Spring Fling Challenge Day 2: In Bloom

Wow day 2 of the Spring Fling Challenge came fast!  This is like a nail polish and blog boot camp session for me! :)  Today's theme is In Bloom.
I would've loved to have possibly ventured into hand painting a watercolor flower as an accent nail instead of the accent I did, but I have never done nail art before.  I'm not into stamping or nail art but attempting a simple flower on one accent nail is something I can see myself trying in the future once I get better.

Because I was timid, I chose the flower-named polish, Delphinium.  She is a limited edition Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure color that was part of the 2011 Tracey Reese collection.  As you probably guessed, it is discontinued but I have found bottles on eBay (and where mine was purchased at Christmas) so I'm sure there are still some floating around.  They may re-promote this color in the future, since I heard they recently did it with Green Tea...which I am obsessively trying to find! 
The formula on Delphinium was easy to work with and I used two coats.  It's no secret that my love for a good dusty lavender/ lilac is alive and well...

For the accent nail I used CND Effects in Gold Sparkle.  This polish is similar to Essie As Gold As It Gets but the flakies are much smaller and a lighter shade of gold.  This was also 2 coats and was still very subtle on the nail.

Again, be sure to check out the other participants of the Spring Fling Challenge listed at ECKlipsed by color and Tuxarina

 Thanks for stopping by and see you tomorrow for day 3!

~Hayley

Spring Fling Challenge Day 1: Indie Skittle

This first day has made me realize that skittles are hard, but I *think* I was able to pull off an ok set of *kinda* matching colors. Since this is a Spring themed challenge I went with pastels. My husband was laughing at me as I pulled all my indies out and made a little lineup on the living room floor (as we watched some Doctor Who which has lately been my other obsession). Then I proceeded to eliminate the colors that weren't pastels. This is what I came up with:

On my thumb (which I realize you can't see very well) is365 Days of Color Crush on You (Valentine's Mystery Bag exclusive), then we have Eggcentric Bunny on my pointer, Nomad on my middle, Frolicking on my ring and Rainbow Honey Be Mine as underwear for 365 Days of Color Jellybean There Done That. I have more 365 Days of Color in my collection than any other indie and ironically, most of those are Springy shades!

No tulips were harmed during these photos

 

 

Be sure to check out the other participants of the Spring Fling Challenge listed at ecklipsed by color and tuxarina.

Spring Fling Challenge Day 1: Indie Skittle

Well, for the first day of this challenge I have learned two things:
 1.  My indies don't skittle well together.

I find that odd because I generally stick to a core color comfort zone when I buy polishes. In this case, I can get 2 possibly 3 to look okay together, but not 5.  Also, I don't have that many indies in my collection yet...so maybe that means I just need to buy more polishes!

Direct Sun

The best I could come up was this skittle, which is really only one indie polish.  (I'm sorry EcklipsedByColor and Tuxarina! - This is my first challenge; be gentle!) 
I originally wanted Tryst Lacquer's Fluer-y of Flowers, to replace the void I have for not owning Illamasqua Speckle.  I love the idea of this polish...a light lavender with tiny black speckle and light blue glitter. 
Unfortunately, most of the light blue glitter has fallen out of suspension in my bottle so I don't think I get the intended effect. :(  Needless to say, I still absolutely need the Illamasqua!

This leads me to the next thing I learned with this skittle...

 2.  Essie Mint Candy Apple looks so bright on me, I don't even recognize it compared to other swatches I've seen.

I don't know why it leans this way on me.  It's just...different than I thought it would be and I'm fairly sure it's not my bottle.  The other color I used is Kiss Me Here by Pure Ice, a pretty grey cream.

Anyway...I still intend to have some fun with this challenge!  Thanks again to ECKlipsed by Color and Tuxarina for hosting this.  Here are the themes going forward, so join in!

Indie Spotlight: Pastoral by Cagedbird Nail Lacquer

I have a lovely Spring glitter to show off to you all today.  Let me introduce you to, Pastoral, by Cagedbird Nail Lacquer.  This is a perfect combination of matte mint, white, lavender, and pastel green and silver metallic glitters in a clear base.  I mentioned in a previous post that Sarah, the creator of Cagedbird Nail Lacquer, could have just named this polish 'Hayley'.  I seriously don't think I could have come up with a more perfect combination if I would have customized it myself.

My love affair with Cagedbird started a few months ago when I stumbled on her Facebook page and was in awe at the pastel glitters.  She was extremely close to 500 followers at the time and I was honored to be her number 500.  To my surprise, she sent me a mini bottle of polish to celebrate the milestone.  It was my first (and still only) polish prize!  I was beyond excited.  I mentioned how in love I was with Faerie Carnival and Pastoral and a week later a mini Faerie Carnival showed up as my prize.  How thoughtful was she?!
I immediately bought Pastoral from her Etsy store and I recommend you check out all of her creations!

Pastoral: Outdoors - shade

Indoors

To showcase this glitter, I used two coats of Sinful Colors Mauve with one coat of Pastoral.  I know...I've already used Sinful Colors Mauve before.  I didn't mean for it to happen this way, but it did.  The formula in my bottle is just flawless.  I had a few colors picked out to try with Pastoral and it was a tough decision.  My other contenders were: Sally Hansen CSM Ion, Zoya Neely and Sinful Colors Cool Gray.  I will definitely be using them all with Pastoral at some point, because I think they would all look great.  The only downside to using Mauve was that it made some of the lavender glitter not as noticeable on the nail.  I think Sally Hansen's Ion would be a good choice to show off the seafoamy mints, lavenders and greens.
Just for fun I took this macro shot of the glitter and thought it turned out pretty!

 
Disclaimer: This pretty polish was purchased by me and I will be getting it again and again and again!