Experimental Rocket by Varnish Vixen

One thing I love about Etsy is the fact that I can find great indie nail polishes that become one of my favorites which is exactly what happened with Experimental Rocket by Varnish Vixen. However the sad news is that I can no longer find Varnish Vixen's Etsy page where she used to sell Experimental Rocket along with other nail polishes as well. This is extremely sad because I absolutely love Experimental Rocket and I think it is a great base coat for when you are doing galaxy nails because of the black holographic aspect of the polish.

Pictures just don't seem to do this nail polish justice! And let me tell you, it always looks a lot cooler in the sunlight!

Zoya Nail Polish Haul

About a week and a half ago I was doing my usual scanning on Instagram when I came across a picture one of the accounts I follow posted: Zoya nail polish promo! I find these types of things and then BAM! I'm off searching the websites and figuring out what I'm going to purchase. This time I ended up purchasing 6 new Zoya nail polishes, which is my highest amount in a very long while, and once I get the time I'll be doing a nice big swatch fest of them all! For now I'll just share the ones that I purchased :) I'll be using the photos that are posted on each page from Zoya’s website since they've got the photos down already.

The first color that I decided to get was "Areetha" which is a fabulous metallic lilac color and I just knew I had to get it. I'm pretty sure it matches the dress that I wore (very shortly) for my Senior Prom 5 years ago….man that makes me feel a little old. Either way I love this color.

The second nail polish I grabbed was “Indigo” which is a darker blue with some holographic glitter and it reminds me of the night sky from the photos online. I love the color blue and the photos I saw we’re definitely sellers for me. The bottle in real life though is darker than what it shown but I still love the color.

The next nail polish I got was "Rihana" which is a darker shade and the color reminds me of a dark red wine with a little purple mixed into it. I love having dark red type shades like this because it makes me feel a little more elegant and fancy.

Next up is "Anaka" which for one, has a unique name, and two, who doesn't love having a bright pink/fuschia color on their nails? I always seem to tend to go more towards blues, purples, and pinks, and this falls into that category! Which brings me to my next nail polish.

"Aurora" is a fabulous purple color with holographic scattered in it and my oh my, it's beautiful. I remember when it first came out and everybody seemed to have picked it up besides, of course, me. Then I realized how brilliant it was and now I've finally got it in my grasp! Muahaha. Evil laugh done.

Last but not least is "Noel" is more of a shade darker than a sky blue but it's metallic and it just looks kind of heavenly! Like I previously stated, I love blues and this totally falls into the blue category and I just had to make it part of my collection.

Halo Hues 2013 Throwback

Yesterday I was deciding what I should do with my nails and I had this great idea of doing tips with just rhinestones. Though it was a great idea until I went and tried actually to execute my plan, well let's say it probably wouldn't have worked out too well. So I stuck with the doing my tips idea and grabbed Color Club's "Eternal Beauty" and my round brush from Sally Beauty Supply to scult my tip color.

 

You may or may not be able to tell from this picture but I get very OCD and focused when I'm doing just tips on my nails. I always start of with 1 coat going in a semi arch/curve with the nail polish and farther down than where I'll sculpt the lines to. I like doing this because then I can make the thickness of the tip thinner if I want to instead of having to add more polish for them to be thicker. With my brush, I dip into my acetone and I switch off from starting in the middle of my nail or on one of the sides and move my brush in an arch/curving motion. It takes a little bit of time to get the extra nail polish off, but it's definitely worth it in the end! Instead of doing 1 coat on both hands, I'll do my left hand first, take the extra off, and then repeat that on my right hand. It let's the nail polish dry and at the same time it lowers the risk or smudging! After I've done both hands, I'll go back and do the same thing again with a second coat of polish but instead of having extra, I try to stay in the curved line of what I previously did. That way you can follow the same line you created to get some of the extra polish off. If anybody would like me to do (but more like attempt) a video on how I do this, just let me know in the comments below! 

Since it's quite gloomy out today and was yesterday, here's an indoor photo with flash so you can all see the holographic goodness! Now I have stated in the title of this post that it's a throwback of some of the Halo Hues 2013 and I will go ahead and show you those! These are previous manicures that I've done with some of the nail polishes from the collection and some I personally find awesome! First up is one of the first manis I did after I got the set in the mail which was a gradient with "Eternal Beauty" and "Over The Moon." 

 This is the gradient mani in my room which doesn't have that great of lighting but you can still see how the gradient goes from purple to blue holographic from top to bottom. The holographic aspect of the polish is still visible indoors but you should see it when you're outside and the sun is shining! HOLY HOLO-GOODNESS. 

I just can't get over how awesomely holographic these polishes are! Every time I wear any one of them I always get comments and people freaking out about how awesome they are. These polishes are definitely ones that I like to wear a lot even if when I'm cleaning up they get holographic over my fingers. Can't be too sparkly now can you? Next up in the line of throwbacks is my mani using "Miss Bliss" and added some splatter on one full nail and half another nail. "Miss Bliss" is a nice pink holographic and of course, another one that I love. Honestly, I'm not sure how anybody couldn't like these holographic nail polishes when they go on great and well, let's just say they're quite badass.

Before I added the splatter, I just did 2 coats of "Miss Bliss" and put a top coat on them since it would take a lot longer for them to dry without one. This is indoors in my bedroom, again, and without any flash. You can see the holographic and then here's one with the flash on.

Here is the mani with the flash on my camera which shows a very rainbow effect! It's crazy how different the no flash and flash photos are from one another. Now onto the splatter! 

In my next photo, I used "Beyond" and just had to get creative and throw some rhinestones on there! I definitely had a good handful of time where I was rhinestone everything! This is a great black holographic and definitely shines like the others. I also got some up-close macro shots of some of the nails as well, which macros are pretty sweet. 

  

Well this concludes my post for now! I haven't really experimented with the other halo hues (I know I'm bad) but I shall do that soon and post some more about it!