Greens for March: Gem Green by CQ

So out of the drug store milieu of nail polish shopping, that I didn't even know that Scherer nail polish had gone out of business back in 2013 until I started writing this post. Very sad.

Scherer made some duo chromes called Chameleons (I moved most of mine along because I could not make the formula work for me, despite their innate beauty), as well as CQ and Petites. Little workhorse lines of polish that sat quietly in the back aisles of my local store and never putting out special displays to get people excited about them. All quietly doing great little jobs at a price point about 1/2 of Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure line. Drat. I adore every one of my CQ polishes and Petites.

I tip my hat to them.

Here is Gem Green

Three coats over nude nails and the mint shimmer is full of holo as well.  No top coat and the holo on my indoor, daylight corrected lamp was not really showing up. The bottom photo is a flash and even then I could not coax it into camera readiness. Fortunately it is a pretty stand alone topper. To enhance this in future wearings I would wear a ridge filler and a solid nude base, then its sheerness would not be an issue.

Tried it over Color Club After Hours.

With the sun hitting it smack dab in the face, the scattered holo came out to play.

I did wear this for several days and you can see a small chip on my ring finger.
Plus a bit of tip wear, too.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Odd Men Out

A trio of greens that finish up the month of March.

CQ Corduroy.
A soft grayed down green, that is very subtle and very understated. It is a blue leaning green, though, not a khaki. It reminds me of cactus skin.
Two coats, no worries!

Another dusty grayed green. Similar to CQ Corduroy in that aspect, however very much the yellow version of a dusty gray green.
Two coats, but not very self-leveling and seemed to show, despite being a creme, all the application. Very odd.
I wanted to love this polish a lot because I love Nicole by OPI in general, but I am kind of let down by it.
Don't know why, hmm.

Typo!!!!

Fairy Teal, but Sally Hansen. A two coater that is absolutely gorgeous! I threw it in because I have not worn this polish in a while, never blogged it and since it's so well known it would be a nice comparison to show how the other two look.

Two coats here, and a lovely formula. Not that "surprisingly quick dry" type of polish, but with a quick dry top coat, it's a winner!

Here is a comparison of all three.

The Fairy Teal is even more bright in real life, but you can see CQ Corduroy is a very grayed down version of that blue leaning green.
Green Up Your Act really shows that it's not self leveling and shows all the bumps, for some reason I could not get it to just play nice!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

And thanks for going along for this green ride!! I really love doing themes, perhaps another theme down the pike!

CQ Does It Right! (And Some Essie, Too)

When I saw the new CQ display a few weeks ago I was pretty much not feeling much of the new spring action in the drug stores. WetnWild has let me down a lot of late, so I am pretty much passing on it, not feeling the limited edition N.Y.C. colors nor was I ever a mad fan of Maybelline's watery spring offering and Revlon leaves me cold unless it's a color I must own (drats you Not So Blueberry!).

Then I saw CQ 575 Slate. Hello Lover!

A deep petrol blue creme. Three coats here and a glossy finish sans topcoat. It photographs almost perfectly, I know I must not be lazy and always use two lights, or my pictures are a hot mess.
I am instantly and hopelessly in love with this creme. It is a bit muted, or "dusty" and yet it really is its own animal. Nothing that says "pine" or "teal" but just is wonderfully its own color.

I wanted to make sure it wasn't too green and was completely curious if I had anything close, but then I realized I wasn't up for a bunch of comps and I also suddenly realized I have to have a new category: blue greens or green blues. More drawer sorting!

OK, enough waxing on...the thing is that it's a great little polish, too. I had no trouble with application. Also, it dried quickly. There is no top coat, here, though.  Frankly, it has really turned me onto creme finishes. Whoo! Talk about a change up! I am an unapologetic shimmer/foil/glimmer girl. Meme-tastic!



So, I did put on Essie's Going Incognito to kind of give a flavor for the blueness, yet greenness of this polish:

Essie comes through again: really love this formula a lot. Three easy-to-apply coats, dries even better than the CQ. A green that is really green with the slightest hint of blue, and also subdued. If this wasn't a subdued shade, it would scream "CHRISTMAS" and it really doesn't.




Here are some closer comparisons, just to show each polish off, not to imply that they are at all the same:

Here is a bottle shot, too. Mainly because I kind of like bottle shots:

Truth is I love Essie bottles. I love the name in raised letters and the squareness as well.

CQ always appear small to me, but really they are only slightly smaller, it's just that the bottle is a bit deeper so it disguises it. I think in the world of product marketing usually the opposite is true: make a small amount appear larger. The CQ bottles remind me of something rather old fashioned and almost Art Deco, which I do like a lot.

OK, that's it for now. I have to admit that I am still trying to use up those little linty polish removing cloths, but they are almost gone.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!