End o' Year Doo Dads

Here are a few odds and bobs I wanted to put into one post, just to get them done, as it were.

Picture a novella.

Chapter 1

First we have a few leftover sheers that I tried over black. Thanks to an astute comment, some of these will be relegated to frankening.

This is a Sally Hansen Hard as Nails with no label on the back, and is a pinkish beige that is really frosty. Over black it doesn't transform into any great shakes either.


Chapter 2

This, though, has interest!

This is Sally Hansen is called Embellish Frost.
What up Sally? Are you playing with me? How clever are you to put blue with an orange/bronze shimmer snuck up in there? Hello! I think I love you!

From left to right:
Three coats alone
One coat over black
Three coats alone
Two coats over black

A single coat seems to really play up the bronze, two coats is pretty whatever. Alone, it isn't a "wow" blue, but it's not bad!!

I don't think I have one other polish that has blue with bronze in it! Nice Dollar Tree action sequence!


Chapter 3

Naughty, naughty, naughty!
(a quote from a Bollywood movie, no less! - And if you can name the film, email me and I'll send you a gift!!!)

Sally Hansen Naughty Creme

Three coats of delicious darkness!

Applied very well, dried well, too.

Tip wear emerged, but I'm pretty hard on my nails. I cracked one picking up a pug. There isn't much I can do when they get longer. I sometimes wish all my nails were as strong as my thumb nails! That would be so nice!

But, onward!


Chapter 4

I've been working on my lighting situation for taking photos. The whole light box with permanence kind of bugged me, because of space issues. So, I took one of those pop-up mesh containers that had a sideways opening, and tried it out.

Plus, I have a second light, though, I did need something to diffuse the light, as you can see from the Naughty Creme photo above.

Here is the set up:

Man, am I easy to please!!

The mesh works really well. I need to put a piece of poster paper behind it to remove the "laundry" feeling about it, but the mesh really is a boon, and I can fold this up and pop it next to my desk!
Booya!
Happy Dance!!!



Chapter 5
Denouement

Last but not least!

I found this polish on eBay! It's a Calvin Klein brand, in some very cute packaging I might add, that is actually made by Markwin, the folks who make WetnWild and Lina Gale. (among other things, I am sure!)

Excuse the Pug hair!!!!

Double cap that fits like a glove. Nifty!!

The shimmer is much more pretty in person!


The first coat is pretty sheer, but it has lots of shimmer.

From left to right:
Three coats alone
One coat over black
Three coats alone
One coat over black

It dried so well, unfortunately I tried an LDL clear top coat and that was just not meshing with the chemistry. This really is a favorite green color of mine.
I also kind of wonder if WetnWild put a similar color out under their own label?

Here's another bottle photo:

Splendid is right!!!

The End!

Thank you for reading my little nail polish journal (journey?)

Merry Christmas! Wrapping Paper For Your Nails! (Yes, Layering!)

Here are a few layering manicures that look like wrapping paper. I guess I'm the kind of person who always tries to unwrap my gifts carefully because the paper is so pretty!

:D

First up, old Maybelline gold cap Shooting Stars layered in about two or three coats over WetnWild Rain Showers.

Cute bar glitter!

Next, we have Sally Hansen Gray by Gray with Sinful Green Ocean and China Glaze Atlantis (I feel a superior polish to it's near twin, Sinful Nail Junkie).

Last but not least, a franken periwinkle topped with Maybelline Colorama Steel Wheeling and Cover Girl City Lights.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal! 

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve Skittles

I love skittles for many reasons.

Shall I make a list?

Oh, why not!

First, you can try a bunch of untrieds!
Second, you can have a bunch of different colors on your hands and that's fun!
Third, there is something a little naughty about multiple colors, like I'm being a kid again!

Fun!

I have a few of the China Glaze holiday glitters.
The winner of the bunch, though, is Party Hearty.

What's not to love?

I've seen it over white and green, but I thought I'd try it over a few colors to see what I liked - reason four to love skittles: samples!



I put it over a sampling of polishes

From left to right:
WetnWild Black Creme
Color Club Blue Light
Maybelline Spiced Toffee
WetnWild French White


Voila!

Yay for skittles!!!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!
Merry Christmas!

Rescusitation of Sheers Pt 2

Here's one that is pretty nifty!

It not only is a cute lavender pink alone, but over black it turns into a shimmer blue.

I think a nail bed color (my new phrase for "nude" which is working on an assumption that people are one shade, when they actually aren't!) wouldn't hurt to go underneath it when it is a lone.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Resuscitation of Sheers Pt 1

Is it possible to resuscitate those sheers that don't layer well over black and can't do it alone?

I don't know. This is a mishmash of an entry because I'm not sure what might help these to work.

But here they are:


Sally Hansen Blueberry Creme

Quite pretty in the bottle, but over black it's pretty much a white shimmer. Meh-tastic.
Alone it's a pale frost.
I guess over a white or a nude (pinkish beige to be more exact, I mean, let's be honest we all look different when we are nude, so what is nude?) it might work.


Sally Hansen Silver Sleek

Works well enough, but not that exciting. I think alone it is a pretty frosty taupe. Pretty enough, but needs a whole bunch of coats.
As a layer coat, not much is popping. More meh.


Then, there are layering sheers that really bat it out of the park!
More on that tomorrow!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

You Can Check Out, But You Can Never Leave

I picked up Sinful's A Night At The Barbados because I liked the color and when I read the name I thought of people trying to figure out a name for this polish. And failing. Flailing?

It's pretty much a weak sister of a polish on its own, pretty blah-tastic, really. Very sheer, that crunchy kind of sheer that makes you want to ask the chemical engineer who formulated it: why!?!?!

So, I put it over WetnWild Black Creme. If I may digress a bit, this is one awesome polish! How is it that for just one measly dollar (or less if it's on sale!) can you get a nearly perfect one coat black polish?

Back to the swatches.

The nice thing about AN@TB (is it a hotel? A resort? If you were on an island wouldn't it be "in" the Barbados? This bugs me, as you can tell!) is that it's a beautiful blue/purple duochrome!

To wit:

First we have this delicious teal blue.

Then there is the duochrome!

As you can see I don't have to weedle around to find it! Very generous! Very unlike the Sally Hansen Prisms or several others I've got.

It goes from straight purple

to a nice blurple

Very beautiful!


I have one question, though.

Do I need reservations?

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Every Holiday Needs an E.L.F.

Here's one!

Royal Purple!

Three coats!

Here's my assessment: applied well, dried well, and wore very well. I had previously mentioned that I felt they were goopy, but perhaps the ones I had - red creme - was getting dried out. I think the shimmers are very beautiful.

I mean, at a dollar a bottle, this is as close to becoming a Royal as I'll ever get in this lifetime!

Plus, it's a gorgeous red tinted purple, oh, and excuse the exuberant use of hand cream! OOooops! I am working drastically on my cuticles!!!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Ruffian It

I thought I'd throw a couple into the mix, a good way to celebrate the holidays!

Not hard to do, I did them freehand.

First up we have Sally Hansen Cyber over LDL 431:

Cyber is from the first batch of Sally Hansen High Definition polishes. This is a beautiful purple, and combined with this red really pops. This collection didn't have the jones-factor that the second group did, but they are very nice!
LDL, well, the obscure polish brand that keeps on giving! I don't see them often at Ross, last time they had a few that were full of clears and nudes, I've got plenty, so I passed, but, for the total lack of reliability in finding these, they make up for it in actual bang:buck ratio.



Next up is Sally Hansen Endless Claret over Jesse's Girl Blue Moon:

Jesse's Girl Blue Moon is absolutely a beautiful blue. It leans purple, but really remains blue. Plus it's a shimmer. Win!
I'm rethinking the old No Chip 10 Day polishes because I've reworked base and top coats. I only have a few, but they are good basics, what's not to love?

As I mentioned, I didn't use guides. I tried one, but it pulled off my nail polish, and I thought it was dry! And it was a set I bought at the drug store! I need to try again, I would love to do some funky french manicures.

Thank you for reading my little nail polish jour

It's Finals Week...

So, while I'm caught up on future-casting entries, I will be back soon with some tasty layered manicures!

Thanks for your patience!!!


Thank you for reading my little nail polish journal!!!

Layering Pinks: Ringside for Wavelength and Wing It!

Battle of the layering top coats!

Bring it!

In one corner we have Sally Hansen's Wavelength, a warm pink with shimmer and glitz.
In the other corner we have OPI's Wing It! Glassy particles of shimmer.

The field of battle: Cover Girl Midnight Magic

First up: Sally Hansen Wavelength *DING!* Round 1

Next Up: OPI Wing It! *DING!* Round 2

Looking like a TKO, to me!



Here's the comp:

Left to right: Wavelength, Wing It!, Wavelength, Wing It!

Ooooh, Aaaah! Wing It! is closer to the front

A winner! OPI Wing It!

Hail the new World Champion Heavy Weight Layering Polish: Wing It!


The wrap up: Wavelength was a bit frosty and a bit too much coverage. The polish itself is good, but Sally Hansen is slow to dry for me.

OPI, though, wow! What a super gorgeous shimmer! And though I could not catch it in my photos: A left hook/upper cut combo that is a duochrome knock out! It goes into a triple move of warm red, purple, then blue! Talk about footwork!

Sally Hansen was hopelessly outclassed.

And that's the bell!

Thank you for reading my little nail polish journal!

Winter Pink?

Pink is a hard color for me to wear, I feel that my skintone looks a bit better in richer ones, I've got a tiny handful of light ones, not every 100% happy with them.

Here are a couple of warm pinks. One actually calls itself a coral!

Let's do it!

Maybelline Natural Pink

I'd really shift this over to the coral spectrum.

The second photo is a little closer to the color, but it's a bit lighter, but not as light as the first photo. Why my camera did that, I am not sure.

I enjoy the Maybelline creme formula, and this was no different: covered well, flowed well, dried well, but as usual the wear wasn't top notch. I never seem to get miles out of Maybelline, sometimes they don't last very long at all. I do have a black cap one that I will re swatch (I put some mint green glitter on a deep blue/red "Crimson" and it was just a study in color addition that makes murkitude and not contrast, bad decision!) that is a gem for wear. This isn't quite in that category of great wear, but it's a cute pink!

Next up is Maybelline Colorama Coral Reef.
To me a hottish pink, still trending coral.

I think both of these would look pretty interesting with some gold glitter or a mutli-color glitter.
If it were summer, I'd probably just wear them as is.
The Colorama seems to have a horrible smell to it, but the formula works pretty well. I like the little dude!

Bit of a digression: I just finished organizing my polishes by brand. Holy smokes. My mom helped me and I am now left with trying to remember which 4 brands I had blacks, where my "lingerie" nudes are, and a host of other things. I am going to embark on the data base, which I will publish, and I really am enjoying looking at my OPIs, China Glazes all in one area. I still kept the layering coats out, I think I would be totally bonkers trying to sift through brands trying to find them.

I am actually caught up on my blog, I'd "future casted" several posts, as you can tell from the size of my nails, and will bulk together a few other swatches and really want to enjoy the holiday swatching that I've planned.

Yay!

Thanks for reading my "future casted" nail journal!!! You all rock!