Dear readers,

check it out, it's a review with a proper swatch! No nail art in sight anywhere. Crazy, eh? Well, with polishes this fun and sparkly, you don't really need anything else.

This is one of Different Dimension's recently released polishes, Never Grow Up. It reminded me of Money, so I grabbed it when I was reordering that one, but where Money has small and large glitters in various shades of green and blue as well as black, white and silver holo, Never Grow Up has only silver holo and blue in a milky white base with a blue, glassfleck-type shimmer. So while I am attracted to both for the same reasons (huge circle glitters! White crelly!), they are different enough for me to want them both.

I think Money seems more playful, while Never Grow Up has a somewhat crisper air to it. It can be fun and playful, but with its snow-blue shimmer (especially in matte) it's about as close to sophisticated as a glitter-loaded polish can get.

Here's a comparison for you. The two fingers on the right are matted, the other two have a glossy top coat (second pic). It doesn't make a lot of difference - in fact, I think I prefer the glossy version of Money - but the blue shimmer of Never Grow Up shows up really nicely in the matte version.

 

The full hand mani of Never Grow Up is without a top coat because it spread so smoothly. I went swimming that day and oh, you should have seen it in the clear green water! Between the sun and the water, my hands that were all but trailing sparkles as I was swimming. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me, but you should try it sometime. 

Both of these polishes spread well and are opaque in three coats. I have the impression the base of Never Grow Up might be a bit more opaque than Money's, where the first coat seems to consist of more glitter than base. Particularly the latter is chock full of glitter, but if you want large circles in either of these, you may have to fish a bit, though not excessively.

You can find these at Different Dimension's etsy shop, but you'll have to wait for the next restock if you want Never Grow Up or its pastel purple sister Today Was a Fairytale (but you can't have that because I want it, so forget all about it, sorry about that).

As always, I'm doing this review because I feel like it and want to show you pretty polish - I bought these pretties myself. I know it says so in my disclaimer and we don't have blog disclosure laws like in the US, but I doubt everyone reads the disclaimer so I sometimes add one to my reviewier posts. That said, I'm not generally opposed to writing reviews for indie polish makers in exchange for sample products, I just never have been asked to do so. If I did, you can be sure it will be clearly labeled as such and as honest as all my other reviews.

Have a nice weekend and go swimming if you can!

S.

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Dear readers,

Time is all out of wonk here at casa de nail newbie! Just yesterday, we had day 26 of the OMD challenge - and now it's day 8? Timey wimey much? I guess that explains the blue police box I saw in my kitchen earlier. Also, my custard is gone.

Right. All readers who aren't Doctor Who fans, I apologise. A bit. I have reasons! It's Saturday and I'm feeling fine, I've got time to drink coffee at my leasure, my vacation starts next week and I'm going to see Leonard Cohen tonight. So forgive me if I seem excessively bouncy. I promise you my mani won't be.

So back on topic: Because I'm still wearing yesterday's underwater mani and can't bring myself to remove it even for the Leonard Cohen nail art I'd planned, I'm skipping today's jewelry theme on the OMD challenge and posting something for matte day instead, which I missed.

I've sung the praises of LynBDesigns Quoth the Raven (Bro You Cray Cray) before, but it really deserved to get its own post, given my fondness of Poe and ravens in general. I'll just go ahead and quote myself on the description of the polish:

This is deliciously thick and dark like the blood of some monster from Poe's imagination, black like the deepest night and a witch's cat. It's perfect for nail art - not too thick, not too liquid. On it's own, it's a two-coater. You might manage with one thick coat but why get one longer-drying coat when you can do it in two thinner and faster-drying ones? This polish dries to a semi-matte finish.

I made it fully matte for this nail art and then painted ravens on the thumb and ring finger with a glossy top coat. I like the one in flight better, the one on the thumb has a bit of a puffin beak, but I didn't notice that at the time. I then decided to add something to the other nails too and chose a design heavily inspired by this gorgeous mani by Copy That, Copy Cat.

It was really hot that day so I've got bubbles - but that's caused by the matte top coat, not Quoth the Raven, as you can see in the bubble-free picture of the polish on its own. I had some difficulty applying the polish evenly, but I'm not sure whether that's the polish or operator error. I know I've seen lots of very smooth swatches of it. It's definitely a polish I'd buy again!

Click here to see the collection of matte manicures:

8. Matte :

The nail newbie (nothing else matte-rs)

Note: Any links to external blogs or stores are pure link love - no advertising or affiliate linking going on here. I paid for everything and I'll regret it nevermore.

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Good morning everyone!

Today's theme in the OMD Pretty Awesome challenge is music, which means we're all likely to have songs stuck in our heads all day long. At my stop I'm serving up psychedelic tunes from one of my all-time favourite bands, Pink Floyd. (I considered doing Leonard Cohen but I just got the Pink Floyd collection from Different Dimension, how could I resist?)

As undies I used LynBDesigns' Quoth the Raven, which turned out to be better at two coats - you might manage with one thick coat but why get one longer-drying coat when you can do it in two thinner and faster-drying ones? This polish dries to a semi-matte finish (and I used it to do the matte manicure I skipped), but the pictures of the finished nail art show it first with a glossy and then with a matte topcoat. Here it is on its own though:

I used about a gazillion polishes for this, as you're wont to do with refracted light, so I'll refrain from posting all their names, but if you have questions, ask.

You've probably all seen this image at one time or another - it's the cover of Dark Side of the Moon. It was designed by Storm Thorgerson (Hipgnosis group), who designed many iconic album covers and sadly passed away earlier this year.

The other nails feature Different Dimension polishes from the Echoes collection. Time (middle finger) and Money (ring finger; ignore the daft visuals in the video) are tracks from Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here on the pointer is from the album of the same name, and Comfortably Numb on the pinky is from the album from which everyone has probably heard at least one song, The Wall. I think the pink, white and black glitter topper The Wall would've looked better over black than Money, but I couldn't very well skip that when I've got the album cover on my thumb nail. Besides, it's my favourite from the collection and I'm eagerly waiting for a restock so I can get a full-size bottle of it.

matte and beautiful

look at the colour changes on the pointer!

I like these polishes, the four glitter toppers are suitably glittery and the other two (Money and Hey You), which have thin milky bases, are slow to build but beautiful. I like the large round glitters, which I'm seeing a lot more of recently (could be just me discovering them for myself, not a general trend), and though you need to fish for them a bit and place them carefully, they're well worth the trouble. I also knew what I was getting into, as Missi gives fair warning in the listings: "This is not a polish for the faint of heart as it does need work to get some of the bigger holographic circle glitters out." I think that's pretty cool. Of course, I can't be deterred by statements like that but I imagine it's useful for people who want to just put on one layer of top coat and be done with it.

Ready to get some new songs stuck in your head?

23. Music Themed :

See you on the dark side of the moon,
the nail newbie

Note: Any links to external blogs or stores are pure link love - no advertising or affiliate linking going on here. I paid for everything, including my original Pink Floyd LPs. The earworms come free with purchase.

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Dear readers,

Today's theme for the OMD challenge is "ruffian/halfmoon". The name 'ruffian' for what is essentially the opposite of a French manicure has always confused me a bit. Do lawless brutes paint their nails in two different colours to show they are rebels? Is the differently-coloured rim at the base of the nail a signal that tells those in the know "don't mess with me"? I do not know. But I do know that if I can get away with using the dictionary to make a mani a bit more amusing, I'll do it, so here is my take on a ruffian mani, inspired by ruffian and consulting criminal extraordinaire, James Moriarty (though I suppose Sebastian Moran could be considered even more of a ruffian). 

This is another polish from LynBDesigns' Baker Street collection, called So Changeable. I don't think it's much of a spoiler for the TV show Sherlock to say that this name is very appropriate. (You'll want to avoid clicking on any further links in this post if you're concerned about spoilers though.) Is he blue or is he purple? Does he have a hint of turquoise? Is he going to kill you or not? There's no way to tell. He's just sooooooooo changeable.

I adore Jenna's polishes, their formula is one of the best I've ever encountered, and they don't just carry geeky names, they embody them. This is three thin coats (no top coat) over a coat of Essence go bold! Why gold, you ask? Because, honey, you should see him in a crown.

Click on the linky below to see the ruffians and halfmoons the others have prepared for today!

16. Ruffian/Half-Moon :

The nail newbie, consulting nail polish addict

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Dear readers,

This is my 100th post. I had hoped this would be a slightly more momentous occasion than just a quick post of a mani I prepared for the OMD challenge a week ago, but there you go.

Honestly, I never expected to get to this point. My few previous attempts at blogging petered out after a month or two and a dozen posts, but now I've been blogging for over half a year. At the same time I don't really feel very accomplished or experienced - I still feel like a newbie, so I guess I don't have to think about changing my name anytime soon. I was going to say that I feel my nail art's improved but then I went back to look for my first nail art post and found this - not so different from today's flowers, eh? ;) That was a challenge too, which I gave up on after two days. So that's progress, I guess - at least this time around I'm doing most of the manis. And if you look at my actual first mani, the red "gradient" in this post, then yeah, a lot has happened since then.

I don't know where I'm going with my rambling or my blog, but I do know I love hanging out with all you polish girls (and boys?) and doing weird nail art and geeking out about nerdy nail polish, so I guess you're stuck with me for a while.

So with that said, here's a flower mani I actually planned to redo because it's not very tidy and the idea of using the dots as part of the flowers only came to me while I was doing it, so there's no planning in their placement. Because of work and other manis I had no time, though, and I didn't take this one with me on vacation, so this'll have to do.

no top coat

matte

 

The polish is Dot of the Bay by Pretty & Polished; a lovely aqua jelly with round green, blue and pink metal glitters. I'm not quite sure how many coats I used here, probably 3 or so. The petals are my standard LOOK white.

I'm pretty late posting this tonight so there's already an impressive collection of flowers in the linky, go have a look!

14. Flowers :

The nail newbie, ready for another 100 posts

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Very sunny on top of being pretty cunning

Dear readers,

I'm pretty late posting this tonight, it's been one of those days... but I won't go to bed until I've shown you my stripe mani!

I wasn't sure what to do for today and was just going to do some random stripes, but then my order from Lucky 13 Lacquer arrived, which included a Firefly-themed polish: The Hero of Canton, the Man they Call Jayne. I know, longest polish name ever, right? But I appreciate a nice long quote when it's from one of my favourite shows.

I have a lot more to tell you about Lucky 13 and Kyoti, who is the woman behind it and is incredibly sweet and awesome, but I'll leave that for another day when I'm not in such a hurry to finish packing because yay, I'm going on holiday! I'll still be posting though - in fact, I'll finally have time to blog!

matte

So back to the Jayne polish. As soon as I saw it I knew exactly what kind of stripes to do: a Jayne hat! If you haven't seen Firefly, Jayne is this big coarse guy with more brawn than brains, but when he gets this knitted hat from his mother, he wears it all the time (despite the others snickering about it). You can't see it so well in the video below but it's yellow, orange and red. In addition to being "pretty cunning" and iconic geekwear, it was also the subject of a bit of nasty business when FOX decided to ban people from selling hats like it on etsy etc., despite it being one of the simplest knitting patterns and colour combinations out there. But I'm pretty confident they can't take my nails from me.

Here's a fan video that explains the whole Hero of Canton thing, complete with the song from which the polish takes it's name, but it's mildly spoilery, so watch out.

3-4 coats of Hero on its own, matte top coat

The other polishes used here are H&M Yellow, L'Oreal Lush Tangerine and Dior Diablotine (in what is probably the smallest and cutest polish sample bottle I have ever seen). For some reason it wouldn't photograph well, it's actually more orange, not that pinkish tone most of the pictures show.

Do you like Firefly? How do you like my hat? And have you seen today's other stripes yet?

11. Stripes :

The nail newbie (always a browncoat)

Note: Any links to external blogs or stores are pure link love - no advertising or affiliate linking going on here. I paid for everything (except the Dior, which was a drugstore freebie), but then, there is no power in the verse that could stop me from buying geeky polishes.

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Hi everyone,

Work's been keeping me pretty busy! I missed matte day and texture day - I'll definitely revisit matte at a later point, since, as you may have noticed, I'm mad about matte. Matte was not an option for today's nail art though: Bender has such a sparkling personality that he needs the shiny like a megalomaniac villain needs a white fluffy cat.

I trust Bender Bending Rodríguez of Futurama fame needs no introduction. At least I hope so because I need to work some more today so I'm typing this post up really quickly... if you have no idea who or what Bender and/or Futurama are, immediately get yourself the first season of Futurama and watch it!

in the shade

in the sun

The base colour here is a-England King Arthur (with a top coat), with the rogueish robot done in Boulevard de Beauté shades 12 and 17, which are essentially light and dark silver. His mouth presented a problem, the black polish for delineating the teeth would not cooperate and then I had to redo the white part as well and it all got a bit messy and now he's got a bit of a big mouth, but then, doesn't he always? (I've said this before, but I really need to get some good white and black!) Also, excuse the lack of cleanup, I didn't notice the state of my middle finger until just now, when I'm no longer wearing the mani (it really wasn't 'bring your robot to work' day today).

closeup of King Arthur in the sun, 2 layers w top coat

King Arthur essentially applies itself, just like as all other a-Englands I've tried. This is the good stuff. This shows two coats, though you might even get away with just one thicker one. 

You can find a list of a-England distributors here.

Let's see what everyone else did for metal day (I'm really hoping someone did a heavy metal mani!)

10. Metallic :

The robot-loving nail newbie

Note: All opinions are completely my own. Any links to external blogs or stores are pure link love - no advertising or affiliate linking going on here. I received the Boulevard de Beauté polishes as a gift; other than that I paid for everything, but who am I to resist Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon?

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Dear readers,

See, I told you the daily posting wouldn't last. Yesterday wasn't a very good day and though I had prepared a mani for the OMD challenge (theme: neon), I wasn't happy with it and decided to revisit that one at a later time. But today's theme is holo, and as a holo-holic there was no way I was passing that up.

I've been rewatching Star Trek, both the original series (non-Trekkies: this is the one with Kirk and Spock) and Next Generation (the one with Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, Data the android and Worf the Klingon). I'm sort of watching them in parallel because some days I just can't appreciate papier maché rocks and 1960s innuendo enough and need me some good 1980/90s sweaters and hairdos and Earl Grey, hot.

Anyway, the other day I was watching the holodeck episode where Data is Sherlock Holmes and Geordi LaForge is his Watson and they encounter Moriarty, and I knew I needed to dedicate the holo nails to the holodeck. So here, without further ado, you have Data Sherlock Holmes wearing his death frisbee and Geordi John Watson with his visor and bowler hat. (Why do I have trouble painting bowlers but not deerstalkers? That makes no sense.) Here are a few of the pictures (spoilers) I used for inspiration (spoilers, but hilarious ones).

Business idea, dear indie polish makers: If any of you will make a linear holo collection called 'Holodeck' inspired by some of the fantastic holodeck episodes of TNG, I'll be all over it. If you make it thermal (I don't know if thermal colour changing linear holographic polish is possible, but you could be the first to try!), I will love you forever. Also, I'm pretty sure that collection (thermal or not) would sell like hotcakes. You're welcome.

Work in progress and the strongest holo effect

But back from the future to my current holo loves: The holographic polish is I Love Nail Polish 1st and 15th. (Yes, that's right, the green one - I broke down and got myself a few minis because the full ones were out, and it is indeed different than my other green holos. Take that, rational side!) This shows three coats but it's opaque in two and applies beautifully and smoothly. It's a sophisticated smoky jade green in the shade but goes all sorts of crazy in the sunlight. It's one of ILNP's 'ultra holos' and it's easy to see why they're called that - they are considerably more intense than their regular holos. If you want high-quality indie holos, I can wholeheartedly recommend ILNP (along with Literary Lacquers).

The other polishes used are flormar and drugstore polishes (s-he, essence, LOOK, Boulevard de Beauté), and that little red sensor on Geordi's visor is OPI. I'm wearing an essence top coat on the two nails with the nail art on them, the others are just the polish without any top coat.

Do you have a favourite holodeck episode? Or are you still unsure what a holodeck actually is? Which Star Trek series is your favourite?

Holodeck or holographic, check out everyone's holos here:

7. Holo :

Trekkie love,

the nail newbie

Note: Any links to external blogs or stores are pure link love - no advertising or affiliate linking going on here. I paid for everything, but can you blame me? Just look at the shiny!

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