China Glaze 2NITE

Here's the last of my OMGs. 2NITE is a lovely periwinkle blue linear holo. It was almost my favorite, but DV8 barely beat it out!

No complaints about the formula. It was right in between DV8 and L8R G8R, a smooth 3-coater. In the sun:

The rainbow in 2NITE is stronger than in DV8.

Oh, and just for funsies, here's one of the first NOTD shots I ever took, of 2NITE. This is from April 2011:

I didn't know how to shape my nails, or clean up, and I used my craptastic Droid 2 camera for this instead of an actual camera. It's not exactly color-accurate, either. Sometimes when I get down on myself for not having nails and photos like Scrangie or The Polished Perfectionist, it's nice to go back and look at these and remember that I have actually improved in the last 2 or 3 years.

Have you tried 2NITE? Thoughts? Do you ever get weirdly self-hating for random reasons and think "oh my god look at your life, look at your choices, you are literally hating on your nails wth"?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

China Glaze DV8

Good morning! Today I've got another OMG for you. I got into nail polish sometime in early 2010, and by that time, the OMGs were already long-gone and highly coveted, and for the most part I didn't care about them, but then I saw DV8 and it instantly became my biggest lemming. I pranced around dusty hunting for a little while in 2011, and acquired some delightful goodies, including this one! It's only half a bottle, but the bewildered salon lady only wanted $2 for it anyway, so I went for it. I'm going to need a backup, because this has to be one of my favorite holos. I have several favorite holos, but this is really great!

As usual, in the shade, not spectacular, but still a pretty blue! A lot of the OMGs look super dull in the shade, but not this one. Oh, and I should note that this had the opposite formula of L8R G8R. It was nearly solid in 1 coat, and it was a nice thickness.

♥♥♥

Layla Ocean Rush looks similar, but it doesn't have that teal lean of DV8. It's definitely more holo though. HITS Hera is another nice one, but the base looks jellyish, if that makes any sense? The finish is different, and it's more green-leaning.

Have you tried DV8? Thoughts?

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

China Glaze L8R G8R

China Glaze L8R G8R was released with the Spring 2008 OMG collection. All the OMGs are named after text-speak abbreviations, like LOL and IDK. Coincidentally, this afternoon I'll be saying "L8R G8R" to my internship! I'm really thankful to have been employed (and PAID), but I am ready to go back to class. Well, not Chemistry...I'll never be ready for Chemistry. >___>

Anyway, L8R G8R. It's a light, yellow-toned green linear holo. In the shade:

You can see a faint hint of holo, but it's a fairly boring color in the shade, IMO. In the sun:

Nice and rainbow-y! I have to admit, the base color is not my favorite. And I am not crazy about the formula either. It's a thin and watery 3-4 coater, and definitely the worst of the OMGs I've tried. But it sure does look pretty in the right lighting.

Oh, and make sure you don't use a base coat. You will regret it if you do.

Nfu Oh 66 looks similar, but more holographic, cooler-toned, and more silvery. Layla Jade Groove is the same way. Pupa Holographic Light Green looks pretty similar, but Pupa is a European brand.

Have you tried L8R G8R? Thoughts?

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

China Glaze When Stars Collide

China Glaze When Stars Collide is from the widely anticipated Hologlam collection which was released this past spring. Unfortunately, they're not as great as most of us had hoped, but they did manage to put out some pretty unique colors! I originally wanted Galactic Grey, Strap On Your Moonboots, and When Stars Collide, but when I realized my beloved nail supply wasn't going to be getting them in (and therefore I'd have to pay full price), I decided I'd only get this one.

Like most linear holos, it is pretty boring in the shade, and looks like your standard plum metallic. In the sun though, it's quite pretty!

It's certainly not as rainbow as the Color Clubs, for example, but the rainbow is smooth and the color is unique.

I can't say I'm too pleased with the formula though. I used 3 coats, and it had a tendency to get lumpy if you go over the same spot more than once. You can see the results of this on my ring fingernail...but this is easier to work with than the OMGs, for sure.

When Stars Collide looks pretty similar to Dance Legend Optical Illusion and Layla Misty Blush, but When Stars Collide is definitely the weakest of the three. Optical Illusion looks a bit warmer, and Misty Blush looks a bit cooler, but all three look quite nice.

Have you tried When Stars Collide, or any of the other Hologlams? What did you think?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

China Glaze Running In Circles

China Glaze Running in Circles is part of the Cirque du Soleil collection from Winter 2012. Personally, I don't care for Cirque du Soleil, or for most of the colors in the collection for that matter...but this one is a different story. Running in Circles is a beautiful, complex grassy green glass-fleck.

I can't even. It's so sparkly, and has so much depth! It's a wee bit sheer, a 3-coater, but I think the finish completely makes up for it.

Running in Circles, like Don't Mess With OPI, stained a blue, but it was nowhere near as bad. Plus, the slight blue staining worked quite nicely for my yellowed nails >.>

There's a P2 polish called Green Palm Tree that I think is similar to Running in Circles, but it is lighter and has this super-cool gold shimmer running through it. The only problem is, P2 is a European brand, but if I could get ahold of it at the same price I paid for this, I would choose the P2. Don't get me wrong, they're both lovely, and I am happy with this one! But I am a sucker for some nice gold shimmer.

Have you tried Running in Circles, or any of the other Cirque du Soleil colors? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

China Glaze Little Drummer Boy

China Glaze Little Drummer Boy was released with the Holiday 2010 collection, 'Tis the Season to be Naughty and Nice. It's a very opaque dark blue shimmer. Like VIII, it was almost solid in one coat. I can get away with one thick coat if I'm in a hurry, and it dries quickly too, so I quite like that. 2 coats, plus top coat, in the shade:

It dries pretty dull, so top coat is a must. Good formula, but I should also note that because it is a dark blue, cleanup is a huge PITA. Don't get it on your skin. In the sun:

This is definitely my favorite dark blue, especially because it's so different from the others. This is a faded, almost denim-like blue, whereas most dark blue shimmers have definite purple/navy leanings. CND Blue Blood is close, but long discontinued. Little Drummer Boy has also probably been discontinued, but since it's only been 2-3 years you might still be able to track it down online.

Have you tried Little Drummer Boy, or anything similar? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

China Glaze VIII

Today I will show you China Glaze VIII. It's a basic eggplant creme that was released with China Glaze's X collection in Fall 2007, to celebrate their tenth anniversary. The colors were all named with Roman numerals, and frankly they are pretty much as boring as the names. I do like this one though. It's very opaque, almost solid in 1 coat but perfect in 2.

I didn't bother with shade pictures, because it just looks black in the shade. The formula was ok. Thick but manageable, for the most part.

As you can see, I had some difficulty getting a clean line at the cuticle because of the thickness of the polish, so I'll definitely thin it before I use it again. It's a very elegant color though.

I don't feel that this color is particularly unique, but most of the similar colors I can think of are much much warmer, like SHCSM Pat on the Black. OPI Lincoln Park after Dark is darker and warmer. Zoya Monica is lighter and cooler. VIII is core at Sally Beauty Supply though, so if you're after it, nothing to worry about.

Have you tried VIII? Thoughts?

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

China Glaze White Cap

China Glaze White Cap was released with the Anchors Away collection for Spring 2011. It consists of yellow-gold flecks in a sheer white base. It works well as a layering polish, especially over Sea Spray (from the same collection), but I wanted to try to replicate the look in the bottle. I started with 3 coats of OPI Ridge Filler, and used 3 coats of White Cap on top. In the shade:

In the sun:

Totally not my usual kind of look, but I dig it.

For some reason, when I started writing this post, I figured, "Oh, White Cap probably has tons of dupes out there." Except now I can't really think of any? CND Jade Sparkle has a very similar look, but is in a clear base, so it's more versatile. Aside from that...I got nothing.

Thoughts? Have you tried White Cap, or anything similar? Did you like it? What kinds of base colors would you pair with it?

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

Top 30 of 2012! (part 3)

I don't post a whole lot of layering combinations, but that's mostly because I don't get around to photographing them. Here are the colors that I've reached for the most. First up, the base colors.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Dorien Grey

A nice, simple, clean light grey creme. It's so versatile!

Ruby Kisses Regaled Out Blue

Dark blue goes with a lot of things, and I can't resist a nice jelly.

China Glaze VIII

An excellent basic eggplant creme. Smooth formula, dries quickly, completely solid in 2 coats.

Nails Inc. Kensington

Inky teal jelly, almost black. Works really well for water marbling, too!

New York Summer Hot Sky Blue

Another squishy blue jelly! This is great for jelly sandwiches, and also looks awesome under flakies.

And my favorite layering polishes:

Lynnderella Connect the Dots

Yep, it's on two of my lists. It's that good. With black and white glitter, there are so many layering possibilities!

Nails Inc. the Wyndham

This has the distinction of being my first flakie polish, and it remains my favorite. The green is so vivid, and there is a very evident blue shift.

Finger Paints Asylum

It has blue flakies!! I have been lusting after a flakie with just blue, but since I loathe Nfu Oh bottles and find Inglot to be too much of a hassle to get ahold of, this is as close as I will get for a while. It is lovely though.

Essie As Gold as it Gets

Sheer gold flecks. This is really delicate and pretty, especially over dusty, mid-toned colors.

Essie Shine of the Times

A basic orange-green flakie. It's very dense, so you don't need  much at all for a single manicure.

So, there you have it! My 30 favorites from last year. Thoughts? Do you like layering too, or do you find it troublesome?

China Glaze Ingrid

China Glaze Ingrid was released with the Vintage Vixen collection in Fall 2010. I believe it has since been made core at Sally Beauty Supply, so it is still widely available.

Ingrid is a warm taupe with gold shimmer. 2 coats, with top coat, in the shade:

I'm not sure how I feel about this one against my skintone. It's a lovely color, but maybe the grey in it makes it look so muddy? It just kind of looks like dirt on me. :(

Luckily, the formula was good. No streaking, and it was solid in 2 coats. Under artificial light:

That shimmer though! You know by now I love a nice shimmer, and the gold stands out here and makes it unique from the 8000000 other taupes out there. I think it would probably look better on someone that's more cool-toned than me though.

Thoughts? Feelings? Are there any colors you love but just can't pull off?

Thanks for looking and commenting

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.

Revlon Whimsical

Revlon Whimsical was released earlier this year when Revlon revamped their core line. Many of the colors are rereleases, but Whimsical is new. It consists of light pink and light blue hexes, smaller silver hexes, and small blue microglitter in a light blue jelly base. It's quite sheer, so I've layered 2 coats over 2 coats of China Glaze Sea Spray. In the shade:

Totally not my usual kind of color, but I love it! In the sun:

The formula, I will admit, is not great. It's thick, and the big hex glitter tends to slip off the brush, so you have to wipe off the brush and dip it back in a few times until you get the amount of glitter you'd like. And placing the glitter is a bit difficult. Sometimes, when I'd try to move a piece into a spot where there's less glitter, the blue base would glob onto that spot and leave a few thick areas. It's not terrible though. Just not as good as Facets of Fuchsia was.

And we've got another Lippmann sort of-dupe on our hands! This is very similar to Lippmann's Glitter in the Air. There are also Korean versions of this from Tony Moly and Innisfree, called Milky Way and 84, respectively. I'm sure they have their subtle differences, but they're quite similar, for all intents and purposes.

A few months ago, I tried wearing Whimsical on its own, but found that it was more sheer than I had expected, so I layered 3 coats of it over 2 coats of Essie Fill the Gap. This was the result:

You can still see my nail lines pretty clearly...And to be honest I don't like how this looks. It's too stark for my tastes, so I'll definitely stick to layering.

What do you think of all these dupes, considering Glitter in the Air came out first? Safe to say Ms. Lippmann isn't too happy....not that I blame her! I'm just a bit surprised to see her publicly acknowledging and reacting to it.

What about these types of milky glitters? Seems like some love 'em, and some think they look downright gross. Tell me how you really feel!

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

Purple & Gold Half-Moons

I wound up wearing Orly Luxe for a few days, and thought I'd try a half-moon mani. I figured, eh, I was planning to take it off anyway, so if I royally screw this up, no big deal. It wound up being...not as bad as I expected! I used China Glaze VIII for the tips.

VIII is a super opaque eggplant creme. It's nearly opaque in one coat, but the formula makes it tricky. It's globby and runny and a tad bit streaky, so I definitely needed that second coat to even things out. It was released in Fall 2007 with the X collection (intended to celebrate China Glaze's tenth anniversary, if memory serves).

I do love purple and gold together, but my half-moons could use some work. I used reinforcement labels, but I had some difficulty getting them to stick to my nails properly. In certain spots, VIII leaked under the labels, and in other areas, it smeared as I tried to remove the labels. Well, practice makes perfect right?

Have you ever attempted a half-moon manicure? Or any other sort of nail art? How'd that go down?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

China Glaze Sea Spray

Sea Spray was released with the Anchors Away collection, China Glaze's Spring 2011 offering. At the time, I was not too adventurous with my polish choices, and was pretty sure that this type of blue-grey, or any type of grey for that matter, would look terrible on my skintone. I was, however, totally smitten with Sea Spray, and wound up getting it anyway. I don't regret it at all! I love it, despite the slightly odd formula. 2 coats, no top coat, artificial light.

Sea Spray looks surprisingly bright and aqua-toned on me. Based on the swatches I looked at before buying, I was expecting something a lot more grey, but this was a pleasant surprise. It does actually look this blue against my skin, but with a touch less green in most lighting situations.

Now, about that shimmer. It's pretty visible in that first photo, but I've owned this polish for over a year, and have worn it many many times, and this is the first time I am actually seeing the shimmer in person. To me, that's not a bad thing, since I love cremes, but if you're expecting silver shimmer, you will probably be disappointed unless you constantly hold your hands up to a light.

Here it is in the shade:

This photo makes it look a little dustier than it actually is, but it's mostly accurate. Sea Spray takes 2 coats for opacity, which is great, but the formula is simultaneously thick and runny so you have to be careful while applying. I've heard that it is prone to patching and bald spots, but I have not had any issues with that.

Thanks for looking!

China Glaze GR8 + Franken Friday #3

For today's franken, I started with China Glaze GR8, a yellow/gold linear holo. The formula was smooth and GR8 was opaque in two coats.

The only problem? The color...not so flattering. It's like mustard, and it's weird. No me gusta. So I dumped out a little bit and replaced it with a blue jelly, Ruby Kisses Regaled Out Blue. I'm much happier with the result! Still opaque in 2 coats, but now it's a sea green linear holo. Here it is in direct sunlight:

It refused to photograph accurately though, so here's a color-accurate photo I took in the shade.

It's a weird photo and I'm not sure what's going on with my skintone, but it at least shows you what color the polish actually is! I tried photographing it in my usual lighting setup but that was even less accurate than the sunlight photos, as you can see...

It looks a lot like DV8 there. Here's a comparison between the franken, DV8, and L8R G8R under artifial light:

In direct sunlight:

As you can see, DV8 is much bluer than my franken. It doesn't even look teal in comparison, whereas L8R G8R practically looks silver rather than the celadon green that it actually is.

Thanks for looking!