From out of the Shadows, Cousins Emerge

As I was organizing my red nail polish stash, I was looking at a pair of polishes in the house. There were a couple of polishes that looked so close. Hmmm...

Twins? Not possible! (I thought excitedly)

The sun was out and it was nice, so I brought everything outside to work with.

As I brought them into the sun...the truth came out: Only cousins, not even siblings!

Meet:

Dior Lemon Balm and Essie Moto Scoota

In the sunshine the truth of their pedigree emerges, one is purple based one is red based, one leans cool, one warm. Both have that gold shimmer racing through it's veins.

It was a fun couple of seconds, though!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Froggy by Diamond Cosmetics

I sometimes wish I had a way to explain a polish the way it feels on. That little "zing" you feel when you look at it in various light. How it has that unusual pop, or color change, or something extra.

Froggy is this polish. It's a sheer jelly, but it's not that kind of sheer that makes you want to bang your head against a wall, but that sheer that you know should be there, because if it was a creme, it wouldn't have that vibrancy.

This is juicy, luscious, you feel like you could wring a limeade out of it.

What more can I say?

Because my nails are stained, I used a bang-your-head-on-the-wall-because-it's-so-sheer color by Sally Hansen called Creme de la Creme underneath to make the color of my nails more milky cream. Minor color correction.

Froggy dried very nicely, even with the Sally Hansen below. It was so sheer for the first two coats, I got a bit impatient and made a thick third coat, oops, this gave me bubbles on my thumbs. Lesson learned: thin coats!

I really love this color, I've got a lot of green, but this is memorably nice.

Plus it's an affordable polish, at $2.50 a bottle, with a flat rate US shipping of about $6, no max limit, you can splash out with little guilt. (no, I'm not affiliated, I'm just a polish junky, sigh, who spends too much time filling imaginary shopping carts...ahem). PS I've always had good customer service from Diamond Cosmetics. Nice!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

A Deal at Twice the Price

If you've browsed at my history since I've started blogging my nail polishes, you probably have noticed that I'm not a hand model, my nails don't become long acreages to paint upon and my cuticles are dry.

No way am I going to ever have longer fingers. My riding gloves are extra smalls. I wear children's gloves in the winter. To give you an example of how hard it is to fit my hands: Since my hands are not slim, but they are short, finding riding gloves is a challenge. I found Dressage Extensions had these riding gloves on sale for $1.99 a pair, all XS and no one was buying them. I bought 12 pairs. They fit like a dream. I still am giddy over these gloves! I love them!

Nail length. Although my nail beds are about 1 mm longer than normal, they whole nailbed is small, and the only time my nail feels like it won't snap near the top is when I am using Nailtek II as well as a good basecoat. I might be doing it wrong, but without those, my nails split.
So, with yard work, the horse, and other stuff, if they are too long they suffer. I feel like I am limited because I worry about breaking a nail. Dang, life is too short to worry about breaking a nail! So I keep them reasonably short.

Cuticles. Oh my goodness. They are an ever present battle.
Two things: oils and butters. No brainer. They work to a degree, but if there is no moisture in the tissue, what can it do?
In my organic chemistry class we used acetone to clean and dry glasswear. It takes water away.
My solution? Well to copy the people who try to keep moisture in nail polish remover, of course!
To my Cutex pump bottle, that holds six ounces of acetone, I add 20 drops of glycerine.
Glycerine can be found at the drug store for a couple of dollars, but man, what a difference!!!

I can't really believe it, it's a massive change. Almost a quantum leap: less scraggle, less stray edges, less dryness. It's the one thing I recommend trying. It's easy to get oils, lotions and butters, but if the moisture is gone, acetone is damaging the skin by removing moisture. The glycerine is hydrophilic, it likes water, it keeps it in your skin. There must be water in your skin, though, or your environment must have decent humidity, or glycerine will draw it out. Not so good. However, I do moisturize before removing polish, so I think I've found a good solution.
One note: multiple swatch photos can wreak havoc on the skin, no matter the glycerine in the acetone.


Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Excuse the Mess...

I'm just figuring out a few bloggy things.

I am new to blogging, and this template thing is iffy at best for me.

You must think I'm blind because my font was gigantic for a spell, but I've adjusted it. I've also made a new banner at the top.

Thanks for your patience!

(I need a blog how-to site...if anyone can recommend one, shout out! Thank you!)


Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

A Trio of Hot Pink

I think that they are hard to photograph and I had to use a new technique of resizing and saving the photos to retain a semblance of the original color.

First one was diluted and dulled down, thanks to the "save for the web" feature of Photoshop Elements.

This is an E.L.F. polish I found in a three-pack at Ross. It's called Fluorescent Pink. My camera took a photo and it came out HOT, but then I made a copy for the web, and it turned a lot blander.

In any event. here's E.L.F.'s Fluorescent Pink.

Next is OPI Feelin' Hot-Hot-Hot. I have four coats on here and still visible nail line, but it dried beautifully and applied just fine. Fluorescent Pink by E.L.F. is a little less intense. BUT very similar to this color.

Though I will say, this is one gorgeous nail polish! Too bad it has some VNL! Still, can't complain! Gorgeous HOT pink. Bordering on neon.

Last offering is OPI's You're Such a Kabuki Queen.
This is one of those slightly crazy-making colors for those of us who sort our polish out by color.
It's a very dark reddish pink.
Without further ado:

I do love this color. A. Lot. Would I buy it again? YES!
It was four coats as well and some VNL, and a bit of early wear and tear. BUT! I feel the OPI love.

(As you can see, my left hand has shorter nails, it suffered a bunch of breaks, but I don't mind that they are uneven, they grow!)

Sorry about the E.L.F. I really wanted to show that one off. I feel it's a decent alternative if you are looking for that hot pink summer sun action for low cost. Just remember, it's not AS hot as Feelin' Hot-Hot-Hot, but it's a very close polish. Now that I've sussed out the photo editing, I am experimenting with things like size, color correction and watermarking.

I don't have a load of OPI, even the etailer's old discount of $5 a bottle was a bit steep for me.  Hot-Hot-Hot, actually, was a cool gift from my sister! I think it looks great on my skin tone. Even though I wear a load of sunblock, my hands get really tanned in the summer.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Blogger Giveaway: Painted Lady Fingers - Nubar

Painted Lady Fingers blog is a beautiful nail blog: ethereal and poetic. I am in awe of her nails and her artistry.

She's also having a giveaway! Nubar California Dreamin' collection and some other great swag, too.

Check out her blog at Painted Lady Fingers blog.

Nubar, is very nice, I've got about 5 bottles of their duochromes. Their customer service was excellent, too.

Thanks for reading my little nail journal!

Blogger Giveaway: My Lucid Bubble - Mini Sets

Besides having a great blog that I love to read, she has a giveaway going on!

My Lucid Bubble's Giveaway

She's giving sets of mini's out.

Mini's are a great way to try out a brand or colors that you've been hankering for, plus they are cute!

My Lucid Bubble blog has wonderful photos and always is a pleasure to read.

Do check it out!

Holo For Homebodies

The now-rare Kaleidoscope collection by China Glaze may be the stuff of legends, but it never had a light pink holo.
So I layered one.

Here are the ingredients for cooking up your own treats.

2-3 coats of a sheer/frosty pink that is fairly light. This is Elle 2 Elle by LDL (European brand found at Ross, these packs are $4.99 for 9 polishes, and because they are made for EU markets, they are 3 free! Plus they are loaded with fun nail polish action at a price that makes it just all the more fun to use them for frankens or goofball layering experiments), it's a frost, but so sheer, it looks like strawberry juice
2-3 coats of a sheer creamy color, this one is L'oreal's Private Party. It's got some gritty glittery stuff in it, too.
3-4 coats of Cover Girl City Lights.

Here's the fresh-out-of-the-oven goodness:

I topped it off with a quick dry. LDL polishes dry quickly enough, too. I like L'oreal in general and this polish suited well.

Here's a little close-up!

(mmmmm particle goodness!)

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Sally Hansen Opals - Pt 1

This will be stretched out a bit. I found 11 of the 16 Sally Hansen "Opal" nail polishes at the Dollar Tree. I've got 1 through 10, then 14. I need to find 11, 12, 13 and 15. They are "interference" colors as they are known in the art world.
Interference colors change color when they are painted over other colors. At least that's what my Daniel Smith catalog says! They are often found in watercolors or even acrylics.
These are also duochromes. I sometimes wish I had a tiny little sieve and could filter out those lovely particles of shimmer and use them for frankens, but I enjoy these polishes, though sometimes they are a little murky. I already posted about one, actually "01 White Opal," I will redo that one, later on.
This time I've got "03 Fire Opal" and "10 Earthen Opal"

note:
These are done under a daylight corrected light, as the weather was so grimy gray and dark that it was the only light possible!
These are all over a coat or so of WetnWild Black Creme.

Fire Opal - 03
This is one of the murky cloudy ones. I don't know if this is age (I have no idea when these were originally issued, how long they hung out until they were pulled, or how they might have been stored, or how that would have affected the chemistry inside the bottles. Always a mystery with these old polishes, you sometimes see the weirdest science projects growing inside a bottle!) or the way they came originally.
The beautiful purple and green in this polish make the murk go away!

Ha! Take that suckah!

This is a couple of shots of the polish pretty much flat at you, a purpley green glow that makes you think of haunted gothic manses with ghosts who are named Sapphyra or Alysia:

Then BAM! You turn your nails around a bit and you get this gorgeous glowing green!

Positively goulish. I love it!

Like a foggy night in 19th century London.


Earthen Opal -10
Probably my favorite of the two. How is it possible that I am digging oranges? I love those rich juicy oranges that almost squeak into the red zone.

I love that shimmery berry!

Then turn the nail a bit down and SMACK!

Shimmery goodness!

Wait! There's more! This one blends the two colors. Nice Job, Sally! 

Tasty duochrome virtuosity! 

Right now I'm looking for the missing Opal colors and will be swatching the rest over time. Still prodding my collection into submission.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

The Fix...

...is in.

 I confess that I went crazy when I saw the Essie Art of Spring collection.

Hooooooweeeeeee!! Artistic references!!!! Lavender!!!! Subtle corals I can add to my collection!!!! Cool Box!!!!! Daaaaance!!!

 Weeeeelll...so far three of the polishes are just about as dull as dust and my love affair is over.

Am I fickle? No.
Do I love Essie's application? I still have a warm spot for ya, hon!
Am I sprinting out for the summer collection? Let's just say I found "Froggy" green at Diamond Cosmetics and it suits my need for a tropical green. This whoooole "rare" "htf" "vhtf" "discontinued" hype seems to stir the pot and next thing you know eBay scalpers are selling polishes for $100 a bottle, like we are in some sort of bubble market. (though I confess I have a few that I covet and have paid some rich prices by nail polish standard, let's just say I've got a $27 polish cooling her heels in my stash, I'm not an innocent, I just don't like the faux hype)
So.
Madam Essie can cool her heels until she gets a better bunch of ideas. I can see why she's selling out to L'oreal.

I tried the famously frustrating T'art Deco (yes, I know I am spelling it wrong, but I just like it better this way)

 So what to do with T'art Deco?

Three coats here, dried well, and I can't complain too much about the application, though some people say it's thick, I guess I'm used to nursing the old Sally's and Maybellines. You can see some visible nail line here, too. To me, though is that it's darker on my nail than in the bottle. Hmmm. Huh?
It goes from soft canteloupe to a darker color that is nearly orange. Like a creamsicle with anemia.


So I cracked out a little army of top coats:

Revlon Glimmer Gloss in Banana Blaze, WetnWild Rock Solid Pretty in Pink (very strong apricot/orange with diamonds, supposedly, and loads of flash), and Revlon Glimmer Gloss Apricot Freeze.

To work, soldiers!

Now, that's a simmering, deep, shimmer. It took it deeper, and a bit juicier. My kind of cooking! I can't see wearing it any other way!

Sorry Miss Essie! I had to modify that polish, it was in need of "go big or go home," for sure!!!


Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

By the Sea, By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea...

How happy I'll be...with seashell pinks.

I tried the new Sally Hansen Tracy Reese "Ring My Shell," but found it too sheer, to blah on the nail, and too frosty. I wish I was a frosty polish lover, but it has to be a pretty special frost to get me excited.

I've got this idea though, that that warm pink of the inside of a conch shell is so beautiful. I've yet to really find a cream that will work, so I worked my own modification through layering.

I took a limited edition Revlon called "Pink Crush" that is on the warm side, and layered it with a no name gold polish, found in a pack at Ross. Ironically, these no names have legs: they last!

(I'm a bit of a Merl Reagle crossword buff, he has the best clues! Makes crosswording fun!)

Photos of the result:

With flash

No flash, indoors

I often wonder who makes these no name polishes, they must subcontract out with someone. I feel that whoever does these, really does a very nice job. I love the way they dry quickly, their finish and their wear. Some are sheer, some aren't. One of my first posts was one of these little polishes. They all tend to be shimmers, but that is fine, I love shimmers. Plus, they can be found at Ross in packs of 3-4, mixed with an nail file. For $3.99, I was going to dump some of them, but find that as I use them, they become a little bit of a pleasant surprise.

The Revlon, well, it's Revlon. That means that even though it's had a day to dry, it gets soft with the application of any other top coat. Quite frustrating, however, I don't have another pink like that, so I keep it in my collection.

Apologies for not having the full finger thang, I wanted to try something different.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

It Sure Looks Good On You

Just humming "Peg" by Steely Dan when I was editing the photos.

Pretty basic: three coats for good coverage, really easy to apply, dried up so well, popped the WetnWild quick dry top coat on and done!

An easy way to amp the day right up!


Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Hot Fuschia Pink, Baby!

Borghese's Marina Dawn came to me very normally, sitting in a little bin at Ross looking enfeebled and homeless.
Well, baby, no more! She's a hot mama!
If she were a person, she'd be wearing a big hat and laughing out loud in the movie theatre.
She'd eat a muffaletta or a cubana sandwich and wear a boa.
She'd always walk with her hand resting on a gentleman's arm, but if the mood strikes, she'll dance in the rain.
She'll slap a man for making a pass and then kiss him like it's New Years Eve.
Because. she. can.

I want to be that girl, but I'm not, so I wear Marina Dawn and imagine myself wearing a chiffon floral dress, a big hat, and some big girl shoes. Open toed, of course.

Sashay!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Cinderella, Cinderella!

I am not sure how I missed not posting this one.

Here is a little franken I made with some drops from that Zulu dupe I attempted a while back. I had a bottle this milky WetnWild "Rock Solid" with diamond dust (and probably other glittery things) in it that just needed a new and better life than as a boring milky white. I will say, as an aside, if you see these sets in Ross, where I found this, do grab them. The tangerine top coat I used in a previous post is phenomenal over corals. I will post about this later. The sets are $3.99 and have four top coats and a clear. Great for layering. Probably primo for frankening, but this was the only one I pulled for a franken.

So, as usual I get sidetracked, however, this was a pretty easy one. A few drops of that dark green, a wee bit of blue and the pale aqua family had a new member!

"Hello!"

(from left to right: SH Marble, Diamond Cosmetics Seafoam, Maybelline Colorama Emerald, China Glaze For Audrey, my franken, and Princessa Tangi-My-Night)

Here is a close up, you can see the glittery "diamond" flakes and glitter pieces, they make this have a subtle shimmer.
I used a now-retired Sally Hansen base coat so the franken would show up better. It's a little sheer, not bad, but a white beneath it helps.

Finally some nail shots:

I guess I have caught up on all the frankens for now. Right now I'm going through my polishes, I just went through a bunch of rose/mauve colors. I also have worn some of the Essie Art of Spring collection (a bit of a disappointment, but a layering success, more on that soon!).
Overall, I have a few photos I've got to edit and get up here!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Upcoming Attractions...

Coming soon are some pinks, more roses, some opals over black, some more SH Dollar Tree finds, and a few other things.
Our sun has decided to take a break, and I've been working on some summer classes, which are condensed. I've got a few photos upcoming.
I had some terrible breaks, below the nail bed line, so just nursing them along and filing the longer ones down. Flibble!