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!

SHCSM Dorien Gray + Pure Ice Heartbreaker + Nails Inc. the Wyndham

I've shown you Dorien Gray quite a few times now, so I'll spare you another set of swatches. 1 coat of Pure Ice Heartbreaker adds a subtle green shimmer without changing the base color.

I'm actually really happy with how this combo looks!

Yaaayyy more picspam because why not....on a side note, I think I am getting sick of my square nails. They are starting to verge on duck nail territory.....that is a dangerous place to be.....

And to that, I added one coat of Nails Inc. the Wyndham.

I love layering but I think this last addition was a mistake. Boo.

Not to mention, a huge pain to photograph! I couldn't get any sun for the last few posts, and now, there is too much sun! Nail blogger problems, y'all.

Yeah, I don't think I can get used to the square nails. Too weird for me. Love 'em on others, but this is not working for me. Oh well!

Have you ever taken the layering thing a step too far? Ever changed up your nail shape? How'd that go? Loved it? Hated it?

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

New York Summer Hot Sky Blue + Nails Inc. the Wyndham

New York Summer Hot Sky Blue is a medium blue jelly polish. Like most jellies, it's pretty thin and streaky, so I used four coats over one coat of Essie Fill the Gap.

It's pretty, but I'm not that crazy about it on its own, so I added Nails Inc. the Wyndham, which I loooove.

Much better! I think this would also work well for jelly sandwiches.

Thanks for looking and commenting!

Zoya Pinta + Finger Paints Asylum

Happy Friday, everyone! Today I've got for you a combination that I wore a few days ago.

Zoya Pinta is a "blurple" creme from the Dare half of Zoya's Truth or Dare collection from Fall 2009. It's supposedly a dupe for the long-discontinued OPI Sapphire in the Snow, which I wanted for a while. It's definitely on the purple side, but there's enough blue in it that I can't call it a plain purple creme either. In direct sunlight:

See what I mean? It's not blue, but it's not purple either...I'm not usually a fan of random portmanteaus like that (or needlessly shortened words, for that matter), but it's just...blurple. Indigo doesn't really seem like the right word for it either, lol. Either way, it's a great color!

There is a "but" though, and it's a pretty big but. Heh, butt. I'm so mature. Anyway, the formula. The formula is awful. I've read on NB that Pinta is a smooth one-coater for many people, but I think I got a bad bottle or something, because the formula is just terrible. I know a lot of people have issues with Zoya's formula in general, but I have 6 or 7 Zoya polishes, and this is the first one to give me trouble. The rest are wonderful.

Pinta feels sticky, is super prone to dragging and pooling in my eponychia, and takes ages to dry. And then by the time it dries, it bubbles. I don't get it. Usually, with cremes and jellies, I'll wait for each coat to dry completely before the next to keep things as smooth as possible, but Pinta streaked anyway, so it needs anywhere from 3-4 coats to become fully opaque. Mind you, I took these photos immediately after applying top coat, so it looks nice and smooth and glossy here....

My top coat couldn't fully disguise the flaws in my mani, so I added a thick coat of Finger Paints Asylum, which did the trick.

The blue flakes in Asylum actually show up pretty well over top of Pinta! Yay flakies. They fix everything. In direct sunlight:

It was pretty late in the afternoon, which is why the sunlight photos are so warm, but aside from the freakish yellow tinge to my hands, they're fairly accurate depictions of the polish.

Have a great weekend, and I hope that everyone in areas with a Tornado Watch stays safe! I spent most of the day in the basement while it stormed, haha.

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!

Essie Brooch the Subject + Shine of the Times

Essie Brooch the Subject was released as a part of Essie's Cocktail Bling collection for Winter 2011, and Shine of the Times is part of the Luxeffects collection released at the same time.

Brooch the Subject is a nude creme. I'm so clueless about nudes that I don't really know how to describe it, haha. This did photograph more yellow than it is IRL though.

It's almost opaque in 2 coats, but there were some uneven patches so it definitely needed the third. Just a note: I took these first two photos before the polish dried completely, and I didn't use any base coat, so there are some visible ridges. They did even out after drying though, as you can see here:

I've never actually tried a nude nail polish before, because I am so clueless about undertones and whatnot. When I decided I wanted a nude creme, I limited myself to just Essie polishes to make the decision a little easier, but still wound up spending several minutes holding different bottles up to the light and trying to figure out whether or not they might work for me. Eventually, I wound up just getting this one because I got too confused, lol. Luckily, I think this works? It doesn't match my skin completely, but it's great for a nice, clean look.

Since I can pretty much never leave cremes alone, I added a thin coat of Essie Shine of the Times. Some of these photos were taken before top coat, so some texture is visible, but it was perfectly smooth afterward.

It's a nice subtle look, but the flakies still show up nicely against the nude base.

There was practically no sun yesterday when I took these, but the sun came out for just a couple of minutes and I was able to take this shot. The flakies don't show up too well in direct sunlight, but on the bright side, I finally got an accurate depiction of the way Brooch the Subject looks against my skintone!

And here's the obligatory shot at an awkward angle to show the color shift:

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

Essie Ole Caliente + Essie Shine of the Times

Essie Ole Caliente is part of Essie's Navigate Her collection for this spring. At first I was thinking "Meh, whatever. Boring." but then I saw the collection in person and realized how pretty it actually is! Most of the colors are terrible for my skintone, but Ole Caliente is gorgeous. I'm debating getting Navigate her too. Light greens are tricky for me, so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, here's Ole Caliente.

Essie cremes can be a little tricky and prone to patching (case in point: Pretty Edgy), but I found that Ole Caliente works best in 4 super-thin coats. I let them dry completely just to be on the safe side.

Mind you, this is without top coat! It's that glossy on its own. It dried quickly, and I didn't have any issues with running or pooling.

Coral is pretty far out of my comfort zone, and while I do really like this color, I'm just not used to pink/orange/coral on me, so it looked a little weird. I figured adding flakies would help. This is one thin coat of Shine of the Times over Ole Caliente:

Usually the flakes in Shine of the Times and its assorted dupes are more orange, but they looked yellow most of the time. It's not a bad thing, just unexpected.

I think all the yellow from the flakes made Ole Caliente look more orange overall? They did help though. Coral is a lot less weird on my hands when there's glitter or flakes involved.

I don't usually keep the same polish on for more than 2 days, but I wore this combination for four days, and it wore really well. Very minor tipwear on a few nails, and no chipping whatsoever.

Thanks for looking!

Green Spam for St. Patrick's Day!

China Glaze L8R G8R - 3 coats, no base coat

Chanel Peridot - 3 coats, no top coat

China Glaze Glittering Garland

Color Club Snakeskin - 2 coats, no top coat

Don't Mess With OPI - 2 coats, no top coat

Illamasqua Rampage - 3 coats, no top coat

Illamasqua Rampage + Pure Ice Heartbreaker, 1 coat

Illamasqua Rampage + Pure Ice Heartbreaker + Nails Inc. the Wyndham, 1 coat

Illamasqua Rampage + Pure Ice Heartbreaker + Nails Inc. the Wyndham + Essie Matte About You

Hard Candy Envy, 2 coats, no top coat

Green Holo Franken, 2 coats, no top coat

Green Franken, 4 coats

Sinful Colors Mint Apple, 3 coats, no top coat

Ulta Tip the Scales, 3 coats, no top coat

Essie Pretty Edgy, 3 coats, no top coat

Thanks for looking, and I hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day!