Hello everyone! We've made it back around to Wednesday so I've got another Mish Mash Challenge manicure to show you. I'm also rocking some shorter nails today. The length was getting out of hand and I had about 5 patches on each hand so I decided to trim them back to a more manageable length before a catastrophic break made me go full nubbin!
This week's theme is "grey". I had one heck of a time figuring out what to do and in the end I cheated a little bit by adding a pop of another color, but I think they turned out so pretty that I'm hoping you won't mind too much.
I started with 3 coats of 2% Milk by Wet 'n' Wild and then added a sponge gradient with Sinful Colors Jungle Trail on top. 2% Milk is my favorite nude of all time, I think. I love the sheerness and jelly quality it has. I liked the look of the gradient but I wanted to add something extra.
Daring Digits' Star Storm fit the bill perfectly! Star Storm is a grey-based jelly with green and white stars, white and holographic hexes, and tiny green and white glitters. I hadn't tried this color yet and I can't think why...it's simply stunning! I'm sad to report that Ashley, Daring Digits' creator, has retired and this polish is no longer available. I have a few bottles of DD and I'll be rationing them carefully as they'll have to last me forever....waaaaaaaaa!!
I hope you enjoyed this manicure and I hope you'll stop by and give the other Mish Mashers some love this week! I can't wait to see what they've done. You can find their posts via the thumbnails below. Thanks so much for reading!
Howdy everyone! We're coming up to the half way point of the week...who's ready for the weekend already? Me, too! At least the weather is bit nicer here this week, it makes things a bit easier to bear.
Today I have a couple of lovely polishes from the fabulous Ashley over at Daring Digits. Both of these polishes are part of Daring Digits' For the Children collection. The FTC collection supports El Ranchito de los Ninos with a $3 donation for each full size bottle sold. From Daring Digits website:
"El Ranchito de los Niños, an alternative to foster care, is a safe,
loving home where children grow in a supportive, family farm setting.
Children ages 0 to 18 are considered for admission to the home. El
Ranchito's mission is to keep brothers and sisters together, and to give
siblings a stable and loving home in which they can grow into adulthood
together."
It's a great cause to support and the whole collection is beautiful! I've already done this post on two of the other FTC polishes and next up are Snips 'n' Snails and Sugar 'n' Spice!
Both of these polishes are named after that old nursery rhyme "What Are Little Boys/Girls Made Of?". Snips 'n' Snails are part of the recipe for the boys. As soon as I saw this polish in Ashley's store, I knew I had to have it. It's so unique!
A sheer olive green creme base is packed with copper, silver, and gold
flakies as well as some darker green bits. My boyfriend's response was
"It looks like concrete." lol I do think it looks like stone, but more
like an expensive marble than boring old concrete! This is a perfect
color for fall as the metallic flakies also remind me of autumn leaves.
Application was good, 3 coats shown here. My bottle was a little on the
thick side, but I imagine that's mostly because of traveling in the
super hot weather the country has had lately. The thicker formula
didn't pose a problem for me at all...so happy to have this guy in my
stash!
And now for the flip side, little girls are made of Sugar 'n' Spice and everything nice, right? Well Sugar 'n' Spice has definitely got "girly" covered! This polish has a sheer baby pink base with pink and maroon flakies and a gorgeous fuchsia shimmer (which didn't really show up in my photos, but it's there, I promise!).
Sugar 'n' Spice was a surprise favorite of this collection for me. I do feel it would look better on someone with a darker skin tone, but it's really a very pretty color. I usually go for the darker colors, but this would be great for Easter or a wedding. Unique, but soft and feminine as well.
The formula was great on this one. It is a sheer polish and I'm wearing 5 thin coats here, but you could definitely layer it over a white or light pink base if you didn't want to wear so many layers. And this girl is shiny! No top coat in any of the above photos and just look at that reflection!
The For the Children collection retails for $9.50 for a full size bottle (remember that $3 of that is donated!) but I believe she's currently sold out of these, but will be restocking. You can follow Daring Digits on Facebook to keep up with restocking and new polish information.
Thanks so much for reading!
Hey there, hi there, ho there! Anyone remember the Mickey Mouse Club? Or am I the oldest person in the room again? lol I hope you're all having a great week so far. My day was actually kind of crappy, but I've got high hopes for tomorrow. If any of my anticipated nail mail would get here already, it would surely brighten my week!
However, now it's time to talk about some nail mail that DID arrive! Last week, I got my order from Ashley over at Daring Digits. I nabbed a set of her For the Children collection, anticipating mini bottles, but since she's just tops, she actually sent me full size bottles as a surprise. Because of that, a full size bottle of Where the Heart Is is currently up for grabs as a prize in my Birthdanniversary Giveaway, so if you haven't entered yet, what are you waiting for?? Free nail polish!
Today, I have 2 polishes from the For the Children collection to show you. This collection is inspired by El Ranchito De Los Ninos. El Ranchito de Los Ninos, located in Los Lunas, NM, is an organization offering an alternative to foster care where
kids (especially siblings) can grow in a supportive, family farm setting. It runs 100% off donations from business,
charities, and personal donations. Since they receive no state funding,
donations are critical. For every bottle of polish sold from this collection, $3.00 will be donated to
El Ranchito De Los Ninos. What a great way to support a great cause!
First up is Watching Clouds, a light blue crelly base chock full of matte white hexagons in several sizes, pearlized small white hexes, and blue holographic mini glitters. WC is so aptly named, the larger white hexes really do mimic clouds floating across a beautiful blue sky.
I layered 2 coats of WC over 2 coats of Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in Breezy Blue. I topped everything with 2 coats of Seche Vite. WC's formula was great, no application issues aside from some minor fishing for the larger glitters, which is to be expected when dealing with larger glitters in the first place :) All in all, I love this polish and am so happy to have it in my stash!
Next up is Family. This clear-based glitter topper is packed with just about every color and shape of glitter you can think of! There are stars, dots, hexes, diamonds, moons, and hearts in every color of the rainbow! I apologize that my photos of Family just don't do it justice. I've decided that my birthday present to myself this year is going to be new lights...well, that and a splurge-worthy bottle or wo of polish (I'm hoping to nab Oceanic Forces and Dark Forces from Llarowe's restock of Emily de Molly next week, ON my birthday! Has to be a sign, right??)
I hope this macro shot gives you a better idea of what we're dealing with here. Sheer awesomeness is what! I layered 2 coats of Family over 3 coats of Spoiled's Checkin' Into Rehab. Look at that combination of glittery goodness!
And then, cuz I just can't leave well enough alone....
I HAD to do a jelly sandwich with this! I've not been able to stop staring at my nails all day, they're sooooo pppprreettyyy!
For the sandwich, I added another coat of Checkin' Into Rehab. It's really a nice purple jelly for the price, and the little pink flakies in it pick up the light so nicely in the sun.
If you haven't tried Daring Digits polish yet, she's setting up for a huge summer clearance sale right now. The sale starts Sunday, July 14th at 12 PM Mountain/2 PM Eastern and her site will be down until then. Ashley's polishes are already really reasonably priced (full size bottles of the FTC collection were $9.50 each/$45 for the set of 5), so don't think you need a sale to snatch 'em up, but this is a great time to do so!
Thank you so much for reading!
Howdy, everyone! Last day of the weekend, but to be honest, it hasn't been a great one for me (with the exception of sushi and Blizzards last night) so I'm kind of ready for the work week to start. I have a couple of swatches to show from an indie brand I first heard about via Kimber from Kimber's Laquer Korner. Daring Digits is an indie brand produces in Albuquerque, NM by a lovely young lady named Ashley. These two polishes were part of my first order with DD and I'm pretty darn impressed! On to the swatches!
First up is Blueberry Blues, a white crelly base with bright blue hexes and little tiny glitters in the same shade.
BB is such a great polish, I absolutely love everything about it! The formula is wonderful. I've actually used 5 coats for this swatch to get the opacity I wanted, as it's very sheer. That said, you could easily layer a couple of coats over a white base if you wanted to.
Personally, I love the depth the glitter gives to these crellies with a
lot of coats. There was no balding or dragging, I didn't have to dig
for the glitter and it dried fairly quickly. Altogether, I give it 5
stars!
Next up, we have my favorite of polishes I ordered. Kimber had swatched this a few weeks ago and I knew I had to have it!
Holy Fire contains copper hexes and flakes in a milky peach crelly base. Ashley actually has it described as a white base, but my bottle looks quite peachy (and I love it!) so that's what I'm going with.
This is another where I used 5 coats because the depth of DD's polishes is so fantastic! HF is aptly named, as my nails looked like they were lit from within! Again, no problems with application or dry time.
If you're interested in Daring Digits, you can currently order them via Big Cartel, though I urge you to follow Ashley's blog or facebook page for updates. As she works a full-time job as well as turning out her polish as fast as she can, Ashley is changing things up a bit to make her life a little less stressful (more power to you, girl!). So, you may want to order quickly as many of her current collection will be unavailable after she starts her restock schedule. Additionally, she's currently running a sale; most of her polishes are only $6.50! Get 'em while they're hot!
Thanks so much for reading!
