Wheel H16: Indie Glitters from Polish Addict and Elevation

I finally finally had/made/took time to get back to painting wheels, so Nail Wheel Wednesday is back. Today it's indie glitters from Polish Addict and Elevation. My spreadsheet tells me I only have seven shades from Polish Addict ... I feel like I picked these up from blog sales maybe or perhaps swaps when I was into that? Six of them are on this wheel; the seventh is apparently a holo which I must have put in another place to be swatched with other holos someday. Doing some poking around the internet, I think my bottles are from around 2013-ish going by the label style. By 2016, there was a different label the brand was using. The brand seems to have disappeared, with both its Facebook group and its fan group being dead links now. As for Elevation, I bought a fair few of those well before it came to light that the owner had basically stolen someone else's photos to make it look like she was someone she was not, among other hinky stuff. Are the polishes still pretty? Yes. Do I look askance at them now because I thought I was buying from another woman who loves the mountains and it turned out she was not that person at all? Also yes.

 

(all have one coat of clear topcoat in addition to glitter coats noted below; some could have used a thicker topper or more coats of clear but my attention span did not allow that)

1. Polish Addict Southern Belle (2 coats)
2. Polish Addict Star Gazer (2)
3. Polish Addict Rainbow Concrete (2)
4. Polish Addict Iris (3)
5. Polish Addict 8 (2)
6. Polish Addict Dr. Franken (2 over a skintone base)
7. Elevation Polish Plumeria (2 over a skintone base) [either base has yellowed or some glitter bled]
8. Elevation Polish Haba Xueshan (2 over a skintone base)
9. Elevation Polish Froze to Death (2 over a skintone base on half, black base on the other half)
10. Elevation Polish Avalanche (2 over half a black base)
11. Elevation Polish Ginza (2 over a skintone base)
12. Elevation Polish M'Goun (2 over half a black base)
13. Elevation Polish Marmolada (3)
14. Elevation Polish Ubsunur at Night (2)
15. Elevation Polish The Wit (2)
16. Elevation Polish Pointless Forest 2 (2)
17. Elevation Polish Catch a Wave (2 over a skintone base)
18. Elevation Polish Fairy Ice (2)
19. Elevation Polish Rue Manin (2)
20. Elevation Polish Pata Puffer II (2) [label has fallen off so name is my best guess based on my spreadsheet]

Bottles 1 through 6:

 

 

7 through 12:

 

13 through 17:

 

18 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OPI xPress/On Nails

For the second week of my trip, I wore a set of OPI fake nails, my first time trying this brand's offering. I chose 100% That Scorpio from their zodiac collection (I'll share other signs from that in a future display post). I'm not a Scorpio, but I really liked the purple/green/blue multichrome effect. This set's shape is Classic, which I'd call oval.

 

After I opened the package, I struggled to find sizes that fit my nails. The assortment was very much skewed toward the smaller end. Other brands I've used have had a more even distribution, and my hands are not small, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to make this work.

 

I did the best I could with the sizes, but it wasn't great, especially the over large nail I had to put on my middle finger. As with the Ardell nails I shared in my last post, these came with glue but I used adhesive tabs.

 

The shift in these was strong and fun to look at.

 

The shape of these at the tips did expose some of my natural nails, which wasn't ideal, but the shiftiness of the fakes was distracting enough that I could ignore that after a while.

 

These nails did not like the adhesive tabs. I had the first nail pop off only a couple hours in, leaving the adhesive tab on my natural nail. Fortunately I found the nail, which is important as it was one of the larger ones and I didn't have a replacement for it. A few more instances of that, and I started using glue between the adhesive tab and the fake nail. That helped them stay on longer, though I still lost several even with the glue. That issue and the sizing make me less excited about trying other sets of these, though they have a lot of attractive ones and other shapes so I'll probably give them another chance or two.

Ardell Nail Addict Sun Kissed Nails

As usual, I had the best of intentions for posting more here now that I'm home, except I've been sick. I spent the first week after I got home thinking I was just tired from travel. Then I woke up with a swollen, red, goopy eye and decided I needed to get that checked out. I also had some bug bites that were not healing well, so I had the doctor look a those too. She gave me some antibiotics for the infection she diagnosed, and I took those for almost another week, feeling worse and worse rather than better. I went back to the doctor's this past Friday and saw a different professional and got some different drugs and have slowly been feeling better. Still don't know exactly what I've got, as the first sample they took wasn't usable when it got to the lab. Hoping to hear on the second sample when I go back on Wednesday. I have enough energy now to do more than huddle on the couch under a blanket, so today I've got one of the sets of fake nails I wore on my recent trip, the Ardell Nail Addict Sun Kissed in Color Cadet.

 

These came with nail glue only, but I used adhesive tabs instead since I continue to think they're less damaging to my nails. The fit and base shape of these worked pretty well with my own nails, though they were a tiny bit too square at the base. The pinky peach color indoors went nicely with my skintone, if maybe being a bit unexciting. The nail material was a bit on the sheer side, which meant some air bubbles between the adhesive tabs and the nails showed through, as well as my nail tips, which were shorter than the fakes. It bothered me at first but after a while I stopped noticing it, and I don't think anyone else saw those details the way I do.

 

In filtered sun, hints of pink showed up.

 

In full sun, they went to a light magenta.

 

I kept hoping I'd see the deeper purple shown on the box, but I never caught them doing that in the week I wore them. Here they are at a rest area somewhere along the road.

 

These stayed on pretty well with the tabs and the color change aspect was fun. I'd wear this style again.