China Glaze - Well Trained

Quick post today.

China Glaze Well Trained is a deep dark teal.  This is heavily green.  I LOVE this color.  Greens generally give me lobster hands, but this doesn't do that whatsoever.  It's also unique to my collection.

Flash

Formula is good.  Very opaque but it did something really weird and dragged badly on the first coat.  Not sure if I had something on my nail it disagreed with.  It's extreme opaqueness makes this difficult to clean up.  I have no word on if this stains, I'm crossing my fingers it won't.

Return with ILNP

I really dropped the ball.  I didn't return when I said I would, purely out of laziness.  I have been buying and assembling furniture, taking down fug wallpaper, etc, so I have been busy.  Luckily, no breaks.

I've also made minor appearance changes to the blog.  I think it looks better and I'm pretty happy with it.  Hopefully I can get off my bum and make more posts.

Today is ILNP.  I hauled these when she discontinued the old bottles and branding.  I admit, I'm sad to see it go.  I never was a big fan of round bottles, but ILNP bottles were so symmetrically that I just didn't mind. Nay, I actually really liked their shape.  I can't complain about square though.  I'm planning on getting some soon in the new bottle, so I'll have to let you know what I think.

Oooo...pretty

To start off my return, I'm just showing one of these lovelies.  Black Orchid is a dark vampy red burgundy.  This is pretty dark, but I feel it's special because it still never looks black, even in low light.  This looks good on me (if I do say so myself) and is a real keeper.  Formula was good.  Two coats makes it fully opaque.  It's a bit of a thinner formula but this is really easy to clean and doesn't appear to stain the cuticles.

  

There's also some subtle holo to this.  I wouldn't get thinking this is bam!, in yo FACE, holo because it's not going to do that.  But it's nice that it's there when the right light hits it.  Here's a flash shot to show it off.

ooooo...

That's it for now.  I have no idea what I'm going to do next.

Where I've been gone

This post is a long time coming. I disappeared from blogging. Numerous reasons, but I really should have tried harder. The main culprit is that I've been non to happy with the state of my nails. The breaks were terrible, and I didn't even polish for weeks on end (despite me still buying it). However, my nails have finally returned to a place where I'm happy with them (albeit short and cuticle health isn't stellar) and thus, a return to the blog.

I really don't know how to solve this when it happens. I do patch but my nails are particularly bendy and thin and patches are prone to failure if the nail is torn (which is most usually the case). I've decided to just post when I can; when my nails look "good" and I'm not totally stressed out. Those two things occurring together will likely be rare, but I have no intentions of quitting this blog so this is what's happening.  I'll try to write multiple posts at a time, when my mood is excellent and I have the time to do that, so that it at least doesn't look abandoned.  But, I can't make promises about what's coming anymore because I can't fulfill them. 

As long as nothing catastrophic happens between now and Sunday, I'll be posting something up soon. I do plan on buying and constructing some furniture Tuesday and days following so I'm probably gonna end up with a break (or 7). Such is life.  Let's see how this goes.

Random Spam Trio - O.P.I.

Another trio to view, this time O.P.I. I don't own many from this brand, but I own enough that I could select a few from different collections. Let's see what we got.

Live.Love.Carnaval is a pretty true coral. I wouldn't really say this leans one way or another but I had to choose, I'd go with orange. Formula was OK, it looked patchy even though it wasn't so I did three coats (except on the index, which has two). Color looks a bit different on the nail than in the bottle.

Dutch 'Ya Just Love O.P.I. is a gorgeous eggplant purple with golden shimmers. This looks pretty dark and murky in very low light but looks lovely elsewhere. This has a fantastic formula and needed two coats. Gonna be a great fall look.

Finally GoldenEye, a very yellow gold dense flakie. I am in love. This is not like the NYC or Zoya color, because the flakes are very very small and it's dense. I'd liken this more to Amazeballs by Lacquistry, but Amazeballs is not so yellow toned. I will compare them hopefully for you all to see. I don't usually go for stuff this yellow (we clash) but this is going to look good on everybody. I did three coats but I do think the opacity was fine at two. GLAD to have it. Perfect for Christmas and New Year's.

Now that these swatch trios have become a weekly thing, I'm hoping to up my game and do two sets a week (except when I'm doing a collection). Who know, maybe I'll catch up to swatching my entire collection! I'm also planning a Sundae toppings revival. See you soon!

Random Swatch Spam - Dance Legend

Ok, admittedly, this isn't that random.  I only own 6 Dance Legends, and three have already been featured, but I'm a girl and I just want to have fun (and swatch all the pretties).  I picked these up in a facebook sale, and they're decants, so I am not holding the bottle for any of the photos.  Formula on all three of these was great.

Where do we start?

Dance Legend High Voltage is a mid toned linear blue holo.  It was rainy (by that, I mean pouring) when I took photos of these so I have no outside or sunshine pictures.  However, the linear still shows a bit.  This is pretty holo though, even inside.  I gave this three coats, but it was well behaved over Dance Legends Aqua Base.  Top coat didn't seem to have much effect on the finish.  Only thing was, this smells real funky like.  Small price to pay for its beauty, amirite?

Neptune is denim blue base with both linear and scattered holo thrown in.  This is really pretty, though as it turns out, I'm not a huge fan of the base color.  This is still something I'm glad to have and will wear when I need a bit of flash but not too much.  Although it had great opacity at two coats, this needs three due to very minor balding.  I did not use Aqua Base under this so that would probably help.

I think I saved the best for last.  Different View is a multichrome with flakie holographic particles (like the Zoya holos).  This multichrome flashes green olive, blue, purple and reddish.  It's just...get it.  I'm telling you, get it.  Best formula of all three, no Aqua Base required and it needed two coats for a perfect finished look.  I'm BUMMED I don't have this in a full size bottle.  It's that good.

Not sure what's next.  Maybe a holo trio if the sun shines.

Random Spam Swatch Trio: 2

Today another trio of swatches, this time from the brand Zoya.  One has already been featured on this blog, but since my lighting situation has changed, I decided it was fine to do it again!

First is Destiny, a bright orange with yellow orange shimmers.  This is a pixie dust, and thus, dries to that beautiful matte shimmer finish. Formula was good, and required two coats.  I see this as a great summer color and would serve well as a transition to fall.

Next is Chita, another pixie dust.  This one is a deep, yet muted green with silver shimmer.  Formula on this was a bit thin...but I may have thinned this.  Despite that, it looks great at two coats.  My brush on this was a bit weird and fat but not problematic.  Great fall color and would make an easy transition to early winter.

(cats...sorry)

Finally, Dream, another of the great scattered holo jellies Zoya makes.  This was the only untried in the trio but it's a stunner.  Excellent amount of scattered holo in this.  Formula was really thin, but covered quite well at two thick coats and was a perfectly behaved polish.  This also dried especially quickly, but it gets a bit dull so it needs a top coat. Great color, I'd wear this any day.

Next trio will be some Dance Legends.  Stay tuned, they're something special.

Random spam trio - China Glaze

I'm back after a long hiatus. I decided to do something a bit different for me, and do some random swatches. I'm trying to be a good girl and not buy all those new China Glaze polishes out right now, so instead I reached for these.

First is Keep Calm, Paint On, a muted light green with very fine pearly white shimmer running through out. The formula on this was...just OK. It needs two coats for perfect opacity but it looked a bit lumpy and would probably better be served with three. This gives me MAJOR lobster hands. This has purge written all over it. It also photographs entirely different than it looks both in the bottle and on the nail so the picture has been color corrected to the best of my ability. EDIT: This came out looking way less lobstery on me after I uploaded the pictures, and actually looks decent.  

(This picture has been color edited, but it's still not accurate)

Next is You Drive Me Coconuts, a bold pink neon jelly. This needs three coats but for a full Mani, I'd probably do four. Formula was actually easy and it dries quickly but it must have top coat due to the matte finish. This is gorgeous. If you like neons, you need this.  First photo is how it photographed; second is my attempt at color correcting.  It's still not accurate (it's a lot darker) but it's closer.

Finally, we have Howl You Doin'?, and it's IMO, a very unique color. I'd describe this as a brown fuschia jelly (is that a thing?) with a generous helping of purple shimmer and orange flakes. This needs three coats but formula was stellar. Only problem was it was incredibly difficult to clean up. I wasn't keen on this at first (though I love the way it looks in the bottle) but put top coat on and BAM! It's really pretty. Dark but obviously not black, and sudden flashes of purple...it's a winner. It dries a bit bumpy and satin so it needs a couple coats if top coat.

That's it for now.  Next random trio will be Zoya.

Rainbow Honey Mystery Bag - August 2014

I'm back with another edition.  Unfortunately, this took a long time to get up.  This was in the mail for a week (the PO dropped the ball on this) and then I ended up seeing pictures of what was in it online and kind of lost interest.  But I've finally got off my butt and got these up.  Here's what's up.

To start, the non polish items.

We yet again received a cuticle balm, this time in Royal Fruits.  I don't mind these, really, but I have SO MANY cuticle creams and balms as it is.  Anyway, this scent is lovely, but I always get the wax note first and foremost.  Will use, but I really don't need another.

The bag also came with a Royal Fruits eau de parfum roller ball.  I don't know what this scent is, but I conjure up images of kiwi, strawberry and mango.  There's also something a little off about it...not sure what, but I still like it.

Last non polish thing is a body spray in Summer Fruit.  I think we've had this scent before in some other iteration.  This is also really fruity, but it has stronger notes of citrus than Royal Juice.  It smells like mango and oranges (lots of oranges).  I usually don't use body spray but I'll have to give it a go.

And now to the real goodies.  This month brought about a scented top coat in Royal Fruits.  I was initially disappointed to receive a top coat, but in the end, I like having it to see if it's my thing.  I don't think this dried especially quickly, but it does have a strong scent.  You can smell it in the air as you paint it on, and when the polish smell goes away, it becomes very noticeable.  I even ended up layering the glitter and Out the Door over it, and can still smell it.  It doesn't bother me, but it's a bit potent.  Shine wise, it was good but I'll have to test it out more to know if it's worth a repurchase.

The first color is 488nm (does anyone know what that means?), a mid toned blue.  I again, was a bit disappointed.  I didn't really expect a straight creme but it turns out I love this.  On the nails, this takes on a real deep teal look.  Formula was...alright.  It needed three coats for proper coverage and it didn't settle well, looking a bit bumpy where I didn't take my time.  This also thickened up a bunch during application.  Be ready for thinning.

The glitter topper of the month is Modern Hearts, a very pink based glitter with white hearts and honey suckle hexes.  This also has a nice iridescence floating in the clear base.  Formula was thinner than past RH toppers, so I was pleased.  I used the dab method and that worked well and gave good enough coverage.  IMO, this does not go with 488nm, so I found it odd they paired these in the same bag, but I've noticed their colors in these bags generally don't pair well.  It would probably look fantastic over a pink, orange or white.

Getting over the initial disappointment, I thought the extra goodies really saved the bag this month.  I'm hoping next month looks better, because I'm getting the "I might need to cancel" bug.

Zoya Bubbly Collection Part 2

Yep.  I took my sweet sweet time doing this.  Sorry about that.  I actually have been dealing with headaches/migranes for the past couple of days.  A real stressful work week, but I decided to try to get these done today and done they were!

Jesy is first, another orange in this collection.  This one is a bit deeper and woah man, is she pretty.  I wouldn't have thought much of her, but she really shines (heh, literally) on the nail.  Three coats.

Stassi is next, an almost wintery green.  My intial thought was "ooooooooh...pretty" but that was quickly replaced with "too Christmas-y".  Three coats.

Lastly is what I decided to wear today.  Binx is a deeper pink, whereas Harper is more Barbie, this more toned down in a way.  It's really gorgeous on.  I'm not convinced I needed three coats for this one, but this is three coats.

My picks are Binx, Muse and a surprise favorite of Jesy.  Congrats to the three.

I have no plans currently for what's next.  I hope I can accomplish something in the next month.

Rainbow Honey July Mystery Bag Swatches!

You ever have those days, where you just can't do anything anymore?  Yeah, that was me the day I got this bag.  So happy to get it and rip it open, but that was about all that I could do.  Swatches are a bit delayed, but whatcha gonna do?

Lets start with Chemical Plant, a magenta-y pink foil.  This admittedly isn't my color, but it actually looks good on.  Formula was ok, but needed three coats.  It was typically thick but otherwise nothing remarkable about it.  I did immediately thin this upon receiving because my bottle wasn't screwed shut and it did appear to be thick.  That likely helped the formula.

Next, Deep Heart Sea.  I was excited about this one on sight, but it is rather disappointing on the nail.  This is three coats and it's just not right.  It really would probably serve wonderfully as a topper at one coat, over a blue or green, but it's lacking on it's own.  True to its name, it does have hearts (along with squares and hexes of various colors and sizes) but I only managed to get one heart out during swatching.  This also has an amazing purple shimmer in it, which adds something.  Formula wise, this was thick but not bad.  I did immediately thin this upon arrival, because a substantial amount was already evaporated.  This likely helped the formula.

And last is Viridis, a multi glitter mix in a lightly tinted clear green base.  This is meant as a topper, as the green really does nothing for it.  This turned out to be the visual winner of the bunch for me.  This has an amazing mix and looks great on.  There are stars, circles, hexes, as well as an iridescent small glitter.  The problem lies in the formula.  This is...easily...the. worst. formula. I've ever worked with.  I mean, I'm a little appalled they sent this out to their customers.  In it's current state, it's nearly unusable.  Doing my swatch fingers was an exercise.  I have since thinned (unlike the previous two, I left this one alone before using), so I'm hoping it's rescued.  I'm fairly sure I would have thrown this away if I didn't know about polish thinner. Ugh.

I decided to include these last two pictures because I really wanted you to see what I was working with.  I took both of these pictures without worrying if the brush would drip.  I never had to return to the bottle or anything.  It is like someone threw in a ton of glitter into glue and shook it up.  Awful.

That's it for this bag.  I do wanna say that all the Midori items smell great!  Like watermelon candies, yum.  Stay tuned for more Zoyas (I promise they're coming since I've already done them!).