Different Dimension: The Expansion Set
I’ll warn you- this is a VERY picture heavy post!
Some of you already know, but I play World of Warcraft. I have since shortly after it was released- just over 7 years. So when Missi of Different Dimension put out a call for bloggers that also play WoW to show off her new collection- I jumped at the chance!
World of Warcraft has it’s 4th expansion pack, Mists of Pandaria, coming out in just over a week. The theme of this expansion is Pandaria- ie, panda people (for those who aren’t familiar with the game). Much of the backbone of WoW centers around conflict between two warring factions- The Alliance and The Horde (which when playing, you play for the faction of your choice).
Of course, you certainly don’t have to play- or even like- World of Warcraft to love these polishes!
Be sure to grab any you want NOW- Once the Expansion is released on September 25, these will be gone for good!
I’m going to start off tonight with Murloc!
So that green guy is a murloc! Murlocs are (usually) hostile creatures found… well… all OVER the place in WoW. They’re sort of like fish people. There’s a lot of color variations with them, but this particular one shows off the polish colors the best!
Murloc is a pretty glitter polish filled with green, blue and red sparkling hexes. This could be opaque in multiple coats, but I chose to use it as a layering polish.
This is 2 coats of Murloc over Spoiled’s I’m So Jaded. The glitters were so beautiful and sparkly- there is a bit of a holo shine to the them, especially the blue and green!
Next, we have Spectral Tiger!
The Spectral Tiger is a very rare, very coveted mount in the game. It’s only available via the WoW Trading Card Game, so it costs a lot of real-life money to acquire (think many hundreds of dollars). It’s a ghostly, slightly transparent tiger. I do not have this mount 😦
But I DO have this beautiful polish of the same name! (yeah, cheesy, I know)
Spectral Tiger is GORGEOUS. Just absolutely gorgeous. It’s a very subtle polish; a light baby blue shade filled with baby blue, white, and holographic glitters. I chose to layer 2 coats over Sinful Color’s Snow Me White.
But the BEST part about Spectral Tiger? It GLOWS! I took this picture in my hall bathroom with the door shut.
Next up, we have Bad Ass Panda!
Bad Ass Panda is a pretty black and white topcoat. It’s filled with black and white hexes of various sizes, black diamonds, and holographic glitter- so there’s a lot of sparkle!
As a reference- here is a Pandaren, the new race that’s being introduced in Mists. To be specific- this is MY Pandaren. This is my main character (Sunni) as she looks on the beta servers- since you can change your character’s race over there. I plan on doing this the day the expansion comes out, so this is exactly how she’ll look again in a few weeks 🙂 She’s also hanging out with my very favorite companion pet, Bananas- he was a birthday present from my husband about 4 years ago.
For those interested- I’m an enhancement shaman, and I play Horde side!
Now you’ll understand why I chose this undercoat for Bad Ass Panda…
This is 2 coats of Bad Ass Panda over 2 coats of Zoya Lola. I did do a tiny bit of glitter placing for these photos, just to ensure that every nail had a diamond, but it’s not necessary for normal wear!
And now, we just have the last 2 polishes- Alliance and Horde. I happen to have faction-specific stuffed animals (yes, I do, and I won’t allow my kids to play with them), and they’ll be making appearances alongside their faction’s colors! You already know I play Horde side, so I’m leaving the best for last.
(One of the Alliance’s war cries is ‘For The Alliance’, and their main aerial mount is a gryphon- this is a stuffed baby gryphon)
Alliance is filled with blue, lilac, and holographic gold glitter. Like the ones before it, this is best used over another polish!
I chose to layer 2 coats of Alliance over Love My Nails Electric Blue. It’s not quite the right shade of blue, but that’s ok.
Here’s my nails posing with the Alliance crest, which is the inspiration for the polish!
And last (but certainly not least), we have Horde!
(One of the Horde’s war cries is ‘Lok’tar Ogar’, which means Victory or Death in orcish. Their main mode of aerial transportation is a wryvern- and the stuffed animal is a baby wryvern).
This polish is the best in the collection for using with no polish underneath. It’s a jelly finish, but it’s almost opaque in 2 coats and completely covers in 3. Horde is filled with silver and red hex glitter and fine silver holographic glitter in a black jelly base.
This is 3 coats of Horde with no basecoat. If the second coat was thick, a 3rd coat wouldn’t be needed! These photos truly don’t show off the holo sparkle of this polish well- it REALLY shines!
Posing with the Horde crest- like with Alliance, this is the inspiration for this polish!
Overall, I was blown away by this entire collection. I thought they looked pretty and awesome before I recieved them, but once I put them on, they were all just so very gorgeous. I’m partial to them all of course, but if you have to be good and just grab 1 or 2- I’d say Spectral Tiger is a must-have, and if you lack a nice black and white topcoat Bad Ass Panda is as well.
You can follow Different Dimension on Facebook, and be sure to check out her Etsy Store! In addition to the new WoW collection, there are a TON of gorgeous polishes. Each color in this collection sells for $10 and Spectral Tiger sells for $12.50, or you can get the whole set of 5 for $45 (a discount of $7.50!). Other polishes are $8.50, and Glow in the Darks are $10. She also now offers mini sets!
*These polishes were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.*
Indie Wednesday: Darling Diva Polish, Take 1
Hello All! I have a TON of Darling Diva Polishes to show off, so I’ve decided to split them into 2 posts. Today I will feature Cotton Candy, Sophia, and Princess Luna! Friday I’ll be showing off Ringer and Dangerous Driver.
Earlier this week, I had a big swatch-a-thon with all of these beautiful colors. Everything looked nice in person, however, I’m not entirely happy with the photos for this particular post (I think Friday’s pictures look great though). I already promised this write up for today, and I won’t be home tomorrow, so I wanted to go forward with posting. But I think I’m going to retake some photos this weekend and add them in.
First up, we have Cotton Candy!
Cotton Candy is a pretty shade of pink, with various sizes and shapes of white glitter- but not a ton of glitter, so it gives the polish a dainty feel. These photos were taken with 2 coats of polish.
I only used Cotton Candy for the photos, but I think next time I’ll try layering over a very similar pink (maybe Zoya Lara?)- since the second layer does cover up the first layer’s glitter almost completely. Either way, you’ll have a beautiful look!
Next up, we have Sophia!
For Sophia, I opted to use an underwear coat of Love My Nails Electric Blue, with 2 coats of Sophia.
Sophia is a beautiful periwinkle blue fine glitter, sprinkled with the occasional gold holographic hex glitter. I had to work to get the ones I did on my nail! I’d say average use would be closer to 1-2 on each nail without any fishing. This color would look beautiful over black or white, and I bet it would look pretty over a red for a patriotic look.
And last but certainly not least, we have Princess Luna!
Princess Luna is inspired by the lovely Nightmare Moon/Princess Luna of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I’ve said it before, but I actually recommend MLP even for grownups. Seasons 1 and 2 are available for streaming on Netflix, and they’re awesome. Princess Luna is the sister to Princess Celestia, who is inspiration for another polish by Darling Diva Polish!
Much like her inspiration, the polish version of Princess Luna is a beautiful blue, full of sparkles, accented by deep purple and teal glitter, with a bit of white thrown in.
Like Sophia, I layered 2 coats over Love My Nails Electric Blue.
I placed some of the larger glitters, but I didn’t have to fish for any of these, they came right out to play! I think this is my favorite of tonight’s colors 🙂 But I may be partial due to the reference!
You can find Darling Diva Polish on Facebook, and you can buy her beautiful colors at her Etsy shop. All of her colors are $8.00 with the exception of holo colors, like Dangerous Driver, which are $12.00. And she ships internationally for a reasonable rate!
Be sure to check her out, and also check back on Friday for Part 2! Ringer and Dangerous Driver are SO GORGEOUS- I’m definitely saving the best for last. You won’t want to miss it!
*Some of the products shown in this post were provided to me without cost for an honest review*
Mashup: Indie Wednesday meets Flakie Friday with SYN Cosmetics
Hello again everyone! If you keep up with me on Facebook, you already know I’ve been in a bit of a funk this week- and if not, you may have thought I dropped off the Earth. I think I’m back to feeling normal, though!
A few announcements! I think a very small part of my funk was being restricted to these theme days (though most of it was not polish related). I thought they would be a great idea to keep me motivated, but in reality it’s having the opposite effect. In light of that, I’m dropping Flakie Friday. This will be the last official Flakie Friday post. I’m keeping the other 3 (Mani Mondays, Try It On Tuesday, Indie Wednesday), but I won’t force myself to do them each and every week. If the mood strikes me to wear something else? I’ll do it!
I’m also going to begin doing ‘Favorite’ posts. I really enjoy reading other bloggers monthly favorites roundups, so I’ll be adding in one of my own once a month. I’ll be working on July’s this weekend! It will feature all sorts of different things I’m interested in at the moment, not just polish. Trying to branch out a little- I have a TON of interests! But of course the blog will remain 99% polish related 🙂
So onto today’s post. I’m sure you guys have seen me raving about the new releases from Syn Cosmetics- and some of that is what I’m going to feature today!
Syn Cosmetics is an indie makeup brand that recently (a few months ago I believe) added polish to her lineup. Be sure to check out everything she offers!
First up is my very first purchase from Syn- All White Everything.
This is 1 coat of All White Everything over 2 coats Hard Candy Beetle (what was intended for the Try It On Tuesday that I didn’t post- I’ll reuse it this coming Tuesday!)
Its a very roughly similar idea to Lynderella’s Love, Lace and Lilacs, but in no means a dupe. I don’t own LLL, but this one lacks the heavy fine white glitter and the variety of hex sizes. But if you’ve been looking for a nice, white CTD type glitter, give this one a look!
Next up are 2 that I was SO excited to play with- her newest additions to the line, solar changing polish!! She has an awesome video available on the site!
Obviously, the photo on the left is inside, and the one on the right is outside in the sunlight. I alternated between Solar Skies and Sunkissed- Sunkissed is the pink and Solar Skies is blue. Both appear the same- a milky clear- inside.
I layered each over 2 coats of white polish, followed by 2 coats of the solar changing polish.
I will say, I was a little disappointed Sunkissed didn’t quite show off as well as Solar Skies. Look at the bottle! The color change is HUGE, but over white it just wasn’t as noticeable. The blue was very apparent though!
These also definitely require sun- being inside, no matter how well lit or even ambient sunlight you have, they’re going to remain clear. As soon as you step into sunlight outdoors though, it changes fast!
So what did I do? Went back inside, and added more coats of Sunkissed. This is 4 coats of Sunkissed, and you can see it a lot better! Even with 4 coats, it wasn’t overly thick- so it’s definitely doable! LOVE these! Even my husband was into it, and thought this was the coolest thing ever. They’ll be releasing color-to-color changing ones soon, so keep yours eyes out!
Last one up is my quasi flakie of the day- a new unnamed Syn polish!
There was recently a promotion that if you spent $30.00, you would get one of the upcoming, unnamed polishes for free! I nicely asked if I could get this one- I LOVE pink of course, and I love shards and flakes and fun things!
I am in love with this! Ya’ll, this is only ONE coat! This has a little bit of everything in it- ultrafine pink, fine white, hot pink squares, pink hexes, white and black shards and bars. I layered this over 2 coats of Zoya Adina (another Try It On Tuesday color- I’m working ahead!).
You can purchase Syn Cosmetics on their site here, and follow them on Facebook for updates here. Be sure to check them out!! You’ll always find awesome promotions on Facebook- I’ve caught the buy 3-get 1 sale as well as a 35% off flash sale!
Indie Wednesday: Polished Components Hydrangea and Future
Today I’m going to be showing off some very pretty indies- Hydrangea and Future from Polished Components!
I picked these up awhile ago, but I just got word that Hydrangea can *no longer be made*. There’s only a very small number left (single digits), so if you really want it- I suggest you try to grab one quickly! I’ll post links at the end of the post.
First up I’m going to show off Hydrangea.
This is a beautiful shade of purple, packed with purple and blue shimmer. If you’re a fan of simple, understated indies over glitter bombs, Polished Components is a great store to check out. She offers a little bit of everything!
For these photos I used 2 coats of Hydrangea. I didn’t use a topcoat, because I knew I would be adding Future to it once photos were done!
Look at that beautiful shimmer 🙂
Next up, I layered 2 coats of Future on top of Hydrangea (although 1 would have been plenty).
Future is a really awesome flakie topcoat. Ya’ll know how I’m a sucker for flakes!
The flakes in Future are the kind I love- the thin variety that go on smoothly. They’re a beautiful mix of iridescent purple, blue, and a charcoal color. The purple are a bit larger than the blue and charcoal so that you don’t see them as easily, but they give off a beautiful color shift. This is definitely a different mix of flakie colors than any others I have!
Again with this mani, like many over the past week, I did no cleanup. While it may not look as perfect as it could, if the application is good and doesn’t ‘need’ cleanup, I like to try and leave it as normal as possible for everyone to see what they’d be working with!
You can find Polished Components here on Etsy, and here on Facebook. She has some adorable new labels for her bottles now too- but I bought mine a few months ago!
Be sure to check out the shop!
I have grand plans of posting something tomorrow, but my track record with ‘unplanned’ posts isn’t good. So if not tomorrow, I’ll see you all on Friday!
Indie Wednesday (On Thursday): Fanchromatic Nails
Hello a day late, everyone! As I mentioned yesterday on Facebook, we had pretty nasty storms all day yesterday. I had attempted indoor pictures of these colors, but they just didn’t turn out great and I didn’t want to post without pictures that could at least attempt to show the polishes off. So I waited until today, and thankfully the sun was shining!
So for today’s Indie Wednesday, I’m going to be featuring 2 lovely polishes from Fanchromatic Nails! This shop opened up for business just a month ago, so they’re still pretty new!
This shop specializes in ‘Geek’ nail colors- in other words, inspired by all things awesome. I’m glad lots of ladies are stepping up to fill the void that NerdLacquer left!
For my first order, I bought the 2 Limited Edition shades- Astrometrics and Spatial Anomaly. These are only available in mini size for $4.75 each, and they’re limited edition due to the ingredients- it’s not guaranteed there will be more available.
Would you LOOK at those sparkles? I will freely say- this is what these colors look like on the nail, though a tiny bit toned down. I tried so hard to do these justice but really feel I came up short. If you’re looking to get your money’s worth with an indie purchase, this would be it. These babies are filled with a TON of different glitters- shapes, sizes, colors. All while remaining fairly subdued and wearable.
First up is Astrometrics!
From the Etsy listing: ‘Astrometrics: measuring the movements of planets and other celestial bodies. This is some DEEP space science stuff. Fortunately, when translated into nail polish, “deep space stuff” just means you’ll really enjoy staring at your nails.’
Both of these colors were inspired by Star Trek- which I’ve never watched. One of the very few things we haven’t watched in this household, too!
These pictures are all 3 coats, plus 1 coat of Color Club topcoat. I could’ve gotten away with 2 coats, but it wasn’t completely opaque. I didn’t need any cleanup- which is to say, the polish behaved well 🙂
Next up: Spatial Anomaly!
Again from the Etsy listing: ‘Something’s there, but we don’t know what it is and we can’t explain it. That’s right, we discovered a spatial anomaly!’
This color is such a pretty shade. It’s a shimmery grey, filled with different colors, shapes and sizes of glitter. There’s come color shift, some holo, some sparkle… it’s so fun to look at!
Like Astrometrics, this was 3 coats, though 2 would have been fine. No cleanup at all was needed. Both dried quite quickly as well.
As a disclaimer- I’ve spent the better part of 2 weeks referring to this one as ‘Spatial Anatomy’, so I apologize if you catch that misspelling anywhere 🙂
You can find Fanchromatic Nails here on Etsy, and you can follow here on Facebook to keep up to date on news. There’s also an awesome Game of Thrones collection (Seven Kingdoms), along with the rest of the Star Trek inspired polishes (Strange New World) to check out!
Indie Wednesday: 365 Days of Color’s Birthday Bash and Make Me Laugh-y Taffy
Hello fellow polish monsters!
It’s time for my second Indie Wednesday! I was torn on what to post today- but that always seems to be the case! I have too many beautiful polishes I want to show everyone!
At the last minute I decided to show off 2 of my polishes from 365 Days of Color- Birthday Bash and Make Me Laugh-y Taffy! This is because the shop is set to open in 30 minutes! For those who don’t view this RIGHT when I post (which is to say, everyone), that’s 6pm EST/5pm CST/3pm PST. These will both be available, though Make Me Laugh-y Taffy will no longer be sold after today and only created on a made-to-order basis.
You can buy these lovelies at this site, and find 365 Days of Color on Facebook here.
On to the swatches!
First up is Birthday Bash.
Birthday Bash is a white polish filled with multi-colored flakes and blue glitter. You guys all know how I love my flakes!
Application was… ok. It went on smoothly and fine, but I did have some trouble controlling it. See my pre-cleanup photo:
Proof that I fail at putting on polish! Darn you small nubbin nails!
Luckily, it cleans up quickly and easily. I use a small paintbrush dipped in remover and run it along the creases after I apply polish- this time just needed a little more.
Voila! Problem solved 🙂
This is a very subtle but pretty polish. The white is fairly opaque, so the flakes just add an occasional pop! of faint color. If the polish were yellow, it would remind me of funfetti cake!
Unlike most glitter polishes, this came off quickly and easily with remover. Which is good, because I was rushing so that I could also show off…
Make Me Laugh-y Taffy!
I really, really, really love this polish. I had thought when I bought Birthday Bash I would love it more, but this one is still my favorite! Make Me Laugh-y Taffy is a pink jelly polish filled to the brim with multi-colored flakes. All of the following pictures are only 2 coats of the polish!!!
Just look at all those flakes in only 2 easy coats!
Unlike it’s less flashier cousin, Make Me Laugh-y Taffy applied like a dream. I did NO cleanup for these pictures. I didn’t even need to dab the polish around, the flakes all went on like that! (Though I did dab a little- but it was because I’m slightly OCD about placement. It honestly wasn’t needed)
Looks just like it’s namesake candy…
Maybe a bit more colorful though! 🙂
I hope you all enjoyed seeing my tiny nails showing off these pretty colors! There are SO many other beautiful colors available in the shop, as well as a whole new collection that I can’t wait to get my hands on! Go grab some if you can, and if you miss out just ‘like’ the facebook page to keep up to date on openings!
Until next time!
Indie Wednesday: Weird Indeed (PIVOT!, On a Break, Love Gunther, Troy & Abed)
Hello again everyone! Today I’m here with my very first Indie Wednesday post!
Most of the time I’ll only be doing 1 polish each week, but sometimes I’ll make exceptions- like with my first post! Today I’ll be highlighting polishes from Weird Indeed.
You can find Weird Indeed at her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WeirdIndeed. Her shop is also located on Facebook- just look for ‘Shop Now’ button on the header. She doesn’t always have everything in stock, so be sure to follow her Facebook page for updates of when specific things are in the store!
I currently own 4 colors from this lovely indie shop: ‘On a Break’, ‘PIVOT!’, ‘Love, Gunther’, and ‘Troy & Abed’. I recently ordered Pheebs, but don’t have it yet! Perhaps that will be a future Indie Wednesday post. 🙂 On a Break, PIVOT!, and Love, Gunther are all from her Friends line of polishes, which also include Pheebs, Smelly Cat and The Routine. Troy & Abed are part of the BFF collection, which also includes Blossom & Six, and Daria & Jane.
First up is PIVOT! Fans of Friends will probably remember the episode this comes from, but I’m including pictures with each polish to refresh memories or as a reference for people that haven’t seen the shows.
PIVOT! is a beautiful turquoise blue with a splash of fine silver holographic glitter in it that gives the polish a very light sparkle.
PIVOT! applied well and fairly evenly. The pictures were taken with 2 coats, but I probably should have used 3 for fuller coverage. 1 coat of Poshe fast drying top coat.
Next up is Love, Gunther!
Poor Gunther. Always in love with Rachel, and always forgotten or ignored. Much like the character, this shade was initially overlooked and ignored by a lot of people. Hopefully people will change their minds, because this color is beautiful!
Love, Gunther is a beautiful, shimmering rose pink – almost a hot pink, but not quite. It’s filled with fine silver flecks that give it a very subtle shine. I didn’t have a chance to use a matte top coat, but there are photos that way on Weird Indeed’s Facebook page- it looks beautiful as well! This is also 2 coats topped with Poshe fast drying topcoat.
The final Friends polish I have to show off is ‘On A Break’!
Ross and Rachel… *sigh*
‘On A Break’ is a limited edition shade from Weird Indeed. This one is so pretty!
It’s a grape purple filled with holo flecks and ultra fine gold glitter. The final effect on the nail is subtle but beautiful! 2 coats topped with Poshe fast drying topcoat.
And my very last (but not least) polish to show off is ‘Troy & Abed’!
For those that don’t know, Troy and Abed are two best friends on the show Community. These guys take ‘bromance’ to a new level! These 2 are my very favorite characters on the show (though I love them all!) so I had to buy this as soon as it was available.
Troy & Abed is a very very pale blue (almost white) polish with glitter. The larger and small glitter is pink, white, green, blue, and yellow, and then there’s also fine blue glitter as well as a shimmer. The color is fairly opaque, so you do get that jelly-sandwich like effect but with the glitters a little more covered. The final result is subtle (noticing a theme?) and very pretty. Again, 2 coats topped with Poshe fast drying topcoat.
Cool. Cool cool cool.
So that’s it! Each polish costs $8.00 and shipping is $2.00 for the first polish and 50 cents for each additional. Check them out!
Until next time,
~Diana, The Polish Monster
Polish Monster 