Alter Ego Being Myself and Fall for Fall

I've decided to make a concerted effort to clear out my swatch folders on my laptop, which means for however long I stick to this plan, you'll likely see my nails at various lengths ... longer in one post, shorter in the next, back to longer, etc. It also means you'll see old but not yet vintage polishes, some of which won't be available for purchase through retail channels any more. I may decide to just not post entire sets of photos if I think I didn't do the polishes justice when I swatched ... or I may decide to round them all up in occasional "oops" posts; I don't know which way I'll go on that yet.

Today I've got two polishes I bought from Alter Ego at Indie Expo Canada 2019 and swatched soon after but for whatever reason never got around to posting. First up is Being Myself, a brown-leaning yellow with shifty shimmer that shows blue and green and gold and red. It's one of those "pretty ugly" colors I'm drawn to ... so unusual. I used two coats for my swatch (no topcoat).







Here's a direct light shot that shows the shimmer:



I paired Being Myself with another Alter Ego I picked up at IEC, the flaky topper Fall for Fall, which has green/gold and purple/magenta/copper shifts in it.



I slicked on one coat of Fall for Fall over Being Myself and it really looked like autumn. I didn't need any topcoat to smooth it down, though that would have added a bit of depth probably.









Being Myself looks to be still available at the Alter Ego website, along with the other three shades in the Proud to Be Me collection, which I passed on at IEC because I was being somewhat restrained since I knew I had to fly home with all my purchases. Fall for Fall is also still in stock. I can see it looking great over a lot of base colors.

Wheel U12: Solid Color Textures

Taking a break from the green cremes this week and featuring solid color textured polishes for Nail Wheel Wednesday. These range from obviously textured (but not as much as say, Zoya Pixie Dust) to hardly textured at all.




1. SinfulColors Race Rubber (2 coats)
2. SinfulColors Rain Rubber (2)
3. SinfulColors Burn Rubber (2) [these first three are PR samples from 2014's Full Throttle collection; the other two in the collection, which I bought at retail, are on Wheel V9]
4. Sinful Colors Shoot & Swishhh (2) [I still don't know for sure if they added a space to their brand name when they updated their look as of this collection]
5. Sinful Colors Warning (2)
6. Sinful Colors Fit Chick (2)
7. Sinful Colors Trainers (2)
8. Sinful Colors Double Time (2)
9. Sinful Colors Track Star (2)
10. Sinful Colors Fitspo (2) [4 through 10 are the Sporty Brights collection from earlier this year; it's a similar finish to the Full Throttle ones but the base isn't as shiny as those were, and the textured bits are slightly less prominent, whether because they're more rounded pieces or the base is thicker and surrounds them better I am not sure]
11. Julie G Sour Apple (3)
12. Julie G Lemon Drop (3)
13. Julie G Candy Shop (2)
14. Julie G Wild Cherry (3)
15. Julie G Pixi Stick (3)
16. Julie G Lolli Pop (2)
17. Julie G Sour Grape (3)
18. Julie G Sweet Tooth (3)
19. Julie G Licorice Twist (3) [11 through 19 are the Candy Shoppe Colors collection from 2015]
20. Nails Inc Latex Effect Camden Passage (2) [this was mess to work with, at least at this stage in its lifecycle; I had to add thinner but even then it was thick and didn't seem to form any texture other than lumpy; I thought maybe it was better when it was new but searched and found some reviews from 2014 where they'd had issues with application]


Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 10:



11 through 15:



16 through 20:






Sneaker-like Texture of SinfulColors Sporty Brights on the left vs. SinfulColors Full Throttle rubberized texture on the right:







Julie G jelly bean finish on the left vs. SinfulColors sneaker-like texture on the right:

Morgan Taylor Bedazzle Me

I initially passed on buying Morgan Taylor Bedazzle Me because ... well, I'm not sure; maybe I was trying to be fiscally responsible for a while. When I saw it again two months and hundreds of miles later on a trip, I bought it and wore it as a topper on two accent nails on that same trip. Recently, I came across my bottle and decided to play with it again.

Bedazzle Me has a clear based packed with glitter. It's mostly small pieces of blue, turquoise, pink, and silver holo but also has larger hexes in a rainbow of colors.



I put one coat of Bedazzle Me over Orly Plum Sugar, a dark purple creme, plus added clear topcoat.







This combination is very "me" ... purple and glitter, what could be better?

Wheel T12: Mint Green Cremes

Another installment of the green creme theme this Nail Wheel Wednesday. On the whole, this group is less spring-like than the last two, having a much higher proportion of blue-leaning minty greens (including a couple that might feel at home on a green-leaning blue wheel, too). Some of them are in the warmer mint category, looking like the coating of Fannie Mae Mint Meltaways, which was one of my favorite candies as a child.




1. Color Club for Soak Fig Tree & Co. Sea Glass (3 coats)
2. Color Club for Soak Lizzy House Glacier (3)
3. Tea Beauty Mint Leaf (3) [seems like this line was in Walgreens for about two weeks then I never saw it again]
4. Butter London Fiver (2) [uneven application is my fault; I had to clean the tip and made a bad job of it]
5. Ciate Sweet Pea (2) [needed thinner; was hard to level even after I added it]
6. Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Garter Toss (3) [I thought maybe this one had been more blue originally, what with the "something blue" part of the wedding rhyme, but no, it was always green]
7. Wet 'n' Wild Megalast Tree Hugger (2)
8. Morgan Taylor Mint Chocolate Chip (2)
9. Sephora X Jaded (3)
10. Sephora X Unmistakable (3)
11. Hello Kitty Minty (3)
12. Maybelline Color Show Mint Mist (3)
13. Essence #SecretParty Swimming Pool to Go (3)
14. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Pardon My Garden (2)
15. Deborah Lippmann Flowers in Her Hair (2)
16. Sinful Colors Envious (2)
17. Orly Jealous Much (3)
18. Rescue Beauty Lounge Fire Queen (3)
19. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Green Tea (2)
20. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Kelp Yourself (2)

Some of these have "ugly bottle syndrome"; I mixed them as well as I could ... I'm thinking hard about getting a shaker but I'd rather have more polish.

Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 10:



11 through 15:



16 through 20:

Polished for Days A Dream is a Wish

Just a quickie today of one of the polishes I bought as part of my pandemic cheer myself up program: Polished for Days A Dream is a Wish. This lavender blue has shifting shimmer, shifting flakies, and a few sparkles of holo flakies. I used two coats plus topcoat for my swatch.









I've included some unconventional angles in today's photos to try and show the different faces of this polish ... sometimes more purple, sometimes more blue, sometimes with a hint of green even.









Okay, so that wasn't quite as quick as I'd thought ... but I needed that many photos to show this shade properly.

This polish is part of the Polished for Days Imagination collection, and now that I've peeked over there to find the link, I'm wishing I'd ordered a few more shades from it.

Wheel S12: Spring Green Cremes

Continuing the Nail Wheel Wednesday theme from last week, I have more green cremes. Unlike last week where they all leaned yellow, this time I have a mix: some yellow greens, some minty ones with more blue in them, some right in the middle.





1. NYC In a New York Color Minute Robin's Egg Blue (3 coats) [I wonder if this pigment has changed or if the name was wrong from the start; it sure doesn't look blue now]
2. L'Oreal Mint Glacee (3)
3. Essence Like an Unforgettable Kiss Always on My Mint (3)
4. Studio M Fresh Grass (3)
5. Summer Brights unnamed (4) [this has a very narrow brush that made even application a challenge]
6. Fresh Paint Honeydew (2)
7. Studio M Cucumber (2)
8. LA Colors Color Craze Gel Lucky (2)
9. Girly Bits It's Hoop to Be Square (3) [almost a two-coater]
10. Studio M Mint Julep (3) [almost a two-coater]
11. Inocos A Maria Vaidosa Verde (2)
12. Sinful Colors Acid Test (3)
13. Pure Ice Girl Crush (3)
14. Bonita unnamed (2) [from the Hello Sunshine set]
15. OPI You Are So Outta Lime (2)
16. Sinful Colors Pistache (2)
17. Revlon Nail Art Breakup Love (2) [from a duo; the other side, Hurts, is a silver crackle]
18. Butter London Greenery (3) [almost a two-coater]
19. Essie Vices Versa (4) [almost a three-coater]
20. Wet 'n' Wild Megalast Leaf Me Be (3)


Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 10:



11 through 15:



16 through 20: