Last-minute Halloween nails

purchased by me

Incoco has six one-manicure sets available at Walgreens.  I got the cute little ghosts which glow in the dark!

If you're interested in finding a set, you can check the store locator on the Incoco website.

Bonita Nail-O-Ween 2015

purchased by me

I am such a sucker for packaging!  I saw this cute set at Rite Aid for $4.99 + tax and I couldn't resist!  The nail stickers are tiny, but there is tiny green shimmer over the black stickers, and I love little touches like that.  There are two glow in the dark polishes among the four.

The green glows in the dark and it's pretty thin.  I used three coats for my swatch, but could have used a fourth:

The purple is also a glow-in-the dark and also needs four coats (shown with three):

The white was fine with three coats:

The black was perfect in two coats:

If your expectations aren't too high, this is a cute set for $5, and would be wonderful for doing your nails with a small someone special!

Iulia, L’Artiste du Diable

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

artwork by Julie Dillon for Black Phoenix

Scent of the Day:  Iulia, l'Artiste du Diable (Carnaval Diabolique 2015) --White tea, sugar cane, orange blossom, rockrose, lemon balm, white mint, and honey.

I fell for this new scent at the Bay Area Lunacy event at the end of August.  It's re-engineered from the previous Artiste du Diable scent ("Gennivre") which was named for a previous CD label illustrator.  (The current version is named for Julie Dillon.)  I've never tried Gennivre, so I don't know how this compares to the previous version.

On first sniff it's tea, honey, mint, and a beautiful floral.  Normally I don't like orange blossom, but if that's what this is, then I may have to change my mind.  Wet on my skin, it's everything I love about Embalming Fluid -- the tea, the herbal lemon, the perkiness - plus a really beautiful floral.  If the Lab description didn't say otherwise, I'd think this was white ginger lily instead of orange blossom.

As it matures I get more floral and honey.  But the lemon gets deeper and a bit more sugary, more like preserved lemon peel.  It keeps the floral from collapsing in an excess of indoles.  The result is a happy, sweet, but not too pungent floral with lemony-mint underpinnings.  This is probably the best orange blossom has ever smelled on my skin chemistry.

It's hard to reproduce the original testing ground for this scent -- a warm crowded shop, humid with many bodies -- but the scent still loves me in the relatively cool, dry, airy environs of my house.

Pi nails!

purchased by me

I treated myself to a gorgeous and geeky Pi Infinity scarf from Think Geek.  Then when I was planning to wear it with a blue and white tweed jacket, white shirt and blue slacks, I decided I would do my nails to match.  I started with a base of Zoya Dream, then added a coat of Nubar White Polka Dot and free-handed the Pi symbold in Serum No5 Guiding Light.

Essie Rock at the Top

purchased by me

Rock at the Top is a clear base with multiple sizes of gold glitter.  It has good viscosity, a nice spread and a good ratio of glitter to base.  One coat over Cocktail Bling:

Essie Cocktail Bling

purchased by me

Cocktail Bling is a soft blue-toned grey crème.  It was well-behaved with a nice viscosity and bottle color in two coats.

Essie A-list

purchased by me

A-list is a nice classic red crème, opaque and shiny in two coats.