Dewy Rose Manicure

I bought the two polishes I used for this manicure together because the colors such a good match. It took me a while to get around to using them, but now that I have it won't be long until I use them again.

The main color for this mani is China Glaze Fifth Avenue, which is a dark, dusty rose creme. The formula on this was very nice. It was a little thick, but went on smoothly. It was almost opaque in one coat, but took two to get really even coverage. For my accent nail, I used Finger Paints Hue Left a Message?, which has a translucent pink base with lighter pink glitter. On it's own, Hue Left a Message? is pretty sheer. When layering it over Fifth Avenue, the similarity of the base color gives the same color glitter a subtle, starry effect that I really love.

The only surprise was that Fifth Avenue dried significantly darker than the bottle color as you can see in this picture.

No one should look this closely at my cuticles.

I think I was attracted to this color because it reminds me of one of the first nail polish colors I remember owning in middle school. I had a long sleeved t-shirt the same color that was the softest, most perfectly broken-in shirt, and I wore it all the time.

What about you, do you have any colors that you like for nostalgic reasons?

Crazy Nail Polish Lady Mani

The polishes in this post led to my first official Crazy Nail Polish Lady moment (this is a title usually held by one of my nail polish mentors). I was at the Dollar Tree, which had gotten in a whole bunch of these three packs of Maybelline Colorama polishes. I'm on a budget, so I haven't been buying polish lately, but at $0.33 each, I felt like I could splurge and get a few. To maximize each dollar, I was systematically looking at each package to make sure I got the colors I wanted and minimize duplicates. Another shopper stopped and looked at me for a couple of minutes. Thinking she wanted to look herself, I offered to step aside, since I might be a while. She replied, "I don't like those colors," and walked away. Clearly, what caught her interest was my lunacy.

I started with two coat of Maybelline Colorama Raspberry Sorbet, which is a bright fushia shimmer. I was pleasantly surprised with the application of this polish. The consistency was great and easy to control. It went on very smoothly and was basically opaque in two coats. There was some patchiness that appeared in bright sun, but I'm sure a third coat would have taken care of it. The downside was that it didn't wear very well. I took this picture less than 24 hours after putting the polish on, and you can already see some chips on my thumb.

On top of Raspberry Sorbet, I added two coats of Maybelline Colorama Pink Pinata, which has a very light pink base with multi-colored flakes.

 Unfortunately, there was no good sunlight when I was taking pictures, so it was hard to show off Pink Pinata. This picture shows a little of the flaky goodness, but it was much more pronounced in person. That said, I think a darker base color with more contrast would be a better partner for Pink Pinata.

Lava Mani

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a blog post someone did where they put a black crackle over a sparkly red polish and commented that it reminded them of lava. That idea really stuck in my head, and I decided to do my own version. Unfortunately, my Google-fu has failed me, and I can't find that original post. I'd love to give credit where it's due, so if you posted that and happen to see this, let me know!

For my version of the lava mani, I decided to use KleanColor Chunky Holo Scarlet for the red. This polish is fairly sheer, so I started with one coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow to give it a bright base. I followed that with two coats of Holo Scarlet, which went on very smoothly. It has a red-orange tinted jelly base, but somehow doesn't seem as gloopy as a lot of other glitter-jelly combos.

I topped it with OPI Black Shatter. Most of the time, I like it that Black Shatter has a thinner consistency and cracks more than some other crackles, but in this case, I was hoping for something that would look more like the skin of cooling rock on top of lava. I was thinking of something more like my Turquoise Stone Mani, so maybe the China Glaze black would be better for this look.

The KleanColor Chunky Holos that I picked up all seem to have the same holo glitter in different colored bases. In a few cases, the base color has enough of an effect to make the glitter look different. Holo Scarlet is one of those; it really makes the glitter look much redder. In this case, it glinted like hotter points in the lava. It didn't pick up well in the photos, but I really enjoyed it.

Family Camp Mani

Every year, my mother's side of the family gathers for a week in the mountains about two hours north of my hometown. Mostly due to work schedules, I always seem to end up going for only 1-2 days, but it's always nice to catch up with my various aunts, uncles, and cousins as well as my grandparents. The family sport of choice is croquet, but I couldn't come up with a way to work that into nail art. Maybe next year. Instead, I decided to go with something that would look nice, but be soft enough not to scandalize the older folks.

I started with a base of China Glaze Tree Hugger, which is a medium grass green polish with a little bit of a yellow undertone. It also has very fine green and blue shimmer. The shimmer is more apparent in the bottle than on the nail, but it's still a long way from a creme. The formula was decent and applied smoothly, but it was fairly thin on pigment and took three coats to cover some bald spots and dragging around the cuticles.

On top of Tree Hugger, I stamped the daisy pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM16 using Pearl White Konad Special Stamping Polish. This polish does exactly what it's supposed to and easily stamps nice, neat images. I finished by using a toothpick to add dots of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow to the center of each flower and a yellow rhinestone for the center of one flower on my ring finger (the gem photographed really dark, but is about the same color as the polish dots).

As you can see, I had to stamp my thumb twice to cover it. I really hope I can get the newer Bundle Monster plates at some point, since they're bigger. Other than that, I was really happy with how this turned out - nice and summery but not ridiculously bright.

La Isla Bonita Mani

The stamp I used for this is from a fauxnad plate I got on ebay quite a while back. I have no idea what it's supposed to be. It's very small and consists of just a few wavy lines. Often when I'm stamping, I pick my design first, then come up with a color for it, but in this case, I'd already picked the color. When I looked at this design again with the color in mind, it looked like flowing water, and I decided to do little accent stamps across the corners of my nails so the size of the design wouldn't be a problem.

I started with a base of China Glaze Senorita Bonita. This polish is a bright purple jelly base with glass-fleck type shimmer in the same color. It is really a beautiful color and sparkly without being too blingy. In real life, it's a little redder than this picture shows and very vibrant. The base is a little thick. It had no problems with it running, but I did get some bubbling. That may have been my fault, as I tend to overwork thicker polishes trying to get thin coats. I used three coats to get maximum purple power.

This pictures shows off the stamping (and the bubbling) a little better. The stamping polish is Sally Hansen Color Quick Turquoise Chrome. I picked this polish up when I saw it on clearance because of my success stamping with Gold Chrome  and it didn't disappoint. Like Gold Chrome, Turquoise Chrome dried very quickly, but it made lovely, crisp stamps. I'd really like to get a few more of these, but they're a little pricey.

Senorita Bonita was the polish that seemed to get the most good reviews from the China Glaze Island Escape collection, and I can see why. Speaking of Island Escape, I'll leave you with a song because every time I read Senorita Bonita, I think of La Isla Bonita.

CND Claret

Monday, I went to an important meeting with my boss. Since I'd never met the folks we were meeting with, I wanted to do a nice, classic nail color. It turns out that one of the people we met with is a budding nail polish fanatic as well, so we got to have a nice chit-chat about that.

Creative Nail Design Claret is a true dark red shimmer. It's really just a leeetle darker than I'd call "red" instead of "dark red," and it's very balanced between the blue and yellow undertones. Color-wise, I think it's something a lot of people would be able to wear well.

I should mention at this point that Claret is an older polish. I don't remember when or where I got it, but this is one of the polishes that was hanging around in my "collection" before there was a collection. As far as I can tell, CND stopped using this bottle design about 2008, so it's at least older than that. It's now discontinued, but still seems to be readily available online for about $6. I was pleasantly surprised with the application given the age of the polish. It wasn't thick at all and flowed on very smoothly. It has a very thin brush, which I find I have a harder time using, but that's a matter of preference.

The real problem though was the dry time. Even with a layer of Out the Door fast drying topcoat, it seemed to take about an hour to feel dry. Then, I woke up with sheet marks, even though I went to bed at least two to three hours after doing my nails. Even after 24 hours, I could press one nail lightly on another an make a dent.

I assume the drying problem is a result of its age and there's nothing I can do about it, which is a bummer because it's a pretty (if not all that unique) color. Does anyone have any suggestions for me on how I could wear this without belonging in the dented can aisle?

Revlon Blue Lagoon

Surprisingly enough, I have another (mostly) unadorned polish look to share with you today. I did these nails while still recovering from the jet lag of returning from the west coast to the east coast, so I was looking for something easy and uplifting.

Revlon  Blue Lagoon is a sky blue creme base with super tiny particles of silver shimmer. I totally love this color, especially for summer. It looks like a beautiful sky, and I couldn't stop looking at my nails while I was wearing it. Unfortunately, the shimmer is only really apparent in bright, outdoor light, but when you do see it, it's gorgeous as well. This felt like such a light, cheery mani, I finished it up with a flower-shaped clear/silver rhinestone on my ring fingers.

I can't give a review of the application on this because I used a new base with it. Specifically, I used Seche Base Ridge Filling Base Coat. One of my nails was peeling a little, so I decided to use this to fill in and even things out. It worked fine for that purpose, but it seemed like it also stuck like glue to my polish, making it hard to get even coverage. I also got some bubbling that appeared 12 to 24 hours after I did my nails (you can see it a little on my middle finger). I have no way of knowing where to place the blame for that, so I'll have to wait until next time I wear this to find out. I really hope it's the base rather than the polish because I really love this color!

EDIT: Fortunately, I've since read on All Laquered Up that Blue Lagoon didn't bubble when ALU's Michelle tried it. I'm guessing that means I can officially blame the bubbling I got on the base coat. You can read the ALU review here.