Color Club Otherworldly

There aren't many swatches of Color Club's new Starry Temptress collection so I'm skipping over some other posts I was working on to show you this one. Mr. Kitty ordered me polish for V-day (he's such an enabler!) and I chose a few from Color Club's new collections because I was curious.

Color Club Otherworldly, daylight lamp


Otherworldly is a neon blue jelly with silver holographic glitter mixed in. The holo does not really show up well, indoors it looks almost like white glitter in a jelly base. This is 2 coats without a base coat. I did apply a top coat because it is matte (as most neon polishes are) when dry and has a bumpy texture.



Here's a closer bottle pic. If you click for the bigger picture you can see how subtle the holo is. Strong sunlight might draw out the holo more, but I think it's better to just consider it a silver glitter.



I rather like Otherworldly. I definitely don't have another polish like it. In retrospect, I wish I had ordered the Starry Temptress Top Coat. I want to know how it changes the overall look of these polishes. I do have 2 more from this collection to post, Space Case and Wink, Wink, Twinkle. I'll be posting those later today.

Sinful Colors Hilo Hawaii

Okay, I'm done wallowing now. I'm still sad (refer to my last post for why) but I'm not weepy every time I think of Tom-cat now. I want to thank you for your kind words, they really helped me out when I was down. Y'all are the best! So let's look at some polish! Today's is an old one and I've never seen again since the day I bought it on eBay. But don't worry, you're not missing much. This is one that I bought for the name alone. I love polishes with Hawaii-related names!

Sinful Colors Hilo Hawaii, lamplight


Top of the bottle pic 'cause I'm tickled that it's named for a town on the island I live on. Usually the Oahu towns/beaches get that privilege. Hilo is pronounced HEE-low. *does a little dance*



This was three coats and its still streaky and uneven. I was swatching so I didn't use a base or top coat but I remember from the first time I tried it that even with a base it was streaky. The polish was also thick and goopy, possibly due to the age of it. I thinned it a bit but...*shrug*. Like I said, I keep it for the name only. I do like this shade of blue but I'd be happier if it was more of a shimmer or a cream and less frost-ish.



Next time: a gorgeous Zoya and after that something new!

Misa Blueberry Glaze

I've had a rough time since my last post but I'll talk more about that after the polish. This polish is an old one from Misa that unfortunately is discontinued but still pops up on eBay and blog sales.
Misa Blueberry Glaze


I had a ding that was bugging me on my index finger so I covered it up. Sorry about that!



I didn't use a base coat or top coat since I was swatching that day. Polish consistency was very thin as older polish can be but the color built up nicely. This was three coats of color.

I had more to say but my thoughts have deserted me. I've been distracting myself by creating fantasy carts at various polish etailer and keeping tabs on the nail care board at MakeupAlley but simmering under it all is depression.

Last month I told you my Tommy-cat was very sick and then we tried a new medication that seemed to be working. Sadly it was only a brief respite because last week he health went downhill again and on Friday I had to make the difficult decision to have him euthanized. His kidneys were failing and anything more I tried would only prolong his life as he slowly starved to death. I still feel overwhelmed and guilty. I miss my baby.


Thomas 2001-2011

Born Pretty Cracking Polish

I finally feel ready to get back into the swing of things so I have several posts lined up for you! With all the talk of OPI's new Black Shatter I thought I'd show you another option that's been around for a little while now.

I was contacted by Jessica from Born Pretty about reviewing some nail art products. I chose the cracking polish because I've never tried one.

Born Pretty Cracking Polish in Blue
over Sally Hansen Celeb City


Another picture so you can see both sides of the bottle.



Directions for use on the website are a little unclear. Of course I didn't think to check for directions the first time and applied the cracking polish to my already dry & top-coated manicure. Watching the cracks form was so cool. And then they dried up and flaked off. Oh noes! I figured maybe I should read the directions. =)

According to the Born Pretty website you should wait about 5 minutes after applying your base color and then apply the cracking polish. The length of time is really going to depend on how fast your base color dried, the temperature, etc. So you want to apply while your polish is slightly dry but not completely. This will help it to adhere better. Don't forget to apply top coat when it's done cracking! (I used Poshe.) The thinness or thickness of your coats will determine the size and quantity of your cracks. I used one thin coat for this picture. Overall I was happy with the effect. I like that the blue is not opaque; this allowed the shine of Celeb City to to show through.

Right now Born Pretty is offering the coupon code OPENTENOFF that will give you a 10% discount when ordering. This code is good through Jan 31st.

*The product featured in this post was provided for review.

Wet n Wild Blue Moon

About a year ago, the last drugstore to sell Wet n Wild nail polish in my area stopped carrying it. I was devastated. (Okay that may be an exaggeration, but I was certainly sad.) Wet n Wild will always hold a special place in my polish heart because it is the first nail polish brand I ever bought. I still have that bottle, actually. Anyway, for a brand that provides 99-cent nail polish, they still produce some excellent polish. I thought I would never have access again (outside of the internet). Imagine my joy when a new location of that drugstore opened and they were carrying Wet n Wild again! I almost had raptures. Ask my husband, he was there (and probably laughing at me).

Wet n Wild Blue Moon, sun


I adore this blue. If you click the picture to see the larger image, you can see the green shimmers. Did you ever have that Midnight Blue crayon in your box of Crayolas? That was my favorite crayon and this reminds me of it. Two coats of color with base and top coat. My only complaint was it had a lopsided brush. I forgot to check the bottle in the store.

Wet n Wild Blue Moon, shade


Beautiful in the shade too. I want to experiment with layering, marbling, stamping...I am smitten. My sincerest apologies for the dent. There was an *ahem* accident with my camera strap. Happy Holidays!

Quirius Deep Denim

I was supposed to get this post up yesterday but ended up stuck downtown with a flat tire. Talk about ruining your day! I did get some pretty glitter polishes from Hot Topic out of the whole ordeal though. Anyhow! On to the polish!

Quirius Deep Denim, morning sun


I love the richness of this color.



Only two coats. Two ridiculously easy coats. If I'd been more careful, I wonder if I could have gotten away with one.



I used my usual base/top coat combo of Nailtek/Poshe. Application was dreamy. These are the kinds of polish that make me want to order more from a company. (I still want to put in another Quirius order but got derailed by China Glaze's holiday collection!)

OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

I bought OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous because it looked so pretty in the bottle.



And in the sun it does sparkle. Very sheer though, this is three coats and you can see through it under strong light. I'm not loving it on me.



In the shade I loved it even less. The sparkle dimmed to a muted shine and under the fluorescent lights at work it looked downright dull. Bah. Hmm, my nails are approaching "talon".



So I chopped them off! Surprisingly, this made me like Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous more. But not enough to say I love it. Dry time and application were fine, I'm just not feeling it. Maybe its too similar to something I already have...anyhow, I felt a need to layer...



...and ended up with this! (Which I promptly smudged.) That's one patchy coat of Claire's Fresh Water (another extremely sheer polish). Fresh Water is very glowy, but the camera wouldn't capture that. The picture shows patchiness yet in real life its not so noticeable. Sort of vibrantly distressed and foil-ish. It lasted all of a day before I felt the need to change it. Which you'll see next time!

OPI DS Fantasy

Once in a while I curse myself for missed opportunities and have to resort to eBay. I've been putting if off, but I finally caved and bought OPI DS Fantasy a few weeks ago and I'm glad I did. I have some other manis from the past couple weeks, but I really wanted to show you this one today.

OPI DS Fantasy, morning sun


Two scrumptiously easy coats over Nailtek II Foundation and topped with Poshe. I could have done with only one coat of color but did two out of habit. I actually did this at night and waited to take pictures until morning. I don't know what I did in my sleep to cause that teensy chip on my middle finger. *iz puzzled*



I saved this to wear today because I wanted something special for my wedding anniversary. And blue is my favorite for nails! Did you know today is also Talk Like A Pirate Day? I was tickled when I learned I was getting married on Talk Like A Pirate Day. =)



Ah, I cannot get enough of this polish. The way it is ever so faintly holographic. The richness of the blue. Pictures are nothing compared to the real thing in sunlight. DS Fantasy is gorgeous even in the shade.

OPI DS Fantasy, shade


Positively heavenly. Anyhow, that's it for today! Coming soon, a contest, those skipped manicures I mentioned above & a few other surprises.

Golden Rose Paris 85 & 88, Care + Strong 169

Good morning ladies! (And perhaps gentlemen?? Wouldn't that be nice?) As some of you suggested on my last post, those extra polish bottles are for a giveaway. I was lucky enough to happen on a full display and thought I would share with you! I haven't decided the details yet though, so keep watching! Today I want to show you what I was wearing when I wrote that post:

Golden Rose Paris #85 with Golden Rose Care+Strong #169


Golden Rose Paris #85 is a bright yellow creme. I was expecting it to be difficult to apply, but surprisingly this is only 3 coats. I had more difficulty with the brush (which is rather short) than I did with the polish! I topped it with one generous coat of Golden Rose #169 from the Care+Strong line.

Golden Rose Paris #88 with Golden Rose Care+Strong #169


I think Paris #88 has stolen my heart. I don't know what it is about it. It has VNL. But #88 is a milky translucent blue that reminds me of old glass. Does anyone remember that? It may have been called milk glass, I'm not sure. Anyhow, this is two coats, again topped with a generous coat of Care+Strong #169.

I wore these both simultaneously, one on my left hand and the other on my right. I actually do this quite often. Some quirk in me feels more settled when my nails aren't all the same color. And I don't know what it was, but I had more men than ever tell me they liked my nails while I wore this! Maybe its the yellow?

Have a good week everyone!

NYX Girls Swatches II

First of all, I apologize that these are not the best pictures. It was late afternoon and clouds rolled in while I was swatching and the sun decided to start playing peek-a-boo. Anyhow, here's Part II of my pick-me-up grocery store haul. These swatches are without base/top coat. As always, click for bigger pics.

NYX Girls Deep Space


Three thin coats for full coverage. Sadly the glitter is not as visible on the nail as it is in the bottle, especially indoors. Otherwise, application was good.

NYX Girls Robotic


Again three thin coats for full coverage. The turquoise glitter in this one is more visible than Deep Space was. Smooth application.

NYX Girls Royal Purple


Three thin coats. The base polish is more purplish than the other two. Royal Purple dried rather flat (matte?) whereas Deep Space and Robotic were fairly glossy without top coat. I added top coat to my ring and pinky finger so you could see how a shiny top coat enhanced the glitter, but yeah, my pictures suck. *sigh* I added a second pic to try (and fail) to make up for it.



Overall, I'm still pleased even though my glitter expectations were higher. Subtle can be good too, right?

I haven't been without polish even though I haven't been able to post these last two weeks. There are several manicure pictures awaiting editing, so look forward to some Quirius and another Zoya coming soon! And there's still Part III of the NYX haul to be swatched!

A Layering Experiment (Warning! Pic heavy!)

Last week I wore Zoya Yasmeen and Zoya Tallulah, both lovely polishes, but the sun refused to come out long enough for me to take decent pictures. Rather, the sun came out while I was at work & I'm not brave enough to take pictures of my nails at work, lol. I can only imagine the questions I'd get.

Anyway, I gave up on waiting for the sun and moved on to a new manicure, a layering experiment that's been simmering in my head for a few weeks. I probably took too many pictures. Rather than go on and on about it, I'll just let you see for yourself. XD

















I'm in love. I didn't want to take it off. Eventually I had to, the tip wear was pretty bad. Oh wait, you want to know what its made of? Here ya go (in the order of layering):



Hot Topic Iridescent Blue was the first layer. A Perfect "10" The One was next (this is very similar to Pure Ice Oh Baby). Third layer was BT Snow Angel, a polish brand I've only seen in this one clothing store in the mall. There are other polishes out there with that golden-green glitter, I'm sure. And finally Nfu-Oh 52, gorgeous thing that she is.

So what do you think? Did I do good? I've got another idea simmering that involves reds...

China Glaze Dorothy Who?

Gah, I'm a bad blogger. I haven't been keeping up and now I just hit enter after typing the title and posted an empty post. *insert head meeting desk here* So it's late, I'm pretty much gone to la-la land and I just realized I didn't take any notes on the polish I'm going to show you. *sweatdrops* Let's just start with a picture and wing it from there!

China Glaze Dorothy Who?, overcast


From the re-released Wizard of Ooh Ahz this past holiday season, Dorothy Who is a charming blue jelly packed with silver glitter.

same polish, shade


IF I'm remembering correctly (and that's debatable tonight, lol) this is 2 smooooooth coats (smooth like jelly! not jam...jelly!). Base coat was Nail Tek Foundation II ('cause I can't find my OPI ridge filler) and topcoat is Poshe fast-drying. (Seche Vite and I have a love-hate relationship...we're currently in a Hate phase)

Dorothy Who? oh hai, Mr. sun...


Oh wait, you wanted to see more sparkle?



Does this satisfy my lemming for the original release of Dorothy Who? Hmmm...nope, can't say it does. But then, I can be like that. In my head this is Dorothy Who, Part Deux? I love it, I wore it for days (no chips until Day 3!) but I still want the original. Now, I need a bed. And I wish I hadn't stopped at McDonald's for that caramel frappe thingy on the way home from work...

Quirius Caribbean Turquoise & China Glaze Grape Pop + Hidden Treasure

Depending on the lighting, Quirius Caribbean Turquoise can lean a bit more towards green or blue. I did the best I could to take pictures of the awesome. Really, I think its my new favorite turquoise! I feel a bit guilty, I've had this first pic uploaded and waiting for almost a week. BUT, I also wore this color for 5 days! So I took a picture of that too so you can see how well it wore.

Quirius Caribbean Turquoise, overcast sun


This was three coats of polish over Nailtek II Foundation and topped with Poshe Fast Drying topcoat. Two coats of polish would have been fine, but I was watching House while doing my nails and accidentally put a third coat on my pinky...I got a little obsessive and *had* to make sure they all had the same amount of layers. *blushes*

The polish consistency was a little thick. Not chalky, but it did have some cuticle drag if you went over the same spot twice too quickly. Easily remedied by just letting each layer dry a bit. It does dry semi-matte so you'll have to add topcoat for shine (if you want that, of course!). Otherwise, pigmentation is very good. Caribbean Turquoise pops quite nicely without the white layer some neons require underneath to really show off their potential.

As I said earlier, I wore this for five days with minimal tipwear and no chips!

Quirius Caribbean Turquoise, Day Five


And, because it was holding up so well, I decided to pull out some the the nail art supplies I was sent by Viva La Nails and attempt some nail art. I'm thinking I'm not nearly as talented in this area as other bloggers, lol.



What the heck, if you've kept reading this long, here's a picture of China Glaze Grape Pop topped with a layer of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. Sadly, Grape Pop didn't fare as well, this tipwear is after only one day of wear. Same number of coats, same base & topcoat combo as the Caribbean Turquoise. Still pretty though! (Ouch, my poor dry and abused cuticles!)

China Glaze Grape Pop + Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure


And now, I'm going to be late for work so you all have a beautiful day!

Orly Snowcone

Short and sweet today! From Orly's Sweet Color Collection, Snowcone looks a bit dusty in the bottle but actually is a bright cornflower blue! Beautiful.

Orly Snowcone, sun


Orly Snowcone, shade


This was a true swatch, meaning I didn't use a base or top coat. I am in love with this polish. Not only the color, but the application. No challenge at all. (That's good! lol) I used two coats but Snowcone is so richly pigmented it was almost opaque in one coat. And see how glossy it is? Yum!

A Franken!

I promised you a franken last time! Now, I'm not good at coming up with clever names so I pretty much just put together the names of the materials I used to make this polish. Sooooo...here you go!

Power Up My Submarine!


The components! (L to R: NYC Clear, Perfect 10 "Power Up", Splash Eye Sparkle "Submarine")


To be more specific: about 1/4 bottle of Power Up, 1 1/2 teaspoon of Submarine and 1/2 a bottle of clear nail polish.

The Result!


Sadly, the purple sparkles don't show up as well in the photo as they do in real life. But what do you think? Is it a keeper?