Lucky Celestica

Black Cat Lacquers - Celectica and Lucky Star

Let me preface this post by saying that not all indie polishes are created equal. Some have very good quality control and strive to produce only the very best polishes for their customers. Others, well... don't. There is a look that I commonly see where a polish, particularly a glitter, isn't made with the right ingredients and the resulting mixture is an odd, strained sort of thing where the base seems too thin in a way. You'll see what I mean soon. (Don't get me wrong, I've seen commercial, and even high end, polishes do this, too. It just seems to happen more often with indies.) For this reason, I always try to find as many swatches online as I can before I make a purchase. This is one of the few times where not many swatches were available, and I went ahead and bought anyway. See where this gets me?

Celestica has a blue-grey-ish-white base with some shimmer and some iridescent glitter in square and two sizes of hex. It's a bit gloopy, but at least it has a small amount of self-leveling. Unfortunately, it's definitely got that too-thin-base thing going on. It's alright from afar, but close up? Blah.

Lucky Star, however, completely steals the show. She's an adorable mix of square, star, and various sizes of hex glitters, all in pastel aqua, pink, and lilac. Yes, there are stars in there, I just didn't feel like fishing any out.  I believe there are also iridescent bars, but they're not very prominent--just enough for one to show up and look a little awkward. Oh well! The base is clear, though since I put it on over the Sinful Colors Glow in the Dark mani I was wearing previously, you can kind of see it through a little. (The Glow still worked under both polishes, by the way, which I was excited to find!) Anyway, yes, super cute. I love it. <3

Here's a closeup of her. Isn't she adorable?

Wear: Celestica had tipwear within 24 hours. :/ I'll have to wear a different topcoat with it next time. And I already had a few layers of Rejuvicote on, so the thickness of it started to peel after two days.

Black Cat Lacquer sells for $9 at blackcatlacquer.com

Glow in the Dark

Sinful Colors - Glow in the Dark (Halloween 2013 release)

Hang on, something's wrong here... That's right, no pictures!

Well, I tried. I was excited to buy my first glow in the dark polish and come home to swatch it, but I was shocked to find that when I turned off the lights, though my nails did, indeed, glow, my camera couldn't pick it up! When I ranted to my husband that I had totally seen pictures of glow in the dark polish online, he tried to remind me that photoshop exists.

I refuse to believe that ALL nail bloggers are photoshopping their glow in the darks. That certainly can't be, right? So why won't mine show up?

Hmm... :/ Ah well.

Aside from the non-photogenic nature of this polish, the worst thing was probably the smell. It's probably whatever chemical inside that makes it glow, but something was certainly giving off a yucky fume. It subsided after a couple of hours, though, and at night while laying in bed, the glow was definitely worth it. :)

Robin's Egg, Take 2

Franken - Robin's Egg

To celebrate the bottom of my untrieds box, I decided to wear the first polish I ever posted, the one that made me decide I wanted to start a polish blog--a franken I made on a whim, trying to use the very last of a pretty hand-me-down I couldn't bear to toss out even though it was practically empty. It turned out looking like a beautiful, sparkly robin's egg, and I was in love. I've added a lot of thinner and even some clear polish since the first time I posted it, trying to get the consistency right, but it's still a pain to work with. Regardless, here she is. Let all of the growth (or lack there of) that I've gained in nine months of this hobby become apparent.

Wear: Three days. I could have made it last at least a day more, but I had a stressful day at work and nearly picked it off (thick with layers of Rejuvicote) on my way home.

Prospect Park's Adorable Blooms

New York Color - Prospect Park Bloom
L'Oreal - B. Adorable (Bijou Facets line)

I went into this mani with contempt for Prospect Park Bloom. Somehow I had already decided that I hated it. I guess I've just had pretty tough luck with cremes recently. But PPB wasn't actually all that bad. Sure, she was a little streaky, but I've DEFINITELY had worse, and at least she had a little self-leveling, which is more than we can say for some other polishes. It's a nice color, too, that pretty, soft pink that attracts me so. So I guess I'll be keeping her after all.

I was hesitant to put B. Adorable on over it, considering how many layers that would put me at. A few days of Rejuvicote, plus two of PPB, plus this, PLUS another coat of Rejuvicote when I was done? Yeah, that's going to last, especially considering my track record with polish-over-Rejuvicote, and also especially considering that tomorrow I'll be taking a shower and I'm learning that Rejuvicote hates water. But... come on, B. Adorable was my last untried! How could I possibly say no!?

It was overcast today, so my pictures of PPB didn't turn out as well as they could have, but by the time I had B. Adorable on, I was losing what little light I had fast. I didn't make it outside in time, so I had to settle with pictures inside. Meh. So needless to say, I couldn't capture her at all. She's actually a sheer, pale blue tinted, micro-fine bar glitter with shimmer. Not like you can tell from this picture. I'll have to get it again after my month of Rejuvicote is completed.

Wear: Yeah, no. Dented immediately because of all the layers. Removed after the pictures were taken.

Lush Lavender

LA Colors - Lush Lavender (Color Craze)

These might be the worst looking pictures I've taken. Lush Lavender is more of a sheer bronze shimmer than a lavender, and it only server to make my yellowing nails yellower. My application isn't great (the brush wasn't made for accuracy), my nail shape is wonky, and my middle finger is peel-y. Awesome. But I don't hate the polish, so I decided to upload anyway.

On Wednesday, I decided to give Rejuvicote another go. I'm going to be applying it every day for a month, and we'll see how my nails look around my birthday, October 14.

Wear: Removed after one day

Calla Lily

Revlon - Calla Lily (ColorStay line)

Calla Lily has been on my lemmings list for quite a while. It's not uncommon; you can buy it at any drugstore, but it's a little pricey for a drugstore polish at $8, and I just postponed getting it. So imagine my surprise when I found it at Big Lots for $1. I mean, it wasn't just any polish. It wasn't just a polish that looked like I might enjoy it. It was specifically the one that I was lemming! That doesn't happen often!

And she didn't disappoint, either. Calla Lily went on smooth as silk and is the exact delicate, elegant sheer that I adore. It's a beautiful sheer white with golden shimmer, and I love it! <3 Plus, it completely killed another lemming I had, Zoya's Gaia, which is similar but appears to be streakier than this.

Wear: Removed after four days to start my next Rejuvicote treatment trial.

Pearlfectly Romantic

L'Oreal - How Romantic
Essie - Pure Pearlfection

Wooooah, what happened? How did I go from such a nice, neat mani to such a subpar one? Several things must have gone awry..

 First, uuuuugh, streak. I have yet to find a L'Oreal that works with me. But the internet makes it look so good! How do they do it!?

Second, where did these lobster claws come from? WHY are my fingers so red here?

Third, what's up with my middle finger? I swear I've been moisturizing.

Fourth,  the pretty shimmer of Pure Pearlfection hardly even showed up...

Bah! I know that it is entirely possible for me to just not post these pictures, but here we are. Mostly because I like to archive every polish I wear so I can remember how well I liked or disliked them, but also, this following story: I was at PAX Prime, recently, a gaming convention, and, during a panel, a comic artist from the reality internet show Strip Search (perhaps it was Erika Moen?) announced that she posted the artwork she deemed inferior to embarrass herself into improvement. I thought that was clever, so I'll pretend that that's what I've been doing all along!

Wear: Four days

PEU4

Blue Eyed Girl Lacquers - PEU4 (prototype)

Oooooh my goodness, look at those RAINBOWS! This is my first linear holo, and putting it on for the first time was almost surreal. I kept looking at my nails because surely they couldn't be mine. Plus, PEU4 went on like a dream, smooth and perfect (not to be confused with Sally Hansen, this beautiful holo is something only Blue Eyed Girl Lacquers could create!). I applied three layers, just to make sure that my rainbows were good.

And then I went outside and took a MILLION PICTURES! It was near impossible to decide which to choose! So I decided on many. And it's a good thing, too, because my camera decided it wanted to show many different tints. The true color is somewhere in between everything I've posted. In fact, at some points, it seemed almost too pink for me. In some photos you can see how barbie girl pink it can be. I think I might like it better if it just stayed at the pale, dusty pink that's shown in the other pictures, but what can you do? Who can deny those rainbows, after all?

Aaand, just for the heck of it, here's what it looks like inside.

Wear: An unexpected five days, no top or base coat! For what it's worth, it removed remarkably easily, as well. Just a dab of normal acetone-based remover, and it's completely gone. So nice!

Fuchsia Glamour

NYC - Fuchsia Glamour

I'minloveI'minloveI'minlove! Oh my gosh, I compleeeeeetely underestimated this polish! I know that I picked it up after seeing a nice swatch of it on a forum, but then it just hung out in my untrieds box for a few months. I'm getting to the bottom of the box (finally), so I decided to give it a go, and I was completely blown away by how simple and elegant it is!

For some reason I guess I thought Fuchsia Glamour was a creme, so I was surprised to discover a delightful sheer pink with golden shimmer. (If I had known, I probably wouldn't have actually worn it today because my nails are a little stained, though they don't look so bad in the pictures. I need to do a month or so of some kind of nail treatment, I haven't decided what yet.)

Pretty pretty pretty! My OPI ballets have some competition, it seems!

Wear: ... Uhm, apparently I forgot to come back and log the wear on this one. Meh. I don't remember it being remarkable one way or the other, so it must have been around my average of 3 or 4 days.

Bride to Be

Sally Hansen - Bride to Be (Diamond Strength line)

I was sure that this color was a pretty grey, but it's more of a silver on the nail. And what is silver, really, but a shiny grey? There's also very subtle red and green micro sparkle, but it didn't show up in my pictures, either the sun picture or the shade! And honestly, you have to look really close to see it. So in practicality, I would call Bride to Be a sheer silver shimmer.

I expected to like this polish, but I just can't. Maybe because it's silver? I'm not sure what it is, I just can't get into it. Unfortunate, but there it is. Another one for the swap box.

Wear: Removed after three days. Just got tired of it, as expected.

Sally, My Iridescent Sweetheart

OPI - Sweet Heart
Sally Girl - unnamed iridescent glitter in pink-tinted base

Welcome back to Guilty Pleasure Colors, where we are committed to bringing you subpar photographs of nail polish. Today on Not the World's Greatest Pictures, we have a treat for you--the terror of peelies.

Sweet Heart is streaky as all get out, but she holds a special place in my heart because of all we've been through together. I rescued her from a thrift shop and nursed her back from the near death she suffered at the hands of a filthy muggle. Her cap was completely sealed from the polish spilled all over her neck, and the thinner surgery she had to endure to remove it was long and messy. So even though she's not the greatest polish, I cut her some slack because of her history.

And the Sally Girl was unexpectedly gorgeous. I don't know why it was unexpected--I know that I love iridescents. But it was also a little bit more blingy than I was expecting. I was going to put it on all of my nails, but after seeing it on my thumb, I realized that it's a bit much for wearing to work. Thus, it just became an accent nail.

I don't think I'll be wearing this mani long, at least not as long as I wore Cut the Cake. But being a first year teacher is totally exhausting, and I don't have much time for anything at all during the week, so we'll see.

Wear: Four days.

Cut the Cake

Orly - Cut the Cake

My first day of work is tomorrow! So here it is, the first mani for my professional work. Conservative, no? But still cute! I think it's perfect for tomorrow.

Cut the Cake is a sheer, shimmery nude. One coat looked fine, but then I added another at the last minute, just because. I think it would probably look adorable over a soft pink, so that's probably what I'll do when I wear it next.

Wear time: Five days. Noticeable wear after four, but only from close up. I got away with it on day five because it's a sheer.

Silver and Champagne

Orly - Au Champagne
Sally Girl - unnamed silver hex glitter
China Glaze - Matte Magic

What? A white pearl? Why do I even own this? Don't I know that I hate pearls? ... Oh yeah. The girls on the forums made it look so nice. So let's give it a go.

Au Champagne actually isn't that bad, for a pearl. Yeah, it's streaky, to be expected, but it IS pretty. And matte, the streak is hardly noticeable at all.

Also to be expected, the Sally Girl glitter involved a bit of fishing. Meh. Oh well.

As for the stained cuticles... before this mani, I started to put on a dark grey and realized immediately that it wasn't for me. I removed it quickly, but it still stained. Boo. Not sure what's up with my pinkie nail, either. The same thing happened last mani. I'll have to buff it out, whatever it is.

Wear: Two days. Lasted through one shower and died in the second. But for some reason it seems like it wore better than the NYC stuff. Dunno. I'll have to do a comparison.

Also, I put this picture on Reddit, as I occasionally do when I'm feeling affection for my current mani, and I got downvoted. Sure, I got more upvotes than downvotes, so my overall score was still positive, but it still hurt. I asked for some constructive criticism and got told that I needed more coats of polish and better application that "covers the whole nail." So.. this is just a reminder to me--I do my nails for myself. I don't do them for those people, and I don't even do them for anyone else that may be reading my blog. I do them for myself, and I do them the way I like them. Everyone else can stfu. <3

Pixie Dust

Orly - Pixie Dust (Once Upon a Time collection)

I found this cutie at a local beauty store sale, and I couldn't not grab it. (Look, she even comes with a cute pixie charm!) I was hoping it would calm my lemming of I Have a Herring Problem and I Don't Give a Rotterdam, but nope. Still craving those, as well.

Anyway, Pixie Dust is a pretty, shimmery blue-grey. The shimmers are quite large and almost fleck-like, though I'm sure they're smaller flecks than Glass Slipper. Here's a close up for you.

I wouldn't call it a sheer, but the two coats I applied don't really give enough coverage, obviously. As usual, I didn't care--two coats is pretty enough for me. And also as usual, I guess I didn't care enough for clean up. I may need to start caring again, because I'm tired of seeing my pretty pictures messed up by tiny drops of polish on my skin! I know it's exciting to take pictures of your pretty nails, self, but an extra minute to clean up would make a big difference, and you know it! Also those cuticles. Mm-mm, girl, you need to get your moisturizing on!

Pixie Dust is slightly darker than what I would normally wear, which is a silly thing to say, I know, because it's super pastel. But it's not a sheer nude, and that makes me slightly embarrassed, haha. While wearing it, I kept wondering, "Are my hands too noticeable?" Whatever, silly! I'll get used to it eventually!

Wear time: This is the best part, ladies and gentlemen--seven days! Whoo! That's the longest wear I've gotten out of a polish yet! Excellent! <3

Something Simple

Initial Lacquer - Something Simple

Something Simple is thick, streaky, sheer, and more in need of underwear than I had realized. But boy is she pretty. She's a sheer, milky white with iridescent, silver, matte grey, and holo glitters, though you can't see the holo glitter here because it's cloudy out today. Ah well. Next time. (Yeah, I know everything looks yucky because I don't like to clean up anymore. Don't care.)

I was expecting it to be more opaque, but honestly, sheers never really bother me much. In fact, I think it may be work appropriate on its own, which is always good! Now that I have a professional job, I'm always on the look out for more elegant polishes. ... Oh, who am I kidding? Elegant polishes are my favorite, job or no job! <3

The part that bothered me the most was the thick, almost gloopy consistency. Just means I have to be patient. *shrug* It's worth it to have such a beauty!

Wear time: A measly two days; didn't withstand a shower. Man, I really need to find myself a dependable topcoat.

Hallucinating Raindrops

franken - Hallucinate More
franken - Raindrops attempt 2

And now for the same thing in blue.

It did NOT turn out as well. My frankendupe is not a jelly (though I did make it with a lot of clear. Don't know what happened there) and layered on top of a thick glitter, it just looks yucky. In my opinion, it kind of looks like a bad indie. Nothing against indies, I love the ones I have, but I'm very particular about looking at all of the available swatches before I make a purchase. It just seems like a lot of indie brands that include glitter end up with a poor texture.

Anyway, next week it will be back to your regularly scheduled untrieds! I've quite enjoyed trying as many combinations of the few polishes I brought on vacation with me. I always try to do various combinations with my polishes, but it was fun being so limited for a while. On the other hand, I have a small basket of untrieds waiting for me at home that I can't wait to get my hands on!

Also, I got the job I was shooting for, yay! It's a teaching job, so I don't start until mid-August. I'll try to go crazy over these next three weeks until I have to tone it down at my semi-conservative school, but no promises. I'm naturally semi-conservative when it comes to polish, anyway. :)

Hi Hallucination

Essie - Hi Maintenance

franken - Hallucinate More

As promised, a jelly sandwich using Hi Maintenance. Isn't she pretty? In retrospect, it may have looked nicer with two coats on top. But still nice!

Forgot to take pictures until late in the day, and the only spot of sun was coming in through this window, so ignore the shadows from the window screen. (Also the sore from tearing at a hangnail. Oops.)

Close up.

Popular Raindrops

Raindrops Frankendupe attempt version 2
Revlon - Popular

More mix-and-match layering of the polishes I brought with me on vacation! One layer of Popular over one layer of the frankendupe. I had hoped layering a sheer pink over a sheer blue would result in a sheer purple, but it turned out more grey. Perhaps it is a grey-ish purple.

I was disappointed at first, but it's actually very lovely, especially from afar. I really think I like this Raindrops frankendupe attempt layered with other things more than I like it on its own (which is little). And I have grown more fond of Popular, too.

Raindrops Dream

Raindrops Frankendupe version 2
Pure Ice - Mint Dream

Trying to do various layering things with the six polishes I brought on vacation with me. This is one layer of Mint Dream over one layer of my second attempts at a Raindrops frankendupe. Full of flaws, but hey, it's something to upload! I think this was the second day of wear, and the tips are already starting to chip.

Mint Dream is definitely better layered than by itself, but I'm still not very fond of it. It looks like it would be perfect under a butterfly-wing stamp, right? But I just don't like duo-chromes. This has been Mint Dream's second chance, so into the swap box it goes.