Goodies from Mont Bleu

Design Glassware by Mont Bleu has been very kind in sending me products to review in the past, and today I've got more good stuff from them to share.

Since this is a nail blog, I'll start with the mini glass nail file. This particular one has Swarovski Elements (I just call them "crystals" but I'm not an expert on these things) in turquoise blue, clear, and smoke.



I don't see this exact file on their site right now, but there are so many options in the mini nail file section I might have missed it. There are decorated ones similar to this for 8 Euro and plain ones in a variety of colors for 4 Euro. The decorated ones (I'm not sure about the plain) come with a case to protect the working end of the file. The stones are still exposed when the file is in the case so it's easy to spot/feel when grabbing out of one's purse. When I first started carrying one around, I was worried about the stones coming off, but the mini file I've got in my purse right now is perfectly intact after over a year of me pulling it out and putting it back in and even losing it at the bottom of my bag for a while.



The next sparkly item I have to share is a business card holder. This is brushed metal decorated with jet black crystals on the outside and lined with black short nap velvet-like fabric. It's the perfect place for me to store the indie polish brand cards I've been gathering as I try new lines. This one retails for 19 Euro (other crystal colors are available in the same style); the undecorated version is 10 Euro.





Because I was just eagerly pulling out items from the box and not reading labels on the individual packages, I wasn't sure at first what this next item was. It was pretty, I did know that: a silvery disc decorated with crystals from clear to pink to fuchsia.



The outer ring could be unwrapped (and then rewrapped with a satisfying magnetic "snick").



Then I figured it out—the outer ring could not just be unwrapped but rotated to make a hook, a purse holder (a.k.a. bag hanger) to hang one's purse off a table instead of putting it on the floor or on the back of a chair. I wondered if it would be sturdy enough for my purse, into which I cram as much as will fit, and am happy say it did just fine. The back of the disc has a black rubbery insert that keeps it from slipping; I used it on a highly varnished and slippery restaurant table the other day and it stayed right where I put it. This sells for 16.90 Euro.



The last item is a bit of a departure from what I'm used to seeing from Mont Bleu, as it's made with pearl-type beads instead of crystals. It's the Shamballa Bracelet. The one I got has peachy pink pearly beads, though many other colors (and ones with faceted beads) are available; prices ranged from 17 Euro (plain beads) to 27 Euro (crystal beads) for the ones I looked at on the website.



I do wear bracelets sometimes, but hadn't encountered one with this fastening mechanism. Basically, you make it big enough to fit around your hand by sliding the section between the "tails" to one side, then slide it back once it's on your wrist. The black cord is a bit fuzzy, so the sliding takes a bit of tugging sometimes. The full size beads at the end of the tails help with sliding it back, but can get distracting while wearing the bracelet. I found myself a bit distracted by the clacking of the tail beads on the other ones sometimes. If you don't wave your hands around while talking the way I tend to do, you might not even have that clacking happen.



Every time I look at the Mont Bleu website, they seem to have new products. I just ordered a few things myself that may show up in a future entry. You can use code BLOG20 in the Voucher field when you check out to get 20% off, plus right now they're offering free air mail shipping (even international) for purchases over 38 Euro, so you can be sure I added enough to my order to qualify. I love a deal.

The products shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the products for my own use.

Piggy Polish Halloween Collection Swatches

A B2G1 sale is all it took to get me to pick up all three colors from the Piggy Polish Eat Drink and Be Scary display: Easy Come Easy Glow, Lightmare, and Nocturne-Nail.



For swatching purposes, I alternated Nocturne-Nail and Easy Come Easy Glow, using three coats of each. Nocturne-Nail is quite sheer; if I use it again, it'll be as a layering polish over something else. What I'm not quite sure, as I suspect it would look sort of milky over a dark base. Easy Come Easy Glow, the orange, could be worn on its own if you don't mind a bit of visible nail line. It's got a sort of fluffy quality to it; it dries smooth but looking closely at it it reminds me of a milkshake. Maybe I was just high on polish fumes—or hungry—at that point.





Both Nocturne-Nail and Easy Come Easy Glow glow in the dark. Here they are in my bathroom after being charged up under the overhead light for a minute or two:



I was surprised to see that Easy Come Easy Glow glowed brighter than Nocturne-Nail, since I think of Nocturne-Nail's light milky lime color as the original glow in the dark shade. I don't think either one of them is a must have. If you don't have any glow in the dark polish and want some, there are cheaper alternatives to be found (Piggy Polish is around $7.50).

The third polish in the trio, Lightmare, is a glitter with orange hexes scattered in a base of silvery charcoal small glitters. I put two coats of it over a base of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme and then added topcoat.





I quite liked Lightmare. It's on the sophisticated end of the Halloween glitter polish spectrum. It's definitely festive but not as loud as some Halloween glitters I've seen (and worn, because loud is not necessarily a bad thing). Lightmare can be worn on its own at three coats, though not everyone who wore it that way whose blog posts I've read was happy with it. Libby's Pink Vanity thinks it's a trick rather than a treat. For my part, I'm keeping it, as I have nothing else like it that I can think of.

In other Halloween news, yesterday I got a nail polish ring I'd ordered from my friend's etsy shop, 'Nise's Pieces. Why is this Halloween news? Because the ring has a handpainted sugar skull design in it:



I think it's super cool—I put it on the minute I opened the package and spent the rest of the day quite entertained by looking at it whenever I needed a mini break from work or a distraction while sitting at a stoplight. I've gotten earrings and a bracelet from her, too, and even the ones that don't have pictures painted on them have a complexity and depth to them that makes them very interesting to look at. The only downside is that I can't see the earrings while I am wearing them—which is why I ended up getting a ring this time.

Nail Polish: Not Just for Nails Anymore

A few weeks back, Cara from workshop760 asked if I'd like to review one of the pendants she makes. I've turned down a request from a jewelry company before since I didn't think it had much to do with the subject matter I try to focus on here, but this was different—Cara's jewelry is made with nail polish, so I said yes, of course! She asked me about my favorite color of polish and what size pendant I prefer, and a just little while after that a package arrived from her.

I had said "purple (followed by blue ...)" for my favorite color, and the round pendant made with Color Club Total Mystery that Cara sent fits the bill perfectly, as it's several shades of purple and blue all together. This round pendant came on a black beaded necklace (Cara makes those, too!) with what Googling tells me is a toggle clasp.





I unfortunately didn't manage to get any photos of me wearing this pendant, partly because I haven't developed good jewelry photo skills but mostly because I was very distracted by the suprise in Cara's package: a second pendant, this one made with the famous Clarins 230! Even in the indirect indoor light of the room where I first set eyes on it, this one glowed with a whole range of colors, from blue through green to orange.



This necklace has a lobster claw clasp and a length of chain at the other end so it can be worn shorter or longer. And I have worn it a lot in the short time I've had it; it actually came with me on both my recent trips so it's been seen almost coast to coast. Here is it in Idaho:





And here it is in Maryland:





Sometimes I had to take it off just so I could enjoy looking at it change colors in the sunshine:







In one of these taking it off to play incidents, I discovered that the black part on the back of the pendant didn't get along with my sunscreen. It felt a little gummy, like the chemicals in the sunscreen were reacting with the resin in the pendant, so I washed it with mild soap and rinsed and dried it and it's fine now. I used a different sunscreen after that when I wore these pendants and haven't had the problem again.

These pendants are my first nail polish jewelry but won't be my last. I've got my eye on a few things in Cara's shop, actually. Looking at her stock on hand right now, the pieces are priced from $18 to $55 depending on the size and polish used; she has a lot of shapes to choose from and takes requests for custom items, too.

The products in this entry were provided to me free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and the products are mine to keep.