Basic Autumn Stamping

 Here is a beautiful yellow, Princessa's Picking on Waikiki stamped with Maybelline Racing Green.

All are oldies, but still beautiful. I will be posting a lot of backlogged images. Right now my nails are super short and kind of weak, not that this image couldn't have been taken yesterday! LOL. 

The Magic Garden is a plate loaded with beautiful images, best for large nails. I can't figure out if DRK is still making plates, they were out, they have polish that shows up on the limited time sales like Polish Pickup and Hella Handmade Customs, but I am not sure what the status is on plates. It's a big plate that has a bird cage in the middle, not the one with the Christian imagery. May be on the reselling facebook places or ebay etc.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal. 

Old Sally Hansen and Her Roses

 Here I am with another vintage Sally Star Opal. 

Rose Gold 04. The Rose part is a mystery, but onward.

A deep stem green, perhaps, but a blackened green for sure. 

This is two coats over black. You can see it is a somewhat loose formula.

But the deep green satisfies.

Then the shift:

I mean, really! The deep plum with a scant pink shimmer just delights me.

I did try it alone, but there was no rose or gold.

Findable on the usual suspects for vintage polish: eBay, blog sales, vintage polish groups on Facespace. 

Thanks so much for reading my little nail polish journal!

Zingy Zoya Zuza

 What can I say, a simple seaside shade suited for summer.

They call it a turquoise, but there is a green shimmer in it that really moves it out of the blue into the seafoam green category. And yet it's not that pale kind of shade, but a rich fresh pop of green/blue.

Zoya's description (It's still available on their site) says there is gold and silver shimmer, well the gold certainly yeets the blue out of the turquoise.

Here's my swatch:

Three coats, no top coat.

Simple, easy and perfect for these hot days of summer. 

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

I'm Not Outta Green Yet

 Squeezing one last one into the month!

Here is Essence Outta Space is the Place:

Soft pastel rose pink that is full of seafoam green shimmer. Sunny afternoon with Lily in the background.

Two coats, this has a top coat.

Here in lower light to bring out the shimmer. This is a lamp and some Photoshop to brighten a too-dark photo. (One day I might learn to master even the smallest portion of that software)

From their 2017 Outta Space Stories here is another in a sweet little collection. There really is a gorgeous green shimmer that is outta this world. 

Since it's a bit older, I found that I probably should have thinned it a bit before using, since I had a really thick formula.

Though a tiny bit delicate (in the top photo I wanted to catch the light but after one day I'd already dinged it so I had to hold my hand that way to catch the sunshine) and a bit too thick, I managed to not have to do too much clean up.

Older polish does get persnickety, and that's just a fact; polish thinner is a must. Mea culpa. 

Here are some of the other ones I've blogged:

• Essence Beam Me Up!
• Essence Intergalactic Adventure
• Across the Universe

I think you can still find it on eBay and big South American river, but not sure. 

Long gone on Essence's site. I wonder if the latest craze for eyeshadow palettes has eclipsed their nail polish efforts. I know that the US and EU sites are full of some basic color collections, but nothing seems to pop out as a "spring release." Though, I don't follow the brand assiduously, I have yet to really find one that puts a foot wrong. 

Thanks so much for enjoying greens with me for March 2021 and thanks for reading my little nail polish journal. 

Essie Off Tropic

I realize that Off Tropic looks not dissimilar to Revlon Gel Envy High Stakes, but I wanted to toss a post up as I have a couple more to go and don't want to miss them!

Essie Off Tropic:

Two coats, no top coat, and a luscious rich formula. 

I did do some cleanup, I have small nail beds, so it's pretty hard with the wider brushes these days.

I see some yellow at the bottom of the bottle, so clearly it needed a touch more shaking, but I will say, truly a gorgeous neutral green. 

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Money, Success, and Layering

Green, green, green. I love it.

Here is a great one, Revlon ColorStay Gel Envy High Stakes:

Two coats of a cool mountain green. These are great for stamping and I pulled this one out of the stamping drawer to wear.

No top coat here, but lots of love. A faint shimmer visible on the bottle, but not really on the nail, unless I give it the blast of light.

Still found on eBay, and worth the price.

I topped it with ILNP Success:

Bright grass green to silver shift, that has a pink shift in there, too. Not really easy to see. 

This is two coats, and I love ILNP, but sometimes they don't make the most dense flakies. The now closed Indigo Bananas really was the best at this. As a topper, it's just right. If you need coverage, you need to sponge the flakies on.

I did put them over white to see them a bit better:

Two coats again. The green to silver is super apparent, but the pink is really toward the tips and more difficult to see in my photo.

I've got a color corrected Lumi cube that has been a blast, but shifty polishes are still a bit of a challenge.

I recommend hunting down the old Revlon ColorStay Gel Envy, I think only a couple haven't been able to be used as stamping polishes and the formula is both easy to work with and dries much better than the old Revlon formula. Now they've rebooted the line: fewer polishes and a new label. They've added another one called HD Snap!, which seems like a quick dry type in bright colors.

Meanwhile ILNP still has Success and eBay is your stop for old Revlon Gel Envy.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Into the Woods

The thing that really got indies off the ground was the world of glitter. 

It seems to have been surpassed these days by multichromes and flakies, but there are a lot of neat ones still around and some oldies that are worth finding.

Here's a lovely oldie from Emily de Molly, Black Forest:

Two coats over black base. No top coat.

This has a fairly sheer crelly base that is fairly dense with pine green to emerald glitters. 

While it does take a little bit of work to situate the glitters, there is adequate coverage and it's so beautiful as a result: the black doesn't mar the green glitter at all, though it adds a smoky effect on the lower layer. Quite beautiful.

I think a glitter filling topcoat would have been a good bet.

I did decide to top it with a matte topcoat: old NYC matte. 

Wow. Just perfect! Glowing!

What you can't see is how as I move my fingers though the light some of the glitter almost disappears into the dark base, them pops out again in a luminous glow. Delightful!

This polish is about from 2012, so it's an early one.

Might be around on a blog sale.

I recommend it over a vamp or a black, I think the base is translucent enough to let a bright navy, maroon, or even forest green shine through. 

A little treasure.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Zoya Veruschka

 Zoya did a matte velvet thing a few years ago, but as "glow" and "dewy" drives the beauty bus these days, the matte passengers are quietly exiting the back door.

Zoya discontinued this one, and much their loss:

Two coats, no top coat.

I did throw a matte top coat on later, but it's even better with a shiny one: the shimmer goes deep, cool and delightful.

I will reblog one of these days with a shiny top coat, but at the time, I was digging the matte finish.

A faultless perfect green. If green can be a neutral, this would be it.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Greens for March: Squishy Wonderland

 Hey! It's March and you know what that means: green, green, and more green.

Starting off with a wintry cool pine green by Morgan Taylor, Aquamarine Applique':

Three coats, with a top coat. This is a sheer translucent layering polish in the same family as the OPI Colorpaints. 

The first coat is very sheer and the second left visible nail line, but the third coat did a very nice job of offering complete coverage.

These types of polishes can be patchy without careful application, since they are so sheer, yet buildable.

I found this one to really hit the sweet spot for me, even after two coats I found an even coverage. Yes!

I did have a little bit of issue with looseness, but not bad, mostly my own efforts. I did though have a good deal of staining. Can't really say why some greens stain and some don't, but this baby kind of got a pass in my book. 

Morgan Taylor did this 2016 Chrome collection in that same time frame as OPI Colorpaints.  Their website was crashing with photos not loading so it took some poking around to find things.

 It is a tight six colors with a silver chrome to use as a base. Though in my mind the glitters, flakes, etc that these can layer over is pretty endless. Every polish has "applique'" in the name.

Still available on Nail Tech Supply. 

Thanks for reading my little nail journal.

A Little Green Sparkle If You Please

Pop Polish "I'll Grow Back"

I put a couple coats over a Milani silver glitter to add to the sparkle.

Lovely metallic flake with large platinum flakes that take no prisoners.

It feels like a holiday polish with the red and blue and some gold, but it's just beautiful.

Here is an indoor shot:

Better under the indoor lights for my iPhone, that's for sure!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Pop Diaphanous

Pop Polish is an Etsy based seller with a wonderful stable of amazing polishes.

I always try to browse and there are many inspired collections.

Here is Diaphanous:

This is over a teal gray frankinpolish, but it covered very well and it just sings.

I can barely take my eyes off of it.

I wore this for about 4 days over the earlier polish, which had been on for two, and experienced wonderful toughness.

My top coat is currently an old Borghese called Brilliante and it's nothing more than a basic quick dry top coat. Nothing fancy, never had a reputation, just a Ross find.

I think this is a great topper polish, but will look gorgeous alone, though there is sheerness.

I don't capture the blue shift, so I can't compare to the Pop Polish Etsy photos, but this polish just wins so hard.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Green to Gaze Upon

Here is the final green for March.

It's a layering combo, so sit down, enjoy.

How did we get there? 

Base is BB Courture Redwood Forest, which was a blogger collaboration with Vampy Varnish many years ago, but a gorgeous color. Scroll down for a separate shot of this one.

One coat of BB Couture Redwood Forest.

Below that is OPI Jade is the New Black (you really can't see it, but it brightens Redwood Forrest up a touch). I popped on two coats, just to use it up. I have a lot of greens and could have used something else.  

Topper is Polished for Days Cosmic Dust, a red to gold to green shifter, amazing. One coat.

The shift is great, the pigment is dense. It's a mind twister if you love the shift of red to green.

Still available on Polished for Days. Super professional site and shipping is great. They run a For the Love of Polish box, and they know what they are up to.

Here is another shot, the first one was under lamp, these are outside:

The sparkle in the sunshine and the green shift never do less than delight.

Here is Redwood Forest alone:

I love this guy. It is so nice with a glass fleck throughout that sparkles.

Top photo is under daylight corrected lights with flash, second one is outside.

Still available at BB Couture. You have to search BB couture nail polish, it will help.

If you can grab the Polished for Days, you won't be unhappy. It's so wonderful.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Emily de Molly Reflection

Here is a semi-green, a blue clover green that pulled extremely blue when photographed.

Pretty as can be and two coats that were super easy to use.

A scattered flame and a readiness to show holo makes this such a win. Not a huge fireball of holo, but a beautiful shade and a respectable holo showing.

Playing with my old Lumix because it can be easier to use and does a better photo than the iPhone.

I am loving my A6000 by Sony, but the quickie jpeg file is too small and so frustrating. Perhaps it's just me and the menus. eep.

Here is some polygel info, and a photo I normally would ditch, but there is a great image of polygel "snot"

Take a look at the index finger up in the left hand corner. This is a result of the slip breaking down polygel and causing it to get on your skin. It is interesting how slip (what is basically perfumed alcohol and acetone) must be balanced: too much and you get this, too little and the brush just grabs on and causes brush marks. 

This goes away after a while, but really shows that I got a bit zealous. This was my non-dominant hand applying it and control was an issue.

Meanwhile, liking the more flattened polygel enhancements and loving the much easier grow out: less obvious and easier to fill.

Filing is also mitigated because there is less of a hump.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!!!

Marching Forward, Carrying the Old on Our Shoulders

Here's a kitchen sink of layering that I won't say didn't turn out just right.



Here's a combo that I really enjoyed:

This is in the sunshine.

I admit my cuticles are so dry, many apologies.

It's so weird how my camera couldn't pick up the depth and play with the flakies.

The layers:

• Revlon Top Speed Emerald
• Color Club Lady Liberty (blogged here)
• Sally Hansen Aisle Be there (blogged here)
• Finger Paints Motley

I really liked it.
Sally Hansen Aisle Be There is a pretty oddly shaped flake, almost a semi glitter, like a flake of pearl or something akin to it, I have nothing like it, really. Sadly this whole line has gone the way of the Dodo. You might find it at the dollar place, or ebayland. You never know. Worth a look. Unique.

Here's Revlon Emerald all alone:

I call this more of a Kelly green, but it works out as a nice base.

And now we have it with Color Club Lady Liberty:

I confess this was the scene-stealer for me! I wore this for several days and just adored it. Well done Color Club!

Here it is again:

Here it is with flash. Loved this a lot.



Thanks so much for reading my little nail journal!

GREEEEEEEEENS FOR MAAAAAARCH!!

Yes, yes, yesssss...you've tolerated liverish shades for long enough.

Here's an emerald green from Colors by Llarowe: It's Your Destiny.

One coat. One. I am so serious.

It's juicy and luscious.

It isn't a scatter, but it's flame is blue, and my phone camera did it no justice, zero.

It's in the sun here, and though a little blown out, it gets the gist of things.

Dense formula that was highly forgiving in my growing out polygel, and this is without cleanup it was a little flow-y, but not over-flowing and it is a bit challenging on an uneven surface. I did a stand up job, to be honest.

Here it is under a lamp:

I put this on back on the 3rd and am still wearing it. I used Seche Vive and a mix in of some other top coats, and after a lot of use, am experiencing tip wear, but I am typing on my tips sometimes.

I can't fault this. 

It's from the 2017 August Polish of The Month. If you love green, you need to find this one, wow. A pretty stunning color.

Keep an eye on blog sales. I have nothing that approaches a dupe in the holo arena.

Sorry for the full on drool, but it's really that nice.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Up With Up Colors

Digging around through my holos and found a couple I think I partially blogged (here), but didn't really show the polish alone. A nice stamping holo, due to the fact that it's not scant on the nail after you've stamped it.

Up Colors is a Brazilian brand that I managed to get when holos were still not a thing again here in the US.

Seems like it has old "big 3" and is pretty smelly, but it is a scattered holo and there is a good density.

All are without a top coat.

Azul Disco

Beautiful peacock blue with lots of holo scattered about.

Two coats. Very good coverage.

Here is another photo:

This is more subdued, but it's a beautiful shade.

Verde 350 Degrees

Very amazing.

Almost a flame. This is two coats, too.

Another shot:

This is more of a washed out image, it's such a great shade of green.

I couldn't find any Up Colors anything, even translating into Portuguese and finding some Pinterest pages didn't really yield much.

I know they weren't cheap for me, and I think I've tried to blog sale them, but now I am keeping them for stamping.

Well the green one is a standout!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Pop Culture

Pop Polish has been quietly performing in the indie world and selling on Etsy for quite some time.

A few years ago I made and order and my eyes are still bugging out of my head.

There are constantly turning out stunning collections, retaining great mainstays, and gardening the world of color, flash, and iridescence for polish fans like me.

I was particularly excited to see Pop now working with Hell Handmade Creations. HHC, located here, is one of those great limited run sale sites. So you have a short window in which to buy a one off polish made especially for the sale. This exposure to more indie buyers is great.

I found a wonderful flakie combo of UCC flakes, holo shards, micro gliltters and some shiftiness I couldn't catch on my photos.

Here's I'll Grow Back:

Two coats over an Elevation polish that is medium green (I keep forgetting to write down the name of the polishes. Never fear, I am keeping a journal now, so I won't be grabbing at air like this again!!!)

I really love the party going on here.

Here's another photo:

The red sparkles against the green cause my heart to thrum. Very beautiful.

There is a lovely large silver flakie that is a perfect accent. 

Here's an out of focus shot so you can get the drift a bit better:

I wore this for a solid week, no topcoat redo's and it was just as perfect day one.

Removal wasn't difficult, either.

You may find this on a blog sale, its not part of the regular Pop lineup, but they have a lot of great stuff, so do check them out!

Thanks again for reading my little nail polish journal!

Milani 3D Holographic

I think these came out in late 2009 or early 2010.

There are six polishes in this sweet little scattered holographic collection. A few months ago I did swatch one of them and though, DANG! I need to do the rest!!



Here we go! (No top coats, btw!)


Milani 3D 510

Two coats of Solid Gold Dancer loveliness.

A combination of lamp and flash brings out the sparkle and some scant holographic.

If you love gold, and I confess I do, this one is a treat.



Milani Cyberspace 512

Beautiful watery aqua blue. Love the coverage but was three coats this time. No worries. The payoff is beautiful.

Perhaps my favorite!



Milani Hi-Res 514

Plum purple that pulls warmer on my nails.

Three necessary coats, but the job was done. Nice!



Milani HD 513

Three coats and just divine. This is under lamp and flash, but at an angle to really pick up the holo.

I love this one so much.

Unlike the rest, this seems to have large holo and some smaller holo, so it has a little bit more of a flash.



Milani Hi-Tech 511

This delightful peridot is a three coater and shot with a flash, strong flash.

I love it and it was such a nice one to wear.



Milani Digital 513

Three coats, but really a bit more sheer than I'd have liked.

This pink coral warmed up on my fingers, but didn't disappoint in the soft scattered flash department.


I tried it as a topper over Sally Hansen Sultry Fuchsia

Sultry Fuchsia is a bit deeper and ranges more into the berry shade, but you can see the base in the Milani is sheer and virtually vanishes and the holo particles just scatter around and behave like a holo topper.


There you have it, a set of very well considered holos.

These are available on eBay and Big South American River, and fairly affordable.

They were the beginnings of holo after a hiatus and so everyone was excited.

For my part I'd say I love some more than others, but they all do a nice job for scatters.



Wanted to add a side note: during the summer my nails grew very long and I was so happy that a lot of the damage from Polygel had grown out.

Sadly I had a big break, and discovered that at their longest (back in the CbL Marilyn post) they were too weak to support the length and were subject to flipping backwards (the nails-on-a-chalkboard feeling for me).

I then discovered a smile crack that ran through the lower 1/3rd of my middle finger, so I knew I bent something forward, but I also didn't realize I'd cracked the nail in the bed so far down. Yikes.

Where am I going? Well, last night I reapplied the Polygel. Muscle memory kicked in and it wasn't super hard to apply, even with my non-dominant hand.

The support is just something I will use for a while and it does make things more 'firm' in my nail, so it's less mobile.

Next steps of course: work on filing, work on less thickness, and work on maintaining a length that feels good.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Old, Yet New

Nubar Reclaim

Two coats and quite the luminous glow The flam is mostly green and blue with some gold around the edges. It's metaphoric!

I love how it looks and have been wearing the heck out of it all day.

My nails are still recovering, but this really just made my day.

Nubar seems to have circled the drain. I see it on Walmart, though. I have seen it on Beautylish. I am a little confused. They did have some questionable collaborations with reality television that did not enhance the brand one single bit.
Sadly they no longer have their own website and their facebook looks more like a wealthy lifestyle type of thing now.

However fear not. The indies have your back. There are a ton of beautiful holographic greens out there now. KBshimmer comes to mind. I think that with some poking around you can find a lot of dupes for this one, but I also think it might pop up on eBay, etc, too.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

In the Mountain Greenery...

Humming an old standard while wearing this green polish.

Finger Paints Scenery Greenery

A really gorgeous medium deep green. Very much an emerald shade that just delights.

I have two coats on and I love it a lot. No top coat, but fairly glossy. My uneven nails aren't helping!

This was taken with my phone as the Sony transfer to the phone shrunk the images too much for blogging. Working on that, but I like the color of the Sony as well as the Apple iPhone camera.

Ok. The good news is that OPI pretty much has duped it with Christmas Gone Plaid. I say this because it looks like Sally Beauty has pared the polish from their lineup.

I tossed Pure Ice Champagne (I think it's mislabeled) a dupe of Zoya Charla over the top of this.

You can see that it shifts into gold, depending on the angle. Two coats, no top coat.

This shade seems to no longer live among the ranks of the Pure Ice polishes, so I'd suggest grabbing Charla during the next Zoya sale.


Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!