Crowstoes A Christmas Crow

Aww, Crowstoes month is coming to an end. I hope you've enjoyed the month-long onslaught! I've saved my favorite for last. Crowstoes A Christmas Crow, like Maxxed Out, is part of the CROWSmas collection from this past holiday season.

DISCLOSURE: A Christmas Crow was sent to me by Crowstoes for my honest review.

A Christmas Crow is a smoky dark brown, almost black jelly packed with color-shifting red-gold shimmer and glitter. Here it is at four coats alone:

It's still a bit sheer, but passable in this state, I think. Also, the formula was great! I told you previously that I had to add quite a bit of thinner to get my other glittery Crows the way I liked them, but this needed no thinner. Excellent.

I just love the shimmer! But here's the real stunner: A Christmas Crow over black.

Hold me. It's AWESOME. Oh, and sorry about the random change in nail length! I received the package with polishes to review just before getting my cast off, and I was so excited about this one I wore it over black as soon as I got home from the doctor's office!

I used 2 coats of A Christmas Crow over 2 coats of Sinful Colors Black on Black. The black base made the shimmer stand out, and it is just fantastic.

A word of caution to those with sensitive noses- use this in a well-ventilated area! A Christmas Crow had an unusual, strong smell, and while it didn't bother me, I wanted to point it out just in case it made a difference for one of you. I can't remember where, but I recall reading about another polish of a similar color with a similar unusual, strong smell, which leads me to wonder if it has something to do with the colorants.

DISCLOSURE: A Christmas Crow was sent to me by Crowstoes for my honest review.

Have you tried A Christmas Crow? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great weekend!

Crowstoes Maxxed Out

Crowstoes Maxxed Out is from the CROWSmas collection, which as you might have guessed, was her first Christmas collection!

DISCLOSURE: Maxxed Out was sent to me by Crowstoes for my honest review.

Maxxed out is a super flashy mix of gold and silver glitter, with lots of holographic sparkle. I really love this. It's tied with A Christmas Crow for my favorite Crow! You'll see A Christmas Crow on Friday. I layered Maxxed Out over Essie Brooch the Subject. 1 coat over 3 coats of Brooch the Subject.

I treated Maxxed Out the same way I did Absolum- by thinning the bejeezus out of it and wiping off the brush before beginning my application. Aside from the slight traffic jam of gold glitter on my ring fingernail, application wasn't bad at all.

I'm really liking the look of metallic glitter over a nude. And I actually remembered to try it matte! Check it out. I used Essie Matte About You.

How awesome is that?

Maxxed Out looks awesome matte. And I have another combo to show you. Remember waaaay back in January when I posted my favorite bases for layering? Yeah, I'm bringing Dorien Grey back.

After the first go with Maxxed Out, I was able to spread out the glitter better, and application was great.

I like this combination, but the glitter is sort of hard to capture while the mani is glossy, soooo I decided to add Essie Matte About You again.

Dat glitter.

I think this is my favorite way to wear it. Interestingly enough, yes, there is bar glitter in here, and while I'm still not enamored with it, it didn't affect my love for this super flashy glitter!

DISCLOSURE: Maxxed Out was sent to me by Crowstoes for my honest review.

Have you tried Maxxed Out? I'd also like to try this over some different base colors, and I'm curious as to what you'd recommend!

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Crowstoes Absolum- Your Potions Master

Crowstoes Absolum- Your Potions Master is another one of the first colors released.

DISCLOSURE: Absolum was sent to me by Crowstoes for my honest review.

It's a complex layering glitter with glints of blue, orange, and green. Predictably enough, I layered it over two blues, but damn if it doesn't look super cool! I only wish I had remembered to use a matte top coat. So first up, here it is over New York Summer Hot Sky Blue.

Like Bunny Slope, Absolum has a thiiiiick formula, but I thinned it to my liking, wiped off the brush really well before applying, and application was much easier.

Interestingly enough, there is some bar glitter in here, long black pieces, but I don't have a super strong aversion to them like I usually do. Still not crazy about the bars, but bar glitter is almost always a dealbreaker for me. Which brings me to my next base color, American Apparel Passport Blue!

I think this is my favorite base for Absolum. Not only do the brighter glitters pop, the black bar glitter disappears! I don't hate it in this application, but I'm certainly not fussed about it's disappearance, heh.

Okay, I know I've been talking about similar polishes for the Pleiades, but I tried going into Etsy to look at comparable glitters, and my head just about exploded. Plus, glitter formulas vary so widely from brand to brand and even within brands, and indie glitters even more so. My point being, I'd feel sort of weird bringing up other indie glitters when I'm completely unfamiliar with the brands, so I'm going to forego this particular part of my typical blog post for Absolum and the remaining two glitters.

DISCLOSURE: Absolum was sent to me by Crowstoes for my honest review.

Have you tried Absolum? Are you as nutty about bar glitter as I am?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Crowstoes Bunny Slope

Happy Friday! Today I have the first of four Crowstoes glitters for you. Bunny Slope is one of Crowstoes' first colors, and is a unique blend of matte white glitter and a few other glitters I can't quite put my finger on.

DISCLOSURE: Bunny Slope was sent to me by Crowstoes for my honest review.

There are glints of iridescence here and there, which is really cool! I swatched Bunny Slope alone and over OPI Don't Touch My Tutu, and I have to say, I really would not recommend the first way, LOL.

This is four coats alone. It sort of looks like I used loose glitter, which is a cool effect, but I have pretty much zero experience with this kind of formula, so application was tricky. The formula was very thick, but I've read that Crowstoes uses uncut suspension base, so after testing it one nail I went ahead and thinned it to my liking.

You can see a bit of the iridescent glitter, but unfortunately you can also see I had a hard time getting an even surface, even with thinning and a coat of Gelous. Luckily, the solution is really simple and I wish I had just started with this in the first place! I used 1-2 coats over 3 coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu.

I didn't get full coverage with this round of swatching, but looking at this combination in person, the white from the OPI does a nice job of filling in the gaps, and the result is a super cool, twinkling white.

There are also a few holographic bits in there! You can see a bit of it in the bottle, but unfortunately my camera, once again, had trouble picking it up. This will hopefully be the last time I have to tell you that, LOL. I feel bad that I have to keep saying "IT'S TOTALLY THERE TRUST ME" but yeah, bear with me D: In my attempts to capture some of these Crows properly, my dad let me use is fancy Nikon camera, which is a D3000 or something? I don't remember the exact model number but is it fancy. Anyway, I had even more trouble with that one.

I can't think of anything similar to Bunny Slope, so if it's something that catches your eye I would definitely recommend it, but don't expect this to apply like a Milani One Coat Glitter! Keep thinner on hand and be patient. That last part, I am not so good at, but I think this is worth the trouble.

DISCLOSURE: Bunny Slope was sent to me by Crowstoes for my honest review.

Have you tried Bunny Slope? Thoughts? Do you have any tips for application?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great weekend!

Crowstoes Pleiades Comparisons!

Two posts in one day?? Yep.

I'm going to start off with Electra and Alcyone, the two blue-purple duochromes. They are photographed as I swatched them, with 1 coat over American Apparel Passport Blue and Zoya Pinta, respectively. Alcyone is on my index and ring fingernails, and Electra is on my middle and pinky fingernails.

Electra is more turquoise/teal, and Alcyone is distinctly more purple. The duochrome:

Of course, since Alcyone is more purple-leaning, the purple shift is stronger in Alcyone than Electra. Overall, while they're both quite pretty, you probably don't need both. But depending on what you're looking for, they are both lovely! Oh, and I was going to compare these two to Orly Lunar Eclipse...here is a bottle comparison to explain why:

They look pretty similar in the bottle, right? On the nail, not at all. I guess if you're not a blue lover they're close enough, but to me, Lunar Eclipse is totally different. Lunar Eclipse has a bold cobalt jelly base and barely has any duochrome compared to the Pleiades, so I wound up not doing comparison swatches on the nail.

Next up is Maia versus Zoya Valerie. Valerie is on my index and ring fingernails, and Maia is on my middle and pinky fingernails.

Valerie is much darker, as you can see. It's also more opaque, but not duochrome at all.

I also compared Maia to Violet Quartz. Violet Quartz is on my index and ring fingernails, and Maia is on my middle and pinky fingernails.

These were pretty similar, actually! Violet Quartz is darker and has finer shimmer, and I think it's a bit warmer. But Violet Quartz is also discontinued...Maia is a great alternative.

Maia is a lot more duochrome than Violet Quartz, though.

Here are Merope and Orly Galaxy Girl. Galaxy Girl is on my index and ring fingernails, and Merope is on my middle and pinky fingernails. Both polishes were swatched alone, without a black base.

Galaxy Girl is darker, jellier, and has larger, sparser flecks of blue shimmer.

Merope is more duochrome, but Galaxy Girl isn't anything to scoff at, either! I don't think Galaxy Girl is available anymore, unless your Ulta still has some Cosmic FX left over from Fall 2011.

And last but not least, a comparison that wound up being a bit of an ombré: (L-R) Celaeno, Color Club Wild & Willing, Asterope, and Claire's Poison Apple.

They're all fairly duochrome and quite pretty, but definitely distinct colors.

So, that's it for the Pleiades. I hope you enjoyed them, and on Friday I'm going to get started with the glitters!

Thanks for looking and commenting!

Crowstoes Merope

Happy Wednesday! Today I have for you the last of the Pleiades. Merope is a strange and awesome color, sort of a bruised blue-burgundy with a pink shift. Does that make any sense? Who knows. I do know that it's super cool, and can be worn either alone or over black.

I wouldn't really recommend wearing it alone since it was a 4-coater for me, but if that doesn't bother you, it does look pretty nice!

Nice, strong duochrome. Me gusta.

And here it is over black. This is another good one to layer over black. 1 coat was perfect!

And the duochrome:

Interestingly enough, it was a little less duochrome over black, like Taygete. The black base makes the blue shimmer pop though, so it's not a huge issue to me.

That pink still does show up though!

Now, if you looked at this and thought of Orly Galaxy Girl, fantastic. That's exactly where my mind went too, and once again I actually have the polish to compare! I hope you're looking forward to my comparisons because I've got several.

Have you tried Merope? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Crowstoes Maia

Crowstoes Maia is a warm purple-gold duochrome that shows a hint of green at times. This is one that can be worn alone in 2-3 coats depending on your application.

It's not the most exciting color, but it sure is pretty! I do want to point out that those bubble-looking bits in the polish are NOT bubbles, but larger shimmer flecks. I dig the mix of fine shimmer with bigger flecks. 

You can see a tiny bit of the shift peeking out here.

And here it is!

And here's the green:

Is this cool or what? 

When I put this on, I immediately thought of two polishes: Zoya Valerie and Sephora Pantone Violet Quartz. Fortunately, I actually have those! So you will see those soon in my comparison post.

Have you tried Maia? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Crowstoes Taygete

Taygete is a purple-pink-gold duochrome. I swatched it on its own, and over black. Alone, Taygete needed four coats for opacity.

It's a cool-toned purple, as you can see, which leads me to my next point: I'm not crazy about this one.

I tried capturing the color shift, with little success:

It is there, I promise :| There is a definite pink shift, and at the edges it turns gold-ish. And here it is over black. Again, the shimmer is dense despite the lack of opacity, so I only needed one coat over black, which was nice.

I will say that it is a nice enough purple shimmer...not exciting, but ok.

Also, I was surprised to find that the duochrome is harder to coax out over black. Usually, it's the opposite.

Overall, I have to admit, I'm pretty meh about this one, but if you like purples, this would be great for you.

As for similar polishes, I'm going back to Indigo Bananas. Wednesday and Eris in particular, but the differences are the same as they were before- one has larger flecks of shimmer, and the other one has holographic glitter. I think they're also a bit warmer, in general.

Have you tried Taygete? How did you feel about it?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great weekend!

Crowstoes Alcyone

DISCLOSURE: Alcyone was sent for my honest review by Crowstoes.

Alcyone, like Electra, is a blue-purple duochrome. I'll have a comparison post for you after I've posted the individual Pleiades. Alcyone is also really dense, and I was pleased to find that I only needed one coat over Zoya Pinta. I really like this combination, despite my waning interest in purple.

I had no issues with the formula.

I took a couple of shots trying to capture the duochrome, with mild to moderate success. Again, the shift is a lot stronger in person!

.........Well......I tried :| I hope you can sort of get a sense of what's going on with this polish, because it is complex and super cool!

So, as far as alternatives go, the closest I found were Digital Nails Shadow and Hermes. Shadow has larger particles of shimmer, and Hermes has holographic glitter. I was also thinking that Orly Lunar Eclipse might be close, but it really isn't. Lunar Eclipse has a bright cobalt base and the duochrome is nowhere near as noticeable.

DISCLOSURE: Alcyone was sent for my honest review by Crowstoes.

Have you tried Alcyone? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!