Recent NOTD: CQ Vintage

I reached for CQ Vintage, an pale pinky beige creme, because I was ready for something quiet after the bright purple glitter sandwich. Light as this one is, I was surprised to only need two coats of it.





This wore quite well for me with my usual base and top coats, but by day five, I was bored as bored could be with it and had to add something, so I turned to crack, wonderful crack. I used one of the 2012 by Cherimoya colors I'd picked up at Walgreens, Mayan, a rosy brown creme crackle. EverythingsDiamond had commented on the display post that she'd tried one and it smelled awful, and hoo boy, she was right. Mayan was old school stinky; it's probably got all sorts of throwback chemicals in it. It dried matte-ish; here's a pre-cleanup shot so you can see the finish without top coat:



I added the crack in a hotel room, and because I'd flown there, I didn't have my acetone and cleanup brush. What I did have was something else I'd found at Walgreens recently, and which the TSA allowed on the plane: L.A. Colors Nail Polish Remover Pads. These come in various fruit scents; I got Melon, but there were also Lemon, Grape, Peach, and Pear in the display I saw, and cherryculture.com has Strawberry as well. These are acetone-free, so I wasn't too sure how well they'd work for me (I love acetone for how fast it is). To use them for cleanup, I grabbed the pad with my tweezers so I wouldn't mess up my polish, and it actually worked pretty well.





I added a layer of topcoat after cleanup and wore the combination another few days.





I'm glad I decided to bring along the crack and stuff on my trip. Now if I could only figure out a travel lightbox solution, I'd be all set.