Ice Queen's Nail Parlour

Essie Mint Candy Apple Swatch and Review

2012-02-01T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today I have yet another pretty polish that has languished for forever and a day in my untried polishes stash. This is Essie Mint Candy Apple from their Winter 2009 Collection. I lemming'd this polish so hard for so long. Then I finally acquired it and let it sit all this time. Part of the reason why was that I was a little spooked by some of the reviews I read and my experiences with similar pastel milk paint like creme polishes that came out at that time and were so huge through 2010. Essie Mint Candy Apple is one of those polishes. A soft, pastel mint green creme that was smooth and opaque in three coats. Top coat helped finish it perfectly. I took the photographs of this beauty in sun and shade.

Essie Mint Candy Apple is a surprisingly smooth and silky creme polish with just a hint of jelly that helps prevent this from being a chalky, difficult mess. It applies fairly smoothly; the first coat was a bit streaky but the second went on very nicely. By the time I had the third coat on, it was almost impeccably smooth and was fully opaque. Top coat melted and finished this polish off, perfectly.

Essie Mint Candy Apple is pretty easy to find. I bough my bottle on Amazon. You can find it at most e-tailers and brick and mortar stores and salons that sell Essie.

Do you own this pretty little mint? What think you of it?

Thank you so much for popping in and reading. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamonds

2012-01-31T06:00:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Tuesday. Okay. Now I have that Moody Blues song running through my head. And if you say, "Who are the Moody Blues?" I am going to hurt you. Bad. With a stick.

Perhaps gentler persuasion? Turn on your speakers and click the vid. :D

Anywhoozle, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Diamonds. Yeah. Nice topper type stuff. This is a silver/white baby flakie shifter that also flashes lavender, pink, blue in the sun. Pretty. I like it. I had a bottle of this polish a while back. Wrecked it putting extra ballz in it. They had zinc. I have learned my lesson. No more zinc plated balls are going in my polish anymore. But, why the extra ballz? You might ask. I dunno. I just went through an extra ballz phase. Had to toss them in all of my polishes. That phase is over.

Yes. I am odd.

I accept that.

I'm good with it.

Where was I? Oh yes. Sally Hansen Diamonds. After I tossed my wrecked bottle's ass, I found a new one at CVS. On clearance. For 75% off. Yesss! Score! Especially since I had just been looking at the new Sally Hansen Diamond Strength polishes. You know the ones... In the new faceted bottles. With the new, higher price point? Now, I don't know about you but almost seven clams for Sally Hansen? Really? Pretty soon, OPI is going to be cheaper. But I digress.

I seem to be doing that a bit, in this entry.

So, as I was saying, I found the Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Diamonds in the old, smooth, curvy bottle for 75% off and grabbed it and tossed it in my basket. Then I went back to the new Sally Hansen Diamond Strength display and sure enough. There it was. Diamonds. Same stuff. For a lot more money. Just imagine. Buying the same polish for so. much. less. money. Kinda blew my mind. And made me wonder what kind of evil genius is in charge at Sally Hansen.

Me and my blown mind swatched this lovely little topper over a coat of Wet-n-Wild Black Creme then topped it with top coat. Buckle up and ready thyself for lots of photographs of this baby. These are in sun and in shade. I am confident that you can figure out which is where.

Unfortunately the different colours eluded my camera's eye. Trust me, they are there.

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamonds is a pretty, easy going topper. It applies smoothly, distributes the baby flakies evenly and dries in good time. I dig it. You can get it at most drugstores and big box retailers that carry Sally Hansen. Check for clearance stickers at CVS and Walgreen's. You might score one on sale.

Do you own this polish? Like it? Think it is crap? Want more Moody Blues vids?

Thank you for popping in and not running when you realized that I am in a really strange mood. You are friends, indeed. :D Have a lovely day and may your polish never bubble.

Hey, have you entered my giveaway?

A Tale of Four Flakies

2012-01-30T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

As you are no doubt aware, one can't go anywhere without hearing about and seeing them. Flakies. Shiny, shifting, dancing, flashing. Flakies. Flakies. Flakies. Flakies in jelly, flakies mattified, flakies on top, flakies sandwiched. Flakies in clear, flakies in colours. Flakies that flash gold and green, flakies that fire the colours of opals and the sea. Ahhh... Flakies.

Today I am going to show you four flakies. These are the copper/gold/green flakies. The elusive and coveted Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, the lovely Finger Paints Flashy, the luscious and luxe Essie Shine of the Times and the ever beautiful Nubar 2010.

I decided to do this comparison on a nail wheel, as it was easier to get the angles I wanted to show the full play of the colour shift and the nails on the wheel were nice and long. These are all one coat of flaky polish over one coat of Wet-N-Wild Black Creme and topped with two coats of top coat. I shot these photographs under my OttLight in my lightbox.

As you can see, while these all look largely alike, there are differences. Hidden treasure has the larger flakes and distributes lots of flakes onto the nail in one coat. The flakies in Flashy are smaller and less densely packed, giving a more scattered effect. 2010 seems to be about the middle of the two and Shine of the times has small flakies that are, to my eye the most dense.

Colour wise, these are nearly perfectly identical. They all are copper/gold/green shifters that swim in slightly milky jelly bases that apply and dry clear. They all dry slightly satin and benefit from top coat. These flakies also look fabulous with a matte top coat. Any one or all four are definitely worth owning and adding to your collection. Of the four, Essie Shine of the Times and Nubar 2010 are the most easily acquired. Both run about $8.00 US. Flashy is still available in some Sally Beauty Supply stores and I imagine that it is floating around on E-Bay, as well. Flashy is about six dollars at Sally's. Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure is rare and very hard to find. I have no clue where one could even find a bottle of it, now. I can't even imagine what one would cost, if you could find it.

I hope that this was helpful. If you have any questions or would like to share your feelings about these polishes, please do. :)

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

A Little Redecorating and a Question For You

2012-01-28T13:56:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

As you can probably see, I have been doing a little redecorating. I decided to change up the look of my blog a bit; lose the cutsie backgrounds (nothing wrong with them, I just think that I am finally over them), install a cleaner, more neutral header and widen my page, overall. I think that my blog looks cleaner, brighter and, in spite of the fact that I have a lot of shit going on, it looks less cluttered and busy. I also like that the wider format makes my posts look a little less wordy and loooong. heh heh

I also started making all of my photographs larger, to fit the new layout. Question, if I may? What say you about the larger photographs? Just right? Too large? Do they feel overpowering to look at as you read? I am good with this size but this is also about my readers and what they like to see so I would really value your honest opinion on photo size in my posts. I am going to hold off changing more until I hear what you all have to say. I have a lot of posts and while I doubt that I will change every one of them, I do plan to go back a little way. I don't want to go to all of that work, tho if the larger shots drive my readers cray-cray. lol

Okay, I can't just leave without posting a picture of something. Bare, just word posts don't feel right, here. :D

(Image Source) This is totally my husband and me.

Thank you for dropping in and for your answer to my question. I really appreciate your input. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble

Swatching Blue: Sinful Colors Ciao Bella

2012-01-28T06:00:00.003-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Yay! It's Saturday! I hope that you all are having a great weekend. To start off Saturday, let's see a pretty blue polish, shall we? This is Sinful Colors Ciao Bella. A cobalt blue jelly base packed with teeny-tiny micro flakies that shift from silver to flash magenta, depending on how the light hits it. My only real complaint about this polish is the fact that the beautiful magenta flash almost completely disappears when you apply this to the nails and it utterly eluded my camera. I shot this polish in my lightbox, outdoors in the sun, in the shade. I tried different angles, I even changed a couple of settings on my camera. Something I never do. No dice. That magenta flash remained elusive.

This swatch is three coats and top coat. The top two photographs were shot in my lightbox, the bottom two in full sun.

Sinful Colors Ciao Bella is a decent enough sort, formula wise. It applied pretty easily. I did have a little trouble with it wanting to run on me but I soon got the hang of working with it. Like many jellies, this one was a tad oogly on the first coat... A bit streaky and uneven but the second and then third coats made it opaque and smooth and shiny and just lovely. I can't attest to dry time, I didn't wear this long enough to really judge that, tho by the time I oiled my cuticles and shot off enough photographs to make my memory card consider going on strike, this stuff was pretty well set and on it's way to dry.

Oh! This polish has that stiff-ish plastic-y brush that some Sinful Colors polishes have. I am not overly nuts about those brushes but they aren't all that bad. They certainly aren't deal breakers. I am sad that the beautiful duochrome shift that you can see in the bottle doesn't translate to the nails and won't show in photographs. I wish that Sinful Colors would pack more of the pretty stuff into their bottles so that what you see in the bottle, you get to wear and enjoy. And take pictures of.

Ciao Bella is part of the core line, if I am not mistaken and if you are interested in it, you should be able to find it anywhere Sinful Colors is sold.

Thank you so much for coming by and spending a little of your Saturday with me. Have a wonderful day and may your polish never bubble.

A Magnetic Giveaway

2012-01-27T08:53:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

The lovely Sirena Sparklestar is holding a giveaway to celebrate 500+ followers. She is offering two of the new China Glaze Magnetix polishes; Attraction and Instant Chemistry as well as a three pattern magnet so that you can have fun with all of the designs. If you would like to enter, please click here to travel to Sirena's blog post and enter.

Check out the goodies:

Nice, huh? What are you waiting for? Getcha butt over there! :D

Swatchity-Swatch: OPI Tangerine Scene

2012-01-27T06:00:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Friday, at last. I am kind of looking forward to the weekend. Time to have a little fun, do some shopping, maybe pick up some polish and so forth... Get out and enjoy this unseasonably nice weather we are having.

To celebrate March temps in January, I have orange. Bright, clear, almost neon orange. This is OPI Tangerine Scene. This is a creme that thinks it wants to be a jelly. It is very shiny and smooth. I applied three coats and top coat.

Photographs were taken in my lightbox under my OttLight.

OPI Tangerine Scene has a very nice formula. Smooth and easy, it applies like a little bit of a dream with that fab brush that OPI does so very well. There was no running, pooling, dragging or bubbling. The first coat was a touch thin and streaky but subsequent coats took care of all of that, just fine. I don't really know about dry time as I didn't wear this one for very long.

Do you own Tangerine Scene? What do you think about this bright, warm orange polish? I don't know what collection this polish is from but I do believe that it is still pretty easy to locate and purchase. I have seen it here and there.

Thank you so much for coming by. Have a great Friday and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Pacific Blue

2012-01-26T06:00:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Ho's your Thursday going? Well, I hope. Today I have yet another blue polish for you. This is Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear in Pacific Blue. This is one beautiful little pain in the ass of a polish. Beautiful because it is that rich, cool, cerulean blue that just makes my little heart go pitter-pat. My photographs show it a little lighter than it is in person. I tried to boost the saturation but this stuff just doesn't play fair with my camera. It is a pain in the ass because it separates like crazy. I had to shake the shit out of this polish, turn it upside down for a day or two, shake the shit out of it, again then let it settle overnight, shake it again, let it settle for a while, then apply it.

Whew! I am tired just thinking about it. lol Part of the problem may be that I purchased this polish a long time ago and it has sat, untouched for all that time. *shrug* Whatever the reason, it gave me a workout. I will say, tho... It seems to have been worth it. I mean, just look at it. This is a crelly, I needed three coats to get an opaque and smooth finish on my nails. My smoother nails were good in two but my demon ridges made a third coat of this necessary. If you don't have ridges like I do, you can probably just do two. This is, if I remember correctly sans top coat. Yep. This stuff is stupid shiny. Kinda squishy, too. I dig it.

Photographs taken in my lightbox, under my OttLight.

Carrot fingers courtesy of my basic photo editing software. I tried to boost the saturation to get this polish to show more colour true and ended up with only a slight improvement and some mighty fonky looking digits.

The colour is a little closer to true in this shot. A little.

Pacific Blue has a very nice formula. Smooth and easy and a pleasure to paint on. I had a some trouble controlling it only because it has a very long brush wand and I am accustomed to shorter ones. Other than that, it;s very nice. This polish applies a bit streaky on the first coat but then it gets nice and opaque and levels out and is just loverly in two to three coats, depending on what your own nails need. As I said earlier, I needed three. This polish doesn't run or pool or drag or bubble. It dries in decent time. It was already set to the gentle touch by the time I oiled my cuticles and fired off my photographs. When I wear this, I will definitely use top coat.

I think that Pacific Blue is still part of the Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear core line. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Pink Wednesday: Revlon Starry Pink... Plus: Some News About This Polish

2012-01-25T06:00:00.004-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Two Pink Wednesdays in a row!?!? Whoulda thunk it? :D Today I have for you a round the blogs favourite. Revlon Starry Pink. I picked this polish up last Fall and I am just getting around to wearing it. Revlon Starry Pink is a lovely, soft milky pink jelly that can lean just a tiny bit lilac. It is full of tiny silver square glitter and larger silver hex glitter. I applied two coats. I have the tiniest bit of VNL (yay! my nails are long enough to have VNL, again!) and probably could have done three but I don't mind a little VNL with some polishes and it isn't terribly obvious, in any case.

I like this polish. It is soft, delicate, very girlie and has that beautiful squish that a good jelly gives you. Revlon Starry Pink looks like a most delicious glitter sandwich without having to do the work for it. Gotta like that on a lazy day, hey? I topped this with a coat of Seche Vite and now that it has "settled" over the last few hours, it could probably use a second coat of Seche, as I now feel some texture. It isn't gritty but it does have texture.

I am going to show you photographs shot in sun, shade and my lightbox so that you get a good idea of how this polish looks in different lighting.

Sun

Shade

Lightbox

Revlon Starry Pink has an easy, pleasant formula. It was a dream to apply; being neither too thick nor too thin. This polish is easy to control, it lays down where it is placed and it doesn't run, drag, pool or bubble. It is a tad bit streaky but levels out pretty nicely. If you look carefully, you might see a little streakyness but it isn't too obvious so I didn't worry about it. The glitter distributes very easily and I didn't really have to pat or place the glitter, it just fell into place on it's own. Dry time is a tiny bit on the slow side, Seche Vite was a definite help.

Revlon Starry Pink was part of a limited Edition collection. You might still find it floating around, here and there. Check out of the way drugstores and the like and you might stumble upon it. It is definitely worth trying to find, if you like pink, jelly and glitter, preferably all mixed up together in one lovely polish.

Edited to add: It appears that Revlon Starry Pink is now Revlon Popular. If you have been searching for Starry Pink, check the new freestanding stair-step Revlon displays for Popular. Revlon has been re releasing their more popular LE shades under different names.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a wonderful day and may your polish never bubble.

Can I just tell you that trying to type and insert photographs and so forth for a blog post is a pain in the ass when you have both your lappie and your cat on you, at the same time? :P

Swatchity-Swatch: Chelsea Kelidoscope

2012-01-24T10:14:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Want to know the worst thing about duochrome and multichrome polishes? They drive my inner perfectionist utterly insane. You see, in person, they do such fabulous things with colour that I have so much difficulty with my very limited camera and photographic skills capturing all of the beauty.

One of those multi chrome polishes is Chelsea Kelidoscope. I received this polish as part of a giveaway prize, a long time ago. I have had this floating around, languishing unswatched because in the bottle, just looking at it, it wasn't that interesting to me. It wasn't until I decided to swatch everything and just get my backlog done up that I got this one on my nails.

Why did I wait so long, I ask myself. This stuff is really lovely. It is a mad shifter, giving purple, green, bronze (which, for some reason my camera didn't capture), even grey and in flashes, navy. I applied two coats and topped it with Color Club top coat. These photographs were shot in my lightbox under my OttLight.

Chelsea Kelidoscope. That misspelling is absolutely making me mental! People who name cosmetics, buy a frakking dictionary, already! In case you don't know, a dictionary is a big, fat book just chock full of words. Back on topic. This polish is a dark teal jelly base packed with multichromatic shimmer particles. The formula is thin but not runny or difficult. It applies easily and smoothly; there is no running, pooling, dragging or bubbling. There is some brushstroke action, something that can be expected with this kind of polish but it isn't obnoxious enough to scare me off. Dry time is quick with this stuff. Really quick. I don't know about wear time, as I merely swatched this one. If this polish has the usual wear time of most duochromes I own, I would expect this one to live for a day or two.

I have absolutely no clue where to find Chelsea polish. I have never seen it in any store in my town and I have never really searched for it, online. But it must be available, somewhere so if you are in love with the idea of this stuff, Google would probably be your best friend.

So, what say you about Chelsea Kelidoscope?

Thank you so much for popping in and reading. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

Oh! Say... Have you entered my giveaway?

A Comparison

2012-01-23T09:06:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Please to forgive me but this is a phone it in fly-by and then I am out of here. I am headbanging hard, today and I need to go hide.

I recently had a gentle reader ask if Color Club Ms. Socialite and China Glaze Traffic Jam were matches. (I really need to remember to write down the reader's name along with the polish comparison requests so that I can mention them, properly. Not doing so isn't acceptable.) So I painted up a comparison on a nail wheel. I applied two coats of both polishes and top coat. The photograph was shot in my lightbox under my OttLight.

On the left: Color Club Ms. Socialite and on the right, China Glaze Traffic Jam. While both of these polishes do lean to the berry, they are not matches, at all. Color Club Ms. Socialite is more purple and darker in overall shade. China Glaze Traffic Jam is lighter in tone, brighter overall and what I would call a true raspberry. Distant cousins. Not twins, or even sisters.

Both of these polishes are beautiful, have fabulous formulas and are different enough that if you aren't into owning dupes, but like this colour family are definitely worth owning.

I hope that this was helpful. If you have any questions or anything that you would like to say, please drop me a comment. I love hearing from my readers. :D

Okay, I must run. The glow from my monitor is about to cause my brain to implode. And, since I need my brain, lame as it is, I don't want that to happen. heh heh

Thank you for popping in. Have a lovely day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: Essie Lapis of Luxury

2012-01-22T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today's swatch is Essie Lapis of Luxury. A sweet, soft blue crelly. A sweet, soft blue crelly that is lovely but badly named. Lapis is dark blue. Cobalt. Deep, mysterious and mesmerizing. Essie Lapis of Luxury is Spring. It is more periwinkle or forget-me-not than lapis. Don't worry. I'm not going to rant. You know I don't do that. :P I will say that people who name polishes need to do a tad bit of research. :D

I like this polish. It looks like the Summer sky and warm days and birdies singing. This polish is silky and shiny and somewhat squishy. I applied three coats for this swatch and topped it with top coat. These photographs were taken outdoors in sun and shade.

Essie Lapis of Luxury has a decent crelly formula. Smooth and silky it goes on a little sheer and streaky on the first coat. The second is much better and the third results in a perfect, smooth, opaque finish. This polish applies very nicely. It flows easily off of the Essie skinny brush (which I find less and less annoying as time goes on) and sits nicely down where it is placed. It doesn't run, drag, pool or flood my cuticles. It didn't bubble and I had very little cleanup. Dry time is... I dunno. I didn't wear it long enough to really find out. But I imagine that it is pretty much average for a polish of this kind. My other Essie crellies dry in decent time. I imagine that this one does, too.

Is it my imagination or am I showing a shit load of blue polishes, lately? Yeah. That's what I thought. Well, I have more in the pipeline so I hope that you don't mind.

Do you own this polish? Like it? Please do tell.

Thank you for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: OPI Save Me

2012-01-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today I have a look at the only one of the OPI Nicki Minage Collection polishes I purchased. I know... I said that I was glittered out.

I lied.

I saw OPI Save Me and I just had to have it. I wasn't really all that interested in any of the other polishes in this new collection. To me they just feel... Meh. Seen it. Don't really want to do it. To be perfectly honest, I am kind of burned out on the whole celebrity/nail polish collection tie in concept. It is beginning to feel a bit overdone and forced, to me. And it is too many, too close together. One really special collaboration once in a rare great while might be a nice thing but this is happening too often, if you ask me.

OPI Save me is a multi glitter polish comprised of teeny-tiny silver square glitter and bar glitter that is holo and duochrome-ish in nature. The bars glint pink, yellow, purple, blue and holo sparkle. Yippie! Fun stuff, Maynard. I likee. And I am glad that I bought this one, for sure.

I applied one coat over Sinful Colors Fly Away and topped it with top coat, as this one does dry a bit satin. For maximum sparkle and shine, you have to use top coat. I took photographs out in the sunshine. I don't know what it is, but I have had the worst time of it photographing glitters and flakies in the sun, recently. I am thinking that it has something to do with the angle of the sun, this time of year. Whatever it is, it isn't making me all that happy. But this stuff had to be shot in the sun. My OttLight just didn't cut it.

Click these bad boys. That way you can get a real eyeful of the sparkle and all of the pretty colours.

OPI Save Me has that beautiful OPI glitter formula. Fluid and easy to apply. The glitter goes on in plenty and is amazingly easy to get evenly up and all over the nail. You don't have to fight with this one to make it behave. Dry time for this polish is fairly swift but it needs top coat, as it will dry a bit satin-matte. This polish, like many OPI glitters is amazingly smooth, even before top coat is applied and this stuff doesn't eat top coat. One good coat is all that is needed.

I feel that this is best worn as a layering polish with a coordinating or contrasting background polish. I have seen photographs of this polish built up to an opaque finish and the effect wasn't pleasing. It is so, so much prettier just sprinkled on top of another polish, there to wink and sparkle and delight the eye. But that is just my humble opinion. ;)

Did you pick up this sparkly stunner? Any of the other polishes in this collection? What did you think about this collection?

Thank you so much for coming by. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: Sinful Colors Fly Away

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Gentle readers.

Today's swatch is a lovely little charmer by Sinful Colors. Please give a warm welcome to Fly Away. This is a rich, bright cerulean blue crelly. Shiny and a little squishy. This swatch is three coats. It is shiny and beautiful without top coat.

These photographs were taken in sunshine.

Geeze! Look at that big-assed ridge poking up out on the polish on my pinkie. Blech!

The formula of this polish is pretty damned nice. It isn't terribly opaque. I needed a full three coats for complete coverage. The first coat was very thin and streaky. The second was a little better, the third made it all smooth and opaque. Sinful Colors Fly Away applied very easily. It was a dream to control and paint on my nails. There was no dragging, pooling, running or bubbling. The brush was a tad stiff, it almost felt plastic-y. But it wasn't a nightmare. Just a different feeling than most polish brushes. Dry time for this polish is pretty much average.

Do you own this pretty blue polish? It is, I believe still available at drugstores that carry Sinful Colors. I think. I haven't been perusing the Sinful displays, much lately because they just aren't releasing any new colours. Or, when they do release the rare few new ones, they sure as hell don't make it to my neck of the woods! I missed out on Adventure Island (booo!!! ) and the couple of new Winter shades. I like Sinful Colors. It is surprisingly lovely polish at a bargain basement price. But I am more than ready to see new colours.

Thank you for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Comparisons

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today's post is three comparisons of recently featured polishes. I received requests for two of these comparisons and I just decided to do one of them on impulse, for the hell of it. I got to do these on nail wheels rather than on my nails. I have to say, comparisons on the wheels is easier and faster. I can be doing other swatches and painting and letting my nail wheel swatches dry, at the same time.

First is a comparison of Revlon Fashionista and Orly Sapphire Silk. I also tossed in Finger Paints To-Tealy Chic just for shits and giggles.

From the left: Finger Paints To-Tealy Chic, Revlon Fashionista and Orly Sapphire Silk. All three are two coats. No top coat. Photographs shot in my lightbox. I tried sun and shade and this is where I got the best shot.

From the left: Finger Paints To-Tealy Chic, Revlon Fashionista and Orly Sapphire Silk. All three are two coats. No top coat. Photographs shot in my lightbox. I tried sun and shade and this is where I got the best shot. Of the three, Revlon Fashionista (middle) is the darkest. To-Tealy Chic and Sapphire Silk are closer to each other than either to Fashionista. All three are darker, blue leaning teals. Sapphire Silk is actually blue, not green or teal.

Next I did a quick comparison of Essie Mint Candy Apple and a couple of other minty green polishes in my stash. While I was swatching Mint Candy Apple (swatches to be seen, soon) I wondered if it was anything close to Orly Gumdrop. Then, I decided to invite Orly Ancient Jade to the party.

From the left we have: Essie Mint Candy Apple, Orly Gumdrop and Orly Ancient Jade. No dupes, here. Mint Candy Apple is the lightest, creamiest colour. Gumdrop is a little darker, leans a little blue. Ancient Jade is a jade green. Not really mint, after all.

And, last but least, we have the Essie Lilacism comparison. I used Essie Lilacism, Revlon Lily and Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Lacy Lilac.

From the left: Revlon Lily, Essie Lilacism and Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Lacy Lilac. As you can see (sorry for the low contrast, these actually look very, very different in person) the Essie Lilacism, in the middle is the lightest, most delicate of the three lilac polishes shown. Lily, on the left is slightly more blue and a little darker and Sally Hansen Lacy Lilac is the darkest of the three. All are pretty lilac polishes and while not dupes, any of these three are lovely to own and to wear.

I hope that this was helpful and clear. Sometimes, I get things a little convoluted. lol If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. I'll answer as best I can. If you see a polish swatched or featured as a Manicure of the Moment and would like to see comparisons, don't hesitate to ask. If I have the polishes (or something very similar) you want to see I am more than happy to do it. :)

Thank you so much for popping in. Your company and comments are always welcome. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Time To Celebrate 900+ Followers!

2012-01-18T20:28:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

I reached another blog milestone, recently. 900 followers! When I started this blog in May of 2010 I never thought that so many people would be interested in my blog, much less want to click that Follow button and become one of my gentle readers.

In appreciation for each and every one of you who pop in, read and support my blog by following and commenting I am holding a little giveaway. I wish that I could afford the extravaganza that I honestly feel that you all deserve, but I hope that this will do. :)

I wanted to include a little of everything: Holo, flakies, duochrome, creme, shimmer, glitter, pearle... Old (in age... these polishes are brand new and sealed in their package!), new, even a little LE action. There is the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms five pack that includes Ruby Diamond, a beautiful rose/magenta linear holographic, two scattered holos, a pearle and a lovely duochrome. Two Finger Paints Special Effects LE polishes in Twisted and Motley, then in front we have: China Glaze Skyscraper, China Glaze Blue Iguana, a mysterious Color Club creme, a mysterious Color Club purple with some amazing shimmer, Revlon Purplex (the original LE Purplex, not the renamed re-promote) And China Glaze Holly Day, one of the prettiest green polishes to be released in a long time.

All of these polishes were purchased by me, with my own money. They are all new. Some were purchased individually, some are from sets.

Time for the stupid old booger butt rules:

First, this giveaway is open to legal residents of the United States, only. Believe me, I am so sorry that I have to make this restriction. I feel like a jerk for having to do this but shipping polish out of the US in a legal manner is increasingly regulated and difficult. I don't have the proper permissions to do it legally and I can't afford the fines that I might incur if I get busted trying to sneak it by. *hangs head*

You must be eighteen or older or have permission from your parents or legal guardian. I am not kidding about this one. I do not want to be put in the position of having some angry mom or dad contacting me and demanding to know why some random broad their kid met online has their address and is sending stuff to their child.

This giveaway will close on February 28th at 11:59 PM MST. I will then compile all entries and, I may try using Random.org to draw the winner, this time around. I should use Rafflecopter or something... But it kind of freaks me out. I think that I'll just tiptoe slowly into this brave, new world of gadget run giveaways.

Okay, here is how to earn entries:

Please leave your entries in a comment on this post, only. I would appreciate it if you would put all entries in one entry but if you need to break them up, I'll do my best to be sure that you get all of the entries to which you are entitled.

Please be a public follower of Ice Queen's Nail Parlour. If you are not a follower, it is painless, I promise. Just find the Followers gadget in my right hand column and click the Follow button. If, for some reason you can't go through GFC let me know, in your entry comment that you are a regular reader and just fulfill some of the other entry qualifiers. I know that the whole GFC thing is a thing right now so I'll work with you. :) (If you can follow, tho, you are required to do so. ;)) Please be sure to leave your e-mail address so that I can contact you, should you win. If you would like, you can break it up to keep spambots at bay. Just make sure I can read it and put it back together, mmmkaaay? 2 Entries

Blog about this giveaway or put an item in your sidebar with a link back and please use the photograph in this post. Please include a link to your blog post or blog. 2 Entries

Is Ice Queen's Nail Parlour on your blogroll? If so, please include your blog link and enjoy an additional 2 Entries.

Like Ice Queen's Nail Parlour on Facebook. Please let me know your Facebook name. 2 Entries

Tweet this giveaway. Please provide a link to your tweet, if you would be so kind. 2 Entries

That is Ten chances, total to win. Ten!

Please remember that this giveaway closes at 11:59 MST on February 28th. I will announce the winner once one is drawn and immediately contact them by e-mail. I will also post something here, on my blog. The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me. If I don't hear from the winner after 48 hours, I will draw a new winner.

Okay, this giveaway is officially open!

Edited to Add: If you have any trouble posting a comment on this blog post for any reason, shoot me an e-mail (you can find my e-mail address in my Contact tab) detailing your entries and I'll make sure that you get your entries in. :)

Pink Wednesday

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today is Wednesday. And I am wearing pink. Imagine that. :) Today I have Revlon Temptress, a coral pink creme with a beautiful hidden silver shimmer that fires in the sun. I applied two coats of Temptress and topped it with Seche Vite.

These were taken in the sun. Please click to enlarge and see the shimmah.

Revlon Temptress is that strange, weirdly "grainy" type of creme. It is almost... I don't know... Dry? It reminds me of OPI Flower to Flower in consistency. It is a tad thick and gloopy and, while it gets opaque in two coats, it is a little uneven. Happily, Seche Vite melts and smooths it perfectly. It is like OPI Flower to Flower in that respect, also. This polish is okay. Not stellar. Not bad. Just... Okay. Dry time is a tad slow-ish with this stuff.

See that divot in the bottle? It was lurking under the clearance price sticker. It came out to play when I removed the sticker. I need to remember to handle this bottle carefully. One good knock and I could have polish all over the joint. lol

After I applied this polish and took pictures, I decided to haul out Sally Hansen Princess Cut, a pink jelly sister of Sally Hansen Glass Slipper. I lemming'd this topper so hard. I mean, I would search and search the Sally Hansen displays like crazy every time I went into Walgreen's or CVS, looking for it. I finally found it.

Here it is over Revlon Temptress and topped with a final coat of Seche Vite.

Yeah. Not a good layering choice. Princess Cut just disappeared when I applied it to this pink. It is more visible in person than it is in photographs. I'll give this a go over darker colours. I think that silvery flakies just don't do well over light tones. They need some contrast to fire and spark back to the eye.

Do you own either of these polishes? Tried them together? Like them?

Thank you for stopping in. Have a great Wednesday and may your polish never bubble.

Color Club Ms. Socialite

2012-01-17T06:00:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Here is a pretty purple polish that I have been wearing the last few days. Color Club Ms. Socialite from the Color Club Rebel Debutant collection. This lovely crelly is a slightly dusty purple. I applied two coats and topped it with some of the Color Club top coat that I received with one of my Ross collections. I think it was Back to Boho. I usually use Seche Vite but I thought that it would be fun to give top coat that I normally only use for swatching a test drive as a wear it long term top coat. I have to say, I am not overly impressed. The top coat dried a little more quickly than normal, non quick dry top coat but it wasn't as fast as Seche Vite.

Wear isn't all that impressive. After two days, I had considerable tip wear and some tiny chips. This polish is coming off, today and I am going back to my Seche Vite.

I can't wait until my nails are long enough to easily wrap my tips, again. I think that leaving my tips bare is contributing to my short polish wear and tip wear and chipping so soon. Blech.

As I mentioned, this was two coats and tip coat. I took these photos under my OttLight.

The formula of Color Club Ms. Socialite is lovely. Smooth and silky and easy-peasy to apply. The brush is nice and is easy to use and control. This polish was a tad thin and streaky on the first coat then smooth, opaque and perfect on the second. There was no running, pooling, dragging or bubbling. Dry time is good. Even with the less than stellar top coat that I used, with this manicure.

I like this polish and will no doubt wear it, again. It isn't the most long lived polish on the planet but since I change my polish frequently that isn't really a problem for me.

I have a couple of comparisons to do. I bought some nail wheels at Sally's yesterday. I thought that they would come in handy for doing comparisons and quick swatches and so forth. I may start collecting a nice big pile of them and start swatching all of my polishes on the nail wheels. Maybe. We'll see. :D

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Oh! I have a little something-something coming up, in the next couple of days. Please keep your eyes peeled. :D

Swatchity-Swatch: Essie Lilacism

2012-01-16T06:00:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Another week begins. And in the dark, cold of Winter comes a breath of Spring in the form of Essie Lilacism. This polish has been lurking in my untrieds for... Nearly a year. How lovely is this polish, I ask you. Essie Lilacism is a beautiful lilac crelly. This swatch is four coats. Yes. Four. This polish is a little thin and the pigmentation isn't stellar and it had a hard time handling my demon ridges. I am going to give this another go with underwear and see if it goes a little better. Because I want this stuff to work. That colour is simply divine. Classic Essie... Soft, gentle, ladylike and just downright pretty.

Sunshine photographs for your perusal.

The formula of Essie Lilacism is pretty translucent, for all it's appearance of it being a creme. I had to paint on four coats to get it opaque and smooth. The first coat was thin, streaky and uneven. The second was a little better, started to even out nicely but damn! My ridges! Third coat, even better. Had my nails been nice and smooth, I could probably have stopped there but this polish and my ridges don't look well together. Some polishes, I can ignore them showing a little, not with this one. So, the fourth coat got everything covered and smooth. Finally. lol If you have smoother nails three coats, at the most should do you very nicely. This polish is worth the three coats. Trust me.

Application, it's self was easy. This polish is nice to work with and easy to control. I had very little cleanup. there was no pooling, dragging, clotting or being chalky and difficult, as some Essie cremes can be. Dry time was pretty good, even with four coats, by the time I finished taking photographs, this stuff was dry to a gentle touch and would have dried faster, had I used Seche Vite. I like this polish, in spite of having to work with it a bit to make it work for me and it will be on my nails, come Spring.

So, what say you? Like this polish? Think that you might be craving it? If I am not mistaken, Lilacism is part of Essie's core collection and available just about anywhere you can find Essie polish.

Thank you for stopping by and reading. Have a wonderful Monday and may your polish never bubble.

Swatch It Sunday: Sally Hansen Glass Slipper

2012-01-15T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

'Tis Sunday. A day of rest. A day to post polish swatches. Today's swatch is The much talked about and much sought after by me for a while, now Sally Hansen Glass Slipper. This sparkling topper is a mix of different size icy silver flakies floating in a slightly milky clear jelly base. I applied one coat over Color Club Resort to Red then a top coat. This is so pretty, in person but it kind of hangs back in photographs. It just doesn't show up as it does when you are looking directly at it.

I took a lot of photographs of this in my lightbox, in the sun and in shade. The best ones were in shade and under my OttLight. Sunlight kind of ate the flakies and those photos weren't worth showing. Weird, huh?

Shade

Lightbox

Sally Hansen Glass Slipper is a nicely behaved topper polish. Smooth jelly base and plenty of flakies. This polish applies smoothly and the flakies are easy to work with. They go on a tad unevenly but it isn't a major deal and easy enough to even out. This topper dries quickly and needs top coat to make it utterly shiny and sparkly.

How'z about that faceted bottle, kids? I'm kind of liking it. It's kitschy and fun. Especially with the sparkly fakealoo diamond embedded in the bottle. Yepper. I kinda like stuff like that. :D

So, do you have this pretty sparkler? Like it? Want it? Don't fear the photos, it really is pretty stuff. And it is available in drugstores and other retailers that carry Sally Hansen. It runs between six and seven dollars a bottle. A little steep, for Sally Hansen, if you ask me. But, whateves... I don't regret buying it.

Thank you for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Happy Saturday!

2012-01-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

It's the weekend. And I am up far too early and gulping coffee and trying to clear the cobwebs from my brain. So, I figured it is time to write a post here. Because brain fog and blogging go hand in hand, you know.

Today's swatch (I am wearing just clear base coat, at the moment) is Color Club Resort to Red from their Fall 2010 Untamed Luxury Collection. This is a beautiful dark red jelly base packed with micro shimmer. It is similar to OPI An Affair in Red Square in concept and colour, but Resort to Red is deeper in tone and shades a bit more burgundy. This polish is lovely and rich and velvety in look and feel. I dig it.

Photos were shot in my lightbox under my OttLight.

Color Club Resort to Red has a lovely formula. It is well behaved, complies with all requests to sit down where placed and is smooth and dreamy. I may have used my cleanup brush once when applying this swatch. Gotta love that! This polish self levels very nicely. It is a tad brushstroke-y. 'Tis the nature of the beast with a polish of this ilk but careful application and a good top coat minimizes that effect very nicely. Dry time is a tiny bit slow but not slow enough to make you late for the opera.

Would I have purchased this polish were it standing alone on a shelf? Probably not. Not because it isn't lovely, it is just that I have several very similar polishes in my collection, already. If you are looking for a beautiful, rich shimmering red polish, this one could be a lovely addition to your polish family. It is available at various e-tailers and you can probably find it in beauty supplies that carry Color Club and on sites like Amazon and E-Bay.

Thank you so much for popping in and spending a little of your Saturday here with me. Have yourself a terrific weekend and may your polish never bubble.

Swatch on the Run: Color Club Ms. Hautie

2012-01-13T10:57:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Ever see a bottle of polish that just makes you go, "Oooo! Pretty!" Gazing at the fluid behind the glass you see the promise; the rich, glistening, slightly metallic grey creme, the beautiful shimmer that shifts it inexplicably into magenta then the tiny, silver holo glints from baby glitter. Combined, these elements create magic.

In the bottle. Sadly, this polish falls far short of the promise on the nails, then it just dies in photographs. Color Club Ms. Hautie is from the Fall 2010 Untamed Luxury Collection and it is one of the most disappointing polishes I have ever owned and applied to my nails. I applied two coats and was so let down that I just wanted to lob the bottle across the room. My nails were not slightly metallic grey shimmering with magenta and firing holographic sparks back to my eyes. They. Were. Just. Grey.

I like grey polish. One of my faves of 2011 was China Glaze Concrete Catwalk. Love that polish. But I love it for what it is and what it promises. A silken, grey creme. Color Club Ms. Hautie promises so much in the bottle then utterly disappoints when applied. And when I pointed my camera at it, it just died where it was. Even the bottle shots were terrible, not coming close to showing what the bottle gives, in person.

Bummer.

Photos were shot in sun and shade in a vain attempt to make this polish do something. Anything.

If you click this photograph to enlarge it, you can see a hint of what I am talking about when I describe this polish in the bottle. Just a hint.

I will hand it to Color Club Ms. Hautie, the formula is just about as flawless as it gets. This polish flowed onto my nails and sat sweetly where I placed it. I didn't pick up my cleanup brush even once. There was no running, no pooling, no flooding, no streaking or dragging. It just whispers into place. I think that this needs a little time before receiving top coat as it seemed to crinkle a tiny bit as I applied top coat. But that was my only concern about the application process. Dry time for this polish is good.

I am just so disappointed in how this polish looks on as opposed to how it looks in the bottle. Color Club really dropped the ball on this one.

Do you own this polish? Were you as disappointed by it as I am?

Thank you for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

A Little Sunshine in the Middle of Winter

2012-01-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today is yellow day. I have two yellow polishes to share. The first is Sinful Colors Unicorn. A soft, light, brand new fluffy baby chick yellow. Precisely the kind of yellow I love the best. This is five coats and top coat. Yepper. I said five. Coats. Should have put on underwear. Definitely. *sigh* Why is it that colours I love best are so difficult and silly?

Sunshine shots!

Sinful Colors Unicorn is undeniably gorgeous. I all in adoration of this polish's colour. The jelly formula is not beloved of me, tho. It went on incredibly sheer, somewhat streaky and just made me crazy. I had to apply five coats to get it opaque and smooth and as much as I love a polish, I am not willing to sit and apply five coats then try to endure the incredibly long, long, long dry and cure time. I am going to attempt this one over underwear before I write it off because I really do want to love it and wear it. Guh! This colour!

Unicorn does apply very nicely. It is easy to control, is silky and smooth and glides on without running and pooling on the cuticles. This polish self levels like a dream and it dries shiny and glossy and perfect. It is just so. Tragically. Sheer.

I don't know. I'll have to work with it a bit. Tho I must say, a part of me is kind of pissed that I have to work so damned hard to make a polish do it's job. Know what I mean?

Next is Finger Paints Psychedelic Sunshine over the aforementioned Sinful Colors Unicorn. This polish was a member of Finger Paint's Summer Collection for 2011. I missed out on most of the polishes from that collection, but I did snag this one.

Psychedelic Sunshine is a very warm, bright, sunshine yellow jelly base with yellow, multicolored sparking fine glitter. This is definitely a layering polish, in my not so humble opinion. I applied one coat over Unicorn and used top coat. Dude, my nails were so thick in this swatch! I doubt, had this been a manicure I wanted to wear that it would have never, ever, in a million years dried. lol

Top shot under my OttLight and the bottom in sunshine.

Finger Paints Psychedelic Sunshine is pretty stuff. Too bad I can't say the same for the formula. This polish is incredibly thick. Semi hardened concrete is smoother and more pliant. Using this polish is like trying to paint one's nails with Jello. I dumped a ton of thinner into the bottle. Enough that this shit should be running like water from a faucet. And it is still gloop city. *sigh* I am going to keep thinning it and see if I can get it to be a bit more biddable because I want to use this polish this Spring and Summer. I think that it could be fun over yellows, oranges, even red to make interesting oranges... If I can get it to be more biddable.

Okay, so. Two polishes that I want to love but need a little more time with to see if this relationship is going to work. Do you own either of these? Has our experience been similar to mine? Did they work better for you? I am interested to hear.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: Revlon Fashionista

2012-01-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Ever have those days when you could happily ace everyone living in the house and just rock the solo life? My husband and son are driving. me. in. sane. *sigh* A beach, a tall frosty cocktail, a tanned cabana boy are sounding really good, right about now.

Since I can't have that, I'll show you a polish swatch, instead. This is Revlon Fashionista. A rich, dusty peacock blue crelly. I applied two coats and this swatch is with top coat. Photographs taken in my lightbox. Obviously this swatch was done before my nail disaster and nubbinization. lol

I like this one. Lots and lots. The formula is lovely. It's a little thin but not hard to work with. The first coat is a tad thin and uneven but the second coat makes it all smooth, opaque and stupid shiny. Dry time is pretty decent.

Revlon Fashionista is out and available in drugstores and other mass retailers that sell Revlon. Look for the stand alone display that has a lot of good old friends with not so good old new names. If I am not mistaken, Purplex is now Naughty. Really, Revlon? *rolling my eyes*

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Manicure of the Moment

2012-01-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

After my lovely Color Club Get a Clue started showing it's age, I needed a change of polish. A polish that would work with my shorties. A polish that was nothing like the polish I was wearing. I wanted red. Opposite of the soft, girlie, sweet pink, I was in the mood for a classic bad girl red. Revlon Devil's Candy is just that kind of red. A red that, early in the last century delighted those who dared to wear it and scandalized those who saw it being worn.

Revlon Devil's Candy is a clean, clear, bright orange red jelly. Translucent, squishy and hot, hot, hot. I applied two coats and topped it with Seche Vite.

These photographs were shot outdoors in overcast filtered sun.

Revlon Devil's Candy's formula is loverly. So smooth, silky and easy-peasy to apply. So easy that I had little cleanup. Just a tiny bit of fussbudget refining, here and there. This polish is jelly and translucent and, were my nails longer, I would have had to apply more than the two coats shown here. Nice thing about shorties... No VNL to worry about. Dry time is good. Tho this pretty dries shiny all on it's own, top coat makes it even better.

What do you think of Devil's Candy? Did you pick it up when it was for sale last Fall? Are you as tickled with it as I am?

Thank you so much for popping in and reading and your comments. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: Finger Paints Artist's Sapphire

2012-01-09T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

How is everyone, today? Who else is still having freakishly warm weather for the time of the year? *raises hand* As long as it isn't snowing. :P

Today's offering is another lovely Finger Paints polish called Artist's Sapphire. I love this for a few different reasons. It's dark blue. It has a beautiful, fine shimmer and it is named for my favourite gemstone. Artist's Sapphire looks like it's namesake. It is a dark, yet brilliant blue. There is a beautiful, deep glow that is courtesy of the super fine shimmer. That depth and glow is very much like an actual sapphire. I found this beauty at my local Sally's on clearance plus fifty percent off. I paid ninety-nine cents.

This swatch is two coats and top coat. I snapped these photographs in my lightbox under my OttLight.

The formula of this polish is just lovely. Thick but not gloopy or sticky, it just glides onto the nails and settles sweetly into place. I had to only cleanup a couple of spots and those were due to my shaky, over caffeinated hand slipping. This polish is extremely pigmented so keep it off of your cuticles and if it does hit skin, get at it with your cleanup brush at once as this stuff will stain your skin if you don't. Dry time is a tad slower, but not obnoxiously so.

What do you think of my bargain basement beauty? :D

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a wonderful day and may your polish never bubble.

My Untrieds

2012-01-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Are you like me? Do you have a rather large number of untried polishes? Do you have the guts to post a photograph? I am going to do it. I am going to show you my untrieds shelf. :D

From the left: Finger Paints (now swatched! yay me!) Sally Hansen, China Glaze, Revlon, one Pure Ice, Color Club, Wet-N-Wild, Sinful Colors, a Milani, behind the Milani is two Confettis, Essie, OPI, Orly, Rimmel and a Zoya. Way in back is a cluster of random one-offs including a Borghese, a Maybelline, a Victoria's Secret... A few others.

I double dog dare you to show us your untried polishes. :D

Swatchity-Swatch: Finger Paints Special Effects

2012-01-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today I am showing the Finger Paints Special Effects flakie toppers that are available now at Sally Beauty Supply. This collection is five different flakie toppers made up of flakies of different colours in a milky clear jelly like base. The flakies range from the classic copper/gold/green to various colour combinations including green, blue, pink and even purple.

Almost all of the lovely swatches of these polishes I have seen, so far have been shown with black polish. I thought that it would be fun to swatch them over some different colours, too. So, I did one over black and the rest over blue, green and plum. I like some of my selections. One, I am not all that nuts about but I think that it works. Sorta... ;)

All photographs were shot in my lightbox, under my OttLight. For some reason, my sun shots didn't come out very well. I think it had something to do with the time of day and the angle of the sun. It was getting a little lower and it just didn't fire the flakies as I had hoped it would.

Asylum over Wet-N-Wild Black Creme. Copper, gold, blue and purple flakie flash. This looks like a black opal. :D

Flecked over Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Thinking of Blue. This is what Sinful Colors Green Ocean could'a would'a should'a been. Beautiful sea green flakies.

Motley over Orly Plum Noir. Flakies that shift green, blue and purple. The purple was lost against the plum base. Duh!

Twisted over Revlon Fashionista. All kinds of flakie colours all mixed together. Yay! Love!

Flashy over Sinful Colors Last Chance. This is the classic Hidden Treasure/Nubar 2010 type flakie. Copper/gold/bronze to green shifter.

Check out that shift! But please ignore the fact that this angle made my fingers look like blown up Snausages. Blech! Stoopid camera!

Finger Paints Special Effects polishes are pretty toppers. The formula is nice, not too thick and the flakies are easy to evenly distribute all over your nails. I do think that Finger Paints got a little bit chintzy with the goodies. They could have dumped more flakies in the bottles, knowwhatImean? But that is a minor gripe. I really do like these toppers and I feel that they are well worth the money.

Do you own these pretties? What think you of them?

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: Finger Paints Vintage Velvet

2012-01-07T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today's swatch fun is courtesy of Finger Paints Vintage Velvet. Another of the lovely Fall creme polishes, this one is just like her sister, Cordu-Orange. Rich, shiny and creamy-licious. This one is a dirty teal green; great for Fall. Great for any time of the year! I kind of extremely *heart* it. This swatch is two coats and top coat.

Photographs were taken in my lightbox under my OttLight.

Finger Paints Vintage Velvet has a gorgeous formula. It is thick and smooth and silky. It applies like a dream and I didn't have to fuss with the cleanup brush all that much. Just like I like it. Dry time is a little slowish but not so much that it is a problem. This polish is plagued with the same problem as it's fellow Fall cremes. Separation and grey pigment streaks but they don't seem to hurt the overall colour or performance on the nail. I just shake it well, let it settle a bit to de-bubble then slap it on.

This polish, just like the other Fall Finger Paints polishes is definitely worth owning, if you can still find it.

Do you own this polish? How is it for you? Love it? Not so much?

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a good one, my fellow polish addict and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: Finger Paints Codur-Orange

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

I have a swatch to share with you, today. Finger Paints Cordu-Orange (this name is a pain in the butt to type! lol) is a lovely dirty, slightly rusty orange creme from their Fall 2011 Collection. I didn't pick this up until Winter was setting in and it was on clearance at my local Sally's. Had I known how full of win this polish is, I would have grabbed it, sooner. Much sooner. Finger Paints Cordu-Orange is Autumn in a bottle. But that doesn't mean that I won't wear it before next Fall. I applied two coats for this swatch and used top coat. Photos were shot in my lightbox.

Yummy. Rich, warm, dirty and creamy orange goodness. Thick but not gloopy and easy to control. Two coats gave me smooth, opaque perfection. Dry time is good. Look how sick shiny this baby is! I never thought that I could love a colour like this so. much. Mmmm...

Finger Paints polishes are a little hit and miss, for me. When they do it right, they do it soooo right. And when they don't I just want to run in the opposite direction and never pick up another one, again. I don't know why I feel so damned passionately about this brand, I just do. lol I bought several of the Fall 2011 Finger Paints cremes and one thing I have noticed is that they are not well mixed. These polishes separate badly and fast and have to be shaken like crazy to get them back together. And even after mad shaking, they still have greyed pigment streaks running through them. But that doesn't seem to interfere with the beauty on the nails. When I want to wear any of these cremes, I make sure to shake the shit out of them then let them sit and settle for a while to de-bubble before I apply.

Do you own this polish? Love it? Get crazy when you see pigment streaks running through it? Please do share, I'd love to hear your impressions.

Thank you so much for popping in and hanging out for a bit. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Color Club Snakeskin

2012-01-05T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today I have a beauty of a polish to share with you. A while, while back, I found at Ross the shimmer/glitter half of the Color Club Untamed Luxury Collection from Fall 2010. One of the polishes in that collection is Snakeskin. Why the hell did this one live for so long in my untried polishes area? Why did I wait so long to wear this beauty?

Color Club Snakeskin is a cool, sexy, sophisticated polish. This charmer is a grey to dark olive green shifter that is shot through with the finest gold shimmer that dances in and out of view on it's own whim. Indoors and under artificial light, it is a smoky dark olive green that shows the gold shimmer. Outdoors, it turns gunmetal grey that fires with tiny gold sparks. The finish is unusual. I can't really describe it. It has a matte/shiny feel (I know that is totally contradictory, but there it is) there is a sense of the metallic and almost a leather/tanned skin feel. I need to pick up a new bottle of matte top coat and try this mattified. I think that it would be really fab, that way, too. I applied two coats and topped it with Seche Vite.

There are lots of photographs of this one. I needed to show this in all lights, OttLight, sun and shade.

OttLight

Sun

Shade

Color Club Snakeskin has a fairly fabulous formula. It is smooth, thick-ish without being at all gloopy. This polish is a delight to paint on my nails; it flows off the brush and sits down where it is placed. It doesn't run or pool or drag. I didn't have to do much cleanup when I applied it, just a little fussbudget refining. Dry time is really good. I didn't have to wait around all day waiting to get on with my life. Gotta love that. :D

I do have two small complaints about this polish. One, it is a little brushstroke-y. I am not overly fond of brushstroke-y polish but this one isn't so bad that it turns me off. I am just aware of it. The biggest downside of this polish is it's wear time. I wore this for two days and at the end of that time, I had some pretty impressive tip wear on some of my nails and a few tiny chips. This is a short wear polish. I don't mind that so much, as I change my polish pretty frequently, anyway but if you are the wear your polish a long time kinda girl, this one may not be for you. In spite if it's small shortcomings, I heartily recommend this polish. It is beautiful, sexy, fabulous and in spite of it being unusual and dark, I can see this being completely work appropriate.

Okay. Enough gushing. lol Wordy, I am. :P

Do you won this polish? Think that you might like to? It is available from various e-tailers, beauty supplies, I think I saw it on Amazon and I am sure that it is floating around E-Bay, as well. (Don't quote me on that last one... I almost never go there.) While it isn't the latest thing, it is not rare or hard to find so don't let anyone try to rook you on the price. There is no reason to pay an inflated amount for this polish.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have yourself a fantastic day and may your polish never bubble.

Pink Wednesday in Shortie Town

2012-01-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

You want to know what sucks big, fat, green donkey dicks about beautiful weather in January? You want to open your window and enjoy the fresh, clean, warm breeze and air out your acetone infested sanctuary and relax while you swatch flakies and listen to music. Until your prick-ass next door neighbour goes out on the balcony of a non fucking smoking condo and smokes. And blows it towards your unit and right into your sanctuary and it smells more like a casino than acetone. Or fresh, clean breezes.

So, I had a hissy fit. I went to slam my window shut and snapity-snap! Irreparable breaks. Two nails. Trashed. *sigh* Out came the file and down to nubbins went the rest of my nails. I hate that guy. So. Much. If he wants to smoke, why don't he and his girlfriend move somewhere that smoking isn't prohibited. Yes, I grok that what people choose to do outside and in their own time is their own business. It is his right to smoke and destroy his lungs.

It is my right to get pissed to the gills when he fills my home with nasty, stinky, noxious smoke. Don't my rights matter? We moved into this condo specifically because these are non smoking units. Yet this is our second neighbour that thinks that it is perfectly okay to smoke outside their own unit and fill mine with their stank. And I am so. fucking. sick. of it. I can't wait until April. Just four months and we can get out of here! And I won't have to breathe smoke, get pissed, slam windows and break my nails.

Okay. Meltdown over.

Since it is Wednesday and since I no longer have any nails and since I am pissed and need to calm down before I go next door and rip his nails out, one by one with pliers, I decided to apply a soft, pale colour to my fresh, new nubbins. I chose Color Club Get a Clue from their Alter Ego Collection. This is a pretty, delicate lilac-y pink crelly. I applied three coats and topped it with Seche Vite.

I took these photos in late afternoon setting sun.

Color Club Get a Clue has a somewhat difficult formula. Not as snotty as Essie French Affair, which it strongly resembles, colour wise, but difficult enough. It is streaky and took a full three coats and Seche Vite to really smooth out and be fully opaque and lovely. I don't know what I am going to do with this stuff. If I'll keep it. Re home it. Lob it at my cigarette smoking neighbour's head. We'll see.

Do you own this polish? Is it as streaky for you as it is for me?

Thank you for popping in. Have a great evening and may your polish never bubble.

Comparison: OPI It's My Year and Orly Oui

2012-01-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today I have a comparison post for you. I have somehow managed to acquire both OPI It's My Year and Orly Oui. When I showed them, I realized that the two looked awfully similar so I dug them both out and swatched and shot a comparison.

Both polishes are a purple jelly base shot through with a slightly duochrome gold glass fleck. I applied three coats of both polishes and used top coat. Seen separately, in photographs, one might think that they are dupes. Turns out, they are very similar but they are not identical. Orly Oui has a darker purple base. Both polishes are quite sheer, both need a minimum of three coats for full opacity. Both, even after three coats are still slightly sheer and a tiny bit uneven. This isn't noticeable until you get them out in the sun, as you will see.

The formula is gorgeous on both. Smooth, so very easy to apply. Both are lovely to work with; they don't run, pull, drag or otherwise drive one nuts. Both have decent dry times. I have only swatched them so I can't attest to actual wear time.

Here we have the two shot under my OttLight in my lightbox. Orly Oui on my index and ring, OPI It's My Year on middle and pinkie. You can clearly see the difference in tone between the two. Sorry about my ring nail; I still don't know how I managed to goober it up. But since I was just doing a comparison shot, I decided to leave it as is.

In direct sun, the difference is even more obvious. You can also see that they are a teeny bit streaky and prone to little bald spots.

Here they are in shade. I took this shot to show the amazing gold glass fleck, in which, by the way, I could see absolutely no difference, in person and on my nails. Seems both OPI and Orly sourced the same golden goodness for their nail pretties. Even in shade, there is a discernible difference in overall tone, between the two polishes.

Not dupes, as you can clearly see. But they are similar enough that, unless you are a collector and must have everything, one or the other should do you very nicely.

I hope that this was helpful. I realize that both of these polishes have been out and about a while. I don't usually acquire polishes very early so I just have to show what I can, when I can. lol

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a wonderful day and may your polish never bubble.

Just a Quickie, Today

2012-01-03T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello Gentle Readers.

Today I have a quick little swatch post. This is a swatch I was originally going to include in my recent retrospective then I realized that I never have featured this polish on this blog (duh!!!) so I left it out. I decided to go ahead and show it, today.

This is OPI Simmer &Shimmer. A beautiful fine glitter mix of blue, gold, silver and pink. This is so pretty and sparkles like absolute insanity in the sun. This swatch is one coat of Simmer &Shimmer over China Glaze Blue Year's Eve and topped with Gelous.

This photograph was taken in the sun. On a warm, almost seventy degree day. Freakish weather we are having this year, lemme tell you.

The formula of this is nice. Like many glitters, it isn't going to apply like a jelly or creme, but it smooths on very nicely and paves the nail in tiny square glittery goodness. This polish will build up, in several coats to opaque but it looks equally fabulous, in my opinion as shown, here.

Do you own this lovely? If it is on your wish list, it is available here and there. But watch out for jacked up prices and fakealoos.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: OPI It's My Year

2012-01-02T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

I hope that your New Year is off to a fine start and that you are all having a great day. Say... How's it going with those resolutions? I learned years ago not to make them. When I do, I inevitably set myself up for epic failure so I just don't go there, anymore. :D

Today, I have a pretty, pretty polish to share with you. This is OPI It's My Year from their Summer Miss Universe Collection. This lovely purple jelly polish is shot clear through with gold glass fleck shimmer. This stuff is rich, shiny, shifty and just full of gorgeous. I applied three coats and topped it with top coat.

These photographs were taken out in the sun.

The formula is awesome. Smooth and jelly and lovely to apply. This just flows off of that fabulous brush, sits right down where it is placed and doesn't run or pool or smear. I didn't wear this long enough to see how fast it dries, tho it was dry to the gentle touch, by the time I oiled my cuticles and fired off these photographs.

This polish reminds me of Orly Oui. Hmmm... Perhaps a comparison is in order? If anyone would like to see that, let me know and I will get to it.

I must run along, now. Thank you so much for popping in. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

Ugly New Year Nails

2012-01-01T06:00:00.001-07:00

Happy New Year, gentle readers!

Who's hung over? Not I. :D We did our usual wild and crazy NYE festivities. Dinner, soda, popcorn, TV, various ball/shoe/whateverthehelltheyaredropping celebrations on the tube. Early-ish to bed, snoring while everyone else is still out getting soused and stumbling home and puking on their front porch.

Yepper. We are a couple of raving party animals, fo shizz.

I did New Year's Eve nails. I used China Glaze Champagne Bubbles and some pretty AB crystals on my ring finger nails. Yuk. Blech. Ew. Your Queen isn't happy. I knew that I should have listened to my instincts and not bought Champagne Bubbles. I passed it by when I bought all of my other Let It Snow polishes. I didn't like it in the bottle, I didn't like it in swatch photographs. I just didn't like it, Sam I Am. But it was on clearance, recently and I am a raging polish ho.

Reformed. This polish got worn, once. Never to grace my tips, again. I applied two coats of this green around the gills, brushstroke-y, too metallic in an unpleasant way gold goo filled with scattered tiny square silver glitter, added my crystals, topped them with too much top coat, thus making them look all dull and goopy. But I am going to keep this mani on for a couple of days because my nails are going to get a little abuse in the next couple of days and this nasty, thick, ugly paint job will protect them.

From what, you might ask. I'll show you in a bit. Let's get this whole nasty polish business done, first, shall we? These photographs were shot in sun and in the shade of my garage. It was another perfect polish photographing day. Mid sixties, sunny, gentle breeze. Freaky assed weather, my friends. Freaky assed weather and I am not complaining. :D

Ew!

Yuk!

Gross!

Nasty!

Do. Not. Like. China Glaze Champagne Bubbles is a good formula, for what it is. It flows nicely off the brush and sits very nicely down where it is placed. It is a little thin and uneven on the first coat but the second makes it all nice and opaque and smooth. Dry time is extremely respectable. The finish is glowey, not shiny-shiny. The little silver glittery bits do kind of remind me of champagne bubbles.

All that said, I still don't like it. It's just not something that appeals to me. But I gave it a chance. I'll most likely re home it, at some point. I want to clean it off, but as I said earlier, I am keeping it on for protective reasons. Because, my widdle fingers will be busy assembling:

These!

Husband person bought my polishes a little New Year's pressie. Melmers are 40% off at Michael's, right now. So, two of these babies came home with me, today. I almost bought three... But I decided to wait and see if I really need a third. Hubbie is amenable to acquiring a third for me, if need be. :D

I took a quick look at the instructions and these shouldn't be too bad to assemble. The directions say that it takes about fifteen minutes. Ha!!! They obviously know absolutely nothing about the two of us. lolol Neither one of us are terribly mechanically inclined. I am figuring the first one to take a good hour, the second one a little less time.

I can't wait to get these babies put together and my polishes all sorted and organized and tucked happily in their very own labeled little drawers. Oh! I also went to Big Lots and picked up some rolls of that rubbery drawer liner stuff to line the drawers so that my babies will not slide around all over the place, fall down and break.

It is going to be soooooooooo nice to have all of my polishes organized. Having them all piled haphazardly in those hatboxes has been driving me absolutely insane. Do you know how frakking hard it is to find a particular polish in all that chaos? It was nearly impossible. And I just know that one day, regardless of how careful I am when moving those damned things around, the bottom is going to drop out of one of those boxes and all of the polishes contained within are going to hit the floor in a crashing heap of glass and viscous goo that would be impossible to clean up. Not to mention the carnage of all of those little bottles shattering all over the place. Definitely time for better storage.

Okay. This is a novel. You could read War and Peace in the time it will take to read this post so I will wrap it up. Thank you for popping in, have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Anyone in need of a little hair of the dog? My Aussie is blowing her coat, right now. Plenty of hair to go around. *evil grin*

Polishes That Rocked my Socks in 2011... Concluded

2011-12-31T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Sick of my retrospective, yet? lol Well, take heart. This is the last page. Promise. I wanted to narrow this selection down to just the best ten or twenty but I just couldn't. Then, I tried to rank them by number. Again, epic fail. I am just no damned good at that sort of thing. I know what I like but I hate categorizing. Pigeonholing. It just isn't me. So, this crazy, long, drawn out raggle baggle you see is what you get.

For these swatches, I took some of the photographs in my lightbox and some out in the sun. I fully intended to shoot all of them in my lightbox but a lot of these polishes in this post have to go out in the sun to show them off at their best. I can rest my knee, tomorrow. lol

Okay, so... Gird your loins, this is the really sparkly section of the program. One thing I grok about my taste in polish, after choosing all of the polishes for this retrospective is I like it dark and I like it sparkly. Soft shades and pastels are also well liked but I seem to be really drawn to the darkness and the sparkle.

Before we begin, let me show you something that kinda freaked me out. Today, while swatching my polishes, I was in capris, a short sleeved lightweight knit top and barefoot. The temp was almost seventy, the sun shining brightly. I had several windows open and was airing out my house. On this date, last year, we had this nasty shit all over the place:

The view out front, down the drive.

Snow sucks.

I am going to stop mucking about, now. Promise. On to the polishes. As with the previous two posts, clicking the polish name will take you on a magical mystery tour to the original swatch/Manicure of the Moment post.

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia

Glitter Gal Dark Purple Holographic

Cult Nails Let Me Fly

China Glaze Blue Year's Eve

Orly Rock-It

China Glaze Concrete Catwalk

(I don't know what happened... I think I applied too thick and hurried it up a bit too much. :P)

China Glaze Skyscraper

OPI Meep Meep Meep

Orly Stone Cold

And, last but most certainly not least, we have... Drumroll, please...

OPI Designer Series Original

I decided to include three photos of this bad boy because it is just dripping in awsomesauce. :D

So, there it is. My way too many, in no particular order, interspersed with way too much random bullshit nattering Polishes That Rocked My Socks in 2011.

Thank you all so very much for stopping by, reading, commenting, following and supporting my blog. 2011 was a lot of fun, around here and that was largely due to all of you. <3 I hope that you all have a happy, healthy, safe and polish filled 2012. Have a terrific day, my friends and may your polish never bubble.

Polishes That Rocked My Socks in 2011... Continued

2011-12-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

How'z about some more of the polishes I fell for, this last year?

Orly Emberstone

Revlon Purplex

Zoya Crystal

China Glaze Poinsettia

Revlon Mistletoe

Glitter Gal Red Holographic

China Glaze It's Alive

Orly Royal Navy

OPI Designer Series Signature

I still have a lot of polishes to swatch, photograph and show for this feature. I added a few to the pile, took a few out but I am no nearer the end. lol I am going to have to do some of them under my OttLight, tomorrow. My poor knee is hamburger from dashing up and down the stairs overandoverandoverandover for two days. So, I'll save sun shots for those polishes that really need it and do the rest in my lightbox. I would love to do all of them in the sun, as I think that sunshine is the best light to fire polish and make it look it's very best but I have to ease back on my poor knee.

Okay, 'nuff whining. Thank you so much for popping in. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

Polishes That Rocked my Socks in 2011

2011-12-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

This is the first time I have done this. A best of this year in polishes post. These are polishes that kind of rocked my socks in 2011. Obviously, not all of these polishes were released in 2011. I acquired or first swatched/wore them this year. There are quite a few polishes in this feature. And these aren't all of them... Just the ones that I really, really loved and wanted to feature. I tried to choose a varied selection of shades, tones, colours and finishes and brands. There are reds, blues, pinks, greens, glitters, shimmers, jellies and holos. Most are swatched with base and top coat.

This feature is going to broken up into several posts so that they aren't too long and all polishes are shown in no particular order. Unless stated otherwise, all photographs were shot in direct sun. The polish names are links; click on them to travel to the swatch/review/Manicure of the Moment post in which they were originally featured.

Ready? Okay, let's get started.

Essie Demure Vixen

Orly Butterflies

Color Club New Bohemian

Orly Sapphire Silk

Nubar 2010 over Orly Sapphire Silk

China Glaze Glittering Garland

Sinful Colors Social Ladder

OPI Alpine Snow

Revlon Royal over OPI Alpine Snow (This one was posted on 12/29/10. Not really 2011 but hey. I love this polish and it was close enough to 2011 to qualify. Besides, this is my blog and I'll post what I want, when I want. Neener-neener!)

OPI What's Dune over Revlon Royal

Cult Nails Quench

China Glaze Twinkle Lights

Orly Fowl Play

Ozotic Elytra #530 over Wet-N-Wild Black Creme

Nubar Reclaim

Color Club Pucci-Licious

OPI Sparkle-Icious over Pucci-Licious

Have you any clue how long it takes to go back and find all of those old posts? lol Good thing I have tags to click or I would have never been able to find all of those polishes. lol And may I just say... Why the hell didn't I start sharpening up photographs a long time ago? The difference between my photos then and now. Woof! They are so much clearer now that I know how to use that little feature. :D

I hope that you are enjoying this series. I'll have the next bunch up as soon as I get them swatched and photographed.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatch and Review: Three China Glaze Eye Candy Polishes

2011-12-28T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers

I have swatches of the final three Eye Candy glitters from China Glaze. I have to admit, I am not as tickled with these as I thought I would be. There isn't anything wrong with them. They are pretty but I think that I am getting a little glittered out. Yepper. I think it finally happened. I hit the sparkle wall. Maybe I'll love these better, when I come down off this current overload.

All Photos taken in sun. I think.

Marry A Millionaire. This is purple and green and gold tiny glitter and little bar glitter swimming in a clear base. Three coats went on fairly easily and smoothly. This dries in good time and is surprisingly smooth, for a glitter. I topped this with Gelous for this photograph.

Material Girl. Rosy pink glitter with a coppery edge. This is the same formula as the fabulous and famous It's Alive and Tinsel Town and Ring in the Red from the Hallowe'en and Christmas/Holiday collections this year. It applied great, just like it's sisters, is opaque in two easy coats and dries matte and a tad gritty but a little top coat makes it all smoooth, shiny and happy. This feels more Spring than Winter, to me. I'll probably hit this when the days start to get longer and the weather a little warmer.

Some Like it Haute. If this looks familiar, it is because this is a dupe for Wet-N-Wild Diamond in the rough from the LE Ice Baby Color Icon Collection from Fall. This is a charcoal grey jelly with tiny grey, silver glitter with some tiny holo silver sparks and large silver holo sequins. This polish applies easily, a little thin on the first coat, then the second coat makes it all perfectly opaque. This polish isn't super smooth. It reminds me of a river stone, lovely but irregular. This polish dries fast. Really fast and very gritty. Gelous, two coats made it presentable.

Here is Wet-N-Wild Diamond in the Rough on my middle and pinkie. Take a close look. Dupes. They apply the same, look the same, both dry scary fast and gritty and drink top coat like a parched man crawling through the desert drinks water. There is a slight difference; the Wet-N-Wild needs three coats, China Glaze Some Like it Haute only needs two. If you have one of these, you don't need the other, unless you are a hard core collector and need to own both.

I wasn't aware that some outlets were selling this collection with black caps and some with silver caps. I have four with black and two with silver caps, now. Weird, huh? It doesn't matter, I just thought it was strange.

Okay, so there you have it. Swatches of the last three Eye Candy polishes. Did you pick any of these up? What do you think of them? Love? Need? You can find these just about anywhere you can find China Glaze polish.

I am in the throes of swatching my Faves for 2011. I have a few done and have a lot more to go. I haven't counted how many... I kind of want to wait until I am finished so that I don't freak out and start crying like a baby at how many I have to go. lol I have a nice mix of cremes, jellies, holos, glitters, (moar glitter... gulp) and so forth. These are not all polishes that were released this year. These are polishes that I acquired or first wore this year. They may have been released years ago. But they were all new to me. I need to remember to dig out a couple more...

I will be getting back to Pink Wednesday posts after the first of the year and all of the craziness is done. I am also going to make the first part of 2012 Operation Swatch Fest. I have so. many. untried polishes. A shameful number of them and I have to get them all swatched and up. Seriously. I am feeling a little guilty when I pick up a new polish, right now.

And I don't like feeling guilty. So, swatch like a madwoman, I must. Better get more cotton rounds and remover...

Okay, shutting up, now. Thank you so much for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Oh. Yes, I know that I am behind on responding to comments. I'll do them, sometime today. I am reading all of them, as always. I just need a few minutes to sit and type out responses. :D

Essie Luxe Effects As Gold As it Gets

2011-12-27T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Essie recently released a line of beautiful topper polishes called Luxe Effects. They are glitters and flakies and shimmers that are meant to layer over other polishes. I saw the line in my local Walgreen's and picked up two of them. This is As Gold As it Gets. I wore it over China Glaze Winter Berry and I adored the combination.

Essie As Gold As it Gets is fine gold flakes suspended in a thick jelly base. The flakes look like the gold flakes you will see at the bottom of a gold pan; they are various sizes and spark with an occasional holo like flash. They look very realistic and pretty over any dark polish. I'll have to try this over lighter polishes, too. And maybe with matte, some time. After I buy a new bottle of matte top coat. I wrecked mine. Idiot that I am. lol

This is one coat of Essie As Gold As it Gets over two coats of China Glaze Winter Berry and topped with Seche Vite. These photographs were taken in a mix of indirect sun and OttLight. I really struggled with getting very clear shots that showed the flakes of gold as they really were.

The formula of Essie Luxe Effects As Gold As it Gets is fairly thick but easy enough to work with; the flakes distribute smoothly and easily on the nails. This topper dries fairly quickly to a satin matte. Top Coat is needed to make it smooth and as shiny as one would want it to be. I really need to try this mattified. Yepper.

Have you picked up any of these Luxe Effects toppers? I found them at Walgreen's and they are available anywhere you can buy Essie polishes. Even in drugstores. (Yes, that was intended to sound as bitchy as it did.)

Thank you for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Boxing Day Nails

2011-12-26T06:00:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

I wish that we had Boxing Day here in the United States. I have always loved the idea of a holiday day after Christmas. Kind of a wind down with more fun. I think that we need to band together and adopt Boxing Day. Really, I do. We have embraced Cinco De Mayo... Why not Boxing Day? :D

Today's mani is one I wore recently and just loved. When I was in Sally's recently I went ahead and picked up one more of the Let it Snow polishes. Winter Berry is a beautiful wine red jelly polish. Rich, intensely pigmented and perfectly opaque in two dreamy coats. This is gorgeous stuff, my friends. Shiny, shiny, shiny. Squishy and just marvelous. Seche Vite just added to the yumminess.

These photos were shot under my OttLight.

China Glaze Winter Berry is a beautiful formula. Smooth, silky and translucent like a fabulous jelly should be. This stuff just whispered on, self leveled like a dream and dried in good time. One thing to watch out for is staining. This stuff is very pigmented and will grab on to dry skin or cuticles so keep a cleanup brush and acetone at the ready while applying to swish away any boo boos. I found that a few extra swipes with remover were required to get everything all cleaned off.

Did you pick up this pretty red polish? Love it? Think that you might need it? It is available wherever China Glaze is sold.

Thank you for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Merry Christmas Nails

2011-12-25T06:00:00.006-07:00

Merry Christmas to all of my gentle readers who celebrate. :D

Today's nail look is simple and Christmas-y. A nail art look even I can't mess up, thanks to water decals. These were sent to me by Born Pretty Store back before last Christmas. I started this mani off with China Glaze Emerald Sparkle and Ruby Pumps. This is the first time I have ever worn Emerald Sparkle in a full nail look and I must say... I love it. It is a sister polish to Ruby Pumps; that same clear, intensely pigmented jelly packed with fine square glitter that glows and dances with joy all over the nails. I applied Ruby Pumps to my accent nails, Emerald Sparkle to the rest. Then I applied a coat of Gelous, topped with Seche Vite.

May I just say, really quick, that whoever came up with with the idea to use Gelous over glitter under Seche Vite (or whatever top coat you love and use) is a frakking genius and deserves a Nobel Prize. Seriously. It works so fabulously. And is one of the best hints I have learned on these here nail blogs.

Photos taken outdoors in late afternoon sun.

This is three coats of both Emerald Sparkle and Ruby Pumps. I wish that my camera could capture the amazing that these two classic China Glaze glitters are.

After I applied my polish, I kind of went back and forth over whether or not I was going to attempt nail art. I considered stamping but wasn't really in the mood for it. I thought about freehand. Yeah... No. Then I remembered that I had some Christmas water decals. I really like these water decals. They are easy to use and the film on which they are printed is super thin and doesn't cause me trouble like decals or stickers on thicker plastic film. I cut out the decals I wanted to use and grabbed my gold striper and a few clear crystals and set to work. The water decals went on, then I applied a clear crystal to the tops of the Christmas trees on my ring finger nails and the end of Santa Moon's cap on my thumb nails. I tipped all of my nails with my gold striper then topped the whole works with more Seche Vite.

I think that overall, it is pretty successful. I had a blonde moment (not trashing blondes, I am a natural blonde who darkened over time and am planning to go light again, soon) and put a decal with a lot of red on red nails, (oopsie!) and the decals, themselves are a little washed out against such dark polish. I think it works, tho. And looks a hell of a lot better than my earlier efforts. :D

These photographs were shot in setting sun, sorry about the really yellow light. Probably should have used my OttLight. Boosting the saturation a little to really show the polish and decals in true colour gave me carrot fingers in that light. *hangs head*

Okay yes, I know that I trimmed away some of the white accent snowflakes on the bells decals. I couldn't see them against the white background and didn't realize it had happened until they were already on my nails. *sigh* Stoopid white background, anyway.

Okay, this was long. If you read all the way through, I salute you and you deserve fudge. Too bad I didn't make any. :P

Thank you so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful day and a very Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday of your heart. Stay warm and may your polish never bubble.

The water decals used in this post were sent to me for consideration and review by the company/PR.

Swatch This: China Glaze Blonde Bombshell

2011-12-24T06:00:00.001-07:00

Happy Christmas Eve, gentle readers. (To those of you who celebrate. ;))

Today's swatch is another polish from the Eye Candy collection from China Glaze. This is the oh-so-fabulous Blonde Bombshell. This gold glitter is very much like other glitter polishes that China Glaze has done so very well, this Fall and Winter. There is a mix of tiny square and medium round gold glitters that are a true, sparkling gold. There is a little surprise to this one; teeny-tiny bar glitter that flashes bronze and red when the light hits it just right. Yowza. This shit is sick. I applied three coats to pave my nails in shining, glittering gold. Photos were taken under my OttLight.

The formula is lovely. The glitter behaves really well and the three coats required to get this opaque were an easy pleasure to paint on. Dry time, like with the other polishes in this collection is pretty good and it dries smooth and quite shiny, for a glitter. Top coat makes it even better.

What do you think of Blonde Bombshell? Is she a bombshell? Or just a bomb?

Thank you so much for coming by and spending some time with me. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara

2011-12-23T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Are you in full holiday freak out mode? Things here are all smooth and under control. I just have some grocery shopping and a little last minute present buying to finish up and it's all good.

Today I have a lovely polish from the China Glaze Eye Candy collection. This is Lorelei's Tiara. What a stunner this little bottle of sparkly stuff is. A clear base enfolds densely packed tiny silver square glitter and medium sized blue round glitter sequins. This is a sparkling, dancing treat on my nails. Another silver with which I have fallen in love. I am liking silver polish so much thatf I am not careful, I am going to start buying and wearing white metal jewelry. This swatch is two coats. There is three on my middle, since I banged and dented that one right before I took photos and one coat over Wet-N-Wild Black Creme on my index. All topped with top coat. I took these photos under my OttLight.

This is lovely, smooth and so. easy. to get a perfect, opaque finish in two coats. This polish dries quickly and is surprisingly smooth, even before top coat. I am really happy with this polish.

Did you grab any of these polishes? Are you on glitter overload?

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Comparison: OPI An Affair in Red Square and Pure Ice Scarlet

2011-12-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Recently, I featured a Pure Ice polish called Scarlet. I thought, when I was applying it that it seemed similar to OPI An Affair in Red Square and mantioned that in my post. Well, I offered to do a comparison if anyone was interested. Someone was so, here it is. :D (Sorry it took me a while.)

What we have here are two red shimmer polishes. On my index and ring finger nails is OPI An Affair in Red Square and on my middle and pinkie finger nails is Pure Ice Scarlet. These photographs were taken under my OttLight.

OPI An Affair in Red Square is a brilliant, cool red with gold shimmer and an ever so slight blackened quality that gives it depth and a beautiful complexity. There is a feeling, when looking at this polish in person that one is looking down, deep into the polish. This is a classic for a reason. It is stunning.

Pure Ice Scarlet is a bright, true red with a silver shimmer and a hint of a magenta shift that almost feels duochrome. This polish is a bit more shallow, it lacks the depth and complexity of the OPI. It is a brighter, clearer red. It feels almost metallic, in person.

The formula of these polishes is very different. OPI has that classic, perfect formula, slightly thinner, smooth as silk and easy to control as it flows off that oh-so-fabulous Pro Wide brush. The shimmer is evenly distributed throughout the polish and as it is stroked onto the nail, there is no pooling or clumping of the shimmer, causing streaks. This polish is ever so slightly brushstroke-y. With a polish of this nature, it is simply unavoidable.

Pure Ice Scarlet is a bit thicker, it is slightly less biddable than it's friend but it isn't a bad formula. I had little trouble with it, very little trouble, in fact. The shimmer can clump together in this polish and cause streaks, dark spots. This isn't the case in this swatch, but the last time I wore this polish, I had a couple of such spots. It isn't a deal breaker for me. But it can happen with this polish. That inevitable brushstroke-y quality is a bit more apparent in this polish but not obvious or obnoxious.

So, there you have it. Two pretty red shimmer polishes. There are differences. These are not dead on dupes, by any means but either one should make just about any red shimmer lover pretty happy. It basically comes down to price. OPI An Affair in Red Square runs about eight clams, Pure Ice Scarlet, about two. My personal choice would have to be OPI An Affair in Red Square. I have owned this polish for a long time and am firmly in love with it.

I hope that this comparison was useful to you. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to drop me a comment and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a wonderful day and may your polish never bubble.

China Glaze Love Marilyn

2011-12-21T10:35:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today I have swatched for you one of the Eye Candy Collection glitters from China Glaze. I bought three of these polishes at Sally's then I decided, after swatching them that I wanted the other three so I went ahead and ordered them from Amazon. My Sally's, oddly, only carry four of the six. Why they do that, I have no idea. Too bad. I would have bough the rest there, but they don't sell them so, they missed out.

This is Love Marilyn. A beautiful combination of fine red glitter and medium silver round glitter suspended in a clear base that kinda blows my socks off. Now, I am usually a gold girl and I prefer red with gold but I have to say, I like this one a lot. The silver gives it an iciness that evokes that cool quality that Marilyn possessed. I applied three coats to my pinkie, ring and middle finger nails and on my index finger, one coat over China Glaze Poinsettia. I love this layered.

These photographs were taken under my OttLight. ('Twas a cloudy day, folks.)

This was a teensy bit of a pain to apply. It wanted a little coaxing to get all smooth and opaque. It certainly isn't difficult enough to banish it to "I Am Not Wearing That Shit Again!" land. It dries in nice time and it is fairly shiny and surprisingly smooth. It felt so lovely to the touch, even before top coat. One coat of Seche Vite was all I needed to top this perfectly.

If you are craving this pretty pretty polish, China Glaze Love Marilyn (I want to put a comma in there, soooooooo bad!) is available wherever China Glaze polishes are sold.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a wonderful day and may your polish never bubble.

A Little Christmas-y Sparkle Even I Can't Screw Up

2011-12-20T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

So, is everyone who celebrates getting all of your Christmas preparations and shopping done? I? Not so much! I am running late, this year. We'll see how well I pull it together. :P

I did manage a very wearable Christmas-y manicure. I wore it for days and was loving it and planned to let it roll for another day or two as it was in perfect condition when my demon seat belt did a number on it. I was getting in the Jeep, and put on my seat belt and was adjusting it to a nicety when it got free of me and snapped back on my shoulder and took a big chip out of the polish on my left thumb nail. At first I was horrified, seeing the little red and sparkly chip on my lap. I thought for sure it took a chunk out of my thumb nail. But my nail was intact. Insert huge sigh of relief. But I had to do all of my running around with a chipped nail. I felt like such a scroddy biotch.

I hit CVS to get in on the clearance sale goodness. I had to return a Milani Click Correct and Conceal HD or whatever the heck they call it pen. I lemminged hard on that thing and finally bought it, thinking that I would loooooove it. Uh... Not so much. At nearly ten clams with tax, that sucker went back! I loaded my little basket with goodies marked fifty and seventy-five percent off. I got shadow quads, a couple of blushes, (one of which I don't think I like) lipsticks, a lip stain, a gloss, a couple of Wet-N-Wild six pans that I like, a pile of polishes, including two Orlys. The only item I paid full price for was my Rimmel waxy brow pencil. I scored a couple of hundred dollars with of makeup and polish for forty-two dollars, after you factor in my Milani return and my five dollars in Extra Bucks. Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. :D

Okay, on to the nails. I wore China Glaze Poinsettia topped with a coat of China Glaze Twinkle Lights and Seche Vite. So pretty. Showy and sparkly but not as in your face as one might think. There was a certain subtlety to it. I know that that sounds strange, when describing a glitter mani. I received a lot of very nice compliments on this mani when out and about.

All of these photographs were shot outdoors, in sun and in the shade in the door of my garage. I finally figured out how to shoot sunshine shots and stay out of view of my neighbour who makes me uncomfortable; so when the light is just right in the right spot I can shoot sunshine shots. I won't be doing it with a new camera, for a while, tho. I thought that I could afford one for Christmas but other things are more pressing. I am going to pick up a tripod and see if I can't get better, clearer shots that way. *sigh* One must do what one must do. :)

In sun.

In shade.

So I reached a milestone in my nail blogging life. I ran out of free photograph storage in my Picasa web album. Whaaaat? Well dangit! Being the cheap ass ho I am, I thought about going back through my blog and deleting some of my photos, since I tend to post quite a few. But that would have been a huge pain in my ass, (as I am also a bit of a lazy ass ho) as I would have had to not only delete them from my blog, but then go back and find the exact same photos and deleting them from my web album. And the number of photos that did go wouldn't have kept me going for free for much longer anyway. I would have just been delaying the inevitable. I ponied up the five clams for a year of 20 gigs more storage. That should keep me posting photos like a loon for a good, long time.

Nice little racket they have going there. lol

Okay, this post is really long. I'll run along and let you got back to whatever you have going on. Thanks so much for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Nail Art Fail

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Yes. It is true. Even I can have a nail art fail. (You do get that I am joking, right? :D)

I set out to do a Christmas candy fun nail art look. I decided to use a decal of candy canes and some stamping and freehand work.

I started out with the base. OPI Alpine Snow, China Glaze Poinsettia and China Glaze Holly Day topped with Seche Vite. All went on so lovely and I had a pretty red and green and white skittle mani.

Then I went and did this to it.

The peppermints were first stamped with button images from a Bundle monster plate, then filled in with polish and a brush and then finished freehand. Fail! I think that making them smaller with a dotting tool would have been more successful. The lollipops were fine. The candy cane images are pretty, but the decals themselves I do not like. The plastic they came on is too thick and clunky and doesn't look invisible and smooth. They were yuk. Add my crappy striping work and you get a big fat fail.

Needless to say, this came off the moment I set my camera down after taking these photographs.

Thank you for popping in and reveling in my failure. lol Have a terrific day, kiddies and may your polish never bubble.

Sally Hansen Ruby Diamond

2011-12-18T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Now we get to the reason why I bought this little collection of Nail Prisms in the first place. I like to save the best for last and this one is certainly that.

In a bottle.

Ruby Diamond is a pretty rosy magenta with a fairly strong linear holo shimmer. Who doesn't like a good holo? I sure do. :D This is two coats. Top coat doesn't dull the holo effect in the lest. My camera sure as hell does, tho. lol

Lots of pictures of this one. I was really trying to show just how amazeballs this polish is. 'Cause let me tell you, it is. Amazeballs.

Formula wise, this is a jelly. It applies so easily. No dragging, bald patches, special base coats or other shenanigans. Just smooth, silky and easy. Dry time? *sigh* Yeah, I think that you know what I have to say about that. I don't know... Maybe these need to be applied thin and I tend to apply thick coats. Is it my fault? I know not. Maybe some thinner and some Seche Vite will help. I need to try that and do a full mani. Then I can get back to you. :)

Have you found this pretty stuff? Worn it? Had better luck with it?

Thank you so much for taking a little time out of your busy day and coming by. Have a wonderful day and may your polish never bubble.

Sally Hansen Mandarin Garnet

2011-12-17T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Okay, who the heck names these polishes? This stuff isn't garnet. Nope. The last one wasn't lapis and this one isn't garnet. But... Whatevah. Mandarin Garnet is pretty. This is a coral with fine scattered holo. This just screams Summer to me. It is a little sheer, and this polish has the same formula issues it's other Nail Prisms friends do. The dent on my pinkie is testament to how soft this stuff is, as it was a good bit of time between application and photographing it.

On to the pictures.

See what I mean? Isn't this just Summer in a bottle? This is delicately pretty. But I think that I need to add some thinner to it and try wearing it under Seche Vite.

Thank you for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Sally Hansen Lapis Amethyst

2011-12-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today's offering from the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms polishes is Lapis Amethyst. Lapis? Huh??? Uh, guys... This stuff isn't blue. It's a lavender duochrome with blue, pink, grey and lilac. But it looks nothing like Lapis.

I swatched this polish alone and over a couple of base colours. Pinkie and middle are three coats, alone. On my ring, it is one coat over China Glaze Urban Night and on my index is one coat over Wet-N-Wild Black Creme. (I need to remember to pick up a new bottle of that next time I'm in Walgreen's.) This is pretty, either alone or layered. I had the same formula issues with this one as I did with the others.

These photographs were taken in sun and shade.

I still need to respond to comments. And I will. I promise. :) I just needed a mini tech break. Sometimes I just have to have a day off of the 'puter.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatch: Sally Hansen South Sea Pearl

2011-12-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

I think that the world is upside down. Parts of the country that should have a ton of snow this time of year are dry and here in Arizona, we are shoveling our way out from under the cold, white fluffy stuff. Blech. As far as I am concerned, Chicago, you can have it! I hate snow. (Yes, it snows in Arizona. This state isn't all desert, sand, cactus and Gila monsters, you know. ;))

I know that i have comments to respond to. And I will get to them. I should have more time, tonight. I just want to get a quick swatch post up then I must motor. So, let's get to it.

This is Sally Hansen South Sea Pearl. Part of the five pack I picked up at Ross, this is the least inspired polish in the bunch. Not awful... It's a soft white pearle. Not nasty, weird 70's pearle. This is a little more modern and actually evokes the gem for which it is named. It is a soft off white and when dry is slightly brushstroke-y but it has a beautiful colour shift that reminds me of the orient on the surface of a pearl. Like that precious nacre it shifts pink, slightly purple-ish, to a soft flash of blue and green. This polish is, in my opinion better layered than alone.

Index is one coat, layered over one coat of Wet-N-Wild black creme, middle is three coats topped with a coat of China Glaze Frosty (this combo is so much prettier in person than in this photograph) ring and pinkie are three coats of South Sea Pearl alone.

South Sea Pearl is prettier then her formula. *sigh* Soft, highly dentable. This stuff is even dented by setting the brush down on the surface, as you can see on a couple of my nails. On my index, it was from trying to smooth the surface and on my pinkie I dented it when I applied top coat. Too soft. What is with this bunch of polishes? This one has the same drying issues as Diamond. *sigh* I am going to play with these polishes a bit. I was wondering if a little refreshing with a few drops of thinner would help? I want to love this polish as it has some real potential.

Okay, I have to run. I need another cup of java and then I have a ton of shit I have to get done. I'll be back later to respond to all of your lovely comments on my last couple of entries.

Thank you for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: Sally Hansen Diamond

2011-12-13T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Happy Tuesday. It is Winter storm time, around here. Cold, wet. As long as it doesn't snow, it's all good.

Today I have a swatch for you. This is Sally Hansen Diamond from the Nail Prisms set that I picked up at Ross. Diamond is a shiny, clear base densely packed with scattered silver holo. I applied this alone and over black and red then topped this swatch with top coat. These photos were shot outdoors in full sun.

Pinkie and middle: Three coats.

Index: One coat over Wet-N-Wild black Creme. Ring: One coat over China Glaze Poinsettia.

You can see some of the colour from this polish. Sadly, my camera just doesn't capture holo. I think that at 5 MP, my camera just doesn't have the resolution to catch the dancing of colour.

If you look carefully at the index nail, here you can almost see the ghost of the actual rainbow that this polish tries to form in the sun. *sigh* So frustrating. This polish throws a more subtle holo effect than some other holos. I like this better layered than alone.

Let's talk formula. Uh... How do I put this diplomatically? The formula of this polish isn't quite the caliber one would expect from a polish so very pretty. Application of this is very nice, thanks to the smooth, jelly base. Sadly, this polish is extremely soft and gooey and it takes an eternity to dry. Even with a fast dry top coat, dry time is slow. This polish stays dentable for a long time, so one needs to exercise care for a long time after application.

Is the holo sparkle worth the trouble? Honestly, I am not sure, yet. So far, I have only swatched this polish. I wore two coats, alone, no top coat in a skittle type situation with the other four polishes just for the giggles of it, in this set and all five of them stayed soft and dentable most of the day. It was cold, and I folded my hand under my arm to warm it and the fabric of my shirt smooshed and left their imprint on all of the polishes and ruined the finish. They weren't dry, hard until the next morning. I need to apply these as a full mani, use Seche Vite and see how they roll. But so far, as much as I want to love these, the jury is very much out.

I am hoping that this polish decides to work and be wearable because it really is so pretty and sparkly. We'll see...

Okay, so do you have these polishes? What do you think of them? Are they as soft and gooey for you as they seem to be for me? Do they dry slow? Have you figured out a way to make them work? I would really like to hear your input on these.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

A Little Christmas Nail Art

2011-12-11T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today I am featuring my first of this year's Christmas/Holiday themed nail art. This one... Not so faboo. It's okay. I guess.

I started with two coats of Savvy Garland. This is a beautiful blackened green shimmer polish. It was a LE colour last year, if I remember correctly. This is the first time I used it. It has been sitting for a year, waiting. I topped this polish with Seche Vite.

Savvy Garland has a weird formula. The first coat was difficult. It was streaky, it dragged and pulled a few bald patches. I was seriously considering not finishing my nails with that colour; I almost cleaned it off and got a different polish. But I persevered and the second coat just whispered on. Smooth, opaque perfection. All righty then. Dry time is pretty good for this polish. Not blazing fast but downright decent.

I let my polish dry for a few while I took pictures and got my other supplies together then I went and did this to my pretty, shimmery green nails.

Meh. It isn't awful but not exactly what I had in mind, either. My designs often end up that way. I am creative but I am not artistic. And much of the time that shows in my nail art. lol Add my sucky stamping design line up skills and you get what you see, above.

I stamped the holly pattern from BM 14 with China Glaze 2010. My nails looked off with just one line of the leaves so I added extra leaves with half of the image. Then I used white polish and a dotting tool to make white dots where the berries belonged. I let that dry for a few then I used a little China Glaze Poinsettia and a dotting tool and did two coats of red over the white. I still had a lot of negative space and it wasn't pleasing to look at so I grabbed my gold glitter nail art striper and added random lines, swirls and curlicues. I topped it all off with more Seche Vite.

So, there you have it. My first nail art for Christmas. I am planning more, to come. I know... Scary thought. :P

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe Collection Swatches and Review

2011-12-10T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers. How is you is? Well, I hope.

Today I am bringing you my swatches and review of the Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe collection for Holiday 2010. This collection consists of six fine glitter polishes, some of them with a strong and very beautiful dispersed holographic effect.

What the hell is my cat up to in my kitchen?!?! He keeps going in there and trying to open one of my cabinets. I wonder if he is hunting? There might be a creature in there? Lord, I hope not! Gah!

Anywhoozle, back to what we were discussing. Polish.

This is going to be a long post with a shit ton of photographs, so grab nourishment, hydration and strap in. Ready? Good. Let's roll. All phootographs were taken in my lightbox, under my OttLight.

Let's begin with the namesake polish of this collection. Beyond the Mistletoe. This is a soft blue and green and holo fine square glitter in a clear base. This polish sparkles like mad and fires with a strong dispersed holo effect that sadly, my camera couldn't catch. This is three coats and top coat.

Next in line is Holiday Splendor. This is a cool green jelly packed with the glittery goodness. This is another one with some nice dispersed holo flash action. This is three coats and top coat.

While swatching this one, I thought that it might be similar to Color Club Untamed Luxury and China Glaze Atlantis so I swatched them along with this one and fired off a few shots. I'll put up a comparison post, soon.

Say hello to our next guest: Sugar Plum Fairy. This is a cool, silvery lilac glitter with some holo yumminess throughout, all swimming in a clear base. In the right light, the holo effect is strong. In fact, it wanted to form rainbows, on my nails. I just wish that I could have captured the full effect with my camera. Three coats, here.

This shot kills me. You should have seen the holo in person! Gah!!!

Please give a round of applause to Candy Cane. This is beautiful red and pink glitter with not so much holo in a clear base. This just screams Christmas and candy, to me. (Tho if you aren't of the Christmas-y persuasion, it is just a pretty red and pink glitter polish with sparkle enough to gladden your Winter tidings. ;)) This again is three coats and top coat.

You all know that I loves me some gold. I wear all gold jewelry and I prefer metallic polishes to be in the warmer, more gold tones, most of the time. Tho I am not opposed to a nice silver, every now and again. ;) This gold is Gingerbread. Not brown. Thank heavens. Just a soft, warm, yummy gold with lots and lots of holo sparkle all within a clear base. This is three coats and top coat.

I tried a blurry shot to see if the sparkle and holo would show a bit better. I think that it helps. A little...

Our next and final guest of the day is Jingle Jangle. This is blue and pink and some holo in a clear base. This is so pretty. It is the most sheer of the bunch. I applied three coats and you can see that to even approach opacity, I would have needed at least two more. I think that this wants to be a layering polish. The pink was hiding from my camera. Trust me, it is there.

Okay, so. Formula. Not bad. A bit thick and gloopy for my taste, so I dumped a bit of thinner in each one and they were far more tractable, after that. Application was pretty smooth, tho I did have a little dragging on one or two and a few little bald areas. With the exception of Jingle Jangle these are opaque in three coats. They dry quickly and matte and somewhat gritty. These need a good thick top coat for maximum smoothness, sparkle and shine.

These are so pretty and definitely worth owning if you are a glitter lover. I am not at all unhappy that I bought them. This collection is in wide release and should be available wherever Color Club is sold. I bought mine at my local Ross.

So, what say you? Like? Own? Lust after? Think that I post too many damned photographs and yap too much? Please do tell. Your input is always welcome.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have yourselves a fabulous weekend and may your polish never bubble.

Pure Ice Scarlett

2011-12-09T06:00:00.001-07:00

Good Friday Morning to you, gentle readers. I hope that you got through the week in fine form and are looking forward to the weekend.

Today's polish is one that my husband hauled for me. Once in a great while, when he is out and about, he will get a bug up his arse and buy me a polish or two. He knows that I like the stuff and he likes to surprise me, now and again. While his picks aren't exactly what I would necessarily grab off of the shelf, I have to give him a huge A for effort and for thoughtfulness. :D

This hubby hauled polish is Pure Ice Scarlett. This is a bright, almost metallic red creme base packed with microshimmer. It reminds me, in a bit less refined way of OPI An Affair in Red Square, one of my much loved early OPI acquisitions. And, coincidentally, a polish my husband was drawn to and picked up off the shelf when we were in Ulta one day, a few years ago. What is it with him and red polish?

Anywhoozle, this is a pretty-ish if not very original colour. It has that bright, hard, nearly metallic red quality, like old fashioned glass Christmas tree balbs. (Yes, that is totally a word! I have been using it all my life. So there! :P) This was two coats topped with Seche Vite.

I think you can probably guess where my photographs were taken.

I think that I need to drag this polish and An Affair in Red Square out and do a comparison, hmmm? If anyone would like to see one, hit me up in a comment and I'll do just that. :D

This polish has a downright decent formula. It started out a little on the thin side and I had to chase it around with my cleanup brush for a while, but as I worked with it, it tightened up a little and got much easier to control. This polish gets opaque quickly, two coats was all I needed. Dry time was really good, with Seche Vite, this didn't keep me sitting around all day waving my hands and worrying about moving, lest I smudge my nails.

Wear time for this polish was pretty danged impressive. I had this on a solid four days; by the time I removed it the morning of the fifth, I had only minor, consistent tip wear and no chips. With some minor touching up and fresh top coat, I could see this polish lasting at least a week. Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. Bottom line on this polish is that it is a solidly pretty, if uninspired colour with a nice formula and very good lasting power, especially if you don't like to change you polish very often. A girl could do a lot worse than this polish, that is for sure.

Oh! Just one thing... This is a highly pigmented polish, so keep it off of your cuticles; do cleanup right away as you apply to prevent stains (this did not stain my nails, tho I did wear two coats of base coat, as I was a little Pure Ice gun shy) and when removing it, don't scrub it side to side, as it will grab onto any dry skin on your fingers.

Pure Ice is available at WalMart and in some drugstores. It runs two dollars a bottle and it is well worth the price. In fact, in my opinion, this brand, like Sinful Colors is much nicer quality than the price would ever suggest. I need to hit Wally World and pick me up some more of these. There is a stunning blue shimmer that I need to find and have another dance with. I bought it, back in early 2010 and had a nasty go with it and tossed it. But I din't know then what I do know now and I want another chance to make it my bitch. So, yeah. Time to delve a little deeper into Pure Ice.

What do you think of this one, kids? Do you own it? Own any Pure Ice? Please do share.

Thank you so, so much for coming by. Thanks for reading and supporting my blog by following and your comments. I appreciate it. I know that I don't say that often enough, but I hope that you know it. Have a terrific Friday and may your polish never bubble.

Orly Androgynie

2011-12-08T05:00:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today's swatch action is coming to us with Orly Androgynie from this season's Holiday Soiree Collection. This black jelly is packed with all kinds of yummy stuff. Kind of like a jelly sandwich on steroids all in one bottle. There is silver and gold micro glitter and large hex sequins that flash copper, green, blue, gold and even purple.

I applied two coats and topped it with top coat for this swatch. I had to take the photographs in my lightbox. I suspect that sunlight might have been better. This is pretty but I think I did a bad job, here.

See what I mean? Not much of the good stuff showing.

I mean, look at this bottle shot! My fault? *sigh* I'll try again. I think with three coats and in the sun, next time.

Appearance aside, this polish is nice to work with. Not quite as easy and fluid as a creme or a jelly. Those big glitter pieces mean that a little extra effort is required but it certainly isn't difficult. Drying time is decent. By the time I had taken my photos, it was well on the way to fully dry and a bit more difficult to remove. When a polish is a sucker to remove after swatch shots, it is a faster drying polish, in my experience.

So, not a slam dunk rah-rah for this one but not a fail, either. I will definitely wear this again because it is pretty, to be sure. I'll just change my SOP a little and see if it doesn't rise to the occasion.

Do you own this lovely polish? Are three coats better than two? Do they give more of the good stuff? I'd appreciate knowing what you think and would welcome any input you might have.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a wonderful day and may your polish never bubble.

Pink Wednesday: I'm Craving a Jelly Sandwich

2011-12-07T05:00:00.003-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Happy Wednesday, everyone. I am actually posting a pink look for Pink Wednesday. Imagine that! I always end up with a colour other than pink on my nails on Wednesdays and I have been skipping over it then it hit me, just wear pink any old time, photograph it, write a post and set it to go on Wednesday. Duh! lol So, that is what I am doing. This look was actually painted on, photographed and written the Friday before.

So, for my jelly sandwich, I decided to use Revlon Just Bitten in Desire and Wet-N-Wild glitter in Correction Tape. Two coats of Desire, a translucent and squishy jelly polish, one coat of Correction Tape patted into place then a third coat of Desire. I finished it all off with a coat of Seche Vite.

My nails are sooo thick! lol That W-N-W Correction Tape has a super thick base and the glitter needs to be kind of patted into place, resulting in a really thick layer on the nail. I got a little too much glitter on my index finger, as you will see but I didn't dare go back and put more glitter on my other nails. If I did, they would be a foot thick! lol I am going to try thinning that polish a bit. There has to be a way to keep the glitter suspended and not end up with such a thick coat of suspension base when it is applied.

Oooof!

Anywhoozle, on to why we are really here. The photographs. It was a dark and snowy day when I did this manicure (and yes, I know what a manicure "really" is and I did one of those, that day as well :D) so all photographs were shot in my lightbox under my OttLight. Figures, the day I would want to nip out and photograph polish in the sun, there wasn't a drop of it, all day.

I like this combo. Unfortunately the pink jelly kind of cancelled out the pink glitter but overall, this is a nice combination. Revlon Just Bitten in Desire is so sheer that even with three coats and glitter, there is pretty clearly visible VNL. It doesn't bother me but if you like more opacity, just do three coats, paint on your glitter, do another coat of polish then top coat and you should be good.

So, what do you think? Do you like jelly sandwiches? Not so much? Sick of them? Want more? Are you wishing that someone would pass you a nice cup of Earl Grey?

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

Orly Oui

2011-12-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today is a quickie. I have stuff to do but I wanted to fire off a post and show you the second of the three Holiday Soiree polishes I acquired during my Birthday Week Haul. This is Orly Oui. A purple jelly with gold glass fleck shimmer that has a little duochrome effect to it. This stuff is seriously pretty. I applied two coats (probably could have done a third to get it thoroughly opaque) and top coat for this swatch.

Photos were shot in my lightbox under my OttLight.

The formula for this polish is just gorgeous. Need I say more? Except, love this. A lot.

This polish is in wide release, right now if you would like it. I bought mine at my local Sally Beauty Supply.

Okay. I have to run. Thank you so much for popping in. Have a wonderful day, everyone and may your polish never bubble.

Orly Ingenue

2011-12-05T05:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Okay, can I just say...

Shit, It's cold!

I'm freezing my maracas off, here. Snow and cold and freezing and... Yeah. Hello Winter. Just the other day, we had the windows hanging open and a fan on and now, this. Nanook of the North, your table is ready.

Brrr.

A little nail haulage news; I found three packages of the Sally Hansen Prisms collections at Ross, yesterday. I, being the piggy I am, snapped up all three. And I found China Glaze Eye Candy at Sally's. There were four polishes in the display. I picked up three; Love Marilyn, Blonde Bombshell and Lorelei's Tiara. The grey one was pretty but I have so many grey glitters and did I really, really need another? Not really. If it ends up on the clearance shelf, I'll snag it. What I don't understand is why just four of the six polish collection? Sally's, you guys need to step it up! This going short on the goods... Not acceptable.

Time to get the the swatching. This is Orly Ingenue from their Holiday Soiree collection. Man, oh man is this pretty. This polish is a pink jelly base packed full of golden glass fleck shimmer. This polish looks like a beautiful moire fabric. I loves it. Much, much, much. This swatch is three coats and well... Just take a gander.

Photos were shot in my lightbox under my OttLight.

This formula is delicious. Application was so lovely. Easy, smooth and controlled. I had not much cleanup. Dry time? Really good. What else can I say? This stuff is fabulous. I really don't think any more has to be said. :D

Do you own this beautiful polish? Lust after it? Orly Holiday Soiree is out wherever you find Orly products, now.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a wonderful day and may your polish never bubble.

Orly Birds of a Feather Swatches

2011-12-04T06:00:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today I have three beautiful Orly polishes to share with you. These are three of the polishes from the Fall Birds of a Feather collection. I picked these three up in a pack with a bonus free wristlet at my local Sally's last month. My Sally's didn't get the Birds of a Feather display. But they did have some of these three packs.

Here is what was included in the clear plastic box:

Three polishes from the Orly Birds of a Feather Fall collection. From the left: Sweet Peacock, Foul Play and Lucky Duck. Behind the polishes is the little wristlet. This is actually a nice little bag. It is small but not tiny. I can fit a few cards, my driver's license, some cash, my smartphone, a shopping list, a lippie and a little mirror comfortably inside. It is of a sueded synthetic fabric in a pretty dusty purple that goes nicely with my mostly dark toned wardrobe. The wristlet is accented with a removable charm comprised of feathers. I assume one of each of the birds in the collection is represented in the charm. I like this little bag and use it often.

I swatched the polishes and took their pictures, as well. All photos were taken in my lightbox.

First comes Orly Sweet Peacock. This is a cold, clean, smooth metallic foil polish. This polish is a blackened blue base with blue foil shimmer. This stuff is kind of like a chrome in that it is thin and somewhat unforgiving. If you have flaws on your nails, it isn't going to fill in and smooth everything out like a jelly or creme can. If I wanted a perfect finish, with my crazy ridges, I would have to lay down several coats of base coat, three or four of the polish then two of Seche Vite. But I am not going to do all of that. I accepted my crazy ridges a long time ago. They are there. And they aren't going anywhere. I have grown kind of fond of them. lol

This is two coats over one coat of base and under one coat of top coat.

Look how this bright, bright polish freaks out my camera.

Here, it looks a little more "foil-y".

The formula of this one is nice. Easy to apply and control. I didn't have to fuss with it all that much. It dries fast and dulls some as it does so. Top coat made this crazy shiny and bright. Like those old fashioned blue glass Christmas ornaments my Gran then my mother had when I was a child. (Yes, there was Christmas waaay back then.) This is a lovely polish, overall.

Next up is Orly Lucky Duck. This is a lovely, clear Mallard green. The colour reminds me of The Green Monster at Fenway Park in Boston. It is a rich, blue based green jelly. Squishy. Mad shiny. Super mad shiny! This swatch is minus top coat, kids. I applied three coats thanks to my demon ridges causing sheer streaks. If you have smoother nails, you should be good in two.

The formula of Lucky Duck is something wonderful. It is so smooth and silky and it whispered onto my nails like a dream. It self levels beautifully and is so easy to control that I barely picked up my cleanup brush. As I said before, this stuff is so shiny it is sick. I didn't use top coat for this swatch but I will use it when I wear this.

And finally, we come to the reason why I bought this little collection, in the first place. This is the polish I have been lusting after since I saw the first rumblings on blogs last Summer.

Meet Orly Foul Play. Lordy. This polish is beautiful and it was well worth the wait to find and buy it. This purple jelly base is packed with glass fleck shimmer, tiny blue glitter and copper/rose shifting duochrome flakies. May, oh, my. Love this. I applied three coats and top coat for this swatch.

Click these, dude. Seriously. Click them! :D

Foul Play has a slightly bratty formula. Not difficult. Just in need of a little coaxing and stroking. The first coat was thin and somewhat streaky and didn't give much goody wise. The second coat was a little better; it got smoother and more opaque and more of the sparkly and flaky stuff appeared and by the third, it was perfection. Opaque, smooth, squishy, translucent but solid and packed with shimmer, sparkle and flash. Golly, I love this polish. Love it like I would sell my first born for a barrel of this stuff.

You think I'm joking.

So, what say you? Do you own any or all of these pretty polishes? Think that you might want to acquire them? I just received a flyer from Sally's with my December 15% award on it and in the flyer is an ad for the Birds of a Feather three pack, so if you have been looking for any or all three of these polishes, you should be able to get the three pack with the adorable wristlet at your local Sally's.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a wonderful day, stay warm and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: Nubar Moon Shadow

2011-12-03T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Buckle your seat belts, kids. It's going to a pic spamapalooza, today. This is Nubar Moon Shadow. I first saw this polish on Scrangie's blog. After I read the linked to post, I went directly to Amazon, hunted this polish down and purchased it. I never do that. Seriously never. But for some reason, Moon Shadow just bit me in the brain and I had to have it. Right then.

Nubar Moon Shadow is a beautiful smoky purple jelly base with gorgeous duochrome shimmer. I applied three coats and topped it with Seche Vite. I fired off more than one hundred photographs of this polish in different lighting conditions to try to get the best out of it. If a lot of photos in a blog post irritate you, you are about to get seriously pissed because I couldn't narrow them down to less then ten.

Funny, tho I took pictures in different light, my favourite photos were those taken in my lightbox. :P

How much serious pretty is this stuff? Purple, bronze, gold, green, golden brown. Yipes!

*sigh* I am conflicted about this beautiful polish. It is undeniably beautiful. The formula was gorgeous, like Nubar usually is. It applied so easily, flowed off of that fat, round brush so nicely and I had little cleanup. Dry time was a tiny bit on the slow side but nothing major.

Unfortunately, wear time for this polish was tragically short. I had a lot of tip pull when I finished applying this and topping it with Seche Vite. And that tip pull morphed into serious tip wear by the end of the day. By the next day, I had chips. Big chips and polish just peeling away. Whaaa??? With a Nubar? I think that perhaps it didn't like Seche Vite and that is why I had so much tip pull. And, if I remember correctly, I used a moisturizing hand soap before polishing my nails and I may have forgotten to spray and wipe my nails with alcohol. So, I am not going to bag on this beauty, just yet. It gets another chance to prove it's self.

Nubar Moon Shadow is beautiful. So beautiful that, like some other polishes in my family, it is worth keeping around and just wearing when I want a day of something really special on my nails.

Do you own Nubar Moon Shadow? If so, have you had better luck with it? I am still inclined to believe that it didn't do so well because of something I did or didn't do. We'll see, next time I wear it, I suppose. I'll need to remember to use a different top coat, for sure. :)

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

Comparison: China Glaze Mrs. Clause and Revlon Glitz and Glam

2011-12-02T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

I received a request to show a comparison between China Glaze Mrs. Clause and Revlon Glitz and Glam. These are two beautiful holiday glitter polishes. Both have tinted jelly bases and are packed with small square glitter that paves the nail in glitter. Both are beautiful alone or layered, in fewer coats over another, contrasting or coordinating solid colour polish.

On my index and ring is China Glaze Mrs. Clause. On my middle and pinkie is Revlon Glitz and Glam.

China Glaze Mrs. Clause is a watermelon pink jelly with bright pink small square glitter. The glitter in this polish isn't as dense as the glitter in Glitz and Glam. This polish isn't as dense and opaque, overall. This swatch is three coats and as you can see, is still a tiny bit sheer, showing some VNL.

Revlon Glits and Glam is a soft burgundy jelly base packed with pink small square glitter. The glitter is more densely packed, making for a more opaque polish than Mrs. Clause. This swatch is two coats and it is opaque.

Both polishes have similar overall formulas and apply very nicely. They both dry fairly quickly and dry a bit dull. Mrs. Clause looks near matte as it dries and looks and feels slightly more gritty than Glitz and Glam. Both are smooth and mad shiny after one good coat of top coat. A second coat would make your nails look supah shiny. These polishes are somewhat similar but they are not anywhere near dupes. I don't know if it would be necessary to you to own both, but they are different enough that it certainly wouldn't hurt.

What do you think of these polishes? Do you own one or the other? Both?

Thank you for dropping in and reading. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

Swatching, Swatching, 1,2,3: Orly Red Flare and OPI Rainbow Connection

2011-12-01T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers. Holy mackerel! It's the first of December, already. Whooeee! Where did this year go?

Yikes!

Okay, to kick off the most festive of months and the Christmas/Holiday season, I thought it only right and proper that Orly Red Flare be the first polish of the month. A red jelly polish; it looks creme, looking at the bottle. But it is a jelly. Rich, smooth, squishy, intensely pigmented. Gorgeous. Jelly. Is this my Holy Grail red jelly? I don't know. But it is officially on my short list.

This swatch is two coats, topped with Seche Vite. I snapped these photographs in my lightbox under my OttLight.

I want a car this colour. If it can be jelly, like this polish.

Orly Red Flare has a formula that can only be described as delicious. Smooth, silky, it glides onto the nail with a whisper. Thin but not runny, it is easy to control and it self levels like a dream. I didn't do a whole lot of cleanup, mostly just fussbudget refining. This polish dries more quickly than I thought it would and it dries so insanely shiny. But I use top coat, anyway because I was raised right.

Would I buy this polish again? In a New York Minute! Would I recommend it? Absolutely. If you like a lovely red jelly, you would most likely love this beautiful polish.

But wait! (Don't you just love those commercials that say that?!?!) There is moar!

Check out what I layered over this swatch. Just because I could. :D OPI Rainbow Connection. This is the third polish from the Winter/Holiday Muppets collection that I bought. I kinda love it. Rainbow Connection is a clear jelly like base packed with multiple shapes and colours of glitter. I applied two coats over Orly Red Flare then topped it all once again, with Seche Vite.

Lookitdat! It's like happiness in a bottle. As if joy just marched into my house and tossed it's cookies all over my sleek, red nails.

OPI Rainbow Connection isn't the best behaved polish I have ever used. Tho it certainly isn't a brat! Like others of it's ilk, it needs a little special handling. The jelly-ish base and the different sizes of glitter mean that just stroking this on doesn't result in my perfect look. I found that it looked better if I combined stroking with a little patting and pushing. (Shit! I just know that that sentence is going to bring a whole herd of one handed surfers to my blog. :P) This one dries nicely and top coat just amps up the sparkle and shine.

Would I buy Rainbow Connection again? Yup. Would I suggest that if you don't have it you get it? Yup.

So, my little polish addicted gentle readers, what say you? Do you own either of these beautiful polishes? Love? Not so much? I'd like to hear what you have to say about them.

Thank you so much for coming around. I appreciate your presence and your input, mucho. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Loreal Owl's Night

2011-11-30T06:00:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today I offer for your perusal Loreal Owl's Night. This polish was one of eight polishes that were part of Loreal's Project Runway Limited Edition collection, early this Fall. Of all of the polishes in that collection, this is the only one that caught my eye.

I don't have much experience with Loreal polishes. The only other one I ever owned was a shade called Rose Potpourri. It was a beautiful, rich, deep rose creme polish. I also owned the matching lipstick. And wore them both, together. All of the time. Hey, it was the Eighties. ;) In fact, Rose Potpourri was the polish I was wearing, the day my son was born. I saw that shade for sale back earlier last year on one of those little independent beauty products websites. You know the ones, that sell lots and individual items of mostly discontinued makeup and so forth. I really wanted it but couldn't order it, at that time. And when I was able to, I couldn't find the website, any longer. I keep checking places like dollar stores and Big Lots. Hey, you never know. :D

Anywhoozle, before I got to nattering on about something totally off topic, I was talking about Loreal Owl's Night. A dark, greyed purple base packed with duochrome colour shifting gold glass fleck shimmer. This polish is beautiful. It is dark and mysterious and it does evoke the creature for which it is named. I applied two coats and topped it with Seche Vite.

These photos were taken in my lightbox under my OttLight. They are clickable if you are so inclined.

Owl's Night has a right decent formula. It is thin but not runny. It was easy to apply and control and I didn't have to do much cleanup. I really liked the brush in this polish. It is a wide brush. Not quite as wide or soft as my all time fave, the OPI Pro-Wide brush but it is a pretty nice brush that did a good job for me. Dry time was pretty fast with this polish.

Sadly, this beauty didn't wear very well for me. I wore it for almost three days and I should have removed it on the second. By the end of the first day, I had significant tip wear on all of my nails. By mid day on the second, I had a huge chip on my right middle finger nail. By the morning of the third day, my nails looked like forty miles of bad road. I would have died of utter humiliation if I had had to run out and anyone saw my chipped, busted down polish. This polish is undeniably beautiful but for me, anyway, the wear isn't stellar. In fact, it isn't all that acceptable. I will have to remember that this is a one or two day at the most kind of polish.

Would I buy Loreal Owl's Night, again? No. In fact, my experience with this polish makes me wary of buying any more Loreal polishes. I know that new collections are slated for release, if they aren't already out. And I would love to get some of the colours; but if this polish is any indication of the overall quality of Loreal polishes, I might have to pass. The jury is out on whether or not I will be giving this brand another throw. We'll see.

Do you own Owl's Night? Did it last longer for you? Are you happy with it?

Thank you so much for coming by and reading and commenting. I know that this was a long post and if you read all of it, well... My hat is off to you. 'Cause I sure can ramble, sometimes. Hell... Most of the time. Have yourself a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

How To Add Falling Leaves, Snowflakes, Flowers and So Forth To Your Blog

2011-11-29T17:10:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

I got some compliments on my falling leaves from a few readers and they expressed interest in a how to so... Here it is. :)

First of all, getting leaves or snow to fall on your blog is super-duper easy. It is all copy, paste and click. Trust me, if I can do this, anyone can! :D This how to is for those of you with Blogger blogs. I don't know how other formats work or if these codes would be compatible with your not Blogger blog. Check the individual sites, for more info on that.

I want to address from where your leaves/snow/flowers/whatever you decide to have falling will fall. I use the Picture Window template, as I needed to have a three column blog and I couldn't change my old two column Minima to three column. At least not without using a clone and a dangerous to my blog hack that I had no confidence I could pull off. So, I chose Picture Window from the custom template thingy here on Blogger. Picture Window doesn't allow more then one gadget at the top of the blog page, (unlike Minima, which allows multiple gadgets at the top of the page) and that space, on my blog is taken up by my custom header. So, my leaves begin falling below my header.

It's a small thing, it doesn't really bug me but it would be nice if Blogger would fix Picture Window so that we could have more gadgets at the top of the page. Hint, hint, Blogger... ;)

Okay, so. Getting leaves or snow is easy-peasy. All you have to do is click one of these links. This one has snowflakes and the leaves you see on my blog. Just scroll down a little and you will see the items and the codes. There is also instructions for making custom falling objects, if you are a little more tech savvy. Imagine tiny gemstones, flowers, teeny tiny polish bottles or lipsticks floating down your page. I need to figure that one out! :D

Here is one for snow. When you reach the page, just scroll down past the raggle baggle. The code and so forth is on the left hand side of the page. (I have not tried this one. Tho, when it is time to go Winter I will give it a shot. If you try it before I do, let me know what you think and shoot me a link so I can see it in action. :D)

And here is snow from Shabby Blogs. I haven't tried this one, either. I used to use their backgrounds all of the time, but when I changed templates, I didn't have much luck with their backgrounds. But I don't see why the snow wouldn't work, even with Picture Window or another custom Blogger template.

Okay, once you have selected the effect that you want, installing it is easier then being pushed off of a chair.

Be logged into your Blog.

Go to the page that has the effect you want to display and find the appropriate code for that effect. Copy and paste the code. To do that, simply line your cursor up with the first character of the code and, while dragging it down, hold down your left mouse or touchpad key. This will highlight the code. Press Ctrl c on your keyboard. Now you have copied the code to your computer.

Click Design in the navigation bar or on your dashboard. You will get your Edit Layout page. Go to the top of the page (for Minima) or to the top of your column (for Picture Window) and click Add a Gadget. A box will pop up giving you gadget options. Scroll down until you fine the one titled HTML/JAVASCRIPT. Click to open the gadget. Now, paste the code into the large, lower box. Not up in the upper skinny box! If you paste there, your effect won't work. To paste, make sure that your cursor is in the big box, left click, then press Ctrl v on your keyboard. You should see your copied code in the box. Click SAVE.

The new HTML/JAVASCRIPT gadget will show either at the top of your page or column. If you need to move it, just drag it where you want it at this time. I have two going, one at the top of both my right and left hand columns so that my whole page gets leaves. I found that just one didn't give much coverage. Once your gadgets are where you want them, click save changes at the top of the page, click View Blog and enjoy your leaves or snow.

If the effect doesn't work, don't freak out. You may have just missed copying a little bit of the code. HTML won't work if you miss even one little tiny bit of the code. Just go back to the web page where your effect code is from and try copying it, again. Then go back to your Edit Layout page and click on the gadget you just installed. Delete the code in the box and paste in the code you newly copied, save (if you have to use two, like I do, remember to change both gadgets) and check your blog, again. As long as you copy the entire code properly, it should work just fine. :D

Okay, so there you go. I know that this is a lot of nattering but trust me, getting falling leaves or snow is so easy and fun. If you try the snow from Shabby Blogs or that whateverbusiness page and like it, please let me know in a comment and shoot me a link so that I can see it in action.

I think I covered everything. If you think that I missed anything or you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Remember, I am not a tech goddess but I will help as much as I am capable.

Thank you for reading and have a good one.

OPI Meep Meep Meep

2011-11-29T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers. How's it going? Well? Good.

Today I have a pretty polish to share with you. This is OPI Meep Meep Meep from their Winter/Holiday collection 2011. This is a beautiful deep, blue toned, reddened magenta jelly base that is full of delicate, iridescent floating flakies. The flakies are magical, flashing back in pink, fuchsia, red, even blue sparks, at the right angle. I seriously love this polish. Not only is it pretty, it makes the skin on my pale, old hands look positively creamy.

I took these photographs in my lightbox under my OttLight. Please click to get an eyeful of the flaky goodness and jelly squishyness.

Check out that pink and fuchsia flash. Heck, those flakies are even shading a little gold/orange toward the bottom of the bottle.

Ooo! Look at that bottle shot! Mmmm... Flakies... *drool*

Guh! Be still my heart.

A little VNL, here. Hey, it's a jelly. And if I remember correctly, two coats. (Forgot to write it down. Or I tossed the paper on which the info was written. *sigh*) My ridges really messed with it, as they do all jellies. Tho I have to give it credit for handling my demonic nails as well as it did. It's a good polish, indeed that can stand up to that task! lol

The formula for this polish is OPI-licious. Smooth and easy to work with. I had no trouble controlling how this polish applied as it flowed off of that fabulous Pro-Wide brush. I had very little cleanup and what I did do was mostly fussbudget refining. Gotta love that. Dry time was good.

My only gripe about this polish is it's relatively short wear time. I wore this polish for two days and it was pretty chewed up when I removed it. Now, granted, I am not particularly delicate with my hands. I do a lot of housework, I type on my computer. A bunch. I subject my nails and polish to a good deal of wear and tear as I go about my day so tip wear and chips are inevitable. However, this pretty polish had significant tip wear by the end of that first day and had some pretty impressive chips by the end of the second day.

Now, part of that may have been the base and top coat I used, I didn't use my usual China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat. I decided to give the base and top coats I got in a Color Club collection a whirl. If the lasting power of this polish is any indication, those particular base and top coats were a big fail for me and I will stick to using them for swatching. Perhaps Meep Meep Meep will hold up better with my usual top and bottom coats. We'll see, as I will definitely wear it, again. And again because, even if it isn't all that long lasting, it is danged pretty. And sometimes, that is all that matters. Especially if, like me, you are a frequent polish changer. ;)

Would I buy this polish again? Probably not. I don't see the need to repurchase this shade once I have enjoyed it and it is gone. (Even if, by that time I could find it.) Do I recommend that you grab it if you see it? Definitely. It isn't the longest lasting polish I have ever met, but it is beautiful and well worth owning and wearing.

Okay, I think I covered everything. Do you own Meep Meep Meep? Do you love it? How is the wear time for you? I would love to know what you think and hear about your experience with this stuff.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have yourselves a fantastic Tuesday and may your polish never bubble.

Swatchity-Swatch: Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear in Deep Blue Sea Plus OPI Gone Gonzo

2011-11-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers. Happy Monday! Don't burn up your 'puters snapping up Cyber Monday deals, now. lol

Today I have a swatch and a bonus swatch. First up, is Sally Hansen Deep Blue Sea. This polish is one I purchased last Summer and it has been awaiting it's close up since then. Deep Blue Sea is a part of the LE Fall collection that featured foil like shimmers and glitters and I picked up a quite a few of them. I passed on a couple that I now regret leaving behind because now I can't get them. Oh vell...

This polish is a cold, medium-dark blue with silvery foil-y shimmer. I am really enjoying these cool, Wintry foil shimmers, this season. They are beautiful alone, layered and used as stamping polishes. Unlike many foils, this one is a tad on the sheer side. This swatch is three coats and there is still VNL in my photographs. While I don't mind a little VNL, I don't expect it in a foil. Especially after three coats. *shrug*

These photographs were shot in my lightbox under my OttLight.

The bumpiness you see on my ring finger? Not the fault of the polish. The patch holding that badly torn nail together was letting go after a marathon swatch session. This polish is very smooth... Kind of jelly-ish in texture with the blue and silver shimmer giving it a more opaque, foil like finish. It applies easily, no flooding, dragging or other naughtiness. Dry time is good, not stellar but respectable. Top coat enhances the shine and shimmer to it's best advantage. Overall a nice polish, if you are willing to go for multiple coats.

Or...

Layer it. With, say, OPI Gone Gonzo from this Winter/Holiday Muppets Collection. This is one of the three polishes from this collection I have been able to purchase, so far. I smoothed one coat of Gone Gonzo over Sally Hansen Deep Blue Sea and the result is magically delicious. Cold, blue small square and large silver hex sequins swimming in a clear jelly base combined with the polish on my nails to create a glacier pool like effect.

Mama like.

OPI Gone Gonzo is a pretty typical glitter polish in that it is a tad snotty to work with at times. Not unpleasant; it just wants to be coaxed a bit. I don't mind that; IMO, a beautiful glitter is worth a little effort.

So, what say you, gentle readers? Liking these? Do you own either? Both?

Thank you for coming in and hanging out with me for a bit. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

Orly Rock Solid

2011-11-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers. Hopefully, we are back to our regularly scheduled programming, now. I have to tell you, anytime I do anything new with my blog or my 'puter, I have to be such a drama queen about it! lol

So, today's swatch action comes to you courtesy of Orly Rock Solid. This is one of the Fall Mineral FX Collection polishes. This is a grey jelly base with grey, silver and tiny holo glitter. This polish looks like a smooth, grey stone picked out with tiny holographic sparks that fire off the surface in bright light and the sun. This polish isn't traditionally sparkly or super shiny, even with top coat. It isn't dull, it reminds me of a tumbled stone. This polish is pretty, in a different way.

I applied two coats and topped this with top coat. I think these photos were taken in the sun. Or one in my lightbox and one in the sun? Crap! I can't remember. *Write it down, Erika!* Getting old is hell, kiddies. The brain, it just starts to drain away. lol

Okay, looking at these, they were definitely shot in my lightbox. I did take some in the sun, trying to get the holo sparks. Those photos must not have come out well because they are history.

So, formula... Excellent. Application was a breeze, this polish flowed off the brush in a very well behaved manner and sat down where I placed it. I didn't have much cleanup with this polish and it dried in good time.

I am still lacking two of the Mineral FX polishes and plan to acquire them, as soon as I can. I would still like a few of last year's Cosmic FX polishes, as well. Hopefully I will still be able to find them, as my budget permits. :D

Do you own any of these lovely polishes? Are you enjoying them as much as I am? Please do tell.

Thank you so much for coming by. Have a lovely Sunday and may your polish never bubble.

New Comment System

2011-11-27T11:15:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers. Thank you to those of you who commented and shared your input and experiences and help in my last post. *muah!* I am not a techie type and this is scary for me. lol

What, you might ask? Why, changing my comments system. After input from some of my readers and checking out two popular systems; Disqus and Intense Debate, I decided to give Disqus a whirl. Both systems look about the same and both were supposed to be easy to install and use. I ultimately chose Disqus because some users have experienced losing all of their comments when installing Intense Debate. That wouldn't have been a problem if this were a new blog but since I have some history here, I really didn't want to lose my lovely readers' words.

On my end, Disqus is working smoothly. I am hoping that from your perspective, it is as well. I hope that you can see the approved comments and that you have an easy time of adding a comment. I hope that I am working it right... And that I can continue to do so.

If I set everything up right, on your end, comments go into moderation to be approved... Tho I am not quite sure that this is happening. I think it is? I am so stupid about this stuff and it takes me a while to feel my way around and get the hang of things so please be patient with me while I experience my growing pains with this? I also set it so that people can sign in and comment through their Facebook, Twitter and so forth profiles. Hopefully you are seeing those buttons for your use. *sigh* Please let me know if you have any difficulties. I'll try to figure it out.

Anywhoozle, it might be a little weird, crazy, whatever while I am getting the hang of this. Just wanted to let you know why. lol

A Couple of "Techie" Questions

2011-11-26T20:12:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers. I hope that your weekend is rocking. :)

I have a couple of questions for all of you; I am hoping that some of you will have answers for me and can help. My puter skillz and Google fu fail me.

First, I am thinking of changing my comments system from the one provided by Blogger. It isn't that I think it is a bad comment system but I would love to have one in place that I can moderate comments as they come in and reply to them, in line then publish everything so that I don't miss any comments. I am trying to be better about responding to all of the comments I receive and I want to do a better job of it.

So, for those of you who use another comments system, which do you use? Is it easy to use? Do your readers like the system you use? Was it easy to install and does it work seamlessly with your blog? Easy installation must be super simple, as I can't do code and I won't risk killing my blog by digging around in it's brain. I can do simple things with HTML, as long as I have a detailed step by step, it is easy and I am not going to risk my blog.

Second, I want to delete some old posts. And I am happy to let the comments go with them. (Just old giveaway posts. Not anything important.) If I delete the posts, will the comments go with them? Or will they still be here and I'll have to hunt them down on the Comment tab on my dashboard? If anyone knows, please to help and zap me with a clue?

Thank you sooo much for any answers and help you can pass along. I really appreciate it! <333

Seriously, computer shit makes me feel like this:

OPI It's My Year

2011-11-25T10:52:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

I figure that a lot of you are presently out snapping up Black Friday deals. But you will be back, eventually. Broke. Stomped on. Flush with your shopping success. In need of a few Advil and a hot bath. And your daily polish fix.

So, here is my contribution to your Thanksgiving/Black Friday recovery.

OPI It's My Year from their Miss Universe Collection. This lovely light purple jelly packed with a duochrome gold glass fleck. I applied two coats for this swatch and used top coat, of course. These shots were fired off in my lightbox under my OttLight.

OPI It's My Year has a lovely formula. It is smooth and jelly and easy to work with. It was a dream to apply, easy to control and I did little cleanup. Dry time is decent, indeed. This really is so pretty, pretty, pretty. The two coats I applied showed a tiny bit of VNL. That doesn't bother me but if you don't like that, a third coat will make it go away.

Do you call this pretty stuff a part of your polish family? Love it? Lust after it? It is available where OPI is sold, if you need it. :D

Thank you for popping in. Have a great rest of your day and may your polish never bubble.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T12:01:00.003-07:00

Hello gentle readers. I hope that all of you who celebrate are having a fabulous day. As for those of you who don't? I hope that you are having a fabulous day, as well. <3 (What did you think I was going to say? :P)

I want to tell all of my gentle readers that one of the things I am thankful for, this day are all of you. Without your support, comments and your own blogs that inspire and delight me, I wouldn't have this fun, creative outlet for my frustrated artistic side. I have met and get to correspond with so many lovely ladies through this venue. Ladies of all ages, from many different parts of my country and around the world. I appreciate each and everyone who comes by to read, who takes the time and care to write a thoughtful, insightful comment and actually follows this blog. You all fill my day with gladness.

So, I am heating my oven to begin the dinner preps. First, my son's Dutch apple pie gets baked off. Oops! my oven just beeped. Be right back... Okay, that is in, baking and starting to smell goooood! While I was gone, I did some housework and a little kitchen prep. I am just doing a turkey breast, since it is just the three of us and it doesn't make sense to do a whole bird. The turkey breast will go in just before we take off for the lake. The three of us (hubbie, son and myself) are going for a nice hike to burn off Thanksgiving dinner, beforehand.

Okay, 'nuff nattering. On with the show. Today's polish pretties come to us courtesy of Revlon. (Well not courtesy, exactly, I did buy these... ;)) Three of the Spice it Up collection polishes. This is, if I remember correctly, a LE collection and is out in drugstores, now. I bought three:

Glitz and Glam. A thin, light burgundy jelly packed full of pink small square glitter. This one reminds me a bit of China Glaze Mrs. Clause from their Holiday collection, 2010. Maybe I should do a comparison? This is two coats. It was a little streaky and uneven on the first coat but turned into a perfect, smooth sparkling layer of glittery goodness with the second coat. Top coat made it even better, as it does dry a bit dull. Mama like. :D

Next up is the polish that is, in my opinion, the star of this particular collection. Mistletoe. It appears to be a deep, greyed green packed with gold glass fleck shimmer. But in truth, this polish isn't green. It is a deep, greyed blue jelly packed with gold glass fleck shimmer. It is that gold glass fleck that makes this polish appear green. To add to the fun and awesome that is this polish, the shimmer is a little duochrome and does a delightful shift as you move your hands and the light changes. The formula is a little thin but not watery and it was pretty nice to apply and dried fast. This is two coats with top coat.

And here is Snow Bunny. This is a frost-like sheer white polish. Not "frosty" as in, nasty and brush stroke-y and gross. No, this polish looks like frost stroked onto the nails. It is a sheer white base filled with iridescent shimmer and teeny-tiny flakies of wonderment. As you can see from my photographs, this polish couldn't be opaque if you paid it to be. And it doesn't need to be. Layering is what this pretty was born to do.

I applied one coat on my pinkie, two on my ring, three on my middle and one coat over Mistletoe on my index. (Please be kind and pretend that my nails aren't stained.) This applies like a dream, dries in a trice and shines like the Winter sun on a layer of frost on the ground. Lovely.

I am so very pleased with the formula of all of these polishes. In fact, Revlon really seems to be stepping up their game, formula wise. Their newer polishes have consistently better formulas. Makes me wonder if they are reading our blogs? :D Good job, Revlon. Keep up the good work.

Do you own any of these Winter/Holiday themed pretties? What do you think of them? Are you as pleased with them as I am? Please share. And if you would like to see a comparison with Glitz and Glam and Mrs. Clause, let me know and I will make it happen.

Thank you for popping in and reading this loooooong entry. If you got through it all, I will pass you a slice of Dutch apple pie. You earned it! lol Have a great rest of your day and for my fellow Americans, Happy Thanksgiving!

And of course, may your polish never bubble. ;)

China Glaze Ring in the Red and a Comparison With Ruby Pumps

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Good Wednesday morning, gentle readers. I hope that all of my fellow Thanksgiving celebrants are about ready. I am getting there. I still have a little last minute shopping to finish up and I need to bake off a couple of pies, tonight. (Hubbs wants pumpkin and son wants Dutch apple.) We aren't doing up a big dealio, this year. It will just be hubbie and son and I. Which is kind of nice. Sometimes a quiet holiday is refreshing and relaxing. Tho I admit, when we do a quiet one, I miss having my house full.

So, today I have the last (possibly for now) of my China Glaze Let it Snow Winter/Holiday Collection polishes to show to you. This is Ring in the Red. I had to order this one from Amazon, as it was completely sold out at my local Sally's and as far as I know, that is the only place I can get China Glaze in my area. Blech. Small towns...

Anyway, China Glaze Ring in the Red is a beautiful, very clean, extremely bright, almost metallic red glitter polish in the same vein as It's Alive from the Hallowe'en Haunting collection and it's sister polish Tinsel Town from this collection. A red jelly base packed with small red glitter and larger red hex sequins. This is beautiful. Utterly shiny and so, so sparkly. It is Christmas ornaments and bright red lights and tinsel all swirled into a blender and smoothed onto your nails.

This is three coats topped with top coat. Oddly, it differs from it's sister polishes in that respect. It's Alive and Tinsel Town only required two coats. Oh well. No big... this is hugely beautiful and I don't mind smoothing on one more easy coat. This polish was photographed in my lightbox under my OttLight.

The formula of this glittery beauty is just as lovely as it's green and silvery twins. Smooth and easy to apply, the glitter spreads dreamy easy, this polish is controllable and I needed little if any cleanup. I did have to apply three coats, this jelly base it a tad more sheer than the others of this type but as I said earlier, this polish is so nice to apply that I don't mind putting on a third coat. Dry time is good for this polish, it definitely wants a good top coat.

This is quite different from all of my other red glitter polishes. I needed another red glitter polish like I needed another hole in my head but I just can't resist them. So, I bought it and love it. :D

While I was playing with this polish, I got curious and I decided that I wanted to see if it was similar to China Glaze Ruby Pumps. So I cleaned it off of my index and ring fingers and applied three coats of Ruby Pumps to those nails.

As you can see, while these are both beautiful, sparkly red jelly based glitter polishes, they are very different. Ruby Pumps is a deeper, true ruby red jelly, cool and clear packed with small, square glitter. Ruby Pumps sparkles and it also dances and scintillates. This polish is one of my top ten faves and it was my very first China Glaze polish and I love, love, love it. Ring in the Red is brighter, cleaner, it looks warmer, next to Ruby Pumps and has that clean, hard, almost metallic look to it. It makes me think of Christmas tree ornaments. Both of these polishes are beautiful in their own, individual way and , in my own not so humble opinion, worth owning.

So, have you acquired Ring in the Red, yet? Do you also own Ruby Pumps? Do you love them both as well as I do?

Thank you so much for coming in and having a read. Have a terrific day, I hope it isn't too crazy for you. Have a wonderful day and may your polish never bubble.

Continuing the China Glaze Let it Snow Love Fest...

2011-11-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

Hello gentle readers.

Today I am getting back to showing the China Glaze Let it Snow polishes I have. I have two more to show. I may yet pick up Winterberry and perhaps Velvet Bow. We'll see.

Today's swatch is Twinkle Lights. A glitter, it is made up of small square glitter in shades of red, green and gold in a clear suspension base. This polish can be used as a layering polish or with additional coats, will pave the nail in a smooth, perfect coat of sparkle and shine.

Crappity-doo-dah! I forgot to write down how many coats of this polish I applied. and for the life of me, I can't remember. I think? It was three? Maybe? Probably... I think it wasn't quite paved as I wanted with two so I went with three. I think...

Anywhoozle, this shit is really pretty. Seriously shiny and sparkly. It kinda freaked my poor camera out. But I think you get the idea of the gorgeous from these photographs. They are clickable to see all of the colour and detail. These were shot in my lightbox under my OttLight.

China Glaze Twinkle Lights has a very nice formula. This was easy to apply, the glitter spread on pretty smoothly and evenly without having to muck about with it. Dry time is good. The texture as it dries is fairly smooth but this definitely needs a good, thick top coat to make it all glassy and maximize the sparkle and shine.

This is another winner in my book and I am looking forward to wearing this, this Christmas season. I can see this paired with red, green, over other glitters, as a funky, glittery French, as accent nails... The possibilities are endless.

Okay, so... Do you own this beauty? Love it? Please share.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a fab day and may your polish never bubble.

One Of These Things is Not Like the Others

2011-11-21T08:47:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers. Do you have that song running through your head, now? Yeah? Well, then. My work here is done. *evil grin*

But really, the purpose of this post is to show a couple of comparisons that were requested by two of my lovely readers. Both comparisons are between green polishes so this will be a very green post. *rimshot* Yeah, I know... Get the hook.

Don't quit your day job, lady.

Where was I? Comparing greens. My first comparison is between two greens from recent China Glaze collections. One is Holly Day from the Let it Snow collection for this Winter/Holiday and the other is Starboard from last Spring's Anchors Away. Holly Day is on my index and ring, two coats. Starboard on my middle and pinkie, three coats. All polishes in these comparisons were topped with top coat and shot in my lightbox with my OttLight.

As you can see, these are both rich, creamy green crelly polishes, shiny and smooth. But that is where the similarities end. Holly Day is darker and a little cooler and Starboard is lighter and warmer.

Next up are Emerald Sparkle from Holiday 2009 (correct me if I am wrong, please?) Love You Snow Much collection and Glittering Garland from this year's Let it Snow. Emerald Sparkle, three coats is on my index and ring, Glittering Garland, two coats on my middle and pinkie.

As you can see these two beautiful, sparkling, shimmering green polishes are not twins, at all. Emerald Sparkle is a cool, clear, true emerald green jelly base packed with cool green small square glitter. This polish is very intensely green and saturated, yet clear, translucent, like it's namesake gemstone. Glittering Garland is also a green jelly base. But this one is greyed a little dirty, a little warmer. The shimmer is a glass fleck with a bit of duochrome. Again, both stunning beauties but not alike.

If you love green polish, you can't go wrong with any of these. These are all beautiful and have their place in any polish collection. All of these polishes have fabulous formulas and are all worth owning.

I hope that I covered everything. If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me a comment and I will try to answer your questions as best I can. Tomorrow, I think that I am going to show some polishes I picked up from the new Revlon Spice it Up collection that I found in my local Walgreen's over my Birthday Week.

Thank you so much for popping in. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

Review: Glitter Gal Red 3D/Holographic

2011-11-20T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers. Today I have the final polish in my review miniseries. Glitter Gal Red 3D/Holographic.

As you probably know, I love a great red polish. And I also love a great holographic polish. Combine the two? I am going to have polshgasms. For the following photographs, I applied two coats and left off the top coat. For no other reason than that they were perfectly pretty without it. When I wear this as a full manicure I will of course, use top coat.

I actually swatched this polish before the Dark Purple I showed to you, yesterday. As it was the first of the Glitter gals I experienced, I wasn't prepared for what I was going to see. I painted it on, enjoying the lovely jelly, did a little refining and oiled up my cuticles, grabbed my camera and stepped out in the early afternoon sun.

And lost my marbles. Oh. My. Gosh! Linear holographic rainbows danced up and down the length of my nails. I just stood there and gaped. Then I kind of shouted, "This shit is amazing!" If any of my neighbours were out and bout, they probably thought that I was nuts, standing there, staring, open mouthed at my nails while I madly snapped photos of them. I didn't really give a dang, at that time. I was just falling into the red fire on my nails.

Th holo effect of Red Holographic is just as strong as it's purple sister in person but the combination of red, holo and my camera weren't as simpatico and the holo doesn't show as well in my photographs. But trust me, it was there. Oh, was it ever there!

Just look at the bottle in this one! *gasp!*

Close up bottle shot! :D

The formula of this polish is just as gorgeous and perfect as the Purple Holographic. Applies like a dream, is easy to control, dries in nice time. My only complaint with this polish is that it isn't in a 55 gallon drum.

If you are as blown away by this lovely creature, you can find it, or others like it in a variety of beautiful colours and finishes here.

So, what did you think of my little review series? See anything you want? Need? Llarowe is a dangerous place. I think that they are going to get their hands on some of my Christmas money, this year. :D

Thank you for popping in. Have a great day and may your polish never bubble.

The product in this post was sent to me free of charge by the company/PR/retailer for consideration and a fair and honest review. Please see my Disclosure Policy for further details.

Review: Glitter Gal Dark Purple 3D/Holographic

2011-11-19T06:00:00.001-07:00

Hello gentle readers. Happy Saturday to you all. I hope that you are enjoying your weekend.

Today I have a stunner for your viewing pleasure. May I present Glitter Gal Dark Purple 3D/Holographic.

Ooooo!

Glitter Gal Dark Purple 3d/Holographic is a dark purple highly pigmented purple jelly base packed with rainbow linear holographic effect. This is some right pretty polish. I applied two coats. I shot some photographs without top coat, then I added top coat to see if it would dull the holo at all. You will see the result, in a bit.

First up, my swatches without top coat. I encourage clicking. Seriously. If you are going to get your eyes knocked out by this stuff, might as well do it looking at bigger pictures. :D

These were shot outside in the sun. Take a good look at all of the different colours this baby throws out. And please bear in mind, these were taken with a very old, feeble little digital camera that doesn't have the best resolution in the world. Just imagine what this stuff looks like, in person. Guh!

So, what do you think? Pretty nifty, huh? I'll tell ya, Glitter Gal polishes have some of the best holo I have ever seen. Now, granted, I don't have a huge collection of holos but I have seen many, many photographs of many different holos on the blogs and Glitter Gal is at the front of the pack for holo goodness.

Okay, so I promised photos with top coat. Did the top coat dull the holo? Take a look and you tell me.

I'm thinking no. :D If you like to wear top coat like I like to wear top coat, the holo in Glitter Gal polishes can stand up to it, just fine.

A little about the formula, now. It is, in a word, lovely. Application is dreamy smooth and easy. This polish flows off of the full, round brush and sits it's little self right down where you ask it to. It doesn't run, streak, pool, flood cuticles or catch and drag. No special base is needed; regular old base coat is perfectly good to use with this stuff. It behaves like the sweetest, most butter-wouldn't-melt-in-it's-mouth jelly.

Dry time for these polishes is respectable. Not flash fast but you won't be kept diddly-daddling around, waiting for your polish to dry. Seche Vite definitely speeds it up a bit. I do want to say, if you want to skip the top coat, you can. This stuff is mad shiny all on it's own.

If you are drooling like I am drooling, you can get your hands on this beauty here. I read on Llaroew's main page that they are going to be getting bigger bottles of Glitter Gal. Bigger bottles! Yeah, baby!

Please stay tuned for tomorrow's post when I wrap up my Ozotic/Glitter Gal review series with my personal favourite of the bunch. I love all of these babies but this last one... It is special, to me. I am sure that you can probably guess why. :)

Okay, time for me to motor. Thank you so very much for popping in and spending a little of your Saturday drooling over this polish. (Don't even tell me that there was no drooling involved. I won't believe you. lol) Have yourself a great day and may your polish never bubble.

The product in this post was sent to me free of charge by the company/PR/retailer for consideration and a fair and honest review. Please see my Disclosure Policy for further details.

Review: Ozotic Elytra # 530

2011-11-18T06:00:00.002-07:00

Hello gentle readers. It is time for another review of another beautiful polish sent to me by Llarowe. Ready? So am I.

This is Ozotic Elytra #530.

The website describes this polish as an orange/pink/green shape shifting nail polish. I describe it as amazeballs. This is a multichome fine square glitter in a thin clear jelly-ish base. This is a layering polish. It isn't going to be opaque in a month of Sundays. But I don't feel that it needs to be. This is beautiful layered.

No. I lied. This is gorgeous layered.

Want to see? These photos were taken outdoors in the sun. I braved the neighbour and used daylight just for you, my gentle readers. :D This swatch is: One coat on pinkie, two on ring, three on middle and one coat over one coat of Wet-N-Wild black creme all with top coat, of course. Please click if you would like more detail.

Yes, my nails are stained. *hangs head*

Check this bottle shot. Can you even stand it?

These next photos are of Ozotic Elytra #530, one coat over OPI It's My Year. I love this combo and in person, it is way more of the gorgeous than in photos. This was so sparkly and reflective that it hurt my eyes and made them squint and water when I was out in the sun, shooting these photographs. I suffer. Suffer, I tell you, for my readers. (And I love every moment of it! :D)

Ozotic Elytra #530 is a beautiful, delicate colour shifting glitter. The formula is thin but not watery and it is very easy to apply and the glitter just sits down all over the nail as it is painted on. I didn't have to pat or place or squidge stuff around to make it work. It was smooth and effortless. This polish is a quick drier and it dries pretty shiny, but I still suggest top coat, of course.

This polish is in the same bottle and has the same brush as Ozotic #507. If you would like to get your pretty paws on it, you can find it right here. It is $17.50 USD.

Do you own this beauty? Think that you might want to? Please do share what you think.

Thank you so much for coming by, today and for your comments. Have a terrific day and may your polish never bubble.

The product in this post was sent to me free of charge by the company/PR/retailer for consideration and a fair and honest review. Please see my Disclosure Policy for further details.