NOTD roundup - recent manis from indie to international brands

Warning, very pic-heavy after the jump! Click any photo to enlarge

Today I'll be spamming my readers with some of the manicures I've worn lately. I love nail polish! My collection has been growing at an alarming rate, this past year or so ...

Cult Nails Clairvoyant (Unicorn Puke)

... and this is one I cannot regret buying, since it's no longer available (D:)! Cult Nails Clairvoyant (originally Unicorn Puke) from the Super Powers collection is a blue-violet jelly packed with an entire rainbow of flakies ♥♥♥

1 coat Cult Nails Clairvoyant (Unicorn Puke) over 2 coats Rimmel Violet Metal

Ooh rainbows. I chose to apply it over Rimmel's Violet Metal, a blue-purple duochrome (swatched here), instead of black, because it was the best compromise between a dark color to best set off the rainbows and a bright color to make me happy! I also put a matte topcoat (the one from NYC, $1.99) over it so that the flakies would glow and sparkle without any glare.

Another indie favorite is Dandy Nails Come Out and Play, which is an incredibly unique berry jelly with small matte white glitters.

Dandy Nails Come Out and Play

The base color is somewhere between purple and raspberry, which would be beautiful enough on its own, but with the glitter it becomes a polka-dotted party on the nails :D

3 coats Dandy Nails Come Out and Play

Although it looks really sheer in the sunlight, I was very happy with this manicure while it lasted - it did look opaque on my nails indoors, and it's just so springy and fun :)

I also sort of won a giveaway - okay, what happened was that someone with the same first name and last initial won it, and we thought it was me, but then she had to email me and say it was actually someone else, and since she felt bad about it she still gave me two a-england polishes. Yeah. That's how awesome Frosso of Lacquer Me Silly happens to be.

a-england Dragon and Ascalon

The two colors she sent me are Dragon, a forest green holo, and Ascalon, a gray-lilac duochrome holo. I KNOW RIGHT?!!

2 quick coats each, a-england Dragon and Ascalon

 I realize these are kinda sloppy swatches, but you can see the colors pretty accurately.

2 quick coats each, a-england Dragon and Ascalon

Dragon is the perfect emerald green holo, and Ascalon is so stunning - it shifts from an almost silver-gray to a dusty lilac, plus has the same strong linear holo. Love them!

Continuing the holo craze, I tried out HITS Dionisio from the No Olimpo collection (HITS is a Brazilian brand, so the names are in Portuguese) ...

1 coat HITS Foxtrot over 3 coats HITS Can Can

Because I can't just leave one nail color alone, I then layered HITS Can Can, a wine-purple jelly with blue-green flakies, over each nail, thicker at the top edge and lighter towards the cuticle to let Dionisio peek out a bit at the bottom. And ... WOW. I have to tell you, I felt like I had discovered a new planet or something. Flaky + holo = amaaaaazing!

1 coat HITS Foxtrot over 3 coats HITS Can Can

This photo shows the holo and flakies a bit better, but in person, you can really see them both at the same time and it is GLORIOUS! (I've bought my HITS polishes from Llarowe, but they are also available at NinjaPolish.)

One major hopeless lemming I had this year was for Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily. It was released in the very limited edition fan collection, and it sold out pretty quickly. Plus, I couldn't justify the $20 price tag! But when Isela, bless her forever, didn't love her Aqua Lily and Halcyon from that collection, she offered to let me have them at a VERY discounted price. (Love you forever Isela!)

2 coats Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily and 1 coat Models Own Indian Ocean on all but middle finger; accent nail, 1 coat Nails Inc. Power Pink with piCture pOlish Wisteria sponged over top

When I finally got my hands on Aqua Lily, I spent some time staring at the bottle. It looks so bright and fun; a true turquoise with fuchsia microshimmer, so unique and pretty! The shimmer is very subtle on the nail, though, so I added Models Own Indian Ocean to get a strong pinkish-purple duochrome over the turquoise. I absolutely loved the combination. With that lame-o accent nail ... I tried to do this version of a sponged gradient, using Nails Inc Power Pink and piCture pOlish Wisteria to mimic the color of the shimmer in Aqua Lily, but I obviously need [a lot] more practice.

And the other RBL, Halcyon, is also gorgeous in the bottle:

3 coats Rescue Beauty Lounge Halcyon with 1 coat SpaRitual Clarity on top

The rosy microshimmer in it is SO beautiful in the bottle, but nearly impossible to see on the nail. The glitter in SpaRitual's Clarity actually happens to be the same color, so I applied a bit on each nail in an attempt to get the full effect. It wasn't a huge success, and I really wish RBL polishes had less "hidden" and more easily visible microshimmer!

Phew! That's a lot of nail polish in one post. Hope nobody minds, or faints at the sight of my cuticles and poor application xD