Green Bombshell?

Here is a remnant of a green that I really have mixed feelings about.

SinfulColors Bombshell

I love the glitter colors: red, orange fuchsia, purple, green, aqua, gold and perhaps some silver knocking about. The base is a pale green, so pale that you can barely call it green until you've hit 4-5 coats, like I did.

Yes, many a coat was necessary to achieve this, so it's really more of a top coat.

The base, though, is a mystery. Like the "glamour" or "luster" bases that you see indie polish makers use, it imparts a glassy translucent sheen. Like a transparent metallic. It's a translucent glass fleck that fills up the bulk of the bottle. This definitely has a green tint, but impossible to achieve the bottle color, you end up with a celery shade instead.

I want to like it a lot, I only wish that it had more actual glitter inside of it! Or they used larger glitter. More would have been enough!

In fact, it's a bit of a mirage: the bottle makes it look like it's going to be a glitter bomb. No such love.

Great for layering, not so good on its own, unless you like a more bare look.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Spring Colds, Remnants and Ramblings

You know that delirious meditative state you are in when you have a fever and a bad cold?
It's like lucid dreaming.

Not really feeling like blogging, I poked around the MUA board, browsed many blogs in Soon-to-Be-Defunct Google Reader (why, you fools, why?) and got back into reading the biography of Vincent van Gogh. You know, we look at him now as a man of greatness, rare vision and deep understanding of light, but he was a lucid dreamer that drove his family wild. Of such deep convictions, but apparent such deficit of attention, he bounced from one thing to another in search of what would inflame his passion. Stubborn, offensive, sanctimonious and obsessive, he was a spoiled child who never actually had to work for a living, despite completely alienating his family! I'm only at the part where his Uncle Mauve has taken him under his wing, not without trouble though. To quote This Mortal Coil "it will end in tears."

Alright, back to polish.

I will say this: there are more greens that didn't make the "month" that will crop up.

Right now I am happy to say no green.

Mezzanotte Blue, by Borghese (3 coats), with Sally Hansen Silver Lining (one coat)

I wanted something that would mitigate the darkness of a vamp. This seems to have brought out the blue flash of Silver Lining, fantastic!!!

Three coats of Mezzanotte Blue. I feel bad that Borghese is gone from drugstores. They did have some nice limited edition/new product displays. At $8 a bottle the formula, I felt, still do, was too unreliable: not enough pigmentation at times.
Mezzanotte Blue, however, is a stand out.
It came out about 2009 or 2010 along with some other great colors. It stands alone as a wonderful deep navy, but it also can be used for frankens.
They are gone from my RiteAid, replaced by Essie, and I wonder if they are sold somewhere else? Seems unlikely. They are owned by Coty, who is pretty big, and so perhaps it's good bye to my favorite brushes and pretty little heart shaped bottles. *sniffle*

Silver Lining, another old Tracy Reese/SH collab from about 2009 or 2010. It was the collection with Hidden Treasure, it actually had some good ones in it.
This one tops my list for layering because of the silver/blue color shift.
Although I am not a fan of these bottles, and the formula is a bit slow on me, the "complete" manicure line does pop up with some great colors!

Thanks for reading my feverish ramble!

Cirqe Hellebore

The growing trend toward indie polish has been fun to watch. I feel like in a way anyone who has been into nail polish over the last few years in general has seen huge changes. From home grown mixers, frankeners and glitter geniuses, to small etailer/etsy presence, to major player brands co-opting trends, it's been fun, interesting, and at times confounding (missing a launch, losing an auction, well, you get it!). So many ideas coming from the indies, it's easy to immerse oneself into the deep end of it all.

If you don't have Gotham Polish blog on your reading list, add it now, please. She's among my faves and introduced me to the indie brand Cirque.

I only have three, but am eyeing more. Indies aren't mass produced so price points are higher - which makes me appreciate how much OPI must spend on promotion.

Cirque is one of those indies that it's not hard to fall in love with!

Here is Cirque Hellebore

Three coats, top coat, my bare nails and a clear base coat below.

First, the color: FABULOUS!
Pale cool green in a variety of small to tiny sizes, accented with a pale mirror lilac glitter.
The effect is subtle. the green, though, is the real star, not yellow, not sea foam, but fresh budding grass stem green.

I used my older pink camera and you can see it reflecting in the mirror glitter.

This polish, without a top coat could be worn like a sand finish, it is a topcoat eater, for sure.

Enlarge this photo to see the purple glitter a bit better. Subtle, fresh.

I must have put about 3-4 top coat applications, but I wore it for 5 solid days and it showed no sign of even tip wear, amazing.

Last thing: the scent of the polish is nice. I believe it is something in the solvents, but as it evaporates it has this herb-y, floral scent. nice change of pace. Such a fresh, springtime scent.

Hellebore is still available at CirqueColors.com

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal.

Elianto Racing Green

Here is a polish that should have a legend around it, but it's just a humble polish based out of Malaysia. They really are some nice polishes.
I found mine through a fabulous swapper, I also found another at a blog sale.
More, I say!

Here's Racing Green:

Such a WOW polish!

It's packed with fleck shimmer and in a base that reminds me of emeralds.

Very complex, very beautiful!

This is three coats, I think one coat could be great as a layering topcoat, too.

I really adore this one, it's sheer, but it builds great.

It smells somewhat like a mild version of Kleancolor, but completely tolerable!

I have a pack of greens to get in over the next few days! Sorry for the delay!! My laptop is grinding to a halt. Ugh!

Two Zoyas Come Through!

Veruschka is a matte green that is tailor made for anyone who loves green. And matte finish, I will add.

I accented it with Ivanka, the splashy warm version of Charla, and I'm so please with the result:

Truly an awesome shade.

This is three coats of the Veruschka and one coat Ivanka. Easy, peasy formula.
For extra protection, I tacked on a coat of NYC's matte top coat since I feared chipping from Zoya, but it wore like a champ!

Thanks for reading my nail polish journal!

Sparitual's Optical Illusion

I'm dreaming of a new laptop, truly.
Right now my power cord is in the last throws of usefulness.

I'm waiting for a cheap ebay knock off to come in the mail.

Onward!

Here is a Sparitual that I've had for a while, Optical Illusion. I think it's an apt name.

Sorry for the big photo.

Ok. So, I want to love this polish. It kicks ass in the bottle. Look at that aqua fleck gleaming around the curve of the bottle like a song of the siren.
On the nail - four coats later, it's like a diaper load with faint hints of the aqua shift.

Noooooooo!!!!

I think I will try it over black one of these days and try not to feel sad about the whole darn thing. I have plenty of polishes that can do that job. Although  this is a "glitter" which implies that it is not required to be dense, I wish it looked more like the bottle.

Not entirely sure if it's a dupe of a China Glaze Halloween polish, but it's got that zombie vibe. I am so backlogged on swatching, I may get around to it Halloween.

Meanwhile, thanks so much for reading my little nail polish journal!

Shake Your Shamrock, So Says Glitzology!

The topic is green, the finish is glitter. Two great polishes get together and have a party!

Glitzology Shake Your Shamrock over L.A. Girl Metallic Olive

My gigantic thumb is an optical illusion, I'm not Sissy Hankshaw

Hard to fault this baby.  I love this shade so much! It's got the gold larger hex glitters, some real bright green and splashes of smaller glitter in a shimmery base. The bright green is like little shards, but also some are round, there are small green and gold glitters and it's a kick to look at.

Like little leprechauns dancing around their gold coins.

This is two coats applied with a flat brush. Easy to use, no battles at all. 

I got a lot of complements on this baby!

The base is a stellar green, too:

A shimmer packed with a similar combination of true green and gold, yielding a delicious olive.

They call it metallic, OK, sure! No arguments here!

Shake Your Shamrock is on Etsy, at Glitzology Beauty. 

The "metal" series is easily found at L.A. Girl, and a few other etailers. Try Beautyjoint, cherry culture and discount cosmetic outlet (the latter may be the cheapest, I love that place!)

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Laura Ingalls Wilder Has Something To Do With This

As tween (a word invented in my lifetime to create yet another marketing demographic rather than just calling kids what they actually are: children) we all poured through the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I think I hit them around 3rd or 4th grade.

Every time I hit the portion where Mary and Laura had to use the "flat iron" to curl their hair, a device you actually had to heat on the stove, I read it as "flirtation" and kept thinking "what is going on?" then I finally would reread it and realize what was going on. It still sticks with me today when I read these words together.

NYC Flat Iron Green brought it all back to me.

A vamp of a green it is, too.

Unlike yesterday's Edude House GR607, which cheerfully says "Why yes! Now that you mention it, I am green!" this one says "yeah, I'm green, what's it to you?"
It's not jelly-ish, so I don't know if it would work into a jelly. I keep repeating myself that SC Last Chance has chops for that category.

Three necessary coats.
A little sloppy on the formula, too.

It's a warm green, and turns black in most lighting.

Easily obtainable at any Dollar Tree that is carrying shelf pulls of NYC, apparently it's not still at the drug stores, but I am not visiting them as often as I used to, so I can't really speak to what is up with NYC these days. I bet it's on eBay, too.

Thanks for reading my flirtation nail polish journal!

Etude House Love

Hey sweet People!

I was completely side tracked from polish because I was trying like mad to make a deadline with a beaded necklace for my mom.
Sigh.
Fortunately there was plan "b" but, I really wanted to make it happen, so I dropped the blog for a while.

mea culpa acetata!

I have a box of greens to work through, but only grabbed one to do and edit the photo on tonight: Etude House's GR607.

A tasty green creme that is perfectly green, not too blue, not too yellow.
The best part is that it's not so dark as to make it blackish and muddy.

Great two coats.
I think it is a little dark here, but it still isn't too deep, my photo is a little dark.

Small bottle but decent polish, if you like green, this is a good one!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!!

March is GREEN!

Yes, off to a slow start.

See the little pup next to my face in my profile photo? That's Maddie. She had her teeth done the 1st and had 13 out and was miserable all weekend.
I was crying because she was in so much pain that night she wouldn't even take water.
She's back on track, water, food, meds, but it was thanks to an extra shot from the vet to alleviate pain and lots of hugs and snuggles.

Poor kid.

Quick swatch of OPI Number One Nemesis:

Translucent warm green, very neutral in some light, almost silver.
Here it looks a little bit like autumn leaves frozen over with frost.

Sorry for the ad hoc post!

My mind clearly is elsewhere....

More soon, little Mozu (Maddie's nick name she mostly goes by) thanks you for your patience!!!!

Puggie Hugs!!!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!!1

(hug your pet, brush their teeth! So many issues are now linked to dental in dogs and cats! *shameface*)