Hoof Polish Puckzilla Swatch

Well it's official: I have bronchitis. Rocking the anti viral pills and not one but TWO inhalers!!!... But honestly, I feel like death and I had to cancel out of a huge event on Saturday. It was really upsetting for me to have to do but I can't sacrifice my own integrity as well as the event's. It just looks bad. However I feel bad because I feel like I look unreliable. Sigh, luckily my lead is a cool guy and totally understands.

Anyway, today I've got the last of the Hoof Polishes that Caitlin from Addicted to Lacquer created and kindly sent over. Here's a link to the back story and inspiration in case you haven't checked it out!

So I decided to save my fave for last... Hoof Polish Puckzilla. It looked simple in the bottle but wearing it breathed so much life into it. Puckzilla is comprised of a silver base, cobalt gunmetal multisized glitter and speckled black and brown glitter. Originally I was going to attempt to layer it over top of Essie No Place Like Chrome but it was unnecessary because it was actually so dense on its own!



Here's Puckzilla on her own. Isn't it freaking gorgeous? Remind me of ice queen nails.





Using a matte top coat didn't seem to do much because it's so freaking shiny. It can't be tamed!



I decided to test the waters to see how it would act as a layering polish. I layered one coat of Puckzilla over top of OPI Russian Navy. Although I love it, you have to be a little careful because it might look streaky depending on your application. Luckily Puckzilla has some great coverage so I didn't have any bad luck on that front. I love it like this.





And finally, a matted version:



I like it this way because it really highlights the black and brown glitter.

Anyway, usually I am the queen of verboseness but I'm going to cut it off here. Sorry I've been behind on my blog reading. I promise I'll check out all the great posts you've all made in the last couple of days. I just can't really move right now and I'm dying. Ugh.

Hoof Polish Just One More Time Swatch

A couple of notes here: 1) I am totally dying right now and I am certain I have bronchitis. Unfortunately the clinic doesn't open for another couple of hours so I figure I'll post here to kill some time. I kind of want some pancakes but I'm most likely to throw them up. Not a happy camper. 2) Did you see the update OPI posted on their Facebook page regarding the whole When Monkeys Fly! drama? Well, they owned up to seeing customer dissatisfaction and offered to send another polish from the Oz collection. I just submitted my request so I hope they answer it. I chose to grab Don't Burst My Bubble since you know my big love for sheers.

Moving along, I have another polish from Caitlin over at Addicted to Lacquer. It's the first run of Hoof Polish and again if you haven't read the back story and inspiration, please do!



Today I'm looking at Hoof Polish Just One More Time, a white glitter topper. I've always wanted a solid glitter topper ever since the blow out with the popular Lynderella Sticks and Stones clones but never got around to it. This one is definitely packed, not sparse like for example Nubar White Dots or OPI Pirouette My Whistle. Just One More Time is more unique - comprised of a dense saturation of smaller solid white glitter that are reminiscent of sugar grains, white and pearl hex glitters, and some mid-sized holographic glitters just to keep you on your toes. Unlike Rock Afire, Just One More Time was a little easier to work with in regards to finding some good matches to pair it with.

Obviously the first thing I thought of when I saw this polish was snow, so I wanted to create that perfect snow day look. I used Sinful Colors Cinderella. I only needed one coat of Just One More Time as the glitter density is fairly generous!





I figured I'd experiment a bit and see if I could layer a sheer on top to make the contrast a little more subtle. I used OPI My Pointe Exactly to tone down the contrast. I'm not entirely sure if I like it or not but if you're going for more of a subtle look, this would be how to do it.





I kind of went against Caitlin's rules of not wearing it over white. Her swatches are perfect already so I didn't want to copy it completely. For funsies, I swatched it alone. I think she might kill me though, haha. But having never owned a polish with solid glitters, I just wanted to see what it looked like!... It looks like I've been playing in the snow.







I think it looks OK but I can see that it's not the prime choice and how a white polish would actually be perfect for it. (Sometimes you just gotta learn from your own mistakes!)

I decided I would also take the opportunity to try something I've never tried before: a glitter gradient. I have been looking for another excuse to pull out OPI Skyfall since I was unhappy with my last swatch since I was rocking nubs back then (don't look). I figure Skyfall had that right deep burgundy to pop enough contrast to pull it off and so I tried it:





I think my... intentions were good but again, as you know from Shitty Nail Art Mondays, a lot of things are wayy better in my head than how it's actually executed. I guess from afar it would look OK, but I know it could definitely be done better and that's just my mediocre application skills. As for final thoughts - I really can't get my mind off this snow thing, so I really think Caitlin was onto something when she recommended to layer it over white. I think my Sinful Colors Cinderella was also a good pairing in the same spirit.

As a note, my Google+ and Facebook posts don't seem to be posting the thumbnails for my links anymore. Not entirely sure why. I've always ran this blog off of Blogger with the images over at Flickr. Nothing has changed. Anyone have any idea on why that might be? Ah well, it's just a bit bothersome. (Yay they seemed to have fixed themselves!) Anyway, time to finish up today's posts and then haul my butt over to the clinic. I hope it's something that can be tamed in the next 48 hours. Sigh.

Hoof Polish Rock Afire Swatch

Alright! I'm alive! (Sort of.) Asides from the insomnia bender, anxiety, dealing with the Cough of Death™ and coping with the Great Coconut Milk Break Out of 2013, I am totally here. For serious. This week I have something pretty special to share here on Claw of Cthulhu. My nail polish bestie Caitlin from Addicted to Lacquer was nice enough to surprise me the other week with her very own first run of her indie polish called Hoof Polish. (I recommend that you read up on the whole back story here because it's very endearing and I love that she created these polishes from all the things she loves in life.)

Up first on deck is Hoof Polish Rock Afire. This is the one I was most excited over and although it took me a while to find a good pairing, it surely didn't disappoint.



Now, from the bottle I had no idea to expect. Caitlin's personal swatches always showed this one as green but in the bottle, it was mostly brown. Don't be fooled by this one in the bottle - that green shimmer is not a force to be reckoned with! The formula is generously saturated with this stuff, and has peekaboo bits of a warm copper micro glitter and sprinkled with larger opaque brown glitters. A truly unique combination and I had a lot of fun playing with this one.

Initially I swatched it over Color Club Ho Ho Holly but didn't seem to get the results I was looking for. Caitlin says that Rock Afire built up on its own and surely it did after three coats. I wanted to know the true nature of the polish itself so here's the essence of Hoof Polish Rock Afire solo:







I found that I couldn't wear Rock Afire on its own due to my skin tone matching it almost to a tee. Swatching it over Color Club Ho Ho Holly looked OK but I found the foil nature of Ho Ho Holly overwhelmed Rock Afire. That's my own mistake though because I forgot how potent Ho Ho Holly can be. It does, however, showcase the cute unique brown hex glitters as well as giving Rock Afire a more golden touch.





So after my own trials and error with Ho Ho Holly and then isolating Rock Afire on its own, I thought I had it. Actually, I think I won with this one... I swatched Rock Afire over top of Cult Nails Swanbourne, which is a deep chocolatey brown polish. It was an excellent match, letting Rock Afire's green clover-y shimmer work its magic and be in the spotlight, yet maintaining the peekaboo micro glitter shine, as well as paving a foundation for those dark chocolate glitters that are so unique.





Kind of in the same vein of flakie polishes, I think Rock Afire is best paired with a darker polish like Cult Nails Swanbourne because of that green shimmery magic. I think it would also work well over a deeper green polish like OPI Jade is the New Black.

More from Hoof Polish is yet to come this week! As Jim Raynor would say - stay frosty.