Polish Post: Colors by Llarowe "Alternate Universe" + Nail Art

Well good morning/afternoon/evening to you!  Please forgive my absence - my computer decided it wanted to die randomly while I was in the middle of tasks, so I am now on my husband's computer until we can get me a new one.  Oy vey!!

Let's get back in the game with a polish post!  Earlier this week I posted a preview pic on my Facebook Page of a swatch of "Alternate Universe," part of the summer 2014 collection by Colors by Llarowe.  I've got some more pictures for you here, as well as a review, and something artsy :D  Check out the swatches below:

Outdoors in Direct Sunlight

Indoors Out Of Direct Sunlight

"Alternate Universe" is a gorgeous turquoise crelly with a green/gold shimmer in the sunlight.  It is a stunning color!  Because it is a crelly, it a bit thinner in shade and would take about 3-4 coats to be fully opaque, or you could put on a solid color as a base and paint Alternate Universe over that color.  I used 3 coats in the pictures above.  The application was super smooth, and surprisingly not thick at all considering it is a crelly base.  Dried very quickly and lasted a good 3 days before the tips of my nails started to wear.  Overall, it's a great polish!!  

The color reminded me of an ocean hue, so I was inspired to paint a sea turtle over it.  What I had in my head did not end up on my nails, though apparently it is a huge hit with the nail community!  It is my most popular and most liked photo yet, and has even earned itself a spotlight on an awesome Facebook page called You Nail'd It - another reason I also have to be thankful that I recently gained 50 followers (hello and welcome to you all!!!)  So without further ado, here is a better quality photo of the turtle!

I have affectionately called him my Turtalien because his face reminds me of an alien, not a sea turtle (couldn't quite get that nose definition right for the life of me!)  I spent the length of the movie Without A Paddle (about an hour and a half) painting this little guy.  This is the second time I have painted over my nails with acrylic paint, and each time I do it, I am happier with the results and am inspired with so many more designs!

So, in light of my acrylic revelations of late, I have decided to do more nail art!!  I will still do polish posts reviewing and swatching colors from various indie polish companies, but I will insert some fun nail art designs here and there, too :)  Keep watch on my Facebook page!  I will be holding a You-Pick-The-Art every Friday, where I will put up 3 different inspiration photos, and whichever gets the most "likes" is what I will use to come up with a nail design :D  First one is next week!

That is all for now!  I will have another post for you tomorrow, and a possible giveaway announcement since I am 2 likes away from 100 on my Facebook page!  Have a great Thursday <3

Toesies I Knowsies

Remember a few posts ago when I had said poor Tuesday doesn't really have a title?  Well, guys, I found one for it - TOES!!!!  Toesie toesie toes toes!!!  I rarely if ever see any kind of blog post with super cute pedicures.  It is probably most likely due to the world's general aversion to bare feet.  I've known a few people who hate feet and the idea of doing anything with feet because they are "gross."  While I agree that yes, there are some gnarly feet out there, I disagree that we should just avoid feet and toes altogether.

Well, I'm BREAKING THE BOUNDARIES!!

I'm gonna do a "Toesies I Knowsies" post every Tuesday of a cute pedicure, I will even model it on my own feet.  The fact is nobody has super beautiful feet - I mean come on, we shove them in socks and shoes and are walking around on them all day.  Hard knock life.  So I'm going to show you my feet!  No shame!  And you can either cringe if you'd like, or you can admire the cute pedicure :)  

So, without further ado, here is the first Toesie Tuesday Pedi!  I used two of I Love Nail Polish's new summer colors - "Purple Plasma" and "Rehab."  These colors are lovely!! They look great in the sunlight when wearing something open-toed, especially flip-flops.  Check them out:

Fully opaque after 2 coats, smooth application, and the polish dried pretty quickly without a quick-dry topcoat.  I love the light holographic sheen to these two colors!  They are just gorgeous!!

I used a dotting tool for the little dots on each toe.  It is a cute, subtle design that helps accentuate how complementary the colors are together, though the turquoise dots did not stand out as much over the dark purple.  

Hope you enjoyed this introductory Toesie Tuesday post!  Watch for another one next Tuesday :)