Darling Diva Apple Crisp

Time has flown over the Christmas break. It is not too long before I will need to go back to work. Until then I will continue to enjoy the antics of Mr R and Miss L.

Today I bring to you Apple Crisp from Darling Diva Polish. It is a scented polish and it slakes my desire for Femme Fatale Stolen Reindeer except for one important point. I removed the polish soon after as the scent was not my cup of tea. Although I am sure I picked up a vanilla smell, I am sure it also smelled like cinnamon as well. No, they are not bad smells but they were definitely too strong!

For my base colour I used two coats of Colour by T.B.N Raisin. This brand of polish has a strong smell but it has an interesting array of colours available for a cheap price. Raisin is a great brown and it helps to flesh out the browns in my collection.

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Look at the mix of colours in this polish. I love the addition of the different red glitters with the holographic and iridescent. My version of the polish does not appear to have as much green glitter as in the pictures from Darling Diva's listing. I do not mind one little bit as this is still visually appealing. I just wish I could stand the smell of this.

Unlike most Darling Diva Polishes, I did not need to thin this. Darling Diva does not cut the suspension base so you can add thinner to make the consistency you would like. Most of the time I find I need to add thinner because the base is too thick to apply.

O Tannenbaum! O Christmas Tree!

I am not having much success with using PVA as a base coat ever since I had a manicure done. I suspect that the buffing they did on my nails made the surface so smooth that the glue does not have the type of surface it needs to adhere well. Every time I have worn a manicure since the manicure I have used PVA and the polish just pops off.

For this Christmas I had planned to do a few different manicures and life got in the way. We have come to the holidays now and I get to post my Christmas Tree. Someone had mentioned in a post on a blog that Darling Diva's Mitochondrial Eve looked like a Christmas Tree complete with ornaments. There and then I decided that I would get Mitochondrial Eve and I would do a Christmas Tree manicure.

But... I left off buying Mitochondrial Eve. I was trying to be financially wise and then when I was able to buy, the polish was not listed any longer. Oh no! I messed Darling Diva and asked if it was possible to get Mitochondrial Eve. Joy of Joys an affirmative response was received.

The base colour for this manicure is Ozotic 502 that reminds me of Sally Hansen's Nail Prisms Golden Cinnbar when worn. This polish is lovely by itself and I did not take pictures to capture the different colour shifts.

To create the Christmas Tree I simply used tape and applied two dabbling coats onto the nail. Simple, done. If I had longer nails I would have added a star at the top but I do not believe I had the space to make it look good.

You only get three fingers in this picture as I hurt my poor index finger. You can also tell that I did not clean up afterwards with the top coat. Not too long after these pictures were taken when POP! off they came.

Countdown to Christmas

It is hard to believe that it is only two weeks until Christmas. We spend so long with the build up in the shops and then the day itself is suddenly here.

We have two countdown calendars in our house. One for Mr R and one for Miss L. Yesterday I took pictures of Darling Diva's A Christmas Story with Miss L's. I did intend on trying to get the pictures up last night but I am sure that somewhere it will still be 15 days to go when I post.

Most of the pictures I have seen posted of A Christmas Story have shown the polish as a green and red microglitter mix. It sparkles freely but there is a hidden delight. Yes, there is a holographic element. Taking the pictures in the sun showed the rainbow of colour.

For the base colour I used Sephora by OPI Mr Right Now. I feel this was the perfect red after applying two coats to match the red of the glitter in the bottle. Only one coat of A Christmas story was required and I applied two coats of Seche Vite as the first coat was not smooth and slick.

Dead Ringer for Fantasy Fire. Shift Happens eh?

It seems a long time ago when I bought Ringer from Darling Diva Polish on etsy. Ringer is much more affordable and in a larger bottle than Fantasy Fire. That is even when you consider shipping it to Australia. I thought I could go the whole hog and get a mini bottle and a large bottle for that shifting goodness.

Then when my bottles arrived there had been another arrival in Australia. Yes, Max Factor had released Fantasy Fire here. Of course I had to secure my own bottle. Ok, maybe I had to get two but I did share!

Looking at Ringer and Fantasy Fire in their bottles they seem to have exactly the same shift at the same time. Sometimes when I look really hard I wonder if the particles in Ringer may be a little larger than Fantasy Fire. The base colour appears similar although Ringer is more sheer in appearance. Maybe there are more particles in Fantasy Fire but using the polish I did not notice any difference on the nail.

For my base colour I tried to choose a similar colour to the base colour of Fantasy Fire. I wanted a simple creme polish but I found that I did not really have one even though I love purple so much. There seems to be an added factor to most of my polishes. I used Satin Seasonal Nail Enamel 1. Two coats were applied but I feel I should have added a third. This is because I think it would have added more depth to the colour and made the polish pop more.

I had exceptional trouble trying to capture Fantasy Fire on camera today. It is swelteringly hot and I wonder if somehow the camera is affected. That seems silly but I could not stop taking pictures and getting good shots the last time I photographed Fantasy Fire for Spring. Fantasy Fire was applied to my index and ring fingers and Ringer graces my middle and little fingers. For an extra comparison but not really captured, I used Girly Bits Shift Happens on my thumb.

It may seem in the above photo that the middle finger may have less pigment but you can not tell any difference in reality. The difference in the picture may be the angle or the like.

Shift Happens seems to change more readily from red to yellow and for longer than Fantasy Fire and Ringer. Essentially, there is not much difference in the Ringer from the handmade batch I had to Fantasy Fire. I would call them dupes. Shift Happens is a great alternative and could be applied to a greater array of colours as it does not have the purple coloured based of Fantasy Fire and Ringer.

I was thrilled when I was able to capture this blue shift that came after the green shift. This seems to be the greatest extreme of the colour shift in these polishes.

All three polishes are beautiful and I feel fortunate in owning all three. Shift Happens ended up being the most difficult for me to buy but it eventually came my way from Llarowe. Personally, if you just want Fantasy Fire and can't buy it at a local shop, I would buy Ringer from Darling Diva. I would hurry because it seems as though this pigment is going to he hard to get if at all. For versatility, I would get Shift Happens. I have one more way I want to try Shift Happens as the colour shift changes nature depending on the base colour.

There you go Melissa. I posted as promised. :)