Thursday, November 11, 2010

Red Stick International Animation Festival- YAY!

We're heading out to the Red Stick International Animation festival this morning, and I'm so excited I can barely stand it! We've volunteered there for the last 5 or 6 years, and I absolutely love it! It's going to be lots of fun seeing everyone again, and seeing what all is going on.

I was going to do a manicure using the red stick man from the logo, but I decided not to last night at the last minute. Maybe tonight, since we're going to the festival tomorrow and Saturday as well. Amusing trivia- the stick man's name is Gaston Baton! How cute is that?

Instead, I'm wearing Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Mme Moriarty, which is a deep blood red. And when I say blood red, I mean it. The BPAL website describes this as "The wet crimson red of arterial spray." Isn't that cool? Creepy and funky, I love it!!

Pictures to come! If you'll be at the festival tomorrow or the next day, leave me a comment, maybe we can get some coffee or something! :D

Essence Lime Up!

Ohhh, my goodness. You may or may not know this, but I am almost obsessed with lime green. I've been looking and looking for a lime green that would actually be opaque, because out of the four or fice lime green polishes I've got, not one of them is opaque! This made me INSANE!

Then comes the best advice I've gotten in ages. I just wish I could remember who gave it. One of my polish friends on Twitter suggested I check out Essence Lime Up! I am SO glad they did, because I don't know that I'd ever have picked up an essence polish, and I'd have been missing out on such amazing stuff!

This polish applied like a dream, creamy and smooth and just... I don't even know what to say. Amazing. It was opaque with one swatch over the polish I was wearing on my thumb- I couldn't resist and had to try it in the car once I'd picked it up. If you're better with polish than I am (not necessarily that difficult!) then this could be a 1 coat polish for you. For me, I need two to get fully opaque and fill in thin spots, but still... not a problem.

The only problem is that it's a creme and I'm a magpie. That's easily remedied, though. I topped it with a coat of a lovely lime green BonBons glitter polish that has no name. I bought this one ages ago, and have worn it several times. LOVE IT! It's got several sizes of glitter, and they're iridescent which is a plus! (You know me and rainbows!)

And since I'm a total glitter freak, I added a coat or two of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Embalming Fluid. Ohhh, how I love this polish. I love looking at the bottle, it's such an almost-spooky looking sheer green that looks like it should be glowing. (It does, btw- it glows in the dark, and if I had a black light I'd show you!) Then it's got the most lovely shimmery microglitter. It's an amazing topcoat, and I can't recommend enough. (This was provided by the company for evaluation, and I'm strongly considering buying a backup bottle!)

Unfortunately, there is a problem. I covered this with a coat of China Glaze Fast Forward because I don't like the feel of glitter. For some odd reason, this topcoat made the polish shrink like CRAZY, and caused the edges to peel up! I've never seen anything like it, but it was pretty frustrating. =/ At least 6-7 of my nails had peeling around the edges, and I don't think I could have done anything to prevent. I still wore it for a couple of days, but I was really a sad panda.

That said, I wore this for three manicures in a row (!!! I know!! THREE!) and only had the peeling problem once. I don't know what happened, or if it'll happen again. But I don't really care... I'll wear it again, and again and again til my bottle is empty!

I'm even tempted to get another bottle to play with, because if I had my perfect bottle, this green would be a touch deeper and bluer. I think this might be perfect with a bit of Sinful Colors Love Nails, or perhaps my Sally Hansen Ultra HD Laser. We'll see, right? :D

What do you think? What color are you absolutely dying to find in a perfect, opaque polish?



Essence Lime Up! was a spontaneous post at Ulta. What can I say, I'm addicted to lime green..
See my disclosure statement for more information.