Hola

Well hi everyone. How has your summer been going? Mine's been okay. Mostly classes, which are boring, but they need to get done. It's been hot, but where in the country hasn't been hot?

Uh, anyway. I needed and wanted to create a post, but I realized that I didn't really paint my nails so much this summer. I really have been rocking the base coat and nothing else pretty much. I've wore lacqure a few times, but not that much. Part of is because I was too lazy to do it. Another part is because I got a crack half way down my finger. Yeah, not fun. But I did a full blown mani today. Hurrah! I'll make a post about that tomorrow (I think) but until then here are the three polishes I actually put on my nails so far this summer. (I did a fourth-RBL's Sante Fe Road but I didn't remember to take photos of it.)

Cult Nails-Feel Me Up

Orly-Lunar Eclipse

Zoya-Edyta

I liked them all. Feel Me Up was the most difficult to work with, only because it's yellow and yellows are notoriously hard to work with. That was three coats and I was okay with it enough to stop there, although I feel a fourth would have worked out all the streaks I was having still at three coats. I'm sad I waited so long to wear Lunar Eclipse. It's a beautiful polish and I understand why everyone went crazy over that collection a few years ago. Edyta was gorgeous, but my pictures don't tell the story of it. It has shimmer and glitter that just didn't get picked up. It's the perfect dark green polish. I think it's one of those must haves polishes, especially if you like greens.

See, I told y'all I wasn't really wearing polish. I have to admit it's been nice to just wear my bare nails most of the time. I imagine I'll get out of it one of these days and run back to the color, but for now this has been it. Full mani post tomorrow. Hopefully. (Maybe Tuesday.)

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.

Ciate-Regatta

Why, hello. Another quick post, this time in the form of Ciate. Ciate is a British polish brand that isn't sold in the U.S. I actually got this through an international retailer when they were having a free shipping worldwide promotion. Don't know if I would have gotten it otherwise.

Regatta is a denim blue with silver shimmer. It actually looks like it wants to go metallic, but it doesn't. The formula on this was thick, but highly manageable. I did two coats cause I had a few little bald spots after the first coat, but nothing major. This dries relatively okay and to a matte finish, like the first picture. Adding top coat makes it shiny, but I think I like the matte look better.

Hmm...that's about it with this polish. I've had it on for a day now and, unlike other mattes, it hasn't chipped yet. I'm on the fence with this one. It's a lovely polish in every regard, but I don't think it's anything near unique. In fact, I think I have one of the OPI Suedes sitting in my untrieds box that's like this. Or maybe I've worn it before. Either way, I'm pretty sure there are quite a few mattes out there that looks like this. With that said, this is, again, a really nice polish. Hmm...that's all there is to say.

Zoya-Tru

We've all seen this one before, so no need to really dwell that much on it.

Zoya tru is a deep purple with lots of red and gold shimmer. It's very pretty, especially under a light source. The formula was good, but that's usual with Zoya polishes. I did two thick coats, and because of that it dried pretty slowly, even with a quick dry top coat.

Hmm...that's pretty much it. There's not much to say about a polish that's pretty recent and every one else have already worn. Or I guess I should say there's not much new to say about it. It's a pretty purple shimmer polish. Hurrah.

China Glaze-Midtown Magic

Just a really quick post today. I felt like wearing something dark and in came Midtown Magic. I actually found this on sale at one of the local Sally's I happened to stop by. They never have the same things on sale, it's all rather random. Anyway.

Midtown Magic is a dark brown base with brown, red, and gold glitter running through it. It really is beautiful and I see why it was so popular when it first came out last fall. The polish has lots of the glitter, but it's not glittery, if that makes sense. The brown really covers that up, so the glitter really adds depth instead of sparkle.

The formula on this was amazing. Nice and smooth, two coats, and dried relatively quick. No complaints about it whatsoever.

Hmm...that's about it. Like I said, quick post. I've actually wanted this since last fall and very glad I finally caught this on sale. Nice polish to have in the collection. And a nice polish to wear if you're a bit tired of all the bright colors this season brings, like I am.

OPI-DS Signature

To be honest, the reason I'm wearing this polish is because it has been in my untrieds box for damn near a year (it'll be a year in June/July) and it was sunny and hot and I felt like wearing a holo. Shame my pictures all came out like utter crap.

sun

No need to go into too much specifics here since everyone has seen this forever and a day already. I actually could have gotten away with one coat, but since two is my normal set point I did two. The holo is crazy in this. It's a beauty out in the sun, but again, my picture is absolute crap. It dried really quickly too. There is no top coat in these pictures, but I did put one on my other hand and the holo diminished only a little. There's still very good effect there.

Very pretty, and a nice one to have in the collection if you can find it. And that's about it.

Rescue Beauty Lounge-IKB: 2012

I LOVE THIS POLISH. I don't think there's anything else to really say about it. I mean, there are things to say about this polish. But the most important one is that I love it. And you will too. And you need this in your life. Trust me on this. NEED.

IKB: 2012 is a blue jelly. A jelly with no VNL. It's suppose to be the color of International Klein Blue, created by French artist Yves Klein. (More info about it here.) I actually hadn't heard of the name before, although I did know the color. Weird, I know, but that's me. I think it hits the mark exactly. The polish is dark, yet bright. It looks like it goes purple (or into the blurple range) but it never does. It's just blue gorgeousness.

The formula on it is...hmm. It's thick and streaky and a bit sticky, yet I think this one depends on how you apply it. I did thin coats on the hand that's in the pictures and it needed three. But I used thicker coats on my other hand and only needed two. But no matter how many coats it dries super fast. Almost matte fast. And it dries...dull. Not matte, but dullish. The beauty of this polish comes once you put on a top coat.

If ever there was a polish that you should pay $20 for then it's this. That's how amazing this polish is, even with the okay formula. This is a sexy polish. If you love blue, then get it. There is a limited amount still available (although I suspect that will change soon) so don't wait. Don't think twice. Just take a deep breath, suck it up, and hit the order button.

Rescue Beauty Lounge-Aqua Lily

So I was trying to wait until the end of the semester to wear my RBL Fan Collection polishes. And while I have one last exam next Monday, I realized that the semester is over (no more classes or anything, just that one last exam) so why the hell not? Plus, I have no willpower what so ever.

Aqua Lily is a turquoise base with pinkish/purple-ish shimmer. Now on most pictures this looked blue, but it really is turquoise. The shimmer in it isn't so much that it overtakes the base, but it steadily there, especially in the sun (unfortunately, no sun pics. Overcast most of the day where I am).

The formula on this was good. Mostly two coats. I did do a little patch up job, but that was because of how I painted it on (I did thin coats and it was just going on all kinds of weird) not because of the formula. And this dried so fast. Much faster than I was expecting.

bottle shot so you can see the shimmer

I love this. I think if this was my creation I would have either had more shimmer or no shimmer at all (because the turquoise is just gorgeous by itself) but I didn't create it. And maybe that's why I don't create nail polish. This is beautiful as is. And unfortunately, if you didn't get AL already then you can't cause it's sold out already. :( And I have crossed out another one of my resolutions for my nail game this year-buy and wear a polish that was at least $17 in price. I think this is well worth it.

Essie-Orange, It's Obvious!

And now for the other bright orange that came out during the spring. Orange, It's Obvious! is a bright orange creme. There's nothing else really to say about this. That description summed it up completely.

Now, this is pretty much a dupe for one I've worn already, OPI A Role in the Hague. You don't need both. If you have the OPI then stick with it. If you have the Essie then stick with that. But since I have both I have to say, I prefer the OPI one. While both didn't have the most amazing formulas in the world, the drying time was much quicker with that one. Plus, I think I could have got away with one coat. With O,IO I needed two and probably should have done three just to even things out. This didn't level itself at all.

With that said, I like it. I love me a good orange creme. It's as obnoxious of an orange as the OPI and I LOVE that about this polish. Plus I like the fact that this is more readily available than the OPI since this is sold in drugstores. But if you asked me to choose I'd pick Hague. But either will do really.

Zoya-Gemma

Another quick post. Just have to make it through this week and then I'm free. Well, for a month and then it's summer semester. Sigh.

Anyway, Gemma is a muted green base with purple shimmer in it. The base actually reminds me of a lighter Dree. The shimmer glows and it gives the polish that lit from within look. I see why everyone and their mama loved this polish when it was first released Spring 2011. (Do the kids still say that phrase?)

Hoping the shimmer is more visible with this one. A bit.

The formula on this was nice and buttery like most Zoya polishes. It took three coats for complete coverage, but that's okay. Dry time was slower than most Zoyas, but I chalk that up to the three coats. This is a fantastic polish and if you like green or shimmers then this is a must have. Kind of pissed it took me this long to get and wear this polish. Fail moment right there.

China Glaze-Electric Beat

So, I have little to no time this week. We're at the end of the semester and i have quite a few things to get done before school ends so I haven't really had time to do my nails. So this is going to be a very (and I mean very) quick post on the polish I did somehow put on this week.

Electric Beat is a, I want to call, dusty bright blue creme. Not quite pastel, but almost in that family. The formula was okay. Thin, and a bit streaky. If you're not a great painter (like me) then it shows all the little imperfections in your nails. This did dry quickly though, which was nice. There are others like this out there (Color Club released a polish similar to this) so it's not terribly unique, but it is pretty.


(Yes, I know this is a suckass post. But...really, no time. Hopefully my next post will be 10x better.)