Christmas Nails

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I'll tell you what I've been up to this week.  I've been adding to that China Glaze Midnight Kiss manicure, the gold foil one, that I showed you on Sunday.  At this point, I've added so much stuff to it that I'm deeply concerned about the removal process and how much life it will suck out of me, but that's a concern for another day.

Today, I'll just show you the layers.  As a reminder, here's the base I started with, Midnight Kiss, in natural light.

China Glaze Midnight Kiss Nail Polish, Two Coats

That was Sunday.  On Tuesday morning, I decided to add some China Glaze Party Hearty to it.  I did three coats of Party Hearty to get the coverage I wanted, then I added (and here's where the big trouble starts) three coats of top coat to smooth it out.  So as of yesterday, the official coat count is 1 base + 2 base color + 1 top + 3 Party Hearty + 3 top coat = 10 coats of nail polish I have to remove without just snapping a nail off in my aggressive pursuit to get rid of glitter.  But it looked cool.  This is under artificial light.

China Glaze Party Hearty over Midnight Kiss = One Metric Boatload of Nail Polish

I've stated the down side of removal, but there's also an up side to seventy zillion layers of nail polish.  I spent a few hours yesterday tearing tape off of one of those big rolls with the tape cutter on it, hanging things on walls.  A few times, I really dug into a thumb nail with that tape cutter, but this industrial strength manicure didn't get scratched.  I also knocked my nails right into things a few times where I was certain I had to have broken one, but they were fine, only one big chip in the polish.

This morning I was going to do a fresh manicure to protect the exposed nail from that big chip, but the prospect of getting rid of glitter prompted me to add even more to this manicure in order to put that off for a little longer.  I decided it could use some silver, so I added two coats of CND Silver Sparkling Effect, which barely showed up.  I gave up on the CND and added one coat of OPI Disco Ball Glitter, which gave enough silver to make me happy, then two coats of top coat to smooth it out.  The CND shows up much more in this macro picture than in person.

More Coats of Nail Polish Than Is Reasonable

So now I have festive holiday nails, but I've also raised the official coat count to a staggering 15, quite likely a personal record, which affords my nails a protective barrier that may well deflect bullets.

I'll let you know how it goes when I change this one, supposing I'm able to talk about it right away.  Until then, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!  

CND Teal Sparkle & Urban Oasis

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I just changed my polish, and I thought I'd give you a look at what I changed to.  I got CND's Night Factory duo from Trans Design, which has Urban Oasis and Teal Sparkle in it, and I decided to crack into the two of them.

Urban Oasis is a really good teal creme.  Though not the most unique shade ever made, it's completely opaque in one thin coat.  In the picture, the texture looks weird because it's just the one thin coat over a ridge filler and my left hand was dry by the time I finished the right, but I wanted to show you how saturated the color in this one is.

CND Urban Oasis Nail Polish, One Coat

I added one coat of Teal Sparkle to it, which completely transformed it.  This is with top coat.

CND Teal Sparkle Nail Polish over CND Urban Oasis, One Coat Each

That's the update for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Nfu Oh 569 & CND Gold Sparkle

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Yesterday I did a manicure I really liked, so I thought I'd show it to you.  I wanted to use a CND Effects polish since I haven't used those much, and decided to go with Gold Sparkle.  I really like the Sparkle Effects a lot.  Having chosen that, I needed to pick a base color, and I went with Nfu Oh 569 (the one like NARS Zulu).  I used two coats of 569 and one of Gold Sparkle.

Nfu Oh 569, Two Coats, with One Coat CND Gold Sparkle

It's a little on the Christmassy side for October, but I like it just the same.

That's all for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Pink Manicures

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have some pink manicures to show you, one from last week, and today's in two parts.

The one from last week is CND Sweet, a carnation pink creme, which was a two-coater, topped with one coat of CND Sugar Sparkle, a white sparkle polish with little white flaky bits in it.  This is with top coat.

CND Sweet Nail Polish, Two Coats, with One Coat CND Sugar Sparkle

Today's is in two parts because I started with the base color, American Apparel Coney Island, yesterday.  After more acetone and whitening products, I got the green from Malibu Green off of my skin, but I didn't take the picture until this morning.  One thing I noticed in selecting a picture was that at the outside corner of my thumb nail, I have a little chip already, which is no good.  However, Coney Island is a pretty color and a $5 two-coater, so I can live with it.

American Apparel Coney Island Nail Polish, Two Coats

I'm wearing pink and black today, so I added a tip pattern to Coney Island in Konad Black Pearl Special Polish from Konad plate M80.  It's a little cutesy, but hearts are where my mood is these days.

American Apparel Coney Island Nail Polish, Two Coats, with Konad M80

Those are the pink manicures I have to show you, and that's about it for today.  Until tomorrow, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!  

CND Effects over CND Oil Slick

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I just got a bunch of CND Effects from Head2Toe, and thought I'd give you a peek with some swatches.

As I selected the last picture, I realized I should have swatched these over a plain black, not CND Oil Slick, which is a green so dark it looks black. It doesn't affect the first few batches, but it does the last one.

All of the CND Effects look like a sheer off-white in the bottle. Added to another color, they really liven up. Each of these is two coats of Oil Slick topped with one coat of the Effects.

CND Effects: None, Raspberry Sparkle, Jade Sparkle, Amethyst Sparkle

CND Effects: Violet Shimmer, Gold Sparkle, Crimson Sparkle, Sapphire Sparkle

CND Effects: Emerald Shimmer, Ice Blue Shimmer, Copper Shimmer, Scarlet Shimmer

CND Effects: Gold Pearl, Copper Pearl, Lavender Pearl, Gold Shimmer

You can see in that last batch that the green of Oil Slick shows through more. All the same, they're pretty nifty.

That's it for today, Dear Reader. Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Dear Reader!  I hope 2009 brings all kinds of good things your way!

I'm kicking off 2009 with my continued bout of insomnia, so I'm up and posting at 4:30 in the morning.  Whenever I bound out of bed at 3:00 am, I think of Nietzsche's warning not to trust the man who doesn't sleep well.  Then I remind myself that he was a notorious insomniac and died an insane addict, and dismiss the notion altogether...

On to nail polish!  Last night I decided I'd start the New Year with the stiffest thing I drink these days - a Cuppa Joe.

 

 

However, I ran into my first ever encounter with Creative's difficult drying.  I don't normally do my nails in the evening, so that's probably why I haven't had this problem before.  I took the pictures last night, waited well over an hour, and woke up with nails chock full o' sheet prints and hair marks.  That won't do!  Sheetprinted nails would drive me crazy all day, so I went about the business of correcting that. 

I decided to look in my train case, which holds all of 32 nail polishes.  Since I have, oh, we'll say infinitely many polishes just to be vague, the 32 in the train case are ones that I don't believe I could replace.  When I open it, it emits a gold glow like the suitcase in Pulp Fiction.  I looked for something that seemed appropriate to wrap up the holiday season, and FingerPaints Festive Claret seemed to fit the bill perfectly.  I changed my mani, took some pictures for you, and here I am posting them.  The pictures don't quite capture the shimmery, glittery goodness of this one, but they're as close as I could get.

 

 

That's the story of my first morning of 2009.  The down side is that there's not much to do at this hour except watch recaps of 2008 until I'm ready to throttle someone, but the upside is that I'll be doing the throttling with some fabulous nails.  And I'm drinking some really good coffee, so I can't complain too much.

I hope 2009 brings you all the happiness and good things you desire, Dear Reader, and until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Creative Nail Designs VIP Status & Computer Troubles

Good morning, Dear Reader. I'm writing this from a borrowed computer, as mine became infected with a dreaded Trojan horse and put me out of commission for a few days. It's unfortunate, as I have some really fun and exciting pictures to share with you, but I am limited to dial-up (God help me!) for now.

Do you know how much I appreciate you, Dear Reader? I took pictures of my Pick Me Up Mani and modified them via dial-up for you. After a frustrating day of fighting with my own computer, I was happy to end the day yesterday being able to apply my most recently fulfilled lemming: CND's VIP Status. Glimmery gold glitter with holographic bits throughout - who could ever ask for more? The downside of it is that it really was as "chunky" and gritty as it sounds like it could be, but I took care of that.

Last night, I applied three coats of VIP status followed by two coats of Poshe, and thought that would take care of things. I was wrong - I still woke up with gritty nails. Determined to make my happy mani work, I added to it two coats of CHI base coat (which is clear) and followed that with two coats of Oh So Wet. Yes, Dear Reader, I have six coats of top coat over this to make it sparkle and shine, but it's well worth the few minutes of extra effort I had this morning to have this glorious mani! Here it is both in and out of sunlight:





So I hope to be fully online with you again soon, my Dear Reader, as I have many, many great pictures I'd like to share with you from a new collection. In the meantime, I will do my best to keep you entertained with what I can do with my antiquated dial-up connection.

Love and nail polish to you!

Glitter From the Box o' Love: CND Disco Ball

Good morning, Dear Reader! As yesterday afternoon's post showed, I got into the box of amazing polishes one of my dear nailboard friends sent to me this week. I continued to play into the evening, being quite daring by applying three coats of a Creative Nail Designs polish just an hour before bed. Fortunately, my go-to product for drying many coats of difficult to dry polish worked: Poshe Quick Dry Top Coat. It doesn't shine the way Seche Vite does, but when I need to dry many layers of a harder-to-dry polish (such as CND and some Chanels), it gets the job done for me. I woke up sans sheetmarks and to a beautiful sunny day, so I was able to take some pictures for you.

Those of you who know me know that glitter is my kryptonite - I simply melt in the presence of all things glittery. When I saw the bottle of Disco Ball, I knew I was in love. It's pure glittery goodness, silver glitter with the occasional holographic bit here and there, and is opaque in three coats (nails fully encrusted in glitter). There's another fact I should mention here: opacity is an absolute must for me. Being able to see a VNL (visible nail line), the line where the white part of the nail meets the nail bed, is simply intolerable to me. That's one of the reasons Disco Ball makes me so happy - my nails are ten little disco balls with no VNL.

Disco Ball is another fabulous little pretty that for some reason unbeknownst to me has been discontinued. The word is that CND will be limiting themselves to 40 core colors (of which I don't have a list handy), so if you have an opportunity to pick up Disco Ball, go for it!





Clearly, this will be a giant PITA to remove, but to me the glittery goodness is well worth the effort of extra coats and difficult, messy removal. I'd like to thank Love8Brain once more for this fabulous pretty, and ask you, Dear Reader, if you have any favorite glitter polishes and what they are, if you'd care to share - I'd love to know of more great sparkly goodies.

I hope we all have another wonderful day!