Manicure Monday: Plum and Glitter Surprise

It feels like forever since I’ve done a real Manicure Monday post. For this week, I’m wearing The Golden Age from Sephora by OPI over Essie’s Devil’s Advocate, topped with one coat of Seche Vite.

IMG_69862

IMG_69992

I really like Devil’s Advocate. Like really. I adore these dark, dramatic, vampy colors because you can never quite tell what color they really are. You can’t tell this is a deep plum unless you look at the very edges of it. If I didn’t know better, I’d assume it’s black. Devil’s Advocate goes on a little thin on the first coat, but evens out to full opacity on the second, and dries with a beautiful shine. It’s really easy to apply.

IMG_70042

IMG_70122

Unrelated: I put Devil’s Advocate on my toes when I wore Vesper earlier in the month. They’re very similar in color and I really didn’t want to experience the joys of taking Liquid Sand off my toenails.

IMG_70152

IMG_70242

The real star of this manicure is The Golden Age. It’s a clear glitter topper with various sizes of metallic gold and silver hex glitters. The distinction between the colors is pretty difficult to see in some lighting conditions; in my office it’s impossible to tell, but in the studio and in the sun, it’s clearly visible. It’s also very easy to apply; the consistency is thick so as to accommodate all that glitter. Also, I think this polish has my perfect glitter-to-lacquer ratio: one brushed coat is all I needed for full, even glitter coverage. It’s so easy to work with. I love it.

IMG_70302

Sunlight! The sun came out long enough for me to take these photos. The clouds came back when I went inside.

IMG_70402

So, there you have it: a glitter topper with secret differently-colored glitters over a black that’s really purple. I love surprises.

Manicure Monday: Gold and Glitter Magic

 

Manicure Monday this week was amazingly fun. I’ve got two polishes that, at first, don’t look like they would pair together well at all. Somehow, though, it works. I’ve got on three coats of Disney Villain Varnish Queen of Hearts, with Digital Nails’s When Life Gives You Lemons as an accent. Photos were taken in the studio and outdoors.

IMG_41502

IMG_41652

When I think of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, I don’t think of gold. Just saying. Regardless of what villain this polish was meant to evoke, it’s a beautiful rich, warm gold with tiny microglitters. It takes three coats of achieve full opacity, but the application is smooth and easy. I kind of feel bad that I don’t use it very often. This is the first time I’ve used it as the main color in a manicure, and I didn’t realize what a beauty it is. It’s totally gorgeous.

IMG_41702

IMG_41842

IMG_41882

When Life Gives You Lemons is a Digital Nails glitter. I feel like that’s all I need to say. It’s a clear base with an impressive show of purple and gold glitters, yellow holo dots and stars, tiny bar glitter (which I actually didn’t notice until I was reviewing my photos), shreds, iridescents…. The sheer amount of glitter in this bottle should be overwhelming, but isn’t. It spreads smoothly and evenly, even the large shapes. It’s also incredible in the sunlight.

IMG_42042

IMG_42152

IMG_42172

While I’m not sure where you can still find the Villains Varnish collection, Digital Nails still has a few bottles of When Life Gives You Lemons in their etsy store. (It feels really good to review something that’s still available, for once.) The price is a bit higher than usual, but it was created as a charity item, with the profits from each bottle going to Alex’s Lemonade Stand, and will fund cancer research. To date, this and its sister polish, I’m a Survivor, are the most expensive polishes I’ve ever bought, but I know I bought more than nail polish; I bought a little bit of hope.

Manicure Tuesday: Harvest Glitter on Brown

I’m back! I had an unexpected hiatus last week; I underestimated my workload and didn’t have time to take photos of my nails. I did do a puzzle piece manicure that was in theme with my job, but I didn’t have the time to take proper photos of it. My thrice-a-week blogging schedule will resume this week. Due to exhaustion, this week’s manicure post is a little late. For Mani Tuesday, I’m wearing Pretty & Polished’s Hows About a Roll in the Hay over Julep’s Vera.

100_47262

100_47302

Vera isn’t such a bad polish, really. I have on three coats here, but I could have gotten away with two. The formula is typical of Julep polish: thin but easy to use, quick-drying and shiny. I just can’t get past it being the same color as chocolate milk. I actually forgot chocolate milk was a thing until I had to work early one morning, my friend had some in the fridge, and I had flashbacks about grade school cafeteria lunches the whole rest of the day. Now I can’t get past this polish being Yoo-Hoo brown.

100_47392

100_47462

100_47482

100_47542

I had really high hopes for Hows About a Roll in the Hay from Pretty & Polished. I ordered it as soon as I laid eyes on it and couldn’t wait to get it. I own many of the P&P thermal polishes and a few of their glitters; I’ve been very happy with them. In this one, the glitter sinks, leaving a quarter-inch layer of lacquer all around the top of the bottle. My first application attempt left me with a thick layer of polish with maybe two pieces of glitter. I had to leave the bottle turned upside-down for 15 minutes before I got a good glitter distribution. This is probably not a problem; there’s actually a ton of glitter in this bottle, and it’s probably perfectly reasonable for it to settle and sink a bit. I’ve never had this happen with any of my P&Ps, so that’s why I feel a bit annoyed by it.

100_47622

100_47632

Despite the trivial issues I have with the polishes, I’m happy with the look I got. I like the autumnal warmth of the color combination. It also reminds me of breakfast foods. And grandma couches.

Wacie Wednesday: Gold Rush

Today I’m bringing you an interesting new blend from Wacie Nail Company. It’s called Gold Rush, and it’s part of Wacie Nail Company’s first spring collection, which will launch in April. I’m wearing three coats of it here with two coats of Seche Vite. Some of the photos were taken in low light and may be blurry, but this is intentional. Gold Rush shines best in low lighting, but looks phenomenal in any lighting condition. Note how it varies from photo to photo; I don’t think it’s the same in any two.

100_41652

100_41722

100_41782

100_41792

Okay, so Gold Rush is a white polish with boatloads of gold shimmer. In fact, the white part is only apparent in the bottle; on the nail, all you see is the bright yellow shine. In sunlight, it’s a very pale but absolutely blinding shimmer; in lower light conditions, it’s a dark yellow or gold. I don’t really know what to say about this polish, other than wow. It looks amazing in any light at any angle. One thing I feel like I should mention, though, is that it doesn’t seem to come off easily; cleaning up around my cuticles took a lot of time and effort, way more than any other polish. You can even still see some of the gold shimmer stuck on my skin. I tried like hell to get it all off, and I still missed some. This almost makes me want to rethink putting it in the collection at all, but it’s such an amazing color that the extra work is worth it.

100_41862

100_41932

100_41972

100_42012

As I mentioned, Wacie’s Spring Collection is launching next month, so you’ll be able to grab it then. I don’t feel like I did this polish much justice, and that it’s something you have to see in person to believe. It’s the most unique thing I’ve made so far.

Manicure Monday: Gold and Nude Half-Moons

So I’m back from my work trip, and it’s time for another manicure.

100_2203

My long, beautiful nails made it through the conference, but broke one after the other when I got home. My index fingernail tore off while I was washing my hair Saturday morning. I broke a thumbnail turning the crank to shut a window. I broke the other thumbnail cleaning for a surprise houseguest. I gave up and preventively cut all the rest. I miss them. I miss how they made my fingers look long and slender. However, my hands are much more functional now.

Julep's Kennedy, LA Colors' Cactus, Revlon's matte top coat

Julep’s Kennedy, LA Colors’ Cactus, Revlon’s matte top coat

I’m not sure if I wrote about this yet, and I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, but I’ve bought almost a hundred bottles of polish in the last month or two. The nude (maybe it’s a khaki) was one of the newest ones; I was totally out of control and bought the whole Julep set because I couldn’t choose just one Maven box. It reminds me of unblended foundation. The burnished gold came from my initial dollar store haul when I was first living on my own.

For whatever reason, I have some major tip wear, and I only did them yesterday. I blame the matte top coat.

Manicure Monday: Blue and Gold Gradient

Yep, another gradient.

100_2158

I love the way this turned out, but I do wonder if it’s time to graduate to three colors, since my nails are so long now. With only two colors, it just looks a little lacking. Shiny as hell, though.

Sinful Colors' Love Nails, Julep's Zelda

Sinful Colors’ Love Nails, Julep’s Zelda

I ran out of Out the Door last week, and went back to Seche Vite. Now that I’ve gone back to it, I might have liked Out the Door better. I spend way too much time thinking about and writing about topcoats.

This was unintentional, but it’s E3 Week, and the gold shade is called Zelda. I swear I didn’t plan that.

Manicure Monday: Teal and Gold Glitter Gradient

I love glitter. I love everything about glitter. I feel that no manicure is complete without it. I love flicking my fingers and watching the light bounce from each shining speck. I love finding loose glitter days after I used it, thinking of it not as the herpes of the craft aisle, but as a reminder that there’s no such thing as too much glitter.

Teal and Gold Glitter Gradient

I am in love with this. I can’t stop staring. Between the glitter and the three coats of top coat it took to smooth it down, they’re really shiny, and it threw light everywhere. Of course, no photo I took could capture both the shine and the detail of the glitter, but this was the one that managed to do some of both.

Roundup

Sorry the photo is off-center, I’m a little ashamed to post it, but I’m having a really hard time with my point-and-shoot camera. It eats batteries like I eat candy and I have maybe thirty seconds to a minute to take a photo before it shuts off and I have to turn it back on and start over. I would use my SLR, but it’s really difficult to take photos at close range, or maybe it’s just better than I am and I don’t know what I’m doing. I could use my phone camera, but it’s harder to take stable pictures with. This way, everything is consistent.

Anyway, those are the polishes I worked with this week. The main color is Rise and Shine from Sinful Colors. I believe it’s the first time I’ve ever used it. You can’t tell from the photos, but it’s got a really subtle blue-green shimmer, and dries with a matte finish. The glitter is Orly’s Too Fab, which I found in a Sally Beauty Supply bargain bin last month or so. The bottle was full when I started.

My last attempts at glitter gradients were pretty lousy until now, and I am so surprised this one came out so well.