For Audrey

I am so excited to be posting the one today, you have no idea.  This one is China Glaze For Audrey.  This is an oldie, but new to me.  I couldn't tell you what year or collection this one came from to save my life, but I'm just happy that it is in my hoard now.

Now, this isn't just any Audrey this one is named after.  This is named after The Audrey.  Audrey Hepburn  was the classiest lady to every be classy in the history of modern cinema.  I idolize her and want to be like her in almost all ways.  I can't say enough good things about her.  And the color that China Glaze did for this polish isn't just blue.  You could call it sky blue, or baby blue, or robin's egg blue, but you would all of you be incorrect.  This shade is Tiffany blue (or as close as they could get since the color with the name is trademarked).  In my imaginary wedding, Tiffany blue is the main shade in my color pallet.

Since it is now winter and I'm completely in the holiday spirit, I decided to add a snowman to my manicure.  I didn't realize just how appropriate my manicure would be since it started snowing while I had this on my nails.

I used Sally Hansen and a dotting tool for the snowman and the snow, a black nail art pen for the arms and hat, and Essie Size Matters with an eye liner brush for the scarf.  To top it off and give just that extra oomph, I used a white glitter by Pixel to put over the "ground snow" so you could see where the snowman began.

This mani actually lasted me about four days with chips only starting on day three and no shrinkage.  Two coats got me complete coverage, and a top coat added extra shine.

Both pics were taken under artificial light, since it has been either raining or just gross outside and cold.

China Glaze For Audrey normally retails for $7 US plus sales tax.

Broach the Subject

Super Sunday posts!  Hope everyone has been enjoying the long holiday weekend, I know I've enjoyed my day off.

I'm starting off my holiday manicures with a lovely nude by Essie from the winter 2011 line.  This one is Broach the Subject, a wonderful cream nude.  I actually held it up to my work pants and it is a darker khaki color, not a camel like I originally thought.  I got complete coverage with no streaking or bald spots in two coats.  And then just to jazz things up and make it even more holiday-y, I did a white glitter fade on my ring finger as an accent nail.  I used Sally Hansen's Disco Ball.

All but the last picture were taken under artificial light.  The glitter fade was much more noticeable in person, but the whole point of it was to be subtle. Just not as subtle as the pictures made it.

Essie Broach the Subject retails for $8 US plus sales tax.  Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Disco Ball retails for $2.50 US plus sales tax.

Lav-ish

TGI-Saturday!  I survived Thanksgiving and Black Friday!  Yay! =D  I can't believe I actually had an alarm for 2:30 AM to wake me up on Friday to go to work.  That's just insane to me.

Also, now that it is past Thanksgiving, it is officially holiday season.  So I can start wearing my winter shades!  Excited!

This was my BF manicure, which was very muted since my work shirt was highlighter yellow and kind of blinding.  I used Ulta's Lav-ish, a gray/lavender, almost a mauve color with a gold micro shimmer in it.  If it had been just a plain creme, I'd say it was more of a fall color, but withe the gold shimmer I'd classify it as a winter shade.  I used three coats of this polish since it was a little thin.  Most of the time Ulta's formulas are kind of thick with the creams, but this one was almost watery so I used an extra coat.

This polish would have lasted me longer than two days if there hadn't been about an hour where there was nothing for me to do while at work on BF.  For some reason, we had about an hour where the entire mall was dead (I think it was because people had gone home to sleep after shopping since midnight).  My nails are actually really thin and have a bad habit of peeling, so once they get a certain length they will break off at the quick.  I ended up breaking six (that's right, 6) nails and destroying my pretty manicure.  But before that happened, someone did say it was a very pretty color.  =)

Both pictures were taken under artificial light, but at different levels of light.  The second one is more blurry that I thought it would have been.

Ulta's Lav-ish retails for $6 US plus sales tax.

*This color was supplied to me for review by my friend, Twin.  I did not spend any of my own personal money.

 

Turkey Day

It is now officially Thanksgiving in my timezone, so I am making a midnight posting of my Thanksgiving nails.  I won't really have time to post between now and about the time I'm going to sleep tomorrow around 7 PM because I have to be at work at 3:30AM Black Friday morning.  If you work in retail, you know exactly how I feel.  If you enjoy sleeping, you also know how I feel.  I'm just happy I get to spend time with the fam this year!  Haven't been able to do that for a few years.  =)

This was my first try at free hand nail art, and I couldn't find the proper brush because I was lazy, so this was done entirely with a dotting tool.  This also took me about two hours to do because of mess ups and because I just didn't like what was on my nails.  Maybe we could call it abstract instead of amateur.

Thumb: yellow and bronze dots

Index finger: weave pattern

Middle finger: flowers in purple, yellow and orange

Ring finger: a turkey

Pinkie finger: orange and bronze dots.

I was way too lazy to list out all the shades I used to make this, so I just took a picture.  My base was three coats of Orly Sheer Nude.  This color actually looks fantastic on toes too. 

And on this Thanksgiving Day I would like to say thank you and let everyone know how much I appreciate your page views.  Have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend!

 

Carry On

Happy Hump Day!  On this the day before Thanksgiving, it is actually seasonally appropriate weather we are having.  Yesterday it was warm, now I'm running around in jackets.  Thank you, crazy Georgia weather.  Speaking of Thanksgiving, I plan on stuffing myself and sleeping a lot today and tomorrow because I'm working about 20 hours on Black Friday.

So today I have the last of what I have for Essie's fall 2011 line Carry On.  In the bottle it looked like a plum color, so I thought it would be a great addition to my collection.  After two thick coats of it though, I looked like a pretty good dupe for OPI Give Me Moore, which is a blackened purple.  So if you're going to choose between the two, I'd go with Give Me Moore based strictly on formula, and Carry On based on price point.  I will also add that Carry On is only lighter on the nail than Give Me Moore by a fraction of a shade.

I intentionally did thick coats and thin coats on the same hand, just so I could see the difference.  My findings decided that to get complete coverage with no bald spots and to be completely opaque, thick coats are absolutely necessary.  Even two average coats left bald spots, so feel free to pile it on, or just do three average coats.

I got Essie Carry On at Target for $7.50 US plus sales tax.

Brownstone

Good morning all!  It is unseasonably warm today for right before Thanksgiving (but I live in Georgia, the weather here can never make up its mind during fall and spring).  I'm kind of in a rush to get the last of my fall colors posted before I move on to holiday colors, so there might be a post a day this week.

Today I bring you China Glaze Brownstone from the Metro line.  It's the fall line from this year which they gave urban/city inspired names to.  I kind of like how CG names things, instead of just calling it the "Fall 2011 collection" or something.

I had no problems with this polish.  I did have problems with banging my wet nails against things while waiting for them to dry, so I had to start over a couple times.  The polish applied opaque in one coat (!!), but it had a couple streaks in it, probably user error instead of the brush's fault, so I topped it off with one extra coat.  I wore it for three days before ADD kicked in, but in that time there was no sign of chipping or even shrinkage, so if my attention could last that long it would have lasted me until Thanksgiving probably.

Sure, the color does very much resemble its name, but I think it looks more like Georgia clay.  Instead of dirt down here we have red clay.  But it's so pretty as a polish, and shiny!  It did dry a little darker than what was in the bottle.  See for yourself.

In direct sunlight

Under artificial light

China Glaze Brownstone retails for $7 US plus sales tax if applicable.

Adopt A Polish

Look what I found!  AdoptAPolish.org is taking applications to adopts nail polishes in need of a good home (like puppies!).  You pick from the polishes they currently have up for adoption (I picked the Zoya named Angelina), apply, and if you get picked to be the lucky parent they cover all the shipping!

Here's their press release:


WORLD’S FIRST NAIL POLISH ADOPTION AGENCY: PARENTS NEEDED
Adoptapolish.org announces the world’s first adoption drive for in need nail polish, available for 
U.S. and Canadian applicants. 


Every day, thousands of nail polishes are abandoned or abused. They are not sticky or old, they are fine new polishes, stuck on a shelf because they are forgotten or out of season. All they desire is to be used, and maybe taken for a night on the town in return.


“We have so many polishes who need a good family to take them in” said AdoptAPolish.org 
executive director Nikki Smith. “All it takes is filling out an application form describing how you can provide a better life for one of our in need nail polishes. We select the best application and take care of all the expenses, delivering your newly adopted polish directly to your door.”


One current nail polish, Charleston, held back tears well describing his life, “I spent two years of my life stacked in a dark room crammed together with thousands of others just like me, 
hundreds pressing down on my shoulders at any given time. I’m a shimmer and I have never 
seen sunlight in my life. Oh and don’t get me started on CND Shellac, I just can’t keep going as long, why would any women want me” he continued.


Please don’t let the agony go on any longer than it has to. The first round of adoptions closes 
December 31st. Apply to Adopt a Polish at http://www.adoptapolish.org/category/currentadoptions/

Taunting Teal

I think Sunday posts are my favorite.  I know I post sporadically throughout the week, but I always post on Sundays.  This and a nice glass of wine is a perfect way to end/start my week.

Anyway, today I bring you a new (to me, anyway) line that I haven't seen really anything about on any of the other blogs I read.  Maybe I've just missed the postings.  This is my first purchase from the Sonia Kashuk line of nail lacquers.  I've used her make up brushes for years and have been very happy with them, I'm a repeat customer.  I even have the brush set she did for Breast Cancer Awareness a couple years back.  She produces a quality product at a very affordable price.  And her polishes are no different!

Taunting Teal is from the fall line, so it fits with my holiday police posting habits.  This color is described as "the perfect mix of blue and green to add a hint of deep color to your fall line-up." In the bottle, yes that seems to be true; however, on my nails it came out much darker than what was in the bottle.  The formula though, is ah-mazing.  It applied completely opaque with no bald spots, streaking, or drag in two coats, it was a smooth creme that was shiny, and it lasted on my nails for five (that's right, 5) days.  It probably would have lasted longer if I hadn't picked at it when I noticed that my actual nail was starting to peel.  


Upside: great polish for affordable price.  Downside: only ten shades in the entire collection available for retail at the moment.

In direct sunlight, it looks the same as in the bottle

In the shade, natural light

Under artificial light, it looks much darker, almost black.

So after a couple days I got bored and an order I had been expecting had come in while I had this on, so I did this:

These were both colors I already had, but I got a dotting tool and was super excited to use it.  The brown is Sally Hansen Commander in Chic and the white is Sally Hansen White Out.  When I looked at it more closely in direct sunlight and at work, Commander In Chic made the green in the teal come out more, and White Out made it look darker blue.  I admit, I need work on the dotting technique, but this was pretty good for a first try. 


 I did this in homage to a new scarf I got (feel free to add extra fancy emphasis to that sentence), which I unfortunately don't have a picture of.  But I do have a picture of my latest haul!

China Glaze: For Audrey, Urban-Night, and Brownstone

Essie: Winter Cube (Size Matters,Cocktail Bling, Bangle Jangle, and Bobbing for Baubles)

Sally Hansen Color Quick pen in Gold Chrome

and my new dotting tool.

Sonia Kashuk Taunting Teal  retails for $4.99 US plus sales tax.  I found mine at my local Target.

Above is a link to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure website and <= is another one if you don't want to scroll up.  =)

Haute Chocolate

It's almost the weekend!  Yay, I'm so excited!  =D

So today's featured color is Sally Hansen's Haute Chocolate, from the Complete Salon Manicure line.  This line is supposed to have your base coat, varnish, and top coat all in one simple application.  I still put a separate top coat on because my OCD doesn't allow for me to not use a top coat.  But this particular line actually does the trick.  You get a nice smooth application with a richly pigmented color, very little drag, but I did notice a couple bald spots when I held my hands up to the light while at a stop light.

Haute Chocolate is a redish brown, almost like milk chocolate with a touch of burgundy.  I got this shade back in the beginning of fall when it was released with the fall collection and only just now got around to posting it.  This shade does have a little bit of shimmer to it, but it's such a rich dark color and the shimmer is so faint that it just looks perfect.

In natural light

Artificial light

While I was at Target picking up a couple things (including a couple new shades) the nice cashier gave me an awesome compliment on the polish!  Oh so happy.  I also went home and immediately changed the polish, but I'd had it on for about 3 days, so I was bored.

This polish didn't have any chips by the second day I had it on, but it did experience some shrinkage around the tips of my nails.  These pictures were taken after a couple minor touch ups.  It removed like a dream though.  No staining and no smearing onto my hand from the cotton ball.

Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in Haute Chocolate retails for $6.49 US plus sales tax if applicable.

Bronze Ablaze

Happy Hump Day!  I have a couple more fall colors in my arsenal since it is still actually fall, and Stateside we have one more holiday before Christmas.  I think this shade is technically in the winter collection, but it looks fall to me.

This is Bronze Ablaze from Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry line.  I'd have to classify this as a metallic, not exactly a holo even though it has some slight holo qualities.  It's a coppery gold base with green accents, like real bronze is supposed to have once it's started oxidizing.  I keep forgetting that bronze has a green tint to it when you're using it as a shade.  I either see that coppery color or full on green like the Statue of Liberty.

Application was very easy with minimal streaking, but once it dried there was no streaking at all.  The brush is huge so you can easily get the standard 3-stroke coverage, but if you're not careful it will get all over your hands.  The bottle isn't the most aesthetically pleasing to me, it's a weird pyramid shape that I don't quite understand.  It's supposed to be the middle price value of the Sally Hansen lines that are sold at all major retailers, so the bottle just doesn't fit it for me.  But it's still a great lacquer, despite what I think about its packaging.

In direct sunlight with the bottle

Natural light

Artificial light 

These pictures are all with a quick dry top coat to seal and add extra shine.

This is at day 3 of this polish.  I had no chipping and very little shrinkage (if any).  I ended up taking it off and changing it before I could do any real damage to it.

It did make me incandescently happy that as soon as I walked into work the first day I had this on I got compliments on it.  =)

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Bronze Ablaze I got on sale at Target for $4.05 US plus sales tax.

Forget Now

Hello!  Welcome to the beginning of the week, unfortunately.  So after the let down I faced with Disco Dolls, and the horrible allergy problems that most people face in late fall and early winter, I needed something pink and sparkly in my life.  It's amazing how something as simple as nail polish can improve your mood.  I was still stopped up and probably not getting enough rest, but my hot pink nails just made everything so much better.  Sleeping for about 12 hours might also have had something to do with it, but pink nails always make me smile.

This is Sinful Colors Professional's Forget Now 814, which isn't in the current collection, I think I got it back in the beginning of summer.  It's a hot pink creme with  what looks like pink and magenta micro shimmer.  I didn't experience any chipping for the first two days, which is great since I'm so hands intense at work, and very little drag.  There were a couple bald spots, but I think it was mainly because I used too much on the first coat when I was trying to go over with the second coat.

I actually really like the bottle design.  It's like OPI and Sally Hansen bottles got together and had a secret love child.  It actually fits perfectly in your hand.  And the price is great.  It's a full sized 15 ml/ 0.5 fl oz bottle for roughly the same price as the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear line.

Now for the pictures.

In direct sunlight.  (I think that shadow is my finger on the lens)

In the shade under natural light

Sinful Color Professional Forget Now retails for $2.50 US at most major retailers like Target, Walgreens, and online at their online site.

Rainbow in the S-kylie

Happy Veteran's Day everyone!  Also, happy Saturday!  I hope it was good for someone out there.  I've been sick with a weird head cold the past week and the only joy I've been getting out of anything is my nail polish and Netflix.  I'm so excited for holiday shades to come out, but I really want to take every holiday in its proper turn.  Never mind the holiday music in the background.

I'm completing the four-part series of my first round of the Kardashian Kolors today.  Last but not least is Rainbow in the S-kylie.  This one is strictly your traditional glitter.  To get best results, I suggest putting it as your pre-top coat over a solid color (I used It's All About The Glam).  It's a multi-color, multi-shape glitter floating in a clear polish.  It's also large enough to really be more like confetti than glitter.  With the white base, for some reason it made me think of the circus.   But I think with black or a navy it would be more fashion forward and seasonally appropriate. More Cirque du Soleil than circus.

The pictures I have are bad.  I'll just say it.  They're bad.  I was trying to show the difference between two coats and one all on the same hand, but it looks like a drunk toddler did my nails.

Index and middle fingers have two coats, and ring and pinky have one coat.

You can see all the different colors in the bottle much better here.

This was actually really difficult to remove.

Edit:  This is actually a prefect dupe for OPI Rainbow Connection that just came out, if you were debating over the two.  If price was your main decider, go with Nicole.  If anything else, go with OPI.  Either way, this is a really great happy glitter.  Although, I've never seen a glitter that isn't happy; I mean, it's glitter.  But this one is definitely a good one to have in your collection.

Nicole by OPI Rainbow in the S-kylie is available only at Wal-mart for a limited time and retails for $7 US.

Disco Dolls

Hey guys!  So excited that the weekend's almost here.  I did break a nail so far down that now it looks like a little stub on my hand.  It is a freak of nail and an outcast, to be shunned by my other nails.  But then all of them started breaking (like they do) so I'm going to have to start taking biotin or something.  Boo.

I'm almost finished with the Kardashian Kolors that I picked up, just one left after this post.  So, Disco Dolls is one of Khloe's shades and is absolutely perfect to ring in the holiday season.  Nicole by OPI has a short article on their site with a full description and a manicure suggestion for this shade and I really want to try it.  Khloe describes it as a disco ball exploding on your hands, and while I love the colors and effect of it, that description confused me a little.  Almost every disco ball I have ever laid eyes on has been silver, not gold.  But whatever, that's not what's important.

What is important is that I am going to tell you exactly what I thought of it.  Disco Dolls is a gold micro glitter base with multicolored, round, slightly larger glitters in it for dimension.  It applied completely opaque in two coats.  Not, "there's lots of little glitter and some bigger glitter floating around in a clear polish."  This shade is almost entirely glitter.  It looked absolutely fabulous on my hands, was very coarse because of all the textures, so load up on the top coat.  However, it chipped in huge flakes the very next day.  This mani didn't even last me 24 hours.  I was so sad.  I was so excited about wearing this color and then it fell flat on me.

But, all is not lost with this fabulously shiny shade.  I'm going to try it again during the holiday season and report back.  So far, I would recommend it as a one nighter party shade for New Year's or some other big shindig going on this winter.

In direct sunlight with the bottle

In the shade/natural light

Indoors, under artificial light

Direct sunlight

A very bad attempt at a close up with a 3.2 MP camera phone

Nicole by OPI's Kardashian Kolors Disco Dolls is available only at Wal-mart for a limited time and retails for $7 US plus sales tax.

It's All About the Glam

The second of the Kardashian Kolors I tried out was It's All About the Glam, another one of Kim's colors.  This would be a great holiday color, since it looks like a snowball.  It's a sheer shimmery white with what looks like micro glitter in it that gives a multidimensional shine to it.  You know how snow looks when the sun light hits it just right?  Where it practically glows?  That's what this polish reminds me of.  

It seems very fitting that I'm listening to Christmas music while posting this.  I'm usually the holiday nazi too--I like to have my holidays in the calender order, but I'm getting into the holiday spirit early this year.   I'm definitely wearing this color again this holiday season, possibly with a gold or white glitter top depending on the outfit and the party.  

In direct sunlight with the bottle

Natural light

Indoors under artificial light

These pictures I used three coats plus a quick dry top coat to make as opaque as I felt it was going to get.  Kim's colors are very sheer and almost delicate, so even with the extra coats you can still see the tips of your nails for that extra white tip.  But they hold up very well and don't chip easily.  The last one took three days of hitting my hands on stuff at work to even start to chip on one finger.  Twin also requested to borrow Kim-pletely In Love the day after I posted that color.

I already loved the Kardashians, this polish line just makes me love them more.

Nicole by OPI's It's All About The Glam is available only at Wal-mart for a limited time and retails for $7 US

New Organizer!

If the fact that I have a blog dedicated almost entirely to nail polish isn't any indication that I have a huge collection of polish, allow me to show you what I mean.  At first, I had just put all my bottles in a big tupperware, hoping against hope that it would all fit and I'd be able to find stuff.  Well, it started overflowing and I had to get a new one.  That one got too full as well, so now I have a 5-tier organizer to help me find things better.

The collection that was.

The collection that now is.

I'm probably going to have to get another one.  It's already full and almost unable to open.

Kim-pletely In Love

Bonjour, mes amies!  I saw last night that the Kardashians have released a polish line with Nicole by OPI called Kardashian Kolors.  So naturally I went out and bought some of them this morning on my day off and did some swatches.  I love that entire crazy family, they are so entertaining, and they always look fabulous.  It also makes me happy that they don't look like stick figures and that they're savvy business people.

Today I'm wearing one of Kim's colors called Kim-pletely In Love.  It's a sheer shimmery baby pink that is just to die for.  I did three coats plus a quick dry top coat to get it opaque.  I don't normally like lighter colors, but this is so pretty!  This goes perfectly with your LBD as a nice soft touch and is a perfect "day polish."  If you like to coordinate your polish with your outfit and event, this would be perfect for a baby/bridal shower or (as my gran would probably like) Easter Sunday.  This one isn't exactly a holiday color, in my opinion, but it's still great for any time of year.

In natural light.

In the shade

With the bottle for comparison. 

Nicole by OPI's Kardashian Kolors, including Kim-pletely In Love, are available only at Wal-mart for a limited time.  Kim-pletely In Love retails for $7 US plus sales tax.

Thrill of Brazil

Hump-day post.

So this one I actually did for Halloween weekend because it went with my costumes.  Magically, it went with both costumes I had planned for the weekend (Raggedy Ann and a 1920's flapper).  I don't know how I got out of sequence.

Nevermind the open car door in the background.  This is OPI's Thrill of Brazil, and oldie but a goodie.  This is my go-to shade if I can't decide on something or if I just need a quick polish change.  It applies opaque in two coats to a shiny gel.  It's not a creme since it doesn't have that milky quality in the bottle, but this is a classic red manicure color. With the right top coat, very chip resistant.  A timeless shade that will never go out of style that will class up (and sass up) your outfit.  It is, in my opinion, perfect.

I actually found a top coat that was supposed to turn any lacquer into a gel mani, and it actually works.  It's a Sally Hanson product that I found at my local CVS and it made my French manicure last almost two weeks.  I can't even get a solid color to last two weeks, a French manicure usually lasts about two days if I'm lucky.  I went to try to find it at Ulta and the girls there had no idea what I was talking about, so I might just have to see if it's still at my CVS.

This is the only shade I have ever used the entire full sized bottle.  Ever.  I have two in my stockpile just in case it ever gets discontinued, knock on wood.  

OPI Thrill of Brazil retails for $8.50 US plus sales tax.