Essie - Pretty Edgy, Kleancolor - Green With Envy, Color Club - Object of Envy

Slackity, slack slack.  Actually I've been doing a LOT of knitting, and frequent polish changes and knitting don't really get along.

Anyway, here is my St Patrick's Day nails.  I think the Color Club is "tried" - everything else is untried, and yes, I've had Pretty Edgy since I did that comparison WAY back at the beginning of this blog and it was STILL sitting in my untried drawer.

Basecoat:  NailTek Foundation II (1 coat)

Color:  Essie Pretty Edgy (3 coats)

Color:  Kleancolor Green With Envy (1.5 coats)

Color:  Color Club Object of Envy (1 coat)

Topcoat:  Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat (1 coat)

Yes, that's a lot of coats, but I don't mind because this came out way better than I hoped it would.  Pretty Edgy applied flawlessly.  It was a tiny bit dustier than I expected, actually - I don't know if I'm just remembering it wrong, or it's changed slightly as it's been sitting untouched.  Anyway, I knew I was glittering it up, so no big deal.  Pretty Edgy was almost totally opaque in three coats.

Green With Envy has a very slightly green tinted base, or maybe the glitter is leaching out into the base a little.  Whatever the cause, the end result was that it added just the perfect amount of yellow to Pretty Edge, making it the perfect St Patrick's Day green.  It's a fairly chunky glitter - medium hex pieces, and a few tiny glitters, and of course I had trouble getting even distribution.  So when I finished applying I wasn't totally happy with it, so I pulled out...

Object of Envy.  I've worn this before and I think I felt like three coats would be reasonably opaque on its own.  Anyway, I applied one coat over everything and it's PERFECT.  The only thing I would do differently next year (and oh yeah, I'm definitely wearing this again) is apply Object of Envy before Green With Envy, so that the bigger glitter shines more.

Revlon - Starry Pink

Starry Pink is a pale pink jelly with two sizes of silver glitter.

Basecoat:  NailTek Foundation II (1 coat)

Color:  Revlon Starry Pink (3 coats)

Topcoat:  Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat (1 coat)

Even though I have a hate for visible nail line, I really like this.  Also, my cuticles are super scary in these photos - our weather's been mostly overcast, and I keep waiting for sun to take photos and it never shows up, so I end up giving up and taking photos in the morning.

Anyway, about the only thing I would have changed about this polish is that I would have gone for white or opalescent glitter instead of silver.  The glitter on the bottom two layers looks awesome, but the silver glitter in the top layer just looks weird and umatching.

Butter London - The Black Knight

The Black Knight is a black jelly base with tiny multicolored gliter (mostly magenta, blue, and either gold or silver).

Basecoat:  NailTek Foundation II (1 coat)

Color:  Butter London The Black Knight (3 coats)

Topcoat:  Gelous (1 coat)

Topcoat:  Seche Vite (1 coat)

Excuse the rough-looking fingers and cuticles - I'm almost midway through knitting a large blanket from super chunky 100% wool.

Let me start with the good, no - the great.  The base is perfect.  It is opaque enough to cover, and sheer enough that you don't lose any of the glitter, even at three coats - the glitter is way obvious even in inside light.

Now for the not so good:  Application was AWFUL.  Easily one of the worst polishes I've ever worn.  I don't know if it's the consistency of the polish (thick and a bit gritty), or the long-bristled brush (that I normally adore), but I could not control this, at ALL.  I really had to glop it on to make sure I got coverage where I needed it.  Maybe it's the combination of the brush and the consistency.  I don't know.  Needless to say, this went everywhere, and while the base color cleaned up easily I am still picking glitter off (I'm writing this before I take photos). 

I actually looked through my stash and ruled out some Nubar glitters because I didn't want to deal with the layers of topcoat.  I figured Black Knight wouldn't have this issue, but surprise - it so did.  It was so gritty after just one coat that I knew I'd have to pull out the Gelous. 

I think I will try this again, but over black.  I'll try not to get my hopes up.

Nina Ultra Pro - Glamrock

Yes, I'm behind again - I have a few actual NOTDs (not swatches) piled up - I had some major dental work done a couple of weeks ago, which was followed immediately (as in, the next day) by an awful cold/flu thing that knocked me out of commission until just recently.  And, when that all happened I was *already* behind.  Oh well. 

Also, today I painted my toenails, which I usually don't do in the winter - but it's a weird winter in Texas.  Today it's about 80 degrees outside, and I'm wearing sandals when I go out tonight.  I'm kind of afraid of what this will mean for summer.

Glamrock is a black jelly with lots of silver glitter in two size - micro, and bigger round pieces.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (1 coat)
Color:  Nina Ultra Pro Glamrock (3 coats)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

How hot is that?  This was surprisingly opaque and easy to apply.  I love this polish a lot - everything about the application was awesome.  The finished texture wasn't very rough either - I probably could have stood to do a layer of Gelous before my topcoat but it didn't really bug me.

Orly - Rock Solid

I'm not very sure how to describe this polish - it's an odd one, for sure.  My best guess is a charcoal Mineral FX-like sparkle, with a bunch of holographic glitter pieces.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (1 coat)

Color:  Orly Rock Solid (3 coats)

Topcoat:  NYC Grand Central Station (1 coat)

See what I mean?  Anyway, application was really good - my brush tended to get a whole lot of polish on it, but as long as I was careful to wipe off any excess, it wasn't a problem.  Consistency was fine, and cleanup went a lot better than I expected it to.  I have a couple of bare spots but it's not really noticeable, either in photos or in real life.

I believe NYC Grand Central Station is really a clear quick-dry polish as opposed to a topcoat, but it's been getting rave reviews as a topcoat, so I decided to try it.  Dry time is very nice - not as fast as Seche but just fine, and it's reasonably shiny.  My manicure still has a little bit of texture to it, but I'm not blaming my topcoat for it - I used a not-smooth base coat, and this polish has a lot of glitter.  It's still an acceptable texture - not anything like the Nubar Sparkles - and although I think a Gelous topcoat sandwich would work here, I just don't been like it's necessary.

Orly - Au Champagne, China Glaze - Party Hearty

This combination came out very similar to my last year's Christmas manicure, but I don't care.  Last year I used China Glaze Frosty with Wet N Wild French White as underwear, but I like this combination better.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (1 coat)

Color:  Orly Au Champagne (3 coats)

Topcoat:  China Glaze Party Hearty (1 coat)

Topcoat:  Northern Lights Silver Hologram (1 coat)

Au Champagne is a pretty, shimmery opaque white.  It's a little softer than a straight white.  It dries to a satin finish, which I thought was interesting, but I also think that's why it applied so nicely.  I had zero problems with it.

I might as well have skipped the holo topcoat altogether, because the sun has not been out - at all - until this morning, and these photos were taken yesterday with already four full days of wear (see tip wear if you embiggen).

China Glaze - Glittering Garland and Snow Globe

I actually forgot I had worn this until I was editing photos of the last mani I wore.  I love these two polishes, just maybe not together, and I didn't even wear this out of the house.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (1 coat)

Color:  China Glaze Glittering Garland (3 coats)

Topcoat:  China Glaze Snow Globe (1 coat)

Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

See?  Super pretty, just not sure they go together.  I test swatched a few combinations and ultimately decided on this one for some reason - I should have gone with the gold Northern Lights topcoat instead.  Oh well.

I've seen photos of Glittering Garland that look very different from my bottle - mine just looks like a plain dark green with glass fleck.  It's very pretty but it's not the outright glitter I've seen photos of.  Application was pretty good, and I didn't have any problems with cleanup.

My bottle of Snow Globe is from the initial release with all the other specialty glitters.  As a result, it was super thick and I had to thin it a lot, but it was still pretty thick.  I have a little bit of tip shrinkage, too.

Revlon - Facets of Fuchsia

Facets of Fuchsia is a black jelly with fuchsia glitter - both regular sized glitter and larger hex glitter.
I layered this over Wet N Wild's Black Creme.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (1 coat)

Color:  Wet N Wild Black Creme (1 coat)

Color:  Facets of Fuchsia (2 coats)

Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

Sorry for the crap photos - the weather was awful and foggy the day I took these, so I had to resort to my desk light.

Facets applied very nicely - of course I had the super opaque Black Creme underneath, so it was pretty forgiving.  I didn't have much issue with glitter placement - I only had to push one big hex off the edge of my nail.  It wasn't thick or gloppy, either.

China Glaze - Skyscraper

Skyscraper is a dark blue jelly packed with silver glitter.  Some of the glitter may also be blue - I can't really accurately tell.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (1 coat)

Color:  China Glaze Skyscraper (4 coats)

Topcoat: David (1 coat)

My bottle of Skyscraper is really thick and sticky.  I may thin it but I actually didn't have too much problems with application.  This took four coats for an opacity I'm comfortable with.  The surface dried totally not gritty at all - I didn't need to use Gelous, just one coat of David was enough for a totally smooth texture.

I don't know whether this is a dupe of Essie SSN - I've never seen it in person - but I think this is probably close enough for me.  I own the Fing'rs polish that's supposed to be a dupe - but just in pictures, Skyscraper fits closer to my idea of what SSN looks like in real life.

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.

Color Club - Lumin-icecent and OPI - Simmer & Shimmer

I picked up the Foiled collection at my Ross a week or so ago, but I didn't really want to wear them alone - foils are pretty unforgiving to ridges and imperfections.  I looked through my untried glitters and pulled out Simmer and Shimmer.

Basecoat:  Gelous (1 coat)

Color:  Color Club Lumin-icecent (2 coats)

Color:  OPI Simmer & Shimmer (3 coats)

Topcoat:  Gelous (1 coat)

Topcoat:  Sally Hansen Insta-Dri (1 coat)

Lumin-icecent (forget it, I'm not typing that stupid name anymore) is an icy blue metallic.  It's so icy it almost looks gunmetal in indoor light.  Anyway, it was awesomely opaque and I didn't really have any problems with application - it didn't streak or drag.  I don't usually like foils but I might end up wearing these alone, though I bought them with the intention to use them as stamping polishes.  It was your typical foil cleanup, though - tons of sparkle where it's not wanted.

Simmer and Shimmer is a multicolored glitter that is mostly pale blue.  It also has some silver and magenta glitters in it.   All the OPI glitters apply about the same, so I'm not going to really talk about that other than to say again that I really hate the ProWide brush and I got glitter everywhere on my smaller nails.

These glitters more or less killed my lemmings for the Muppets collection - I swear I still have at least three more of the Burlesque glitters sitting in my untried drawers.  I figured if I hadn't worn these I probably was going to take just as long if not longer to wear those, too.

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.