HPB Presents: Fall Favorites!

Hello gorgeous! How's the weather? We're under a "winter weather advisory" for freezing rain right now, and it's 29°F. Miserable. But that's when I get to put on my favorite sweater and cuddle up with a special someone and some hot chocolate (or hot apple cider) in front of the TV and binge watch TV shows on Netflix (last night's discovery was Once Upon A Time... OMG!). 

Today, I'm doing another linkup with Hobby Polish Bloggers, and this month's theme is Fall Favorites! For a while I couldn't decide what was my favorite thing about autumn, or how to depict it on my nails. Is it the turning of the weather, going from miserable to lovely? Is it the gorgeous change in the leaves? Is it the fat squirrels running around, preparing for winter? Yes. And so much more. 

And then it hit me: my favorite sweater. Seriously, the first day it was below 40°F, I was rocking that sweater. And I have worn it at least once a week since. I friggin' love that thing! And yet, I don't have a pic of it. Sorry :(

But I do have pics of this mani!

At first I didn't like that the red was so uneven, and then I realized it's a sweater.
Everything's uneven about it lol

The grey and burgandy, the fat stripes... everything about this mani turned out exactly how I wanted. And it was easy to do, I just freehanded the stripes with a small-ish brush. Two layers of LAC's Lost Soul, then a layer of Diamond Claws by Dragon Claw Polish, and then laying down the stripes using Sinful Colors' GoGo Girl. I used acetone and more Lost Soul to clean up the lines, and then topped with Diamond Claws. Pretty easy, pretty fast, and I'm thrilled. It perfectly sums up autumn to me.

Hobby Polish Bloggers is a wonderful group of women that I am proud to be a part of. So many lovely women who are experiencing the same struggles that I do: trying to get more views; trying to balance a full-time job, children, nail care, and the blog; nail care; the lust after new polishes by amazing creators; breaking a nail and being unable to salvage it... All of the trials and tribulations. They're there for me. I also get great tips and tricks from them, and new goals to aspire to (like someday being able to paint half as well as Narmai over at PiggieLuv). 

Every month, HPB does a linkup. Here's this month's participants: 

An InLinkz Link-up

I hope you have a lovely rest of your autumn, and please enjoy a hot cocoa for me!

In the comments below, please let me know what you're favorite thing about Fall is!

Snow Days

Hello from the midwest, where it went from 60°F to snowing the next day.

I was not ready for this. I am cold.

But in celebration of the season, I've done an homage to my family's second-favorite snow activity: Snowmen!

To create this look, I used an unnamed pale blue Rue 21 nail polish, a single coat of China Glaze's The Outer Edge, from their The Giver line, and to create the snow, I dabbed on OPI's Liquid Sand Solitaire. Pretty easy, and actually very quick. 

This was the first time I've used The Outer Edge. It's a dream to use on the nail, very easy to control the glitter, but a nightmare to get off the cuticle. I do like the way it looks, though. It's made of dense, tiny white matte glitters and then some less-dense, even-tinier silver glitter suspended in a clear base. 

I top coated with Diamond Claw from Dragon Claw Polish before I dabbed Solitaire.

Are you excited about winter? If so, what's your favorite part?

Dragon Claw Polish- Swatches and Reviews

*Press Sample*

These samples were provided to me by the creator of these polishes. 

I have not been compensated for this review.

Today, I have a couple of samples from a new indie called Dragon Claw Polish!! I was thrilled to receive such beauties, and excited to get to swatch and review them! The store is debuting on November 7th, so mark your calenders, loves! Pricing is going to be awesome too, with minis at $3.95 and full sized bottles at $7.95!

The polishes I received are Bea and Dragon Fly Wings. I also received a sample of her topcoat, Diamond Claw, which is what I used the pictures below.


First up is Bea. Janet (the creator) says: "Bea comes from the Girls of Famous Asian collection. She is a friendly, always happy person, and whenever I work with her she gives off a calming, friendly vibe. This polish is a bright celadon blue shimmer polish with chunks of friendly glitter!"

Right you are, Janet!

I used four coats

I found Bea to be a very jelly formula, needing about 3-4 coats as it is very sheer. I had a bit of an issue with the glitter settling to the bottom, so I was having a hard time picking the larger hexes. The color is a gorgeous, easy-to-wear blue, and it's very shimmery, to the point that it was distracting (which I love!). There's tiny holo glitters in there, and then all shapes and sizes of blue, purple, green, and red glitters. It dried VERY quickly, even for layers 3 and 4. I was honestly surprised how fast this dried, because as soon as I was done with one hand, the other was ready to go! I love it!

The next polish I received is Dragon Fly Wings. This one was the office favorite (I opened them up at work) and it reminds me of my mother, whose favorite animal is the dragonfly.

Janet's description of this polish is "Dragon Fly Wings is from the Icky Made Pretty collection. Dragonflies are beautiful and their wings glistening in the sun is gorgeous. This polish is a wonderful teal with a color changing shimmer. It shifts from gold to green."

Dragon Fly Wings also has a jelly-like base, but it wasn't quite as sheer; I only needed 2 coats to get it opaque, but I should've gone for one more (I could still see my smile line). I found it to be more of a glass fleck glitter instead of a shimmer as the description says, but it definitely has a lovely spectrum of colors in the glass flecks. I caught myself staring at the shift several times throughout the day, and found some really pretty colors if I tilted my hand just-so. But alas, I was at work and I'm not allowed to be taking pictures there lol.  It also had a massively small amount of drying time, which was very pleasing and impressive!  

Of the two, Dragon Fly Wings was definitely my favorite, but I just tend to go towards this type of polish vs large glitters. Both of them were awesome to work with and easy to get on the nail. I didn't have any issues with streaking and they were both very good at leveling. Other than the issue with Bea's larger glitters (which, let's face it, is gonna happen with any and all large glitters), I am very happy with both of these polishes and I'm excited to see what I end up using them for :)

Now I know you're worried about the challenge post and wondering why I'm posting Thursday morning instead of Friday morning, but don't worry, you're getting two posts this week! Yaaaay! So you don't miss it, be sure to follow me using your preferred method :)

If you want to check out more of the new Dragon Claw Polishes, check out her site here. I know I'm excited for more and I'm sure you will be, too!