Essie Punchy Pink and Then Some!

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I was reasonably happy to find my nakey nails in decent shape this morning. They have a tiny bit of staining from the dark blue using Dazzle Dry Base Coat rather than the Nu Nails that's been saving them, but just a tiny bit. Since I have no breaks in the skin on any of my fingers, I might just soak my nails in peroxide today or tomorrow to see if I can get rid of the little staining I picked up.

After a few manicures of blues and greens, I was up for a nice pink this morning, and thought to myself, "If I'm using a pink, why not use the most retina-searing pink nail polish I have?" That, Dear Reader, is Essie Punchy Pink from the Essie 2009 Neons.

Then I thought, "If I'm going with the most retina-searing pink I have, why not Konad the hell out of it?" So I did. I made it way over the top, using the "girl" pattern and a lace pattern from Konad plate M71 with Konad White Special Nail Polish.

The base with the Essie took five (yes, five) coats to be opaque and even. If I'd had some caffeine running through my veins, I would have thought of using a coat of white under it, which would have limited the Essie to two to three coats, but alas, in the interest of better application, I held off on the coffee. But Diamont did not let me down - I was stamping away in under ten minutes.

I know some people have the initial reaction that Diamont's too expensive, but if you use the refill bottles (which I do), it's just a few cents more per bottle than Seche Vite is from the etailers. I get the smaller 8 oz bottle of Diamont for $40, which comes out to $2.50 per 0.5 oz bottle, and the 4 oz + 0.5 oz kit of SV is about $2.19 per bottle from Trans Design. To get something that's faster drying, causes no shrinkage or tipwear, and is basically bulletproof (six days is my record for a mani with it, no refresher, chips or tipwear and changed out of boredom), I'll pay $0.31 more. Also, Nubar's running a promo through tomorrow where you get a free bottle of Diamont & their base coat (not Nu Nails, their B3F equivalent of Stickey) with orders of $50 or more, which works out better than 25% off a $50 order, so if you've been tempted to try Diamont but thought it was too expensive, now's a good time to go get the little bottle to refill as a freebie if you missed out on the last sale and have a Nubar wishlist. It's also the only top coat I can use over Konad polish withut smudging (with the exception of Konad Black Special Nail Polish, which is the devil!!!), so I really doubt that I'll stray to something else. I said I wouldn't stray from SpaRitual Tout de Suite and it took a lot of arm-twisting to get me to, but I think I really mean it this time!

I'm rambling, I'm sorry - I still need that caffeine! I'll just stop that and show you the pictures... I wasn't able to capture the true retina-burning quality of the color this time, but trust me, it is! These show the tone well, and then imagine that in Day-Glo.

I told you it was over the top! I can't help it. I just love that "girl" profile stamp for some reason, and I also love the lace pattern I used, both from Konad plate M71. M71 also has another really nice lace pattern that I like, but I generally end up picking this one instead. The other has tiny little bows embedded into the lace - I'll have to use it to show it to you soon.

That's another deal going on I'll mention, and long as I'm so damn chatty and telling you about deals on things I use: WowSoCool, my one-stop shop for all things Konad, is offering 20% off everything but the already-discounted Build You Own Kit with coupon code "nailphile," and they ship for free over $20. Once of the reasons I'm a WowSoCool gal is that they've always sent me shipping notification within about two hours of hitting Send Order (for many, many orders before they knew I had a blog, so it isn't special treatment). They've also never screwed up an order of mine at all. I love them. They haven't set an end date on the code, as they'd never done one before and were going to just see how this one goes, so if you have a long wishist of plates or Konad Special Polishes, it's a good time to get them. I'm set on plates (as you probably noticed!), but I prefer Konad Special Nail Polish for white (most opaque), pastel green, green, yellow, and I just looked at the site to verify names to find they have more Princess Special Nail Polishes!!! Uh-oh. Some of them look really cool, but I'll concern myself with that in a minute, the ones I know I love of the Princess are Psyche Pink & Blue Pearl (those are the two Coraline ones I use a lot), and Light Gray. The only once I have in the Princess bottle is Light Gray, and the difference between it and the Special Polishes seems to be bottle shape, volume (slightly more in Princess), and nothing else.

I'm going to go load up on some Princess Special Nail Polishes now - some of the new colors look fantastic! Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

OPI Breathe Life

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I've just finished swatching the rest of Colorcopia 2009 for you, but it'll take me a century to select and add text to the pictures, then look up and verify all the original color releases and dates, so I thought I'd keep it simple for now and show you OPI's lung cancer awareness nail polish, Breathe Life.

First off, I looked at the site for the Lung Cancer Foundation of America to get facts about this color, and they're not too available. There's a lot of advertising, and it tells me that OPI "made a generous cash donation" to the LCFA, but I cannot find any information telling me whether some percentage of sales of this nail polish go to cancer research, and that bugs me. I inferred that was the case, but since I can't find anything to verify that, I question my assumption.

For reference, here's the promo flyer for the nail polish.

It was the "Let's Cure It" that seemed to me to imply that OPI was working directly with a cancer research charity with at least some percentage of the proceeds of this nail polish. If you, Dear Reader, have details about precisely how this works, please email me or leave a comment and I'll modify this post to include the new information.

Anyhow, I had been a holdout on this color, which became available on April 1, for a couple of reasons. First, it's quite sheer, and on it's own wouldn't be too attractive against my pale skin. Second, I've smoked for 23 years, and although I've tried to quit a few times, it's the staying quit that eludes me, and so I prefer to not think about lung cancer too much. One of my aunts died from smoking-related emphysema and eventually lung cancer, so I'm 100% clear on what that looks like. Since I have proved to simply be incapable of staying quit for now, I have a hard time mulling over the gruesome details. But I finally cracked on this color, thinking the proceeds went to research, and used it over white to address the sheerness.

I'm taking a cue from The Polish Addict here and showing you my mani failure from last night rather than just keeping it to myself. She's inspiringly brave about showing less-than-perfect pictures! My idea for dealing with just how sheer Breathe Life is was to put it over a white, so after swatching last night, I put two coats over two coats or Orly White Out. Unfortunately, I messed up my ring finger, but I'll show you the pics anyhow. The failure, to me, is in that the white that I used was way too stark. I don't have a picture of Orly White Out alone, but trust me that it's well-named.

I decided to get a do-over on OPI Breathe Life this morning, and used it over a sheerer white nail polish. Right now, I have the ultimate torso-cancer-awareness mani, as the white nail polish I used this time is one of Jessica Cosmetics 2008 BCA colors (which clearly stated that 65% of sales went to cancer research), Hope, which is the whitest of them. Here's Hope alone, two coats.

It's a much softer foundation, and two coats of OPI Breathe Life are much better over it than over Orly White Out.

I'm really pleased with the pearly outcome of the do-over version. It's what I had in my head when I overdid the foundation last night - I guess my pathological fear of VNL got the best of me!

One quick note on the messed up ring finger from last night - it was because I was sloppy applying Nubar Diamont to wet polish. I've had a few emails about troubles with applying Diamont to wet polish, and as you've seen from pics, I generally have great results with it allowing literally zero wait time between polishing the tenth nail and applying Diamont to the first. The way I normally use it is to get a big drop and quickly and lightly spread it over the nail, sort of "floating" it over the colored nail polish. I was tired of doing my nails after all those swatches yesterday, and got lazy with the Diamont and made it drag the colored nail polish underneath while applying it, causing the wrinkle in it. I just didn't have enough on the brush, but didn't care enough to re-dip. I go through a lot of Diamont using this method, but it gives great results, and the big refill bottles are no more expensive per 0.5 oz refill that Seche Vite, so I'm sticking with it. Just thought I'd mention that here, since I have an example picture of the error, as well as the way to avoid such error.

That's what I have for you for now, Dear Reader. I'll have the rest of OPI Colorcopia 2009 for you in a little bit. Until then, love and nail polish to you!

Nubar Diamont Testing and Two Colored Konad Stamping

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I decided to take a stab at a little more advanced Konad fun, and do a little testing of my new found love, Nubar Diamont Top Coat.

I started out with a base manicure of two coats of Revlon Plum Attraction nail polish, which is one wicked purple, but it's been seen before so I didn't take pictures of it on its own. I topped it with my one coat of Diamont, and then let the tests begin!

The first test was of a claim that my contact at Nubar made about it - after months during which I would not try Diamont because I didn't know it was quick dry, I had a conversation with the rep where I was assured it was indeed quick dry, and the claim was made that I'd be able to Konad over two coats of polish in three minutes. That's a lofty claim, with my runner-up top coat, SpaRitual Tout de Suite, requiring a wait of five minutes per coat of color (here, ten minutes), so I assumed it was an exaggeration. Today, I timed three minutes, then started stamping with a Revlon Chrome, and much to my surprise the stamping did not mess up the base nail polish. Test one passed!

Having boosted my faith even more in this magical Diamont, I gave it another test - I changed my mind about the polish to use for my Konad stamping. I had just finished my left hand, and I soaked a piece of felt with acetone-based remover and swiped the Konad patterns off of all five nails, leaving the Plum Attraction just as it was. It dulled the shine, but Diamont kept the base nail polish on. I was so happy with it I did my second review on Total Beauty about it! That was the testing...

On to the more advanced Konad fun! I thought I'd take another shot at two-colored stamps, which I haven't tried to do in quite some time (and wasn't tremendously successful with before, if I recall correctly). I used Konad plate M59, and for the stamping I used H&M You Rock My World and Sinful Senorita (silver & pink holos), which my friend Kola sent me from Sweden. The trick was actually painting two different polishes on one engraving to make a two-colored stamp. I picked a simple pattern, so I did alright this time! Here's the Konadicure.

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

Electro Candy Volt of Light : The Highlighter Konadicure!

Good morning, Dear Reader!


I've been having a grand old time being reunited with my Konad and playing with the Color Club Electro Candy Collection!


For today's mani, I started out with a base of Volt of Light. If you recall from my swatches of this collection, this was the yellow that was still somewhat streaky in four coats. To get it opaque and even, I ended up using six thin coats of nail polish and two coats of top coat - the Color Club Vivid 10 Color Intensifying Top Coat (which really does make a difference), then a coat of Nubar Diamont to make it dry. This was Diamont's biggest challenge to date - seven coats of nail polish to dry! Happily, it worked like a charm, and I was ready to Konad away very soon.


For the patten, I used Konad plate M62 for another favorite tip pattern, and Konad Psyche Pink polish (the neon pink shimmer in the Coraline sets). The result is a manicure that looks like I used highlighters on my nails!

I also found yesterday that using Nubar Diamont over dry polish to seal the Konad pattern works really well - it seals the Konad Special Polish without smudging and dries really fast, but doesn't cause any troubles with the completely dry base nail polish. It's definitely my new Konad top coat too now - I got an industrial size 8 oz bottles of it! Its costs about the same as the professional sized Seche Vite refill, since the Diamont is 8 oz and Seche Vite is 4.5 oz, and with a better dry time, no shrinkage, and being smudge free with Konad, I'm sold!


Also, a little reminder for you, Dear Reader, that WowSoCool is running a 20% off coupon right now. The only exclusion is the already discounted Build Your Own Kits, and the code is "nailphile." There's no end date set for it yet, so you might want to get in on it soon if you're eying more plates or polishes. If you recall, we cleaned out Nubar pretty well while that coupon was going! For the record, I don't benefit at all from the codes I run - they're just an opportunity for my favorite etailers to give you a break on cool stuff that I like, and since I've only run them with companies that I buy from myself, I have faith that they'll do business with you a way that's up to my standards (and I can be a PITA customer!). I don't get a nickel out of it.


I also have a little site update - I added some tabs to the top of the title section for you. I put in a "Current Promos" tab to make it easy to find codes (I don't expect to do more than one at a time). The "Contact" one has my email for you if you have questions for me that aren't general comments, and the "Older Posts" tab is a work in progress. It'll eventually be a list of links to all posts by date, but it starts a few months into the blog. I added a tab just yesterday for the tag cloud. I know a lot of people were using it, but it really did clutter up the page, so that tab will take you to a currently updated tag cloud for the whole site. The next big project that will either be on the side of the page or a tab is an organized format for the labels on all the posts, set up like an outline (Brands will have all brands under it in order, Colors will have all colors, etc). With the number of posts I've got on this site now, I'm making a few changes and additions to make it easier to find what you're looking for when you visit. If you have ideas for anything else that you'd find helpful, please feel free to email me with your suggestions.


That's today's Konadicure, the result of my test of Diamont over Konad, your WowSoCool reminder, and a little site update. Whew! That's a lot!


Until tomorrow, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Color Club Electro Candy: The Return of the Konadicure!

Good morning, Dear Reader!

When I swatched Color Club's Electro Candy Collection for you yesterday, most of them were absolutely crying out to me to Konad them. I knew which one I really wanted to do the most, so I changed my nail polish to Electro Candy (the pink) last night.

Having a great hot pink base, I chose good ol' Konad plate M65 for my beloved swirly tip pattern this morning, and used Konad Special Polish in Blue to stamp the design. I'm also doing a little top coat test, which I'll explain after you see the Electro Candy Konadicure.







Since this is the first time I've used the Konad since I discovered Nubar's Diamont top coat, I decided to test how it would work over the Konad polish, since Nubar says it's also intended to seal nail art (which would typically be applied to dry polish). As you can see in the pictures, Diamont did not cause any smudging or bleeding of the pattern at all, and so far so good as far as using Diamont as a refresher.

For me, Seche Vite has caused the edged of my polish to peel up almost immediately on the two occasions I used it to seal an addition to dry nail polish, and that's not been the case so far with this one. I'll know tomorrow how well the Diamont does to seal Konad over dry polish with respect to causing any shrinkage, peeling or chipping of the manicure. Barielle Manicure Refresher is a quick-dry to coat that does work as a refresher without causing tose issues with a manicure, but I've found that it can cause some smudging and bleeding of Konad Special Polish on its own, so I don't use it to seal Konad. If this works, I'll be happy, since I've been using my tiny Konad Top Coat to seal the nail art without smudging, and then using Barielle Manicure Refresher over it to make it dry quickly and shine. One coat of Diamont is easier and a lot cheaper than the Konad Top Coat topped with the Barielle.

I think this bold mani is a great way to bring back the Konad after weeks of neglect, and it's fun to wear a bright new Color Club nail polish.

One other thing, Dear Reader, before I let you go: reader TML inquired as to why more people aren't using the chat feature on the right side of the page, the fifth item from the top, and I think it's because I've neglected to mention it much. It was used a good bit the day or two after I added it, but not since then. Feel free to pop in and say, "Hi," and see who's on! You don't need to enter an email or use a password, but if you want to reserve your username, just use the username with a password and it's all yours (I do not have access to the password you use). To add an avatar, just put a link to an online picture in the URL box next to your username, and you're ready to go. Feel free to test it as well - as long as the messages are clean, I don't mind if we have lots of "Test" with various avatars going. I added the Chat so we can have a little fun, so let's chat! I'll make it easy for you... Nail Polish: discuss amongst yourselves!

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

Ruby Velvet & I'm A Convert!

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm up and about early with a fresh mani today because of the time change.  Whenever we change the clocks, my sleep schedule gets a little out of whack for a few days.  The good news about that is that it gave me time this morning to relax, watch the news, and do my nails.  The bad news is that it also gave me time to load up on a whole bunch of coffee for the first time in a long time, so this might be the worst application you've ever seen from me!  It's still a pretty color worth showing that you haven't seen in a while, and I wanted to tell you about my conversion, so I'm posting anyhow.

After wearing greens this week, Bloom Bianca for several days then Orgasm Easy But Not Cheap yesterday, I decided I was due for a nice red manicure.  I wanted the most deep, shimmery, anti-green red I could dig up, and that was Nubar's Ruby Velvet.  It was opaque and even in two coats, but I tested on my left thumb and found that a third coat added a real richness to the depth of color, so I went with three coats.  Here she is.

 

That's the Ruby Velvet.  Now on to I'm A Convert: that's about the top coat.  I mentioned yesterday that I tried Nubar's Diamont Seal & Shine for the first time, was impressed, but not convinced.  Today I'm convinced.

The thing is, the Diamont bottle is not labeled quick dry, and I don't have the patience for anything but quick dry top coats, so I was reluctant to try it.  Yesterday when I tried it, I found it really is a quick dry that worked quite well, but honestly it wasn't a great test for it - coats two and three of yesterday's Orgasm color were very thick relative to what's normal for me in an attempt to make the polish opaque.  Today, I did three of my normal thin coats.  Usually, when I post right after applying a color, my nails are still drying while I type the post.  Today, my nails were literally dry by the time I was uploading pictures from my camera to the computer.  I checked them by trying to mess up my left thumb.  I won't tell you how I know they're dry enough to do that safely, but I have a way!  I don't recall that they have ever been that dry that fast before.  

I found the Diamont went on like a cross between Seche Vite and Lippmann Collection Addicted to Speed - a heavy drop spread thickly does the trick, and although the window of time to work with it is shorter than Seche Vite, it's much more reasonable than the Lippmann.  With SV, there's no risk of it freezing up, with the Lippmann, if you don't work at warp speed it freezes up mid brush stroke, and Diamont allowed time to apply to the surface of the nail and wrap the tip before showing any potential to start freezing.  The brush did not pick up color while I allowed zero time between the third coat of color and applying the top coat, even though I "wrap the tips" (run the brush along the free edge after applying to the surface of the nail), and I had no shrinkage (slight pulling back of the color from the tip of the nail that looks like tipwear, most typical of Seche Vite for me) when I used it yesterday.   Previously, the top coat that has dried my manis the absolute quickest without shrinkage was Lippmann Collection's Addicted to Speed, which I saved for special occasions because of the cost, $20 for a full size bottle.

Until now, my top choice overall for the combination of quality, performance, and cost has been the refill bottles of SpaRitual Tout de Suite, but my beloved Tout de Suite just got bumped to the number two slot.  It requires between eight and ten minutes to dry three thin coats and a base, still entirely repectable, but the two to three minutes Nubar Diamont took just blew me away.  I know for many, six to seven minutes wait time is no big deal, but I mentioned patience above: I have none.  Particularly between the time I apply top coat and I wait to Konad, the waiting just kills me, so reducing that time to 1/3 of what it otherwise would be matters to me.  Ten minutes is annoying, three, I can handle.  When I'm on a mission, I just want to get on with it!

So that's the story of Ruby Velvet with lots of coffee and my top coat conversion, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!