Inspiration Wednesday- Zoya Maya with flakies

Zoya Maya topped wth Color Club Snowflakes, sunlight

Here’s a manicure that was inspired by someone’s pet. A month or so back, I was saddened to hear that an online friend’s beautiful cat had passed away unexpectedly. The cat’s name was Maya, and I had just happened to have received Zoya Maya in the mail from the Zoya Freedom Sale around that time. Because of this, I decided that it would be the perfect opportunity to wear the coral jelly  and pay tribute to Maya the cat. Once I had applied Maya, I wanted to top it with something, but none of my glitter seemed quite right. Then, it hit me...flakies! Beautiful, delicate flakies would look lovely in combination with the gorgeous coral jelly. I applied Color Club Snowflakes, and voila! My delicate coral mani now had a special something extra with the green to orange shifting flakies.  I love the combination, so much so that I took a ton of photos. See more pictures afer the jump, including a couple of mattified ones!

Zoya Maya topped wth Color Club Snowflakes, shade

Drippy look with Color Club For You

Color Club For You with Jordana Boy Oh Boy drips

Happy Easter, everyone! Today I'm sharing some nails I sported a little while back, after wearing Color Club For You on its own.  For You is really cool because of the mix of colorful glitters it includes, especially the matte ones. I think this polish is totally reminiscent of Funfetti cake or rainbow sprinkles. That's why I thought that colorful drips on it would make the perfect accent. For me, it looks like dripping icing on a yummy cake.  I had a hard time deciding between the colors in For You. I ended up going with red and teal, although I feel like the right yellow or purple would have also worked.  I think the teal, Jordana Boy Oh Boy!, is especially appropriate because it's an almost perfect match for the matte teal glitter in For You. I used that teal for my left hand and Nicole by OPI OMB! for my right.  That last name is not an abbreviation, guys, that's actually the name of the polish. It came out in a Justin Bieber themed collection, but it's such a  pretty shimmery red that I bought it anyway. ;)

Color Club For You with NOPI OMB! drips

Check out a few more pictures after the jump!

Color Club slips under the radar with a rainbow milky glitter

Color Club For You, a rainbow glitter suspended in a white base

Here are my swatches of Color Club For You, probably the most underwhelmingly named polish in the world.  For You is a polish with milky white base and tons of colorful glitter mixed in. While this is definitely not unique in the world of indie nail polish, it's fairly unusual when it comes to mainstream nail polish brands.  What makes it really unique is the mix of glitters in this polish. For You features some pretty standard shiny glitter-red, lavender, and indigo- mixed in with a couple of matte colors, yellow and blue green. The indigo glitter in it is so dark that it almost seems matte, but close examination shows it to be a bit shiny. Along with all these larger hex glitters, there are some fine indigo and red microglitters in the mix as well. Overall, this makes for a really fun and eye-catching polish!

Color Club For You, sunlight

Color Club brings us flakies for the holidays with Snow-Flakes!

Color Club Snow-Flakes over Sinful Colors Inkwell, shade

All the hype for Color Club right now is for their holo collection. No one seems to even know about the flakie topcoat that they are releasing in their holiday collection.  I'm here to change that. :) Color Club Snow-Flakes is a flakie topcoat that shifts from orange to to yellow to green.

Snow-Flakes is definitely not a new color to those of us who own Essie Shine of the Times, which has recently been discontinued. Here's my comparison mani with SotT on the pinky and middle and Color Club Snow Flakes on the index and ring.

Color Club Snow-Flakes on the index and ring fingers, Essie Shine of the Times on the middle and pinky 

When I compared Snow-Flakes and Shine of the Times on the nail, the only difference between them was that SotT seemed a *bit* more dense than Snow-Flake. Other than that, the color shift seemed identical between the two.

Check out a few more pictures after the jump!

Shattering some myths-OPI Turquoise Shatter over Color Club Factory Girl

OPI Turquoise Shatter over Color Club Factory Girl, sunlight

Just wanted to post these as I've done a lot of blue manis for Autism Awareness month, but haven't been timely with editing and posting them.

First, here are a couple of common myths about autism I'd like to debunk:

1. Vaccines-Autism is not caused by vaccines. The study that started that idea has been proven to be scientifically inaccurate to the point of embarrassment. I think part of the reason this myth is so powerful is because the age at which children begin to get more vaccinations coincides with the age at which they begin to be diagnosed. However, correlation does not equal causation, as a great science professor always told me.
2. Cures- There is no cure for autism. Period. There are many techniques that can be used that may vastly improve the functional capacity of someone on the spectrum, but there is no "cure." A healthy diet can definitely improve things for someone on the autism spectrum, as can things like speech therapy, occupational therapy and an autism-specific educational environment. All of these factors will be part our efforts to help those on the spectrum until we find a real cure.
3. Celebrity- Just because someone is a celebrity, doesn't mean they are a scientist. I'm sure Jenny McCarthy truly believes she cured her son through good nutrition. She didn't! Either her son is on the autism spectrum and became much more functional, but not cured, after she changed his diet, or he was misdiagnosed as autistic in the first place. Jenny is a big proponent of the "vaccines cause autism" camp and also claims she cured her son's autism, but she has no scientific training in medicine, psychiatry, neurology, or any other science to back up her claims. Anytime someone makes any claims about a disease, you should really question their evidence for those claims. Celebrities should be no exception.

OPI Turquoise Shatter over Color Club Factory Girl, sunlight

And now, onto the polish. I tried this look out last summer and loved it so much I knew I'd make it one of my looks for Autism Awareness Month.  I started with 2 coats of Color Club Factory Girl and then applied a coat of OPI Turquoise Shatter.  Loove! Since I adore both pastels and the color turquoise, I couldn't help going gaga for this look. It's very bright and cheerful, so I really enjoyed sporting this manicure again.

Color Club does magnetic

Color Club magnetic polish colors

I really neglected my duties as a blogger today. I went polish shopping with a friend and was so busy having fun that I didn't remember this blog until the last minute. That's when it struck me that I should really take a picture of this new magnetic polish from Color Club. I had seen it, hadn't liked any of the colors and dismissed it early on in my time at the store. I really can't tell you much about them except that the picture above shows the different colors the polishes come in. Also, the magnet is built into the bottle top and it's a rounded bottle shape like the Nails, Inc. magnetic polishes. Sorry for being neglectful, but hope you find this news interesting anyway!

Sinful Colors Cinderella and Revlon Whimsical, matted- a great match!

Sinful Colors Cinderella with Revlon Whimsical and matte topcoat, natural light

Even though I have plenty of polishes I could try out after my trip to Mexico, something about Sinful Colors Cinderella just called to me and I knew I had to wear it. I ended up not only wearing it plain, but doing adding that special "neutral" glitter, Revlon Whimsical and a matte topcoat. Join me for more pictures after the jump!

New Year's Mani-Color Club Untamed Luxury

Color Club Untamed Luxury, 2 coats, sunlight

I ended up running out of time for doing new manicure for New Year's Eve, but I'm still happy with the nails I had. This is Color Club Untamed Luxury, a teal green jelly polish with holo and green glitter.

Comparison-Nomadic in Nude vs. Waking Up in Vegas

Part of the reason I was excited to get the Color Club Back to Boho collection was that I had heard that Color Club's Nomadic in Nude is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Waking Up in Vegas. Though this post proves that this is not the case, I still like all the colors in the Back to Boho collection and am glad I purchased it.

Here are Deborah Lippmann Waking Up in Vegas and Color Club Nomadic at 2 coats a piece:

2 coats of Waking Up in Vegas on left, Nomadic in Nude on right

I have a few more pics after the jump.

NOTD-Essie Shine of the Times over Color Club Red-ical Gypsy

In my post about layering Essie Shine of the Times, I told you that one of my favorite looks was layering it over a dark red. Here is proof that it's an awesome combination:

These pictures are in natural light and in the shade.

Here's a link to Polish Amor's post about the same combination, except she used Nubar 2010 and not Essie. It includes a photo of Red-ical Gypsy on its own. It's proof that great minds think alike!

And these are the bottle shots for good measure.  

It's an unique combo for me because I don't usually wear many reds. However, I think the orange flakies in SotT play really well with the dark red color.  What do you think is the best color for layering Shine of the Times?