Shorty Post: Julie Meets Mr. Bubbles

This is one of my favorite recent polish combinations. Two coats of Zoya Julie, two coats of Hit Polish Mr. Bubbles, and one coat of Seche Vite for top coat.
*I received Zoya Julie in a swap on makeuptalk.com. I purchased Hit Polish Mr. Bubbles with my own money. I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands or Web sites mentioned in this post.*

Zoya Julie is an awesome lavender with a subtle silvery shimmer. I didn't take any photos of Julie on her own this time, because it was 2 a.m. or so when I actually painted my nails. Photos were taken the during the day outdoors.

I love how Hit Polish Mr. Bubbles is all about the matte glitter. I find the blue, pink, and white to be so cheerful together. 

You can purchase Hit Polish from their Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/HitPolishNailLacquer. (Hit Polish Nail Lacquer was having a 20% sale; July 4th it expired. I might have ordered a few...) Zoya polishes can be purchased at Ulta and other select salons, or on their Web site: www.zoya.com. 

*I received Zoya Julie in a swap on makeuptalk.com. I purchased Hit Polish Mr. Bubbles with my own money. I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands or Web sites mentioned in this post.*

Review and Photos--Hit Polish 'Retro Chic'

When I am browsing Etsy.com looking at indie polishes, Hit Polish always catches my attention. After 'window shopping' for some time, I finally bought several of the polishes I had been drooling over, which I wrote about in my post Hit Polish Haul. One of those was a mini bottle of 'Retro Chic'.

Hit Polish describes the glitter in 'Retro Chic' as "fine pink, fine silver, fine cayman blue, matte aqua hex, small rose hex, medium rose hex, small aqua matte hex, small gunmetal hex and a touch of fine black and small black hex". The base is clear.

In these photos, I'm wearing two coats of 'Retro Chic' over yesterday's Color Club 'Status Update'. I liked the combination, although the fine black glitter gets a little lost because 'Status Update' is dark. The glitter didn't give any trouble, but I still topped it with two coats of Gelous for ultimate smoothness, and one coat of Orly Sec 'n' Dry top coat.

The clear base is somewhat thick, to keep the tons of glitter suspended, so Rachel mentions on their site that you can use nail polish thinner to change the consistency if you like. I found that the consistency made it easy to control, so I did not thin it at all. 

Again, I was at work when the sun was out, so I did not get photos of this mani in sunlight. Let me tell you, though, the sparkle in the sun is stunning!

Hit Polish, made by the husband and wife team Don and Rachel of D&R Apothecary, has awesome glitter toppers. Their tinted base polishes look great, too (especially Tea-Stained Linen; I want!), but I haven't tried them yet. Their full size polishes are typically $8.00, and the mini bottles (7ml) are typically $4.00, but they often have sales. You can purchase Hit Polish from their Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/DandRApothecary.

Thanks for reading! Do you have any favorite glitter toppers?

*I am not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned above and received no compensation from them.*

Haute Taupe Patina Manicure

My untried nail polishes are set up in vertical rows by brand, and then I choose from the horizontal rows my next polish. This helps me to get great variety of brands and colors and finishes. I do make an exception to the order of things when I layer polishes, as I did in my Haute Taupe Patina Manicure below. I pick the base color from my order of things, but choose the topper or complementary color by my mood.

My base color was Haute Taupe, by Finger Paints, apparently sold exclusively by Sally Beauty. I received this polish in a trade that I did on makeuptalk.com. (I trade on there often with several lovely ladies who participate in various subscriptions of beauty samples.) My personal idea of taupe involves more grey than I see in this polish; this is a brownish purple version of taupe.

For my glitter topper, I chose Patina, by Hit Polish. This was one of my mini polish bottles that I was so excited about in my post Hit Polish Haul. As the shade name implies, the main glitter is copper colored. Then you have various sizes of greenish turquoise glitter for the other half of the patina feeling. Tiny darker brown glitter gives depth to the polish, in my opinion.

I blurred the photo above because the true colors of glitter in Patina were more apparent that way. The photo below is a better representation of the base color, Haute Taupe. Sadly, I did not have time for daytime photos on this mani, so I made do with what I had.

What do you think? Do you like to layer nail polishes? I used Poshe quick-dry top coat to smooth out the texture. Do you have a favorite top coat?

Hit Polish Haul

Hit Polish, an independent polish maker, was having a sale on Etsy.com and I had recently received a bonus check. Yes, this was a polish purchase waiting to happen.

I bought mostly mini bottles, since the odds of me using up an entire full size of polish are pretty slim. I have too many to try for a normal person. However, these are primarily glitter toppers that I would wear over another color, so I would try two polishes at a time.

Fight Night

It's Electric

Pink Lemonade

Patina

Punked Up Kicks

Retro Chic

Strawberrific

Mr. Bubbles

I really enjoy how there is a variety of both matte and sparkly glitters.

Hit Polish shipped my order very promptly. Everything arrived in a small box, very well packaged and cute. They included a magnet with their logo on it, and wrote a nice note on my invoice. You can purchase Hit Polish here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/HitPolish. The mini bottles (5ml) are $3.25-$4.00, and the full size (I don't see a measurement, but probably about 15ml) bottles are $8.00.

I am sure that you will see these polishes in action on my nails in the future. Maybe "in use" would be a better phrase? "In action" sounds a little bit like there will be stunts going on...I don't think I have that amount of talent for nail art.