Hi Maintenance

Essie Hi Maintenance

Hey! I can't believe I didn't mention on my last post that I was going out of state. Must have been distracted. Anyway, yeah, I'm out of state for school for the summer. I only brought a handful of polishes with me, six to be exact. Not that I won't buy more, especially with the fact that there are CVSes here (there aren't any at home), but I should be on a college-student budget, since I won't be working. Plus the program I'm in is very intensive, so I won't have as much time to do my nails. That said, posts will probably be few and sporadic around here until late August.

That being said, here's Hi Maintenance, the sheer pink I brought with me, because of course I had to bring one. And this was the perfect candidate because it's a mini. I probably wouldn't have bought it if I hadn't have seen it on sale (fifty cents, woo!), particularly because the name is unattractive to me, but also just because I tend to be gathering quite a lot of sheer pinks, don't I?

Hi Maintenance is a little streaky, but mostly it's glossy. Oh my goodness is it glossy. I don't know why, but for some reason this one is just super shiny. Pretty cute for fifty cents, eh?

Edit 6/24/13 - I've since decided that Hi Maintenance is a jelly. The shiny, glossy finish should have been a clue, but I didn't realize until a few days later. I've been mistaken about jellies before, so the only sure-fire way to know, at least for me, is to try it over a glitter, which I did! And the glitter shone through, just glossier than before. Ta da! Jelly! :D (Or maybe that just means that it's super sheer. Who knows? It's all rather sketchy.) No pictures because my nails look horrible due to all the stress from school. They're all peeled to hell, and my glitter has been chipping off. So, next time, friends. <3

Whimsical, Heavenly White

LA Girls Matte White
Revlon Whimsical
Revlon Heavenly

This is one of my new favorite polishes, Matte White. Pretty streaky even at two coats, huh? Don't worry, we'll put something over it.

Aha, my beauties! As soon as I put Matte White on (my toes. That's where I test all my polish before I put it on my fingernails), I knew I wanted to layer Heavenly over it. But then I got Whimsical, so I decided to add it as an accent nail. I actually just recently realized that the blue base in Whimsical was merely a tint, not an opaque creme at all. So I had to have it.

Looks better in the shade, though, I think. I'm still learning about accent nails. Should I have left my thumb nail as Heavenly? Or does it look okay Whimsical? Hmm. I know my thumb nail looks like crap. Whatever. Actually... all of my nails look pretty sad today. Maybe the acetone? I swear I've been moisturizing. Meh. I'm still just not good at cleanup.

Wear - four days. Heavenly cracked before Whimsical.

Sorbet Goddess

Sally Hansen Sorbet (Smooth and Perfect line)
CoverGirl Goddess (Queen collection)

Not much to say here, just getting through more untrieds before I leave for the summer. No clean up because whatever.

Sorbet is my least favorite S&P. ... Okay, that's not true. Dune looks like a gross yellow on me. But I'm not one for oranges/peaches, so Sorbet's not my favorite.

Goddess is a holo microglitter in clear base. Pretty in the sun, but hard for me to photograph.

Edit 6/11 - Okay! Here's a picture where you can see the sparkle. I took it while laying in bed in the morning, hehe. I tried to crop, but it just made it look weird, so here's the full picture.

Polar.. Glitter.. Something

Sally Hansen Something Blue (Diamond Strength line)
LA Colors Glitter Bomb (Color Craze line)
Sally Hansen Polar Bare (Complete Salon Manicure line)

Meh, not really a good name for this. I was just trying to get through some untrieds.

Started out with Something Blue, a sheer silver shimmer with teal microglitter. It's actually way more elegant than I was expecting. Plus, check out those amazing cuticles! I've been using the Bert's Bees cuticle cream every weekday for about three months, and it's finally starting to make a difference. Woo! It's all been worth it!

Then, since I wanted to celebrate my last day of work, I added some sparkle!

Glitter Bomb is a nice mix of small and medium sized holo glitter. Suuuper pretty in the bottle, still alright but not quite as nice on the nail. There's not really much to say, but I took lots of nice pictures, so I'm going to add some more.

I like the look of the sparkle, but I'm having that problem again, where it makes me think, "That was a nice mani.. until I put some crap on it." Yeah, this time the crap is a pretty holo glitter, but it still makes me feel that way. So on day three, I decided to layer a sheer white, Polar Bare, over it. And it made the mani look, in my opinion, soooo much prettier, even though it didn't photograph as well. I'll have to remember from now on that I like something layered over my glitters.

Nude Glam - Cotton Candy

Essence Cotton Candy (Nude Glam line)

Yes, another sheer pink. What? Shut up! Okay, in my defense, I was looking for something to wear, tried this on, then decided against it. I took a few pictures with the LED lamp because, why not? Then I took it off and put on something different. (So excuse the not-quite-color-accurate pictures. Whatever. I'll try harder later.)

Don't Burst My Bubble

OPI Don't Burst My Bubble (Oz collection)

 

This may literally be the prettiest pink in my stash. I really don't think I was expecting how lovely this shade is. Not much else to say. Two coats, no tc or bc. Soft, pale pink jelly. Other reviews online call it white, but it definitely has some pink tint, in my opinion. Absolutely adore it.

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.

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!