Milani Gold Part 2

Hello!

Here is part 2 of the Milani "gold" collection. It's not really a collection, but a set that appears to have a healthy dose of gold fleck and the name gold.
As in my last post (here) it's not on the Milani site, but on Beautyjoint's site.
I feel as though these are discontinued.

Same as last time:

• All are three coats
• None have top coats
• Are all over Borghese's Ivory jelly whose name I still can't recall

Gold Violetta

Gorgeous carnation pink shot through with enough gold to make you forget about anything and daydream about summer.



Gold Crush

Juicy red tinted orange.
BOING!!!!
Remarkable color. Stunning.



Gold Rush

A rush of adrenaline.
Hot red. Less apparent is the gold within, but if you love gold and red together this is not bad.
The red is pushing the envelope on neon, which is always a pleasure.
Another where the red shimmer competes a bit with the gold.



Golden Sea

Here is another one that I really have to say is pretty fabulous.
Unlike many that have a lot of shimmer that is large, the shimmer here is fine, hence the brushstrokes, but there is this great gold fleck popping out.

It looks very metallic.
It's hard to impress me with these shades of blue. Unlike periwinkle/violet blues which have me at "hello", these need to be impressive to really warm me to them (I don't have many now that I think about it).
Why do I think of swimming pools when I see this color?



Gold Leaf

Hard to do much more than just enjoy!
The top portion is more accurate.


These are great polishes. I had a lot of fun swatching, every one yielded a beautiful result.

The only cons I can see are that they are discontinued, were a little loose, and a tad bit sheer. They built up well, so I can't fault them too much on that point, sometimes you get something so poorly pigmented it never really builds up. This does a great job.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Milani Gold Part 1

I make no apologies about loving glass fleck polishes, apart from holo, duochrome, and multichrome, this finish is fabulous. Of course I forgot to add foil to the list, hehe, but it's a given, right?


Milani rarely lets me down. It doesn't get a lot of love. Not sure why. Every time I wear it I never have a problem.

Here is a series that all have "gold" in the name and are packed with golden glass fleck giving pop to the shimmer and a lot of happiness to me!

A few things:

• These are all three coats
• None have top coats
• I've put them over a pale ivory base (Borghese Ivory something or the other - similar to WnW 2% - sheer but with coverage)
• They are all pretty good with coverage at three coats, but could do a single coat as a layering top coat - WIN!
• The formula is a little "loose" so this did require clean-up, but I didn't mind. Good practice!

Gold Digger

A sun-infused melon pink.
I adore this color so much! I think in the summer it will be killer. KILLAH!



Goldie Locks

Soft seashell pink with it's array of gold creating this luminous glow.
I'm gaga.



Golden Girl

Hot magenta pink. So flattering to nearly everyone on the planet.
The gold is more subtle in the dense pink shimmer. A glass fleck bomb. You can see on the top photo the gold sparkles.



Golden Lilac

Pale mauve looking heavenly.
Hate to gush much, but this one is so wonderful that it really is perfect if you dig these "office OK" shades that go crazy in the sunshine.
Why they call it lilac, I don't know, but who cares, it's amazing.


Ok, so these are not actually on Milani's website for sale. I am guessing these are discontinued? Why?
It is odd that these predate the current "glass fleck in everything" that seem to be going on, which I never mind, ever, but I feel bad that these are on radio silence on blogs and boards. These colors kick arse large when it comes to larger shimmer particles we all adore!

These are on Beatyjoint for a walloping discounted price of $1.69. What? No! (I'm not affiliated, just glad as heck that I've got these puppies in my hot little stash!)

I have been eyeballing these for well over a few years (I even forgot the name of the website that sold them for about a year!) I bought this batch about 5-6 months ago,  and then after I swatched these I sprinted over to the site and bought the rest.

Man oh manischewitz! No regrets!!!

Part two coming soon!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Who is the Fairest of Them All?

Maybelline Mirror Image!

Wow! BAWHAMMO!!!

That's some pop!

I've got the base on, which helps a lot, and I've not got a ridgefiller, which is a must.

This is a quick swatch, so I can't really speak to wear, but I hear that this is pretty much a weak sister when it comes to chipping.

I did try a topcoat. Left to right in above photos: none/top coat/none/top coat.

To my eye the topcoat really kind of dulled it, though it doesn't really show in the photo.

Chrome is the most unforgiving finish, so I will definitely tweak the base and work hard to avoid the brushstrokes. 

Still want the Layla mirrors for comparison, but this is pretty awesome!

Here's the packaging:

This came about through a wonderful find by a person on MUA message board! I was beside myself and am so glad I got it.

It takes chrome to the next level! Wooohooo!!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

CND Pink Wishes

Creative Nail Design Pink Wishes released in autumn 2011 for Breast Cancer awareness.

I think I found it on sale at an etailer's site. 

It's a set of two polishes:

Pink Wishes Colour and Pink Wishes Pearl Effect. I like the packaging

A pretty set of a pale buff pink creme and a gorgeous shimmer top coat that is classified as a pearl.

Here is Pink Wishes alone:

Three coats, more out of habit than anything else, it could have been a two-coater. I think I wore if before, it's pretty thick and a little bit heavy, but I love the soft pink.
They call it cool, but I really think of it as a neutral. There is a real sense of demurity about it.

Here is a photo of the Pink Wishes Pearl:

It is much easier to see the shimmer in lower light.

So, in the last shot, to see the the shimmer I dropped the lighting level:

The soft pink shimmer shows up prettily and in a very subtle. I suppose these days with all the "secret shimmers" around it's almost an odd duck, being a two-parter and all. 

I think Pearl Wishes Pearl over black or navy is super fabulous. I didn't do it over black because I wanted to wear this manicure.

So delicate and lovely.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Orly's Truth About Garnet

Orly Garnet Truth was my St. Valentie's Day manicure.

I love garnets! Such a rich beautiful red.

This polish is a soft red, like a garnet of course!

This is three coats and indeed some of the gorgeous glass fleck that us silvery white and beautiful. It's a large fleck and quite apparent on the nail.

Here is a closer shot in daylight:

I love that the silvery white fleck that is not buried in the base.


This is after a day of wear and tear. Not really super glad about that, I used the SH I raved about in the last post, kind of bummed on that point.

In the sunshine you can see the silvery white fleck shining through!

This polish doesn't get a lot of notice, I think it's because it's a medium red.

I couldn't find it on one etailer's site, and the Orly site doesn't have it on their permanent collection site. I think, if I recall my old days of perusing etailers, it had something to do with birthstones.
Anyone recall specifics?

If you like this finish and like this shade of red, it's a worthy one!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

A Late 70's Disco Reference, First Stripe Mani

I finally tried some nail art. Now, truth be told, there are those (Another Bottle of Polish?!, Canadian Nail Fanatic come to mind) who make it look like it's in their DNA, and there are those (me) who make "effortless" look like I'm trying to cross the North Col on Mt. Everest - during winter.

Here is my homage to the disco inferno I sprouted my tween self on:

OK, breath. There it is.

The base is a deep chocolate brown creme called Cobblestone Creme by Sally Hansen. It's a Dollar Tree purchase, tall narrow bottle, matching cap (!!). Three coats, very neutral deep brown that almost looks black.

I used the thin nail tape that you can find on eBay for super cheap. I believe that it's supposed to be used in conjunction with acrylics and remain on the nail as a portion of the nail art. I found 30 rolls for about 4 or so dollars. Many gorgeous colors, but my intent wasn't to keep them on. When I master the tape I might do that.

On the top is an old fave: Super Stinky Super Profesional 128.

A few things went wrong: sometimes I didn't put a topcoat on the SH Cobblestone Creme and the tape tried to pull some up. I sometimes couldn't master the art of de-sticking the tape enough to prevent that from happening. I didn't get enough adhesion in some spots so the top coat came up underneath. I didn't slant opposite on each hand so all stripes went in the same direction...except my thumb.

Things that went right were abundant! The color combo looked great! Unless you peered closely at my hands, it was hard to really see the issues. A client who has a nail salon examined my hands closely and pronounced them "amazing" (generous, I hope, or her clients should be mildly alarmed).

I  dowsed it with about 3-4 coats of a top coat, but still had a slight feeling of an uneven texture along the stripes on a couple of nails.

Yet the wear? This photo is after 3 days of wear. And my nails get a workout.

Currently I'm using Sally Hansen Speed Shine 10 Day top coat. It's in a translucent lilac bottle, it's the same Salon bottle (square with rubberized handle) that is now defunct. This stuff RULES MY WORLD! It's fast, it never shrinks, it SHINES, and it is a tough mofo. I feel as though it totally carries its weight in every manicure. I haven't been to a drug store lately, so I don't know if it's still around, but judging by my quick google search to some retailers, it looks like it's a goner. Drat!

I want to do more of these, they are a blast. By the second and 4th or so try on a few nails I realized that factory method worked better than taping/painting/untaping each nail in sequence. Also a tweezers would have been a great tool to have in the mix. The tape remained sticky even after removal, and some nails had to be redone because tape landed on still-wet top coat. Erp!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Dark Blue Shimmers, Two New, One Old Fave

Three deep blues, one oldie to use as a comparison.

Oldie to start:

NYC Skin Tight Denim

Three easy coats. Hard to fault the finish, shade, luxe quality, and price point.



Maybelline Denim Dash

Three coats again of sapphire blue. I think I purchased this because I'd seen Love8Brain's photos on MUA, totally gorgeous.
Love it.



Finally
Acoustic Azure

A real blackened blue.
Three coats of a navy that leans over into the warmer maritime realm.
Old Maybelline rectangular bottle with a black cap, honestly it's probably the main reason I keep it!



Here is a comp

Same order left to right:
NYC Skin Tight Denim
Maybelline Denim Dash
Maybelline Acoustic Azure

I swatched these as I was tightening up organzation of a drawer and found more blues to add to the swatch  list. Acoustic Azure almost looks teal in the top of this photo by comparison to the other two. Even more so in real life.

The Maybellines are both discontinued but Denim Dash is all over the 'bay.
I found Acoustic Azure at the Dollar Tree aaaaaages ago and never got around to swatching it.

Pretty soon I will do a "blackened blue" swatch, but for now, this motley group was very fun.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!!

Coral Reaching

I am reblogging a polish that didn't really get a fair chance.

Not sure I'd call it a win, in the end, but at least I tried.

This is a combo of Princessa Melon and a top coat of Cover Girl Crystal Mist

Melon is a perle shimmer, unfortunately it is rather sheer. I put it in with my layering polishes, but it's in that annoying category of not-quite-sheer-enough-to-be-useful. As much as I love to layer, at times I don't always take the time to color coordinate the layering. As you know I am perpetually organizing, I don't think I have a librarian's verve for sorting, cataloguing, and swatching every permutation of a polish.
Some polishes I just need to let be polishes. Sheer or otherwise.

Here is the result:

Four coats, a little lighter on the nail than in the bottle, less intense, really, and in need of many coats to grab the coverage that is necessary.
Dry time, a little slow, but not impossible, though, it was a bit of a hassle.

Two coats of Crystal Mist, easy top coat that dried pretty well!

I think that it's a color that could be a greater one had there been less sheerness. It's iffy for me. Add that it's hard to find, Richon has revamped their nail polishes, and it's a generic pink coral, I don't imagine there will be many who accidentally pick up this one by mistake.

If there is one thing that works, it's Crystal Mist, Cover Girl's now defunct Boundless Color line was packed with topcoats! I am glad I grabbed one!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Cinema Nails: Caberet's Sally Bowles Green

Many times I see movies and I see cool nail colors.

I only wish black and white movies came with production notes on polish colors used, though I am supposing there would be a bunch of reds and corals on the list. I think old adverts and glam shots might be a good way to see what was au currant.

Tonight I saw a bit of Caberet on Turner Classic Movies. I grabbed my camera and got a few shots of Liza Minelli playing Sally Bowles:

Per Google, Christopher Isherwood describes Sally's hands a painted in an emerald green which brought attention to her cigarette stained and dirty "like a little girl's" hands. Poor Sally, she tries so hard.

Let's face it, she was a hack and a prostitute, but the movie transcends such a depressing little story and makes Sally rather eternal.

I am not sure what they used, nor if these are just glue on.

If you can see it, do. The music is wonderful, and it shows a period of time with a wise backward glance I only wish the world had had back then.  I read Eric Larson's In the Garden of the Beast, and the blind eye toward what was happening is always a shock to realize.

While on this topic find The Mortal Storm, an excellent Jimmy Stewart movie that shows a rare glance into what was happening in Germany before the war by a Hollywood that pretty much for the most part ignored what was going on (their silence on the horrifying changes going on, in retrospect, is still a tragedy, although Hayes was enforced, there were many directors who did a allow their work to present more than empty entertainment)

Caberet was beat by the Godfather for an Oscar - which I think it should have won, but I'm not a super big Godfather fan. I admit, I love a Broadway production where the songs move the plot along!

Here are a couple of greens that would make Sally proud:

Calvin Klein Emerald Green

Sally Hansen Red Opal 06

I hope to make this a periodic installment here on the blog. Photographing TV was something my 3rd grade friend's big sister would do when she was watching roller derby. ;D

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Blog Love - Post Your Blog!

Hey folks, I try to add to my Blog Roll to share the love and keep bloggers out there as much as possible.

Post it!

:D