Fox Claws: March 2013

Monday, March 25, 2013

Too Cute-icle Day!

Just a quick one today! I am in desperate....DESPERATE.....need of warmth. Desperate. SRSLY! If you follow me on Facebook, or you live in the upper mid-west/north east, you know that winter has a pretty firm grasp on us. So firm that the forecast for this weekend calls for a high of 40 and people are pulling their shorts and flip flops out. SOooOOo in an effort to help speed the seasonal process along, I'm wearing 'SUMMER' by Too Cute-icle (Forget you Spring I'm skipping your ass right now...)

'Summer' is an festive mix of neon pink, blue, green and yellow matte micro glitters in a clear base. This is 1 coat over China Glaze 'Aquadelic'.

'Summer' is available now for $7 for a full size here! You can also find Too Cute-icle on...
Facebook
Etsy
Blog
Instagram: @TooCuteicle
Twitter: @TooCuteicle

If you get a few minutes, head over to Too Cute-icles Facebook page and browse all of the submissions for Too Cute-icle Day!

TL;DR
- Whats Too Cute-icle Day? Some friends and I got together and spammed Too Cute-icle with photos of manis we did using her gorgeous creations! Just our way of saying 'We Love You Jess!'
- Is anyone interested in seeing what Mr. Fox Claws and I have been up to since we put the shop on vacation?
- I love John Pinette!

P.S. GFC is staying but Google reader is going. If you're anything like me, you might prefer keeping all of your blogs in one organized place. You can now follow Fox Claws on BlogLovin!

Monday, March 18, 2013

GFC Going bye bye?

Not exactly.

With all the information swirling around about Google Reader and Google Friend Connect, I have attached BlogLovin to Fox Claws. Google took the ax to GFC on non-Blogger sites in 2011, so it just makes sense to migrate and consolidate followed blogs on a multi-platform, platform. Feel free to read and follow whichever way you are most comfortable with :) Love you guys! Thanks so much!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Friday, March 15, 2013

Too Cute-icle - I'm Wearing Green!

Saint Patrick's Day is right around the corner! Woo!

I figured out this month that I have a serious problem with 'anticipation' buying. I can't tell you how many GREENS I picked up in anticipation of Saint Patrick's Day manis, but I can tell you that I own more than I could possibly use between Valentines Day and March 17th. Oh well...at least I'll be set for Christmas LOL!

Shamrocks (NOT 4-leaf cloves)...surprisingly easy...surprisingly difficult! I spent a great deal of time crouched over a nail wheel with my dotting tools trying to get the spacing for the leaves just right, all in all I am pretty pleased with it and have definitely found my St. Paddy's Day (Paddy not Patty LOL!) mani. I love it! Even the operations manager at work said, "Cool nails, man! My wife loves that stuff." Awesome.

This is 2 coats of Too Cute-icle's limited edition Saint Patrick's Day polish 'I'm Wearing Green', over Finger Paints 'Tough Art To Follow'. I added the rhinestones and immediately regretted it. 'I'm Wearing Green' is gorgeous on its own and didn't need at dressing up. The stars, I was pleased to find, did not require much fishing, but you better believe I top coated the shizz outta them...LOL! For the accent nails I used Chirality Nail Polish 'Katydid' (lime green scatter holo) and black on my swatch hand, and 'Katydid' and 'Tough Art To Follow' on my right hand.

(P.S. I am experimenting with my photos and watermarks to make them less intrusive. Let me know in the comments if you like the new look or not, or would prefer them not have borders and the logo. Thanks!)

Finger Paints ' Tough Art To Follow' (Black accent nail)

Too Cute-icle 'I'm Wearing Green'

Shamrocks - Chirality 'Katydid'

Too Cute-icle 'I'm Wearing Green'

Too Cute-icle 'I'm Wearing Green' w/ Rhinestones

Chirality 'Katydid' and Finger Paints 'Tough Art To Follow'

The 'OTHER' hand LOL

'I'm Wearing Green' is available now for $7 for a full size until 10pm on March 17, 2013 here! You can also find Too Cute-icle on...
Facebook
Etsy
Instagram: @TooCuteicle
Twitter: @TooCuteicle
Blog

You can find Chirality's 'Katydid' here and on Facebook.

Just a heads up, we'll Just a heads up, we will be putting the shop (https://www.etsy.com/shop/FoxClaws) into vacation mode for a couple of weeks starting this Friday 3/15/13 so that we can catch up on some things around the house, and give Mr. Fox's elbow some time to recover and heal. We may still be accepting custom orders so if you want something while the shop is closed please feel free to contact us on Etsy, Facebook, or by e-mail at thefoxclaws[at]gmail[dot]com. All open orders, including orders placed between now and Friday, will be completed and shipped out on schedule. If you have any questions about your order, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Oh, almost forgot! Theres a new social media footprint website called HireInfluence. It's kind of like Klout and LinkedIn rolled into one. It's still in BETA so I don't have too much information yet, but I'll update more when I get some :) You can activate your profile at HireInfluence (http://bit.ly/hireinf). I activated mine with my twitter account in less than 3 minutes and found out I have a social media #strengthfactor of 31.2. If you activate your account by March 25th you'll be entered to win 1 of 3 $100 Amazon gift cards!

Some of the capabilities and highlights of the HireInfluence interface include:

Search – A search engine that gives businesses unprecedented search criteria options to strategically identify and leverage "Networking Superstars" in their target market or industry.
Proprietary Score – A "Strength Factor" score based on real influence, to include the level of impact the influencer has via each social channel, as well as real work experience within specific industries.
Social analyzing – A first-to-market aggregation and validation of the results, to include demographics of friends and followers, location of influence, key words used and engaged vs. fake followers, to name a few.
Star Rating – Each person's profile has a star rating given by other companies as well as rankings against other Networkers to "recruit with confidence."
Social Media Background Check - Printed profile for a sales or promotional employment opportunity.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Girly Bits - Hot Shot!

We're expecting MORE FREAKING SNOW in Wisconsin this week! GRRRR! Seriously Mother Nature, you can stop with the snow...we get it. This California native is ready for spring!

When I received Girly Bits 'Hot Shot' from her P.S. I Love You collection I was SO excited! If you've read my blog for any length of time you've probably figured out that I'm a huge pink girl so pink + holo = DREAM. YAY! Something bright and fun to liven up my snow white world.

In the sun, Girly Bits 'Hot Shot' is a bright, borderline neon (HOT) pink with a gorgeous linear holo, but indoors with artificial light 'Hot Shot' becomes this gorgeous, classy, almost dusty pink. With 1 coat of SV on top it looks like glass and wears like Kevlar. Seriously, I've had this baby on for 5 days and there is virtually no sign of wear. It applied like a dream, no bubbles, no lumps, just perfect application. It also cleaned up nicely and left zero shimmer/holo residue around my cuticles. As far as whether you'll need a special base or top coat for this holo, I would say no -- I used my usual, Seche Clear and Seche Vite, and it was absolutely stunning.

This is 3 coats of 'Hot Shot', with 1 coat of Seche Vite.

'Hot Shot' is available now right here, or you can find it as part of Girly Bits' 'P.S. I Love You trio with Twitterpated and A Mother's Love.

You can find Girly Bits on...

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GirlyBits

Shop: http://www.girlybits.bigcartel.com/

Instagram: @GirlyBitsCosmetics

Twitter: @PamsGirlyBits

Blogspot: http://pamsgirlybits.blogspot.com/

You can also find Girly Bits at the following online retailers:

Llarowe

Harlow & Co

Overall Beauty

Mei Mei's Signatures

TL;DR

- Perfect pink for the spring and summer!

- More St. Patrick's Day polishes coming up this week!

- This weekend went by far too quickly. =(

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Yours, Mine and Flowers....and Lotus!

Greeetings foxy lady lacquer heads! Today is a two-fer! There's been a lot of GREEN around here lately so I wanted to break it up with a little pop of spring!

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I love glitter! Love, love, love it...BUT I have had a really hard time adjusting to shape glitters. In fact, I dislike them so much that I have avoided them like the plague. When I first started getting into polish I picked up a drugstore brand that was packed with stars that, once applied and reinforced with top coat, suddenly became as sharp as a friggin razor! Unbeknownst to me, a point of one of the stars had poked up through the top coat and was so stiff that I actually drew blood when I scratched an itch on my forearm. Please tell me I am not the only person on the planet that has ever made themselves bleed from a self inflicted glitter wound! Uhm...yeah...shape glitter can just...go...

But I was excited to receive a mini of Different Dimension - Yours, Mine and Flowers from Missi because its just so dang cute in the bottle with its delicate, muted glitters and little pink flowers. Dang it! I wanted to hate it but its just so spring and I am so sick and tired of snow that I'll take spring anywhere I can find it. TGFNP (Thank Goodness For Nail Polish)

Missi describes Yours, Mine and Flowers as, "a cute mix of pastel matte glitters in a variety of sizes with pink flowers in a clear base." Nailed it again ;) There is a nice mix of micro and relatively standard sized hexes of pastel green, blue, pink, and purple, with adorable pink flower glitters. It reminds me of an Easter basket for your nails. Love! No glitter placement necessary (except I did actually place the flowers because I wanted them in a specific spot). I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to fish around for them, they came out all on their own! Victory for large glitters in mini bottles! Most pleasant surprise: The flowers laid very flat ~~and did not draw blood~~ and did not eat up a lot of top coat. You go Different Dimension!

I would normally have done a full on mani with this beauty but I was being selfish and didn't want to waste it before Spring actually rolled around so I did it as an accent nail over Zoya's Lotus. I will do a full mani with it soon!

Lotus is a gorgeous dusty purplely-lavender with a spectacular burst of pink shimmer floating through it. I am not a big 'purple person', but the moment I saw a friend pick it up I knew I had to have it. Its fantastic. The formula was great! It evened out beautifully. IMO its a must own. Run, don't walk ;)

Anyway, this is 2 coats of Different Dimension 'Yours, Mine and Flowers' over Zoya 'Lotus'

You can find Different Dimension 'Yours, Mine and Flowers' and more of Missi's amazing creations in her Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DIFFERENTdimension for $8.50 (full size), and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

You can find Zoya's full product line at http://www.zoya.com/ and on Facebook. To go directly to LOTUS click here: https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/01788D15

If you are not enrolled in Zoya's 'Share The Love' program, click here to sign up and start earning points that are redeemable for free shipping, discounted product and other fun goodies! Its super easy!

TL;DR
- You know you spent too much time on Facebook when you type "@differentDIM" into blogger and wait for it to auto fill the tag in...GRRR
- I'm not kidding, I really will do an OCM update soon!
- It's the freaking weekend -- I'll drink to that..heyyaaah!

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Girly Bits - Erin Go Bragh-less

Oooooh do I have a 'pretty' to share with you today! This is going to be another picture heavy post so for those of you who read Fox Claws on your mobile device I apologize in advance...sorta. There were so many gorgeous photos of this one that narrowing them down was an impossible task.

When I was contacted by Pam from Girly Bits about doing some reviews for her I thought it was a joke. ME? Really? REALLY! I'm surprised you guys didn't hear me SQUEEEEE because I am pretty sure I did a lap around my living room in elation! Of course I jumped at the chance to work with such an iconic indie brand, and when I received my first (of hopefully many) press kits I didn't even make it through the front door before I had ripped the package open. (Yeah, yeah, whatever Cara..get to the good stuff!)

Erin Go Bragh-less. LOL! How hilarious is that? I like the way Erin thinks! Even if I hated this polish (I don't, BTW!) I would have had to get my hands on it just for the name. Girly Bits 'Erin Go Bragh-less' is a gorgeous bright green jelly loaded with various sizes and shapes of green and gold glitter. GOR-JUS! There was absolutely zero glitter placement with this one, just swipe and go. The jelly seemed to be the perfect thickness - not too goopy, not too thin. Some of my nails are so arched that jellies and crellies have a tendency to slide off the top of the nail and settle in thick clumps on the side, but this one stayed exactly where I put it, and it smoothed out very well. I could have gotten away with 2 coats but I really loved how the color built up with each coat so I went with 3 with an additional half coat on my ring finger.

This is 3 coats of Erin Go Bragh-less with 2 coats of Seche Vite. Click the photos to enlarge them.

Erin Go Bragh-less is available NOW right here: http://www.girlybits.bigcartel.com/product/erin-go-brah-less!