Disturbing Behavior - Review and Swatches

Definition of OBSESSION

 

: a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling; broadly : compelling motivation

 

Ok, I can readily admit it. I'm obsessed. Obsessed with indie polish. Well, actually I'm obsessed with polish in general, but indie polish is a whole new world of awesome. A world I cannot believe that before joining Instagram, I knew nothing about.

When I first started coveting lines of indie polish, I started to make a list. As I mentioned on a previous post, it's so hard to get some of these polishes because they sell out so quickly. Annette (ig @playwanet) over at Disturbing Polish happens to be one of those quick-selling indie polish artists.

Anette's line of Disturbing Behavior polish is one I've missed out on a few times. During her last restock, I was determined I was going to own the 5 polishes I most wanted.

Disturbing Polishes and their uniquely and fun names (perhaps not for the easily offended ;) ) are all handmade and 3-FREE, this means they do not contain the toxic toluene, formaldehyde or dibutyl phthalate.

As soon as I saw she was having a restock, I was out on the site (disturbingbehavior.storenvy.com/). Underage- Available! Add to cart. Wild Ride - Available! Add to cart. Deep Penetration - Available! Add to cart. Menage-A-Trois - Available! Add to cart. Ooh, I'm so lucky!! I go out to pick my last "must have" Peep Show, and bummer- sold out. Oh well, 4 out of 5 isn't bad!  I start the checkout process and BAM. Message saying "Deep Penetration is no longer in stock". NOOOOOOOOO! Ah well, next time hopefully. Suddenly I see I still have 4 bottles of polish on my list. Hmm...glitch? It was then I realized that I must have already had it in my cart before I started the order since Store Envy must have remembered my session.  Score! That means I got the very last bottle in stock! Go me! I waited impatiently for my shipment to arrive and on Saturday the mail man didn't even get to put it in the mailbox.

I know, I know, you're saying "enough of the blabbering! Get to the polish woman!"  So, without further ado, here are my beloved Disturbing Behavior indies:

First up: Underage

Underage is a neon pink cream polish, with square purple, rose and fuchsia glitters. And it glows in black light!!

This formula is kind of amazing. One coat is just a bit sheer but two coats is all you need. Pictured here is two coats on bare nails, plus a Seche Vite topcoat. The polish goes on smoothly, no digging for glitter required. The brush is decently sized and soft, allowing for nice application.

The color is just such a fun and bright bubble-gum pink!

And of course, I had to try it in blacklight. You know, just because I can. Oh em gee. Amazing.

Underage - In Blacklight!	Close Up of the Gorgeous Underage

 Next is Wild RideWild Ride is a light baby blue base with hot pink and purple butterflies in a garden of brightly colored glitters.

This color makes me smile! It's just a gorgeous blue and the formula is incredible. This is two coats on bare nails with an Seche Vite topcoat.

Coats go on lightly and smoothly, zero glitter digging required. I did a thin first coat and a thicker second coat to make those butterflies and bigger glitters pop.

When this is on my nails I just want to stare at them. It's a perfect summery color and I desperately want to put it on my toes too!

Wild Ride - Close Up!	Wild Ride - Look at that epic awesomeness

 

Next up are two newer jellies!

 

Menage-A-Trois is a burgundy jelly jam-packed with teal, greens and fuchsia glitters. Some of them are my favorite big circle glitters, so of course I'm instantly excited. Once on, it's holographic and simply stunning, even on bare nails!

Annette nicely warns that this polish may need a little fishing to catch the big glitters in the brush. I found that one nice coat covered well and I just did a tiny bit of fishing and dabbing to grab a couple extra glitters to finish them off. This photo shows that single coat plus dabbing on top of a base of Sinful Colors Dream On

Despite my attempts at getting a decent photo of this, I failed in comparison to how crazy awesome this polish is in person. It's totally incredible.

Menage-A-Trois - Check that holo goodness!	Menage-A-Trios - Looks good on any base! Here it is on top of magenta, deep purple, black and neon pink. Seriously?!?!

Last, but certainly not least, is Deep Penetration!
A black jelly polish, jam-packed with blue and purple again with my favorite big round glitters and then it's crammed with more glitter in multiple shapes, sizes, colors and shades. Dots, hexes and square glitters floating in the dark with bright holo flecks make Deep Penetration seem so 3D!

A single coat on a bare nail has just a hint of sheerness, so it needed an undie. I think you probably could put this on a lot of dark base colors and be happy with it. I went with a simple black. Again, this is one coat plus just a bit of fishing/dabbing. This didn't require much fishing at all, actually. The hardest ones to grab were the big round purple guys but since you don't need many to make a mani look good, it was easy. Again, this formula is super smooth and applies so nicely. Seche Vite topcoat on this one too.

Deep Penetration - Wowza!	Deep Penetration - Ahhhhh-mazing!

I have to compliment Annette because her glitters lay really nicely in all of her polishes, even the big ones, which is rare to find in chunky glitters.

Overall, I can see why Disturbing Behavior polishes are frequently sold out. Annette has created some really incredible formulas with great glitter suspension, amazing color combos, fun names and overall epicness. Thanks Annette, I'll be back!

Rimmel London Cocktail Colour Collection

While wandering around in Walgreens the other day, I came across a nearly empty display (what's new...displays are always empty here!) of something I hadn't seen before. Is that Rimmel, I spy?! Knowing that typically I can only get Rimmel at Walmart, my curiosity was piqued. When I saw I'd get a bonus 2000 reward points for spending $10, I knew I needed these babies.

It was a 3-sided display and I saw there should have been 5 colors in the collection. I only saw 4 of the 5 and just as I was about to go ask the makeup girl, I turned the corner and there was ONE little bottle of the last color left! Score!

The other Rimmel polishes I've purchased at Walmart are identical in bottle and brush size. I may have mentioned my adoration of Rimmel brushes in the past... they're wide and soft with a nice contoured tip. They fit my cuticles really perfectly. And for $0.97 each, you can't beat it!  But, that's where things differ. This collection at Walgreens was considerably more expensive comparatively, however at $2.49 each, you can't really complain. 

Also notable, the Rimmels are all on the small side, probably should considered "mini" actually, they're 0.27 fl oz/8 ml bottles. Every color in the collection is touted as being "intense fully pigmented" color and "charged with high energy colour beads" which dry in 60 seconds.

So, let's get to it!

First up is #140 Hawaiian Punch, a reddish magenta base with a little holographic color and a slight gold shimmer. Gorgeous!

#110 Baby Bellini is a beautiful eggplant purple, again with just a tiny bit of holo and a golden shimmer.

#130 Apple Berry Smoothie is probably my favorite of the bunch. It's a to-die-for shade of blue, with a stunning iridescent purple holo shine. Fantastic!


#120 Shirley Temple is an orange base polish with a golden sparkle. It's more "glittery" than the others, but I like that you can't feel the glitter texture at all. I don't mind textured polish in the right situation, but that's not what I was looking for with these. Wish granted!

Last, but not least, is #150 Cutie Colada. My least favorite straight out of the bottle, however only because the coverage of this one is much less opaque than the others. This is actually 4 coats and it's still not totally opaque. The green is killer in the bottle, so I was hoping for a little better application.






Overall, I really like these polishes. I wouldn't agree with their bottle claim of "One coat nail polishes", however. I had a minimum of two coats on Hawaiian Punch,Baby Bellini and Apple Berry Smoothie, three coats of Shirley Temple , and four coats of the Cutie Colada (which probably could have used at least one more to be totally opaque).

The formula goes on pretty nicely. No streaking, though I did have a few balding spots if I wasn't careful. The brush is fantastic.

Have you seen these in your area yet? Give 'em a try and let me know what you think!

So Gliterrific!

So, two things happened yesterday. I got my second ever indie (yay!) which was extra special because it was from Ethereal Lacquer (ethereallacquer.bigcartel.com) Meagan makes some crazy beautiful polish. I've been eyeing up indies for a few months now but when I saw she could custom make one with glitter I pick, I knew I had to give it a try. I picked out a ton of my favorites and when I was about to narrow it down, I realized...duh! More glitter is always better!  So I went for it. All 10 of them! I had no clue what it would look like but I was really excited about the creation. When I heard back from Meagan about how totally awesome it was, I was even more excited!

However, before the mail came to deliver my beautiful indie, I had my first official nail break since starting my nail art journey 10 weeks ago. My nails have been really strong but all it took was one tap on the laundry basket and there went my poor middle nail. I stared at it in disbelief. There was no fixing it, no patching, nothing. It was a total loss. It also meant I needed to cut them all down to nubs. Fighting tears (what? PMS + nail break = justified!) I pulled out the clipper and said goodbye to all of my hard work.

Luckily, my Andi Nailed It! polish from Ethereal Lacquer was enough to turn my frown upside down. Now I'm doing my best to embrace the nubs, and I hope you do too. Check out my awesome jam-packed-with-glitter indie!  Meagan made it in a beautiful milky pink base with itty bitty flecks of neon pink glitter. It makes me think of those frosted animal crackers. Then it's just filled with every kind of glitter you could imagine...neons, shinies, circles, squares, diamonds, hexes of all sizes and colors. Pure awesomeness.

  

 

 

 

I can see now why indie polishes are so addicting. Beyond the awesome girls making and selling it, there's no real mass production. Every one is made with love and is unique. I'm hooked! Uh oh...

My first indie!

First, for anyone who isn't familiar with Indie nail polish, it's any polish which is handmade. There are people all over the world creating indie polish lines, some so popular that you're lucky if you ever have one in your possession. Some sell out so quickly during their re-stocks that if you blink, you'll be too late. I love looking at indies. I think the creative thought involved and where the inspiration comes from for certain color is nothing short of true art.

Recently, I was selected as one of 4 finalists in the professional category (say what?!?!?!) of a nail contest on Instagram. I was so proud! I also happened to be a winner of one of their random drawings for a prize, which lead to my first ever indie from Kaitlin over at Flora Polish http://www.etsy.com/shop/Florapolish . My bottle of Cosmo arrived so quickly (thanks Kaitlin!) that I didn't have to wait long to try it out!

Cosmo is an awesome sparkly glitter made of fine holo pink glitter. I actually compared it to my Zoya Pixie Dusts and I'd say it even outdoes their sparkle. It went on like a dream and this is just ONE single coat over a pink undie of Essie's madison ave-hue.

It has held up so well, no chipping or flaking at all. It's truly fantastic!

It also kicked me in the butt to order some other indies I've been eyeing up, including one which I got to customize on my own! Watch for them, coming soon!

 

 

Feeling vintage

A large part of my job as a designer requires locating just the right image to convey the message I'm trying to send. Because of that, I'm frequently looking at stock photos of all different sorts. I can get lost in those photos sometimes, they're just so calming and dreamy, especially if I'm working on a vacation project. But after a while I need a break from the beaches and sunsets. I suppose one could pinpoint a certain level of jealousy involved, too. It's entirely different to design someones vacation but never get to go one one!

I love soft, vintage, pretty things. I have a special fondness for these filtered vintagey cherry blossom photos. I'm sure you've seen them. I didn't pick one particular photo for my inspiration today, rather worked from memory. I really like how they turned out!

Handpainted Vintage Cherry Blossom Nail Art

My base color was China Glaze's For Audrey, sponged with Refresh-Mint to create my backdrop. I drew on the branches with Pure Ice in Risk Taker and I'll Never Tell.  The flowers were dotted with  a mix of Pure Ice in Drive Me Crazy and Wet T Shirt and Sation's Love At First Byte.

A little about me

Hi, I'm Andrea (or Andi, or Anndee, depending on who is spelling it). I'm a graphic designer and I live in Wisconsin with my husband, our two dogs and our cat.

So, what brought me to nail polish? I guess it was a fluke. I'm sure you've heard of that little website, Pinterest. Pinterest has been a source of therapy for me. It has helped occupy my brain and take me to another world when mine was far less than desirable over the last couple of years. We have not had it easy and the dark days have been plentiful. Beyond that, it fits my ADD personality, my love for photography, my addiction to food and fulfills my crafting needs. There's nothing you can't find on Pinterest and never a shortage of cool ideas or beautiful things to look at.

I have many thing pinned to my Pinterest boards, lots of ideas I've implemented, many recipes I've tried and tons of crafting and DIY projects I've attempted.  Just 10 weeks ago I was aimlessly filling time scrolling through the "Everything" feed one day when I came across a nail art manicure. I repinned it and there I was, hooked. 

I painted my nails occasionally but never really put a ton of thought into it. I was pretty tame, the boldest thing I had was some Sally Hansen holographic polish. Maybe the occasional french manicure. But the things I was seeing online were intriguing to me. There was such a huge variety of concepts and techniques. It was different, unique, creative and colorful. And nail polish is cheap. Bonus!

I get bit by the crafting bug from time to time. When it hits, it's an unbearable itch. A NEED to create. We happened to hit up a clearance deal with a whole entire bin of polish marked down to $1. I think I bought about 25 of them, not a single one was pink.

The Mani That Started it All

That night I decided to give galaxy nails a try. I had never done a bit of nail art before, much less a technique like that. But man oh man, I was so proud of those things when I was done. I had no idea about cuticle care or cleaning, my nails were uneven - barely beyond nubs. But I loved how they turned out. I decided to set up an Instagram account, a bold step for a person like me. My photo is dark and out of focus, my hand pose terribly awkward (as evidenced here, don't laugh too hard). I look at them now and I cringe. Little did I know the addiction it would lead to.


Those who know my husband and me are quick to acknowledge that we have some of the worst luck. Murphy and his laws has taken up residence in our lives and we are reminded who is really in control quite frequently. If something can go wrong, it usually does. But, we're not bitter - most of the time.  We like to think we're going to weather the storm, no matter how long and tough it is. We're waiting for that sunshine, it's bound to come out one day.




Stormy Nails - ig@andinailedit

Swatch time!

Ah, the life of luxury!  Well not really, but I don't have to be back to work till Tuesday and we're finally in a streak of nice weather so I'm a happy girl.  With some spare time on my hands, I figured it was a good time to really get going on the blog.

First on my list, I needed to swatch this awesome essie polish, in madison ave-hue. It is such a fun Pepto Bismol-y pink, with just a tiny bit of shimmer. The formula was smooth and applied nicely, pic is two coats.

More fun yet to come! And here' phase two! Also wanted to play with my new nail art pen (sucked) by Kiss French Artist Pen Kit, which had a glorified white-out marker pen which hardened up right away and contained barely enough to finish just this design on 4 fingers.

It touted a silicone guide tip ring which smeared on my first try (poor thumb!). I used the rest for the dots, which was much more of a pain than my normal dotting tool.  I used L'oreal's greycian goddess still think they're summery and fun!