Harry Potter release party nail art!!!

OH MY GOSH, YOU GUYS, THERE IS A NEW HARRY POTTER BOOK COMING OUT TOMORROW NIGHT!!!!!

Okay, it's the script to a play, not a true novel like the rest of them, but IT'S HARRY POTTER AND IT'S WRITTEN BY JK ROWLING SO IT'S CANON SO AHH I'VE BEEN PEEING MY PANTS LIKE ALL WEEK.

My favorite local bookstore is having a midnight release party for which I am SUPER pumped.  I haven't missed a Potter midnight release since the fifth book came out (book #4 had a morning-of release party, a bit more kid-friendly).  There's going to be a costume contest and, thanks to the inspiration of my friend Joanna, I'll be dressing as a wizard masquerading as a muggle.  Or, I guess, a no-maj since we're in America.  But anyway I have a super silly outfit planned, parts of which came from the thrift store, and I decided to do my nails to not-really-match.

You've seen all of these polishes on the blog before: they're the Houses and Horcruxes and We'll Take the Lot collections by Twisted Colors (who has tragically stopped selling polish).  I debated only using the Houses and Horcruxes collection since they're more recognizably Harry Potter themed, but decided to use all 8 of my Potter polishes because how could I leave the others out? <3

Since these have all been featured on the blog before, I won't go into detail about their names or their coverage.  Follow the links above for more details on each specific polish!

I actually kinda messed up the order on my left hand!  I meant to paint them on in the order of which House I most relate to: Ravenclaw (that's where I've been sorted on Pottermore), Hufflepuff (where I always kinda felt I'd end up when I was a kid), Gryffindor, Slytherin.  But I accidentally reached for The Sword before The Cup so there we go.

On my thumbs, I painted Deathly Hallows symbols over white with Fairy Dust because holo sparkles = magic.

This part of the manicure totally doesn't show up on camera, but I used a scented top coat by Dream Polish so that my nails could smell MAGICAL!  One Good Jump on my right pointer finger is chocolate scented, so that is also magical and just makes me smell delicious as I sit around.

It's super fitting that this midnight release is happening so close to my blogiversary, because I got to look back at my old photos and sort of see how far I've come.  I first swatched them all in my first year of blogging, and while the photos look fine, it's nice to have a redo with my new lighting setup and macro lens.  So I'm going to force extra photos down your throat, including some of the old ones.

This is, to this day, one of my favorite nail polish photos I've ever taken.  And it was only in my fifth-ever post!  I just love the depth of field on it, and the way I have my fingers positioned against the bottle.  This was long before I had a soft box for my lighting, so the glare is super harsh.  I don't even think I was wrapping a white pillow case around my LED lamp at this point! :D

Back in the day, my idea of a macro shot was to take a picture with the best focus possible and crop it tightly to one nail.  It technically worked, but it certainly doesn't capture the depth of a polish the way an actual macro lens does!

Oh yes, it's time for a storm of macros.  Here we go...

My macro lens isn't perfect - it is so very macro that I have to hold it about 1-2 cm away from my nail, and its depth of field is so narrow that I often struggle to get a good plane of focus on my very curvy nails.  Still, it clips on to my cell phone's camera and it only cost like $15 on Amazon, so it's pretty decent.  And it definitely has more of a true macro look than simply cropping a regular photo!

The silver glitters in The Locket are holographic, which you can especially see when you look at the ones in the bottle.  LOL I CALLED THEM "SHINY" IN MY ORIGINAL POST DID I NOT EVEN KNOW THE WORD "HOLO" YET?

 

That "perfectly stacked 90 degree angle" hand pose was so uncomfortable for me.  I almost feel like you can see the discomfort in the photos.  My current slanted hand pose is so much more relaxed and natural-looking for me.  Back then, I was trying to emulate some other bloggers' poses, but eventually I learned that I had to find what was comfortable for me, because when a hand pose feels better, it looks better.  And, doesn't my watermark look so much better wrapped around my middle finger's cuticle than crammed randomly between whichever two nails?

Well, that's enough reminiscing for now.  I may or may not do some more looking back and re-creations over the next week or two, who knows?  In the meantime, be sure to enter my blogiversary giveaway first thing on Monday!  And please, no calls on Sunday.  I'll be reading some new Harry Potter content all day <3

KB Shimmer: Pigment of My Imagination

This is my first KB Shimmer nail polish purchase, and I couldn't have chosen a better polish to start with!

I've never owned a true multichrome polish like this one.  I seem to recall a weird rose-gold-to-snot-green shift that my Mom had when I was a kid, but the awkward green shift rendered it pretty much unwearable.  I guess multichrome technology has gotten better since then - either that, or the color shift effects just work better when the different colors blend together well!

I almost have to wear gloves when I drive with this polish on.  It is so hard to take my eyes off of!

The main color in Pigment of My Imagination is purple, but boy oh boy does it shift around.

Above you can see it has a reddish shift at this angle, and next up it becomes a bit more goldish-red-purple:

See that streak of very very gold near the edges of the bottle?  Usually a shift like that doesn't show up on my camera.  But this one absolutely does!

WHAT. HOW IS THIS THE SAME POLISH.  I promise I didn't get my photos mixed up!  This incredible red-copper color is indeed still Pigment of My Imagination.  The first three  photos were taken under my yellowish lamps and inside my light box (which softens the light and helps reduce glare.)  The photo above is directly under the same lamp, without the light box.  I found that the more direct the light, the more pronounced the colorshift is.

Direct sunlight makes Pigment of My Imagination lean more blue-purple.  But indirect sunlight...

... makes the color lean more towards that reddish-coppery tone, though it's still very purple at the right angle.

This one was taken in the whitest light I have - my bathroom, haha.  In whiter light, this polish continues to lean towards the blue end of the purple spectrum, still with a flash of the coppery tones.

I swear, this polish is at least half magic potion!  This is another picture taken under my yellowish lamps, without the soft box.  It's a completely new shade of purple that we haven't really seen in the other pictures!  I seriously couldn't stop taking pictures of this polish.  It just shifts so much!  I love it!

Formula-wise, Pigment of My Imagination is quite lovely.  It's thin, but not watery.  The first coat is pretty sheer, but the second coat makes it perfectly opaque.

Although I think my pictures have captured at least most of the different colors in this polish, I think a video does it much better!  Feast your eyes (or click here to watch the video on YouTube):

What do you think of this polish?  Do you own any multichromes?  Did you own any of the unfortunate snot-green multichromes of the late 90s/early 2000s?  Let me know in the comments!

By the way - Happy Thanksgiving weekend to my American followers!  My birthday is on Thanksgiving this year so I'm going to have an amazing weekend :D What are you doing for the holiday weekend?  Let me know in the comments!

Creative Cuticles Nail Polish: Christmas polishes

Have you ever felt that sometimes, the best gifts are ones that you've picked out?  Plenty of times the surprise of something unexpected is awesome, but there are also times when you want three specific nail polishes and really nothing else.

That's how my Christmas went this year.  I even went so far as to order the polishes myself, because I wanted to choose the gift wrapping that Creative Cuticles Nail Polish was offering around Christmas.  (For the record, Derek was super happy with this.  He insists that he's bad at choosing out gifts and reminded me of the one time he did, how badly wrapped it was.  So I took the guesswork and the manual labor out for him!)

The names of these polishes may be out of season, but I think the colors are just dandy for any time of year!

One quick note before I get to the swatches: I recently got a new phone, and discovered that the camera in it is pretty much as good as my bulky old camera.  All of the pictures in this post were taken on my phone.  I want your advice!  Do you think the picture quality here is any better or worse than my previous photos?  Do you like them better with or without flash?  Please let me know in the comments!

Who Wants Eggnog?

Let me just say how hard it was to not drink this nail polish.  That's how much this looks like eggnog!  It's so convincing that I even swore I could smell eggnog for a few seconds.

Who Wants Eggnog is a cream-colored creme polish leaning slightly towards crelly, with some brassy beige-toned glitters representing flakes of nutmeg.  Two coats yields solid coverage, and I actually stayed with two this time!  I felt that three coats would have too much glitter to look as perfectly like eggnog - or at least the way I drink it.  If you like tons of nutmeg in your nog, then three coats might look better to you! :)

Application was perfectly wonderful.  The formula is really easy to work with, not too thick or thin, and the glitters apply easily.  I had to dab just a tiny bit because I was being picky about the placement of the glitters, but they won't wipe completely off the nail if you swipe it on.

  

Please Have Snow and Mistletoe

Please Have Snow and Mistletoe is a super fun glitter topper.  It's festive, but I don't think it's super Christmasy; I'd totally wear this any time I'm celebrating, no matter the occasion or time of year!

From pointer to pinkie, I have one to four coats over bare nails.  I think I would like this best using two coats over a fun creme or metallic polish, but it does still look great loaded onto bare nails!  The base is ever-so-slightly green tinted, but you can't really see it until you build up to three or more coats.  (My nails are embarrassingly yellowed at the tips.  Please excuse this atrocity and don't confuse my discoloration for an odd base color in the polish!)

Application of Snow and Mistletoe was pretty standard for a glitter topper: a bit of dabbing was required, but since the glitters are all relatively the same size, it wasn't too frustrating.  I generally have to do a lot more dabbing when there are glitters of many sizes, especially for the bigger glitters.

Macro at three coats.

Ugly Christmas Jumper

This one caught my eye because it's inspired by Molly Weasley's Christmas sweaters that she always knits in the Harry Potter series.  How could I not want this polish?

Ugly Christmas Jumper is pretty festive, but again, I don't think it's 100% Christmasy!  The base is slightly tinted yellow, but you can't really tell until you build up to three or more coats.  (This time, I have one to four coats from my pinky to pointer.)  Again, my nails are super yellow starting about halfway up, so the polish looks way more yellow than it actually is.  Does anybody know how to prevent yellowing nails from constant polish use? :(

Application on this one was a little bit tricky.  Since most of the glitters are so big, I had to do a lot of dabbing.  And, while there are plenty of the red hearts in the bottle, I just could not get them onto the brush, let alone onto my nails!  It took me a few minutes just to fish out the one that I got on my pointer finger.  Like Snow and Mistletoe, I would personally like this best with two coats over a creme or metallic.

Macro at three coats.

Which one of these is your favorite?  And do you think the new camera quality stands up to my old one?  Please let me know in the comments!

P.S. I just have to say how much I adore CCNP's label.  Penguins are my favorite animal and these little guys are so precious!!

Twisted Colors: Christmas polishes!

When I really like something, I have a hard time talking about it without sounding like a) I've been paid to advertise for it or b) I don't care about anything else.  So before I start this post, I wanted to say that I have not been paid to write this and that I do, in fact, really like other indie brands.

Twisted Colors is the very first indie brand that I tried.  I was immediately in love.  (See my first review of TC polishes here - one of my first posts!)  My first purchase was the Houses and Horcruxes collection, and then I waited (im)patiently for the We'll Take the Lot collection.  And, most recently, I purchased two of TC's Christmas polishes: All Spruced Up and Star of Wonder.

I was originally planning on buying Elf Vomit, as Denise had posted several pictures of it on her Facebook page and I was really digging it.  But I also really liked All Spruced up and Star of Wonder when I went to her shop, so I decided to go with those two instead.  Naturally I'd have loved to buy all three of them, especially with the Black Friday sale, but I'd just gotten some birthday money and wanted to spread it out.  After all, there were bunches of other Black Friday sales that I wanted to check out!

Then, to my surprise, Elf Vomit was in my package when it arrived!  Denise noticed how much I liked it on Facebook and was generous enough to throw it in when she saw that I didn't buy it.  It seriously brought a tear to my eye, I was so surprised and happy!

So without further ado, here are swatches of three of Twisted Colors' Christmas-themed polishes.

Star of Wonder

I was super surprised by Star of Wonder!  The photos on the website really don't to the holographic glitters justice.  This is much, much more reflective than it looks online - which is awesome!

Out of focus to show its true holographic beauty.

As usual with Twisted Colors, this is a glitter bomb.  Matte navy blue glitters, holographic navy blue glitters, and tiny holographic silver glitters all complement each other very nicely in a clear base.  It applies quite smoothly for a glitter bomb.  I had to do a little bit of dabbing, but for the most part this one spread nicely on the nail.

I have three coats over my bare nail, and two coats each on top of silver, navy blue, and white (Sally Hansen CSM Hi Ho Silver, Zoya Ryan, and China Glaze White on White).

All Spruced Up 

Holy crap, my nails are Christmas trees!!

All Spruced Up is super fun.  It's a little bit hard to work with, especially if you want a lot of the red circles and gold stars.  What I ended up doing was placing the bottle upside down for about 10 minutes before using it, then fishing the brush around for the larger glitters.  It was especially helpful to wipe most of the polish off of the brush, then catch a big red circle from inside the bottle neck.

 

I have three coats on my bare nail, then two coats each over green, silver, and white (Spoiled by Wet n' Wild Green to Be Heard, Hi Ho Silver, White on White).

Just... I just... wow!  Look at how packed with glitter that is, after only two coats!!  Super, super, super fun.

Elf Vomit 

Oh man.

I am just ridiculously happy that Denise threw this in for me.  It's so, so, so festive!  Like Alas, Earwax from We'll Take The Lot, the glitters have a tendency to spread across the nail with the brush - so I had to do a bit of dabbing to get even glitter coverage.

I have three coats over my bare nail, then two coats each over red, silver, and green (Sally Hansen CSM Red My Lips, Hi Ho Silver, Green To Be Heard).  It's worth noting that it looks much better over red in person.  For whatever reason, my camera over-saturates red REALLY badly, which is really frustrating. 

Awesome, isn't it?  The perfect polish to add to your Christmas manicure for some fun, easy, festive bling!

What are your favorite Christmas-themed polishes?  Do you think I should be Twisted Colors' Official Spokesperson? ;) Let me know in the comments!

Birthday Nails!

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday dear Kate,
Happy birthday to me!

:D

I know I'm on hiatus, but I prepared this post early because I wanted to share my birthday nails with you on my birthday!

I spent an embarrassing amount of time deciding what to do for my birthday nails, even testing color schemes out on paper and on fake nails.  But I wanted my birthday nails to be super special awesome as this is my first birthday since starting blogging!

I snuck in a turkey on my right hand because tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I won't have time to redo my nails.  But also because Thanksgiving has always fallen on or near my birthday, so it's kind of a part of my birthday.

I used a bunch of different colors for this look.  The blue background is Zoya Robyn, and the gold background is Zoya Ziv.  (You'll see a full swatch and review of Ziv in a few weeks!)  The glitter gradient is Twisted Colors Alas, Earwax on top of China Glaze Fairy Dust, while the glittery "23" is Formula X Free Fall.  (I'll probably also do a swatch of that one fairly soon, too!)  The numbers stand out a lot more in person, but because everything is so sparkly and shiny, on camera it doesn't stand out much from that Fairy Dust.

My birthday cupcake is made up of many colors: Zoya Nyssa, China Glaze Ingrid and Sunset Sail for the wrapper; ALIQUID Lacquer Wolverine Loves Spartan for the frosting/sprinkles; and Sally Hansen CSM Red My Lips for the cherry.

The turkey is OPI How Great Is Your Dane, and his feathers are Nyssa, Red My Lips, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, and Finger Paints Master Muse.

Okay, back to my hiatus.  I'm spending the day with my sister and nephew, and in the evening we're having dinner at Mongolian Barbeque with the rest of my family!

Also, don't forget to enter my birthday giveaway!  It's continuing for another two weeks!

Twisted Colors: We'll Take The Lot Collection!

If you've been following my Facebook page, you'll know how absolutely excited I've been for this collection to be released.  My first purchase from Twisted Colors, Houses and Horcruxes, was inspired by the Houses of Harry Potter.  We'll Take The Lot is inspired by the candies of Harry Potter, and they are all absolutely fantastic!  There's not much else I can say about this collection aside from reviews, so let's just get right to it!

Twisted Colors: P.S. I Enjoy Acid Pops

Acid Pops has actually already been featured in my blog.  I got this collection about two weeks ago, having ordered it about 5 minutes after the collection was released, so I used this awesome neon green as a background for the ghosts on my left hand on the first day of the LPLGlamghouls challenge.

In the Potter universe, acid pops are something of a novelty candy.  They actually have acid in them which can burn a hole through the tongue!  Which brings us to the neon lime-y green of this polish.  I love it!  A holo polish in a green crelly base, with some medium-sized square glitters, PS I Enjoy Acid Pops is super fun.  (There's no acid in this polish - your nails are safe!)  Application is very easy and smooth, and two coats makes for perfect coverage.

The name of this polish comes from the sixth Harry Potter book, when Professor Dumbledore invites Harry to his office via a note.  The phrase is to let Harry know what the password is - for Harry learned early on that Dumbledore's password is often a type of candy.

I heart macros.

Twisted Colors: Alas, Earwax

Alas, Earwax is inspired by Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans - the jelly beans of the wizarding world.  As Ron Weasley tells Harry in the very first book, there are normal flavors like chocolate and coconut, but you also get flavors like liver, grass, and tripe ("George even reckons he ate a bogey-flavored one once!").  In the first book, Dumbledore tells Harry about how he was turned off to the beans when he ate a vomit flavored bean in his youth.  He decides to take one from Harry's bag and - "Alas, earwax!"

Alas, Earwax is an INCREDIBLE glitter bomb.  It's definitely the most dense glitterbomb I've ever owned!  The glitters come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors and are in a clear base.  I have three coats on my nails here.  It's actually a little bit too much for my taste - I think I would prefer one or two coats on top of a creme polish.  (Bet you didn't think that was possible for me!)  I wanted to use a creme base for these swatches, but I couldn't decide on a color!  I'm sure this would look great on top of any color.

Application is fairly tricky, which makes sense based on how dense the glitter is.  Rather than swipe the brush over my nail, I had to dab it on.  I'd place a big drop on the base of my nail, and then sort of dab the brush all around my nail in order to get good coverage.  I highly recommend a peel-off base coat if you use this polish, even if you only use one coat of it.  

RAWR SO MUCH GLITTER!!!!

Twisted Colors: One Good Jump

One Good Jump is inspired by Chocolate Frogs - or, more specifically, their packaging as seen in the movies.  Chocolate frogs are frog-shaped chocolates that have a charm placed on them which actually makes them able to jump around.

Another glitter bomb, this polish has a blue jelly base to match the main color in the candy's packaging.  The glitter colors all come from the packaging - and the chocolate itself!  What else is inspired by the candy?  The polish's smell! That's right, One Good Jump is available with a chocolate scent!  I think this is my first scented polish since I was a little kid.  Surprisingly, the scent doesn't get covered up by a top coat.  I assumed it would, but nope, you can still smell the chocolate even with a normal top coat.

Application of One Good Jump is easier than Alas, Earwax, but it still doesn't spread on as smoothly as Acid Pops or the Houses and Horcruxes collection.  I used sort of a dab-spread motion to get this polish on.  Two coats looks pretty good, but the shade of the jelly and the density of the glitter, as always, look best with three coats.

One awesome thing about this one and Alas, Earwax is that if you smudge your nail when it's still a little bit wet, there's so much glitter going on that you an hardly tell!  I smooshed at least one nail on each hand before I took the pictures for both of these, and I don't see any of that in the photos.  Hooray!

Twisted Colors: Never Loses Its Flavour

Drooble's Best Blowing Gum is the inspiration behind this polish.  It's a bubble gum that lets you blow bubbles that last for days, as well as never losing its flavor - thus the name of the polish.

It is an absolutely beautiful polish!  With an icy-periwinkle blue base and a few different sized glitters, the main feature of Never Loses Its Flavour is the holo glitter.  It is absurdly holographic, and I can't get enough of it!

Application is pretty smooth, though if you want a lot of the larger circle glitters it's a little bit trickier.  But if you're okay with less of the circles, it's very easy to spread on.  The holos are so dense - denser than any of the other holo polishes I own!

Just out of focus enough to see how awesomely holographic it is!

 

I'm super, super happy with this collection.  I love them all, but if I absolutely HAD to pick a favorite, I think I'd go with Never Loses Its Flavour.  Which one is your favorite?  Are any of them totally not your style?  Let me know in the comments!