Tahitian Pearl, a Darker Summer Ocean Blue

I rather like this deeper blue. It is a semi-gloss with faintly gleaming teeny tiny glitters built in. It almost reminds me of a quiet ocean lagoon... the summer sun glinting off peaceful waves.

A lovely blue with bright highlights.

This was a difficult color to photograph. It is rich, but the camera's flash washes it out. It is shimmery, but the light box makes it look too dark. Holding my hand under a lamp seemed to pull out the best color... at the expense of some clarity. That bright white spot is a characteristic of this polish.

I did say it reminded me of sun on waves? That bit of white on rich blue is why.

I can almost smell the sea salt. And margaritas. Mmmmm..

The wear of this Wet-n-Wild polish pleases me. I've worn it all week with no top coat and just a basic base coat with minimal chipping. Yup, Tahitian Pearl Mega Last is a pleasing summer shade of blue.

An August Blue Polish

I've worn this shade for the last two weeks. It's summery but subtle. It's blue but it's that delicate shade of an August sky, a summer wild flower... the shimmer of heat on pavement and blueberry ice cream.

It doesn't hurt that it wears like iron.

It's  Wet-n-Wild MegaLast Salon Nail Color I Need a Refresh-Mint 218A. I think I paid two dollars for it.

I love the blue of this.

 It really is that pure of a creamy summer blue. Love. Love. Love.

It's retro without trying.

And I didn't even want to add glitter. Odd...

Bah.

Well, I'm going to put this blog on hiatus.

My camera died and all I have is a craptastic cell phone lens. It does a crappy job at catching anything more then an over exposed blur of my fingernails.

Also all my picture links seem to be broken. Boo.

A Short Break

What I've been doing lately..?

Woodworking and sewing. But nails will once again feature strongly on this blog.
Till then you may just see a few shinies of another sort.

My pretties...

A Deep and Rich Royal Purple.

Mi'lady!

I am digging this. My god I love a good purple! This is Save the Date 460 Sally Hansen Diamond Strength line. A single coat would work... but I used two for a more decadent look.

This stuff makes me want to lounge on silken cushions in lace dresses and complain about the serfs. It's that rich. Hell, it makes Mitt Romney's class statements comprehensible.

Natural light. No glitter but what a shimmer...

This is one polish I just couldn't add glitter to. Glitter would have cheapened the effect. I do know one thing... St. Patrick's or not this weekend I will match my nails in purple awesome.

A Two for One. Blue and Orange!

First, Teal of Fortune from WetnWild.

This stuff has a nice glitter, deep color and is hard wearing. (I wore this for almost two weeks, no chips.) It does, however, stain ones nails a funny red-orange even through a base coat. As my nails are never bare this is not an issue for me.

And now for Crushed. It's from Sally Hansen. I love this one!

This wore very well too. No chips but almost 7 days (and the very day I was going to change it) the entire coat on my first finger just peeled right off. It was almost fun... but I was planning to change colors anyways.

The color on this is very true orange. It's bright, flat and ever so orange. I found it an almost perfect early spring shade. I plan to wear it more often.
I did coat the bottom 2/3rds of my nails in some random glitter polish for a bit of shine.

Zoya's Kissy

My second worn Zoya is Kissy. This polish turned out to be a little too sheer for my taste.. so I layered it over one of my favorite red creams. This is.. Maybelline 'Salon Expert' Jazzy 510. It's a true red, no pink tones, no glitter.. a true red vamp it up shade. I mostly picked it to go with Kissy as any glitter or gleam will come from Kissy... Jazzy is a flat (but awesome) shade.

Kissy... is mostly a dark red glitter. But it has hot pink and holographic bar glitters too.. so it is nice and multi-tonal. Even in the mostly indirect "mood lighting" atmosphere of my home my eye is constantly caught by the changing gleams this polish shows off. I imagine this would make a kick arse clubbing or special occasion polish.

The no-flash image is very true to how this shade looks under normal lighting. It really does have that much play to it!

No flash. You can see how the different glitters lay and work together here.

Jazzy really helps bring out the candy apple red in Kissy. I am really curious to pair it with a pink or even a black matte shade to see if it pops as well as it does here.

I've worn Kissy now for 4 days. There are no chips, no tip wear.. nothing. Like most glitter polishes it seems to wear like iron. But.. like most glitter polishes... it is a bit rough to the touch. Two coats of top coat smoothed it out well. Still textured.. but not roughly so.

Zoya's Juleanne

I randomly picked which Zoya to wear first. Juleanne was the winner.

Flash

No flash.

I LOVED the color. It was a deep dark purple-blue in most lights and had a lovely glimmer of sparkle in it. I wasn't as pleased with the wear. It seemed to wear at the tips almost from the first day. It wasn't that noticeable.. but it was there. No real chipping.. just tip wear. Color made up for that though.

Got me some Zoya!

Most of my polish horde is of the cheapo drugstore ilk. I like it, I can pick up a bottle without making a special trek to the beauty supply stores..and it is cheap. I like cheap.Cheap means I can get more colors for the same money spent!

And so when I learned that Zoya was doing this deal that you could get two free bottles for the cost of shipping I was all over that like finger paints on a three year old.

My new lovelies.

 I got three. At one time I had well over 50 bucks worth of polish in my ecart....and I winnowed it down from there. That third bottle was both me rewarding the company for that deal.. and me really being unable to cut that last color.

I picked (Left to Right):
Juleanne ZP526
Jem ZP575
Kissy ZP578

I have Juleanne on right now.

Zoya is noted for its 'vegan' and safer, more natural formulations of polish. It is one of the first companies to remove toxic ingredients such as toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate from its formulas.

I can't comment on how 'long wearing' it is yet... as I have only worn the first color and for less then a week. I can say I have read that some of the colors really do best when used with their base and top coat. I used my own stuff.. and I knocked a big chip out mucking with my sewing machine.

I can say with complete honesty that the colors of the polishes I have are vibrant, LOVELY and not too thin so as to need a million coats.

Five Color Glitter on Grey

Remember that grey? I found a glitter for it!

Flash indoors.

This is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 330 Grey Area with Wet-n-Wild Fast Dry 238C Party of Five Glitters.

No flash and much truer to how it actually looks.

It is nice and dark but in the light the glitter gives a nice play of light.

A Friday the 13th Pink

Remember my search for an awesomely bright pink? One to brighten up dull winter days?


I found it! And.. it was just a buck! Wee for sales!

Behold the Pink!

It's two coats of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength 45 Fuchsia Bling Bling. And you remember that pink glitter that looked so flat over that grey..? Yeah. It looks awesome over this shade. It's full of sparkle and movement in indoor and outside light. I call it a win! (It's Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 140 Rockstar Pink.)

What a Difference Flash Makes

I'd like first to say that I hate this result. It was not what I had hoped for at all. There was just too much glitter in the glitter polish. Instead of it being made to POP off the nail by a dark background... it just was flattened by this grey color. I like them both. Just not together.

But I took a few pictures before I decided it was a total YECH. I found the difference interesting between the flash and lack of...

The colors, in case you like this for the lack of a better word, look, are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 140 Rockstar Pink over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 330 Grey Area.

Orchid Frost

A Frosted Lovely.

Yeah.. I have a bit of tip wear. I took this a few days after I'd done my nails and had no time to fix that edge.

This is an Orchid Ice look. I went with orchid purples in honor of an actual orchid plant that decided it was going to spike for me. Woo, orchid plant!

What it is:
Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Royal Romance 61
Wet N Wild Fast Dry 234c Hannah Pinktana
Pure Ice 991 Spit Fire

How it was done:
Apply a nice base of the Sally Hanson. Dry. Apply a thin single coat of the Wet N Wild stuff. Dry.
Since it was a grand total of 6 Fahrenheit outside when I did these I was thinking chilly...so I did a frost effect with the glitter. Get a nice gob of your glitter and while thinking 'frost on the windows' dab it gently along the tip of your nail and pull it up one side. Repeat on each nail, 'frosting' the same side on all ten for a window effect. Top coat it.

New Years Eve Nails AKA All the Iced Glitter!

I created some super icey nails for New Years. I used a few polishes here...and a Q-Tip.

This is with flash. These are blinding in person.

Wet N Wild Fast Dry 236C Silvivor
Wet N Wild Fast Dry 230C Saved by the Blue
Wet N Wild Fast Dry 235C Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire
 (Glitters)
Wet N Wild Shine 460D Kaleidoscope 
O.P.I. Last Friday Night

I did two thin coats of silver (Wet N Wild Fast Dry 236C Silvivor). Let them dry.
Take the Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire. Apply a light coat to the bottom 2/3rds on the nail.


 I then took my blue (Wet N Wild Fast Dry 230C Saved by the Blue) and painted the half of the nail near the tip following the curve of the nail. I did a second thin coat at the tip to make it nice and blue. Allow to dry.

I took my Q-Tip, dipped it in polish remover and lightly removed parts of the top edge of the blue. Blend it or streak it.. I did a bit of both to make it look like ice. Or just neaten it to a sharp line. Your choice.

Now for GLITTER.

Take your silver glitter. Lightly brush it over the silver and blended silver/blue area. Now, the blue glitter. First one coat over just the tip of the blue. Dry. Now a second fuller coat over all the blue. You want nails like frozen candy, the iced maw of heavy icicles hanging from your grandmum's porch and to do this you need the layered gleam these layers give you. 

No flash. Here you can see the little glitter bits and some of the streaking.

Allow to dry, top coat and enjoy the disco ball sparkle while the big ball drops.

My Basic Products

Coming soon!

Pinky Glitters!

I love the glitters.

But I don't generally love the pink glitters. It's a long long story.

This one I liked though.... it was shockingly hot pink in the jar. A bright and bold shade I thought would be a lot of fun for after the Giftmas season when things tend to get a bit dull visually since people take down their lights.

But, it did not go on as expected. Two coats of this very glittery polish give a multi-faceted pinky-peach with lots of color play. Its a bit rough but a coat of clear helped with that feeling. It also doesn't photograph well.

Pretty pink glitter polish, Kimmy likes it.

It's not the hot pink I thought I was going to get... but I like it. It's Sinful Colors Professional Pinky Glitter 830

Solstice Nails!

First Post! And I picked a festive theme!

Never mind what is left of my henna 'eye'.

I wanted do do a festive thing... and I wanted to do it with what I had on hand.

So I picked out three glitter polishes:
Red- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 390 Red Carpet
Green- Wet N Wild 226C Sagreena the Teenage Witch
Gold- Wet N Wild 223C The Gold and the Beautiful.

I have to say here how pleased I've been with the hold power of this bunch of wet n wild. I've been trying to loose weight.. and so each time when I'd shop instead of buying a snack of junk I'd buy one of these cheaper then cheap polishes (they are a bit over a buck here) as a reward. They hold for me for a week or a bit more. My nails growing to show pinky-nailbed at the roots is why I change the polish more then chipping at the tip.

So, back to these nails. Two coats of that yummy glitter red. I then very carefully dotted on three green 'leaves' for the holly or whatever it was supposed to be. Maybe mistletoe.. I like being kissed.. A final dab of golden glitter for the berry completes the nail.

I was sure to let the red fully dry before adding the green and gold. The green was rather tacky when I put on the gold, but not runny. I then covered it all with a clear coat.