Funky Fingers Sheers and Fresh Paint Solids

We had some rain up on the mountain, which was not at all good for the snow conditions but did mean I felt fine taking some time off the slopes to do some swatching. The Funky Fingers and Fresh Paint colors I bought the last time I was in Michigan have been languishing in my to be swatched box since then, pushed aside in favor of newer acquisitions like the holiday Sinfuls. Finally it was their turn. I am not sure if these are still available at Five Below; I'm guessing at least some stores still have them since turnover varies among locations.

I don't know if this was intentional, but the colors of the three Fresh Paint mattes really coordinated nicely with the colors of the three Funky Fingers sheers, so I had to swatch them together. Fresh Paint left to right on top: Matte with Love, Don't Get Matte Get Even, Matte Me Blush. Funky Fingers on the bottom: Turn Tint Up, Tint for Tat, Tinted Love.



I tried the coral shades first: Fresh Paint Matte with Love and Funky Fingers Turn Tint Up. My index finger (top) got three coats of Matte with Love; this dried more satin than matte, and had a very slight texture to it. On my other digits, I did a French tip with Matte with Love, then used Turn Tint Up to complete a funky French look. Middle finger got one coat of Turn Tint Up (which was not quite enough to perfectly smooth out the texture in Matte with Love), ring got two coats, and pinky got three. I liked that the sheer behaved well with one coat and was also buildable.





The purple pair consists of Fresh Paint Don't Get Matte Get Even and Funky Fingers Tint for Tat. I did the same pattern as for the corals. The finish on these was similar, with the matte drying to a slightly textured satin finish and the sheer working at one coat as well as building nicely.





I finished up with the pinks: Fresh Paint Matte Me Blush and Funky Fingers Tinted Love. The matte in this pair didn't have as much texture to it when it dried as the first two had, and the sheer seemed a little less sheer than the others, which was most noticeable at three coats.





I've got my stash organized in its new home to the point where I was actually able to find enough of my other sheers to compare to these Funky Fingers; that made me happy as I've missed doing comparison posts.

Corals/oranges: Funky Fingers Turn Tint Up, Sally Hansen Triple Shine Vitamin C-Light, Maybelline Express Finish Orange Water, Maybelline Express Finish Berry Water.



On the nail over a white base (all two coats), same order as bottles above:



Purple sheers: Funky Fingers Tint for Tat, OPI Don't Violet Me Down, Essie No Shrinking Violet, Sally Hansen Triple Shine Grape Jelly.



On the nail over white; two coats of all but for the Sally Hansen, which I did three of trying to build it up more:



And the pinks: Funky Fingers Tinted Love, OPI Be Magentale with Me, OPI Pen & Pink, Essie Love Sheen.



Over a white base, two coats except for Pen & Pink which was only one:



I'm glad I got these; it's nice to see different finishes at the drugstore price point. When I find my Wet Paints jellies, I may discover that I have dupes for the coral and pink sheers but that's okay (the purple is already pretty close to Essie).

SinfulColors Luck of the Stylish

Today I've got four shades from the SinfulColors St. Patrick's Day collection; three of these are new and one is a repromote that I went ahead and picked up because I somehow hadn't seen it before it showed up in this display. Left tor right: Queen of Green, Works Like a Charm, Gilded Goddess (repromote), I'm Clover It.



Gilded Goddess is a light gold shimmer. The finish is interesting, with microflakies floating above a sort of frosty base. I used two coats for my swatch.





I'm Clover It is a topper with lime matte glitter, green metallic glitter, and silver holo clover shaped glitter in a clear base. I put two coats of it over Gilded Goddess—I had to fish for the clover, so only one finger got one since I was feeling impatient—and then added clear topcoat.





Works Like a Charm is a light green with fine gold shimmer. I really liked the combination of the cool green and the warm gold. This was also two coats, which was a pleasant surprise given the paleness of the color. I added I'm Clover It to my index finger as an accent.







Queen of Green is a deep green flecked shimmer. This one is gorgeous, so sparkly. I used two coats of this as well, with I'm Clover It on my index finger. The green glitter in I'm Clover It disappears into the dark green base, but the clover sure pops.







Queen of Green is the pick of the litter here as far as I'm concerned. Works Like a Charm comes in a close second.

Wheel F9: Pearly Shimmers

Of course I didn't plan on doing no posts between one Nail Wheel Wednesday and the next, but the mountain has been very distracting lately. Here's the winter wonderland out my back window:



I have spent some time off the slopes and in the studio playing with nail polish, though. Today I have a wheel full of pearly shimmer polishes, many of them "vintage".



(all three coats)

1. Astor Mikado 14
2. Sally Hansen Salon Sheerly Beloved
3. Sweet Georgia Brown Acid pH
4. Sally Hansen Smooth and Perfect Dune
5. Cosmetic Arts unknown
6. Maybelline Express Finish Pearl
7. Avon Color Last Sheer Lilac [maybe this was more lilac earlier in its life?]
8. Wet 'n' Wild Crystallic Smooch
9. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Angel Wings
10. Essence Eclipse Ready to Be Bitten
11. L'Oreal Bijou Facets B. Pure
12. Sally Hansen No Chip 10 Day Persistent Peony [realized I needed to thin this only after I did the first coat]
13. Pro 10 Moonlight
14. OPI Venus di Violet [black label]
15. China Glaze Rainbow
16. Zoya Angella
17. Maybelline Salon Expert Sheer Shining Star
18. Maybelline Salon Expert Gold Star
19. Maybelline Colorama Marshmallow Glaze
20. Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Moonbeam Frost


Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 10:



11 through 15:



16 through 20:

Wheel E9: Cracked, Crackle, Shatter

Today on Nail Wheel Wednesday I return to the heady days of the early 2010s, when crack polish was everywhere.



(all one coat over white creme, with clear topcoat added after the cracks formed; on odd numbered tips, crack was applied base to tip, on even ones, it was applied diagonally)

1. 2012 by Cherimoya Sanctuary
2. 2012 by Cherimoya Jesus Christ Superstar
3. 2012 by Cherimoya Tomorrow
4. 2012 by Cherimoya Crucify
5. 2012 by Cherimoya Prayer
6. 2012 by Cherimoya Apostles
7. 2012 by Cherimoya Flashback
8. 2012 by Cherimoya Genesis
9. 2012 by Cherimoya Virgin
10. 2012 by Cherimoya Extinction
11. 2012 by Cherimoya Pandemic
12. 2012 by Cherimoya Mayan
13. 2012 by Cherimoya Sinner
14. La Rosa Crackle Shatter Satin Smooth [very very similar to 13]
15. La Rosa Crackle Shatter Orange Red
16. 2012 by Cherimoya Sungod
17. 2012 by Cherimoya Mercy Me
18. 2012 by Cherimoya Extraterrestrial
19. BYS Cracked Finish Purple [this and 20 had settled more than others, and took a long time to dry and form cracks, which as you can see were finer than other brands on this wheel; these are from the heady days when I swapped polish with ladies around the world]
20. BYS Cracked Finish Black [no shimmer in this, unlike its purple sibling]


Bottles 1 through 4:



5 through 8:


9 through 14:



15 through 20:


















Now that I've seen these in action again, I'm itching to use them on my nails. So what if the trend has passed? Fun is fun.

Nails of Valentine's Day

For the holiday today, I've adorned my digits with Incoco nail polish strips in the Love Spell design, which I got from 2015's Love Story display that was in some Walgreens stores. I checked the Incoco website today and saw this design is still in their lineup.

These strips have a light pink background (which on some of my strips had faded to almost white; I don't know if that happened at the store or in storage, though I've pretty much had them out of the light since I bought them). The pink is crossed by solid and dashed grey lines decorated with hearts and bows and circles (though none of the bows made it onto the nails that are the stars of this blog).

Because I put these on at home rather than in my studio, I have no lightbox photos of them. Here they are in regular incandescent room light:



And here in sunlight coming through the window:



Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you were all able to celebrate in a way that made you happy.

Orly Color Blast La La Land

I picked up the Orly Color Blast La La Land set of three polishes at Kohls recently; gotta love their coupons. I haven't seen the movie, so don't know how well these colors tie in, but they do look nice and spring-like. Left to right: Anything Goes, Cool in California, Forget Me Not. I know from reading online that these same three shades are part of the six-piece regular Orly Spring 2017 collection, but I have yet to see that in any store near me. Ulta hasn't had any new Orly colors in ages, and Kohls only had this set.



Cool in California is a very warm-toned pink creme. It reminded me of the Bleached Neons that Maybelline came out with a few years back. I needed three coats for full opacity.



I decided to try Cool in California over a white base, too, since it did sort of have that pastel neon look to it. For comparison's sake, I wore it alone on my index finger (top in photo below) and on the other three fingers, laid down a white creme base which I topped with two coats of the Orly. The white base makes it look more like a pastel coral.



Anything Goes has sky blue star glitter and hot pink and purple round glitter (some holo) in a transluscent pink shimmer base.



I added two coats of Anything Goes plus clear topcoat to Cool in California. It took some fishing to get the glitter pieces out of the bottle.



The shimmer in this is very dense, and over the light base at some angles, it looked yellowed rather than the pink it shows in the bottle. It was good the glitter was there to distract from that.



In direct light so you can see the holo popping on some of the circle glitter:



Forget Me Not is a light blue creme. Based on my experience with Cool in California, I went right to the white base approach. Index finger is three coats of Forget Me Not alone, with other digits being two coats of Forget Me Not over a white creme base. It didn't make as dramatic a difference as it had with the pink.



I added two coats of Anything Goes plus clear topcoat, again having to fish for the glitter.



The shimmer in Anything Goes seemed better paired with the pale blue base rather than the pink, but I wanted to see it over a darker color, so pulled out Orly Be Daring, a warm bright purple creme. I put down two coats of that, then topped three of my fingers with Anything Goes plus clear topcoat. The darker base brought the shimmer out more, which meant the glitter seemed almost submerged in it. If I do a mani with a similar combination, I will probably do one coat of Anything Goes, making it thin and trying not to get any glitter, then place the glitter carefully on top once the underlayers are dry.



This set definitely has an air of spring about it, and that's refreshing to look at this time of year, but I don't think the cremes are anything special and Anything Goes seems like a polish I should love but it's kind of a pain to apply. Sorry, Orly.