SpaRitual Knowledge Is Power & Konad m56

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I have another bright one for today, this time SpaRitual Knowledge Is Power, the neon pink, with two patterns from Konad plate m56.  It's about as girly as it gets.

SpaRitual Knowledge Is Power & Konad m56

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

SpaRitual Ice Ice Baby & Konad H4

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have a manicure with SpaRitual Ice Ice Baby (dun, dun-dun-dun, dun-dun-dun-dun...) and the tip pattern from nail art stamping plate H4, which I bought from Chez Delaney but have seen elsewhere since.  Aside from having a name that makes me think silly thoughts, Ice Ice Baby is an opaque shimmery white which required three coats, and I did the stamping in rainbow colors (or a selection of five of them) using various Konad Special and Princess polishes.

SpaRitual Ice Ice Baby Nail Polish and Nail Art Stamping Plate H4

I'm extra happy with how this one turned out, and were it not for the fact that my pinky's fake tip is looking worse for the wear, I think this manicure would go on my list of absolute all-time favorites.  The tip has actually held up quite well this week with daily polish changes including an OPI Burlesque glitter, but I noticed an edge of it lifting, and before I even had time to register a conscious thought about that, I pulled the lifted part off and made a big ledge in it.  That was really the result of being tired - I'd gotten all adjusted to sleeping really well, then in the last week something that's no big deal keeps waking me up super early, which is also why I'm posting this hour.  At 3:30 a.m., there's amazingly little to do - I'm not particularly interested in any Ronco products, and anyone I'd call at this hour would likely either be really drunk or really PO'd at being awakened to shoot the breeze, and I don't feel like talking to either.  Proof reading this paragraph, I'm simultaneously impressed and horrified that I wandered from an analysis of a fake tip to Ronco in so few sentences, so I think I'll leave it that way.

Lest I ramble on about every tired thought that drifts between my ears, I'll just wrap it up here.  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

SpaRitual Reveal Yourself & Konad m83

Good morning, Dear Reader!

The Stay Chipper Through Festive Manicures Campaign continues with the one I have for you today, SpaRitual Reveal Yourself with two of the patterns from Konad plate m83 stamped on it.  Reveal Yourself is the pale pink from SpaRitual's Truth Collection, which took three coats here (not too bad for a shade this pale), and I stamped the hearts-on-stems pattern on it with Konad Psyche Pink, then decided to perch the vixen kitty pattern atop a heart in Konad Black Special Polish on an accent nail.

SpaRitual Reveal Yourself Nail Polish with Konad m83

It's hard to get too mopey when the kitty's winking at me...

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

SpaRitual Enlightened Soul & Konad m74

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Yesterday I wanted something happy and sunny, so I wore SpaRitual Enlightened Soul with the diagonal flower pattern from Konad plate m74 stamped on it in Konad white.  Enlightened Soul is a yellow creme I showed you a while back, and I used three coats for this manicure.  It turned out pretty well.

SpaRitual Enlightened Soul Nail Polish with Konad m74

I needed something sunny because looking for work is taking quite a toll, and I've finally hit the point of having to selling off some things I really don't want to get rid of, and that bums me out.  This will be the only mention of it here because I'm going to just auction off what I need to on Ebay, and since I don't want anyone to feel duped by later finding out they bought something from me, I changed my user name there to the_nailphile.  I often get emails from readers when my pictures are stolen and used there, usually with an uncomfortable "I don't know if this is your auction..." as an opener, and I have no plans to use blog pictures there for anything, but I wanted to let you know that's me.  Nothing's listed there yet because I didn't want someone to place a bid and be uncomfortable with it later, but I ask that if you have questions, comments, problems, concerns, etc., about anything there please feel free to contact me through their private message system, as I'm not willing to let that necessity to take over the comments here.  That's the last you'll hear about any of it on this blog.

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

SpaRitual Greenhouse

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I have another SpaRitual Earth Day polish to show you, and this one is called Greenhouse.  It's a green with gold kind of along the lines of Moonpool or Cha Cha Cha from China Glaze but a little different in shade and finish, but I couldn't find either China Glaze to compare.  It seems as though I put the whole Island Escape collection and Moonpool somewhere "safe" after swatching, so only the good Lord knows where they are and whether I'll ever run into them again.  Fortunately, I think Greenhouse has a cooler finish than either of those and I like the shade a lot - it's almost a foil and it's very pretty polish.

Greenhouse needed three coats to be opaque, which isn't out of the ordinary for a finish like it has, but I already took it off and the removal was quite a surprise.  It really, really stained my skin - so badly that the first way to phrase this was with a funny illustration that's far too inappropriate to include here.  I was able to remove the stains with lots of scrubbing with various products, but I wasn't expecting to need to, but now you know about that in advance.

SpaRitual Greenhouse Nail Polish, Three Coats

Nice, huh?  I think it's a good enough polish to endure applying a third coat and scrubbing away some removable stains, so I'm happy with it.

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

SpaRitual Earth Matters

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have SpaRitual Earth Matters to show you, a pretty green glitter they did for Earth Day this year.  Fortunately, I took pictures in the sun when I put it on yesterday, after removing the Silver Shatter test run, which gives me something to do for a bit at 2:30 a.m.

This is the first night I've been awake at this hour in a good while, and it's after I sent cover letters and resumes to a company I'd be jumping up and down excited to work for yesterday.  For some reason that made the hamster who powers my brain start running on his exercise wheel at top speed while I slept, which makes me clench my teeth super hard until they hurt and it wakes me up.  Somebody needs to take that hamster down with a tranquilizer dart!  So that brings me here, yapping about polish to bore the little guy to sleep.  Don't worry, I don't really think there's a hamster, it's that the late-night "what if" ruminations accomplish just as much as he would (being nothing, I guess it doesn't really matter whether he exists!).

So yesterday, I switched to SpaRitual Earth Matters.  Evidently it's for Earth Day, but I have no press info about that, so there's not more to tell.  Earth Matters took only two coats, but despite having very fine glitter, it required three coats of Diamont to smooth it out.  I added them one at a time and let each dry - the surface of the polish got gritty after the first once it dried, so I added another but it got gritty again after drying, and a third left it tolerably smooth.  The good news is that it's very nice, especially in the sun.

SpaRitual Earth Matters Nail Polish, Two Coats

I like how the neighbor's 2' (yes, two foot) grass looks in the background alongside the green glitter, even if a small dog would get lost in it.  I should toss some treats over there so my imaginary brain-powering hamster goes after them and gets lost in the neighbor's grass, then they'll be stuck with him!  Then I'll complain when they awaken me doing yard work all night, but I bet their yard will look fabulous!

Now I've told you about nail polish and made up some imaginary stories for you, but I'm still awake, so I'm off to find something on T.V. to shut down my thinker.  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

SpaRitual Face of Destiny

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm finally wrapping up the SpaRitual Truth Collection with Face of Destiny.  Face of Destiny is a very assertively named polish for a mom color - it's kind of a muted orange-ish creme, and it was the only color family my mom ever wore.

It was perfect in two coats and really easy to apply.

SpaRitual Face of Destiny Nail Polish, Two Coats

I think some Konad would spice it up quite nicely.  In fact, I tried with a pattern from m83, but I failed and decided not to hurt your eyes with that picture.

That's it for today, and that's the end of SpaRitual Truth for Spring 2011.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

The rest of SpaRitual Truth:
Enlightened Soul
Eye of the Beholder
Reveal Yourself
Knowledge is Power
Circle of Life

SpaRitual Enlightened Soul & Konad m83

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm back to the SpaRitual Truth Collection today with Enightened Soul, a crayon yellow creme.  I don't know what, if anything, it's a dead-on match to, but I know there a lot of basic yellow cremes available.  What makes Enlightened Soul special amongst them is that it only took two coats to be good, while yellows are usually a huge PITA and often require more.  I think RBL Yellow Fever is a two-coater, but it costs twice as much.  The application of Enlightened Soul was also very good - the polish is very easy to control.

SpaRitual Enlightened Soul Nail Polish, Two Coats

I rarely wear yellow alone, it's usually a base for Konad.  Since my new Konad plates got here from WowSoCool, I tried out a couple of patterns from plate m83.

Konad Plate m83 over SpaRitual Enlightened Soul

Now it's more fun!  The stamp on my ring nail is just one big stamp, and I painted the little bird blue and the rest red before scraping the pattern to get two colors in it.

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

SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm back to the SpaRitual Truth Collection today with Eye of the Beholder, a light Springy green creme.  It's both darker and more yellow than the plethora of mint greens that are around now.  The polish is thick, so I did very thin coats.  After the second, it was opaque but a bit streaky, so I added a third coat.  I could easily have just made the second a little thicker and been done with two, which is what I'll do next time.

SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder Nail Polish, Three Coats

I really like the color a lot, but it looked a little plain on its own so I added the tip pattern from Chez Delaney plate H5 in Konad White.

SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder Nail Polish and Chez Delaney Plate H5

I love the finished manicure.  It's really cheerful, so I keep peeking at it.

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

SpaRitual Reveal Yourself

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Another day, another polish from SpaRitual's Truth Collection, this time Reveal Yourself.  There's a name that can be taken a lot of ways...

Reveal Yourself is a super pale pastel pink creme, very Springy.  The polish is quite thick, as is usually the case with very white shades, so I found myself doing really, really thin coats, which resulted in the need for three coats.  I wasn't aware that I was doing that until the second, so I think it could really be fine with two normal coats.  The dry time on this one was good, although not unusually fast like Knowledge is Power and Circle of Life.

SpaRitual Reveal Yourself Nail Polish, Three Coats

I like the color, but it looked plain so I added some flower nail decals to it.  Unfortunately, those were a cheapo crappy purchase, so they did't stay laying down flat and pretty much wrecked the manicure.  I intend to leave it unless the edges of the decals snag on things and bug the heck out of me!

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

SpaRitual Knowledge Is Power

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have another from the SpaRitual Truth Collection for Spring 2011, Knowledge is Power.  My sense had previously been that a lot of SpaRitual names sound like public service announcements, but this one clinched it.  I have a vague recollection of PSA's ending with that, so this one's really overtly PSA.  Fortunately, it's a great color.

Knowledge is Power is an almost neon pink creme, and like Circle of Life, it only takes two coats for it to be perfectly even and opaque.  The polish was very easy to control, and had much better than average dry time.

SpaRitual Knowledge Is Power Nail Polish, Two Coats

I love neon pinks, and this one goes high on the list for me.  It's not as retina-searing as the Essies, Punchy Pink and Pink Parka, and the shade of it really appeals to me.  I'm a big fan.

On an entirely unrelated note, I got an email this morning with a link that I thought I'd share with you.  In December, Guiliana Rancic started an online newsletter called FabFitFun.  The name's descriptive, it addresses beauty, health, and general living issues of interest to women.  They sent out a piece today on leopard nails that I participated in, so I thought I'd give you a look if you want to check it out: http://bit.ly/catmani

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

Chez Delaney Plates H3 & H9

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I decided to play around with a couple of the Chez-Delaney plates I got not too long ago, two I hadn't used yet.  From plate H3, I wanted to check out the big plain French tip pattern, and I added a little something to it from plate H9.

For color, I figure I can't go wrong with purple, so SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars is the base color.  I did the tips from H3 using Konad Pastel Violet Special Polish, and the pattern was a challenge to get a feel for.  By the last few stamps I did, I had it, but in the picture you'll see that a couple nails aren't quite right.  The thing is, it's hard to scrape the big empty engraving evenly and without sliding the corner of the scraper into the pattern.  I did want to master this one though, because double stamping my tips with the French patterns from Konad plate m19 leaves a darker line where the two stamps overlap when I use anything other than black or white.

After the tips, I added a little heart pattern from H9, applied top coat, and called it done.  It's by no means the most attractive manicure ever, but not bad for playing around with new plates.

Chez Delaney Plates H3 & H9 over SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars

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

Sparitual Health,Wealth & Happiness

I love the name and we all know that I would dance naked in a lightning storm for a fabulous duochrome!Health, Wealth & Happiness is a dark blue to purple with some teal flash duochrome.I got this with my other goodies from ApothicaHonestly the formula could use a little help in the mega cuticle drag department but still worth the extra effort for the gorgeous color! These are all 3 coats in

More Halloween Nails

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I had a few things to choose from to show you today since I've been slacking on posting the past few days, and I picked the one I like the best.  Yesterday's manicure was another Halloween manicure, but a lot less literal and over the top than the last one.

I started out with three coats of SpaRitual Revere, an orange shimmer, then stamped it with a pattern from Konad plate M80 in Konad Black Pearl Special Polish.  I really like it.

SpaRitual Revere Nail Polish, Three Coats, with Konad M80

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

Sparitual Pure of heart is studly

I wanted a fun mani so I decided to try Sparitual Pure of Hearta very pretty coral pink neon. Like most neons it's sheer and I chose not to wear a base color because I don't mind vnl sometimes. This is 3 coats over my usual Dermelect Makeover.I had to evil it up a little to suit my mood. (imagine me in an evil mood)I love how the pink and coral almost swirl and shift on each nail and in

Konad Plate M44

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I've been Konading more in recent days, and have pictures of a couple of Konadicures for you today.  Both use Konad plate m44, a tip pattern, for the stamping.

First up is two coats of SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars stamped with woven tip pattern in Konad white.

Konad Plate M44 over SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars Nail Polish

The other I'm wearing today, and I had to use artificial light.  It's three coats of Essie Pretty Edgy with the inverse basket weave tip pattern from M44 in Konad Blue.  

Konad Plate M44 over Essie Pretty Edgy Nail Polish

Those are my recent Konadicures with plate M44.  I have a bunch of stuff to swatch for you, but lately I've just been so tickled by Konad that swatching waits...

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

Sparitual Illume

This is my first Sparitual.Illume is from the Kaleidoscope collectionThis is 3 coats in lightbox lighting
Application was very nice, a bit thin but not runny.As you can see the bottles are rather large which took a bit of adjusting for my small hands.The cap is fabulous and the brush is thin (not wimpy though) and it fans perfectly.
My ring finger thinks she is a princess and demanded fancy

SpaRitual Loving in Pink

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Today I have one of SpaRitual's BCA colors for 2010, Loving in Pink.  I don't have a press release on these, so I don't know what the charitable contribution associated with the colors is - I bought them because I like the colors.

Living in Pink is a light pink foil, good in two coats.  It dried faster than average, and was easy to apply.

SpaRitual Loving in Pink Nail Polish, Two Coats

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

SpaRitual Dreams Becoming Reality

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have the last of the SpaRitual Imagine collection for you, Dreams Becoming Reality.  This one's a really good teal creme, a two coater, with the same good application as the rest.  The color isn't too bright, it's just right for a Fall teal.

SpaRitual Dreams Becoming Reality Nail Polish, Two Coats

Dreams Becoming Reality wraps up the Imagine Collection, which I overall like quite a bit.  The only thing is that the six colors together seem a bit random, not really like a collection.  That's not a huge criticism, all things considered.

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

SpaRitual Living in the Moment

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm cranking through the SpaRitual Imagine Collection, and today I have Living in the Moment for you.  It's a creme, kind of a cross between greige and mauve.  It's definitely a work-safe color, but still interesting, sort of like an updated mauve.

It applied really well, the polish was easy to control, and took two coats.  This one is just a swatch, no topcoat, and so I can't comment on the dry time on this one.  I was thinking there were more than six in the collection, but it's just the six I bought, so I thought I'd swatch this one so I could show you all of the Imagine Collection with the last one tomorrow.  Anyhow, here it is...

SpaRitual Living in the Moment Nail Polish, Two Coats

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