NOTW WNW Fergie New Years Kisses, NUP Sangria

How's every one's week going?  I've got two polishes to show you today.  First, is Wet N Wild's, New Year's Kisses from the Fergie line.  This is a clear based, silver, holographic bar glitter, with silver micro glitter and smaller blue bar glitter.  I did one coat with two coats of Jelly Pop top coat.

I probably should have layered this, but I really was craving something sheer.  My yellow tips are more apparent in photos than in real life.... I don't know why.  This was super pretty by itself.  Light, bright, and super sparkly in low light. It feels like a veil.  This mani took only five minutes and dried really fast. 

Wet N Wild's Fergie polishes are at Walgreens for $3.49 a bottle.  A few are dupes from the Spoiled line.  I only picked up two, New Years Kisses and their multi-colored star glitter.  Also the brushes on these are broad and flat, similar to the Spoiled line.

Next, was this weeks work mani. I wore for four days: Nina Ultra Pro's Sangria.  Sangria is a deep dark red shimmer, more appropriate for fall, but something possessed me to wear this to work.  I got lots of compliments on this one.  Unfortunatley, the pictures came out lighter, and a bit flat than in real life.  I want to re-shoot this color again.  Maybe in the fall I might have more time?

Nina Ultra Pro is at Sally's, I think, for $4.99 a bottle, but they have them on sale frequently for $3.49.  I don't think NUP gets enough attention.  I have about 5 bottles and they all have been very nice polishes.

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by!

China Glaze Innocence - French

It has been a really long time since I last wore a classic French manicure.  I've tried a bunch of different ways to get the perfect smile lines and I'm never fully satisfied with the outcome.  Here it is freehand because I was too lazy to use tape or guides... 

I need more practice but what I find works well freehand, is to start at the corners of the nail and lay the brush flat and just swipe at a downward angle towards the center of the nail and then go to the other side do the same thing and meet in the middle. 

I used Orly's Pointe Blanche french tip white, the brush is thinner than regular nail polish, which makes it a little easier to handle.  I also added Wet N Wild's Snow Globe glitter to the tips which covered up the unevenness of the white. 

The base color is China Glaze's Innocence, a soft pink creme, opaque in two coats.  I need the opaqueness because my nails are badly stained at the tips, from all the teals and greens I was wearing in March.  I topped everything off with some Seche Vite.

Below, is a bad impromptu picture from a week prior.  A different French mani I did, also freehand.  The tips came out better, but I used three coats of Orly's Rose Colored Glasses, which was not opaque enough to cover up my yellow stained nails.  You can see the yellow starting half way down the nail, especially on the ring finger.  The glitter is Nubar's White Polka Dot.  I didn't plan on posting it, so I didn't bother to take better photos...  Sorry for the blue-greenness my florescent lamp is causing.

Three coats of Orly's Rose Colored Glasses, one coat of Nubar's White Polka Dot.

Do you have any favorite polishes that you do your French manicures with?

BTW, you will see more of Nubar White Polka Dot.... I love, love, love this soft pearly white glitter, especially for work. 

Wet N Wild - Spoiled - Cougar Attack

There's something about copper glitter that I'm attracted to, yet they do nothing for my skin tone, and somehow I keep buying them.... 

Wet N Wild reintroduces Cougar Attack in their Spoiled line, which originally is from their On the Prowl collection. AND is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Superstar.  So if you missed Cougar Attack the first time around, here's another chance to snag a bottle, except this time, you'll have to deal with their big moppy brushes.

Small copper glitter in a black tinted jelly base.



Left, China Glaze brush vs. WNW.  (CG Fireside Glow, the other copper glitter I own).
This time the brush was a big fat square.  I found it hard to work with.

In an earlier post I suggested using a brush from an old empty bottle of nail polish, as a way to deal with WNW's super soft and fat brushes, and a reader asked if I actually finished a bottle.  Well, no, not really, I've come close to finishing a couple of bottles of China Glaze's fastforward top coat, but that's about it.  So I used an old empty bottle with brush, and instead of filling the bottle with acetone I filled it with nail polish thinner instead.  Acetone breaks down nail polish and I didn't want to ruin my bottle of WNW.  Thinner contains ethyl and butyl acetates, which are normally in nail polish.  Therefore, if a trace amount of that ends up into a good bottle of nail polish, it will not be ruined. 

So, I used an old China Glaze brush to apply Cougar Attack and it worked like a charm.  When I was finished I just put the used brush into the thinner and in a few minutes the brush was clean.  I also rinsed the brush with thinner before using it, in case it had residual top coat still in between the bristles.  Next time, I'm going to try to trim the brush and see how that turns out.

Sally's for about $3.99, I think?

Overall, I'm okay with Cougar Attack, I'm not overly excited about it but its not completely boring either.  The black base helps it stand out a bit more than other copper colored polishes and gives it more of an edgy feel.  CVS $1.99, way cheaper than Lippmann.

Thoughts?

Lemon Fizz with Orly's Velvet Rope

Today I did something a bit more creative than just a bunch of swatches.  Fimo art with glitter.  Tad dah.

What I used.

I used Orly's Velvet Rope as a base, then Wet N Wild's Show Me the Money (SMM) just on the tips of the middle, ring and pinky fingers, and one lemon fimo art piece for the ring finger.  I dabbed SMM starting at the tips and then dragging the glitter towards the cuticle, for a gradient effect.  Its like painting on regular nail polish, but with less polish, a little cuticle drag and instead in the opposite direction. You probably could use a sponge and sponge the tips, but this worked well for me.  Plus I didn't have to clean up any sponges afterwards. 

To add the lemon fimo: I just dabbed a small dot of top coat on the nail where I wanted to place the lemon. Then I dabbed some top coat on one side of the tweezers to pick up the one lemon slice, placed the slice on top of the dab.  I then used the tweezers to press down on the sides of the lemon slice to make sure the slice was resting as flat as possible. Finally, I painted on thick coat of top coat over the whole nail.

I bought my lemon fimo art at Sally's and they are pre-cut, they look about 1/2 mm thick.  Which is still a bit thick, I can still feel it on my nail.  I would imagine the fimo would break too easily if they were thinner.  Anyhow, they were $3.99 for the small vial.  I think it's a little pricey for what they are, but oh well they're really cute and I didn't have to cut them.  Plus, the small amount will last me a long time because I'm not the type of person who wants to pile 4-5 pieces of fimo fruit on each and every nail.  Have you see those manicures?

If not, just type in "fimo fruit" in youtube's search box and you'll see the monstrosities I'm referring to.

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?

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!

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.


Wet N Wild Spoiled Papa-Paparazzi

Wet N Wild Spoiled Papa-Paparazzi (PPZ).  What a find this was!  PPZ is a purple jelly based polish with mostly silver glitter, lesser small purple glitter and slightly larger silver holo hex glitter.  The first day I wore only one coat because I just loved the sheer, subtle, softness of this polish.  Then on the second day I painted my left hand with a second coat to see what it is suppose to look like.  With a second coat the purple became darker, and the glitter, more gritty, as to be expected.  Still pretty.  I like both versions.  I would think it would depend on the mood your in. 

Two coats here.

One coat here.

Two coats up close.

Totally mesmerized by the glitter in the bottle.  I just had to include this photo. 
The base of the bottle is square and the sides are rounded.  I think its a nice design.

The brush is weird, rounded on one side.  Kind of has a cheap feel to it, but it works really well.

This polish was really easy to apply and the brush was really soft and I was able to spread polish on the the entire nail in one stroke on some of my nails, like my pinky and index fingers.  I was able to skip the clean up process entirely. 

I found this buried on the side of an end cap, in a cardboard display, in the seasonal aisle at CVS.  I had to dig to find this one.  $1.99, Made in the USA, interesting... some Wet N Wilds are made in China.

This polish gets an A++!

Wet N’ Wild – Grey’s Anatomy

I just found out Wet N’ Wild (WNW) is cruelty free.  I know, I’m probably the last to know, duh.  I keep passing up WNW because I keep saying to myself I have to look them up… blah blah blah.  Well, I never did look them up. There was a buy one get one free pack at CVS and on the back of the package is a bunny with a heart for ears, ahhh cute!  Why didn’t you say so WNW???  So I bought Silverado, Grey’s anatomy, and Party of Five glitter, the Silverado came with a free top coat, which I have yet to try. 

Grey’s Anatomy (GA) is a nice soft color.  I would feel comfortable wearing this to work.  I would say it is grey based with purple/green duo-chrome.  The purple is more apparent than the green. The green shows up at sharp angles.  Formula is kind of thin and sheer.  I applied three coats and it still wasn’t fully opaque, but that’s okay, I am really happy with this polish. GA has a subtle, soft beauty of its own.   Also the brush is round and makes it easier to apply neatly.  I had very little clean up to do.  Since it is thin and sheer it would make for an interesting layering polish!    Ideas, Ideas!!!

Riding along in my car....

Rainy overcast day - perfect light for pictures.
See the green duo chrome?

I used Orly’s nail defense base, three coats GA, and one coat China Glaze FF top coat.  Made in China, inexpensive Chinese labor, hence, $1.99 each, CVS.