NailNation3000 Alison and Sun Goddess

I have two new- my first and only- NailNation3000 polishes up for review today!  Sun Goddess is a shimmery yellow polish and Alison is a hot pink with black and iridescent glitters.  First, the bottles:

NailNation3000 Alison (left) and Sun Goddess (right)

NailNation3000 bottles from the bottom.

The bottles are cute, but the lids are a bit big and awkward to hold.  I didn't have much of a problem painting with them, but the lid did slip out of my fingers due to its size once or twice (minor rug casualties).  The brush was bigger than I would expect with a squat bottle, but that meant it only took me 2-3 strokes total to cover my nails (one for the pinkie).  After I finished painting, I noticed the lids could be pulled up and off to reveal a smaller, much easier to handle black brush lid (D'oh!):

NailNation3000 Sun Goddess with the silver cap popped off.

I wish I had noticed that sooner! My rug may not have suffered. ;)  Alas, its had worse (as I am not always the most coordinated!).  I'm going to start with Alison, since yellows are my absolute favorites, and I want to save Sun Goddess for last.  Here is Alison, 2 coats with Butter London base and top coat:

NailNation3000 Alison (2 coats)

NailNation3000 Alison (2 coats) in the sunlight.

Something I could not totally capture (you can see it a bit in the middle finger on the top one) in these photos is a slight shimmer that showed up in direct sunlight with Alison.  The hot pink was awesome!! However, the glitter was a little bit difficult.  It did not spread as well as I could hope and sunk in the bottle quite a bit.  Overall, I still liked it a lot anyway- I'm not a huge black glitter person, so the sparse look I got was more than enough for me!  Here are a couple more shots of just one finger to hopefully show more detail:

NailNation3000 Alison- with the blur, can you see the shimmer?

NailNation3000 Alison 2 coats to show more detail.

Finally, on to Sun Goddess! This was much more sheer than I was expecting, so after the first two fingers, I decided to show it as a topper.  Pointer and Middle fingers are two thin coats and one thick coat over Butter London basecoat, Ring finger is one coat over one coat Zoya Raven and Butter London base coat, and Pinkie finger is one coat over one coat Zoya Purity and Butter London basecoat.

NailNation3000 Sun Goddess (SG; from L-R): 3 coats SG; 3 coats SG; 1 coat SG over 1 coat Zoya Raven; 1 coat SG over 1 coat Zoya Purity.

It has an almost holographic shimmer to it that I will try to show with a little bit of blur to the photo:

Same as above with NailNation3000 Sun Goddess, but blurred- look at that gorgeous shine!

My favorite of all these nails is definitely of it over white- it looks amazing over white!! I loved that pinkie nail and when I have more time, I'll be wearing Sun Goddess that way in the future.

NailNation3000 Sun Goddess- 3 coats on its own.

NailNation3000 Sun Goddess- 1 coat over 1 coat Zoya Raven.

NailNation3000 Sun Goddess- 1 coat over 1 coat Zoya Purity. This was my favorite look!

Final thoughts: I really like these two polishes and would definitely be wearing Sun Goddess in the future.  Alison probably too- especially on days when I am craving some hot pink (and yeah, that happens).  The formula was good overall and they are lovely polishes! I'd definitely be up for trying some other NailNation3000 polishes in the future!

“Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would. I’d spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn’t matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit… And I thought: am I really going to spend the rest of my life without feeling that again? I thought: I want to go to China. It’s full of treasures and strangeness and mysteries and joy.”

-The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman

Polish information: This is 3 coats of Elevation Polish Malaspina Glacier with Butter London base and top coat. At first, I found it frustrating because it was so sheer, but by the third coat, I realized it was more than covered enough, and absolutely stunning. These photos are taken after FIVE DAYS of wear!! You can see it's barely chipped!

 It's a gorgeous teal color with black/navy flakies in it that applied very easily.  It also has a teal shimmer to it in the right light.  I tried to get a couple close-ups so you could see it better:

All-in-all, it's a total homerun for me! Even though it seemed thin, 3 coats was full coverage- the color is gorgeous, it wears AMAZINGLY well (5 days, seriously!! I use my hands a lot), and even the husband liked it! I'm definitely going to be investing in some more Elevations as time goes on!

“Whether or not you believe in fate comes down to one thing: who you blame when something goes wrong. Do you think it’s your fault - that if you’d tried better, worked harder, it wouldn’t have happened? Or do you just chalk it up to circumstance?”

-Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Polish information: This is 1 coat of Enchanted Polish Serendipity (very good coverage, though I ended up not liking the color much) with the "sugar spun" nails look in the Square Hue Groovy Love from the April box.  The sugar spun look took me a while to do. I looked at a bunch of tutorials on youtube before attempting.  For instance, here is one from Kat Stays Polished that I found helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZs_QK-RXLk  Though I would recommend watching a few (youtube search "sugar spun nails" to see a bunch) before attempting, so you can get a feel for it.

I am way too lazy to do full clean-up (and my cuticles are dry enough without more acetone), so I used cuticle oil in excess around the nails, and it did make clean up a bit easier.

I used a toothpick to do mine and wanted thicker stripes.  When I first finished, they looked like this:

        

However, when I used the Julep Freedom topcoat on my thumb, the lines all smushed together:

 I hated it, so I removed the thumb and free-handed a heart on it... so here was my finished left hand:

Please forgive the messy cuticles and not fantastic pictures if you can! Thank you.

“I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”

-Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

Polish information: This polish is Wonder Beauty Products Aphrodisiac, 2 coats with glue base coat and Butter London topcoat. It was gorgeous on, but smelled terribly in the bottle.  Though it is 3-free, it smelled chemically stronger than many products I've used in a while.  I still loved the color and the glitter spread beautifully though.  When I contacted WBP about the smell, she said it was due to the color drops she used.  Once it dried, the smell was gone, but I don't think I'll use it very much since I did not enjoy the smell while I was painting- even though I LOVE the color and finished look!

“Besides, I’d seen a really nice pair of shoes yesterday in the mall and I wanted them for my own. I can’t describe the feeling of immediate familiarity that rushed between us. The moment I clapped eyes on them I felt like I already owned them. I could only suppose that we were together in a former life. That they were my shoes when I was a serving maid in medieval Britain or when I was a princess in ancient Egypt. Or perhaps they were the princess and I was the shoes. Who’s to know? Either way I knew that we were meant to be together.”

-Watermelon by Marian Keyes [Photo kindly given by Nelly O.- who is creating a blog soon!]

“I often have the feeling that I am part of the world and, though I cannot see my surroundings, the world is part of me. I am conscious of an indestructible, indomitable force, a constant and abiding truth that is stronger than any human being. This presence gives me strength and courage to face whatever comes, and I do not fear life or anything in it. On the contrary, I relish life and know that there is still much more for me to do and to know.”

-A Girl and Five Brave Horses by Sonora Carver [Image kindly given by Linda- check out her blog here!]

“She was tough in the best sense of the word. She’d taken blows, the disappointments, and had worked her way through them. Some people, he knew, would have buckled under, found a clutch, or given up. But she had carved a place for herself and made it work.”

-Nora Roberts [Photo courtesy of Julie- check out her blog here!]

“How brave a ladybug must be!
Each drop of rain is big as she.
Can you imagine what you’d do,
If raindrops fell as big as you?”

- Aileen Fisher [Lovely photo is from Linda- check out her blog here!]

“No one’s life should be rooted in fear. We are born for wonder, for joy, for hope, for love, to marvel at the mystery of existence, to be ravished by the beauty of the world, to seek truth and meaning, to acquire wisdom, and by our treatment of others to brighten the corner where we are.”

-Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz  [Photo kindly provided by Samantha- check out her blog here!]

“There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it.”

-Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling [Photo courtesy of Ashley- check out her blog here!]

“That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.”
-Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Polish information: This is 2 coats of Enchanted polish Britney SpearMint with Butter London base and top coat. The holo is pretty subtle on it, but shows up in the sun.  The color is lovely though on its own.