Cult Nails - Enigmatic

This polish was such a relief after my issues with Iconic.
This beauty is a purple shimmer that shifts from a deep purple to a grungy maroon color. Throughout the polish are some silver larger glitters that give this polish an almost galaxy like look. I got full opacity at two coats and this polish turned out SHINY. All pictures are in sunlight, with no topcoat.

Ooo, there's that grungy maroon I was talking about!

See those silver glitters I was talking about?

Oh, my! This shows both the deep purple this polish can get, as well as the SHINYNESS! Look at this!! I can practically see my entire porch in the reflection of my nails!

Ooooo, another picture for good measure!

I leave you with this picture, so you can get a good view of what this polish looks like head on.
Overall I'm very much loving this pick! I'm also glad I got some gorgeous pictures, because as I was putting up my camera I smudged three nails. LOL. Thanks, hands.

CFTKR - Frosted Sugar Cookie + Fresh Picked Strawberry

Scent Description: Well... I feel like both of these scents should be self explanatory.
Weight Melted: 0.9 oz.
Cold Sniff: 4/5 From what I could make out while sniffing the two of these next to eachother, this was going to be a great strawberry bakery type scent.
Warm Sniff: 5/5 WHEE! Initially, I thought of strawberry... wafers? I don't know what they're called. I used to have them as kids. After a little bit it morphed into a strawberry cake type scent. FSC has never, from any vendor, smelled like true frosted sugar cookies. I've always picked up sweet cake batter instead. In any case I've still enjoyed it. I thought of this as a combination the day I got this package, and finally just got around to doing this.
Scent Strength: 2/3
Scent Throw: 5/5
Melting Power: 4/5 18 hours before I switched out the scent.
Repurchase(?): Uh. I didn't think through how I was going to do the repurchase section of my own blends. Maybe I'll do Re-blend!! YEAH! LOL.
Re-Blend: Yes! I enjoyed this little concoction. 

Candles From The Keeping Room - Fairy Garden

Scent Description: Juicy apple bits and fully fragrant orange blossoms combined with tart cranberries, mulberries and blackberries. Joining in the fruity explosion is a juicy strawberry puree dancing on a base of sweet vanilla spun sugar.
Weight Melted: 1.0 oz
Cold Sniff: 3/5 There was a very 'green' note to whatever I was smelling. Almost too grassy for me to enjoy it. Not that I don't enjoy the smell of grass, but I wasn't a fan of this while mixed with a super sweet scent.
Warm Sniff: 4/5 Oh my, what a gloriously sweet scent. You can definitely smell each of the fruity notes, with an underlying sweet scent. I'm noticing that between M and I we are in a bit of a 'sweets' type mood. I feel like it's because we're currently denying ourselves this stuff. :)
Scent Strength: 2/3
Scent Throw: 5/5 I could even smell this in the middle of my shower, while using a strongly scented shampoo. It was very relaxing.
Melting Power: 4/5 18 hours. Am I being short? Oops.
Repurchase: YES! :D I loved it. I feel like Carol's made some amazing products, and I'm just constantly astounded by the performance I continue to get. Maybe I've spent too much of my time melting lesser vendors. :)
I would like to point out that out of every single 4 ounce bag I got, the only thing that was under 4 ounces was my Very Berry Twist, which weighed in at 3.9 oz. Everything else was well above the 4 ounces I paid for. This was one of the larger bags, weighing in at 5.7 ounces total. Oh my.

Candles From The Keeping Room - Very Berry Twist

Scent Description: A fresh Green & Fruity blend of Sweet Berries.  With top notes of Strawberry, Raspberry and Cranberry with a subtle hint of Floral and Woodsy, Musky and Vanilla bottom notes.
 Weight Melted: 1.0 oz
Cold Sniff: 4/5 This smelled like a very sweet berry scent to me.
Warm Sniff: 4/5 There wasn't really any change here. I thought of a generic 'berry' scent while smelling this. You can definitely tell it's mixed with vanilla, but my nose didn't pick up on any of the other notes that are in Carol's scent description.
Scent Strength: 1/3
Scent Throw: 5/5
Melting Power: 3/5 I got right around 9 hours before this kaputted. It was weird. One second the scent was there. The next it seemed to poof. Oh well. LOL
Repurchase: Yes! Even if one tart only lasted 9 hours, I was excited that it meant I could switch out my tart without feeling like I was wasting more potential scent. The only thing that does bum me out is I was really hoping to pick up on the wood & musk notes here. Regardless, I still enjoyed the blend.

Candles From The Keeping Room - Strawberry Passion

Scent Description: Rich ripened strawberry fragrance with bottom notes of cotton candy and French vanilla.
Weight Melted: 1.1 oz.
Cold Sniff: 4/5 This smelled like a sweet strawberry with a hint of vanilla. I got a hint of something almost rancid when I sniffed the bag. Smelling another tart right now, I don't pick up on the scent anymore. I wonder if it was actually the wax or if I had something rancid in the apartment that I didn't pick up on until after refreshing my nostrils with this. That's a sad thought. I'm not gonna go with that.
Warm Sniff: 5/5 This is a very sweet, fantastic strawberry. The cotton candy and vanilla make this strawberry seem almost artificial, but in a good way. If that's even possible. In any case, I'm a sweets fan so score!
Scent Strength: 2/3
Scent Throw: 5/5
Melting Power: 4/5 I got about 14 hours of scent from this before I switched out the tart. At that point there was still plenty of scent. I just wanted something new.
Repurchase: YES! I was very much in love with this and the performance!

Cult Nails - Iconic

 This was a very, very confusing nail polish. I can't really put what it is into words so I just decided to overload you with pictures. So... here we go! Everything is in indirect sunlight unless otherwise stated.

Fluorescent light

Fluorescent light

Application was rather difficult. I had to apply this in really really thin layers and be very light with my brush, otherwise the polish would clump or look really weird. I didn't use any topcoat so you could see how lumpy the polish was around the flakes, which is to be expected, but overall this was a more difficult polish to work with.
That being said, the color is amazing. It's different at different angles and light levels. Sometimes I get a very deep red with a hint of shimmer. Other times the flakes are really visible, and they're the multichrome all-the-colors-of-the-rainbow flakies I love. The shimmer itself isn't as noticeable as it is in the bottle, but I still feel like it adds to this polish.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

What's that?

YOU THINK THESE NAILS LOOK NATURAL AND OKAY?!?!!?

Oh, now you see the problem.
Seriously? I just wanted a gorgeous teal color.
*grumbles and gripes about not being willing to buff her nails any further*

Cult Nails - Party Time

Party Time is a beautiful teal creme that leans more blue than green. See what I mean about this needing to be seen on the nails? I'm in love with the shade itself. It's a tad more green than pictured here.
Application was a dream. No pooling and the brush was a nice break after my Mysterious Curse disaster. Pictured is two coats with some Seche Vite on top. Oooh, so shiny! The only issue is my Seche Vite is getting really goopy, and it's only 3/4 full. Usually the goopiness happens as I reach 1/2. Why do you do this to me??

Do you own any colors similar to this? Would you qualify this as a spring color, or is it just grungy enough to be better suited for Fall?

Cult Nails Liquidation Sale - Round Two!

Imagine my excitement one morning when I checked the Cult Nails Facebook page to find that they had finally opened up for round two of their liquidation sale!
While I was several hours late on some of their more sought after items, I did still pick up many beauties. This was a lovely birthday present, from me to me. LOL

Dazed: A frosty blue color. I'm curious as to how streaky this will be when I apply it.
Charlatan: A duochrome glitter/shimmer that shifts between pink/purple and light blue/dark blue.
Bitten: A magenta/red jelly with red/pink duochrome shimmer throughout.

Flash: A creme grungy green color. It looks like the base color to Feelin' Froggy.
Enigmatic: These names are just amazing. A deep musky purple/brown with shimmer that ranges from silver to blood red to murky brown.
Doppelganger: This looks like they took the shimmer from Disciplined and stuck it in a blue shimmer suspension base. I'm excited to see how it performs when layered.

Party Time: A teal-blue creme color. You have to apply it to appreciate the color.
New Day: A very vibrant and sunny yellow creme. While putting the bottle near my skin I fear I have another polish that makes my fingers look ridiculously orange. It's so pretty, though...
Ignite: A black jelly with silver glitter throughout. I can imagine doing a galaxy mani with this as the base.
Iconic: A red base with yellow/gold shimmer and rainbow flakies. I may go back and buy a backup of this. I don't own any other polishes like this and I can't think of any other brands that have anything close to this. Think of fire in a bottle.

I got some freebie nail art wheels and I'm excited to use the studs. I don't actually own any nail art studs, nor do I have rhinestones quite that small. Time to do some more nail art!

That it for this haul! This brings my current Cult Nails count up to 25. Oops. >_> In my defense, it's been bought over time. Except for the past 18. Shh.
What colors would you like to see swatched? Did you buy anything this time around?

Glitterati Candle Co - Cucumber Melon Candy Cane

Scent Description: Oh my. A heavenly mix between cucumber melon and candy canes. Brings to mind an image of Spring and happiness and cleaning (in a good way), with a hint of sweet desserts and forests.
Weight Melted: 1.0 oz.
Cold Sniff: 3/5 Really heavy on the candy canes. This wax needs  to be melted for you to appreciate the beauty of it.
Warm Sniff: 5/5 The cucumber melon really takes a step up here, and the candy cane just peaks its head out.
Scent Throw: 6/5. Holy cow. Guys, this was one ounce. Julie sent me a large chunk that weighed out to 2.9 oz total and I decided to split this into three chunks. I checked mail and while walking up the stairs to my front door I could smell it. I spent some time on my porch reading and enjoying the warm, sunny weather, and this scent stuck to me in a pleasant way. I don't know whether I want to further chop up my remaining two chunks and see how that performs or just keep the other two chunks as is. The other two chunks are .8 oz. Maybe they won't extend beyond the apartment. Seriously, though, this extended soooo far!
Melting Power: >4/5 As I type this, this melt has been going for 18 hours with no indication of dying out any time soon.
Repurchase: YES! This and Cotton Candy Waffle Cone are going on my must-have list. Now I have to decide how much I'm going to buy of this particular blend. A loaf sounds good. Better yet, I'll just buy a literal ton of this. >_> In all seriousness, I hope all of her stuff is this potent in this small an amount. It makes this the best quality per ounce that I've ever melted.

As If You Didn't Hurt Me Enough...

If you think something looks wrong with the finger on the left, you're correct. While taking off this polish I noticed that MY NAILS WERE A HORRID SHADE OF ORANGE.
Normally I don't care about yellowing of the nails. I make a note of it and move on with my life, maybe making a point to double or triple up on my base coat if I remember that the polish caused yellowing. This polish left my nails just a bit more than yellow.

My pointer finger has already had its treatment. A light buffing. Not recommended for those who have weak nails. My nails, thankfully, are anything but weak. They're too strong, if you ask me. Thus I must moisturize often to keep my nails flexible, otherwise they will chip easily.

Aaah, much better. Would you look at that? Now my nails are nice and back to normal. Don't mind my cuticles, they always look like that in between manicures. All the time, really. I just try and convince myself that they look halfway decent, then realize I'm a liar whenever I see pictures :)
Long story short, Orly Mysterious Curse is really a curse for me. It's so pretty, though!

Orly - Mysterious Curse

Ah, what a lovely color. It's tainted, however, by my experience with the brush and my inability  to capture this polish with my camera. Fitting, when you think of the name.
While looking at this in soft light, this comes across as a deep blue with a very dark, almost black base. You can kind of see that color at the bottom of every nail here.
In the light, or at an angle, you can see that the base is a very dark purple. So dark it looks black in most lights. Then there's this purple-pink shimmer, that you can see really well in the picture but in person takes lots of lighting to capture. This is such a beautiful color!
the brush is wonky. It's misshapen and has some strands out of place. By the time I finished applying the polish I was too angry to take a picture of the nightmare that was the brush.
AUGH. Such a wonderful color. That brush made me want to hurl the bottle at the wall.
Can you tell I'm frustrated by how this worked?

Candles From The Keeping Room - Sweet Lavender Cream

Scent Description: Our blend of our sweet lavender, vanilla. A sweet cream and a touch of sugar. Sweet and mellow.
Weight Melted: 0.9 oz.
Cold Sniff: 2/5 There was a very soapy part to this. I didn't pick up on any sweetness or vanilla.
Warm Sniff: 3/5 That soapyness went away, making this a much more pleasant melt, but this lavender had a harshness to it I couldn't get over. It could be described as herbal. I could vaguely pick up something that might be lavender, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Scent Strength: 2/3
Scent Throw: 5/5
Melting Power: 4/5 About 12 hours before I snuffed this one out. I wasn't a fan.
Repurchase: Sadly, no. I had such high hopes for this, even while I was taking my lackluster cold sniff notes. There is definitely something lavender here, but I don't get anything sweet or creamy, or even sugary as the scent description would imply.

Candles From The Keeping Room - Citrus Sorbet

Scent Description: I smell generic fruit mixed with sweet ice cream here. I thought it would be more... citrus-ey? If it's there, the sorbet really toned it down. It's still an awesome scent though
Weight Melted: 1.0 oz
Cold Sniff: 4/5
Warm Sniff: 4/5 There wasn't any change in the scent once I melted it. I'm still rather confused by it, though. Citrus is typically a very noticeable scent! What happened here??
Scent Strength: 1/3
Scent Throw: 5/5 This filled the entire apartment! Yay!!
Melting Power: 4/5 I got 14 hours of continuous scent from this before turning off my warmer.
Repurchase: Maybe? I would if I knew this is what it would smell like every time I bought this, but I'm concerned that this isn't actually citrus sorbet. Maybe my nose is crazy. Assuming this is just how the scents melted together, I'm going to go with YES.

It's My Birthday! 50 Random Questions!

I'm feelin' 22! I don't care for the song, but I'm 22 today! WOOOO! I'm not quite old enough to no longer care about birthdays, so I wanted to do something special for this one. Since I haven't really been in a melty mood lately, I'm going to bombard you with 50 random questions!

Candles From The Keeping Room - Blackberry Musk

Have you missed me?? I promise I'm not dead, I've just not been melting much lately. Nor have I been taking care of my nails. Oops. I'm going to get sooo mad at myself once I start up my nail care again. Anyways, on to the review!
Scent Description: This was a hard to describe scent for me. There is a sweet musk, something else, and a hint of  blackberries. I couldn't tell you what that 'something else' note is, but it is very pleasant. Maybe vanilla, but I couldn't be sure. In any case, I absolutely loved it!
Weight Melted: 1.2 oz.
Cold Sniff: 5/5
Warm Sniff: 5/5
Scent Strength: 1/3
Scent Throw: 4/5 The only room this didn't reach was the bedroom.
Melting Power: 4/5 I got about 16 hours of strong scent from this tiny tart! Wow!
Repurchase: Yes! I loved it! This really isn't helping me try and cut down on what I'm buying so I can use up wax that I've had forever!

PSA: Cult Nails Liquidation, Round Two!

In case you haven't been obsessively watching their Facebook page, Cult Nails has finally opened up for round two of their liquidation sale! Once a polish is gone, it's gone for good! Most of the good pickings were gone before I'd gotten a chance to see what they had, but I still picked up several.
Their polishes are still $4.80, or 60% off, and they have $5 flat rate shipping. Now's your chance to pick up the last Cult Nails you may ever own *sniff*