31 Day Challenge: Day 1

Like many others in the nail blogosphere, I've decided to do the 31 day challenge. I'm not sure where it originated, but this is the challenge:

Why did I decide to do this in November, my busiest month yet? I honestly have no idea - perhaps I'm actually going 'round the bend. In any case, I will be joined this month by the wonderful Elizabeth of Life and Polish, so at least I'll have someone to keep me company as I journey down the path to insanity and aggravated chronic sleep loss.

Today, Day 1, is red day. Easy enough, right? I used OPI Red My Fortune Cookie (one of my favorite red cremes), then used two alternating layers of Nubar 2010 and BB Couture Sex on the Beach and topped it all off with good old Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. I took these pictures last night because I knew I wouldn't have time this morning, so they're not the best quality (dorm room lighting = far from excellent), but I hope you get the general idea.

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I'm quite fond of this combination. While red with flakies has been done many times before by myself and by others (speaking of which, why didn't I use Elle's Spell today? I just got it and haven't tried it yet...clearly my brain was not turned on last night), I still think it's pretty, especially because the layering of the jelly with the flakies gives it a certain depth, as well as a touch of glitter. All in all, I think it's a good start to my 31 days, and I'm not sure I'll want to immediately take it off later tonight. Now go peep Elizabeth's Day 1 post, and have a great day!

Edit: Unbeknownst to me until a few minutes ago, Manicure Addict, Polish Pauper, Bright Lights, Big Color, and CC Manicured are also doing the challenge in November, so go check them out as well!

Edit 2: And Dees Polish Endeavours! Who knew!

Random Mani Challenge

Tuesday, Lacquer Ware for Tips and Toes posted a challenge tag, and I chose to participate. The challenge is as follows:

1. Go to your lacquer stash
2. Close your eyes and pull 3 random items - JUST 3
3. Create a mani from them
4. Post your mani when you post the tag
5. Tag 3 bloggers

So, I did! The three random polishes I picked (knocking several others over in the process, since I had my eyes closed) were OPI Glow Up Already, Orly Happily Ever After, and BB Couture Pina Colada. At first, I had absolutely no clue what to do with them, but then my wheels started turning. Here are bottle shots of the three polishes in case you don't know what they look like (they're in the order above from left to right), and then the mani I came up with:

indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

While I didn't actually end up wearing this, I'm not unhappy with the way it turned out. I painted my nails with two coats of Glow It Up, then added one coat of Pina Colada and some dots (I used a dotting tool) in Happily Ever After. I like the muted look Pina Colada gives the glitter, and I'm definitely getting an Easter vibe. Sorry for the extra bits of pink on my ring finger - I messed up and was too lazy to start all the way over, so I just wiped off the pink. Or so I thought. I'm really glad Chris came up with this challenge, because I never, ever, ever in a million years would have combined these polishes on my own, but I quite like the result. I think I'll have to try something similar soon, with polishes of my own choosing. Here are my three tags:

Glitta Gloves (Kirsten and Nicole, I think you should both do it!)

!Kendal

Acetone and Old Lacquer

However, if I didn't tag you and you want to do this, consider yourself tagged! Also, please feel free to leave links to your challenge manicure in the comments on this post - this is one time I won't mind link spamming, as I am really curious to see what everyone comes up with.

BB Couture A Touch of Greece: Apollo and Uranus

Hello, all! Today I'll be showing you Apollo and Uranus, the two polishes I received to review from the BB Couture A Touch of Greece collection. Apollo and Uranus are both from the men's part of the collection. Unfortunately, it was raining yesterday when I took these pictures, so I only have indoor pictures to show you - of course, today the sun is shining bright...and I don't have my camera with me.

In case you didn't know, Apollo was quite a busy god - he was the Greek god of music, poetry, plague, oracles, the sun, medicine, light, and knowledge. BB Couture Apollo is a bright orange, which I'm guessing comes from the fact that he was god of the sun/light. It's actually the only orange I have which is actually the color of a real orange. It's a little less vivid than the picture shows, but it's quite close. I really like the color and consistency, and though I wouldn't be surprised if there are dupes, I don't have any in my stash. Also, look at how shiny that is without top coat! I did have to use three coats to eliminate visible nail line, but as the application was absolutely perfect, I didn't mind.

indoors, artificial light

The second polish I was provided was BB Couture Uranus, which is a toffee, caramely brown color that I love despite the disparaging comments my mom made about its similarity to the color of...well...you can probably guess. Uranus is the Greek god of the sky and son of Gaia, the goddess of the earth. I only had to use two coats of Uranus, and it was just as incredibly shiny without top coat as Apollo was. I actually went ahead and wore this as my full manicure today because I loved it so much. The color isn't as yellowy as it looks in my pictures, though.

indoors, artificial light

So there they are, Apollo and Uranus! What do you think? 

These products were sent to me by Overall Beauty for review. However, this will never affect what I say about a product. For more information, see my disclosure policy.

BB Couture Grasshopper

BB Couture Grasshopper is part of the Cantina Nights Collection. It's a bright, limey green with yellow, pink and green microglitter, and while I loved the color in the bottle, I was afraid it would never be opaque on my nails, though this turned out not to be the case. After one coat, my nails just looked vaguely ill and like I probably ought to visit a doctor. After two coats, it was better, but still not very attractive. After three, it was starting to show its beauty, but there was still VNL, and at four coats? Perfect. Well, not quite - it dried to a gritty finish, which I was a bit disappointed in due to the low ratio of glitter to polish, but it was easily fixed with a coat of Seche Vite.

indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

The actual color of the polish is in between these two photos - it's not as bright as it looks in the second picture, but brighter than it looks in the first. I would've taken pictures outside to see if the sun would cooperate better with my camera and this color, but the weather's icky and cold and cloudy, so I didn't. I did, however, add one coat of China Glaze Golden Enchantment (which I will talk about further in a bit), because I just can't leave well enough alone.

indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I like it! Speaking of which, I would really appreciate it if any of you can help me out. I'm over halfway through my bottle of China Glaze Golden Enchantment, and I have no idea how to get another bottle. I've looked on Makeupalley and I can't find anyone to swap with, I've looked on Amazon and the only seller who still lists it is sold out, and my mom doesn't have an eBay account, so I can't buy from there (my online orders go through her because I don't have a credit card). If any of you have a possible solution or an extra bottle you'd be willing to swap me for, please comment or email me at never.unpolished@gmail.com. Thanks!

Snowglobe

I'm baaack! I was much busier than I thought I would be, so I didn't have time to redo my nails while I was gone, but fortunately they didn't chip until today.

I intended this manicure to be somewhat wintry, but I didn't think it looked exactly like snow, and I couldn't figure out exactly what it did look like until someone said to me, "I love your nails! They make me think of a snowglobe." Of course! Why hadn't I thought of that? Anyway, this is one thickish coat of Wet n Wild Kaleidoscope over BB Couture Hangover Blues.

indoors, artificial light

Since I didn't change my manicure while I was gone, I don't have any other nail pictures for you, but I do have a few pictures of things in the room I stayed in, which was in an old house. Our room had a fireplace with very nice tile around it, as well as an old grate shaped like a griffin/peacock/mythical bird. I took these pictures on my phone, so they're not the best quality, but they're okay.

fireplace

the base of the shade

the tile

the inside of the fireplace

I also edited some photos using a couple apps...I can't remember which ones now.

a bit of the bedspread

the wardrobe

I hope you find this as interesting as I do... :) Happy Saturday!

BB Couture Hangover Blues

Hangover Blues is a really lovely teal that, despite being part of a summer collection, really works for any season (though I don't generally pay attention to what's "right" for the season anyway). It does have a tiny bit of shimmer, but let's put it this way: if Chanel Paradoxal has hidden shimmer, then Hangover Blues has triple-hidden shimmer. I can barely see it even under bright light, but that doesn't really bother me - it's the color I've fallen in love with. The application was also quite nice; this is two coats.

indoors, artificial light

After I put this on, I thought that maybe it was sort of a middle shade between Essie Mint Candy Apple and Sephora by OPI Ocean Love Potion. So, I did some swatches on a card of Mint Candy Apple, Ocean Love Potion, Hangover Blues, and a mix of half-Mint Candy Apple and half-Ocean Love Potion. As it turns out, the franken and Hangover Blues are pretty similar! They look more alike than the photo shows, though they're not exact dupes.

I think I'm going to do some nail art on this, but I'm not sure what to add yet...we'll see! I may just end up adding glitter. :)

Ooh, Goodies!

I was literally just about to post my NOTD when I heard a knock at the door. When I went and looked, I found a mysterious package...actually, it wasn't that mysterious - I knew my Reviva products from the Painted Lady Fingers giveaway had arrived! But first, nails. I added a matte top coat to yesterday's The Girl Who Played with Fire manicure, and while I don't think I like it quite as well as the glossy version, I do like it.

indoors, artificial light

And here's the package I got from Reviva Labs. It included Rosewater Facial Spray; Organic Cleansing Milk; Organic Skin Tonic; Sun Protective Moisturizer; Alpha Lipoic Acid, Vitamin C Ester, & DMAE Cream; a Vitamin E Stick; Firming Eye Serum; Hyaluronic Acid Serum; and DMAE Firming Fluid.

I can't wait to try all of these! Would you be interested in reviews of these products, or not?

Ahh, I'm on Fire!

Okay, not really...but my nails kind of look like it. And yes, that was a very cheesy title. Sorry. Moving on! I did my first attempt at sponging today, adding an unnamed Charlotte Russe gold polish to BB Couture Sex on the Beach. I'm not completely happy with the results, but I think it's okay for my first try:

indoors, artificial light

I'm a huge (HUGE) Harry Potter fan, so I suppose this could be a Gryffindor mani...but I'm a Ravenclaw. I feel kind of disloyal. So maybe it's a Millenium trilogy-themed mani:

Yes? Yes, I think so. Anyway, that's almost all I have for you today. Here are some new and new-to-me polish blogs I've discovered and enjoyed recently.

Polish Polish Polish

VaiNails

PinkNailBlog

Nail the Nail

Acetone and Old Lacquer

Lacquered Lizard

Mai Senza Smalto!

Pretty Little Thing

Mi Vida Aburrida

The Nail Experiment

Okay, now that's all! Happy Sunday!

BB Couture Sex on the Beach

Today I wore one of the BB Couture polishes that I received yesterday, Sex on the Beach. On one hand, I kind of like the name of this polish, simply because it is a very sexy red. On the other hand, people sometimes ask what nail polish I'm wearing, and I'd be a bit hesitant to say, "Oh, it's Sex on the Beach!" Um. Yeah. Anyway, it is a very pretty red. It's not opaque - I used four coats, and I still had a little VNL - but it's not too noticeable, so I don't mind much.

indoors, artificial light

Oh, and guess what? The sun was shining today, so I went outside and took some pictures in the sun and in the shade...and then tonight, when I got home again, I realized that I had taken those pictures without the memory card in the camera, so I have no way of getting the pictures to my computer. Oops. I've done this before, and you'd think I would learn, but I guess not. Also, I should note that while the microglitter looks a bit rough and grainy in my photos, it's quite smooth in real life as long as you use one coat of top coat. That's all for tonight...I have a college essay to write!