Woodland Creatures

Here are a pair of warm shades of redwood. They are similar, but one is deeper than the other. Both have a black base, but in differing degrees.

First up a polish I've wanted for a while and found on a blog sale, Jessica Cinnamon Kiss.

Graciously warm shimmer in a black base, blackens around the edges in shadow. Three coats, fabulous formula.
Somewhat hard to find, but there is the Jessica website and it's on Transdesign/Nailsupplies.us
(not affiliated)
Cinnamon Kiss shifts slightly from a madeira to a burgundy. Nice!


Next up is OPI Midnight in Moscow

Very much a deep black base with the same shade of redwood shimmer.

This required four coats, however it handled very well and dried nicely.

Turns black in dark light but the right light enables a flash of this shimmer.

I rather like these blacks with red shimmer. I have a Sally Hansen mini that is similar.

Here they are next to each other:

Really unlike each other Cinnamon Kiss is considerably warmer than Midnight in Moscow, but they both remind me of redwood trees.

Here is my bottle shot!

Hope you enjoyed!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Nubs and Vampitude

With the shortest nails I've had in a while, I am reminded of how often I read that vampy shades are "great for nubs!!!!"

Well, they may be great, but when your nails are completely nonexistent, a deep color, flooded cuticles and hassle of cleanup in a small space made it pretty challenging.

This is one of the most frustrating swatchfests and yet one of the most dam-breaking when it comes to dupes. 

Yes, I have a lot of these.

Too many. 

Here are eight that I wanted to blog about.

Some consistencies:

- all three coats

- all are reddish vamps, not purple vamps

- no top coats

Elle Elle/LDL 209

This is from back in 2009 or 2010 in packs of 9.

Has a silvery shimmer that is very subtle, not enough to make this either a shimmer or a frost, but a creme with a secret shimmer.

A little bit loose-y, but not bad. Love the bottles and removable lids. 

Good luck finding this one. It's my fave of the lot and I am sure there is a real dupe in a more well known line of polish. 

Sally Hansen Black Currant Creme

When I purchased this it was in a two pack at the Dollar Tree and as solid as a rock. I revived it, but it's evaporated once again, and even after a ton of thinner, it was pretty gloop-y.

More warm, more of a maroon base. 

NYC Lincoln Center. 

Loose, rather dark. Very much the glossy finish. Would make a great jelly franken.

I think it's supposed to be a copy of OPI Lincoln Park After Dark.

Nice!

Essie Berry Hard.

These were at Ross. Not sure I like this formula at all. I look like I slopped it on then tried to clean up. I really tried to keep it neat!

Bit more red.

Borghese Sonata Berry.

Not bad. Not bad at all!

Found at TJ Maxx or Ross. Glad I grabbed it.

NYC 225.

This is from the Dollar Tree. Apparently NYC had a "Glossies" line. These are crellies, jellies and sheer shimmers from my collection that I'd found at the Dollar Tree when they showed up.

Not bad, a little bit of a challenge, but not crazy-making!

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Flirt.

Bit slow to dry, like all Sally is on me.

Very nice color. I found this at the Dollar Tree. Not a super fan of the formula, it was a fight to the finish.

I am not sure if I won or not.

L'Oreal Stroke of Midnight.

Great formula. Hard to fault. 

This might be discontinued.

To be honest there is no L'Oreal display at my drug store for polishes any more, all I ever see are seasonal displays. This one was on sale, I accidentally purchased a back up, but for it's shade, it's a nice color formula.

On the whole, I'm not a huge vamp fan. Only because they usually look dark. They also emphasize the shortness of my nails.

Honestly, I'd just prefer a nude until I get a decent length on to enjoy the whole process.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

A Little Bit of Franken

So we've got a broken bottle of Nubar Meadow leaking into its packaging and my hand. What to do?

Grab and empty bottle and save what I can and start frankening.

Go!

If there is one thing I hate when I get nail mail it's a broken bottle. I've been lucky that all have been completely contained in the shipping containers, but a break is a bummer.

I had found all the Nubar Sparkles on a blog sale and was thrilled to get them. One didn't make it, no biggie, they were a real deal.

I scraped together every bit that was still liquid and put it into a spare bottle. Now what? I added the rich blue Sally Hansen Xtreme wear that I'd found too sheer, and added things like navy, some other cremes and found this to be the perfect combination of cool teal and warm yellow green glitter from the Nubar Meadow Sparkle.
Hard to say if it's perfect, but I like that it teeters between peacock and teal.

This is three coats, and I have to say I wish I wrote down the recipe!

A little aside about Biotin. I've been using 1k microgram per day, it made my nails grow like weeds. Strong? My word, while I wasn't popping tops of soda cans, but my nails could take a bit of a beating.
No splits, no side cracks, and now peels. Wow!

Then I slacked off. Seriously. Completely was forgetting about it. Next thing I know, massive crack, splits down the center (?!?!?!) and peels. Had a break very low and so I cropped them all off. Ah well!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Uncommon Denominator

Those glass flecks, they are just awesome!

Here's a top tier one.

Nicole by OPI's Coral Denominator:

Let's just step back and bask in it's gilt shimmer in a delicious grapefruit pink base.

This was a polish that came out back in spring of 2011 as a collection NOPI did for a certain teenage pop star.
Many colors came out, but this one was a Canadian exclusive. I really was sad to hear that. Then I found a bottle on eBay for $10 (ouch!). Then, suddenly it was showing up at TJ Maxx. What?? NO!

This is a polish I have a backup or two (or three) of. It's that good.

I have three coats here, no top coat.

It's so fabulous, I hate to gush. O heck. Gush away. It's quite a show stopper.
I've got this under lamps, in the sunshine it's beautiful.

It's on eBay, for a decent price if you are patient. Not sure if it's one of those polishes that will eventually fade out because it was a limit edition and came down as job lots from Canada. It might be petering out.

As a relative of the Milani "gold" line, it's quite similar, but the contrast of the gold and the rich pink coral shade really takes it to a new level. Here are links to the Milani polishes: part 1 and part 2.

Kind of hard to be hard on this one.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Re-tasseling the Taupe

I blogged about Maybelline Tassled Taupe a few years ago when I did a big "taupe comparison".

Taupe is such a classic shade, it works forever as a staple. I would say that I've got a lot of this color in it's variations from grayish, to purplish, to neutral to yellowish.

Tasseled Taupe is a Maybelline gold cap that I found at the Dollar Tree.

I decided to add a dose of Essie As Gold As It Gets to bring out more of the gold shimmer that it has.

I originally blogged it here, though my photo is a little questionable, it's a nice warm shimmer in this yellow based taupe.
Essie's topper is really a yellowish gold so it only brings out the yellow in the polish.

Three coats of Tasseled taupe, one of AGAIG.

Here's a bottle shot:

You can see that the shimmer is in Tasseled Taupe shifts into a bronze range at times, too.

Taupe is pretty much a staple, it gets released and re-released in some iteration or another, which shows that we are long past just calling it a fad, it's more of a trend that seems to be holding on rather well.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

This is, by the way, my 600th post! Thanks for reading my blog! I really enjoy writing it, and I love to share my polishes with you!

Richelle, What a Honey

Richelle by Zoya is described as a metallic bronze that "screams luxury" by the folks who write copy at the Zoya website.

When I scream "luxury" no one comes. Ah well.

Here's Zoya Richelle, blogged before, but in need of a rethink since the last time was a quick multi-swatch:

Honey shade of bronze that looks a little bit like a foil, but doesn't have that kind of play. Just a metallic.

Unfortunately this formula was a bit troublesome for me. I found that it was hard to get it to dry, and even after it was supposed to be dry, it dented very easily.
I had to re-apply it.

This is three coats.

First coat is not super dense and looks like it's a bit grainy, so I am not sure it it's dense enough for stamping and water marbling.

Pretty, quite pretty, but not as luxurious or as complex as I'd have hoped.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Putting My Polish Where My Mouth Is...Hopefully Instead of My Foot

So I recently said that many polishes could be duped with layering.

I approximated RBL Aqua Lily using a pair of polishes I love.

Now I realize that it's not as green, but I love the bluer shade of turquoise that ended up here.

What have we got here?
OPI Fly - three coats, nice formula(!)
Sephora's Pantone Universe line Cradle Pink - two coats, easy formula!

Fly is so nice. Easy to use and remarkably little cleanup was necessary!
Cradle Pink is a translucent topper, full of glass fleck that shift around pink and lavender.

I figured I might as well aim for a very popular polish.

Cradle Pink was a polish my sister purchased for me for Christmas. It's got several cousins, but it's really a vibrant pink atop this pretty blue.

I have ample shades similar to the base in the real Aqua Lily, but I wanted to wear Fly and I really wasn't 100% sure if I'd enjoy something more green.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Dusty Purple Layering

Hey folks!

Happy Sunday!

Sundays are lounge-y days, especially when you fall back and the day is almost gone before it starts.

Here is American Apparel Dynasty:

Akin to the dusty lilacs I blogged about last summer. This seems especially crushed, and looks more red/purple in the photos than it actually is. I'd almost say it pushes into the mauve terrain in real life.

Next I added Cover Girl Amethyst Mist

Purple glitter and iridescent glitters mixed together. Discontinued, but the payoff is pretty great for layering.

Finally Revlon Glimmer Gloss Grape Shimmer:

Purple base, but blue glass fleck glitters that don't color shift. Really like a glitter on the nail. Sometimes it's invisible then it pops up and flashes all the blue.
I've blogged this before, still love it a LOT.

AA was a great formula. Wow. Amazing. I really think it's got to be a top creme formula. I barely had to do clean up. I did three coats, but two would have done nicely.
I purchased it on eBay when some shelf pulls were up in a lot. Some colors were clearly not super wintastic (Palm Springs comes to mind) but overall, nice.

The two other toppers were to coats each. Ebay would be your best bet, both are long gone.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

So I Start A Chapter With a Weather Report

As recently as last week it was warm enough to wear shorts. Now we are looking at snow pushing its nose into our business!
Sigh.

Time for some more wintry shades.

I have to say it's been a bit of a spell since I cracked out my very old Sally Hansen glitters I blogged back in "the day" here.

I took Color Club Slow Jam - mulberry russet shade - and topped it with Sally Hansen Radar:

Creates a deep sienna shade that is very luxurious.
Three coats of Slow Jam and two of Radar.

The glitter is a mix of silver and a smattering of holo. Alone Radar really is much brighter, since it's a jelly base and more brown leaning, the browns in both shades mesh well.

Slow Jam, blogged here, is a pretty mulberry shade that is quite beautiful and I've been pulling it out a lot over the last few days, its' a fave.

On to winter days.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!