A Good Summer Red

I need to be in court for work tomorrow and started putting on a really dark red and I thought to myself, "Self, what would be a good summer red instead of this dark vampire red?" And I answered myself,

"Self, that would be Sally Hanson Insta-Dry - Racey Rouge, of course."

















I'm not a fan of the Insta-Dri family as a whole. I find them streaky and dull. This one applies fine though and I like the bright cherry red. The brush is okay; it's a cool shape, you know, but I find that it makes a weird point when you press down and it's a little hard to fit on my nails.

You know what? I miss my longer nails! These feel a little stubby now!

















Seriously, nobody is more surprised than me that my nails grew past the tips of my fingers and were fairly strong and unpeeled. I think I got freaked out and cut them short because I wasn't ready for being a superstar.

This is an older China Glaze holographic called He's Going In Circles that I layered over that Pure Ice I had on yesterday. It's pretty sheer on its own.
















That bottle was in bad shape in the clearance bin.

It looks fantastic! I'm glad I bought it.













Whilst I wait for my nails to grow I will continue swatching random things. Boy do I ever want that Nubar Wildlife, but I don't feel like buying the whole collection. I wish they'd sell those things separately.

I Thought This Was Greener

I don't know why, but the bottle seemed greener. Or metallic, but it's like a turquoise frost.

Pure Ice - Frosted Ice Calypso. Well duh, frost is right in the name.

















That's tip wear from sleeping. It even has a top coat on.

It kind of reminds me of Sally Hanson Gunmetal. Kind of like a summer version of that.












Pretty, but not what I expected from the bottle. I'm not a huge turquoise fan or a huge frost fan and I keep ending up with it on. Maybe I should just go with this trend and see what else I have and post them all and be done with it!

Pedicure Before And After - You Have Been Warned

After about a week in the summer the pedicure needs some love - for real.

I'm sorry. I know, it's gross. One of my favorite pedicure colors though, Revlon - Plum Seduction.











That's not a flesh-eating bacteria on my pinky toe; it's New Skin over a scrape. I pulled a chair out from the table on top of my foot. Ow. I always seem to injure myself in bandaid-impossibility zones.

Anyway, gross huh? I decided to show you before and after so people can see that giving them a little attention makes a big difference. I did a really quick pedicure. Soaked them in some Epsom salt, washed them with some sugar scrub, put on some cuticle cream, pushed cuticles back, clipped a teeny bit and filed and polished.

I'm sparing you my injured toe on this pic. Essie - Clam Bake. Discontinued! I got it for $2.99. I'm loving orange on my toes lately.











I could have spent a little more time on application and it would be neater, but look how much better the whole thing looks just cleaning it up.

Here's another discontinued Essie for $2.99.

Jackie Oh My. I thought it was a white sparkle, but it looks to have a slight pinkish tinge. I thought it would be more sparkly, but it wasn't very sunny today. Oh well.
















I was bored all day.

I want to try the Clam Bake on my fingernails. It's such a pretty clear orange.

Peacock

This is a suggestion by Lucy who tempered my dislike of Lime Lights. She said why don't you put it over black? She really liked it and thought my whining had something to do with my mood. I totally agree.

I chopped my nails off in a fit of pique last night so this morning I put on a dark color because I love a really dark color on really short nails.

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Dead Calm. I love this blue. I'm pretty sure it's like Orly - Star of Bombay, although that might be slightly darker from what I can tell. I don't have that one.















I put the Sally Hanson Hard As Nails Extreme Wear - Lime Lights over it because my application was truly horrific. I had cotton threads stuck in my index nail and everything.


Here are the two bottles. They look really cool layered!

















Like a peacock, in fact.

Pretty bird.






















It is so humid today that my pictures look foggy!

Again, serious bad application, but I didn't want to smear the blue all over the place and layering requires a bit smaller bottom layer.











Thanks Lucy, good idea - I hope you like it!

If you're horrified by my nail chopping, I am too. I cut them with clippers and everything, no filing!! I think it's because I was frustrated and working late and really tired and I started destroying them so I just cut them off. I was surprised how long and strong they were getting, so I'm sure I'll be back there again soon. They feel weird when they're longer than a millimeter anyway!

A Good Summer Color

This is another Color Club, but not part of of the ElectroCandy stuff.

Bizerk Turq. Cute name.


















It's a dark turquoise jelly. This is three or four coats. It applies a bit sheer, but thick.

I think this would be a nice pedicure color too.













It reminds me of Essie Greenport a lot, but darker.

When I'm nervous I pick my nails and I had picked this off within hours. That is REALLY BAD for your nails. Mine now have a couple of tears in the middle of the nail bed.

Anything that applies thick and needs more than two coats is pretty much done for with me by the end of the day. Not that I'm always nervous, but you know how it is.

Posting Im Mittelnacht with Skunk Smell

That means In The Middle Of The Night. A skunk got defensive outside and must have blasted the whole backyard and my eyes are on fire and my nose won't stop running so instead of staying up in the bed all frustrated I came down here to show you two truly awful polishes.

Sally Hanson Hard As Nails Extreme Wear - Lime Lights. I'm so mad at myself. I looked at this forever and knew it wouldn't be right.
















Yet today I bought it and how right I was.

A very pale frosty pastel turquoise.













Super cute for a baby blanket or something, but on my nails, bleah. I KNEW IT!!! Why don't I listen to myself???

And for the second one,

Nicole by OPI - It's Possible. No it's not. I loved the color because it matches some shoes I have.

















Granted, the lighting sucks, my application sucks, I could have used a ridge-filling base coat, my mood sucks, and this looked a whole lot better with only one coat and this is two.

But, come on. Double bleah.













I will now remove these and get myself back to bed now that my eyes feel less like sandpaper and my nose is slowing down to a drip. Stupid skunk. So what if I'm living in his or her territory and he or she has nowhere else to go because suburbia is taking over all of the wilderness.

Plum Duochrome - Gray, Green, Gritty, Gorgeous

I never would have bought this if my friend hadn't worn it. I swear these companies owe us commission. Lower thy prices, high-priced polish!!

OPI - Have You Seen My Limo? It's a little more stunning in the sun, of which there is none today, but the bottle and pics capture it well anyway.

















Here's a closeup of the bottle.

Plumish, grayish, greenish.


















On the nail you can really see the gray and green when you're inside, mostly plum outside.

It's a great dark plum with a twist. I love this polish.


















Like I said, I never looked twice at the store and then my friend had it on and I was like, "WHAT is THAT???!!!!!" And I bought it that day.

As for the grittiness, I just love how a lot of OPI polishes have texture without glitter or too much shimmer.











They look so THERE, know what I mean?

So, OPI, my friend gets a portion of your proceeds. I never would have bought it without her. Also, I get a portion of your proceeds too because she buys a lot of stuff I wear and post.

We would like you to donate those proceeds to the Humane Society. Get right on that.

The HD Is Not All That

I read a review of the Sally Hanson Hi-Definition nail polishes and they looked nice, but every time I saw them in the store they looked boring. Weird, that blue, green, purple etc. would look boring and it's in this really pretty HD deal that's supposed to look dimensional and futuristic and all.

Sally Hanson HD Hi-Res. In my opinion - it's boring!!!


















I bought this dark pink because there was no red and you know my pink problem. And I was just bored by the blue, green, purple and yellow.

I'm bored by this too. It doesn't look special, just kind of shiny.

















Oh well. It was buy one, get one half off, so I bought another Sally Hanson kind:

Sally Hanson Hard As Nails Extreme Wear - Brick Wall. I love that name.

















I've heard that reds can get addictive. I'm feeling it. There are so many different reds, and I thought a brick color would be a nice change, something different.

It is different! It's a much darker red than other reds (although close to my Mandalay Ruby) but not brown in the least, not pink or orange in the least. Picture colonial brick with bright white mortar.















Here's the mortar.

OPI Alpine Snow. Four coats of it. It applied nicely, but I wanted it completely opaque. This does not work as a sheer at all. Streaky.
















I was looking for a sheer white, but this didn't turn out to be that so I decided to do that RETRO look that I'll probably never wear.

Guess what? I really like this!! It's just so cool looking. I wish I had some mod dress to wear with it. Sadly, I'm wearing khaki's and a blouse. Anti-mod.
















Maybe I'll have an outfit I can wear this with at some point. I actually would wear this again, but it's a special look. It would look nice with a big white ring. Hmmm.... like they have in Annie Sez..... uh oh.... I feel some shopping coming on..... I'm totally building an outfit around these white nails.

The Beloved

Yes, this is my beloved polish.....

Orly Cashmere Cardigan. Feast your eyes.


















This is not lilac and not purple.

There's enough blue in it to preclude it from either lilac or purple.












Yet, it doesn't really look blue either.

I truly love this. I'm wearing it today and maybe tomorrow. Two coats does the job, and it applies kind of thick, so two is really all you need.
















This color makes me feel good. It's calming yet eye-catching. Flattering, and looks great with anything. This should be showing up at beauty supply stores soon because I think it was a spring 2009 color, along with Country Club Khaki, which I wore a few days ago. This one is so cool though.... I love these colors that make me think, "That's different."

Just Swatching Some Stuff

This polish is pretty. It's just so pretty. I heard about it all over the place and found it on sale so I bought it but never tried it. I knew it would be fine. This is one of the polishes that as soon as I started brushing it on I thought to myself, "Wow."

Barielle Date Night. This is from last winter or something. My local CVS doesn't have any of the spring or summer ones.

















This is a really nice green. It's not overly Christmassy like Emerald City (which I love and I'll post soon) and it has a nice mossy color.

It also has a pretty green shimmer.












Since I'm in "work appropriate" detention lately, unfortunately, I have to take this off.

Otherwise I would wear this tomorrow. I'm loving it.


















Ok, off to a couple of other colors. Here are two more CQs that I bought.

Sienna Cream. I didn't have high hopes for this and I was pleasantly surprised.

















The bottle looks much like baby poop.

On the nail though, it has a nice mauve base to the light brown and it's very pretty and just slightly unusual.

















Here's a promising bottle:

CQ All Heart. Lots of thick gold glitter in what looks like a sun-dried tomato color.

















Unfortunately,

Yeah, not so much. The first coat was tomato and it got redder. The gold glitter became glittery red. It's pretty, but all the glittery reds are pretty. I'd pass on this one.
















After the red I swatched a sheer on that same hand. Should've done that the other way around.

Orly My Beau. I think this is a wedding-type one. It's a nice sheer that isn't pink. It's a strong ivory and it takes on the natural pink of my nails so it works and looks very clean.
















This might possibly work for a french manicure. The white part of my nail is very wide even though my nails are short so I don't really like the look of a french manicure on me and it's pretty, but boring. Give me a Date Night over that any day.

Bar Glitter Love

I saw someone put bar glitter over black (someone's blog, I'm sorry I can't remember who or I would give credit) and I lusted, so here's my layering combo.

My screen door looks rock-out awesome as a background.


















The bottom layer is L.A. Girl Rockstar and the bar glitter is Bon Bons (no name - hot pink and turquoise)


















Here's the Rockstar by itself.

This is a sheerish black with flat purple glitter. Only two coats because I didn't want it to get too thick. I would do three if I left it at this.











This has that galaxy look and the black and purple give it a nice plummy color.

This would look good with a purple shimmer layer too, but I wanted something colorful.









I love how bar glitter looks hairy. If you really pack it on it gets to looking like a muppet.










Some of them hang off the edge, so I need to file those off.

I think it looks better in the shade. The sun blends it too much.

















My nails are getting long. I don't usually keep them at this length, but I'm tempted to see how long I can comfortably get them. Taking care of them makes them stronger. I haven't torn one in awhile and they are getting less peely.

My problem is extreme clumsiness and rushing around. I know I'm going to end up hurting something if they stay long.

A Bit Of Layering

I have a Sally Hanson that is purple with gold shimmer and I just bought this purple sparkly thing with circles and glitter that has gold in it so I thought they would go well together.

Sally Hanson Salon Plum It and J2 Purple Dazzle.













You can't really see the gold shimmer in the Sally Hanson and the purples don't match as well as I thought, but they look nice together.

Stars and planets in space.












I might want to leave this on for awhile!

This is a base coat, two coats of Plum It and two of Purple Dazzle and a coat of Seche Vite. Kind of thick.















I'm tempted to pack this glitter on and see how that looks.

I really love dark polish.


















Probably shouldn't be wearing this to work, but I'm gonna go head on. Vive le Revolution!!