Indigo Bananas Hallucinate

Let's take a look at another of the Endless Summer Collection from Indigo Bananas. This polish is Hallucinate and it is simply amazing. Andrea describes it as a bronze metallic with green shimmer that shifts from bronze through pink and copper. It shows a great range of color change for me and was another polish that had me flinging my hands wildly all over the place to admire it.

But first, some unfortunate business must be attended to. I am issuing a Cuticle Alert for the remainder of this post. Conditions are favorable for cuticle viewing discomfort and the ick factor may be high. Take all appropriate precautions. Also, VNL doesn't bother me much so I am only wearing two thin coats here. Andrea recommends three thin coats on her shop listing and that would certainly eliminate the VNL if it offends your sensibilities. Blame the blogger not the polish.

Okay, with that behind us, let's get ready to take this polish through its paces! We start off with a relatively sedate look at the more neutral side of this polish: some gold peeks through, a bit of pink.

Let's bump that gold up a little and see what we get, shall we?

Now, ramp up the holo and watch those rainbows dance:

my knees are getting a little weak here...

Shall we push it a little further and check out the bronze action this bad boy can provide?

oh, yeah. That's what I'm talking about.

Can I maybe see that copper in action?

Now watch what happens when we turn down the lights: 

hello dreamy, gleamy, and mysterious!

Remember that green shimmer I mentioned earlier? 

BAM!

Does this polish rock or what? The color play is all over the place. It is complex and beautiful and utterly amazeballs. It is also on-trend with the olive/bronze tones that are supposedly going to be big this autumn. I mentioned in an earlier post that I had purchased the entire Endless Summer collection. I believe this may be my favorite color of the bunch! If you like it as much as I do, head on over to the Indigo Bananas Etsy shop and grab a bottle of your own.

Indigo Bananas Dream A Little Dream

Today I have polish for you from the new Endless Summer Collection from Indigo Bananas. As a huge fan of both the Sandman comic series and holographic multichromatic polishes, I had to pick up the entire set and I am thrilled with all of them. As usual, I purchased these myself and my opinions are my own unbiased thoughts. I am starting off with Dream A Little Dream, a pink polish with blue shimmer that shifts from a reddish orange through red violet.

In indirect light the polish is a soft medium pink

The sparkles come out to play in sunlight (forgive the errant cat hair)

 Here you can see the shift toward the salmon side of things

 

and here it leans violet

Since my job requires "modest" polish colors, it is always nice to find a work appropriate color that has enough color play to be interesting and fun for me to wear. Indigo Bananas is one of my favorite Indie brands and this polish was as easy to apply and wear as all her others. You can find Andrea's polish creations including all of the Endless Summer Collection at her Etsy stop.

Zoya Mason and CrowsToes Storms Never Last

I have two beautiful polishes today that are exquisite on their own but combine to make a truly swoonworthy manicure. The first is Zoya Mason from the Fall 2013 Satins collection. Zoya describes this color as Red Violet “Fandango Pink” Metallic and that seems as good a description as any, although I am not completely certain what a Fandango Pink is - it sounds fun, though doesn't it? It has visible color shift and great shine - there is no top coat in this picture. 

Storms Never Last is part of the CrowsToes One Mad, Crazy Summer collection. Does Lauri have the best collection names or what? This particular color is dedicated to her mother, and is poetically described as a darkened blurple/dark magenta/gold multichrome with sparks of shifting teal glitter shining like little stars. The bottle shot confirms the stellar nature of the color:

One coat of Storms Never Last applied over two coats of Mason yields a deep dreamy polish that shifts and gleams and sparkles. There is a blue cast that stands out over the violet base and makes this manicure memorable and eye-catching.

There you go! This was a winner in my book and I was very sad to finally take it off after 3 days. It did wear very well with only minimal tip wear despite being subjected to a good deal of housework.

You can find Zoya Mason on the Zoya website and CrowsToes Storms Never Last is available from Overall Beauty and Llarowe, although it is popular enough that it is not always in stock. 

Castle on a Cloud and Leotard Optional

Today I have yet another Enchanted Polish for you. I promise the next post will have a different indie! I am a huge Enchanted fan so I have just been wearing a lot of Chelsea's polishes lately.

This manicure uses a base of Leotard Optional by Sephora by OPI. It is a subdued pink-beige creme that is an attractive nude-looking polish for my skintone. Sephora has recently changed the formula over to the gelshine Gel Colours line but this was the original Nail Color lacquer. On top I used a coat of Castle on a Cloud by Enchanted. Castle on a Cloud is part of the Icing on Top collection and is a lovely glass fleck holographic duochrome topper. Wow - that is a lot going on for just one polish, huh? The color shift in this one goes pink to purple and is quite pronounced.

This shot shows the holo sparkle

while this one shows the color shifting glass flecks 

Now let's take a look at how it appears on the nail:

It shifts toward lavender

and then to pink

and the holo comes out to play in the sunshine.

I found this manicure to be nearly flawless. It has a lot going on in but still falls squarely in the realm of work appropriate. I found myself constantly waving my hands around to see all of the color play and rainbows it could produce - utterly delightful!

I Am The Walrus and Fairy Dust

Welcome to Blurry Photo Day at ShortNailsNeedLoveToo blog! I know, most days here are blurry photo days but today's entry has more photos than usual so there is bonus blurry for your viewing pleasure. But I am presuming you will overlook that particular shortcoming because of the spectacular beauty of the polishes involved. I am wearing I Am The Walrus from the Imagine Collection by Enchanted Polish and, because one can never have too much holo, I topped it with China Glaze Fairy Dust. I adore the colors in IATW and since we are on the cusp of fall, I have been craving the rich reds and golds that define this polish. As with all the colors in the Imagine Collection, the color play is not shy.

First let's take a look at IATW alone:

a rich burgundy red

that shifts to gold

 and even green at the edges, as seen here on my thumb

another look at how strongly the golden color can show

THUMBHANCE!!!

Since I chose not to leave well enough alone, I slapped on a coat of Fairy Dust. Extra holo-y goodness! We have rainbows and sparkle and color shift - what more could a girl want? No matte-ing of manis here, this one is perfect as is.

 direct sunlight outdoors

indirect light indoors

So what do you think? Do you love this as much as I do? Are you impatient for autumn to arrive?

Enchanted Polish *69

Well, I'm back after far too long an absence. I have a manicure on today that is just too good not to share. Unfortunately, my cuticles deserve a warning of their own - I just can't seem to keep them hydrated. I even slept with lotion and gloves on last night, sigh. But the polish is what matters, right? Let's talk about that!

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a bottle of *69 by Enchanted Polish. This was a secret release and I am beyond thrilled to have it. Enchanted is my favorite maker, hands down. *69 is a glitter topper filled to the brim with chartreuse and pink neon glitters as well as a lovely pink shimmer. I chose to pair it with Day Glow, Serum No. 5's powerful glow-in-the-dark polish. I used Color Club's Jackie Oh as an accent nail, and sandwiched a layer of Serum No. 5's Sky Lights between the creme and the glitter so that nail would have a bit of glow as well.

Here is the best I could do to show the glow. I am using my phone for these pics so it doesn't handle darkness well. Hopefully you can see how bright the polish is by noting how dark my skin is in the photo.

This manicure is very fun and summer-y. I am not particularly enamored of big glitter in general but *69 has definitely won me over!

Matte that mani!!