Lynnderella Love Potion No. 99

Sorry to overload you guys, but there's one thing the (nail polish) world could always use - MOAR LYNNDERELLAS!  (Am I right, or am I right?!)  I'm determined that I WILL use my new Lynnderellas in a timely fashion, and I WILL NOT just let them sit in my Helmer and look pretty.  I attended my office's Holiday Party over the weekend, so it was the perfect excuse to bust one out!  

I went with Love Potion No. 99 - an unbelievably complex purple concoction.  There's hexagonal and square blue and purple glitter with smaller purple shimmer and (the best part!) round holographic shimmer all packed in a purple jelly base.  As usual, it photographed much bluer than it shows in real life, so I did my best to adjust the color with my handy dandy Photoshop Elements (wo0t!).  I think these photos are pretty close to accurate.  I wanted as much glitter as I could get, so I went with two layers over Zoya Mimi, which turned out to be a perfect match for the base color!  Pleeeeease click on these photos to enlarge!  You MUST see how awesome this polish is (though I admit that these photos don't even come close to doing it justice)!  

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Love Potion No. 99 - what a perfect name!  It's hard not to fall head over heels for this one.  It's stunning!  It shows off well in just about every lighting, and it worked really well in the lower lighting at my office party!

Before I added LP99, I wore Zoya Mimi as a full manicure, so I thought I'd show you that as well.  A gorgeous and sparkly grape-colored glass-fleck.  It's on the sheer side, so it took three coats to reach full opacity.  It's worth the extra coat though, because DUDE.  Look at it...

Makes a darn good pedi too!  I've worn it three times on my toes, but this was the first time wearing it as a mani, and I loved it just as much.  Perfect on its own and perfect spouse to LP99.

If you couldn't tell from my gushing already, I totally ADORE both of these polishes!  MUST-haves!  Though Mimi was released with Zoya's Sparkle collection in Summer 2010, it's still easily available at Zoya's website.  Definitely worth picking up, if you don't already own it.  Love Potion No. 99, along with other Lynnderella polishes, will be available VERY soon at llarowe, and I can't wait!  I see an EPIC haul in my future!  :-D

Butter London Primrose Hill Picnic

I admit that usually I have a long, drawn out reasoning behind just about every polish I put on.  With so many untrieds, I have to find something that makes one polish say "Choose me!" over the others.  After a long and exhausting Thanksgiving weekend, and the unnecessarily long removal of Warm & Fozzie, I just needed something quick and easy, and it really doesn't get any easier than a creme finish.  (I really thought there wasn't much methodology behind this choice, but I guess I was wrong, lol.)  It's definitely not a Holiday-season appropriate color, but Primrose Hill Picnic has been sitting in my untrieds for far long enough, so it was time to bust that baby out!

For all of us Yankees across the pond, my trusty Butter London Dictionary tells me that Primrose Hill is a "famous park in North West London frequented by rock stars, yummy mummies, actors, and paparazzi."  Sounds like a place that celebs like to go to be sure they'll be photographed - much like The Ivy restaurant in Los Angeles.  Don't famewhores just make you all warm and fuzzy inside?  Bleh.

Anywho, on to the polish!  Primrose Hill Picnic is a heavily blue-leaning bright pink creme.  Even bluer than these photos show, but not quite as bright.  Definitely not a neon.  Blogger didn't really like this color at all and tried to mutate it into some weird salmon-y color when I uploaded my photos.  Photobucket saves the day again!  Phew!  The formula was perfect (as expected), and I this is two coats below.

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Such a gorgeous pink!  It definitely falls hard on the cool-toned side, but I think it's well suited even on my heavily yellow-toned skin.  I actually think it would look PERFECT with a Butter London Blagger pedi.  I'll have to try that in the spring when I can actually show it off!

So, at $14 a bottle, do you NEED Primrose Hill Picnic?  Probably not, but I can't really think of any dupes for this color either.  I find that most pinks lean heavily on the warm side (which looks AWFUL on me - see OPI Sparrow Me the Drama here), so this is a great option for cool-toned girls.  I'd say definitely keep this one on your lists for springtime - it'd make a great pedi color itself!

So whaddaya think about Primrose Hill Picnic?  Love it?  Hate it?  Own it?  On your Christmas List?  :-)

Lynderella Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue

I told you I was in a blue mood!!!!!!!!  Seriously I wasn't kidding.  And since I hadn't worn Lynderella's Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue yet, I knew it was next.  For this particular mani, I used OPI's Yoga-to Get This Blue as a base.  I didn't include it on it's own because I only did one coat of it.  It's not a 1-coater, but it's REALLY close.  Anyway, I thought it would be a good backdrop for my precious Lynderella.

OH MAN!  Was I right or what?  Can anyone say mermaid nails?  And these pictures don't even do it justice.  I mean - wow!  Wow!    I can't even put into words how beautiful this is.

So Yoga-to Get This Blue is pretty standard.  Most blue-lovers have it.  It's Navy with dark blue shimmer in it and it's pretty beautiful on it's own.  I'd say that I'd swatch it for you on it's own some time.  But let's be real here, after seeing this, it will ALWAYS be topped with Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue (BBBB).  BBBB on the other hand is a clear base PACKED full off blue, teal, and purple glitter.  I see small round blue. medium hexagon purple, larger teal and blue squares, and even bigger silver hexagon glitter.  You can tell I'm really obsessed with this due to all the caps.  Maybe I should use some bold too.  RUN to get this combo! :) hehe

And as I saw someone say the other day about a polish on MUA: Lynderella Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue: A photo essay.

Lynderella Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue

Lynderella Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue

Lynderella Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue

Lynderella Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue

Close up of Lynderella Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue

Bottle Shot of Lynderella Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue

Lynderella polishes are only available from her website, but sometime this month Llarowe.com will start carrying them too.  They are $12 each, which is a total splurge. But you can usually layer them, so using 1 coat only makes them last longer.  They do need lots of thick top coat though to get them smooth.  Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue is part of the Early Halloween collection, and I have no idea how long it will be around.  This is a must have in your blue glitter collection, so if I were you, I would get it before it's too late!

Catrice I'm a Star...

*Evil snickers*...just when you thought I was done with olive greens, I've got one more!  Jessie, being the AMAZING friend and co-blogger she is, decided to pick up a couple of Catrice polishes for me while she was off in Europe getting ENGAGED!  (YAY!!!)  One was Dirty Berry and the other was one I wasn't so familiar with, but the color had my name written all over it.

I'm a Star (It actually has an ellipsis at the end, like I put in the title, but I'm dropping the unnecessary punctuation for the purposes of this post, lol.) is a bronze-y golden olive green shimmer.  The color almost has an antique look to it, and it darkens around the edges, which adds some really great depth to it.  I was almost positive from looking at the bottle that the finish was going to be metallic, but it's really not at all.  The shimmer is super fine and any brush strokes disappear quickly as it dries.  The formula was incredible too.  The polish just flowed onto my nails and stayed right where I put it.  I used two coats here.

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I knew I was going to like I'm a Star, but I honestly didn't expect to LOVE it.  You'd think I'd be sick of these colors by now, but each one is special and has its own qualities to love.  I'm a Star is the clean-cut look of the bunch, and I just found it really easy to wear.  Perfection!

I apologize to the non-European ladies, as I know Catrice is hard to come by across the pond.  The closest dupe I can think of might be China Glaze Peace on Earth, but unfortunately I don't own that one to compare.  Anyone own it?  Think it may fulfill some lemmings?

I'm a Star is my first Catrice, and I'm liking how this relationship is starting off.  I can't wait to try Dirty Berry and then get my hands on some more!  A HUGE thank you to Jessie for this one!  :-D

Layering Fun: Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening over Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm

So I've been in a pretty blue mood lately.  Not to say I'm sad or depressed, but I've been wearing only blue polishes.  I haven't worn this layering combo in forever (last I wore it was in January when I threw my hubby-to-be a surprise 30th birthday party) so I had to break it out!  I received Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening and RBL Dead Calm (as well as RBL Teal) from a blogsale over at Jessica v. Polish back at the beginning of January.  I was so excited about them I decided to wear the two together and a perfect match was made.  Something about the particular shade of pink glitter over that deep rich blue just screams match-made-in-heaven.

Putting Rescue Beauty Lounge's Dead Calm on again was so refreshing.  I think maybe I wore it once since  the first time I layered it and it's just wonderful.  It's a simple DARK navy blue creme, but it's a true one-coater and super super glossy.  This may have not been Courtney's perfect navy, but it is mine.  The thing I love the most about it is that while it is very dark, it always looks blue and never looks black.  

Deborah Lippman's Some Enchanted Evening is large hexagon pink glitter and small round pink glitter suspended in a clear base.  It is so feminine and pretty.  It's a great way to feel girly without being over top.  This is one coat below.  Please note it is a thicker coat and after the initial "painting" part I usually use a dotting motion to add more large glitter or move it around for a more distributed look.  You can also see where I've brought this to you before for my Hurricane Mani.  Some Enchanted Evening looks great over any dark creme.

Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening over Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm

Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening over Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm

Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening over Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm

Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening over Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm
One more time with the DL bottle!

Deborah Lippmann polishes are available at Nordstrom and Deborah Lippmann's site, or other online retailers like BeautyBar.com and Zappos.com. Some Enchanted Evening retails for $18 and was originally released in the All That Jazz trio for Nordstrom in 2010, but is now individually. Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm is only available form the RescueBeauty.com website and it is also $18.  Man - this is one EXPENSIVE mani.  Anyway!!!!  If you are looking for a splurge, I'd get Dead Calm, cause it's perfect.  Luckily Essie just came out with a dupe of Some Enchanted Evening called A Cut Above which is only $8!  So if I were you I'd probably get the Essie over the DL.

The Black Knight Takes a Trip to Outer Space

Quick post for you guys today!  I try to come up with great layering ideas on my own, but it seems like the truly awesome ones come from others.  When I posted my photos of  The Black Knight on the nail board, a lovely lady threw out a question of what it might look like with Lynnderella Bride of Franken layered over it.  GENIUS!  The bad part?  I no haz Bride of Franken.  :-(

Improvisation to the rescue!  I grabbed the closest thing I had, Sinful Colors Hottie (dupey to OPI Last Friday Night - I guess not really that close to Bride of Franken), and slapped one coat over The Black Knight.  I couldn't have even predicted how awesome it would turn out!  Definitely click to enlarge these photos to see everything that's going on here!

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It's like The Black Knight on steroids...in space!  It's like a galaxy of multi-colored, multi-sized stars on my nails.  I never would've put this combo together on my own, but it was soooo sparkly and colorful, and I LOVED it!  If you own these two colors (or Last Friday Night), RUN - don't walk - to try this combo out!  It's amaaaaazing!

So now, maybe if we all bat our eyelashes at Jessie, she'll show us Bride of Franken over The Black Knight (when she gets it)!  Pretty pretty pleeeeease?  :-D

Another Look: Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H.

So I think you all know by now I have completely turned into a nail polish snob.  Don't get me wrong, I love me some OPI, but my RBL nail polish collection is getting out of hand.  I also wear them way more than my OPIs.  Probably because I spent so much on them if I don't wear them I feel like I just burned a bunch of cash.  Plus, I've been eagerly awaiting Anne's arrival from the BIB2 Pre-sale and this seemed like a good warm up.

Catherine H. is beautiful.  There is no secret shimmer here.  Just like Courtney said, its a wedgewood blue with pink, fuchsia and aqua shimmer.  Unlike Courtney, I think the shimmer just dances all the time, no matter what the light.  It's not sparkly, but that doesn't mean it's not shimmery.  Maybe it's because the sparkle is VERY pronounced in the bottle.  While it's a little subtler on the nail, there is no missing it.  Very typical of a polish from Rescue Beauty Lounge's "Real Housewives of the Tudor Dynasty" collection.  And typical to all RBL polishes, application is a breeze.  The polish flows perfectly making the need to cleanup pretty much non-existent.  I'm also a sucker for dusty polishes, blue polishes, and soft shimmers - so this puppy is everything that is right in the world.  Although if you ask me to pick between this and Catherine, I will always pick Catherine.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H.

Check out this sparkle/shimmer!  To die for :)!!!!!!

Close up of  Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H.

Catherine H. is currently sold out - but it's coming back along with the rest of the Tudors in December.  Please be warned though, that Anne just came back in stock and it's stock my not last long enough to get us through the rest of the Tudor re-release.  Courtney and I just got our Anne's, so one of us will bring her to you soon.  As always RBLs can be purchased for $18 from the RBL website.