After All This Time, Polar Bare?

The layers:
Revlon - Basecoat (Colorstay line)
Sally Hansen -  Polar Bare (Complete Salon Manicure line) - x2
365 Days of Color - After All This Time? (Horcrux collection, Fall 2013) - x2
Seche Vite

How lovely this mani is! So elegant and sheer. Totally my style. But that still didn't keep me from being a bit disappointed in After All This Time? This look was pretty much exactly what I was expecting from the bottle, but when I laid down my first coat, I was surprised to find that the base is entirely clear! I had to grab Polar Bare to layer it over.

I messaged 365 Days, and she said that it's to be expected because AATT? is a jelly. Apparently the pictures I've been seeing are three coats (or more), and that's why it seems as opaque as it does. I feel better knowing that, because I wasn't expecting a jelly. Now that I know, it makes complete sense, and I'm excited to try it again, three coats by itself!

Anyway, back to this mani and how lovely it is, hehe. <3 I love-love-love it. It does glow in the dark, but, as I've previously discovered, I don't have a camera that can take pictures of that. Boo. I'm also super enjoying my Seche Vite, which makes doing my nails a lot easier, yay. And here's Sissy helping me take good pictures out on the deck, even though it's cloudy.

Wear: Five days.

After All This Time? and the rest of the Horcrux collection are Limited Edition, so pick them up while you can. 365 Days of Color polishes can be purchased here, $8 for a full bottle and $4.50 for a mini.

Polish Rack

I'm pleased to present my new nail polish rack!

It was a birthday gift from my aunt. <3 This is the one here, $23 on Amazon. It's pretty sturdy and easy to put together without any tools. There were screws, but they just slid into the holes, and the nut screws in on the other side. You can do it with your fingers.

As you can see, my pretties fit in very nicely, just not quite all of them. I was able to fit about 65 in (the little space in the front is a reserved parking spot for a lovely I have coming in the mail), but I have somewhere between 80 or 90 polishes, plus the top and base coats I lined up along the side.

So I'm trying to decide if I want to purge or just get another rack.

I'll probably do a little of both, actually. If I had another rack, I could spread things out and make it a little neater, putting brands and collections together but separated from each other. I have another shelf beside this one where I could put it if I do a little reorganizing. I just hope having another rack with extra space doesn't encourage me to buy more. I'll just have to spread everything out neatly.

Silver Lining

Maya Cosmetics - Silver Lining

Rejuvicote as top and base coat

Silver Lining's been on my wishlist ever since someone recommended it as a lemming killer of Illamasqua's Raindrops. It's not actually that similar, though. I knew it wasn't really even before buying it, but it was pretty enough that I wanted it regardless. It has more in common with Lady Muck, I Have a Herring Problem, and I Don't Give a Rotterdam than Raindrops, really--a lovely blue-grey with a nice shimmer. With thin coats, it's pretty streaky, so on my swatching fingers, I tried to do one nice thick coat. It turned out well enough, except for the bubble on my pinkie nail. (What else is that on my pinkie? A left-over hex from last mani?) Hah. I guess I'll wait out the two thin coats next time. The formula was somewhat self-leveling, anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Maya Cosmetics polishes can be purchased from the website for $9.50.

Wear: Five days. I've been admiring this all week. In fact, after looking at it for so long, it does kind of resemble Raindrops. It's more jelly-like than my first impression told me. Is this what you call a crelly? Regardless, I am happy that I bought it.

Don't Touch My Taffy

Two layers of OPI - Don't Touch My Tutu (NYC Ballet collection)
One layer of Rainbow Polish - Taffy
Two more layers of OPI - Don't Touch My Tutu

A couple of weeks ago, Tonya of Rainbow Polish held a Facebook giveaway, one polish of the winner's choice to a randomly selected person who would answer the following question: What is your favorite Rainbow Polish? Well, that's easy! Shooting Star was my very first indie, so it was my obvious choice (terrible pictures here, as this was back when I first started blogging, but believe me, it's super pretty).  I was shocked to win, since I've never won a polish giveaway before, but looking through the other favorites posted, I saw Taffy had a bit of a following and decided to ask for that one.

And I'm glad I did! Taffy is a mix of pretty glitters--squares and hexes in white, pale green, pink, aqua, and lilac. (What appears to be mylar flakes on my pinkie is actually a herd of small aqua glitters. Took me a moment to figure that out.) It almost, almost kills my lemming for A Girl Obsessed's Fae. But who am I kidding? They're not the same, they're similar, right? So I definitely need both. Haha. I'm not usually one to use that meme, but I just love pretty pastels. <3

Anyway! Doesn't Taffy look adorable as a jelly sandwich with DTMT? Yep. Super cute. Thank you, Tonya! <3

Wear: Two days. Okay, come on now. What's the point of getting Seche Vite if I'm not going to wear it? That is totally to blame for my short wear time here. With the five layers, it didn't completely dry, and the glitter shifted and smudged everything within a couple of hours. You can already see the first of it on my ring finger in these pictures. MUST. REMEMBER. TOP COAT. *sigh* But it wasn't completely terrible, so I went ahead and kept it on through the weekend.

And actually, through the weekend I was wondering if the pink was too bright for me. Or maybe it's just that it's fall, and hot pink isn't a fall color. So maybe I'll wear it a lot more during the summer, yeah? :)

Sparkling Garbage

Orly - Sparkling Garbage (Mash Up collection, Summer 2013)

Here's my Birthday Mani! So many sparkles! :D

I had avoided buying Sparkling Garbage, a soft green scattered holo, for the longest time, despite hearing so many good reviews from the forums and blogs. I picked it up and put it down on several trips, and then finally one day it came home with me. And, goodness, I am SO glad it did! The delicate green shade and the beautiful scattered holo are utterly gorgeous. It's very sheer, as you can see. I'm wearing three coats here, and the nail line is still visible. It would probably look great over some undies if you don't like the nail line, but of course I don't mind it at all.

Wear: Seven days, whoo!! I didn't expect NEARLY that long! However, this was the first time I've worn Seche Vite, too, so it's impossible to tell how long the wear of the polish was and how much it was helped by Seche Vite. Tip wear started to appear on day five, and after a shower on day six, I couldn't help but push back my cuticles because they were crying out for it. So I could have removed on day six, but I'm proud I was able to wait and make this mani last a whole week.

Kim-pares

Nicole by OPI - Nothing Kim-pares to Blue

Alright, my first and only NOPI. I would normally never buy something like this because I don't want to give money to celebrities. Plus I hear that the bottle sucks, especially getting the polish out towards the bottom of the bottle. But here she was, this sweet little periwinkle blue, sitting all alone at TJ Maxx for $2. I couldn't say no to her. (Surely the Kardashians wouldn't get money from TJ Maxx, right?)

And actually, I don't even like it as much as I expected to. It's a streaky creme that takes three coats to even get to a tolerable level, and as you can see from the pictures, it probably could have used another coat. I don't even know if I even like this type of color on me, anyway. (It's much more purple-leaning than the pictures let on. Definitely more of a periwinkle blue than a cornflower blue.) But at least the brush was nice. Eh, I'll hold onto her for now.

Wear: Three days.

Month-long Rejuvicote Regimen Results

Despite my initial disappointment with Duri's Rejuvicote treatment, I decided to give it another go. Below are my results of using it for one month.

Pirouette My Glass Pink

Sinful Colors - Glass Pink
OPI - Pirouette My Whistle (Ballet collection)

I started out with Glass Pink because I hadn't worn it in a while, but after I put it on, I wanted a little more oomph to it. So I looked through my glitters and came out with Pirouette My Whistle knowing it would add a bit of sparkle while remaining delicate.

At first I didn't think I liked it. I've only tried Pirouette over cremes and jellies, never shimmers. So I actually had to tell myself that I liked it. And after a couple of hours, it became true, hehe.

Oh, and I figured out what my problem was since the last time I tried to take pictures and the silver glitters turned out like pepper. Turns out I need to photograph this polish in indirect lighting. In the full sun, where I normally take my pictures now--pepper. But stepping into the shade--beautiful.

Wear: Four days, then picked it off during a bout of work frustration.

Dandy Lyin' Around, Decanted!

China Glaze - Dandy Lyin' Around (Avant Garden collection, spring 2013)

Ever since I decanted Dandy Lyin' Around into a Megalast bottle, it's been calling to me. "Hooooolly," I could hear it whisper every time I opened the closet where my polish is kept. "Look how pretty I am! Remember what a nice brush this new bottle has? Put me on your nails!"

Today I consented.

God, I love this bottle. What a genius idea decanting was. Unfortunately the polish is still a bit finicky, but at least it went on better than the last time! And the pictures show how gorgeous it is! Aaaah, love. <3

Aaaaand then I tried to reposition a large glitter I put over top, ruined it, got frustrated, and removed everything. Bah. ... But isn't she pretty!? (And yes, those ARE all three different pictures, not the same one posted three times. They were all too pretty and I couldn't decide between them. ;-;)

Lingerie and Confetti

Rimmel - French Lingerie
Confetti - Pink Confetti

Since I have no more untrieds and I've been wearing any new polish immediately when I get them, I've also been thinking about going back to reswatch any polishes that didn't photograph well the first time around. Today I've got Rimmel's French Lingerie, the worst of five sheer pinks from a comparison in March.

This line of Rimmel's got such a nice brush, that magnificent pro-wide brush that I adore, so I loved putting it on. But it's just a bit streaky, and the middle finger of my left hand had some ridges that made the streakiness even more obvious. I really need to get myself a ridge filler.

Before I could let myself even take a picture of it alone, I grabbed the nearest glitter to cover it up. I was planning on just on the middle finger as an accent, but I don't think a middle finger accent looks good, and once the glitter was on that finger, I couldn't help but put it on the others, too, because it's so CUTE! Just look at how adorable that is. I love iridescent glitter. <3

Wear: Four days. Wearing it with Rejuvicote and adding a layer everyday made it too thick, but rather than picking, I used remover! Yay!

Onyx Scrubby Tub

I've been frustrated with glitter removal recently, so I thought I'd try out one of these scrubby tubs I've heard about on the forums. I've seen them nearly all stores where polish is sold--drug stores, grocery stores, big box stores, etc. I bought this one for $3 at Walmart. I chose this one from the others because it had the plastic bristle style (as opposed to sponges) and pure acetone (as opposed to acetone-based remover or non-acetone-based remover). Here's a few pictures of my first experience with it. (Sorry for the poor artificial lighting.)

Under the lid, the protective seal. It was a bit tough to open while trying to keep it level and not spill.

Inside, pink plastic with a bristle-lined hole to scrub your finger.

Took me about ten minutes to remove my previous mani. The bristles actually started to irritate my cuticles before the glitter was fully removed, which I wasn't expecting. It was kind of weird putting my whole finger inside of the acetone. And then, of course, my nails were pretty dry, but that's something I was expecting. I immediately put on a layer of Rejuvicote and then went to moisturize.

Got all the glitter off, but I'm not convinced that it's better than my other way with a rag. I know most people use the foil method for glitter removal (soak a portion of cotton ball in remover, place on the nail, then wrap in aluminum foil), but I never had the patience for what seems like tedium to me. Maybe I'll continue to use my rag for cremes, and whenever I come across a stubborn glitter, I'll pull out the scrubby tub to finish the job.

Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer giveaway

Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer, the maker of my fabulous pink holo, is having a giveaway! Prizes include one of her current polishes and one custom. Ooooh, my goodness, what would I ask for in a custom? Something ultra dainty and delicate, of course. Maybe a white jelly with silver and pink glitter. Or maybe grey. Grey would be good, right? You know how much I love my white glitters, but maybe I would want something new. Who knows!?

Find the giveaway here, and good luck! If you just can't wait, she also just recently opened up her store front, so you can buy yourself some pretties here!

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!