Zoya - Trixie and Halloween decals

Quick and dirty with some Halloween nail art decals. I probably would have gone with black and orange as my base colors if the Rangers weren't playing the San Francisco Giants in the World Series - any other team and I would have done black and orange.
Trixie is a silver foil. It's my go-to metallic silver - I never have the application problems with Trixie that I usually do with Zoyas.

Basecoat: Gelous (1 coat)
Color: Zoya Trixie (3 coats)
Halloween nail decals from Sally
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

Even though I didn't use the Zoya topcoat I didn't have any bubbling or shrink. I may try David with other Zoyas to see if it works OK - I already know Seche is a disaster with Zoya.

Application was a little bit of a pain - cleanup is pretty difficult for most foils and this was no different. Still, though, for this kind of payoff it's worth it.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Sally Hansen - Fairy Teal and Nfu Oh 39

Another layered mani today. Fairy Teal is a teal creme. Nfu Oh 39 is the blue-green version of 38, which flashes red/orange/yellow.

This is the first Salon Complete I've tried in this bottle. I think it will take some getting used to but I think I love the brush - almost complete coverage in one stroke.
This was two coats. If I work with the brush more, I'm pretty sure I can get this down to one coat. Texture was a little weird - the consistency was fine, but it... tended to stay where it was. It doesn't self-level at ALL, so if you miss a spot with one coat it's visible. You will want to use topcoat unless you are super awesome at application, which I'm not.


Basecoat: Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (1 coat)
Color: Sally Hansen Fairy Teal (2 coats)
Color: Nfu Oh 39 (2 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

I really like this combination, but when I went over to take photos, I saw my CND teal combo sitting there and it occurred to me that that's basically what I made here. Oh well, I still like this combination, and eventually I'm going to wear that combo, too, but it's going to be later :)

Haul: China Glaze Holiday, Zoya Flame, other stuff

I recently ordered a good part of the China Glaze Holiday collection and some other miscellaneous stuff.
This is my TransDesign haul. I added NYS Amaranth (this is a lot bluer than I expected based on everyone's photos - I love it!), Color Club Untamed Luxury, and Color Club Snakeskin. Out of the green China Glaze set I only really wanted Mistletoe Kisses, but it was out of stock. In hindsight I should have just ordered it from VNS anyway.

This was my VNS haul. I got the China Glazes TD didn't have (plus an unbroken Peppermint Cuticle Oil! I'm still buying a backup when I see it anyway). I also got the OPI Halloween mini set from... last year? And two Forsythes - Heart Strings (dusty pink with gold shimmer and round holo glitter) and Stepping Out (candy pink).

I also ordered the Zoya Flame set. I only really want about two of them, but finally there is a Lisa polish (even though I don't really like it) so I got the whole set anyway. I also threw in Kelly.

I'm not really into the Zoya spoon things, but if they are the same as the color plates I got free, I'm impressed. They are really heavy acrylic - much more solid than I expected.

Sally Hansen - Spark and Milani - Totally Cool

I was trying to decide what to wear today and was swatching about twelve different polishes. Spark looked interesting but kind of dull, so I put a coat of Totally Cool (and Totally Sheer) on top. I decided to wear this as a full mani.
Spark is super opaque and super runny. The only way I could think of that this polish could have any worse of a cleanup is if it was a glitterbomb, too. Total smurf fingers.
Spark is a deep blue base with subtle purple shimmer. It actually reminds me of Confetti Smitten, though I haven't worn that as a full manicure yet. I found Spark in a clearance basket quite a while ago. I have to admit, it looks better and more interesting in the bottle than on the nail. This is two coats. I probably could have gotten away with one if I had been prepared for its consistency.

Basecoat: Gelous (2 coats, and I bet I'm still going to have staining)
Color: Sally Hansen Spark (2 coats)
Color: Milani Totally Cool (2 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

In the bottle, Totally Cool has a neat multichrome/almost holo effect. In one of the photos I took there's actually a green flash in the bottle. Totally Cool had a MUCH better application than Spark. I might have to try Totally Cool under a brighter purple or even a berry next time.

China Glaze - Stroll and Nicole - Sensational Scarlet

Stroll is a dark red glitter. I wasn't originally planning a layered manicure today, but I got through two coats of Stroll and was rearranging some polishes in one of my Helmer drawers and came across Sensational Scarlet and decided to layer that on top.
Stroll's application was really good. At two coats it was a little streaky but three would have fixed it right up. I didn't take any photos of Stroll alone. As you can see from the bottle photo, Sensational Scarlet requires a lot of shaking as the glitter likes to settle to the bottom of the bottle. Sensational Scarlet is a red jelly with red glitter and larger round holographic pieces of glitter. From the bottles you might think that Sensational Scarlet is a lot lighter, but when I applied it I saw that it really isn't that much lighter.

Now that I'm finished with this I'm glad I layered SS over something else. SS is thick and super bumpy. I had to use two coats of topcoat and it still isn't completely smooth.

Basecoat: China Glaze Strong Adhesion Basecoat (2 coats)
Color: China Glaze Stroll (2 coats)
Color: Nicole Sensational Scarlet (1 coat)
Topcoat: David (2 coats)

Ulta - Urban Jungle

Urban Jungle is a deep forest green with shimmer.
As you can tell, Urban Jungle is one of those almost-black polishes.

Basecoat: Gelous (2 coats)
Color: Ulta Urban Jungle (3 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

Urban Jungle applied beautifully. This probably could have been two coats if I were more careful. Cleanup actually wasn't too bad for this dark a color.

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Catherine

Catherine is a purple-ish shimmer with fine purple and blue sparkle. It is one of the Tudor collection, so of course I had to have all four.
For some reason, I always end up having to take RBL bottle photos with flash. This particular polish is a lot lighter in color than it appears in this photo.

Basecoat: Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (2 coats)
Color: Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine (3 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

Application was very nice. Catherine is a little thicker than Scrangie and I had a little trouble with streakiness. The shimmer and sparkle is pretty subtle. I was attending a conference the day I wore this, and in the indirect lighting they used for the meeting rooms, it just looked purple-gray. Still, this is a really pretty polish, and I'm definitely going to wear it again.

China Glaze - Lubu Heels

I've had Lubu Heels in my stash for a long time, but I finally pulled it out and wore it for the first time. This is a black jelly with red glitter.
As you can see, this looks black unless you look closely.


Basecoat: China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (2 coats)
Color: China Glaze Lubu Heels (3 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

I took these photos the morning after I applied Lubu Heels. You can see I have some shrink at the tips, which is unusual for a China Glaze. This was a little thinner than I expected, so I had some pooling at my cuticles. Cleanup was a little difficult but not too bad.

OPI - The Show Must Go On

The Show Must Go On is a beautiful red-gold duochrome/foil/?
Application was pretty good for this, even though cleanup was not very fun.
Basecoat: Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (2 coats)
Color: OPI The Show Must Go On (3 coats)
Topcoat: OPI Top Coat (1 coat)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

This polish was a little thick, much as you would expect from this much foil/glitter/etc. It was really hard to capture the gold flash to this polish. I wore this on day where I wasn't feeling very well, but this did a great job of distracting me :)

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Scrangie

Scrangie is a blue-purple shimmer with a teal flash to it.
This is the first RBL I've tried - besides this one I own the Tudor collection and Chinoise.

Basecoat: NailTek Foundation II (2 coats)
Color: Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie (3 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

I had some bubbling but I think it might have been because I was in a HUGE hurry while applying this. Application was fantastic.

Hard Candy - Mr. Wrong

Mr. Wrong is a purplish-grey-silver foil.

I had a hard time good bottle photos - it isn't nearly this dark.

Basecoat: NailTek Foundation II (2 coats)
Color: Hard Candy Mr. Wrong (2 coats)

This was as far as I got before I decided I hated this and took it off. I'm thinking I might like it with shorter nails maybe? Just didn't do it for me.

Application was pretty good - you can see I don't really need a third coat of this.

Orly - Galaxy Girl

Galaxy Girl is one of the Orly Cosmic FX polishes. I actually think this is my favorite one.
This is a gorgeous multichrome sparkle.

Basecoat: NailTek Foundation II (2 coats)
Color: Orly Galaxy Girl (3 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

This is a deep berry jelly base with sparkle. The sparkle flashes teal, pink, and purple. The teal is most dominant, you have to look at several angles to see the pink and purple flash. I suspect this is going to be a pain to remove (cleanup wasn't exactly a snap) but it is totally worth it.

OPI - DS Glamour

Sooo, originally I had planned some nail art, but you would think I would know by now that unless it's a small decal, it's going to be a huge fail for me. As was this one. I had some Texas Rangers logo decals that worked pretty well, but they were sized for each nail. Apparently I have small nails, because the last three were so big they overflowed onto the skin on both sides. I scrapped that and tried jewels. Not so much. I decided to pull out a trusty blue. It was either going to be China Glaze Frostbite, DS Glamour, or DS Magic. Okay, it was never going to be DS Magic, but at least I threw an untried in there, right?
DS Glamour is a medium blue holo.

Pretty boring, right? Add light, and voila! In your face holo!

Please to ignore my insufficient cleanup and the place where I nicked the not-quite-dry polish.
Basecoat: NailTek Foundation II (2 coats)
Color: OPI DS Glamour (3 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

I opted to use topcoat after testing on one nail and determining that it didn't affect the holo in this polish. Application was outstanding as it usually for DS holos.