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.