China Glaze Watermelon Rind

Love this color--and it held up.  This is after a week of wear.  Well done, China Glaze!!

It's a beautiful dark green with a hint of blue and lovely glass flecks throughout.  A part of the permanent collection, I believe--you need it!

Sorry I have to run--no time these days.  Thanks for reading!

OPI Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow, suede

Ahh...another lovely color.  As autumn is right around the corner, I was thinking of some of my favorite fall shades of polish.  Deep emeralds flatter my fair skin and dark hair, and they go great with the brown, red and orange fall color palette.  After polishing on two coats of HTAT, I decided to go with a shiny finish versus the matte suede.  I love the shimmer hidden in the polish and I think it comes alive with some seche vite.  I think I like this better than the original!

This color is fabulous--you need it!  Thanks for reading!

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

I'm sorry I've been MIA for a bit--I forgot how much going back to school changes my entire life.  I started this blog at the start of the summer as a way to pass the time and share my finds, but now I have no time to pass!  Anyway, I finally made it to Ulta this week to check out the new polish collections.  Though I'd been waiting forever to see the Orly Cosmic FX collection in person, the $10 price tag still upset me.  I picked up this one, It's Not Rocket Science, as I was feeling the swamp thing vibe it was giving off.

Bottom line: I love this color.  I've seen that there are two dupes (a SpaRitual and one of the new China Glaze halloween colors) but I have neither of those and so I don't care!  This is one of those pretty ugly colors that you either love or hate.  I love.  This is two coats of INRS and one of seche vite--it was more opaque than I had thought it would be; I was anticipating three coats.  INRS is a darkened olive shimmer with a hint of gold--at some angles there is even a bit of a teal tint.  It's definitely a cool color--not for the weak!

Here you can see a bit of teal at the corners!

And here it looks a bit more brownish.

Well, hope those sold you on it!  I am going to try to get on more of a regular blogging schedule.  Teaching just wears me out!  What color did I wear for the first week of school you ask?  Chanel Paradoxal--it was the perfect nod to the end of summer and looks oh so professional with the right outfit. Hope all is well in your part of the world--thanks for reading!

Milani Dress Maker

This is going to be a quick post today as I need to make a four hour drive in a little bit and I still have lots to do!  This is three coats of Milani Dress Maker--I saw the new(?) Milani Haute Value collection at my local CVS yesterday and I picked up a few of the colors.  After I polished this on, I did a bit of research and this is said to be a dupe for Chanel Jade.  Now, I've never really been into the Jade hype, but it's good to know for those of you who are still looking and don't want to shell out your life's savings for a bottle on ebay.

This is a pretty opaque jade green with a slight shimmer--very pretty.  Three coats:

Thanks for reading!

Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

By now, I'm sure you've all seen many swatches of this brilliant beauty.  I've been sitting with the bottle for a while, but I just haven't felt like wearing it until today.  I think I needed a nice sunny day to show off such a gorgeous glitter!

This is three coats of ATU on one coat of Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler and a coat of Orly Bonder, and topped with a coat of Seche Vite.  The glitter in this polish is amazing--small bits of sky blue, mixed with larger blue and green hex sequins.  It is gorgeous--and all floating in a navy jelly base.  Three coats made it perfect, though I had to wait for it to dry between coats in order to allow the hex glitter to settle in its spot.  It was slightly bumpy to the touch, but the SV seemed to smooth most of that up.

All of these pictures were taken in the sunlight.

Bottom line: you need this.  I cannot stop staring at my nails; they remind me of the scales of a fish, or the tail of a mermaid.  It really looks like my nails are made of sequins!  Gorgeous, Deborah Lippmann.  Well done!

Thanks for reading!

H&M Summer Nails Set

Hey folks!  I just got back from a three-day power outage!  We had terrible windstorms on Sunday and it pulled power lines down all over the DC metro area.  It felt like I was Amish!  Oh well...power is back and here are some swatches.

I stopped into H&M this weekend and came out with this "Summer Nails" set of minis.  H&Ms here never have polishes and so I grabbed these.  They had some single colors too but I figured I only needed this for now.  Each polish is 0.1 fl. oz. and while they don't have the best brushes, I thought it was a nice sized kit for only $4.00.

Look at those creative names!  Purple, Green, Blue, and Pure White.

We'll go in reverse order.  All of these are two coats.

Pure white was exactly that--this white was a nice formula and was opaque in two coats.  It felt as if I had white out on my nails--not something that I necessarily hate, but I'll probably use this more for frankening/nail art.

Blue was quite comparable to Zoya Robyn.  I loved this fresh, smooth shade of sky.  So perfect for summer!

Green was a deep jade with a hint of shimmer.  I love this muted green and can see myself wearing this a lot.

Purple is the one I chose to wear for the day.  I adjusted the color on my computer so you could see how red this purple is, so excuse the weird skin.  Again, perfect application in two coats with a bit of shimmer.  I love these kinds of purples.

Overall, I think this is a great kit for the price.  There's nothing original about the colors, but they certainly are perfect for summertime.  And this would be great to take on a trip for touchups or to keep in your purse.

And of course, I had to add a bit of Hidden Treasure to the second day mani.  Love those flakies!

Do you have any H&M polishes?  I'd love to try some more!  Thanks for reading!

Zoya Robyn and an NYX Girls Enchanted Forest Snafu!

Though I'm sure you've all seen many swatches of Zoya Robyn...I've got one more!  This is a beautiful bright cerulean blue creme with the perfect amount of pigmentation.  Two coats and one of Seche Vite and I was good to go.  It's everything a bright blue creme polish should be:

        

This color is pretty accurate.  In the sun...

And indoors.  Look how glassy and smooth!

Of course, I only decided to polish on Robyn last night after a failed glitter manicure that had to come off.  It was a bit too blingy and uneven for me--I know, who thought too much bling was possible?

This was two coats of Pro 10 (not to be confused with 10 Pro) nail lacquer in Muse, a pretty pale yellow creme (Dollar Tree find).  On top I polished three coats of NYX Girls Enchanted Forest.  EF is a green-tinted clear base with various sizes of green glitter.  There is tiny green glitter, small hexagons, medium hexagon and big hexagons.  It was just too much--and really gloopy.  It didn't dry.  I took a few pictures just to show you--but then I took off the whole mess.  This would have been much prettier had it worked.  I did like the spring green tinge that the yellow took on once I layered the green over it.  Oh well!

And I baked the most delicious blueberry buttermilk muffins yesterday.  Here's the recipe if anyone is interested...they were TDF! Mmmm...click for blueberry muffins!

Does anyone have any good NYX Girls colors (or regular NYX)?  I just cannot get their polishes to work on me...thanks for reading!

Pure Ice Free Spirit

There are no Walmarts near me (heaven forbid!) but I made a quick stop when I went to visit my parents so I could pick up a few polishes.  I had seen two different versions of Pure Ice Free Spirit on various blogs and I was hoping I would find the one that wasn't mint green--I was never into that trend even though I have a few.  I prefer a unique green polish and I was in luck!

Free Spirit is a darkened lime with a hint of shimmer.  Love it! I'd never used this brand before and I'm happy to report that, despite one finicky nail, it's held up nicely for three days.  Minimal tipwear.

This is one coat of Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler, two coats of Free Spirit and two of Out the Door:

Look at that lovely green!

Indoor light

Check out the shimmer in the bottle

In direct sunlight, after three days of wear

I still have a few more Pure Ice colors to try out, but this dries to a bit of a satiny finish, as it is a hint neon.  If you can find this version of Free Spirit, I highly recommend!  This is a fun spring/summer color and I'm loving it in this beautiful weather.

Nina Ultra Pro Salsa!!

I was in Sally's last week and I saw a display for a new Nina Ultra Pro Collection.  I don't remember ever seeing a special collection from them before, but I was pleasantly surprised by the color selection.  I believe it was called the "Fiesta" collection, though I may be wrong.  (ETA: It's the "Sultry Samba" collection--I was way off!) There was a purple, an orange and my favorite--a beautiful green which I picked up.

Salsa is a dusty green creme that applies smoothly with two coats.  Though I don't know why this is called Salsa (maybe Salsa Verde would be more appropriate?) it is gorgeous!  This is two of Salsa and one of Out the Door.

I think this might be my new favorite green--and that's a lot for me to say!  It's a perfect, creamy forest on your nails!  I think I'm going to do a pedi in this soon--maybe with some glitter?

Thanks for reading!

ETA: And with a coat of China Glaze Matte Magic, it turns into a perfect old school chalkboard!  (excuse the chipping!)

Nubar Reclaim

I've heard such wonderful things about Nubar but, since they aren't available in stores, I've never gotten to try any of their polishes.  When I first saw Reclaim swatched (as part of the Limited Edition Going Green collection; on sale now for $49.95) I knew it had to be mine.  A medium green holo?  Yummy!

Unfortunately the sun hasn't been out since I polished my nails, but I did get some bright outdoor light:

And outdoors:

This is two coats of Reclaim with one of Seche Vite.  The polish applied like a dream--no streaks and quick to dry with a perfect consistency.  The holo is gorgeous and goes between this spring green with a hint of yellow and brown.  I absolutely love it and hope to order some more Nubars soon!

Anyone else want to see someone come up with a dark holo green?  I might have to do some frankening!