Wheel V9: Solid Textures

Nail Wheel Wednesday for today features solid textured polishes. Makes me miss the days when all the mainstreams would jump on the same bandwagon.



(all two coats)

1. Maybelline Color Show Corrupted Black
2. Kiko Sugar Mat 638
3. Nails Inc Concrete London Wall
4. Nails Inc Leather Effect Dalston
5. Deborah Lippmann I Wanna Be Sedated
6. SinfulColors Red Tired
7. SinfulColors Rubber Ball
8. China Glaze Texture Unrefined [this had gotten goopy with age; I tried to power through but should have thinned it first]
9. China Glaze Texture Bump & Grind
10. China Glaze Texture Itty Bitty & Gritty
11. China Glaze Texture Toe-tally Textured
12. China Glaze Texture In the Rough
13. China Glaze Texture Of Coarse
14. China Glaze Texture Bump in the Night
15. Milani Texture Gracious Green
16. Milani Texture Lovely Lavender
17. Milani Texture Mystery Mauve
18. Milani Texture Charming Carmine
19. Milani Texture Velvety Violet
20. Milani Texture Beautiful Bordeaux


Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 10:



11 through 14:



15 through 20:

Summer 2017 NOTD: Strips & Fakes

It's officially fall now, so it's past time for me to clear out my nails of the day folders from summer. I probably won't quite be able to do that all today, but I'm determined to make a big, big dent by cramming as many of the strips and fake nails into this post as I can before I run out of steam.

MOB (Ministry of Beauty) Ultra Reflect nails in the iridescent white colorway were one of my attempts to save my nails from the trauma of travel. Yep, same story as other times I've worn these: they're still not sized or shaped to be a perfect fit for me, but the finish is shiny and pretty and gives me something to look at when I need a micro-break.



If you thought the MOB nails looked ultra-fake, these Maybelline Nail Falsies in the Plum Sunset design are going to require even stronger language. Really truly ultra-fake, maybe?



The last set of fakes for summer were leftover imPress ones; I hadn't kept the box so not sure what the design is called, if it even had a name.



After the fakes, it's strips all the way down. One of my favorite Sally Hansen Salon Effects designs, Ring Toss, took a turn on my nails. I need to find and buy a stamping plate like this; I'm sure there is one.



My nails were doing pretty well length-wise when I wore Salon Effects in Fly With Me, a nice summery design of butterflies. I thing I added clear top coat to these to increase wear time, though since I didn't take notes, just photos, I can't be 100% sure. The top coat bottle could have ended up the photo for some other reason, like I didn't put it away after doing a pedicure.



When I put on Salon Effects in Cut It Out, I had every intention of coloring in some of the flowers before I took them off, but alas, I didn't make time to do that. The design is still good in its original black and white mode, just would have been fun to add my own color as I have before.



The quilt-like Salon Effect in Geome-trick had its own colors, no adding them necessary.



I wore the glittery Frock Star Salon Effects strips while the family was here for the reunion—all the colors meant they didn't clash with any of my clothes and I have enough multi glitters that I could touch up any wear and tear easily. I put clear topcoat on these to add to the wear time.



I had Frock Star on when I did my first color run; my skin got a bit stained by the color powder but the mani looked fine.



I'll wrap up for today with Salon Effects in Out of Line, which I put on after a few weeks of sporting nubbins thanks to all the manual labor involved in doing the final clear out of my mom's house.



I found some socks that coordinated perfectly with these strips; almost bought them then remembered I won't be wearing this design more than a few times more, unless I find some huge stash of strips somewhere and buy them up.



I am in no danger of running out of strips or fakes in the near future, so will keep turning to them for NOTD looks, as I like being able to finish up my manicure while watching tv with Mr. Karen in the evening, and liquid polish fumes aren't his jam. (Hi, I'm old and use lingo from years ago.)

Sally Hansen and Crayola

Because I think it's important to not get too full of myself, I'm going to share a mani fail today. I was so excited to get the Sally Hansen Insta Dri Crayola colors that I wanted to use them all at once, so I did. Unfortunately, I was also pressed for time and out of practice with my dotting tool, so this was the result:



The base is White, which I was very happy with. It reminded me of my old favorite, Whirlwind White, which I hoarded multiple backups of when Sally Hansen discontinued it from the Insta Dri line back when.

The dots are every other color, applied in rainbow order. My index finger has Dandelion, Sunset Orange, Carnation Pink, and Razzmatazz. Middle finger has Razzmatazz, Wild Strawberry, Scarlet, and Vivid Violet. Ring has Vivid Violet, Purple Heart, Denim, and Cerulean. Pinky has Cerulean, Granny Smith Apple, Dandelion, and Sunset Orange. I put clear top coat over the dots, adding some smearing to the already wonkily shaped dots. I really want to redo this sometime when I can take my time.

I think I took more time that day balancing bottles so I could fit them all in my lightbox at once than I did doing the mani. Ooops.



I have seen a full display of these recently, so maybe I'll grab a couple more White while I can. I haven't tried yet, but I'm guessing it'll stamp well, the same as Whirlwind White did. It definitely makes for a good white base for nail art or neons. As far as the other shades, I'm happy to have them, too. I do wish they'd dropped one of the reds in favor of a teal or turquoise but I know red sells, so I get why they did that.

Wheel U9: Funky Fingers Glitters

Nail Wheel Wednesday is back with—contain your shock—glitter polishes. These are all from Funky Fingers.



(all two coats plus topcoat)


1. Funky Fingers Alex's Lemonade
2. Funky Fingers Alex's Pink Lemonade
3. Funky Fingers Pep Rally
4. Funky Fingers Cupcake Sprinkles
5. Funky Fingers Saved By the Glitter
6. Funky Fingers Glitter Matters
7. Funky Fingers Glitter Explains It All
8. Funky Fingers So Fetch
9. Funky Fingers Rollin' With My Homies
10. Funky Fingers Unicorn Farts
11. Funky Fingers Bottle Rockets
12. Funky Fingers 'Murica
13. Funky Fingers Varsity Blue
14. Funky Fingers Heart Attack
15. Funky Fingers Teen Spirit
16. Funky Fingers As If
17. Funky Fingers The Notebook
18. Funky Fingers Use the Force
19. Funky Fingers The Wizard
20. Funky Fingers Time After Time


Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 10:


11 through 15:



16 through 20:






















Destash notes:

Mostly Purple NOTD

I haven't had much time for swatching recently, but I have still been doing my nails, at least most of the time. Usually it's been strips or fakes, but sometimes liquid polish gets in the action, as with the nails of the day I'm sharing today.

This started out simply, with Sally Hansen Salon Effects Strips in Good Morning Glory, one of my favorite patterns. Since a lot of my clothes have purple in them, this white with purple floral usually coordinates nicely with what I'm wearing.





I thought it went especially well with this non-purple outfit I wore to a party (yes, those are figures from Disney's Haunted Mansion—one woman at the party recognized them, even).



The strips weren't quite up to the abuse I put them through; instead of touching them up with white polish as I've done before, I took them off and put on L'Oreal Violet de Nuit, one of the Le Vernis à L'Huile shades I got when I was in Canada this past summmer. This was a dream to apply, so smooth, and nearly a one coater, though I used two, topped with NYC Grand Central Station quick dry top coat.





The twist is that I didn't take off all the strips; I left ones that were in better shape as accent nails. For some reason I didn't take photos of that, though, so all I have is this shot before I took off the whole mani.



Based on this, I'm wishing I'd gotten more of these L'Oreal shades, even though I already have so many cremes. I did get one other one, so hope to use that soon, and Canada isn't that far away so I could go up and grab more.

SinfulColors Periwinkle Comparisons

Where does the time go? Well, let's see, since my display post a few weeks ago, I spend almost an entire week working with my brother to finish clearing and cleaning my mom's old house, a day or so making sure my mother-in-law had what she needed before I left (this including delaying my departure to meet the home health care workers she'd decided to hire), several days driving home across the country, several days with houseguests for the end of summer festival here, then almost a week settling back in while getting cabin fever due to being shut up inside while our area had hazardous air quality due to wildfire smoke. The smoke has cleared (at least for now) and we were able to get out and do some things outside the last couple days, so my head is in a better place and I'm back to blogging. Of course, now that I'm ready, my internet is once again being uncooperative, so who know when or where I might be able to get this up once I've finished writing.

Moving bottles of polish around in my studio a while back, I noticed four SinfulColors that were similar but not the same and decided to to some quick comparison swatches. Left to right: Zoned Out, Deep End, Bluz Cruz, Love Thy Self.



Before the comparisons, I gave one of these, Zoned Out, some individual attention. It's a periwinkle packed with silver/pearl shimmer and also has the "Matte Master" finish, unlike the other three which are just regular finish. I used two coats, let it dry, and was not bowled over by the matteness. I suppose "Semi-matte Master" or "Satin Master" aren't as catchy for marketing purposes.



Since Zoned Out wasn't going to be matte on its own, I gave it a little help and played with topcoats. Top to bottom: Zoned Out alone, with OPI Matte Top Coat, with glossy top coat (last two nails). It does look good matte; it just can't do that on its own despite the sticker claiming it's a master at it.



On to the comparisons—left to right, two coats each of Zoned Out, Deep End, Bluz Cruz, Love Thy Self. Deep End is a shimmer, like Zoned Out, but not as pearly or densely packed. The other two are cremes in the same periwinkle family as the shimmers. Zoned Out is obviously the odd polish out here; it looks way lighter than the others on the nail than it did in the bottle, the effect of all that light shimmer packed into it. The shimmer in Deep End is less prominent, both in coverage and in color. At some angles, it is nearly indistinguisable from the two cremes. I'm going to go ahead and declare that Bluz Cruz and Love Thy Self are dupes; I can't tell them apart on the nail.



Here's a better angle to see the shimmer in Deep End. I apologize for my crap cleanup in this post ... it was way hot the day I did these and I think my brain was a bit cooked. The heat also is probably to blame for any little bubbles in these pics, as I had fans blowing like crazy (air conditioning is not standard out here, though with the climate change crisis it'll probably become more common).



Closeup of shimmer in Zoned Out:



Closeup of shimmer in Deep End:



Unless you are determined to own every shade of SinfulColors, you don't need all of these in your collection. If I'm keeping three, Bluz Cruz goes, as I like the name Love Thyself better. If I'm keeping two, both cremes go. Shimmers are more interesting to me.