Category: Nails
Lunchtime Haul
Sooooo…since I picked up the wrong Sinful Colors top coat, I figured I would look for a better one…but guess what? Sinful Colors doesn’t make a polish top coat that’s quick dry. Well damn. That’s okay – Sinful Colors are still on sale…and the Kempwood location already has a Xmas display out!
I picked up “Twilight Twinkles”, jagged gold flakie glitter; “Gilded”, gold and red microglitter (possibly a dupe for Julep “Love”?); “Calypso”, a dark teal creme; and “No Text Red”, a bright red creme (like I need another one!) promoting their “No texting & driving” campaign. (I’m supposed to paint my thumbnail red to remind me to not text and drive. Weird.)
I also bopped over to Bath & Body Works to use some coupons. I used a coupon for a free travel size – but I got the wrong thing! I’m trading out my travel size toiletries from “Carried Away” to “Mad About You”, but I couldn’t remember the last thing I needed. I needed a shower gel, but now I have 2 lotions. Damnit. I also had a coupon for $5 Body Cream, instead of the normal $12.50. At least I got the right scent – “White Citrus”.
I somehow managed to resist the 7/$24 Hand Soap Sale….even though I also had a 20% coupon…maybe next time.
Gumby?
At first I thought of green Play-Doh, but then I was like…no – Gumby!
Lily also wanted her nails done and she demanded that we match. I tried to talk her into Sinful Colors “Vintage”, but refused. She chose Funky Fingers “Oogie Boogie”, Sinful Colors “Pine Away” & “Mystery Moonshine” and China Glaze “Four Leaf Clover”. I couldn’t handle all of those together…but I picked something close.
I tried out the Sinful Colors Basecoat – it was fine. It went on smoothly and dried quickly, no complaints. I put on 2 coats of “Four Leaf Clover” and then topped with Sinful Colors “Green Ocean”.
I tried out the Sinful Colors Quick Dry…and I totally misunderstood the product I was buying. I thought it was a quick dry top coat, but it is a quick dry oil – like Julep Ta-Da! Well fuck. I already have 2 bottles of Ta-Da! and I don’t really use them. The combination REALLY needed a shiny topcoat – the flakies in “Green Ocean” sank into the polish and made the finish all cloudy. Since I had already started with the Quick Dry, I couldn’t put another top coat over it. Live and learn…
The Walking Dead
So The Walking Dead is back tonight, so I made blood-spattered Zombie Apocalypse nails for the occasion. I’m not all crazy about the show, but I do watch it fairly religiously. I’m not going to riot if they kill Daryl or anything. I will, however, riot if they cancel Talking Dead.
I used RUFFIAN “Naked” (from last month’s Birchbox) for the flesh tone. It’s the most perfect nude polish ever. It is a bit streaky in one coat, but two coats are perfect, with no visible nail line. I used Maybelline Street Art “Wild at Heart” for the blood and gore splatters. I tried a kind of splattered gradient effect by applying a second coat of “Wild at Heart” to the right side of each nail. I went back to using the Revlon Quick Dry Base and Top Coat, because they are WAY better over non sparkly glitters and polishes than the NYC.
It reminds me more of the comic book than the show…
This is Halloween
It doesn’t get any Halloween-ier than this!
Sinful Colors “Mystery Moonshine” is one of those polishes that you only set to wear once a year – or maybe twice – it has a kind of Mardi Gras thing going. It’s a metallic green, purple and orange jagged glitter in a clear base. I carefully chose my solid colors to match up with their respective glitter colors – Sinful Colors “Pine Away” for the green, Sinful Colors “Amethyst” for the purple and Julep “Zoe” for the orange. (I felt naughty mixing brands, but “Zoe” was just too perfect.)
Each of these polishes looked great after a single coat over Orly Bonder. I’m weary of Sinful Colors “Pine Away” now – it stains like a sonofabitch. I had to dab the “Mystery Moonshine” a bit, but it didn’t take a lot of work to get a good glitter spread. I topped it off with NYC “Grand Central Station”. I really need to get another good top coat.
Confession…I’ve never seen The Nightmare Before Christmas. I know, I know…
Flash! Ah Ahhhhh…
So I was going for a Flash Gordon, lightning type thing…it didn’t exactly turn out how I imagined.
After Orly Bonder, I did one coat of Sinful Colors “Yellow Spotted”. To get a glowy effect, I then did one coat of Julep “Casper”. In retrospect, I should have done 2 coats of the “Yellow Spotted”, because “Casper” totally obliterated the yellow and made it look like a muted gold. Oh well. I then did one coat of Sally Hansen “Star Burst” Crackle Overcoat. Crackle polishes are very unpredictable. You may get a beautiful crackle, like on my thumb nail – or you could get very little crackling, like on my ring finger. “Star Burst” was very thin and grayish, but a coat of NYC “Grand Central Station” made it dark and glossy.
I tried to get a pic of the glowing, but “Casper” doesn’t glow as brightly as Funky Fingers, but maybe that’s just because I only did one coat.
Did you know that one of my nicknames in High School was “Flash”? (My BFF started it – and yes, we’ve been BFFs THAT long.) I’ll divulge no further details, other than it wasn’t for my running speed.
Hemi Harlow
I found it…after trying maybe a zillion polishes…the perfect polish to match my car!
This is Zoya Matte Velvet “Harlow” – not to be confused with Julep “Harlow”. Zoya “Harlow” originally came out in Winter 2009 (along with “Veruschka” and “Savita”), but they’ve re-released them all! Zoya describes “Harlow” as a rich, saturated rose plum packed with sparkling metallic shimmer in a velvety MATTEVELVET finish. Fancy!
I didn’t read the site first – like the Pixie Dusts, you aren’t supposed to use a base coat or a top coat with the Matte Velvets. Oops. I used Orly Bonder first. It seemed to work okay – no bubbles and it dried really quickly. The site also warned that it’s not as long wearing as regular polish…Oh snap!
I can claim that this is a Halloween themed manicure, since my fingers are dressed up like my car, right? The only thing missing is the racing stripes (sorry, Dave).
I Swear…I Only Went in for a Haircut
Really! I hadn’t gotten my hair cut since February, so I figured it was time…OK, I kind of knew that I would probably buy some stuff if I actual went to the salon in Ulta to get my hair cut. Shhhh,,,
Ulta was running a special on Zoya polish – buy 2, get a free gift – “A Matte Story”, which came with Zoya Matte Velvet Top Coat (I’ve been needing one!) and Whore Red Matte Velvet Lipstick. the two polishes that I got were Zoya Matte Velvet “Harlow” and Zoya “Remy”.
I went to the fragrance section to sample “Stella” by Stella McCartney. There was a placard for it, but no bottles. A clerk offered to go check the back and came back with a single bottle – saying they had discontinued carrying it. I made a split second decision to go for it and buy it…not realizing that it was the $72 50 ML size. Uhhhhhh…I got it anyway and in my excitement, I totally forgot to use my $3.50 off coupon. The blow was softened, however, by a VISA gift card I had gotten as a “thank you” from my AVP last week.
I was so excited, that I opened “Stella” in my car and started spraying. I LOVE the way it smells on me, but I was a bit disappointed in the scent’s staying power. It’s just a few hours later and I can barely smell it on me. I had read online that the new 2014 version has less staying power, so I guess I need to be on the lookout for one of the old bottles. Trader’s Village, maybe – or one of those Indian perfume places?
Bruise Violet
I couldn’t NOT try out Julep “Logan” first.
Julep’s site describes the color as sultry aubergine shimmer – I would replace sultry with earthy. There’s a vegetable like brownish undertone – this color feels very organic.
Well, duh – aubergine is a fancy word for eggplant. It’s not as inky as “Padma” and has a subtle shimmer, but could still be mistaken for black at first glance.
I went back to the Revlon Quick Dry Base and Top Coats. There’s something about Julep polish that doesn’t mix well with base coats – bubbles, no matter what brand I try – even Julep’s own base coats. I only got 2-3 bubbles this time, but each one is like a pinprick to my soul.
I also painted my toenails with “Logan” last night…right before I broke my pinky toe, tripping over my daughter’s metal lawn chair.
(Yeah, we keep metal lawn chairs in our living room. That’s normal, right?)
I was astounded at how well the polish matched the violet bruises – I couldn’t have planned it better!
The last time I broke a toe was during Hurricane Ike, stumbling around in the dark. As clumsy as I am, that’s a pretty good record.
October Julep Maven Box – The Black Magic Collection
My BFF and I both got our boxes yesterday! Thank you mail carrier!
October brings us a spooky box – “The Black Magic Collection”. This month’s beauty product was Night Shift Sleeping Mask – a reparative moisture mask that does the heavy lifting while you’re fast asleep so you wake up to a brighter, smoother, firmer complexion. I put it on my face last night before bed, but I can’t tell if I am brighter, smoother or firmer.
For polishes, I HAD to pick Classic with a Twist “Logan” – sultry aubergine shimmer – because my son’s name is Logan. (He was SO disappointed in the color – he wanted “Logan” to be his favorite color – blood red.) I also picked It Girl “Dana” – white with electric blue sheen (black light reactive). (There is no “Dana”, only Zuul.) I added on “Casper” – glow-in-the-dark shimmer, from last October’s collection. I really don’t need another glow in the dark polish, do I? Whatever.
There was even something for my husband in the box – I gave him the little bag of candy corn.
Not a Julep Maven? CLICK HERE to join! Get a special 4 piece Welcome Box with code FREETREATS!
He Sees You When You’re Sleeping…
Well, originally, I was going for a sexy Freddy Krueger look, but what I ended up with Xmas fingers. Oh well, both of those assholes see you when you’re sleeping.
After Orly Bonder, I painted one coat of Rimmel 60 Seconds “Passion”. I painted stripes with Sinful Colors “Pine Away” and then topped it all with Julep “Shoshanna”. Since “Shoshanna” is gold with red and green highlights, I thought it was match the red and green really well – and it did, although in a very Xmas ornament type of way.
I got one final use out of my Sally Hansen Diamond Flash and then threw the bottle away. My husband asked me if I was going to “have a funeral for my dead solider.” He’s silly…but I considered it.