Holiday fun with Incoco!

Christmas is almost here! Are you ready? I just have to wrap a few things and we'll be good to go. I also got some awesome news Saturday morning from my BFF - she had her baby girl at 8:15a! Welcome to the world Alison, you are already SO loved!  I almost stripped this mani off and painted them pink in her honor, but I didn't have time to switch it up so I kept it on to show you guys.

Incoco sent me a couple samples of their absolutely gorgeous winter collection and while I absolutely borked the gorgeous gold ones (Pass The Bubbly - see the bottom of this post), these babies applied perfectly! I really wanted to do an accent nail and I've always loved the tape tree manis so I gave it shot and LOVE the results!

Featured: 
- Incoco nail strips in Merry & Bright
- 'Winter Affair' by Color Club
- 'Shawn' by Zoya
- 'All That Glitters is Gold' by Savoie

Merry & Bright is a gorgeous, vintage-esque Christmas pattern in red, pink and gold, with a foil finish and subtle holo shimmer. I really love this! I wish I could do the swirl pattern with polish. If anyone has a tutorial for it please send it my way :)

Incoco 'Pass The Bubbly' OOPS!

Incoco nail polish appliques are available for $8.99 per set and can be purchased on their website: http://www.incoco.com. You can also find Incoco on Facebook and Instagram.

Rainbow Ombre/Gradient with 3 colors!

Hey guys!!

Recently a newcomer to one of my favorite nail polish groups posted an INCREDIBLE rainbow gradient mani that I just HAD to try! The inspiration for this mani came from this Cutepolish video!

I used:
Icing - Hot Date (pink)
Zoya - Pippa (yellow)
China Glaze - Aquadelic (turquoise)
China Glaze - Fairy Dust (bling!)
Sinful Colors - Snow Me White (...white)

I'm not going to go into how I did this since Cutepolish did a phenomenal job in her video, but I will add that I find that adding a clear or glitter coat over the gradient, before the top coat, smooths the colors together much better than if you skip it and just add a top coat. This is seriously MUCH easier than it looks, and the effect is CRAYCRAY!

I'd love to see your recreations! After you share them with cutepolish, share them on Fox Claws :)

We also released a new nail polish rack this week!!

'Little Princess' Rack - A pint sized polish rack for the little polish lover in your life. This adorably pink (also comes in white or black) rack is perfect for mommy or daddy's little princess. The 'Little Princess' rack holds approximately 27 large polishes (OPI/China Glaze) and approximately 30 smaller polishes (Essie/Zoya). It would also make a great shelf for small collectible items like stuffed animals and small sports trophies.

$25 + Shipping

Check out our shops on Storenvy and Etsy!

 

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!

Mardi Gras!

There is a whole lot of different in this post!

I have to preface this post by apologizing for the photo quality and the lack of 'proper' clean up. Originally, I had not planned to post this mani at all because I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but after some coaxing from some friends I decided to share it. And it totally grew on me!

Going into it I knew what colors I wanted to use, but I didn't have a plan. Eventually I decided on 'organized chaos' and set to work doing pretty much whatever came to mind. The results are...fun. At least, I think so anyway :)

I used 3 main colors -
Purple - Color Club - Cosmic (from Claires)
Green - Rimmel 60 Sec - Camouflage
Gold - Color Club - Winter Affair

Additional colors and tools -
Glitter - China Glaze - All That Glitters
Zoya - Gilty - 18k Gold Top Coat
Stripes - Random gold striper
Stamp - Konad M60- Stamped with Color Club Winter Affair
Wet & Wild - Blacke Creme
Scotch tape
Fan Brush
Hole reinforcement stickers (for hole punched paper)
2 different sized dotting tools
Make up sponge

Left Hand Run Down:
Index - Scotch tape mani - 'Cosmic' purple base, China Glaze 'All that glitters', gold stripe
Middle - Color Club 'Winter Affair' with 'All that Glitters' gradient. 
Ring - Konad M60 stamped with 'Winter Affair' over black. Sponged on 'Cosmic' and 'Camouflage' around the edges. Sponged on a tiny bit of 'All That Glitters'
Pinky - Fan brush with 'Cosmic', 'Camouflage' and 'Winter Affair' 

Left Hand

Left Hand

Left Hand

Right Hand Run Down:
Index - OoOo I just realized I forgot which stamping plate I used. I'll look this up and get back to ya'll. Anyway, stamped the scroll design with black and gold over 'Cosmic' base. Sponged 'Camouflage' on top. Added a teeny tiny bit of gold glitter (Color Club 'Sultry Diva') on top of the green.
Middle - 'All That Glitters' over 'Cosmic Base'
Ring -  Half Moon Mani - 'Winter Affair' base. I used one of those hole reinforce stickers for paper to create the half moon. Painted the tip blacked and used 2 different sizes of dotting tools for the dots.
Pinky - Scotch Tape Mani - half stamped with Konad M60, half glittered with 'Glitter All The Way'. Added the gold stripe for kicks.

Right Hand

Right Hand

My thumb turned out way better than I had expected. I have always admired these checkerboard type manicures but it always seemed like such a hassle to get everything to line up right. And it was, kinda, but not  nearly as bad as I had imagined. My only failure was not waiting long enough for the base coat to dry before I put tape on it so I had to redo it. I top coated it with Zoya's Gilty to complete the Green/Purple/Gold theme.

These nails were so outside the box for me but I ended up really liking them. Definitely something fun and different for a holiday that is exact that; fun...and different.

TL;DR
- Thank you to the guys who pushed my car out of the snow this morning!! <3 <3 <3 
- I am so ready for spring...out with the snow!
- There is a baby opossum living under our deck.
- And baby bunny prints all over the backyard! Yay!
- Shout out to Jess at Too Cute-icle because shes awesome and shes had a rough couple of days. Love you!

BONUS: Too Cute-icle and Fox Claws Valentines Day Promo! From now until Valentines Day we will include an exclusive, limited edition, 'love' inspired polish by Too Cute-icle with every rack order! You may get a mini, you may get a full size, but you will NOT get this polish ANYWHERE else! (Promo runs from 1/16/2013-2/14/2013. Not valid on orders placed before 1/16/2013) You can find our Etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/FoxClaws

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