I've got the Blues...

Tonight I have for you an amazing polish from Perception Nail Lacquer, owned and one woman run by Amy W. I first met Amy through a Facebook group, and we swapped some of my polish for some of her Perception Lacquers. She's also making me one based on an awful incident I had between my iPad and my nose, more on that later.

May I humbly introduce to you:

Perception Nail Lacquer - Blue Morpho

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?

Close up blurred, I just love that shimmer it has...

Obligatory macro

Artsy shot with an amazing blue/purple hydrangea from Boyfriend's grandmothers garden.

Application on this was absolutely fantastic. I added 8-10 drops of thinner and it was streak free, one coat opaque with no need for aqua base, not dulled at all by top coat (I used NYC Grand Central Station, and after working a day at the comic book store (reading, flipping pages, cleaning windows, handling money) is completely chip free.

I also have Evil Queen (Red and black polish with hearts and diamonds, oh my!) and Unicorn Farts  (Gorgeous soft lilac-y polish packed with holo glitter!) to swatch from Perception, but I'm not sure when I could bring myself to take this off...

Visit Perception Nail Lacquer HERE. You'll find info and swatches, also a link to her shop. 

Tell her The Glitter Jitters sent you!

Short but Hopefully Sweet

A few weeks ago I contacted Christy over at KB Shimmer about a potential custom for an amazing friend of mine whose husband is hopefully returning very shortly from being underway on his submarine, the USS Florida. Shes had a really rough few months without him, and got her family's official orders to Japan next year on top of everything else. I wanted to do something special for her husbands homecoming, as she's been putting a lot of effort into clothes and shoes etc. Shes a fellow nail junkie some of you might know by the name of 'E', she's half of Mani Curiously!

We got to talking a few months ago when I lost my job, and she gave me a few very kind tips for making it through a crappy time in my life, and a friendship blossomed. Now, I'm calling her constantly when I have hornets in my house and to see if she wants anything from my trip to Sally's, she calls me when she's just up to her eyeballs in military/kid/life stress and we play Minecraft. Constantly. So, because of everything she's done for me, I figured a custom polish celebrating her husband FINALLY coming home would be in order.

A few back and forths between the amazing Christy and myself produced a theme, a name, and in a few short days, swatches and bottle shots of what she had come up with.

 Anyone that follows me on Facebook hopefully saw this picture I posted Saturday night:

These are the bottle shots Christy sent me, along with some on the nail swatches of each color. #1 (Far left) was a semi-opaque light blue jelly with red, white and blue hexes, gold stars, and gold small hexes. #3 (Far right) was a sheer navy jelly with red, white and blue squares, red shimmer, small gold hexes and squares and smaller gold hexes. #2, was a mixture of both.

I knew what I had in my head, and #3 was it, exactly. I asked if she could throw some gold stars into it, and we'd have ourselves a polish. She obliged and invoiced me, I paid, and she sent them out through some sort of light-speed shipping service because they made it in like 2 days.

I don't have much right now, because just as I picked up my camera (Useless Olympus Stylus 1010) to take swatches, the battery died. I think it's time for a new one. Until I get back home on friday (house sitting right now) these are the only swatches I could manage with my boyfriends cell phone.

I know, I know, it's really really crappy. I promise to update this post with better pictures as soon as humanly possible. I thought that my battery, on a full charge, would last more than two days, having taken like 12 pictures...my bad, Olympus!

The above picture is, from left to right:

One coat of *MYSTERY POLISH* over one coat of Revlon Royal

Two coats of *MYSTERY POLISH* over two coats of Essie Blanc

Two thick coats of *MYSTERY POLISH* on a bare nail

and One coat of *MYSTERY POLISH* over two coats of Essie Blanc

I can't reveal the name, because in E's last few weeks of miserable-ness, I've told her almost everything about the polish, except it's name. To me, that's going to be the biggest surprise of all, so when she get's her package, I'll update this post again with the name, and that update will include....

A GIVEAWAY!

I'd ordered three full size and one mini of this polish, my intention was one for me, one for E, and one full size for the giveaway winner. The mini would go to a friend of the winner's choosing. Imagine my shock when I opened my package last night and saw she'd given me FIVE full size and TWO minis!

I still don't know what I'm going to do with the extra full size and mini (One full is for the giveaway here, and one is exclusively for a giveaway in a group I'm in on facebook, a group of gals who has provided me with astonishing support through some personal problems the last few weeks, and who graciously laughs at the dozens of stupid cat pictures I post, and puts up with my weird requests, like trading polish for Tamagotchis.

If anyone has any creative ideas for the last two polishes, feel free to let me know!

Also, I apologize again for the dismal swatches....that is so not how I planned this whole thing to go...

TWO comparisons!

I am on a roll tonight! I finally got my cleanup method refined a little, and all the acetone I used today helped me find a really painful cut on my middle finger, hooray!

I told you guys a while back I don't have many comparison posts to do, mostly because being on a budget, I'm extremely conscious of buying things that are close to what I already own. I'm not a 'Brand Girl', so I don't need a pretty Chanel if its available elsewhere for way less money. The ones I have tonight were by sheer accident, but I did want to share.

First up is a comparison swatching of Essie Sand Tropez from the Spring 2011 Collection 'A French Affair, and L'oreal Tea and Crumpets from the Fall 2012 London collection. I got Sand Tropez in a birthday group, and Tea and Crumpets smacked me in the face while at CVS the other day. I'm a nut for creamy nude shades, they're a perfect base for glitter when you don't feel like being bright (as seen in my last post).

Front

Side

Index and Ring fingers are Tea and Crumpets, Middle and Pinky are Sand Tropez

I didn't take many shots of this, as I'd only been charging my poor battery for about 30 seconds, but this is basically all she wrote. They're extremely close, Essie being just a SMIDGE darker. Close enough I'd say that you don't need both unless you're a complete fiend for nudes. Application was pretty much even; creamy, even, self-leveling coats that dried in about 5 minutes (I do slightly heavy handed coats)

Next up is a comparison of Essie Stroke of Brilliance and Milani Jewel FX in Lavender.

I picked up Stroke of Brilliance tonight while waiting for my dinner order from 5 Guys. I hadn't seen it in the wild, so I jumped on it.

Front

Sides

Milani: Index and Ring 

Essie: Middle and Pinky

Essie on the left. Milani on the Right.

Milani

Essie.

All swatches are two coats over a bare nail, one coat of Grand Central Station

Ok, so these are pretty different. Essie has three sizes of hex glitters in a periwinkle color, and Milani has two sizes of hex in (shocker, based on the name) lavender. They are close overall, but not at all the same. The white balance in the pictures may seem a little off, it is, because I had to adjust to reflect the true color of the polish as opposed to the true color of my pale...pale skin.

Hope you guys enjoyed this one! Trying to be a little more active here, so I figured three posts in one night fit that bill.

I love you guys like a glass of milk and Oreos :D

It's a me, Mario!

Here it is! I've waited so long for this polish, I was profoundly happy when I was finally able to score it. Here she is, in all her glittery nerdy glory:

Dollish Polishes second series of labels, as far as I know. 

She just showed us a preview of her new new labels, so these will be phased out.

Backside closeup of the bottle. Depending on your screen the colors may vary, but the glitters are a true red and a true blue, two sizes of hexes suspended in a clear base with....

HOLO STARS! I'm pretty sure this is what dolly was aiming for when she chose it, but silver holo is perfect for a mario polish, you'll see why a few pictures down.

All of the swatches are two coats of Essie Sand Tropez, one coat of Essie Golden Nuggets (I was thinking coins!) and one coat of Mario topped with a generous coat of Grand Central Station (My new go to quick dry) I am so stupidly in love with this glitter. 

It's a simple combo, but being an 80's kid whose first video games were Mario and Zelda on the NES, this hits me right in the nostalgia. Coverage was perfect, I had to move and wiggle glitters around a little, mostly around the edges. The points of the stars were perfectly smoothed after just one coat of top coat, you may have more issues if your nails are extremely curved.

Now for why I love the little nod to the actual game, whether it was on purpose or not. The STARS! Remember Mario's star power? 

When he would catch a star, and then flash all kinds of crazy colors? Yep...that's what the holo is for.

Yes...I sat there and twirled and swirled and watched the colors flash. It's that fascinating.

There you have it, Dollish Polishes 'It's a me, Mario!'

Up next will be the Zelda duo!

Some swatch spam until I can charge my camera!

Some of these are old, some of these are newer. Some are messy cleanup jobs. All of them are pretty polish. :)

Three coats OPI Man of La Mancha. This has the most gorgeous peachy/orange/coral color shift and I could not do it justice with a camera. This is one of my most coveted polishes.

 One coat Finger Paints Twisted over two coats Revlon Royal. This looks like hyper-chromatic fish food flakes. In a good way.

One coat of Lynnderella shapeshifter over WnW black creme. This was the only time I swatched this polish, and I decided it was really too hard to work with.

One night I decided to matte a whole bunch of glitters. This is one (or two, I can't remember) coats of Finger Paint Where Art Renoir, with two coats of WnW Black Magic, matted with Essie matte topcoat. I love this glitter so much, I'm glad I stocked up on it while I could.

A second swatch from my matte evening. This is one coat of Finger Paint's Where Art Renoir, and one coat of Candy Lacquer 'Block party', matted with Essie matte topcoat. I'm a sucker for square glitter.

Blurry black light mani with Orly Glowstick (thumb and pinky), Essie Bright Tights (ring and index) and Jessie's Girl Beach Baby (middle). Topped with Cover Band Sticks n Stones. I took this before 80's night at a bar literally right before my camera died, hense why my messy shot is my only shot.

Two coats of Glitter Gal Light as a Feather, topped with one brushfull coat of Darling Diva Polish String Theory. One of the only bar glitters I own that doesn't curl!

I didn't intend on taking pictures of this, but someone asked to see it. This is two coats of China Glaze Riveting (GORGEOUS ORANGE SHIMMER!) and one coat of Candeo Joker. I was bored after two days of just Riveting, so I threw on something that really popped. Purple and orange are always pretty together.

Enjoy these for now, while I figure out a way to get my camera charged up!

I get by with a little help from my friends...

So! On June 13th, 2012, the amazing Dolly from Dollish Polish sent out a message to her followers, asking for help on a problem with her labels. Being a devout fan of her glitters, and a tech junkie, I immediately jumped at the chance to help. Turns out, the new (circular) labels she was using couldn't be edited entirely, but rather only a square in the middle of the label could have text, pictures etc. This presents a problem as far as getting names of polishes centered and pretty, and still having room for the Dolly logo. I kid you not, for around 4 hours we racked our brains trying to find a new template, editing the existing one, ev-ery-thing. At one point, I simply got so frustrated, and decided swearing was the only way to soothe myself. Not wanting to offend one of my favorite polish makers who has been just as frustrated by the situation (And seemingly forgetting she had a XXX line of nail polish, duh!) I ended up using my go to G-rated swear: OH PICKLES! We continued to toil away to no avail (Obviously she fixed it, or came up with an alternative, because her labels on her new bottles look amazing!) and she thanked me for my time. She asked if I wanted anything, I said no, but I'd love if it she could set aside a bottle of 'It's a me, Mario!' and the Zelda duo, because just as a personal moral, I don't like accepting gifts for offering to help, I'd much rather have the chance to give someone a sale. As an offhand, I mentioned if she wanted to make me a custom called "PICKLES!" I'd buy that too!

Turns out, she was feeling extremely generous, and added the custom to my order at no charge. She sent me pictures, and it was exactly what I'd imagined, but either way how cool is that? A custom from one of your favorite indies with a STORY behind it!

Without further adeu, here she is:

 PICKLES!

'Pickles!' is a fully loaded, clear based glitter polish containing metallic yellow hexes and squares, and some fine yellow metallic 'dust'; also green metallic hexes, squares, 'dust, small holo green hexes and a smattering of larger green holo hexes.

Here she is on the nail, this is two coats over 3 (good lord is it sheer and streaky) coats of Sally Hansen 'Emerald City' a rich, emerald green with a slight shimmer. Pardon the wonky angle, I could not capture those gold glitters unless I was in total shade.

Slightly blurry closeup.

As I was putting this on, I realized it was very very close to 'The Hero of Time' from the Zelda duo. My heart sank as I had the sudden thought I had near dupes on my hands...(heh heh...on my hands, get it?)

NOPE!

After throwing two coats of 'The Hero of Time' onto my thumb, I breathed a sigh of relief. Pickles is more concentrated, where as THoT is meant to be more of an accent than full on glitter coverage. Also, you know, the presence of brown, light green and more overall green in THoT. Pardon the pink glare in the picture, I didn't realize just how neon my neon tank top is.

A side-by-side of Pickles (L) and The Hero of Time (R).

Not even close, silly brain! Either way I would cherish my first Dolly custom for a long long time, and knew I had to share it with you guys! I'll be doing the Zelda duo tomorrow morning if there's sun, it's been kind of overcast all morning.

Thanks for looking guys!

You can buy Dollish Polish on Dolly's Big Cartel store HERE. 

You can read Dolly's blog HERE (She's one of us!)

And you can visit her Facebook HERE 

She currently restocks whenever she feels like it (IE when she has sufficient stock.), sometimes announcing, sometimes not, but if you have nail polish friends, or are in a group that talks about nail polish odds are someone will say when she restocks. She also almost always has stock of nail art supplies like gems, fimo canes and nail files.

I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous' Granite & Evil Barbie

Today, after 400 promises, here they are. The two most coveted members of my Nail-Venturous lacquer collection: Granite and Evil Barbie. Why are they so special? Well, Evil Barbie was a limited release, or so I understand. I lusted over this after seeing Rebecca Likes Nails blog about her bottle. Granite is special because I was given the chance to purchase these after Amy had made her decision to stop selling polishes.

I had an issue with a bottle of my "Robin Laid an Egg", the weirdest thing started happening. All of the glitters randomly started to sink to the bottom after months on my shelf. I asked Amy if this was normal, she immediately apologized and offered to send a replacement. I actually didn't want one, because it still worked, it just took quite a lot of shaking. She insisted on replacing it, so I met her half way. I offered to make a purchase to justify shipping costs, and the cost of the replacement bottle. She said she still had supplies laying around, so I asked for Granite, and went out on a limb and asked for Evil Barbie. I was so ready to be turned down, because she didn't have the pigments or glitters etc. To my surprise, she said YES! We then got to discussing details, and she said she would be open to doing a swap, because she, like the rest of us, is just another polish junkie. She does swatches and reviews, she just happens to make it as well.

I actually came back from vacation to these beauties. She had sent them out before I even got home, and obviously before I sent out my end of the swap, and that's just reason #184 Amy is one of the best polish bloggers ever.

On to swatches!!

Nail Venturous' labels are simple. Logo, polish name, size, contact info.

Bottle shot. Evil Barbie is a raspberry shimery jelly with black bars, medium hexes and squares, and micro hexes and squares.

 This is three thin coats, with just a little wiggling around. Pardon the lack of tip wrap and my wonky nail shape. They were pretty short here and I couldn't do much in the way of shaping until they grew out.

 Diagonal shot. I think I might start using this more often...

Closer-up shot with one coat of Poshe. I love the depth this has even at three coats.

I wish my nails were more up to par for these, it's tragic really. They've been breaking left and right, and now I'm dealing with a tear that's started East-West on my thumb, in the middle of my nail. I just can't win.

Evil Barbie is one of my favorite pinks of all time. It's subtle yet out of the box, and the shimmer gives it just enough pop to be more than just another jelly. 10/10

Granite. 

Granite is a milky semi-sheer white base, with copper glitters in medium hexes and micro-squares, white medium hexes and black micro squares.

This is one coat of Wet n Wild white creme (To keep from wasting precious polish layering to opacity) and two coats of Granite.

Closeup.

Let me first say, Granite is sheer perfection on shorter nails. I don't know why exactly that is, but the texture and color combination really lends itself to be appreciated in small amounts. Not that it wouldn't look good on long nails, it's just one of those things I think looks best in metered doses.

Second, it really does look like granite! It's one of the most unique polishes I own, and when layered evenly and slathered with a good topcoat, looks remarkably like some sort of decal.

The finish was very smooth, even with the amount of textured glitter. I only needed a normal coat of poshe to seal and shine this one, no need for any smoothing or pressing errant glitters down. It also applied like a dream, much like Robin Laid an Egg, there was no fishing or wiggling glitters around, this mani is exactly how the polish was brushed on my nails, with the small exception of pushing some of the hexes down off the free edge of my nail.

There you have it ladies (and gentlemen?) my two newest beauties from Amy at Nail Venturous. She currently isn't selling her polishes, but you can follow her blog HERE, and be sure to look at her stamping posts. She is unparalleled for her amazing stamped manis, especially considering she often uses regular polish and not stamping polish.

Ok...that's the end of my post revolving around my girl crush on an amazing blogger.

I'll have a miscellaneous mani post in a few days, I've been pecking over my stash for days to find things I haven't tried. Included are DP's Expecto Patronum and a black light mani.

Second post-hiatus post!

let me just say.....

I LOVE KB SHIMMER!

It won't let me make that any bigger. I was aiming for like 50pt font, but this is "Biggest". Well Blogger, it's not big enough.

I freaking love KB Shimmer. Today, tomorrow, next year. These polishes will be among my most treasured for a long long time. Christy, the super amazing woman that brings us these polishes (and soaps, and bath bombs and scrubs and lotions!) is incredibly accommodating, creative and overall AMAZING. I own four of her polishes (Diva, Orange Pop, Ice Queen and Clown Puke) and several of her incredible soaps (Blue Hawaii is one you have to try, her soap samplers are a total bargain.) 

Today, I have for you Clown Puke and Ice Queen.

Clown Puke you saw in my last post, my comparison of rainbow glitters, but I couldn't go without showing it on it's own. It's amazingly complex and the colors are so thought out, it's not just a mish mash of glitter. It's deliberate and unique. The dash of black and white sets everything else off in just the right way.

 Three 'brush-full' coats over a bare nail. Two coats of Poshe.

 Super macro shot, those white glitters do amazing things for me.

 Index finger. You never realize how many bald patches you have until you look at the photos...

 Be still my beating heart...

Clown Puke will remain one of my go to multi glitter polishes for a long time. Each bottle is JAM packed with glitter which means even if I need to thin it, it will last me a long long time.

Next up is Ice Queen. I didn't want to do this on it's own, but wasn't really feeling it over a brighter color. I settled on Color Club 'Revvvolution' which has sat untouched *gasp* for over a year. I am not disappointed.

Fail...I tried to retouch the glitter off my ring finger and now it just looks like a pimple.

Rainbowwwwwsssss!!!! 

Matte-ified!

Matte Closeup!

I LOVE Ice Queen! I had this on over vacation. I used 3 heavy coats on it's own, and it almost blinded me every time I went outside. There are no chunky peices to slip around, it coats really nicely without any fuss. The holo diamonds are the perfect touch of texture to push it past just holo hexes. 10/10, would polish again.

I really hope to have more from KB Shimmer in the near future, and I will be re-swatching Orange Pop and Diva when my nails grow out a little more!

Visit Christy in all her glory at www.kbshimmer.com or her Etsy shop HERE.