Finger Paints Palette of Petals Collection Spring 2011

Hey guys... I'm really not up to writing right now, but I really need to work through my backlog of posts because it's out of control and I feel like I'll never catch up. Would you forgive me if I only post pictures this time?

This is Finger Paints' Palette of Petals Collection from this spring.

Aren't You Gladiolus?

Carnation Creation.

Chrysanthemum's The Word.

Dahlia My Number.

Did You Ast-her Out?

Heavenly Hydrangeas.

(This was sent to me for review.)

Finger Paints Palette of Petals Collection Spring 2011

Hey guys... I'm really not up to writing right now, but I really need to work through my backlog of posts because it's out of control and I feel like I'll never catch up. Would you forgive me if I only post pictures this time?

This is Finger Paints' Palette of Petals Collection from this spring.

Aren't You Gladiolus?

Carnation Creation.

Chrysanthemum's The Word.

Dahlia My Number.

Did You Ast-her Out?

Heavenly Hydrangeas.

(This was sent to me for review.)

Finger Paints Palette of Petals Collection Spring 2011

Hey guys... I'm really not up to writing right now, but I really need to work through my backlog of posts because it's out of control and I feel like I'll never catch up. Would you forgive me if I only post pictures this time?

This is Finger Paints' Palette of Petals Collection from this spring.

Aren't You Gladiolus?

Carnation Creation.

Chrysanthemum's The Word.

Dahlia My Number.

Did You Ast-her Out?

Heavenly Hydrangeas.

(This was sent to me for review.)

Finger Paints Palette of Petals Collection Spring 2011

Hey guys... I'm really not up to writing right now, but I really need to work through my backlog of posts because it's out of control and I feel like I'll never catch up. Would you forgive me if I only post pictures this time?

This is Finger Paints' Palette of Petals Collection from this spring.

Aren't You Gladiolus?

Carnation Creation.

Chrysanthemum's The Word.

Dahlia My Number.

Did You Ast-her Out?

Heavenly Hydrangeas.

(This was sent to me for review.)

Finger Paints Palette of Petals Collection Spring 2011

Hey guys... I'm really not up to writing right now, but I really need to work through my backlog of posts because it's out of control and I feel like I'll never catch up. Would you forgive me if I only post pictures this time?

This is Finger Paints' Palette of Petals Collection from this spring.

Aren't You Gladiolus?

Carnation Creation.

Chrysanthemum's The Word.

Dahlia My Number.

Did You Ast-her Out?

Heavenly Hydrangeas.

(This was sent to me for review.)

Finger Paints Palette of Petals Collection Spring 2011

Hey guys... I'm really not up to writing right now, but I really need to work through my backlog of posts because it's out of control and I feel like I'll never catch up. Would you forgive me if I only post pictures this time?

This is Finger Paints' Palette of Petals Collection from this spring.

Aren't You Gladiolus?

Carnation Creation.

Chrysanthemum's The Word.

Dahlia My Number.

Did You Ast-her Out?

Heavenly Hydrangeas.

(This was sent to me for review.)

Finger Paints Palette of Petals Collection Spring 2011

Hey guys... I'm really not up to writing right now, but I really need to work through my backlog of posts because it's out of control and I feel like I'll never catch up. Would you forgive me if I only post pictures this time?

This is Finger Paints' Palette of Petals Collection from this spring.

Aren't You Gladiolus?

Carnation Creation.

Chrysanthemum's The Word.

Dahlia My Number.

Did You Ast-her Out?

Heavenly Hydrangeas.

(This was sent to me for review.)

Illamasqua Toxic Nature Collection Spring 2011 Swatches and Review

I think Illamasqua and other nail polish companies have very different ideas about creative inspiration. You know what I'm talking about, right? The other brands talk about their inspiration, "Oh, I went to the beach." or... "I took a road trip." or even worse, "I saw a celebrity." But Illamasqua doesn't just get inspired, they make their inspiration. They take an idea and build an entire world around it. They even give it a backstory! And that's what always makes me so excited to see what they're going to do next.

Toxic Nature is no exception. In fact, I think it's their most creative collection yet. I'm so behind in posting these, so I know you've all seen the amazing makeup artistry and fantasy world images surrounding this collection. When I first saw them, my eyes went like this: O_O

The nail lacquer portion of this collection consists of these five shades:

Bacterium. Doesn't this color make you a little uncomfortable? The name, the murky, stagnant, dirty look of it? This is a mousy taupe/light brown/warm grey base with some frosty duochrome greenish shimmer. It has a little bit of a yellow undertone to it. It's like a decomposing version of Zoya Pasha.

Gamma. Awesome, eye-burning neon orange. Since it's neon, it dries matte. You can wear it matte if you'd like, or add topcoat to make it glossy. Either way it will look loud!




Purity. A clean, sweet and natural shade that contrasts with the bizarre, mutated, toxic and dangerous colors in the collection. This is a soft creamy pale peach. For comparison, it's more warm and pale than MAC Seasonal Peach and not as pink as Essie Van d'Go.


Stagnate. Good name to go with this color. It's a murky purple-grey-brown creme. What was that word they use for this now? It's like "greige" but with purple... Grurple? I forget. As much as I do love these types of colors, I must say, it's so common now, there are so many of them, that it does look a little stagnant to me.



Radium. A bright yet dirty radioactive pea green. What makes this special is the blue-green subtle shimmer that lights up when the light hits it. You can't see as much of the blue shimmer indoors, but it looks great in sunlight.


The formula on these was different. It wasn't the same consistent, creamy, dense one-coat-opaque formula I'm used to from Illamasqua. Each color seemed to have a completely different texture. Stagnate was thin almost a little sheer, Gamma was thick and jelly-like, Radium was almost like normal Illamasqua formula, Purity was sticky feeling and Bacterium was a little runny. Despite the mixed bag of formulas, both wear time and dry time were excellent. Every shade except the neon Gamma dried very shiny even without topcoat. I was able to get nearly a week of wear out of Radium without chipping or tipwear.

I love the theme and artistry of this collection. I love how they intertwine beauty and poison, danger and glamour... Nature fighting back... Seriously, doesn't it make you a little uneasy but excited at the same time?

I do wish the colors were more uncommon, though. They're good colors, but shades like pea green, neon orange and grey/purple/brown have been really common lately, so you really have to put something extra intro them to make them stand out among the crowd. That being said, I am very fond of the unusual combination of colors in this collection, and I can rarely pass up a neon orange. The scary radioactive brightness of Gamma and Radium, the murky dirtiness of Bacterium and Stagnate and the clean and pretty Purity to return you to normal when it all becomes too much...

(These were sent to me for review.)

Color Club Starry Temptress Collection Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

Wicked Sweet was part one of Color Club's summer 2011 release, so on to part two: Starry Temptress. Both sets are collections of neon shades and while Wicked Sweet was mostly creme, Starry Temptress is glitter. But really different glitter... You'll see what I mean in a second.


Glitter Envy. The glitter in these... isn't sparkly? Crazy, right? I'll post my thoughts on that at the end. Anyway. Glitter Envy. It's a neon green with un-sparkly holo glitter throughout.


Otherworldly. Ooooh... A bright, rich blue with holographic glitter. Not much sparkle, but the glitter adds depth and an interesting starry sky effect.


Space Case. This one is a bit different from the rest because it has a shimmer base instead of creme. If you enlarge the pictures and look closely (in the bottle especially) you can see that it has a smooth green shimmer to it. Very nice.


Ultra-Astral. Wow, bright. The holographic glitter in this seems to take on a blue tint when it's covered by the thick creme base. Fascinating to look at.




Wink, Wink, Twinkle. This one seems to sparkle more than the others. I don't know if it's because of where the glitter ended up when I applied it, or if the base is less dense than the others, but some of the glitter does shine through on the top layer. Gorgeous color. I love the neon purple base with the speckles of silver in it.



You Got Soul-ar. Creamy bright neon orange with hints of holo sparkle. I love these bright traffic cone oranges.


This set includes a bottle of Starry Temptress topcoat, which is a clear base with some iridescent opal glitter. It adds a lot more sparkle to these shades, observe:


One coat of Starry Temptress topcoat over Wink Wink Twinkle, Otherworldly, Glitter Envy and Ultra-Astral, and a coat of topcoat over all of that. See all the different colors reflecting from the glitter? Mesmerizing.

The formula on these was pretty good. They're a bit thick, but because of that they're really opaque. You could probably get away with one thick coat of these, but I did two thin coats in all these pictures and it was perfect. Drying time is very quick and the glitter is shockingly smooth.

So... glitter that isn't sparkly. I have to admit, I'm liking it. At first I was disappointed because that hologram glitter looks so awesome in the bottle, but after wearing the colors for a while, it grew on me. It makes the colors look speckled, spattered, mottled... And I love that you can see glitter through the base color. Gives it a little depth. It reminds me of some of my favorite things from when I was a kid: Jelly shoes and plastic jewelry. Oh man, I loved jelly shoes. Sure, they made your feet all sweaty and nasty and they kinda hurt to wear, but I didn't care! I wish I had a pair to wear now. And they went well with my neon glittery beads and Lisa Frank accessories.

Another interesting feature of these anti-glitters is that they're smooth. You heard me right. Big chunky glitter that's smooth. It lies totally flat, dries totally smooth and doesn't look gritty or bumpy. It doesn't get that lumpy, oatmealy bubbly look. Must be magic. That doesn't apply to the Starry Temptress topcoat, though. That's gritty as hell and eats topcoat like you wouldn't believe. If you've tried the Color Club Japanese glitters or the Pardon My French ones, you'll know what I'm talking about.

That being said, I can easily say I have nothing like this collection. Speckled neons with a hint of holo. Weird, yes, but new to me, and so far I haven't seen anyone else do something like it this year. I approve. Though, if you're looking forward to the holographic sparkle that you see in the bottle, you'll be disappointed in these.

(These were sent to me for review.)