Category: Nails
50 Shimmering Years
Okay, after a brief distraction with Sporty Brights, I’m back to the Sesame Street Collection. For some reason, I’ve lost the privilege of picking the shade to sample – Lily is now choosing shades for me.
Lily chose China Glaze “50 Shimmering Years”, a full coverage rose gold glitter. I got full coverage in two light coats, over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat. I wanted to see it matte, so I used Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat on my ring finger and regular Glisten & Glow Top Coat on the rest.
I have a lot of rose gold glitters, but this is a nice one that I could see owning a full size bottle.
This is the 5th shade I’ve sampled – just 7 to go.
RIP Little Polishes
It’s hard to say goodbye to dried up nail polishes, even if they are petrified beyond rescue. I recently reorganized my nail polishes and came upon these three polishes that could not be saved.
The hardest to let go of was Revlon Street Wear “Furball”. Revlon Street Wear was a fun line of nail polishes from the 90s – they offered a rainbow of colors and textures before it was mainstream to do so. I’m pretty sure that I picked this polish up in college. It’s very similar to Sinful Colors “Glass Pink”, so I won’t mourn it too much.
I also said goodbye to Revlon Nail Art “Break-up”, a dried up crackle polish. I think it’s a dupe of OPI “Super Bass Shatter”.
I was surprised that China Glaze “Boo-Gie Down” was totally solidified – but I guess I did buy it almost 6 years ago… no dupes that I can think of, I might need another black, white and gold glitter.
Rest in peace, little polishes…
Flamingo Socks
I SWEAR this was an accident. I had paired up my new Sporty Brights by complementary colors and had Lily pick which pair I tried first. It wasn’t until after I had finished them, that I realized that they matched the Flamingo socks I was wearing.
I also didn’t realize that I still had some Sinful Colors Base Coat left in the bottle – there’s maybe one use left after what I used with this look. I started with two coats of the blue, Sinful Colors “Double Time”, and orange-coral, Sinful Colors “Warning!”. I used a dotting tool to add polka dots in the complementary color to my ring finger and pinky. There is a rubber-like texture to the polish, It’s supposed to be like the sole of a sneaker? To me, it doesn’t feel like a sneaker sole, as much as they feel like kindergarten chairs. Remember those molded plastic chairs that they used to have in elementary school? THAT’S what these polishes remind me of.
I finished with the new Sinful Colors Rubber Top Coat. The top coat definitely preserved the rubber texture. I am curious to find out if it will add the texture to a plain polish.
Sporty Brights
New font, who dis? Look at these fancy new Sinful Colors bottles – the first new collection of 2020 has a new font AND a new finish.
I came upon the entire “Sporty Brights” Collection at my HEB. I picked up all 7 shades and the new Rubber Top Coat at $1.98 each. Per the stickers, they have a “Sneaker-like Texture.”
The shades are, left to right: “Fit Chick”, “Warning!”, “Shoot & Swishhh”, “Fitspo”, “Double Time”, “Werk Out”, and “Trainers”. I’m itching to try these 80s looking, neon babies out.
Since 1969
China Glaze “Since 1969” is obviously a nod to Sesame Street’s 50th anniversary in 2019 and it’s an homage to the street itself.
“Since 1969” is an asphalt shimmer, the very color of Sesame Street. I was glad to use a shimmer polish – my nails sure did need a break from glitters. This is two coats of “Since 1969” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat. No mattes this time. This polish lasted a really long time and even braved a marathon round of dishes and kitchen cleaning yesterday.
4 down, 8 to go. I am beating Lily at trying them all – she’s only tried one so far!
Gift Fur You
I’m gonna guess that China Glaze “Gift Fur You” is named for Animal. He’s the only fuchsia muppet that I can think of…
“Gift Fur You” is a fuchsia glitter, with a few silver glitters thrown in. Like “Grouchy New Year”, it’s not full coverage – maybe 80%.
This is two coats over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat. I did that matte thing on my ring finger and pinky, with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat. I used the regular Glisten & Glow Top Coat on the first three.
I feel like this glitter chipped really fast for some reason…probably because I had to do fucking dishes again.
A Grouchy New Year
I cannot believe I didn’t pick this one to try first, just based on the name!
This is China Glaze “A Grouchy New Year”, my second selection from China Glaze x Sesame Street 50 Years and Counting Collection. It’s a bright green glitter, but with different size glitters – everything from tiny pin sizes, to large discs. There are also a few gold glitters in there for fun. It’s not quite full coverage in two coats, maybe 75% coverage?
This is two coats over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat. I used Glisten & Glow Top Coat on the thumb, index and middle. I went matte with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat on the ring and pinky.
If you asked me, I would say that Oscar the Grouch was my favorite muppet, but I bet my mom would say it was the Swedish Chef. She used to tell me that I was OBSESSED with the Swedish Chef, but I don’t remember that at all.
Fa-La-Ah-Ah-Ahhh!
One of my daughter’s Xmas gifts was the China Glaze x Sesame Street 50 Years and Counting Limited Edition Collector’s Kit. It’s a set of 12 mini polishes, inspired by Sesame Street characters. This is the second Sesame Street collaboration from China Glaze and this set is all shimmers and glitters.
China Glaze collabs have kind of become a thing for Xmas for her. This year she got Sesame Street, last year was The Grinch and My Little Pony was the year before that. Lily decided that we need to try ALL 12 polishes in a row…
I was drawn to the purple polish with a gold shimmer – China Glaze “Fa-La-Ah-Ah-Ahhh!” – it looked unigue to me. It took me a hot minute to figure out what character this polish was for. Then I was like like, OH! Purple skin is The Count! And then I figured out that the name is his goofy laugh – “Ah Ah Ahhh!” – I am slow sometimes.
This is two coats of “Fa-La-Ah-Ah-Ahh!” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat. This polish lasted well until I ended up on dish duty one night and the edges were murdered.
Similar polishes are Zoya “Faye”, Essence “Space Glam” and Nails Inc. “Dream Dust”. I guess this polish isn’t very unique after all.
Strut
This flashy little polish is Fluide Beauty “Strut”, from December’s ipsy bag. It’s almost a holo, but not quite. The polish is a dark charcoal gray, with an underlying shimmer of blue. This is the first Fluide polish I’ve tried, although I’d gotten a lipgloss from them earlier in the year.
This is two coats of “Strut” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and topped with Glisten & Glow Top Coat. Pay no attention to how bumpy some of my nails look – my nails were still all bumpy from scraping off the Floral Decals. They’ll get a good buffing before the next polish.
Whenever I hear the word “Strut”, I think of the Sheena Easton song – I loved that song as a kid, but never gave much thought to the meaning. It’s something of a feminist anthem, no?
Rosy Romance
I don’t know why I had it in my head that the 3D nail decals that I had were sweater cables and not flowers – I had convinced myself that I was going to be doing sweater nails. Nevermind the fact that it took my 30 minutes of searching to even find these Sally Hansen 3D Floral Decals, I had to be disappointed that they were not even the right pattern!
Even though I just used it, I pulled out Frida Kahlo x Ulta “Romance” – it really is the perfect red. I started with Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and a single coat of “Romance”. I then carefully placed the decals on my nails with tweezers. I topped with another coat of “Romance” and then finished with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat. I really like how it looks with the matte top coat – like I got them professionally done.
I forgot what a pain in the ass it was to get these decals OFF my nails. I was soaking and scraping my nails for nearly an hour!