NoTE-Essie California Coral & Zoya Laurie-Updated w/pics!

I've really been slacking in my polish posts lately. So sorry. I'm busy during the day, then the man and I take the girls (cats) out for a walk after dinner, coming back when it's dark, and then it's computer time, so not much time lately for polish. I swear I'll try to do better!

I picked up Essie's California Coral at Target a couple days ago, in my search for the perfect coral. Sadly, it's not perfect, but it is quite nice. It's one of the pinker corals, so it doesn't look too bad on my pasty white skin. :D

One coat Orly Bonder
Two coats California Coral
One coat Zoya Laurie
One coat Poshe quick drying top coat

The formula's a little thin, but not overly, and needs at least two coats for acceptable, yet sheer coverage. Three coats is much better. The first coat went on a little streaky, but the second covered decently. I could still see VNL (visible nail line), but that's okay for tonight's plan. After the second coat of CC was mostly dry, I applied one thin coat of Zoya's Laurie, a sheer, pale pink, over the CC. The idea was to tone down CC and bring it even more to the pink side of the spectrum, all in the name of experimentation. I have to say it worked fabulously! I now have a lovely candy pink/coral that I think I'm falling in love with.

THIS is one that I need to take pics of, which I will work on tomorrow. Yes, it's that fab!

Edit: As promised, pics, but they're not the best quality. I apologize for my poor picture taking skills, the apparently sorry state of my cuticles, and the streaky application. I need to work my layering technique, but the idea is there: layering a sheer pink over a hot coral to get a lovely candy shade.

Sally Hansen Complete blahblahblabbity blah in Delphinium

My nails are peeling, so I needed to go out and find something to deal with that. Knowing that the Sally Hansen shatter polishes are out and about, I headed to Walgreen's first. Saw them, but didn't buy anything. I was tempted by the gold, but it wouldn't have gone with anything I own, so I left it. Super pretty, though.

CVS-again, nothing I wanted to buy, and this one doesn't get a lot of new stuff. When they do get new, it's a little late, and not very much of it.

Sally Beauty-bought a bottle of Orly Nail Defense in hopes of fixing my peeling nails. As soon as I got back in the car, I put it on. Why wait? *shrug*

Target-was wandering through the polish section, examining the Essie, when I saw another display a couple aisles away. I can't remember the set up, but there was a display of brand new Sally Hansens; the limited edition designer colors, including Delphinium. Oooooh. I snatched it, right away, then grabbed a bottle of Essie's Super Bossa Nova, then wandered to the next display, which was a bunch of assorted Sally Hansens.

After all was said and done, and much dithering, I bought the Delphinium and a hairbrush and left. The color was bothering me, however, and I was sure it was close to something I already had, Done Out In Deco. Hmm. After dinner, walking the girls, dealing with the stupid clothes dryer in the laundry room, and the man "happening", I finally got to comp the two. Yes, they are very very close, but not dupes. Delphinium is lighter than DOID, and has a bit of gray in it. It's DOID's muted sister, if you will. Now I need to decide if I'll keep it.

China Glaze and Essie

Last week I bought a couple nail polishes from the new China Glaze Anchors Away collection from Head2Toe, and got them just a couple days later. I purchased Ahoy! and Below Deck. I wore Ahoy! first. I wasn't blown away by it, but it's nice enough. Raspberry pink with microglitter. Kind of a jelly finish, and the application was smooth. As usual, it started chipping on me by the second day, so I took it off and applied Below Deck, which is one of the trendy colors these days. Mushroomy, grey, purpley, taupey color. Strange, but strangely pretty. It changes hue depending on what it's near. If it's near purple, it looks more brown; near brown or gray, it looks more purple. The formula was a little on the thick side, but that works to its benefit I think. Fully opaque in two coats, and pretty glossy on its own. I wore that for almost three days, but it was chipping on me, and had to come off.

In my shopping today, I found the new Essie display at Walmart, and bought Dive Bar. It's a dark, nearly black polish, with strong blue/green shimmer. Gorgeous in the bottle. I put that on this evening. Formula: thin and kind of watery. Has a tendency to pool in the brush, then suddenly flood the nail with polish. Difficult to control. Thin coats look watery and streaky, so I ended up doing a thick coat for the first, and following up with a relatively thin coat for the second. Good opacity and color in two coats. *sigh* I just notice I have some crud stuck IN my ring fingernail. It looks like this mani will be very short lived. I'll have to do it again, probably tomorrow. Hopefully I can manage it better next time. I've never dealt with a thin formula and a sparse brush at the same time.