Lynnderella - Connect The Dots

Hey everyone!
I neglected posting all day today just because I'm lazy so I decided to do a quick little post before I go to bed so I don't feel guilty for not posting 2 days in a row... Haha!

A few weeks ago I got a bottle of the infamous Lynnderella's Connect The Dots.
Black and white glitters are all the rage and there is really no questioning why. They're just so freakin' cool on your nails!

I layered CTD over two OPI polishes I wore just to try some layering combinations! I'll show those to you tonight along with one small comparison.

Lynnderella - Connect The Dots over OPI - I Don't Give A Rotterdam!
I loved this combo, the muted blue color really looks nice with the crazy glitter and added shimmer of CTD. I think CTD is best over bright colors but I like seeing it over more soft things for a change. It's versatile.

Lynnderella - Connect The Dots over OPI - Paint My Moji-toes Red
I tried out CTD over a coral red, seeing as coral/tangerine is supposed to be the color of the year, or whatever that nonsense is. As usual, it looks great.

My one complaint about Connect The Dots is the bar glitter. Good grief, the bar glitter likes to poke out of topcoats and annoy the crap out of me. I end up picking most of them off with tweezers in a few hours. They lie flat at first... And then go rogue.

You may remember my post before about Cover Band - Sticks 'n Stones, an amazing creation made to resemble CTD.
If you're not crazy about polish, you would probably think these are identical. But for us polish lovers, you can totally see how these are different when they're next to each other. and I love them both in their own way. I don't think I could part with one, like I previously thought I might.
Here's a quick comparison I did:

CTD has some pretty shimmer going on and overall more glitter, but overall smaller glitter. I also found my CTD to be pretty heavily white.
SnS has no shimmer, lots of big glitter pieces, and a pretty even black/white mix.

They give two different looks. You know, if you've got polish-eyes. I can't pick a favorite.
I saw this picture on Pinterest earlier and thought it would be appropriate for this post:

Photo from Like A Candy Shop. Soooooooooo true.

If this black-and-white-glitter-post wasn't enough to fill your glitter appetite, please head over to Chalkboard Nails and check out her massively huge comparison post.

Tomorrow I'ma be posting a neon CTD mani I wore last week sometime. It's a good one. See you then!

Cover Band - Sticks 'n Stones

Sticks 'n Stones may break my bones... But black and white glitter excites me.

Cover Band - Sticks 'n Stones
You. Need. This. Plain and simple.

If you're "in the know" in the polish world, you'll know that this polish is meant to be similar to Lynnderella's Connect The Dots, to give people a way to get this look without a) having to pay the Lynnderella price and b) having to deal with Lynnderella's drama.

Duping polishes within the indie polish community is really a drama-filled topic so I won't say much about it other than "the more the merrier" and "it's just nail polish."

I've actually got a bottle of Connect The Dots on the way to me right now. I committed to buying one but then assumed I would never actually get it once Lynnderella shut down her blog and all that.
I then bought Sticks 'n Stones to get my fix.
...And got invoiced for the Lynn the next day.
So that was annoying, but I bought it anyway. And now after comparing this one to swatches of the Lynn, I like this one better! Maybe I'll swap the Lynn when it comes.

Anyway, after all that rambling, onto the rest of this post.

I started this manicure with probably the stupidest combination of colors. Stupid because they are so hard to photograph.

This is a mixture of four Color Club polishes.
I started with a base of Peppermint Twist and let that dry.
I then added a quick coat of Peace Out Purple, and swiftly used a tissue to blot most of it off.
I did the same thing two more times with Mrs. Robinson and then Disco Dress.

That's what your tissue will look like when you're done! I really like this technique, it gives a cool blend of colors.
And if you don't add topcoat, it leaves a cool texture too! (But I can never go without topcoat.)

None of those photos accurately show the colors, though.
Only one photo I took (out of like 100) shows the colors right.
And it was taken with my iPhone. Go figure.

Super bright, super fuchsia, and super awesome with Sticks 'n Stones on top!

Here's a bottle shot:

Sticks 'n Stones, as you can see, is a glitter polish that is packed with white and black glitter in all different shapes and sizes.  There's also a tiny bit of iridescent glitter floatin' around in there.

I'm still wearing this mani as I write this post, and it is still distracting me. I keep stopping what I'm doing to look at my nails.
I realized just how many times I was being distracted when I was in the shower, washing my hair, and I stopped to look at my nails. Really.

...I just did it again.

The mix-y base color combined with the different shapes of black and white glitter is just so eye-catching and fun to look at. It almost looks like a splatter effect, but without the mess of actually doing a splatter!

The one issue I had with the polish is that sometimes the bar glitters will not lie flat. I had to pick off three pieces with tweezers because I couldn't stand feeling the edge of them sticking up.
But that's a pretty minor (and obsessive compulsive) problem.

For some reason I decided to do one accent nail on my right hand, and I'm going to show it to you, but be warned that I am awful at taking pictures of my right hand! And vacation was not kind to my right hand, so the nails are looking a little sad.

My accent nail is China Glaze - Turned Up Turquoise. I adore this color but it is another pain in the butt to photograph. Having one accent nail is pretty random but I dig it.

As I said earlier, you need Sticks 'n Stones because it is fantastic.
You can buy it from the website Ninja Polish which I am proud to say is ran by two of my friends!
Sticks 'n Stones is currently sold out, but there is a nice feature on the site that will email you when it is back in stock!

Have a lovely day, everyone!

i'm home! / april haul!

Hey everyone! Back to live posting here from RLN headquarters.

I had a fantastic time on vacation, spent a ton of money, ate a whole bunch of good food, and of course brought home a lot of polish.

I'm gonna start this post with my usual monthly haul list, and then move on to the stuff I got while on vacation!
Before I left for vacation, I wasn't really being as good as I should have been...