Tag: Fingernails
Violet Flicker
After 3 Juleps in a row, I was ready for some cheap thrills.
Cover Girl Outlast Stay Brilliant Glosstinis “Violet Flicker” is a sheer glitter/shimmer. The base is a deep violet, but there is an undercurrent of green, with flashes of fuchsia and blue glitter. This is 2 coats with no base coat. There are still a few sheer spots – I really could have used 3 coats.
It dried amazingly fast and dried with no defects or bubbles. It’s a perfect bedtime polish. My only complaint is the super short brush – it was a total pain in the ass to use. even so, I may try to hunt down some more Cover Girl coupons to get more colors for 99 cents…
Dragonfly
If Julep “Jennine” is a blue butterfly, then Julep “Harlow” is a golden dragonfly with a hint of green iridescence.
I started with Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat, and then added 2 coats of “Harlow”. This may be a one coat polish. It was stunningly smooth when I went to sleep last night, but this morning the finish was riddled with tiny bubbles. So annoying!
Invisible Wiener
I hate posing my hand like this, without polishes. It looks like I am holding an invisible wiener…or sausage…or um, frankfurter…cylindrical meat product? There is just no good way to say it.
On top of Julep “Natalia”, I tried 5 different glitters to see which one looks the best – I cannot decide! They all look awesome!
Thumb – Julep “Oscar” – Multi-dimensional gold glitter
Index – essie Luxeffects “A Cut Above” – Shattered pink diamond glitz lacquer
Middle – Julep “Jane” – Full-coverage rose gold multi-dimensional glitter
Ring – essie Luxeffects “Set in Stones” – Disco mirror ball chaos
Pinky – Julep “Antonia” – Light pink holographic diamond glitter top coat
Penny, Penny, Penny
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Julep’s description of their polish “Natalia” is refined copper metallic. Well…that’s just fancy way of saying that the polish looks like a freshly minted penny.
Even more than a penny, “Natalia” reminds me of rose gold. (Rose Gold is a mix of gold and copper, usually 75%/25%.) Back in grade school, I won a $25 Zales gift certificate (Spelling Bee, I think) and picked out a rose pin made out of rose gold. At the time, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I wonder if I still have it?
Considering adding pink glitter to the rose gold…or maybe gold glitter. Or both.
Morpho
Julep “Jennine” – I’m in love!
“Jennine” reminds me of a Morpho – a genus of tropical butterflies, the brilliant blue iridescent kind that you only see in Butterfly Exhibits like the one at HMNS or the Rainforest at Moody Gardens. Or maybe a the head of a horny peacock, huge tail displayed, eyes darting around for a homely brown female…In sunlight, there are flecks of gold, green and violet.
I’m in love with the stardust finish. My husband said it feels like sandpaper, but it’s smoothed quite a bit since yesterday. I definitely wouldn’t recommend wearing pantyhose with a stardust or sand polish – they’ll get shredded.
I was was actually a good girl and used the Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat. It dried quickly and gave a beautiful smooth start for my nails. It was like a coat of gesso on rough canvas. We’ll see if it prevents “Jennine” from staining my nails – blues and greens are notorious for staining…
My one complaint with stardust/sand formulas is edge creep. As it dries, it tends to retrest from the cuticles and edges of the nails. I feel like the base coat helped a lot, but I still have major chip on my right index finger. I’m going to patch it tonight before bed, but I’ve got a feeling that I’ll be seeing “Natalia” tomorrow.
My Glitter Game is Strong
After several rounds of Tilex and scrubbing my shower stall door with a toothbrush yesterday, I found that my nails didn’t look quite as spiffy as they did just a few hours before. The solution…you guessed it – GLITTER.
My glitters of choice were Sally Hansen Gem Crush “Lady Luck” and Gem Crush “Glitz Gal”. “Lady Luck” is exactly the same shade as the base coats of JulieG “Gift Wrapping” – they look really spiffy together. You can see “Gift Wrapping” just barely peeking through underneath the steel gray glitter in “Glitz Gal”.
As usual, I used Sally Hansen Diamond Flash to seal the glitter. I washed dishes all morning and my nails still look great. Like I said, my glitter game is strong.
Furious Fuchsia
I’m always on the lookout for the perfect fuchsia…the fuchsia that perfectly matches my “Furious Fuchsia” car. I think I may have found it…
This is JulieG “Gift Wrapping” from the Holiday 2012 Collection. It was one of my $1 Big Lots finds. It looks so dark in the bottle, I didn’t have it in mind to be even close to “Furious Fuchsia”, but as I put on the second coat, I saw it.
The picture at left is in full sun, with my car as a backdrop. The bottle is still darker than the polish on my nails and my nails appear a tic lighter than my car, due to my car being in the shade and my fingers being in the sun. TAKING PICTURES OF MY NAILS IS GETTING SO DAMN COMPLICATED.
Celia
I could only handle my multicolored clown nails for a few days. Keep on voting!
This is Julep “Celia” – icy, green metallic. Although I just received it in my Golden Ticket Mystery Box, it was originally part of the “It Girl” December Maven Box – The Glitterati Collection. Even though I’m an “It Girl”, I had chosen the “Classic with a Twist” box, which had “Jillian” and “Mia”, so no overlap!
“Celia” is like the green version of Zoya “Bobbi”. I’m brainstorming a way to get the two of them together…
Also, I fixed the jacked up cuticle on my middle finger – thank you, Julep “Vanish”!
20 Polishes
The other day, I told my husband that I wish I had 10 more fingers. He laughed and said, “You do – they’re called toes.” Painting my toenails is just not the same as painting my fingernails. They’re hard to reach and all different shapes. Plus, I hardly ever have a chance to show off my toes. I have so many ideas for polish combinations, plus – I’ve bought or been gifted about 25 polishes JUST in the month of May (which isn’t over yet.) Sure, I can practice on my junk mail, but it’s just not the same…what do I do? I stay up late and do a different combination on each finger!
Let’s start with my left hand…
Left Thumb – China Glaze “Four Leaf Clover” and Maybelline Color Show “Emerald City”
Left Pointer – Orly “Purple Poodle” and Sparitual Luminary Matte Top Effect in “Opaline”
Left Middle – Nina “Blue La La” and Sally Hansen Gem Crush “Lady Luck”
Left Ring – Julep “Tatum” and Julep “Rosa”
Left Pinky – Sinful Colors “Sugar Sugar” and Nina “Gold Flake Topcoat”
My right hand was a little bit more difficult, both to paint AND to photograph…
Right Thumb – Orly “Bubbly Bombshell” and Sinful Colors “Nail Junkie”
Right Pointer – Zoya “Dillon” and Sinful Colors “Bombshell”
Right Middle – Sinful Colors “Inkwell” and essie Luxeffects “Set in Stones”
Right Ring – Sally Hansen Insta-Dri “Magenta Motion” and Sinful Colors “Call You Later”
Right Pinky – Sinful Colors “Nova” and Nicole by OPI “Rainbow in the S-Kylie”
Which one do you like best? Vote in the poll below and let me know what you think!
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Fire Duo
I did laundry and washed dishes ALL DAY yesterday. I’m pretty sure my husband assumed it was my way of saying THANK YOU for that late night Ulta trip…but I really just wanted to chip my nails enough to give me a good reason to redo them with my brand new polish.
A quick Google told me that this Butter London set was released for Holidays 2013 and is called “Fire Duo”. “Rebel Fox” is very thin. The first coat looked berry, but it became a deeper, blood red with the second coat. I really should have gone with a third coat – it’s very, very thin. “Brass Monkey” was nothing like I expected. I figured it would just lighten and cloud the base color like Sparitual Luminary Matte Top Effect in “Opaline”, but it was totally different. It’s a clear coat, with coppery flakies that take on the red and turn it into flames. I want to try it on a dark blue…
Good thing I had the presence of mind to take a pic BEFORE going to the pool with the kids. This polish is NOT sturdy enough for the summer – I’ve already got major edge-wear and a few chips. It’s not like I wasn’t planning on painting my nails again tonight, anyway…