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.

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.

Color Club Santa's Cinnamon

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Last night I changed my polish to Color Club Santa's Cinnamon, the red glitter from their Scent-suous Holiday Collection, after discovering a decent sized chip in Gingerbread Man.  I couldn't really tell if it the chip was in the polish or the nail, so I'm suspending judgment about whether Gingerbread Man is chippy.

Santa's Cinnamon was one of the two from this collection that I was uncertain of, and now that it's on I'm glad I got it.  It's fine red glitter in a red jelly base, but the glitter is so dense that two thin coats were all that was needed for it to be even and opaque.  It went on easily over a base coat, and after a coat of Tout de Suite had a few minutes to do its thing I added some Nubar Freeze Dry drops just to be sure because the glitter is really incredibly glowy and bright, so I would have gotten annoyed if I'd smudged it.  Once it was dry, I noticed the surface was very grainy despite the glitter being very fine, so I added a coat of Sally Hansen Speed Shine.  That helped, but it needed one more coat of Speed Shine to be smooth this morning.  This is what it looks like under artificial light.

Color Club Santa's Cinnamon Nail Polish, Two Coats

The glitter in this is great.  Here's a closer look at part of a nail.

Color Club Santa Cinnamon Nail Polish's Glitter

The fragrance is Santa's Cinnamon is milder than that in Gingerbread Man or Sugar Plum Yum, and it smells like a less sweetened version of Cinnamon Red Hots.  I think I would have preferred a cinnamon stick smell, but this isn't too far off and is mild.

That is Color Club Santa's Cinnamon 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 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 Sugar Plum Yum

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm wearing Color Club Sugar Plum Yum from the Sally Beauty Supply exclusive Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection I showed you bottle pictures of.  It's the purple and green glitter, and I did find the glitter hard to work worth but well worth the effort.

I didn't want to load up on tons of coats of glitter, so for the manicure I started with a Nutra Nail base coat and two coats of OPI Grape Set Match as a base color.   I gave each coat a couple of minutes to set, then added two coats of Sugar Plum Yum.  It's really gloppy andI found the best way for me to cover each nail was to scoop out a big blob with the brush, plop it down in the middle of a nail, then spread it from there.  The glitter is pretty dang big, so I knew I'd need a good bit of top coat.  I use SpaRitual Tout de Suite to dry it, and after about 15 minutes added a second coat of it.  I switched to Sally Hansen Speed Shine after that and have added a total of three additional coats of top coat.  It's still not perfectly smooth, but since I'll probably have to rent a sandblaster to remove it at this point, it's as smooth as it's getting.  What's cool is that the sugar plum fragrance is still there - it has a really nice scent, like a sugar plum scented candle rather than an artificial flavoring smell.  Like with the Color Club scented  neons, it's not overpowering at all, I just catch the occasional whiff (well, and I keep sniffing it, too!). Aside from the smell of it, I love the finished mani just for how it looks.

Color Club Sugar Plum Yum Scented Nail Polish, Two Coats over Purple

I'll likely wear this until at least tomorrow night because I'm still working on the arduous project I mentioned, so it works out well that I like it so much.  It's a high maintenance polish, but the payoff definitely makes it worth the extra effort for me.

That's my tale of Color Club Sugar Plum Yum, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Edited to add a note on removal: I knew this one would have to soak off.  Six minutes with acetone-soaked felt held on with plastic baggies and rubber bands made it painless, like completely not a hassle, and it contained all the glitter so there wasn't a mess.  It's now officially two well-manicured thumbs up for Sugar Plum Yum!

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.

Revlon Grape Fizz

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I chose another Revlon Fizz to try out today, Grape Fizz, but before I move on to that I'll mention a couple of things about Watermelon Fizz and its removal.  By mid-morning my sense of smell was back to non-smoking normal, and I found that the fragrance of Watermelon Fizz was light and not too sweet, not overpowering at all.  Since it was more flaky sparkly bits than glitter (like the non-glitter OPI Burlesque shades), removal was really easy.  I used non-acetone remover, a good strong one, and one little square of felt and very little effort was all that was required to take off three coats, so if fear of removal is putting you off from these, that's not an issue.

So on to Grape Fizz!  It's higher maintenance than the last one for me, and I needed four coats.  When applying the fourth, my thought was that it was just needed to make the polish completely even for a macro picture, and somehow that fleeting thought put me into swatching mode and I only did my left hand, so the right only has three coats.  Three coats is so blotchy it's uneven and falls short of bottle color (it's kind of faded and washed out on my right hand), so this one really will need four coats for me.  With drying often being an issue for me with Revlons, I waited a couple of minutes between coats then finished it off with quick dry top coat, and it seems to be drying just fine.

Revlon Grape Fizz Nail Polish, Four Coats

It's quite pretty, but I'm deciding if its four-coat pretty and leaning toward No.  As for the fragrance of this one, it's much stronger than the watermelon.  When I was applying the first coat I noticed it (strongly), and it's the pleasant scent of 100% grape juice, but almost totally dry on my nails I can still smell it very strongly while sitting here typing.  If it remains this heavily fragranced, that'll be a dealbreaker for me - I sleep with my hands right by my face, and I can tell you now that even half this much grape juice smell would really get on my nerves trying to drift off to sleep.

That's Grape Fizz - a beautiful but demanding sparkly purple that may well have too much scent for me.  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Revlon Watermelon Fizz

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I put on Watermelon Fizz, one of Revlon's new-ish scented glitter polishes.  I've seen this one, been tempted, and managed to walk away many times, but the last time I saw it was on sale while I'd been carrying a Revlon coupon for just such an occasion, so it became mine.

My reluctance was that I thought the glitters were probably somewhat repetitive of others I have, but I found Watermelon Fizz is not.  It's a jelly with medium sized smooth glitter, and I don't have a heck of a lot of jellies.  The finish works really well with the pink-orange-red watermelon color, so for this one I was willing to suck it up and see through my tips a bit.  It took three coats to reach completely even bottle color, and then I topped it off with quick dry top coat.  It wasn't totally dry when I took the picture, but it seems to be moving in that direction pretty well with no Revlon oddities like a Braille finish (as with Revlon Blue Lagoon), so I thought I'm probably safe to go ahead and post it. I mention that on the off chance that something goes south, but in that case I'll make a follow up post.  This is Watermelon Fizz in the morning sunlight.

Revlon Watermelon Fizz Nail Polish, Three Coats

As for the fragrance, it seems like a pleasant enough, not-too-sweet watermelon scent, but I'm not the best judge today... I'm still not smoking (three months tomorrow!) and using an e-cig, and my e-cig gets refilled with nicotine "juice."  Well, the juice is available unflavored or tobacco flavored, but then it also comes in flavors like Cinnabon and Honeysuckle and everything in between that you could imagine.  I replenished my supplies during 4th of July sales and received some of them yesterday, but now I find my sense of taste and smell are a little diminished by the overload of trying a couple out.  I can still lightly smell the watermelon scent in the Revlon, but even if it were nauseatingly overpowering I'd quite likely lightly smell the watermelon scent in the Revlon.  I'll have to wait for my olfactory sense to recharge to have a strong opinion about this one.

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

Neon, skulls and crackle

I needed a fun manicure after all the stress so...Color Club The Lime Starts here to the rescueThen I used my SmArt nails skull & crossbones stencils with China Glaze Broken Hearted CrackleThe skulls did not quite work as well as I'd hoped with the crackle but I still like itThis is 3 coats of The Lime Starts here and it smells so yumThe scent isn't overpowering but enough that when you scratch

Color Club The Lime Starts Here & Konad m60

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This is the last picture I had saved up, and it's a manicure for several days this week, Color Club The Lime Starts Here with the plaid pattern from Konad plate m60 in white.

The Lime Starts Here is the neon green from th Wicked Sweet Collection, and this is your fair warning that the picture will make your retinas sting.  It needed several coats to be opaque, I either four or five, but that seems typical of good neon greens to me.  I'm sure that using white under it would reduce that.  The fragrance of it is very pleasant, more like a good margarita mix than straight lime - it's identifiable as lime and has a nice citrus scent to it, but it's not sharp or that overly artificial lime Jell-O smell.

Color Club The Lime Starts Here Nail Polish, 4-5 Coats

I gave The Lime Starts Here a bit of time to dry, then stamped it with Konad White Special Polish and the pattern from m60.

Color Club The Lime Starts Here with Konad m60

Although I really liked this one, the real reason I wore it for several days was that I ripped off my pinky nail, the whole free edge and lots of layers about halfway down the nail bed.  The good news is that the manicure didn't chip, and I decided that another chop just wasn't in me and I made a sculpted soak-off gel tip on it last evening.  This is the first time I had the luxury of sculpting a tip using my right hand, so it was about a thousand times easier than before.  I thought I had it as good as it would get, but the down side to clear builder gel is that it's really hard to see tiny detail.  I can just thin it out a little with a bit more shaping, but I'll have to reseal it once it's good, so the pictures I have for tomorrow will include my big fake tip pre-refinement.

That's what I know this morning, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Plate XL B

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I had a great big fail stamping a pattern from XL B for today, which completely proved wrong my recent statement that I find the quality of engraving is equivalent between Chez Delaney and Konad plates.  Konad never fails me!

I took pictures, but promptly did a do-over on the manicure because it was really bad.  For the second I also went with a pattern from XL B, but the second one I chose was composed of thicker lines, from which I generally have a much easier time getting a clean stamp.  The messy one had thin lines, and the few stamps with didn't have extra polish all over have bald spots, and since the stamping was in black over China Glaze Shocking  Pink, it looked pretty shabby.

Plate XL B over China Glaze Shocking Pink Nail Polish

My ring and pinky nails have bald spots in the middle of the filled in sections, and the others, which I didn't scrape as hard to avoid that, have the extra Konad polish.  It looked gross enough to annoy me, so off it came.

The next attempt was Color Club Wicked Sweet with white Konad polish, and I love how it turned out.  A cashier at a place I often go asked about it this morning and admired the manicure, but there was a huge line behind me and she's usually really slow without a distraction (perfectly nice lady, she just doesn't mind having twenty people glaring at her while she makes small talk), and she asked about it using an "or" where neither option was correct (is that A or B?).  That meant my answer would require an explanation, and since I didn't want to lie I just muttered unintelligibly to get out of explaining Konad with the line of people hating me.  That often works surprisingly well, by the way, and it did this morning.  Here's the manicure that's nice enough to make a line of people wait for small talk.

Plate XL B over Color Club Wicked Sweet Nail Polish

Much better!  I love the polish, the stamp, and it's all the better since it smells really nice.

That's what I know today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Anna Sui Nail Color 001

Good morning, Dear Reader!

To start off a new work week, I changed my polish to one that's far less attention-grabbing than a neon yellow.  I looked through some untried colors and found Anna Sui 001, which is a kind of sheer off-white base loaded up with lots of fine flaky glitter, and of course, being made by Anna Sui, is lightly rose scented.  Since I wanted the manicure to be opaque, I used a base shade that was close to the Anna Sui in an opaque cream, American Apparel Cotton.  Cotton took two coats and was a still bit blotchy after the second, but I figured the Anna Sui would even that out, and it did when I added two coats of it.  Finishing with one coat of top coat smoothed everything out nicely.  Here it is in the best sunlight I saw yesterday.

Anna Sui Nail Color 001 over American Apparel Cotton, Two Coats Each

This turned out much better than I'd expected at the start.  Since I used a white background for the picture, the color looks distinctly off-white, but without real white nearby for comparison, the polish gives the impression of being white without being stark.  I think the addition of the glittery Anna Sui makes it far more interesting and appealing to me than American Apparel Cotton would be on its own.  I'm quite pleased with the result, and I hope it holds up for a few days do I can add Konad  to it, as I'd hoped to but didn't get around to adding to the last few.

I found a few good things in that little box of untrieds I stumbled upon, so I set aside a few of them to show you soon.  I also found some odd items, such as a refill bottle of Seche Clear base coat, which I don't currently use and don't recall ever using regularly.  All I remember about the stuff is that my nails stained easily when I used it, so I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing with a big refill bottle of it.  I wish I'd tape a note explaining why I've chosen to own something before placing it in a box!

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

Lem-on Crushed Candy

Good morning, Dear Reader, and Happy Easter!

For today I doctored up my Color Club Get Your Lem-on manicure, but I used China Glaze Crushed Candy Crackle Glaze rather than Konad.  I was thinking of what color to use for Konad, and I kept nixing choices because I know that the color shows up strangely on neon yellow, when it occurred to me to try out Crushed Candy for a potentially Easter-y version of Get Your Lem-on.

I added a coat of Crushed Candy, then two coats of some Nutra Nail strengthener that's clear and a coat of quick dry top coat to smooth it out.  I'd been using one coat of Gelous rather than the Nutra Nail, which worked just fine, but I don't have enough Gelous left for one manicure and most likely won't repurchase it.  The sun came out for a bit yesterday, so I was able to take a picture in sunlight.

China Glaze Crushed Candy Crackle Glaze over Color Club Get Your Lem-on

This worked out well for me since it tones down the yellow so much and I'm wearing this manicure to church today.  It's like an Easter egg is getting cracked open and the yolk shows (although that imagery doesn't withstand close scrutiny - I really don't want an egg with a neon yolk).  I can also still catch the lemon fragrance under all those additional coats, which is pretty impressive.

That's my manicure for Easter, and so far, Easter is shaping up into a pretty dang good day.  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Color Club Wicked Sweet scented Collection- I always Get My Man-Darine

I love fruity scented things but Orange is my enemy color....unless it is a Color Club neon!Warm colors look horrid on me...but Color Club is the one company that takespity on people like me! They are genius at adding a contrasting shimmer that makes it lesspainful to wear these warm sunny shades!Man-darin is hard to capture in pictures (neon is evil on camera) but it is asweet juicy tangerine/

Color Club Always Get My Man-darin

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I completely changed my nail polish last night - the last one just had too much tip wear after two days of lots of typing.  I so enjoyed wearing one from the Wicked Sweet Collection that I used another, although color selection is getting tough - my options that I haven't shown you were the green (lime), yellow (lemon), or orange.  Obviously, I went with the orange since I'll be at work, and that's called Always Get My Man-darin.  That's a super Suzi name for a Color Club, but Suzi on a good day (not the day Iris I Was Thinner was named...).

Truthfully, the plan for today's manicure had been to do medium green with a yellow, green, and red striped accent nail with that Bundle Monster pot leaf pattern right in the middle of it just I so could make a post entitled "It's 420!", but that had to go by the wayside when I returned to an office.  I acknowledge that would have been completely inappropriate for anyone, particularly a woman my age, but it would have been funny enough to me to do it (clearly, I'd thoroughly planned it out!).

Since that was off the table, I was content with my Always Get My Man-darin choice.  It's a vivid yellowish orange shimmer, a very unique color.  I used two coats of a tinted base (two coats in my desperate attempt to keep my unstained nails that way), but the Color Club still took about seventy billion coats.  Not really seventy billion, but it was either six or seven, I lost count, so we'll say six.  I think that's why there aren't more neon shimmers, but I happily used this many coats of a few of the Color Club Poptastic [I meant Electro Candy - I'm sorry] shades, so although I wasn't thrilled, I wasn't horrified.

I waited a few minutes between each of the coats of polish and finished it with Diamont (I'm still working on a 16 oz bottle I got before the formula was changed and changed back to the original a la New Coke).  I'm not sure of dry time, as I'm writing this last night about an hour after applying all that polish.  It's dry enough to do things, but I have no intention of scurrying off to wash my hair when I finish writing this.  I'm just hoping for no sheet marks!  Like the others in this release, the polish was very easy to control, so it doesn't look odd (to me) despite all the coats.

Color Club Always Get My Man-darin Nail Polish, Six Coats

I really like the color and I'm smitten with the shimmer in this, which is like the shimmer in the Poptastic colors [edit: throughout this post, I said Poptastic when I meant Electro Candy.  I'm really sorry if I confused you!  Fact is, I was and am confused because I'm exhausted, but an email exchange with a reader made me double check when I got home... Please forgive weary ol' me!].  Since it came out, Poptastic [again, I meant Electro Candy here] has been my favorite neon collection overall, but the addition of nice smells to the Wicked Sweet polishes may just put them in the lead.  They're incredibly fun!

As for the fragrance of this one, it's as subtle as the others, where I have to sniff it to really catch it.  It smells like the kitchen after making fresh orange juice out of really good oranges - kind of sweet, but there's also a nice orange peel smell to it that keeps it from being too sweet.  I was a little apprehensive about this one because I was afraid it would have that overly sweet artificial orange smell (which makes my stomach turn even if it's not too heavy), but this is very pleasant.

We'll see how this holds up.  I'd like to add some Konad to it just because I'm a Konadin' fool, but I think the color stands on its own just fine.  I'm also not willing to either stay up until 3:00 am waiting for this to dry enough to stamp or get up at 5:00 am to do it then in order to have pictures for this post.  I ♥ sleep far more than nails!

So that's just about all I know.  I notice in proof reading that today's post is just loaded with informational links.  I have no idea what's up with that, but what the heck, I'm leaving them... Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Color Club Gimme A Grape Big Kiss

Good morning, Dear Reader!

On Sunday afternoon, I changed my nail polish to Color Club Gimme A Grape Big Kiss from the Wicked Sweet Collection, the scented neons for Summer 2011.  It's not really a true neon, more of a vivid purple creme.  The polish was easy to control and it applied well, but required three thin coats to be entirely opaque.  That's not terribly out of the ordinary for such a bright shade or for a scented polish, so the extra coat didn't throw me off.  I finished it with top coat, and it's a really striking polish.

Color Club Gimme A Grape Big Kiss Nail Polish, Three Coats

For this particular shade, I would have been willing to do three coats of color at the outset.  When the fact that it smells like grape Bubble Yum bubble gum is tossed into the equation, I'm willing to do three coats and my little heart goes pitter-patter while I do.  As I write this (which was last night, I wrote it ahead of time so I could sleep in a little longer today), it's about an hour after I added a refresher top coat to it, and it still smells of grape Bubble Yum when I sniff it, about as much as it did yesterday. The fragrance is pleasant but not overpowering at all - I really do have to specifically sniff it to catch the scent (and my sniffer is better than ever after a week of not smoking!).  If the often sickly sweet fragrance (odor?) of the Revlon Scents of Summer fruity polishes put you off of scented polishes, the Wicked Sweet Collection might just sway you back and make you love them.  Personally, I generally liked the Revlons, but I do recall that when settling in to sleep with my hands close to my face, that coconut one was somewhat sickening, but I had no such problem last night.

I'm really happy with the color, and a young-ish lady coworker enthusiastically complimented it, so I'm glad that I've worn it plain for a bit.  At the same time, it's screaming at me to Konad it, so I'll likely do that tomorrow evening if it lasts another day without chips.

That's just about all there is to tell you, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Color Club Yum Gum & Hello Kitty Decals

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have another of Color Club's Wicked Sweet Collection, Yum Gum.  It's a neon light-ish pink creme, and it smells like bubble gum.  It applied well, covering in two coats, but the scent is initially a little unnerving.  You know that kind of off plastic smell the really cheap individually wrapped bubble gum has?  When it first goes on and is wet, Yum Gum smells just like that.  I almost took it off right away, but was glad I didn't as it dried because that weird plastic smell diminished and it really just smelled like bubble gum.  Here's Yum Gum with a base and a top in the sun.

Color Club Yum Gum Nail Polish, Two Coats

I just could't get the neon to show up in a picture after trying a million different light sources, so I went with the picture that on my monitor is closest to the color on my nails.  Neons can be maddeningly frustrating to take a picture of!

You can tell from the title I didn't stop there.  I'd gotten some of the Sephora Hello Kitty nail decals, but I hadn't used them because they made me a little angry - they're just one small sheet of tiny decals for $5, and I felt ripped off.  I figured it was time to get over it and use them, and when I did I was so impressed with their quality that I got over their price.  The adhesive is just right (it sticks well and doesn't come off the decals, but doesn't hold with a death grip), they're extremely thin and flexible so they lay perfectly flat easily, and I didn't have a single problem with the rhinestone ones (while rhinestone decals often lose stones).  I loaded up my left ring nails with decals, then sealed it with Poshe.

Sephora Hello Kitty Nail over Color Club Yum Gum Nail Polish

And a closer look...

Sephora Hello Kitty Nail Decals, Close Up View

My thinking is that if I'm going to be a ten year old girl and wear bubble gum scented neon light pink nail polish, the least I can do is be consistent and load it up with Hello Kitty decals.

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

Color Club Wicked Sweet Nail Polish

Good morning, Dear Reader!

After yesterday's swatchfest, I was surprised that I was up for changing polish this morning, but I was.  I really wanted to try out on of the Color Club Wicked Sweet colors, so I looked through them and the one I was most curious about was Wicked Sweet (the color - when the collection and color have the same name, I always have to think to specify!).  I really wanted to see how the coverage was, how the shimmer translated to the nail, and of course, exactly what the smell of Wicked Sweet would be.

Wicked Sweet applied well, but the polish is somewhat thin.  After the first coat, it looks like it'll take a zillion coats to be opaque, then the second coat makes it completely opaque.  Color Club's keeping me on my toes!  Although the shimmer is relatively understated in the bottle, on the nail Wicked Sweet glows.  Here's two coats in sunlight (I apologize for the wacky angles here).

Color Club Wicked Sweet Nail Polish, Two Coats

I think it's absolutely gorgeous.  As for the fragrance, this is probably the most subtly scented polish I've used.  It does smell a lot like Juicy fruit gum, but like Juicy Fruit had about half the sugar, and I had to sniff within a few inches of my nails to catch it.  This one's definitely not so scented that it would offend.

I thought a little white Konad would perk this up well.  I wanted the polka dot pattern, but I ran into a dotting tool before the Konad plate, had a lazy moment, and used the dotting tool.  It's not bad, but I prefer the perfectly uniformly shaped and spaced dots that I get with Konad.

Color Club Wicked Sweet Nail Polish with Dots

That's my nice smelling manicure for the day.  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!  

Color Club Wicked Sweet Scented Collection

Hello again, Dear Reader!

I just got two of Color Club's new collections, and I have bottle pictures of Wicked Sweet, the scented neons, for you.  These, I'll wear rather than swatch, since there are usually questions regarding the strength and longevity of the fragrance in scented nail polishes.

I took the bottle pics because the sun's out and these are really far prettier than I'd hoped, so I thought you might like to see them right away.  Here we go!

The namesake of the collection is Wicked Sweet, a neon blue shimmer.  I sniffed it to find out what Color Club characterizes as a wicked sweet scent, and it smells a lot like Juicy Fruit (but in the bottle, the nail polish smell is strong, so it's hard to pinpoint).

Color Club Wicked Sweet Nail Polish from the Wicked Sweet Collection

Raspberry Rush is a great neon raspberry creme.

Color Club Raspberry Rush Nail Polish from the Wicked Sweet Collection

Get Your Lem-on (great name!!!) is a highlighter yellow shimmer.

Color Club Get Your Lem-on Nail Polish from the Wicked Sweet Collection 

Yum Gum is a bright bubblegum pink creme.

Color Club Yum Gum Nail Polish from the Wicked Sweet Collection

Always Get My Man-darin is a bright yellow orange shimmer.

Color Club Always Get My Man-darin Nail Polish from the Wicked Sweet Collection

Gimme A Grape Big Kiss (another favorite name!) is a neon purple creme.

Color Club Gimme A Grape Big Kiss Nail Polish from the Wicked Sweet Collection

The seventh and last is The Lime Starts Here, a unique neon lime green.

Color Club The Lime Starts Here Nail Polish from the Wicked Sweet Collection

That's that!  You know I love neons and scented nail polish, so I'll be wearing these this week for sure.  However, I also have the Color Club Starry Temptress Collection right here, so I'm going to run off and swatch those.  I'll get those posted for you soon, supposing the sunlight holds out.

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

Revlon Scents of Summer Collection

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

The cool thing I was waiting for still isn't here, but something much cooler is: Revlon's Scents of Summer Collection, on sale, no less.  I got all eight and have swatches for you.

All eight were three coaters for me, but that's offset by the fact that they're scented.  This year, Revlon mixed up the fragrances more - last year was all fruit, this year is a mix of candy and non-food scents.

Peach Smoothie is a pale peach with a nice gold shimmer, and really does smell like peaches.

Revlon Peach Smoothie Nail Polish from the Scents of Summer Collection

Gum drop is a pale blue purple creme and has a sweet candy smell.

Revlon Gum Drop Nail Polish from the Scents of Summer Collection

Beach is a great odd green shimmer with a hard-to-describe-but-good air freshener scent.

Revlon Beach Nail Polish from the Scents of Summer Collection

Ocean Breeze is an amazing blue/teal shimmer with a Fresh Air air freshener scent.

Revlon Ocean Breeze Nail Polish from the Scents of Summer Collection

Orange pop is a vibrant orange shimmer that smells like Sunkist pop.

Revlon Orange Pop Nail Polish from the Scents of Summer Collection

Grape Icy is a vivid purple shimmer that smells like grape Jolly Ranchers.

Revlon Grape Icy Nail Polish from the Scents of Summer Collection

Bubble Gum is a hot pink creme that really does smell like bubble gum.

Revlon Bubble Gum Nail Polish from the Scents of Summer Collection

Cotton Candy, the one I chose to wear, is the pale pink of cotton candy with a subtle shimmer, and smells just like cotton candy, too.

Revlon Cotton Candy Nail Polish from the Scents of Summer Collection

That was my happy drugstore find - I love them all.  I was actually kind of crabby going into the store because I'd called them about something else, they sent me to another branch, and the other sent me back to the store I called.  In the end, it meant I got first shot at a novelty limited edition drug store display, so I was thrilled.

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