Smitten Polish Winter Is Coming

I love Game of Thrones and I love nail polish, so when those two things collided I was instantly in love. I made my first order from Smitten Polish a few weeks ago and I've finally got the chance to wear them. I had them delivered to my parent's house because I didn't want to have to deal with changing my paypal address to my school address so I had to wait a while to wear them. Torture!
I don't know what took me so long to purchase from Smitten! Milky glitters are one of my biggest weaknesses. Maybe that's why I held off for so long. You buy one milky glitter and then the next thing you know you're in Milky Glitters Anonymous.
"Hi, my name is Emily and I'm a milky glitter addict." (This is the part where you all say, "Hi, Emily.").
It's a slippery slope, my friends, very slippery.

So the polish I have to show you today comes from Smitten's Game of Thrones duo, Ice and Fire. It's called Winter is Coming. I know this is meant for House Stark but this also makes me think of the White Walkers with their glowing blue eyes (sorry to those of you who don't watch the show and don't know what I'm talking about!).
Pictured is three thin coats. You could get away with two thicker coats but it's just a personal preference for me to do thinner ones. You could layer this over a white but honestly, I think it looks nicer by itself. It has more dimension to it when worn alone because you're able to see all the different layers of glitters. Dry time was average. I used two coats of topcoat to smooth it out.

To keep up to date with Smitten Polish, head over to Noelie's blog. She posts swatches and updates over there regularly (and she's just posted pics of her new fall collection!).

To buy Smitten Polishes, check out her Etsy shop or head on over to Llarowe. 

Happy Hands Afternoon Thunderstorms

Sometimes I just don't feel like making words. I'm too lazy to have to type out something coherent about a polish so I'll go days without making another blog post. I'm aware of this. And I'm aware of how lazy that sounds. Sometimes I won't upload my pictures to my computer because the camera cord is too far away for me to get it. I know. I'm lazy. 

Anyways, my point is, I'm going to get better about blogging even if that just means I post a picture and a few words about the polish. I've been rambling. My brain is mush this week. I have four exams this week. Well, I've already had three of them (and it's only Tuesday!) but at least I only have one left now. That and a paper on Thursday. My birthday is this week too, the 27th, so happy birthday to me! I know my professors were just trying to make my week special by showing me how much I've learned so far this semester! Thanks, college!

The real point of this post though was to show you a polish I wore about two weeks ago (see how lazy I am!). It's by Happy Hands Polish and it's called Afternoon Thunderstorms. It's so perfectly named. It looks just like the end of the thunderstorm when the little bits of sun are starting to pop out of the clouds. I failed at getting good pictures of this so maybe I'll wear it again and take better pictures. 

I did three coats by itself and application was easy. Next time I think I might wear it layered over another grey polish to see how that looks. 

For some reason, this polish reminds me of cookie ice cream. The ones with little bits of oreo cookies in it. Mmm. 

If you want more info on Happy Hands Nail polish, check out Kristi's (the creator) blog here. Go like her facebook page to keep up to date with new releases and swatches. And don't forget to stop by her Etsy store to purchase some of her amazing polishes (she just released her fall collection!). Her polishes will also be available from Harlow & Co soon!

Zoya Avery with Stamping

I'm on a glitter overload right now so I decided to wear one of my favorite nude polishes, Zoya Avery, as a palette cleanser. But I can't leave well enough alone so I decided to stamp over it. I used Sally Hansen Wined Up and the new Bundle Monster stamping plates. I did get a little bit of dragging because I was impatient and didn't wait long enough to put on my topcoat. It's not that noticeable in real life but macro shots bring out all the flaws. Not gonna lie... I'm already itching to put on some glitter again!

Crowstoes Halloween 2012 Collection

Lauri sent me these polishes to swatch for her and so I thought I would do a review of them for you guys as well.
Sorry if some of these color combos don't strike you as particularly "Halloween-y". I'm at school right now and only bring a few polishes with me at a time.

I've got seven polishes to show you today so it's going to be a pretty long post. Enjoy!

Hell Hath No Fury over Barry M Coral

Red, orange, and iridescent glitters in a clear base. This also has some really nice golden shimmer to it. 

Purple People Eater over Essie Boxer Shorts

Gorgeous! One of my favorites from the collection! Small purple, blue, and green glitters in a clear base.

Bone Daddy over Zoya Dove

A mix of white and iridescent glitters in a milky, grey base. This is the only polish in the collection that has a tinted base. Application was a bit difficult with this one because there are a lot of the large, white hexes. You need a bit of skill in applying polish to get an even look with this one but I think it's worth it in the end. 

Tangled Web over China Glaze Electric Beat

A mix of black and duochrome (blue to green) glitters in a clear base. This one is really fun! I love black glitters! 

I had a hard time capturing the color shift of the glitters in my picture but in real life they're much more obvious. When I was first looking at the bottle I thought it included blue and green glitters but then I realized that they were actually duochrome!

Last Call at the Crowbar over China Glaze Elephant Walk

Multicolored glitters in a clear base. The primary color is a gunmetal, silver glitter. It reminds me of a dark version of all the Happy Birthday dupes. The darker colors make it even more appropriate for fall. 

Voodoo over Sally Hansen Crushed
I know what you're thinking. Why am I showing you Voodoo again? It's because Lauri informed me that the version I showed you a few days ago was an earlier version and the one that was going to be for sale was slightly different. There are purple, shredded glitters in the updated version.
Purple, orange, and green glitters in a clear base. Since I already showed you what it looked like over a purple, I wanted to show a different combo today.

Frog's Breath over Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime

A mix of green and gold glitters in a clear base. This one was a surprise favorite. I'm not normally a green person (unless it's mint green, then I'm all over it) but Frog's Breath is really phenomenal! 

My overall impressions of this collection is that they're all really great! Application was very easy on all of them besides Bone Daddy, which was a bit trickier. I've done one coat of glitter over their base color in all of these pictures. 

What's nice about these polishes is that they all have a Halloween vibe to them but they don't scream Halloween so they'll still look nice all year long. I find that glitters generally dry very fast and these were no exception. 

It's really hard to pick a favorite but I think the most stand-out polishes from this collection are: Voodoo, Purple People Eater, and Frog's Breath. 

Polishes can be purchased from Llarowe and Overall Beauty.
For more information on Crowstoes polishes (including swatches of the rest of her Halloween polishes), check out Lauri's blog The Polished Crow.
For updates on stock regarding Crowstoes polishes, make sure to follow Llarowe's Facebook page.

Sneak Peek: Crowstoes VooDoo

Lauri from Crowstoes sent me a bottle of one of her newest polishes VooDoo about two weeks ago. It's been sitting on my helmer since then because 1) I cut my nails super short and 2) I wasn't sure what to layer this polish over. In the end, I decided to layer it over Verity Deep Violet. Shown is three coats of VDV with one coat of VooDoo over it. Application was easy for a glitter, I didn't have to work hard to get the glitters evenly placed on my nails.

VooDoo is one of the polishes from her Halloween 2012 collection and it's a mix of purple, orange, and green glitters in a clear base. I've decided to include a million and a half photos of VooDoo and some bottle shots as well so that you can see all the details of this polish. There are bar glitters in this polish but not very many (which I like!). My left hand (the one shown) didn't get any bar glitters on it but my right hand has a few bar glitters.

I love the orange glitters in this mix. They are so bright and glowy against the purple base of VDV.
I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of her Halloween collection. Halloween is my favorite time of the year for nail polishes! Now... onto the pictures!

For ordering information:

Polishes can be purchased from Llarowe and Overall Beauty.
For more information on Crowstoes polishes (including swatches of the rest of her Halloween polishes), check out Lauri's blog The Polished Crow.
For updates on stock regarding Crowstoes polishes, make sure to follow Llarowe's Facebook page.

Butter London The Black Knight

About two weeks ago I cut all my nails down as short as they would go. Why, you ask? Because while they were almost my ideal length and shape, they were looking really beat up whenever I would remove my polish. I had a lot of peelies and the corners of my nails were starting to break. So I decided to just start all over and cut them short so they could grow back out healthy again. These pictures were taken before I cut my nails. 

Butter London The Black Knight. Multicolored glitters in a black jelly base. 

I layered it over Finger Paints Black Expressionism so I didn't have to worry about doing too many coats for opacity (it would probably require three coats if you were wanting to wear it by itself).

I was underwhelmed by this polish. It just didn't seem to sparkle when I wore it. The glitter seemed very flat. 

I used two coats of top coat over it and it was nice and smooth, so that was a plus. I'm going to give it one more try before I decide whether or not to keep it in my stash. I've got BL Tart with a Hart and I plan on layering the two polishes together next time.