Nerd on Nerd action! Dollish Polish It's a Me Mario over Cult Nails Time Traveler

I recently purchased three of Dollish Polish's gamer polishes, 
the Legend of Zelda duo, and the Super Mario Brothers-
themed It's a Me Mario.  (Am I the only person who 
desperately wants there to be a comma after "me" in that
 name?  Yes? OK, then). 

It's a me [no comma] Mario consists of medium red and blue
 hex glitters, tiny square red and blue glitters, and the 
occasional silver holographic star glitter, all suspended in a 
clear base.

I bought it in one of those high-adrenaline bigcartel openings 
and clicked 'buy buy buy,' snagged the three polishes, losing 
GTL to a cruel cart-jacking incident and then sat there 
wondering what I was doing to myself.  I wasn't even sure I
wanted a red and blue glitter.

It was a sad, sad day in Sad Day Town.

I found myself in almost buyer's remorse and wondered what in the heck I would wear it with.

Then I got it in the mail and immediately changed my mind. The glitter in Mario is egregiously sparkly, and I am critically weak against ridiculously sparkly things.  

This is one of those polishes that pictures tend not to do justice, though I do think that the polish base you choose for it likely makes a huge difference in showing off its glories.

The power of the sparkles compels you!

In my case, I chose to pair It's a me [ ] Mario with cult Nails Time Traveler, a dark, almost navy blue jelly/creme hybrid that I love for its depth, ease of application and gorgeous color. 

I liked the idea of choosing a darker blue polish so that the blue and red polishes could pop.

Like most of my very dark polishes, I tend to top it with glitters, though it's beautiful on its own.

Check out the outrageous sparkle on my palm! 

I come from a long line of geeky/nerdy people, so the idea of topping a Doctor Who-named polish with a video gaming polish really made my day.  

Like Dollish's Hero of Time, I would generally not use this polish alone to try to get full opacity, but it does pack a pretty substantial glitter punch with 1-2 coats.  This here is two very thin coats, because I wanted Time Traveler to show well on the nail.

I love both of these polishes so. damn. much. 

One thing I will say about It's a Me Mario:  the stars are pretty sparsely distributed, or at least they were in my bottle.  I think you should look at the stars as a fun surprise bonus when they show up, rather than expecting them, sort of like the stars on Tootsie Pop wrappers.  I don't mind this, but it's something you should be aware of if you're charmed by the stars or despise shapely glitters. 

This picture is a bit less sharp, but i think it does a better job of showing how much the polishes popped, even in less bright light. 

Did I mention that this polish is way sparkly?  This is in the shade.

Here's another picture in full sun.  These pictures are all from the second day I wore this mani, and after I had hand-washed a full load of dishes.

I wore this polish for around 4 days, and ended up with just a bit of tip wear, which was mostly because I went on a crazy cleaning and cooking spree.  Time Traveler wears like iron.

I only ended up taking this mani off today because my Seche Vite had separated a bit on one nail so it looked like I had a huge bubble in my mani.  Every once in a while this happens, but I haven't heard anyone else mention it.  I wonder if I have some sort of freakish chemistry or if most people just don't think it's worth mentioning.

Even the Boy, who generally enjoys my polish habit more because it makes me happy, rather than because he likes nail polish, repeatedly gushed about what a gorgeous mani this turned out to be.  I think he will mourn when he gets home tonight and I have a totally non-geeky polish on. But I snapped a nail and am down to nondescript stubs and relatively neutral polishes until I get over it.

Delicious, delicious glitter <3 I miss you already.

This mani was inspiring to me, so this weekend, I played Wii Super Mario with the Boy, and watched a bit of Doctor Who and Torchwood. The Boy and I are also rewatching Firefly, which means I'll need to drag out my Nerdlacquer Shiny soon, though I think I'll wait until all the nails peek above my fingertips first ^^;

That is one happy glitter-loving kitteh!

Dollish Polish It's a me [] Mario over Cult Nails Time Traveler:

KITTEH APPROVED.  BOY APPROVED.  FLANGE APPROVED.

This almost never happens.  I may have to buy backups of both of these polishes. 

On the other hand, I tend not to wear the flashier manis during most of the school year, because my students are freakishly distracted by non-traditional nail polish.

You'd think college students wouldn't blink at random nail polish, but even soft pastel blues usually get a response, at least early on.  By the end of the semester, I start breaking out the holos and glitters because they don't care and I don't care :DDD

Kitteh showing off an awesome combination of polishes
while trying to stay cool in 100 degree weather

Cult Nails can be purchased here, and I believe there's a 48 hour sale right now where Maria is offering free shipping for orders over $50. 

Dollish Polish can be bought when stock is available at her bigcartel site here, and at overall beauty.  She also announced recently that she will soon also be available at llarowe.

The Kitteh of Time: Dollish Polish Hero of Time over Joe Fresh Moss

 I'm a bit of a layering fiend, and recently, I got two different nail mails in the same day that seemed made for each other:

Joe Fresh: Moss and Dollish Polish: The Hero of Time

The Joe Fresh polish is a Canadian nail polish I received from a friend from grad school, along with the coveted Twilight, a black jelly with flakies, very similar to Nfu Oh 60, and Teal, which is actually not Teal at all, but a sort of dusty blue somewhat similar to the color of Butter London's Victoriana, but a slight shimmery polish, rather than a glitter.


The glitter topcoat is one of Dollish Polish's Legend of Zelda polishes that come as a set.  The other one is Hylian Princess and is predominantly purple and gold.  I haven't worn it yet, but I'm really looking forward to it, as soon as I figure out what kind of  "underwear" will work with it. 




Okay, so I *cough* forgot *cough* to take a picture of Joe Fresh Moss alone on the nails, because it made my hands turn a godawful shade of zombie-warmed-over. I suspect it will look much much better on other people who don't have as much yellow in their skin tones, but for me, this will always be a polish to top with other colors. 


I'm not a fan of the short and thin brush that the Joe Fresh polishes use. SInce it's not really a self-leveling polish, the thin brush can make application a bit awkward.




That said, I think these two polishes work really well together.

The murky green of Moss really sets off the variety of green, gold, tan and brown glitters in The Hero of Time. They seem to float atop the base coat. 




This is one coat of the Hero of Time over Joe Fresh Moss. It probably could be built up to opacity, but I think I like it better as a topcoat. This picture is a bit blurry, but I think it shows better how the glitters catch the light :)

Requisite Kitteh + Bottle Shot

Look how heroic I am! *cue stirring movie soundtrack*

This one is also pretty awesome :D

It's actually pretty hard to get a good bottle shot with an at times uncooperative kitteh.

Also, she seems to have really odd ideas about appropriate posing for a polish.

To me, "The Hero of Time" carries some strong cues for effective posing, but clearly, the Kitteh has different associations with heroism.  Clearly she needs to play more Legend of Zelda games.


Rejected Kitteh + bottle shots 

Intriguing, possibly tasty.

The Kitteh's most common reaction to having a bottle of polish in front of her is to smell it.


She never looks particularly pleased by the result, yet she seems compelled to do it.


Likewise, I am compelled to photograph her doing it.  It is a vicious cycle, but its our vicious cycle.

Psycho Kitteh! RUN AWAY

I can't pass up hilarious yawning pictures, but I feel like they might give a somewhat bad impression of awesome polishes.


Seriously.  That is a scary face.  The face of a kitteh who has sniffed way too many polish fumes and isn't afraid to let the whole world know.

Oh . . . no. Just . . . no. 

Oh yes, the slightly-sticking-out-tongue look.





 . . . Always a classic.

Kitteh Calisthenics: Always good after a strenuous photo shoot. 

There is nothing wrong with this picture.  It just wasn't quite as heroic-looking as the first one.



Anyhow. Joe Fresh Moss and Dollish Polish Hero of Time. A really fantastic combination, but probably the only way I'm going to wear Moss, because it hates my skin tone so incredibly much.

Dollish Polish can be purchased here at her store. If you want The Hero of Time, you must get it as part of the Legend of Zelda Duo from her Gamer Series. Full size is $17.50 for the set, and minis are $9.  As for Joe Fresh, I'm not sure if you can order it from the US, as mine was a gift.

Bottom Line:

Joe Fresh Moss:
A fine mossy green creme, but terrible on my skin.  The brush makes application a bit annoying, but nothing one can't work around.

The Hero of Time: Kitteh-Approved!
An excellent and fun glitter topcoat, though not one I'd likely want to fiddle with enough to get full coverage.  Instead, I'd probably use a more dense glitter green, like Orly Here Comes Trouble as a base and work from there. That said, as a topcoat, it had a nice application and complex color mix that is really interesting, especially with the small light brown glitters.  I like the variety of colors and sizes of glitter, and am intrigued by the idea of trying this over a rich brown or a tan.

Bonus Kitteh!
Random shots of the Kitteh adventuring in our front lawn, which our landlords desperately need to mow

Have a fantastic weekend!

Flange

Still life with Pawlish: Greetings from the Kitteh and the stash!

Meet the Kitteh. 

She's been with us since 2009 when she showed up on our porch a straggly scrawny stray. The Boy, my husband, was smitten, and fed her some canned deviled ham.  

The Kitteh knew a good deal and stayed, but we weren't allowed to have pets. 

 . . . . . 

So she sucked up to our landlord until our lease mysteriously changed, allowing pets. 

 . . . . .

She's a tricksy one.  

By the time our landlady had relented, she'd been "the kitteh" so long (because you know once you've named an animal, she's yours), that no other name stuck. So "The Kitteh" she remains.

Clearly, she's filled out a bit since then :DDD

Fluffiest tail, EVAH.

Now she rules the house, and poses with my nail polish. It's a rough life. 

She's very judgmental about my stash, and my lack of self control.

I am so disappointed in you.

Nevertheless, she  allows herself to be photographed with the polish :D

So. This is a small and silly blog dedicated to my kitteh and my polishes. If you found us, I hope you enjoy your visit :DDD