China Glaze Urban Night

Hello hello!  It feels like a long time since I've last posted, but it's really more like my normal schedule.  Maybe holiday is still lingering in the back of my mind.

I've gone back into my fall colors because I realized that I hadn't even worn a couple of them.  Plus it was really cold when I wore them, so they felt appropriate.  Unlike right now, which is feeling more like spring.  This time last year we'd had snow consistently throughout the season, so everyone in north GA was flipping out.  I much prefer the warm weather.  I hate cold.

Ok, tangent finished.  Urban Night is from China Glaze's Metro 2011 collection.  I was iffy about this one at first just because the purple was so different from any of the other ones I've had in the past and didn't know if it would look good against my skin tone.  In the bottle it looks almost like a rusty purple, if that makes any sense.  But I was very pleasantly surprised with the shade after I got it on my nails.  Turned into a nice plum purple.  =)

The formula was what threw me off.  I expected it to be kind of thick, since most really dark shades tend to be in my experience.  This was a little watery.  I ended up using three coats plus a quick dry top coat, then didn't touch anything for about half an hour.

Strange formula aside, I was very pleased with the outcome.

Shade

Direct Sunlight

China Glaze Urban Night retails for $7 US.

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.

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.

Midtown Magic

Hello friends and happy Monday!

Today's post is featuring China Glaze "Midtown Magic" from the Metro collection.  At first I thought it could be a good dupe for L'Oreal "OWL's Night," but that color is more iridescent, where as Midtown Magic is more of a shimmer with micro glitter.  However, this color is still very nice, especially for fall, and it definitely fits in with the metropolitan theme.  The color itself is more of a dark chocolate with bronze and gold shimmer, which I found to be very distracting in direct sunlight.  I actually got quite a few compliments on this color.

These images were taken from my 3.5 Megapixel camera phone, so quality is considerably lacking in my opinion, especially when it comes to close ups.

 In direct sunlight, so you can see the shimmer.

 Under artificial lighting in the house.  You can still see the shimmer, and a decent comparison with the bottle.

For these images I applied 2 thick coats and a top coat.  Midtown Magic retails for $8 US

Just for comparison, here's L'Oreal "OWL's Night."  This one is definitely on my wishlist.

Witchly Thinking

Ok, so the picture is of a terrible quality since it was taken from my phone and it only has a 3.2 mega pixel camera.  But whatever. 

  So I have terrible ADD with my nail polish and habitually change the polish every 2 or 3 days.  It is almost my only form of expression in my everyday wardrobe since my job's dress code is pretty strict as far as what I wear goes, so I change it every chance I get.  I'm pretty rough on my hands anyway.  I work in retail so I'm constantly hitting my hands on counters and hangers and other things; understandably my nails take a beating.  The polish will change the same day it chips, without fail.  So here we go!

Ulta's Witchly Thinking from a mini Halloween set and Orly's Tiara.  Originally I had thought Witchly had been black, but it turned out to be a dark navy blue.  It applied opaque with one coat with minimal drag or bald spots.  The accent nail took about four coats of Tiara glitter polish, like glitters usually do, and it came out kind of grainy, so if you use it be sure to load up on a top coat for optimal smoothness.  I used Revlon's quick dry top coat to seal it and add some extra shine.  

  The Halloween set came with 4 colors for $7.99 US (plus sales tax), and Tiara was also a mini for $3.50 US (plus sales tax).