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:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across the Ocean and Back Again

Hello! I am back from my month-long vacation which took me to/through 15 states plus one country outside of the U.S. It was a journey with a lot of different events and modes of transportation which took me and Mr. Karen to places both familiar to us and new. I put neutral (but a tiny bit sparkly because I'm me) polish on my toes and packed fake nails for my fingers and off I went. A few days before we left, I put on this set from imPress called Wash Away. It has light blue solid nails, light blue with tiny iridescent glitter nails, and light blue with a turquoise and navy flower and butterfly design nails. These started out medium length and square, but I cut and shaped them so they felt more comfortable and practical for me, as I often do with the longer fake nails.

 

Still looking good on day 6 (with the limited edition "XP Flavored" Coke limited edition).

 

I had a few nails loosen and need new adhesive tabs during the week I wore the blue set, so pretty standard. The next set of nails I used were from the Kiss Gel Fantasy Allure line. The box didn't have a name on it, but I looked online and these appear to be called How Dazzling. They have multi-sized iridescent glitter on a translucent ivory base. (The box was a bit worse for wear after being stuffed in a pocket of my suitcase for a week at that point.)

 

I used adhesive tabs for these, not the glue that came with them. I clipped and shaped them as I had the blue set. On the left, as they came from the box. On the right, how I wore them.

 

I wore the glittery nails for the whole second week of the trip. When it was time to change, I reached for a set I'd gotten off the Temu app, where they were described as "Press On Nails, Short Square Fake Nails, Beige French False Nails with Glitter Design, Glossy Clear Full Cover Acrylic Nails for Women and Girls; Color: Beige Cat Eye, Style: Gentle". The picture didn't appear to match a lot of those words, but for $3.48 I was willing to risk it.

 

These came with adhesive tabs. They were not short, so I clipped and filed them. They were a bit sheer, so before I shortened them, a hint of my natural nail tips showed through the fake nails in strong light.

 

Six days later, I hadn't lost a single nail. Those adhesive tabs were strong. I'm sure it helped that I didn't have my laptop with me, so wasn't banging my nails on a keyboard for a few hours a day like I tend to do at home.

 

I'd planned to change my nails again before the next phase of our trip, a seven-night transatlantic cruise, but they were holding up so well, I still had them on the day we boarded, a week after I'd applied them.

 

I figured I'd change to the last set I'd packed when I started to lose the beige cat eye ones as the adhesive got weakened, but they just kept hanging in there, so I ended up wearing them for the whole cruise and the multi-day drive home from New York to Idaho. There was definitely a gap at the base of my nails by that time, but given the neutral color of the nails it wasn't too noticeable.

 

On the trip, I was really trying to focus on experiences rather than buying things, so even though I saw polish and fake nails I don't have easy access to at home, I bought none of them. I'm kind of amazed at my self-control. I will have a display post up once I get through all the photos; hoping that won't take too long.

Wheel F16: Glitters from Countries Outside the U.S.

Back when swapping was a thing, I was fortunate to get polishes from all sorts of interesting places. I've also gotten to go to a few interesting places and found polish on my own. Today I've got some glitters, mostly with smaller glitter pieces, from those places.

 

(all have clear topcoat in addition to glitter coats noted below)
1. Etos Effect Nails 01 (3 coats)
2. Barry M Silver Glitter (3)
3. Barry M Silver Multi Glitter (3)
4. Barry M Pink Silver Glitter (2)
5. Barry M Aqua Glitter (2)
6. Risque Nuvem de Paete (3)
7. Risque Granulado Rose (3)
8. Masglo unknown (3)
9. Mini 40 Second Bronze Tropzienne (2)
10. Bourjois 1 Seconde Rainbow Apparition (2)
11. Jade Special Glitz Realeza (2)
12. Jade Special Glitz Vestido de Gala (2)
13. Jade Special Glitz Echarpe de Seda (2)
14. Jade Special Glitz VIP (2)
15. Jade Special Glitz Black Tie (2)
16. Jade Special Glitz Esplendor (2)
17. Basilisco unknown
18. Ulta 3 Triple Threat (2)
19. Essence The Twilight Saga Eclipse Undead (3)
20. Essence Out of Space Stories 1000 Light Years Away (2)

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 10:

 

11 through 16:

 

17 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Colors from Kokie

Products provided for review

 

Well hello again. I'm recently back from my not officially summer yet vacation, a road trip from Idaho to Illinois and back again. In a bold move, I left my laptop at home, which meant, among other things, that I was able to wear longer fake nails than usual, but that's a story for another day. The story for today is that Kokie kindly sent me some polishes in colors perfect for spring. Left to right: Iris, Rock Star, Crown Jewel, Classic, Georgia Peach, All the Envy.

 

I started with Classic, a pale milky peach crelly. This was buildable; I did four coats but could have stopped at three for a faux French mani look. This is indeed classic. I wore similar polishes for years early in my career as an accountant when I was trying to fit the mold of a serious businesswoman.

 

Nothing like dots to quickly add color, so I decorated with Georgia Peach, Iris, and All the Envy before adding clear topcoat.

 

Iris is a light lilac creme. This one covered in two coats.

 

I topped Iris with Crown Jewel, which has blue and holographic blue glitter in a sheer gold shimmer base. (I knew this would work because I swatched a different bottle of it over another light cool creme back in 2019. Because I was craving sparkle, I used two coats of Crown Jewel and added clear topcoat to bring out the bling even more.

 

All the Envy is a medium green creme. I used two coats for my swatch.

 

I put one coat of Crown Jewel on top of All the Envy and added topcoat to that. The somewhat deeper base brought out the gold in Crown Jewel more than Iris had.

 

I combined Rock Star, a warm lavender flecked shimmer, and Georgia Peach, a light red-leaning orange creme, into a funky French look alternating with Georgia Peach alone. Rock Star took three coats and Georgia Peach two. I did add topcoat to the funky French nails to smooth the line between the polishes. This look does say spring to me. If you want to see Rock Star on its own, I swatched a bottle I bought myself back in 2019 (and also topped it with another Kokie shimmer/glitter topper).

 

Given that Rock Star was three coats, I wondered if it would work as a topper, so I laid down a base of two coats of Iris and added one coat of Rock Star to all but my index finger. I really liked the combination. Rock Star warmed up Iris just a tiny bit, and Iris brought out the pale golden shimmer in Rock Star.

 

These are all nice polishes; good basic cremes and some bling to liven them up. It's nice that Kokie doesn't seem to discontinue things too quickly, given that I got two of these colors four years ago and you can get them today. 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.

Dashing Diva Gloss Gel Nail Strips Update

After I posted about my NOTD on Friday, I remembered I'd taken a photo of my nails in the sun that I'd forgotten to include. So I was going to just edit the post and add it, but got distracted (no surprise there). Then on Saturday, I had something unexpected happen to the strips so here I am with a two-photo update. First, the strips in the sun on a recent still wintery but not so cold I needed full gloves day. I liked the sparkle and glow a lot.

 

Then Saturday I was a party at some friends' place. Helping to clean up, I used a disinfecting wipe from a container they had. Didn't think anything of it until I noticed the tips of my strips had turned dark. Guess the chemicals in the wipes weren't compatible with the chemicals in the strips. Good to know.

 

Given how ratty they were looking, I removed the strips yesterday. As per the instructions, I used a bit of oil on my nails and then peeled them off. They all came off cleanly in one piece each and my nails didn't seem to have suffered any damage. I will probably use the Dashing Diva strips again, though I will probably try putting down a ridge filling base coat first. I can buy the strips at Fred Meyer, so that's convenient, though they just had a few designs the last time I was there. Maybe supply chain issues from the pandemic still.

Wet 'n' Wild Potassium-Rich and Miami Mami

Today I have some photos from ages ago that I never got around to posting, of two of the Wet 'n' Wild Fast Dry AF colors. Potassium-Rich (yes, the name has a hyphen; no, I do not know why), a mustard yellow creme, and Miami Mami, glitter topper with pastel matte hex glitter in various sizes and colors: yellow, orange, blue, and pink. I did three coats of the creme and topped with one of the glitter on all but my index finger.

 

 

 

Mustard is not one of the most flattering colors on me but I keep buying it because I am drawn to the odd and unusual.