Green Party Part 3

Here is a comparison of all of the polishes swatched in the last two posts.

I feel, though, that the photos are a little dark. I took some under lamp and others in daylight. I've also lightened them up, too.

Kind of a fail. But here they are.
  

Left to right:
NYS Amaranth
Walmart Noname
Color Club Wild Cactus (Probably CC Abyss)
Catrice Forest Floor
Essie Going (blogged here)
Verity Aqua Blue

Here in daylight:

Daaaark.
Kind of a bummer. Makes them all look similar, but they are very different.

The upside: even when dark, they don't go totally black.

Hope you enjoyed the swatches!!! Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Green Party Part 1

Here are a few greens I didn't get to in March.

It's a multi-parter because it's a lot of pictures.

Here are two I love.

First up, an all time favorite, New York Summer Amaranth

A beautiful jelly green. My nails, due to genetics and staining, have a band of darkness before the white. It makes it look a little like a syrup.

Three coats, great formula.

Available at Transdesign, where I grabbed it. A perenial favorite.

I think it was a real hot color a couple of years ago when it was the prime ingredient in makeing the then-discontinued Nars Zulu.
I am not sure what the formula was, aside from adding black, but it was a very popular as a key ingredient.
I never got it, made my own "version", finally got Zulu, and got this and just enjoy it's pretty green color. Unfortunately my stained nails make it look a little like a syrup polish.


Next we have a real find.

An unnamed Walmart polish that showed up around Halloween about 2009.

Three coats of a rich cool green that is really a nice surprise for a little $1.00 bottle!
I bought 4-5, for some reason, and it's a really nice formula, surprisingly. I imagine Walmart subcontracted with someone like Bari - the Pure Ice and Bon Bons maker - or something like that. I've not seen nail polish on the Halloween aisle much. I didn't really look the last couple of times, but then again, I am spending less time in Walmartland. in general.

Here is the sweet little bottle:

Cute!
No printing on the back, just a little anonymous bottle of polish.

Ah well.
More green soon. Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Orange Crush

I was putting together some orange polishes to swatch, layer and experiment with. Pretty exciting! I had them in a little plastic bag that came with a pair of gloves, perfect for transporting bottles of polish, remover, etc.

On the way out the door, I dropped it.

Onto the pavement.

I am kind of having a sad moment.

Here is the crime scene photo:

I even ran into the house trying to grab an empty bottle to pour some of it out of the bag, but the glass and the solvents were working on the plastic and it wasn't long before it began to turn goopy.

*sigh*

I lost three polishes:

• Walmart Noname orange creme
• Sally Hansen Slick Frost (irreplaceable so far!)
• OPI 18 Karat Ginza Gold

*Sniffle*

Poor Ginza Gold!!!

I really hated losing Slick Frost most of all: it's a reddish orange in that range I really like.

Of course there were many survivors!!


My Sally Hansen Pumpkin and Jack-O-Lantern got a lot of schootz all over them.

WetnWild Craze Inferno and L'Oreal orange top coat were attacked by the solvents rendering both of their caps scarred for life! (man that L'Oreal cap is chewed up!)

All in all, I was so glad not to lose Pumpkin or Jack-O-Lantern!

The OPI is replaceable, but the Sally Hansen Slick Frost, man, that was a one-off deal, I am quite sure.

Coming soon are some tasty swatches from the survivors!

Thanks for reading my "crushed" nail polish journal!

Burnt Orange

This polish came as a freebie from an eBay seller. It is little, but very unique! It might be similar to WnW Rustic. I don't have many like this, especially in the salon lines. It's hard for me to pop $8 for orange nail polish! (although I've got umpteen bottles of purple that are probably so similar, you'd have to use a microscope to see the differences!)

I don't know how old it is, but it's a color that evokes many memories of 1970's cars.

It is a metallic, it also shows brushstrokes and isn't really flat or chrome-like. It's pretty! Perfect for October!

I thought I'd try to layer it a couple ways, too. You know I am kind of a layering fan.

Here it is with Ulta's Gold Digger:

This is a bit of a messy application! Sorry!!
On the index and ring finger are 2 coats.
On the middle and pinkie 1 coat.

The problem here was a bit of a formula one: Ulta Gold Digger seemed to melt the 3 well-set coats of the NoName orange! It was ghastly! It never really dried and I wiped it off. Fail!
I don't know what it was in the Ulta polish, but it was not a marriage made in heaven!


Then I tried my Princessa Melon. This came with that fantastically wonderful Martian Jade. It is a sheer that never builds, even after 5 coats. A pretty orange/pink coral and somehow it's kind of blah alone because of the sheerness.

I put a coat over the no name burnt orange:

OOoooooh!

Much glowing goodness!

I have to say that this combo is quite nice!!
If I had better skills at cleaning up the edges, I would say that you couldn't even tell it was two polishes.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

By the Sea, By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea...

How happy I'll be...with seashell pinks.

I tried the new Sally Hansen Tracy Reese "Ring My Shell," but found it too sheer, to blah on the nail, and too frosty. I wish I was a frosty polish lover, but it has to be a pretty special frost to get me excited.

I've got this idea though, that that warm pink of the inside of a conch shell is so beautiful. I've yet to really find a cream that will work, so I worked my own modification through layering.

I took a limited edition Revlon called "Pink Crush" that is on the warm side, and layered it with a no name gold polish, found in a pack at Ross. Ironically, these no names have legs: they last!

(I'm a bit of a Merl Reagle crossword buff, he has the best clues! Makes crosswording fun!)

Photos of the result:

With flash

No flash, indoors

I often wonder who makes these no name polishes, they must subcontract out with someone. I feel that whoever does these, really does a very nice job. I love the way they dry quickly, their finish and their wear. Some are sheer, some aren't. One of my first posts was one of these little polishes. They all tend to be shimmers, but that is fine, I love shimmers. Plus, they can be found at Ross in packs of 3-4, mixed with an nail file. For $3.99, I was going to dump some of them, but find that as I use them, they become a little bit of a pleasant surprise.

The Revlon, well, it's Revlon. That means that even though it's had a day to dry, it gets soft with the application of any other top coat. Quite frustrating, however, I don't have another pink like that, so I keep it in my collection.

Apologies for not having the full finger thang, I wanted to try something different.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

My first manicure photo! Sheer disappointment!

My first manicure!

Dunh, dunh, dunh!

A No-name sheer I found at Ross.

I love it!

While my hands are in dire straights, my nails are stained and my nails look like I filed them while I was semi-conscious, the polish itself: a winnah!

Why?
It went on like a dream.

It dried beautifully.

It also has this little opalescent shimmer, which I adore in a polish. Nothing that says "Bowling Ball" just that subtle shimmer.

It never bubbled, it never hassled.

It came in a set with three other colors: a dark charcoal shimmer, creme shimmer, and a burgundy shimmer.

This photo was taken on a hazy day using a southern facing window, which is how most of my pix will be taken.

More photos

A couple more other polishs for a round up:

A couple days later I added a couple coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Strobe Light"

The pale rose glitter and holo glitter is very pretty. In daylight the holo is great, but the pink glitter seems a little dark.

A pretty polish. A mild nightmare removing.

A few days later I took the orange Walmartland polish pic.

My skin looks yellow. I don't smoke. Very strange.

It was $1.00 per bottle. I think, for that price, I can add some shimmer to it for next H'ween and call it good.

I don't think orange is my color!

I never wear it, now I know why.

I am now wearing a "medium red" by E.L.F. I found at Ross in a trio pack. I don't yet have the photo uploaded to flickr, but will soon. I also found some Poshe nail polish restorer, which helped because this poor thing was just starting to die off. I wonder how long it took to even get to Ross and my hands. It took a few drops of Poshe, but wow, it went on very nicely and I love it.

More later!

Thanks for reading, if you are out there!

:D