Cinderella, Nude, in Satin Sheets

Sinful Colors Cinderella
Sally Hansen Nude Shimmer (Diamond Strength line)
Revlon Satin Sheets (Sweet Nothings line)

You know how I like to make cute names for my blog posts by mashing up the names of polishes I use in a mani? I had this great idea to use Cinderella and Satin Sheets together. They're both pretty, shimmery sheers, they'd work wonderfully together. But of course once I had the name in my mind, I needed to add something with "Nude" in it. I thought about it for a few days. What would be the best way to go about it? Maybe an accent nail of Cinderella on my ring finger and an accent nail of Nude Shimmer on my thumb? I asked the nail board, but the best they had was maybe some dots or stripes, but those things aren't really me. So I finally went with Cinderella over the Nude Shimmer for my accents. And how'd it turn out?

Hah! Laughably.

The Nude Shimmer is hardly visible under the Cinderella. And what's that on my ring finger? No, surely that can't be my beautiful Cinderella. Ugh. I should have stuck with one coat to begin with, but not only that, my second coat was too THICK! Bubbles. Gross.

Can you see the Nude Shimmer better on my thumb nail? Vaguely? No? Pfft. Whatever.

I'm in a slump right now. What with the Rejuvicote not being up to my expectations and letting my manis peel, the not being able to take good pictures in my new house, and now this disaster? I think I'm going to take a naked break for a few days. I know with all of my lovelies I can't stay away for long, but I just need to take it all off and defrag a little.

Pinky Sweet

Wet n Wild Pinky Sweet (Megalast Line)

Oh my goodness, I had the toughest time taking a color accurate picture! So... since I couldn't get the exact color, I decided to upload... a lot of them. Whatever. It's frustrating. At any rate, Pinkie Sweet is an adorable sheer pink with gold shimmer. It's from the new line that for some reason seems to be currently exclusive to Dollar General.

In other news, I've come to decide that Rejuvicote is the cause of my sheet-peeling-after-three-days that's been happening for the past three manis. Also frustrating! I was excited for Rejuvicote because it has such great reviews, and I was eager to see how it worked for me. I guess it vaguely helped my peeling, though not much, but the fact that it made my polish peel off leaves me completely unsatisfied. Guess I'm on the look out for another nail therapy.

Gold Rush Danse?

OPI Care to Danse? (NYC Ballet collection)
CoverGirl Gold Rush (Boundless Color line)

I was nervous about CTD? at first because it's purple. Okay, sheer lilac, or whatever, but it's still a purple, and I don't really do purples. But it's actually really pretty and even kind of goes with my skin color.

My last manicure was very thick, and thick doesn't last long with me (I have a picking fixation). So even though I wanted a jelly sandwich, I tried to keep it as thin as I could. I only applied three coats, not including the Rejuvicote that I've been using for about a week--one coat of CTD?, one of Gold Rush, and another of CTD?. (Review of Rejuvicote to come!)

I still haven't made up my mind about Gold Rush, though I've had it for a while and worn it quite a few times. Alone, it's not very attractive to me at all. In fact, when I put it on and looked at it, I felt the same way I feel about crackle nails, "Oh what a nice mani, until you spilled all that crap over it." Haha. But sandwiching it by adding another layer of jelly made it more tolerable. So, it might go into the swap pile eventually when I'm feeling especially minimalist-y, but for now I suppose it can stay.

Pirouette My Whistle vs. Azucar Comparison

Wet N Wild 2% Milk (Megalast line)
OPI Pirouette My Whistle (NYC Ballet collection)
Silly Bee's Chickadees Azucar (Café and Té collection)

Here are three polishes that I simply adore. Azucar, which is Spanish for Sugar, by the way, my newest polish comes as a gift from a friend because I had posted a link to it on Facebook. Theoretically, if I publicly scolded myself, telling myself that it was a close dupe to PMW and that I didn't need it, that would strengthen my resolve and I could stop lemming it and not have to buy. But my friend came to my rescue and bought it as a surprise for me. Thank you! <3

I chose 2% Milk to show off this comparison, something that wouldn't distract from the glitters themselves but would still be gorgeously elegant. This sweet, sweet jelly is not streaky at all. The reason my ring finger turned out slightly streaky like that is because I didn't dip the brush back in the bottle after applying my middle finger, so there wasn't actually enough polish on the brush when I applied it to my ring finger. Oops. Oh, and I guess you can see a little leftover shimmer from my last mani on my ring finger, too. Aww, man. Ooone more thing to complain about before we move on, I can't seem to take as good pictures in my new house as I had been for just a little while in my apartment. *sigh* This again.

Okay! On to the glitters! Obviously, PMW on my thumb, middle, and pinkie fingers. Azucar on my index and ring fingers.

PMW is a silver glitter with added larger satin hexes. Azucar, by comparison, seems to be all satin glitters, thicker concentration, nothing large.

When jelly sandwiched, it's harder to tell the difference. The color becomes similar, and the biggest difference becomes size of the glitters. So, apparently that was my trouble when I wore PMW before, I didn't sandwich it.

Obligatory closeup. Oh my goodness, please excuse that hair. How embarrassing! *dies*

Aaand, obligatory bottle shot. 2% Milk can be found at drugstores and dollar stores. It's an absolute must-have at the price of $2. Azucar can be purchased on Silly Bee's Chickadees Etsy store for $5.50. There appears to be only one left in stock, and I'm not sure if she's going to supply more or not. And PMW can be found at beauty supply stores for a little while longer. I think I heard that the Ballets were going to be discontinued, but I'm not sure if that's true or not.

So, final thoughts? If wearing in a sandwich, PMW may be the way to go. If only wearing as a top coat, Azucar is clearly superior. I adore them both, you can't make me choose!

Exactly Out of This Pointe

Sinful Colors Out of This World
OPI My Pointe Exactly (NYC Ballet Collection)

My nails are in terrible shape from working on this house, but thankfully you can't really see under this mani, hehe. I put on some sparkle to celebrate moving day, another untried. Out of This World is a simple silver shimmer. It's quite boring, actually. While applying it, all I could think was, "This would be great for frankening!" Maybe one day.

To turn it into something that I actually enjoy, I put on one coat of My Pointe Exactly over it. It didn't do much, but it made it prettier, in my opinion. I felt a little embarrassed just wearing OoTW alone, to be honest. I'm not sure why. But MPE mutes it just a little, just enough for my tastes.

Plus the squishy look of jellies is always pleasant. I could have added another layer of MPE for more jelly-feel, but I felt like I didn't need to at the time.

Skyline Blue

NYC Skyline Blue

I haven't been doing my nails much recently because my husband and I recently bought a house and have been doing some work on it. This mani actually lasted less than 24 hours before getting wrecked, so mostly I've just not been caring about my nails, and when they get painted, it's usually by accident and with latex-based house paint. Meh. But the walls are all pretty much painted now, and the movers are coming in two days, whether I'm ready or not, so it'll be over soon!

Not too much to say about this polish. It's yet another pastel blue, because I can't resist them. This one has a soft shimmer in it. While taking the pictures, I was frustrated, thinking, "Man, I just can't get a color-accurate picture for the life of me!" But... actually, it's pretty accurate after all. Not as much white in the base as some other blues I have, making it not quite as pastel. Below is a picture I took from farther away, hoping to get even more color accuracy, but as you can tell, it's not really that much different from the other two.

Confetti Slip

Sally Hansen Pink Slip (Complete Salon Manicure line)
Confetti Pink Confetti

More work stuff this week, so I started out with another sheer pink. This one was more streaky than Shell We Dance?, and thus more frustrating. Worked out alright though. It's not my favorite sheer pink, and I feel confident in saying that since my collection of them is growing so fast.

Came home and put on some glitter! Pink Confetti is an adorable iridescent glitter, two sizes of hexes. Very pretty, but nothing ground breaking. Glitter like this is getting to be quite common. Love it regardless.

But now for the best part! I saw on the MUA Nail Board a while back an instance of someone layering a pink sheer over a glitter (perhaps Mademoiselle over Snow Globe?), as if it were a jelly. The look was way cuter than I would have expected, so I had to try it out for myself.

And success! The top layer of Pink Slip had a sort of muting effect to turn down the bling of the glitter. It's very elegant and feminine, and I adore it.

Coconut Blue

Sally Girl Coconut (Scented)

Another blue creme for me. I was actually wearing Zoya Blu when I bought this. I have to wonder about myself sometimes. Well, I know what I like, at least! I like pastel blues, and I like coconut, so how could I resist spending an extra dollar? Anyway, I expected the lacquer to smell faintly like coconut while I was putting it on and then fade once it had dried, but actually it was quite the opposite. I couldn't smell anything while it was wet, but for two days afterwards, my nails smelled like sweet fruit. I'm not sure if anyone else could smell it or if it was just me, but I enjoyed it at least!

I actually hated this polish while putting it on. The brush is tiny and annoying, and of course I still hate cremes. But I struggled through it and a couple hours after it dried (maybe around the time the coconut scent began to kick in) I decided that I liked it. It's just such a cute color, and the scent is very nice. Plus, I'm getting better at creme clean up! (Except for that time that I didn't moisturize afterwards and all the pictures show where the acetone brush has been. Heh.)

I wanted to do something extra fun with this mani. I borrowed my neighbor's seldom-used stamping kit to try for the first time, but I could hardly get anything to show up. Then I tried using circle stickers for a French manicure, but those results were even worse. Ugh. Oh well. So, here's just some plain, pretty blue.

Popular / You Callin' Me a Lyre? + Pirouette My Whistle Comparison

Revlon Popular (rerelease of Starry Pink)
OPI You Callin' Me a Lyre? (NYC Ballet collection)
OPI Pirouette My Whistle (NYC Ballet collection)

These were some of the first polishes I had to have when I first started buying. The swatches I saw online were just so elegant and gorgeous! It's normal for a drugstore brand to dupe a high end brand, and though OPI isn't exactly a high end brand, Popular struck me as Revlon's take on the Ballet collection. I wasn't expecting quality, but I wanted to get it anyway.

The bottles aren't actually very similar looking at all. Apart from the fact that the Revlon contains both the glitter and the color while OPI bottled them separately, YCMaL? appears more peach than pink, compared to Popular.

But on the nail, the difference in color isn't much noticeable. What becomes obvious, however, is that YCMaL? is a great sheer jelly, and Popular is a milky, sheer creme. The glitters in Popular are regular silver hexes and small glitters. What makes PMW so amazing, on the other hand, is that the glitters are an amazing muted silver, almost matte.

One of the worst things about Popular is how the creme partially covers half of the glitters. It's streaky enough that some of the glitters get covered with the pink while others are left shiny. It leaves a messy, haphazard look. The OPI polishes had a much cleaner look, as expected, even though it doesn't appear that way in my pictures. I'm not sure why the small glitter in PMW looks so peppered.

Wear: Two days. I wore Revlon's Colorstay basecoat, and the OPI polish began to peel easily after two days. You can even see it beginning to want to peel on my index finger. I'll have to remember in the future that OPI polishes don't play well with this basecoat.