Essie Chinchilly and Newspaper Manicure

I've had Essie Chinchilly for quite a while now, it's an awesome grey/taupe (greige) that's a squishy jelly creme. Cooler than their Playa Del Platinum, and just as awesome. I thought it would make a great base for a newspaper mani - something I've been meaning to try out for a long time but before, with all my requirements I didn't have time to play with stuff like this.

Confession: I LOVE a good nude. I'm all about bright and obnoxious colors, but sometimes I crave nudes.

Anyway, this is three coats, I probably could have gotten away with two. Ignore the squish on the pinky finger, all my fault and I didn't fix it because I knew I'd be covering it up with newsprint.

And that's the result of my newsprint nail art. I used rubbing alcohol, and it does make it a tad blurrier, but I've no objection to that. I need to be able to squish the paper onto my whole nail, so I think wetting the paper is better than wetting my nail. Even though the middle finger is a flub - I had only half a nail covered with print so I tried to squish some on top - I kind of like how it looks. This is fun, and easy. Mind you I am LE SUCK at nail art - I think the next time will be just fine, considering this as a practice run. And I love it! It is easy, something klutzy me can handle, and it's so neat looking. I wouldn't mind finding some prints in books to try to transfer as well. Have any of you tried this?

ULTA Bombshell

I had some extra birthday money a couple months ago and picked up some of the OPI Burlesque collection, as well as three ULTA polishes. Bombshell has been mentioned with great affection, so of course I snagged it. This is a raspberry, pink leaning, red jelly with holographic glitter. I may have to reswatch this at some point for better photos, but I'm going to be a dissenter - I don't like it. I know there's a lot of love for this polish, but I'm not feeling it. The shade of red is one I can wear, and I do love jellies - but it's prone for balding; see my pinky finger for an example. Also, the glitter is SUPER chunky, so I had to use a pile of top coat - I think I used three layers or four. It seems to suck the top coat dry. Also, I just wasn't falling head over heels for it on me. I dunno, I guess I just felt kind of "meh" when looking at it. Am I the only one?

What polishes do you not fall in love with, despite them being popular?

Orly Royal Navy (3 Ways!)

I've been on a blue kick lately. I just LOVE a good blue polish, and Orly Royal Navy fits that bill. It came out last summer (right?) and I had to have it. Royal blue jelly shot through with metallic green shimmer? Yes please! I pull this out pretty often. If you've never seen a swatch of this before (although I find it hard to believe, at this late date) you can click on my picture to enlarge it, the shimmer shows up quite nicely. I'm pleased that the color showed up accurately in my photos - lately blues haven't been faring as nicely but purples have done well, which is usually not the case.

Well, after I did this mani, I decided to slap some amazing flakies on it - bring in the second half! I used Nubar 2010 - I actually have both that AND Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. They're close enough to be dupes for me, but I'm sure glad to have an extra bottle of flaky goodness. It looks amazing over Royal Navy.

What's better than flakies and royal blue jelly? MATTE flakies and royal blue jelly. I topped it all off with China Glaze Matte Magic.

Obviously, all photos in order of my descriptions.

Holy. That last photo just makes me want to do it all over again! Yup, I love this.

Weekends are just a nightmare for me lately, so I hadn't been able to post anything for a few days. In case anyone (hi, new followers!) were curious where I'd been for the last few days.

I did, however, see some really neat stuff. I saw a girl walking into a bar wearing an all black and white outfit, with white tights - and day glow yellow stripper heels. I LOVED it. Then I saw a guy in a Rite Aid parking lot carrying around a big, old school boom box. He was blasting P!nk's "Pretty". Yep. I was transported back in time!

Anyway, it's my day off, so I'm going to try to schedule some posts for the rest of the week. Hope everyone has a great night!

Essie Little Brown Dress, China Glaze Crackle: Crushed Candy

Long post title, eh? I'd been wanting to try a brown underneath the turquoise and pink crackles, so I picked up Essie's Little Brown Dress. It's yummy and glossy on its own, and I quite like it under the turquoise - Crushed Candy - as well. I tried different angles as well as straight up and down, I did sideways and diagonal. Fun!

Little Brown Dress is such a yummy dark chocolate shade. I LOVE browns, I know that's a little unusual, but I do have a thing for them, and this is a pretty one. It's dark, but it's obviously brown even in low light. And the application was nice - my luck with Essie formula has been hit or miss, but this one was divine.

Turquoise and brown, as well as pink and brown, are a favorite color combination for me.

And I'm a little backlogged on posting, I've been so busy with work I just can't keep up with anything I've got going on the side. I like my job, but I hate the hours - I don't think I'll last forever, at this rate. Well, that's an aside for you on a nail polish blog, but that does kind of explain my sometimes sporadic posting. Have a good night everyone!

China Glaze Ahoy!

As if you hadn't seen this lovely a million times, oh well. I'm new, so I'm showing it off for myself. Ahoy! is from the Anchors Away spring collection. I've got to confess, I'm a China Glaze fangirl. I love this SO so much, it's an awesome bright shade of pink and it has the gold glass fleck China Glaze is famous for. It's like Strawberry Fields' sister!

You can click to enlarge if you want to see the glass fleck a bit better.

My index is growing - but sooo slowly. My nails usually grow pretty quickly, but for some reason right now it's struggling.

Revlon Royal and Galaxy

I have picked up a couple of the newish Revlon Top Speed polishes, of course I HAD to get Royal, being a cobalt blue jelly. It's actually a tad deeper than in my photo - it was a real PITA to photograph. I don't know why! The actual shade looks right, it's just...darker. This is three coats. It's SO yummy. The VNL (if you're not a regular nail blog reader, that would be visible nail line) is not as noticeable in reality as it appears in the photo, if you worry about that.

And since I just couldn't leave well enough alone, I topped it with Revlon Galaxy. This is just...MADE OF WIN! I adored it.

PS: Dear, dear index finger. Please stop breaking every time you start to grow out. I want you to match your siblings.

Orly Sapphire Silk

Orly Sapphire Silk is the only polish I picked up from their spring Precious collection. I really should have picked up Royal Velvet - but I've been on an anti purple kick lately. Which is odd, it used to be my favorite polish color, and I had two drawers full of them. Anyway - this is an awesome color. I haven't ever bought a MAC polish, but I was kind of drawn to Blue India, and although I know this isn't a dupe, it's close enough in my eyes to satisfy that yen, and application is superb. Orly has such a great formula. This is two coats. Such a nice dusty blue that leans the tiniest bit teal - if that makes sense!

Okay, fellow night owls. Have a good night, whatever you're up to!

Franken: Riders On The Storm

I love to franken jellies. They're my favorite things to play with and of course, they're my favorite finish. I decided to franken a grey jelly, and this is what I ended up with. I think it could be a hair more jelly, but I used a half a bottle of Wet N Wild clear, so it's pretty light at the tips and on the first coat. This is three coats. For lack of a better name, I call this Riders On The Storm, after the Doors' song.

For anyone interested, I generally don't know my recipes, but this one was simple: half a bottle of WNW clear, as mentioned above, a few drops of WNW black, and the rest is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Wet Cement.

Also, here's the song:

Riders on the storm...riders on the storm

Into this house we're born

Into this world we're thrown

Like a dog without a bone and actor out on loan

Riders on the storm

China Glaze Rapture

Oooh. I found this in a dusty, along with a couple of other polishes from the Urban Chic collection - circa 2005, if I'm reading right? This is a stunner, hot pink jelly with what seems to be holo glitter. It's kind of silvery looking, but if you catch it in bright sunlight, the holo comes out. LOVE it.

Of course, I can't think about the name "Rapture" without thinking of Blondie. "Don't stop...sure shot!"

BB Couture Frosty Meadow

*shifty eyes* Soooo...evidence I'm a slacker, much? Yeah. It's been a bit of a crazed week, and although I have photos, I just hadn't gotten around to editing or posting.

And hi to my new followers! *waves*

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, an amazing green jelly from BB Couture - they do some amazing greens, and some amazing jellies, too - Frosty Meadow. This is AWESOME. It's filled with sparkly lighter green glitter. I LURVE YOU, Frosty Meadow.

I won't be drinking green beer tonight, but I will be driving - so you revelers stay safe, take a taxi. *wink* Have fun! I leave you with John Mellencamp's Wild Night, featuring Me'Shell Ndegeocello. Of course, this is the remake of Van Morrison's original, the amazing Irish crooner. I love that she's driving a yellow taxi.

Mardi Gras!

Okay, obviously I'm not Catholic, but I love the idea of Mardi Gras and I've always wanted to go to New Orleans one year for the festivities. So, I decided to do an obnoxiously glittery manicure. Mind you, I SUCK at nail art. I wouldn't ever dare to show you my attempts at Kondading, and I'm not nimble with a nail brush, so I just did up some alternating glitter. On my thumb is OPI Sparkleicious, which is ... well, Mardi Gras in a bottle. Index, middle and pinkie all have Milani One Coat Glitter in Purple Gleam and my ring is Milani One Coat Glitter in Gold Glitz. The One Coat Glitters are amazeballs, but boy - they suck dry some top coat. I used FOUR coats of topcoat before it got truly shiny and stayed that way. It's worth the extra effort for me, because these are gorgeous glitters. Always a mood lifter. I decided to alternate the effort on my right hand, using Sparkleicious on my ring finger, Purple Gleam on my thumb, and Gold Glitz on the rest. I like the left hand better, but it's fun altogether.

Sinful Colors Updates and Fly Away

Okay, so a swatch and some information gathering in this post. I haven't seen this anywhere on my usual reading list, so I thought I'd go ahead and pass on what I've got.

I'm a big Sinful Colors fan. They're $1.99 (USD) at Walgreen's, and now they're becoming more readily available at Rite Aids, although their display is considerably smaller than the Walgreen's core display section. Of course, you can now order them at Cherry Culture - sadly though, the Cherry Culture site doesn't have greatly accurate color drops. I digress, obviously!

They're cheap, they're big-3 free, and they have some pretty great colors and a mostly decent formula (there are some misses, but for the price...), I like the brush and the wear is decent.

So I get excited when I see displays. Often times, they have repromotes in the displays. However, this week I have spied a new display - Tropical Ecstasy, pictured below - that has a few new-to-me colors, along with some from what I'd consider the core line.

Pictured left to right, the colors are: Happy Ending, Fly Away, Fiji, Cloud 9, Cream Pink, Gorgeous, Big Daddy, and Let's Meet. As near as I can tell, Fly Away and Big Daddy are new? I think Gorgeous is relatively new as well.

I have also spied some new additions to the core display in Walgreen's. Below are the ones I've picked up - left to right, Hazard, Savage, Unicorn, and Nirvana. I think there are a few more, as well.

Hope someone finds this helpful/interesting for you Sinful Colors fans!

Also, I had heard that Pearl Harbor had been discontinued. For those of you still on the lookout for it, check your local Rite Aids - I found three bottles still leftover in one of mine! You can bet I picked those up, I love it for layering.

Okay. Enough news, I'll show you my swatch of Fly Away. Seriously, I was so in love with this color upon first swatch that I went and bought a backup, in case it goes away. This is two coats, and although I did use a top coat, it was shiny without one! It's bright and made of win. Maybe a tad deeper blue than pictured here, though. My camera freaks out on some shades of blue. I'd call this a jelly creme, so you know I love the finish. It applied like a dream, better than some so-called high-end formulas I've tried.

As you can see, I not only broke off my index finger nail this week, but I got an "owie" on my pinky. Dammit. Luckily my nails grow exceptionally fast, but this has been a horrible winter for my skin and cuticles, I can slather and slather my hands in lotion AND use cuticle oils faithfully, and still I get tears pretty easily. I'll be glad when it gets warmer.

H&M Moody Model

Well, that was an unexpected break. I moved, and the internet service wasn't set up to be ready to go. (Mind you, they promised it would be!)

I DESPISE that.

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled program. Tonight I've got an awesome jelly creme teal to show you - H&M's Moody Model. Beware, you might want to use a couple of base coats for protection, this stained like a BITCH the first time I wore it. Using a couple of coats of base coat helped though.

Hot, right? Looks a little darker when not in direct sunlight, but boy, that's just luscious. I wonder if using a ridge filler would help as an alternative to regular base coat with the staining?

Coming up tomorrow is my first franken for this blog. I LOVE to franken jellies of unusual colors, and I just made a kick ass grey I'm in love with.

And this is weird. I went to add the label for this post, and it wouldn't let me use the ampersand symbol - but it let me use the plus symbol? *scratches head* Oh well, I assume folks will get the idea.