SUMMER BUBBLES: Del Sol color-changing* polish

I have owned Del Sol First Kiss for quite a while and decided it was time to try it.

  

The "before" silvery pink color is very close to how I remember my first nail polish ever: Love My Nails Innocent Pink, given to me at age six by a student teacher who knew not what she wrought. I kept it for years and years, until it finally got sort of yellowy and unfortunate. Then I barely missed my last opportunity to buy another before the brand went defunct; you could buy it at Walmart forever, but when it finally occurred to me, all I could find were some godawful magenta ones in a clearance bin.

  

My older, more sophisticated palate decried the color as TOTES BORING (also the VNL was unacceptable), so I stamped it with the bubbles from Mash-43 in China Glaze Galactic Gray (very subtle effect). Then I got all glitter-happy and added a layer of OPI Pirouette My Whistle to simulate MORE BUBBLES.

* There were too many layers of top coat to allow enough UV light in to change the Del Sol. Sometimes I fail to think these things through.

  

It does change color nicely in the bottle, so presumably, if you don't slop on endless UV-filtering top coat, it will also change on your nails. I ordered it from Sally's, but they have a wider variety on the Del Sol website in delightfully redesigned bottles. SWEET.

YOU CAN CALL ME HEAVENLY: Zoya Tomoko

I have a love-hate relationship with Zoya and am on a (well-intentioned) no-buy right now, but this happened. It is one of the fall PixieDust collection, but it is unseasonably cool today, so I gave myself a preview.

  

Kawase Tomoko is what I want to be when I grow up and we have the same birthday and WOULD TOTALLY BE TWINS IF I WERE SIX INCHES SHORTER AND ASIAN LET'S BE BEST FRIENDS OKAY

  

WE CAN WEAR OUR CAT EARS TOGETHER AND I WILL BAKE STRAWBERRY CREAM CUPCAKES

  

I am not a huge fan of the textured polish thing, but this is shiny enough that I can forgive it. The Zoya "Pixie" thing is too precious for me to forgive, however. THAT'S JUST WEIRD GUYS and coming from me that's saying something....

  

I also discovered the Great Galloping Gallons promotion, where if you buy four 32-ounce bottles of Remove+ you get four free. The price per ounce is 39 cents as opposed to $1.25 per ounce when you buy the flipper thing. If you can steel yourself to spend $100 at once on nail polish remover, it's a bargain.

  

Two gallons of remover should last a couple months at least.

NEON DEATH PINK: Zoya Does It Best

In keeping with our Let's Summer Like It's 1993 theme, I present Zoya Neon Death Pink (aka Layla) with tips in Zoya Neon Death Pink mark Glitter (née Gilda).

  

I bought these as part of a box set in December a couple years ago when I was overexcited about a buy-two-get-one sale. This box came with yet another Neon Death Pink (I think Lola, which I have since given away due to general grossness thereof.

  

Oh tiny stub nails, how you radiate toxic pinkness.

I can't say that I was thrilled with either of these polishes; they like to pretend to be dry until you go to change the laundry and then HAHA MADE YOU SMUDGE. But for the probable forty-eight hours I will be able to tolerate looking at this, they were good enough.

LISA FRANK NAILS: yup, I'm that old.

I originally saw this idea on a slideshow somewhere and have seen several different versions since then. But this is my best take on it.

  

Stripes lovingly hand-painted in (from the bottom up) Orly Charged Up and Sinful Colors Cream Pink, Savage and Innocent, topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust. Leopard spots stamped with Mash-23 in Konad black. Photobucket is being an ass about letting me rotate these pictures for some reason.

  

As long as I have tiny stub nails, I need to practice stamping. Obviously.

  

Does anyone remember the Lisa Frank picture of a dog and cat wedding? The dog has a sadistic leer, and the cat looked terrified. It was so traumatizing that there is no evidence of it on the internet anywhere. Ashleigh remembers, so it was not a crack dream of my youth.

OPI LIQUID SAND: at least it's purple

OPI's Facebook page claims this will be available "as early as" January 2, 2013. I purchased this on December 29, 2012 and saw it in a salon the day before. Do they purposely give us a fake availability date and then release them sooner to make us all excited that we found something early? Or it is a failing on the retail side? what-ever.

I was not interested in "matte glitter" and object to Mariah Carey so had no plans to pick up any of the OPI Liquid Sand polishes. Then I was at Ulta, and then there was a purple one, and why does this always happen....

  

OPI Can't Let Go. I like it more than expected. Dry time is pretty good, and it's holding up well for lack of top coat. I've had this on about forty-eight hours, and there's just some minor tip wear...but I have an overwhelming urge to pick at it.

  

I am afraid this may require lasers to be removed.

  

The texture is interesting, but two thick layers of Seche Vite transform it into shiny love-love as shown below. Although SOMEONE just told me that looks "kind of like vomit," so I guess it's personal preference.

  

FOURTH DAY: green glitter love

My claws were starting to show enough tip wear to concern me, so I had to redo them last night. I didn't have time for anything very exciting, so this happened.

  

Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe under Milani Gems.

  

I want to lick that bottle sooooo much.

  

IT IS GREEN AND SPARKLY, LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE.

  

I wish I had added some diagonal lines to simulate garland. But there's always next year.

SECOND DAY: shiny glitter love

Here we have Zoya Isla with tips in China Glaze Twinkle Lights over China Glaze Champagne Bubbles, with an inverted accent ring finger.

  

This got a lot of love at work, but the pictures are not wonderful.

  

I have such mixed feelings about Zoya. The average wear time is crap, but I haven't tried it with their own base and top coats yet. If they would stock them at Ulta along with the polishes, I would have picked them up by now. HINT, HINT.

FIRST DAY: snowflakes glitter love

It is DECEMBER. That means it is time for HOLIDAY NAILS. I am EXCITED.

  

I stamped the snowflakes from BM14 on China Glaze Blue Year's Eve with Konad white polish and OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, then topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust. Lucerne did not offer enough contrast to show up as more than a shimmery shadow; I would like to do this one again with white and ice blue snowflakes and maybe a different plate. Two people thought these were stars, which is understandable as smudge happened.

  

I usually prefer teal rather than blue, but this one is a delicious cold glass-fleck type. GOOD JOB CHINA GLAZE.

  

The thumbs came out pretty well.

  

It may be December, but the high is sixty degrees today, so this will be the only snow in my life for the foreseeable future. It is good for the utility bills but bad for holiday morale. I will squeeze my eyes shut and PRETEND.

DELICIOUS FISHES: Nicole by OPI Mer-Maid For Each Other

I honestly like the Nicole by OPI line better than Sephora by OPI (except for that unfortunate Kardashian thing WHO ARE THOSE PEOPLE SERIOUSLY). This is unusual as my tastes trend toward the expensive, but IT IS WHAT IT IS, as this one complete asshole used to tell me all the time.

Let us feed the mermaid obsession OH YES LET'S.

  

Nicole by OPI Mer-Maid for Each Other with an accent nail of L.A. Girls Glitter Addict Nostalgia (whatever). This is a Target exclusive. Because I am classy.

  

SUN: shiny.

  

SHADE: shiny.

  

It appears similar in the bottle to Just Spotted the Lizard but has more teal and less gold. That means you need them both.

GLITTER SHATTER: OPI plus 212-Sephora

I know that everyone is well over the crackle polish by now, but I only recently figured out that it hates Seche Vite with a burning, passionate loathing. So for your passive entertainment I present OPI Gold Shatter with Sephora by OPI 212-Sephora.

  

Sometimes I am brilliant, smart, and adorable. Other times, you have to smack me in the face with a brick. I didn't realize that 212-SEPHORA was their actual phone number until I had owned this polish upwards of a year. I GOT A 32 COMPOSITE SCORE ON THE ACT, GUYS. PEOPLE LIKE ME VOTE.

Re: phone numbers, I spent an entire board meeting calling various toll free UNICORN numbers (864-2676). None of them were in service except 1-877-UNICORN, which rang and rang and rang. I so desperately wanted its voice mail.

  

I thought the gold shatter would go well with 212-Sephora since the latter's base is a kind of golden black (see also: K-sama as L-sama), but I think the contrast with a black black blackity-black would look better. It would be appropriate next time I go home around a Mizzou game, but that would involve finding out when the games are, and the bay is dry.

  

It was quite kind to my short lil thumbnail, anyway.

  

WHY DON'T I JUST SPRAY MYSELF WITH ADHESIVE AND TAKE A DUST BATH IN GLITTER yes please.

WHAT'S A KARDASHIAN? all that glitters

(seriously, who are these people? but anyway)

Tonight for your excitement I present two offerings from the Nicole by OPI "Kardashian Kolor Holiday" collection. I must disclaim that I am ALL about the gratuitous K inserts, but that makes me hella want to vomit and if these two polishes had not been grade-A for awesome there is no way I would support that garbage in any way, shape, or form. MOVING ON....




Here we have Disco Dolls under Rainbow in the S-Kylie (I persist in trying to append "With Diamonds" every time I think that name). I have read that Skylie Diamonds is a dupe for the OPI Muppets' Rainbow Connection and had a passing interest in that but not enough to stalk it down so picked this up instead. Disco Dolls met my impulse purchase criteria of "gold" and "glittery" and "available."




Guys, these are the glitziest nails I have ever had, for serious; I am amazed there weren't birds dive-bombing my hands. I expected it to take three hours wrapped in foil to remove, but it lasted pretty well for about five days and then came off in sheets. There are, in fact, two large pieces of it still in my coat pocket because OMG SO SHINY SO SO SHINY.




Of course we had no sun worth mentioning for the duration. But I tried. For you.




PRINCESS SEAL OF APPROVAL although I'm kind of ashamed of it. And I proudly proclaim my love for Ke$ha. WHERE IS HER NAIL POLISH COLLECTION? OPI GET ON THAT RIGHT NOW.

TWELFTH NIGHT: Carey in Lorelei's Tiara

I wasn’t going to post this one due to the horrific cleanup (or lack thereof), but I had more compliments than usual on it. Inspired by the one snow we’ve had so far this winter.




Three coats of Zoya Carey from the Feel Collection with China Glaze Lorelei’s Tiara from the Eye Candy collection splashed on the ends.




I felt obligated to purchase Carey as it is my namesake polish but didn’t expect to be very excited about gray as my skin demands warm colors. The glitter brightened it up enough to be okay. I think I’d prefer Kendal or Kennedy standalone. I got almost five days out of this one before I had to take it off, which is above average in my Zoya experience.

The glitter is highly adequate. I think the blue bits make the polish.

Also for your entertainment, my magical hair that I wore at the same time. I went to a semi-classy restaurant like this. I am that girl.




Surprisingly, the other girls did not make me sit at a separate table.




The man in front of me at the salad bar said he was glad I was there as the room was on the dark side. I LIGHT UP THE WORLD.

WORK INAPPROPRIATE AWARD: OPI Candy Mani

OPI recently posted an inquiry on Facebook regarding a "candy mani." I was all whut until Google informed me this is a a synonym for "jelly sandwich," a term I had seen before. I have had boring nails lately so decided to try this.




IT IS SHINY AND I WANT TO EAT IT. I think the jelly candy EAT ME effect is best with large shaped glitter - hearts or stars or skulls or tigers rather than sprinkle glitter - and it's a pain in the whatsis to fish enough glitters out of the jar for each nail. So this is not an every-week adventure.




You can't tell from these pictures, but I had one purple nail on my left hand (ring) and two on my right (ring and pinky). This is my favorite color split.




Purple nails: two coats China Glaze Urban-Night, careful coat of Timothy, one coat OPI Houston, We Have a Purple jelly.




Pink nails: two coats OPI You're Such A Kabuki Queen, carefully-applied Nicole by OPI Step 2 the Beat of my ♥, one coat OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y jelly. ( FYI, I despise two of these three polish names.)

(EDIT: Pink also has touches of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Extreme Wear Rockstar Pink; purple has touches of the same in Strobe Light.)

This all reminds me of my second-favorite art form: JELLO MOLD SUSPENSION!




I promised Orly Mineral FX but was too depressed to post it last weekend. So I will do it later.

COMING UP NEXT: Nina Ultra Pro - sadly underrated!

UPTOWN GIRL

These are from the China Glaze Fall 2011 collection, Metro. I suppose this collection is meant to be gritty? edgy? on trend? something like that. It offers a fairly wide range of colors. I'm trying to break away from my pink-red-purple-gold-teal rut and considered getting Westside Warrior, one of the newly popular puke greens (some people call this "olive"), and Trendsetter, which is sort of mustard (see Scrangie's lovely post here) but played it safe for this round.

I ordered these from Trans Design because a) the people who work at the Sally's Beauty Supply by my house are scary, and b) my Ulta gets its stock about eight months late. Also, Trans Design sells China Glaze for $2.99, and Sally's is $5.99 with the card if they aren't having a sale. So it tends to be cheaper even factoring in shipping. I visited a Sally's far away from my house today and viewed the puke green and the mustard in person. Trendsetter would look like my cat threw up on my hand, but I kind of did want Westside Warrior. I need to live more vivaciously.

Street Chic (Uptown)







This is a perfect dupe for Essie's Hot Coco. I wore the two alternating every other finger to work one day, and no one could tell. It's a deep taupe creme with a hint of purple; I think it dries a little darker than it looks in the bottle. Essie's formula is a smidge more runny than China Glaze, if it makes any difference to you.

Loft-y Ambitions (Downtown)








This is a nice burgundy creme. There are probably 347 dupes out there for this one too, but I don't own any personally. Like I said. It's nice.

Urban-Night (Uptown)








Lovely deep purple creme. Again, not that original. but I like it. I could probably wear it to work even if my office wasn't a freak show.

P.S. I'm such a murch that I didn't get the pun in the name until I'd worn it two days.


CG In The City (Uptown)










As you should know, I am ALL ABOUT THE GLITTER. This works well as a layer over any of the other polishes, as demonstrated above. I think it would take too many coats to be worth trying on its own. If you do, let me know.

COMING UP NEXT WEEK: Orly Mineral FX. In a word, SHINY.