Tennessee Ladybugs Mani

Last weekend, I went to a little town outside of Nashville to celebrate my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. I had to make it a really quick trip, but I was glad to go and celebrate with them and see some of the extended family I don't see often. I wanted to do some nail stamping, but I didn't want it to be too over the top. This manicure matched my dress and was subtle enough not to shock my great aunts.

I took this picture outside my grandparent's house in front of Granny's roses. Aren't they pretty? The base polish color is Sally Hansen Ton of Bricks, a creamy dark red with just a tiny bit of shimmer. This polish applied just fine; it was neither particularly good nor particularly tricky. You can't really see the shimmer, but it still gives it just a little sheen that makes it not quite a creme.

On top of Ton of Bricks, I stamped the ladybug image from Bundle Monster plate BM13 using my go-to black stamping polish Klean Color Black. This combination produced such sharp images that my spouse thought they were decals.

I wonder what kind of nails I'll do for MY 60th anniversary. I just have another 54 years to think up something awesome. :)

Great Giveaways

September seems to be the month of great giveaways. Here are two more from some of the blogs I follow.

Shadow's Nail Art

Shadow's Nail Art is currently doing a cool 30 day challenge to follow a pre-set list of manicure themes. It's a lot of fun to see how she interprets each theme. She's doing a giveaway with several nice prizes to celebrate her first blog anniversary.

Ends October 5, 2011

I am Definitely Addicted

I am Definitely Addicted does polish reviews and some lovely nail art. She also seems to love holographic polish as much as I do. She's doing a multi-prize giveaway in honor of Halloween.

Ends September 30, 2011

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia

Today's polish allowed me to take a much more expensive one off my wishlist. I'm sure many of you have already seen it, but I think there's room for one more review. Before you look at the picture, I should mention that my tips and cuticles look a little beat because the picture was taken a few days into the mani. I waited because we were having some rainy weather, and I really wanted get some pictures in the sun.

 This is Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, which consists of a black jelly base with small fuchsia glitter and large hex shaped fuchsia sequins. This polish was surprisingly easy to apply and to remove. It had a great texture, neither runny nor too thick. For these pictures, I wore two coats of Facets of Fuchsia over one coat of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme. Subsequent research has revealed that three coats of Facets of Fuchsia produces a very similar look.

For those that don't know, this polish is almost exactly identical to Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance. I wasn't sure exactly how close they were until I read this review by Jackie of Candy Coated Tips. As you'll see in her pictures and cleverly written review, the two are almost indistinguishable. The main difference is the price: Facets of Fuschia is around $4 at Target rather than $18 for the Lippmann polish.

Sparkling Grape

Just to let you know how behind I am, this is my Labor Day manicure. I was originally planning to go to a cookout at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house on Labor Day, but we decided to move it to Sunday instead due to forecasts of bad weather. Finding myself short on time, I decided to do another bright, simple manicure.

I started with a base of Color Club Gimme a Grape Big Kiss, a bright, purplish pink jelly with a grape bubble gum scent. This polish applied very smoothly and easily. It was basically opaque in two coats, although I used three due to the persistent dark stains on my nails (grumble, grumble). On my ring finger, I added one coat of Klean Color Chunky Holo Fucshia. This polish has a medium pink clear base with medium-sized holo glitter. The glitter is much more obvious if you click the picture to enlarge it.

Interestingly, while I got a little shrink on this manicure in general, it was more pronounced on my accent nails. So, based on my earlier experience, I'd say the Klean Color Chunky Holo glitters don't like my usual Out the Door top coat. However, unlike Raspberry Rush, Grape Big Kiss dried to a nice, hard shiny surface. So, while this mani isn't anything particularly special, it was fun to wear.

Juicy Raspberry Mani

I've had a busy couple of weeks. Between having a lingering cold, a lot to do at work, and a family gathering out of town, I'm a little behind on posting. All this rushing to and fro has also meant a number of simple manicures without much nail art. Instead, I've been using some colors that pop to keep things interesting.

The primary color in this mani is Color Club Raspberry Rush, a medium, bright pink jelly with a light, fruity scent. the application on this polish was good. It went on smoothly and was easy to clean up. It looked nice and juicy after two coats, but I applied a third because I'm still growing out some stains on my nails and needed full opacity. The scent was pleasant and hung around for about two days. For my accent nail, I used an unnamed Hot Topic grass green, which was a pleasant surprise. In the bottle, it looked darker and creamier, but on the nail, it has a juicier semi-jelly texture and got brighter as it dried. Combined, these made for a nice, summery mani; however, there was one problem.

Despite going to bed a good two hours after finishing my mani with a coat of Out the Door, I woke up to this horror show of sheet marks. Since they are limited to Raspberry Rush, I assume that my top coat and polish didn't play well together.

I've been using Out the Door pretty exclusively until now, but I think it's time for me to branch out and start experimenting to find out which top coats work best for different types of polish. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Scherer Chamelon Blue Sky

I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day. I seem to be having a relapse of my cold, but at least I can stay at home and rest up. The pictures I have to show you in today's post were taken earlier in the week when I was not feeling well, so I just put on a single polish with nothing fancy on top.

This is Scherer Chameleon Blue Sky, a metallic duochrome that shifts from lavender through blue to a jade green. The predominant color that shows up in sunlight and average indoor light is the bluish purple shown above. It does have a more intensely purple side, but I didn't manage to capture that in any photos. Below is a picture that shows it shifting a little more blue with hints of green.

Finally, in certain conditions (this picture was taken in my car, for example) it shows up bright green.

While the color on this was great, the formula was a bit of a nightmare. The best word I can think of for the texture is stiff. It wasn't exactly thick, it just didn't flow well. Initially, it seemed to be opaque in two coats, but in natural light, I could see all sorts of bare patches. You can see several in the second photo above. Finally, it didn't wear very well; it was all chipped up after about two days. These photos were taken less than 24 hours after application, and you can already see a few chips.

Between taking the pictures and writing this post I saw pictures of Nubar Indigo Illusion by Lauren of Dizzy Nails. While Indigo Illusion appears to have some warm undertones that aren't present in Blue Sky, the predominant purple and green shades look pretty similar. Indigo Illusion may be a better, albeit more expensive, substitute.

Glitter Sandwich Sort Of

First, I want to note that I went back and added some information to my Ancient Glamour Mani polish review. China Glaze Sexy in the City stained my nails very badly, so you definitely want to use a base coat with it. I thought about posting pictures, but I didn't want to scary the kiddies. Seriously. That bad. 

Back in July, I attempted a glitter sandwich mani, which was a total failure. I still blame the glitter I used for that one, which has put me off Nicole by OPI glitters altoghter (these are just too pricey to not work well). Enough time has passed that I'm ready to try again.

For this attempt, I started with two coats of Sinful Colors Irish Green, a bright green, very translucent jelly. It applies very well, is not runny at all, and dried pretty quickly. Next, I added two coats of Klean Color Chunky Holo Clover, which has small holo glitter in a light green sheer base. Finally, I topped it off with one more coat of Irish Green and finished with a layer of Out the Door top coat to help it dry. Here's a shade picture to show the full amount of the glitter.

In terms of being a pretty manicure that I enjoyed wearing, this is a success. However, I still have to call it a fail on the glitter sandwich front. Irish Green is too sheer to change the look of the glitter much, and the glitter in Chunky Holo Clover is too regular to give the finished product that look of glitter particles suspended in jelly.

My only real problem with this was that the polish shrank really badly. I've heard that this can happen when using quick dry top coat over thickly applied jelly polishes, but this is my first experience with it. I took these pictures shortly after application, but by the next day my tips were fully exposed. The only way I could think of to explain what happened is by using my mad skills in MS Paint.

YIKES!