Maybelline Color Show Navy Narcissist

I picked this one up at a CVS 75% off clearance. I just can't pass up a polish for less than $1. I love the color. It's metallic, not brush-strokey, and my favorite shade of blue. Sadly, the formula is shit. Completely awful. I thought it may be a one-coater, but the balding was so bad I had to use three coats. Wear time wasn't that great either.

This is the only Maybelline Color Show polish I've tried. Anybody have better luck with them?

butter LONDON Sunbaker and Champers

Today I have for you two polishes from butter LONDON's Summer collection. Both are bright, shiny foil finishes that caught my eye right away. 

Sunbaker (index through ring fingers) is a metallic tangerine color that applied like a dream. I love that the inspiration behind the color is those people who spend too much time in the sun (usually fake baking) and turn orange!

Champers (pinky accent nail) is a fantastic rose gold color that takes its name from the British slang for champagne. I'm now realizing that this photo doesn't show the rose vey well. I'll have to reswatch and get a better shot. Two coats to opacity with this one as well.

Love these colors! I think they're the perfect tribute to summertime. Did you grab any from this collection?

LOFT Methyl Blue and Fuchsia

Happy Sunday! Today I have two of the five polishes my Secret Santa from work gave me. I lucked out. She picked really well! I had no idea LOFT sold polishes. They're not branded at all, so I don't know if they are made another brand and bottled for them. 

Both applied like butter, had excellent wear time (4+ days!), and were super pretty and vibrant. 

Methyl Blue is a perfect cobalt blue foil/metallic shade. The brush on this one was really nice and I only had minimal clean up.

Fuchsia is the, well... fuchsia sister of Methyl Blue. Bright, pink, foil-y goodness. I put this on quickly before heading to the office one morning (hence unevenness near the cuticle) and it wore beautifully. I believe this photo was taken on day three. Fuchsia got a lot of attention from my female patients. Definitely a winner!

I have three others to show you - Teal, Eggplant, and Nightwatch.

Stamping with Vivid Lacquer, Zoya, and Essie!

I've been spending money like I have it lately, and I've come home to a mailbox with bubble envelopes and a box by my door almost every day for the last week! I got my Vivid Lacquer nail plates (VL001 & VL002) earlier in the week, but haven't gotten my stamper and scraper yet. I patiently waited, but couldn't take it any more, so I went to Sally's and picked up the Salon Express As Seen on TV kit-thingy so that I could use the tools with it. :) 

Two coats of Zoya Evvie

A couple of days ago, I got my BOGO polishes from the Zoya promo and had picked up Penny Talk and No Place Like Chrome from the Essie Mirror Metallics collection for stamping. I decided on a base of Zoya Evvie from the Fall 2012 Designer collection (beautiful dusty, murky grey-green that's opaque and perfect in two coats) and topped it with a honey comb pattern and Essie Penny Talk.

Obviously there are some wonky spots and some not-completely-covered spaces, but I don't think it's too bad for a first try. This pattern is on Vivid Lacquer's VL002 plate. There are so many cute designs on her stamping plates. She sells them in her Etsy store here. Anni also sells some awesome polishes. I've got two of those coming up for review soon.

I hope to have some better stamping nail art for you soon!

SpaRitual Sun Salutation

We stopped by Sephora during our trip to Orlando, and I decided that I wanted to get a polish from a brand I haven't tried before. This color caught my eye, and I chose it in part because it was only $10 and I had already went a little crazy with polish buying via the internet during my conference.

I am interrupting quickly to say that I really, really, really don't like the nail bar at Sephora. It's a little dark in the store anyway, and the bright lights under the polish itself makes it very difficult to see what you're getting. I didn't think to get a picture of it, but there are pics floating around the internet. Cool aesthetic, but not very practical. 

Below are three very thin coats of SpaRitual Sun Salutation over American Classics Bridge the Gap Ridge Filling Base Coat. The rose-gold foil color caught my eye, and the name sealed the deal for me. Sun Salutation is one of my favorite yoga poses. (See an example here) It's actually a series of moves that stretches your back and feels really wonderful. 

Because the foil finish will highlight any imperfections on the nail, a ridge filling base coat is key. Unless you have perfect nail beds. :) The formula was thin and really, really nice. SpaRitual's brush is rather short, but wide and very flexible. The cap is rubber coated and substantial. Between the cap and the brush, I feel you have very good control with application of this polish.

All in all, I'm very happy with this one, and plan to pick up more SpaRitual polishes in the future.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips Twinkle Bell

This is my conference mani. Not crazy, but not boring either. Twinkle Bell is a LE strip and is part of the SH Spring 2012 collection. I love the metallic pearly finish with a good amount of small and medium silver hex glitter.

These strips wear like iron for me with no base or top coat. I usually get bored and take them off before they wear too badly. This set me back about $9, and I’ve heard folks complain about the cost. My thoughts? They wear longer than a salon manicure, and $9 is much less to pay for some awesome nail art (admittedly not with this particular choice) than having someone at a salon. And some of us really suck at nail art. :)

I ended up getting a full 7 days of wear without a chip. Since Tropical Storm Debby conflicted with any sun or after conference fun, there really wasn't anything I did to warrant wear. :( I got totally bored with this mani, so I stopped in Walgreens one morning on my way to conference sessions and bought Essie Bikini So Teeny, so expect a post on that one soon!

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. :)

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...

Wet N Wild Morbid and a broken nail :(

My second Wet N Wild polish... Morbid. Looks black until the light hits it, then you see the green-teal shimmer. It's pretty awesome. Fabulous formula that gets great coverage in 2 coats. I wore it for three days without a chip...

Yes, that's a New Moon band-aid. Don't hate.

Until My thumbnail broke off. :(

Wet N Wild Shield & Orly Nailtrition

I bought a tiny bottle of Nailtrition at Sally's, and I'm really glad I did... because getting a big bottle would've been a waste. It didn't help with my nails peeling at all. In fact, I now have 2 more nails peeling after using it. I just left it on 1 week.

So, on my nails... This one is Wet N' Wild Shield. I picked up it and Morbid at CVS. They are $1.99 and were BOGO 1/2 off. The formula was very nice. I used 2 thin coats and had only a couple of bald spots. As with my other glitters, they hide the thin spots. Shield is a warm gold glitter with larger red sparkles in it. It looks much "dirtier" in the bottle. Bonder, 2 coats Shield, and Seche Vite. Nice wear. I had it on for 3 days. I feel like I have to catch up since I had a week of no color. ;)

Also, sorry for the iphone photo. I just got one and I was testing the quality.

China Glaze Peace on Earth

What a deal on this polish! It is part of the China Glaze Holiday 2010 collection, and I walked in to Sally's a couple of weeks ago to find it on clearance for $3.99. On top of that, it was another 50% off since I'm a beauty club member. I'll take $1.99 for a polish that came out a few months ago.

I never took myself for a green girl, but I'm loving this one! Shimmery, not streaky, and super pigmented. This is Orly Bonder, 2 coats of PoE, and Poshe topcoat. The pic is way yellow due to my lighting.