Nabi Ocean Blue Holo

A while back a polish friend posted a link to an eBay store that was selling sets of Nabi holos and they were selling for cheap CHEAP with little or no shipping!  I bought 12 of them and I think I got a great deal.

Today I am showing you Ocean Blue.

Something that stood out to me about the Nabi holos were their attempt to appear identical to Layla's collection of hologram effect polishes.  Laylas they aren't buuuut...I am suitably smitten with them anyway!

Ocean Blue is a teal-ly Caribbean blue that pops and shimmers.   The effect to me is more scattered but not unattractive.   Also, in my experience, Nabi polishes tend to stink but the smell from these is doable:)  On to the swatches....

First, I have to say that this is one of the best looking swatches I have done in a while and the polish is pretty awesome too.  I am a sucker for teal polish so throw some holo in there and I gotta have it.   There were many other holos to choose from and I chose the one that stuck out the most to show you first! Save some monies and get some of these holos.  Search ebay for the seller and I hope you like them!

--Char

Review: Wacky Whimsy Nail Polish Rack and a Polish Rack Giveaway!

As I said in my last post, I have been a busy blogger even if I haven't excelled at the blogging part.   A dear friend of mine, the glorious brains behind Wacky Whimsy Crafts, made me her largest polish rack--the Imperial Palace to review.  She even let me pick out my own color!  You guys know that my stash has only increased exponentially in the past year so I was WAY behind on polish storage so this rack was a godsend.   The Imperial Palace holds up to 378 full size polishes.

I was so excited to get this rack home that I filled it up with polishes completely that night.  Then, I realized that you all, dear readers, deserved to see what this rack looks like sans polish, you know, so you can imagine your stash on it.  

Check out the pics!

Imperial Palace Polish Rack-sans polish

Imperial Palace Polish Rack-sans polish side view

Imperial Palace Polish Rack-sans polish double shelves

Imperial Palace Polish Rack--sans polish, scale

 Below is a picture of me half hugging my new polish rack.   Sorry but the day I unloaded the rack, I had done some yard work and had zero cosmetics or polish on BUT I wanted to show you how tall the rack was.  I am 5'7 and the rack comes up to my shoulders.

Me and my Imperial Palace Polish Rack--sans polish and makeup, sorry!

Next up is the polish rack filled with most of my indies, frankens, HTFs, favorites, premium polishes, and essence collections. 

 

So here is my review:

This polish rack is rock solid sturdy with its base.  Depending on how well you mount it on your wall, you could have a rock solid polish rack on your wall but I didn't want to have to mount anything.   The rack survived a long trip in my car as well as me awkwardly trying to get it into my house with out dinging it or the walls.   No scratches, no wobblies.  Plus after filling it completely, I did the very official let's-try-to-tip-this-rack-over test and the rack didn't budge.   You can't be too careful with a kitty who does this as a kitten:

The double tier shelves are very roomy.  Your full-size polishes will not hang off the ledge.

This rack holds a significant number of polish for any polish hoarder. I counted 380 polishes including half size, essences, and minis and I still have a lot of room to work with.   Totally side by side with no spaces I think I could get the rest of my un-inventoried indies, favorites, and frankens on there easily.

I love that you can pick the color your want your rack to be when you order.  I chose a custom color called Silverberry.  Its hard to see from the pics but the purple has a shimmery silver undertone.

Also, if you get the stand, you get a bonus area to put more polish or nail stuff--if you don't have a meddlesome cat like me.

Last, this rack, folks, is going to last.  It is not going to fall apart, drop your polishes, or crack during a move (like my acrylic shelf did).  It is going to stay where you put it (as long as you install it correctly) and display your collection with the magnificence it deserves.  You will not regret making this purchase.

If this rack had any cons,  it might be that it could be too big for some people.   It does take up a large corner of my polish room and would probably take up a significant part of a wall. If you are pressed for space, you might consider downsizing or learning the physics behind mounting so that you don't ripe holes into your walls or have mass polish-cide if it falls.  Other than that, I cannot find any fault with this rack.

Summary:  Sturdy, easy to set up, customizable color, roomy, long lasting, holds a TON of polish securely.

So now you think you need one of these polish racks, right?   Lucky you, Dawn from Wacky Whimsy has agreed to give you an exciting chance to win one of her polish racks along with a franken from me.  The two prizes are below and the Rafflecopter is below that.

Prize #1:  One aqua Wacky Whimsy "Boardwalk" Polish Rack and one full-size Nails Actually franken.

Prize #2:  One purple Wacky Whimsy "Dottie Whimsit" Polish Rack (for minis) and one mini Nails Actually franken.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Please share this review and the giveaway, enter, and buy all the polish racks!  I would also LOVE to see your polish storage, custom or purchased racks, etc.  Post your links to pics or blog posts in the  comments or on the Nails Actually Facebook page.

Disclaimer:  The Imperial Palace polish rack from Wacky Whimsy was purchase by me with personal funds at a discounted rate in exchange for an honest review our their product.   My opinions are my own, true and objective.

Update: Crisis Conquered

When I last blogged, I had about one month until I had to move all of my family's belongings back from Denver.  In addition, a temporary job was about to end.   Let's just say when we moved back into our home, it was not left in a livable condition by our renters and being unemployed was not the best situation to accompany all of the expense.   I won't go into details but the repairs alone to return our home to its original tiptop condition was a very long, stressful, EXPENSIVE process.   Additionally, more life happened as we lost my husband's grandmother and had an emergency with my grandfather.  I hope you can understand that sometimes nail polish, as much as I love it, can take the back seat to a bus crammed full of other priorities.  

Flash forward three months ahead and I am on the flip side.   Our house is looking good and I was offered a full-time position last Friday.

On top of that EPIC news, I have been frankening lots and buying more polish.   I have 100s of polishes to add to my stash and I am working on a couple of giveaways and a much needed blog sale. 

Up in a couple of days is a polish rack review you don't want to miss.   Customizable.  Adaptable.  And Huge.   Polish storage room for days.   Salivating?  You should be.

Latest Frankens:

Fire Sari-matted

Planet Remnants-my first handmade duo chrome

The Menagerie

Holo Harbinger

Watermelon Salsa

Water Sari

Poppy Fields

Poppy Fields-swatch

Sunburst

Sunburst-swatch

Industrial Kaleidoscope

My first handmade holo!

Dew Lily

Pirkl's Polish

Allegiance to the Holo

Treasures Untold

Flower Trip

Cootie Cure

Leeza Franken's Galaxy

Luck Dragon

Sunrise for Breakfast

Finger Paints Wild About Spring collection with RINGS and an Update

Between grad school semester end, moving back to Texas, living in a relative's spare bedroom while we wait for our house to be vacated by the current renters near the end of May, and spending a lot of time in my car driving to my current job from said relative's home, blogging about all my awesome polish buys and nail art is certainly harder to accomplish.  My nails have been (GASP) naked for more than a week each time and pictures in my relative's home aren't as good because there is a distinct lack of light.

I want you to know that I am absolutely still here, still buying nail polishes, still spending my free time living it up in the polish world (don't tell anyone I seriously said that), and still maintaining my blog and tweaking things.

Meanwhile, I do occasionally get an ok photo of what I've aquired.

The following polish pic shows this year's Finger Paints Wild About Spring collection which came with these very collectible and hard-to-find animal rings.  I had to have them all and so now, I do but the owl was especially elusive.  Thankfully, my librarianish/detective-like skills hunted it down to complete my collection.

Aren't they cute?  From left to right we have I Spy-der, Fishin' for Fun, Owlin at the Moon, Hoppy Go Lucky, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Are you Hoppy?

You might find it difficult to get all six but last week there were some still left at some of my local Sally Beauty Supply stores.  

So, what ring and (or) polish is your favorite?  I have to say that my top rings are the frog and the owl rings and I love, Love, LOVE the purple shimmer and shatter glitter polishes.  You could've predicted that, though!  I will update this post with swatches as I get them done.  

Thank you so much for looking and good luck finding these fun polishes and rings!

Review of Polish Addict Spring Polishes

Laura over at Polish Addict recently sent me two of her Spring polishes to review and it was some of the first nail mail I've received at my temporary resident, my grandfather's home. 

First up, is a neon dream of a polish.  Spring Prom Queen is full of matte neon red and fuchsia hexes and squares, matte hot pink hearts, and several different sizes and shapes of white glitter in a subtle light pink base.

I think that Spring Prom Queen is awesome!  The formula is smooth, easy to apply, and takes two to three coats to reach full coverage.  I love all the different shapes and the white and neon matte theme going on.   Spring Prom Queen proclaims that Spring is indeed here with a fresh and bright signature that I find nicely different than some of the neon glitter bombs we are seeing in indies. 

Next I have Spring Equinox which is a shimmery rose colored base filled with silver and light pink hexes of various sizes and tiny green glitters.   Spring Equinox is the first day of Spring aka March 20th which recently passed and this polish lives up to that hopeful day capturing the colors of a rose garden.     

I love the extra large hexes, the mixtures of these glitter colors, and the shimmering base in Spring Equinox.   Like Spring Prom Queen this polish goes on smoothly and completely covers in two coats.

To get your own Polish Addict Spring polishes, go to Polish Addict's shop on Bigcartel!  The shop reopens Friday, March 29th with new polishes and some great polish deals. Run, Go, you know you want to:)