Gigolo Blue!

This week's nail is brought to you by the electric BLUE company. I mean...it's blue. It's blue like you never knew blue could be.

We are speaking of an absolutely striking Illamasqua called Fern. I'm not sure where the name Fern could have come from...I would think something kind of green for that? Or do they mean Fern from Charlotte's Web? I don't know. Illamasqua is relatively new to me but it was love at first sight. I'm sorry, any outfit that will name an off-white, slightly yellow cream polish "Load" and put it in their Throb collection? Yes. That immediately says "love" to me, just for the humor, the brashness and well, pun intended, balls. And by the way, that polish is great and I had many compliments on it. It will reappear and I will review it at that time.

At any rate, this was:
1 coat Poshe base
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
2 coats Fern
1 coat Poshe quick dry top coat, the name of which is escaping me at the mo.

It went on beautifully, as Illamasqua typically does, covered well in 2 coats and was easy to work with. I was trying to put this on and watch A Game of Thrones at the same time (yes, I'm a geek. I read that book about 8 years ago, got hooked and was excited for the series) and so I could have done less drunken monkey cuticle flooding but...I tried not to show that in the pics. I find you should only ever paint your nails while watching a movie/show you've already seen. Saves polish.

The color has a slight shimmer to it, I don't think I could successfully get that to show up on a pic. Especially not on my phone. It's very subtle in real life. I don't find the Poshe top coat to be a shimmer eater so I think it's meant to be subtle. I like subtle shimmer...I prefer it to glitter. I'm not a glitz kinda gal. Sometimes...*shakes self* I digress.

This is one striking polish and it is NOT for the faint of heart. You have to own this polish when you wear it and I mean own it. The whole premise of Illamasqua is to release your alter ego so this polish....if you are brave enough to wear it, will definitely help you express yourself. I've loved wearing it. I have loved the slightly quizzical looks I've received from people and the somewhat intimidated looks I get on occasion. Yep. This is a great color. It makes a statement. This is the blue of M&Ms, old sports cars, athletic teams...This is not a blue you can wear planning to match it to your outfits for work, unless you own a lot of blue. But it IS fantastic.

Now...on to the wear, which has been impressive. This pic was taken mid-week:

Yes, that's my car...this is in natural lighting and shows the polish to be a bit lighter than it is in reality, but it's not a bad representation. You can't see the wear, but there isn't really any to see yet.

These I just took:

Left hand, a little visual tip wear, artificial light. Artificial leopard, in case anyone thinks me a hypocrite. Isn't that a great blankie? Got it on sale at Target in an emergency. Hey, maybe there was a blizzard but that does not mean I can't keep warm in style! It's supa-soft. Recommend!

I am ambi, but I am more practiced with my right, as I did grow up at the end of that anti-leftie time, if I'm not dating myself too much. Here's the rightie:

And this is why you need two hands to take a pic. However blurry this may be, you can see what I need you to see, which is the very minimal tip wear. (plz excuse the broken birdie finger. Tore that sucker off in a door at work. OUCH! BMITWWU will fix. That's Best Manicurist in the Whole Wide Universe, in case you were lost!)

Please note while I'm raving about the long wear on this polish that I have been a bad nail mommy and have not put on any other coats of top coat or Nailtiques...this is the original manicure, as it stands, tons of applications of hand sanitizer not withstanding. It's taken a beating.

SCORE! Illamasqua Fern. Absolutely amazing and matching M&M bowls near you!

And just in case you thought I was kidding about the M&M thing:

How sweet is that? The shimmer shows up!



I haven't chosen the next mani color yet. Clothes, makeup and nails are a purely emotional, mood driven choice, which is why my toes are currently BB Couture Nightmare...maybe I can review that next week, if you don't mind looking at my pointe shoe deformed toots...we'll see. It's spectacular. But...whatever the talons end up being, I will try to take mid-week pics of it as well so we can see how we're doing. I am so pleased with this Illamasqua that I could burst, seriously. Just that moderate tip wear after a week and no new coats of top coat? Phenomenal. One time the bucks seriously spoke and got you what you paid for. Highly, highly recommended!


Happy Talons!

Pictures!!

OK, I managed to get pictures off my phone...no promises.

Aaaaannnnd, it looks teal! *sigh* Well, this is ButterLondon Dosh, finally. I believe this picture is after about 6 days of wear. You can see the grow out there...It wore beautifully, right up until I had to do dishes for Easter, which involved...well, a ton of cooking and cleaning up. After the third sink full of dishes, it just started to peel up, and I don't blame it. I tend to love expensive polishes, maybe I'm a snob or maybe I like the prettier bottles, I don't know, but the thing about expensive polish is that often they assume if you can pay for it, you're not doing manual labor. This is my theory. Butter is an expensive polish. Dosh did wear beautifully and pretty much flawlessly for a full week. I had a little tip wear but nothing major. This one was definitely worth the smackerels, if only for the lovely color with the subtle sparkle.

I still don't have the camera switched over. My life does not belong to me. I have been recording my tips with my phone, though, and am able to get those over here so at least you can have SOME idea what I'm babbling about!

I will be posting again shortly, since I can right now, because I want to talk about the electric gigolo M&M Illamasqua I'm wearing now because this mani is six days old as well and just did one large sink full of dishes and has survived a week at work...and it's still going strong. I'm going to change it tomorrow when I paint my Moms's nails, mostly because...I'm now sick of it! Not because it's not wearing well...that post soon!! I want to record their lack of wear before I start because you need to see this.

Spring Spring Spring!!!

OK, for my first big review I have to already start out apologizing because...I kinda forgot that my camera is set up to be used on my old computer not this one...Derrrrrr. What a dork. But I didn't want to post a welcome and then not actually post a review so pictures will be forthcoming. I even took them! And....yeah. Fail. Epically.

Soooo...Hm. Well! The polish that inspired me to stop thinking about this blog and actually start writing it is butterLONDON Dosh. I chose it for it's lovely spring green loveliness, though green is pretty much out of character for me. It is also full of shimmery goodness.

In this process I also tried the butter Nail Foundation and Harwear top coat. My nails tend to want to split and peel so I did start with one coat of Poshe base, two coats of Seche Rebuild, which is having a very positive effect on the claws, then two coats of Nail Foundation. Let me pause to tell you about the wonderfulness of Nail Foundation! They must call it this because it looks just like a make-up foundation for your face. You could probably wear this on its own if you were so inclined. It would make a great mannequin manicure. It dries pretty matte and eliminates VNL (Visible Nail Line). Then I did two coats of Dosh over it which takes to the Foundation like no one's business. I then finished off with one coat of Hardwear.

Now...I mentioned in my intro that I have a mani-killer job. It's not just a mani-killer...it's like a serial mani-killer. There is often downright nail slaughter going on in my little office. I shuffle much paperwork and type many keystrokes. Fortunately I can get away with non-traditional colors there. However, even my amazing manicurist's professional manis will only make it about a week. (Best Manicurist in the Whole Wide Universe! You know who you are!) This manicure that I did myself (which typically looks like drunken monkeys were set loose) has lasted three whole days with barely any tip wear, which I would be pleased to prove to you...just as soon as I can tear my desk apart to get to the wiring to...blah blah blah. You know what I mean. <Insert repeat facepalm here> As both butterLONDON's Nail Foundation and Hardwear PD Quick Top Coat are brand new to me, I am not sure to which this credit is due, or if it is the combination of both that has accomplished this. I don't know. It will take additional experimentation to determine, but I have a sneaking suspicion it is the Nail Foundation solely based on the way I could see the lacquer cling to it during application. I will typically see tip wear after a day. As in ONE.

A note about the top coat...I've seen faster drying formulas. I seriously have. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't Seche Vite vite. It also didn't present some of the Seche issues I tend to have, either. It goes on like a nice smooth top coat, didn't eat my shimmer and no shrinkage, which I HATE. Don't you hate spending a couple hours getting your nails perfect only to have the tips shrink up on you? GAH! So I slapped a couple drops of drying solution on my talons, ran some cold water over them and called it a night. No worries! That was all the encouragement it needed. Definitely recommended, but when I have more time I will try to report back on just how quick it really does end up being. It was late, I was tired and I went for the drops. I'm happy with the end result, though.

butters tend to have great formula, in my opinion. This was a tad thin, but nothing unmanageable. It sure was gorgeous going on. It does require two coats as it tended to thin in spots but it self corrected with another coat. The springy new leaf shade of green is wonderfully flattering on my ghostly skin tone and I have had many, many compliments. I am a fixture at one of my local make-up departments (A talented make-up artist is a great friend to have, especially if she's as wonderful and intelligent as my buddy!) and all the girls went mad for it. More conservative polish fans may find it a little edgy. Who am I kidding? In the Midwest, it's EDGY! But I am finding I am loving it.

Wish I could show you. *smacks forehead*

All in all, definitely a recommend!!! I haven't seen any other colors like it, and it's definitely no Zulu clone. As I'm lacking in swatches, I hope you'll do a search for it and check it out!

Hi there and Welcome!!

This is an experiment for me to see if I can maybe revisit the polishes I already have rather than just buying more! If you are a confirmed polish hound like myself, you will know what I'm attempting as likely as not. I hope to entertain and inspire and help others find colors they love like other bloggers have done for me. I'm not sure I thank you all, as I have way more polish than I could ever possibly use!

I don't promise to be terribly consistent with this project, but I will try. I DO promise to at least do a search to make sure that a polish I am posting/reviewing is still available to purchase somewhere other than The Auction Site That Shall Not Be Named for an outrageous price before I speak. While I love all you polish bloggers out there, reviews and pics of sparkly gorgeousness that I have no hope of ever finding? Grrrrr!! Please...do not torture me further with pictures of Starry Starry Night. Just...no.

One thing I WILL absolutely promise: I will not be posting, reviewing, recommending or pointing you towards any brands that are not cruelty free. I am an animal lover and believer in habitat conservation and firmly believe it is ridiculous for another living creature to suffer so that I may have sparkly fingertips. I further promise not to preach on this subject, but I encourage us all to search our own souls and act as our consciences dictate. Should you find you agree with me, then hopefully this will be a good resource for you and help you know where to spend your dollars in support of companies who are like minded. If you do not, I hope it does not preclude your joining me from time to time to enjoy a great color, but I won't discuss this any further as I won't be swayed.

It is my sincere intention to offer forth an honest opinion on color, application and wear. Wear will be especially important to me as I have limited time and a manicure killer of a job! I do have professional manicures, I do not do acrylic tips as I enjoy my natural nails and suffer the breakages that come with. I also do not do nail art, it's just not my style, though I admit there is some amazing stuff going on out there in the nail world. I am very much wanting to do a half moon, though! It's so 30s...I love it!

I hope we all have a good time together and you are all patient with my pics as I find it incredibly difficult to take pictures of my own hands!! They always end up looking slightly odd. If you do not know what I mean, give it a shot....it's challenging!