Claire's - itty bitty teeny tiny neon coral

Today (actually yesterday) I have a Claire's mini. It is from the same set as my skittles mani's green - the Claire's "Poolside" knockoff set.
This is not an exact dupe of Flip Flop Fantasy - this color has a very subtle pink shimmer that is not evident at all in the bottle.
Here it is in the sun.
Basecoat: Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (2 coats)
Color: Claire's neon coral mini (4 coats)
Topcoat: David topcoat (1 coat)

Application was pretty good. It was a little bit on the thick side but not too bad. It is a little bit sheer but the VNL isn't too bad.

New post tomorrow - have a great weekend!

Skittles

Today I decided to wear skittles. I've never worn skittles for longer than a comparison, but I'm planing to wear this one until Friday. I was originally going to do funky French tips but I have so much trouble using those stupid tip guides. I thought I might have magically gotten better since I've really gotten into polish, but nope.
I'm not going to have time to change polish at all this week, and I couldn't think of anything I wanted to wear all week long, and hey, five untrieds done, right there.

This is two coats of Fiberglass Network, 3 coats of color, and one coat of Out the Door. From thumb to pinky, I am wearing:

Sally Girl neon pink
China Glaze Happy Go Lucky
Claire's itty bitty teeny tiny neon green mini
Savina Marine Life
Sinful Dream On

These all dried matte except for Happy Go Lucky. Happy Go Lucky and Marine Life were pretty much two-coaters, but I did three anyway. Marine Life is a gorgeous, vibrant teal, but it stained in the short time I had it on for my "do I need a white basecoat" mini-swatch. Dream On is a beautiful neon purple.

The Claire's mini.... the set I bought this in is a direct copy of the China Glaze Poolside collection. Right down to the shimmery blue. Their version of Flip Flop Fantasy has shimmer too, but otherwise they're identical. I own Kiwi Cool-Ada, and I did a mini-swatch of it for this mani and decided not to use it because it would have needed a white base. This mini isn't quite opaque either, but it's much more opaque than Kiwi Cool-Ada.

I didn't really have any application problems with any of these. Cleanup was relatively easy, also.

No new posts until Friday, so have a great week!

Claire's - Peaceful/Confident mood polish

Today I am wearing Claire's Mood polish in Peaceful/Confident.
This is a teal/blue creme. Teal seems to be the "warm" color.
I worked at home today, so I got to take sun photos, too.
Basecoat: Gelous (1 coat)
Color: Claire's Mood Polish Peaceful/Confident (3 coats)
Topcoat: Out the Door (1 coat)

Application actually wasn't too terrible. This polish dries matte, so I had to be careful with drag. If I had waited longer between coats or used a thicker second coat I might have gotten away with two coats. When I went to get my bottle of Out the Door I pulled out my bottle of Northern Lights and decided to wear that, too.
This is what it looks like when you buy it. All the glitter congregates at the bottom of the bottle.

The bottle says "shake it up!". You actually have to shake this pretty vigorously to get it to mix. This is what it looks like when it's all shaken up.
And here is what one coat looks like over the previous photos.

Pretty. I really like this even if it is really, really close to my current pedi - two coats of Milani Fresh Teal with a coat of Northern Lights on top. Fresh Teal is closer to the "cool" color of Peaceful/Confident than the "warm" color.

No idea what I have planned for this weekend. I might compare Misa Embroidered Emerald to a really old polish I have - Touch Up Paint Tourmaline. I think they are similar in their colors but I haven't worn Tourmaline in AGES.

I am supposed to be out at Rangers Ballpark every night next week. However, my Rangers are in the middle of a pretty spectacular choke job, so I may end up skipping a game. Otherwise, it's probably going to be one post on Sunday and then nothing until Saturday.

Have a great Friday!

Claire's - itty bitty teeny tiny bright pastel yellow

Today I have one that is from the same Claire's mini haul as my previous green one.

This color messed with my camera a little - I had a hard time with it.  As you can see, it's really difficult to read the bottle text, too.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (1 coat)
Color:  Claire's itty bitty teeny tiny bright pastel yellow (3.5 coats)
Topcoat:  Seche Vite (1 coat)

Here it is outside, under partly cloudy sky:

This is a bright yellow, so of course application was not good.  This polish is a decent consistency, if a little on the thick side.  I didn't really have any trouble controlling it, and cleanup wasn't too bad.  It does dry matte like most neons, though I think this leans a little more to the "bright" side than the "neon" side.  This was pretty streaky, too, but that's par for the course.

I have nothing planned for this weekend.  I might try to do a comparison or two on Saturday, though.  I am also working on my photo skills - my inside hand pictures pretty much all are terrible.  Since my outside photos and my bottle pics are not blurry, I have a theory that my problem is that I'm moving.  This turns out to be partly correct - I left my camera on the tripod for this post and it helped, but the other part of the problem is that my camera is focusing on the heel of my hand.  I guess I could get my husband to take the photo, but it seems like there should be a way to fix this.

Have a great Friday!

Claire's - Green pastel mini

Today I have a itty bitty teeny tiny baby Claire's mini. Like, .25 oz baby. This was part of a multi pack of minis that are basic rainbow colored pastel creme minis.

This was surprisingly difficult to capture accurately on camera.

Basecoat: Salon Science Fiberglass Network (1 coat)
Color: Claire's itty bitty teeny tiny baby green pastel mini (3.5 coats)
Topcoat: Seche Vite (1 coat)

Please to ignore my not-totally-soaked-in cuticle oil and the place where I stabbed myself with tweezers on my middle finger.

About my basecoat - my bottle of Instant Artificials came with this tiny bottle of Fiberglass Network. Seriously tiny - I mean, my color was .25 oz - this was .14 oz. I decided to use it for my basecoat tonight, and I think I really like it. It dries to a unique texture I've never seen before but it really did seem to help my polish apply better. If I still like it when I take this off I'm definitely going to get a full bottle.

Application was pretty terrible, but still better than I expected. I did a mini swatch of this before put it on and was surprised to find I wouldn't need a white basecoat. Bonus! This polish was thick and a little streaky, but I would have only needed the standard three coats if the brush wasn't so terrible. I didn't have any wild brush bristles but the brush as a whole was hard to control with any accuracy. I did have to be careful with dragging and bald spots but I'm still surprised I didn't need more coats.

This color looks a lot more neon in photos than it is in real life. It is still pretty bright, but it may look that way to me because my hands are tanned. It is definitely a warm weather color, but I bet this would be cute as part of a spring or Easter mani.

I am thinking about putting a coat of either Orly Twilight or China Glaze Fairy Dust over this tomorrow. We'll see. I'm thinking if I do I may not post a picture, because it may be very hard to capture on camera.

Thanks for reading!

Claire's and Icing haul

Spent some time at the mall today before going to the Frisco RoughRiders game.  Picked up some Claire's and Icing polishes.  I've never tried either brand before.  This is the entire haul:

These two sets are almost the same colors, just one seems to be a pastel version.  These are all minis.

This set is all glitters, and all minis.

 Brights.

This set was really difficult to photograph while leaving it in the package.  These are all glitters.  From left to right, they are yellow gold, plum, gunmetal, beige-y rose-y (blah), and bronze-y gold.

Also picked up two of the Claire's mood polishes (the green one was out), plus a really gorgeous duochrome from Icing.  It's called Peacock and is a dusty blue with a strong purple flash.  Unfortunately I have a feeling it's going to be brushstroke city, but I'm going to try it anyway!

Last but not least, a Hot Topic polish.  I couldn't pass this up (I love green), even though I know it's going to be really sheer and the application will drive me insane.  It's a translucent lime green base with gold and lime green glitter.

These all go in the untried pile, sigh.  Tomorrow I hope to have pics of my Nubar haul up, and then I really need to consider a no-buy.  Oh, aside from the two OPI summer colors I want.  And Hidden Treasure, if I ever find it.