Fuzzy Sweaters

Recollections glitter and flocking powder

Yep. I did it. I jumped on the fuzzy nails bandwagon. But I added my own twist - glitter, of course! I was inspired by some Martha Stewart sparkly flocking powder at Michael's, but I already owned the glitter and this flocking powder was on clearance, so I mixed my own. Both the glitter and the flocking powder were by Recollections, also found at Michael's.

tiny silicone bowl

I shook them up together in a little zip baggie, but my teeny silicone bowl was perfect for application, because I dipped rather than the traditional shaking over the nail. I tried shaking the mix over, but wasn't happy with the coverage - it went on thicker with dipping for me.

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I started with two coats Revlon Wind Fall, then used a slow-drying topcoat as the tacky surface for the sparkly fuzz to stick. (I swatched Wind Fall here, if you want to see it alone.) I then dipped each nail into the bowl, lightly tamped down the fuzz with my other hand, and brushed off the excess. Done! How easy is that!

shade

Here's a shade pic, because the glitter was easier for the camera to pick up in the shade - it just kinda twinkles out of the sea of fuzz. Anyway, this mani lasted about two days, surprisingly - including one shower and several handwashings. I removed it when it started developing bald spots. I loved it, though - so different and cute! I kept petting my nails that first day. But putting my hand in a pocket or purse sure felt odd, as the fuzz wouldn't glide smoothly like nail polish does.

More Flakie Love

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Revlon Wind Fall with Finger Paints Twisted, two coats of each. Gorgeous! Not much else to say about this, I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

filtered sun

full sun

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Revlon Wind Fall by itself, 2 coats with topcoat. A little more green than it looks here, the flakie pics above are closer to color-accurate.

NotD: Jelly Sandwich

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Revlon Blue Lagoon, two coats, no topcoat. Pastel blue with iridescent shimmer. Unfortunately the shimmer gets completely lost on the nail, especially amongst all the bubbles. I bought this specifically as an opaque base for Sinful Cinderella. It matches and is opaque enough, but the formula is awful! It's chalky, streaky, gritty and bubbly. Yuck. I'm so glad I only paid about $1.50 for it. Too bad it's such a pretty polish in the bottle! I think it'll be worth trying over a different basecoat, waiting a little longer between coats, or something.

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Spoiled Pet My Peacock, one coat, no topcoat, over Revlon. Equal parts blue, green, purple, gold and silver hex glitters, all the same size, in a clear base. Love the glitter, hate the brush! Just like everyone else who's reviewed the new Spoiled (by Wet n Wild) line, the brush in this was wonky and needed a haircut before I could use it properly, even with a glitter like this.

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Sinful Cinderella, one coat with topcoat, over Revlon and Spoiled. This looks so awesome, and is worth the application issues with the other two polishes. I love how Cinderella really intensifies the color of the glitter while subduing the bling. It also makes this look like all one polish, not three layered. What a neat effect! I think the milky finish of Cinderella is perfect for jelly sandwiches, and the pink-gold sparkle just adds some extra oomph.
If you enlarge these pics, you'll still see the Revlon bubbles, but they're less noticeable in real life and I think I can manage to ignore them for a few days. Maybe.

Hot (Pink!) Mess

I don't wear pinks very often, but last week my Mom requested pink for Valentine's Day. Well, Mom, here's the pink I chose:

OPI La Paz-itively Hot - Matte. Hot pink satin. Very cool! I like the matte finish of this one, it really adds a level of interest. What I didn't like was the FOUR coats, and there is still VNL! I wasn't expecting it to be so sheer, so I didn't use an opaque base coat - but next time I definitely will. Application was a bit difficult, too. I would consider this to be an advanced polish - fellow n00bs beware! It is truly a three-stroke ONLY polish, if you try to go back over a spot, you will get globs, drag AND brushstrokes. When I have improved polishing skills, this one will get way more use. (Oops, yes, that is a giant dog hair across my ring finger! How in heck did I not notice that?!?! And, egads, please to disregard the dry cuticles. kthx)
I wore it matte for a day, but the next day I noticed the usual tired matte thing happening, so I put a sparkly topcoat on:

Revlon Grapefruit Glimmer. I love this polish! It's very sheer, and I think the Glimmer Glosses are all intended for layering. This one has pink glass flecks in a pink grapefruit colored base. I think these have been discontinued, because I found this at Big Lots, in a two-pack with another Revlon. (If any of my family reads this, and happens to see some other colors at their Big Lots, feel free to pick some more up for me, okay? I'll pay you back. LOL ☺)
For what it's worth, I don't see a need for the new $5.50/bottle CND effects polishes when I can get awesome topcoats like this for $1!
Sorry for the craptastic pics today, I didn't take the time to clean up the gloss, because I had a limited sun window to take these. Even with sun, the pics still don't show the full awesomeness of the gloss. I think I should use it over a contrasting color next time, maybe blue or black, to really showcase it properly.
So, Mom, what do you think?
Thanks for reading!