Wheel U15: Cobalt to Navy Blue Cremes

Nail Wheel Wednesday has been taking some time off this summer. Might take some time off this fall, too, but it hasn't been canceled. Today I've got blue cremes, some of them slightly purple-leaning.

 

1. Maybelline Color Show Pacific Blues (2)
2. Candies Peri-twinkle (2)
3. Social Butterfly Blue (2) [a friend who had connections at Facebook got this for me]
4. Sally Hansen Insta Dri License to Dri (2) [almost a one-coater]
5. Catrice Pool Party at Night (2) [also almost a one-coater]
6. Girly Bits I've Got High Hoops (3) [
7. Essie Chills & Thrills (3)
8. Studio M In the Limelight (2)
9. Milani Blue Jay (2)
10. Dermelect Phenom (2) [almost 1 coat]
11. Deborah Lippmann I Know What Boys Like (2)
12. SinfulColors My Buoyfriend (2) [almost 1]
13. Wet Paint Bimini Blue (2)
14. American Apparel Mount Royal (2) [almost 1]
15. Essie All the Wave (2)
16. Cult Nails Wack Slacks (1)
17. Joe Fresh Sea Blue (1)
18. Essie No More Film (1)
19. SinfulColors Mesmerize (2)
20. Deborah Lippmann Big Blue Note (2)

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 10:

 

11 through 15:

 

16 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recent NOTD: imPress Press-On Manicure Happy Pride

I've been continuing to wear fake nails between swatching sessions. For a fair bit of the summer, I wore one design over and over: the limited edition imPress set called Happy Pride.Despite buying at least four of these sets at retail stores, I don't seem to have gotten a photo of the display. No idea what's up with that. Here's the box:

 

These are short and square and have accent nails with soft rainbow colors highlighted with gold on a white background, plain warm pink nails, and crystal iridescent glitter secondary accent nails. The first time I wore them, I just used the rainbow and pink nails.

 

The second time, I used all three varieties:

 

I was tickled at how well the rainbow nails coordinated with one of my favorite tops:

 

Third time I wore them, I went with pink and glitter:

 

 

I haven't seen the display for these in a while since they were for Pride in June, but I did pick up a couple more sets when I ordered from imPress online recently. They just go with so many of my outfits and seeing the colors and the glitter on my nails makes me smile.

Another Kokie Green Trio

Sample provided for review

 

I took a quick trip to Detroit, which accounts for my most recent absence. I'm delighted to report that I didn't get COVID, despite most folks having given up masking. Me, I just ordered more colors of my favorite KF94s. Last month I shared a few polishes Kokie sent me to try from their Green line, and today I have a few more. These are plant-based, bio-sourced, vegan, and cruelty free. Left to right: What Deadline, Eden, and Glass Slipper.

 

What Deadline is a pale green creme. This had a surprisngly thick formula, so I only needed one coat for my swatch.

 

 

Eden is a dark green creme. This one was also one coat, which was less surprising since it's a darker hue and those generally cover better. I did do a thinner coat on my pinky, and you can probably see that if you go with thin coats, you'll probably want two.

 

 

Glass Slipper is a pale blue shimmer. I used two coats plus clear topcoat to enhance the shimmer. There's a very slight visible nail line, which I'm okay with for a color like this.

 

 

Direct light to show the shimmer better:

 

The greens are both solid cremes, but of course my favorite is Glass Slipper. Shimmers are just more interesting to me, and delicate blues like that are a soft spot for me.

Kokie   Website    Facebook    Instagram

 

 

The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

Essie Roll With It Collection

I can buy nail polish way faster than I can swatch it, which means bottles get stuck in my swatch boxes and eventually I have too many swatch boxes, so I go through them to move things to the "put on nail wheels" shelves. Sometimes I find things that catch my eye all over again so before they get moved, they get swatched, months and months (somtimes years?) after I bought them. Today's example: Essie's Roll With It Collection, which I believe was released for fall 2020 and which I bought in fall 2021. There are six shades, all shimmers with a scattering of holo microglitter: Sequin Scene, Roll With It, Let's Boogie, Whirl 'n' Twirl, Lace Up & Get Down, and Head Over Wheels.

 

 

These looked like two distinct trios to me, so I swatched them that way, starting with the more neutral hues: Let's Boogie (pewter-leaning silver), Roll With It (pinkish taupe-leaning silver), and Sequin Scene (brown-leaning orange). I did a sponge gradient with them on my index finger, then Let's Boogie on my middle, Roll With It on my ring, and Sequin Scene on my pinky. All of these were three coats for me.

 

The difference between the two silvers on the nails is more subtle than it is in the bottles. Roll With It is a touch cooler-toned and seems to have a slightly less dense shimmer base. I wish instead of one of these, they'd done a deeper grey, not quite charcoal. Or a teal.

 

I topcoated the gradient, and should have topcoated the other nails, as these do have a slightly gritty look without it. Still, the holo microglitter catches the light very nicely, distracting from what might be too much brushstrokey-ness otherwise for some of the shades.

 

Then I took the same approach with the more vibrant shades. A gradient on my index, then Whirl 'n' Twirl (blue) on my middle, Lace Up and Get Down (purple) on my ring, and Head Over Wheels (hot pink) on my pinky. Whirl 'n' Twirl was three coats and the others were two. Again, I added topcoat just to the gradient. I loved how these shades blended.

 

 

Lace Up & Get Down seemed to have the densest shimmer, with fewer holo bits showing color in it that the others, though a few did pop through at some angles.

 

 

The sun came out while I had this last trio on, so I hustled over to the window and was rewarded with this glowy-ness:

 

If I had to choose just one of these (and at some point I might, as I cannot move into assisted living someday with thousands of bottles of nail polish), it'd be the blue, Lace Up & Get Down.

Wheel T15: Glitters from China Glaze (Mostly)

Hello, I'm back from a nearly two week road trip to Illinois for my mother-in-law's memorial service and related events (including two Cubs baseball games, as she was a big fan). Today for Nail Wheel Wednesday, I have an assortment of glitters from China Glaze. At least I thought they were all from China Glaze when I pulled them out, but one turned out to be a look alike bottle from Savina. It fit in so well I decided to keep it rather than look for another China Glaze to replace it. Some of the China Glaze have changed colors since I bought them; I tried to note that below but may not have caught all of them. Also, I wonder why I felt it necessary to get so many variations on the black bar glitter theme.

 

(all have clear topcoat in addition to glitter coats noted below) 1. China Glaze Chillin' with My Snow-mies (2 coats over tan) [base was originally clear but has yellowed, I had to fish for the bigger glitter pieces]
2. China Glaze Make a Spectacle (2 over half black)
3. China Glaze The Outer Edge (2 over tan)
4. China Glaze Don't Be a Snow-flake (2)
5. China Glaze Diamond in the Rough (2)
6. China Glaze Break the Ice (2)
7. China Glaze Goddess (2)
8. China Glaze Golden Seal (2)
9. China Glaze Glitter Me This (2 over black) [base seems to have yellowed to the point where the white glitters don't look quite as bright as they should anymore]
10. China Glaze Merry Whatever (2)
11. China Glaze Champagne Kisses (2) [this had thickened a lot and I'm not sure I got it back to original consistency with thinner I added]
12. China Glaze Do You, Boo (2)
13. China Glaze Boo-gie Down (2 over tan)
14. China Glaze Glitz'n Pieces (2)
15. China Glaze Razzle Me Dazzle Me (2)
16. China Glaze Get Carried Away (2) [I feel like this was always a mess of a polish, and the bleeding/fading the metallic glitter has done hasn't improved it any]
17. China Glaze Whirled Away (2 over tan) [base of this also yellowed but the white glitter still looks okay]
18. Savina Fantasy Files Black Mist (3)
19. Scattered & Tattered (2) [the glitters that now look pink were once red and have bled into the base]
20. Glitter Goblin (2)

Bottles 1 through 6:

 

7 through 11:

 

12 through 16:

 

17 through 20: