OPI Houston We Have a Purple

I had reason to celebrate this week (paying off 80% of your student loans with tax-free $$ is quite the celebration), and did so by buying a new polish that I've been eyeballing at Meijer for a long time. Seriously. I celebrated getting rid of $60k in debt by buying an $8.49 nail polish. Look out! :)

This is 3 coats of HWHaP and a coat of Poshe. It's one of the sorbet finishes from the Texas collection. Sorbet and jelly finishes are very, very similar. I think the sorbets are a little less opaque than jellies. I tried a 4th coat on my thumbs to see if I could get rid of the VNL, but that turned out goopy. It's a very smooth color that reminds me of a grape Edy's Real Fruit bar. I highly recommend both the polish and the Popsicles. :)

Essie Sew Psyched

I wanted this polish for ages, so I was so psyched (ugh, that was bad!) to hear that it was going to be part of the Essie retail collection. There are 5 stores on my town who carry Essie, and only 1 has this color.

I won't go on too much about application, the brush, etc. because I've already done that once on the blog, but the picture was quite horrible. This one is much better, save for the chip to my index finger. Just ignore that, k?

China Glaze For Audrey

I have wanted this polish for ages, but have been trying to restrain myself a little bit. :) But, give me a buy 2 get something free at Sally's, and it's in my hands!

For Audrey was originally a limited edition, but China Glaze has since made it part of their regular collection. It's supposed to be Tiffany & Co. blue in tribute to Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast at Tiffany's... Get it?) and is spot on. This pics is from when I swatched, and I had to use a flash as it was night. It's not as blue IRL. I did my toes with it and have had several people comment that it looks like Tiffany blue. Mission accomplished, CG!

The formula is great. Almost opaque in one coat. 2 thin coats give perfect coverage. I love the China Glaze brush as well. Long and thin, but very flexible.

It's Wednesday and I Happen To Be Wearing Pink

I know the "On Wednesday We Wear Pink" group is growing by leaps & bounds. I don't have near enough pink to participate fully, but, I happen to have Zoya Areej on again. :)

I've blogged it before, but to save an extra click, I'll say it is a dusty purple-pink that has great coverage in 1 coat, but I did two here. This picture leans too pink, but it is impossible to get a color accurate pic on this phone. I love the color! A very pretty summer color that isn't obscenely bright.

My final HP House Colors Mani!

I decided to try scotch tape, and I LOVE it! This is what was on my nails for the movie. The colors are as follows:
Index: Zoya Ibiza over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Wet Cement
Middle (hee hee!): SH Wet Cement over Butter London British Racing Green
Ring: Sinful Colors Let's Meet over Rimmel Burgundy Flirt
Pinky: Zoya Raven over Sinful Colors Let's Meet
Thumb: Zoya Raven
All of these were already in my stash, so that was a bonus. And now I think I'll go mourn a little more.

Harry Potter House Colors mani #2

I went to Sally and got a striping brush in hopes that the stripes would be better. They were, but I still wasn't happy. So, for try #3, I thought I'd try something different.

Harry Potter Mani & first ever nail art

*note - I'm pretty sure my computer is dying... It's not playing nice with Blogger, so I have to do the mobile posting thing for now. I'm not a huge fan of the format, but it's better than nothing!
It may be hard to believe, but this is my first attempt at nail art (tongue firmly in cheek there!). I'm a HUGE Harry Potter dork, and wanted to do a HP mani for the last movie. I won't post spoilers, but I will say that my hand knit house scarf is crusty from tears and snot. People have been saying their childhood is over now, and at 31, I have to agree. :)

It's a little hard to tell, but my first finger is blue & grey for movie Ravenclaw, my middle finger is green & grey for Slytherin (because they def deserve my middle finger...), ring finger maroon & gold for Gryffindor, and pinky gold & black for Hufflepuff. I tried making the stripes with a toothpick and wasn't happy with the inconsistency. Complete user error. And my left and right hands didn't match at all. So then we have take 2...

Zoya Charisma

It's summer. It's hot. I wanted a hot color on my nails. This is a great shade of pink. It's a purple-y, reddish, super bright neon color. Which totally didn't photograph well. Wearing this reminds me of my high school days working at OfficeMax... We had a whole aisle of colored paper, and a huge portion was neon. This is the exact shade of the neon fuschia we had there. So pretty...

Application was odd, but from what I've read, typical of a neon. The first coat was pretty blotchy. The second coat evened it out very nicely. It dried quickly, but completely matte. I'm talking zero shine. A coat of Poshe fixed that problem right up. If you enlarge the pic, you can see that I got a little hurried and got some bald spots near the cuticle. :( Very bothersome. You'd think I would learn to go slower. The above pic is the second day of the mani, and you can see that I've already got tip wear.  That is really odd for Zoya polishes and I, as they usually last for days. I think Zoya is my fav. I've yet to meet one of their formulas I didn't like, and I absolutely love their brush!

That tip wear is driving me crazy, and I chipped my polish on a bed today at the office. I think I'll put on another color tonight, just not sure which...

Zoya Charla and OPI Black Shatter

I indulged in the buy one, get Charla and Ivanka free Zoya offer. I accidentally deleted my pic of Charla before it started chipping (4 days, BTW! Not bad...). I did remember to snap a pic 3 days after I slapped on a coat of OPI Black Shatter. I've seen the first round of China Glaze crackles, and I wasn't impressed. They seem rather... thick? I also tried the Sally Hansen silver crackle, and wasn't a fan either. I think I'll stick with OPI. 

This picture absolutely does not do Charla justice. The one that was accidentally deleted didn't either. I need to make a mini light box. Application was a dream. The base of this one was a bright, teal blue. 2 coats were perfect. I have Ivanka on my toes, and I feel I should have little munchkins singing about the yellow brick road and dancing around my toes. Seriously. In light of my pic fail, please see Scrangie's and ALU's posts about the Sparkle collection, which includes both Charla and Ivanka.