December 2014 Nail Polish Round Up!

Here's my 2nd nail polish round up!

Cult Nails: Tulum, Power Thief

Gradient: Cult Nails' Tulum & Power Thief
Stamping polish: DIY stamping polish. Tutorial on making it here.

Nails Inc: Kensington Palace Gardens, Dolly's: Queen Agnes, & Cult Nails: Two Timer

This was actually a failed attempt at stamping. Luckily, strategic placement of the glitter from Queen Agnes hid the botched up parts. Two Timer is an effect top coat that's supposed to give an emerald shimmer to your nail polish.

Base: Nails Inc's Kensington Palace Gardens
Glitter Topper: Dolly's Queen Agnes
Effect Top Coat: Cult Nails' Two Timer
Stamping polish: DIY stamping polish. Tutorial on making it here.

Another angel to show the shift in Two Timer

Pretty & Polished: Mintable

I was having bad luck with getting really bad formula jellies from indies after getting really gloopy jelly polishes from Rainbow Honey & Doctor Lacquer, but Pretty & Polished and Cult Nails totally restored my faith in indie jellies. Check out how pretty this jelly polish is! It has a pretty strong blue shift! AND the formula goes on smoothly, without any gloopy-ness.

This was my first attempt at stamping under a jelly polish, and as you can see, I picked the wrong design and nail polish. The glitter just hides the design.

But no worries...I got better in the next one!

Cult Nails: Disciplined & Black Sheep Lacquer: Surf's Up

I am so in LOVE with Cult Nails' Disciplined. Disciplined is just so, so, so perfect for this winter mani. You can perfectly layer the stamps to create a layered snowflake effect. I'm so in love with it! And of course, the formula is amazing. I've raved about them before, and I'll rave about them again. They take much longer to chip than my usual nail polishes and the polishes are so smooth and non-gloopy. 

If you want $12 off purchases of $24+, here's my referral link: http://r.sloyalty.com/r/tED8MGb2tx3g

Full disclosure, I get a $5, so if you're not comfortable with that, no need to use it. 

 

Blue jelly: Cult Nails' Disciplined
White Glitter Polish: Black Sheep Lacquer's Surf's Up

Close up of the layering

Pretty & Polished: Cuttlefish

Cuttlefish is supposed to be a colour shifting polish, where the base goes from white to blue. My idea for this is to get the tips of my nail to go white, so it looks like the cat's playing in snow. Unfortunately, the colour-shift no longer works after over 6 months. I tried dipping in hot water and ice water, but no change. :(

Pretty & Polished's Cuttlefish

Rainbow Honey: Leonids, Diamond Dust

Ring Finger: Rainbow Honey's Leonids
Other Fingers: Rainbow Honey's Diamond Dust
Stamping & drawing polish: DIY stamping polish. Tutorial on making it here.

Appliq Nail Wrap

I was really excited at the idea of customizing my own nail wraps, unfotunately, Appliq's printers are not that great at capturing small details. They start getting fuzzy. Also remember not to put top coat over the wraps, they start cracking that way.

For reference, this was the photo I tried to print:

Nail Wrap from Aliexpress

Guys, I am DONE with buying nail wraps from Aliexpress. I've bought from 4 different sellers and got scammed by all 4. Do NOT trust that site for nail wraps. They all claim to be water transfer stickers, but they're actually like those wraps that need heat to melt on your nails. And the heat required is way too hot for my fingers. They also don't stick that well (some can't even stick at all), so you can see the "chips" even though this manicure is brand new. I tried to file a dispute because this is clearly a scam, but the site automatically rejected my claim with no explanation.

Nail Polish Round Up!

So here are the nail looks I've done in the last month. I think I should make this a regular thing....

Cult Nails: Feedback, Power Thief & Wax That

Shimmery Brown: Power Thief
Gold Glitter Topper: Feedback
Waxy Effect Top Coat: Wax That

The ring finger didn't go as I intended and ended up looking more like roadkill. At least the thumb looked nice!

To get this look: First, I cut the feather into the length I want -make sure it has that stick (? no idea what it's called) bit in the middle to hold it together. Then I put a thick layer of top coat over my nail polish once it dried, and squashed the feather into it while it's still wet. Using a pair of cuticle scissors, I trimmed the edges of the feather that's sticking out of my nail bed. Apply the wax-effect top coat over it for the thumb, leave it at roadkill state for the ring finger.

Serum No 5: Mint To Be

This colour's very sheer and took me 5-6 coats to achieve this opacity. Mini rant, I was really surprised my nail polished look so different from the site swatches. Another redditor helped me take a look and figured out the mystery for me. The site swatch was over an opaque white polish. So if you're getting this colour, use an opaque white nail polish underneath.

The lace part is a water-transfer decal.

Dolly's: Laternelaufen & Sally Hansen: Black Out

Glow-in-the-dark polish: Dolly's Lanternelaufen
Stamping polish: Sally Hansen's Black Out

I love glow-in-the-dark polishes! This was charged under an UV light to get the glow this bright. It used to get this bright even when charged only with the light in my office & room, but after about 3 months, the glow effect got weaker. I have this same problem with glow-in-the-dark polishes from 2 other brands though, so I'm assuming it's a glow-in-the-dark polish thing.

Mystery Manicure from Princess Nail (sic) in Pacific Place

I didn't get the name of it but the artwork's so pretty! It chips fast though.

Indigo Bananas: Patterns Everywhere & Sally Hansen: Black Diamond

Glitter polish: Indigo Banana's Patterns Everywhere
Black stripes: Sally Hansen's Black Diamond

Patterns Everywhere is this gorgeous glitter topper with glitter that shifts from green to purple! i tried capturing the shift in these next few photos, but I can't capture how gorgeous it is IRL:

To get this look, I just cut regular tape into thin strips, placed them where I don't want any black polish, painted over them, then removed the tape. 

Review & Recommendation: Cult Nails Effect Top Coats

So I sadly ordered items from Cult Nails on May 6. I say sadly because I bought everything I could possibly want from them, only to find out they decided to have a 50% off promotion a few weeks later. I have awesome luck. I delayed this review because I wanted to see how long the polishes I tried last, and being me, I ended up delaying it too long and forgot all about publishing it. /u/ashhole613 kindly posted that they're having another 50% off deal at midnight, so definitely get them now!

Also, not sure if referral bonuses stack up, but this is my referral link: http://r.sloyalty.com/r/tED8MGb2tx3g

And you get $12 of $24 if you use it. Full disclosure, I get a $5, so if you're not comfortable with that, no need to use it. These nail polishes are definitely worth buying at full price :)

From left to right: Dance All Night, Wicked Fast, Feedback, Wax That..., Alter Ego, Doppelganger

I ordered:

• Doppelganger - LIMITED EDITION (Effect Top Coat) 
• Alter Ego - LIMITED EDITION (Effect Top Coat) 
• Dance All Night - LIMITED EDITION 
• Feedback - LIMITED EDITION
• Wicked Fast (Speed Dry Top Coat) 
• Wax That... (Wax Effect Top Coat) 

Turnaround Time:

• Ordered: May 6
• Shipped: May 7
• Received: May 26

I'm not sure what happened to this order, but usually, it only takes 2 weeks for USPS to reach me. This took 19 days. It's not bad, but definitely longer than usual.

I decided to try out two Effect Top Coats, Alter Ego & Wax That... Here's the Cult Nail's Description for both products:

Alter Ego

"Alter Ego is a sheer top coat that will cast a gold and green tinge over your polish, creating an aged, antiqued, look."

Wax That...

"Wax That... is an effect top coat that gives your manicure the look of melted candle wax.  It can be described as a satin/matte finish."

I was definitely excited to check out Wax That..., but when I saw Alter Ego, I got disappointed at first. It looked like a normal gold nail polish and I thought I fell for a gimmicky description. I was so wrong. Check out what it does to a light nail polish and a dark polish:

Left: Just plain old nail polish. Sally Hansen "Black Diamond" & Formula X "Brilliant", with Sally Hansen's Maximum Growth Base Coat
Right: With Cult Nail's "Alter Ego"

Holy crap, this is magical! It actually is a green-gold duochrome top coat! Here's more pics to show off the duochrome

It's even more awesome in real life.

The effect of this top coat is more visible against a dark background, but it makes a lighter nail polish also look like it's been sprayed by fairy dust. It looked so perfect, I didn't want to ruin it by adding anymore layers, but I'm also really excited to try out Wax That... Decisions, decisions. I decided to go for it and wow.

Left: With Wax That... Top Coat
Right: Without

Again, my camera can't capture how awesome this is. It's a matte duochrome. Mindblowing. This matte is a more buttery matte than OPI's matte nail polish, which has a similar look as a chalkboard. Maybe I haven't explored enough, but I honestly haven't seen this texture before. I'm freaking amazed. My nails look like they went through an instagram filter that reduces contrast and adds a vintage effect.

And yes, the duochrome is still in effect under this top coat!

Matte Duochrome!

You need to buy this.

The amazing thing is that even though manicures usually only last 2-3 days on me thanks to me not being able to keep my hands still, these lasted at least 5 days on me (some started chipping on the 5th day, I started picking on them on the 6th day and further ruined them before wiping them off on the 7th day). I even tore my nail while trying to pry open the cap of a perfume sample, but the nail polish stuck!

This is how it looks like after 4 days:

Sorry for the yellow lighting. This is the last photo I had before they started to peel off about a day later. And yes, I tend to pick on my cuticles >.<

When they do come off, I think it's my base coat's fault. They come off cleanly like this:

Aww darn! The rest still looked pretty good!

I've used this base coat before with other polishes, as well as used these base colour nail polishes before, and none of my manicures lasted this well.

I totally see why these are called Cult Nails. I can feel myself getting sucked into the cult. I can practically hear people chanting, "One of us....one of us...."