Water Marble: Essie Brooch the Subject and Ole Caliente

Goooooood morning! I water marbled again, as you can see.

No top coat, because I am impatient and accidentally smeared the nails on my right hand when I applied it. Look:

Smearing aside, I am pretty happy with how these designs came out!

One thing that bugs me about water marbling: pretty much every time I do it, I get at least one tiny bubble. Here, you can see it on the ring fingernail of my right hand. It's tiiiiiny, but it bothered me, so I tried carefully popping it with the very tip of my cleanup brush, and of course, the base color now shows through. Oh well.

Thoughts? Would anyone happen to have any tips on avoiding those tiny bubbles?

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

Butter London Victoriana

Butter London Victoriana was released in Fall 2010, along with Bumster, Marrow, and All Hail the Queen. Victoriana and All Hail the Queen have been getting a lot of love from polish addicts since their release, and while I had admired swatches, I didn't really get the hype. I still don't have any particular feelings about the latter, but the silvery shimmer of Victoriana sucked me in, and I finally caved.

I have to say, I am really impressed with the formula. Victoriana was almost perfect in one coat, but did need a second. I barely had to clean up this mani, and both the wear and drying time are great.

Actually, I bought this while I was still in a cast, and it was so easy to apply I wound up wearing this for quite a while. I can't remember whether or not I had used top coat when I took these photos, but I remember noting that Victoriana dried pretty glossy, which is nice. Here it is in the sun:

So pretty. You know by now that I love a dusty blue, and this is just great.

As far as I know, Victoriana is fairly unique. OPI I Have a Herring Problem and Zoya Skylar are similar, but the OPI and Zoya both have different colors of shimmer, and I think Victoriana's base has just a bit of teal in it that also distinguishes it from the others. Now that I think about it, I do own OPI I Have a Herring Problem, so I could have just compared the two myself. I'm lazy, but if you'd like me to do the comparison, let me know and I'll be happy to!

Have you tried Victoriana, or any of the other similar colors? Thoughts?

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

SHCSM Greige

SHCSM Greige was not released with a particular collection, as far as I know, but is one of the new-ish colors released with the revamped Complete Salon Manicure line. I'm not sure why they felt the need to revamp it, as the two new ones I've obtained have the same formula as my older ones...but whatever. Greige, as you may have guessed...is a greige creme.

It sort of annoys me that the label on my bottle is so crooked. But the formula isn't bad. It's not great, a thick 3-coater, but it's not that bad.

This is among the colors I got so I would have things to wear to work that wouldn't bore the bejeezus out of me. And I have to say, I do like this one. I always thought I had to stick to cool-toned greys, and avoid taupe-y colors, but I feel like this one is working for me.

It's also quite glossy alone. I didn't use top coat here. Oh, and I should note that this is quite different from SHCSM Greige Gardens. Greige is darker, leans slightly brown, and has no purple in it whatsoever. Greige also has a better formula, but I like both colors.

Once again, this isn't the most unique color. The first similar one that comes to mind is Essie Chinchilly, which looks a bit lighter and just a smidge more brown. Same goes for American Apparel Mouse. You probably won't go wrong with any of the three.

Have you tried Greige, or any of the other new-ish SHCSMs? Thoughts?

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

OPI Miami Beet

Miami Beet is from the Spring 2009 South Beach collection. It's a vibrant, glossy magenta creme.

Still weird. But still a nice color, and still a nice pedicure.

I have to say, the formula on this one is really nice. It's thin and smooth, like a jelly, and it's perfect in 2 coats.

Just look at that shine! No top coat. I am currently rocking this on my toenails, and it looks fantastic.

Have you tried Miami Beet? Thoughts? What kind of colors do you like for your pedicures?

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

Revlon Colorstay Nude Beige

Revlon Colorstay Nude Beige is from the Nude Expressions collection released this past Spring. The collection consists of 8 skintoned colors intended to help achieve a "mannequin hands" look. Of the 8, I thought Nude Beige looked closest to me, so I went with that. This is 3 coats, in the shade:

It's definitely not a match, but it's close enough, I guess. I really just got this to wear to work, and it does a good enough job pretending it doesn't exist. The formula is thick but good. It's one of those sort of sheer creme-jelly type polishes, so it needs 3 coats, but it's not streaky, and it's quite glossy alone.

So, not the most exciting color, but if we've got similar skintones and you need something appropriate for a conservative office, I would definitely recommend this.

Have you tried Nude Beige, or any of the other Colorstay Nudes? Thoughts?

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

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!