Nails Inc. Baker Street + Lynnderella Connect the Dots

Baker Street is a fairly new offering from Nails Inc. I first heard about it when photos of Beyonce wearing it started floating around the intarwebs, and even though I don't really care for her, the nail color piqued my interest. 

A lot of times, when I've spent a lot of time drooling over a particular color, I'm left rather disappointed once I actually get my hands on it. Not the case with Baker Street! It's quite a chameleon. Indoors, it's dusty and fairly muted, but outside, it's ridiculously bright and vivid. Even one of my male friends (who ordinarily couldn't care less) looked at my hands and remarked, "Those are the bluest nails I've ever seen."

The formula, however, leaves something to be desired. It was pretty thick, which is easily remedied with a few drops of polish thinner, but it was also streaky and bubbled a little. In order to disguise these flaws, I applied 2 coats of Baker Street over my usual base (Essie Fill the Gap), waited for it to dry completely, applied a coat of Gelous, and then a final coat of Baker Street. Problem solved! It's more effort than I'm used to putting in for cremes, but it works.

I should mention that these photos are not even remotely color-accurate. Baker Street, in person, is a little darker, and has a touch of purple, but I tried photographing it under a few different lighting conditions and could not get it to look right. My dad even let me use his Nikon D3000! But that was even worse, LOL. Ironically enough, the closest I got...was with my cell phone. My Droid 2 and it's crappy camera did a better job of capturing the color than 2 proper cameras.

It's still not totally accurate, but it's a lot closer than before.

Here's Baker Street with 1 thick coat of Connect the Dots dabbed on:

I didn't use any top coat in that photo, so you can still see some texture from the glitter, but I actually kinda like it that way. Connect the Dots is just a bottle full of awesomeness and win. Which reminds me, I still haven't posted Very Pretty Vampire...I need to get around to that, haha.

Thanks for looking and commenting!

OPI Ski Teal We Drop

Ski Teal We Drop is the last polish I bought from OPI's Fall 2010 Swiss collection, and probably my favorite. I've already established that I'm a sucker for a nice red creme/jelly, but turns out I'm also a sucker for a nice teal creme. 

Ski Teal We Drop is definitely on the blue side of teal, but that works out just fine for me, since I don't particularly like greens with too much blue in them. It could probably reach opacity in 2 coats, but every time I've worn it, it streaked a little, so I needed the third coat to even things out. I've also noticed that it's a little more prone to flooding cuticles than most of my other polishes, so I need to be careful.

But, I mean...it's such a nice, glossy teal creme. How could you not love it? I usually can't leave cremes alone and wind up layering over them pretty much immediately, but I've worn Ski Teal We Drop alone many times.

I've noticed that Ski Teal We Drop is pretty close to RBL Teal. They're definitely not dupes, since the RBL is a touch darker and a bit greener, but on the other hand, Ski Teal We Drop is 1) $10 cheaper and 2) not RBL. :P

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Revlon Chic + Nails Inc. the Wyndham, Finger Paints Asylum

Recently, Revlon revamped their nail polish line and added a bunch of new colors, and Chic is one of them. It's a dusty blue with a fantastic formula, smooth and opaque in 2 coats. It dries glossy on its own.

I looooove this color, as evidenced by the fact that it's in my Top 20. I bought it last December, and I've worn it several times since then. It's fantastic as a base color for layering, so versatile! Of course, being the space case that I am, I forgot to take photos of most of the layering combinations that I tried, but here are two of them, both glossy and matte:

I've shown you the Wyndham before, but it's just so freakin' pretty! I love the green-blue shift, which is even more prominent when matte.

And here is Chic with Finger Paints Asylum. Indoors, Chic turns into a dusty teal, but I think that also might have something to do with the slightly milky base of Asylum.

Of course, I had to try this combo matte, and I think it's my favorite combination so far!

It doesn't really translate in the photos, but the blue flakies in Asylum show up really nicely. 

Thanks for looking and commenting!

Wet n Wild Everybody Loves Redmond

Exams are finally over, which means I am now a junior in college. :D My nails pretty much went to crap during finals. I cut them super-short, and my only manicures consisted of a quick coat of China Glaze Little Drummer Boy (a lovely navy shimmer that reaches opacity in a single coat). Even that, I left on for two weeks and reapplied once, but hey, priorities. This was the last "proper" mani that I did before finals, and I must say I'm quite fond of it!

Wet n Wild Everybody Loves Redmond is a bright, slightly orange-toned red jelly. I love jellies. Especially red jellies. They're so squishy and awesome. However, I tend to gravitate towards cooler-toned reds, so I figured I'd give a warmer red a try, and it worked out pretty well. I don't think that this polish dries particularly quickly, but I did notice that it gave even coverage in one coat! I used 2 anyway, to cover up most of the visible nail line, but if I had applied this to shorter nails I would've just used one.

I do have one complaint about this polish though: the brush. It's not terrible, like the OPI Pro-Wide or the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri brushes, but it's not too good either.

As you can see, it's cut in a weird, uneven shape, but it didn't hinder application too much thanks to the great formula. For $1.99, I can't really complain, but I will probably trim the brush before I use it next time.

Thanks for looking and commenting, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Temporary Hiatus

Finals are coming up. I'll be back around the end of the month.