Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Last night I had to do a quickie gel and color change, and the polish I used was Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe from their Scent-suous Holiday Collection.  It's a light green foil, very well pigmented (two coats was plenty), and it smells like a mistletoe scented candle.  I've had it on for close to twenty-four hours, and it's worth noting that the fragrance is pretty much gone while the others I've tried from this collection have stayed pleasantly scented for a couple of days.

I was dreading changing the soak-off gel base I've had for a little over a week because I initially applied it to repair two cracks, and I really hate doing repairs.  I took a short nap yesterday and in that weird half-asleep state waking up, saw a teeny edge of gel lifted from a nail, decided I'd change it when I got home late, and peeled off a big piece.  I have no idea why it would make sense to do the last part, but evidently it did.  On this gel application, I violated all manufacturers' suggestions and didn't do any of the prep (buffing, primer, bonder) to see if it would hold and make the removal easier.  It turned out to be a good but inconvenient decision - when I was washing my hair to go out last night, I kept feeling that peeled edge snag, so once I was done with my hair I peeled it again, and the soak off gel and polish peeled off just like a regular manicure will in the pool after you've been swimming for a couple of hours.

When the that one came off completely, I started trying to get the others to do the same while still under the super hot shower, and it worked surprisingly easily - I scraped a corner of each nail with the opposite thumbnail to get an edge to come up, and once the edge lifted I could peel it right off with ease.  So that made for one of the easiest removals of anything I've ever had, but had to be somewhere shortly and suddenly had bare nails.  With the cold, they'd break right away while bare, so I went with drip-dry hair and no makeup in order to at least get some gel on them.  I felt like I was in one of those Lee nail repair kit commercials from the 80's.

Re-doing the glue on the cracks then applying and curing the Gelicure base and sealer took only twenty minutes, so I figured I'd get the polish on and be done with it.  I used two coats of Kiss Me Mistletoe and one of Essie Good to Go, and it dried fast and smelled really good.  I'm a little sad that the smell is gone, because I kept finding myself sniffing it!  I took a picture just a bit ago in the last afternoon sunlight.

Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe Nail Polish, Two Coats

Even without the fragrance, Kiss Me Mistletoe is a pretty polish - I'd wear this one even if it were not scented.

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

FingerPaints Sparkle Top Coat over Velvet Bow

Good morning, Dear Reader!

For today I just added one coat of FingerPaints Sparkle Top Coat to my China Glaze Velvet Bow manicure and finished it off with a coat of Sally Hansen Speed Shine, and I think it turned out well.  The sun is shining, so I was able to get a sunlight picture of it.

FingerPaints Sparkle Top Coat, One Coat over China Glaze Velvet Bow

The duochrome of Sparkle Top Coat comes out to play quite nicely in this manicure, and I like it!

That's about all there is to tell you today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

China Glaze Velvet Bow

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

After all the glitter I've worn in recent weeks, China Glaze Velvet Bow from their Let It Snow Collection seemed really appealing to me.  That's the burgundy jelly-ish creme, and I'm absolutely smitten with it now that I have it on.

I used Illamasqua base coat (for no other reason than it was handy), and I tried to do thicker coats to see if I could get Velvet Bow even in two coats.  I almost did, but the fact is that I normally do very thin coats and at this length I'm spreading the polish pretty thin, so I needed three for even coverage.  I think most people could do fine with two.  I finished it off with a coat of SpaRitual Tout de Suite, and after it dried I took pictures in moderate natural light.

China Glaze Velvet Bow Nail Polish, Three Coats

I love this as a holiday color, but also as an all-purpose color.  It's along the lines of a Rouge Noir standard vamp, and it's also just the color of a rich burgundy velvet.  It's one of those colors that I associate with childhood Christmases (I had a fabulous burgundy velvet dress that I loved when I was maybe five, and it brings it to mind), and I think the older I get the more holidays are about tradition and family history, so this one fits the bill.

I'm thinking of adding a coat of FingerPaints Sparkle Top Coat to this one tomorrow just because Velvet Bow seems like it would make a cool base color for it.  We'll see!  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Orna-Minted

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I tried out Color Club Orna-minted, the silver glitter from their Scent-suous Holiday Collection, to add on to my Blue Year's Eve manicure.  I added one coat of Orna-minted, which I found to be similar to Sugar Plum Yum as far as application - it's thick, and the easiest way to use it was to get out a blob, put it in the middle of a nail, and smooth it over the nail.  I used a total of three coats of Sally Hansen Speed Shine over it to smooth it out.

Color Club Orna-minted Nail Polish, One Coat over Blue

I like Orna-minted and applying it gave me what seems like a good idea for a mani with it, but this isn't the best use of it.  I was going for a cold, icy manicure, but I think it looks more like I fell on some sparkly gravel with wet nails.

I was a little apprehensive about a mint scent, but it turns out that Orna-minted has the best possible variation of it.  It smells like peppermint tea with just a little bit of white sugar, and although definitely there, is not too strong.

I don't think I'd be so bold as to call this manicure a success, but I figured I'd post it anyhow because it gives you a good look at one coat of Orna-minted, and that might prompt some fun ideas for a better use of it for you, too.

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

Edited to add a note on removal: Orna-minted was surprisingly not bad to remove.  Even with three coats of top coat, I had it removed with felt and acetone in ten minutes even.  The only part that took effort was the free edges (that's always true of glitter removal) , so getting this off of shorter nails should be even easier.

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

China Glaze Holiday 2011

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Today I have swatches of the China Glaze Let It Snow Collection, their Holiday 2011 release, which China Glaze sent for review.  These are already out now in stores, so you should be able to find them pretty easily.  As a whole, it strikes me as a really good classic holiday collection with a decent amount of variety, but that's just about the only generalization I have.  There are lots of colors to go through, so let's get to it!

The pictures are all under artificial light, all but one are swatches without a base or top.  I'll start with the reds (or reddish shades), and there are three of those. All three are more jellies than cremes and each needed three thin coats to be even and opaque, but three is what I expect of a red jelly.  Poinsettia is the bright red of a poinsettia, and a really good holiday basic.

China Glaze Poinsettia Nail Polish, Three Coats

Winter Berry is a berry red jelly and a good bit darker than Poinsettia.

China Glaze Winter Berry Nail Polish, Three Coats

Velvet Bow is a really exceptional one, a deep burgundy jelly.

China Glaze Velvet Bow Nail Polish, Three Coats

There are also two metallics, another holiday basic, and both were two-coaters. The first is Icicle,a really good silver with sparkly shimmer bits.

China Glaze Icicle Nail Polish, Two Coats

Champagne Bubbles is a yellow gold with glitter that brings to mind Cowardly Lyin'.

China Glaze Champagne Bubbles Nail Polish, Two Coats

There are two that are kind of off on their own before I move on to the glitters.  Holly-Day is an evergreen creme that was good in two coats.

China Glaze Holly-Day Nail Polish, Two Coats

Blue Year's Eve is a fantastic blue shimmer with the slightest purple duochrome flash, which you can see on the left side of the bottle.  This is the one I'm wearing, so the picture is two coats of color with base and top coat, and I noticed that purple showed while I was driving a little bit ago.

China Glaze Blue Year's Eve Nail Polish, Two Coats

That brings us to the glitters. I'll start with Snow Globe, which I'd use as a glitter top coat.  It's light glitter in a clear base, and here you can see one coat over Blue Year's Eve, Poinsettia, and Holly-Day.

China Glaze Snow Globe Nail Polish, One Coat over Various Base Colors

In the bottle, I thought Ring in the Red was similar to Ruby Pumps, but swatching showed me that's true only in the sense that they're glitter in a red base.  Ring in the Red has powdery fine red glitter and very small red hex glitter.  On the first coat, it looked like it would take a zillion coats for coverage, but it only took three.

China Glaze Ring in the Red Nail Polish, Three Coats

Glittering Garland is a great deep green glitter in a green base that really is the color of a garland.  I used two coats.

China Glaze Glittering Garland Nail Polish, Two Coats

It's hard to name a favorite in this collection because I love holiday polishes, but the next two are in the battle for first place.  Tinsel Town is powdery fine and small hex glitter in a base just a hair lighter than a charcoal grey, and it was good in two coats.

China Glaze Tinsel Town Nail Polish, Two Coats

The last polish in this collection is Twinkle Lights, a clear base loaded up with mostly gold glitter and a decent amount of red and green glitter.  In this swatch, I used two coats on the top two nails, and on the bottom one I used one coat over two coats of Champagne Bubbles because I wanted to see how they looked together.

China Glaze Twinkle Lights Nail Polish, Two Coats

As you can see, the traditional holiday colors are all here and there's a good bit of variety, so I'd have to call this one really solid holiday collection.  That is China Glaze Let It Snow, and I hope the swatches help you make your picks!  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

FingerPaints Sparkle Top Coat

Good evening, Dear Reader!

Tonight I tried out FingerPaints Sparkle Top Coat, which is one that I have no manufacturer information about, but it was on sale and looked cool when I made my recent Sally Beauty Supply trip, so I picked it up.  In the bottle, it's a sparkly translucent off white like the CND Effects, and I'd wager it's closest to their Raspberry Sparkle but I haven't compared.

For the manicure, I used Illamasqua Base Coat, which I ran into half a bottle of when I was looking for the color I wanted to put under Sparkle Top Coat.  Before finding the one I was after, I ran into my mini of Lippmann Devil in a Blue Dress from the Party Like a Rock Star set, a navy blue jelly, and went with that.  I used two coats of Devil in a Blue dress, gave it a couple minutes to set, then added one coat of Sparkle Top Coat.  I finished it off with Tout de Suite to dry it, and it made for a really cool mani.  Pictures will make telling you what I like about it easier.  The light outside was dim, so the first picture is artificial light and the second is indirect sunlight.

FingerPaints Sparkle Top Coat under Artificial Light

FingerPaints Sparkle Top Coat in Indirect Sunlight

I included both because the different light shows different things.  The artificial light picture is the more accurate in terms of color and how the finish looks in general, but the second picture in natural light caught the slight duochrome effect Sparkle Top Coat has.  If you look near the cuticle at my thumb and index finger, you can see a greenish gold tinge, and that really shows just walking around.  The overall look of this manicure reminds me of the custom paint job on a my neighbor's sports car when I was 14 (which I recall clearly because they spelled his name wrong on the driver's door and he left it that way).

For one coat, I think this is excellent.  I'd planned on two coats, but I like how it looks so much after one that I thought a second might take away from it and left it alone.  That's what I know about FingerPaints Sparkle Top Coat and all I have for you today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Gingerbread Man

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Last night I changed my polish to Color Club Gingerbread Man, another of the Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection that's at Sally's.  I added a little note on removal to Color Club Sugar Plum Yum as well, as it was surprisingly not bad.

For Gingerbread Man, I used a base coat, two coats of color, and SpaRitual Tout de Suite.  I found Gingerbread Man to be well pigmented and easy to apply, and it ends up as a foily gold.  What was noteworthy about it was the drying time, which was unusually poor.  My experience with Tout de Suite is that five minutes per coat of color is a safe bet for drying time in order for the manicure to be set enough to go do things, so ten minutes should have been good in this case.  However, a good hour after finishing it, I was still getting dings in the very soft polish.  I wanted to go to bed, so I got my Nubar Freeze Dry drying drops and used those before turning in.  Since all I could smell going to sleep was Freeze Dry, I was concerned that I'd killed the gingerbread scent of the polish and would just have a dented up regualr gold mani today, but that wasn't the case.  This morning, the gingerbread fragrance is there and the drying drops did the trick.

The scent of Gingerbread Man is quite nice.  It makes me think of a natural bakery I like, where they make a lot of quick breads with ground ginger.  I've never made or had actual gingerbread, but I like really good ground ginger in baked things, and it smells like that.  I find the fragrance of this one much more noticeable than that of Sugar Plum Yum, likely because I didn't bury Gingerbread Man in a thousand coats of top coat, but still definitely not overpowering or too strong at all.  Here's what it looks like under artificial light.

Color Club Gingerbread Man Nail Polish, Two Coats

It's just a nice, foily, kind of unusual shade of gold, which is a good thing, but it smells wonderful so I'm a big fan.  Again, a little high maintenance with the drying issues, but also worth some extra effort.  I'll probably stamp this today or tomorrow, but I don't know how well adding to a manicure that's been dried with drying drops works out.  We'll see!

That is Color Club Gingerbread Man and the update for today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection

Good evening, Dear Reader!

I took a break from busily toiling away today to run some errands, and while I was out I came across the Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection of scented nail polishes that's exclusive to Sally Beauty Supply.

One of the tasks on my list took me near a Sally's, so I stopped in, found nothing noteworthy, and on the way out decided to drift over to the register to ask whether they'd be getting these in.  It turned out they were on a little display right behind me as I asked the cashier, so I went over and took a look.  The display can hold two of each color, and they'd sold only one bottle from this display, so all six colors were there.  I waffled on two of them, but then considered my sheer love of scented polishes, especially the last batch that Color Club did (the neons that I wore the heck out of), and got one of each.  Since there was end of the day sunlight left when I got home, I took bottle pictures to give you a look at them.

Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Nail Polishes, Round I

Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Nail Polishes, Round II

The two I waffled on were Santa's Cinnamon and Orna-minted since I need another glittery red and another silver hex glitter like I need a hole in the head, but then thought about whether I'd like a cinnamon and a mint scented polish, and you can see where I went with that idea.

Looking at the top picture, you might be thinking "That's some big glitter!"  Yep, it sure is.  I hope it's not too big to manage because the notion of sugar plum scented nails, especially purple and green glittery ones, makes me very happy.  For fragranced glitters, I think I'm willing to make some concessions about my preferences regarding glitter since scented polishes appeal to me so much.

I'm trying to decide which I want to wear first, with Gingerbread Man and Sugar Plum Yum running neck and neck.  I have a lot of work to do tonight, but it's really boring computer work requiring little attention, so it might be a good time for a layered glitter manicure while I do my thing.  We'll see which is the winner!

That's all I have for you today, Dear Reader!  I was just really excited to find Color Club Scent-suous Holiday, and I wanted to let you  have a quick preliminary look at them in their bottles.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

FingerPaints Fun-Fetti

Good evening, Dear Reader!

I got an unexpected surprise today, so I can show you FingerPaints Fun-fetti, the stand-alone FingerPaints holiday glitter release I'd shown you the press release for last week.  I hadn't really expected Sally Beauty Supply to go through the hassle and shipping expense of sending samples of this one out, but it showed up today.  I had something to go to earlier tonight, and I opted to change my manicure to Fun-fetti rather than wear makeup.  It got a good compliment, so I think it was the right pick - the woman next to me while I was out touched a finger and said "It's beautiful!", which was nice.

I looked at the bottle next to Sephora by OPI Spark-tacular!, and the FingerPaints glitter is both bigger and brighter.   I don't have OPI Rainbow Connection for comparison.

FingerPaints Fun-fetti and Sephora by OPI Spark-tacular! Comparison

For the manicure, I thought Fun-fetti could use an opaque base, and I chose silver.  I used Orly  Dazzle, but I think any silver foil would work well (Dazzle is good and I've used and like Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City and  FingerPaints Easel Come, Easel Go myself, and have only heard good about Zoya Trixie).  Dazzle needed two coats to not be blotchy, and after giving that a few minutes to set I added two coats of FingerPaints Fun-fetti, which is a bit on the thick side but easy to apply and fast drying.  It currently has one coat of Tout de Suite for top coat, and although it's not perfectly smooth and I'll add another layer of top coat in the morning, it's surprisingly not lumpy.  The glitter lies far flatter than I'd expected given its size.

FingerPaints Fun-Fetti Nail Polish, Two Coats over Silver

Here's a closer look at the glitter.

FingerPaints Fun-Fetti Nail Polish over Silver, A Closer Look at the Glitter

I really like this.  Some of the glitter's at the upper end of how big I like it, but in the bright colors it works for me.  Typically random compliments come on manicures that are a lot of work, so getting one simple layered glitter was an indicator of how cool this polish is.  I also think it'll be pretty versatile in terms of colors it can be layered over.

The press info tells me this will be available from November through January only at SallyBeauty.com for $4.99 and is a limited edition, and that's a link to it on their site (I just checked to get a link and found it there already).  That's what I know about FingerPaints Fun-fetti, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Orly Androgynie

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Today I have a cool polish with a weirdo name to show you, Orly Androgynie.  It's the only one I went for from this collection, and it's a pretty good one.  It's a black base with lots of different glitter in it, and in two coats it was opaque but still let the glitter show through.  I like it, but in normal, non-picture lighting, the glitter doesn't show quite as well as I'd like.  It does make for a good picture though!

I applied it last night, two coats over a base topped off with Tout de Suite to dry it, but it was lumpier than I cared for this morning, so I added a coat of Sally Hansen Salon Speed Shine to it and that helped quite a bit.  It's still not glassy smooth, but my choices were to add more top coat or make a post, and I figured the longer I wait to post the more likely it is to get messed up, so this is as good as it gets.  There's no sunlight today, so artifically lit pictures are all I have.  Here is the manicure.

Orly Androgynie Nail Polish, Two Coats

Here's a close look at part of a nail to see the glitter.

Orly Androgynie Nail Polish, Closer Look at Glitter

The glitter does show indoors, just not quite as much of it shows as in the pictures.  Looking down at my hands, I see the tiny sparkle bits and the colored hex glitter shows, but the hex glitter doesn't sparkle like in the picture.  It's still a good polish and a pretty unique one at that, so it still get a well-manicured thumbs up from me.

That's Orly Androgynie and the update for today, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

FingerPaints Fun-Fetti Holiday Limited Edition

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I had an email from Sally's PR this morning about Fun-Fetti, their limited edition holiday polish release, that has swatch and promo picture I thought you'd like to see, so here they are.  Clicking the pictures will open it, and you can see a giant version in another tab by clicking the "Show Original" link on the bottom left.

FingerPaints Fun-Fetti Bottle Picture

FingerPaints Funfetti Swatch Promo Picture

This is the one with the availability information (sometime in November through sometime in January at Sally's Beauty Supply).

FingerPaints Fun-Fetti Promo Picture

I just wanted to give you a peek!  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Christmas Nail Design - Poinsettia Inspired French Manicure

Here is a Christmas nail design for you guys! I am thinking of having at least one other Christmas design, but Christmas is in only 6 days, so we'll see! I do, however, want to get a few more winter designs!

I give this design an 'E'... for effort. :P LOL. The french is ok, but the poinsettia didn't turn out as good as I wanted it to be. Let's just say it actually looks a lot better in person. (It really does). Every time I look back at the pictures I took, I keep thinking how less and less it looks like a poinsettia, and more and more like... fire. LOL. I think the colors stand out more in person, and it just looks a little better. :P

Visit my Youtube.

If you did this design, or any others of mine, send me a picture at:

simplenaildesigns@gmail.com

I'd love to see it. (:

Watch the video on Youtube for a bigger picture.

Hope you enjoy the design! Let me know if you tried this and how it worked for you. Thanks for watching!




Feel free to leave a comment below! I will answer any questions you might have, and I love getting comments! If you have any requests, please let me know :)