The Polish
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: Hare Polish - Rococo Grandeur, three coats
TC: Seche Vite
My Easter color for this year, Rococo Grandeur is a reliably adorable color. It's such a cute pastel blue with pink and gold glitters (even squares!) I love it every time I see it.
My bottle, however, seems to be getting a little... clumpy. You can't tell from the pictures, but this polish was fighting me. I'm not sure thinning it will fix it, but I guess I'll have to try. :/
Wear: Chips in under 24 hours, removed on Day 2 with more lifting
The Polish
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Main: Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer - PDTS 3.7 (prototype), two coats
Accent: Lacquistry - Amazeballz!, three coats
TC: Seche Vite
Still no pics because my phone/camera hates me. I've been having a difficult time with my polish hobby lately. This mani looked adorable when it was done, but it turns out it still wasn't what I needed to bring me out of my funk. I smudged my accent nail two minutes after finishing it, and my camera wouldn't save any pictures.
Wear: Some lifting started on Day 2. I thought it was just one nail that I didn't clean up around the cuticle very well, but then more and more of them started lifting, and by Day 3, every nail with the holo had chipped at least a little. Frustrating. :/ The Amazeballz lasted a bit longer, though.
So.. I DO need to take a break. I'm struggling to get joy out of this hobby, and that's the main goal of it. Yes, there IS the thing about sticking with something and growing over time and developing a skill, but if this is a chore for me right now, I don't need to push myself to existential crisis mode. I want to purge a little, but not everything. I want to have a nice, maintainable stash and see if it's possible to do my nails WITHOUT cataloging everything. That's an interesting thought.
Knowing me, I'll probably be back, so see you after the break! <3
The Polish
BC: New York Color - Strip Me Off
Color: H&M - Midnight Mystery, one coat
Glitter: LA Colors - Glitter Bomb, one coat
TC: Seche Vite
Midnight Mystery is actually a nice one-coater blue, similar to SC Rainstorm. I liked it more than I expected to, and the glitter over it gave a nice galaxy feel.
The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: KB Shimmer - Shade Shifter, three coats
TC: Seche Vite
Uh.. Hmm... The polish goddess hasn't been with me recently. Check out this streaky mess. I've never had a duochrome I enjoyed, and this is no different.
Maybe over black? I'll give it another chance and see how it works over black.
The Polish
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Main: Illamasqua - Raindrops, two coats
Accent: Milani - HD, one coat over Raindrops
TC: Seche Vite
Raindrops was one of my favorite polishes, and I had lemmed it for over a year. Recently, though, it just hasn't been getting much love. It's such a pretty blue-grey shade, sheer with those beautiful glass fleck flakies.. but even putting it on today, I was a little bored. Turns out all it needed was a layer of scattered holo on the accent nail! That's all it took for me to fall in love again. These pictures seriously doesn't do this mani justice. <3
Here's Raindrops by itself, too. Also pretty. *nod*
And here's a random story: My husband was test-driving a Charger the other day. He decided against getting it, but it did spur this interaction:
Me: What do you think?
Husband: ... What do YOU think of it? *obviously not wanting to influence my opinion*
Me: Uh.. It's a car. I don't know..
Husband: What do you like about it?
Me: That's like me asking you what you like about this polish.
Husband: The sparkles, duh. At least the ones that aren't taco-Ing.
Me: *dies laughing* I can't believe you remember that term! It's been a while since I've used it.
Husband: Of course. -I- pay attention to the things you like.
Me: *sigh* Okay.. The dash is.. Dash-y. It's very dashing.
Husband: Yes. Okay, now we're getting somewhere.
Live Swatch of just Raindrops:
Wear: Removed on Day 3 with some lifting, especially on the accent nails, probably because of the thickness. Perhaps I shouldn't have put more polish on after the SV? Or perhaps I put too thick a coat on the second time around. Regardless, the lifting was super unfortunate. :/
The Polish
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: OPI - Peace & Love & OPI, three coats
TC: Seche Vite
I'm not so sure about this one. Peace & Love & OPI is a muddy purple-to-green duochrome that has a touch of a brush-stroke-y metallic finish. It's sheer and needed three coats for opacity, though it would probably look nice over black.
I have yet to own a duochrome I enjoy, though I know they exist. (ILNP has a lot.) This one, however, is going into the swap box.
The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Main: Lumina Lacquers - Coal in My Stocking, two coats
Accent: Orly - Mirrorball, three coats
TC: Seche Vite
I feel very stylish wearing these two colors together! They are both elegant, and they work really well together! I'm not sure that I love Mirrorball on its own, so I may try it layered over another grey or silver creme next time I wear it.
SO: The silver one looks especially good with your ring. I like to imagine that they were all the same color, but when you put on the ring, it transformed.
Me: Hehe. Magical, transformative.
SO: You say it like it's a specific type of polish. "I have my holos, my magical transformatives, ..."
The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Main: Reverie Nail Lacquer - Sunshowers, three coats
Accent: Orly - Mirrorball, three coats
TC: Seche Vite
Uhm.. I'm not quite sure what's going on with Sunshowers. I shook it rather well because I could tell that something was happening in the bottle, but I still ended up with these weird streak things. According to other swatches online, they're not supposed to be there. It seems like maybe the blue glitters (which sometimes look iridescent in the swatches) are bleeding. Huh. Weird. I'm putting this one into purgatory because I want to give it another chance. It could be so pretty!
The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: Revlon - Calla Lily, two coats
TC: Seche Vite
After a failed attempt at a creme and glitter, I needed something quick and simple before heading out for the evening on Thursday. Calla Lily is probably my go-to simple polish, the only one I have a back up for. (I probably like White Cap better, but I only have a medium size of that, so I don't wear it as often.) At this point I was out of caring and patience. I just needed something to last me until the weekend.
This was the worst video I've done so far. Like I mentioned in the description and the video itself, I could have just deleted it and forgotten it existed (I took one prior to this that actually DID get lost), but I wanted to keep it. I wanted to demonstrate to myself and to others that skills don't just happen--they have to be cultivated. This video is particularly bad, but that just means I have more room for growth. My future videos will be MUCH better just by comparison. :)
The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Jelly: OPI - You Callin' Me a Lyre?, one coat on either side of glitter
Glitter: OPI - Pirouette My Whistle, one coat between jelly
TC: Seche Vite
I've been wearing some serious colors lately, so it's back to my soft, delicate sheers for a palate cleanser. That OPI Ballet collection is just sooo gentle. <3
Live swatching!:
Wear: Some lifting starting at the end of Day 4, removed on Day 5
The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: Girly Bits - Long Winter's Nap, three coats
TC: American Classics - Gelous followed by Seche Vite
From the swatches online, I thought that this polish was probably blue, but putting it on, I can tell you that Long Winter's Nap is absolutely grey with blue, aqua, silver, and blue-purple iridescent glitters. Even with the Gelous, this polish still dulled pretty quickly. But those glitters! Those iridescent ones, especially!
Live swatch video!:
Wear: Removed on Day 4 with some lifting. Removal of all those glitters was a pain. I need to get a new scrubby tub.
The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: Reverie Nail Lacquer - Cloud Burst, three coats
TC: Seche Vite
Aaah, so soft and delicate again! Just my style! <3 I've been lemming Cloud Burst for a while, but when I finally went to buy it, it was out of stock. Since no one on the Facebook groups had it, I had already given up on finding it and had begun purchasing similars when someone messaged me that it was available again--on sale! Wooo! I put it in my cart immediately. Aaaand.. some other things while I was at it. :3
Cloud Burst is a soft grey, faint linear holo. It doesn't have the spectacular formula I was hoping for, in fact, it's a little patchy, but the color makes up for it. Just look at that gorgeous color!
Wear: Whoops, forgot to record! I'm going to assume either four or five days.
The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: Different Dimensions - Drops of Jupiter, three coats
TC: Seche Vite
Oh wow, a black? Seriously? Well, it's a black jelly.. and it's got those delicious holo glitters (there's some hexes, circles, stars, and shards in there, though of course I didn't bother to fish everything out). I was on a buying kick, and I just couldn't help myself! You understand, right?
It's really pretty, but I was done wearing black by the end of the first day. I somehow managed to make it three days! And then I put on a soft grey and breathed a sigh of relief. :P Here's a blurry shot to show those holo glitters better!
The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: Reverie Nail Lacquer - Dog Days, three coats
TC: Seche Vite
Yay, the first polish from my Reverie haul! I wasn't planning on getting Dog Days, but it was on sale, so I couldn't help myself. Whoops. I went a little crazy buying there for a while. ^-^;
I wasn't expecting Dog Days's base to be so sheer. It does have a tint to it, but it's so faint, I can hardly decide what color it is. White? Green? Grey? I don't even know. Definitely not completely clear, though. Probably meant to be a topper. But the glitters are super colorful! Neon blue and yellow, plus some iridescent yellow-golds that are almost undetectable unless you're looking closely. Here's a good shot of them:
I wore this on a long-weekend vacation, and thankfully it lasted the entire time! I was picking it off in the car on the way home.
The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: Scofflaw Nail Varnish - Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her, two coats
TC: Seche Vite
Well, Seagulls (which seems to be named after a Japanese band) isn't quite the perfect, blue-shimmering grey that Lavish Layerings swatched it as, but I knew it wasn't going to be when I saw it described on the store site as "periwinkle blue." I decided to buy it anyway because it's still one of my colors. In person, it DOES appear to be a dusty periwinkle blue with sometimes-blue-sometimes-lavender shimmer and scattered holo microglitter. It dried a little dull, so I may want to add a layer of Gelous next time I wear it.
The Polish:
BC: None
Color: Zoya - Tomoko, two coats
TC: None
Tomoko is a super sparkly gold texture, and I don't know why I'm not feeling it this time around because it's usually one of my favorite texture polishes. Maybe it's because I just wore Sing You Like a Bee recently? Or maybe because I have a lot of new untried indies that are calling my name. Meh, anyway, it's fine. I had to put something on quick for a couple of days because I didn't have time for a full mani, and Tomoko worked just fine.
Wear: Removed on Day 3 with little noticeable wear
The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: Fancy Gloss - Feeling Gloomy, two coats
TC: Seche Vite
Yeeees <3 I've been lemming Reverie's Cloud Burst HARD recently. I NEEDED that speckle-y, shimmery grey in my life. Reverie's been OOS for a while, now, though, and even requests on the Facebook swap groups came up short. *sigh* Looks like it's time to look for a similar.
I found Feeling Gloomy on a Facebook swap group and figured it was pretty close. It's a few shades darker, but it has the same speckle-y, shimmery look that comes from a faint linear holo. It's not Cloud Burst, but it's still beautiful. Application was two, nice coats, which was nice, too.
After my bad experience with Fancy Gloss two years ago, I vowed that I wouldn't buy anymore from that brand, even from second-hand sellers. The odor from the two I purchased previously (from the original site) were so strong, I had to contact the maker, which it looks like I neglected to mention on that post. She said the odor was from the base those polishes were made with and that she wasn't making polishes with that base anymore. No offers for a refund or to replace the polish with better quality products or anything else to make the situation better, which I thought wasn't very good customer service. But... Feeling Gloomy looked SO pretty.. I told the story to the seller on FB. She and her SO both smelled it and declared it to not smell any worse than any other polish, so I went ahead and bought it. Nope, no horrendous odor. Looks way better than the previous two, as well, huh?
Wear: Removed on Day 5 with slight lifting at the end of Day 4
The Polish:
BC: None
Color: Nicole by OPI - Sing You Like a Bee, two coats
TC: None
I still just can't tell if I like this polish enough yet. It's like a textured version of White Cap, which is one of my favorites, but.. somehow just not quite as good. I don't know. Next time I wear it, I think I'll try it with a top coat. One of the reasons why I love White Cap is because it just seems so simple and glossy and perfect. This somehow doesn't. Maybe with a top coat, I can get it to feel that way.
SO comments, noticed while out to eat on Friday night
SO: Hmm. Gold sparkles, huh?
Me: Yeah. I'm not sure if I like it or not. It's cute, but it just doesn't seem enough.
SO: Yeah. It matches your skin color, so it's a good thing it's sparkly. Otherwise, it'd just seem like your regular skin. In which case, it'd be like, what's the point?
Me: Yeah. They call that "My Nails But Better"-- MNBB.
SO: ... Of course they'd have a term for that.
Me: *giggle*
