Illamasqua Collide

Ironically, after posting the links for the Illamasqua battle to try to get better prices for Australians, I have an Illamasqua to show you. And it's a beauty.

This is an older one, it's been around a couple years now, and I don't know why I chose it, particularly. MDAMO wasn't being terribly helpful on the color front, which is out of character for him, and I wanted something bright and happy and Summery. This certainly fits all of those descriptors!

BMWWU did it so I'm fuzzy on the mechanics, but I have lots of pictures to show you.

In my car, sitting at a light, direct sunlight from the window.

Isn't that pretty? It's what I would call neon Barbie pink. I mean...it's PINK. There is no debate, there is no question. Pink.

But a vibrant, alive pink. It's a pink that says Yeah! I'm pink! Whatchoo gonna do about it! There is nothing girlie about it. It's in your face, taking no prisoners.

I believe this is days later. I would have liked a third coat and nearly put one on but I was afraid it would cause it to lift so I just lived with the VNL. I think I would have been happier with three, though. Obviously, this was two.

Yes, this was about a week's worth of wear. One. Week. Needless to say, it did really very well. Usually by a week I have chips and mess. Not to say this was flawless. I have right hand pics where you can see the lacquer has cracked.

Here you can see where it was really showing the wear. Still...if I had not pointed it out, would you have seen it?

From this angle you do not notice the wear. You DO notice that my nails are growing it out, which just tells you that this has some good wear to it. I didn't baby it, either. This didn't get any additional top coat on it, it didn't get coddled. It did dishes, it went to work...this was just one tough manicure.

If you look really closely you can see where the lacquer is cracking on the middle nail. That nail likes to bend and be a nuisance so this isn't terribly surprising.

To be fair, these were dried forever in an LED light. I think this is good in some senses, it does help the lacquer dry and apparently adhere, but it also can make it brittle, *I* think. I don't claim to be an expert but that is what I seem to experience. It could have something to do with my nails tending to be a little dry since I'm basically dehydrated all the time.

Here's the bottle shot with flash. It's very true to color, actually. This is a little but washed out, but this really photographed beautifully.

No flash. Very true. This color is so saturated and so intense. You have to be a little fearless when you wear it.

And lastly the label.

I always have good luck with Illamasqua lacquers. This is no exception, to be sure. It went on really nicely, from what I could see, it was a nice consistency. I would have liked another coat, but...three is the standard for many people so that's not a deal breaker. The color is so intense. I really loved that about it. I had to take it off to change to interview nails and that post will come up later this week if all goes well. Obviously, I fixed my picture problem so I'm back is the saddle.

I hope you liked this one!

Happy Talons!

Illamasqua Gamma - WOW

A Male Opinion, hitherto known as MDAMO (the AMO part you can figure out on your own, MD is between he and I **giggle* and I'm not telling what it means! How are ya, sweetie! He reads my blog and looks at polish with me. I know, right? :D ) and I have fallen into a routine. We look at polish because we chat online a lot and I am usually looking at polish and readin' your blogs. I need an LOLcat for that, and he patiently tolerates it and looks at all the linkies I send him. Then he will find other things he likes and send linkies back. Sometimes I just decide or I give him a color family or some options and he chooses. I don't know, we have fun with it. He's chosen the next few polishes, is the moral of my lengthy story.

This one was a joke between us because years ago I would bitch about my color or talk about it and he would point out that they always seemed to be orange. Writing the blog has helped me not get into a rut like I was at that time where every color I chose was a version of the one before it. I'm much more conscious of what it looks like on the blog, of not boring you guys, of making sure that if you're flipping through you have something different to catch your eye and to hopefully encourage you to stay for awhile. So MDAMO chose orange as a joke between us.

Orange, ironically, isn't a great color on me. However, given that my hands are white as the driven snow, I can usually get away with it. Just don't put it near my face! UGH! Terrible. I'm a winter. You know, I can wear the basic 8 Crayolas excepting Orange and yellow. Just not near my face!

Gamma is definitely orange. It's neon orange.

 Yeah, I know. It looks like Tang, doesn't it? This isn't a great picture but it shows the cuticles well and in a terrible awful way, it's the only picture I took of it before it showed wear. I don't know why. My world has been a little upside down lately, that's all I can say about it.
However, you know I like to show you the cuticles because for one, it can be tricky to get really tidy cuticles like that, if you don't believe me, come back for the next post, and also, I think it's an excellent indicator of both the quality of the formula and the quality of the brush, which I never remember to mention. This is an Illamasqua so I expect perfection on both counts and as you can see, I got it. I look at this and it's hard for me to believe I did it. I'm not an expert, I haven't been trained, I just have some practice. You can see I got a little sloppy but it will easily come off the side of your nail once it's dried. A little warm water can work wonders.

Another trick to tidy cuticles, I find, is to put a small drop of polish in the middle of your nail and push it upwards toward the cuticle, allowing the brush to do it's natural thing and fan out, creating that nice shape. You can see I don't have really round nail beds so I have to be a little cautious, but it works well. Then you just brush out any streakies you created in the normal way. This was a tip I picked up watching how-to videos on Rescue Beauty Lounge's website an age ago but it almost always works. I can't take the credit for it.

I have a ton of pictures of this, by the way.

Have I ever shown you an Illamasqua box? I'm sure I must have, but just in case.

On my back porch steps...hm. Need to paint the porch floor.

Illamasqua everything comes in a black box like this. I personally love the minimalist representation of this brand.

The older ones have a plain white sticker on the top that says the color name. These days they have come up with the simple and brilliant idea of coloring the sticker to match the polish which honestly, why hasn't everyone thought of that? Still, if you're a hound like me, you will know or have an idea from the name. I can scarily go through a box of lacquer with someone and usually name them on sight. Frightening, isn't it? I bet some of you can do the same!

I love the shape of these. Square and tall. Monolithic...this is a little washed out. I thought the sunlight would be ideal, but it wasn't. I got more accurate shots in the shade. 

This is closer. It's incredibly bright. And I think it's perfectly names. I would believe something this color would cause The Hulk, wouldn't you?

Bottle to nail comparison. This was...gosh, I don't know now, a week later? Five days? I've lost track. Mental note AGAIN to take notes while I'm wearing it so I give you guys good info. You can see, it's getting rough. I've kind of started taking the before pics, right after I do them, and then the right when it needs to be put out of it's misery pics. I won't tolerate a lot of chipping or mess unless I'm like, two days away from my regular mani anyways. If I had had a manicure in a couple days, I might have tried to save this. It's doable, but a lot of work. Come back tomorrow for the next post to find out what really happened.

Very true to the bottle color, as you see. Oddly, this didn't dry matte, as most neons do. I'm not a huge neon fan. I like them but find I'm pretty meh about them once I get them on. This wasn't that way, I enjoyed wearing this color. As you can see, it didn't dry weird. It stuck to what you saw.

Aside from that one chip and the thumb, this performed beautifully. I have a right hand picture somewhere in here for you, too. I did an amazing amount of filing, refiling, file auditing, what have you with this manicure. That any of it stayed on was miraculous.

Little bit different lighting, little bit different polish. 

The label shot, just for scuzz. Like to show you that. Made in Australia, interesting. Never realized that.

In indirect sunlight on my black pants. Sometimes I give you those blacktop shots? I tried with this because the black tar color of the pavement really shows off the color, but it was so hot. I tried...I nearly burned myself. I'm actually looking forward to winter this year.

Again in indirect sunlight. This is probably the most accurate lighting for this color. So bright and aggressive and very highly pigmented. They didn't scrimp on the pigments.

Grarr....Picasa you nuisance! Makin' my picture all wonky!

It's the last one. You can see the right hand didn't do all that badly, really. My nails were getting too long because of a missed mani and the polish just won't wear as well if your nails are bending all over the place.

 I don't remember how I did this, I apologize. (NOTES, DUMMY! MAKE NOTES!) I believe it's three coats of color because it kind of wanted to be streaky. As you can see, it turned out OK. And bright. Very very bright.

Any thoughts?

Happy Talons!

Correcting chips walk through

I've had a rough week. No censure, please. Though I did finally get through number 10? 11? In a full series re-read and now I'm all adrift. I read a whole book today. Now what? Latest Margaret Atwood or more pulp? It's about time for my annual Three Musketeers re-read. Hm.

Issues! Issues! Regardless. I do want to post how I fix chips. I know I've done it before, but honestly...are you gonna go looking for it? I can't remember if I gave you pics of the process or not, and honestly, I am not going back and digging for it, either. The Balearic Cool of Model's Own is really perfect for showing this because it is SO vibrant.

I skipped the first step, which is to take polish thinner, not remover!, THINNER, and with a finger or thumb dipped in a small amount smooth out the edges of the chip. I skipped this step because BMWWU did this mani and she always uses some Orly Nail Armor frankenstrengthener she cooks up. I have mixed feelings about Nail Armor. It has done a beautiful job maintaining and strengthening my nails but those little silk fibers in there (and yeah, I know that's an animal product but it's one they will produce on their own in nature and it doesn't harm them. I never said I was vegan, I am anti-animal testing.) stick off and can cause your nails to chip if you don't know how to smooth over the tips of your nails and blend them back into the fold, so to speak. Nail Armor is a very thick formula and pretty opaque on it's own so I find when using that as a base it's not really necessary to blend out the edges of the chip. If you are using a different strengthener or not using one at all (I hate you, incidentally) then you will want to do that.

Here's what the chips looked like:

Fill those in with a dab of your strengthener, whatever it is. Again, in this case it's Orly Nail Armor.

Do I need to tell you that you should have washed your hands first? Washed, dried...this should be common sense, but in case it isn't, before you start wash and thoroughly dry your hands. No lotion, for Pete's sake. Save that for when you're done.

Don't be shy about it. Load it up. We're filling in basically a hole here. You don't have to be terribly neat about this, either. See how I've gone over the edge? This should help create a strong bond to the nail and blend the polish in later. Obviously, you don't want to just leave a ball of Armor there, but you do want it to be enough to fill in so your repair isn't obvious.

OOO. Wow. Yeah, that middle finger is going to need another hit. As you would do two coats on your nails when doing a mani from the beginning, you will also do two here. Use your judgement on if you need another.

After two coats of Nail Armor in the chip. See how that has pretty much smoothed out? We have 4 more coats to go here, but you want this as smooth as you can get it now. If you need to, you can lightly buff out any rough spots, but you shouldn't have to.

Fill in the chip with the color. This happens to be from the last post, Balearic Cool with Indian Ocean over it. See how the cream blue is so vibrant? This was a great color to use for this. Cover up all the base coat you had to put on to fill the chip. Blend it down and smooth so it's not a bump on then end of your nail.

Just another shot at the bottom of the bottle. You can see the blue here, how it's blended in. The color here is deceptive, as is the lighting, I apologize. It's not nearly this sky blue in real life.

Here's the right hand. Remember that more prominent ridge? That's gone now. Careful application will take care of so many sins. Just be patient. If you're in a rush then you should probably take it all off rather than try to make a fix.

Hit it again, smooth it out. This looks like a glob but it wasn't in reality. It's the color and the cream as opposed to shimmer causing an optical illusion.

The right hand with two thick coats.

Now, I must have flaked out somewhere because I didn't take pictures of putting the shimmer top coat over this, but that's really...it's just another coat of paint. Maybe I figured you guys would know enough to understand how that would look.

The end result a few days later. Note that it didn't hold it forever and it won't. It just extends the life of your manicure for a few more days. As you can see, it held better than the index finger!

I hope this is a helpful post to you guys. I always try to pass on what little tricks I've learned and keep the faith that they are giving someone a tip they didn't know.

Coming up tomorrow, the manicure after this! HEE HEE! What a cliff hanger. **roll eyes at self**

Happy Repaired Talons!

Models Own Blues

OK OK. I know. I promised a post last weekend.

I suck.

But here is one now, and I have photos edited for two more so I just have to write them, which I WILL do, plus another post in my head (fat lot of good it does you there, I know) about how I kind of went a little cray-cray on Sephora.com (the work of the devil, I'm convinced) in the aftermath of the whole To Sell in China You Must Animal Test debacle.

You are aware of this, correct?

If not. Here is the thing as I understand it. China is now requiring any foreign imported cosmetics to be animal tested before they can be marketed there. This is impacting many major brands, probably many major brands you and I have had faith in as safe for us bunnyhuggers. Estee Lauder falling into this trap is HUGE and I mean...HUGE. I don't know if you all know this but Estee Lauder makes like...everything. Bumble and Bumble, La Mer, Clinique, MAC, most perfumes...pick something. HUGE. Urban Decay is also falling victim to this law. Their PR departments are going berserk trying to convince us they are still OK because hey, we're not actually torturing animals OURSELVES. Buy from us! 

I've really struggled with this and finally decided that Chinese bunnies are still bunnies. Still bunnies being tortured and made to suffer for something as, let's be honest with ourselves, banal as makeup. Can't do it. So...my moisturizer was almost gone, but I did not head to the makeup counter, I went to www.sheaterra.com and ordered something that is cheaper and, honestly, probably better for my skin. I didn't get the rooibos and vitamin E cream that I know really does magical things with my skin because they were out of it. The lovely souls at Shea Terra sent me an email offering me other options that were in stock and that had roughly the same set of promises. Let me know if you want to know what I think of Tamanu. That's what I chose. Of COURSE all this stuff smells approximately like ass on a hot day, but that does not last and what you are left with is the most amazing baby smooth skin ever. And it looks better, too. Highly recommend the Egyptian carrot seed oil if you have really super dry skin like me. 

So, the moral of this babble is that after doing some struggling with the whole "But MAC doesn't bunny test....Urban Decay still isn't bunny testing....BUT BUNNIES ARE SUFFERING FOR THEIR GREED!" argument with myself, I went searching for other options. There are some great British brands, like the one I'm eventually showing you today, and I got on a little expensive mission to try some of them. I have a list! I have a list of vegan/cruelty free companies I am going to try and I will be sure to share those results with you. I have at least one bottle of Ciate coming and some Nails Inc, and another new brand called The New Black. Those come in sets so you can do ombre manis, which I don't give a flying fu----udge about. Woo. You painted each of your nails a different color. You're...five. Of course, this could be a reflection of my being a cynical old beeyatch. Regardless, I'm not impressed with your mad painting skilz on that one. It looks like you got drunk one night or something. That does NOT mean, however, that I'm averse to wearing the colors the normal way. I did not realize this, but you can also get Julep on Sephora, which is an idea I like a LOT better than a subscription sort of annoyance so I will likely be trying one or two of those in time as well. As I do more research into this I will try more brands. There is some stuff out there I've been curious about for awhile so maybe now is the time to divert my polish dollar on to smaller and more bunny friendly companies. I did contact one I was interested in, promising that I wouldn't start a campaign against them if they aren't cruelty free, I simply won't promote them and I have heard exactly nothing, which I take as an "Aw shucks, we torture bunnies" admission, but like I said, they'll remain nameless.

I have been busy while I've been not blogging. I don't forget you, I just can't always stand to be on a computer. I sometimes read other blogs...how do you think I find some of this stuff? There are some fun trends I would love to try out there. Sponging? Looks cool. Now a sponge ombre I'd do! That's more than one color on each nail in a gradient succession and looks awesome. I found one post about cruelty free and how pretentious it is that still has my blood boiling. The argument is that the bunnies are already dead because in the US each thing only needs to be tested once so you aren't saving anything. Really? Really. So we should encourage it? I suppose by that logic we should no longer control the war machine because the soldiers who have fought and died are already dead, right? 

Really kind of pissed me off. 

So on that note! 

I give you Models Own Balearic Cool with Indian Ocean:

OK, yeah. These are in the bottles. I somehow, through all this process - I say that because I have a post demonstrating how I repair chips coming up and it was with this manicure - I never took a shot of me holding Indian Ocean, that sparkly goodness on the left. I confess, Indian Ocean was the whole reason I looked into Models Own and I am SO glad I did. 

Look at that thing. I mean...I'm drooling on it. Enlarge the picture to really see it. I dare ya. (website to order: www.modelsownit.com) Balearic Cool, on the other hand, while gorgeous, was absolutely impossible to accurately photograph. Flash, no flash, sunlight, electric light...I tried everything I could think of. It's darker and richer than this. It's not sky blue as it's going to appear in every single picture that I took of it. Maybe another blogger had better luck, I don't know. 

So...BMWWU says "I know. Let's layer these". OK!

This is natural sunlight on the black top of my driveway. Some idiot in a minivan nearly wrecked watching me do this. WTF? My driveway and I live in the sticks. Run along! Run along!

This is as close to a perfect swatch of this manicure that I was going to get. It's still washed out but not as badly as some of them. 

Yes, one small chip there, which will be fixed in a later post! 

The rest of it, as you see, is flawless. This was several days old. The Indian Ocean adds a depth and character which softens what is essentially an electric neon gigolo blue. It's very sheer so it didn't really do more than tone down the Balearic Cool while adding mouthwatering pink and purple shimmer. I wanted to try Indian Ocean on every single blue I owned after this. I didn't...but I did have that urge. 

Stunning. 

I don't remember how she did this. I might not have been paying attention at all. I know it was two or three coats of Balearic cool and one coat of Indian Ocean. I don't know that you could get Indian Ocean to be opaque on it's own, I'm not sure you would really want to. It's like bacon: it makes everything better. 

This wore great until it didn't. I did repair it once, which held it for about 2 more days and then it was polishapocaplypse. 

It came off in sheets. 

I have a pic of the other hand but it's not loading it for some reason. Bloody picture problems. Let's see if we can get the kind of funny one I took of the big sheets of polish peeling off. 
 

NO!

Love it. What a POS. Do other bloggers have these problems?

This wore roughly a week. I was getting tired of it, actually. It's very pretty but I'm used to wearing polish for about 4 days and then it peels or chips and I remove it. I'm typing this with bare nails now. I'm trying to choose a color...my nails are in good shape now...hm. 

Regardless. 

Models Own. Great colors, great wear, trendy, pretty, easy to apply...what is not to love? OK...maybe the price and WOOO the shipping from Britain. Make sure you make it worthwhile for yourself. I wound up ordering a ton of polish to be able to justify the shipping but they do give you a discounted price when you buy their sets. I bought two plus some other random ones. I also got a free black eyeliner for my first order. I haven't tried that yet, but after the polish I have high hopes. 

Sorry I've been so wordy lately. I'd love to tell you I'll cut it out but I probably won't. 

Happy Talons! 

ETA: Picasa seems to be behaving right now. Here is what the sheets of polish coming off looked like:

 

Check it out! It's...CHUNKS! When this stuff decides to go, it does not pussy foot around. It goes. The up side to that is that it could take it a week to do it. When you're working in an office handling a ton of paper, typing and then coming home and cleaning and doing dishes a week is a damned God send. I think I'm a Models Own believer.

Illamasqua Rare

I had to repaint my toes. I apologize again...you're going to be looking at my mangled toes, but I won't be able to go get a pedi for another week and I couldn't stand it. They were chipped and awful. So...I decided, after the really dark navy of Illamasqua Propaganda, that I would go the opposite direction. Yellow! Sure, why not? It's just a pedi...it's the time to go a little crazy. I did! Rare is neon. I mean NEON. I think it glows in the dark. It's so bright...it has a weird greenish tinge to it, which I'm not sure will show in the pics. See what you think...

Hm. I had bright sunshine and as soon as I started trying to take pics I got overcast. GRRRR. But, you can see this is REALLY bright. It's a great Summer shade.

Here's another swatch:

These are pretty true to color.

Wow. I do a bad job painting my toes! But...you can see the color and that's the important thing.

This went on a little chalky, but it's a neon and you kind of have to expect that. It covered streaky, you can still see some signs of it. I confess, if I'd been a little more careful, it would have been easier. The polish was not difficult to manipulate, but the brush did definitely drag through creating "bald" spots that you'd have to go back over. Two coats would not have worked. The third coat seemed to even it all out and hide some of the mistakes. It also really intensified the color.

Here's an indoor swatch under artificial lighting:

AND the last time I'm going to make you look at my toes today!

I really need to go over that with some acetone and a brush...oof. Sorry!

I did put a coat of Seche over this because I didn't like it in that matte that only neons seem to dry to; the chalky, powdery kind of finish...I don't care for it. I like the shiny better. This is so shiny and bright that the dog keeps looking at it! It is making my smile and giggle and that is always a good thing!

Any thoughts?

Happy Talons!!