World Autism Awareness Day Monday, April 2, 2012 - LET'S WEAR BLUE POLISH!!

For more information on autism and Light it up Blue, 

please visit Autism Speaks.

We ladies (and gentlemen!) in the nail polish "community" are a pretty close group of people (usually) and while polishing our nails blue for World Autism Awareness Day might not "do" anything, it certainly might help to raise awareness. At least we can show our support. There are a LOT of us so let's do it!

Someone on FB had the great idea to do puzzle pieces too and I'm going to try it!!!  Please show me your blue nails by posting a photo on my Facebook Page and if you have a blog, link it, Bay-Bee!

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From Autism Speaks: "Autism statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identify around 1 in 88 American children as on the autism spectrum–a ten-fold increase in prevalence in 40 years. Careful research shows that this increase is only partly explained by improved diagnosis and awareness. Studies also show that autism is three to four times more common among boys than girls. An estimated 1 out of 54 boys and 1 in 252 girls are diagnosed with autism in the United States."

My Franken Swatches!

This post will be a bit different. Nothing I'm going to show you is for sale, nor will it be. I'm showing you some of my frankens to demonstrate that it can be easy and fun to "create" custom colors! A few poeple have asked to see some of them so I'm humoring them. (Mainly YOU, Michelle!)

Now when I say franken, that's what I mean...to me that means taking already existing polishes and additives and combining them to "tweak" them to a color you're after. This is not to be confused with creating your own polish line by using raw supplies, suspension bases, matte bases, pigments, glitters, etc. The Indie polish-makers like Aleta at The Nail Junkie (that I reviewed earlier today) or Lynn at Lynnderella are what I call artists and mere frankening is not what they do. Unfortunately I don't do what THEY do.

Okay, now that all of that is out of the way...

Here are some quick swatches with no cleanup...

1. Spectraflair Linear Holographic Top Coat. See my previous post here for details and swatches over various colors.  Here I've layered it over a base of black creme with Girly Bits Cosmic Ocean and then the Spectraflair top coat.

2. Purple with blue, fuchsia and purple shimmer

3. Swampy green with golden shimmer

4. Topper with red, blue and purple glass fleck

5. Brick red crelly

6.  Pale spring green shimmer

7. Deep blue sparkle

8. Blue with silver (and other) micro-glitter

9. Top coat over black and alone - blue/green/grey duochrome

Have you tried frankening? How do YOU do it?  If you haven't tried it, why not?




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The Nail Junkie Spring 2012 Line is Launched!

Today I'm excited to show you a new line of polishes by The Nail Junkie! My friend Aleta has just launched her premier line of  3-Free and Cruelty-Free (which you all know is HUGE for me) polishes and I have swatches galore to show you. Check out her blog for all the details...

The Nail Junkie Spring 2012 Line

First, the presentation was amazing. You can tell she put so much thought into each and every detail from presentation and shipping to the polishes themselves. I'll let the photos speak for themselves but I'll be tossing my two cents in here and there.

Not only did she put thought and care into the presentation, but she's taken care of other details as well.  There will be FREE shipping in the US and a flat $10 International shipping charge. Yes, I said INTERNATIONAL!

Plus $5 of every set sold goes to a charity called Women to Women, a charity that helps women in war torn countries!

Included in the package are: a homemade hand scrub, lilac scented oil spray,
glitter removal wipes, and rose scented wax melts.

Included in the package are: a homemade hand scrub, lilac scented oil spray, 
glitter removal wipes, and rose scented wax melts.

Did you notice that my set is numbered and personalized? Awesome!

Cute little jewel tops.


The only regret I have right now is that all the spring cleaning I've been doing has played havoc on my cuticles, but please don't let that distract you from the polishes. I promise Aleta had nothing to do with the sad, sorry shape of my cuticles. *grin*

Remember these are all matte polishes but I will show both matte and gloss. They all have a subtle shimmer that really makes them stand out.

With every order, you get a bottle of Matte Finish Top Coat. The top coat is NOT needed to make these polishes matte because they already are, but with the matte top coat, you get that extra layer of protection missing from most matte polishes. Sah-weet!

The Nail Junkie Matte Finish Top Coat

So let's get started!

First up is Matte Daffodil - a gorgeous daffodil yellow. I've always loved yellow, but it hasn't always loved me. I think this one is bright enough I could get away with it though!

The Nail Junkie Matte Daffodil

The Nail Junkie Matte Daffodil

The Nail Junkie Matte Daffodil

The Nail Junkie Matte Daffodil

The Nail Junkie Matte Daffodil

How Eastery is THIS? Using two other colors in the collection for the dots...

The Nail Junkie Matte Daffodil

And glossy...

The Nail Junkie Matte Daffodil (with gloss top coat)

Next is Matte Violet (my favorite of the bunch I think!)

The Nail Junkie Matte Violet

The Nail Junkie Matte Violet

The Nail Junkie Matte Violet

The Nail Junkie Matte Violet

The Nail Junkie Matte Violet

The Nail Junkie Matte Violet

The Nail Junkie Matte Violet

The Nail Junkie Matte Violet

The Nail Junkie Matte Violet (with gloss top coat)

The Nail Junkie Matte Violet (with Grass Green Glitter Topper and gloss top coat)

Next up: Matte Rose...

The Nail Junkie Matte Rose

The Nail Junkie Matte Rose

The Nail Junkie Matte Rose

The Nail Junkie Matte Rose

The Nail Junkie Matte Rose

The Nail Junkie Matte Rose (with gloss top coat)

The Nail Junkie Matte Rose (with gloss top coat)

And finally we have the Grass Green Glitter Topper.  I've shown you a sneak peek already, but here it is over one quick coat of the Matte Violet...

The Nail Junkie Grass Green Glitter Topper

The Nail Junkie Grass Green Glitter Topper

The Nail Junkie Grass Green Glitter Topper

The Nail Junkie Grass Green Glitter Topper

The Nail Junkie Grass Green Glitter Topper

These polishes will be available via email starting at midnight TONIGHT, March 29, 2012 for $50.00. You get all 5 bottles and all the goodies shown above, free US shipping, a portion of the proceeds to the Women to Women charity. Please head on over to The Nail Junkie's FB page and like it - she will be releasing details and the email address for ordering soon!  Details are also on her blog: The Nail Junkie.

Well, what do you think? I love mattes and these colors are perfect for Spring. Nail, meet head.

Disclosure: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. 

For more information, please visit my Disclosure Tab.

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