KBShimmer "Ins and Sprouts" + Rescue Beauty Lounge "Locavore"

Hello again, darlings!!  It hasn't even been three weeks, but it feels like an age has passed since I last made blogging happen.  My goal was to post once a week, but even that has felt like the final insurmountable obstacle in the mountain of schoolwork I have been scaling, slowly but surely :/  In the meantime, I have been accumulating DROVES of swatches, and am looking forward to doing some spring cleaning here on Tiny Twinklings over spring break.  If you love titanic posts storming with swatches,  I will have just the thing in a few weeks!

"Locavore" + "Ins & Sprouts"

My boyfriend's darling mother, Lynne, loves green, and has requested some verdant hues to get us all in the spirit for St. Patrick's Day!  As you know, I am all about celebrating the season in color, and so I am beyond happy to oblige.  As soon as March struck, I started in on my selected chute of greens with a vengeance.  Today's feature is one that I looked forward to most, while still enjoying my romantic roses and lavenders for February, and I just had to wear it immediately.  My dearest NPBFF, Lacquer Slacker Liz, posted a divine manicure yesterday with the most charming yellow-green holographic, Fancy Gloss "Lilypad", in the midst of so many beautiful Rescue Beauty Lounge, and this compound effort is my return tribute :)

"Ins & Sprouts"

"Locavore" + "Ins & Sprouts"

>> Ins & Sprouts <<

"Ins and Sprouts" is a perfect peridot holographic polish, the holo flame illuminated by a heart of purest gold shimmer.  I've developed an appreciation for warm mossy greens lately, though have likewise discovered that they do not necessarily play nice with my "spring" coloring... but "Ins and Sprouts" fills this void beautifully.  Springs need colors that are "bathed in sunlight", and this gorgeous polish certainly is, at that.  A beautifully optimistic color illustrative of new life and burgeoning growth, I found this leafy yellow-green to be flattering and highly wearable: cheery, extroverted, and statement-punctuating, and never ever so lurid as a true chartreuse.

My grandmother despises chartreuse more than anything on earth, and I am sure that she would disagree with that last assertion... but then, the dear woman becomes genuinely incensed by the sight of any yellow-green that may have even THOUGHT of souring into chartreuse, so her forseeable distress would have to be excused from any rational assessment of this truly lovely shade :)  She would likely threaten to disown me if she ever glimpsed yellow-green on my nails (she has a dour sense of humor sometimes), but it might be worth it to hear her crackle with a particularly Minnesotan proclamation of "Oh, ISH."

Well so anyways, I was very pleased and also thoroughly unsurprised to find that this budding gemstone of a polish has a perfect, perfect formula (this is a KBShimmer, after all).  Thoroughly opaque in two coats, this lacquer distributes in a superlatively satisfying and even glide, and dries oh so quickly.  Given half a chance, I will scrape or ding or otherwise destroy a fresh-painted manicure, but this polish allows no opportunity.  Hooray!  It also dries down to a beautiful glossy finish, and that holo flame is just ridiculous.  Wear time is great too; the fact that I wore this for two days on its own with very minimal tipwear is actually quite the recommendation for this polish, because at the end of a day I generally exploit any weakness in the finish to clear the way for the next mani, but there simply was none, so I happily carried on.
 

>> Locavore << 

"Locavore" is a mindful mix of sprout green, aquamarine, and magenta microglitters (heavy on the greens, like any good farmer's market regular).  The earthy olivine green balanced with spritely specklings of modern brights could not more accurately describe the hipster chic spirit of the infamous Oregonian locavores (of which there are... far too many to fathom).  This polish is so perfect for Portlandia (and Eugene, goodness gracious, Eugene), I could not even begin to tell you.  It was not, however, quite potent enough to convert me to full-on kale-ness.  Yet.  Oregon has until June.

"Locavore" is either a very dense glitter topper in one coat, or a full-coverage microglitter in three.  I went for two over "Ins and Sprouts" as a convenient middle-ground to emulate the full glitter effect while lazily avoiding the third coat by piggy-backing off of the previous days' mani :)  I also just love the golden glowiness of "Ins and Sprouts" glimmering discreetly amongst the glitters.

I probably should have mentioned this first... but I picked up this glitter during the giant RBL color-culling sale a month or so ago, and I have no notion of it coming back anytime soon :(  Will you forgive me?  It was too perfect for the month, base color, and my current city to not share, but I hope it causes no one undue distress.  I'm seeing it listed on eBay for an irreverent amount but it is also still listed on RBL so...?

With all this mentioning of sprouts and eating local and such, is anyone feeling inspired to go munch on some organic arugula?  Pick some fresh chard?  Attempt to annihilate the icky out of kale with a power smoothie?  (Disgusting, by the way.  Completely ineffective at the stated objective.  In all seriousness though, I don't actually mind kale lightly sautéed with a sprinkle of sea salt.  I just can't fathom those who eat it plain, the poor tortured souls.)  Seeing as I am the one wearing this, I feel like I should be energized to go plant my own basil, or at least steam up some of my frozen broccoli, for goodness sakes... but no.  I am eating ice cream.  Typical.

  

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KBShimmer "Ins and Sprouts" may be found at KBShimmer and Harlow & Co. 

In other news, Portland is in bloom!  I chanced upon this jubilant magnolia tree during my morning wanderings, and the tiny buds and blue sky and radiant pink blooms were altogether so symbolic of the elements of "Locavore" that I could have laughed.  I think I did, actually, for the sheer joy of this new spring.

XOXO

Marisa + Sprinklepuff