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BB Couture for Men, "Tools" Collection + some CND Effects

2010-01-18T01:50:00.004-06:00

Happy Monday everyone!

Did you guys watch the Golden Globes last night? I wish they had given Ricky Gervais more to do and I was disappointed in some of the winners (I haven't seen Avatar yet, but James Cameron comes off like a bit of a douche every time he speaks at awards shows), but overall it wasn't a terrible show. Meryl was lovely as usual, some of the ladies looked great (I think Sandra was the best of the night - maybe Marion who is my girl crush, but too many played it safe), Glee won, Chloë won and was appropriately aghast that her Valentino got ripped (can you imagine if Rachel Zoë had been her stylist? she would have flipped her shit), and George was so cutely excited that Julianna Marguiles won. Okay, onto the polish!

I bought 4 out of the 6 polishes from BB Couture for Men's "Tools" collection. I didn't get Hammer Drill or Vise, but you can find swatches of them on Vampy Varnish and Body & Soul (here, here, here). I used 2 coats for all of these pictures and the application was good for all of them. These were taken indoors on a wintery day with little sunlight, so please forgive the picture quality of some of them. Here we go!

BB Couture for Men Stud Finder

Stud Finder is a golden brown with prominent gold shimmer. It reminds me a bit of a couple of the polishes in China Glaze's "Rodeo Diva" collection (maybe Prize-Winning Mare and Golden Spurs smashed together?), but I have no dupes in my collection. Kelly and Mary said it was a taupe shade, but I don't see it. This one looks warm in most lights, but as you can see in the lower picture, it can take on a cooler cast too.

BB Couture for Men Stud Finder with Essie Matte About You

Here I added a coat of Essie MAY and I think it looks great - I can't decide which way I like better. Matte, it looks a bit darker, but the shimmer is more defined as well.

BB Couture for Men Wire Stripper

This one is gorgeous and again, unique. The gold shimmer makes it look kind of like a blackened brown, but it really is a deep blackened plum jelly with tons of gold shimmer. You can see the plum base around my cuticles where I did some (poor) cleanup. This isn't a shimmer that hides in low light - it glows.

BB Couture for Men Wire Stripper with Essie Matte About You

First let me say sorry for the white bit on my middle finger. The Essie top coat dries where you brush the excess off at the lip and then when you re-dip your brush in, it can get stuck and apply on the nail. I usually wipe off my bottle with remover before I use it after it's been stored for a bit to avoid this, but I forgot this time! Wire Stripper is another one that looks good matte. The shimmer definitely becomes more subtle, but it's still there.

BB Couture for Men Pipe Bender

As you can see, the dominance of the blue shimmer in Pipe Bender can vary. I took a lot of pictures trying to show this and didn't put top coat on, so it got some bubbles. I tend to get bubbling no matter what in my polish if I don't use Seche Vite, so I wouldn't blame the formula for this. Pipe Bender is a forest green base with a ton of blue shimmer that brings it almost into the metallic realm of finishes. At times the blue shimmer takes over the polish, but at other times it's more of a subtle flash. It's different from all my other greens, but I must say I prefer its more subtle side...

BB Couture Pipe Bender with Essie Matte About You

...which is why I love it matte! It's not totally obvious in this pictures, but the blue shimmer still comes through, it's just a ton more subtle. It's like the green is glowing a halo of blue. I have no idea why that weird splotch on my middle finger happened, nail polish is weird!

BB Couture for Men Impact Driver

This is another great one! I was really happy with all four of these. I love slate blue and I wish there were more of them, but I have only found a handful. This is a nice deep slate blue creme with iridescent shimmer that flashes pink, purple, and blue. The shimmer is more subtle on the nail than in the bottle, but it breaks up the creme. It's the kind of shimmer that you wouldn't notice from a distance, but that you would miss if it weren't in the polish.

BB Couture for Men Impact Driver with Essie Matte About You

I wasn't a huge fan of this matte because the shimmer just gets lost and I like shimmers and glitters better matte than I do cremes.

Looking at the shimmer in Impact Driver, I thought it looked similar to a couple of the new CND Effects, so I thought I'd try them out to amplify the existing shimmer in the polish.

CND Effects Raspberry Sparkle over BB Couture for Men Impact Driver

This was the least successful of the three Effects I tried. I think the pink was a bit too different from the polish.

CND Effects Sapphire Sparkle over BB Couture for Men Impact Driver (top),

CND Effects Sapphire Sparkle over BB Couture for Men Impact Driver with Essie Matte About You (bottom)

This was my favorite combo. You can see that Sapphire Sparkle has a bit of a duochrome effect - it's a teal-ish blue but around the edges it goes more violet. It looks pretty matte as well.

CND Effects Raspberry Sparkle (pinky, ring) and Sapphire Sparkle (middle, index) over BB Couture for Men Impact Driver with Essie Matte About You

Here's a shot from further away with Raspberry Sparkle on the left two fingers and Sapphire Sparkle on the right two fingers, both mattified, to give a better idea of how it looks from a distance.

CND Effects Sapphire Sparkle & Amethyst Sparkle over BB Couture for Men Impact Driver,

CND Effects Sapphire Sparkle & Amethyst Sparkle over BB Couture for Men Impact Driver with Essie Matte About You

For this last look, I layered Amethyst Sparkle over Sapphire Sparkle. I think this one is pretty, but it just might be overkill. Sapphire Sparkle kind of covered Amethyst's bases and kept it more subtle (as subtle as these Sparkles get). Mattified looks nice too.

I'll have a separate post showing off my CND Effects (I got all of the Sparkles, plus Copper Shimmer), but overall I think they're great. The concept works, since they're like a sheer topcoat with an effect in them, so you can play around with them and it doesn't really add to your dry time.

This was a great collection, not only were the polishes pretty, but they're unique - and not in that, well if you compare them right next to each other you can see the subtle differences way - the number one thing I love about BB Couture brand! As I've mentioned before, you can buy these polishes from BB Couture's website or Overall Beauty. I've used both sites and not had problems, but Kim at Overall Beauty has the absolute best customer service and fastest shipping, plus she offers BB Couture for about $1 cheaper as well.

Hope you enjoyed this collection and I'll see you later this week!

Customer's Beware Zoya

2010-01-15T16:52:00.001-06:00

I'm sure most of you nail polish junkies know that Zoya is known recently for their abysmal customer service. They seem to be thinking along the lines that since they so often allow people to abuse their coupon codes, they are thus allowed carte blanche to have inexcusable customer service.

I was sucked in again by the free Qtica lip balm that Scrangie said was really nice (I am in no way blaming Scrangie for Zoya/Qtica's customer service). I got my order confirmation fine (ie, correct), a couple days go by and I get my shipping confirmation (this is surprisingly fast for Zoya): they have billed the wrong address. Not on the order confirmation, but on the shipping confirmation. How does that even happen? I went to my account to check that I wasn't the one in error, but no, my information is all up-to-date and correct. Yet again, Zoya = FAIL. Honestly, I am so exasperated with them that I don't think I will be purchasing from them anymore for the forseeable future - until I hear some actual positive customer service experiences on the Nail Board. It's most disappointing because they actually have great polishes and I love Remove+, but they seem to think that their deals will bring in more customers than they will lose. Not in my case.

UPDATE: Their customer service email address (cs@artofbeauty.com) bounced back to me. Now I will have to call them tomorrow. Ugh, so annoyed.

Orly Spring 2010 Bloom Collection, Plus My Apologies (and a List of Excuses)

2010-01-14T05:18:00.008-06:00

Hello! I don't know if anyone's still out there, but I'm gonna try this again. For those of you who don't care, I'll get to the pics first and offer my apologies afterwards.

I wasn't too excited about Orly's Spring collection, but it was basically the first major spring collection to pop up on e-tailers. A lot of the color's looked easily dupable, but not many of the nail blogger's were showing much interest in swatching them, so I decided I needed to get them to see for myself. Since then, Polish or Perish, Scrangie, All Lacquered Up, Vampy Varnish, and Body and Soul have done partial (incomplete) posts of the collection - I don't think any of them were super amped up over this collection. I too, do not have pictures of the complete collection; however, the only polish I'm missing is Ginger Lilly, which Mary from Body and Soul shows on a nail wheel in the post above (I'm not a big one for frosty polishes and the color didn't interest me).

Surprisingly, I actually liked this collection. It's not a super exciting group of polishes, but I think the assortment is good, it has a spring feel to it, I love cremes and these applied very well, and none of the colors had dupes in my 500+ collection. Here are the pics and I hope you enjoy!

Orly Wandering Vine, indoors in direct sunlight (top) and indirect light (bottom)

This is a great medium green creme. Green is one of my favorite polish colors, so I have quite a few, but this green is unique. I think it's a good workhorse for those who want to have a nice edited (ha!) collection, because it is bright but also darker than most brights and not too warm- or cool-toned. This polish looks fairly bright and happy in the sunlight, but it's dark and somber enough not to be shout-y. This is 2 coats and the application was great - lately Orly has had good cremes - this could have been 1 coat if I was more careful with my application. You can see it dries a bit darker than the bottle color, which is true for all of this collection.

Michelle from All Lacquered Up suggested that Wandering Vine might be an alternative to RBL Recycle, but you can see that it's not. Recycle is darker and more of a true green, whereas Wandering Vine is more blue-toned and a bit dusty. Interestingly, Wandering Vine is not really noticeably dusty alone, but it makes itself and others that have a similar base color look dusty next to it (Blackboard and Enchanted Forest). Enchanted Forest is actually the most dusty of these colors - Blackboard doesn't appear dusty alone. OCC Blackboard (which is perfectly named) is deeper and a bit more blue - I would say Wandering Vine classifies as a medium-tone and Blackboard as a dark. I know people were interested in the similarity between Wandering Vine and Enchanted Forest; obviously they are different, although if you took Wandering Vine, added some black, a bit more blue, and greyed it out a bit more, you might get Enchanted Forest. Scrangie's link above includes a few that I didn't compare: BB Couture Poison Ivy, Nubar Forest, Illamasqua Rampage, and a Hot Topic green.

Orly Wild Wisteria, indoors in direct sunlight

I was expecting this color to be blah and a Zoya Pinta dupe, but I actually really like it. I think it's flattering to my skin tone and it applied really nicely - again 2 coats, but could have been 1 with more care. To me, it doesn't bring to mind wisteria, but it's a beautiful color. This one can look almost-black in low light, but to me it's just light enough that it's not too bad (I love Chanel Vendetta, but you know what I'm talking about).

First, sorry I made the labels so big on this pic, it's a bit distracting! SpaRitual Solitude is dustier, more red-leaning, and lighter (plus this is 4 coats to 2 for the rest!) - it looked closer when I swatched it on a nail wheel and it is in fact a bit darker than it appears in this picture, it just doesn't compare to the others. Zoya Pinta is obviously the closest and I have a side-by-side alone below for a better comparison. Diamond Cosmetics Plum Pie in the Sky is a darker greyed-out version with a bit more blue (again, I swear it looked more similar on the nail wheel!).

You can see that these two are not dupes, but they are close. Pinta has more black and as such, looks a bit less blue. Pinta also has a tendency to look black in indirect light. If you want only one of these (I couldn't choose because I'm a polish whore!) I would go by which brand you like better: Orly has the nice rubberized caps and a standard brush while Zoya's brushes are a bit stumpy, which I don't mind. Flinty of Polish or Perish did a comparison with OPI Sapphire in the Snow (link above), which is from the Holiday 2009 "Holiday Wishes" collection, and Wild Wisteria looks to be its dupe.

Orly Thorned Rose, indoors in direct sunlight (top) and indirect light (bottom)

I liked this one too! These burgundy colors are very flattering to my skin tone. As you can see from the mess I made, this one did not have application as nice as the previous two. It was two coats, but it was a little more watery.

Comparison, indoors in direct sunlight (top) and indirect light (bottom)

Thorned Rose is a tad brighter than the other two. I'd say it's lighter and has a bit more yellow than OPI Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ (which I love). OPI Can You Tapas This? is the most different of the three, which is more apparent in the indirect light picture - it's darker and more brown. I like all of them, don't make me choose! You wouldn't, because you understand, don't you?

Orly Pure Petunia, indoors in direct sunlight

I would never have chosen to buy this polish, but I was planning to buy the whole collection (and then I couldn't make myself get Ginger Lilly); however, I like it! It will never make my Top 20 list, but it's pretty and I think it looks good with my skin tone. The sun makes it look a bit bright, but it's surprisingly deep. I think you could probably get away with this as a work color (but I'm only 22 and have never worked in a strict dress-code environment, so what do I know?). This one was like the first two polishes, with great application in 2 coats - could have been 1.

None of these are close. The $OPI is a lighter, dustier, more blue-toned take. Barry M is darker, brighter, and more magenta than mauve.

Orly Blushing Bud, indoors in direct sunlight (top) and indirect light (bottom)

Unfortunately I had to play around with this a little in PhotoStudio to get the polish to look right. I actually do not have many bright pinks (the Barry M in my comparison below is the only other creme), so this was a nice addition to my collection. There probably is a dupe somewhere, but I don't have it, so I'm happy! The bottom picture makes it look crazy bright because it is not my actual skin tone, but the polish color is accurate. This is a deep bright pink, which also had great 2 coat - 1 would have been good - application. I really like this one, it was totally my pleasant surprise of the collection. I think they should have given this a name with peony, because peonies are my favorite flower!

Pic from http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/frisbee-lawn-garden/pink-peony.html

Comparison, indoors in direct sunlight (top) and indirect light (bottom)

The Orly is a tinge more blue-toned (I think) and obviously deeper. The Barry M is lighter. Application was better for Orly.

That's it for the collection, I hope it was helpful to y'all. I am learning that I have a problem with short posts, mine always seem to become treatises, no matter how I try, but I do want to explain why I abandoned this blog for a bit.

I had terrible withdrawal from Roxicet (liquid Percocet). I mentioned in my last post that I was worried about this and I spent the days around New Year's Eve feeling worse in a totally different way than I did immediately post-tonsillectomy. Nothing was emergency room-critical, but I was just miserable: hot and then cold sweats constantly, dizziness, nausea, headaches, back aches, etc. No matter what I did I couldn't even be apathetically comfortable - chilling out on the couch, trying to focus and distract myself, sitting, laying down, walking - the one real refuge I had when my throat was hurting was sleep and now I couldn't get more than a couple of hours before waking up in either cold or hot sweats. Of course, I timed my withdrawal over the holiday, so my ENT wasn't available. I talked to the nurse the Monday after NYE and I learned that I shouldn't have gone cold turkey when my throat started feeling better (I did alternate my doses of Roxicet with Tylenol for one day, but I guess I should have done it for a few days). It took me a couple more days to feel fairly normal and while I was recovering all I could kind of focus on was television (nail stuff hurt my back and reading hurt my head and I wasn't allowed to work out or even pick up my dog). This television-watching leads me into...
I got caught up on some shows I've missed out on. I watched Lie to Me (I love Tim Roth and the actual science behind this is interesting, but: meh), Modern Family (love it and am so glad there's finally a good family sitcom on again - am also excited for Parenthood), caught up on Fringe (Pacey!), and now I'm on the second season of Lost (I gave it up mid-first season because it was moving too slow for me compared to Alias, which is why I gave it a chance; then, once it picked up I was too lost. Now Netflix/Roku makes it awesomely easy to watch.) Being in school and being a perfectionist means I don't have time to watch all the great shows. I allow myself How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Bones, and a Tivo-ed Project Runway, which is a tradition for my mom and I to watch together (and was a very disappointing tradition for us last season, so step it up tonight, you guys!), but otherwise I'm working two jobs and a full-time college student, so I don't have much time.
This is time intensive. I want this blog to be helpful for people, because you don't see too many minority nail blogs (I'm Asian). I rely on the Nail Board and bloggers to figure out what polishes I'm going to buy and I'd like to help people in a similar way - but I also have a busy schedule. Swatching in-and-of-itself doesn't take much time at all, but...
I have a crappy camera. And I live in Minnesota. It's winter, so there is fairly tiny time slot to get pictures taken in. While I was finishing up this collection the sun began to set and I was running all over the house trying to find the light. This means it takes me forever to get good pictures. For this set I had about 300 pictures and honestly only about 45 were acceptable. I'm still a little embarrassed about these, but they're the best I'm going to get.
Speaking of winter, my cuticles are crazy terrible and I have been sitting around with gloves on while I recovered because I cannot get over it. My parents are doctors, so we know a lot of other doctors and in the winter about half of them get disgustingly cracked (like earthquake-split-on-a-fault-line bloody) fingers because our winters are so dry and they have to wash their hands so much. I never noticed the state of my cuticles until I started taking nail pictures and then I made the mistake of buying cuticle nippers. Do not buy them if you get compulsive like me, because you will not just use them for hangnails or crazy frazzle, you will use them on everything and then your cuticles will get thicker and more disgusting. Now I am trying to re-train myself not to use them so my fingers can go back to the perfectly nice way they used to look.
Editing this blog is a pain. I think it might just be the simplistic format of Blogger and the fact that I'm not knowledgeable in HTML, but I have to edit my posts about 5 times after I first publish for formatting stuff. Even now, I want the two light pics to fit side by side, which Blogger says will work fine when I'm in "Compose" mode, but doesn't work when I actually hit "Publish Post". I don't want to make the pictures any smaller. The Preview feature is also not at all accurate, which is très annoying.
I'm lazy. A month off from school felt like a glorious forever, but then I had to have this surprise surgery and recovery was obnoxiously long. Now, I'm feeling the clock ticking and I have a lot of stuff I want to get in. I've kind of been ignoring email, the NB, etc., just wanting to relax for a bit and shut everything else out.

I think some of these excuses have merit and some are just to be chalked up to my weak character, but I hope you'll stick around a bit longer to see how it goes. If you have questions or comments please let me know, because I would love to hear from you guys!

Coming up, I have pictures already taken and just need to finish editing: BB Couture Men "Tools" collection, miscellaneous BB Couture, BB Couture "Disco Ball" collection, BB Couture "Vampy Varnish" collection, miscellaneous Rescue Beauty Lounge (you saw bottle pictures earlier), mint green comparisons, grey creme comparisons, American Apparel polishes, and some new drugstore polishes. I have a lot more collections I haven't yet taken pictures of, plus I have a giveaway I want to do, but my idea is to have it be a bit participatory, so I don't want to do it if nobody's reading, so I think I'll wait until I've stayed a bit more consistent in my posting. Whew! Let me know if there's anything you're looking to see!

China Glaze Medallion over Orly Solid Gold

2009-12-28T03:06:00.008-06:00

China Glaze Medallion is one the gorgeous glitters that came out in the (creatively named) Fall 2009 "Glitter, Shimmers & Cremes" collection. I know lextard has swatches of the collection in her China Glaze set on Flickr and Kris Primps has them all catalogued here. There were 6 gold glitters in this collection - all of them visibly different and awesome! I got Gold Digger, Goddess, and Medallion. Here's a bottle picture comparison of them.

I'll just give you a brief description of each - eventually I'll swatch the other two, but you have to spread your blingy mani's out a little bit! Gold Digger is a uniform, small true-gold glitter in a clear jelly base. It is slightly rosier/brassier than the other two. Goddess is a uniform, small silver glitter in a clear jelly base that's packed with dense true-gold shimmer. The gold shimmer coats the silver glitter, making it appear to be a platinum gold. Medallion is a multi-size glitter with small yellow-gold glitter and medium hexagonal holographic (prismatic) glitter in a clear jelly base. All three of them have medium glitter density and require about 3 coats to be almost opaque, so they work well as layering polishes as well as on their own.

Now here's Medallion over Orly Solid Gold. These were taken when the sun was setting, so I got some good images of the crazy amount of sparkle. I just could not stop taking pictures of this manicure - I lurve it!

Isn't it just gorgeous? I played around with different polishes underneath Medallion before I settled on Solid Gold, which is a brassier gold and has that multi-gold finish that I thought gave even more dimension to the glitter. Medallion looks good over any color, I was just in the mood for a flat-out bling-tastic manicure! You can wear this alone, but it would probably take 4 coats for full opacity, so I think it's just easier to have a layer underneath to cut down on dry time - using a matte made it extra quick! This was two coats of Medallion over one coat of Orly Solid Gold, which is from the Winter 2009 "Metal Chic Metallic Matte" collection that also included Glam Rock (copper) and Iron Butterfly (black). I added one coat of Seche Vite right away and one the next day and it was as smooth as glass - very nice for such a chunky glitter. I think this would make for an awesome New Year's Eve mani - you want to say goodbye to 2009 with a bang!

Using the matte polish made this a super fast mani - glitter has the tendency to stay on the nail, minimizing clean-up for me - but I will say that when I took this mani off I discovered the worst staining I have ever had. I usually use CND Stickey base coat with no problems; when I do a matte, I use NailTek Foundation II underneath Stickey to smooth out ridges, which are so apparent under mattes, but since I was putting glitter over it I didn't bother. I asked on the NB and nobody else had staining with Solid Gold, so I'm just going to assume it was user error. However, I would advise you to use a ridge-filling base coat, which prevents staining better than a rubberized base coat.

All of the China Glaze glitters, as well as the shimmers and cremes from fall collection are available online from the major e-tailers. I shop at Victoria Nail Supply, 8ty8 Beauty, Head2Toe Beauty, and Trans Design and haven't had problems from any of them, though YMMV - shipping from all of them tends to be kind of slow. The Orly "Metal Chic Metallic Matte" collection is available from VNS, H2T, and TD. VNS also has an exclusive China Glaze glitter, Black Magic, which is a Halloween-themed polish with orange glitter in a black base - Mary at Body and Soul did a comparison with Fortune Teller here - and is offering a free gift (China Glaze Fast Forward top coat, Color Club 0-60 Topcoat, or holiday nail stickers) with the purchase of 10 glitters. H2T is offering 5% savings (as much as you're likely ever to get from an e-tailer) through December with the code DEC05.

Yesterday, I experienced an act of hubris. I had been feeling a bit better, so I decided not to wake up at 4 am to take my pain medication (I had been taking it every 4 hours and thought 8 hours in my sleep would be okay). When I woke up at 8, I was frozen with pain. I took some medicine right away, but it really knocked me for a loop and I went back and slept until about 5 tonight. It sucks because now I'm scared to wean myself off it, but I'm also really scared of becoming addicted, since I'm taking Percocet. My mom's a doctor, so I know she'll help me figure it out, but man it's now the tenth day post-surgery and I just want to have my pain down to where I can take some over-the-counter stuff for it! I guess it's too much to ask of my body at this point, grrrrr.

Anyway, I plan to swatch my RBL's tomorrow. I have a ton of new stuff to swatch, so if there's anything in specific you're looking to see, let me know and I'll try to get it done! I hope those of you that are going back to work have an easy day to get back in the swing of things. I'm still off work for another week to recover from my surgery. As usual, I'd love to hear from you. I'm thinking of posting my idea for a contest tomorrow, so I hope you'll tune in for that!

Ruby Red Polish Comparisons

2009-12-26T23:22:00.011-06:00

Happy Post-Christmas! I think until you're done eating Christmas food, it still counts as the holidays. Thankfully, I started the pain turn-around yesterday afternoon after my tonsillectomy, so I was able to go out and celebrate with friends and family. I hope all of you had a great holiday, whatever you celebrate! I'm sorry I didn't get to my promised posts yesterday, but since Friday, Minnesota has been having major snow - it made for a lovely Christmas, but poor swatching conditions. At least we have some celebrating left to do for New Year's Eve - the blingy manis are still in season!

Tonight, I have my comparison of the "ruby red" polishes in my collection. It seems like any reasonably popular nail company these days must have one of these. You know what I mean: those red jelly polishes packed with red glitter, almost invariably named after Dorothy's ruby red slippers. I've always wondered that most of these polishes have such similar names, since we all know Ji Baek had to change the name on Rescue Beauty Lounge's Revamp to Black Russian after legal snafu's over that name, but I digress. (Also, did you know that Dorothy's slippers weren't even originally red? They were changed from silver for the movie, because Technicolor had just come out and they wanted to show off a more vibrant color!) I have had Essie Ruby Slippers forever and as such, never saw the need for the most popular "ruby red", China Glaze Ruby Pumps. Then last year, I caved and bought Orly Star Spangled because it was on super discount at Sally's Beauty Supply and I thought I might want a finer-grade glitter. So by the time the re-vamped China Glaze Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection came out this winter, my resolve was already low; I decided I needed to have it to complete the collection. At this point these are the three ruby red's I own, but here are some other's I know of: BB Couture Cherry Baby, Butter London Chancer, Color Club Ruby Slippers, Finger Paints Pretty Poinsettia, Finger Paints Red Marzipan, Maybelline Red Comet, OPI Crimson Carol, OPI Dear Santa, OPI Smitten with Mittens, Pop Beauty XMas, Precision Twinkle Toes, Savina Ruby, Savvy Ruby Slippers, Zoya Delilah, and Zoya Jade. That's only polishes in a true red jelly base with red glitter - I allowed different sizes as well as those that include some gold glitter because Essie Ruby Slippers has a gold glitter look at times. Most of these polishes are still available.

Orly Star Spangled from Summer 2009 "Stars and Stripes" collection

Orly Star Spangled came out this summer, along with two repromotes (Star of Bombay and White Out), to celebrate Independence Day. Now, I am all about a theme mani, plus my birthday is July 2, plus one can never have too many reds, plus GLITTER, plus it was on sale for an insanely cheap price. Donc, I had to buy it - it's not a compulsive sickness, it was clearly necessary, all right? This is three coats, indoors in indirect light (it's not often we're going to have sunny days while it's winter here in Minnesota) - it only needs two coats for opacity, but three gives it more depth. Application is typical of a jelly glitter, it's not hard to apply, but it does have a slight tendency to pool at the tips. I was perfectly happy with this ruby red, but every season on the NB, Ruby Pumps continues to be ranked in the Top 20, so I figured there must be something special to it, right?

China Glaze Ruby Pumps, part of the core line; originally from Spring 2001 "Wizard of Ooh Ahz" collection

Hmm, maybe. Well, when Wizard of Ooh Ahz was re-released this winter, I had been built up to a lather due to the insane pre-buzz and pictures. Sadly, the line has not lived up to the old formula in my eyes, but it induced me to buy the whole collection for posterity. As you might be able to see, Star Spangled and Ruby Pumps are very similar. These pictures were taken during the same session under the same conditions. Both polishes required 2 coats, but attained more depth with three and had the same application. They are a bit different, but unless it was brought to your attention, I doubt even the most discerning polish fiends would know which one they were looking at with certainty. I took some comparison pictures for those who have to know (like me).

Orly Star Spangled (l) and China Glaze Ruby Pumps (r), indoors in indirect light

Orly Star Spangled (l) and China Glaze Ruby Pumps (r), indoors with modified flash

Here, you can see some differences. SS's glitter is a bit finer and seems to have a slightly warmer tint than RP's. Yeah, that's about it.

Orly Star Spangled on index and ring fingers and China Glaze Ruby Pumps on middle and pinky fingers

Here, again, there are slight differences between the polishes. The base color of these polishes are the same exact shade of rose-y red that deepens to a true red after two coats; it is the glitter that changes their appearance. SS's glitter is slightly more yellow tinged than RP, which is a bit cooler. The glitter for SS is ever so slightly finer than that of RP; more importantly, it is more uniform or homogenous, whereas RP's glitter has a bit of variation, that gives it a little more depth on the nail. If you look at the pinky nail comparison of Ruby Pumps to Star Spangled, that is more accurate in showing how similar they are - my middle finger is double-jointed so I can't get it to lie in the exact same direction as my other fingers and it is inclined a little more, showing off a different reflection. Honestly, I don't think you need both of these polishes, but if you do have them I suppose you can comfort yourself with the fact that they are not identical twins, more fraternal. Now on to the third, and my favorite, ruby red polish!

Essie in Ruby Slippers from ? 2003 collection (if you know, please tell me in the comments!)

I have never seen why Ruby Pumps gets all the love, when Ruby Slippers is it's blingier, more bangin' sister. To me, Ruby Slippers is Nicky Hilton to Ruby Pumps' Paris - she is actually prettier and cooler, but Paris gets all the press! I found this one first and it is my Holy Grail ruby red polish, so I never bothered looking for another. Now I have two others and let's face it: they're nice, but they're really just extraneous compared to this gorgeous lady! Okay, I might be biased because I am a huge glitter hound - wait until you see how crazy I went with the Fall 2009 China Glaze "Glitters, Shimmers & Cremes" collection - but it's so so so so pretty! In the first picture it looks a little bumpy, but as you can see in the second picture, it's glass smooth (one coat of Seche Vite!), it's just the reflection of that insane amount of glitter. Like the others, this baby only needs two coats, but three gives it more depth. This one is obviously different from the other two; it has a deeper almost vampy red jelly base and the glitter is larger and less similar to the base color - a bright orange-y red that gives this polish a gold flash at times and for some reason, occasionally I get a blue-purple flash. Love it! (Sidebar: Why does Essie do these amazing colors and then discontinue them, while she produces yet another sheer pink and red creme each season? I found it so bizarre when Scrangie did her interview with Essie, that she said she wears sheer combos on her hands year-round - Mademoiselle and Ballet Slippers are her favorite. Why start your own polish line because salon color's were "limiting" and then confine yourself to such conservative colors?) I also did Ruby Slippers matte, which brings the glitter to even more prominence:

Essie Ruby Slippers with Essie Matte About You

Just for the sake of being complete, I did comparisons of all three, but you don't really need them - they're just extra pretty.

Orly Star Spangled (l), China Glaze Ruby Pumps (c), and Essie Ruby Slippers (r)

I hope you guys enjoyed this! I've got my BBC pictures all taken, I just need to edit them and write up my posts. This afternoon I saw Nine, which was better than i thought it would be from the reviews; I really enjoyed it. (Also, I have a girl crush on Marion Cotillard, who is just luminous and has a really nice voice - all the women in the movie are gorgeous!) While I was at the mall, I picked up Claire's Dreamcatcher, which the NB has discovered is a pretty close match to Chanel Jade. I'm going to do a mint green comparison soon, including those two polishes. I also picked up an extra and I have a couple other polishes that are dupes (Finger Paints Icy Iris, for one), so I'm thinking of doing a fun contest soon - stay tuned for more on this! I'd love to hear comments from you guys: let me know how I'm doing, if you're enjoying my posts, what you'd like to see in the future, or just say, "Hi!" Tonight I'm going to watch Fellini's 8 1/2 (which inspired Nine and also the name for my old friend's dog) and finish off the bourbon pumpkin cheesecake my mom made for Christmas. I suspect other's might be having a similar Post-Christmas night; if so, may it be as delicious as mine is sure to be!

P.S. I'm still getting the hang of this HTML code stuff, so if this post changed slightly from the last time you saw it, it's because I'm still fiddling around with the code when I edit. Sorry about that, hopefully soon I'll be more proficient!

Look What Santa Brought (via FedEx):

2009-12-24T21:09:00.001-06:00

Teal, Dead Calm, and Under the Stars are on backorder and I won't get them for a few weeks, but I'm so happy with what I got! Especially since it seems some of them (Opaque Nude, the glitters) are now discontinued. I already have the blogger collection, which also sold out during the sale. Swatching in a bit, but right now it's time for Christmas Eve dinner. My mom made some food especially for me including a delicious-smelling corn souffle and we've timed it when my pain medication will have just kicked in, so hopefully my throat will be pretty good! Coming up later tonight I've got comparisons of the ruby red (jelly glitter) polishes, some of the polishes from the BB Couture "California Beaches" collection, and most of the BB Couture for Men "Tools" collection!

BB Couture for Men, Original Collection and some Comparisons

2009-12-23T03:31:00.021-06:00

It's day 5 post-tonsillectomy and I'm still in quite a bit of pain. In fact, the pain level seems to have increased - maybe I've gotten too used to the pain medication or something? I also don't have much of an appetite, which takes all the fun out of Christmas! ;) In any case, I've given up hope that I'll be completely recovered by Friday, so my mom promised we could make cookies next week when I can fully enjoy them! I woke up to a blooming bruise from where the nurse anesthetist messed up my IV. This actually makes it look better than it does in real life since the light washed the picture out a bit. She couldn't thread the IV on my hand, so she kept wiggling it around - my mom was furious (she's a surgeon, so she's a bit protective of me during medical procedures - don't worry, she didn't yell at the NA or anything!). In all fairness, I do have hard to find veins - whenever I give blood they have trouble finding one - and I bruise easily, but you can see that the needle was not super tiny, so it was not a comfortable experience. But anyway, on to the polish I promised on Monday (sorry, but it's hard to find a time where it feels good to be active; I'm either in too much pain or groggy from the pain meds)!

For Fall 2009, BB Couture came out with a men's line called BB Couture for Men. The initial collection was comprised of 6 polishes, 45 Caliber (a silver chrome frost), Blue Steel (an almost-black charcoal metallic frost), Military Blues (a deep blue shimmer), Night Ops (a blackened-teal blue jelly with silver particle flakes/glitter), Widow Maker (a dove-grey with silver shimmer and sparse black microglitter), and Grenade (a dark olive green with gold shimmer). I'm not a fan of frosts, so I only picked up Widow Maker and Grenade because they seemed the most unique - and I'm a sucker for grey and olive polishes. When Keerthi (kmalladi on the NB) started her blog in October and posted Night Ops, I decided it had to go in my next order. So, my BB Couture for Men collection is incomplete; Scrangie has great pictures (of course) of the other three polishes here.

There are not any huge differences between BB Couture (BBC) and BB Couture for Men (BBCM). They both hold the same amount of polish (0.5 fl. oz.) and have the same formula. The names seem to be more "manly" for the Men's polishes, but the colors are in line with the normal collection - BB Couture excels at doing unexpected colors - although you will probably never see any bright pinks or reds in the Men's line. The Men's line is not only for men, which might seem obvious, but I've seen people on the NB ask if Piggy Polish can only be used on your feet, so you never know! The bottles are different shapes: BBC's is a typical cylindrical bottle - a bit taller than BBCM's bottles; the BBCM bottle is a bit squatter and rectangular, it also feels a bit more substantial. I prefer the BBCM bottle because it is a little weightier and thus, there is less chance of me knocking it over, which I, being klutz-prone, tend to do. You can also see from the picture above that the brushes are a bit different. BBC has a longer brush stem than BBCM, but BBCM has a slightly longer and fatter brush. I don't know if this was done for gender-specific reasons - ergonomics, maybe? - but again, I favor BBCM a bit more because I find the shorter brush stem easier to control and the wider brush better for quick three-stroke application. Overall though, I don't think these differences are big enough that they should factor into your buying them - if the colors appeal to you, you will be happy with them no matter which line they are from.

Below, you will find swatches of the 3 BB Couture for Men original collection polishes I have. I hope you enjoy them and please feel free to email me or leave any comments or questions!

Widow Maker (l) and Widow Maker with Essie Matte About You (r)

Widow Maker is a really unique dove grey with silver shimmer and very sparse black microglitter. I have a lot of dove grey shimmer polishes, but this one is warmer, deeper, and a little more pale taupe or khaki than others like, say Zoya Harley and OPI "Sheer" Your Toys (which are lighter and more cool-toned) or Sephora by OPI Run With It! (which I would say is its closest cousin). The base color of Widow Maker is what makes it warm, while the other polishes have copper shimmer that makes them appear warmer than they are. Widow Maker is totally shimmer-based as well, whereas the other polishes read more as cremes with lots of shimmer. My pictures did not pick up the black microglitter well, but if you click to enlarge you can make out a few specks. The black microglitter is much more sporadic in this polish than in BB Couture Opposites Attract, which is another grey polish with black microglitter. I don't know where BB Couture came up with the idea to put black microglitter into some of their grey polishes, but I love it! Kelly of Vampy Varnish totally hit the nail on the head when she said it's reminiscent of concrete. This went on in two easy coats, with no problems. I think it looks really cool matte - it adds to that sidewalk effect.

Night Ops (l) and Night Ops with Essie Matt About You (r)

Next is Night Ops, a blackened navy blue jelly with small silver particle glitter (they are little irregular flakes, not identically shaped like most glitter). It is similar tonally to Chanel Nuit de Russie and Shades by Barielle Blackened Bleu in that it leans teal like a Prussian blue, but it is much darker than those polishes. Nuit de Russie and Blackened Bleu have a black base, but their glitter is a Prussian blue, which lightens up and brightens the overall color; Night Ops has a blackened-teal base and silver glitter, which reflects the surrounding color, keeping the polish looking much deeper. Even though this is one of those so-dark-it's-almost-black colors, it still looks dark blue indoors, but in my opinion it only looks spectacular outside. This is my least favorite of the three I bought - I think my expectations were too high because it looks absolutely gorgeous on Keerthi. This polish gave me a harder time with application than the other two as well. It only took two coats, but it had that annoying application that sometime happens when a jelly is packed with glitter - not too bad, but not great. When I used Essie Matte About You, it really brought the glitter out, even when the light isn't hitting it. This is a pretty polish, but I just don't think it's special enough for me to want to wear it again; I'm going to think about it for a bit, but it will probably end up going up for swap.

Grenade (l) and Grenade with Essie Matte About You (r)

Last, but not least, Grenade is a gorgeous dark olive green with gold shimmer. This is two coats and the application was great. I own a ton of olive polishes and none of them come close to matching this! There are lots of olive green polishes with gold shimmer out there, but what makes this one so different is the depth of the base color. This is not a mid-tone olive green, it's dark and vampy. I added some Essie Matte About You matte top coat and it looks nice, but unlike some polishes which have their shimmer or glitter amplified by a matte top coat, here the gold shimmer gets kind of dulled. Grenade is the darker, edgier cousin of BB Couture's Iced Olive, so I did a quick comparison for you.

Bottles: BB Couture Iced Olive (l) and BB Couture for Men Grenade (r)

Nails: BB Couture for Men Grenade (index), BB Couture Iced Olive (middle), BB Couture for Men Grenade with Essie Matte About You (ring), BB Couture Iced Olive with Essie MAY (pinkie)

As you can see, Grenade is much darker than Iced Olive and with maybe a touch more forest green to it. I would say Grenade qualifies as a vampy, whereas Iced Olive is comparatively bright. Otherwise, they are very similar, both having gold shimmer. When mattified, the gold shimmer is dulled for both polishes, but I think it shows through more in Iced Olive's case. I think Grenade has better application than Iced Olive, but that may just be my preference for BBCM brushes; neither of them were hard to apply.

So there you have it, the first BB Couture for Men collection. If you've never tried BB Couture, I urge you to - they're really great all-around. I especially love the range of colors and finishes they have - I've never been truly unhappy with any of my purchases. As I said last time, I buy mine from Kim at Overall Beauty. The web site doesn't have the best layout or organization, but for what you get from it, I think it's just great. Kim provides great customer service, super fast shipping, lots of specials (without flooding your inbox with unnecessary mail), most of the polishes have swatch pictures on the site, and she sells BB Couture for $9 - $0.95 less than the BB Couture site! I'm not affiliated, just a huge customer!

Next, I'm either going to continue posting about BB Couture, switch over to the holiday theme (although I'm not in much of a holiday mood without my cookies!), or do some mint green comparisons (I have about 15, so I don't know how I'll work that out - if only I had more fingers!). I'd love to hear any questions or comments from you! Hope everyone is having a great holiday.

Vampy Varnish Collection for BB Couture

2009-12-21T15:52:00.002-06:00

I just looked at Kelly's site Vampy Varnish and found out that she has developed a fabulous new collection for BB Couture! I am a big fan of this line - they have some of the most unique colors and finishes and I've never had problems with application from them. I buy my BB Couture's from Kim at Overall Beauty - she offers the best customer service I've ever had from an online company and the absolute quickest shipping (almost next-day fast). If you sign up for the newsletter, you'll get in on a ton of great deals. I found out from Scrangie's twitter that Kim is doing a buy one, get one free (limit 3 free) deal on her site today! The Vampy Varnish collection is available from Overall Beauty here.

I have a ton of great BB Couture's - I just got the "Disco Ball" collection and the new Men's "Tool" collection, so I will try to get those swatched today.

My Nail Routine Arsenal: Top Coats

2009-12-21T07:36:00.007-06:00

I'm not claiming to be an expert in nail application and care, but people do often ask me what I use. This is what I've found works for me (keep in mind that I haven't done extensive head-to-head tests or anything, my picks are just from trial-and-error plus experience).

Everyone who polishes their nails should use top coat. It extends the life of your manicure, speeds drying time, protects colors from fading, etc. There are two types of functional top coat: fast-dry and normal. Fast-dry tend to have a thicker formula and require special application instructions. However, once you know how to handle them, they are just as easy to apply as any other top coat. There are also top coats for finish, ie. satin and matte finish top coats.
Unless you are crazy, I would suggest you use a fast-dry top coat for your nails. Most fast-dry top coats have a more viscous formula, which is why some people steer clear of them, but it only takes a couple manicures before you become accustomed to the difference. Here are the instructions that come with Seche Vite, my favorite fast-dry top coat: "Apply thickly, get a nice bead on the end of the brush, then set softly down on the first nail painted and watch how Seche Vite flows over the wet nail polish self levels and will not drag or streak the underlying manicure." So basically, instead of wiping the brush to remove any excess, make sure you have a bead of top coat at the tip of the brush about to fall off and then apply it to your wet manicure. Yes, wet: if you apply fast-dry top coat to a dry manicure, you will get shrinkage and your manicure will be more likely to peel off. Obviously, don't apply top coat right after you've polished your nail - I paint each finger and then go back and brush on Seche Vite in the same order, which is the perfect amount of in-between time.

Fast-dry top coats are also great at minimizing bubbling of your polish; I have no idea why, but I rarely get bubbling now compared to when I didn't use fast-dry. There are quite a few fast-dry top coats and The Edge of Sanity blog did a quite fascinating blind-study on some of them, which you can see here. The one's I hear mentioned frequently on the NB are Nubar Diamont, Poshe, and INM Out the Door. Of these, I've tried Poshe which I found dried slower and less glossy. Before I got really into polish, I used Sally Hansen Mega Shine Extended Wear Top Coat, which has a similar formula. One reason I don't use SH anymore is because the bottle is opaque, so you can't see how much you have remaining; this also makes it hard to thin - which we'll get to in a minute. Again, I think body chemistry often plays a role in which treatments work best for people, so don't be afraid to test a few out before you settle.

Another important thing to keep in mind with fast-dry top coats is that when you get about halfway through the bottle, the formula will get unworkably thick. Don't throw your bottle out! Just take a few drops of nail polish thinner (I use Seche Restore), shake, and your top coat will be like brand new! You can use any nail polish thinner to thin your top coats, but many people like to match their B3F formulas, so keep that in mind. Thinner can be used on all your polishes, not just nail treatments. Keep in mind that nail polish remover is not the same as nail polish thinner - using remover as a thinner will degrade and destroy your polish. If you use thinner conscientiously (not remover!), your polish can live with you your whole life!

Finally, we can move on to finish-specific top coats. These are usually called matte top coats, although mattifying power can vary from a "satin" finish to a "flat" finish. My favorite is Nubar V for Men Matte Finish Nail Protector, but Essie Matte About You is comparable and more easily accessible. I find that Nubar's gives a little more wiggle room (more friendly to user-error) in dry time than Essie's. Both of these matte top coats provide a more flat finish. Matte top coats don't really provide protection from wear; they are all about the finish. I will usually do a regular glossy mani and then after a couple of days, add a layer of matte top coat, since my mani is wearing down by then anyway. All Lacquered Up has a good comparison of some popular brands and their finishes. Here is what I have found, though not all of these are readily available:

Flattest: Rescue Beauty Lounge Matte Top Coat or Essie Matte About You or China Glaze Matte Magic
Slightly less flat (ie, perfect IMO): Nubar V for Men Matte Finish Nail Protector
Suede (between flat and satin, like the Orly Matte Couture collection): NailTek Foundation II Ridge-Filling Base Coat or Butter London Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat (used as top coat) or Chanel Suede Laquer, Maybelline Matte Maker, Barielle Matt-inee, CND Super Matte Top Coat
Satin: Orly Matte Top, BB Couture Matte Finish Top Coat, Orly Nails for Males, China Glaze Man Matte Finish Nail Treatment

That's it for my nail polish 101. Hope you liked this short little series. If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear them!

My Nail Routine Arsenal: Clean-Up Supplies and Application Tips

2009-12-21T05:39:00.007-06:00

You've seen the StudioTools 100% Acetone Nail Polish Remover tub before. Not only do I use it to remove stubborn glitter polish, I also use it as a well to dip my clean-up brushes into. I find this to be neater than pouring out a portion into a tiny cap - which can get tipped over - or dipping into a bottle - which can strip the paintbrushes of their paint and make a mess. I always use 100% acetone for clean-up; it's more efficient and since I'm not using it all over my fingers I don't worry about it being too drying. The StudioTools brand is Target-specific, but there are a few other brands that make similar tubs sold at other drugstores.
The other remover I use is Zoya Remove+. This remover was like an epiphany when I tried it. You can get polish off your nails without your hands going as dry as the desert or your nose and brain shutting down due to the fumes! Now, I have heard that there are other acetone removers that are just as gentle and pleasant smelling as Remove+, but I'm happy sticking with it for now. It is also easily dispensed with the flipper mechanism at the bottle opening; just press down at the top with your cotton pad or felt and you're saturated - no flipping the bottle over and over (meaning less risk to knock it down for me)! Remove+ smells pleasantly of lavender and keeps my hands feeling great; the downside is that it is only readily available from Zoya.com. I'm actually a fan of Zoya polish, but the last few times I've ordered from them their customer service has left much to be desired. However, if you follow them on Twitter (@Zoya_NailPolish) or through their blog, they do have good deals every month or so if you're willing to put up with a mad frenzy of crashing on their site from the rush, as well as slow (and sometimes rude) customer service. I usually wait until one of their promotions and then buy a big 32 fl. oz. bottle to refill my 8 fl. oz. flipper (which you can see above), vowing to never buy from them again.

I buy felt by the yard from a craft store. It's insanely cheap and will last you forever (it doesn't matter what color you get, I usually get white or black). This makes nail polish removal much less frustrating. No cotton fibers getting caught on your cuticles or under your nails! No pads disintegrating until your fingers are the ones doing the removing! Felt is what they use in those little single-use remover packets and for good reason - they're durable and retain liquid. I like to cut them off into little 6-x-6" squares and have them at hand during clean-up to soak up excess remover from my brushes, wipe off polish from my orange stick, or do-over a whole nail.

I use three tools for clean-up. A fine-point paintbrush, a chisel-point paintbrush, and an orange stick. Orange sticks are easily purchased at any drug store - I prefer the longer ones over the tiny stubby ones. As you can see, they have a chisel tip so they can do fine or broad work - I use them to remove any polish I may have accidentally gotten on my skin or to run at the edge of my cuticles if I accidentally flood them, wiping the polish on my felt. Once you get the hang of painting your nails, you will probably use primarily this tool. The two paintbrushes are affordable Loew-Cornell's that I got from Jo-Ann Fabric's. If you click to enlarge the picture, you can get the exact brushes. I like these specific brushes because they are not too broad, but not so precise they're worthless for clean-up; obviously, other people may have different preferences. It's also nice that their handles are plastic because if you dip varnished handles in acetone, the paint starts to come off and make a mess. Paintbrushes are good if you make a big mess and an orange stick doesn't do sufficient clean-up. I wait until I've done all my nails to go back and use these brushes, dipped in remover, otherwise the remover can pick up wet polish that you don't want removed, as well. MeganChair of the NB has a great tutorial covering this.

Technique-wise I like to do the typical three-stroke application: first stroke on the middle of the nail (I place my brush near, but not at the cuticle, and lightly push it back towards the nail bed to close "the gap" without getting polish on my cuticles), second and third stroke on either side of the nail, and a quick swipe parallel to the edge of the nail to "wrap" the tips (I think this looks cleaner and prevents chipping).

Some other quick (and probably obvious tips):

Before you do your nails, wash your hands and quickly go over your nails with some remover. Any dirt or oils on your nails will keep the polish from adhering well and cause quicker wear to your manicure.
Use a glass file. This helps keep your nails stronger and helps prevent cracks or splits on the nails. I file at about a 45-degree angle under my nail, which helps get rid of any lingering "bits" of nail that want to stick around and snag on my clothes, leading to tears. To "seal" the edge of the nail from any splitting, I take my file at almost a 90-degree angle parallel to the edge and run it down, to close off the layers of nail from water or debris that wants to sneak in.
Moisturize in between manicures. No one likes to look at "frazzle" or unkempt cuticles (although we will, of course)! Obviously in the winter months it's tough to control, so just always have some lotion with you and moisturize whenever you think of it. I like to have a lightweight lotion in my car or purse for when I'm doing things that require my hands not to be greasy (I like Aveeno, but I think it might just be lingering childhood affection for the scent) and a heavy-duty creme for when I'm sitting around watching TV or going to bed (I love hand cremes so I'm always trying out a new rich citrus-scented one - no go-to for me). I don't know if they're actually helpful, but my favorite cuticle cream is Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme, because of the smell. Occasionally I will have a hangnail or something where I find it's easiest to use cuticle scissors, but honestly, I think that 99% of cuticle issues can be solved by using hand creme diligently and often. Using cuticle scissors more often results in worse damage to your cuticles than leaving it alone - like popping a pimple instead of treating it!
Use a base coat to add longevity. In addition, some nail polishes will do better with certain base coats - often B3F polishes like to have a B3F base coat; I also find that using Chanel's base coat with their polishes gives me longer wear time than using my usual CND Stickey.
Thin coats adhere better and are less likely to bubble and peel off the nail. Lot's of times it's just body chemistry reacting with formula though, I think.
If you're doing housework or washing your hands often, you're mani's are simply not going to last as long. If you can, use gloves to help protect them from water and bumping into things.
If you're having trouble applying polish, it may not be you! Sometimes polishes are too thick and goopy or streaky. Use nail polish thinner to fix them up - you never need to throw away old polish!

Whew, all I have left to cover now is top coats, so the long-winded posts should be at an end soon. Hope this was useful and please leave me comments with your thoughts!

My Nail Routine Arsenal: Base Coats

2009-12-20T23:49:00.008-06:00

Screaming Bad Halloween Manicure (Color Club Wild and Willing over With Abandon)

2009-12-20T20:19:00.003-06:00

This Halloween mani was far less successful than my previous one. I have just recently started experimenting with layering polishes and was inspired to try this combo by this post from Steph of Steph's Closet. When she layered Color Club Wild and Willing over Color Club With Abandon (both from the Fall 2009 "Wild at Heart" collection), it looked like a beautiful patina had formed on some wrought iron.

I used one coat of Color Club Witchy Woman/Master of Disguise (a plain black creme from the Halloween 2009 "Master of Disguise" mini set) as a base for one coat of Color Club With Abandon and two coats of Wild and Willing. However, I think my technique was just not as good as Steph's. When I did some clean-up by my cuticles, the top layer of Wild and Willing came off, showing the black layer underneath, which made the mani look sloppy to me. I also think thinner coats would have served me bettter.

In all, I don't think I'll be layering these two color's together again. It's a shame, since I bought Wild and Willing because I thought it would look so good layered over With Abandon - maybe next time I'll try it over a deep blue or violet. I do like With Abandon on its own, but I would say it's not super unique, although it is a jelly. It's similar to Chanel in Or de Russie, Dolce & Gabbana in Stromboli, and China Glaze in Wagon Trail - darker and less shimmery than the Chanel or D&G and a bit blacker and glossier with a touch more shimmer than the China Glaze.

Henry

2009-12-20T19:28:00.003-06:00

This is Henry:

He's pretty cute.

Blog Overhaul (China Glaze Spellbound over Revlon Silver Screen) and Glitter Removal

2009-12-20T16:55:00.027-06:00

So, hey! I've been away from this blog for a while and now that I've come back, I've decided to head in a different direction. This blog will focus mostly on my favorite hobby, nail polish. Of course I have a lot of other interests; so the occasional post about a delicious recipe, beautiful fashion show, favorite athlete, great book, or silly story might just pop up, but I'll try to be consistent with the polish posts, since that's one of the most important things to me in a blog.

In the past few months I've become a huge collector of nail polish (500+ and counting) and I want to get better about posting my NOTD's on the Nail Board of Makeup Alley. Unfortunately, being a full-time college student majoring in Written Communications and Pre-Med (either an editor or a surgeon - how's that for disparate career choices, huh?) and working two part-time jobs, puts a bit of a damper on my ability to do this. BUT... I have the month off for J-Term and I've got about 10 days of sitting on my butt with nothing to do but sip ice chips (yeah, an adult tonsillectomy? not highly recommended - at least by me), so I'm gonna try and get it kick started.

I think the main problem for me on the NB is that I like to look at lots of pictures, but I don't have time to take lots of pictures. So, I end up waiting a month or so for my NOTD's to accumulate and then I'm already bored with talking about them. Hopefully this blog will mitigate that, by allowing me to get my pictures up on a day-by-day basis, as they happen.

Here's one of my favorite NOTD's from October. I did about 4 Halloween-themed mani's, but this one was just so...blingy! It stood out. A definite, keep-your-eyes-on-the-road-while-you're-driving manicure - the sunlight reflecting off all of the sequins was super distracting.

Two coats of China Glaze Spellbound Topcoat from Halloween 2009 "Spellbound" collection over 1 coat of Revlon Silver Screen; two coats of Seche Vite top coat.

I cannot get over how reflective this was. I probably took about 50 pictures of this. The mix of medium and smaller sequins layered over each other looked like cool metallic fish scales or armor. It was just right to ease in to Halloween-themed madness since the orange didn't overpower the silver.

And the gloss! I did two layers of Seche Vite over this crazy-bumpy glitter and... well, you can see the insanity below. It reminds me of those Asian wood-lacquer cabinets that are shellacked like fifty bajillion times until they're as shiny as a lollipop. From far away, it reminds me a bit of the new Minx fad.

Of course, the downside to wearing glitter is always the cleanup, but on the NB there are two methods that have come to be favored.

The tinfoil method - Here's Nihrida's super easy tutorial. I first remember seeing this attributed to tobywoo; regardless, this method never fails. I like to do one hand at a time, letting my fingers sit in their tinfoil "hats" for about five minutes, before swiping the cotton - and the glitter - off in one stroke.
The Target StudioTools 100% Acetone Nail Polish Remover tub - aka the "angry pink va-jay-jay" or that alien from Star Wars.

Yes, it looks crazy (you have LaLa86 on the NB to thank for its illustrious nickname), but it seriously works like magic. Just stick your finger in the tub, swirl it around for a few minutes and, voila! You will be glitter-free. Another great thing about this tub is that it is reusable - just dispose of your used acetone (once it gets really stained, I leave my tub open in the garage until it evaporates - you can also saturate paper towels with it and throw them in the trash) and refill it with fresh.

Some people say that warming acetone helps remove polish faster - maybe it does, but you might die finding out! Acetone is extremely flammable: do not heat!

This post is a bit long, so I think I'll stop here. My next post will be my nail polish essentials or some more October NOTD's. If I'm feeling really crazy (or doped up on Percocet), you might get both! Hopefully I'll get the hang of this and work out a posting schedule soon. If you enjoyed this, please leave me a comment and come back soon!

Edit: Hee, I just noticed that I messed up the watermark on some of my pictures, so they say jRoy13 instead of jRoxy13. I'm not usually so careless, but I am under constant influence of pain killers at the moment (p.s. you will not feel any better from your tonsillectomy after four days), so that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Wow

2007-08-09T22:40:00.001-05:00

So a lot of things have happened since I last posted, most of them not good. What is good however, is homemade raspberry chocolate chip ice cream and homemade cones and oh, yeah homemade chocolate peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter patties. Eat that.

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-05-13T11:54:00.001-05:00

Berry Buttermilk Tart

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients for crust:

1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup plus 1/3 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup blanched whole almonds

Ingredients for filling:

1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 tablespoon cold water
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 containers (17.6 oz) fresh blueberries
1 container (4.4 oz) fresh raspberries

Pulse 1/3 cup sugar and the almonds in a food processor until finely ground.

With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer on low speed, beat butter and 1/4 cup sugar until just combined, about 15 seconds. Add flour, almond/sugar mixture, and salt and beat until the dough comes together, about 3 minutes.

Press dough evenly into a 12-inch round tart pan with removable bottom, using the bottom of a glass to ensure evenness if necessary. Refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes (up to 1 day).

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake tart shell, occasionally pressing the bottom to flatten using a glass (I did this 3 times), until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let cool.

Sprinkle gelatin over the water in a small bowl and let stand until softened, about 5 minutes.

Heat cream, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt. Add gelatin mixture and stir until fully dissolved. Remove from heat; let cool. Stir in buttermilk and lemon juice.

Remove tart from pan. Spread filling into crust. Refrigerate until filling is slightly set, about 15-20 minutes. Scatter berries evenly over top. Refrigerate unti lfilling is firm, about 2 hours (up to 1 day). Cut and serve.

Serves 8 to 12, depending on how generously you cut your wedges.

Enjoy!

Penne with Butternut Squash, Sage, and Bresaola (or: This is How You Write About Food, Mr. Buford)

2007-01-09T00:19:00.005-06:00

I made this for dinner tonight. I've made it before, but I don't make it too often because it is time consuming (about an hour and a half from start to finish). There's a bit of prep work involved and different tools and pans you have to dirty up, but it was my first dinner back after California and this is just the ultimate in comfort food for me; it's what I wanted to sit down and unwind with after these past 10 days. This dish combines my favorite elements of food: pasta, squash and sage, and little bits of salty meat. It's a homey comforting dish and there's enough going on that it's interesting, but not exhausting to eat. My favorite meal: the kind you can curl up with (along with a good book). Enjoy!

This recipe is adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Pasta cookbook. I have had great success with many of their dishes. A hint for this dish in particular, don't chop as you go; prep everything ahead of time.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
5 shallots, minced (I used 1/2 a medium white onion)
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced
Large pinch of ground allspice (or if you prefer, freshly ground nutmeg)
3/4 cup chicken broth
Generous splash of balsamic vinegar
1 pound penne rigate
8-10 (depending on how well you like the taste) fresh sage leaves, julienned
1/4 pound thinly sliced bresaolo or proscuitto, cut into narrow strips (I have used both in the past, but actually used bacon [4 slices] this time, to good effect)
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions:
In a Dutch oven (do NOT, as Williams-Sonoma alternately suggests, use a Pyrex unless you heat your chicken broth first; it may explode on you as it did once to me) over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the shallots and cook until softened (3 to 4 minutes). Add the squash and allspice and season with salt and pepper. Sauté for 2 minutes. Add the broth, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the squash is fork tender (8 to 10 minutes). Don't stir the squash vigorously; you want the pieces to keep their shape. Turn off the heat and add the vinegar. Adjust seasonings if necessary.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Generously salt the water, add the pasta and cook until al dente (11 minutes). I add the pasta after the chicken broth has been added in the other pot, so it is done at the right time, which should be a couple minutes before the squash is ready.

Drain the pasta well. If using bacon: in the pasta pot brown the bacon, drain onto towels and pour off the fat. Pour on the squash mixture. Add the sage and bacon (or other meat) and toss gently. Mix in a bit more than half the cheese and serve, passing the remaining cheese at the table.

Serves: 4 to 6, depending on the size of the stomach

The elements of this dish work perfectly together. The penne catches everything in it's ridges and there is a great mix of textures: the slight firmness to the al dente pasta, the soft give of the squash, the chew of the meat. There's the traditional Italian interplay of the salty, sweet, and acidic elements (which I learned of from Mario Batali via Mr. Buford); each ingredient contributes to the dish. Sage and squash are a traditional combination, but their perfection is just heightened in this dish - perhaps from the slight hint of the vinegar, which lingers in the back of your throat. A delicious dish and sadly, my only accomplishment for the day. As the Italians say: Buon appetito!