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.

NoTE-Dorothy Who?

Last night...late last night, I got the crazy urge to polish my nails. So I did.

1 coat Zoya Get Even Ridge Filling basecoat
1 coat China Glaze Midnight Mission (my fave blue)
2 coats China Glaze Dorothy Who? (blue glitter)
1 coat Poshe fast drying top coat

I've used Dorothy Who? before, and it was sheer enough, despite the glitter, to require three coats. I've had good results from layering a coordinating color under glitters before, so decided to do that here. Perhaps I should have chosen a different color base, since Midnight Mission is darker than Dorothy, but it's not bad. Not what I was expecting, but not bad.

Dorothy by itself will produce a somewhat bright, eye catching blue glitter look. Layering it over MM produces a darker, subdued look. The glitter looks flat, somehow. The texture IS flat, which is not how it is on its own. On its own, it's the typical bumpy glitter feel, which requires one or two coats of Gelous or very thick top coat to cover.  Blue glitter-awesome. :D

108 Degrees update

While the polish is holding up very well, I'm going to remove it tonight. It's not the polish, it's me. I was fiddling with a metal pail and chipped two nails, one of them quite badly. I might be able to fix it and squeeze another day out of it, but one nail is very bad off, and the color will have to be removed tomorrow anyway.

Wrapping the tips in at least one coat of color and one coat of top coat works quite well, and really extends the life of a mani. If you don't mindlessly ruin it by fiddling with things and trying to use your nails as a pry bar.

NoTE-China Glaze 108 Degrees-again

One coat of Zoya Get Even Ridge Filling Basecoat.
Three coats of China Glaze 108 Degrees.
One coat of Poshe quick drying topcoat.

This was tonight's mani while watching Zombieland for the third time. Love that movie, and the rules are good ones to use even when there aren't zombies roaming the earth.

The Zoya base coat is my favorite. I never have problems with application, and am on my second bottle. My first bottle was perfect, but this one has a tendency to get little lumps in it, which I have to brush off with the brush. Not a big deal, considering how well it works for me.

Three coats of color, because 108 Degrees is fairly sheer, like I said in the last post. :) It's also VERY bright, so if that's not your thing, put it down and back away slowly.

This polish is packed with shimmer/glitter particles, and looks amazing in the sun. It's not too shabby in indoor lighting, either. Hot pink with fuchsia/hot pink shimmer, that reflects a little bluish in bright light, and looks more golden in low light. The formula is great, and gives no problems at all in application. It flows smoothly onto the nail and levels nicely. The brush is wonderful to work with; it fans out perfectly on the nail and doesn't do anything strange. I can't say anything bad about this one at all. :)

NoTD-China Glaze 108 Degrees

I know, it's middle of the day. At least, it is here on the west coast. I had some time today, while the man was out gallivanting across the countryside, to watch some TV and do my nails.  Let me just say this color is bright and amazing, and glitters like a fiend in the sun.

Started off with one coat of Orly Bonder.
Three coats of 108 Degrees. It's rather sheer, so three or even four coats will give you amazing depth of color and good coverage. However, it looks very pretty, though sheer, at two, so it's up to you.
One coat of Sephora by OPI top coat, followed by Qtica drying drops.

Now, I have to call out the top coat on this one because it was absolutely awful. Very thin and watery, and the brush did not spread on my nail at all. Difficult to work with. Also, the combo of this top coat and drying drops is a recipe for nail dings, scratches, bubble, and an overall janked up mani. I have never had my polish scratch and get dinged up when using a quick dry top coat, or even Zoya Armor with Qtica drying drops. This OPI top coat is going into the "don't ever use this stuff again" section of my polish storage. I have a feeling I'm going to be removing this color tomorrow and trying something else, it's that bad.

Love the polish, hate the top coat.

Edit: I've removed the polish. 4 hours after doing my nails, the polish was still dentable, and a chunk of it had come off my right thumb nail. It was a bad situation all around.

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.

Update: Victoriana

Sadly, I've had to remove it. I noticed a couple small chips after today's shower, which I could live with, but a few hours later I saw a larger chip, then the polish on one of my pinkie finger nails started to separate and peel. I've never seen that happen. When I polished them, I used two coats, with Poshe top coat, and the tc and upper layer of polish peeled off. I can't go around with janky polish. No way.

I'm disappointed with the wear, but next time I use it, I'll try to wrap the tips to see if that helps. I usually forget, and my nails are usually pretty short, so there's not much room to do it.

It looks like I'm going "into town" tomorrow, and have plans to hit up an Ulta, so we'll see what I can score. :D

NoTE-Butter London Victoriana

I debated whether to do Sally Hansen Delphinium or Victoriana. Obviously Victoriana won.

I'm not sure if I love it or merely like it. I'll have to see it in sunlight and wear it for a bit to decide. The formula and application were frickin' amazing. Seriously. The polish is so easy to apply, it practically did it without me. Wow. Just. Wow.

The only thing I can complain about is that the brush is rather short. While that bothered me at first, once I finished the first nail, I forgot all about the length and just polished like a fiend. It was amazing. The polish flowed well onto the nail, leveled right before my eyes, and even covered the far side of every nail perfectly, which is something I've been struggling with lately. I'm completely impressed with the formula. If they're all like this, I want more!

I'll keep the blog updated on how it wears and any other thoughts on this one.

Edit #1: There are some things I should have mentioned last night instead of gushing. Vic, like the Zoya Flame collection, and the OPI Suede collection, has heavy shimmer, and needs to be placed with care. Otherwise, during clean up, you'll end up taking off the top layer of color, and leaving a lot of silver shimmer behind.

I still haven't seen the color in direct sunlight, but in indirect light it's very pretty. The weather's kind of iffy today, with intermittent sun, and quite a bit of wind. I don't feel like going out there.

Edit #2: Polish going strong, and wearing very well. Normally I'd have some visible (to me) tip wear, but it's barely visible. I'm my worst critic when it comes to polish, and I see tipwear when it's miniscule.

We had a tiny bit of sun yesterday, so I examined the polish in the light. It's pretty, and I like it, but I'm not in love with it.  Despite that, I can see using this often.

Update on Ski Teal We Drop

Still loving this color, though I discovered a couple of chips this afternoon. I've repaired them and applied a new layer of top coat, although the top coat I used left bits of "stuff" on some of my nails. I'm not sure if it's bits of dried up top coat or what the heck it is, but I'm not happy about it. It also didn't level well, left ridges on a couple nails, and some nails are scratched already. Not good. I'd classify this as a moderate top coat fail.

NoTE-Ski Teal We Drop

If I were to sum up this polish in one word, that word would be Amazing. Yes, with a capital A.

Opaque in two coats. It flowed onto the nail smoothly, leveled like a dream, and was perfection. I simply can't say enough good things about the color and the formula. I wish all polishes applied this wonderfully.

Ski is a dark teal blue creme, for anyone who didn't know or couldn't remember. It was released in OPI's 2010 Swiss collection. I wish I'd bought it then, instead of wasting so many months without it. I think this will be a year-round staple for me. Gorgeous!