Inspired by a Song: Ruby & Millie Red

Day 22 of The Challenge is to create a manicure inspired by a song. The song I chose is "Rebel Girl" by Bikini Kill. Are you all up to date on your Riot Grrrl trivia? (Cricket noise.) No? Well, here's your chance to get started! Bikini Kill changed my life. They are THAT BAND for me. Kathleen Hanna, one of their members, is my hero. Listening to this band gave me that sense of belonging, and let me know I wasn't the only person feeling this way. In short, it made me realize there was a word to describe what I was feeling, and that word is feminism. Well, feminism is the movement that supported my feelings.

Anyway, first up: nails! Then: Bikini Kill related things.

I chose the cleverly named Red by Ruby & Millie. I chose a red polish for this because red is a prominent color in the "Rebel Girl" music video, and also a prominent color for photos and other things related to Bikini Kill. That could just be because I love the color red and I'm drawn to it. At any rate, this polish is a really pretty and shimmery. It would make a good Christmas color. It applied incredibly smoothly, and I needed just two coats for opacity. I also think the bottle design (which admittedly I did not do a good job of showing) is really nice. My only issue is that it took FOREVER to dry. I smudged it multiple times in the few hours after I applied it, which I attributed to my clumsiness and the fact that I did yoga about 20 minutes after slappin' on some top coat. However, the next day it was still not dry! I could easily dent my nails with the slightest movement.

I'm still pleased with it, despite the drying issues. I love that the color shifts depending on the light (in the bright light, some of the pink tones come out; in darker lighting, the red looks deeper). Maybe I'll try it with a different top coat and see what happens.

Now, on to some Bikini Kill!

 

The video for "Rebel Girl". The song is only a couple minutes long, so give it a listen!

Members of Bikini Kill recoding. See what I mean by the red?! Also I'd kill for a faux leopard print jacket like that!

I love Kathleen's red streaks!

So, what do you think? Did you listen to "Rebel Girl"? I realize feminist punk rock is perhaps not everyone's cup of tea.

Inspired by a Color: Borghese Menta

Now that Halloween is over and November is here (wahh!), I am officially back to working my way through the 31 Post Challenge. Post 21 begins the Inspiration part of The Challenge, and today's theme is Inspired by a Color. The color I chose is cascade green, like the old cars in the 50s and 60s were painted. I did a similar post to this with Sinful Color's Mint Apple, but I just can't get enough of this retro color.

Here's Menta by Borghese. This is such a lovely color. It's a mint green, which is gorgeous enough on it's own, but add some shimmer, and it's damn near perfect! It really does remind me of a shiny vintage car, cruising down the highway. The application wasn't ideal, but it was manageable. This stuff is quite thin, and as I started to apply it, I worried it would never reach opacity But with three coats, you're good to go. And it would work well as a layering polish (I'm interested to try one coat over black). It's a lovely color, but probably not worth the $8 considering the thinness of it. I'm glad I found it used. This is the only Borghese I've tried, so maybe the formula on this color is just bad. Anyone have any thoughts?

Now, onto some images of hot cars!

Original (not restored!) interior of a 1960 Corvair. Gorgeous! Click the image for a link to more photographs.

I painted my walls cascade green in the first apartment I lived in when I moved out. I still miss those walls. This is four-ish years old.

I hope everyone's week is going well! Are you in a candy-induced coma?

Hard Candy Mischief

I think this will probably end up being the last of the Halloween manicures I do. I bought this polish a while back, and having been anxiously waiting this time of the year so I could wear it. Here's Mischief by Hard Candy.

Mischief is TONS of orange glitter in a black base. The perfect polish for Halloween! All the glitter made my camera freak out a little bit, so the images aren't as crisp as I'd like, but I think you get the point. I love this polish! It's certainly attention grabbing. I can't stop staring at my nails, and watching the light bounce off all the glitter.

The application of Mischief was a bit of a pain, though. It was pretty thick, so it just kinda smeared all over. I should point out though, the bottle cap on mine is pretty severely cracked. You can see it best in the first photograph. The crack goes about halfway up the cap. It was like that when I purchased it, and naturally I didn't notice until I got home. I would have returned it, but it was the only one left, and the store is kinda far away (especially considering I do not drive). I did email Hard Candy about buying a new cap, but never heard back. Bummer! So, I'm sure that affects the consistency to some extent. And on that note, if you've got an extra Hard Candy brush (or one that will fit a HC bottle), let me know!

What are you guys doing over the Halloween weekend? I don't have any particular plans, but I am thinking I may bust out "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble" in a few (yeah, the MKA movie!). Are you dressing up?

Halloween Half Moons

I wanted to use some of my newly acquired polishes for a Halloween manicure, so I busted out China Glaze's Liquid Leather (which I won in The Phalanges Files' giveaway), and Missguided's Misstaken, given to my by Nicole in our recent swap.

Here's two coats of Misstaken. This applied so well!  It went on smoothly, and dried quickly. The color is great, and the bottle is so cute. I love the lacy peace sign. I really don't have much else to say about it because it is perfect.

Then I added one coat of Liquid Leather. This also went on incredibly smoothly, and dried to a nice shiny finish. The half moon lines aren't totally smooth (especially on my pointer finger), but for the most part I think it went well.  I think this is such a cute manicure for Halloween!

To get into the Halloween spirit, I've been watching The Search for the Next Elvira. The show is so bad, it's good. And who doesn't love Elvira?!

Wet N Wild Behind Closed Doors & My Giveaway Winnings

Here's another Halloween manicure, with a polish from Wet N Wild's On the Prowl collection. Chi Chi from The Phalanges Files sent me this as an extra from her giveaway. I also have pictures of everything she sent at the end of this post. But first, here's Behind Closed Doors!

Having seen swatches of Behind Closed Doors on a plethora of other nail blogs, I knew it was in more of a smokey grey base, rather than a true black base. So I layered this over two coats of NYC Black Lace Creme. I did not photograph that on it's own this time, but if you're dying to see shitty, air-bubbly photos of your basic black creme, I did photograph it in this post.

I added two coats of Behind Closed Doors over the black, and I must say, the contrast between the red glitter and black base just looks so cool! It certainly does have a spooky, dark element to it (I'm reminded of Jack the Ripper for some reason... blood splattering in the night?). My only gripe is the amount of glitter that applied. I like my glittery polishes and top coats to be, well, glittery. I probably would have had to do like four coats of Behind Closed Doors to get it where I wanted it to be. That would have been six coats, not including base or top coat. Even though the glitter is more sparse than I prefer, it still looks pretty cool.

Now, here are some bottle shots of everything Chi Chi sent!

The Sinful Colors Adventure Island Collection. Easy Going, Beautiful Girl. Star Fish, Verbena, Adventure Island, Seaweed, Open Seas.

China Glaze White Cap, Fairy Dust, Flop Flop Fantasy, Liquid Leather.

She was awesome and threw in some extra treats! Sally Hansen Mystic Lilac, WnW Behind Closed Doors, and Nicole by OPI Too Rich for You!

I have obtained so many polishes lately, I had too add another Ikea box to my nail polish storage! And it's half full! I think it's time for another No Buy!

Walgreens Glittery Green & Fantasy Makers Night Glow

I mentioned in my previous post that I was considering putting The Challenge on hold, in order to get a few Halloween manicures in. Well, I officially decided to do so. I'll get back to The Challenge as soon as Halloween is over.

For this Halloween manicure, I used a couple new polishes I found at Walgreens recently. One is an unnamed glittery green polish made by Walgreens, and the other is the beloved Night Glow by Fantasy Makers (Wet n Wild).

This is the glittery green. Walgreens had quite a few polishes like this one, but this was the only green on the shelf. I took that as a sign, and this guy came home with me. To be honest, I was expecting this to be really crappy. You know that nail polish you got when you were little that peeled off in like an hour, and was a globby mess? That's what I was envisioning. But this stuff actually applied really well, and so far has stayed put (I've had it on for a couple days). As you can see, it is pretty sheer, so visible nail line phobes might want to steer clear. I used three coats. I am pretty impressed with this polish. I love the shimmery light green mixed with the glitter. This was $2 well spent.

Then I added two coats of Night Glow, Fantasy Makers' glow in the dark top coat. It doesn't really change the look of polishes too much. It's a very light green/yellow, so any change in color is minimal, and hardly noticeable in person (if at all). You'd never be able to build this up to an opaque color on its own. It applied easily as well.

And here's the best photo I could get of the cool glow in the dark action! I'm sure you can imagine just how annoying taking photos of this polish was. Trying to sit still for the 20 seconds the shutter is open is no easy feat. But I got one successful shot, and that's all that matters. This stuff glows pretty well, and looks so neat. I like knowing that I've got something special on my nails that no one else can see.

And for fun, here's a kinda cool photo I got in one of my many attempts. I obviously didn't stay still very well for this one, but I liked the shapes the glowing bottle created.

Are you guys getting excited for Halloween? What are you dressing up as? I don't have any plans for Halloween, so I don't have a costume set in stone for this year. Last year, my coworker and I dressed up as Dorothy and the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz. One of my favorites over the years was when I went as John Dillinger a few years ago.

I hope your weekend is going well!

Halloween Splatter Mani & Nail Mail

I'm on Day 20 of The Challenge, which means I'm at the end of the patterns section. Today is supposed to be a water marble manicure, but I just can not get into water marbling. So, I figured something similar, yet better looking, would be a splatter mani! And since Halloween is right around the corner, I figured I'd choose Halloween-inspired colors.

The orange I used was Atomic by Nails Inc. The green is OPI's Who the Shrek Are You? And the black is Black Lace Creme by NYC. People aren't kidding when they say splatter manicures are incredibly messy. I used a good amount of tape around my nails, and I still had a hell of a time trying to clean up. (Naturally, my clean up job looks 10 times worse in the photographs than it does in real life.) Don't skimp on the tape, people!

When I had my first hand done, I didn't really like it. I nearly decided to just photograph the one hand, remove it, and do something else. Which is not abnormal for most nail bloggers, but I am not a swatcher. But once I removed the tape, I ended up liking it. The more I got used to blowing nail polish out of a straw, the better they looked. Plus, I think the green oozing down my ring finger nail is just too cute. Overall, I'd call this a success. I'm thinking this will be the start of a few Halloween manis in a row, so I may put the challenge on hold until Halloween is over. We'll see.

The second part of my entry will feature lots of photographs of nail polish bottles! Recently I've acquired a ton of new nail polish. Most in a swap with Nicole at Top to Toe, and some I've purchased. Lots of pictures ahead!

I bought these three at Walgreens recently: Revlon Royal Cloak, Fantasy Makers (by Wet N Wild) Night Glow, & a sparkly green by Walgreens that has no name. On LiveJournal I purchased Borghese Menta & Sally Hansen Mystic Lilac (!). And I bought a couple A England's in their recent sale: Lady of the Lake & Tristam.

This is the start of what Nicole sent. Model's Own Cherry Pie, Blooboo, Peacock Green, Coral Reef, Purple Grey, & Juicy Jules.

Marks & Spencer Khaki, Emerald, Dusted Apricot, Gold, Bright Aqua, & Jewel.

Famous by Sue Moxley Dark Chocolate, Golden Plum, Purple Passion & Scarlet Sparkle.

Boots No 7 Salsa & Foxglove. Ruby & Millie Purple & Red.

Collection 2000 BMX Racer, Starlet, All That Jazz, Jitterbug.

Andrea Fulerton Naomi, 17 Fury, Missguided Splash Misstaken, & Accessorize Aztec.

Bath roses, a couple lotions, Soap & Glory shower gel and scrub, and some super cute jewelry!

Nicole completely blew my away with this swap! She went above and beyond, and really sent some amazing stuff! Lots of the brands I haven't tried before, so I'm going to have a blast trying all these new polishes. I really am so lucky to have a great swap partner and a great friend! If you'd like to see what I sent her - which looks measly and pathetic in comparison - take a peak at this post.

What do you guys think of the splatter mani? How jealous are you of all my new goodies?! Hope your week is going well!