Halloween!!

I kinda love Halloween. I don't get all dressed up and stuff, but it brings with it apples and peanut butter pumpkins and lots of cute decorations involving goofy spiders, black cats and the lovely Great Pumpkin with the Flying Ace shot down behind enemy lines....YOU BLOCKHEAD!!!! LOL!

I got a rock.

So, I do tend to get drawn to the fun Halloween makeup though usually I stick to the nails. I really only indulged in a couple, what with that pesky determination to shop only cruelty free. Mainly...China Glaze. Their Halloween stuff tends to be so fun! I think last years collection was more inspired, but...for my readers I didn't dig those out. I don't even know if you can still get them.


It's ALIVE!!!

Isn't that fun?? It is, obviously, a grass green glitter on a blackened green jelly, I would call it. It has a ton of sparkle and color. I got several compliments on it. It went on super thick and the glitter is very, very dense. This has a coat of Seche Vite over it and it didn't even phase it. That's the kind of sparkle I'm talkin' 'bout!

Don't you love it? Look at that! I believe it IS Alive!! (great name!)

This one, you may have to click to enlarge it, shows the different sizes of glitter. I believe I see hex glitter in there. It just adds a lot. This wound up being smooth with a top coat, which is nice. Glitters...they can be so problematic.

This wore really well, until it didn't. When it went kerflooie, it didn't mess around. It came off in huge chunks. One at work, which, being resourceful, I managed to glue back on for several hours with a coat of Seche. It held through the work day, can't ask for more than that! I like this polish a lot and while it's meant for Halloween, I don't see why it has to be limited to that.

This came in a collection with a black crackle and a glow in the dark top coat. I didn't try either of those with this. I liked it on it's own. Plus...I'm not a huge fan of the crackle. I am wearing it right now, but it's for Halloween. I wouldn't probably for every day. And unfortunately, I've not swatched it yet. I might do an after Halloween follow up...

The other offering I picked up was Haunting. It's a dark charcoal/black jelly with silver glitter. This glitter is more your standard fare.

It's striking, though, isn't it? I like this one a lot. It reminds me of Orly Goth...I should do a comparison.

Sorry for the crap paint job. Why didn't I clean that mess up? Well, regardless, you can see the sparkle here. It looks a lot like a night sky...a winter's night sky, when it's so black but you can smell the snow in the air? Love those nights.

A little different angle, it shows more of the sparkly goodness.

These were both two coats. Haunting does not have a top coat on because I was only swatching it. This came right back off after the snaps were taken.

Lovely, aren't they? Scary? Not so much!! That's OK, Halloween should be fun, in my view, not scary. If I want scary, I'll watch the news!!

Happy Haunted Talons!!

SpaRitual Wilde Collection - Running With Wolves

OK, I'm not really much of a brown kind of person. I wear black as my base color. This is partly because I can't color coordinate to save my butt, but also because it's just simpler. However, I do get on these brown nail polish kicks. I am pointing this out because while "wolves" might conjure up images of brown, red or grey large dog sort of creatures with cute pointy ears and sharp teeth.

Running With Wolves is nothing like that. It's the color of the cute pointy eared thing cast in bronze and it's gorge.

OK, it's a little less gold than bronze. But it's still lovely, don't you think?

This has that same super shimmery look to it the rest of the collection has. I love it. (Tries hard not to mention the horrible formula)

Such a pretty Fall color...or a deep tan summer color. This is flexible. It's so amazingly glam, but also so wearable.

Where couldn't you wear this? I can't think of a place. It's amazing and looks lit from within, but it's not in your face.

It's kind of the color of Autumn leaves. I really liked this and was surprised to find it was one of my favorites of this collection. I'm sure there are similar polishes out there, but this one speaks to me. It says "run with us....aoooooo!"
=D

Happy Talons!

SpaRitual Wilde Collection - Rhythm of Life

Such a pretty glowy emerald green!

This really is a gorgeous jewel emerald. There is nothing toned down or sedate about this. It's so green. It makes me think of the Serengeti...probably more a Lion King Rhythm of Life sort of connection as I would think the Serengeti would be more golden, but...well, anyways. It's pretty. It's Irish emerald green.

*SIGH* but there we have it again...the thin, thin formula. See the nails? It's not just nail line. Oh no. You can see the whole nail there. This was two coats. TWO. If it were supposed to be sheer, well then, what would I be complaining about? Well, nothing, because I don't really care for sheers. But if I *had* bought this as a sheer, I'd have put a neutral under it and then polished it to make it opaque. I didn't do that because I never dreamt I'd need to! Something to be aware of if you decide to go for this color. Honestly, why wouldn't you? It's stunning.

So pretty!! And you can see the nail! AUGH!

It's so shimmery it's almost metallic. I do love this color. I just wasn't stubborn enough to keep applying it until it I got it completely opaque.

So...this decision you have to make for yourselves, lads. Thin formula and a lot of coats...is it worth it? Up to you!


Happy Talons!!!

SpaRitual Wilde Collection - Spirit Child

Spirit Child is a lovely berry shimmer. It has a nice kind of iridescence about it. There is an odd gold sort of sense to it. It's not very outward, but it's there. I liked this whole collection. The formula, though...gads.

Erp. Please ignore that damage to my index nail...that was an ongoing issue. It's done now? But now I have nubbins...these are a couple weeks old. Regardless...

There is a lot of blue in this, but you couldn't call it purple. There is a lot of red, but it's not burgundy. It's just...berry! There is a hint of brown...you can see a hint of the gold I mentioned in the bottle but I think this shows it better:

Just there around the label. And for some reason, since this is blurry, I was able to show the shimmery finish of this. If memory serves, this covered a bit better than some of the others, but they were all pretty impossible. I was so depressed!

These colors are so gorgeous, so jewel toned and lovely, I love the concept...They are just so difficult!

Well, you can see there. I don't normally have THAT much overspray. That should be telling you something. It's so pretty and it looks nice on me. I mean, this is definitely not the most original of the collection, but it's pretty. If you're like me and you like the whole set, then this is definitely do-able, but...I can't imagine this wore any better than Instinct did. Just...ugh. I could bawl.

I guess if you need a polish to get you through dinner you'd be good? I don't know. Anyone out there ever worn these with a different top coat, maybe SpaRituals? Would it make a difference?

Hm.

Happy Talons, anyways!

SpaRitual Wilde Collection - Instinct

First off, so sorry it's been such a long time. I've been home almost a week, but I've been jet lagged and exhausted. It's ridiculous. I fall asleep on the floor. Unreal.

For my first trip to Europe, BMWWU and I wanted to do an edgy exciting color and we chose SpaRitual Instinct. Oh my. It's gorgeous, it truly is. But what a nightmare. Watery, thin, it applied everywhere. Cuticles, fingers, BMWWU...there might be some on the walls of the salon. It was basically an application disaster. And then it wore for approximately 20 hours before it chipped. So not thrilled. BMWWU was homicidal by the time we got it on and it wore less than a day. IF you are one of those people who doesn't mind that, then read on. It's really beautiful. We even applied it over gels, the theory being that if the Instinct wore off, then I'd still have gels to go under it, which also didn't work out but this post isn't about that.

Here's the color, in all it's gorgeous glory:

These are swatches I took before my manicure, this wasn't the manicure. Please don't think BMWWU would paint my cuticles like that. She definitely wouldn't. But isn't that pretty? Shimmery amethyst goodness?

It's a hot color. It has a hint of fuschia to it...It's a shame it was such a train wreck.

This goes on so thin, this might have been three coats for the swatch.

I loved this collection. I'm so upset this was such a mess. Look at how pretty that is. On the middle nail you can see the particles which give it it's depth, the hot hot pink shows at the edges of the nails...what's not to love? Well, it's not a love affair so much as a one night stand. It sneaks out on you in the morning.

So, this was my first real experience with SpaRitual and...love the colors. Hate the application and the wear. Hate it. I don't think I'll waste any more money on them. I think I have maybe 10 bottles? They'll be the only ten, unfortunately, unless there is something I can't live without. It's not worth the trouble. I have other pretty amethysts that will wear at least a whole day and probably longer.

Depressing.

Since I still have half the collection to swatch for you, I won't keep braining you with how badly this wore. I don't have pictures because I was in Germany, I didn't have my phone, I couldn't have uploaded them if I did, and then getting them off my old phone would have been a nachtmare, so I didn't bother with it. Take my word for it, though. Fugly. Just sad.

Ugh.

Try to have happy talons!

SpaRitual Wilde Collection - Sacred Ground

This is an odd polish. For one thing, it's a pewter called Sacred Ground. This color is as far away from what I think of when I hear "sacred ground" as it can get. It actually kind of reminds me of that shimmery sparkle concrete? You know, when the sun hits it it looks like diamonds? That stuff? Yeah. This is a little darker than the pictures show, but the swatches show the glorious sparkle so you can't fault them.

See the sparkle? I'm going to ask you your opinion on that in a second...

It's almost the color of a mirror, but it's not that shiny. It's really striking and interesting. I didn't wear this, I just swatched it, but I suspect it wears reasonably well. Sparklies tend to.

Now...the colors I see here are gold, blue, black...anything else? It has an almost *almost!* holo quality to it. It's sort of mesmerizing. The whole collection was gorgeous but I'll let you fall in love with the colors before I go bashing them.

Regardless, this is quite lovely and unique. There may be others out there, but I think this one can hold it's own. I liked it. BMWWU did not. Ah well...can't please everyone.

Happy Talons!

SpaRitual Wilde Collection - Howl Aaaaoooooooo!!!!

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you're probably aware that I tend to flock to things wolvish, which is odd. I'm not much a wolf person, but I'm far more likely to choose a were over a vamp (Team Alcide all the way...especially if that lovely Joe fellow who plays him continues to run around shirtless. Yes.), sing along with Warren Zevon wishing my hair were perfect at Trader Vic's, and if it's called Howl? I'm probably picking it up. What??? That Illamasqua lipstick wound up being gorgeous.

So it's no wonder I had been waiting on Howl. I waited on this whole collection for a small eternity. Stupid technology.

It's a very very dark brown with hints of gold in it.

You can see it in the bottle...it's really not black.

Now you can see it on the nail. You may wish to click the swatch to see it bigger.

It's a lovely fall brown and it does remind me of the color of wolf or coyote fur. Of course...our coyotes around here look very Wile E...skinny, lanky, dusty looking. This is the color I'd like to think coyotes might be and know that wolves are.

This is a great sparkle pic. See how pale it makes my hands, though? I don't wear browns well at times. I love the gold shimmer, though...

However I do have a side note for you. See all the overspray? This polish was difficult to apply. I've never really worn SpaRitual before, though I had heard they were watery, I had no idea they meant more opaque than watercolors with all the lack of manageability. It's downright runny. BMWWU says to leave the lid off for an hour or so. I've not tried it yet but I will because these colors are so gorgeous.

I have one more swatch...

The idea was to show you that this isn't that blackened but maybe I'm kidding myself. It definitely does the dark around the edges look that I love, and I love the subtle hints of gold. I just didn't jump for joy at the application or the service from the site I ordered from. That is a story for another day, though!

Happy Talons!

butterLondon Bluey

butterLondon Bluey is touted as a peacock. Everyone I asked said peacock...I still say "mallard". Ever seen a male mallard's head? It's this dark blue-green...

Male Mallard

See the kind of iridescence? It's blue green, it's just plain green and it's just plain blue? That's Bluey.

Peacock

See that? That's not Bluey. That's "peacock" and it's a lot bluer.

Wanna see?

Mmmm....sparkly mallard!

See? Too much green to be peacock. These pictures are a couple days old from when I painted my nails. I was caught up in fighting with the Orly swatches and I didn't get this loaded in a timely manner. Sorry! But...this is dark compared to real life, but it's not a bad representation of the color. It's slightly brighter in real life. I think the last shot is better.

Yeah...what is up with the shadows. I feel like I'm shooting Hitchock...

This polish has a lot of sparkle. It's lively and bright but...oddly subdued. It's more curious than attention demanding. I enjoyed wearing it. It is photographing a bit more green than it actually is, but this is close. Note the tip wear. I think this was 3 days old? I don't have any pics, but when it decided to implode it did it big time. Big ass blow out, dudes. HUGE chips. No little pissy chips for Bluey. Oh no. It peeled off half my nail surface. My nail was fine, but it was half bald!

Honestly, it seemed to have the attitude of when it was done it was done. It chipped and peeled all over the place. Interesting.

Mechanics:

1 coat Seche bast coat
1 coat Nailtiqes 2
2 coats butterLondon Nail Foundation
2 coats Bluey
1 coat Seche Vite top coat

This didn't really want to dry and my one thumbnail, you may even be able to see it above, did a very odd surface crack thing. The nail appears to be strong but something odd went on there. I have no idea what. It was actually tactile. So weird.

This applied wonderfully, as butters tend to do. It's nicely pigmented and covers well. I find the Nail Foundation really extends the life of the polish. I think this one wore for about 6 days, one of which is scrubbed a sink with comet and no gloves. This was tough! Through it all, though, the polish held it's sparkle and shimmer. Pretty sweet.

Thoughts?

Happy Talons!

Vacation!!

OK peeps. I thought I could load you up with fun swatches. I have them to write about but I'm literally falling asleep at my desk. I need to go to bed, tomorrow will be very long.

I will be on vacation, something I rarely do, but I had an opportunity to go to Europe and I grabbed it with both well manicured hands. I'm sorry I couldn't find the time to keep the blog going over the course of the trip. I may find a way to do a little stuff while I'm there, but don't count on it. I have some good swatches to show you, too! But...well, I need sleep, as well.


Happy Talons!

Orly Mineral FX Rock the World - The Last of the Collection

Orly Mineral FX Rock the World...I've been working on the swatches of this, trying to think what I can say to describe it to you.

I came up with a whole lot of nothing! It's such a strange color.

Without the sparkle...maybe I need to start there because the color is really just a vehicle for the sparkle with this polish. It's a rosy brown?

It's not chocolate...there is a lot of pink in it. It's really nice on my skin tone and I like this polish a lot. I'd be hard pressed to choose a favorite from this collection. This would have to be up there, it's just such a dichotomy of things. A really sedate pinkish brown holding together a collection of gold sparkle that jazzes this up ten fold.

Even just check the bottle....It's sparkle central in there.

At first I thought this would end up being a dud. The base color is really rather meh, but then you see it on and all the elements are working so well together. I think this is definitely one I will wear a lot.

I certainly took enough pictures of it! Even in my odd lighting I still got a ton of sparkle showing in this.

Last one! This shot makes it look really rather brown...

As with them all, this went on thick but really easily. Look at my cuticles, those are always a teller on how manageable the polish is. Really nice looking cuticle lines means easy to use polish!

I love this, it's just so kind of odd but not. Love.

Happy Talons!

Orly Mineral FX Rock-It

Rock-It! Is it a play on words? Do they mean Rocket but they're working within the bounds of the obvious theme we're working here? (Rocks, in case you've not been reading every post.) Do they mean rock it as in rock-n-roll? Hm. We don't know. I think once you see the color you can decide for yourselves what you think.

It's a really wonderful wine color. It's loaded with sparkle, as the whole collection is, but this veers more towards a conservative red compared to what we've seen so far.

See the pretty gold fleck happening?

I took a lot of pictures of this one because I liked it so much!

This one really shows the gold. This has a lot of effervescence. It's a lovely not quite red. It's very wearable even with all the sparkle.

This whole collection is delightful. I think I have one left to show you?

Happy Talons!

Orly Mineral FX Stone Cold Part Deux

I figured out the upload problem! YAY! So here are the other Stone Cold swatches for you. It's so pretty, I couldn't stand that I had these other pictures and I couldn't post them! That is not what I'm all about here.

So here they are.

See all the blues? I don't think there is anything in this polish that isn't a shade of blue.

So sparkly! I didn't even have to blue this up to show the sparkle. I love this polish.

Ooooo!!!


OK. I feel so much better I got these to load! Maybe I should have just edited the previous post but you know what? I kind of feel like we're all on this journey of polish discovery together. So...why hide the trials and tribulations?

The other colors in this collection are coming. Since I was able to load these I was able to get it all to load. Pretty awesome.

Happy Talons!

Orly Mineral FX Stone Cold

OK...this is one of the colors that the swatches will not upload, I don't care what I do. Short of emailing them all to myself, which I may end up having to do...I don't know what to do!

As a result, I have two swatches for you. They're not bad, but I have better ones, if I could just get them to load.

Stone cold is a beautiful royal blue fleck. It's really pretty and it looks great on me.

Don't mind the overspray there, I wasn't too careful.

See the different facets of blue? Really pretty, and really pretty on. It's actually a little darker than this, but I think that will show up in the next pic. It seems to have so many different kinds of blue. I really like this one a lot.

Mmm, yes. See the more royal quality of this? It's more like that, like the bottle color. I think the color on the nail is picking up and reflecting all the light, from the camera, the lamp...It's lovely. Edgy, but lovely.

This was highly pigmented, as all of these are, and easy to apply. It also dried completely smooth. It WAS hard to get off, it acts like a glitter, but just hold your applicator soaked in acetone over it for a few seconds and wipe away. It shouldn't do too badly by you.

Pretty, non?

Oui!

Happy Talons!

Changes to the blog...

I wanted to alert my readers that I may start having advertising on the site. I am unsure about how this works and what all is involved, but hopefully this will not be annoying to anyone. I will still not, nor will I ever, receive compensation to review anything I talk about. I think that's unethical. However, if I can take some of the proceeds of this blog to help cover some of my residual costs, such as internet usage, photo storage, etc, and give the leftovers to the animal rights groups and wildlife refuge/habitat/conservation outfits then...I am good with that.

I'm also toying with changing the blog format. I may change it for awhile, see if it works, if I like it. I have a cute one chosen...if you guys hate it, please speak up!

Just some changes I'm considering!

Happy Talons!

Interrupting these Orly Swatches for Cheeky Monkey!

Cheeky Monkey is a polish company from Canada. As you can tell by the name, these ladies like to have fun. If you are like me, and you get a very perverse kick out of telling people you are wearing polish colors called things like "Filthy Madam" or "Cheap Whore" then this might be a brand for you. They are not cheap, plus you have to get them here from Canada but...I am finding...so worth it. Today's offering is the lovely and duo-chromey Raunchy Bitch. Yes. You read that right. Raunchy Bitch.

Stay with me! It's amazing.

Oooooo. I know, right? And how fun is that bottle? The tag you see there is a little motivational tidbit. They attach different ones to all the polish. You will also receive a fun cocktail recipe with your order. If you check out the website you can read little stories that all women, if they are honest with themselves, can identify with. Find the one about the car accident in the snow storm. Hells to the yeses.
I had a hard time getting the picture I wanted and I don't know that I have it yet. This is more royal purple than it is blue but I'm afraid it photographed blue no matter what I did. We'll see. I tried.

But...not that this swatch is inaccurate, though. It is. This is a lovely and stable? duo-chrome. By stable I mean, the colors do not flash like a holo, nor do they transform like a more aggressive duo-chrome, think Chanel Peridot as an example (See the list on the right, I've reviewed it if you want a better idea what I'm saying here.)  Raunchy Bitch, and how much do I love that, looks blue when it wants to look blue. It looks purple when it wants to look purple and it COMMITS to the color choice. No purple on one side blue on the other stuff here. But it is completely amazing. It's a gorgeous color. I highly recommend wearing it with a pinky purple as I did today. Looked terrific.

I have a ton of swatches so I'm going to try to weed out only the best ones and hopefully find something that will show you the purple side. The bottle looks purple up there? Incidentally, how fun is the bottle? Yeah, I know, right? Too fun!

OK. Hm...I found one. It's crap. I'm just warning you right now. It's fuzzy, it's unfocused..it's an art shot. However, this is true to color, I swear.

Ugh. Please, just look at the color, OK?

This is one of Raunchy Bitch's other incarnations, this amazing amethyst. In the real world this has some shimmer. I have a bottle shot that shows it beautifully.

Mmm. See that in the top of the bottle? You can see the duo here as well. Blue in the middle, purple around the corners. This is a stunner. It is edgy though, so keep that in mind when you're planning work outfits.

As far as application goes, this was fantastic, really. I had sat down to do my nails and keep my Moms happy and my Dads came in and turned my light off. I painted my nails in the dark and they still turned out. There just isn't a lot of light coming from Jane Eyre to paint by, lads. Just isn't. I had dry issues with this as well. Even with Seche on it it still took awhile and I messed some tips up. I will say though, that just slapping some more lacquer on those spots did fix them easily and with very little fuss. I am suffering some tip wear, but I'll update you on that in a few days, hopefully. No chips, it's wearing pretty well.

Mechanics:

1. 1 coat Seche base coat
2. 1 coat Nailtiques 2
3. 2 coats Seche Rebuild
4. 2 coats Cheeky Monkey Raunchy Bitch
5. 1 coat Seche Vite Top coat

Lovely, isn't it? These can be purchased at Cheeky Monkey. It's a fun site, check it out!

Happy Talons!