Dandy Lyin' Around

China Glaze Dandy Lyin' Around (Avant Garden collection)

I was super excited for this opaque, shimmery white creme after seeing swatches online. I bought it a week or so after the collection was released, but didn't get around to using it until now. Unfortunately it didn't live up to my high hopes.

It's such a pretty color, but the formula is a finicky. I suppose it's not that surprising, since it's a white, but still. And clean up was tricky, too. I tried the gap clean up that looked so nice with the last polish I applied, but the microglitter just got everywhere and only proved to be annoying. My thumb turned out the best. I'm not sure what those little black specks are. They may be glitter that the acetone affected, I guess.

But the worst part was the terrible, horrible, no good brush. Ugh, just LOOK at those ugly frays! Grr, I hate you so much, brush!

After brooding over it all day, I finally decided that the only way to get excited about this polish again was to decant it into a bottle with a nice brush. Say, one of those new Megalast bottles. Lucky for me, the new polishes from that line (you know, the ones that can only be found at Dollar General, for some reason) included a clear.

Aaaah. MUCH better! I left about a tenth clear in the bottle before I poured DL'A in. That should help the formula at least a little. The good news is that I'm excited for this polish again! I didn't redo my mani, even though it frustrated me so much when I first put it on. I'll just continue to be excited for it until the next time I wear it. Mmmm, just look at that beautiful brush! So happy. :)

Green Tea

Sally Hansen Green Tea (Complete Salon Manicure line, Designer Collection 2013)

I've been holding onto the pictures from this mani for a while because I haven't been quite sure of what to say about it. First of all, apart from this polish itself, two things. I had a tough time at work the day before I put this on and had stress-picked off my prior polish. I don't have a ridge filler, so unfortunately this mani shows the sorry state my nails were in. But second of all, this is the first time I tried a "gap" clean-up, leaving a clear gap between the polish and my cuticles. The Makeup Alley Nail Board says it's the best type of cleanup for bloggers because it photographs nicely. What do you think? I quite like it!

Alright, now about Green Tea. It took me a long time to make up my mind on the color. I kept deciding that I liked it and then deciding again that I didn't. I think part of the reason I bought it was because of its name. It is quite an accurate color representation of a matcha latte, and believe me, I love matcha EVERYTHING. But I'm not sure I like matcha latte on my nails. Maybe it doesn't go well with my skin tone or something? Or maybe it's just hard for me to feel much affection for anything that's not pink anymore, hah!

I was looking forward to wearing this polish partially because of my good luck with Shell We Dance? and how long it wore. Unfortunately... this polish chipped less than 24 hours after application! Boo. :/ So, all that being said, I think this one's going in the swap box.

Celestial Adoration

Essie Adore-a-Ball
Revlon Celestial FX

I had more to do with my prospective job, so I started this week out with Adore-a-Ball, another slightly streaky, yet still cute!, soft pink.

I'm beginning to get a lot of these. Maybe I should do another comparison post about them. I'd say Adore-a-Ball is roughly more streaky than Shell We Dance? but less streaky than Sugar Coat. But I'll do a comparison just to be sure!

Today was my last day of interview work. I have a couple more meetings that my job will be contingent upon, but I'm definitely getting some positive vibes! Nothing else for the rest of the week, so I came home and celebrated with some glitter! The shapes in Celestial FX were relatively easy to fish out, but nevertheless, I still slathered it on thicker than I normally like to, and then a thick layer of top coat over to make sure the shapes stay down. Pretty, pretty holo glitters and shapes! I'm happy it turned out cute, but I'm worried that it won't last long because of how thick I made it.

Grey-T to Be Here

Essence Grey-T to Be Here

One of two Essences that I own, the first that I've tried! At $2 each, these could be addicting if I frequented Ulta more... Please ignore my cuticles today! I've somehow lost my cuticle cream. ;-;

Grey-T is a soft grey with red shimmer that gives it a nice purple tint. The above picture is less color accurate, but shows the shimmer better.

Application was nice and smooth. First coat was just a little sheer, but two coats seemed like a fine opacity for me. Excited for more of these little guys!

Shell We Dance?

Sally Hansen Shell We Dance? (Complete Salon Manicure line)

Looking forward to a professional opportunity I got this week, so I put on something neutral. Shell We Dance is an adorable sheer pink jelly, quite cute--exactly what I was expecting and wanted. The color is very similar to You Callin' Me a Lyre? and Sugar Coat. The pictures show it as slightly streaky, but it's not noticeable irl. I would say it's more streaky than YCMaL?, but not as streaky as Sugar Coat. Shown is two coats.

Sorry my nails look like they're in terrible condition. I'm still suffering from peelies, and you can even see some slight staining from the chip-cover-up job I did with Bikini So Teeny. Merh.

Are five pictures too many for a regular (albeit cute) polish like this? Oh well. I couldn't decide which to pick because the blurrier ones show the streaks less, but the nicer looking ones are the ones that came out clear and streaky.

Wear: Get ready... 5 days! That's the longest a polish has stayed on me, and it didn't even need any touch up! I wore Revlon's Colorstay base coat under and Sinful Color's liquid quick dry top coat over top, and then did some acetone-and-eyeliner-brush clean up. I think the clean up especially helped, because I feel like the base coat may have began to peel, last time I wore it, from the cuticles. This time I got everything off my cuticles, and viola! No peeling. My biggest problem was that my cuticles began to want some attention, and I couldn't ignore them any longer. I pushed them back and then needed to change the polish so the gap wouldn't drive me crazy.

Anyway, I'm completely satisfied with this polish. I don't care that it streaked because it looks fine irl. The color is beautiful, the pro-wide brush was awesome, and it lasted a nice long while. I'll definitely be looking into the Complete Salon Manicure line in the future! Shame it's $8, but I've been able to fine a couple on clearance.

Bikini So Teeny

Essie Bikini So Teeny

I hear this polish is highly reviewed, and for good reason--it's adorable. Such a cute shade of blue with that delicious shimmer! I was so excited to wear it! Eee! This is two coats. Probably could have used three, but it's fine to me.

Even though this polish has a shimmer, it's pretty subtle, so the finish is still very much acts like a creme, which was bad news to me. The good news, though, was that I recently bought some pure acetone, so I was able to try cleanup with it and the $1 skinny makeup brush I bought. I thought it was going terribly, but actually it didn't turn out too bad. (You should see my left hand, though! Ugh! That one did NOT go so well.) Eh. Oh well. Just takes more practice!

Bikini So Teeny was released last summer and has since been added to core, so you can find this cutie wherever you buy your Essies.

Wear: Four days. I wore a strengthener as a base coat, no top coat the first run. Noticeable tip wear on the second day. I wasn't ready to take it off yet, to I applied another coat of the polish and a layer of Grand Central Station, making sure the polish had enough time to semi-dry before I applied the top coat. The fix-up was my first attempt, so it wasn't perfect, but at least it wasn't noticeable. More tip wear on day four, along with cracks from GCS.

Delicacy

Essie - Delicacy

Delicacy is an Essie color that was recently discontinued. I picked it up from the Walgreens clearance basket for $2. From the bottle, it looks like just another sheer pink, but no the nail, it's actually a pearly pink with the slightest blue duo-chrome. Totally not what I was expecting. It's pretty, but unfortunately, the pearly-frosty finish gives it a bad case of the visible-brush-strokes. This is three coats.

(Oh, what looks like bubbles on these pictures is actually the Glass Slipper from my second Raindrops franken dupe attempt that I didn't try very hard to remove. Sorry it makes it look kinda crappy.)

Can't decide if I like this polish or not. Honestly, I'm leaning towards not. The color is cute, but.. well, there are two finishes that I like least in a polish, pearl/frost and duo-chrome. And this one has BOTH of them! Ugh.

But oh well. Still pretty cute, huh? I'll wear it for a couple of days.

Edit: I didn't notice the blue duo-chrome that I mentioned for the rest of the life of this mani, and the other reviews I found on the internet didn't mention anything about it, either. Maybe it was a fluke? Huh.

Raindrops Franken Dupe Attempt 2

Well, this one was less of a realistic dupe attempt, actually. Mostly I was looking at that vintage Wet n Wild again, admiring the color, and wishing it had a different finish. So I made it jelly and added a few drops of grey and some Glass Slipper just for the heck of it.

Ingredients:
Sally Girl clear - fill one quarter of a mini bottle
Vintage WnW blue pearl-frost - fill one quarter of a mini bottle
Sally Hansen Glass Slipper - fill approximately one sixth of a mini bottle
Sinful Colors Cool Gray - 10 drops

Again, the Glass Slipper is hardly noticeable. Eh, oh well. Still cute.

Lady Muck

Butter London Lady Muck

Oh man. I love this polish. Lady Muck my first and only Butter London. It's more expensive than I would normally spend for a polish, but I had been eyeing the swatches online, so when Ulta had a $9 BL sale, I snatched it up immediately. And I'm so glad I did!

I was anxious when I first opened the bottle because the brush was smaller than I normally prefer, but it wasn't too bad. The polish itself totally made up for it. It went on so smooth and sweet. It was slightly sheer, though. I used two coats, but as you can see, three probably would have been better. Doesn't matter, it's gorgeous anyway!

Wish my pictures were better. They don't do justice to this beautiful Lady. Some shots are out of focus, some aren't color accurate. My dry winter skin is apparent, as is my lack of clean up. (I was probably just excited it wasn't another creme!) At any rate, it didn't disappoint, and I'm excited for wearing it! Yay!

Blu

Zoya Blu (Lovely collection)

Ugh. Why? Whyyyyy do I suck at cremes so much? I've been having trouble with Sinful cremes lately, but I expected my first and only Zoya to be better. Nope. Look at this. Look at the bubbles. Look at the unevenness. Look at those hideously flooded cuticles. And this is AFTER cleaning! Next time, I swear, I might flood all the cuticles on purpose to make it even at least. I asked for help on the MUA NB, and they said it's just that it's a pastel. Pastels typically have poor formula. They also said to try cleanup with pure acetone, which I haven't attempted yet.

Anyway, Blu is a gorgeous whiteish pastel blue. I absolutely adore the color. I'm not, however, excited to ever put this on again. So I was thinking of maybe frankening a jelly with it, or maybe Sugar Rush, since it's so similar. Would I keep the lovely color or add a shimmer to it? Hmm... I'll have to think on it! THIS makes me more excited than wearing the creme as is. Jellies are so much fun!

I also did a bit of an experiment with top and base coats on this manicure. As mentioned in my last post, I recently bought Revlon's Colorstay base coat and New York Color's Grand Central Station top coat. I want to see how much of a difference they make, so I applied them to every other nail. More on the results in a couple of days!