NoTE-OPI Ski Teal We Drop w/Mad As A Hatter

Yesterday, Monday, I had an urge to polish my nails. What color, I really didn't know. So I had a conversation with my self. It went something like this:

Me: I want to paint my nails.
Self: Well, what color do you want to use this time?
Me: I don't know!
Self: *silence*
Me: Umm, what about teal?
Self: It's still summer! You can't do teal in the summer!
Me: I don't care. I want to use Ski Teal We Drop, and I don't care that it was a winter color, and you can't tell me what I can't do! *violent raspberry*
Self: Fine, whatever, but when people start looking at you weird(er than they do now), you'll think back and realize I was right. *gives a violent raspberry back and flounces off*

So I used Ski, and to bling it up a little, I did an accent nail, which I've never done before. By the way, the man hates it. He's a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to polish colors, and never seems to like the nontraditional colors I prefer. He especially dislikes the accent nail.

One coat Orly Bonder
Two coats OPI Ski Teal We Drop
One coat OPI Mad As A Hatter on thumb nails
One coat Seche Vite, with two coats on thumb nails to smooth out the glitter.

I took pics for once, because I like the result a lot. However, my pic taking skills are less than great, and my cuticles are imperfect. If that bothers you, consider this your warning and scoot. :)

NoTE-OPI I Brake For Manicures

I bought this one yesterday, at the mall. I had doubts about it in the store, but bought it anyway. In all the swatches I'd seen online, it looked dark, but you could see the plummy tone to it. Well, on my fingers it looks like mud. Very dark brown mud. I've looked at it under daylight CFL lighting, fluorescent lights, incandescent lights, and indirect sunlight. In all lights, it still looks like mud. The only time I could see the plum base was when I shone (how's that for obscure conjugation?) my very bright Mag-Lite at one of the nails. I can't be carrying around mini Mag-Lites attached to all my fingers, now, can I? The inevitable conclusion is that this sucker has GOT to go back to the store. I think that's probably for the best, since I also ordered three colors from Zoya last night, and the money from the OPI can go toward those. Yes, I'm that much of a cheapskate these days. Being unemployed brings most discretionary spending to a crashing halt.

Now, the formula on the OPI was wonderful. It was completely opaque in two coats, and self leveled very well. I'm not a fan of the Pro Wide brush because my nail beds are a bit on the skinny side, and the brush is huge. It also tends to hold onto a lot of polish, then release it all at once, so be careful to wipe enough off that you don't get flooded with polish.

One more thing. I've started a new tag in honor of this color: ugly.

NoTE-China Glaze Ruby Pumps

Ruby Pumps: a classic glam red glitter.

I trimmed my nails short last night, because I wanted to wear Ruby Pumps. Such a luscious color really deserves nails that are even in length, don't you think? Since I can't lengthen the short one,  I shortened the rest. I think it looks great.

Ruby Pumps, for those that don't know, is a gorgeous red tint packed with red glitter. It's really awesome, and a polish I wish I would wear more often. I used three coats over Orly Bonder, and finished with Seche Vite. Usually glitters have a rough texture, but Ruby Pumps didn't, so one coat of Seche Vite was enough.

I can't stop staring at my nails.

Polish disappointments

Several days ago Scrangie had pics of the FingerPaints Fall collection on her blog. One of them, Military Green, caught my eye. I had wanted to get in on the faded khaki green trend I've been seeing this year, but so far none of them seemed like they'd go well with my skin tone. This one, however, looked right up my alley. I went to Sally Beauty to see if they had it yet. They did. In fact, they had the entire collection, which is unusual. Usually they've sold several before I get around to looking. I was so very disappointed. In the entire set. Scrangie's pics were gorgeous, and showcased some lovely, saturated colors. What I saw in the store were faded, warm toned, muted fall colors. Pale imitations of the 'net pics. Everything except the gray was a warm toned, yellow based color. Military Green was very far away from something I could wear.

I left with nothing. They didn't even have Orly Sapphire Silk. I'm so, so disappointed. So far every fall collection I've seen except the Zoya one leaves me cold, uninterested, or disappointed. At least I have a lot of lovely colors from last fall's collections, which will be getting much more attention when the weather cools down.

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

NoTE-Zoya Hayden

There was a massive fire in the next town over, with the smoke coming this way, so we kept the girls inside last night. This provided me with enough time to polish my nails, for once.

Zoya Hayden was love at first sight for me. It's an incredibly happy, fun, bright pink with a blue flash. I've been recommending it to everyone I can because I think it's so great. Sadly, it's been a long time since I got around to wearing it. I'd forgotten that it's pretty sheer, which is kind of a bummer. Zoya has a few pinks very much like it, so I'm sure there's a more opaque version. I'll stick with Hayden.

The girls are staring at each other, and there was almost a pounce, but Molly backed out at the last minute. Silly things. :)

Back to nail polish. I used three coats of Hayden, and I still have VNL. I suspect it might have been almost opaque at four coats, but I really didn't want to do that many. It'll only be on my nails for a couple days anyway. I think I can survive with VNL. lol Application was superb. A little thin, like most Zoyas, but easily controlled, spread well, self leveled well, and dried pretty quickly with a fast dry top coat. Can't think of anything else useful to say, so I'll get outta here. :)

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.

NoTE-Zoya Charla

Gosh, has it been a whole WEEK since I did my nails? Yeah, it has! Lemme tell you, time flies when you're up to your neck in problem after problem. Lemme also tell you this: the VA is NOT your friend, and someone needs to light a fire under their collective backsides. *grump*

Anyway, I'd been wanting to do my nails, but just couldn't find the time to do so. I had time tonight, so took advantage of that. At first, I was going to go with a bright pink, like ChG Ahoy! or maybe Nubar Honeysuckle, but thought I felt a bit more blue-green, and not so much into the pink just yet. Charla is bright, and summery, and sparkly, and will help me track where those pesky free weights are so I can get my form right. Yes, I've become something of a gym rat lately. I've got mini muscles now! lol

One coat of Zoya Get Even,
Three coats of Charla,
One coat Essie To Dry For.

Charla is a little sheer, so you need to build it a bit to three coats, where it gets pretty opaque. The formula is nice, fluid, and levels well. I love the foil finish on it. It doesn't dry textured, so you don't need a thick top coat, and it just looks fantastic.

NoTE-Zoya Reva and OPI Silver Shatter-Updated!

Friday night I felt like doing something a bit different, so I drug out the Silver Shatter and picked a bright, cheerful color to pair it with. That happened to be Zoya's Reva, from one of the summer collections they released this year. To be honest, I cannot keep the collection names straight. Reva is a reddish berry tone with a lot of gold shimmer. Very pretty.

Here's what I used:
One coat of Zoya Get Even
Two coats of Zoya Reva
One coat of OPI Silver Shatter
One coat of Poshe.

I made sure to wrap the tips with Reva, but, as usual, forgot to wrap the tips with the top coat. Still, I had excellent wear with this combo for THREE days! I removed it this afternoon, mainly because I was bored with it, but partially because after my shower, I noticed a smallish chip in one nail, and seized on that excuse to change it. Even after three whole and one partial day, there was only minor tip wear, and mild top coat fading. I was truly surprised. One thing I did want to mention: because Reva has so much gold shimmer in it, I think it would look much better with a gold shatter/crackle over it instead of silver.

Normally I don't take and/or post photos, but I did take pics the day after application, specifically to show you, my faithful readers. Yes, all three of you. lol Unfortunately, I've had no time in the last few days to actually edit them, and when I sat down today to do so, decided that Gimp was completely worthless to me, and have since kicked it the heck off my computer. So...I DO have pics, and will upload them when I can find a program that actually works.

Finally! It's been crazy here the last two days, what with a mouse in the apartment, and laundry & grocery day yesterday. I literally just got done editing the photos and uploading them. This kind of delay is why I didn't want to do pics at all. I feel bad that I might have kept anyone waiting for my pics, which aren't the best, admittedly. :)

NoTE-Zoya Dove

We were feeling lazy this evening, so we didn't take the girls out for their nightly walk, and lounged around. I took the opportunity to cut my nails down and polish them with Dove, which is a light gray creme that leans blue on me.

The Dorothy Who and Midnight Mission combo suffered several large chips today. It was unfixable.

One coat Orly Nail Defense
Three coats Zoya Dove
One Coat Poshe fast drying top coat.

I could have stopped at two coats, but one nail had a bald spot, so I figured I'd just give them all one more coat. It looks nice, but I think Dove isn't a favorite. Something about my skin tone brings out the blue, and I don't like that. Dove's formula is good. It levels nicely, and I had no funky problems with it. The fact I don't have much to say about it speaks to how good it is.