Top 20 - Part II

Today I have the second half of my Top 20 for you! This half consists of blues, greens, and layering polishes. Yesterday's disclaimer still applies, by the way.

Blues:

Orly Halley's Comet

Revlon Chic

China Glaze DV8

China Glaze 2NITE

Essie Starry Starry Night

Greens/Layering polishes:

Lynnderella Connect the Dots (shown here over SHCSM Dorien Grey)

Nails Inc. the Wyndham (shown here over Nails Inc. Kensington)

Chanel Peridot

Lynnderella All Hallow's Eve

Illamasqua Rampage (arguably my all-time favorite)

Thanks for looking!

Top 20 - Part I

Before I start, let me apologize in advance for some of the photos. A few of them were taken back in March or April, when 1) I was using my cell phone as a camera and 2) when I was completely clueless about lighting. Eventually I'll retake most of these photos and post them properly!

I've broken my Top 20 up into 2 parts so that it'll be a little more managable. Today I've got the reds, pinks, purples, and neutrals to show you!

Neutrals:

Deborah Lippmann No More Drama

Estee Lauder Surreal Violet

Reds/Pinks:

Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers (this is the main one I was apologizing for at the beginning of the post, lol)

OPI Royal Rajah Ruby

Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle

Quirius Sunshine Energy

Purples:

Barry M Dusky Mauve (Revlon Perplex is pictured here, but they're more or less the same color)

Zoya Neeka

Milani Dot Com

NARS Purple Rain

That's it for now. I'm cringing as I look at a few of these older photos...yikes. Tomorrow I'll post the other 10. Thanks for looking!

Lavender Creme franken + Finger Paints Flashy

I've been hunting for my perfect lavender creme for almost a year now. Everything out there right now is too white, too chalky, too lilac, too bright, or too blue. Picky, I know, but there's a very particular color that I've been after! Planks a Lot was released with OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean collection earlier this spring, and lo and behold, the exact color that I wanted! But of course, I wound up with the brighter, warmer-toned version, and later found out there are two versions of this color. What the heck, OPI. I got tired of looking though, so I added a few drops of Essie Mesmerize and a few drops of this grey creme, and I'm very happy with the result!

And as you may have heard, Finger Paints is releasing a collection of flakies! The official release date is New Year's, but I got lucky and found a Sally's that already had Flashy.

Flashy is your standard red/gold/orange/green flakie, and is exactly like SHCSM Hidden Treasure, Nubar 2010, Nfu Oh 38, and Essie Shine of the Times. The only difference between these is the density. Shine of the Times is the most dense, and I think Flashy is the least dense.

Advance apologies for the random bits of water in these photos! It was raining a little when I went out to take them. What you see here is 3 coats of Flashy over 3 coats of lavender: 

I really like how coppery these flakies look over lavender! Here's a macro at an angle so you can see the color shift:

Thanks for looking!

Nails Inc. Kensington + Sinful Colors Nail Junkie

The semester's finally over, which means I'm back! It's been a while since I last posted, and I figured I'd come back with an new favorite layered with an old favorite.

Kensington is the base color that came paired with the Wyndham. I still don't have a swatch of Kensington on its own...I'll have to do that at some point. I paired 3 coats of Kensington with 1 coat of Nail Junkie, and I have to admit I'm really happy with the result! I don't have top coat on in either of the photos in this post, so there is still some texture, but take my word for it when I say that it was perfectly smooth after top coat.

The multicolored glitters in Nail Junkie really stand out against a dark base like Kensington. There are small hexes and tiny squares, as you can see here:

Thanks for looking!

Temporary Hiatus

Finals are coming up, so I'm putting my blog on hold until the end of exams. So much studying to do...wish me luck!

Revlon Devil's Candy

Good evening! A little over a month ago, I posted Lynnderella Connect the Dots layered over Devil's Candy, but the lighting that day was terrible and as a result I couldn't get decent photos of the base color. Well, here they are! Not sure about the decent part, but they're color-accurate at least, lol.

So glossy! So squishy. So awesome. 2 coats is all you need.

Sinful Colors Open Seas, plus some layering!

Sinful Colors is great. They've been ripping off OPI collections lately, which I guess isn't cool for OPI, but it's great for us! It means we can get $2 dupes of some of the colors. In the spring, OPI released their Pirates of the Caribbean collection, and soon afterward, Sinful came out with their Adventure Island collection.

Open Seas is a jade creme intended to dupe OPI Mermaid's Tears. It came pretty close, but not quite. Mermaid's Tears is a bit more blue-toned, and Open Seas has more yellow. That's a good thing for me though, since Mermaid's Tears is a very weird color for my skintone. Open Seas looks MUCH better. It has an interesting formula though. It's thin, and needs to thicken up a bit before it becomes easy to apply. The first time I wore it, it took 3 coats, but the next time it only took 2. Here is 2 coats of Open Seas on its own (advance apologies for the dry hands! the cold has not been kind):

Of course, since I can never leave a creme alone, both times I've worn this I layered with it. The first time I wore it, I put L.A. Girls Crowd Surfing (aka Love & Beauty Green) on top.

I tried wearing this combination matte too, and it looks even cooler that way! I had some proper photos of this combination, but my hands are so horribly dry that I'll spare you all those photos.

The second time I wore this, I layered Nails Inc. the Wyndham on top! I'm very fond of this combination too. 2 coats of the Wyndham over Open Seas:

For some reason, I forgot to take photos of this while it was glossy, but I like it better matte anyway.

Nails Inc. The Wyndham Duo

Happy Thanksgiving! Or, if you don't celebrate, happy Thursday! Today I have a ridiculously awesome combination to show you.

The Nails Inc. Wyndham duo is one of three flakie/creme pairs being sold at Sephora right now. The Wyndham is a green/blue flakie paired with Kensington (a dark, greenish teal creme), the Old Vic is a blue/indigo flakie paired with Taxi Black (a plain black creme), and the Donmar is a gold/green/red flakie paired with Chelsea (a dark plum creme). I considered picking up the Donmar pair as well, but the flakie looks a lot like Nubar 2010 and its assorted dupes, so I decided against it.

Although I love teals and already own two teal cremes (OPI Ski Teal We Drop and SHCSM Fairy Teal), Kensington is completely different. It's a very dark, inky teal, and it is far more green-toned than the other two. I'll post Kensington later on, and include a comparison to the others. The formula is very very nice though! Very smooth, self-leveling application, which is great because dark colors like this are a pain in the neck to clean up.

Now, the Wyndham has an equally awesome formula. It takes slightly longer to set, but this is an advantage since it gives you a little extra time to place the flakes if you'd like. This is 2 coats of Kensington, 2 coats of the Wyndham, and 1 coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat:

You can see in the photo that the green flakies have a blue duochrome too! Here it is at an angle so you can see the effect a little better:

And since the Wyndham is such an awesome glitter, here's the obligatory macro shot of my thumbnail!

Have a great holiday!

Sally Hansen CSM Fairy Teal + Pure Ice Heartbreaker

Good...morning? Eh, it's 1 A.M., close enough. Today I have two great polishes to show you. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, despite its obnoxiously long name, has some great cremes (excluding Dorien Grey), and Fairy Teal is one of my favorites. It's a very smooth, very opaque teal creme that dries quickly and applies evenly in 2 coats. Here it is on its own:

That photo was taken a few weeks ago, but this time when I wore it, I decided I wanted to jazz it up a bit, so I reached for Pure Ice Heartbreaker. Heartbreaker is a sheer polish that pretty much looks like green/blue duochrome shimmer in a clear base. I think the base might be very slightly tinted, but I haven't noticed a change in the base colors whenever I layer Heartbreaker on top. It's usually green, and turns blue at an angle, but over Fairy Teal, it usually looks teal, and the green shows up at an angle, like this:

And now I'm off to sleep. Thanks for looking!

Revlon Royal Cloak

Good morning! Today I have for you a polish that is not so excellent.

Revlon Royal Cloak is from the Masquerade collection, just like Devil's Candy, but unfortunately the formula is nowhere as nice as Devil's Candy. It's a shame, because it's really a very pretty color. It has a royal purple base with grey/silver flaky shimmer.

3 coats for opacity, which isn't bad, but this was depressingly difficult to apply. Lots of streaking and patching. I got it even with a final thick coat, but that could result in some pretty nasty bubbling. Luckily, I didn't have that issue with this mani, but I'm still really disappointed in the formula. Look at these weird marks in my thumbnail:

Of course, the marks were gone once I added top coat. I guess Devil's Candy set my expectations a bit too high, but I like this color enough that I think I'm going to try it again later on and see if I can make it work.

Revlon Devil's Candy + Lynnderella Connect the Dots

Happy Saturday! Today is a hair dyeing day, so I'm sitting here typing this with a plastic bag on my head. Cute, right? It's ok though, because I have red nail polish to go with my red hair dye.

Revlon Devil's Candy is a bright red jelly from the limited edition Masquerade Collection, which is for Halloween, if I recall correctly. It's the exact color of the candy coating on candy apples, but I've had such erratic lighting all day that I couldn't get a decent picture to show you today. I'll post that one separately later on. It's really great though; if you like red jellies you need this one! Very smooth formula, 2 coats for opacity, and insanely glossy, even for a jelly. Until I tried this, my favorite red jelly was Essie Jelly Apple. Not anymore!

I layered this with 2 coats of Lynnderella Connect the Dots. Like pretty much all of Lynnderella's creations, Connect the Dots is very special. It's packed with different types of white and black glitter, from bars to squares to small hexes to giant hexes, tied together with subtle white, speckled shimmer. Now, I usually loathe bar glitter, because it reminds me of bacillus bacteria. Not cute. Connect the Dots, on the other hand, reminds me of Jackson Pollock's paintings! I don't really like his work, but on the nail, it's a really cool effect. Check it out!

At an angle:

And here's a macro of my thumb!

Of course, since it's a glitter, I had to see how it looked matte. I absolutely love the result! I think I prefer it matte.

The speckled shimmer looks kind of like dust in that picture, but don't worry, in person it doesn't and you can tell that it's shimmer. And because I love giant macro shots of my awkwardly-shaped thumbnail, here's another one:

Time to go wash the dye out of my hair. Have a great weekend!