I love BB Couture

Remember I had said that I had been snatching up yellows but I didn't know if I could wear them? I got brave. I tried BB Couture Daisy Dweller and found out that I could! It's bright daisy (how appropriate, right?) yellow. It's in your face, take no prisoners, not apologizing, pretty, girly, bright yellow. It also has some sparkle for good measure! It's M&M yellow. I have the proof! It's the yellow of your phone book cover and that I don't have a swatch to prove so you just have to take my word for it.

Check it out:

OK, this swatch does show that I do get a tad lobster paw-ish. Yellow honestly isn't actually my color and it's not a color I typically like. However, it does lighten your mood, no lie. I was fascinated by this polish, I confess. I took 12 swatches of it over time.
Wanna see the M&M shot? Betcha do!

You can even see some of the shimmer there on the pinkie.

There is the nearly obligatory work shot. That lighting is amazing for swatching. It's unnatural so be aware of that, though. However,  it really is this bright.

Here I got a good pick of the even brighter yellow sparkle that is in the polish. Unfortunately, the Seche Vite ate the shimmer. I'm not sure what you do with that because this polish did go on slightly rough. You could feel the glitter, which I hate. I like a nice smooth and glassy finish so I have to sacrifice the sparkle to the top coat gods. The shimmer could still be seen, it just became super subtle, which was a bit of a drag.


Here's a sunlight pic for you:

Meh. Could be a better shot. We've had bad weather here for...ever, and sunlight is something I have to catch by luck. Wow, my fingers look weird.




See? I told you I swatched the crap out of this. I couldn't stop looking at it.



Why isn't blogger letting me insert rows? Freak. [OK, on the preview read through, I had to reset my internet connection and the cut an paste and guess what? Rows. Sometimes I hate my internet.]

To do the mani, I tried the Seche Vite chocolate chip cookie accident again, just to see what happened. It was good. I might be on to something here. I will show you the chippage here in a bit because it did eventually chip, as all of them will, but more on that in a second.

1 coat Seche Base Coat
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
1 coat Seche Vite Top Coat
4 coats Daisy Dweller - I can't lie, it goes on sheer. To get opacity like I like, I did 4 coats. FOUR! Not a plus on this polish. However, it was 4 nice-to-apply coats. They went on beautifully, just not opaque.
1 coat Seche Vite

It did eventually wear and chip, but it took days. Of course, this was TEN coats of lacquer as well! That being said, none of the too thick polish problems you sometimes get. Peeling was never an issue, not even after it started to chip, which...that's kind of amazing.

Here is the chip mess:

MMM, yeah. You see that. However, it was confined to those two nails. In Daisy Dwellers defense, I had to have done roughly 90 sinks of dishes and cleaned the bathroom sink. This stuff saw a lot of water. Now...the interesting thing is, and I have to confess a sin here, once my polish starts to chip I can NOT leave it alone. I'm OCD about it, I want it off. I want it off now. It just looks cheap and lazy and defeats the whole purpose of  nail maintenance. I hate it. I hate when other people let their nails go and I definitely won't let mine. So I will pick at it. It's bad, I know. Want a nice way to start removing the surface of your nails? Pick your polish off. This swatch is after I had been picking at it. This is all that would come off. I don't have a top view of it because...all I could get off is pretty much what you see here and the left hand barely chipped at all. Maybe a little mouse bite on one nail.

Hm. Interesting.


Anyone else out there up for the yellows? Did I change your mind good or bad?

I'd love to know!

Happy Polishing!

Currently Sporting: Manglaze Hot Mess

This is a shout out to The German!

I have a friend from Germany. We have been friends for many years. He teases me mercilessly about some of my more girly habits, as I can frequently talk intelligently to him about things like cars and whatnot, I suspect. I told him I was writing a blog and he asked for, nay demanded, the address so he could read it. I told him I didn't know why he would, it's about nail polish. But I texted him enough so he could find it and he wrote back that he would check it out as he had yet to settle on a brand of his very own, but would try to look at this after his spa treatment and yoga class. :|

YES! I know you might be reading this!! And I recommend you just google "Nail blog" and see what all comes up, Mr. Smartyman!
So. I told him that in his honor the next polish I would put on myself would be a man oriented color. What better than Manglaze? I'd never worn it before though I think I pretty much picked up the whole collection in one order, because it is awesome. Like that cat? Seen that pic? Google "have you seen this cat". You should get lots-o-linkies to check him out.


Behold the matte awesomeness that is Hot Mess:

It is so sparkly that it doesn't look matte.

I have never really worn matte polish. I'm not a huge fan of that look, or so I thought until I saw this. So I worried about wear. It dried like, now. I had read that mattes dry super fast but I wasn't expecting instantaneous. This went on beautifully. With the amount of sparkle in here, you'd have expected drag. I would have and did. I didn't get any. I was happily disappointed in that. I got no drag, no need to rearrange...it just went on right like this.

With the matte finish, I was afraid it would slide right off. Partly because it went over Seche Vite top coat. I will explain that in a sec. I need to explain several things all at once. I was scared of the matte finish sticking to something as shiny and slick as a Seche Vite top coat plus, I was curious as to what a top coat would do to this. I did really love this matte. The way I've described it is "new bullet". The pictures sparkly it up, but it had a brushed silver feel to it. The base of it is clear, I believe, but the sparkly is so micro and so dense that it is irrelevant. Hot Mess, indeed.

I didn't get a picture of the Seche Vite over top for a couple of days so I want to draw your attention to the tips. Please check those out as you peruse this pic, my little friend from Hamburg. You can work on your babe getter in this stuff. ;)

See that tip wear? Yeah. I DON'T SEE ANY, EITHER! There isn't any. I did this...the night of the 15th. Both BMWWU and I are sick so we cancelled my mani, which will be named later. Hopefully not two weeks at my next regularly scheduled...I can't take these claws that long. Regardless, I had done this to them to get them through Wednesday at work without breakage. The Nubar was disintegrating, which after all the cleaning and dishes it did, I can see it. It wasn't worth slapping on color for one day. So I did this:

1 coat Seche base coat
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
1 coat Seche Vite top coat

That made it all day. I have got to where I can't tolerate myself in bare nails. It's just...blah. If you're reading this, you might understand. So, I had promised The German that I would put on some "MAN POLISH" so this wouldn't be so estrogen driven he goes into early emotion swapping and starts crying at Hallmark commercials. Or that tire one with the little baby? Yeah. So I chose this because...well, Fuggen Ugly would have just been too dark on nails this long. As we know, I was worried about wear. This manicure then became these steps added on:

2 coats Manglaze Hot Mess
1 coat Seche Vite top coat.

They look like this now:

Yep. Exactly the same. Note the freaking awesome bottle label. This is a brand to watch. Great edge, great concept, great colors and great names. Also to be noted, the complete lack of tip wear. I just took this pic about 5 minutes ago (after hitting iTunes to search for more Mountain Goat awesomeness. Made a purchase. It's downloading. If you like indie mainly accoustic with lots of smart lyrics, check them out.)

So either I have accidentally stumbled upon the chocolate chip cookie of the nail world, which would be to put Seche Vite top coat on, then color, then Seche Vite again, or this stuff wears like iron. Not entirely sure, to be honest. I have done some dishes, cleaned part of the bathroom...these have done some work, not to mention survived two days at the nail killer job, done shopping and typed about 5 blog posts and numerous text messages on a Crackberry. Hm. Makes one wonder, does it not?

As an added perk, it is so Studio 54, Disco Granny, mirrored ball, strobe light bright and arresting, people look askance at you when you reach for stuff. I love it. They look almost as if the glare from it is hurting their eyes. Yessssss. :D I have been told "Yes, I see you're sporting...silver today. Ummmm" HA HA HA! Possibly it is because I have only just learned in my early stages of middle age, that I do not have to apologize, but I adore simply smiling at people when they disapprove. It makes me all kinds of sadistically happy.
Don't let that put you off this stuff...it really is gorgeous, as I think you can see.

So, Mr. Smartyman German Yoga doing spa attending sarcastic pants! This is a polish for you. About the color of the chromes you were secretly hoping to put on Siggie the babe magnet.

**muah, muah** You know I love ya, baby.

Love Manglaze Hot Mess, too!

Happy Polishing!

PS: Looking at that swatch...my nails are SO LONG. Ugh. Don't like it!

Haul Pics

Awhile ago I mentioned that I had succumbed to Rescue Beauty Lounge bringing back classic lacquers.

I had also made a huge haul from Apothica and Sephora and Illamasqua...because I have no self control. It's sad really.

What had happened was my friend who is a make-up artist with Estee Lauder, had done this really gorgeous eye on me. I had waited because I'm trying to pay things down and didn't get it. Because they were trend colors and I'm stupid. The eyeliner was a gorgeous royal blue. Daring, even. I loved it. I didn't buy it and it was shipped back to Lauder, as they do with trend stuff that doesn't sell. I went on a little mission that I WILL find a royal blue eyeliner as wonderful as that because those fascists at Lauder took it away.
Yeah.

The irony that I could have bought the one eye liner and not 5 of them is not lost on me. On the bright side, I got some gorgeous new stuff. On the downside, I'm further in debt. Well...I'm trying to behave. For right now that will have to be good enough.

Here's some pics:

RBL haul 1...The red box is the nail treatment set. Isn't that lovely? Here's another:

And lastly the colors themselves:

Now where are the pics of the larger haul....Hm

Did I, or did I not, tell you I was bad. BAD.

Wow. Those two yellows look really different in the pic. I honestly didn't look at them side by side, I confess. There's some Stila in there, some Urban Decay...If you haven't tried the Urban Decay 24/7 eye liners yet, do it! They're awesome. I was testing colors at Ulta and couldn't get them off my hand, not even with hand sanitizer. It took some Lauder make up remover to get that off. And the colors are To. Die. For. That is Deviant you see in the picture and it's gorgeous.
Yes. I was bad. Bad.

I think that Stila Barbie blue in the upper right corner of the pic may well be the winner in the contest, but honestly between work and family stress paired with illness, I haven't even tried to duplicate the look.

Damn These Vampires by The Mountain Goats just came on my iTunes...."Crawl til dawn, on my hands and knees. God damn these bite marks, deep in my arteries...". Great stuff. I love the emo rage!

LOL

Happy Polishing!

China Glaze Fast Forward Quick Dry Top Coat

How I hate you.

I gave this a shot, generally I find China Glaze to have fun colors, tons of them, and they've not gone on an OPI like pogrom to crush on-line e-tailers so you can still get them cheap if you know where to look. Their polish as a rule is pretty reliable; it wears well and is easy to apply.

Fast Forward to Fast Forward Top Coat and...what the freakin' hell went wrong here? For one thing, it stinks. It is odorific. I have a miserable head cold so I can't really tell you at this moment exactly what it does smell like. Though...maybe I should try because it might burn the lining out of my sinuses and cure this mess for me. I've used it a couple times and it's always rather pungent. The aforementioned Ruby Pumps junkie, who is on an Orly kick right now, incidentally, said it just smells like nail polish to her so take my bitching with a grain of salt, please. Maybe there is simply something about it that me and 2% of other members of the populace find annoying.

Secondly...when I get a fast dry top coat my expectation is that it's going to help dry the layers under it. Emma Wrong? At the VERY least it should dry hard enough that the underlying mass of layers of lacquer are allowed to dry without worry of lines or hair marks or whatever else I might do to it. I'm not unreasonable, I realize I can't put on a quick dry top and then run out and change the brakes on my car without issues. I'm not a total moron. However, I should be able to indulge in my bad eye-rubbing habit and not have a problem, or be able to pick something up. What I find, however, is that this top coat does dry fast! It just does nothing to protect the still possibly gummy polishes under it. It tends to float on top in a dry slick like a piece of glass floating on water. Know what I'm saying? I apologize, I didn't take a pic of this. What I had was the hard top coat wanting to move around in one piece on top of the rather tar-like undried layers beneath. Not. Pretty. And bloody impossible to repair. You will get wrinkles. Period.

To try to give it a fair shake, I tried it over dry polish. It dried fast, still stank up the place, but it had a nice shine and did what it should. OK, so maybe it just isn't designed to do the Seche Vite or Poshe thing. Maybe I can live with this as a refresh the shine sort of arrangement. Except...I work in healthcare. Hand sanitizer is a reality of my world. GRRRR! This makes me SO MAD! Fast Forward will get CLOUDY. I'm not kidding. Probably the alcohol in the sanitizer is doing it, that's my guess, but it clouds up the clear coat. I have swatches.

Crap swatch, but can you see that cloudiness there? Try this one:

Ah. I think this may show it best. Right at the bottom of the nail in this picture. See that? That didn't go away with the obligatory OCD hand washing that happens in a medical facility, either.

So not loving this top coat. Sorry, China Glaze. That's a fail, right there.

(These were over BB Couture Ode to a Ladybug)

Nubar Gold Feather

I wanted a duochrome...I was looking for something different and I know that Nubar does some great duochromes and I have a couple of their more cult status colors. Peacock Feather, which is So duo, it kind of freaks out a friend of mine. Not as much as Orly Space Cadet did...but she stared at it and stared at it and deciding it disturbed her declared she didn't like it. This is a girl who rarely ventures outside the China Glaze Ruby Pumps arena. Blue on her toes is a downright upsetting experience. I'm working on her.
So...Peacock Feather is too wintery....Didn't feel like the blue I have...wanted more summery, but not neon...Hm. Wildlife? Too Autumn. Went for Gold Feather. Immediately wished I'd gone for Wildlife. Not that Gold Feather isn't gorgeous? It  definitely is. But it's a fall leaf, Autumnal color. It SCREAMS Autumn. And it didn't duochrome on me. So I have a feeling this post will contain a lot of whining about how I didn't want a fall color and how this failed me. But it is pretty. Even Ruby Pumps said so. She loved it.

Here is it, in all it's Maple Leaf Goldness Glory:

I don't know...burnished bronze? It is really pretty...but it's Faaalllll color. :( (That's me whining in text. Odd because I don't actually whine in real life. It was a bad peeve of my mother's. Simply not permitted. It was the one thing that may have made the patient saint snapping on you.) It just wasn't what I wanted. If I had randomly chosen this in October I'd have been off my head with joy. It looks good on me...It shows off my citrine ring beautifully, and I do love me some Phury-eye jewelry (Shout out to my fellow Cellies!! You know who you are. All you Phury haters just hush.) I be wearing my citrines today...a pic do you say? I'd love to but I am not sporting Gold Feather any longer. I'm just that bloody far behind on my blog. And I do apologize for that. I've been sick. Perpetually.

So...yeah. Right now I'm very meh on this color. I was so meh on it I only took this one swatch. What does that tell you? Oh, poor Gold Feather. Had I only waited to put you on until October or so. How I would have loved you then. It's not you. It's me. I can't commit right now. I want a springy bright beachy surf and sand fling. I...**sigh**It was just bad timing. Perhaps we will meet another time, at another season, for another manicure.

I totally just got weird on you, I know. I was inspired. By really bad acting, evidently.

So, this manicure wore...OK. It didn't do badly. It too survived some breakage and a lot of dishes. Really, to be honest, it wore for roughly 5 days and the right hand did most of the peeling and chipping, which I expect. I am ambi, but favor the right so...there are things I definitely do better left handed. Throwing things for one, which is weird. But anyways, I do expect more wear on the righty and that's exactly what I got.

Nubar is a vegan company, for those of you who are interested. They have a rather vast line and you can get some nice deals on their website. They sell their collections as a whole or individually so if you hate every other color you're not trapped. If you buy the whole set they come in a cute little suitcase. I only have a spare few Nubars, not because they're not good colors or anything, but because I have such a miserable time on their website keeping my shopping to a dull roar. If you have some restraint you should check them out. Unfortunately, it was fall last time I loitered around on there and so most of what I have are more fall colors.

Down to the mechanics of it:

1 coat Seche Base Coat
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
2 coats Nubar Gold Feather
1 coat Seche Vite Top Coat

It went on wonderfully well. If you were careful you might pull off a one coater. I just prefer two. I know many bloggers do three, and I confess, their nails often look a bit better, but I'm not that patient. I also confess to that. Painting my nails is not only a vanity, it is one of the few ways I can force myself to sit still for awhile. Otherwise I'm constantly fidgeting. So...that said, I don't have the quietness in me to sit for a third coat of paint unless they just look rubbish without it. It dried fairly quickly, if I remember correctly, and the Seche Vite didn't hurt the color or eat the duochrome. I just didn't get any. Maybe this isn't really meant to be one and I'm confused. I did get a lovely not quite metallic finish, I just didn't get any duo.

I hope you like this one. I did. Just not right now.

Happy Polishing!

BB Couture Ode to a Ladybug

BB Couture Ode to a Lady Bug is a gorgeous sparkly coral. It's a great Spring color. I received many a compliment on it. It was sort of mesmerizing. I find that BB Couture does sparkle really really well. This manicure took a severe beating and I will be using pics of this to show you how I repair chips.

I think this is the kind of coral that most of us can wear. It is on the orange side, but it's not aggressive about it. The sparkle is also not aggressive. You can easily get away with this at work. I did. We get away with a lot in the way of nail color at my job, so use your best judgment. Compared to some of what I show you on here? It's tame. But so pretty.

Without further ado:

 See? The sparkle is subtle. This is SO pretty. Let's see if sparkle shows up on the next swatch:

 There you can see some! This is really a gorgeous color. I didn't apply it because we put it on at my regular mani, so TBMWWU will have to tell you how it behaved. Unfortunately, wear was a problem. I did abuse my nails pretty thoroughly for this mani. I did a lot of dishes, I broke a couple...it was a rough week.

And it really only got worse as we went:




 This is actually a repair pic, but you can see what's happened on the right hand. Ugh. This mani did last about a week before we got to this point. 

All the same, here is how the mani went

2 coats Fiberglass Network (Don't know about it's cruelty free status, it's what BMWWU uses, she doesn't worry about the critters)

2 coats BB Couture Ode to a Lady Bug

1 coat Poshe base coat (blue bottle)
1 coat Poshe top coat (clear bottle)

Overall, this is a great Spring/Summer happy pick-me-up kind of  a color. It's a dazzler of a polish. I recommend picking it up! I actually recommend the whole collection, I just haven't reviewed it yet. ;)

Happy Polishing!

Nars Desperado and a damnable cruelty free lacking

OK...this color was sort of achieving a cult-like status for awhile. I kept seeing the bloggers talking about it. It's one of those unique, odd, strangely fascinating colors that for me, at least, sometimes causes me to say "They really LOVE this?". Actually, I did love it on me. My skin tone does not really lend itself to golds and yellows. It just doesn't. My coloring is much more suited to silvers, steels, greys...and yes. Black. **Currently debating an ill-advised Deborah Lippmann haul...Fade to Black. Might need that. And some of the neutrals...no! Wait for a freebie give away that you don't already have, idiot!!** AUGH! See what it's like in my head? It's exhausting! Back to Desperado...
It's an odd, odd color. It's buffed bronze, but more gold. It's understated, but it has a red glitter in it, if you can spot it. It's neutral, but it's definitely not. Hm. What do you think?

OH, and as Nars has been iffy on animal testing, here is their statement: lower right hand corner
However, they are owned by Shisheido, which I did not know, and Shisheido animal tests. So. My bad...you won't see any more Nars on here, I'm afraid. Poo. They have some fun colors and I love some of the makeup. Crap. Well, I can't not boycott Nars if I'm gonna boycott OPI for being owned by Coty.

Gah. Whatever. I took the pics so here's a look at it, in case you're not being as strict on the cruelty free as I am:

I was playing with the settings on the camera on my phone? Didn't this come out better? Yes. If only hooking up my actual camera wasn't going to require building a whole new wheel...you have no idea. I'm scrupulously neat at work, my desk is always cleaned off. Home? Yeah. You are lucky if you can even find the desk.

Regardless...fairly spectacular color, isn't it? Too bad it's owning company achieved it at another creature's suffering. It's not THAT great. It's an odd burnished gold? I guess? I liked it on me. However, it didn't stand up to dishwashing. Not that I expect my polishes to do fantastically well, but I do expect more than one sink load. What have I been saying? Expensive polishes don't think we do such menial things as dishes. I had done a whole series of pictures on how I repair chips with this polish but now having actually determined the cruelty status I won't be using those. I did redo them with a BB Couture though, so that post is coming. As well as a post on the BBC I was wearing when I did it, which I loved and had many compliments on.

Happy polishing!