Zoya - Nidhi and Nfu Oh 45

Originally I was just going to wear Nidhi.  I remember really liking this when I swatched it.

Nidhi is a slightly blue-toned red glitterbomb.

Basecoat:  Zoya Get Even Ridge Filler (1 coat)
Basecoat:  Zoya Anchor (1 coat)
Color:  Zoya Nidhi (3 coats)
Topcoat:  Zoya Armor (1 coat)

When I got this on, I just didn't like it that much.  I think it's the blue tone in the red - I would like it better in the winter, even though this came out in a summer collection.  I decided to slap a coat of Nfu Oh 45 on top.

Nfu Oh 45 is a yellow-toned red jelly base with red shimmer and flakes.

This is one coat (!) of 45 on top of Nidhi, followed by one coat of David topcoat.  45 completely changed the tone of Nidhi, which makes me think that I could probably wear 45 on its own.

The upshot - I still am not super thrilled with this mani, but flakes make anything bearable.

LA Colors - Nuclear Energy and Touch-up Paint Tourmaline

I wore this Friday and Saturday.

Tourmaline is one of the oldest polishes in my stash.  I am pretty sure I bought it at the front counter of Sally's years ago.  My bottle is about halfway full now.  When I was swatching Misa Embroidered Emerald it reminded me of Tourmaline, so I felt like wearing it.  I am trying to conserve it, so I wore it over a purple untried.

LA Colors Nuclear Energy is a purple jelly.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (2 coats)
Color:  LA Colors Nuclear Energy (3 coats)

I didn't use a topcoat here and I wasn't too careful about my application, since I already knew I was wearing something over it.  This is a really pretty purple jelly.  I think I would wear it again on its own.  Application was decent - it was on the thin side, but I didn't have any problems with runniness.

Here is my sad bottle of Tourmaline.  It is a purple/green duochrome shimmer, and the duochrome is extremely strong.  I can remember wearing this on its own but it took a lot of coats.  Using a purple underneath this made it lean a lot more purple at a glance, too.

This is two coats of Tourmaline and one coat of David topcoat on top of Nuclear Energy.

How gorgeous is this?  It made me happy every time I looked at it.

Also, if you think you saw this on the MUA nail board, you did - I posted this there last week.

I'm working on a couple of scheduled posts - even though I'll have several opportunities to change my polish this week, I think spacing out posts will help me during the weeks I don't have time to change it - there should still be new posts.

Essence - Point Break

Today I am wearing Essence Point Break.  This is a medium grey creme.  Tropical Storm Hermine has dumped a TON of rain on us (and a couple of tornadoes about an hour ago) and it's rained constantly for the last two days.  So, even though it's still summer, I felt like wearing grey.

This polish is a lot lighter and warmer than this photo shows.  I had trouble getting the color right.  Maybe if I had used flash it would be more accurate, but I don't really like to use the flash for polish photos - they tend to reflect too much off the glass bottles.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (2 coats)
Color:  Essence Point Break (3 coats)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

Application was very nice.  It flowed smoothly and wasn't too runny or too thick.  Cleanup was a breeze, too.

I am going to wear this tomorrow also, mostly so I can take a breather from posting.  Tomorrow I tentatively have planned a base color with a polish that has been in my stash forever on top.

Sally Hansen - Green with Envy, Hot Topic green/gold glitter

Yesterday I wore Sally Hansen Green with Envy, with a Hot Topic green and gold glitter top.

I had to decant the Hot Topic polish - its plastic cap was cracked.  This caused it to thicken way up - this was the first time I've used it, but clearly the bottle is nowhere near full.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (2 coats)
Color:  Sally Hansen Green with Envy (2 coats)
Color:  Hot Topic green/gold glitter (1 coat)
Topcoat:  Seche Vite (1 coat)

Clearly, my Seche has thickened way up.  You can see the shrink in the photo (I took this the next day). I'm sure it didn't help that the glitter polish was super-thick either.

Application for Green With Envy was excellent.

China Glaze - Grape Pop

This is the mani I wore while we were on vacation.  It wore really well except for one nail, which was totally my fault.  Grape Pop is a medium purple creme.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (1 coat), China Glaze Strong Adhesion Basecoat (1 coat), China Glaze Fast Forward (1 coat, on my pinky, before I noticed)
Color:  China Glaze Grape Pop (2 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

I only had chipping on one pinky finger, and it's the same one I accidentally put Fast Forward on, so I'm chalking it up to that.

Sally Hansen - Lightening

I applied this on Wednesday night and wore it Thursday.  Lightening is a buttery yellow creme.

This applied well, as have my other Insta-Dri polishes.

Basecoat:  Gelous (2 coats)
Color:  Sally Hansen Lightening (3 coats)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

This was a little harder to apply than the previous Mint Sprint Insta-Dri.  It was a little thicker but it really wasn't too bad.   It looks like there is VNL in the photo but in real life, there isn't.

Housekeeping

First of all, I am way, way behind on posts.  I went on a road trip Labor Day weekend, and while I took photos, I didn't actually post anything.

I've also deleted my Twitter account for this blog.  It wasn't my primary Twitter account, and lately there has been a lot of drama in nail blog land.  I didn't feel I had anything to add to the discussion, and all I was doing was posting new blog entries.  I did go back and follow with my primary Twitter account, though.

I'm about to post four (?) blog entries from the time I wasn't doing anything.  Enjoy.