Daisies

Anybody else ready for spring? As soon as I had Orly Fresh on my tips, I knew it needed some flower action. So, I got out my dotting tool and added some! The pink is Sinful Daredevil, the white is Wet n Wild French White Crème, the orange is an unnamed neon Pumpkin polish and the yellow centers are China Glaze Sunshine Pop.

Here's the very aptly named Orly Fresh on its own, two coats. Lovely jellyish green crème, close to neon but not quite there. I don't use Orly very often, but every time I do, I can't help but think I should use them more often! Formula is awesome and I had almost no clean-up, which is nearly unheard-of for me. Why don't I have and use more Orly's?

Vault 106: Nyx Sparklies

FYI, Vault 106 is a gamer reference; if you're not a gamer, you could probably Google it (from Fallout 3, if your curiosity is running rampant. Thanks, Toxin, for the idea!). Suffice to say, it fits, so that's what I'm calling my photo folder with manis that I didn't get around to posting when I was wearing them. You'll probably notice all different nail lengths and shapes when I pull from the Vault.
Anyway, let's get on to the pictures:

Ta-da! This would be a great, simple mani for a sporting event. In fact, I wore it for a Superbowl party, even though it was neither team's colors - my Wisconsin roots are showing, perhaps! LOL.

Nyx Juliana. 2 coats over white. Bright yellow jelly with opalescent glitter. I tried this on it's own, but it's way too sheer for my comfort level. Besides looking a little sickly and jaundiced - it really needed the white to retain the pretty bottle color.

Nyx Lime Sparkle. 2 coats over white. Lime green jelly with copious gold glitter. This didn't need the white quite as badly as Juliana did. I think three coats on its own would have been good, but I put the two together and wanted to be consistent. Look at that glow!

A little side story about these polishes, just so y'all can say "Awwww". My DH went on a business trip to New York, and had a little time to shop - so what does he shop for? Nail polish for me! Isn't that sweet? These were two of the colors he picked up. It was so cute - I get a phone call that started something like this: "Hi, Honey! I'm in this neat little drugstore, and they have Nyx polishes. Are there any of those that you want?" Hmm, how to answer that... ☺ I mentioned a couple, and guess what? They were already in his hot little hands! Did I mention that he has good taste? What a great guy!

Green Shimmer Comparison

Woohoo! My stash is finally getting to the point where I can do comps! No surprise that my greens got there first. ☺ First, the players:

We have China Glaze Outta Bounds*, Rimmel Camouflage, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Emerald City, Zoya Suvi and Sinful Colors Gorgeous.

In the same order as above, from thumb to pinky. I used two coats for Outta Bounds and Camouflage, and three coats for the rest. The truest green is Emerald City, for sure, but Camouflage and Outta Bounds are close. I included Gorgeous as a teal, just to show that the rest are not as blue as they might seem. It is definitely much bluer IRL than even Outta Bounds. Suvi stands apart, because it is technically a charcoal base with green shimmer.
So, the big question - do you need to own all of these? Well, if you're a green freak, then definitely! They're not in the least bit dupes of each other. But, if you could only have one, personally I would pick Camouflage, because the shimmer just draws me in. It almost leans into the duochrome realm - it has a subtle, barely there hint of blue that just fascinates me. If one were to study it closely (who does that?LOL☺), it almost appears that the base is tealish and the copious shimmer is bright leaf green and gold.
Hope this helps some of you out! If you enjoy comps, let me know - I'm always happy to do them.

*Disclosure: China Glaze Outta Bounds was sent to me for review.

China Glaze Classics

It's about time I did a bit more swatching, isn't it? And I have the perfect opportunity, thanks to China Glaze!

Recently, China Glaze was kind enough to send me these three polishes for review.

China Glaze Exceptionally Gifted. Classic pink pearl. 3 coats, no topcoat. This is the perfect classic, bubblegum pink - the exact shade of Hubba Bubba, IIRC. It's very cute, feminine and delicate, for girly-girls. ☺ It has the standard pearl brushstrokes, though, and is a little too sheer for my preference. All pictures are color-accurate, depending on the light you're in, so there's some depth and character to this polish. Pretty!

China Glaze Conga To My Cabana. 3 coats, no topcoat. Bright coral shimmer. This one surprised me - in the bottle, it's kinda blah (to me), but on - it's gorgeous! The color is deep and saturated, bordering on neon. I can't wait to wear this on my toes this summer. I would call it a candy guava color. Again, it's a little too sheer, but it lacks the pearly brushstrokes of EG, thankfully.

China Glaze Outta Bounds. 2 coats, no topcoat. Emerald green shimmer. This is a kissing-cousin to teal. It is definitely on the blue side, and more cool-toned than most greens. It's a great color, and won't ever look swampy like so many yellow-based greens can. It reminds me of a blue spruce or pine color, but richer.
What stood out for me on all three is how glossy they are - I had trouble photographing them, with all the glare. Wow! Opacity was only good on OB, though. The other two, even at three coats showed no sign of being opaque - so nude base color, here I come! No application issues, they all applied nicely. Not too thick or thin, just right. I just wish for wider brushes, as usual.
Bottom line: Would I have picked these out for myself? Probably not - they just didn't stand out to me. (After all, they're not holo, duochrome or flakies! LOL.) Am I glad I own them now? Definitely - they're all solid, beautiful colors that everyone should have represented in their stash, with great application besides. I'm very happy with them.

*Disclosure: This polish was sent to me by China Glaze for review purposes.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here's my St. Patrick's Day mani. Sorry it's late!

Wet n Wild (mystery polish). Celery green creme, 3 coats. This polish is probably at least a decade old, and I have no idea where I got it. It's one of those 'hidden' treasures that I found in a drawer, bought long before my current obsession. The labels you see are the only ones left on the bottle, so since there's no way to know the name, I'm calling it 'ggg', after a well-known OPI polish that I swear this looks just like. (I don't own the OPI, so if anybody has it and can vouch, the second, cooler pic is the most color-accurate on my screen.) It's somewhere between pistachio pudding and green grapes. It kinda gives me lobster claws, but it's so pretty I don't care!

Also, I don't know if it's supposed to do this (like some of the high end square-bottled polishes), but the square cap comes off, for easier handling.

And, here's some clovers! I used Rimmel Camouflage for the darker ones and Pure Ice Free Spirit for the lighter ones. Both of these are gorgeous! I'll have to use each for a full mani some time.

I used this plate for stamping, and it's a no-name fauxnad from evilBay, so the M71 does NOT coincide with Konad M71. I will be posting soon about all the plates I currently own, for reference purposes, so check back if you're curious!

Kaleidoscope

I ♥ holos! *sigh* Not much to say, the pictures say it better, anyway.

China Glaze He's Going In Circles (from the Kaleidoscope collection). Lovely mint green with strong holographic effect. I was mesmerized by this polish, especially in the sun. I met my husband for lunch one day while wearing this, and dragged him into the parking lot (where it was sunny) just to share the oohs and ahhs! He humored me, and agreed it was pretty cool. :D Love it! Quick and easy application (two coats, I think), fast dry-time and flippin' amazing finish - what's not to love?!?! *sigh* I NEED more holos! (Does anyone know where I can get the rest of the Kaleidoscopes? Most are out-of-stock everywhere I've looked. :P)

Thanks for reading!

Zoya Greens

I'm really excited about this post, because these are the polishes that I won in JP's giveaway on nails of the day. *Drum roll, please!* May I present the greens:

Aren't they lovely? On top, we have Veruschka on the left and Envy on the right. On the bottom, L-R are Suvi, Irene and Midori. (Sadly, there was a USPS mishap, and Tangy was released into the wild. :p)
I'm gonna be right up front and say that these pics are a bit sad looking, darn that macro setting! Anything fugly here is strictly due to n00b error and hurried swatching, not the fault of the polishes themselves. The application was actually easy and wonderful - no issues whatsoever, just my usual sloppiness. Sorry!
Also, I love the matte trend, so I matted the middle nail with China Glaze Matte Magic in several of these. So, on to swatches!

Envy. Yellow-leaning deep green creme. I really like this, even though it's nearly black in most light. There is the subtlest hint of shimmer in the depths, but it mostly comes off as a creme. The second pic was with flash, so you can see the base color better. 2 coats.

Irene. Mossy green base with bright green shimmer. This one is gorgeous! The base color is definitely mossy, leaning warmish, and the bright green shimmer just glows.  I was afraid it would be too warm for my skin tone (like Sinful Show Me the Way), but it really is very neutral and easy to wear. 3 coats.

Midori. Dark melon green with yellow, green and gold shimmer. Zoya's website simply calls this medium green shimmer, but that doesn't cover it at all! This little minx was very difficult to capture, because the green kept shifting from cool to warm. I took at least a dozen pics, and these two seem to come the closest to real life. As I was showing these polishes to my husband, twice he said this was his favorite, so of course I had to wear it first! I still have it on and it's mesmerizing. If this is what ChG Moonpool looks like, I can definitely see what all the fuss is about. I haven't matted this one yet, since it's my current mani, but I'm guessing it would be fantastic. 3 coats.

Suvi. Deep emerald green shimmer. Lovely, just lovely. You must enlarge these to get the full impact of the shimmer. I love this! Zoya's website describes this as metallic, but I'm not sure that fits. The shimmer is definitely dense, but it's not at all brush-strokey, so don't let that scare you if you normally avoid metallics. 3 coats.

Veruschka. Rich emerald green shimmer matte. As I said earlier, I love the matte trend! This one is totally on par with the other Zoya mattes (I have Posh and Loredana), and reminds me of the OPI Suedes. I added a coat of Seche Vite on the middle, and it's just as gorgeous shiny, too. Love it! 2 coats.

All in all, this is a wonderful collection of polishes. I'm really impressed with the Zoyas I have so far, and I will definitely have to get more. Thanks again, JP, for enabling! :D

Thanks for reading!

Tannenbaum

I really love the idea of holiday manis, so I've done a few. I'll just jump right in with the first one, which I did last week.

Sinful Show Me The Way. I've seen this one swatched before, and I really like it, but it looks a little swampy on me. At first, I thought ugh, too yellow, but it kinda grew on me, except for the application. I swear, I haven't been able to paint on a single Sinful color that didn't bubble on me (with the possible exception of the glitter topcoat-types). I think this is two (sloppy) coats.
Anyway, I liked it for a day, despite the bubbles. I really wanted to try Nihrida's decoupage technique though, and I just happened to find the perfect napkins to go over this polish, so I plunged right into it.

Here is Show Me The Way with a paper napkin over it. I really liked the effect, and my husband said the dots looked like water droplets. Cool! :D (I was a bit worried that they would look like a weird nail disease, especially over SMTW! ;P)

Here is the napkin I used. I really like these napkins, because there are several options for a design. Just like Nihrida showed in her video tutorial, I pulled the layers apart so there was only the top layer, then cut out the areas I wanted to use this time. Since the polish was a day old, I used topcoat to stick it to my nails. Then, I used more topcoat to "melt" the paper and make it all shiny.
Learnings for next time:

• Use a lighter color for maximum impact. I liked this OK, but it was a little too subtle.
• Cut more carefully for less clean-up, i.e. rounded edges at the cuticle!
• Start with the good/thick topcoat to save layers. I think I used 3 coats of a cheap topcoat and it was still rough. Essie Trillionails saved the day with one coat on top of that.
• This is a great use for that crappy Dollar Tree "Quick Dry" topcoat that never actually dries - I used it underneath the napkin to stick it down. Worked great!
• Try a glitter topcoat - it might make some cool effects.

Overall, it was fun, relatively easy, and I will be doing it again sometime.

Thanks for reading!