Color Club - Wicked Sweet and Kleancolor - Chunky Holo Teal

I love Color Club neons.  They are almost always a joy to apply (I'm looking at you, Starry Temptress).  The Wicked Sweet collection has a twist, though - they are scented.

Wicked Sweet is the blue neon from this collection.  It has a little bit of shimmer and looks a lot like China Glaze "Towel Boy Toy", except I think this is not as bright a blue.  Wicked Sweet is a little bit brush-stroke-y, too.  I meant to take photos of this on its own but I was on a conference call while I was painting my nails and couldn't leave it forgot.

Chunky Holo Teal is a teal jelly loaded with glitter that isn't exactly holo, but it definitely has a multichrome effect that is similar.

Basecoat:  China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
Color:  Color Club Wicked Sweet (3 coats)
Color:  Kleancolor Chunky Holo Teal (3 coats)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

Wicked Sweet's application was really good.  I might recommend using a not-sticky base coat because I had a little bit of drag, but it really wasn't too bad.  I had a bit of VNL after three coats so if I was going to wear this alone I might use four coats. It also shows brush strokes, but just a tiny bit.

I thinned the crap out of Chunky Holo Teal before I even tried it.  So, the application was a lot better than the previous Chunky Holos I've tried, but because I thinned it the glitter was a little sparser and I needed three coats to get the coverage I wanted.  It's all good, though, because it's gorgeous, and it's not so thick it will peel off in full-nail sheets.

As to Wicked Sweet?  After three coats of Chunky Holo Teal, and one coat of topcoat... I can definitely still smell it.  I don't know what Wicked Sweet is *supposed* to smell like, but I think it smells like...

....blue SweetTarts.

China Glaze - Virtual Violet

Virtual Violet is from the Tronica collection, which was available only at Sally Beauty Supply.  I only picked up a few polishes from this collection but I had to resort to eBay to get the one I really wanted, which was Techno Teal.  Virtual Violet is a dark purple - probably really close to LOL, but the holos are different.  LOL is a linear holo, and the Tronica polishes are a little more scattered.  I had a hard time getting a good bottle photo of this.

Basecoat:  China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
Color:  China Glaze Virtual Violet (3 coats)

I did not want to risk dulling the holo so I did not use a topcoat.  As you can see from the bubbles I have, I had a fan going in the room I was in.  Application was kind of a pain - I should have used a basecoat like Nailtek Foundation or even a matte topcoat.  I had all kinds of dragging because I used a sticky basecoat, so I ended up using thicker coats than I should have to compensate.  Because of that I had tons of pooling at my cuticles, and it made the bubbles worse, too.  Oh, well!

Savina - Money Tree

I've had Money Tree in my untrieds for a while now.  I earlier did a comparison between this and China Glaze - Cha Cha Cha and concluded that they are definitely dupe-y.  I also learned via the Nail Board that it's dupe-y to Moonpool, too.

I didn't feel like setting up the lightbox, so I don't have a bottle pic.  I might end up just using something similar, because I'm liking the way these nail photos turned out.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (1 coat)
Color:  Savina Money Tree (3 coats)
Topcoat:  Out the Door (1 coat)

Application was really nice.  Money Tree is a thin polish but I got good opacity with three coats.  I didn't have a lot of trouble with cleanup, and I wasn't particularly careful, either.  I did have a bit of an issue with bald spots on the second coat but I think that was more because I didn't have the right amount of polish on my brush.

In the bottle Money Tree looks like it might be brush-stroke-y, but once it's on, any brushstrokes are barely visible.

Heaven - Sunshine and Misa - Endless Keys

When we moved into our new house, we had no idea where any grocery stores were, or what was the most convenient one.  We checked out an Albertson's nearby, and I came across a display of Heaven polish.  I've never heard of this brand, and I don't think I've ever seen this brand reviewed on any of the blogs I follow.  Most of the colors were kind of meh, frankly, but they had a few neons, so I took a closer look.  When I looked at the bottom of the bottle I saw that this brand is made by Blue Cross (maker of the Liquid Euphoria and Touch-Up Paint brands), so I threw a few in my cart.

Sunshine is a neon orangish-yellow.  The bottle alone really freaked out my camera - it is a tad more orange in real life.  I would say it's pretty similar to China Glaze Sun Worshipper, but I'm not going to compare them.  I actually wore this on its own before I started posting again, and when I was looking at my untried Misas I decided this would work as underwear.

This is two coats, over one coat of Insta-Dri Whirlwind White.  This photo was taken with no flash, and the color is more accurate here.  If I was going to wear this on its own I would definitely add a third coat, but then if I was going to wear it alone I would have cared more about my sloppy white coat underneath, too :)  You can see I have a little bit of dragging and a couple of bare spots.

Here's a closer look at my application.  This polish does not self level, at ALL.  Like most neons, it doesn't dry glossy, so you will probably want to use a topcoat.

This is Misa "Endless Keys".  It is part of the summer collection, and so far all of them seem to be sheer-ish than I like.  Endless Keys is a little more muted in real life, even in the bottle.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (1 coat)
Color:  Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White (1 coat)
Color:  Heaven Sunshine (2 coats)
Color:  Misa Endless Keys (3 coats)
Topcoat:  Seche Vite (1 coat)

Lots of coats here!

Amazingly, I didn't have any shrinkage with this many coats.  Endless Keys had the usual great Misa application - smooth, not too runny, easy to control and clean up.

Happy Independence Day!

Today I have some nail art that actually went as planned.

A couple of days ago someone posted a mani on the nailboard (that's since been poofed, or I would have linked it).  I thought, "Hey, I might actually be able to do that!"  Historically, I am terrible at nail art, but this one actually came out almost exactly as I wanted!

These are all the polishes I used to create this.  From left to right:

Wet N Wild French White Creme
China Glaze Frosty
Love My Nails Glory
Red glitter nail art striper
China Glaze Dorothy Who?
Kleancolor Silver Star

Here's the finished mani:

And here is my thumb:

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (1 coat)
Color: WnW French White Creme (3 coats)
Color:  China Glaze Frosty (2 coats - I debated 3 but the second coat didn't really seem to add a whole lot)
Topcoat (everything but thumbs):  Love My Nails Glory (however much dabbing and fishing out to get a decent coverage and at least one star per nail)
Topcoat:  David (2 coats)

On my thumbs I did the same thing except that I used the striper to paint three diagonal red lines, and then filled in the corner with Dorothy Who?  I fished stars out of the Kleancolor, mostly because Glory doesn't really have that many stars in it that I felt like it could spare eight, and because the Kleancolor stars are holo.  I followed this with one coat of David.

This is really thick and I'm sure it's not going to last a horribly long time, but I really just need it to last tonight, and then it's all good.

Have a safe and happy holiday!

Color Club - Glitter Envy and Starry Temptress

I picked up the Starry Temptress collection from Trans Design.  I love the Color Club neons, so this was a no-brainer.

Glitter Envy is a green .... creme?  jelly?  crelly?  with holographic glitter in it.  Starry Temptress is the matching glitter topcoat.

I meant to take photos of Glitter Envy on its own, and I totally forgot.  Anyway - the Starry Temptress polishes on their own?  Not good.  The base color is nice and opaque, but because of that the glitter just looks like little specks.  The last time I wore one of the polishes from this collection I tried wiping my cleanup brush dipped in acetone over the polish to see if that would help - no dice.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (1 coat)
Color:  Color Club Glitter Envy (3 coats)
Topcoat:  Color Club Starry Temptress (3 coats)
Topcoat:  Seche Vite (1 coat)

Application for these polishes is awful.  It is thick and gloopy, and not in a good way.  It still wants to run into cuticles, and the glitter likes to hang off the edge of the nail.  And, as I said earlier, the holo glitter is totally buried and just looks like white specks.  You really need to use the Starry Temptress topcoat to get the intended effect.  The texture is bad, too - it feels like sandpaper stuck to your nails.  The good part is that it's SO thick that three coats was enough for total opacity.

Unfortunately, Starry Temptress is also thick and gloopy.  It's not quite as thick as Glitter Envy, but it's still pretty thick.  It does, however, help even out the texture of Glitter Envy (this was the case with Ultra Astral, too).  I did use a coat of Seche on top of this - another coat might finish smoothing it out completely, but I'm OK with this as it is - it's already eight coats of polish, and six of them are pretty thick.

My recommendation?  Get the Starry Temptress topcoat, but use a creme, non-glitter base color.  I would skip the Starry Temptress polishes altogether.  It's a shame, because I was really looking forward to these, but it's just not worth the hassle.

Comparison - Savina Money Tree and China Glaze Cha Cha Cha

I was playing around in my stash this morning, trying to pick an untried to wear later this week.  I finally settled on Savina "Money Tree", which I've had in my untrieds for a while.  I was waiting around for the washer to finish before I did anything, and while I was waiting I thought, "huh, this looks kinda similar to Cha Cha Cha".  That's also in my untrieds, so I decided to pull that out and do a quick comparison.

In the bottle they are really, really close.  The Savina looks like it might be brush-stroke-y, but otherwise they are very similar.  I didn't set up my lightbox for this comparison, because I wanted to make sure I got different light sources, and now I think I might have found a different way to take NOTD pics.  Anyway, here are the bottle shots.

The Savina looks a little bit duller in this photo, but I think it's because the Savina is a little bit thinner.

Here they are at one coat each, over one coat of Fiberglass Network.

I have Cha Cha Cha on my index and ring fingers, and Money Tree on my middle and pinky fingers.  At one coat you can see that Cha Cha has a little bit more shimmer, and Money Tree seems to be a tiny bit deeper green.

This is two coats.  They're starting to get closer now - the Savina has a little bit of VNL, but it no longer looks much deeper green than Cha Cha Cha.

And here we are at three coats.  All the nail photos are taken next to a window on a sunny day (is there anything else in Texas this time of year?).  My middle finger is at a different angle, so it looks a lot greener, but you can see from my pinky finger that they're still really, really close.  Money Tree does have a teeny tiny bit of brush-stroke-y ness, but it's really not noticeable.

Verdict:  dupey dupe dupes.  You only need both of these if you're a green hoor.  I am, but I actually still don't know that I need both of these in my stash.