Coral Claws

Finding photos on the phone can be interesting.

I blogged L'Oreal Mandarine 320 back in the Old Days of this blog (2012, view here!) but really didn't do much else with it.

Thinking back, I don't think I've worn it since! This is the problem with a metric tonne of polish. Right? Maybe.

Truthfully I love coral. I think it can be a universally flattering shade, especially pink.

Somehow I must not have marked the bottle (my high tech "did I blog this" tracking system) and I tossed it on over white:

It's fairly epic for spring.

Three coats and a beautiful shimmery frost that arrests your eyes in the sun, because indoors it's more like a creme.

Here it is under lamps:

This is a tough formula, prone to some issues, as you can see on my left hand here.

Also, over white, it just has issues.


I don't keep my nails quite this long, but also not quite this thick. This is right before I removed the polygel in 2019.


I love this shade and how it zings into the neon realm and yet has that whitish frostiness.


Are frosts coming back? OPI will release a pearl collection and pearl is a kind of brushstroke prone frost.

We shall see...though, OPI isn't on the bleeding edge of much these days, so don't take my word on what's on or off trend.



Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Pinking It Over

I wanted to run a random swatch/comparison of some pinks that are a mix of old and new, blogged and unblogged. Enjoy! (all are top coat free)

China Glaze Sass in a Glass

A rich, glass fleck formula. Soupy-ish. Big three rich. This is from the same collection that has "It's 5 O'clock Somewhere" in it. That's all I really know.

It's got a metallic micro glitter/glass fleck in strong pink magenta jelly. The most red of the bunch.

Four coats used and a pretty shade. Hard to argue with this one!

Might be around blog sales or eBay, it's long since discontinued.



Sinful Colors Forget Now

Three coats, easy formula and a strong blue shimmer that really turns my head. Blogged before, but wanted to compare.

I always think I want to purge this one, but I really love it a lot. I never know if SC has a color, has renamed it under a repromote or not. It is pretty and worth looking for.

This should be around, though I can't imagine why they'd discontinue a color like this.
I know it should be around online, too.




Zoya Mae

Three coats, a beautiful shade, but man, it was a hard polish to apply. I think I ended up moving it along. Or it's in the move along box. Hard to recall.

Plus it felt sheer, although it is rather luminous, it's too hard to work with.

Still at Zoya.



L'Oreal Pink Shell

I love this one so much. A reblog and because it can work as a topper I always think it's too sheer, but it's really not, it builds at three coats and just rocks.

A favorite.

I am sure available online (I just looked on eBay and youch!).

It's a strong glass fleck shimmer, which is really a win.


Here is a comparison:

Left to right:
China Glaze Sass in a Glass
Sinful Colors Forget Now
Zoya Mae
L'Oreal Pink Shells

With a lot more clean up.

I love the drug store offerings here. The win is evident.

Hope you enjoyed!

L'Oreal's Holo Affair

In this abundance of holographic riches, mainstream brands like Revlon and L'Oreal are dipping their toes into the waters with things like holo toppers and holo nail polish.

I think it's great. Nothing more fun than that rainbow on your nails when you hit the sunshine!

Here's L'Oreal's Masked Affair 

This is a mauve holo, very pale, loaded with holo that is a scattered flame

Three coats, no top coat.

I it's not super smooth, but not bad. It takes a bit of oomph to pick up the holo. This is under my lamp with some fill flash, so you can see the color. It's almost purple, but in most light it's a pale purple mauve shade.

I think at first I was a little miffed when I saw it in the bottle. I thought it was kind of paltry with the holo.

On the nail, it gives it up in bright light, which is so nice.

Here  it is in lower light:

It definitely is show its gray roots here!

You can see that there are small and larger holo pieces, and I think if this was all a super fine holo that is mixed with some fine silver (I think it is, because some just doesn't pick up anything) it would be a flat out fail, but the bigger pieces help.

While not a holo monster, it certainly delivers.

Right now it's not cheap on eBay, and I am guessing that (since I've stopped following the drug store beat) L'Oreal does keep a stable of core shades (at least at Walgreens), but pop out special stuff on a seasonal basis. It is no longer on their site. It was a special edition, so it may have not been on the site long if at all. 

This came out in 2015, but hung around for a while. Though it's not longer in the L'Oreal stable, nor at an affordable price, it was nice to see holo polish hit mainstream.

I am surprised more brands don't do this: holographic pigment is not in short supply and everyone seems to like it, or at least enjoys dipping their toes every now an again.

I have a backup bottle and I am trying to use some polishes as stamping polishes. This has a density about it that make make it a candidate.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Art Nouveau

Wanted something rich and luxurous that seemed like a fin de siecle velvet robe draped with long gold chains.

I sponged Sally Hansen Salon Formula Navy Baby and L.A. Girl Iron Red then stamped it with L'Oreal Bond Bronze.
SH is easily found on eBay, even if you don't get the old square salon bottles, there are ample navy shimmers about: Hard Candy has on you can find on eBay, too.
L.A. Girl has reined in their extensive line and Iron Red is not on their site, but it is on eBay.
Finally, L'Oreal Bond Bronze, can readily be replaced with a gold metallic shimmer. What I love about this polish for stamping is the micro glitter sparkles that show up scattered through the stamping. Very  unique.

Very simple to do for a freshman nail artist like me,but evoking the complexities of Nouveau at its height when it was taking the 20th century into the bright lights of its electrified self.

When I did this I imagined Norma Shearer devolving into vamphood in Strangers May Kiss.
(If you haven't seen many pre-Hays Code Hollywood movies, they are all worth watching, even the more obscure ones give you a peek at early 20th century culture in America more than the glossed over stuff that became the "golden age" of Hollywood)

Meanwhile, loved this a lot.
The foil of the red and the transition from navy through purple coupled with the soft gold chain appearance of the stampognevokes exotic-ness.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Banana Nude

L'Oreal Eva's Nude is from a collection a few years ago that featured celebrity affiliations and shades of lipstick and nail polish (that I noticed).

I pretty much ignored it all until I saw this warm nude at Big Lots! over a  year ago.

Three coats an no top coat.

I love the soft amber shimmer that is almost undetectable, but clearly there.

I think you can still find this on eBay with ease. Nice!

Excellent formula, truly.


I then topped it with Revlon Glimmer Gloss Pina Colada

I did just one coat and no top coat, so I think a second or even third coat would be good, but I wanted something very subtle.

This, too can be found on eBay fairly readily.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Black Shimmer Part 1

Black shimmers are pretty rare, but they are pretty neat.

I've got a few in my collection that have been in need of swatching for awhile now.

First, a few things...I will start with the more fine shimmers and build into the larger glass fleck ones.

All are pretty much three coats unless otherwise indicated. No top coat, as usual.

Zoya Raven

Pretty little soft silvery frost overlays this very deep black polish.

Fairly rough application, I won't argue, but as a general rule it was pretty easy to use. 

Raven is available still at the Zoya site. 

Zoya Anais

This one, blogged before, is shot through with a gold shimmer.  It was part of a Zoya Mystery Trio that was pretty much universally panned because it was packed with neutrals. Looking back, neutrals are so "in" now it's crazy.

This one will show a lot of gold at certain angles, which I find interesting. Like a blackened silver in a lot of ways.

The nearest relative would Zoya Claudine. 

Sally Hansen Voodoo

This is black with a black shimmer, but it's so dark and hard to see. I love it.

I have nothing like it. It's pretty and I'm not doing it justice.

Can be found easily on eBay.

L'Oreal Black Patent Silver

Another black with a silver shimmer. I don't think I get the name, but I do like that it's got some pop against the light.

I don't know if there is one around eBay, I can't find one, but you never know when it will show up.

Part two soon!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!!

Texture Duo

I enjoy the emergence of texture as a classic nail polish option versus a passing trend.

While I don't have a ton of textures, I do have more than even I realize!

Here is L'Oreal Hidden Gems

This shifting polish is one of a group of L'Oreal texture polishes that came out in 2014. I picked this one up on a fluke, thinking I was going to get all the James Bond ladies textures, but ended up not doing any of that.

This is two coats, no top coat. It's got a shift that is fairly hard to capture on camera and it was devilishly slow to dry.

I no longer have it at this writing, moving it along and happily so.


Next up is China Glaze Wish On A Starfish

This is also two coats and a bit of a tricky formula. I'd say that the best result I had was waiting a while between coats.

I can forgive this one a lot. Why? Gold fleck that just masterfully pops out of the orchid pink base. It's bumpier than the L'Oreal, too. I give it props for that.

I love this one thanks to color and texture. This came out in 2014, too in the Sea Goddess collection, which had a lot of nice polishes, though this one is a standout.

Both should show up online at eBay, Amazon, blogsales, etc, so it's not like these are super hard to find.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Feeling Swatchy: Five Valentine Shades

Let's just jump in....shall we? The water's fine.

Hard Candy Pretty in Punk

Three coats, no top coat.

I love this kind of pink, though I will add that the formula is more like a jelly or a crelly and yet I get good coverage in three coats. There was a time when three coats was the norm, but I get a vibe that people only want one or two. This one will sandwich over other things such as glitter and glass fleck very well.

This came from a large eBay purchase of some job lotted Hard Candy polishes. Still available online.

Milani Raspberry Fusion

Found this at the Dollar Tree. Since it was packed with glass fleck, I thought I'd see how it all played out. Both photos are taken with flash, it brought out the color very well.

Top photo: three coats, no top coat. It's sheer and it doesn't seem to build with a lot of enthusiasm.

Bottom photo: one coat over navy blue. Wow!! Super Topper!! Don your cape, and leap from high buildings, you topper hero, you!!

Still online, for those of you who are seeking a pink topper with a lot of KAPOW!




L'Oreal Seductive

More flash photography! This is three coats of L'Oreal's Steel Colour line, which, judging by the spelling of "color" to the British "colour", I am guessing for a foreign market. I have a number of these and they are absolutely beautiful shades.

I found this, along with the rest, at the Dollar Tree, and wish I had more. They are so odd, yet so nice: smallish bottles (9mL) and great formulae.

Though you can see some nail line in the photo, in real life, there is complete coverage. Like Hard Candy Pretty in Punk, this has crelly quality. Yummy!



Milani Tropical Fiesta

Oooh, Aaaah. Pink corals are high on my list of favorite colors to wear. Three coats, no top coat and a delightful glossy finish.
This is a traditional creme with that intense color payoff that verges on neon. Though some folks might call this neon - I've seen lesser colors called neon - this really isn't, just packed with gorgeous coral wallop!
Found at Dollar Tree and I was quite pleasantly surprised by this one. Easy to still find online, too!



Orly no name matte red

Here's the final entry. A matte red I found at TJ Maxx. No name label and none of my research yielded much in the way of information.
This is a matte has a bit of texture, but nothing like a true texture. I can't seem to figure out the story behind it. I wondered if it was magnetic, too, but nothing.

Top photo is matte and the bottom is with a top coat. I like that it has a red base, but a pink shimmer very much present, but not overpowering.

I can't really find it online, but if anyone knows the name of this, I'd love to know!


Hope you enjoyed the Valentine shades!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

L'Oreal's Luminous Offering

L'Oreal Sea Violette

Three coats, no top coat.

Can I get an AMEN???? I love this polish so hard. It's a magenta shimmer loaded with blue shimmer. The blue shimmer just glows. It's mesmerizing. 

Here it is over navy blue

The base is a jelly so it's absolutely perfect as a layering polish leaving the blue shimmer to pulsate over your senses. 

While I love it alone most of all, it's nice to see that it's got layering chops. Chops I tell you, chops.

Found at the Dollar Tree ages ago and grateful that we crossed each other's path. 

Good luck finding it online, I haven't found it. I think it might show up in blog sales or eBay on occasion. You need to be assiduous in your search these days though to garner results. 

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Sheers, Sheers, Sheers

So versatile.

Layering under, over, around. To me a good sheer is great as a one coater. I have to say that "water polish" and jellies can be exasperating because they need to be applied very correctly to achieve and even color. I've got Maybelline and Zoya and I won't lie, it's not pretty and I have kept them, why I am not sure...but that's another story.

Meanwhile, here are some sheers that do the job in one sheer coat. Some of these build better than others, but at one coat, they are just right for layering.

Sally Hansen Cherry Nice

Can I get an Amen! This is one coat of heaven. It's bright, but cool at the same time. Raising a ruckus!

One thing I've discovered is that Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure had a few of these really amazing sheers, I was on the verge of purging, but as I try these out the wow factor is off the charts.

Still roaming around eBay. Nice!




New York Color Glossies 237

Sheer shimmers often leave me in a lurch. They are patchy, they don't cover well enough to really leave you enough wiggle room to one coat.

Well, this one did. NYC Glossies are really kind of underrated, they all seem to have this translucence about them, it must have been the "thing" about this line.

Old Dollar Tree purchase. Finally blogged. This one is great over glitters, too. Enough shimmer to play around and enough pigment in the base, to cover in one pretty decent coat.

On eBay, so it's not completely gone.




New York Color Glossies 221

One delicious melon pink coat foamy shimmer: not a full on shimmer, but not a creme at all. Soft shimmer in a pretty little package.

I blogged this before, here, but I believe that my stained nails didn't really help show off this sweet polish.

Candy shell goodness, eh?

I don't know why I had this in the purge pile, I am so glad I re-evaluated it!

And it's still on eBay! Yay!




L'Oreal Drumbeat Red

Perfect pure red. One coat. It is beautiful. No playing around with deep red, orange red, blue red, just red. No top coat, but quite glossy. I love the formula, but it's old chemistry, so it does stink a bit.


I wanted to show how nice these types of polishes look when layered. I put this one over NOPI Canadian Star.

I love how it suddenly becomes a blue tone red, but still enables the sparkling glass fleck to show through. Better still, you don't see the blue jelly in NOPI CS, but it does imbue Drumbeat Red with a cooler tint. It's layering heaven.

Drumbeat Red was a Dollar store purchase, and it is available online.



I also think that the new lines of polishes by OPI, Essie and others do similar things as these polishes, albeit not with any finish but sheer cremes, so these old polishes are right on trend.


Personally I don't get a thrill layering over a chrome. Now a foil, a glitter, a glass fleck or a flakie? That's another turtle on another Galapagos Island. Ya know? You feel the variations, if you get my drift.

Down the road I hope to get some of these new polishes to experiment with, but in the meantime, I've got these guys in my stable.


Thanks so much for reading my little nail polish journal!

Renaissance Spices

Here are three reds that evoke that mix of umbers, ochres and siennas. Close your eyes, you are in Florence, it is summer, you see Giotto Bondone adding shadow and directional light to paintings. Filippo Brunelleschi is teaching the world about perspective. You may not see more than the power of the church, but the subtext is the power of the human mind. Heady stuff when you think about the last  thousand years.

Back to the polish, it's some good stuff. I love shades like this, they are just full of energy. Perfect for this time of year.

L'Oreal Spiced Up

This is two coats, perhaps three, but only two were necessary at all. No top coat.

Three free, but still older and found at Dollar Tree. Man, is this not great? 

This polish is ostensibly a creme, but has little shimmers of the same shade, so the shimmer isn't super secret, just subtle.

Love it a lot. 

Might be around on eBay, but no love at the current moment.

Diamond Cosmetics Sitka Sable

Two coats, no top coat. 

There is a shimmer in this creme and it's a mix of gold and copper and it really amps up this polish.
I love it because it's red, but you feel the heft of Lorenzo Medici's silken robes.

DC is now only private label, but you might see a similar shade within Priti or Ginger+Liz. I just saw that Priti has a Venezia collection for fall 2015, so maybe it will show up there. You never know!

Shiseido Copper Cedar

Beautiful redwood shimmer. Two coats. You can see it shows brush "errors" very easily. The formula was stellar, and I was surprised because I wasn't sure how it would go down.

Lovely, easy to work with and the color is so perfect. 

Found several of the Shiseidos on eBay and really haven't seen them around much since. Very odd how stuff pops up then vanishes. I do see it, as I write this, on eBay for a much higher price than I paid. I am not sure it has the "cult of personality" to support that price, but who knows. Meanwhile, I really have nothing like this that feels so warm yet still clean and not muddy.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal.

Pale Blue Shimmers - Part 1

Blue seems to be a theme for the summer, I'll run with it.

If there is something I am crazy about, it's shimmers with other shimmers in them. Here are a bunch that are in the same family: blue, but with another shimmer thrown in.



All are no top coat, all are pretty much sheers and I've set them up as follows:
Left to right:

• Two coats over Sally Hansen Pacific Blue
• Three coats alone
• Two coats over Sally Hansen Pacific Blue
• Three coats alone

L'Oreal Blue-By-U

Starting with my favorite. It's an old L'Oreal I found at the Dollar tree many moons ago.

This really is such a win. It doesn't battle Pacific Blue, but accents it well. Best of all, the lilac shimmer shows up nicely.

A quick browse shows me that this one might be pretty hard to find.




Maybelline Blue Craze

This one if much weaker in the lavender shimmer and somewhat more bland on the nail. I won't lie that this was harder to photograph, but I won't say that it's some kind of purple shimmer monster, either. The blue is a bit flat and lackluster as well, I see yellow undertone and that could be part of the oxidization that occurs in the what-is-supposed-to-be clear base.

Currently on eBay, so it's not impossible to find. Pretty in the bottle, you can see the purple shimmer, but it isn't as strong as I'd hoped.




Ozotic 744

When this one came out I about flipped out, it's gorgeous.

Fairly decent coverage at three coats, but over SH Pacific Blue, it's at it's best. I will say that it pales slightly compared to L'Oreal Blue-By-U, but has better coverage and is a beautiful pink shimmer that is just lovely. It behaves similar to a duochrome, it looks more blue in some light and more pink in others. I think a base brings it out a bit better.

Here the periwinkle base is a star, and over SH  PB it's a super star.

Ozotic: gone. Good luck finding it. Boo hoo Ozotic.




Urban Decay Graffiti

This is lighter and more sheer than than the L'Oreal, but does a good showing over SH Pacific Blue. I think it is okay alone, but do like it over a more intense hue.  The light blue is very pretty, too.

I found these on eBay and am not sure if  you'd call it a duochrome, though there is some shift to blue in the shimmer, it's so subtle, I'd hardly put it into that category.


I didn't bother with comparisons, I love the L'Oreal the best because it exhibits all the best of these types of polishes: pretty light blue and oomph in the shimmer.


Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Accidentally Bought Dupes

It is not hard to buy dupes, and I don't mean back ups, but that inadvertent "gotcha" feeling when you get home with a new polish, put it in the "to be filed" drawer, then discover that there is an exact replica, or one with such minor differences you just think "drat!"

Color Club Under Your Spell is from the Seven Deadly Sins collection from autumn 2014.

L'oreal Too Dimensional? is from their Gold Dust collection from autumn 2013.

This is just GREAT! Two polishes that I love. hahahahaahahahahahaahsfasf;!@$#$@!

Meanwhile...here are the bottle comps:

Both are glass fleck of purple and a lot of gold with an addition of some hefty blurple glitter.

It can appear more blue than it is, and it's definitely purple.

Both are textures.

Here they are below:

(yes, because I became so excited by this post, I completely FORGOT to post what THE HECK was what!...eep!)

Left to right:
L'Oreal Too Dimensional?
Color Club Under Your Spell
L'Oreal Too Dimensional?
Color Club Under Your Spell

 Both are three coats, both dry to a glossy finish on me. I've seen blogger photos with more of a  matte look, but mine were both shine. I would say that the L'Oreal had more of an intense gold and stronger texture, but in truth, without knowing which is which, I really just couldn't tell them apart.

So you can see, darn near dupes.

I like both, and am not quite ready to part with them, although textures seem to be on the wane and not taking hold as yet "another finish alternative" like Holo and the newer multi chrome flakes or even flakies themselves.

I found the CC on Head2Toe Beauty's website, still available. L'oreal Too Dimensional? is on eBay and Amazon. I will note on the latter that pricing fluctuates between "shelf pull" reseller pricing and "hey this is VHTF!!!" types of sellers. So if you want that L'Oreal action you may want to snap it up before it does actually become hard to find. 

Meanwhile...thank you so much for reading my little nail polish journal!

Berry-ations Part 1

Wanted to do a random batch of swatches. I've had a lot of these for a long time. Dang, time to get them tried out!

All are three coats, none have top coats.

Pulled out a bunch of berry-ish polishes and had at it!

Sparitual Worldly Wise

Soft mulberry that pushes into the mauve rose category. Lovely little polish. I think my photo here is a touch light, though.

Not sure where I got this one, but I think it was a Spiritual sale, quite some time ago. It's no longer on their website. I looked it up to figure out what collection if was from, but couldn't find it, it barely shows up on the radar. So odd.

L'Oreal Sophisticate

Deeper glossy raspberry rose that I love quite a bit. 

Glossy finish, sans topcoat is always a win.

Found at the ol' Dollar Tree. I never even saw these in the main drug stores, which is weird because I got this only a couple of years ago. Odd.

Misa Push Upon It

This is from their Living In The Fast Lane collection from when I was really just starting out in polish, about 2009. Beautiful self-leveling creme. 

Rich raspberry that sends feelers into the red family.

I believe I purchased this from my usual online etailers, it's been quite a while. 

Need to wear this one more often.

Zero oddness.

Essie Tribeca

Very similar to Spiritual Worldly Wise, but more blue toned. My photo is a bit darker, though.

Glossy finish, but sheer. 

This could be used to make a pretty crelly. Might do that after a few wearings. 

I tried to google to find out what collection this was in, but dang, it's not to be found. More oddness.

Purchased, I think, either at a blog sale or eBay.

Here are some comparisons:

Same order left to right

Sparitual, L'Oreal, Misa, Essie

Here the top row is one coat, middle is two, bottom shows a bit better variation between the L'Oreal and Misa, they aren't really as close as they look in these photos.

Bottles!

This is with my flash, so it really brightens things up.

(I seem to have a ton of water bottles around! I recycle, but dang, odd!)

Weirdly enough, as I tried to let you know where you might find these polishes for purchase, only the Misa showed up. 

The other three were like ephemera, lost on the ether.

Although the L'Oreal was fairly commonplace about 2-3 years ago at the Dollar Trees I browsed through, it's nearly invisible now. Plenty of L'Oreal on eBay, but not much of the "Steel Color" stuff.

In a couple days I'll post part 2,  plus a bonus!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Jellies Over Shimmers

Warm flickering fireplaces are what winter dreams are made of.

While others want to shush down mountain slopes, or climb an ice sheet, I'm happily indulging in a cup of hot cocoa and a crackling fire.

Whenever I layer jellies over shimmers, I get that glow, like embers.

First up is a fine shimmer and jelly combination:

Sally Hansen Tenacious Ruby over a Sally Hansen mini no name of a bright berry shade.

Shimmer can flatten out, but here it just smolders.

The win, for me anyhow, is that I can make this happen with any combo, just about, and don't need to look for those rare shimmers that have a "lit from within" quality.

Next:

Maybelline Colorama Cherry Pop over L'Oreal Coral Starfish. 

A neutral red over an orange jelly packed with glass fleck shimmer.

All of these are two coats of the main jelly color over the shimmer or glass fleck.

Larger shimmers and almost a glitter feel. 

This needed a topcoat, but in addition to my nemesis, lint, I'd put some cream on my hands and it dulled down the finish. 

Regarding the polishes, I believe nearly all have been blogged before, all are available on eBay for sure. I just checked and found them all. 

Meanwhile, please excuse me while I toss another log on the fire, will ya?

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Meat Marble

I wanted a rich "cozy Victorian library in a Georgian manse" feeling and instead I got meat.

Well, you'll see....

Instead of leather bound books, a crackling fireplace, and a glass of dry sherry, I get a really creepy look.

It's like decaying flesh.

Like the cadaver lab at a medical school. 

I think mattifying it, which I ended up doing here, made it less like "body found by the wetland behind the hunting lodge" and more presentable.

I didn't keep it on long after I photographed it. I'd only done 4 fingers and trying to water marble more of this monstrosity was too daunting. Remember, I hold the banner for craft challenged and the payoff wasn't twinkling my bell.

Here are the polishes I used:

I think a yellow or a yellow green would have smartened it all up.

This ended up more like a Murder Mystery Weekend on the Golden Girls (tell me you've seen that episode, right?)

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!