Manicure Monday: January Flowers

It’s the first Manicure Monday of 2015! However, I don’t think I’m totally pleased with this mani. It was cuter in my head. I’m wearing three coats of LA Colors’s Daisy, two dabbed coats of Claire’s Hippie Chick on my accent nails, and one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

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Daisy is a cheerful yellow creme polish. The first coat was streaky and worrisome, but the color evened out after three coats. The consistency was a bit thick, because apparently my bottle doesn’t close tightly; it just spins around and opens again if you turn it too far. I had to thin it out to make it usable. It dries quickly, I’ll give it that, and takes on a nice satin finish. It’s not bad to use, but it’s not great.

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The same is true for Hippie Chick. Hippie Chick is a clear-based glitter topper with lavender and purple flowers and fine iridescent glitters. It looks way cute in the bottle, but there are very few large glitters in it. I spent most of my manicure time fishing them out of the bottle without gettingĀ tons of lacquer on the brush. I think it dried pretty quickly, so there’s that.

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Forgive my gross dry hands. Winter SUCKS.

 

I put these two together because I love complementary colors; I thought the purple and yellow would make a much bolder statement than they do. It didn’t occur to me until just now that the polish names work together. That’s fun.

As I said, I don’t feel too jazzed about this manicure. I definitely should have gone with another glitter. It just needs more.

Swatch Sunday: Deborah Lippmann’s Happy Birthday

It’s time for another Swatch Saturday. For this edition, I’m wearing one dabbed coat of Deborah Lippmann’s Happy Birthday over two coats each of Disney Villains Cruella de Vil, Color Club’s Almost Famous, and Ciate’s Offshore, along with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

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Happy Birthday is a clear-based glitter topper with a rainbow mix of metallic glitters. The glitters didn’t spread well just brushing them on, but dabbing gave me much more coverage. There’s a ton of glitter on each nail, but you can still see the undies. The glitters are very shiny, and very much so with top coat. Drying times were very fast. I’m pretty happy with it.

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I am still a huge fan of these rainbow glitter polishes. Remember when OPI had that Muppets collection with Rainbow Connection? Would you believe I don’t have it? Would you believe that I had gone to Ulta, picked it up, held it in my hands, and then PUT IT BACK because I “didn’t need it”? That was the biggest mistake of my life. Somewhat luckily, the rainbow glitter fad caught on, and every brand had their own version of it. Deborah Lippmann’s take on it is pretty nice. It’s a good consolation prize.

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I got my mini bottle of Happy Birthday in a set with She-Bop. I don’t think this set is around anymore, but you can buy full sized bottles at Sephora, Ulta, and (I think) Nordstrom. The good news is, as I mentioned, every brand has their version of this polish now, so you don’t have to drop twenty dollars on this particular one.

Also, quick apology for my cuticles. Every undies polish I used for this mani stained the crap out of my cuticles, and I didn’t notice just how bad it was until I was processing photos. I do apologize. I’m quite embarrassed by them.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype PCFS 1.0

Happy new year, readers! My first mani of the year is a Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer prototype. I’m wearing one coat of PCFS 1.0 over China Glaze’s Pelican Gray, Julep’s Martha, and Essie’s Mint Candy Apple, as well as a coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

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PCFS 1.0 is a clear glitter topper with glitters in matte white, royal blue, pink, and holographic turquoise. Shapes include pink hearts, holographic turquoise stars and shreds, white rectangles and dots. There are also some iridescent glitters. Most of the glitters spread out evenly; rectangles and shreds came out easily, but the hearts and stars eluded me. Regardless, I still got a fun look and good glitter coverage. Drying times were fast. Application was easy. This was a pretty nice polish to use and wear.

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Because this is a prototype with a prototypey name, I gave it a nickname: RETROLOVE. I don’t know why it’s all caps, but it is. These colors together just scream Miami Vice to me.

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As this is a prototype, it’s a one-of-a-kind polish and there aren’t anymore in existence. Sorry! The BEGL shop will reopen on the ninth of January, with a new winter collection launching on the 12th.