OPI - Road House Blues and Finger Paints - Twisted

I've had Road House Blues sitting in my untrieds for a while (I think it's the only polish I bought from the road trip collection).  Twisted was one I just picked up - I still haven't even swatched it on my nail wheels yet.   Road House Blues is a deep blue creme, and Twisted is a multicolored flake topcoat.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (1 coat)

Color:  OPI Road House Blues (2 coats)

Topcoat:  Finger Paints Twisted (2 coats)

Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

I adore this combination.

Road House Blues was beautiful on its own, and applied well even though I still hate the Pro Wide brush.  I might have tried to be too careful, which explains the HUGE gap at the cuticle of my ring finger.  This would definitely be a two coater on its own.

Twisted is AMAZING.  I picked up both Twisted and Asylum from this collection (I have almost all of the Nfu Oh flakes, so I didn't feel like I needed the others).  I did need two coats of Twisted for this density of flakes, but this polish isn't all thick and goopy like some other flake topcoats can be. 

If you don't have it yet, you need Twisted.

Finger Paints - Artistic Azure and Icing - Starlight

Sometimes I don't know when to leave well enough alone, and this is one of those times.  Artistic Azure has been in my untrieds FOREVER.  I did a mini-swatch of it some months ago, and in the maybe three minutes I had it on, it stained like whoa.  I know this put me off wearing it, but I'm glad I did.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (2 coats, didn't help)
Color:  Finger Paints Artistic Azure (3 coats)
Color:  Icing Starlight (1 coat)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

The camera just does not do this color justice.  I actually wish I had skipped the coat of Starlight altogether, AA is that gorgeous.  It is a little bit more green-tinged than comes across in the photos - despite the blue you see in the Starlight bottle, it doesn't affect the color of the polish underneath at all.  I imagine it would if you wore it over a really light color, though.

Artistic Azure reminds me a little of China Glaze Frostbite - it's very, very vibrant in person.  It's so vivid it's distracting.  Just gorgeous.  And yep, this stained like crazy, even with two coats of basecoat - and I picked off almost all of it before I got out the remover.  In the same vein, cleanup sucked.

And, even though I wish I hadn't used Starlight on top, I do really, really like it - I intended to put one coat on my thumbnails as an accent nail and liked it enough that I used it on all my nails.  Some glitter topcoats can really be a pain to work with - the glitter distribution is uneven and you end up doing multiple coats just to get even coverage.  Starlight isn't like that - what you see is one coat, with no attempt at ALL to arrange any of the glitter.

These are both huge wins, just maybe not together.

Complete lack of restraint, or: Sally haul

Yeah, I was totally going to go to Sally just to pick up the cute fimo fruit slices.  Wasn't going to buy any polish.  Nope.

Lots of new displays out since the last time I was there.  I picked up these three Orly polishes:

Left to right  Oh Cabana Boy, Lola, Bailamos

These Nina Ultra Pro, from a "summer neons" display:

Top photo is In the Spotlight and Bubble Gums, bottom is Grin and Berry It and Say Cheese.  These are extremely similar to the Color Club Electro Candy collection.  I tried to capture it but couldn't - Grin and Berry it has the same greenish/blue shimmer that Ultra Violet is.  My first impression of these is that the base colors are a little more saturated than the Electro Candy colors, but I would have to do a comparison to know for sure.  I'll dig out the Electro Candy colors I have and swatch them next weekend.

I also got these Finger Paints:

Lucky in Love Lime, and Love at First Bright.  One Savvy :

Green with Envy.  REALLY?  You couldn't think of a better name than THAT?  I probably have three different "Green with Envy"s in my stash, if not more.  Also, that is a LOT of glass in that bottle.

My first Sally Girls.  I put these on my nail wheels two to a nail.  I didn't really feel like I could get a full nail done and still have some left for a mani:

I picked up a HaKen cuticle oil in Vanilla Almond.  All of these "flavors" were reduced to $3.49.  Last but not least, I picked up the nail art I went there for:

Two packs of the Fruit Salad, and one "Flirtini".  I would LOVE to try these out now, but I'm not going to have time to change my polish this week.  I'll wait on that until next week probably.

While I was out searching for a Pina Colada Slurpee, I stopped in at a CVS in search of the ever elusive Hidden Treasure.  Didn't find it (of course), but I did see the entire new HD polishes in a full display.  None of them really captured my attention, so I passed on them.  I'm sure I'll see a swatch on some blog later that will totally change my mind, and then I won't be able to find any of them.   I also saw the display for the Milani Liquid Metals, but only the blue one was left, so I passed on that.  This CVS had a clearance basket, so I rummaged though it and found - freaking Opulent Cloud.  I searched high and low for that polish for months, and finally found it at a Kroger.  I bought the two they had, and this bottle was the third I've seen in person.  Unreal.  I'm convinced Hidden Treasure will never be mine.  I think Nfu Oh 38 and Nubar 2010 are both dupes, and I have them both, but it still stings, you know?  Maybe it's the thrill of the hunt or something :)

Working on this week's mani now - will post that later tonight.