Glitter Guilty October box review: In which I nearly murder a tree

 

Hello again, my blogosphere!

I'm excited to bring you another Glitter Guilty winner, this month's box featured some real beauties.  
We had some fun Halloween treats; a chocolate dipped and sprinkled graham cracker and oreo from an etsy specializing in dipped treats.  Sorry no photos of those, though, I uh..."lost" them.  Or perhaps gained them, if you catch my drift?

The polishes were so beautiful, though.  My monthly "me" polish was so alluring, I literally gasped when I saw it (after I tore open the box on the way up my driveway.  Don't drive distracted, folks, a tree nearly lost it's life for this beauty.)

(Clockwise L to R: Zoya "Kristen" with China Glaze "Poetic", Zoya "Kristen" with Julep "Sienna", Glitter Guilty "Lilac Luxe", and Zoya "Kristen" again with China Glaze "Poetic")

"Lilac Luxe" is a super pale cool lilac crelly packed with medium copper hexes, smaller gold hexes, tiny gold round glitters, copper bar glitter, and iridescent microglitter that's mostly only visible in direct lighting.  It was inspired by this photo which I found via pinterest and shared with Glitter Guilty:

 

Stunning yes?  And she did an amazing job of pulling it off, in my opinion. 

 

I chose to try and replicate the inspiration photos in my manicure with the Glitter Guilty polish as anaccent to top it all off.  The closest thing I have to this pale lilac is Zoya "Kristen", which is really more blue (sounds like a good reason for a shopping trip to me!) 

I used the same alcohol marbling technique as I've attempted previously with the gold and rose gold (again, I need to buy a few new colors!) My main beef with this technique is each polish seems to react in a new way to the alcohol, so it is hard to get a cohesive look in the manicure.

 

(You can see my on my pinky how the rose gold polish was trying to spot waaay differently than the yellow gold.  I had to manipulate it a lot for the other fingers featuring this polish.)

 

  

The Monthly mini this month was ALSO pretty awesome.  It's called "Something Wicked", and not only is it stunning for the holiday (Happy Halloween, folks!) but it is also the perfect summation of the beloved musical for which it was clearly named.  I had the opportunity to see "Wicked" during it's tour, and it was just absolutely stunning.  Deviant from the book, yes, but for once not in a way that left me upset.  But, I ramble...on to the polish!

 

 

(Glitter Guilty "Something Wicked")

You can expect to see this one swatched REAL soon!  I'm still ogling it.  In fact, if you've STILL not signed up for your own Glitter Guilty monthly subscription box, you can request a full size AS your monthly "me" from here on out!  You can do this with any of her in-store polishes, since she's changed the program a bit.  There will be about a dozen polish variations in the boxes, in addition to the "in store" items listed on her site.  She'll do her best to fit your likes and dislikes from those dozen creations, or put in your requested pre-made polish. 

I'm dying to see what next month brings to my mailbox!  I hope you sign up so you can get happy mail too!

 

 

 

 

Swatched: L'oreal "No Matte-r What"

Hey nail friends!   I was pretty excited to swatch this, but have to say it let me down.

(Forgive the hangnails!)

 

I picked up "No Matte-r What" on a random trip to Walgreens recently, and it won out over a couple other interesting looking L'oreal colors.   I didn't even look at the name, just was pulled in by the color - which in the bottle is a glossy, rich reddened beery cream.   However, three coats on the nail is a matte bright oxblood mess.   Super streaky application and a nightmare to clean up.    I could fall for the color if the formula weren't such a mess.

Observe:

I wasn't even going to publish this one, but I couldn't find a single other online swatch, so here you go.   If you're advanced at tricky application with minimal clean up, you might love this one for fall, but I'm calling it a miss.

Updated photos for color: The polish paints on closer to this color!  The berry undertones completely get lost.

 

Northwest Diamonds

Today, I celebrate the Pacific Northwest's diamonds...aka, rain.   Growing up in the greater Seattle area and transplanting to Oregon, I'm a PNW native who adores the rain.

Zoya "Tao" offers the perfect stormy cloud base of pewter grey (with a nice soft metallic sheen to back it up), and Sinful Colors "Crystal Clear" glitter, densely packed with holographic diamonds and tiny dots, as well as tiny blue luminescent bar glitters.  It's like a backlit rainstorm on my nails!   Love.

More pics!   

Zoya "Tao" (MSRP 8.00) is from the 2012 fall "Smoke and Mirrors" collection has a lovely formula and is a great fall essential, understated but gorgeous with just the right  amount of sheen.

Sinful Colors "Crystal Clear" (MSRP 1.99) from their limited spring "Diamond Lust" collection has been sitting in my intrudes since I picked it up on a whim this spring.   I'm so glad I have it, though, it's surprisingly well formulated with minimal "fishing" required for diamonds, and less placement issues than most shaped glitters of this size.   It is a little on the goopy side, but not enough to make me hesitate to use it again.   If you find a bottle of this one, pick it up!

Glitter Guilty September 2013 Review

It's that time again!   September has finally arrived, and though Oregon is currently rebelling with high temperatures, my glitter guilty box brings colors that promise fall is on it's way.

My monthly "me" polish this month is called "Indigo Alchemy ".   It's got a lovely violet-denim range in the bottle, but the real magic happens as this beauty dries and reveals it's true nature - a matte polish!  

I couldn't resist playing with it, so I attempted a dot gradient, but it didn't quite come out.    

I used Sally Hansen's Nail Prism in "Burgundy Orchid", which has the most stunning duochrome color shift.  Wanna see???

I have a special place in my heart for matte polishes and hope to see more lovelies like this in Glitter Guilty's line - they are so classy and subdued without being boring, and the soft texture is so fall appropriate.  

The monthly mini (which everyone receives) is the football-themed "Tight End", a gorgeous blue jelly with loads of various blue glitters broken up by a touch of matte white glitters.  I used it over Zoya "Tao", a metallic grey.   Love!

My preferences listed for this month were as follows;

Likes:

Mid to deep blue-grey, champagne, matte glitters, matte plums, indigo

Dislikes:

Baby pink, heart glitter, too much green, orange, or brown

I'd say she was pretty spot on!   

Oh!  And the extra this month as this super cute magnet!!!!!   And next month...CHOCOLATE IS BACK!  

Baby's back to school nails!

Hey nail fans!  I've got something tiny, adorable, and fun to share with you today.

My big girl is starting her last year of elementary school this year - wild!   Her nails were suitably decorated, matching her understated leopard print pants (which she paired with a batgirl, supergirl, and wonder woman shirt), and featured Zoya Kelly (grey), Zoya Purity (white), and Zoya Cynthia (blackened teal).  Feast your eyes!

In shade and in sunshine....

Sometimes being a polish-a-holic seems like a marriage.   You find the ones that strike a chord with you, and your heart (or maybe your eyes) make unspoken vows.  

It may happen the moment you see a swatch (love at first sight).   

You may have had it as an untried forever (friend zone!) and fallen for it after years of owning it.  

Perhaps a friend saw it's potential (blind date) and gave it to you.   

Whatever the case, when the magic moment happens, you know.  You begin to treasure each coat you put on, buy backup bottles or stress when levels run low.  Near dupes cannot satisfy the need for this polish.

These are the ones you hide from your friends, the ones you always swap for, the ones it pains you to sell (despite your eighteen back up bottles).  The ones you'd bring with you to the cardboard box of your polish-induced homelessness.

Your heart croons to your polish...

"I will love you, in shade and in sunshine, artificial light or black light.  From this day forward, in chipping and in seche, in stamping and marbling and mani's of every possible variety; till tragic, carpet-destroying death do we part"

(OPI DS Sapphire over Zoya Caitlin)

Whether you're a holo girl or a cream lover, all about nail art or solid every time; in my mind, being a polish-a-holic is not the number of polishes you own, but their dearness to your heart.

Glitter guilty - July and August (mega post!)

Hey friends!   Thanks for not abandoning me - my computer has gone the way of the dinosaurs, so for a whole it's gonna be just iPhone posts for me.   

However, some things are TOO GOOD not to share, so without anymore bellyaching, here's some polish to please your peepers;

These beauties were in my July Glitter Guilty box; that's right, lacquer fiends, I scored the golden ticket and had TWO full size polishes in my box.  Talk about blessed!   And they play together so well.   

"Midsummer Night's Dream" (on the left), is absolutely a dreamy dark blackened blue, shimmering from the deep blue and fading to darkness on the curves of the nail, broken up by just enough gold hexes to add some complexity to the look.   I did get some shots on the nail of this delight.

The aptly named "Pomp and Circumstance" is a clear based glitter bomb of gold hexes and micro utters, broken up by a touch of blue hexes that pick up the tones in it's sister polish.

July's "monthly mini" was  "Summer Sunset", a peachy-pink jelly chock full of iridescent shimmers and flakies.

I had a vision of a cute chevron mani that didn't really play out that well, but you can peek anyway.

The accent nails are another Glitter Guilty winner, "Lime Rickey".   The pink/purple base is Sinful Colors "Dream On", and the orange is Zoya "Coraline" from the Birchbox blogger collection.   The thumb has a bit of Zoya "Kate" from the same set.  It's all topped with "Summer Sunset".

The preferences I listed for July I also left for August, and were as follows;

Colors you love?

Into combinations lately: Navy & champagne, Gold & Nude Pinks, Grey & Violet, or something patriotic

Colors you hate?

baby pink, heart glitter

So with these same responses, here's my lovelies for August!!!  The monthly mini was beyond precious, and being modeled by my own mini-me.  It's named "State Fair" and embodies the whimsy of that perfectly.

This sweet little bottle is a delicate grey-blue base, with teeny little round hot pink glitters, small matte red blue and blush pink hexes, slightly smaller reflective white hexes, and some large matte blush pink hexes and blue hexes.   Sounds complicated, but translates beautifully - and applies really nicely.   (Forgive hangnails and cuticles, my model is 9!)

And, finally, my August "monthly me" was this lovely mermaid-tail concoction.  It's called "Violet Vixen", a violet jelly base loaded with large holographic lilac hexes, large champagne hexes, large teal hexes, small square sheer champagne, lime, and teal glitters, and matching tiny dot glitters.

This was four coats, and a topping of seche vite.

That's all for now, lovies, but I promise to post my referral bonus soon!