November 8 for No H8 : Eradicate Hate in the Nail Polish Blogger Community

As members of the nail polish blogging community, we all share a love of beauty, color, and lacquer. Other than that, we are remarkably different: from our race to our religion to our hair color...even to our polish application techniques. To marginalize anyone because of those differences is completely unacceptable and today I take a stand against that. I refuse to allow other people's view of "normal" dictate how I behave, believe, and blog.

In solidarity with a multitude of bloggers linked below, my purple manicure represents my proud commitment to the No H8 movement. Today, November 8, I dedicate my post to ending bullying of any kind and to encouraging diversity and imperfection among our colorful community.

I haven't been subjected to any of this bullying and personally I just can't understand what it's all about and why women behave this way. We're all suppose to love nail polish. We're all suppose to be grown-ups but still there's all this drama. I think some people forget that they're actually talking to another human being on the other end of their hate and don't realize or don't care that it's a person with feelings and insecurities. I'm so proud to be part of a group of women that can say they want to stand up to bullies! 

Today I have for you butter London Brummie with Lovely Jubbly over the top. My great friend, Tina, sent this to me. She's a fantastic person and I feel privileged to know her and it's all because of nail polish! I've met so many fantastic women and it makes me really happy!

 

Please join us and stand up against bullying! Whether in the nail polish community or in your every day life. 

Ninja Polish Caribbean Reef

Today I have for you Ninja Polish Caribbean Reed from the Bling Collection. This is ANOTHER beautiful polish. I'm so amazed by these. Gary picked this one out for me to wear today because he loves these sort of colors (although he told me it was green. SMH). I've put this over Missguided Misstique which is a teal polish that I got free with a magazine sometime last year. I don't know anything about it. Caribbean Reef is a beautiful teal glitter with holographic glitter. It's super sparkly and amazing. I just love these Ninja Polish! I believe that every nail polish addict needs this and the other two from the Bling Collection. You will not be disappointed and at $9, it's on the cheapish side for an indie polish (which usually run $12-15 for the good quality ones). Application was fantastic with zero issues.

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Here is the video that Ninja Polish showing the glitter off to it's full awesomeness:

 

  Ninja Polishes can be purchased here and go like their Facebook page for updates!

 *PR samples

Ninja Polish Sexy & I Know It

Today I have for you another Ninja Polish called Sexy & I Know It from the new Bling Collection. It's so damn beautiful. It's packed full of multi colored and holographic glitter. It can be worn on it's own and be opaque in a few coats but I chose to wear it layered over Chanel Vertigo. These aren't the best swatches ever but I wasn't really sure how to capture the amazing sparkly quality of this. And don't mind the tip wear. It has nothing to do with the quality of Ninja Polish and everything to do with Seche Vite and me being too impatient to wait for it to dry properly. 

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And here's a video that Ninja Polish posted to show the amazingness and beautifulness of Sexy & I Know It. Behold!

The two Ninja Polish I've tried so far are amazing. I can't wait to try the other two that I have! Ninja Polishes can be purchased here and go like their Facebook page for updates!

*PR sample!

Accessory Haul

I thought I'd do a small Accessory haul for you today. I love jewelry (or jewellery as it's spelled here in the UK) and handbags. A lot. Like a stupid amount. Probably more than nail polish. I have a few expensive(ish) pieces but for the most part, they're cheap(ish) so that I can get more things! Simple logic!

On Monday, Gary and I went to a town called Congleton (which I wouldn't recommend, there's nothing there!) and there was a cute little shop (I can't find the receipt to let you know what the name of the store was) that had lots of pretty jewelry and accessories. I got a pair of earrings and a necklace from there.

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These earrings are from a company called

Tutti and Co. I love these type of long earrings

but they always seem to be too heavy.

These aren't at all. Really comfortable to wear!

 

I LOVE this cute little skull necklace, even if there 

is yellow gold in there (which I don't like usually).

I had to add some extensions to this because it was 

only like ten inches long. So. Damn. Cute.

This bag is by Religion. Look at those awesome skulls

with crowns. So amazing. The bag is a little smaller

than I would like but I'll accept that for those awesome

skulls. I saw this brand at the same store but didn't

get it from there because all they had was a wallet

with a similar design.

I purchased the bag from the Chemical Ltd site. On another note, concerning the Chemical Ltd site: I ordered the bag on early Wednesday afternoon (probably around 11 or 12) and it got here at 2PM on THURSDAY! Fantastic service, if you ask me. I was sooo happy! Hurry fast if you want it. It was only one of a few stores that still had it in stock and it's about 1/2 price as well! There's a brand name on the skull necklace on a super tiny tag but I can't see what it says. I'll update if I can figure out what brand it is!

Do you like these type of posts? Let me know!

Stairway to Heaven vs Ascension

Today I have my first ever comparison post for you! Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven and Ninja Polish Ascension. When I got Stairway to Heaven I wanted to love it. It looked gorgeous in the bottle and the swatches I'd seen looked amazing. I put it on and I wasn't very impressed but I was in a hurry when I applied it, so I thought that was the reason. I tried it again a little while later and I still wasn't too impressed. It was really hard to work with (the glitter wouldn't lay where I wanted it to or it wouldn't spread evenly) and it had to have several coats because of not spreading evenly and since there were so many coats, it starting to become gloopy and looked horrible. Also, it looked cloudy because of the white base. I put it away and didn't really think about it again. Then I was asked by Ninja Polish if I could do a comparison post for their new polish called Ascension. They look really similar but I saw straight away that it was in a clear base instead of the milky base and I got all excited. I applied them both over Illamasqua Boosh and I fell in love with Ascension. It's everything I wanted Stairway to Heaven to be and more! Really easy to apply and build up. It spreads evenly and there are zero problems with application. Ascension was created to be a dupe for Stairway to Heaven, so it's no wonder that it's almost exactly the same. On with the pictures!

 *click to enlarge!*

 

Ascension on Index and Ring fingers
Stairway to Heaven on Middle and Pinky fingers

The colors of the glitter aren't exactly the same but I actually prefer the colors of Ascension to Stairway to Heaven. I don't really like the milky base of Stairway to Heaven, so I LOVE that Ascension is in a clear base. It makes it so much prettier. I had to actually add a lot of polish thinner to Stairway to Heaven before I could use it for this mani. It was so thick that it wasn't even moving around in the bottle and was sort of sitting in the bottle like jelly. The milky/cloudy look of Stairway to Heaven might be different on a different base but black shows off the colors so much better. In this comparison Ascension wins, hands down. I love it and I can't wait to try it over some different base colors! It can be purchased here at Ninja Polish and don't forget to like their Facebook page as they always update there when they're going to be stocking their hard to get polishes (such as all the varieties of Floam).

*Ascension was sent as a PR sample to be compared to Stairway to Heaven.

Happy Halloween!!!

Today's mani is all from Illamasqua polishes! I LOVE Illamasqua. I've never been disappointed with any of their polishes. Today I have for you Insanity (orange and discontinued) and Creator (yes, again) over Boosh (black 1 coat creme) and polka dots because I couldn't think of anything else to do!

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I had to take pictures with a flash because it was VERY dull again today. I do love the color combination of orange and black, even if it is over done at Halloween.

And here are some pumpkins that my husband carved last night. He doesn't like Halloween at all (being a crabby British man) but he does love carving pumpkins.

I hope you have a great Halloween! Please link me your Halloween mani!

Faux Bloody Cuticles

I've been wanting to do a bloody mani for a while but I've always been put off doing a bloody splatter mani because it looks like it'd be way too much clean up than I want to deal with. I had a thought the other night that maybe I'd thin some dark red polish out and drop it from a height onto my nails to make it look like splatter patterns but again, that seemed like it'd be a lot of clean up so I gave up on that idea. then I thought that maybe doing a half moon and then using a straight pin to make it appear like blood was running down my nails might be easier. It was pretty easy but I don't know how convincing it looks. I used Nails Inc Basil Street as a base (which is very close to my skin tone and one that I just got in a box set and thought I'd NEVER use!) and Illamasqua Scarab (which is the only brown red I have!)

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When I showed my husband last night, he had no idea what I was attempting. He thinks it just looks like it's chipped or unfinished. My mother in law and my father in law didn't know what I was trying to do either. Muggles. I do like the way this has come out, although I wish the dots were more tear drop shaped but I had  no idea how to do that so I just tried some random dots that don't look very random to me. Let me know what you think or send me some links if you have any Halloween manicures!