Monster Mixers & Elixirs Lunar Lake Review & Swatches

I have a little bit of down time today and tomorrow before the moving insanity begin so of course I wanted to some swatches! I received Monster Mixers & Elixirs Lunar Lake and King's Cup (will have a post on this one tomorrow) to review for everyone! :)

A little backstory on Monster Mixers & Elixirs, the lovely lady, Melissa, that runs Be Someone Cute on Copious decided to open up a "franken" polish shop. You can find the Monster Mixers & Elixirs shop here. It stocks a ton of great glitters to create your own glitter creation as well as, already mixed polishes! 

Lunar Lake is sold as a glitter top coat to add some sparkle to any color. Since I never like to play by the rules, I decided to try this color out by itself. I did include the color over black in my swatches for comparison, though. :)

Lunar Lake is a single, holographic, dark teal glitter in a clear base.

My thumb is 1 coat of Lunar Lake, my index finger 2 coats, my middle finger 3 coats and my ring finger 4 coats. My pinky is 2 coats of Lunar Lake over Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris. All have no base coat and a top coat of Seche Vite. 

The formula on this polish is perfect! I didn't have to "fish" for any glitters, it dried quickly and I didn't have to shake the bottle to achieve a lot of glitters on the brush. Basically, this polish is a glitter lovers dream! The color is gorgeous, it's a perfect mix between a darker blue and green. The holographic factor just adds to it being a great glitter polish. I prefer this color all by itself even though, I know that's not everyone's cup of tea. ;) It does look just as wonderful over black too!

Monster Mixers & Elixirs Lunar Lake can be purchased through Monster Mixers & Elixirs' store here. As I mentioned above the owner, Melissa, also runs a Copious store that stocks a variety of different brands and colors. You can find that Copious store, Be Someone Cute, here. Make sure to like Be Someone Cute on Facebook here, Melissa always has something fun going on there!

This product was sent for review, all opinions are my own.

Kreativ Blogger Award

Moving day is coming closer and I didn't know if I would have time to post swatches today. I decided to dedicate today's post about another award I received from Alex over at Glittery and Polished! 

Please click "Read More" to view the entire post :)

China Glaze Fast Track + Elevation Polish Ama Dablam

I can't take credit for the pairing of these two polishes together. I saw swatches of Somethin' 'Bout A Polish here, she paired Ama Dablam with Nails Inc. Gatwick. I don't own Gatwick so I went with the closet skin toned color I had, which is China Glaze Fast Track.

China Glaze Fast Track has a beige/nude base and is packed with micro gold/green flecks.

All fingers are 2 coats of Fast Track over OPI Nail Envy and no top coat.

This is the only nude colored polish I have that comes close to my skin tone. While I do like it, I prefer it with something layer over top because I like my polish to stand out on my nails, rather than blend in. ;)

Elevation Polish Ama Dablam is a clear based polish loaded with glitter! The glitters it includes are micro multicolored glitter, micro copper glitter, green teal square glitter, blue teal holographic hex glitter and round copper glitter. It's a glitter bomb to say the least! ;)

My ring finger is 2 coats of Ama Dablam over Fast Track. The rest of my fingers are 2 coats of Ama Dablam dabbed on my tips again, over Fast Track. All fingers have a top coat of Seche Vite.

I love, love, love this combo! When I first saw Ama Dalmam I didn't know how I would wear it. After seeing Somethin' 'Bout A Polish's swatches, I knew I had to have it just to try this combo out! Furthermore, a great thing about this polish is proceeds benefitted Nepalese Children’s Education Fund (NCEF). Lulu posted here, she would be likely able donate $1000 to NCEF from all the funds raised!

China Glaze Fast Track is apart of China Glaze's Hunger Games collection released earlier this year. You may find it in clearance and sale section at your local beauty retailers in store. If not, places like Ebay and Amazon still have them to purchase online. Find China Glaze on Facebook here.

Unfortunately, Elevation Polish Ama Dablam was a limited release and is not being produced anymore. You can find other Elevation Polish's through a big cartel store front here and through Etsy here. It is restocked on the 7th of every month at 9:10 pm CST. Make sure to check out Lulu's, the creator of Elevation Polish, blog here. 

Also, be sure to check out Somethin' 'Bout A Polish's blog here (or through any of the links I posted above). She has a lot of great swatches!

Hot Mess Lacquers Aqua Net

So I will stray away from swatching my small Orly collection today. ;) I received Hot Mess Lacquers Aqua Net again, as another cheap purchase from Copious. Check out my post here if you aren't familiar with Copious yet! I did try this color over a couple of my Orlys I have yet to swatch but, I liked it better all by itself.

Hot Mess Lacquers Aqua Net is as a purple jelly base with various sizes of purple and silver holo glitters.

All fingers are 4 thin coats of Aqua Net over Seche Rebuild with no top coat. This formula was a lot better than the one I previously swatched here. I did have to shake it up a bit to fish out a few of the glitters. I am used to a lot of glitter bombs that are like this so, it wasn't a hassle for me.

This color reminds me a lot of grape jelly. The large glitters really spice it up! Usually, I have a problem with larger glitters laying flat without a top coat but not with this one.

Hot Mess Lacquers products can be purchased through etsy here as well as Copious, here. Make sure to like Hot Mess Lacquers on Facebook here!

Orly Buried Alive + Elevation Polish Froze To Death

I seem to be on a bit of an Orly kick lately! It really has just been a coincidence that the last few posts have contained them. ;) 

I've been meaning to post Elevation Froze To Death but, I couldn't make up my mind about what to put underneath it. As I have mentioned before, I'm not a fan of brown polish. Though, I am starting to warm up to them more and more when I look at Lulu's blog, I Dig Brown Polish. I mainly chose Orly Buried Alive to use under Elevation Polish Froze to Death as an ode to Lulu since she is the mastermind behind Elevation Polish and lover of all brown polishes.

Orly Buried Alive is a shimmery brown polish with hints of gold and copper. It reminds me a lot of root beer! ;)

All fingers are 2 coats of Buried Alive with a base coat of OPI Nail Envy and no top coat.

This color is definitely unique and not your average brown polish. All of the shimmer added to it makes it interesting and helps give it that "glowing" aspect.  

Elevation Polish Froze To Death is described as a mix of different types of glitters including: multi color tiny particle glitter, iridescent hexes, small and medium white hexes and white bar glitters.

All fingers are 2 coats of Froze to Death over Buried Alive with a top coat of Seche Vite.

Froze to Death looks great over a variety of colors and I really like to over brown! The white glitters really pop over a darker color and the iridescent glitters transform into a lovely green shade with a brown base.   

Orly Buried Alive comes from Orly's Dark Shadows collection. It can still be found on their website here and also at many other retailers online and in stores. Make sure to check your Sally's and Ulta's clearance section for it, as most are finding it there! Like Orly on Facebook here.

Elevation Polish's big cartel store front does currently have a few polishes in stock and can be found here. It is restocked on the 7th of every month at 9:10 pm CST. There is also an etsy storefront that can be found here. As mentioned above Lulu, the creator of Elevation Polish, has a brown polish loving blog that can be found here. 

Birthday Giveaway Winners!!

I'll make this short and sweet since it is late and I'm tired!

Thank you, first off, to everyone for all my birthday wishes! Also, thank you to everyone who entered! I will be having a halloween giveaway in October so, stick around. :)

Bryn M.- Prize #1: Pretty & Polished Sand Art, Sally Hansen Cuticle Eraser + Balm and a metal Sephora cuticle pusher.

Laura H.- Prize #2: 3 Finger Paints colors from the "Fall of Surprises!" collection. Gourd or Bad?, and Fall of Surprises! and Be-Leaf It Or Not!

Araylan D.- Prize #3: Sonoma Nail Art Sister Sparkle The Exalted One, a Nail Art Glitter 8pk and Hong Kong Girl Top coat.

Maggie T.- Prize #4: Smitten Polish You're Turning Violet, Violet, an Elf concealer brush and a YCC Twist Lock Small Pump Dispenser.

Congratulations to you 4!I have emailed all 4 and they have 48 hours to respond to be or a new winner will be selected in their place. 

And again thank you to everyone! 

Orly Decades Of Dysfunction + Love & Beauty Pink Speckled Glitter

I received an amazing birthday package from Diana over at Polish Monster (she is having a birthday giveaway too so make sure to check that out!). I didn't know what to swatch first! But, I went with Love & Beauty Pink Speckled Glitter. I'm not 100% sure of the name for this polish. The bottle just lists "Pink" as the name yet, the Forever 21 website has it listed as "Pink Speckled Glitter". I like the more descriptive name "Pink Speckled Glitter", so I used that for this post. ;)

Orly Decades of Dysfunction is a off white creme with pink and nude undertones.

All fingers are 2 coats of of  Decades of Dysfunction under Seche Rebuild and with no top coat.

This isn't a color I would normally wear but it makes great "underwear" for other polishes. I do like this color more than a basic white polish because it's a softer shade and not so "in your face" like a basic white.

Love & Beauty Pink Speckled Glitter is a fuchsia jelly base with various shapes and sizes of glitter (including flakies!). I don't own OPI I Lily Love you so, I can't compare the two but I would say it's a pretty darn close dupe. ;)

All fingers are 2 coats of Pink Speckled Glitter dabbed on with a makeup sponge. The formula on this was ok, it was a little thick. Once I added some thinner to it, I had no problem working with it. 

I love how this combination turned out! I think the pink glitter  helps add some kick to a work appropriate manicure.

This picture is 2 coats of Pink Speckled Glitter over black and 3 coats of it alone.

Orly Decades of Dysfunction is from Orly's Dark Shadows collection. It can still be found on their website here and at many other retailers online and in stores (Lately, everyone is finding them in their Sally's clearance section ;) ). This color is a dupe for Orly Pure Porcelain so if you can't find one hopefully, you can find the other. Like Orly on Facebook here.

Love & Beauty Pink Speckled Glitter can be purchased through Forever 21 online here and in stores. I never realized they made such a variety of colors! I will have to check them all out when I am near a store. ;) Find Forever 21 on Facebook here.

Orly Glowstick + Nail Pattern Boldness Flipping Out Hard & Nail-Venterous Floam

I wrote about doing a combination with Orly Glowstick and Floam previously on my post about the Liebster Award here. When I got Nail Pattern Boldness Flipping Out Hard I was inspired to do it again! I couldn't make up my mind if I liked Flipping Out Hard or Floam so I went with doing both. ;)

Orly Glowstick is a neon yellow. The yellow base does have a bit of green tint to it.

All fingers are 2 coats of Glowstick over Sinful Colors Snow Me White. All have a base coat of Seche Rebuild and no top coat.

This polish is ridiculously bright and I tried my best to capture it with my camera. It's if you painted your nails with a highlighter times a thousand!

 Nail Pattern Boldness Flipping Out Hard is listed as an assortment of yellow, green and blue matte neon glitters and Nail-Venterous Floam is described as matte neon blue and yellow-green fine glitter in a clear base.

My index and ring finger are 2 coats of Flipping Out Hard dabbed on in a gradient manner. My middle and pinky finger are Floam again, dabbed on using the same method.

This combination reminds me of mold. :P My husband thinks it looks like grass seeds so, I guess everyone will see it differently!

Orly Glowstick comes from Orly's Feel The Vibe 2012 summer collection. It can still be purchased through Orly here and also be found at other online retailers such as Amazon and Ebay. You may still find it in stores that sell Orly, like Sally's and Ulta. Orly is on Facebook here.

Nail Pattern Boldness Flipping Out Hard can be purchased on etsy here. Currently, it is out of stock of Flipping Out Hard but, it will be back before the end of the month and after that will be a permanent color. Find Nail Pattern Boldness on Facebook here and Allison's, the creator of Nail Pattern Boldness, blog here.

Nail-Venterous polishes can now only be purchased on Ninja Polish here. You can also follow Ninja Polish on Facebook here. Amy, the creator of Nail-Venterous, can be found on Facebook here and also on her blog here

Matte Glitter Comparison

Matte glitters are really popular in nail polish right now. I can personally say, I love them all! Nail-Venterous Floam really started the trend and now there are a ton more variations and colors out there now. I got Nail Pattern Boldness Flipping Out Hard in the mail today so, I thought it would be good to compare Floam and Pretty & Polished Sand Art with it.

Nail-Venterous Floam is described as matte neon blue and yellow-green fine glitter in a clear base. Pretty & Polished Sand Art is a mixture of  green, blue, pink, yellow and purple matte glitter and Nail Pattern Boldness Flipping Out Hard is listed as an assortment of yellow, green and blue matte neon glitters.

All fingers, except my pinky, are 3 coats of each color in the same order as the bottle shots above. 2 coats were applied like normal polish and the third coat I dabbed on areas that needed to be filled in a bit more. My pinky is one coat of each color applied in the same order they are on my fingers, starting with my index finger. All have a top coat of Hong Kong Girl Top Coat and a base coat of OPI Nail Envy Matte.

As you can see from the pictures, none of them are the same. Flipping Out Hard is the brightest of all three and Sand Art has more colors added to the mix. I can't really pick a favorite because each one is unique in it's own way.

A close up of each one.

Nail-Venterous polishes can now only be found on Ninja Polish here. Make sure to sign up for email updates, as they go quick! You can also follow Ninja Polish on Facebook here. Amy, the creator of Nail-Venterous, can be found on Facebook here and also on her blog here

Pretty & Polished Sand Art can be found on etsy here (It is not currently open but, will be sometime next week). You can also find Pretty & Polished on Facebook here and find Chelsea's, the creator of Pretty & Polished, blog here. 

Nail Pattern Boldness Flipping Out Hard can be purchased through etsy here. She does not currently have stock of Flipping Out Hard but, it will be back before the end of the month and after that will be a permanent color (it was previously limited edition). Find Nail Pattern Boldness on Facebook here and Allison's, the creator of Nail Pattern Boldness, blog here.

Which is your favorite?

HARE Magic Mist

Sorry this post is a lot later than normal, my allergies were kicking my butt today.:( 

I wanted to do something simple, but fun so I went with HARE Magic Mist.

 HARE Magic Mist is a purple base with purple squares and fuschia, orange and blue hexes of various sizes.

All fingers, except my ring finger, are 2 coats of Magic Mist with a base coat of OPI Nail Evy Matte and a top coat of Seche Vite (you can see this "shrunk" the polish a lot on my ring ring :/). My Ring finger is 1 coat of Magic Mist over China Glaze Spontaneous with same base and top coat as the other fingers.

I think Spontaneous is a great color to go underneath this because, to me, it looks exactly like the other fingers with 2 coats of Magic Mist. While this polish is awesome and packed with glitter, I don't think this color goes with my skin tone.:(

HARE polish can be purchased through etsy found here, though it is currently closed. You can like HARE polish on Facebook here and find Nikole's, the creator of HARE polish, blog here.

China Glaze Spontaneous is from their core collection and can be found most major cosmetic retailers like Sally's and Ulta. You can like China Glaze on Facebook here.

Also, I will be moving September 1st and I am looking for a few bloggers willing to do a guest post on my blog. If all goes as planned I should have internet up and running within a week, or less, of moving so I shouldn't need more than 5. If you are up for doing a post please email me at ohthreeohfour@yahoo.com. I'm open to any type of nail post you would be willing to do!

Orly It's Not Rocket Science + Hot Mess Lacquers Yankee Star

I received my Hot Mess Lacquers order in from Copious the other day and have been dying to try the polish and cuticle balm out! Thank to Copious, I scored 2 cuticle balms and the polish for only $2.16 shipped.

If you don't already know what Copious is, it's a online selling market for health & beauty items, clothes and accessories. They randomly give out $10 credits and you can get a $10 credit for signing up under my link here. Each order does cost you a penny if your order total is $0, but that's a great deal for polish!

 Orly It's Not Rocket Science is a moss green with brown undertones duo chrome and gold and green foil micro glitter.

All fingers, except my pinky, are 2 coats of It's Not Rocket Science. My pinky is 3 coats. All have a base coat of Seche Rebuild and no top coat.

I in particular am not normally a fan of green polish. That being said though, I love this color. I think the mix of duo chrome and glitter make this color very unique and likable. 

Yankee Star is described as silver holographic glitterbomb with various sizes and shapes of glitter in a clear base.

All fingers are 2 coats of Yankee Star over the above mentioned and with a top coat of Seche Vite.

The base of Yankee Star was a little thinner than I expected. When I did pull out enough glitter on the brush most of it would slide off before I could get it on my nail. I had to be careful with getting the right amount of base and glitter combination so I didn't have a glob of base and/or glitter. Once I figured out this combination application went on smoothly. 

Hot Mess Lacquers Crack Are Wack Cuticle Balm. Ingredients: Shea butter, avocado oil, beeswax, vegetable glycerin, vitamin E, lemon essential oil

With my Hot Mess Lacquers purchase from Copious, I also picked up 2 Cracks Are Wack Cuticle balms. The smell of this is amazing and reminds me of lemon cake. The formula is easy to use and soaks into my cuticles in under 2 minutes. I haven't had this for a long time to test long term affects but it will be something I use more frequently because it smells so good!

Orly It's Not Rocket Science is from the Cosmic FX 2010 collection. I picked up mine from the clearance section at Ulta. I have seen it at a different Ulta that was not for sale at a discounted price so, depending on your store you may be able to still find it. You can purchase it online still from Ulta and other retailers like Amazon. Find Orly on Facebook here.

Hot Mess Lacquers products can be found on etsy here as well as Copious, here. Make sure to like Hot Mess Lacquers on Facebook here.