Savvy Femme - Fairy Twinkle layered over Wet'n'Wild Black Creme

Fairy Twinkle is a beautiful sheer pink polish with loads of gold glass-fleck shimmer. And when I say sheer, I do mean sheer! So I decided to layer it over black to see how it looked.
It came out a dusky, lavender/mauvey-pinky-gold (lol, I know, that's some description! Sorry, my brain's kind of short-circuited after a long day and being up late last with a mild though miserable case of food poisoning), extremely shimmery color. It didn't photograph all that well, so you can't really see too much of the pink, although it's noticeable on the nail itself.

And I don't know what's up with the green-toned zombie hands I've been sporting in all my pics lately! I know Halloween's coming up, but...sheesh! :P I'm blaming my camera, since I'm pretty sure I haven't died recently (though I did kind of feel like I might at around 4:30 last night!).

Anyway, no problems with applying this one, though it was a bit slow to dry and stayed kind of tacky to the touch for a while. Although it was also a wet and stormy night with high humidity, so that may have something to do with the drying issues. Pics show four coats, because I wanted lots of shimmery goodness, over black base coat and top coat.

Braaaaaiiiinsss! Er...I mean...thanks for looking. ;) Hee hee, I love zombies...just wish I didn't look like one in my pics...

Jordana Grape

First of all, I apologize for the quality of these pictures. I had a sick puppy dog to take care of today, and I didn't have a chance to take pictures of my nails until late in the day, and then I was too rushed to do a good job.

Anyway, on to the polish...

I like Jordana polishes, a a rule. They're decent quality, they have some nice colors, they apply well as a rule, and they're certainly budget-friendly: I've never paid over $1.50 for one.

Grape is a medium-deep mauve creme. It does not lean purple at all, as the name "grape" might seem to imply, but is more pink-toned. I wasn't sure about this color initially, but I really do like it once it's on my nails. I think it's a nice shade for fall, not too bright, but not wishy-washy either.
This is three coats (though two would have been fine) plus base and top coat.


Thanks very much for looking, and have a great weekend! :)

Mystery Polish Number Three

The next of the unnamed, unidentified-brand dollar store polishes.

Metallic magenta shimmer, butter-smooth application, dried in a flash, opaque in one coat (!!)...what's not to like? Nothing!...if you're me, that is. I thought this one was really pretty.
Here it is with flash:
I would have loved to have gotten a picture of this one in the sun, to really show off its shine, sparkle, and glow, but it was a dreary, drizzly here, so flash it is:
And one more for good measure:
I'm really impressed with the quality of these polishes, especially for a brand that I still can't identify or find any information about.

I must apologize for the awful pictures; the batteries in my camera were dying. All pics are two coats (though, really, one would have been just fine with this polish) plus base and top coat.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! :)

L.A. Colors - Lollipop

I have two batches of L.A. Colors polishes: one batch that I got at the Dollar Tree, which doesn't have a name label on the bottom of the bottle, and one batch not from the dollar tree, which do have labels. This is from the latter, labeled group.
Lollipop is a pretty, bright pink with a subtle bluish flash in some lights. It went on with no issues. It might have been a bit sheer on its own, but I layered it over a white polish because I just do not like sheer or even slightly sheer polishes on my nails. (On some people's nails sheer polishes are gorgeous; on mine - not so much. :/) So every time I have even the slightest suspicion that a polish is going to be sheer I use an opaque basecoat under it.

Here it is in shade, showing a hint of its slightly bluey/lavender side:
In sunlight:
Pics are three coats, base coat, and top coat. I think it's a pretty, cheerful pink for summertime. (Which, by the way, I can't believe is going by so fast! Has this summer just flown by for anyone else? I noticed this afternoon that the leaves on the huge maple tree in front of the house are starting to get that slightly dusty, drooping look that they always have toward the end of the summer, as if the tree is getting a little tired of holding up the weight of its own foliage and is starting to look forward to the time when it can let its leaves drop, one by one...) I hope you'll all be able to enjoy this late-summer weekend to its fullest!

Simple Pleasures Nail Polish - Unnamed

This polish was one of a set that I found at Ross a few week ago. I bought it because I thought the colors were pretty (they are mostly pinks and corals, which I don't have that many of, and they're all cremes, in which my collection is also a bit lacking. I didn't use to care for cremes very much, but these days I find myself kind of drawn to them.) They were also a really good price - I think they were $4.99 for a set of six colors, plus a clear polish.
This is the first one of the set that I've tried and I must say I'm kind of torn about them. On the one hand, I really like the color and finish of this polish. It's a beautiful medium-pink creme, almost bubblegum or Barbie-like but a little more sophisticated (or so I like to think, anyway. Feel free to disillusion me.) It also works fairly well with my skintone, which usually does heinous and unappealing things when combined with the color pink...
That being said, though, there is one problem with this polish - the application, and that is entirely due to the brush. The brush is...well...pretty atrocious. Imagine going outside, selecting a nice-sized twig from a nearby tree, chewing on the end of the twig until it's all frayed and bristly and then trying to use it to polish your nails. That's kind of what using this brush was like. It's so coarse, stiff, and unruly that it made the polish streaky (which I don't think it would have been with a different brush), caused tons of cuticle drag, and took off whole strips of color when applying a second coat.

With careful handling and some patience, I managed to get a nice, smooth, even finish with this polish in three coats...and then, after all that effort, I went and put a big, noticeable ding in the polish on my second finger! Arrgh! I seem to be smooshing up every manicure I do lately...

Pics are three coats plus base and top coat.
If you're willing to work with the not-so-great brush, it's a really nice creme polish for not a lot of money. I'm looking forward to trying out the others in the set, and if I see another set from Simple Pleasures with different colors, I will be very tempted to get it.

Mystery Polish Number Two

Here is the manicure I wore this weekend. It's the same "mystery" brand as the red polish I posted a while back and was found in the same dollar store.

This one is a very frosty medium pink shade. It went on with no issues and lasted almost three days before the first chip appeared.

The smudge on the thumb nail is entirely my fault, not the polish...I managed to bash my hand against the edge of my desk while the polish was drying.
Here it is in full sun:
I think it's a pretty color; I'm just not really into frosts these days. Something about that frosty finish just doesn't appeal to me... If you don't mind frosts, though, or if you actually like them, this is quite a nice one.

I still wish I knew what brand this polish actually is...

Maybelline Express Finish 50 Second Nail color - Summer Sunset

I'm experiencing technical difficulties at the moment. I can't get my camera to transfer pictures to my computer properly. I did manage to upload two of the five I had of this polish, although they're hardly the best of the lot...I'll be working on fixing the issue.

Anyway, here's a polish that was much, much prettier in the bottle than it is on my nails. When I spotted this one in the store, it was a gorgeous coral pink color with an almost glass-fleck golden shimmer; the perfect summer color, I thought. Since I adore glass-fleck polishes, I snapped it right up - only to find that the drool-worthy gold shimmer didn't show up nearly as much on my nails. Disappointing. :(

I figured it was going to be somewhat sheer, so I used a white base coat. And sure enough - the pics show four coats plus top coat, but looking at my nails in the sunlight, I could still see some streakiness. It really could have used another coat. Now, I'm impressed if a polish is opaque and matches bottle-color in two coats, I'm not really phased by doing three coats, I can even tolerate a four-coater for the sake of a great color...but five is really pushing it, in my opinion. Sigh...I realize I may be biased here; I'm just not a fan of sheer polishes.

So...this wasn't a bad polish, by any means. It's still a rather pretty color, and it did dry quickly, although I didn't time it to see whether it dried in fifty seconds (Am I just imagining things, or did they change that? Didn't it used to be "sixty seconds"?). It just wasn't what I was expecting or hoping it would be, and was too sheer for my personal taste. Oh well...at least the polish I replaced it with for this weekend turned out to be a beauty - I'll have pics of that one up on Monday, once I've straightened out my camera issues.

I hope everyone has a terrific weekend. See you at the beginning of next week! :)

Sally Hansen No Chip 10 Day Nail Color - Eternal Expresso

I'm a bit late posting this one, but I do want to get it up here today, since I'll be away for the weekend.

This polish is an older Sally Hansen that I found at the Dollar Tree (I'm always finding stuff in dollar stores; have you noticed?) It came in a two pack; I really bought the package for the other color that came with it, but I do like this one as well. It's a very pretty medium rose color. (To me the name Eternal Expresso would seem to suggest more of a coffee color than a pink, but what do I know? :-P It does seem to be somewhat pinker on the nail than in the bottle. I had a bottle pic, but my camera refused to transfer it for reasons I can't even begin to fathom. Sorry. I may try again later.)

It's quite frosty, actually more so than it looks in my pics, and can be a little brushstroke-y (but really not too bad), so that's something to be aware of if you don't care for frosts...As you can also see in the pics, it had a few minor chips on the tips of my nails by the morning of day two, which is a bit ironic, considering that "No Chip" is actually on the label. As for it being "10 Day Nail Color" - well, no polish has ever lasted anywhere near ten days on my nails, no matter what I do, so I won't even attempt to judge that claim!

Pics are three coats, plus top coat and base coat.

I'd like this one better if it didn't chip quite so easily.

Have a wonderful weekend! :)

Petites Color Fever - 531 Fairy Pink

My first post! Why am I nervous? Lol!

First of all, my apologies for the abominable state of my cuticles; I'm currently going through my annual summertime desert-dry hands phase. Also, on my second finger you can pretty clearly see the latest "owie". I was playing with my mother's cat when he made a claws-out grab for the toy and missed, snagging my finger instead. Ouch....

So my hands are not so pretty right now, but fortunately this polish is! I'm usually not crazy about the paler pink polishes (on me; I love the color pink in any way, shape, or form but the paler ones usually make my skin look too washed out and muddy), but this one has enough deeper and mauvey tones to it that I think I can pull it off.

This polish is a little hard to describe - it seems to be an almost-holo. It's a shimmery mauve-toned pink with loads of tiny silvery holographic or prismatic glitter. It's subtle yet eye-catching.

Try as I might - and I did try; witness the many photos spamming this post, my camera just wouldn't pick up the silver shimmer in this polish, even with flash, but trust me- it's there and it's lovely. I was hoping to get a pic of it in full sun, but we were deep in the June Glooms for most of the day today, and it just wasn't happening.

As for application, the polish went on very smoothly. The pics show three coats over an opaque white base coat (Wet'n'Wild Wild Shine 449C French White Creme) with a topcoat. Without the white base coat it would probably have been a little more sheer. I could probably have gotten away with two coats very satisfactorily, but I have an irrational hatred of VNL (Visible Nail Line), so I preferred three coats plus white base. It did bubble something awful on my nails as t dried, but that might be because it was over one hundred degrees and very humid when I was applying it - or maybe I was just in too much of a rush (which also explains the somewhat sloppy job - apologies again.)

This is now one of my favorite pink nail polishes. I think it's very aptly named as well - it does remind me of a fairy color, dusky and pale at the same time, shimmery, and just downright pretty. It's a shade of pink that you might see in the sky at twilight on a warm summer evening just after the sun's gone down, plus a ton of prismatic sparkle. Love.