Illamasqua - Raindrops

I think it's about time I got into my blog again. I'm sorry that I disappeared for a while. After all of those Hunger Games posts I was so drained. Those took a lot more work than I thought they would, but I don't regret any of it. And I hope everyone enjoyed them. After that I got into a weird depressed funk. I wasn't sleeping, almost everything made me want to cry, I stopped talking to people as much as possible. It was weird, and nothing made me feel better. I don't know what it was but something turned around and things got better. Every once in a while I get back into those funks. I'm falling into one now, I can feel it, but I'm fighting it as much as I can. Except this time the reason is unemployment and my lack of money. I've been applying to several teaching jobs as well as several retail jobs with no luck. I am currently offering private woodwind lessons, but that's a hard thing to have take off and get a lot of students. But I'm still trying (and probably annoying plenty of you with my flyer posts on facebook, haha)! Anyways, on to the polish.

I figured my return to my blog should be grand, and what better way than to show you my number one nail polish lemming that was on my wishlist for a very long time? I finally got this after talking with a lovely lady on MUA for several weeks about lining up a swap. And we finally did! So here she is, Illamasqua Raindrops:

Raindrops is a very greyed out blue. In fact it was much more grey than I expected, but I still love it. It has tiny silver flakies in it (and you all know flakies are my absolute favorite). This was 2 coats. The formula was great, but it dried really fast, so if I needed to go over any spots it started to drag. Next time I'll just paint more carefully. I absolutely adore this polish, and it feels so good to cross it off of my wishlist. 

I plan to start posting twice a week to start off, sometimes more. So stay tuned!

Zoya - Caitlin (and layering fun)

Zoya Caitlin. What is there to say about her? She's pure perfection. She's a beautiful shade of blue (with some hints of grey), with the perfect amount of dustiness thrown in. So in other words, a dusty blue-grey (that was easy). The formula was perfect...she applied like butter. Zoya is really dependable with their formulas...I've only gotten 1 or 2 polishes out of several from them that I did not like. Let's see her! (And sorry for the bad application, it was a speedy manicure and I have yet to find my clean-up brush).

Caitlin - artificial light.

Caitlin - artificial light.

As is the case with most blues and purples, they switch up. Caitlin is much more blue in real life, and less purple. 

There's a better shot of the blue. This is under direct artificial light and with flash.

Now, there are a few big polishes on my lemming list. One of those is Raindrops by Illamasqua. I had recently gotten one of the new Sally Hansen Diamond Strength polishes. Glass Slipper is a silver flakie suspended in a clear base, and I figured that this would help create a dupe. Unfortunately, Caitlin isn't the right base, and Glass Slipper's flakes are a little bit too big (maybe Diamond will work better). But, nonetheless it was still a pretty combination and I really liked it.

Natural light.

Natural light.

Direct sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

The flakies in Glass Slipper are bigger, and pretty dense. This is one coat in these photos. The formula was thick, but that's ok seeing how it was really meant for layering. Still a really pretty combination. Hope you enjoyed it!

CM