ILNP Summer 2015 - My Picks

I'm back! I just returned from a long trip and luckily, my swatching hand survived (though I have a split nail), and I also came home to find my package in the mailbox from ILNP! It was a hard decision but I only picked up seven this time. I still want quite a few but I'll snag those another day. For now, let's see what we've got.

First up: Summer Crush

I describe this as a hot Barbie pink with a bit of holo flakie bits.  This has a slight coral lean.  It's a stunner polish and is a great summer color.  I used three coats; I might actually do four IRL, but it looks fine at 3.  Formula is very good but dries a bit matte.

Paige:

This is a berry pink maxed out with flakie holo goodness!  It's amazing.  I wanna meet Paige because she must be one great chick to get a polish this pretty named after her.  This has a jelly finish and I needed three coats to get very good coverage (and I even probably would have wanted a fourth).  Formula is easy though and dries pretty quickly.  I think it needs a top coat to make it look perfectly smooth.

Super Juiced:

This is a blurple with a good amount of firey red copper shimmers (or flakies?).  This has a thin formula and goes on a bit jelly.  It's also a tad runny but only ever so slightly.  I'd still call the formula good.  This dries to a matte finish.  Also, preliminary wear suggests it's not a stainer!  Yay!  I did a bit of fudging with camera settings on one of the photos; this one turns too blue on me in my camera.

Kaleidoscope: 

This is the mother of all flakies, combining all of the metallic chrome flakies into one bottle.  A very lovely polish.  I did need FIVE coats on it's own and it was still a bit see through; two coats layered over Super Juiced created a good opaque coverage.  I haven't tried sponging it on but that might be an option.  Formula was fine but don't expect it to be opaque quickly.

Mega (X):

The newest edition to the Mega family, this is a blingtastic flakied out holo.  It's really something to behold, even indoors!  Love this.  I used four coats but you could probably get away with three (or layer it).

Harbour Island:

This is a turquoise sea-esque jelly.  This is, IMO, a take on sheer tints; it's very sheer and would be a good layering polish.  I found the formula a bit too runny and thus, my least favorite formula out of the seven, but I still wouldn't call it bad.  At four coats, this gives decent coverage but if held to the light, you'll see straight through it.  It's pretty nonetheless, and I appreciate the unusual take on layering polish.  It's also a non-stainer!  I also fudged a bit with the camera on a picture; this one turns too blue as well.  I wasn't able to capture it's true form.

Float On:

This is a medium denim blue packed with flakie holos.  This color is probably my least favorite of the 7, but it is still quite beautiful.  I used four coats.

Overall, I love the colors and the formulas are all decent to excellent.  My grip is the sheerness of every color; I don't find them hard to work with, but each one requiring at least three coats can be a bit of a bear.  I'd still repurchase them because they're beautiful, but I just wished they contained a bit more pigment.

This is gonna be in for awhile. I decided to hack away at my damaged nail, so back to nubbins!  Thanks for reading.

Jolie Polish, stamping polish review

Hey everyone! Today I have something special to show from Jolie Polish. The owner recently released a set of 8 stamping polishes and I was so eager to try them, that I snagged them up as soon as I could. This collection is available in both mini and full size, a size for everyone.

These 5-free polishes are actually a bit more like your regular nail polish, and not some of the specialized stamping polishes.  They're not weirdly smelly, but they're also not very thick (dare I say, they're even a bit thin).  They dry pretty quick, and fine lines can be a challenge because of this. They have a bit of a metallic appearance in the bottle, but that sort of disappears when stamped.  Today, I'll show you each polish over white paper and over my black GP Stamper head (review hopefully coming soon!). You can find Jolie Polish on Etsy at https://www.etsy.com/shop/joliepolish.  This set goes in and out of stock, so keep checking back regularly.  Let's get started!

Brick Red Cushion Flower

Turquoise Blue Flower

Banana Leaf Green

Dahlia Orange

Blue Lagoon

Baby Hulk Green

Purpleberry Flower

Yellow Flower

CND vs Illamasqua

Hey guys! It's been a tremendous amount of time since I last posted. I several times made plans to put up a post, but they all fell through for one reason or another. Anyhow, I'm back to do some comparison posts.  Please forgive my fingers, I'm wearing several patches and it's been awhile...

Up on deck today are a pair of CND Vinylux polishes. I first saw these on PeachyPolish and knew I had to try them. Why? Because they reminded me of a few Illamasquas I have, which, if you live in the states, are not easy to come by.

Up first are Fragrant Freesia and Pink Raindrops.  Some of you might know Pink Raindrops is the sister to the original Raindrops.  This has some specks of silvery flakes sprinkled in a light pink creme.  Fragrant Freesia is remarkable similar, with more flakes and perhaps a slight pink iridescent shimmer.  On the nails, they are close.  I do think I prefer the Illamasqua (it's a little bit lighter and brighter) but they are close enough that they're dupes.  The CND has an excellent formula, sheer on the first coat but built up well and was opaque at two.  It does have a lot of flakies, so I needed two coats of top coat, vs only one for the Illamasqua.  The Illamasqua has a comparable formula, with a greater amount of opacity on the first coat, but still needing a second.  

Dupey

Fragrant Freesia

Fragrant Freesia on middle and pinkie, Pink Raindrops on index and ring

The second and final pairing are Wild Moss and Melange.  Immediately, I realized that these were not dupes after Wild Moss arrived in the mail, but I figured I should compare them either way.  The base colors are incredibly similar, but the CND is a bit dirtier looking.  It has it's fair share of fine silver shimmer running throughout, vs the Illamasqua, which has gold and copper shimmer.  The CND formula was good, but sheer and patchy on the first coat.  Two coats are required but it is perfect there.  The Illamasqua has an excellent formula, requiring one to two coats, depending on your application.  It's incredibly opaque and it is extremely beautiful.  I will say that they actually do look quite similar side by side, but I still prefer the Illamasqua as it just has a brighter quality to it and the formula blew me away.  

Not that dupey

Wild Moss

Melange, Wild Moss, Melange, Wild Moss

The CND polishes are an excellent alternative if you can't find these polishes or are just unwilling to pay the exorbitant shipping fees from the UK.   CND is available at many of the popular nail supply sites as well as eBay. They aren't perfect dupes, but they're similar and might at least tide you over until you can get the real deal.

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.