Wheel C16: Silver Chromes

Yes, Nail Wheel Wednesday is back! Today it's silver chromes, mostly. It's hard to know where the line is between some types of finishes, so there are some on this wheel that are more shimmers than chromes, and some that could better be called metallic than chrome, and even a weaksauce holo (though I don't know that weaksauce holo is an officially recognized nail polish finish). I just need to keep chanting "finished is better than perfect" as I continue to work on this massive project of getting all the colors in my stash onto nail wheels.

 

1. Wet Paint Always Buy Platinum (2 coats)
2. Studio M What a Drag (2)
3. Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine Metallica (2)
4. Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Pumping Iron (2)
5. Bonita unnamed (2) [from a set, but I don't know the name of that set either]
6. Kiko Quick Dry 857 Metallic Silver (2)
7. Kiko Smart Fast Dry 043 Silver (2)
8. OPI Push and Shove (1) [used the special base that came with this)
9. OPI Silver Canvas (2) [silver base that came out with the Color Paints collection of jellies]
10. Sephora + Pantone Universe Lunar Rock (2)
11. Sephora Formula X Shocked (2)
12. Sephora Formula X Platinum Prime (2) [from their Infinite Ombre jellies set]
13. Sephora Formula X Need for Speed (2)
14. Revlon Silver Base Coat (2) [came out with the Color Charge jellies]
15. Revlon Top Speed Sterling (2)
16. Essence Marble Mania Silver Twister (2)
17. Beautifully Disney Drive You Wild (2)
18. Essie No Place Like Chrome (2)
19. SinfulColors Casablanca (1)
20. Finger Paints Chromatic Creation (2) [has a very weak holo effect]

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 10:

 

11 through 15:

 

16 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wheel A16: Gold Shimmers

More gold shimmers today for Nail Wheel Wednesday, back from the holiday break. I'm using "shimmer" broadly here; some might be more precisely called metallic or foil or chrome, but if I take the time to sort that finely, I'll never get all my polishes on wheels. And I still very much want to accomplish that.

 

1. Kiko Smart Fast Dry 834 Golden Tiffany (3 coats)
2. Zoya Severine (2)
3. Orly On the Dunes (3)
4. Orly Color Blast Golden Chrome Foil (2)
5. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Wedding Glitters (3)
6. OPI Sand on Your Own Feet (2)
7. OPI Love Angel Music Baby (2) [such a pretty satin finish]
8. GOSH Gold (2)
9. Wet 'n' Wild Fergie Grammy Gold (2)
10. Dior 148 (2) [from the Golden Jungle duo, which I swatched here]
11. Elle Gold n' Glitz (3)
12. Elf Pot of Gold (2)
13. Kiko Quick Dry 859 Metallic Gold (2)
14. LA Colors Color lst Champagne Sapphire (2)
15. Sephora + Pantone Latte (2)
16. Essie Getting Groovy (2)
17. Milani Color Statement Gold Plated (2)
18. Avon Brushed Metals Brushed Gold (2) [looks sort of textured without topcoat]
19. Zoya Peterhof Palace (2)
20. OPI 50 Years of Style (2)

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 10:

 

11 through 15:

 

16 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ella + Mila Selections

Before I took off the long fakes I shared in my previous post, I used them to swatch some Ella + Mila shades I got when I saw them at Walgreens. Most of the ones on offer were cremes which I need more of like I need to engage with my neighbors who think "HIPPA" is a thing that means they don't have to face any consequences from their decision to not get the COVID vaccine (I still sometimes do drop a link when they comment on Facebook but that's for folks reading who might not know what HIPAA is and be open to learning). Sorry, where was I? Oh, most of the shades were cremes, which I try not to buy so much anymore, so I got the two glitters and one that looked like it might be a chrome. Since chrome finish does best on a really smooth base, and my natural nails are not that right now thanks to things like thrusting my hands into bushes to pick huckleberries, I thought the fakes would be good for that. Here's Entice Me, a silver-y chrome-y shimmer. I did two coats, no topcoat. As you can see, even the ultra smooth base of the fake nails didn't prevent me from getting some brushstrokes.

 

 

When looking for other people's swatches of Entice Me to see if they also had the brushstrokes issue, I found some that showed a different version from 2014. That one was a dusty purple, more shimmery, less metallic, and dried matte. I liked the looks of that one better. Oh well, glitter will help. Party in a Bottle has multiple shades and sizes of metallic glitter in a clear base, reminiscent of classics like Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday. I see red and silver and blue and green and pink in there.

 

I put two coats of Party in a Bottle over Entice Me. It was a bit of a challenge to get the glitter distributed evenly on my nails, so some brushstrokes are still peeking through but the the glitter is distracting enough so they're not too noticeable, especially in real life rather than captured in a still photo.

 

 

The third Ella + Mila I got was After Party, which has small rose gold and holographic hex glitter plus a scattering of larger rose gold hexes in a clear base.
I was fading fast at this point in the swatching session, so just whacked one coat of After Party on my thumb. I liked that combination so much I wished I'd thought to try it earlier; the glitter on the clear tip helped it look more integrated with the rest of the nail, not just hanging off in space being hard to see.

 

 

The elephant on these bottles is cute, and of course I like the squared shape for storage efficiency. The polish doesn't seem to be anything special, though, either in colors or formula. It's fine, just not something I'm going to seek out as I don't have any emotional connection to the brand (unlike, say, Sally Hansen).

 

Wheel P14: Pink Chromes and Metallics

Today's Nail Wheel Wednesday is all about pinks with a harder edge: some smooth chrome polishes, some metallic shimmers, a few that looked like they'd be one or the other in the bottle but maybe are just regular shimmers, one that probably should have gone on a purple wheel. So, the usual sort of of assortment.

 

1. Nicole by OPI Miss Independence (3 coats)
2. Nicole by OPI Chrome for the Holidays (3)
3. Ulta Professional Will Work for Polish (3) [not as pink as I thought it was looking at the bottle]
4. Essie S'il Vous Play (3)
5. L'Oreal Look at Me (2)
6. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pink Satin (1)
7. Essence Colour & Go Pink & Proud (2)
8. Butter London Fairy Lights (2)
9. Cosmetic Arts unnamed (2)
10. Studio M Foil Me Once (2)
11. Studio M Dashing (2) [yep, we got dupes here]
12. China Glaze Admire (2)
13. NYX Shimmery Pink
14. Funky Fingers Favorite Girl (2)
15. BeYu 216 (2)
16. SinfulColors It's About Valen-time (2)
17. Wet 'n' Wild Chrome Precious Petals (2)
18. Ulta Professional Raspberry Mojito (2)
19. Ulta unknown (1) [I'm pretty sure this has a name, but it's not on the label and I didn't cut out and tape the name from the box set onto the bottle like I sometimes do, or I did and it fell off in all the moving around I subject my polishes to]
20. Maybelline Wet Shine Diamonds Jewels 'n' Berries (2)

Bottles 1 through 4:

 

5 through 8:

 

9 through 11:

 

12 through 15:

 

16 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bargain Shopping: Sally Hansen Crushed Metal Kit

Since this is THE weekend for bargain shopping in the US, I think it's appropriate to share these Sally Hansen Crushed Metal swatches today (yes, in a rare weekend post—the holiday has even my relaxed retirement schedule all messed up), as I bought this kit only after I saw it on clearance. I passed on it when new because I wasn't sure I'd like the finish and heaven knows my stash is a monster already. But at a bargain price? Well sure, that was worth taking a chance. I chose the rose gold though as I recall, Ulta also had the silver and gold in their clearance bins.



The kit comes with three bottles: Dual Base & Top Coat, Crushed Effect Coat, and Chrome Lacquer. They're applied in that order, circling back around to the first bottle at the end.



I thought it was interesting that the instructions on back recommended the foil method for removal ... only years after it was popularized in the nail polish community online.

The Crushed Effect Coat in step 2 goes on smooth and pretty; just after application it looks like any other slightly milky base.



As it dries, the texture appears, but since it's got no color to contrast with anything, it's a bit hard to see the crackling.



When the chrome color goes on, the pattern really shows up. I liked this way more than I expected to; it's interesting and different but in a way that's subtle.





I wanted to compare them to some other "odd" finishes. I pulled out Finger Paints Sea Temptress from 2014's Enchanted Mermaid collection, which was billed as having a "mermaid tail" texture. I also grabbed one of the China Glaze Crinkled Chrome shades, I'm a Chromantic, as well as NYC Crackling Effect Top Coat in City Treasure and Sally Hansen Chrome Nail Makeup in Pure Chrome to see if I could achieve a similar effect to the Crushed Metal by layering polishes.



Top to bottom below: Crinkled Chrome (I remain unconvinced that glitter belongs in chrome, especially bar glitter), Crushed Metal (still liking it), Enchanted Mermaid (age has not improved its lumpiness), and the regular chrome layered over crack (which sort of worked, but it seems the Crushed Metal crackle coat is also a chrome smoothing base coat so provides better results).



Another view:



Now I'm wishing I'd grabbed the other shades of Crushed Metal, too ... maybe I'll see them again in a bargain bin and can scoop them up.