Servitude

The Polish
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: LynB Designs - Servitude, three coats
TC: Seche Vite

I, uh.... hmm.. I... I don't think so. I really WANTED to like this untried. I like this look so much in swatches, and I still want a polish that has this look, pretty iridescent flakies in a black jelly base, but I just don't think this is the one. The formula isn't right. It's a little bit thick and too finicky for me. It would be fine for someone who has more patience for it, but that person isn't me. Purge.

Wear: Removed immediately after some hesitation

Flakie Champagne

The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: New York Color - Pink Champagne, two coats
TC: Seche Vite
Added on day 2: Orly - Green Flakie Top Coat (Matte FX line), two coats (Shown in pictures 2-5)

I have to be in a particular mood to wear Pink Champagne anymore. It IS super delicate and cute, but I've been in the mood for more color recently. I just haven't been needing a palate cleanser.

I was pretty skeptical about putting on the flakie top coat at first, and even throughout that day. It really is just a matte top coat with some flakies in it. Nothing really interesting.

But after a while, I started noticing the flakies over the soft, sheer pink and the delicate gold shimmer.. the blue and green iridescent glitter.. They go so well together! They're both fine on their own, but together, they give such a transient, dreamy, effervescent feel. And the fact that it's matte just makes the whole thing seem even softer, smooth and satin-y. These pictures really just don't do it justice!

So, turns out, this flakie top coat I was having second thoughts about is actually a good deal after all. I'm already wondering if I would ever want just a regular matted manicure over a matted-and-flakied one.

Wear: Removed on day four with no noticeable wear.

Shall We Catch Her Dancing?

The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Jelly (layers 1 and 3): Sally Hansen - Shell We Dance? (Complete Salon Manicure)
Sandwiched (layer 2): The Lady Varnishes - Catch Me Dancing
TC: Seche Vite

Well, that was kind of a mess. I tried to do a little cleanup, but Catch Me Dancing was already drying, and I just made it worse. I need to thin it, but I don't have any thinner without heptane. (Heptane is bad for glitters.) Regardless! This mani HAS restored my faith in Catch Me Dancing. I was starting to think I didn't like it at all anymore, but turns out I just needed to put it in a jelly sandwich.

Wear: Removed at two days for something different.

Catch Me Dancing

The Polish:
BC: Sinful Colors - Base Coat
Polish: The Lady Varnishes - Catch Me Dancing, two coats
TC: Seche Vite

Meh... well, this isn't what I wanted. I didn't have any thinner with me when I went to apply this one, though it needed it, but I was already committed to the mani.

But I'm not sure if thinning it would make it any better--I think I would still hate it. I wore it last over another polish (though still a sheer one), but it's still not great. (Zoh my goodness, that peelie in the link! Eeek!) Plus that "jasmine" scent is terrible. Bleh.

My instinct is to purge it immediately, but I suppose I'll give it one more chance. I sure was excited about it a year ago. *shrug*

Wear: Two days. I used my hands a lot on day two and chipped my polish immediately. That night, the polish on my pinkie nail peeled off in one piece. Usually a base coat that doesn't agree with one's body chemistry causes that, but I've used my friend's SC before without event. Huh. *shrug*

The Worst Possible Air

The Polish:
BC: CND - Sticky
Main Color: Sally Hansen - Air (Smooth & Perfect line), two coats
Glitter: Rainbow Honey - The Worst Possible Thing (Equestria collection)
TC: Seche Vite

The Worst Possible Thing is a polish I've been admiring since I first got really into polish more than a year ago, so when I found a mini on a blog sale, I bought it immediately. Unfortunately, it I don't make it look as good as the professionals do. Maybe I needed to put it over a darker color, but that's probably not the only thing. Where are the shards/flakes in their swatches, I ask you? They seem to be all over mine. Pointless Cafe's swatches, too. I looked REALLY closely at the first two and finally was able to spot some. I have no idea why they show so much more on a lighter color than on darker... Right. Anyway, lesson learned. TWPT is goes over dark colors only.

I tried and tried, but I just couldn't take a good picture last night. Finally I just gave up. On a whim a couple hours later, I tried in the bathroom. Great success! ... Well, maybe not great, but definitely better than it had been, at least. And then I took some pictures outside this afternoon, too, and they were also slightly better.

Here's a crazy out of focus shot that I decided to keep because I love the colors. It probably won't last long, but I currently have it set as my desktop background, haha.

Dawn was trying very hard to get my attention last night when I was trying to get a good picture. Here she scoffs.

Apart from the thing with the polish I mentioned above, I was also disappointed with the tiny nub of a brush that comes with the mini bottle. Judging from the website and recent blogs, they've changed mini bottles since this polish has been released, but that doesn't help me now any. Oh well.

Wear: Removed at four days. I wanted to do a wear test for Sticky, but I got too excited for other polishes and wanted to change. Oh well.

Heavenly Leche Angel

The Polish: 
BC: Duri - Rejuvicote
Main: Jelly sandwich with one coat of Silly Bee's Chickadees - Leche, one coat of Nicole by OPI - Heavenly Angel, and another coat of Leche
TC: Sinful Colors - Quick Dry

Well, this was pretty much a failure of a mani. I've seen jelly sandwiches with flakies work before. Here's one from Sincerely Stephanie, here's one from Chalkboard Nails, and here's one from Ivana Thinks Pink . So I know it's possible. It just didn't work here.

Also, did I mention how much I hate flakies? I've had the thought before, but now I know it's true. Flakies just aren't for me.

(Also I had forgotten how small the Silly Bee's brush is. But it's fine, I suppose.)

It's important to learn from our mistakes and move past them. So what did I learn here? Just that I'm not gonna wear flakies again, I guess.

Sinful Skittles

The Polish:
Thumb: Sinful Colors - Rain Storm (Haute Rebel collection)
Index: Sinful Colors - Sugar Rush (Sugar Rush collection) (two coats)
Middle: Sinful Colors - Cool Gray (Haute Rebel Collection) (two coats)
Ring: Sinful Colors - Beau Khaki (Haute Rebel Collection)
Pinkie: Sinful Colors - Social Ladder (two coats)
Over Beau Khaki: Sinful Colors - Out of this World
Over everything else: Sinful Colors - Green Ocean (Saint Patrick's Day 2013)

Since this is Skittles week on Makeup Alley's Nail Board, I decided to take this opportunity to go through my Sinfuls and see if I could purge anything. There are some that I know I can keep, like Glass Pink, Cinderella, and even Glow in the Dark, but the others I needed to revisit.

Rain Storm is a delightful one-coater. It's such a beautiful, dusty shade of blue that I enjoy so much. I'm still not sure if I enjoy it on my nails or not, and it takes a steady hand to apply, since it's so thick, but I just can't bear to part with it. Not yet at least. (It got messed up here, due to some cat hair. Ugh. I need to do my nails in a clean room or something.)

Sugar Rush, on the other hand, was just as frustrating as I remember it being. It's one of those streaky cremes that I dislike, and I have other polishes that are similar in color. Purge.

Cool Gray is also streaky, but I don't have any other colors that are similar. It's such a nice color, too. Keep.

Beau Khaki has a formula similar to Rain Storm, though not quite as nice. It's a pretty color, though, again, I can't see myself wearing it much on my nails. Keep for now.

And Social Ladder. How could I forget how much I liked you? A pretty sheer, shimmery pink, delightfully delicate and dainty. Keep, of course.

This is the first time I've work Out of the World over something. It was boring on its own, and I was about to purge it months ago until I realized it might make good frankening material. I've never made a franken I've been super excited about, but theoretically it sounded good. But now I see that it's also nice enough over a creme. So, keep for now.

And finally, Green Ocean. Ah, Green Ocean. I keep going back and forth about you. I really don't like flakies, particularly how it's hard to get them to lay flat, and I definitely don't like the awkward green-tinted base this one's in ... but look at that pretty iridescent shine. It's especially pretty over a darker color, like Rain Storm. Even though I never wear darker colors. *sigh* I can't get rid of you yet, either, I suppose.

So... I only managed to purge one? Gah. Oh well.

Flakies to the rescue!

The Color Workshop - unnamed flakie (NOTA?)

Okay, that didn't last long. I wanted to put on something, so I decided to just put on one coat of something sheer, this The Color Workshop polish I found at a thrift store. No base coat. No top coat. No strengtheners, fortifiers, or therapies. Just the polish.

And I loved it. I wore it for a day and then decided to try and take a picture. I put on another layer, just for effect, and scoured the house for a good spot to plug in my LED lamp. No where. No where in this house has good, white light. Then my husband said, "Why don't you just go outside?"

I've taken pictures outside before. It sucks. The glare of sun makes it impossible to see what's on the screen, meaning I'm taking blind pictures. Plus, they don't even turn out that well. But, desperate as I was, I stood out there playing around with it, and then finally found the BEST technique. While standing in the sunlight, I turned with my back to the sun and took a picture in the shadow of my body. Perfect!

I think this may have been enough to get me into a positive mood about polish again. I'm not going to worry about Rejuvicote or my peelies or fancy mani ideas. I'm just going to wear my pretties. And I'm going to use this technique of standing in the sun but taking the picture in my shadow. It'll be great.

Oh yeah. As for the polish itself. It's a small flakie in a sheer pink, almost duochrome base. It's obviously meant to be layered over something else, but I like it on its own. It's conservative and pretty, and while I don't love it, it was nice enough to make me want to give nail polish another go, even when I was frustrated with it.