Holiday Half-Moon Mani

I saw ThePolishAholic's post of her Gwen Stefani inspired manicure just when Snow Bunny was biting the dust. It looked very festive, but simple, so I decided to go for it. I started with 2 coats of Wet n' Wild Shield, then used french tip guides at the base for my half moons. I preferred a sharper curve, so I had to pull the ends to fudge the lines a bit. I painted 1 coat of Zoya Sooki over Shield, and carefully pulled the tip guides off as I finished each nail. I absolutely loved the effect and plan on trying this look with other color combos.

2 coats WnW Shield, 1 coat Zoya Sooki

ETA: I posted this over on Twitter for the Glamour Magazine #wkndmani contest, and won! I'm pretty sure it was a random choice, and I think I won the Zoya Gems and Jewels holiday collection and a bottle of Remove+. Yay!

butter LONDON The Black Knight

The Black Knight is the first up in my Christmas Gift Extravaganza. I got so. much. polish. Love it! The Black Knight is one of butter LONDON's Holiday 2011 collection. It is a black jelly that is chock full of pink and blue glitter and a finer gold glitter. The first coat is pretty sheer, but it is nicely opaque with a second coat. The picture below is the second day of wear with 1 coat of Seche Vite. It stayed pretty gritty, but it didn't bother me enough to add a second coat.

Day 2 - 2 coats polish and 1 Seche Vite

I noticed that I began to get awful chips pretty quickly. Some quick internet trolling showed me that I am not the only one! Apparently glitters (not just this one) are prone to chipping. I imagine it's due to the grittiness. The polish on my index finger began to lift after the 4th day, so I decided to throw a coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps over it. This is a very thick polish, so it smoothed the finish nicely when topped with another coat of Seche Vite. All in all, I absolutely love this one and am thrilled Bestie got it for me! :)

2 coats The Black Knight, 1 coat SV, 1 coat HaW, 1 coat SV

Merry Christmas to me!!

Bestie came into town and we are currently at Steak n' Shake exchanging Christmas gifts and this is what I got! How much does she rock? Tons, I tell ya! Tons!

ETA: I had Christmas with DH's side of the family, and got some fab polishes from them too. Abbie got one of the HITS No Olimpio polishes I wanted, so that one will be showing up here soon.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Plaid for You

I was texting Abbie an realized that I haven't written a post about this pattern! I was thinking it was a red and green plaid, but it's really red and black. Wear time has been better with this set than Snow Bunny, but I'm not going to make it 10 days. My nails must be growing really fast. I've got to take them off, because it's driving me nuts!

ETA (12/29/2011):

Removal on this one was so weird. The black came off in rubbery pieces that lodged into the sides of my nails and had to be picked out with a toothpick and orange stick. I had to use pure acetone. Blech. I'm wearing Prep's Cool now and am kinda dreading taking it off.

Zoya Morgan *Now With Sparkles!

So, I love my Zoyas. They're all great, but sometimes I like to switch them up a little. I found this top coat by Finger Paints (Sally's Beauty Supply) and have lived it over all my colors so far, even the already sparkly ones. It's just called Sparkle Top Coat (how original). It's iridescent, And leans mostly to the pink and green side. I've put it over Zoya Sooki and Marina and loved it with both. It looks great with Morgan too! It's difficult to capture to real sparkle & iridescence of it. The best part us that each if the 3 times I've used it I've gotten 4 days of wear with no chips! Yeah!!!! You can get Finger Paints on sale for less than $4 so totally worth it!

Sorry for all the typos. My iPhone typing skills are lacking.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Snow Bunny

I'm going to try to make it through all of December with only my Salon Effects. This is the first set, Snow Bunny. I had a different picture ready to go, but couldn't not use the one with Kitty in the background!
As per usual, the strips are easy to apply. I used some cuticle remove first, because that is usually where I get the first bits of the sticker lifting from the nail. This set seemed more thin than usual, and the end of the supplied cuticle pusher was pretty rounded, so I got some irregular tears near my cuticles.
I wasn't as excited about this pattern as I thought I would be at first, but it's really grown on me and I've gotten some fantastic compliments! Next up will be the green and red tartan plaid.

China Glaze First Mate and Doctor Who geek out

God bless Netflix for showing me the wonders of Doctor Who. I am a straight up nerd when it comes to a few things... Harry Potter (I display the highest level of geek here), Lord of the Rings, Twilight (sort of, but not really)... I knew of Doctor Who and I knew the show had quite a following, but had never seen an episode until I looked for something to occupy my brain a little while I work on my husband's giant (but yet unfinished) knitted blanket.

I promise there is nail polish after the jump!

Essie As Gold As It Gets over OPI DS Mystery

I first saw the Essie Luxeffects swatches over at The PolishAholic and thus began the drooling over As Gold as it Gets and Shine of the Times. Out of the six, those are the only two that caught my eye. I've been on a no-buy for a while now, but happened across a display at Meijer and there were only 2 AGAIG bottles left. Um, see ya no-buy! 

I got so excited about having it, I threw a coat on over my DS Mystery in the parking lot. This polish has an odd consistency to it. It's like a thin gel packed with gold flakies. It went on a little thick to my index and middle fingers, but dry time was great. The above shot is one I posted on Instagram, and I used the Brannan filter. There is so much shine (without a top coat!), it was difficult to capture without the filter. The polish color is still very accurate.

I absolutely love this combo. It wore like iron for 5 days without a chip. I only took it off because I got another polish (for free, so it was still no-buy legal) and was excited to try it out. I am also very anxious to try out Shine of the Times because Bestie picked it up for me in Chicago! My bestie is the best bestie.

Happy Birthday Pam!

I have no photos to post, but it the birthday of a very special nail polish fanatic so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAM!!!!!

Sent from my iPhone

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from me, my broccoli casserole & caramel nut tart, Abbie, and her mashed potatoes & sugar cream pie! Enjoy your food and your families, whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not. :)

BUTTER London Bluey (again!) and plans for December

Ouch! Dammit, even. My nails were growing out nicely, and with the exception of my pointer and middle fingers on both hands, peeling was getting so much better. Then, my silly car door goes and bites off a chunk of nail. It broke off pretty far down, and it looked really silly with one nubbin, so...

Now I have 10 little nubbins. That is a really great representation on Bluey, BTW. I think my first photo of it was rather washed out. It's lovely, go buy it! :)

As for December, I got 3 of the 5 Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail strips, and plan to make it through the month with them. One appeals to the knitter in me, one reminds me of both Christmas and my fab trip to Scotland with Bestie, and the other is black and silver argyle. How can you say no to that??? I accidentally deleted my pic of them, so I'll snap another and add it here at the end. I think it'll be nice to have fewer polish changes. I'll just have to find stuff to blog about...

Holo frankening with SpectraFlair

I happened to come across a post on blogger or Tumblr of a frankened holo polish that was so completely beautiful that it made me jealous. And order a gram of SpectraFlair (SF for the sake of typing, k?) for myself! My first attempt was a total fail. I mixed some Zoya Mira and SF in a bottle of clear Wet N' Wild. 

Learn from my mistakes, dear frankening virgins, glitters and holos need a thicker base. All that beautiful SF sank straight to the bottom. I have since found TKB Trading, where one can order polish bases, pigments, bottles, and anything else a creative do-it-yourself polish freak may want! I have yet to indulge, but will be placing an order soon!

What I ended up using was a 3/4 empty bottle of Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps that had gotten rather thick. It worked much, much better. There is some sinkage after time, but the SF stays suspended nicely while polishing if you shake it up with some bb's in the bottle. I also added my mini OPI Color So Hot it Berns and a bit of my Nails Inc Charing Cross. Yes, dear readers, note the very un-red color below. I have read that it is very difficult (if not impossible) to keep the red with SF. It turns the reddest of reds a bright pink. On to the results!

This is the original mix with a flash. It was very pretty, but I wanted more holo. I added just a little bit at a time, because it is difficult to take away once mixed in. Silly me. Is it possible to have too much holo?

This is with a flash after adding more holo powder. Nice and obvious linear pattern. :)

And this is what it looks like in the sun. I'm very, very happy with this mixture and have enough powder for another 3-4 polishes. Thinking I might mix up a black holo next.

Nails Inc St. Pancras

Okay, this really is the last of my Nails Inc polishes I'll be showing. St Pancras is a very deep burgundy. Very similar to Essie Wicked, but not jelly-ish at all. St Pancras was very thick and opaque. I could've gotten by with 1 coat if I were more careful. Wear was horrible with this color. I had chips in less than a day. I can usually get a day and a half out of a polish before I notice a chip. Thankfully the others had wonderful wear time for me.

Nails Inc Paddington

I showed up half an hour early for Zumba by accident, so I figured I'd throw up a quick blog post.

Paddington is the last of my Nails Inc Autumn set I'll be showing. *Correction: It's absolutely not. The last polish is Charing Cross, which is a great red, but is very similar to Zoya Sooki and OPI Color So Hot It Berns. I have grand plans for it and SpectraFlair. I'll show you how that turns out.

Paddington fell into step with my other Nails Inc polishes as far a formula, brush, and wear. Fabulous.
I've seen others talk of this leaning green on them, but for me it really looked like a deep grey. It leaned a little bit blue, but aside from a clueless 20-something male patient thinking it was black, most people commented on its grey-ness. Regardless, it's a great fall/winter color, and $25 for a 4 color set is a great price, so I say fill your carts. :)

Nails Inc Fenchurch Street

This is the first polish I have to show you from Sephora's Nails Inc Autumn Colour Collection. The collection includes this color, a bright red, a smoky grey, and a nice wine color. They are all named after Underground stations on the Central Line in London. They definitely appealed to the Anglophile in me. :)

After Kensington, I found I had a much easier time with application this time. The full-ish brush holds a lot of color, and I didn't find it so awkward to get the right amount of color this time. Fenchurch Street is described as warm caramel on the Sephora page. It definitely reminds me of Brach's Caramels, which is a great candy to be thinking about in the fall! I've had this color on for 4 days, and were it not for closing my finger in a drawer (ouch!), I could easily get another day or two out of this mani. The drawer chipped the color though, so I'll take it off tomorrow. I think I'll go for Paddington next, which is the smoky grey color.

Nails Inc Wyndham Duo

Nails Inc Wyndham Overcoat over Kensington

Oh my heavens, I love flakies! I saw The Polishaholic tweet that the Nails Inc Limited Edition flakies were available on Sephora and the next thing I know (almost literally) I had a basketful of goodies on its way to my door. :)

Nails Inc Kensington (applied sloppily)

I've never used Nails Inc polishes, but had heard great things about them on others' blogs. The formula of the Kensington blackened teal was wonderful. Super smooth and pigmented. I used just one coat on the manicure you see, but I'll do two next time. The Wyndham overcoat is a clear base with green/blue duochrome flakies. It was rather thick, but that's okay because that meant it dried pretty smooth. I used 1 coat of Seche Vite, but I don't know that it's really necessary. The caps are fat and round, and the stem on the short side. The brushes are firm and very full, and hold a ton of polish. It takes some getting used to.

I've also got to mention the wear. I used Seche Vite Rebuild (hoping to fix my horribly peeling nails) as a base coat and Seche Vite Rapid Dry top coat. This manicure wore for four days before it showed any tipwear. I got my first chip today, five days later. That was only because I grabbed my doorknob wrong in the dark and chipped the nail as well. This is unheard of for me. I have to wash my hands 20-40 times a day and usually start seeing wear within a day or two. I'm taking it off, but because I've got growth and the Nails Inc Autumn collection to dig in to!

I also have to share the excitement of blogging on something other than my iPhone! I got an early birthday gift from DH in the form of the netbook I really, really wanted. He wanted to buy me a new MacBook Pro, but Practical Pam spoke with Apple Lover Pam and I decided to go for the $275 option that works wonderfully over the fabulous $1000 one. I'm very happy with it!

Studio M Nouveau Vintage

Nouveau Vintage is a lovely, shimmery, olive green polish with a pink base. I loved the look in the bottle, but wasn't such a fan of it on my nails. It was rather sheer, needing 3 coats for full coverage. I found this at Meijer, but is the same as Color Club Nouveau Vintage.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Spun for You

I love these things! My friend gifted them to me and they turned out fabulously. Sadly, I broke a nail after wearing them for 3 days. :( I was able to carefully trim all my nails down to the same length and save the mani.

I have gotten so many compliments on these! The kids at work absolutely love them. After 3 days I had only minimal tip wear, but after filing down, tip wear is gone!

I got a Nails Inc haul from Sephora, but am patiently waiting until the strips get worn (10-14 days usually) to swatch them.

Orly Fowl Play

This is from Orly's Birds of a Feather collection. It's the only one I had my eye on, and my lovely friend at Sally's called me when she saw it in their shipment. It came in a set with Lucky Duck (which is very similar to Jade is the New Black) and Peacock Blue (which is similar to Bluey). Those two may find new homes, but this one isn't going anywhere! *ETA: Looking back, Lucky Duck is lighter than JITNB.

Fowl Play has tiny silver/gold shimmer, larger pink/purple glitter, and warm-toned flakies suspended in a very pretty purple jelly base. It's rather sheer, but three coats gives it very nice depth. I tried to choose a picture that showed all of those elements. It does not do this polish justice. It reminds me of a galaxy manicure. You should definitely snatch it up if you see it in the wild!

Zoya Morgan

I think I've found a new favorite! It's been a toss up between Zoya Marina & Sooki for a while, but Morgan is sooooo pretty! No sparkle, no metallics, just good old fashioned cream polish. This is two light coats. Could have done one heavy coat. I've been struggling to find a top coat I like and think I've finally found it. Surprisingly, it's just Sally Hansen Dries Instantly. I really like it & have never had a shrinkage problem. Plus, with coupons, it's way cheap! Anyway, I love Morgan! Next up (as soon as I get a chip) I'll be putting Zoya Kissy on top. It's part of the new Gems & Jewels. Bar glitter is new to me, so we'll see!

OPI Muppets Animal-istic

This is my second (and last) Muppets polish. The photo below is a little bit dark, but I think it shows the glow of this polish very well. It is a pinkish, coral-y red this is full of shiny, glass-fleck particles. It is so bright! This polish reminds me of $OPI Express Yourself to Yourself (from the Glee collection), but with more red.

Application was wonderful. Excellent coverage with 2 thin coats. I had a hard time keeping the polish off of my skin at the sides of my nail. I usually do okay with OPI's ProWide brush, so maybe I landed a wonky one.

I just couldn't pass up this polish as it reminds me of my father in law. One of his many nicknames is Animal. As in Muppets Animal. He has an Animal patch sewn on his badass Harley-Davidson leather vest. He is a pretty badass guy himself. :)

Zoya Zanna

Yeah! I'm back! After a brief break because my nails were going through a terrible peeling stage, I'm finally able to paint them again! Good thing too since I finally got my B1G1F BACKORDERED Zoyas today!

I absolutely love this one! I wasn't too excited about it in the bottle (it looked a little mauve-y), but I let my 3 year old pick which one of my new polishes to try out first and this is the one she chose. I gotta say, she has a good eye! It's a nice (as Pam would say) palette cleanser after some of the crazy colors. It's also a great pink for fall. Muted and subtle. As always, love the Zoya polish! This one only took one coat! Definitely a keeper!

OPI Muppets Collection Warm & Fozzie

I wanted this polish from the time I saw the first bottle shots. I don't have anything like it in my stash.

It has a sheer greenish-brown base, but is packed with tiny glitter particles. I see pale gold, dark gold, green, and red glitter. The first coat is rather sparse, but the second coat makes it pretty opaque. I really like glitters because they are pretty forgiving as far as coverage goes. The shininess detracts from any bald spots. I am very happy with this polish and am getting excellent wear with Zoya Anchor and Poshe topcoat. The finish is very smooth. I'm so glad I was able to get my paws on this one!

Essie Chinchilly

There is an interesting story behind this polish. I got a coupon in the mail for $2 off an Essie polish from Meijer, so I went in to check out their display. They have a good selection at this store, which is not the case for most Essie retailers in my town. So, I decide on Chinchilly and am trying to find a bottle without a gunked-up top. There was one of the OG style bottles (raised E on the cap), and I decided to get it. When I got to the register, it rang up on clearance for $1.99. The cashier told me they marked down all of the original-style bottles! Am I going to head back and dig through the display? Yes!
I'm pretty happy with the polish itself. It was pretty thin, but I got great coverage with 3 thin coats. I used Zoya Anchor for the base coat and Seche Vite for the top coat and got 4 days of wear before my first tiny chip. In most lighting, it looks like a dark grey, but there is some purple in there, so that pulls through almost all the time. If a polish has any purple at all, it'll definitely show on my hands!

Wet N Wild Blackmail

Sorry for the break guys. :( My trusty PowerBook G4 bit it for realz last week and doing non-work computer stuff made me sad. I'm thinking of getting a shiny new netbook. People I know who have gotten one in the last few months have loved them. Every one I have looked at has had a bigger hard drive and more RAM than my old lappy anyway...

So! Polish! Abbie let me know that CVS had a 30% off deal for Wet N Wild a few weeks ago, so I went to browse and this one caught my eye. It's a very shiny, opaque black with tiny blue/grey and orange glitter. Nice! It's fall-y and Halloween-y. A very big hit with my patients.

It was very difficult to get a good, representative shot of it on my nails. When I get my new computer, I'll add a bottle shot. The glitter is much more visible there.

The brush is great. Wide and flat like the OPI ProWide brushes, but not as long. It covered very nicely in 2 coats.

I like this polish a lot, especially considering that fact that it was less than $2. Maybe less than $1.

Zoya Sooki vs. OPI Color So Hot It Berns

I've had Sooki for ages, and remember thinking that it looked like Berns. The last time I wore Sooki, I decided to do a comparison photo before I removed it. The photo below (index to pinky) is Berns, Sooki, Berns, Sooki. I call dupe. :)

The price is very similar unless you catch Sooki in one of Zoya's fabulous promos. I also prefer the formula of Sooki. Berns was a watery 3 coater and Sooki was completely opaque in 1. All in all, if you have one, no need for the other.

Zoya Valerie

Post mummy, I decided to go with an old favorite, Zoya Valerie. I believe I've posted this before, but don't think I had the greatest photo. This one is by no means awesome either, but I think it's more color accurate.
Valerie is a red-based purple with purple shimmer. It's a very warm shade and reminds me of raspberry jam or raspberry cobbler.

And now I'm thinking of dessert, so am going to go raid my stash of pumpkin ice cream. Have a great week, folks!

Mummy Mani

Nailside posted more awesome pics on Tumblr, and the next thing I know, I'm cutting strips of Scotch tape. :) This is Zoya Raven over butter London Victoriana. It turned out pretty well. There were a couple of places where the tape pulled up the polish, but I think it's because I wasn't careful.

butter LONDON Victoriana

Just for you, Gail! :)

Let me start off by saying that Victoriana was not what I was expecting. Pictures I'd seen online looked like the base was lighter, and more blue-green. Not the case irl. At least not for my bottle, but that's okay. I love it anyway!

Victoriana's base color is almost a Wedgewood blue. Similar to Rescue Beauty Lounge's Catherine H from the Tudors collection. There is also a very obvious, in-your-face silver shimmer. I like the shimmer a lot and find it to be the thing that makes this polish different from other blues.

The formula was great. It is thin, but very pigmented so I was able to get great coverage with 2 coats. I switched it up and used Zoya Anchor base coat and am finding much less shrinkage with Seche Vite. Also wrapped my tips this time, so I'm sure that helped as well.

butter LONDON Bluey

This is the first polish I got from the ULTA bogo free sale. It caught my eye as soon as the press releases for the Fall 2011 collection came out. Knees Up looked fab, and Wallis was very pretty... But Bluey? Bluey! Then I saw the British slang dictionary on butterlondon.com and decided I had to have it. Cannot turn down a polish named for porn. :)

butter LONDON describes Bluey as a peacock blue. I would definitely agree. I've seen some bloggers note that there is much more green to the polish in the bottle than on the nail, and I would agree. Still beautiful and I'm glad I was able to snatch it up. Especially since the online store sold out of all the polish in about 2 hours.

Below is 3 very thin coats over Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps and under a coat of Seche Vite. I didn't wrap my tips and got horrible shrinkage. I think it's the SH. No worries though because Victoriana is mocking me every time I see it. She's next. :)

Zoya Reece

I didn't put this on last night because of the OWWWP thing, but hey, it's Wednesday and I'm wearing pink! A fabulous pink if I say so.

Bestie sent a package of goodies a couple of weeks ago, and threw this in as she wasn't crazy over it. Yay for me! Zoya's formula is so wonderful. I had near-opacity at one coat, but 2 gives a great depth and let's the duochrome (pink & gold) really pop.

Just realized that Wendy Torrence would love this polish... Yay for random movie references.

I took a pic of my other hand this time because I took a chunk out of my L ring finger when I was shaving, and it's super obvious. I have gotten ridiculous shrinkage with the Seche Vite and this one. Given the fact that I have 19 Zoyas, I think I'll invest in their color lock system.

China Glaze Loft-y Ambitions

This beauty is included in the Fall 2011 Metro collection from China Glaze and was gifted to me by Bestie. It has a lovely silver shimmer that disappears (sadly) on the nail. Application was a dream. 2 thin coats worked just fine. The color sort of reminds me of a grape Jolly Rancher. Mmmmm... :) Also, as you can see, I decided to matte-ify the tips of my nails with Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love.

Explosion manicure... Sort of.

Got bored and decided to try a scotch tape manicure I saw on Nailside's tumblr. (Tutorial here)

I decided to go for butter London Yummy Mummy after I took off DS Mystery. It was a nice, neutral palate cleanser, but then I decided to try something new. I used Rescue Beauty Lounge Anne for the explosions. Needless to say, I love it. I've gotten several compliments at work.

You should check out Nailside's other tutorials as well. They look easy, but very cool.

OPI DS Mystery Matte-ified

I was talking with Bestie last night about matte polishes and decided to see what Mystery looked like with a coat of Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love. I love it! This is a pretty accurate representation of the color and the shimmer.

OPI DS Mystery

I tried sooo many times to get a good picture of this polish, but it keeps coming out way too dark.
Mystery is a blackened purple with small, irregular gold and red glitter. Beautiful, vampy, glittery. I didn't let dry well between coats and got some drag on my thumbnail. Waiting a minute or two solves that problem. It dries little bit satiny, but a coat of Seche Vite solves that.

Thanks to Bestie for sending it to me. She also sent some other polishes you'll see here soon, and a copy of The Warblers. :) (currently listening to them covering Maroon 5 - it's like Bestie is here!)

Layering! Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pumpkin Spice

I picked this polish up over the weekend at Meijer. I had recently seen it floating around the blogosphere, and knew it was a rather hard to find LE, so in the cart it went. Honestly, I'm a sucker for fall and pumpkin anything, so I'd have gotten it even if I thought it was ugly. Which I don't. :)

It's very sheer. Round orange glitter suspended in a smoky jelly base. I put two coats over China Glaze Brownstone and lookit!! I swear it makes me want to jump into a leaf pile. I love it! The finish is very smooth. I used a coat of Seche Vite for the quick-dry-ness, but didn't need it to smooth things out.
I remember seeing someone layer this over Essie Super Bossa Nova and it was fab. If I can find it again, I will link.

UPDATE: Laura from LaquerWear is the brilliant lady who layered this over a bright fuchsia polish. See it here.

China Glaze Brownstone

This polish is from China Glaze's fall collection - Metro. There were lots of great colors (which you can find swatches of all over...) but this one fills a hole in my polish box.

I love browns and bought Zoya Cola a while ago because I loved the brownish brick red color of it, but the formula was uncharacteristically horrible and didn't look good on my nails. Brownstone, however, is fabulous. Below is 2 thin coats that went on beautifully. I really like China Glaze's brush. I did no clean up at all on this mani, and it looks pretty good.

I want to keep it on longer, but I also picked up Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pumpkin Spice this weekend and am excited to wear it. I just might be all matchy-matchy tomorrow. :)

China Glaze Peace on Earth

I think this color may have been the first mani I actually posted on the blog. It looked way too yellow under our eco-friendly lights, so here's another (and much more accurate) look.

This was part of last year's holiday collection from China Glaze and I was lucky to get it for 50% off of 50% off at Sally's in January. This is 2 coats over Zoya Anchor and under Seche Vite. I've found that the combo of Anchor and Seche Vite works really well for me. I've gotten at least 4 days of wear from every mani I've used it with.

I was talking about nail polish with the PA student who's doing clinical at my office, and told her that I use a great fast dry top coat. She asked what it was called and I told her it was a french name and I'd probably butcher it, but it's called Seche Vite. She started laughing, but said it's because it means "dry fast" in French. How original...

OPI Steady As She Rose

Behold! I lemminged this sucker for months before my pal hooked me up. I saw all the Pirates preview pics and was pretty unimpressed, but decided that this one looked nice. I don't have many pinks and the ones that are in my collection are much brighter.

Stephanie's post on Short n Chic made me really WANT it. I didn't want to pay shipping on one polish though, so I tried my hand at frankening. I came close, but not nearly dirty enough.

Application was wonderful. I used 3 very thin coats over Zoya Anchor and slapped a coat of Seche Vite over it. I wore it for six days before I got a chip, and there was very little tip wear. This is unheard of for me. I usually have a chip within the first 3 days.

I'm very happy with it. The color is lavenderish pink with a dirty look to it. I really hate the candy look that light polishes can give. It's very distracting when I type on a black keyboard at work. I had such an awful time getting an accurate picture of the color. Please ignore my horrid cuticles. I've done a shit job of taking care of my nails lately.

I always strive to take pics as good as Pam's yet never succeed....

Anyway, I'm all about a deal and I'm all about convenience. When I saw this Sally Hansen Insta-Dry in Lively Lilac on sale & I had a coupon, I just couldn't pass it up. I wish I had! Lets start with the positives. I love the color. It really is pretty. There has been very little shrinkage either. The problem us the brush! I painted my living room with a smaller brush! It's really thick and flat which gives the illusion that you've scraped enough off before you put it on your nail. However, as soon as the brush hit my nail it opened the flood gates of purple! It was a big mess and my tough up pen will never be the same. It also was NOT "Insta-dry"! It took several minutes....probably due to how thick you are forced to put it on. That brush is really awful! I'll never buy another one!

Zoya Sooki take 2

I saw Abbie this weekend and she was wearing Sooki. It looked fabulous, and I want to be just like her when I grow up, so look what I did. :)

I also chopped my nails down, and nothing looks better on short nails than red in my opinion. Love this formula! Above is Zoya Anchor base coat, 1 coat of Sooki (yes, 1!!), and 1 coat of Seche Vite. Put it on 10 hours ago and no shrinkage yet. I absolutely love this color. Let's see how it holds up through Zumba...

Hot Topic Pearly Red

This polish was quite the bargain. Originally $2.99, marked down to $0.99, and half off of that. Can't beat it!

I've got several Hot Topic polishes, and I love them. The bottle is tall and narrow, with a very short, round cap and a soft brush at the end of a long stem.

This one had great coverage with 2 coats. It glows nicely and leaves no brush strokes even though the finish is pearly. Sadly, it did chip fairly easily, but I caught my pinkie in a drawer at work. I think I need to be more careful.

Sally Hansen Color Quick Chrome Red

Hmm... Here we have another 75% off Sally Hansen that is cool, but I'm glad I didn't pay full price for.
It is in a click top pen, so you push one end until the brush has color, then paint away.

I'll start with the pros... It is very quick & easy. 1 coat had excellent coverage. Though I wouldn't call it red, it's a great color. The brush is very full and spreads easily over the nail. It dries super fast, so no top coat is necessary (and makes it look bad, in fact).

Cons: holy brushstrokes, batman! These fade significantly when the polish dries. The brush gets rather gunky. It left thin streaks of no polish (see my pinky).

All in all, worth the $2 I paid, but definitely not the $10 regular price. I looked on several blogs and most people seem to love these for stamping. I might hang on to it for that, if I decide to try my hand at more extensive nail art.

My First Zoya

Just to start off, i love promos! Zoya's buy 1 get 2 free was right up my alley! I was excited when they came in the mail and immediately put one on. This is Amanda. Very neutral, but I love it. I put on 2 coats, but one was pretty too. Maybe not as bold as Neeka (I'm jealous of Pam on that one), but great for more subdued occasions.