Essie Over the Edge

I love this dark, shimmery color.

artificial light

 

Essie Over the Edge, 3 coats. I feel like if you like hematite, you will love this polish. I think it also looks like black pearls. You know how they can have a pink or green cast to them? Indoor light seems to bring this out.

 

closeup

 

I don’t know if it shows up in this photo or not, but I tried! I do love these dark colors with a bit of shimmer to go on short nails. By the way, this one was called Over the Top before the retail release. It appears to be the exact same color, though.

 

Shorties – Essie Clambake

My nails were still peeling a bit so I decided to go shorter. I guess I went a little too far this time! What looks good on short nails?

I like vampy colors, of course, but also jellies when I don’t have a lot of free edge to show contrast through the polish.

 

indoors

 

I know I’ve shown Essie Clambake before, but it’s the first thing I reached for to cover my nubs. What do you like to wear on short nails?

Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby

I don’t know what made me grab this one. It’s a nice red jelly, good coverage in two coats, but a little blue-pinker than my usual pick.

 

full sun

 

Isn’t it weird with the changing light? It’s hard to know when to take pictures. Now I don’t mind the VNL here, but I know some people would. Sometimes a photo exaggerates the VNL but this is accurate.

 

shade

 

I thought I would show you a comparison with some other reddish hues so I hastily threw them on:

 

comparison

 

Shown are two coats of everything. The index has Orly Haute Red, one of my favorite medium reds. As you can see, it’s much more opaque. Middle and pinkie are Ruby Ruby and my ring finger shows Essie Clambake. It’s definitely an orange and at two coats, the VNL screams! Haha.

 

It looks like the hard drive recovery is no-go, so my laptop is officially dead with no ability to Resurrect. I will try to update as often as possible despite this setback!

Back Soon

I took Sinful Colors Nirvana out for an extended wear this weekend. Didn’t get the chance to change my nail color but I can’t say I was sad… too busy looking at this:

 

I need a polish this color

 

And the dark neutral felt right at home in a fancy winery!

Sinful Colors Sale!

Walgreens had Sinful Colors for 99 cents… my stash will never end! I picked up some staples and then a duochrome to try out because 99 CENTS! but I was most excited about Nirvana:

 

full sun

 

So ridiculously in love with this color. Three coats are shown, but I think next time I could do two. The shade is a greyed-out milk chocolate, reminding me of tweedy, woolly winter items. A taupe-brown with enough contrast to be dramatic on my skin but light enough to look grey/brown instead of brown/black.

There’s probably a million dupes – it’s similar to Essie Mink Muffs, OPI You Don’t Know Jacques, Essie Hot Coco, and a little less grey than Chanel Particulière. In other words: this is my Nirvana. There may be many like it, but this one is mine was 99 cents!

Confetti Papa-razzi

Come on Fall! I got really irritated by the 90-degree weather last week, so I decided to encourage the arrival of the next season with Confetti Papa-Razzi, a glittery pumpkin color:

full sun

Yes, that is a pumpkin spice latte! I thought it might help with my little ritual.

It *has* to be fall now, right?

This is three coats. It’s a reddy-orange jelly with gold glitter/shimmer. I started thinking of it as “electric pumpkin.” I really expected this one to be like My Favorite Martian, but I think it looks more like a foil than a glitter on my nails and I just can’t get into it. :(

I will find a new home for this one as soon as I can.

A note about my coffee habit – at this point it takes four coffee shops to support me. This is obviously Starbucks, which provides me with sticky-sweet hot drinks and stays open until 9 PM. For amazing loose-leaf tea, unique pastries, decaf, and a not-too-sweet coffee frappe drink, I visit our town’s mom ‘n pop shop, which I will call IndieCoffee. For freshly roasted (caffeinated) brewed coffee, croissant and scones, I visit the new LocalBakery. And sometimes when IndieCoffee is closed, I will go to Peet’s for tea or for peppermint hot cocoa, yum.

Am I the only one with four coffee shops?

Blogs to Read: steffels

Oh steffels. You had me at “the Jeebus of all holos” in reference to Chanel Holographic. While I don’t really go for holos on my nails, I love looking at your amazing photos! This Melbourne blogger doesn’t just post the holos and the glitteries, though. She’s got frankens, Konad, brands I’ve never heard of, ramblings, and bunnies! All in a land where (I’m told) polish is extremely expensive.

Here. Go look at her million pretty pictures.

$1.99 love: Confetti My Favorite Martian

When I noticed the $1.99 Confetti display, I think I grew faint. I knew I would be unable to resist, but I limited myself to some glitters. I don’t expect much for that kind of money but this one blew me out of the water:

full sun

Ugh, so much pretty! Yellow-green jelly with silver and green glitter. There are occasional bigger pieces of green glitter, but also some fine silver glitter that helps build up the opacity. Four coats are shown, but they dried fairly quickly. I also find these glitters to be surprisingly smooth. Removal gets glitter everywhere but it doesn’t stick stubbornly like the Orly Goth did. What a deal!

Sally Hansen Pixel Pretty

I picked this one up a really long time ago, but I’ve been seeing the HD polishes in CVS’ clearance bin for 75% off. Here’s Pixel Pretty, swatched over an opaque creme, three coats:

indoors

It’s a little brush-strokey, very sheer, and to be honest? A little disappointing. I don’t know what I expected – probably the insane chrome look that the Sally Hansen display showed. But I like to put one coat of some Insta-Dri on my toes and throw this one on top for some shimmer. Brush strokes don’t bother me as much when they’re far away, you know?

Orly Goth at the club

Yes, I went to a Goth club. I figured I should dress appropriately.

Orly Goth:

indoors

Black creme with irregularly-sized silver glitter. It looks like stars in the sky. Two easy coats provide full coverage, but you’re not going to get it off that easily! Those glitter pieces seemed like they’d never come off.

This one comes with a conundrum. I applied topcoat to smooth the surface and add shine, but a lot of the glitter seemed to disappear! The picture shows two coats of Goth with one coat of topcoat, and an additional layer of Goth on top for the sparklies. I suggest that method if you’re going for longevity, but if you plan to take the color off in a couple days, skip the topcoat.

What would you go for, high shine or more glitter?