Still Alive, Still Blogging and Cult Nails Enigmatic

Hey guys!  I realize that I sorta kinda disappeared for a week.  My week just felt hectic with school and all just starting, so I decided to take a last second blogcation.  The first week of classes went pretty darn well, and I topped off the week with a Labor Day weekend trip to NYC with my boyfriend.  I dragged him to 3 separate Sephoras and a Duane Reade for polish-hunting and I got some good stuff that you will be seeing soon!  We JUST got back.  Tonight I have the last of Cult Nails' Fall collection, Enigmatic.

Enigmatic is a 4 free, animal cruelty free polish.  It's a maroon-ish shimmery polish that fits in well with the rest of the collection and also has a clear place among the fall releases from other brands.  The polish needed 2 coats for full opacity and it was easy to apply.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, and as promised I have Engimatic alone, with Hypnotize Me and a final shot with top coat. 

2 coats Enigmatic, no top coat, artificial light

Enigmatic + Hypnotize Me, no top coat, artificial light

Enigmatic + Hypnotize Me + top coat, artificial light

I think top coat on this combo brings out more depth in Hypnotize Me and makes the base color a lot deeper. 

Anyways, the collection impressed me big time.  Cult Nails polishes can be purchased online for $10 a piece!  I'll post more than once this week - I promise.  I can't wait to show you all of my new goodies!

~Shbecky

Cult Nails In A Trance with Hypnotize Me

Hey guys!  One day of school down.  I'm pretty tired, but I like my classes so far.  It's less intimidating than my 1L year, which is quite relieving.  It is clear that I will be VERY busy.  Tonight I have Cult Nails In A Trance, another polish from Maria of R3Daily's fall line.  These polishes are 4 Free and cruelty free.  I currently own EVERY polish from Cult Nails (I'm sick - I know).  In A Trance is yellow based, olive green frosty creme.  It's not frosty like the brush stroke nightmare frosts, but the polish is packed with a micro shimmer.  This one had a solid formula and was opaque in 2 coats.

2 coats In A Trance, no top coat, artificial light

 As promised, I have shots of In A Trance topped with Hypnotize Me, which I reviewed yesterday.  It is more evident that the base of Hypnotize Me has a tint in it here, because it makes In A Trance look a lot darker.

In A Trance+Hypnotize me, no top coat, artificial light

 Adding top coat doesn't bring out different colors in the glitter with this combination but it does look a little nicer I think.

In A Trance+Hypnotize Me+Nubar Top Coat, artificial light

Cult Nails fall collection is available now here for $10!


~Shbecky

Cult Nails Awakening and Hypnotize Me

Hey everyone!  In the aftermath of the rather anticlimactic hurricane that passed through DC, I am forced to come to terms with the fact that I return to school tomorrow morning.  I'll be taking 14 class credit hours, and doing law journal work AND interning on my Fridays.  At this point I plan to post most days of the week, but I make no promises.  I will be trying to do enough swatches in one sitting on weekends to post for the week.   However, if I only can squeeze in 5 then I'll have to settle with 5.  Perhaps Eisenbrat or SonyT will fill in some of the gaps, but I know SonyT has even more law school stuff going on than I do and Eisenbrat has her own stuff going on.  Only time will tell, but I promise to do my best.  UGH I have a ton of reading to do already and classes haven't even started!  Now who wants to see some polish??  Today I have for you Cult Nails Awakening and Hypnotize Me from Maria's (R3Beauty) fall collection.  I pre-ordered these RIGHT when they were made available and was so excited to see them.  Cult Nails polishes are 4 Free and SO nice.

Awakening is a deep, slightly dusty, teal creme.  I really like this color and I think it mingles well with the other fall colors we've been seeing.

4 coats Awakening, no top coat, artificial light

This is the thinnest formula I've seen from Cult Nails thus far.  It needs 4 coats to be fully opaque, but the color builds well.  The 4 coats provide a depth of shine and I don't count this against the polish.  I know some people will, but to each her own.  If a polish dries fast and doesn't pool in my cuticles, I have no problems with 4 quick coats. 

Also part of Cult Nails fall collection is Hypnotize Me.  It's this light blue/green, very sheer jelly base packed with fine light blue and green glitter.  The polish is clearly meant as a top coat and as I show you this collection I will be including a swatch of it over each polish.  You'll get one with top coat and one without, because Hypnotize Me dries to a satin finish.

One coat Hypnotize Me over Awakening, no top coat, artificial light

In contrast to Awakening, Hypnotize Me is the thickest formula we've seen from Cult Nails.  I WISH it were thinner, but at the same time I still love it.  It packs SO much glitter and though you can't see it here, it tints the coat under it a bit green.  I even like the satin finish.  The good news is that this isn't difficult to apply and the satin finish makes it dry quickly. 

Awakening+Hypnotize Me+Nubar top coat, artificial light.

Adding top coat makes the green glitter stick out a bit more.  The final look reminds me of a galaxy or something.  I like it a lot.

Cult Nails polishes are available for $10 each here.

~Shbecky

Cult Nails Haul

So you've all seen Devious Nature by now (I'm obsessed).  I figured I should show you the other 3 polishes I snagged.  I got Always Winning, Captivated and Let Me Fly.  Like the other fab polishes from Maria at Cult Nails these polishes are 3 Free and come in the easy to hold cylindrical bottles.  The tops look large, but are actually really easy to hold.  The brushes also look thick on these but are perfect matches to these varied formulas.

2 coats Let Me Fly + Seche Vite, artificial light

First up is Let Me Fly.  I'd classify this as Butter London Victoriana's sibling.  (See my review of Victoriana here) It's a green/blue creme with very fine silver and green/blue glitter.  Victoriana's glitter is only silver and slightly finer.

2 coats Let Me Fly + Seche Vite, sunlight

 Let Me Fly is thicker, but it is still just as easy to apply as any Cult Nails polishes.  This was opaque in 2 coats.  I even grabbed some sun photos - I know you were beginning to think I lived in a cave.


Up next is Always Winning.  Loving the name on this polish.  I expected that I might not care for the color of this polish.  I do love green polish, but only when they are perfectly toned.  This polish definitely exceeded my expectations and is even more beautiful in person that in swatches or in the bottle.  I don't even really know how to describe this polish.  I'd say it's a dusty olive-y green jelly/creme that almost has a metallic finish.  I don't know how that's possible.  It has yellowy gold small hex glitter running throughout it, but also has a rainbow/holographic dose of glitter that really pops out in the sunlight.  This was also opaque in 2 coats.  It is thicker than the other Cult Nails polishes, but applies fine provided you let the coats dry.

2 coats Always Winning + Seche Vite, artificial light

2 Coats Always Winning + Seche Vite close up, artificial light

2 coats Always Winning + Seche Vite, shade

I tried to get this in the sunlight, but it was soooo shiny that my camera was getting upset.  As a final note, this neeeeeeds top coat or it is not smooth to the touch.  No big deal since I love top coat.  Last but not least we have Captivated.  It is a coral jelly packed with varying small and fine size yellowy gold and coral glitter.  I think there is a very small amount of light purple glitter in there as well.  This is a 3-coater and relatively thick even compared to Always Winning.  It still seems to dry really fast though, so if you aim for thin coats this isn't really a problem.  I have a strong urge to go get this put on my toes, but I'm feeling under the weather so that will have to wait. 

3 coats Captivate + Seche Vite, artificial light

Check out the glitter!

3 coats Captivated + 1 coat Seche Vite, shade

I ran into the same sunlight issue with this one.  The glitter behaved best in the shade!

Verdict?  Time to grab the last shade I don't already own.  Enough said!

Don't forget to enter our Nfu Oh 61 Giveaway!

~Shbecky

First Try w/Konad Plate m57

I'm home sick today with an evil sore throat, so I thought I'd give konading a try.  I kept Cult Nails Devious Nature on for 2.5 days 50% out of love for the polish and 50% because I felt too blah to switch my polish (that's how you know when I really don't feel well).  I am happy to report that I had little to no wear or chipping after that time.  Anywho, I recently acquired a stamper and a few Konad plates from BornPretty (*I'll be giving them a little write up soon!).  When they first arrived I gave it a quick try with no success.  After watching a tutorial I roughed up the stamper with a buffer and practiced on a notepad.

Devious Nature topped with fishnet stamp in Zoya Dove + Seche Vite

 I was having limited success on the notepad, so eventually I turned to my nail to see if that would work better.  I swapped out the metal scraper for an old credit card and some thicker polishes and I am pretty happy with the results.  I definitely need to find out which polishes work well since I don't have the special Konad polish.  Some stamps worked better than others, but I figured I'd show you all of results!

Devious Nature w/ flower stamp in Butter London Blagger + Seche Vite

Devious Nature stamped with Zoya Caitlin + Seche Vite

 Zoya Caitlin was way too light against Devious Nature :(

Devious Nature stamped with animal print in Butter London Blagger + Seche Vite

 Here I didn't push down evenly.  The whole nail stamps are much more difficult for a newbie.

All of the practice stamps!

Verdict? I need more practice, but I don't think it's totally beyond my ability.  Any tips for me??

Don't forget to enter the Nfu Oh 61 Giveaway !

-Shbecky

Cult Nails: Devious Nature

This is such a treat!  All weekend while I was gone, I eagerly awaited the arrival of my new Cult Nail polishes. Today when I got home from work my Devious Nature (and 3 others that you will surely see soon) was waiting for me! Devious Nature is a fabulously incredible bright pink creme from blogger/nail polish genius, Maria (see her blog here).  My fingers were suffering from my travels, so I grabbed my Devious Nature and ran to the nail place across the street and gave my poor fingers some much needed moisture.  Even the manicurist commented on how beautiful this polish was.  I'm not even a girly pink gal, but I LOVE this polish.  I figured this polish would be a good place to start off my first pink Wednesday!  In honor of the film Mean Girls, Wednesdays will now feature a pink mani :)  So here we go!

2 coats Devious Nature + 1 coat unknown top coat, artificial light.

All of Maria's polishes are 3 Free and thus far I haven't found one that isn't a dream to apply.  She has these great tube-like bottles which seem like they would be hard to hold but are actually really easy to hold on to.  The brush is the perfect size and flexibility for the formula of the polish.  Ok- I'm ranting.  I'm just trying to communicate how great this is.  This was even photogenic.  I grabbed this pic in one try, which is not like me at all.

These polishes can be purchased at Cult Nails.  They retail for $10 each, which you will see is really a steal for these.  I know at the moment she is ironing out some international shipping kinks, but it seems like most countries should be back in action soon. (Update: Most countries ARE back in action!)

Love the polishes, Maria!


Verdict?  Love it, and I think I need to get back on there and order the only Cult polish I don't own.

Bonus shot of Calpurnia trying to help me take pics in the light box

Don't forget to sign up for our Nfu Oh 61 giveaway!

-Shbecky

~FYI - I bought these on my own!