Nail Polish Stash Part 4- Essies and Orlys

Today's set of stash photos are of my Essie and Orly polishes... sadly I think that my Essies tend to stay untried for really long periods of time. I'm not entirely sure why, but they just seem to stick around in my untrieds drawer the longest...I've only tried maybe 7 of them so far...anyways...enjoy the bottle pics, and let me know if you want to see anything swatched/worn.

A couple of new MAC items...Blue India and Creamsheen Glass in Deelight

Here it is! MAC Blue India! It's a MAC polish I actually LOVE. I have a few other MAC polishes, but the formula on this one is way nicer than the other 3 that I had..it's opaque in 2 coats, but I did 3 as usual. It's a beautiful dusty deep blue color. IMO Sally Hansen Gray by Gray isn't even close in person. Blue India is from MAC's newly released Liberty of London collection and retails for $12, which is kind of pricey..but I do think the color and formula are worth it this time.

So here's my first makeup related updated in months...I did my first B2M for Cremesheen Glass in Deelight. I wasn't planning on getting any more lip gloss for a while (or makeup for that matter), but I decided to get this one for the name since Dee is the name of one of my favorite people. Deelight is a nice, kinda mauvey neutral pink color a shade lighter than my own lips..it's got pretty decent pigmentation, and is much smoother and less sticky than MAC's lipglasses.
Here it is on my arm..I've gotten a lot lighter the last few months so the inside of my arm is probably around the 20-25 range now.

On the lips, natural lighting. You may notice that it appears to settle lightly into my liplines, though it's not really noticeable in real life...the macro setting on my camera just makes it appear that way. I has the same vanilla scent that I'm used to getting with MAC lipglosses. Overall, I'm pretty happy I picked it up, though I don't have any plans to pick up any of the other creamsheens.

NOTD: OPI Purple with a Purpose

Today's NOTD is Purple with a Purpose. It's opaque in 2 coats, but this is 3. It's a nice blue based purple with pink shimmer, making the overall result warm. The pink shimmer doesn't show up as strongly in pictures though, and the polish pulls bluer in pictures.

Sun:

Indoor lighting, the pink shimmer shows better here, but the color is less vibrant.

Nail Polish Stash Part 3- OPI and Sephora by OPI

Not pictured is Got the Blues for Red...because I bought it after taking all these pics and am too lazy to photograph just one polish on its own right now..as stated before, I'll be happy to take swatch requests

Alice in Wonderland semi-inspired NOTD

"`Would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, `why you are painting those roses?'

Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. Two began in a low voice, `Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a red rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake; and if the Queen was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know. So you see, Miss, we're doing our best, afore she comes, to--' At this moment Five, who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called out `The Queen! The Queen!' and the three gardeners instantly threw themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps, and Alice looked round, eager to see the Queen. "

--Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

I was originally not planning on doing a themed mani, but my excitement to go see the movie got the better of me. (Unfortunately, my last two attempts to go see this movie have been thwarted, but I'll see it eventually) My original plan was to do a manicure with the 4 playing card suites on my fingers and then a white/red rose on my thumbs, but apparently no such Konad plate exists with spades, clubs, and diamonds..so I ended up doing red roses over white polish. I used the Wine Red Konad Special polish and the large rose pattern from plate m13 over OPI Fit For a Queensland to create this manicure.

Fit For a Queensland was semi-difficult to work with, but not terrible due the the pro-wide brush. It took me 4 coats to smooth out the patchiness and streakiness of the polish, but I feel like I'm fairly happy with the results. (I say 4 coats, but I've found that I tend to use more coats than I've heard other people say they use on other polishes, so it's possible that individual results would vary) It's a nice white/ivory color with fairly subtle pink glowiness in it. Then again I got my particular bottle at Ulta on Clearance in a 2 pack with My Big Break for $5 a while back, so my love for this polish may be slightly biased.

Claire's Mood Polishes and How I "care" for my Nails

I'm usually not a huge fan of Claire's nail polishes, but the new mood polishes were too cool for me to pass up. Claire's mood polishes are a set of thermosensitive polishes that react to the temperature of your body/nails or its surroundings. There are 5 colors available, and they retail for $5 each, though Claire's has an ongoing promotion of by one get one 50% off. So far, I've only tried the teal/green one. The formula wasn't the greatest in my opinion..it took me 3 careful coats to even it out, and my bottle was kind of thick and harder to work with...if I wasn't careful, I wound up with some bald spots. Thinning it by a few drops helped a lot...though I did see someone post that hers applied nicely...so it's very possible that quality is inconsistent between bottles. It dries down matte-ish (not shiny, but not fully matte either), but adding a layer of topcoat fixes this easily...and doesn't mess with the color changing capabilities of the polish.

Here is the shade it turns when it's warm. This didn't photograph quite right..the color is much less blue to me in person..though this might have been because there was no sun that day. If you own China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, I found this color really similar to that in person.
I ran my hand under cold water for a bit..this was the result. It's a deeper. more vibrant color in person,
Here's a picture of my thumb, because you could see the color difference a little better. It's kind of a cool gradient like effect with the "cool" color being apparent on your free edge. This effect is stronger in person, but I don't really have a long free edge when my nails are longer, so the effect is less apparent on me.

The effect is much nicer on longer nails...
These beautiful nails belong to Manatee Mama of http://themanicuredmanatee.blogspot.com/

I got bored later on in the day..so I added OPI Pearl of Wisdom on top. This didn't affect the color change capabilities of the mood polish...and it made it more fun for me. The pink flash doesn't quite show up in the pictures, unfortunately. here's "warm" aka Confident.
Here's an attempt to show a gradient...
"Cool"--Peaceful with Pearl of Wisdom..When it changes to the darker color, the pink flash in Pearl of Wisdom comes out more...it's still not apparent in my picture unfortunately.
Manatee Mama has more swatches of the rest of these on her blog...you can find them here. She's missing the gray one..smart choice on her part..the 'warm' color is pretty darned ugly..which is a shame, because the gray itself is nice...I keep filling my head with thoughts of how I'd keep my hands icy cold the day I try wearing it for a full mani. That's it on the mood polish though from me.

Guitarrasara asked about my nail care in a comment after my last post...unfortunately..I can't say I'd be particularly helpful on the nail care itself...I do a lot of things that would make people that actually take good care of their nails gasp in horror. (I use them as tools...and will rip things open without the use of scissors or whatever..I have naturally thick nails, so it's never been a problem...my problems with my nails lie elsewhere really) There ARE a few things I actually do though.

First off, I should mention that I'm a cutter; I don't file my nails at all. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it, I just don't have the patience for it..and the feeling of a file on my nails bugs me to pieces. I clip my nails down every 2-4 weeks, depending on when it is that the length of my nails start driving me batty. An important thing for me to remember when I cut my nails, is to make sure they're properly moisturized. I'll either do it after bathing, or after removing my polish and oiling up my nails/cuticles. I let the oil sink in for a good amount of time before I start clipping. This may not be true for everyone, but for me, if my nails are too dry, they have a tendency to split when cut. It's also good to resist the temptation of peeling your polish off when it starts to chip...I did this with my mani of Absolutely Alice...I damaged my nails a bit after that. (A couple of nails had the polish come off in sheets on it's own..so I decided to see if the rest could come off the same way...it was a bad idea).

I'm also not big on buffing my nails..I find that when I buff my nails, my polish chips faster. My preference is to use a ridge-filling base coat (like Barielle's Hydrating Ridge Filler). To me, I only buff if I've stained my nails heavily (usually from a green) and need to wear a sheer/nude. In such cases, I will buff in the direction of nail growth (with the grain)

For regular maintenance I do a couple of things; once a week or so, I like to use Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover (it comes in a blue bottle with a white cap..I think it's $5 or $6 at drugstores) and push back my cuticles gently with a cuticle stick. Throughout the week I may push back my cuticles gently with my fingers after moisturizing if I feel they need it, but I don't use the Instant cuticle remover too often because it's pretty strong stuff. Past that is just general stuff like keeping my hands moisturized. The two hand creams I've been using a lot of lately are OPI Avoplex High Intensity Hand and Nail Cream (which I bought on Clearance at Ulta) and California Mango Natural Hand and Body Lotion. Both are relatively non greasy feeling and absorb quicker, though the Avoplex absorbs faster and is lighter. (it's not as good if your hands are super dry then, but it's nice if you're just re applying moisturizer throughout the day). I do tend to forget to do this form time to time though. Another product I love for my cuticles is California Mango's Mango Mend. (works on feet and dry elbows too) The cuticle oil's also really nice. (It's a current favorite for applying before pictures)

For application...I have no real tips of my own..I learned what I know elsewhere. For painting, I use the tutorial found on FaintlyMacabre's notepad.
The best cleanup tutorial I know is found on MeganChair's notepad, or here on her blog. This is a great way for cleaning up that gap.
NailboardWisdom's notepad is also a great compilation of tips...it also contains Faintly Macabre's application tutorial.

Maybelline Spring 2010 " Sweet Thing" Collection Polish Swatches

I chopped my nails down yesterday...figures that the sun would come out of hiding today...either way I took the chance to swatch the rest of my new Maybellines from their Spring collection "Sweet Thing" (Thanks kali) There were a couple that I had worn as full manis while my nails were longer, so here they are first.

Minty--4 coats--sun
No sun
Minty is my favorite from this collection. I know I own maybe 15? mint greens by now, but all of them have managed to be different enough for me to keep all of them. The formula's not my favorite to work with, it took me 4 coats because I wasn't careful enough and wound up with an uneven look at 3..unfortunately I felt the color was worth the trouble and am therefore keeping it.

Goody Plum Drop-3 coats...both pics no sun

I used thicker coats than I usually do on this one. Goody Plum Drop is a light purple with white pearly shimmer in it. It came out just a smidge bluer in pics I think. I'm not sure how well you see the shimmer on my nail in these pics, but you can definitely see it on the bottle. Formula also wasn't fun on this one. I also didn't play well with my basecoat..it went lumpy under the surface after it dried.

From here on out come short nails and dry skin..sorry. I'm not really used to just swatching polishes..I usually like to wear them as full manis..and my final cleanup is usually done in the shower.

Sweetie Pie--4 coats
Probably my second favorite out of the bunch...Sweetie Pie is supposed to be a MAC Seasonal Peach dupe. I don't own Seasonal Peach so I wouldn't know. I think it's a cute peachy color though. It wasn't too difficult to work with, but then again there's less nail to cover...so that might be it.

Pie in the Sky-3 coats
The easiest out of the 5 to work with for me...but again..short nails. Pie in the Sky is nearly identical to Orly Snowcone. I swatched them next to each other, but the pictures didn't come out well enough to the point that i was satisfied with (the sun was disappearing on me). Pie in the Sky is ever so slightly lighter than Snowcone, but you really have to stare at it and know they're different. Snowcone has a much better formula though...you could get away with 1 coat of Snowcone if you were careful...though I prefer the look of 2. I usually don't care too much if I have dupes if it's a color I like..but I pretty much paid 2x more for the Maybeline than I did for the Orly..so it's going back.

Bubble Pink-4 coats
My least favorite out of the 5 I bought. I'm not sure why I thought this color would be passable on me...it's pretty awful. It's not as bad in the sun or in pictures, but it's garish looking on my skintone in indoor lighting. I also hated the formula...it never quite evened out. I'm pretty sure I picked up other similar colors from the other spring collections...though they're not the same so there's some wishful thinking right now on my part that they'll somehow be better.

lol...anyone else notice I got the year wrong too? XP