Tag: Fingernails
Joss
Can you believe that I still have at least a dozen Julep polishes that I haven’t tried yet?
Julep “Joss” is a ripe fig duochrome and has been chilling in the pile for over five years! It’s mostly dark purple, but there’s that little hint of green. Can you see it?
This is two coats of “Joss” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat. My top coat is getting thick and goopy – I need to order a new one!
I’m going to have to assume that this polish is named for Joss Stone, who had that one song, and NOT that douche Joss Whedon.
Lil Beast
Sinful Colors “Lil Beast” is another polish from Saweetie’s Xtraterrestial Effects Collection. It’s a mossy green textured finish, a bit more metallic than the others.
This is two coats over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and no top coat.
This polish is almost IDENTICAL to the St. Ives Blackhead Clearing Green Tea Scrub that I use. I was washing my face in the shower, looked down and was like, “Heyyyyyy…” The name though, reminds me of Beast Boy!
Magic Hour
OPI “Magic Hour” is the REAL DEAL.
I don’t have a lot of OPI polishes – I got this one as a “gift with purchase” – but the ones I do have, I really like. “Magic Hour” has a unique shimmery finish, evoking the wavy golden light from just before sunset. I never would’ve picked it on my own, but I’ll be searching for shimmery OPI polishes like this.
This is two coats of “Magic Hour” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat.
Zoomer & Zorbit
I was resisting buying any of the Orly x Lisa Frank Nail Wraps ($11.99 at Ulta)…until I saw how cute they looked on my friend, Angie. Angie is my biggest nail influencer!
To my credit, I only bought one of the four designs – “Zoomer & Zorbit” – a duo of freaky aliens. I’ve always had a thing for “little green men”.
This is my first time trying Orly Nail Wraps. The wraps are a bit short, so I can definitely only cover one nail per wrap. They filed down well though and didn’t leave a jagged edge. The wraps did not peel up either – they stayed put for a week! I will mention though – these wraps have a clear layer on top that may lift up. This clear layer peeled off of several nails and afterwards, the design faded off. So don’t be tempted to peel off the clear protective layer!
The strips are pricy, but have great staying power and apply very well. Here’s to hoping they go on sale!
Big Mamaz Ship
I jumped right in to try one of my new Xtraterrestrial Effects polishes. This is Sinful Colors “Big Mamaz Ship”.
This is two coats of “Big Mamaz Ship” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat. I wanted to see the texture, so I did not use a top coat. The polish is more matte than I expected – like a dusty planet?
This polished reminds me of the old China Glaze Crinkled Chrome Collection. These polishes where more chromed (duh) than the matte Xtraterrestrial polishes.
Skurt Skurt
What is a “Skurt Skurt”? Not only does it sound my cats puking…it also looks like cat puke! Cat owners know…
Sinful Colors “Skurt Skurt” is from Saweetie’s Graffiti Collection. I picked it up on a whim at HEB, along with “Hella Clean”, “Skurt Skurt”‘s lavender cousin.
This is just two coats of “Skurt Skurt” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat.
Sinful Colors does love their puke glitter…and I wouldn’t have it any other way. At least this one doesn’t smell like tacos.
Lacey Business
Why yes, this is my 4th nail polish post in a row…and the next one will be the fifth. I just haven’t been shopping as much lately. I need to be more depressed, I guess.
This is Color Street “Lacey Business”, one of the new sets I just received. I absolutely LOVE this set – it matches everything! My nails are super long right now, so this was a rather expensive mani – I had to use whole strips on each nail, except for my pinkies.
This set lasted over a week!
Dragon Fruitie
I found another Saweetie “Vacation Vibes” polish at HEB! Add to cart…
Sinful Colors “Dragon Fruitie” is a less like a dragon fruit and more like a tomato-y red. It’s a true cream, which surprised me, since “Colada Mama” and “Mushy Gushy Mango” had a nice shimmer.
I started with Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat, and then added two coats of “Dragon Fruitie”. My pinky is topped with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat, while the rest of my fingers got regular Glisten & Glow Top Coat.
French Vanilla Starlight
After less than two days, most of the Dashing Diva Nail strips were lifting up and getting all linty. I just said, “fuck it” and peeled off the offending strips while walking around Kroger. (Don’t worry, I didn’t just drop them – I stuck them on the back of my shopping list.)
The stained glass accent strip on my ring finger was holding up well, so I left it on and built a whole new look around that one nail. After Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat, I did two coats of Sally Hansen x Jelly Belly “French Vanilla” on my thumb, index and middle fingers. “French Vanilla” is an odd polish – I’ve never seen a plain white jelly bean with sparse silver glitter, but whatever. My pinky got two coats of Sinful Colors “Starlight”. I also gave my index finger a light coat of “Starlight” over “French Vanilla”. “Starlight” is from the “Moon Metals” Collections – a sheer gold polish with sparse domed glitters. I finished off with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat.
I have not been doing enough visually interesting manicures like this – I need to mix and match more, instead of just sampling single polishes!
All Lined Up
So…after figuring out the trick to applying Color Street Nail Strips, I thought…why not try all the strips in my stash???
First up is Dashing Diva Gloss Ultra Shine Gel Nail Strips in “All Lined Up”. I believe I got these in an Allure Beauty Box last summer, but Ulta sells them for $7.99. Most of the strips are light gray, but a few of them have gold stripes or geometric shapes. There are also accent strips with a stained glass pattern of white, gold and silver, as well as clear with a gold geometric pattern. I liked the accent strips much more than the plain gray strips.
The Dashing Diva strips are like vinyl sticker, more like Jamberry or Mani Me than Color Street. Application was fairly easy, although the strips did not file off as easy as Color Street.
A nice as these looked the first night, the light gray strips started lifting off my nails the very next day. I did not, however, have that issue with the accent nail strips. I had not had this issue with any other brand of strips! Ugh, I would NOT recommend buying these, at least not the solid color strips.