Catrice's A Million Styles Effect Top Coat in Have an Ice Day. I'll do a separate post on that soon because it's probably the most fun glitter top coat I've used. It looks nice here, but in direct sunlight you see this crazy awesome, almost holographic blast of sparkle.

I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite topcoat.

Aaaaaand here's the left hand.

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