Nubar - Gem

Nubar Gem is kind of an odd duck.  It's a holo glitter like Prize, but the base color... I think I would have to describe it as frosty greige.  It's not quite purple, and not quite beige.  I say a lot that I have a hard time capturing certain polishes on camera, but that was nothing compared to the problems I had with this one.

Basecoat:  Nubar Foundation (1 coat)

Color:  Nubar Gem (3.5 coats)

Topcoat:  Gelous (1 coat)

Topcoat:  Nubar Diamont (1 coat)

The third photo is probably the most accurate color for the base of Gem, but only the bottle part, not really the polish on my nails.

Application was okay for this - very similar to Prize.  Because it's less vivid of a base color, I felt like it was easier to control and clean up - that, or it was just less noticeable.

I did do the Gelous thing before using Diamont.  This polish looks MUCH grittier in photos, but it is totally smooth in real life.  The holo is much stronger, too, but it's overcast today and I had a hard time getting decent light.  Even the last photo, under desk light, doesn't show it as much.

Still, this is a really nice polish, and I'm still intrigued by the base color - would I wear this without the glitter?  Who knows?  It seems like it might be brush-stroke-y without the glitter, but I can't really tell.

World Series nails

I said on Twitter earlier today that I wish I was a bandwagon Rangers fan like so many others in Dallas.  If I was a bandwagoner, I wouldn't be so worried about dying of a massive aneurysm by the end of this World Series.

Anyway, the Series comes back to Arlington starting tomorrow for three games, and as a season ticket holder (we paid for our post-season tickets way back in August - if they hadn't gone on to the playoffs it would just be credited to our season ticket account) - I'm going to all three games.

You've seen these polishes before - Nubar Fire and Night Sparkle.  I used Gelous as a base coat, and three coats of each polish.  I also used two coats of Gelous on top, and instead of Seche I used Nubar Diamont.  I still think I might end up having to add another coat of Diamont tomorrow, but it's okay.

I used nail art stars that I got from Nailsupplies.us.  I stuck these on after the first layer of Gelous, so there's another layer of Gelous and a fat layer of Diamont on top of them - that ought to keep them stuck on.

Nubar - Prize

Nubar Prize is a medium pink jelly packed full of holographic glitter.  I'll warn you right now that these photos don't do it justice 

- it's overcast today so I had to resort to desk lamp (again).

Basecoat:  Nubar Foundation base coat (1 coat)
Color:  Nubar Prize (3 coats)
Topcoat:  Gelous (1 coat)
Topcoat:  Seche Vite (2 coats, one applied the morning after)

Prize is not nearly as bumpy and gritty as the Sparkle glitters are, but I still needed to use Gelous and multiple layers of Seche.  I have some tipwear that I think is a combo of tip wear and shrink - I've been doing things around the house this morning and my nails are a little longer than I usually keep them right now, so I think it's mostly wear.

I had issues with the brush in Prize.  I don't remember the brushes in the Sparkle polishes being as wide as this one is.  So - yep - I got it everywhere even though I was trying to be neat.  Cleanup went surprisingly well, though - the base color cleaned up super fast and it wasn't even a pain getting the glitter off my skin, either.

Some of these photos show a little bit of VNL - it is visible in real life, but you have to look *really* closely to see it.

Nubar - Night Sparkle and Fire Sparkle

Yes, it's the return of the glitter-bomb Rangers manicure.  Both these Nubars are untried - I usually use Orly Star Spangled and Royal Navy for this kind of stuff.

Basecoat:  Gelous (1 coat)

Color:  Nubar Night Sparkle or Fire Sparkle (alternating, 3 coats each)

Topcoat:  Gelous (2 coats)

Topcoat:  Seche Vite (2 coats)

These babies are topcoat devourers like nothing else.  But they are so, so awesome, I wear them anyway.  Obviously, Fire Sparkle is the red glitter and Night Sparkle is the blue one.

Both of these have tinted jelly bases - Night Sparkle is a little more opaque in its base.  At any rate, both covered pretty good at three coats.  I have a lot of red glitters but Night Sparkle may just be my holy grail blue glitter - Royal Navy isn't as glittery as Star Spangled, and its glitter is teal, and Dorothy Who? isn't as primary a blue as I prefer for this style of manicure.

I know you are shocked, but cleanup sucked.  Better off to just be careful.   As usual, I can't comment on wear or removal - I am pretty sure I will be peeling this off as usual.

Nubar - Violet Sparkle

Violet Sparkle is a vivid purple glitter.

Basecoat:  Nubar Foundation (1 coat)
Color:  Nubar Violet Sparkle (3 coats)
Topcoat:  Gelous (2 coats)
Topcoat:  Nubar Diamont (2 coats)

Yes, that's four coats of topcoat.

For a polish this packed with glitter it wasn't that hard to apply.  It was pretty opaque in three coats.  I have some spots where I can see bare nail (if you look closely at the free edges of my ring finger and pinky, there's bare spots there), but I'm probably the only one who notices.  Even though my camera seems to have problems with purples, these photos are not too far off - in real life it is a tiny bit redder.

So, four coats of topcoat.  This is a topcoat-eater at its worst.  I used one coat of Gelous and one of Diamont on my nail wheel swatch and it seemed to do absolutely nothing.  The night I put this on I used two coats of Gelous and one of Diamont and that seemed to do the trick.  However, the next morning I definitely needed another coat of Diamont.  I have no shrink at all, which surprises me.  I do expect that when this chips it's going to chip in a big way.

You can forget cleanup with this one, too - Violet Sparkle laughs at your acetone.  My gap is not as nice as I like it to be, and I ended up picking tons of glitter off my skin.

In the sun, though, this is SOOOO worth it.  This is awesome, and I can't wait to wear the rest of these.

Essence - The World's Coolest and Nubar - Reclaim

Today I planned to put on Essence The World's Coolest from the Surfer Babe collection. This is the first Essence I've tried.
This is a pale , slightly dusty baby blue.
Basecoat: Gelous (1 coat)
Color: Essence The World's Coolest (4 coats)

This was a mess. This is four coats and I still have VNL and bald patches. The formula was thick and goopy and hard to control. To top it off, I just don't like the color on me. It may be one of those that I just don't like while my hands are tanned, so I'll try this again in spring. Tonight, though, I couldn't stand it so I took it off.

To make up for that fail, I put on Nubar Reclaim instead. This is a medium green holo with tons of sparkle.

Basecoat: Nubar Foundation (1 coat)
Color: Nubar Reclaim (2 coats)
Topcoat: Nubar Diamont (1 coat)

I had a really hard time getting the holo-ness of this on camera. Wish I had some sun, but I don't. Application was a dream - smooth, no dragging or bald spots at all.

New post tomorrow - have a great day!

Nubar - Hot Fuchsia

Today I have Nubar Hot Fuchsia. This is a bright fuchsia. I wouldn't call it a neon, but it did dry matte as most neons do.

Application was nice - perfect consistency. I flooded my cuticles a couple of times, but cleanup was pretty easy.
Basecoat: Nubar Foundation (1 coat)
Color: Nubar Hot Fuchsia (3 coats)
Topcoat: Nubar Diamont (1 coat)

I have a tiny bit of VNL if you look very closely - it is much more evident in photos. I think I'm either going to change this tomorrow night or Tuesday - depends on how much ironing I get done tonight :)

In other news, I finally had to suck it up and buy a second Helmer. My stash is reorganized - I have three untried drawers, and I've organized by color - a drawer each of red, orange, yellow, pink, green, blue, purple, and silver/white/black. I have one empty drawer right now but my pink drawer is close to full - how did I get so many pinks? I am going to have to go through my spreadsheet and update my drawer listings, too.

Have a great week!

Nubar - Lime Green and 2010

Well, this is a Hot Mess if I ever saw one. I think Lime Green just looks wrong with my skin. I love the color so I'm gonna wear it anyway :)

Lime Green was kind of a pain to apply. My first coat was really thin - this might have been part of my problem. I would have been better off to do thicker coats. As a result, I had some streaking and bald spots. I knew after the first coat that this color was Not Right for me :)
This is three and a half coats, and you can see I still have some VNL. I added two coats of 2010, hoping it might look less terrible on my skin, but no such luck:
Now it looks like a shiny Hot Mess.

Basecoat: Nubar Foundation (1 coat)
Color: Nubar Lime Green (3.5 coats)
Topcoat: Nubar 2010 (2 coats)
Topcoat: Nubar Diamont

Think I'll have to do a new one Saturday. Have a great Friday!

Nubar - Geisha Blaze and 2010 with bonus picspam

I've been trying to wear older stuff from the untried pile before wearing anything too new.  I've only placed two Nubar orders - one when the Going Green collection came out, and the recent one.  Geisha Blaze has been in my stash since my first order, so I decided to wear it today with 2010 on top.  I took photos of just Geisha Blaze.  This is a pretty hot pink shimmer.  It is slightly sheer and I think it would take about four or five coats to totally eliminate VNL.  I left it at three because I decided before I even started that I was going to put 2010 on top.  Here is Geisha Blaze alone, under halogen light:

Inside, next to a window on a sunny day:

and outside, in full sun:

The shimmer in Geisha Blaze is more apparent in the bottle than on the nail.  This is almost work-appropriate, if your workplace has rules about nail polish, but may be a little too bright.  Here it is with 2010 on top, under halogen light.

Next to a window on a sunny day.  This was the best photo I got that shows the flakes off.

And here it is, outside in full sun.

Basecoat:  Nubar Foundation (1 coat)
Color:  Nubar Geisha Blaze (3 coats)
Color:  Nubar 2010 (1 and a half coats)
Topcoat:  Nubar Diamont (1 coat)

I had no application issues.  The consistency was really smooth, and cleanup was super simple.

Now for some bonus picspam.  This is my untried stash.  I may start changing my mani more often when I have time, because I am making no headway at all in this pile.  My Helmer wouldn't be full if I could get my untrieds down to one drawer (yeah, right).  This is my China Glaze and Zoya drawer:

This is my "almost everything else" drawer.  I have a lot of Sinful but there is a good bit of OPI, Orly, Sally Hansen in here.

This is my "overflow".  There is a lot of Color Club and Nubar in here, but I also have all my minis in here too.

And a bonus pic of my nail wheel pile.

I already have my next NOTD picked out.  I actually picked it out for today and sat down with it, only to realize that it was yellow, and I wore Sun Worshipper at the end of last week.  So, I'll probably put it on Tuesday instead.  It's another layer combo of something I've had for a while and something I've gotten recently.

For summer, I really love a neon pink on the toes.  Unfortunately, this means that every time I pick out a color for my hands, I think, "I might want to wear this on my toes soon."  Ugh.  I'll be changing my pedi this upcoming weekend, and I think I'll post pics of it, too.

Have a great Monday!

Nubar haul

Finally got my hands on my Nubar order.  Turns out they sent it to my old apartment, even though 1) I haven't lived there in 4 months and 2) my ship confirmation only has my new address on it.  No response from customer service yet.

Anyway, I picked up the Get Hot collection, Reclaim, and 2010.  I missed Reclaim when I got part of the green collection, and I have not even seen the display with Hidden Treasure in any of my local stores, so since 2010 seems like a dupe, I went with that.

Top row, L to R:  Lime Green, Hot Yellow, Hot Green, Hot Red, Hot Pink
Bottom row, L to R:  Hot Orange, Nubar 2010, Reclaim, Hot Blue, Hot Fucshia

As if I didn't already have enough trouble deciding what to wear next!