Recent and Actual NOTD

This time it wasn't work keeping me from posting, it was fun. Over this past long weekend, I went to the online writers conference I try to attend every year. Most of my online writing these days is on this blog, so it wouldn't do to show up at the con with naked nails, so just before I left (and after I'd packed my lightbox in the car, ever hopeful I'd somehow fit in some swatching despite that pretty much never happening on these trips) I put on Formula X for Sephora ASAP 3D Real Nail Lacquer Appliques in Stingray, which I believe I got on clearance after they were discontinued.



I hadn't used this particular brand of nail polish strip before. Comparing to ones I have, they're most similar to China Glaze and Incoco as far as packaging and application. The major difference, which I didn't manage to capture on camera, is the Formula X strips are textured. Running my fingers over the design, it felt like tiny smooth pebbles.



I showed up at the conference wearing the strips as shown above; before the first full day of activities, I added a layer of Wet Paint Voice of Raisin to give the silver a purple tone. Here's a shot with the leftmost two nails topped and the right two not; it's a subtle difference, to be sure, but it pleased me. You can see how the Wet Paint jelly settled intot the low spots of the textured strips, which I thought was a neat effect.



All done (I didn't even add clear topcoat because the Wet Paint dried pretty fast on its own, as it was only the one coat on top of the strips):



For the second full day, I added Zoya Monet plus clear topcoat. I loved this combination, with the shifting pops of color from the translucent glitter in Monet.







For the costume party on day two, I'd intended to change to some Kiss imPRESS press-on nails, but got so distracted putting on tons of makeup and big false eyelashes that I neglected to do anything about my nails until I'd already put in my contact lenses, at which point, my detail vision was rather poor (I wear glasses so much of the time that I haven't bothered to investigate multifocal contacts) so dealing with tiny tabs on the adhesive of ten nails didn't appeal, even if I'd had the time, which I did not, so I just popped on fakes on my thumb and index fingers right over the dark strips, which took some of the brightness away from the glittery orange and yellow gradient falsies, but was the best I could manage in the situation.



The fakes were still a fun touch and coordinated with my bright gradient wig (though you can't see the yellow to orange section of the wig in this shot below, as it's trailing down my back).



I was delighted to be able to incorporate my nail polish print skirt into my costume, too.



I didn't want to show up for the closing session the morning after still in my party nails, so I did a late night polish change to OPI Dark Red (yep, that's what it's called, no pun involved; it's from a Merry Fashionista gift set that had this polish and a bracelet with a polish bottle charm) topped with two coats of ILNP Electric Carnival (plus clear topcoat). I didn't get any decent photos of it that night, but fortunately the quick dry topcoat did its job and I avoided sheet marks so I was able to get some shots when I set up my light box that night after driving to visit my Mom on the way home from the conference. Those ILNP flakies are so shifty, even in indirect light.





I have this flakie mani on as I type this. When I pause and glance down, the way the light is hitting my nails they look mostly green, which against the red base is perhaps a bit Christmas-y for this time of year, but since the colors shift as I move, they don't stay that way for long. Since I put this combination on, I almost look forward to having to stop at light when I'm driving so I can flip my hands this way and that and enjoy the show.

*****
UPDATED 11-Mar-2015 to add two photos I'd meant to include but somehow got distracted and failed to. First, while I did no swatching, all that polish I brought did come in handy when a friend asked if I'd do her nails. She wanted blue and not plain, and boy did I have stuff that fit the bill. She ended up choosing a base of Wet Paint Waterfalling for You topped with Zoya Muse plus a stripe of Morgan Taylor time to Shine.



And second, one of the reasons I chose the Stingray strips in the first place was they match my Fluevog heels (Paris in Black Devilfish). This sort of thing delights me so much I don't know why I don't try to do it more often.



Okay, I think now that's all the nail news from the weekend.

The Wet Paint polish in this entry was previously reviewed on this site and was provided to me for free.

Lacquer Lovers Weekend

I am back from my trip to Las Vegas to hang out with fellow lacquer lovers, tired and jet lagged and so happy I was able to spend time with people who get me and don't think it's at all odd to buy a dozen polishes at once.

I had a special polish to wear for this trip, a custom glitter topper from I Love Nail Polish, a Las Vegas-based indie brand. (I found the brand through etsy; the shop link is ILoveNP.) I knew I wanted to put together a little gift bag for the ladies who would be joining me in Sin City and couldn't think of a better centerpiece for that than a polish made just for us. Barbra was very easy to work with and created this beauty of a glitter mix:



Things got hectic for me in the run up to the trip, so I left for the airport with my nails practically bare. I'd managed to put on a treatment and base coat but that's it. I put some polish in my quart-size bag of liquids and gels to carry on and hoped I'd be able to adorn my digits sometime before the main events of the weekend got started on Friday morning. As it turned out, my flight was delayed for two and a half hours due to a line of bad thuderstorms coming through, and I was able to do my nails in a pay phone booth that wasn't near any areas where other people were sitting (I'm sort of surprised there were still pay phones, as it seems everyone has a cell these days).



Because I was doing this mani out of my normal space, I didn't keep track of how many coats I used or get great photos. I do know what polishes I used, of course: Rimmel Cocktail Colour Baby Bellini (I am not a big drinker, but even I know that bellinis are not purple, so why they called this that I don't know) with thumb and ring finger accents of Fergie by Wet 'n' Wild Purple Polka Dot Bikini topped with the I Love Nail Polish custom.





It doesn't show in these photos (thanks, weird airport lighting conditions) but I found that the only topcoat I brought (Diamond Dry) didn't play nicely with the ILoveNP base, causing weird wrinkles to form. I know it's the Diamond Dry, because when my flight delay went into the second hour, I bought a little bottle of remover at a big airport price and switched my left thumb to Baby Bellini plus the ILoveNP. No wrinkling there until I added the Diamond Dry. Guess that's what I get for bringing three polishes I'd never used before, much less used with that topcoat. Ah well, stuff happens, and the pretty glitter distracted from the wonky topcoat enough that I left it be all weekend.

I was having too much fun to sit in my hotel room and paint my nails, anyway. There was much polish shopping to be done, for instance. On Friday alone we hit up three or four beauty supply places, including one that had so very much good stuff on offer that it took a while before I even noticed that their air conditioning was not keeping up with the near record hot temperatures outside. Another attraction of Las Vegas for us was the fact that this is the only place to buy Island Girl polishes outside of Hawaii. When we got to the ABC Store in Fashion Show Mall, we had to move some suitcases out of the way of the display so we could get a good look at all the colors (and they were on sale for buy two, get one free—bonus!).



It wasn't all shopping, of course; we did some sightseeing and dining (everything from $2 tacos to a fancy French bistro dinner), and one night we went to the Rio to take in the Chippendales show.



I didn't manage to get a shot of everyone's nails, but here's one I did snap under the blazing desert sun of the four of us who were waiting in line together at that particular moment:



Clockwise from my nails at the bottom, it's Amy (wearing a Sally Hansen silver topped with Finger Paints Santa's Magic), then Amber (Butter London Fairy Cake), and mrsrexy (a.k.a. Canadian Nail Fanatic, a.k.a. the stamping queen). I don't believe that Amy and Amber have nail blogs—but I'm so tired right now it could be they do and I'm just not able to retrieve that information from my brain.

It was a great weekend, and I hope we get to do it again sometime, with even more ladies able to join in.

*****
Edited to add one more photo: a NOTD shot with fish in the aquarium at Mandalay Bay.