Daring Digits - Girls Night Out

Oh...em....wow.

So anyone who knows me knows I'm a 'pink' girl. Pinks are by far the most prevalent color in my collection, followed by other lighter, natural type colors, then reds. I don't generally go for darker colors unless its October-ish or its a special occasion that warrants stepping outside the box...BUT...

Some time ago Ashley from Daring Digits did a free shipping sale thingy on Etsy and Jess at Too Cute-icle was raving about 'Girls Night Out'. Admittedly I hadn't seen it before, but the bottle shot looked nice so I gave it a go and snagged a mini GNO, and Mini Ice Age (as well as a couple others for Jess that I need to mail her....oops. They're coming I SWEARS it!)

Anyway, work has been kind of rough lately so I was sitting at my kitchen table, wanting to paint (and at the same time not wanting to do anything) and feeling uninspired, I reached for some random pink polish that was sitting in my stash. I finished my mani, started to take photos of it, and then it hit me. I WAS JUST NOT FEELING PINK TONIGHT, and I was not going to settle. I took it off.

I've been dying to try 'The best one coat black evaaar', Wet & Wild's Black Creme so I figured I'd give Girls Night Out a shot. I did 2 thinn coats of Black Creme (it really is a 1 coat black though, I was just playing it safe), and 2 thin coats of GNO, which is kind of a dark, sheer grey when it comes out of the bottle. (For kicks I tried a coat of it over white and just made the nail look 'dirty' LOL) The formula is nice, it covers evenly and isn't too runny, or too thick. I was very happy with the application of Girls Night Out. It was just easy!

I'm not even kidding you...I finished my left hand, put a top coat on, raced upstairs to my fiance and said, "OH MY GOD ISN'T THIS THE FREAKING PRETTIEST POLISH EVER?!?!?!" He just raised his eyebrows, obviously too overwhelmed by my enthusiasm. Even my 13 year old step-son took notice, "WOW its got purple, and blue, and green, and yell-gold. Hey...caaaaan boys wear nail polish?" Yell-gold. Yes - It's a color. Also, could you imagine this as the background to a galaxy mani? Gorgeous.

It was kind of liberating for me. So 'rebellious' with the black, plus the gorgeous bling factor of all the micro shimmers...Its just....AHH. Its perfect, and a color that I will most definitely reach for again.  If you don't have it, get it. Its a MUST have in the stash IMHO. I hope the photos do it SOME justice (they won't, who am I kidding). And for the life of me I couldn't get a decent bottle shot. GRRRRRRRR. Ah well, if you're interested in picking up some Girls Night Out (or any of her other amazeball polishes) you can visit the Daring Digits Etsy Shop, or on Facebook.

TL;DR

- Girls Night Out is a MUST have.

- W&W Black Creme is a 1 coat black.

- Fox Claws fails on lack of decent bottle shot (anyone have one they want me to feature?)

- Yell-gold.

Don't forget you can still submit answers and questions for YOU ASK / YOU ANSWER. Click the link for more information.

Our nail polish racks are now available! Visit me on Fox Claws on Facebook for more information. New sizes and styles are being produced as we speak. Got a custom request or suggestion? Feel free to ask me and we'll see what we can do.

 Kitten Rack - Holds 52 large (CG/OPI), 64 small (zoya/essie), and 96 rectangle (Butter London) bottles placed front to back.

YOU ASK / YOU ANSWER

I was doing my nails last night and I had all these questions circulating in my head about nail care, techniques, whats good, whats bad...etc. And then I thought that FOR SURE other people have these questions too! 

*LIGHT BULB*

So in a couple of weeks I want to do a blog with YOUR questions, and have other bloggers/members of our community answer them for you! 

HAVE A QUESTION?  You can submit/answer questions on Facebook, or shoot me a private message, leave a blog post comment or e-mail me (thefoxclaws[at]gmail) with your question and I'll find someone who can answer it. Then I'll put it all together in a *hopefully* lengthy blog post and maybe we can all learn something new :)

HAVE AN ANSWER?  Copy/paste the question and submit it along with your answer to any of my contacts. I will attempt to give proper credit to the answer-er in each instance but please understand that I'm sure there will be a lot of similar answers so I'll do my best.

I'll be posting questions periodically on Facebook and asking for answer input. You can also find a list of questions here that i'll keep updated as much as possible: https://www.facebook.com/notes/fox-claws/you-ask-you-answer/352380101507394

BLOGGERS: If you share this post with your followers and want to submit answers from your fans, please let me know so I can cite you for collaborating :)

If you have any questions I am easily reachable at any of the contact links in this post, or on the contact page on the blog.

TRY IT ON TUESDAY! - 3 birds, 1 stone

Greetings Foxlings!

I FINALLY remembered to TRY IT ON TUESDAY! For those of you who are totally lost right now, TIOT is a weekly challenge from Jilltastic Nail Designs which challenges polish-aholics (not the blogger, the general polish loving community) to dig deep into their stash and TRY a previously UNTRIED polish. You know the one...its been collecting dust for lord knows how long under your bathroom sink, in your polish bag, at the top or bottom of your rack, etc... (Rack *gigglesticks*)

Anyway, this week I decided to try a polish I have only ever swatched on a nail wheel but have owned for at least a year. It's a random, no name, no number, periwinkle purpley-blue from Lane Bryant! Truth be told I only bought it because it was marked down to 99 cents (+ my employee discount brought it down to like 70 cents), so I bought one of every color and have probably only used 1 for anything more than a swatch. Its not much to look at on a wheel but its pretty when you add some Seche Vite on top.

Because I typically don't just do a cream on its own, I decided to layer on some China Glaze - Skyscraper, another untried (though that's going to change because its freaking gorgeous!) that I got on clearance at Ulta some time ago. AND I used a make-up sponge to create the 'french tips' quickly instead of having to wait for the base to dry and tape it off....another first. Not too shabby for my first time around the block if I do say so myself.

P.s. That last photo doesn't have a top coat on it which is why it looks so matte and awful. I forgot ;)

If you're looking for the LB color, we don't carry it anymore. The brush is awful, the formula can be compared to Zoya's Pippa (click here for my Pippa rant...), and since it doesn't have a name it would be impossible to order. I'm certain that there are comparable colors in some national brands though so if anyone can think of anything that might be a good dupe, please let us know in the comments beeellloooowwwww. Much appreciated! Thanks!!

TL;DR

- TL;DR has been fixed to display proper punctuation.

- KYOTI now offers the quest: Punctuation police!

- Seche Vite is working as intended

- Fox Claws should now perform properly during scheduled Tuesday maintenance (i.e. TIOT). 

- Fox Claws is a nerd.

- Stillllll talking in 3rd person.

- Logging in to PVP now...kthxbai!

Want more TIOT? Check out my friend Jess at Too Cute-icle for her first TIOT post too!

CG BFF vs. UP Colors Multi Magenta

Hello Foxy Ladies!

Back in July I was one of the lucky winners of Llarowes "Every Polish Counts" giveaway and I received a bottle of UP Colors Multi Magenta! This was perfect on so many levels because:

1. I love pink
2. I love HOLOs
3. I love sparkly stuff

I was exceptionally excited because I realized immediately that I would be able to do my very first comparison post with one of my favorite China Glaze polishes, BFF! WOOT for firsts!

These 2 polishes are so gorgeous that I really don't need to add any 'fluffer' commentary. Both apply very smoothly, great brushes, great formulas. I truly have nothing bad to say about either one except that CG-BFF is hard to find.

Anyway...onto the photos...(slightly photo heavy)

 

I honestly can't pick my favorite of the 2. BFF is so smooth, and the holo-rainbow-prism effect is so flawless, but Multi Magenta has the most gorgeous gritty blingy sparkle. Perhaps I will just declare them both favorites and save myself the headache of trying to choose. 

"There can be only one!"

Says who!? 

TLDR;

- OH SNAP I FORGOT THE TEAL DEER!

- Kyoti ROX for reminding me.

- Miley Cyrus got a hair cut. Do you give a crap? Nope, didn't think so.

- ERMAHGERD NAILPOLERS!

Pippa likes Jelly Bean, hates Seche Vite

So I've been going a little bonkers on Copious with credits because:
A. I don't own a money tree, and
B. I can find indies that would typically cost me around $10 (shipping included) for much less with free shipping + credits.

The problem with Copious (or E-bay, or any other '2nd hand' type online shopping areas) is that when you don't buy from the manufacturer or maker there is no guarantee on what you're actually going to receive. For instance, I ordered a Dollish Polish 'Expecto Patronum' mini from Copious that had been "swatched one time." When I received it the glitter had settled (as glitter sometimes does), but it seemed to be really settled...as if it had been sitting for a LONG time. Even a good mix and shake didn't really fix it. Meh. On the upside, in my curious frustration to get the glitter to mix into the white instead of clinging happily (UNHAPPILY) to the sides of the bottle, I managed to just about dupe it with a couple other polishes I had in my stash. After some experimentation I just decided to add a few drops of 'another glitter polish' to my EP mini, shake it up, and in the end you would NEVER know the difference. Yay for kitchen table polish experiments. (Authors note: I am certain that the bottle I received had been sitting for a long time. Please don't turn this into some crazy FOX HATES DOLLFACE Facebook drama because there is no drama and I absolutely LOVE Dollish Polish!)

OH GAD, way off topic. Sorry...moving on.

Pippa likes Jelly Bean, hates Seche Vite...

My Dear Pippa,
You and I have a long and storied love-hate relationship (cue cheesy flashback scene of Pippa and I playing ring around the rosy, running through tall fields of wild flowers, and thumbing cake batter at each others faces.) I love your bright sunny color, your shiny cream finish, and your...your...well that's about it.

Truth be told, Zoya's Pippa pisses me off. Its such a gorgeous color, but the application is rough. Its thick, streaky, gobby, doesn't even itself out very well (even with a top coat), and for whatever reason it suffers polish shrinkage like a...well you know, unless I flood my cuticles to make sure that I completely cover every little millimeter of it. Even the brush gives me heart palpitations. AHH THE STRESS SHE BRINGS ME! None of my other Zoya's give me such a headache so maybe I just got a bad bottle. If you have Pippa and you don't experience any issues with it please let me know. I'm curious.

EDIT: I decided to check out the reviews on Zoya's website and I guesss I'm not the only one! The very first review says, "I love the color, but for whatever reason Zoya screwed up their formula with this color. It`s bubbly, thick and messy as all get out."

Anyway...

Robin Eggs by Whoppers

I managed to snag a mini bottle of Candeo Colors (now available at Llarowe!) Jelly Bean which has been on my wish list since the moment I first saw it. I grew up about 5 minutes away from one of the few Jelly Belly factories in the world, so needless to say me and Jelly Beans (bellys!) go WAAAY back. THIS Jelly Bean is a cute, pastel yellow jelly with pink, purple, and teal blue hexes and squares, and a variety of tiny micro glitters (I see gold, green, pink, and fuchsia.) Crimson at So U Nails & Such commented on my Facebook picture saying that it reminded her of those "Easter Egg malted milk balls" she used to get as a kid. YES! Thats exactly what it reminded me of too. Now I need some chocolate. Grr.

Layered by itself its a nice pastel yellow jelly which would be super cute for spring, but since its summer I wanted something a little brighter. I decided to use it as a top coat over Zoya's Pippa, hence the rant earlier. The color combo isn't a groundbreaking, "OH GIRL I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT" kind of choice, but I absolutely love it. Its bright, its fun, it looks like candy, I love it.

As far as the formula goes, its fantastic! Takes a few coats to make it opaque enough to hide your free edge but that's a common characteristic of jelly polishes. Layer this over white or another color for faster application. One of my favorite things about it, other than the fact that its adorable, is that I don't have to fish for glitter! EUREKA! It applied very smoothly and didn't require a heaping helping of Seche Vite to make my nails feel smooth.

All around, I gave it an A+! Pippa gets a C-...

TLDR;

- Be careful when ordering indies from Copious.

- Candeo's Jelly Bean is freaking adorable.

- Pippa is a beeyatch.

- Chocolate FTW. 

- FTW means 'For The Win' for all my non-gaming friends ;)

<3 Fox

Liebster Award!

AHHH! How cool! My first tag!

I admit that I SQUEEEE'd when Jess from Too Cute-icle messaged me (on WoW of all places) that we had been tagged by Lightwell Nails (Yeah seriously...WoW...Lightwell...I mean what are the odds!?) for the Liebster Blog Award! If you don't know what that means, save yourself the google because the origins appear to be pretty sketchy as far as I could tell, but Sopphey over at Sopphey Says found that, "The earliest mention I found so far happened on December 19, 2010 by a German blogspot blogger." Since I don't speak German, I'll just leave it at that.

The basic rules are these:

1. Each person tagged must post 11 things about themselves.
2. They must also answer the 11 questions the 'tagger' has set for them.
3. They must create 11 more questions to ask bloggers they have decided to tag.
4. They must then choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers and tag them in their post.
5. These lucky bloggers must then be told.
6. There's no tag backs.

Seems simple enough (famous last words?) so here we go!

11 Things About Fox Claws:
1. I was born and raised in Northern California, but I moved to Wisconsin 4 years ago
2. I'm a natural redhead (strawberry blond technically)
3. I currently work 3 jobs: An admin assistant full time, a 'stylist' at a local full figured fashion store, and a marketing/webmaster/camp administrator for a kids summer camp located in Texas.
4. I am an only child but I have 2 step bothers, and 2 step sisters that I have never met.
5. I have 3 cats: Mac, Foxy, and the kitten's name we think is going to be Roxy...but thats subject to change. Foxy is the namesake of my blog :)
6. I have played World Of Warcraft since release and have 4 85s: Druid, Pally, Shaman, Priest. I am currently on Whisperwind-PVE-US. PVP and I do not get along.
7. I have completed the Teen Police Academy and the Citizens Police Academy in my home town. My dream was to become a police dispatcher but I think I'd have been an awful one because I have an awful memory.
8. I am a decedent of Eliza Tibbets. She is my great, great, great, great, great Grandmother.
9. I have more pinks in my collection than any other color.
10. I used to have my tongue pierced.
11. I love camping!

11 Questions from Lightwell Nails!
1. What would you say your getting-started-with-blogging experience has been like?

My getting started experience has been good. Lots of uncertainty and second guessing, but overall I am becoming more confident in my abilities. I am still trying to figure out what my niche is in this community, but for the moment I am just happy I have taken the steps to be part of it. I have met so many wonderful ladies in such a short time!

2. How do you store your stash? (Share pics! :D)
My fiance got tired of me lugging big tubs of polish around everywhere whenever I would set up to do my nails, so when we bought out house he made me a nail polish rack for the wall in the bathroom! I filled it up the moment it was done and told him I was going to need another one. That hatched an idea in his head and we have made some significant changes to the original design in order to make it more universal. We hope to begin selling them on Etsy and on my blog sometime before the end of summer. (Here is the original photo from facebook. The new racks are MUCH cooler! )

3. Do you collect anything?
Dust ;) I also seem to collect an unusual amount of chapstick/lip balm

4. What’s your favorite part of every day?
The part where I get to leave work

5. What other communities do you participate in on your blog topic?
Just Facebook and Twitter. I don't understand tumblr or instagram just yet.

6. What nail technique, design, color combo etc. have you wanted to try but haven’t yet?
I really want to try splatter nails but it looks so messy! I've gotta do it...its just too cool!

7. Star Wars or Star Trek?
Star what? Neither.

8. What was the most memorable trip you ever took?
Oh man, there have been so many. Most memorable recently was when we drove up to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  I got super sick and we ended up staying in the hotel room the last 2 days :(
9. What’s your favorite breed of dog? 
I'm LOVING on Italian Greyhounds right now. Kermit is too stinkin' cute. Edit: My moms Huskys are pretty freaking amazing too and since its cold in WI for 11 of the 12 months out of the year, a Husky is a much better choice I think.

10. What do you never leave the house without?
Cell Phone, Lip Balm. Must have or I am NOT leaving.

11. What’s your favorite piece of “life advice”?
It. Gets. Better.

My questions for my 11 tagged friends!
1. Who is your favorite YouTuber? (Doesn't have to be beauty related.)
2. If you could only wear one polish for the rest of your life, what would it be?
3. Name 5 states/countries you have been to.
4. If you weren't blogging right now, what would you be doing?
5. What is your biggest pet peeve?
6. Do you have any hidden talents?
7. Who is your biggest blogger inspiration?
8. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
9. Ocean or Mountains?
10. Name 5 things within arms reach RIGHT now.
11. Post the funniest google image you can find. Explain why you chose THAT image.

My tagged nominees!
Jindie Nails
Kyoti's Nails
My Indie Glam Addiction
Cool Polish, Bro
Pinked Polish
The Silverinator
Adventures and Mishaps in the Land of Nail Polish 
CDesigns92
Pretty Polished Pointers
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Tough As Nails Lacquer


WHEW!!! That...really wasn't that easy...but so much fun!!! TAG YOU'RE IT LADIES!!

TLDR;

WHAT? No TLDR. Just read the dang thing. Its fun. Promise.

<3 Fox