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.