franken-polish "Mo Duinne" {inspired by Outlander}

Mo duinne, "my brown one", as Jamie affectionately calls his Claire.  At least, as he calls her in  Book One, Outlander, and Book Two, Dragonfly in Amber.  After this, the phrase magically changes to the correct Gaelic translation, mo nighean donn.  Okay, so mo duinne as a term of endearment may have been an accidental fabrication, but it is still heart-grippingly sweet when bestowed upon the heroine by her adoring warrior husband.  So let's just suspend disbelief for a moment, and savor the sentiment.  Shouldn't be too difficult, really; after all, that's what romance is all about!

When I set out to create this polish, I decided I didn't want it to simply mimic the natural, obvious brown of Claire's hair and eyes.  I felt it needed to reveal Claire as Jamie saw her: with warmth, and passion, and radiant, rosy love.  I started with a rich reddish brown, and infused it with a haze of sweet shimmering pink, like rose-colored glasses.  Flecks of gold and silver, and a gossamer rainbow veil, emulate the nimbus radiated by a loved one in the eyes of their lover.  The face of a person you love always shines a bit brighter to you than the rest, does it not?  When Jamie says "my brown one", what he really means is "my everything".

>>> mo duinne <<<

 

franken-polish "Woodland Whispers"

I remember making this polish as if in a dream; a vague, carefree wandering through color, without destination or objective.  The result was thoroughly surprising- a new favorite!  Looking back, I don't know what possessed me to mix teal, orchid pink, violet, and blackened olivine gold together, but I hope it possesses me again because DANG.  Sometimes your brain just needs to get out of the way and let the muse take over.

This polish makes me think of fairies in the forest, wings flickering covertly through leaves while tiny voices reach out to each other and intertwine in the mist.  Secretive.  Elusive.  Ethereal.

 

>>> woodland whispers <<<

 

frankenpolish "at last I see the light" {inspired by Tangled}

And at last I see the light
And it's like the fog has lifted
And at last I see the light
And it's like the sky is new
And it's warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted
All at once everything looks different
Now that I see you

I for sure cried during this scene the first time I watched "Tangled"; thousands of floating lights over the water and one seriously great song, it's just too beautiful to be believed!!  I was a freshman in college at the time, and no, I wasn't drunksy-faced in the slightest.  I was seriously completely sober, crying tears of the purest joy over a children's film.  This is not an uncommon occurrence for me, if I'm being honest.  I cry all the time (ALL THE TIME), and I don't even know if I mind; feeling things strongly makes me feel awake and alive to the world, you know what I mean?

This might be my favorite franken yet; or at the very least, its easily top three!  I'm not confident that I captured it completely, and then there are some elements like the "Fairy Violet" flakes that almost over-express copper in photographs, but overall hopefully you get the idea!  I didn't actually have this inspiration in mind while I was mixing, just an instinct that these components belonged together. ♥️ 

I might not have been really seeing the light before but I'm certainly seeing it now!

>>> at last I see the light <<<

Flynn Rider & Rapunzel

*First Blogiversary + Birthday Giveaway!!!*

Hello and welcome, goddesses!!  August 13th was officially Tiny Twinklings' first blogiversary, hooray hooray!  I closed out that year with several other big firsts- graduating from college in June, starting my first real career job in August, etc.- and am starting this second one out with a few more... buying my first house, namely among them. (!!!!!  Closing in just a few short days- let the pandemonium ensue!)  And in two weeks I will also be a Birthday Princess, which I take very seriously ;)  Tee hee.

So in celebration of my blog's birthday and mine, I am so pleased to offer you the chance (many many chances, in fact!) to win a couple of my very favorite things: Rainbow Honey Mystery Bags!  They've made many monthly appearances here on Tiny Twinklings, and in fact my very first post ever featured the July Mystery Bag of last year.  I've been saving my double of the August 2014 Mystery Bag and Limited Edition polish all year, and together with this year's August 2015 Mystery Bag and featured Limited Edition polish complete our fabulous prize!

In total, that prize includes:

>> AUGUST 2014 MINI MYSTERY BAG <<

"Modern Hearts" nail polish

"488nm" nail polish

"Royal Fruits" perfume roller ball

"Royal Fruits" cuticle balm

"Royal Fruits" scented topcoat

"Summer Juice" body splash

>> AUGUST 2014 LIMITED EDITION<<

"Crystal" nail polish - full size!

>> AUGUST 2015 MINI MYSTERY BAG <<

"Mr. Saturn" nail polish

"Jelly Red Sandals" nail polish

"Fruit Juice" bath oil

"Fruit Juice" bath tea

"Fruit Juice" perfume roller ball 

"All Your Base" basecoat - full size!

>> AUGUST 2015 LIMITED EDITION <<

"Celestial Hydra" - full size!

The fabulous contents of these mystery bags pictured above are my personal (duplicate) set; yours awaits, brand new and unopened :)

Your prize!!!

This giveaway is open to U.S. addresses only.  The giveaway will be open for two weeks, starting now until Saturday, September 26, 2015 at 11:59PM Mountain Time.  You must be 18 years of age or older to enter, please.

First Blogiversary + Birthday Giveaway!!!

 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ♥️ <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

It has been by far too long since my last post, and I want to convey my sincere gratitude to my darling readers who have stuck through the droughts with me.  I'm looking forward to my life finally settling into place again... I've missed this!!  I've missed you!  Thank you so much for celebrating this crazy, exciting month with me ♥️  

Good luck, and enjoy!

XOXO
Marisa + Sprinklepuff

A Rhyming Dictionary "Álfhól", and other thoughts on Icelandic elves

Hello from the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska!  I kinda thought I would be writing posts about my travels as I am doing them but eh, unsurprisingly I become even more nonchalant about things like dates and times and schedules and aspirations in general while on holiday.  But then, would it be a vacation if you didn't let go a little bit??  Speaking of letting go, you might want to suspend belief for what's all about to happen because it is pretty unbelievably fantastical ;)

"Álfhól" is a waterfall cerulean blue awash with fine rainbow iridescent microflakie shimmer, and in particular a luminous golden gleam that glows like sunlight through falling turquoise waters.  The maker describes the flakies as "green, green-silver, gold, and yelow", though I also espy prismatic sparks of pale rose, sapphire, orchid and silver.  A finish that sparkles like an icicle-studded pool in the sun becomes a speckled sea flecked with metallic shards in the shade, the gold sheen haloed in a peridot nebula.

These swatches represent three coats of "Álfhól", though really the shimmer dazzles quite densely in two.  This polish dries moderately quickly and distributes with even opacity.  Such a dream!  So many thanks to my darling favorite Lacquer Slacker Liz for first alerting me to the promise of this collecion (and new-to-me brand!), and then also for reminding me to go get it once it had been released, which despite my supposed vigilance I had failed to track properly.  Not that I mind much now, though, now that I have half of this fabulous collection in my hoarding clutches, and the others in my sights!

"Álfhól" was released as part of the A Rhyming Dictionary Iceland-inspired collection of nine polishes this May 2015, and means "elf house" (generally of a small and wooden variety).  Elves have long played an essential role in Icelandic culture; at last
count, approximately 52% of Icelanders believe in húldufólk, or elfin peoples, of which there are a range of scales and species as taught at the Álfaskólinn (Elf School) in Rekjavik. This tends to strike a classically Western mindset as all a little silly, but the relationship between Icelanders and their elvish folklore is a genuine and beautiful one that has been sustained by a millenia surviving in a rugged, challenging, and primordial land. I myself visited- and dearly loved- Iceland several years ago, and I think I may have encountered the huldufolk myself, though I knew nothing of them at the time.

My mom, our tiny rental car, and I had just about bested the odds of a pitted and garbled gravel mountain path, stubbornly on our way up to see the Snæfellsjökull glacier. My mother's resolve had fizzled out by the first trail landing and so that is where we gave up and stopped, and though we were nowhere near the glacier I hopped out to see what was to be seen. I had only ambled a short way down the trail when it descended and opened out into a small mossy dell, with mist clinging to the ridge and the amphitheatre bowl ringed with specter-like boulders, hunched and huddled as if in audience. It was a hauntingly beautiful scene, and the moment I stepped into it I was beseiged by two sensations- one, of losing my breath in a physical manifestation of awe- and two, that instant and persistent feeling that I was being watched. It was not a menacing energy, per se, but the intuition that I had just stepped into a place beholden to a different Nature, to different powers and codes and forces, was a strong one, and one never steps lightly in such an unfamiliar territory. Into the eastern face of the tiny valley bore a cavern sheathed in basalt, and it was to this feature that of course I was drawn. With every step towards the cave, the concentration of ethereal energy seemed to increase, until at last my simple and fruitless attempt to peer into the unfathomable maw impressed me with such a thrill of foreboding that I turned and darted back to the mouth of the valley, turning my ankle in the process and yet delighting in the odd mischief of it all.

It was only when I returned to the trailhead that I bothered to read the signs there, and it was then that I learned the cave was not just any cave, but a singing cave- Songhellir, as it is called- and that it is referenced in the ancient Egils saga as a place where the hero spends a night, and hears the reverberating echoes of dwarves and other elfin folk singing deep within the earth (or so I do recall from that illuminating sign).  And it was not until days later that I first encountered the prevailing current of elvish affiliations still infused in modern Icelandic culture, when in an Akureyri bookshop we requested the most eccentric item on Iceland they might have, and were directed to a guide on the local energy concentrations and húldufólk settlements.  And it was still later, a year later to be precise, that I read up on Icelandic elf culture, and was finally able to summarily understand my holistic experience of wonderment and awe while visiting this primal land of fire and ice.  It is all very fascinating and certainly worth investigating further, though for me the long and short of it is this: the Icelandic belief in beings, energy spheres, and otherwise mythical worlds coincident with their own is part of what makes Icelanders such a conscientious people, for they are sensitive to the fact that they share this land with other creatures and so pay them great respect.  It is a beautiful way of thinking, and that the means is sweetly and quaintly rooted in ancient myth, folklore, and tradition, only makes it the more so.

The Hobbit House // Talkeetna, AK

I more or less wrote this entire post because I got to stay at this ^^^ adorable sod-roof log cabin in Talkeetna, Alaska, only a few days ago, and because of the way my mind works I knew that I *could not* stay at this place without wearing "Álfhól" for the occasion.  Known as the Hobbit House, it is definitely a unique and also surprisingly (relatively) inexpensive place to stay in the Denali region of Alaska.  While I would overall recommend it for its two outstanding qualities- price and personality- something that did surprise us was the fact that it is immediately bordered on one side by a strip parking lot leading right off from the highway, and on the front by the owner's flightseeing business, with a lawn where tourists tend to wander in from the highway from 7am to 11pm, checking out the information and looking at the beautiful lake and such, and also gawking at the cute little sod cabin where you are trying to have a nice (romantic) getaway.  Needless to say, not nearly as quaint, secluded, rustic, nor private as you might be led to believe from this cute picture I selectively took ;)

Well goodness, I do hope you love reminiscing because there was PLENTY of it to be had in this post!  I can only hope that you enjoyed my stories as much as I did reliving them.  I keep resolving to be less long-winded in my posts so that I can write more of them, and yet this was a little story that has been anxious to be given life for a long while now, so it does feel good to have finally recorded it.  And now, back to Alaska!

I mean, can you honestly blame me though?  :)

Have you ever had an otherwordly experience that nearly almost just maybe made you believe in (or at least seriously consider) the supernatural??

XOXO
Marisa + Sprinklepuff

P.S. Apologies for incorrect (and by incorrect I mean nonexistent) punctuation on most of the Icelandic words in this post, including Alfhol itself, which should have an ascending accent over both vowels.  These words are of course spelled wrong entirely without their proper letters/punctuation, but my tablet apparently doesn't care about that at all, and since that is my tool of resort in this endeavor it makes the rules :(  Any strange or abnormal formatting I am also going to blame on this hapless tablet and my even more hapless un-ability to utilize it for on-the-road blogging purposes.  Oy.

UPDATE:  Now that I am laptop-equipped and punctuation-enabled, I have hopefully fixed most of the missing accents, so this post should read with a smidgen more accuracy!  Though considering that I speak maybe three words of Icelandic, take that with a grain of salt ;)

Rainbow Honey : April 2015 Mystery Bag unboxing & review

Hello, Twinklings!  Secret's out: it's the April Mystery Bag by Rainbow Honey!!  And if I were to take I guess, I would say that this month's bag is all about April showers... and it's glorious.  Make it rain, baby.  Make it rain GLITTER.

Also, darlings, do remember to enter my Springtime Giveaway for some exceptionally spring-y Sephora Formula X and Nails Inc. London polishes!!  I am very, very excited about finally hosting a giveaway, so give it a whirl and who knows, you might just win something!  WHEEEEeee FREE THINGS!!!!
 

"Thistle Tresses" + "Eidolon" // "Delphine" + "Thistle Tresses"

Springtime Giveaway!!! Sephora Formula X "Inspiring" + Nails Inc. London "Floral Street Mews"

In two months from this very day, I will have finished my last college exam, quarter, degree EVER (hopefully ever, anyway).  TWO MONTHS.  There is still so much to do before that time but my joy of anticipation cannot be eclipsed.

Two months left of school for me... so how about two polishes of springtime joy for you??!!  IT'S GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Happy April, by the way!  It's been pretty quiet on Tiny Twinklings lately, and likely the crickets will only keep chirping these next couple months as I careen towards graduation.  Many readers will know by this time that I am an architecture student at the University of Oregon, and am currently hammering out my thesis studio project (topic: architecture for happiness / typology: community center / location: Anchorage, AK).  The enormous importance of this project, by necessity and yet to my dismay, has begun to preclude energies dedicated to this beloved blog, but I wanted to assure my darling readers that however infrequently I manage to get posts up in this final, frantic interval of college, once the mortar board has flown, Tiny Twinklings will be BACK.

This giveaway is my way of thanking you, my precious Twinklings, for sticking with me through the thick and thin of my first half year of blogging!  Your thoughts and comments especially bring an amazing community energy to Tiny Twinklings, and so I owe a very special thank you to many dear, familiar faces out there.

I also want to extend my warmest welcome to new faces bringing fresh life to this blog- twinkle on!!  Since Tiny Twinklings' inception, my greatest rewards have been the wonderful and invaluable opportunities to come to know some of my fellow nairies, and as this adventure continues I am very excited to know more and more of you, so welcome, welcome!!!

I have been impatiently looking forward to hosting a giveaway for what feels like a VERY long time, so let's get started, shall we??!

The prize: a cheerful and charming duet of old spring favorites, as the season comes into full bloom!!  One lucky reader will win Sephora Formula X "Inspiring" (a pearlescent turquoise shimmer) and Nails Inc. London "Floral Street Mews" (a floral glitter topper with peach, white, and sky blue pearl glitters in hexes and blossoms).  This first giveaway will be open to the United States only.  (To my 9% international readers, joining us from as far away as Iraq to Lithuania to Belgium to South Africa: first of all, WOW!  I am so honored to have you with us, and am determined to improve my giveaway sophistication so that all my highly-valued Twinklings will have the opportunity to win fun things in the future!!)

This giveaway will be open for two weeks, starting now until Saturday, April 25, 2015 at 11:59PM Pacific Time.  You must be 18 years of age or older to enter, please.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck, Twinklings!! ♥

I wish I thought to bring my own bottles of these beautiful flower-ful polishes with me to Oregon to model for you, but alas!  In addition to an enormous deficit of time, I also broke a nail to the quick the other week (the nubs are growing back surprisingly quick, but for a while there I didn't even recognize my own hands!), and then last week broke one of my full-spectrum lamps; idk what the deal is, it's just been one big hot mess around here.  So I've just been casually enjoying my favorite season for polish (I'm really such a spring), and dreaming of summer... and freedom :)

XOXO
Marisa + Sprinklepuff

These prizes are provided and were purchased by me for the purposes of this giveaway.

6 Harts Polish "Swim Through The Deep Skies"

The hidden polish community is a fascinating digital underground: all words, no voices, all hands, few faces.  In a world of nuggles, with no inkling of the irresistible allure that something so innocuous as nail polish holds on the minds of ladies (and gentlemen!) all over the planet, it is a rare happening indeed to meet with another of this invisible, magical world.  We, the nail fairies, or nairies, if you will, walk through the physical world hidden in plain sight, and reveal ourselves only in our digital kingdom to our fellow nairy passionistas.  Oh, your nuggle friends are aware of (and baffled by) your ever-shifting, perfectly-painted nails, and might even, to their intense bewilderment, catch an occasional glimpse of one overflowing corner of your nail polish dynasty.  I find it is always best that they never know the full extent, unless you have a fainting couch and smelling salts immediately near your stash.  These dear nuggles are delicate creatures, you know.

But, once in a blue moon, a holographic blue moon (because, well, we're nail polish folk and cannot help ourselves), you might just be lucky enough to encounter another nairy in real life...

Until the day I met Courtney of 6 Harts Polish, I had never been so lucky, and, I suspect you will likely understand why that day I felt like I had actually found a unicorn.  A craftsy, hug-loving, sweet-as-sugar Montana girl who is not merely nairy-literate, but so fully engrossed in The Obsession as to concoct her own lacquer magic...?  It was kind of like looking into a mirror, or a dream.

An immensely warm, kind, darling dream mirror who gives really great hugs.

These lovely qualities of hers were really emphasized in this circumstance: after weeks of correspondence and anticipation, I was a full half hour late to our appointed meet-up.  Thirty minutes!  I dislike being late so I was absolutely horrified, and so ashamed that I wanted to sink into my own skin, but when I finally bounded, near panic-stricken, into our local riverside Bernice's Bakery, Courtney was so gracious beyond any expectation; all friendliness and warm welcome.  You would just love her!  The next half hour was revolutionary to me: words spoken that I had only ever seen typed (indie lacquer!  Helmer stash!  Elevation Polish!), sentiments reciprocated that had only ever evoked confusion in my nuggle friends (the unforgivable sin of a four-coat slow-drying crème polish, for example).  This nairy world that I had been living in for almost four years now was finally a living and breathing entity, and it was all kinds of beautiful.

♥ * ♥ * ♥ * ♥ * ♥ * ♥

Speaking of beautiful, just look at this sparkling jewel of a polish that will be released next month!  Courtney generously surprised me with this little sneak peek, which I am so very honored to share with you.  When I first saw this gemstone lacquer I immediately assumed that it was inspired by our very own Treasure State, with its blue timbered mountains, endless sky, and royal blue state flag, but in fact was created for a movie-inspired polish maker's swap.  However, when it comes to deep skies, I believe I can reasonably attest that we natives of Big Sky Country are something of an authority ;)

Rainbow Honey: March 2015 Mystery Bag!!

Hello, Twinklings!!  The Rainbow Honey store is open again, and with it comes a new Mystery Bag!!  As you know, I just love my mysteries, (ironically, I am obsessively re-watching Sherlock as I edit these photos) and must apologize for the lack of one last month...  the February mystery bag was fabulous!  (The fragrance Carnival Candy is my new love.)  Alas, time was not on my side :/  But we are back on track this month, and oh, what a great one it is shaping up to be!

Fair Maiden Polish "Change Your Fate"

Happy Friday the 13th, again!!  In the Celtic spirit of upcoming St. Patrick's Day, I just had to share with you this powerfully pretty polish inspired by Scottish princess Merida of Brave, and, fittingly enough, part of Fair Maiden's debut collection titled *Be Your Own Heroine*.  Merida was indeed her own heroine, and if this teal tribute was an arrow, it would be flying straight true to the heart and free spirit of The Bear & The Bow (as the story was originally called!).

Merida the Brave

*     *    *    *  *  *   *    *     *

Can't you just see the moss-dappled mountain glade, blankets of heather cushioning your footfalls as your breath parts the curtains of mist lingering in the early morning chill...?  The shadows are yet deep in the gathering dawn, and through their nocturnal curls a tiny ephemeral light flickers and skips: the ever-elusive dance of the will-o'-the-wisp.  And along their shivering path... fate awaits.

*     *    *    *  *  *   *    *     *

a rare two-faced bottle!! :)

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"

Girly Bits "The Power of Love"

Happy, happy Valentine's Day!!  May your day be full of affection and love, be it romantic, filial, friendly, and/or of the self ♥

[P.S. - I happened upon this lovely feathered family in the Kastellet fortress gardens of Copenhagen; with its palaces, roses, swans, and fairy tales, not to mention the royal hearts which gild the coins, it is one of the most romantic cities I have ever visited.]

Passionate purples and lovely lavenders are some of my favorites for this occasion, but this exquisite lilac with ethereal elfin qualities occupies its own sphere in my polish-loving heart.  "The Power of Love", indeed!  I predict that even hearts hardened against the season's sappy pinks and reds will warm for this magical lacquer, like a love goddess's dream.

au naturel (no topcoat)

glossy (two layers topcoat)

* ♥ * ♥ * ♥ *

Liquid Sky Lacquer : Valentine's Day Duo "Love is in the Air" + "Thinking of You" ♥

Well hello, dahlings!  I've missed this.  I just had my midterm review, and I thought a review of a different genre might be a nice way to wind down after the past couple days' cram.  The moment February dawned I immediately began slathering on all of my love-themed polishes, and have been so anxious to share them with you!!  This duo was released for Valentine's Day last year, but I've been picking them off during sales and such, just in time for this year's celebration of love ♥

Liquid Sky Lacquer "Love is in the Air"

Liquid Sky Lacquer "Thinking of You"

Rainbow Honey : "Snow and Lights" & "Your Hand In Mine"

Happy February, loves!  As you most likely already know, Rainbow Honey opened the Vault with the dawn of the new year, and beautiful polishes feared lost forever were reawakened: the sparkling August 2013 limited edition Heisenberg, and some January 2014 limited editions, as we shall see today!!  I have been mooning over these very same, previously unattainable polishes for months, and was so delighted to hear that we would have a chance at them again.

And, as seen in the January 2015 Limited Editions... MACRO HAS LANDED.  For so long I have longed to share with you this intricate loveliness that words simply cannot fathom, and now that I have been so empowered, I am hard pressed to not simply MACRO ALL THE THINGS immediately.  The struggle is real, but then, so is the magic.

"Snow and Lights" + "Your Hand in Mine"

"Your Hand in Mine"

"Snow and Lights"

❄ * ♥ * ❄ * ♥ * ❄

Rainbow Honey : January Limited Edition "Fallen Snow" & "Icelandia"

Happy weekend, Twinklings!!  I have a very special duo to share with you before this month is complete: Rainbow Honey's January Limited Editions!  If you have been twinkling along with Sprinklepuff and I for a while now, I have already impressed upon you that I love love love snow and ice.  My grandma is a Swedish/Norwegian Minnasotan, and she always says that I'm her winter girl, which she proudly declares that I inherited from her and our Scandinavian roots.  Anyways, you can imagine then how I fell over myself to acquire this month's limited edition set, which includes polish/perfume/scented topcoat all named "Fallen Snow".  And that would be good enough, but there is also a heartstopping glitter topcoat, a crystalline confection crowned none other than "Icelandia".

Iceland.

It is my favorite country that I have yet visited, not only for its mystical beauty, but for the ethereal, otherworldly energy which pervades each fiber of its culture, history, language, and landscape.  The Land of Fire and Ice is, indeed, one of fantastical contrasts, but none so evocative in my opinion as the fascinating synergy between modern and ancient Iceland; how one thousand years of history is so tangibly present, even as Iceland surges forth as one of the most socially and technologically progressive countries on earth.

There is so much to be said for the small island country, the northernmost capital in the world with its frigid Atlantic moat.  (Someday, I will have to tell you about Icelandic elves.)  But that will have to wait for another time, because I have other news: MACRO HAS LANDED.  Not in time to capture these polishes in action, unfortunately, but hopefully these bottle shots will help make sense of the shimmering spectacles I have herethereto attempted in futility to illustrate for you in wholly insufficient words.

"Fallen Snow" & "Icelandia", macro style!!

"Icelandia" over "Fallen Snow"

mountains across the fjord: Eyjafjör∂ur

While sifting through memories, this moment en route to the horse stables just outside of Akureyri, Iceland felt eminently resonant with the crystalline triangles and shimmering aquatic quality of this pair. 

❄ * ♥ * ❄ * ♥ * ❄

Rainbow Honey: January 2015 Mystery Bag!

Hello there, fairy friends!  Long time, no nothing, I know.  It has been a busy and wonderful week, exploring Portland and the Oregon Coast with my darling man, but as he returned to Montana so did I return to reality (including the dwindling window of primary relevance for this post, haha).  I now have both a mystery bag subscription and my change-of-address in order, so next month should be much more timely, Twinklings!!  And so, on that harried note, I present the January Mystery Bag (WHEEE)!!

Candy Lacquer "Cupcake Blizzard"

Happy day, darlings!  It is a happy happy day indeed here in Portland, for my boyfriend flies in this afternoon just in time for our anniversary!!!  In the meantime I have been studio-ing it up (I was surprised to realize I was there for 10 hours yesterday... usually my 12-15 hour days don't start until a few weeks out yet), trying to get schome schtuff done to clear out this week for some adventures in Oregon.  I haven't had a studio since I started this blog, and oy, I forgotten how terrible your nails get after hours in the woodshop and studio, building (and sanding!) models.  Right now I'm building my urban context site model, and I have been learning the hard way that if I want to have any shot at posting a manicure, I'm going to have to snap it before leaving the house because it sure won't be picture pretty once I leave the White Stag (our beautiful historical architecture building, on the same block as the Portland Oregon sign!).

The concept of 'studio' is often confusing to those outside architecture or design fields, so allow me to elaborate: studio is the core course form of the architecture education.  It is the class in which we create our major architecture projects (one building per term, in Oregon), and is worth more credits than a normal lecture class but demands infinitely more hours.  These projects are very personal to us, are the building blocks of our portfolios, and so studio essentially owns your soul until final review.  That's the gist of it, anyway :)

So anyways, nail polish: this is one that I've wanted to share with some of its collection fellows but then I keep forgetting to glitter up the undies I had chosen before I remove a manicure, so argghhh fine here it is anyway.  Candy Lacquer released all manner of fun glitter for this holiday, and this is one that I didn't even need to see to love; I heard the name and was like come to me, you little bottle of perfection.

 

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Hare Polish "Wonderland Wanderlust"

Hello, darlings!!  I have a very special polish to show you today, and not just because it is a Hare Polish, a rare "vintage" harkening back from the Bohemian Holiday collection in 2013.  No, this is a particular treasure because this very bottle was first swatched and so lovingly described by an extraordinary lady and blogger that I admire so much: Lacquer Slacker Liz!!  The final memory-laden paragraphs of her "Wonderland Wonderlust" review actually made my breath catch; there are few things I love better than concise prose that evokes such insight, such feeling, with a poetic and elegantly understated clarity, as Liz does so well in her exquisite recollections.  There is something about artistic expressions that are so en pointe, so precise, that manage to inspire the greatest emotive response in me with the most minimal explication... these are the things that I find the most enrapturing.  It's something that I love about nail polish, and color in general: it is so simple and unassuming a thing, and yet it speaks volumes, tells stories, weaves images.  In architecture we call it doing the most with the least, and it is a beautiful balance indeed.

This polish strikes this balance and tells its tale with captivating ease.  Wandering in wonderlands, especially in winter, is one of my most favorite pastimes, and Hare Polish mastermind Nikole represents it brilliantly with this woodland tapestry, nearly cognizant with its imagery of red berries and rustling botanicals, of shifting lights through the trees as the sky deepens into heavy dusk.

May & Freyja, cavorting in wonderland

FREYJA CUDDLE CHARGE

OPI: Gwen Stefani Holiday 2014 Collection ["Rollin' in Cashmere" trio, etc]

Hello darlings, and Happy Monday to you!  What with school started up in full force once more (for the last semester of my life!!!) the posts will be fewer and farther between, most unfortunately, and despite a desperate backlog of swatches, holiday and otherwise :(  However, I just had to get this one up for multiple reasons: one, because all of these polishes were popping up for excellent deals immediately after Christmas at TJMaxx, Marshall's, etc, well in advance of when I would normally expect these to appear at discount stores (uh, usually next year!).  But indeed, the Rollin' in Cashmere trio featured here (incorporating "Rollin' in Cashmere", "Comet in the Sky", and "Snow Globetrotter") was snapped up at TJMaxx for *$9.99* by my savvy Auntie Deborah, who very kindly loaned it to me for swatching and news-sharing, before she tried them even.  Thank you oh so much, Auntie!!  You may consider this your bargain-hunting hit list, kittens.

Rainbow Honey "Gingered!"

 Hello there, Twinklings!!  Rainbow Honey's December limited edition polish hasn't made it onto the interwebs much yet, though I can't for the life of me think why.  I mean look at it; it's almost like sitting cozy by the fireside, wherever you are.

 

"Gingered!" is a tiger lily metallic, a molten copper suffused with fierce orange tones and accented with flakie sparks of gold and peony pink.  Effervescent, hot, and sharply sweet, this polish really captures the keen, delicious burn of candied ginger.  Not to mention, it is scented like gingerbread!!!!  The fragrance perseveres through topcoat, so no worries on that count, and for the most part smells delectably like warm, sweetly spiced gingerbread cookies.