Lynnderella Connect The Dots

I have a confession to make. When Lynnderella’s polishes first started to crop up in NOTD pics over at the MakeupAlley nail board, I didn’t like them at all. I just couldn’t see the appeal in these weird, chunky glitters at all (I may or may not have had PTSD after such disasters as Deborah Lippmann Funky Chunky – brr!).

One of the polishes that the nailboarders swooned over the most, was this one, Lynnderella Connect The Dots. From The First Edition collection, this has black and white hexagon, square and bar glitter with slight sparkle in a clear base. When layered over a creme, it’s as Lynn calls it “instant nail art”. The effect reminds me of what we in Norway call Respatex, or what you probably know as Formica. You know those laminate tables with weird patterns from the 70′s, right?

Yum, yum, camels! You know I love me some humpbacks! I’ve had to eat them so many times before, and again I had to chomp down on some dromedary meat. Of course I couldn’t resist the constant barrage of gorgeous Lynndicures, and finally even the infamous CTD found its way to my mailbox and onto my nails.

I had a hard time deciding which creme to put this over first, I want to put it on ALL THE COLORS! But finally OPI Shorts Story won out, and here’s 1-ish coat of CTD over OPI SS.

I say 1-ish coat, because it was a bit difficult to get the bigger hex pieces out of the bottle with this one. Seems like the square bottles have a skinnier brush than the round bottles from the first batch, and sadly the glitters don’t want to hang on there as well. I had to fish around to get some bigger glitters, and somehow dab them onto my not-so-glittery nails. A bit of a bummer, to be quite honest.

CTD is a chunky one, so I pulled out the Glitter Tamer. Or should I say the Old Man’s Balls, because it sure is wrinkly! I think I need to thin my bottle already, but I’m not giving up on it yet! I’ll wrangle those Old Man Balls into submission! Ahem.
Anyway, even with GT and a coat of SV, this still needed some more, so after a while I added a coat of Barielle Manicure Extender and another coat of SV. The result is super smooth and glossy, just the way I like it.

You know the drill, Lynnderellas are soon available at Llarowe, $15 a pop and international shipping, yada yada. If you don’t get the ones you want now, just be patient. Lynn and Leah Ann are working their cute little buttocks off to make sure that everyone gets what they want, so all good things come to those who wait!

Whoa! Sorry about the wall of text! I guess I have a lot to say about chunky glitters, haha.

IsaDora Black Galaxy

Holy cow, I didn’t mean to leave you guys hanging forever! Yeah, I guess I don’t have to say I’ve been occupied with “real life”, so I hope you don’t mind my sporadic posting for a while?

As a peace offering, here’s one of the polishes from IsaDora’s holiday collection for 2011. The collection is called “Red Rush”, and it’s available in stores now.

As you can see, there are three polishes in this collection, and I picked up Black Galaxy, a black jelly with holograpic glitter particles. This one really lives up to its name, it absolutely looks like a sky full of twinkling stars.

This polish was very easy to apply, despite the huge brush that’s almost too big even for my wide nails. I thought it would be sheer because of the jelly base, but it’s opaque in two coats. It’s not too gritty either, one coat of Seche Vite makes it completely smooth.

Have you tried any of IsaDoras holiday polishes this year?

Lynnderella Mercurial

I don’t know how it’s possible to love each Lynnderella I try more than the last, but somehow I do. It’s ridicilous how pretty Lynnderella Mercurial is, I can’t stop looking at my nails! Mercurial has multiple sizes and shades of gunmetal, black, silver and lavender hexagons and squares in a metallic dark grey base. It looks like the world’s prettiest asphalt, or some kind of super fancy plate armour, or maybe a very posh metallic turtle. I love the gunmetal, black and silver glitters, but the lavender touch is what really brings this polish from beautiful to over the top awesome!

I have lots of fun looking through my nail polish spreadsheet trying to find the perfect match to layer these over, and for Mercurial I found a great companion in Milani Silver Dazzle. Silver Dazzle is a one-coater, so it’s very well suited for layering. I’m wearing two coats of Mercurial over the Milani, and I’ve used two coats of Gelous and one coat of Seche Vite to get it smooth.

Did you miss Lynnderella’s last sale, or are you a non-US citizen and therefore unable to buy directly from Lynnderella’s blog? Good news! Come December, Lynnderella polishes will be sold at Llarowe, with international shipping! I don’t have any info on pricing yet, but I’m sure it will be up soon.

Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers

Chunky hexagonal (hex) glitters are really popular this year, with collections like the OPI Muppets coming out, but one of the pioneers of the chunky hex trend is Deborah Lippmann. She is known for her glittery creations, like Bad Romance, Across The Universe and Glitter In The Air, and today’s polish is definitely one of the best she’s made.

Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers has lots and lots of both small and big red hex glitter in a black jelly base. If you’ve ever seen China Glaze Lubu Heels, this one is its fabulous bigger sister. This came out in 2009 for Deborah Lippmann’s 10 year anniversary.

This is two coats of RRS over a black creme. I’ve tried this on its own before, but in order to get it opaque, I needed a lot of coats, which made it too thick and chunky on the nail. While you lose some of the jelly squishiness by layering it, I think the smoother, thinner feeling on the nails makes up for it.

The glitter dries very gritty and meh without topcoat, so feed that sucker, baby! I thought it would eat up all of my topcoat, but a generous coat of Barielle Manicure Extender + Poshé on top made this into a very smooth and shiny mani.

I used to be a hex hater, and avoided all chunky glitter polishes like the plague. But as many times before, I’ve fallen again, and I’ve fallen hard. Now I want more glitters, and my biggest glitter lemmings right now are Lynnderella’s franken creations.

What do you think of chunky glitters, do you love them, hate them or are you still on the fence?

China Glaze Wagon Trail

There are a lot of great, new nail polishes coming out all over the board, but sometimes you just have to slow down and enjoy some of the oldies. Like China Glaze Wagon Trail, from one of the awesomest collections of all time: Rodeo Diva from 2008.

Wagon Trail is black with greenish gold shimmer, when the light hits it, it looks almost like a dark olive green. It’s so beautiful, glowy and gorgeous! Just look at that amazing, deep color in the shimmer. Perfect.

The formula is good, and it’s opaque in two coats.

This polish is one of a kind in my collection, but it shares similarities with a couple of others. Kleancolor Golden Nightmare has gold glitter in a black base, and OPI At Your Quebec And Call is a murky, muddy olive green shimmer. I have no dupes, but there are several other polishes out there that look a lot like Wagon Trail.

Do you have any collections from the past you like to come back to?