Quasi-Valentines Mani/Review/Swatch SuperPost!

 I am sitting on a couple of other posts, but I absolutely had to share this one first. Wanting to stray from the usual Valentine's theme shades, I decided to change it up.

Items Used

Main Fingers

• Base Coat -  None. 
• 2 Coats - Color Club - Harp On It
• Stamped With - MASH Black Stamping Polish & XL Stamper
• Plate - Pueen 02

 

Accent Finger 

• Base Coat - Sally Hansen - Diamond Strength
• 1 Coat - Wet n' Wild - Black Crème
• Stamped/Dotted With - Color Club - Harp On It & XL Stamper, XS end
• Plate -  Pueen 12 --- the same bow can be found slightly larger on Cheeky 01

 

Pueen Image Plates 

    This manicure is more fancy than it is Valentine's. I had a "dress/tuxedo date night" look in my head. I probably should have used a different print for the full nail stamping. There are plenty in this collection with hearts, and yet I chose dots. It makes no difference, I am in love with it all the same.

    I finally got to use the Pueen plates properly, not just on a piece of paper. They preformed just like I had expected. Wonderfully. The etchings are not so shallow that you scrape everything off without trying, and not so deep that polish stays puddled up in the center after the transfer.

   I had some small issues with the size, on my thumbnail. The image was not wide/long enough, and I tried to stretch it across to compensate. It almost worked. The next time, I will do a tape-up mani on my thumb for a half- accent nail to match whatever is on my ring. Crisis averted.

Color Club - Harp On It

 My love affair with Holographic polishes have been running rampant lately, and this one is no exception. There is not much I can say about this Silver beauty that hasn't already been said by every NailGirl ever, except maybe, if you don't have it- scoop it up before prices sky rocket. That reason in itself is why this new collection of Linear Holos are my first samplings of a nail addicts staple. Seeing swatches (and prices!) of things like O.P.I - DS Desire makes me want to kick myself for not having been collecting sooner.
 Although I absolutely love this polish, I don't see me using it on its' own very often. My skin tone + the color of the polish when there is no light hitting it being the main factors in that decision. I was pleasantly surprised at the stampability (NWotD) of Harp On It, and am looking forward to trying it with a full nail design. No photo can do a holographic effect any justice to seeing it in real life.

Random Bits

• Being a Baby Nail Blogger is tough work when you have a years worth of "unpublished posts" in your head from before you buckled down and created one.
• I think that I may have to start doing a few posts a day when I have time, and save them to the queue to publish for me until I can get caught up a little. Blogging is new to me, Nail Polish and manicures are the obsession.
• I am excited to have found out a little bit more about the Color Club polishes that I recently got, and look forward to seeing more swatches from The Fiesta Collection.

 Have you gotten the Pueen stamping plates? If you have, are you as in love with them as I am? And has the Halo Hues Collection been dominating all of your free time as well?

*The item(s) in this post were purchased by me.

Color Club - Fiesta Collection picks & swatches

UPDATE 2/13/2013

I just found 5 shades from this collection listed on Birchbox. They seem to be brand new, and I can not find much about them anywhere else. Throughout this review I have referred to these as The Spring Collection, but Birchbox has corrected me with : The Fiesta Collection.

*Note that the description on the Birchbox page in the Editor's Tip section is from the Poptastic Collection.

 Now that I have posted spoilers of the upcoming February Birchbox, I hope that I don't receive Wild Cactus in my lovely pink box of awesome this month!
 __________________________________________________________________________________

 Never judge a polish by its' bottle shot.

  A couple of days ago, my Color Club order from Enospring got here. I got 4 shades from the 2013 Halo Hues Collection (more on those in a later post.) and also 4 shades from the 2013 Spring Collection. The Spring Collection was $4.50 a bottle when I got them, but seem to have went up a little. The shipping was lightning fast from New Jersey, free for orders over $30, and were packaged a lot better than I had expected.

  The 2013 Spring Collection consists of 12 shades, and all had a very familiar look about them. I couldn't find swatches anywhere at the time I was ordering, so I chanced it. I'm glad I did, because I ended up having nothing like any of them in my stash.
  

 Left to Right: In Theory, Endless Summer, Bright Night, Wild Cactus

 I also recently got the swatchpops I had ordered, and have been working like mad at getting my collection finished. It is very time consuming, because for most of the shades I tip the ends in white. (I am very guilty of wearing white underneath almost everything,  because the tips of my nails are quite pigmented, [see my Diamond Strength post.] leaving me with a gradient look a lot of the time- whether I wanted it or not.) The point of all this is, they will be GREAT for comparison posts.The wheels are so confining, and I don't know how many times I've felt like the world had ended because I got a new shade that I wanted in between the old ones.

 I haven't had the chance to use these on my hands yet, but I did get them on the 'Pops so that I could share them with you all at once. The formula is a little on the thin side, but they dry with a Satin finish. I used 2 coats for all of these, and tipped the ends with a white base as well. I like leaving the swatches a little sheered out instead of adding a third coat, to leave room for creativity while browsing them. 

• In Theory - Is a pink toned orange. The pictures wanted to lean more towards the pumpkin side of orange, but in real life its a beautiful pinky peach.
• Endless Summer - Would either need the full nail with a white base, or a third coat for a fully opaque finish on my nails.Seeing one like this that is a little sheer, automatically makes me want to try it in a sandwich. It is a sheer medium blue.
• Bright Night - Yet another one from the Spring Collection that has a very Summer feel. I can't decide if it is a blue leaning purple, or a purple leaning blue. This blurple is gorgeous. It screams "Flakie me up!"
• Wild Cactus - The only word I can think of to describe this green is Lush. I was worried that it would turn overly dark on the second coat and require a tedious one coat application, but that was not the case. It stayed true to a jungle/grass/Wild Cactus green on the second coat. It is a surprise favorite for that very reason.

 This was actually the first picture I took of them, and then moved them around to put in the bottles. I didn't realize I had gotten them out of order. (Sorry about that!) And by the time I figured it out, I had already put top coat on them. The satin finish is a lot more evident in this than the bottle and 'pop shot, though.

 And finally, here they are with topcoat. Beautiful, glossy, perfection. I'm excited to get these on my hands and see if I can capture some more true-to-life pictures, but I had to share them now.

*The item(s) in this post were purchased by me.

Color Club : Cherubic

I can't believe I almost let the current piss poor shape of my nails almost talk me out of sharing this beauty with you! I have spent my entire nailaddict life wanting holos that have this effect. I can truly say that I am in love with it, and have spent well over the normal amount of time staring dumbly at my hand with it on. I picked up 2 from the Halo Hues Collection, and I will be going back for the others as soon as possible.

The formula was a little fussy, it likes to drag a little. It definitely isn't enough to keep me from coming back for more, I can definitely see me reaching for this gem often. I can't compare the holo effect to other linear holos, as this is my first go-around. I am excited to try layering with this because it isn't as brown/tan as I would have hoped.

Shown Here :
Color Club - Cherubic (2 thin coats)
Seche Vite

 Sometimes I can't tell if my nails are crooked or curling... or if its just the shape of my small (size 4 ring finger) hands that cause the nails to look this way. Either way, it unnerves me to no end.

 Have you gotten any of the Halo Hues Collection? Do you have any tips on nail shaping for me? Do you think maybe its just my fingers that are crooked? Ha!

*The items in this post were purchased by me.