Nails From Long Ago

I haven't had polish on my nails for over a month. My right index fingernail has broken twice, and my cuticles look horrible. So, I will take you back in time a bit.

LA Girl Metal Antique Gold with a Nicole by OPI Brilliant Idea gradient accent

I topped that combo (somewhat haphazardly) with OPI Turquoise Shatter and a full coat of Brilliant Idea on all nails.

Eddie Izzard Franken Collections Swatches and Recipes- Part I

I still have a couple of polishes to add to the Doctor Who Collection, but I don't have them finished yet. I  have very specific colors in mind, and have done a lot of testing. I'm also having an issue getting all of the shimmer out of the bottles I want to use.

To keep me from going completely bonkers, I started another collection that has been in my head for almost a year. This is part one of that collection, inspired by Eddie Izzard. This collection is 12 polishes, divided into two sets, Executive Transvestite and Action Transvestite.

I took pictures for these and had more trouble than I normally do. Before I uploaded them, I decided to take a picture of one of the cats. When I went to change the setting on the camera, I realized it was already in "cat" mode. Most of the pictures were crap, and I had to redo them, which explains my terrible cuticles. I wore one polish from this collection last week, and took photos of it then, which accounts for the difference in nail length, and disappearing henna.

Speaking of henna, please ignore the giant gap on my index finger. Acetone eats henna, and I really like this design. I was especially glad I left the giant gap after I had to redo swatches.

All swatches are over Gelous, and topped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. The recipes were mixed in 0.45 fl oz bottles, and I recommend adding the most abundant color, or clear (when used) last as to prevent overfilling.  Now, on to the photos.



Executive Transvestite - dusty mauve with a hint of red shimmer and glitter (1 coat)

FingerPaints Fall 2011 Fall Fashionista Swatches and Review

I stopped by Sally Beauty to pick up some Gelous and better clips to use when I cut and henna my hair. I noticed a new display of FingerPaints, and my mom pointed out the buy two, get one free deal they were running. I love FingerPaints, I love dusty and murky colors, and I really love free things. I got six of the nine, and decided to swatch them before they are lost in the yet to be sorted and stored nail polish abyss.

All swatches are over Gelous and topped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. You can click to see them bigger, but they are all cremes, so you're really just going to see the air bubbles brought on by the absurd humidity. I feel like I'm slowly drowning, accumulating a bit of water with every breath. Not only is it sticky and miserable, but it's not conducive to smooth nail polish, especially cremes.

Cordur-Orange

Cordur-Orange is a spicy, medium orange. The second photo is most color accurate, though it did change slightly in different light, losing the dusty quality and appearing a brighter orange.  This is one coat.


To-Teally Chic

Doctor Who Franken Collection Swatches and Recipes - Part Four

New Who II 


All swatches are over Gelous and topped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat.  The first two pictures in each set are taken in a lightbox, the last is under a lamp. Click to enlarge pictures. I'm a bit embarrassed to post these swatches; I did them in low light while I was trying to eat. It wasn't my best idea ever.

I used 0.5 fl. oz. bottles to mix these. I recommend adding the most abundant color or clear (if it's used) last to prevent overfilling.

For more information, see Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Always Take A Banana To A Party - pale yellow jelly full of glitter, 3 coats

1/2 bottle Maybelline Sheer Whisper (most peach/pink sheers should work)
1/4 bottle Orly Lemonade
40 drops Cover Girl Gold Rush (small gold glitter)
40 drops Wet 'n' Wild Party of Five Glitters (there are several dupes for this one)
40 drops NYC Starry Silver Glitter ( Sally Hansen Ice Queen is similar)
20 drops Milani Gold
20 drops Wet 'n' Wild Black Magic (the only polish I've ever bought on eBay)
20 drops Milani Disco Lights (similar to Wet 'n' Wild Sparked or Atlantis)
20 drops Revlon Star
20 drops Confetti Ice, Ice Baby

Medusa Cascade - pink leaning orange jelly with golden yellow shimmer and blue and teal glitter, 2 coats

Doctor Who Franken Collection Swatches and Recipes - Part Three

New Who I

(Eek! I lost most of this post and had to redo it.)

All swatches are over Gelous and topped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat.  The first two pictures in each set are taken in a lightbox, the last is under a lamp. Click to enlarge pictures. 

I used 0.5 fl. oz. bottles to mix these. I recommend adding the most abundant color or clear (if it's used) last to prevent overfilling.


Bitchy Trampoline- cream jelly with hidden pink and orange shimmer, 3 coats

under lamp, enlarge to see shimmer

30 drops  (1 part) Sally Hansen Pale Lilac Opal
30 drops (1 part) Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Peach Daiquiri 
60 drops (2 parts) Finger Paints Warm He-art-ed
60 drops (2 parts) Orly Lemonade (China Glaze Lemon Fizz dupe)
60 drops (2 parts) Maybelline Sheer Shining Star
180 drops (6 parts) clear
240 drops (8 parts) Confetti White Wedding


Odd Ood- grey leaning taupe jelly with red glitter, 3 coats

Doctor Who Franken Collection Swatches and Recipes - Part Two

Classic Who II - Part One is here, and contains a brief explanation.

All swatches are over Gelous, and topped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. The first two are two coats, the others are three. The first two photos in each set are in a lightbox, the third is taken under a lamp. Click photos to enlarge. Recipes were mixed in 0.5 fl. oz. bottles.

Time Vortex

180 drops Sally Hansen Salon Sheerly Beloved (I recently picked up a bunch of these at Big Lots)
60 drops Confetti Blue Bombshell
60 drops Confetti Rock The Night Away
60 drops China Glaze Rainbow
60 drops China Glaze Mommy Kissing Santa
60 drops OPI Chick Flick Cherry
40 drops Orly Lunar Eclipse
30 drops Maybelline Gold Star (another Big Lots find)
30 drops Wet 'n' Wild Burgundy Frost
30 drops NYC Penn Station
30 drops Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue It!

Gallifreyan Sky

Doctor Who Franken Collection Swatches and Recipes - Part One

I decided to create a Doctor Who franken collection, and it grew a bit huge. I will be posting pictures and recipes for all of them, but will break it up into sub-collections. There are two main collections, Classic Who and New Who, and each is divided into two sub-collections plus a bonus polish or two. It sounds far more complicated than it is, I promise.

This is Classic Who I, I hope you enjoy it.

All swatches are two coats with Gelous as a base coat and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri as a top coat. The first two pictures in each set were taken in a lightbox, and the last under a lamp. As always with my nail polish posts, click the pictures to enlarge. I used 0.5 fl. oz. bottles.

Brigadier 

1 part Revlon Top Speed Electric
1 part China Glaze Midnight Kiss (gold foil, similar to Orly Luxe)
2 parts Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme
2 parts clear
2 parts Finger Paints Greenery Scenery
2 parts Sally Hansen String of Pearls
4 parts Sally Hansen Pure White Opal
6 parts Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green With Envy
12 parts Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow

Omega's Will 

Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat Swatches and Review

I bought these before they were reviewed, because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find them. Also, they were on sale. I have been a bit disappointed, but not enough to return them, and I think they may have grown on me. First, the negatives. The weird wrapper on the cap is dreadful, and turns around freely making it difficult to open and close the bottles. Some of my brushes were wonky, but nothing too bad. I have a MAC, that I paid serious cash for, that came with a brush that looked like it had a previous life in a kindergarten art class. Wonky brushes don't kill the deal for me, but this one tends to stick in weird positions, because the polish dries on it so quickly.

The real problem with these, the thing that can't really be fixed, is the formula. It is very thin, but also clumpy, like bad potato soup. Once I figured out how to apply them, it was okay, but with so many other crackle options, there is no need to have to try so hard.

I do like the jelly-like finish of Distressed Denim and Smashed Cherry, and neeeeded a gold crackle, so am glad to have Antiqued Gold, even if it is disappointing.

I was told that it was best to use a thick coat, so that's what I did in these first swatches. They are without topcoat, and over Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Jumpin' Jade.

Smashing Cherry and Distressed Denim

I was in a hurry to get these done, so I swatched on my right hand, which made for some awkward photography.

Vintage Violet and Antiqued Gold

Gold Polish Comparison Swatches Part 2

I seem to have accidently created a nail polish blog. The recent abundance of polish posts can be, in part, attributed to my recent Official Stash Reorganization Project. While I've been compiling and categorizing, I thought it would be a good opportunity to post swatches, for my own purposes, mainly, but I hope others might find them helpful. Nail polish is something I enjoy, and will remain a part of this weird little, ill-read blog, but I hope to get back into the swing of posting my random thoughts, and some pictures of cats. You know, the important things in life.

Until then, there are the rest of the gold polish swatches. All photos are clickable and taken in a lightbox, and the polish is shown with a topcoat, but without a basecoat. Part 1 is here. Please pardon the lobster hands and overly acetone-d cuticles.

Glitter! I love shiny things, and an abundance of glitter never fails to make me happy. I really can't believe I don't have more gold glitter polishes. I did two coats of each to show the relative density of glitter. Milani Jewel FX Gold (I hope the official polish namer didn't get paid too much for that one) is a bit of a pain to layer over things, as it's difficult to distribute the glitter evenly, but it looks great by itself, as demonstrated by Scrangie. 

Comet and Fireworks were both Holiday 2010, limited edition releases by Wet 'n' Wild. I had assumed that they were just the same polish in different bottles (yet, I bought both), but am glad to see I was wrong. Basically, Fireworks is comet with small silver glitter. I think WnW has released Fireworks under a different name (as they tend to do) at some point, and hope they do so again, especially if they also bring back my favorite of that collection, Tipsy. 

Gold Rush is the perfect small, gold, glitter topcoat, and I suggest if you can still find the Cover Girl Boundless Color Collection, that you snatch it up, along with City Lights (tiny holo glitter topcoat). 

Sale Shopping

Yesterday, my mom and I did a little shopping. We tend to shop rarely, but buy in quantity when we do. Because of this, we love big sales. Our mission was simply to buy some cat food (there ended up being a sale at the pet store!) and to hit the CVS beauty clearance. We've done this before, so we discussed which local CVS would be best, and planned our route accordingly. While we were out, we decided to run to the local Coldwater Creek Outlet. Lucky for us, it happened to be the last day of their 50% off sale. Here's a quick rundown of what I nabbed.

CVS
Most of what I got wasn't actually on sale, and I totally forgot my coupon wallet, oops. But, my mom did stock up on some dirt cheap beauty essentials, and I got a few limited edition polishes (mostly Wet 'n' Wild).

*Wet 'n' Wild Nail Pail

All of the polish in the pail, came in the pail, along with some other things I gave to my mom. The polishes in front are other WnW purchases, listed below.

This Week In Polish

Lately, I've been really drawn to neutral colors, especially when it comes to nail polish. Besides my recent love of neutrals, I have a tendency to become obsessed with one color. I love red for a couple of weeks, then I can think of nothing but blue for a month, until I start to dream in green. You get the idea.

Because I love color, and have a fairly large polish stash, I try to alternate the colors I wear on my nails. Since my short term memory is nearly non-existent (I missed trash day, again), I decided to add a little forced variety into my life. While not strictly Roy G. Biv, I am just wrapping up what I'm calling "Rainbow Week", where I've worn a different color, from a predetermined order, each day. I swapped violet for teal, because that is how my stash is organized.

I've been really happy with the changing colors, and that this challenge has forced me to dig through my stash. Since I also tend to fall into other ruts (the crackle onslaught last week), I might make up some more challenges for myself, and I will probably bring this one back, as well. 

On to the pics! Click to enlarge, and please try to overlook the air-bubbles that have been plaguing me, my utter lack of cleanup, and my terrible cuticles. 

Red - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City, China Glaze Crackle Glaze Black Mesh, Orly Winter Wonderland, and OPI Big Apple Red, in that order

I love putting a jelly over a glitter or shimmer, and am now loving it over a crackle finish. I will definitely try it again. I didn't capture it very well, and the bubbles totally ruined the effect. :(

This Week In Polish

My cuticles are still a bit wrecked, but I'm loving polish again.

Finger Paints Go Van Gogh

Borghese Scintilla Magic and China Glaze Crackle Glaze Crushed Candy...

... and topped with China Glaze Crackle Glaze Cracked Concrete (click to enlarge)

I Still Have Nails

I haven't posted anything nail polish related for quite some time, and that's sad. What's even sadder, is that my nails are in horrid shape, and I haven't been keeping them polished. *gasp* In reality, it's kind of a good thing. Not only have I been keeping my hands busy making things, I haven't been chewing my nails, which is why I started my nail polish habit in the first place.

I did manage to do an Easter/pastel theme, though I didn't get around to adding the Konad stamping I'd planned. Also, the polish bubbled, and I didn't have time to fix it. :( There was food to be made, and food is generally more important.

Without further adieu, my Easter polish, and slap-dash mehndi.

 Orly Lemonade, NYC Hint of Mint, OPI What's With the Cattitude, OPI Rumples Wiggin', Wet 'n Wild Tickled Pink

I'll spare you the foot henna, and mention that the last photo is on my right hand. I'm right handed, so the combination of applying henna and taking the photo with my left hand led to a bit of fuzziness.