Wet N Wild - Spoiled - I Don't Drink Cheap Wine Swatch

"I Don't Drink Cheap Wine" (IDDCW).  Yeah, well I wear cheap nail polish, and its not too bad.  WNW's IDDCW is a deep burgundy shimmer, with a really nice formula.  Two easy coats and would be really great for fall and winter.  Some of my co-workers are still sporting around some dark fall and winter colors, so I figured this might be my last chance to wear something like this, until next September. 

My middle finger nail broke, so now I'm debating, should I file them all down?

Really fat moppy brush this time.

I have to agree with Sneakerette, about the brushes, on this one.  I haven't had any real problems until now.  All the brushes are different, some are curved, some are flat, some are lop sided, some are frayed, but they are all super soft and thick.  This one however felt like I was trying to paint with a floor mop.  So, I really had to spend more time cleaning up this manicure. 

My solution to this problem might be to use a brush from an older nail polish.  I have some empty nail polish bottles sitting around.  I poured the old polish out on to some newspaper, let it dry and discard.  In the meantime, I filled the bottle with some acetone to clean it, the bottle and the brush, and poured that out, into the trash, not down the sink.  Pour a little fresh acetone into the empty bottle.  I haven't done this but I would think you could use that old brush (after it dried from cleaning) to paint, and then when you are done, rinse it in the bottle with the fresh acetone in it.  ?? Good idea?

Wet N Wild - Spoiled - Magic Carpet Ride - Swatched and Layered

I have another WNW Spoiled polish to show you!  Magic Carpet Ride.... a pink with a hint of purple with a lot of sliver shimmer.  The formula is quite thin and this is three coats.





Magic Carpet Ride reminds me of some of those holographic polishes, but without the holographics.  They too are ususally pastels that are really shimmery. I have a hard time finding holo polishes. I know they are on eBay but I'm not going to get into a bidding war over nail polish or buy them for $30 a bottle.  I also wonder why China Glaze stopped making their line of holos?  There seems to be a strong demand for them.  Hits from Brazil makes a bunch of them but they are not big-3-free so that's not an option, for me. 

So.... I had the idea to add some nano-holographic glitter.  I used the term nano (10 to the negative 9th power) in relative terms not literally. I added INM's Out The Door, Northern Lights, holographic top coat.  I have another holo glitter polish, Orly's Shine on Crazy Diamond, that has bigger pieces of aluminum powder (holographic material), but in terms of glitter size Orly's Shine on Crazy Diamond is like micro-glitter (10 to the negative 6th power).  Anyways.... the results were pretty subtle.  In person, the glitter is much more apparent and really pretty to look at.

Indirect Sunlight.  You can really see it in the bottle.

Direct Sunlight.

INM's Out The Door, Northern Lights, holographic top coat dries to touch in 45 seconds and doesn't require another top coat.  The glitter settles to the bottom of the bottle pretty quickly so you have to work fast or keep shaking it.  I let my bottle sit upside down for a little while before I start rolling it around to mix the polish.  I got mine at Sally's, I think for $5.99?  WNW, spoiled is $1.99 at CVS.

Thoughts?

WNW's Toad-ally Amazing Funky French

I don't know if this is totally amazing but it is "Toad-ally amazing"....  I did a funky french with Wet N Wild's Silvivor and Revlon's Jaded Night. 

Right hand.  Sorry for the dry hands. WNW's Toad-ally Amazing as the main color, Jaded Night on the tips.

Added this so you can see, Jaded Night in the bottle.

Left Hand.  Silvivor on the tips.

I ended up liking the tone on tone, Jaded Night french mani more than silvivor.  Silvivor was too bright for me and I felt like a space cadet. 

I still need practice doing tape manis but I think I'm getting the hang of it.  I think the trick is to pull the tape and stretch it a bit to make sure it lays really flat and paint doesn't seep under it and to pull it off while it is still wet.  I used plain scotch tape.

More WNW to come!

Wet N Wild Spoiled - Toad-ally Amazing Swatch

My husband commented, "It looks like lettuce."

Hmmmm, what's that suppose to mean? 

Hubby says, "means I don't like it."

Oh well....

Wet N Wild's Toad-ally Amazing (WNW) (TA), a minty green, silver shimmer polish.  I actually kind of like it.  I was skeptical at first, like I am of all green polishes but this one is growing on me.  Its kind of fresh and new.

Good formula, two really easy coats with the super soft and fat WNW brush.  This one was rounded on both sides.  I could almost cover the entire nail bed with one stroke.  For the sides, I just turned the brush 90 degrees, so that it becomes narrow and painted the sides.

I used Lippmann's hydrating base, two coats of TA, and one coat of China Glaze fast forward top coat.

What are your thoughts?  Does it look like lettuce?

Deborah Lippmann - Baby Love

Quick post today.  I am having a demanding couple of weeks...  This week's work mani is Lippmann's baby love, a sheer french manicure pink.  Neutral and clean.  This is three coats.

Left to right: hydrating base coat, baby love, on a clear day top coat, CG FF top coat.

This came from the Lippmann's Start Me Up, Nail Treatment set.  I haven't tested the whole kit yet, so I have to do a full review later.  It comes with a nail file, cuticle remover, primer, cuticle oil, base coat, top coat and baby love. 

The hydrating base coat goes on clear and shiny, dries fast, seems like a regular base coat to me.  It does have some safflower seed oil and Kukul nut oil in it though, so that might help moisturize the nail beds. 

Baby love is quite sheer and I use three coats to cover my slightly yellow tips, I probably would have been okay with two coats.  The brush is pretty thick and works well. 

On a Clear Day top coat... This top coat is SLOW drying, 5 minutes dry to touch.  This is unacceptable to me considering there are several fast drying top coats out there.  Plus on my right hand while waiting to dry, I banged into something and smudged three fingers and some lint flew into the ring finger which I could not remove and so, is trapped in the paint.  Not good.  Long dry time equals big room for error.  Plus it was not a good smudge fixer.  I didn't bother to wait and see how long it would completely dry.  I put one coat of China Glaze's fast forward (CGFF) top coat and all was well.  CGFF dries fast, one minute to touch, and dries hard and super glossy.  (On a clear day was glossy too.)  CGFF is also a really good smudge fixer and great leveler for glitters. 

All of the nail treatments in this kit are 0.3 oz or 9 ml, and is $40 at Neiman's.  This probably would make a great travel kit.  Have you ever travelled with nail polish before?  What do you do with your nails when you go out of town?

Orly - Ma Cherie - I heart Paris!

Happy Valentine's day! 

I'm a little pressed for time, so I apologize if this manicure is not really creative.  Orly's Ma Cherie, (my darling in French), is a fantastic, blue based, medium, classic, red JELLY polish!  Super shiny and pretty durable.  As I write this, I'm on day two with no chips and very, very little tip wear. 

This polish is slightly transparent.  In person I can see my tips through the polish.  I had a hard time capturing the jelliness and the color, it still seems a teeny bit orange-y to me in the photos.  These photos are 2/3 a stop down, and is as close to true color as I could get.  Its pretty close. 

Well, it is gorgeous!  Ma Cherie is from the 2011 Holiday Soriee collection. 

I used Orly's nail defense base, two coats of Ma Cherie, and one coat of INM out the door top coat.

Since I wasn't very creative this year, I thought I would include some photos from my trip to France back in September of 2010.

Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris, France.

Senate building in the back, which used to be one of the palaces of the Medici family.

Enjoy!

Revlon Colorstay Longwear - Calla Lily

Calla Lily (CL) is a super sheer white with a golden shimmer.  I layered two coats of Calla Lily over Orly's sheer beauty (plain sheer white) and here's how it turned out.

I skipped the colorstay topcoat and just used Revlon's quick dry topcoat instead, which worked out fine.

In some pictures you can see my yellow tips, I think the gold shimmer kind of accentuates that.  I keep buying polishes that do that.... I don't know why but, I don't really think that clearly when I'm in the store.  I just think "oh your pretty, I'm going to buy you..." 

Next time I'll try this over another polish.  I hate opaque white polishes, they seem so stark to me and I keep thinking it looks like I played around in the office with white out.  So that's why I didn't layer this over a solid white. 

Overall it's not bad at all, it will be one of my go to work manicures.

Thoughts?

Revlon Colorstay Longwear - Provence

I'm kind of in a hurry to post this because I've had a few hits for this polish and probably disappointed some polish researchers when they only got to see a picture of a bottle.  So here it is; Revlon's Provence.

Revlon's Colorstay Longwear - Provence

Up close.

There must be something about the pigments in these chalky pastels because this formula is kind of thick and a little sticky like Revlon's Bare Bones.  My first coat did not go on evenly and subsequently the second coat is not as smooth as I would like it to be.  If I add a third coat to fix the second coat, the paint is really thick and has a hard time drying and becomes a dented mess.  So I ended up just starting over again and slowly and as carefully as possible apply two of the best possible coats. 

What I used:  I was a purist:  Revlon's colorstay base coat, two coats of Provence, one coat of colorstay top coat, AND one coat of Revlon's quick dry top coat.

On the pinky finger there is some bubbling, that showed up right after applying the colorstay top coat.  I use a heated dryer between layers and I suspect that caused the bubbling.  I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that the colorstay topcoat is really unnecessary because it dries too slow and there are so many other fast dry top coats that deliver high shine with less wait time, thus less room for error. 

Overall, Provence is a nice pastel lavender and would be great with green glitter!

Does this have a gel like finish as Revlon claims?  I really can't tell, it seems like regular nail polish to me, same with Midnight and Bare Bones.  Thoughts?

Wet N Wild Spoiled - Black Mamba (BM)

BM is a black and silver metallic foil polish that was a breeze to apply.  Thick and not sticky, this polish reminded me of Ulta's Alter Ego.  The paint just flowed from the brush at an even pace. I did not have to keep dipping and readjusting, no bald spots, no cuticle drag... so very nice.  Two coats with Revlon's quick dry top coat.

Side Note: According to National Geographic, the black mamba, because of its venom, is the world's most deadliest snake.  I did not know this and bumped into this information when googling black mamba.  I thought it was some kind of dance.... WRONG, O WRONG!  Not only is the black mamba the world's deadliest snake, its not even black.  Its actually a pretty tan color but the inside of its mouth is the color of THIS NAIL POLISH. GROSS!  I don't have copyright permission, so click here (Nat'l Geo) and here (for inside of mouth pics, scroll down).

Thanks, Wet N Wild for totally creeping me out!  I forgot how beautiful this polish is and how it is a nice alternative to black.

Thoughts?

Wet N Wild Spoiled - Use Protection Layered & Swatched

Hey guys!

Today's post is a little picture heavy because I went crazy taking pictures and then was indecisive when editing.  First I will show you Wet N Wild's Spoiled, Use Protection (UP) polish layered with Revlon's Colorstay in Midnight, then (UP) alone.  Jeeze what a mouthful.  By the way, Use Protection?  What a name?  Use protection against what?  STDs?  EeeeWWW!

So here it is layered, over a dark creme, Revlon's Midnight.

Layering this over a dark polish really shows off the glitter.

See the hex glitters?  Nice color combo.

In the fourth photo you can see the hexagon glitters.

Now here it is by itself. Two coats.

Sheer jelly, and without a dark base, the holo glitters are lost in the jelly.  Since it is sheer this polish is now so versatile.

No.  I did not wear this out.  Just demo.

Umm, I would say UP is definitely intended to be layered.  Do you agree?  Aqua jelly with various hex glitters.  The combination of glitters is so well balanced and the color choices were done really well.  I reminds me of marine life, and UP should be called Under the Sea or Finding Nemo or the Little Mermaid.... or something else, not Use Protection.  UP is so gorgeous in the bottle and when layered over a dark color, but not alone. Also, I think UP might be a dupe for a Sinful Colors glitter as well, but I did not confirm.
CVS, $1.99, cruelty free, big 3 free, can't complain.

Check out my other Wet N Wild, Spoiled posts, I'm so excited about this line!

Revlon Colorstay Longwear - Midnight

Hai der!  (I just left icanhascheezburger.com)

Can you imagine doing a whole post in icanhascheezburger speak?  Now there's a challenge.

Today I'm showing Revlon's Colorstay in Midnight, a dark blue, teal, steel blue... blue, teal creme polish... does that make sense?  However you want to describe it, it is a pretty color.  Although, I have to say China Glaze's Up All Night, a dark navy is somehow more exciting to me. 

The formula compared to Bare Bones is a little bit thinner and combined with the double barrelled brush I was not prepared for the onslaught of liquid polish that flooded my cuticles.  Needless to say, I had quite an aggravating time cleaning up.  Two coats provides nice full coverage.

Double barrelled brush, really fans out when you press down.

I used one coat of Revlon's colorstay base coat, two coats of midnight, one coat of colorstay topcoat, and one coat of Revlon's quick dry top coat.  I used a quick dry top coat because the colorstay topcoat is slow drying, and with two top coats, I should have a nice water tight seal.  I explain this in more detail in my Bare Bones post.

I can't really test the longevity of this polish because the color is not work friendly and I'm going to have to take it off.  I can tell you I wore Bare Bones for three days and on the first day my thumb had a small chip and there was normal tip wear at the end of three days. 

Thoughts?

Wet N Wild Spoiled - Show Me the Money

I'm not really a fan of green nail polish or green glitter polish because it reminds of Liza Minnelli's character, Sally Bowles in the movie, Cabaret.  Well, I thought I would be open minded and try out this bottle, Wet N Wild's, Spoiled, Show Me the Money (SMM).  SMM is clear based polish with small green hexagon glitter and smaller green and gold glitters.  I did not wear this alone because my nails are a little yellow, and despite the fact I wear base coat religiously; gold glitter accentuates my yellow stains.  So, I layered it over Revlon's Colorstay Bare Bones, and China Glaze's Go Go Pink. 

Over Revlon's Bare Bones, one coat.

Up close.

One coat, over China Glaze's Go Go Pink.  Looks like speckled Easter eggs.

I liked this combo better than over Bare Bones.

I was not going to wear this by itself so I swatched on some nail wheels, to show how it builds.

Over some other polishes.  This might be interesting over grey.

This brush is rounded on both sides.

Previously, I posted WNW's Papa-Paparazzi and the brush was only rounded on one side. It must be an inconsistency in manufacturing. Either way both brushes worked really well.  I didn't have any problems with either one of them.

If you want to see what I mean about Liza Minnelli's green nails, here's a video.  http://youtu.be/rkRIbUT6u7Q You can see her nails in the first 20 seconds and the video is fitting, she sings about Money.  I had to watch this movie in college for an literature class, and to this day I have no idea why.  Liza Minnelli's character is kind of a user and she's sleeping with two guys who happen to be gay and the two gay guys are also sleeping with each other.  Jeeze... this all takes place in pre-World War II Berlin, and I kept thinking while watching the movie, "there's a huge war that's about to happen, people.  Instead of messing around, why don't you get the hell out of Europe?" 

So that is why I don't have much green in my collection, but I actually like this green lightly layered over another polish.  This might be nice over a soft blue too.

WNW spoiled line is only at CVS, $1.99. 

Thoughts?  I appreciate all comments.