I Found It! ~ Starrily Galaxy

Hello Dahlings!

 

I found those missing pics! Starrily is a new to me indie brand that made me swoon when I went browsing on their Etsy site. They have my absolute all time favorite 80's pink in several of their glitter polishes!!! They also have discount offers on their mini bottles. Mini polishes are budget friendly & a great way to try a new indie brand with out investing in full size bottles that you may or may not ever use up.

 

 I started with 2 coats of Wet N' Wild Venomous Vixen.

It's a par for da course gunmetal gray shimmery polish.

It went on just fine, but I wouldn't miss it if it left.

WnW is a decent quality, low price point polish,

but rarely something to get excited over.

 

Now THIS is something to get excited over! I dabbed one coat of Galaxy over VV & spent da next 2 days staring at my nails. This gorgeous polish has blue stars drifting among blue, purple & black small glitters with silver holo glitter adding that cosmic sparkle known to mesmerize many a polish addict.

 

Looking for a new glitter thrill? Head over to Starrily Nails

& keep those tissues handy or you may flood your keyboard with drool!

 

Ciri wanted to say 'Hi!'

 

Hai! I still His Royal Tininess of Cute-a-tude!

 

Thanks for stopping by in spite of turkey overload!

~ Inky

Another Purple Neon Comparison with a Bonus!

Hello Dahlings!

 

How many purple neon polishes does one peep need?

It we're talking about me, then ALL of them! LOL

I did a purple neon comparison last year in November &

 I guess I subconsciously needed to make it an annual thing.

So here we go...

 

 Da line up: Color Club Mrs. Robinson, Finger Paints Pop Art Purple,

Kleancolor Grape Burst, Sinful Colors Dream On

& Color Club Peace Out Purple

 

 2 coats each of: p ~ Mrs. Robinson, r ~ Pop Art Purple,

m ~ Grape Burst, I ~ Dream On & t ~ Peace Out Purple.

In da bottle they all look pretty much the same.

On da nail 4 out of 5 look pretty similar, similar enuf that you don't really need all of them unless you're a polish ho with a neon purple obsession like me. LOL

The stand out was Peace Out Purple. It's slightly lighter & it's a jelly where da others are crèmes. (me thinks a jelly sandwich is in my future!)

Dream On stands out from da others by drying to a semi-matte finish t

hat isn't uncommon with neons.

So that's it? Yeah, right...like I could just leave my nails like this?

 

 I decided to go for a 2fer by comparing a bunch of flakie polishes.

right hand line up: Nfu Oh 37, Nubar 2021, Color Club Snow-Flakes,

Essie Shine of the Times & Sephora by OPI Hollywood If I Could

 

 1 coat each: p ~ 37, r ~ 2010, m ~ Snow-Flakes, I ~ Shine of the Times & t ~ HWIIC

2010, Snow-Flakes & Shine of the Times are all what I call fire flakies

cuz they show mostly red with some gold & orange.

They are so close I'm thinking I may not need all 3 of them.

37 is a mix of colors & more of shifting topper.

HWIIC is iridescent bar glitter.

Both are fun & very different from each other.

 

 Left hand line up: Nicole by OPI Heavenly Angel, Kleancolor Sugar Coat,

Nabi Clear Round Glitter, China Glaze Luxe & Lush

& Disney Night Before Christmas Zero

 

 1 coat each: t ~ Heavenly Angel, I ~ Sugar Coat, m ~ CRG, r ~ Lux & Lush & p ~ Zero

HA is a mix of many colors of flakie shreds, 

SC is asst iridescent shapes & so is CRG,

Luxe & Lush is more of a true flakie with the colors being more copper & gold,

& Zero wins da cutest bottle award, but the large flakie shards are sparse

& hard to fish out. I may have to franken that one to make it usable.

 

Da winner is...Nicole by OPI Heavenly Angel!

I added a 2nd coat of this polish to all nails so they looked more homogenous,

followed by a coat of Seche Vite.

My nails were SO sparkly that I left this mani on for a whole week!

That & I had camp prep to do & didn't have time to change my polish. LOL

If you only want to own one flakie-esque topper

that will go with many colors of polish,

Heavenly Angel is a good choice!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

GITD Stamped DIY Decals!

Hello Dahlings!

 

After testing to see what gitd polishes I have that can be used for stamping, I just had to do some stamping with them! So far stamping directly on my nails has not worked very well for me, but thanks to Missy at Gnarly Gnails & her DIY Decals tutorial, I figured out a method that does work for me. So here we go...

 

 Da line up: I Love Nail Polish My Little Glacier (H), Republic Nail plum & silver gitd

 

 This is 2 yummy coats of smooth holo awesomeness!

 

 Da original MLG has a subtle silver to ice blue shift, adding da linear holo factor ramps this duo chrome way up da scale of excellence! See how da icy blue is inside da rainbow with da silver on da outside? Does polish get any better than this? I think not!

Unless you're looking at ILNP's other Multi Chrome Holos...

they are just as yummy as My Little Glacier. LOL

 

 I tried out my new DIY Decal template! Da ever BRILLIANT Tina at Light of the Moon Nails came up with da idea of using a silicone mat to make decals. I already had a translucent white mat that I use with hot glue, making polishicles mostly. (Another great idea from da lady who brought us beer milkshakes! Just kidding tho' Tina does come up with fab nail art accessory ideas!) I traced my already measured decal forms thru' da silicone using a sharpie, cut off da strip, flipped da template over & was ready to go. I used my best-to-date decal base polish, Milani Glosse', to make my decal foundations & after they dried, stamped with da plum using plate FUN 9 from FabUrNails. I then added some details with da silver using a pointy dotting tool.

 

 Ta Da! What? You can't tell what I stamped?

 

 How about now? No?

 

 How 'bout now?

Hello Kitty Skull nails with lil bows under black light!

 

Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!

With just a quick charge under da black light da lil bows glow in da sink.

Da rest glowed as I went to bed too. Me likey this mani a lot!

Da only sadness is that da decals flattened da holo of My Little Glacier.

 

Ciri discovered a new bad-for-kitty treat...

 

Eeeek! NO Ciri NO!!!

Choco milk is NOT for meows.

 

I want to give a HUGE Thank You to Mishka of Lacquer or Leave Her!

for teaching me how to successfully schedule blog posts!!!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

Does It Stamp? ~ Glow In The Dark Polishes!

Hello Dahlings!

 

One could say that I've become a wee bit obsessive over glow in the dark polish of late...and one would be correct! One of my earliest polish buys was a Halloween gitd I bought in October of 1982. Yes, that's da year nineteen hundred eighty two. LOL I was in 9th grade & rather punky at da time. Who am I trying to kid? I'm still punky, tho' these days I'm also chunky! LMBBO

 

Anywho, with all da great gitd polishes I discovered this fall I though to see if any of them could be used for stamping...

 

 This is Born Pretty Store BK brand Hello Kitty gitd #'s 27 & 17. In general, this line of polishes don't glow very well, but these 2 did ok & passed my stamping test...

 

 ...& they do show up under black light! Especially 17. It was da best gitd of the bunch to start with & now I have another use for it.

 

 Blue Cross Pumpkins. I tried all the colors of these I have (pink, orange, white, white w/glitter, blue, green, yellow & a pale green w/glitter & these three stamped da best. Da others failed my basic test of showing up over black tho' they work ok over white polish.

 

 These showed up very well under da black light!

 

 I found these 3 Republic Nail gitds in a set at TJ Maxx for $5. I'd have bough them even if they hadn't been gitd cuz da colors are very me. Both da plumy purple & pink have micro glitter in them & da silver is a nice foil...

 

 ...and they glow very nicely under black light!

 

 Black Heart Beauty Major Ranger, China Glaze Ghoulish Glow, Rubie's GITD (from the Spirit Halloween store) & Sinful Colors GITD. (Da BEST gitd I've found so far!)

 

Oh yeah, they glow!

 

I tried moving da testing pebbles to da sink to show them glowing in actual darkness, but getting them moved & then getting a pic before the glow faded too much was not working out. Good thing I got a black light as it's a good way to test polish, show gitd nails & get pics with out having to deal with trying to take said pics in da dark. 

 

Tomorrow I'll show you what I did with what I learned from this round of testing.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

Textured Nail Art Fail!

Hello Dahlings!

 

Today I have a nail art fail for you. *sad face*

I didn't pick polishes with enuf contrast & then applied them badly.

Oh well...learning as I go is my standard MO. LOL

 

 Da line up: Born Pretty Store Tribal 14,

Nicole by OPI I Lilac Gumballs & Blue Berry Sweet On You

What da heck happened to this pic?

I usually do a much better editing job than this!

 

 2 coats BPS Tribal 14. It was a tad too thick, but nothing thinner couldn't fix.

I really like this line of texture polishes! They vary in finish from jelly to matte crème to glitter to pearl to metallic with 18 colors to chose from & a reasonable price of $5.59 each for a 15ml bottle plus FREE shipping when you order from Born Pretty Store.

You can view them HERE.

 

 I started by adding large dots of ILG using my largest dotting tool.

They were too sheer, so I added a 2nd layer of dots...bad idea!

They ended up a bit blobby. Blerg.

 

So I compounded my fail by continuing on & adding dots of BBSOY.

I should have quit while I was ahead & gone with a double line French tip

or something else that may or may not have sucked this much.

 

Let me make it up to you with a Ciri pic:

 

Oh yeah...dat's da spot...more, please!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

 

Weird Wednesdays ~ Stamping on Nail Wraps?

Hello Dahlings!

 

My foray into da world of nail art started with an early New Year's pledge to keep my nails painted in 2012. It got a big nudge when I was in Las Vegas with Mr Inky in December of 2011. He had a business trip & I got to visit LV for da 1st time! While wondering around that big mall on da east end of da strip, you know da one, it's just past da Treasure Island hotel (where we stayed). Anywho, da Incoco sales gal sucked me in & then spit me out with a bunch of nail wraps & a cc receipt that made Mr Inky wince. I have used some of da wraps I got that day, but realized recently that at almost 2 years old...I probably should use those bad babies before they can't be used due to old age.

 

So I had this idea...

 

 Da line up: Kleancolor Matte in Slumber Party, Berry Twist, Fashion District,

Madly Black & plate QA 43 (from Born Pretty Store)

 

 I started with a set of black glossy Incoco real polish nail wraps in the more-or-less correct sizes for my nails. Then I sponged Slumber Party, Berry Twist & Fashion District in a sort of zig zag-chevron-diagonal pattern using a bit of sponge that I trimmed after each color. I did da sponging on da back of my old DIY Decal template.

 

 I then stamped da paw prints & some of lil cat images from da plate using Madly Black. Applying da wraps was a wee bit tricksy cuz da adhesive had gone a tad gummy over time & they didn't want to come off da backing paper without trying to tear, but I managed & added a coat of Seche Vite.

 

I then added a coat of Madly Matte... 

cuz what's da point of using matte polish if I gloss over it in da end?

 

Ciri wasn't impressed...

in fact he hid his lil head so he wouldn't have to look at my nails.

 

Not really. LOL He's just cold cuz he grew up in da south east & we live in da north wet. He hasn't grown a winter coat yet & is feeling da damp chilliness of our standard Autumn weather.

 

Other than some of the wrap sizes being a bit off, I thought this experiment worked rather well. Well enuf to do it again on some of da other plain wraps moldering in my stash.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

 

P.S. Oh! I found those missing pics...I had forgotten to label them

& they got lost in with da Ciri pics. Hiding in plain sight! LOL

Monday Quickie ~ Braided Matte Mani!

Hello Dahlings!

 

Have you ever 'misplaced' pics on your computer? Well I did! I was going to show you a new to me Indie brand, but I can't find da pics. They might still be in da gallery folder from my old phone that got transferred to my new phone, but I don't normally type up my notes until da pics are in my 'to be blogged' file & I do have da notes.

Oh well, if I ever find those pics I'll post 'em.

 

So instead, y'all are getting da mani I was going to post on Friday

& now my posting schedule list will have to be redone. So it goes...

 

 Da line up: Kleancolor Happy New Phase, Bright & Breezy,

Cosmic Blue & Madly Matte top coat

 

 1 coat each: p & t ~ Happy New Phase, r & m ~ Bright & Breezy, m ~ Cosmic Blue

All are 1 coaters that will stamp & went on smoothly.

 

 After applying da base colors, I went into a braiding frenzy.

This is before tc...

 

...and with 1 coat of Madly Matte.

Since da polishes all have a matte finish to start with, adding matte tc didn't make much difference visually (tho' Madly Matte does work very well over glossy polishes). However I strongly recommend using Seche Vite (or your fast dry tc of choice) 1st, then applying da matte tc cuz I had tip wear in less than 24 hours.

 

I got these polishes on Amazon for mega cheap with no s/h. I mean like around $1 a bottle cheap! Yeah, Kleancolor polishes tend to have a distinct aroma, but they do work well for nail art & when you buy them in lots on Amazon, you can save buku bucks.

 

Here's your Ciri spam:

 

 Bored, bored, bored...(he's staring at da door)

 

When will Paw get home...I'm BORED!

 

Sorry! I had to work this past weekend & was too pooped to post Does It Stamp?

...tho I did get some testing done.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

Sinful Colors Funky French!

Hello Dahlings!

 

Today I have a simple & sparkly mani to share...

 

 Da line up: Sinful Colors Super Star, Wet N' Wild Buffy the Violet Slayer,

China Glaze Watermelon Rind plus my trusty Essence skinny striper brush

 

 2 coats of Super Star. It's not quite opaque that this point & would need undies

or 3 coats for da VNL to be covered. That aside, it's full of sparkly fun with

fine blue, violet & green glitters in a medium dark blue base.

 

I added Buffy on da tips using da bottle brush & da demarcation line using

Watermelon Rind & da skinny striper. I picked WR cuz it matched

da green glitters in Super Star.

Alas, it matched too well & all but disappeared! LOL

 

Here's your Ciri pics:

 

 Do I see Meyer down there?

 

Hey! She ran away...I wonder why?

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

 

P.S. Please forgive the fuzzy pics! I

 got a new phone recently (Samsung Galaxy S4)

& am still getting used to the differences in camera function.

The Lady Varnishes w/glitter comparison!

Hello Dahlings!

 

This mani is from da vault & while da components work well enuf,

over all it's a bit of a fail.

Let's see what I learned...

 

 Da line up: The Lady Varnishes Among The Clouds (lilac blossom scented),

Sally Hansen Tweedy, The Lady Varnishes Hmmm? (unscented),

Hard Candy Black Tie Optional, Maybelline Clearly Spotted,

China Glaze Whirled Away plus a bit of sponge

 

 2 coats of Among The Clouds

Da 1st coat was a wee bit thickish, so I added thinner. 

Da 2nd coat went on smooth & self leveled.

Could have used 3 coats or undies to eliminate da VNL.

 

 Here's your close up, Mr DeVille!

I love da silver shimmer & fine blue shreds.

Subtle yet in-ter-esting.

 

 P ~ Tweedy, R ~ Hmmm?, M ~ Black Tie Optional, I ~ Clearly Spotted

& T ~ Whirled Away. I tried to do a glittered gradient & failed.

So these ended up sponged French tips.

Clearly Spotted & Black Tie Optional are pretty much dups,

so you could easily pass one of them up if you already had da other.

The rest are distinct in & of themselves. My fav?

 

 Hmmm? Hands down!

Look at all those interesting bits & bobs

plus silver micro glitter that gives it a fun shimmer.

In addition to da black & white bars & squares there are violet hexes too!

 

Da sun came out to play & I got a pic of da silver shimmer in Among The Clouds.

With da silver shimmer in ATC & Hmmm? they play together quite well!

Note to self: next time wear these together.

 

You can get these 2 along with other fantabulous polishes from The Lady Varnishes.

 

You may now worship his Royal Tininess of Cute-i-tude!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky