Carolyn New York Greenwich Ave

Good evening, Dear Reader!

I just finished doing a new manicure tonight using Carolyn New York's Greenwich Ave, and I have a picture of it for you.  I hadn't planned on a new manicure tonight, but Chanel Riva chipped  like nobody's business today, so I really had to.

Greenwich Ave is probably my favorite green creme.  The formula is great and CNY's is my all-time favorite brush.  The only down side is that the company seems to have gone out of business, yet keeps their website up.  A while back I read accounts of CNY orders not shipping and getting no replies to emails, so I tried to contact my person there, who was excellent.  I got no replies to emails and her cell phone had been disconnected, so I assume they really are gone.  I mention this in case you're tempted to order from their site - if it's too tempting, call or email before getting charged for an order.

Anyhow, back to Greenwich Ave.  In two coats it's a perfect shiny bright weird green creme.

Carolyn New York Greenwich Ave Nail Polish, Two Coats

It's a shame that CNY seems to have gone away - they made wonderful nail polish and the people there were good.  

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Mugged on the Six Train: RIP CNY

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm stretching the definition of "salon" polish a bit - it's one that was created by a specific salon, Carolyn New York. Now, CNY's site still seems to work, but I caution you not to use it - it seems they've gone under. Emails bounce, phones are disconnected, but cards are charged... bad news! So just because you can use the site, it's really, really not a good idea to!

So today's NOTD is my RIP mani for Carolyn New York. It's one of their real classics, Mugged on the Six Train. It's a huge bummer that there are troubles with them now, for this is a great brand. Excellent polish, good bottle, and the best brush - a mini, better-proportioned Pro-Wide. Poor CNY!

Here's three coats of Mugged on the Six Train with my treatment base and a top coat under artificial light.

Isn't she a beauty for Fall? CNY has a bunch of great colors. Once I dig up more of The Stash, I'll have to do a CNY Week - it would be easy to come up with seven fabulous shades from this brand. If you missed out, swap for them or something, but really, really don't use the site!

That's it for now, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Hard to Find Nail Polish & Carolyn New York News

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I have some older pictures for you today of some precious hard to find colors. The reason they're hard to find is that their manufacturers decided to discontinue these fabulous colors. I've shown these to you before, but since I don't have new pictures today, I went through The Vault to find something to show you, and this seemed like fun theme. I tell you, going through my pictures in chronological order is like watching a flip book of my nails growing!

First up is the spectacular China Glaze Wet Velvet, which was a gift from a dear lady friend. It took several coats to be opaque, as the polish had thinned with age, but it was worth it. I'd been told it was a dupe for OPI's Real Teal, but it's not. They're cousins, but definitely not dupes.

As I flip through pictures, I see China Glaze is a big offender on dc'ing the good ones! Here's another great one that was a gift, Dorothy Who? (the question mark is part of the name, not me asking...).

The last one is another great one, Clarins 230. This one I got in an amazing swap with a dear friend, where we traded large flat rate boxes of polish, each color more hard to find than the last. We used a spreadsheet to make our selections from each others' lists and just valued everything at retail to be able to compare apples to oranges, and away we went. That final list with two LONG columns of hard-to-finds was a sight to behold! We were both like gleeful schoolgirls when our packages arrived!

On its own, Clarins 230 is sheer, so I layered it over Sally Hansen Salon Addicted to Red.

Those are the pictures for today. As I think about it now, I think I might appreciate my HTF's more for the experience of acquiring them than the colors themselves, because so many of them came to me from the generosity of others.

On to the CNY news! Unfortunately, it's more of a CNY warning. One of my friends has been suffering through trying to contact CNY, and although their site is up, their email accounts and phone numbers are not in service. I even had the cell number for someone there, and that's no good anymore either. Now is definitely not the time to place an order with Carolyn New York - my understanding is that their site can still charge you for an order placed even though you can't get hold of them later. If there's any word on what's going on or their communication comes back up, I'll let you know whatever I know as soon as word comes through.

Our last order of business is about the poll on the upper right. There's been enough interest in a little, private, G-rated (but with swearing allowed...) message board to get started on one. Just email me some info and I'll get it going: if you just know me from here, the name you use to comment, or if your know me from elsewhere, the forum and your username there. So we all know who's who in the zoo, I was thinking of keeping the usernames to same, and I'll reply to you with a password and we'll get going. It will be once I'm settled in the new place before we're up and running, so you'll get the notification emails probably starting Wednesday. I've gotten a lot of requests already, and will send you the login info in the order in which I received the requests. It looks like we're already assembling a really great group! I think we'll have some fun together.

That's all for today, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

CNY Mugged on the Six Train

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have a real classic for you that I don't think I've shown you before: Carolyn New York's Mugged on the Six Train. Unfortunately, I've heard reports lately of nightmarish customer service issues with CNY, so if you like it, now might not be the time to buy.

It's a classic vampy purply red, and this is thre coats over a base with a top coat. CNY's have a good formula and great brush, so it went on really well.

It's darker and not quite as shimmery in indoor lighting, but it looks so good in the sun that I had to take the pictures in sunlight.

On an entirely unrelated note, check out my dad at Woodlines. I'm really proud of him!

That's all for now, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Color Club Pure Energy Konadicure & a Bonus

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm still having fun with the Color Club Electro Candy Collection nail polishes, today wearing Pure Energy (the blue one) again.  You know I couldn't just wear the same manicure for the second time in a week - what fun would that be?  I added a bit of Konad to it this time, which has also been entertaining me quite a bit, using Konad plate M44 and Konad Special Polish in Psyche Pink.

Here's my Color Club Pure Energy Konadicure of the Day, which is three coats of Pure Energy, one coat of Color Club top coat, a coat of Diamont to dry it, then the Konad and another layer of Diamont.  Whew!






 I'm dying for Coraline Set II to be released, because I'm in love with the polishes from the set (neon shimmer pink, blue , and yellow), although I put the blue and the yellow somewhere "safe."  Set I only had minis of the colors, and I've used them quite a bit, but check out how teeny they are!  




I need Coraline Set II just to get the full sized bottles of these colors!

 In the title I mentioned a bonus, and there is one!  I have another KOTD to show you that I just hadn't gotten around to publishing, and before the picures get too old and I forget about them, I thought I'd show them to you by just tacking them on to today's post.

For this one, I started out with Carolyn New York's Christmas in New York, which is a darkish red creme.  Definitely not vampy and a true red, just a bit dark. Here's three coats of the CNY nail polish on its own topped with a coat of Diamont.







 Then I had a little Fun with Konad, using FingerPaints Papier Mache as the polish to do the stamping and Konad plate M4 for both patterns, then topped it off with another coat of Diamont.  Here's the finished Konadicure.







That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader!  Don't forget that WowSoCool is doing a 20% off coupon right now.  The code is "nailphile," and all the details are on the Coupons:WowSoCool Konad tab at the top of the page.

Until tomorrow, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

CNY New York New Year with Nubar Gilded Gold

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have yet another glitter mani for you, although I didn't plan it that way.  My original plan was to just use Carolyn New York's New York New Year, but that didn't turn out so well.

I mentioned recently that mixing Big 3 Free products with old school chemicals can make weird things happen, so for the time being, I'm trying to stick to Big 3 Free because I started using a new base coat that's Big 3 Free.  It's a nail strengthener, and so far, so good, but I want to give it a solid six week test before I call it good.  I found out that the problems I've recently had with minor breaks (as well as major ones!) could be attributable to the formaldehyde in what I was using (NailTek II), which can dry out the nails, so I switched.

In any case, Carolyn New York is Big 3 Free, so I pulled out New York New Year and gave it a try.  It's a gorgeous color, but much to my dismay, I could not get it even.  You can see in the pictures, it's somewhat blotchy.

 It's still a great color and I didn't particularly feel like starting over, but having bald spots on my mani would likely drive me nuts today.  My solution?  A little trip over to the Big Box o' Glitter.  I gilded my New York New Year with Nubar Gilded Gold.  It changed the base color a smidge, but it also covered all the bald spots, so I'm happy.  Here she is.

 

 

It's not quite what I'd planned on, but it worked out well in the end.  There are actually a few other polishes I want to show you, but I have to find where I put the box!  It's one of those little 6-pack boxes, and I put it somewhere safe, wherever the heck that is.  I'll try to find it and have something fun for you tomorrow.

Until then, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Subway Surfing with Coraline

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I bet you thought I forgot about you today, it's so late in the day without a post.  Never!  How could I ever forget you?

I finally got around to doing my nails today - I've been one busy nailphile lately!  I decided to try a mani that I had in my head when I first saw the Coraline Kit I at wowsocool's site.  What I had in mind was a gunmetal grey with the hot Psyche Pink stamp from plate CO1 ("O" being the letter, not the number, for the record), using the button & crossbones pattern on the nailbed and something else on the tips.  I was too overwhelmed my how cool the plates were yesterday to settle on the details, but managed to pick a mani today!

For the gunmetal, and largely for the name of this post, I selected Carolyn New York's Subway Surfing.  This is three coats over a base topped with one coat of SpaRitual Tout de Suite.

 

 

Then I waited a few minutes and used the Psyche Pink, also adding a small flower pattern to my tips.  Much to my glee, the pink is bold enough to show up on the deep grey.

 

 

That's Subway Surfing with Coraline, Dear Reader!  Pretty fun, I think.

Here's your daily reminder, which you're getting through March 31:

I'm going to keep reminding you of this for the next month, Dear Reader, just so no one misses out.  feel free to skip this paragraph if you're a regular!  Don't forget that Nubar loves you, too!  Until March 31st, they have a coupon code that's good for 20% off orders of $50 or more on www.bynubar.com, and they have free shipping over $75 (after the coupon).  The code is nlphle2050, and it's here just in time for the release of their Coral and Cleopatra Collections, which just recently became available.  Have a good haul and enjoy a good break on the price! 

That's all for today.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

Catholic School Girls Gone Wild

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm still taking a break from blues so that I can truly savor Wet Velvet when I wear it soon, so I dug into my $2.99 CNYs to select today's manicure.  I chose one I bought for the name, with which I was pleasantly surprised upon its arrival.  I feared it would be sheer, and I have enough sheers for how often I wear them, but when I rolled the bottle to evaluate the color, I was pleased to find I could barely see the ballz in it.

It is Catholic School Girls, and I had to get it because I come from the most Catholic family in the universe (although I'm of the fallen away variety these days).  It might be assumed from my Gaelic name that I have older parents because I'm the last in a long line of siblings, but that's not it - I only have one sister, and she's less than a year older than I am.  The truth is that my parents had two lives - my dad was a Jesuit priest for 25 years, and my mom was a nun for 18.  They both left religious life in the fallout of Vatican II in the late sixties, and met in a support group for people in the same circumstance.  Additionally, three of my dad's four brothers are priests (with the fourth being developmentally disabled and not eligible for the priesthood), and one of his five sisters is a nun.  We won't even discuss my generation, the cousins... You can just  imagine the productions that family funerals are!

My mom was a teacher, and had a downright uncanny ability to remember her students.  When she was in the nursing home before her death, one of her eighth grade students came to visit her - she taught him in 1955.  My mom wasn't able to tell you what she had for breakfast at the time, but sat there and went through the students' names, as they were seated in the class, one by one, with stories to go with each name.  I didn't inherit that gift for names, but certainly wish I did!  I got the skills of my father, the math teacher and accountant, which serve their own purpose, I suppose.

In any case, when I saw Catholic School Girls, I went for it, and as I mentioned was pleasantly surprised by its opacity.  It' so pale that it makes nails look shorter, and I think it has sort of a mod feel to it.  It took three coats to be completely even, but applied beautifully.

 

 

Certainly, I could have left this one alone.  It's simplicity is appealing to me, a super pale barely pink creme.  However, I woke up at 3:30 this morning, and I assure you that there's very little to do at that hour on a Sunday morning without extended cable channels.  If my knitting supplies were here, I'd have a new sweater started, but they're not, so I played with the Konad...

Since this color has a mod feel to it for me, I thought a wacky all-over pattern would suit it well.  I chose the many-circles pattern from Konad plate M65 for the pattern, which then left me with the color choice for stamping.  Since the manicure began with the notion of Catholicism, I decided to continue that theme by selecting Konad purple shimmer so I'd have the Advent pink and purple, which are two colors I've always liked together.  The end result pleases me almost as much as the golden leopard mani I did a while back - the double stamping isn't quite perfect, but if I do say so myself, it ain't half bad!

 

 

That's today's Konadicure of the Day, the story behind it, and a little more about my wacky family.  The up side to growing up in an other-than-average family is that one ends up with many stories.  I have plenty more material about my family to pass on to you one day, Dear Reader, and I shall as the bits fit the manicure.  If you don't have any particular interest in that, as always, I welcome you to just skip to the pictures any time!

Until later, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Carolyn New York Howard Beach

Good morning, Dear Reader!  

Today is a day I'll be using some of the pictures I haven't shown to you yet, since I plan to savor my Dorothy Who? mani for as long as it holds out.

The one I chose is from my $2.99 Carolyn New York purchase, Howard Beach (I just turned into my mother, referring to something by its sale price!).  It's a blackened purple shimmer, where the royal purple element and the shimmer only show up in good light.  It went on beautifully, using that magical CNY brush, and I really like it.

 

 

There are a few more wonderful CNYs from that purchase that I have yet to use, but will show to you when I do.  I am really pleased with the selections I made, and each of them is a winner.  I love when that happens!

Those are the pictures for today, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

Seduce Me, Greenwich Ave, Poppy, Can You Dig It?

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I've been so busy showing you collections lately, today I thought I'd catch you up on some of the manicures I did after swatching those collection.

Since I'm still early in the process of unpacking after my move last weekend I've been keeping it simple some days, but the fun thing is that in upacking my nail polish I'm finding some old true loves I hadn't run into in a while. That's what all of the manis I have to show you today are - nothing new, just newfound oldies but goodies.

First is China Glaze's Seduce Me, a rich berry creme.

Next is one from a brand that does not receive nearly enough love, Carloyn New York. My experience with CNY has been extremely positive, and I love Carolyn's colors. This is one of my all time favorites, Greenwich Ave.

I also had to go do something this week for which I wanted to feel very confident, and you know what that means - its time to break out Dior's Poppy! The only thing that could make my Poppy a little more eye catching was a simple tip pattern from Konad plate M62. It worked - I felt like one indesctructible chick wearing this one!

Last is today's Nails of the Day, SpaRitual's Can You Dig It?. It's a rich golden brown with a strong shimmer, but I was going into a bit of Konad withdrawal, so I did a delicate pattern from plate M4 just on my tips. The temptation was to Konad the heck out of the whole thing, but I resisted - this polish is too good on its own to allow for much more than a subtle accent without detracting from it.

So those are some of the NOTD's you've missed this week, Dear Reader. I have some swatching to do, and hope to get that done for you today, so you may hear from me again before the sun goes down. Until then, love and nail polish to you!