China Glaze Cast a Spell

Cast a Spell has to be my favorite dark olive green fall nail polish of all time. From first look at the bottle, one might be a bit concerned that the glitter won't show up as well as it does in the bottle. Well I have to say it might actually show up better on the nail than in the bottle.

There isn't too much to say about this polish other than it sparkles really well in the sun and in shade it still looks green enough to not be confused with black. I've worn this one twice in the last week and a half so I could get better photos (I was also hoping for sun) but honestly the first photos I took looked better than the ones the second time around. Anyway on to the rest of the photos.

Hope everyone's had a good week so far!

~♫ Drastic

Butter London Airy Fairy

Ok, I know I said some bad things about Butter London last time I posted about them, but I couldn't help myself. Airy Fairy was just like all the other Butter London polishes I own, it needed 3 coats [I used two...] and chipped after two days [I usually change my polish that often anyway]. But this polish is such a beautiful shade of blue, and it was onsale at 6pm.com.  I have to make a complaint about 6pm.com, it annoys me that they are a Zappos company but you can't use your Zappos log in, you need to create another account. Other than that I had no problem with the website. I mean I didn't get the best deal I still paid 12 bucks for this polish but the last few weeks have been difficult for me and I made the excuse that I needed something to make up for it.... :-)

This has to be one of the most beautiful blues ever. I mean just look at those photos! I used two coats here and in some lights it needed the third. I think Airy Fairy is a perfect name for it, while it is bright just the nature of the shimmer is so very fairy like. I loved it so much I kept it on an extra day (it really needed to be changed but I didn't care).

Now time for a not the best comparison photo. It has been a bit dreary here lately and I leave for work before the sun is fully up and when I come back by the time I get around to taking photos, it is dusk/dark out. I normally would take photos during the weekend but I went home this weekend and spent time with my family, so oops :-( .

Onward to the photos! Airy Fairy is on the left, Butter London Scouse on the right! 

As you see while they can look similar, they are definitely two different shades of blue. Airy Fairy is more cerulean/Lake Placid Blue while Scouse is more true blue with a bit of fuchsia/magenta duo-chrome. In very extreme angles Airy Fairy has a tiny bit of that same sort of duo-chrome but it does appear a bit more pink and less red but I think that is due to the base colors making it appear that way.

So very beautiful, it complemented the perfect couple of fall days we had last week. I have to admit though I'm ready to go back to my dark greens and other fall type colors. I love fall colors all year round but it is hard to beat the feeling of wearing a perfect fall polish in the fall. Wearing the same colors in March just doesn't feel as good. I wore China Glaze Cast-a-Spell recently and I might be posting that one soon. I'm tempted to wear it again, maybe I'll take extra photos then :-)


~  Drastic Actions

Chanel Taboo and Dior Perle

This week I actually wore my nail polish all week. Which is quite unusual for me. Unfortunately for you that means some of my photos have some pretty serious tip wear. I started off with just Chanel Taboo, and I meant to take it off Wednesday night, well for what ever reason I figured I'd wait another day...then it turned out no one took the late shift on Thursday so I took it instead and got home late and didn't have a chance to change my polish. Since my nails were looking pretty sad, I threw Dior Perle on top. I don't know why I didn't think of this combination sooner!

Thank goodness for a beautiful day!

Considering I've had this since Feburary/March I've made quite the dip

*Drools*  Chanel Taboo on it's own is just magnificent! But it is so hard to photograph, it is one of those polishes where the shimmer is mostly hidden so you need just the right light. It reminds me a bit of OPIs Who are you Wearing, which was my all time favorite polish for a couple years (especially for toes). Both Taboo and WARW have a weird problem that I've never experienced before, but they seem to need a new layer of top coat every day to keep them from looking too scuffed up. It really bothers me, I'm not really sure why that happens (if you know I'd love to know).

Anyway, onward to the photos!

As you can plainly see it is difficult to capture the shimmer in this polish. But overall it is nice and dark and just the right shade of purple. Not too blue not to red just perfect! I'm going to apologize now for the horrid state of my nails in the next photos, but as I said the satin Dior Perle top coat didn't make it on until I was already two days past when I'd normally change up my polish...

Super bright flash photo at 11 pm to show of the lovely satinyness

Next day at work...

The satin finish of Dior Perle does have a tendency to settle and get drier during the day/the longer you wear it. So I had to throw a layer of top coat on it after about 12 hours, but sadly I didn't get any good lighting to take photos until today since it was so dreary yesterday.

I mean isn't that the most spectacular thing you've ever seen?!?!? [Aside from the horrible tip wear..] It just sparkles so much more with top coat and it almost looks a little cloudy. If you wanted to do galaxy nails Dior Perle would have to be at least part of a nebula or something (with or without top coat).  I've seen people call Chanel Taboo galaxy nails in a bottle, but the sparkles don't show up as well on the nail, I'd have to say this combo is the ultimate lazy person "galaxy" nail effect.

*BONUS BOTTLE COMPARISON*

Today I was out at Nordstrom Rack and I found most of the recent Urban Decay nail polishes. I already had Addiction, but for 5 bucks a bottle I had to pick up Vice (pictured above) and Zodiac (basically the same polish as Butter London Jack the Lad...which I have already...I knew it was the same but I bought it anyway ...shame). I bought Vice for the sole purpose of either layering under the Chanel Taboo or for under Dior Perle, because I'm not always going to want to "waste" Taboo under Perle ... Not the best reason but this is the closest color in shade I've found to Taboo that isn't OPI Who are you Wearing. I'd like to make an additional complaint, see that shimmer line near the top of the UD bottle? Well, that is where the polish hits! Not sure if the cap was just crappy and the polish evaporated or if they just didn't fill this bottle to the top? Addiction and Zodiac were just fine, and when I opened the box/bottle it was obvious no one had touched it... Just a little bit of a bother, no big deal. Definitely from the bottle I'd say the UD is the closest, other similar type shades I would say are OPI Who are you Wearing (like I mentioned) and OPI Eiffel for this Color. From my swatch wheel Vice is the closest. So if you don't want to shell out 27 bucks for the Chanel, or it is no longer sold where you live, definitely try to get Vice... especially if you live near a Nordstrom Rack.


Anyway, Happy Saturday!

~Drastic

Beautifully Disney Who Are You?

So this week I was a little Disneysick. Which is like being home sick, but for Disney World. I think the fact that quite a few of the World Showcase performers were having the last of their shows, and the fact that my favorite ride ever Maelstrom is closing made me really wish I could be there. So really I was just Epcot sick :-(.  So after I took the Jamberry decals off I decided to revisit my only Disney polish. I'm not exactly sure when Disney started selling their own polish. I know back in 2010 when my family went in June they had the Alice in Wonderland OPI polishes (which I was so excited about because I for the life of me could not find Mad as a Hatter at home, all the displays were cleared out). And back in 2012 they had a Minnie Mouse collection, which was different than the one OPI released in 2013. So I am supposing sometime between our 2012 and 2014 visit they started selling these, if you know differently please let me know, I find it a curious thing.

Anyway in many of the Disney shops that carry their Dooney and Bourke and Vera Bradley and Camila charms they have a makeup/nail polish line. The one they were promoting while I was there in July was the Alice in Wonderland collection. One of the shops on Hollywood Blvd in the Studios had a whole slew of the Disney polishes and not just the current ones. None of them really struck me as unique or as anything I really needed. But this particular color did call to me. I think partly because it reminded me of OPI Simply Smashing, which I really wanted at the time but I couldn't find it without the black shatter and I really can't stand crackle polishes.

Anyway making a long story slightly shorter, I bought it (obviously). It does, on the nails, have that tennis ball color. It didn't photograph too well as it is a sheer polish

Apologies for the dry cuticles

As you can see even after three coats it looks a bit sheer and a bit less green. In person, three coats seems to be just fine (but I really don't mind sheer polishes)  and it is also much more vibrant. While I honestly don't know if this is a dupe for Simply Smashing it has pleased me well enough that I don't feel the need to look for Simply Smashing anymore. Which is great.

Another reason I could not resist this polish, the bread and butterfly on the cap! Every color has a different cap design which I love. It also doesn't help that Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite Disney movies ever.

It looks like this particular color is still for sale on the Disney Store website, along with some of the lip and eye products they also sell at the parks. I should check the Disney store near me and see if they sell these there as well. They also have some of the Resort specific H2O+ products, and I love H2O+ (their aquatics scent is really fresh and great as a body lotion and I love the sea  marine hair care as well, if you were curious).

Anyway hope you had a nice weekend!

~DA ♥

Jamberry Crash Art

So I am new to Jamberry nail stuff in general. I didn't know they existed until one of my very good friends who I've known since 3rd grade, started selling them. I'm not really into nail wrap sort of things but since it did benefit my friend in a way I figured I might as well try. I had a bad feeling about them because another very good friend got me some of those nail polish strips a few years back and I had trouble with them. BUT these did do better than I expected. I think part of it is learning how to actually apply them and taking your time.

I bought this particular pattern called Crash Art because I thought it was fun, and it was sparkly. I can't stand non sparkly things so if these things were going to last the full two weeks that they stated, I wanted something I wouldn't hate immediately.  (Not to mention they are 15 bucks each, so not cheap my any means)

The "full" pattern for reference

  Before I get on to the photos and the video,  I want to talk about the process of applying these things. 1. I perhaps choose a bad time to actually apply these, I was having a particularly bad evening and I felt like I was dying of rebound heartburn (a little unasked for pharmacist advice, don't take PPIs like Prilosec, Nexium Prevacid, Dexilant ect. unless you actually have a serious stomach condition, the rebound heartburn you get after stopping is worse than what you've ever experienced before (unless you've had an ulcer or something) and even H2 blockers like Pepcid and Zantac won't always help). So here I was in pain feeling like my stomach was going to fall out, I took more Pepcid than I should have, and the Tums didn't do anything so I took two Gaviscon and I was still quite uncomfortable. That was mistake number one, I couldn't actually focus on it. I thought doing something "crafty" would keep me distracted from the pain... I"m not sure that actually worked.

2. I used the "cold"/baggie method, with my rice heating pad. Which I think was better for me as you get to place the wrap before it is warm and melty. I think I didn't fully grasp how warm the rice "bag" was supposed to be before using it on the nail. I definitely got a better hang of it at the end.

3. Make sure you have a coarse nail file, the only one I own is a super fine grit glass/crystal file since I have peely nails and I actually don't like the sound/feeling of lower grit boards. I also had nail scissors and nail clippers handy and that helped a lot. I think you just need to get used to them and figure out what you need.

Sorry took these at work again, the lighting was better

4. I didn't do the proper nail prep. If you haven't already noticed from my blog photos, I don't push back my cuticles. I don't think this is a good idea and I like to leave them alone. I also used my normal Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat which is very smooth and perhaps not the best base for these sorts of nail wraps. They say to wipe your nail with acetone or alcohol but I already have dry nails so I just made sure I applied my base coat and then washed my hands when they were dry.

5. These will take a long time and I definitely suggest fixing any bubbles or peeling the first time because if you go back the next day and stuff has gotten under there it will keep the bubbles from re sealing back down. What ever adhesive they have needs quite a bit of heat and a lot of pressure/rubbing.


Anyway these were fun to wear but definitely not something I"d do frequently. I'm at the end of day two on these and there are bits I didn't trim well enough that are snagging on things and my index fingers are peeling quite a bit. Apparently when done correctly these do stay on really well for some people and I"m sure they are great for others, just not me. I'm kind of glad they are peeling since I"m so used to changing my nails every other dayish I was getting a little bored. Maybe I will give an update once I actually remove them and how that process went. Definitely a different concept. But worth a try if you are willing to pay 15 bucks a sheet and spend a lot of time learning the process.

~♥ Drastic