Boy's pick: Milani Brisk Orange

Today I asked my man what color to paint my nails, his response was "metallic orange." Well, I happened to be at my parents house and my mom recently bought two orange shades of Milani on a Walgreens trip, so I snapped a cell phone pic of them and asked him to choose between Bijou Bronze and Brisk Orange. He, wisely, chose Brisk Orange. Now normally the boy doesn't care what I do to my nails, he's just not interested. In fact, the first time he saw my stash his reaction was "Holy cow miss." He had no idea the depth of my addiction. So, even though he chose the color I don't expect to get much reaction out of him. In fact, I probably will have changed this by the next time I see him.

Here were his choices

Milani Brisk Orange is from their High Speed Fast Dry line and says "one coat formula" on the bottle. Well, one coat is a lie. I needed three to get full opacity, but probably could've gotten away with two. I can't attest to the fast dry because I gingerly used my fingers until I could get a fast dry top coat on my nails.

 

The color is gorgeous! It's a beautiful orange with a gold glass fleck. The color is true orange, not red or yellow leaning. It dried with a smooth finish but it looks like it has bubbles. I can't decide if this is the glass fleck or if it's actually bubbles. Now, I'm not normally an orange girl (the color or the fruit) but this is nice. It's a great color for the recent cooler weather around here. It would look great with some black design for Halloween or some different colored leaves as a fall polish. I will probably stamp some leaves over this actually.

Cell phone without flash

Cell phone with flash

I swear I'm not a ghost, this picture is the most color accurate

The macro

 Loves!

As promised, the stamping of leaves

 REMOVAL EDIT: This polish chipped like a beeyotch! Within 24 hours I had chips on my right hand and less than 12 hours after that I had them on my left. Removal wasn't a problem because it all chipped off! So glad this isn't my polish, my mom can keep it!

Mint Chocolate Nails

I want to eat my fingers today! I recently embarked on a new "diet" called The Belly Fat Cure that limits carbs and sugars. Not eliminate, but cut down on them. So, being a week in I'm still craving all the crap I used to eat. However, the numbers on the scale and my waistline are motivation enough to keep going (plus, like body builders do, I'm allowing myself one cheat day per week). It's really easy and for the most part I don't feel like I'm giving anything up, although I know there is about 3 dozen unbaked cookies in my freezer and they are just calling my name. So, I decided to use an untried to make something yummy. I will probably use this technique to do a Dexter inspired blood spatter mani using white and red.

Ok, enough rambling about my panza. Here's what I did:

• Base coat of OPI Nail Envy
• 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet.
• One coat of INM Out The Door topcoat
• Nubar Milk Chocolate Créme on the tips in a wavy, wonky sort of line, using a dotting tool to make the drip marks
• Another coat of INM OTD top coat

As far as application:
Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet was streaky on the first coat and leveled out opaque on most nails on the second coat. It's very highly pigmented and covered well. The color is a lovely mint green, maybe a shade or two lighter than ice cream. It doesn't have any blue leanings, it's a beautiful creamy, minty, grasshoppery color. Apparently Xtreme Wear doesn't have the same wide rounded brush that I'm used to with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure but no complaints about it. Formula was spot on, not too thick or too runny, although it is on the thicker side of the scale.The color reminds me of old doctor equipment, specifically a dental chair. I have no idea why I would make that association though. I don't understand how my brain works.

No flash, pretty color accurate

No flash

the most color accurate picture

Nubar Milk Chocolate Crème is fun. It really does look like milk chocolate. This is only my second time using this (the first being the leopard half moon fail) and both times as an accent. To achieve the drip look I just painted across the tips and a little strip or two down each nail, using my dotting tools (that I got on eBay for seriously about $2.50) to smooth out the brush marks on the drips. I am going to have to properly wear this Nubar on it's own some day. After I work my way through the rest of my Sally Hansen untrieds though.

So, what do you think of my dessert nails? Are you headed to your local ice cream store now? 

Flash

Flash

My favorite one! No flash

Picture taken with my phone outside, it was overcast so no sunlight.

Loves!

REMOVAL EDIT: Creams are always so easy to remove! Like buddah!

Sally Hansen CSM Golden Ticket

When I think about the name of this polish I always picture Gene Wilder eating the daffodil teacup in "Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory." I loved that movie as a little girl and still do, although I'm surprised at how dark it is. A classic for sure. "Violet, you're turning violet, Violet!" and the band Veruca Salt with their song Seether. Wow, I'm showing my age here!

Enough waxing nostalgic. Golden Ticket is a sweet gold micro glitter in a peachy rosy base with just a hint of red micro glitter. The overall effect is of rose gold or a shade or two brighter than a new penny. This is a super cool shade ad I'm glad I bought it, even though it's not my usual range of colors. Please excuse the chips, this was my third day of wear and I never seem to be able to wear anything for more than that, it always chips on the corners of my nails. I'm gonna blame it on all the crocheting I do but it also probably has to do with the peeling nail underneath. This was another purchase from eBay, which is one of my worst vices and favorite places to shop.

Look at all the pretty gold glitter!

 

Finally, a very sad day for me! I have been wearing a tea bag patch on my right thumb for 2 weeks and was just waiting for my UV light to come in so I could use a gel polish to fix the crack. It came in Wednesday but I had to work overtime Wednesday night so I didn't get a chance to fix my nail. I wore a bandaid over for 13 hours at work and somehow managed to break of the edge where my nail was cracked on my way home!!!! Waaaaaah! Check out the devastation! 

REMOVAL EDIT: This was easier to remove than larger glitters but I still went with the foil method. It didn't leave me with glitter in the cuticles or all over my fingers. I really am a huge fan of these Sally Hansen laquers. They're great!

Loves!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Lagoon

First off, bubbles and brushstrokes? Really? Actually I don't mind brushstrokes but bubbles? C'mon!

So, application and drying issues aside I fracking love this color. Lagoon is another of my untrieds, and another eBay find. eBay FTW!!! It's a frosty teal, and in the bottle it looks duochrome. Sadly, it's not on as obvious the nail. The finish is a bit frosty, a bit metallic. Oh hell, I feel like I'm talking out my ass here. Just look at the pictures, you'll see.

I added an accent nail of some of my mom's new finds (she's recently decided she loves glitter polish and brought home four bottles the other day, three with holographic glitter. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree in this family!) Anyway, my accent nail started with SH Xtreme Wear Disco Ball but the holo effect was not to my liking so I topped that with Wet 'n' Wild Kaleidoscope. When I mentioned to my mom that Lagoon bubbled she said "Put some glitter on it," which reminds me of the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding "put some Windex on it!" She's right, can't really go wrong with glitter.

One more thing: this color is remarkably similar to the blue in my tattoo. If the tattoo wasn't healing and peeling right now and looking like some sort of contagious skin disease I'd take a picture of the nails next to the new ink. I won't subject you to that nastiness right now though! Go ahead and thank me!

On to the lovely pictures!

I don't know how to flip this image! Argh!

Look at the prettiness!

Outside some sunlight

Indoors artificial light

Indoors, artificial light

Indoors

Close up of the accent nail

Indoors with flash

Outdoors some sunlight

Removal: I was happy to remove this but ONLY because of the bubbles, removal was easy but left me with blue aka Smurf fingers. Nothing another swipe of acetone couldn't take care of though!

Teal Toes (and fingers too!)

September is ovarian cancer awareness month and September 2nd is Teal Toes day. Both my mani and pedi are teal today. I never match my polish, heck, I purposely try to not match when it comes to my outfits, so this is a big deal! My fingers are SH Fairy Teal and my toes are Sinful Colors Rise and Shine. I will spare you all pictures of my feet and just post a macro of the color.

Fairy Teal is one of my favorite polish names ever, it's so clever. It's a nice teal cream that only required two coats. I probably could've used one thick coat though. I finished up with an accent nail using a Bundle Monster stamping plate 223 with a zebra design. This is only my third time stamping so I'm still learning but it's getting easier. The black is Wet 'n' Wild Black Cream.

Sinful Colors is a polish I've been using for at least 13 years. It's cheap at Walgreens and they have some great colors. I'm not sure when I bought Rise And Shine but it's a shimmery teal. It dries flat so it must have some neon pigment in it, although I wouldn't consider this a neon. I topped it with Sally Hansen Double Duty base and top coat to make it shiny.

Putting these two side by side there is an obvious contrast between them. Fairy Teal looks gray in comparison to Rise And Shine. I may have to rethink my color description of Rise And Shine. (shhh, the truth is I'm not really sure what qualifies as teal hehehe)

I love both these colors!

 

 

Run for your lives! It's a toenail shot!

Loves!

A great idea FAILED!!!!

I saw an amazing example of nail art at The Daily Nail that I thought I could do. Sadly, I failed at it. However, I still like it and think I will try again at some point, learn from my mistakes. Here's a crappy cell phone pic of my fail!

Loves!

Quick post - blog giveaway!

Check out this giveaway!

My First Franken

Last night I was perusing my usual nail blogs and came across Cristina's franken of Deborah Lippman's Candy Shop. Her franken was pretty, and I've been looking at other swatches of the trio of glitters that come in the Get This Party Started pack. However, I cannot justify the cost of the trio, $42!!!! WTF? Who can afford those prices? Deborah Lippmann has some seriously beautiful glitters and polishes but I have one and cannot see myself buying another on my budget.

So what's a girl to do? Make her own, of course! Here's what I used:

Wet 'n' Wild: Dreamy Poppy, a medium pink cream
Milani: Gems, a known dupe of Happy Birthday minus some of the tinier square glitter DL has (and honestly in swatches I can't tell the difference)
OPI: Alpine Snow

And here's my technique:
I added a few drops of pink to the bottle of Gems and shook. I thought I was satisfied and was almost content to let it be. However, after wearing it for 10 hours I decided the base wasn't milky enough so two drops of white were added and voila! my franken was complete!

Here it is! I used a base of China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat, two coats of my franken followed by two coats of Seche Vite to cover the texture of the glitter. I love how the glitter seems to float in the pink. 

 

 

 

 

I also made the black from this collection, I'll properly swatch it at a laer date. Here's what I used for that though:

And finally, for fun, a quick picture of my skittle mani from swatching. My thumb has just Gems over it, pointer is Silver Lining, middle is my pink franken, ring is my accent nail from my last mani, and pinky is the black version.

I'm thinking of calling this Dulceria. So, what do you think of my first franken? Have you ever made a franken before?

REMOVAL EDIT: Well, it's glitter. It's a pain. I used the foil method and still ended up with glitter everywhere. I would not recommend removing this by swiping with remover and a cotton pad over and over. You will lose your mind trying to get it all off. I ended up scraping some of it off with my fingernail. Not sure if the prettiness is worth the PITA-ness. Wait, I'm sure, it is.

Loves!