NoTE-China Glaze Gamer Glam

I'd been wanting to wear a holo for a few days, and with Hayden showing a bit of tip wear, I decided to do a polish change. ChG Gamer Glam is a light/medium purple holographic color. The holo isn't strong in this collection, which is a big disappointment. Still, GG is a great purple, and I'm all about purple.

One coat Orly Bonder
Two coats Gamer Glam
One coat Essie Good To Go fast dry top coat.

GG applied well, and dried quickly, as holos usually do. I don't know what else to say about it. I had no problems with it, and it's purple. What's not to like? :D

Delphinium Part Two

I've been waving Delphinium around on my nails for four days. Four! That's an astounding length of time for me. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten at least another day of wear if I hadn't started picking at it today. Unfortunately I picked at a corner at the tip, and a large chunk peeled away, so I had to remove all of it.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the wear time, and tip wear was minimal. There were a couple tiny chips, but nothing I couldn't either ignore or fill in and continue on. My normal wear time is 2-3 days before it either gets all janky or I get bored and need to change it.  I'm impressed.

Now that warm weather is here for at least a few days, it's time to bring out some brights.

I need to take the time to write up a reasoning behind this blog, my stance for the moment on pics, and a purchase disclosure. That'll be a blog post, and most will be copied to the "About Me" section. Soon.

NoTE-Sally Hansen Delphinium

Delphinium, light, lavender with a gray undertone. It's a bit dusty, and leans a bit reddish on the purple spectrum, but not too much. It would be a great spring time color. Oh, wait, it's still spring! Score!

Formula was good, spread on the nail well, and leveled wonderfully, though it wasn't very pigmented. I used three coats to get full coverage. I'm not a fan of the brush, but it's manageable. It's a little thick and bushy, and if you don't use a light touch, you can wipe the polish right off your nail.

In trying to open the Poshe bottle, I smudged a pinky nail. I remembered reading something on a nail blog fairly recently about fixing polish smudges with top coat, so I quickly applied the Poshe, and it smoothed out right away. Phew! Disaster averted.

I was up in Sacramento the other day, and went shopping. I only get up there once or twice a year, so I took blatant advantage and hit up Ulta, Sephora, and the BE boutique. I scored ChG 108 Degrees at Ulta. $6.99 though! Highway robbery. AND I forgot my 20% discount coupon. Bah. Still, it's such a gorgeous color that I'm trying not to hold its price against it. 108 Degrees is next on the list, unless we still have gloomy, chilly, damp weather, in which case I might get all gloomy with my color choice.

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.

I finally caved and used OPI Done Out In Deco. Opaque in two coats, and a lovely muted light/med. purple creme.  Perfect for spring, flattering, and muted enough not to draw undue attention to itself. It's pretty, the formula's great, and it dries quickly. What's not to like?

NoTD-Franken

Some time ago I frankened a nail polish. What that means, for those who don't know, is mixing a bit of this color, a bit of that color, and coming up with a new color. I wanted to create the perfect light purple shimmer, which no one makes.  I mixed 4 or 5 colors together, but it was never just right, so I gave up. Feeling utterly bored with the polishes I have, I thought it was high time I tried this one out. Because it was mixed in a Wet N Wild Crave bottle, there's not much, and the brush is really short and not very good. The poor brush resulted in a less than acceptable application. However, I'm intrigued by the color. I can't judge it fully in the light in here, but so far it's not bad.

Light purple/lilac, with a pearly shimmer finish. There's a blue/gray tone to it that's rather nice. I'm not sure if it's too pearly. Once I can see it in daylight I can judge it much better. Three coats for close to full opacity, due to the large amount of FingerPaints Private Collection in it.

So far I'm kinda liking it.

NoTD-China Glaze Tronica

This evening's  mani is Techno Teal and Virtual Violet, on alternating fingers. It looks surprisingly good together. Okay, not horrible.

I'm doing this to test the durability in order to determine which polish will be returned. I've already decided to return the two pinkish shades from the China Glaze Tronica collection. I don't love the colors, and space is too limited to keep colors I don't love. The last time I wore the teal shade, it chipped within 12 hours, which is unacceptable.  I might take it back regardless because I'm not loving the color. It's verging on this weird aqua shade that doesn't look right to me.



The results of the wear test: After 19 hours and one shower, both polishes show excessive wear, with the purple one showing multiple chips and one entire corner missing. Both colors are going back. I'm very disappointed in this collection.

I'm still wearing First Class Ticket. Applied it Friday, and am just now seeing some tipwear. It's worse on my right hand, of course. Sadly, now that it's wearing, there are also a couple of small chips, and the wear is worse than it was this morning. This one might benefit greatly from color wrapping. I really really like this color, and am not quite bored with it yet. So gorgeous. A deep, inky blurple. (blue + purple)

L'Oreal Studio Secrets Professional Magic Perfecting Base-utter crap. It's advertised as the #1 primer, but the fine print says that's from drugstore and grocery sales, excluding WalMart. There really aren't that many primers in those venues, so it's pretty easy to be the top dog. Anyway, I have a sample from a magazine and thought I'd give it a try today. It's heavy on the silicone finish, does not do a thing to my pores, and my mineral foundation is simply sitting on my skin, and is easily scraped off. At first it felt weird, then I got used to it. However, I'm distinctly unimpressed with the feel, the application, and the results. I most definitely will not be buying this product. I'll stick with my BE primer, which works quite well.

NoTD-China Glaze First Class Ticket

One coat of ChG ridge filling base coat. Every time I use it, I dislike it more. It takes a long time to dry, and stays tacky.

Two coats of First Class Ticket. I think three coats would have been perfection, but two is pretty good. The first coat looked like thick grape concentrate. The second coat covered well and brought it to near opacity. In ordinary light it looks nearly perfect. It's only when you shine a very strong light on the polish does it look less than perfect. The color, at two coats, is gorgeous. Deep reddish purple base, with a blue purple overtone, and multi colored shimmer with some blue in it.  It seems to change depending on the lighting. At one point, reddish purple, then bluish, then just an amazing purple, and the blue shimmer comes and goes. It's a lovely color.
One coat of Essie To Dry For. It seems to be an excellent top coat. So happy I bought it.

I bought the new Maybelline Eye Studio gel eyeliner the other day when I was shopping at Target. I almost put it back, telling myself I already had a gray gel liner, and that I certainly didn't need another. At the last moment, I figured what the heck and tossed it into the basket. I've used it twice, and so far I like it. The gray is just the shade I've been wanting, the texture is nice, application is easy, and I actually like the little brush that comes with it. The bristles are just the right length and stiffness to make application smooth and easy. It doesn't smudge, and lasts for at least 7 hours, so far.