NYC Tudor City Teal + Nails Inc. the Wyndham

NYC Tudor City Teal is a polish that didn't have a proper "release," as far as I know. But it started showing up on blogs and looked like a very cute color, so for 99 cents I thought, why not? I'll give it a try. Unfortunately, the formula is thin and watery.

I used 3 thick coats here and there's still a bit of VNL, but it sure is pretty.

And over that, I added 2 coats of Nails Inc. the Wyndham, a green-blue flakie.

I really like this combination! It kind of makes me want to go somewhere tropical, which is weird because I hate hot weather despite being from a tropical country. Bad South Asian. I do miss the fruit though!

Have you also succumbed to the 99-cent allure of Tudor City Teal? What did you think of the formula?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Verity Midnight Green + Comparison

Verity Midnight Green is a squishy, super glossy dark green jelly. It's opaque in 4 coats, and I had no issues with bubbling. In indirect light:

So squishy!! The formula was excellent too. It was thin, but workable, and didn't get all up in my cuticles or anything. In the sun:

LOVE. Now, as you may have realized, I've posted quite a few greens. Perhaps you're wondering how they compare? Even if you weren't, I went ahead and compared them anyway. Out of my greens, I found that the closest (in the bottle) are Verity Aqua Blue, Illamasqua Rampage, and NYC Flat Iron Green. Bottle shots:

Aqua Blue is pretty clearly different from the others, so I decided to leave it out when doing my comparison swatches. And you can see that my bottle of Rampage has been pretty well loved, haha. In the shade, Rampage, Midnight Green, and Flat Iron Green look pretty similar. Rampage is a bit lighter, but not by much. Midnight Green and Flat Iron Green look pretty much identical.

In a brighter lighting situation, the differences become more apparent (or maybe it's just my green addiction that becomes more apparent.....).

Rampage is definitely lighter and brighter now, but Flat Iron Green and Midnight Green still look the same. The sun was not cooperating when I took the comparison photos, and my artificial light source wasn't cutting it, but there are indeed minute differences between Midnight Green and Flat Iron Green. I mentioned this when I posted Flat Iron Green, but that one's a murkier, swampier green. Midnight Green is a pure forest green. 

I'm probably going to wind up purging Flat Iron Green, because it's not really that good, and Rampage & Midnight Green are so much better. I'm glad I've got Midnight Green though, because it's so much cheaper than Rampage! $1 versus $14....Needless to say, I no longer want NARS Zulu!

Thoughts? Feelings? Do you even like dark greens? Are there any colors that you automatically gravitate towards even though you know you've already got similar ones?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

NYC Flat Iron Green

NYC Flat Iron Green is a core color from the In a New York Minute line, which is supposed to be quick-dry. It's a swampy dark green jelly that needs 4 coats for opacity. It does look black sometimes, but it usually reads green. Shown here is 4 coats, plus top coat.

There was no sun to be spoken of that day, so no sunlight pictures. I can, however, tell you that Flat Iron Green leans a bit more yellow/brown in direct sunlight. It's definitely a murky green compared to something like Illamasqua Rampage, or Verity Midnight Green (which I will show you in a few weeks, with comparison photos).

Now, it says QUICK DRY pretty clearly on the bottle up there, right? Yeah, uh, that's not exactly the case here. Maybe it's because Flat Iron Green is a jelly, but I found it to be very slow-drying. Slower than most of my other polishes. Luckily, it doesn't bubble much, but the slow dry time paired with the lack of opacity is kind of a bummer.

I originally bought this to calm my raging lemming for NARS Zulu, back in early 2010, before it was rereleased. I recall reading somewhere that Flat Iron Green and Zulu are dupes, but I'm not sure I think that's actually the case. They're quite similar, but based off of photos I think Zulu is more of a forest green than a swampy green. Nfu Oh 569 and Verity Midnight Green are also similar, but again, more forest-y than swampy. Apparently the formula on most of these colors is...not so good, so my personal suggestion would definitely be to go for one of the cheaper options. Unless you're a big dark green lover like me, you probably don't need many of these.

Thoughts? Feelings? Talk to me about dark greens. What are your favorites?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great Friday & weekend!

Some Random Catch-Up Spam

Soooooo. I thought I got into a bit of a groove with the posting, and then exams started. I also wound up with a sinus infection (that is just starting to go away, after 2-3 weeks), and an impacted wisdom tooth, as well as a cavity on the molar right next to the impacted wisdom tooth, so I've been having fun, LOL. I haven't really painted my nails much lately, but I post from a backlog of photos, so it's really a matter of working up the motivation to write up a post.

Here's some "Sorry-I've-Been-So-Unmotivated" spam. This will be a fairly long post.

Wet n Wild On a Trip in the sunlight. FYI, this is...not accurate. On a Trip is warmer and dustier, but it looks periwinkle in my photos. Do not believe them. Someday I'll figure out how to accurately photograph this sucker. Good formula though. Thin, but smooth. 3 coats.

Got bored of it pretty quickly, so I slapped on a coat of NYC Starry Silver Glitter. Not really feeling it. I think On a Trip is too dark of a base color, because the silver is too prominent for my liking. I should have used Connect the Dots instead.

Next up, Borghese Stellare Notte. Is it just me, or does this thing take FOREVER to dry? I didn't have any bubbling, but this took a loooooong time. 2 coats of nail polish should not need an hour and a half of dry time.

Despite the long drying time (and the crazy paddle brush), the formula was good, and there is a definite color shift, which was very difficult to capture on camera. It's really cool though. In some lights, it's a dark shimmery green, and it looks straight-up plum in other lighting situations.

Next, OPI Miami Beet. Not one of my favorite colors for manicures, as I feel that bright pinks are very weird on my hands, but it looks awesome on toes. Oh, and I decided to try out square/squoval nails for a while. You'll see my nail shape change quite a bit over the next few weeks. 3 coats, plus top coat.

Great formula, but as you can see, Miami Beet is more of a jelly-ish creme, which means that in direct light you can still see VNL. It's not at all visible otherwise though.

And last but not least, China Glaze Glittering Garland. It's dark green, and full of shimmery flecks, so obviously, I love it! 2 coats for opacity. I tried getting a macro shot to give you a better look at the shimmer, but it just wasn't happening that day. As always, you can click on my photos to get a closer look.

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you've all been doing well! Happy Friday! I'm going back to bed.