Well Howdy

Hey guys. Long time no write huh? To be honest there isn't a real reason I didn't blog for almost three weeks. I was finished with school (although summer semester has just started), I didn't move or start a new job or anything like that. I just needed a bit of a break. I think I was wearing nail polish for this blog's sake and not because I love it. So...yeah, needed the time to just paint my nails at my own leisure. Wear a color for a few hours or up to a week. Wear a color again if I wanted to. Stuff like that. I needed to be selfish with my polish wearing.

And with that selfishness I wore quite a few polishes. They're below, with a few notes.

Man Glaze Lesbihonest-My first Man Glaze polish and holy crap I love it. I need to get a few more in my life. It's a bright fuchsia matte with shimmer. I can't even begin to explain how much I love this one, and you guys know pink isn't my favorite color (polish or not) in the world. Two coats and it was perfect.

Zoya Marina-I wore this after it had been overcast and cloudy for days in my part of the world. Lots of summer storms (and already two named tropical storms. Yay summer) already. Marina matched the cloudy, greyish dark skies. I got this polish in a swap with Refined and Polish, who is one of the sweetest people ever. She taking a break to finish up her doctoral degree, but her blog is one of the best out there. If you follow this one, you HAVE to follow hers. Two coats as well.

Hits Hera-Honestly, I just wanted to wear one of the few holos I have backlogged in my untrieds box and we had like one day of sun. Woo. This is a teal holo. It's so pretty and the picture doesn't even begin to show how beautiful the holo is. I did three coats of this one, but they were thin coats. Dried relatively fast and no top coat.

Zoya Jancyn and OPI Servin Up Sparkle-I also have quite a few Zoyas backlogged as well and wanted to get another one out the way. Jancyn is a bright almost tangerine orange. I've wanted this one since it first came out a few years ago. Unfortunately I didn't love the formula. It needed three coats and it went on funky and just...bah. I think someone with more patience who like orange would love the color. I put on SUS to add a bit to the orange creme. I actually really liked that look after SUS was added.

Zoya Jo-Talking about a polish I've wanted forever. And I looooves it. It's a cornflower blue with lots of blue shimmer. Much more than what you see in the picture. I did three coats of this one as well, but it dried quickly and I didn't have any problems with the formula. Now I know why everyone loves this polish. I think it's a must have for a collection. It's not terribly unique (nowadays) but it's a basic color you should just have.

Sinful Colors Athens-I just gushed about Jo and now I have to go to this. I don't like this polish. I didn't like the color once I had it on my nails, I didn't like the formula. It looked better in the bottle than on me. Meh. No need to really talk about this one more.

A-England Order of the Garter-A denim blue with glass flecks. Yes. Just a beautiful polish from a great company. OotG is from the latest A-England collection, The Legends. It's the one non-holo and what a non-holo polish it is. I needed three coats, but other than that it was great. Drying time was a bit slow, but I don't know how much of that is the polish or the fact that I used three coats, with the second and third coats being relatively thick. But other than that it's a great polish.

So as you can see I did indeed wear a good bit of polish during the past three weeks. I also wore IKB again because, well I could and it needs to be worn as often as possible. I don't know how blogging will go from now on. I guess when the mood strikes me. I might do a post with just one polish, I may do one with seven again. At least I'll have an excuse this time? Anyway, I hope things have been going well with all of you. Any plans for the summer? I hope it's more interesting then taking summer classes like me.

Diamond Cosmetics-Don't Teal My Heart Away

This post is late, but better late than never, right?

So September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and yesterday people were wearing teal to show their support. I have to say this is close to my heart. My grandmother had Ovarian cancer (it's been nine years since her last treatment thank god) and my mother had a scare with it. It runs in my family so it's definitely something I have to look out for in the future. You guys have probably seen the Teal Toes campaign that's been posted to several blogs. Now, I'm not showing you my toes (feet are disgusting) but I painted both them and my nails. And I used the polish that TT themselves were using for the campaign, Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away.

indoors, artificial light

DTMHA is a teal creme on the green side. I got this polish last September (because I loved the fact that DC donated money from every bottle purchased to Ovarian cancer research) and because it's about a year old I think its gotten a bit thick. Nothing horrible. I was able to control this really well. I just don't remember it being as thick as it is now. No worries though because this is one and a half coats. I say that because I only did one coat, but just went back over a few stray streaks on each nail.

outdoors

Dry time was good. It dried shiny too, but I threw on a topcoat because it's habit now. I don't really have anything else to say about this polish. It's a beautiful teal creme. It's a wonderful polish to have and if you're planning on making a Diamond Cosmetics order and don't have this polish I recommend you add this to it. Part of the purchase for this bottle goes to research and it's a great polish to have in the collection. You win on both accounts.

Cult Nails-Awakening and Hypnotize Me

My Cult Nails fall collection pre-order came in earlier this week! I know I say I usually wait to buy when polishes go on sale, but I loved the colors that were offered here so I decided to splurge a bit and get it. Now, the mani I was planning on doing was In a Trance and Hypnotize Me, but since someone already beat me to it I decided to go for the creme. And what a lovely creme it is.

outdoors

Awakening is a dark teal creme. In the bottle it looks more blue but when you put it on and after it dries it leans more green. I love it how it is, but I was hoping it kept that original dark blue teal color. On the lookout for a color like that now.

outdoors, sun. sorry about the shadow.

The polish here was thin but good. This is two thin coats. Went on amazing, per usual with Cult Nails. Dried on the quicker side of things too. I don't know what else to say, this is a great creme polish. If you adore teals like me then this one is a must I think.

outdoors

Now, Hypnotize Me is a blue/green glitter in a very light/pale/limeish green color base. I would never wear this on its own, but layered on top of a creme? Hell yes.

indoors, artificial light

So pretty. My pictures don't do it justice. It shows purple as well as green and blue. It's thick so I only did one coat, but one coat is packed with lots of glitter. It went on well and covered the base teal really well.

outdoors, sun

I love these two polishes together. And I love Awakening alone. I'm going to hold off on wearing the other two polishes, just because it does have a decided fall feel to them (as do these two) and it's still hitting mid 90 degrees in Charleston. I think I want to wear them when I can break out a sweater. But I'm in love with this collection already.

OPI-Ski Teal We Drop

My second blue post to help wrap up Autism Awareness Month. Ski Teal We Drop was a part of OPI's Fall 2010 Swiss Collection. I don't remember being too enamored with this collection, outside of this color. I don't know what it is about them, but I haven't met a person yet that hates a good teal. And this is a good teal.

outdoors

STWD is a dark teal creme that leans on the blue side of teal. The formula, like with most OPIs, was great. Not thick or thin, just perfect. My pinky and ring fingers have two coats (with the second coat being VERY thin) but the other three fingers on this hand has only one coat. And you guys know I love the one coaters. Dry time was good.

I don't think I have a color like this in my collection. Who can I go to to request more dark teal cremes from? This is a lovely color. Very happy I have this one.

Oke Doke-Steal This Teal and Purple Nurple

One of the reasons I hate living in Charleston is that we get things so much later than everywhere else in the country. I'm not on a Mac, but we didn't get an Apple store until two years ago. The nearest one was in North Carolina before that. Really. And the same goes for nail polish. I've been coveting these two Oke Doke polishes since I saw the first swatches of them back in January. Know when we got them? Earlier this month. March y'all. March! 

Anyway, what I have are Steal This Teal and Purple Nurple. First up, Steal This Teal. I didn't expect to like this one when I finally opened the bottle and painted a quick stripe across one nail. I usually love these types of colors, but I wasn't feeling it. On first glance it just looks like a regular teal polish.

indoors,natural light

But after you look a little closer you see it. The green shimmer. I kind of want this polish to be called something else. Something that has to do with the ocean or a mermaid or something because that's what it reminds me off. It really has that glow from within thing going on. And you can't see the shimmer until you're under a direct light source. And even then, you have to move your fingers around to see it. It's really nice.

indoors, artificial light. i hope y'all can see the shimmer.

Great opacity after two coats. Wasn't too thick or thin, just right. And it dried fast. Much faster than I was expecting. As the day has gone on I'm loving this more and more.

Next polish is Purple Nurple. I'm not a big glitter person but I knew what I was getting when I bought this. I figured every collector needs a dark purple glitter in their collection, and since I don't particularly like glitters I might as well go with one for $1.99. But again, I was pleasantly surprised. I really like this one too!

indoors, artificial light

Like STT, you don't really see the glitter unless you're under a direct light source. And then you can see the purple, pink, and even a hint of blue glitter within the polish. The formula on this was thinner than STT, but again good opacity in two coats. And again, dried quickly.

indoors, artificial light. trying to show a closeup of the glitter.

Now, what I didn't like from both is that the bottle is small. My problem isn't that the bottle is small, it's that because the bottle is small so is the brush. It's very small and you either need a good bead at the end or resign yourself to go back a few times to completely cover your nail. And, while I love the subtle shimmer in STT and the subtle glitter in PN, it kind of makes me upset you can see the shimmer and glitter more clearly in the bottle. But those are minor. For $1.99 you can't go wrong with these. I really like them. I hope Oke Doke comes out with more colors cause I'd happily buy more. I got these at Rite Aid, but I'm sure you could find them at almost any drugstore. Unless you live in Charleston, SC, in which case you have to wait almost three months later and can only find them in the Charleston/North Charleston area, no where else.

Okay. Over it now.