Texas Treats

I haven't made any formal New Year's Resolutions, but if I had, keeping up better with my swatching would be on that list. (Of course it would be easier to keep up with my swatching if I didn't buy so much polish, which I guess would be another resolution for that list I didn't make.) Today I have some polishes I bought last summer when I was in Texas and fortunate to be able to meet up for a bit with my friend Mel (of Delicious Color). Left to right: Orchid Bling It On, Orchid Wine-O, Essence Colour & Go Sparkle Sand Effect Me & My Lover, Orchid Starry Night, and Orchid Lone Star Blue.



I wore the two reds together, with three coats of Orchid Bling It On for most of my fingers and two coats of Essence Me & My Lover on my ring finger as an accent. I might have been able to do two of Bling It On but like the layering of the glitter with three. I added topcoat to the Orchid but left the Essence alone, as it's textured and meant to be bumpy. These are both red with red and gold glitter, so work well together. The Orchid has some very fine gold shimmer as well. In my younger days when I was more into matching, it would have bothered me that the Essence leans more coral, but now I'm fine with it, actually enjoy the slight discord.





I got the shimmery Orchid Lone Star Blue mostly for the name, as it made a great souvenir of the Lone Star State. I did an accent nail look with this one, too, putting a black creme base on my ring finger. I put one coat of Lone Star Blue over the black to make a deep shimmery blue and three coats of Lone Star Blue on its own on my other fingers. Even at three coats, it seemed not quite opaque, so I'll probably wear it over skintone undies next time.





Orchid Wine-O is a rosy plum with fine golden shimmer. It was opaque in two coats.





Wine-O probably would have benefited from some topcoat to let its shimmer shine more, but I didn't do that because I knew I wanted to try Orchid Starry Night on top of it. In an attempt to get Starry Night to look as dense as it did in the bottle, I piled on three coats of it on top of Wine-O (maybe the plummy base was not the best choice for this one). Starry Night reminded me a lot of SinfulColors Hottie, with sheer medium blue base and small and medium iridescent glitter; if I could find my bottle of Hottie I could have done a comparison.







I like the Orchid bottles; very space efficient to store but with a touch of style from the curved sides. I was going to say I wish they were sold here, but if that were true, they wouldn't be as special to me. I like that I can look at these and think of a friend.

Geographically Diverse Displays

As promised yesterday, today I have displays I came across in my recent travels, starting with Houston, where I was glad to be able to meet up with my friend Mel, who writes Delicious Color. She very kindly indulged my desire to go to an HEB store. The main thing I saw there that I can't get here were the Orchid polishes, of which there were multiple displays (and a sale going on, so I picked up several colors to bring home with me).

All About the Bling had Funky Monkey, Wine-O, Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, High Maintenance, You Can't Afford Me, Hot Mess, He Loves Me I Love Him Not, and Bling It On.



Top Picks contained Lone Star Blue, Cougarville, Black Tie Affair, Go Bananas, Orange You Glad I'm Here, The Teal Thing, Sugar and Spice and Nothing Nice, and Steel Guitar.



Show Your Team Spirit had You Complete Me Top Coat, Orange You Glad You're From Texas, I Bleed Maroon, Grass Stains, MVP, Playmaker, Coin Toss, and Black Tie Affair.



Many Shades of Blue held Robin's Egg, The Teal Thing, Off the Deep End, Teal Me A Secret, Royal Engagement, Starry Night, Lone Star Blue, and When Lightning Strikes.



Oui Bit French was comprised of Love at First White, Glass of Bubbly, I Met Him in Prism, Bedazzled, Pretty in Pink, French Kiss, Barely There, and Mother of Pearl.



HEB also had Minnie and Hello Kitty polish in bottles with elaborate tops which I'd never seen anywhere else before. Despite the adorableness of the bottles, I didn't buy any because it said it was non-toxic and peelable, which generally means the polish is for play, not for a grown up to wear for a full mani and expect it to hold up.



Not even a week after I got home from Houston, I left for my return trip to Minsk. As before, most of my time was spent working or sleeping, and this time I had a male colleague traveling with me, but I still managed to make some time for nail polish shopping. The stock in the places I looked at last time was pretty similar to what I saw on my last visit, though there were enough new things to pique my interest. A couple of the mall kiosks had glittery Golden Rose colors:









Given the disappearance of the old version of Sally Hansen Pacific Blue stateside, I got a little thrill when I saw a bottle in the mall in Minsk:



On my last visit, the Dance Legend colors I saw were pretty much limited to plain cremes and shimmers but this time there were some glitters and textures on offer:







I was pleased with myself that I managed to buy some of the Golden Rose and some of the Dance Legend from the kiosks even though neither of the ladies I had to talk to spoke English, and I don't speak or read Russian—there was a lot of pointing and pantomiming painting my nails, and I even took photos at one place so I could point at those. Happy as that made me, I was equally thrilled to find a cosmetics store with open stock that I hadn't been to on my last trip even though it was fairly close to the hotel. At first I thought it was a perfume store, since that's what I could mostly see as I walked by one night.



Something made me look more closely, though, and you can imagine how my heart beat faster when I saw a big Essence display, right out in an aisle where anyone could look at and pick up the polish regardless of any language barrier.



The store was closed for the day but you can bet I took a photo of the sign on the door so I'd know when to go back (fortunately hours are posted in numerals same as here so I knew what they meant, though it got a little confusing when places had different schedules on different days of the week). And go back I did, to find a veritable jackpot of polish. The Essence display I'd spied through the window turned out to have a whole second side to it, with even more Colour & Go colors, some Nail Art toppers, and a sadly picked over Beach Cruisers display.



I was in such a frenzy that I failed to take a photo of that whole first side, but I did get this detail shot with the Nail Candies and Cracking colors.



I was in a frenzy because everywhere I turned, there was more polish, most of it brands I hadn't seen (or hadn't seen up close) before, like the Podium Gel Effect by BelorDesign.



I think maybe something got lost in translation with the Happy Nails Trend Color line, as I saw only pinks and red and mauves, which are classic colors, not so much trendy, but maybe the other shades had sold out already.



I have seen Rimmel polish before, of course, but not the Brit Manicure line.



Max Factor hasn't sold polish in the States in I don't know how long, but there were plenty of shades in this Glossfinity display in Minsk.



I have never ever seen a Catrice display in person before, despite having many of their colors thanks to kind laides who have swapped with me over the years. Faced with this bounty, my brain nearly shorted out; it was a struggle to decide which I could take home with me given how many other pretties I also wanted.



It did help somewhat that the featured collection was Une, Deux, Trois, which is all cremes in shades I feel I have an excess of already.



There was a huge Eveline display with both a Colour Instant line of polish and one called miniMAX in amongst a lot of other makeup; to the left you can see part of a bowl of polishes which is where the LuxVisage colors were (I shared some of those in the display post from my previous trip and in swatches during Texture Week).



Finally, there was a spinning rack with polishes and nail art decals from MILV, another new-to-me brand.





I have no idea what the sales associates at the register thought of me buying so much nail stuff at this last store—we didn't share enough common words to discuss it, which maybe is for the best. They seemed amused, if anything, which is fine by me. I did buy some more typcial souvenirs on my trip, like chocolate and handcrafted items, but the bulk of my spending was on polish, which I do hope to swatch at some point, though I can't promise it will be soon.

Rococo The Darkest Emerald and Orchid Your Wish Come True

About a billion years ago (I exaggerate, but only slightly), I did a swap with my friend Mel of Delicious Color. She loaded me up with some beauties from the brand Orchid, which I can't get here because we have no HEB stores, and a shimmery Rococo. Left to right: Orchid Trouble Maker, Coin Toss, Your Wish Come True, and Teal Me a Secret; Rococo The Darkest Emerald.



When deciding which of these to try first, I was most intrigued by the Rococo, as it's only the second one from this brand to join my stash. Here's a look at it in the bottle; I fancied I could see a hint of purple duochrome in the teal green shimmer.



I thought Orchid Your Wish Come True, a light silvery teal metallic, would make a nice accent for The Darkest Emerald. I used two coats of each of them, though I might have been able to stop at one of The Darkest Emerald, as it is indeed dark and quite pigmented. I didn't see any of the purple on the nail, but no matter, as the green was quite pretty on its own.





The Darkest Emerald really glows in direct light:



In the sun, sparkles show up:



Thanks to Mel for enabling this stash enhancement. Perhaps one day I'll try the other colors she sent but I'm so easily distracted it's hard to know when that might happen.

Orchid Grass Stains and Purple Emerald

A couple months back, my friend Mel (who writes at Delicious Color) sent me a surprise package with some polishes and a very fancy card she'd made by hand. I just recently finally got a chance to try one of the shades she sent, Orchid Grass Stains. This is a deep warm toned green creme that needs only two coats for full coverage. I didn't use topcoat, and it didn't need it; you can see how shiny it is all by itself.







I liked Grass Stains on its own, yet couldn't resist the temptation to plus it by adding another polish I'd gotten from a friend, namely Purple Precious Stones Emerald, a green and holo glitter that was part of the swap I did with Under the Gravity's Nails. Not only did its colors coordinate with Grass Stains, it amused me that both brands were named for colors (and colors other than green at that: Orchid and Purple).



I was very pleasantly surprised to see how dense the glitter in Emerald was once I got it on my nail—one coat was plenty to get lots of sparkly goodness. I did add topcoat for extra shine and smoothness.





In slightly lower direct light, more colors popped from the glitter.



I liked this combination a lot and feel blessed to have friends who send me pretty things like these.

In addition to being blessed with an abundance of pretty nail polish in my life, my cup runneth over in other areas, too, so I am going to be taking another little break from posting here. I have too many other things pulling on my time right now, including a complicated office move to a new building. I have been promised that I and my computer and my furniture will be in my new office no later than the 16th, so somewhere around then I should be back here, too (unless my unpacking goes particularly badly or something). Hoping you all reading this are handling your holiday season stresses better than I am!