Colour Prevails Trio

When the Colour Prevails display went up at my Walgreens back in April or May, I bought a few of the polishes to try but as often happens, got distracted by other things and didn't actually try them for months and months. Fortunately, these are core colors so still in stores.

I started with a pale yellow green creme called Socially Awkward. This was three coats, and I found the winged handle didn't help me at all, possibly because I am really comfortable working with more conventionally shaped handles. (The wing does pull off if you don't care to use it.)



I stamped on top of Socially Awkward with the shimmer I selected to try, Blue Blood, and added clear topcoat. (If I'm interpreting my notes correctly, the design is from Born Pretty plate 65.)



Then it was Blue Blood's turn in the spotlight. I was a one-coater; I added a line of square stones and sealed the look with clear topcoat.





I topped Blue Blood with one coat of glittery Mr. Wrong, plus clear topcoat. On my thumb, I did three coats of Mr. Wrong plus topcoat, and it was still somewhat sheer.





These are fine polishes, but the handle is odd, and they're pricey: $8 for .34 oz.

Barielle Me Couture Collection

Sample provided for review

Barielle has released two collections for Fall 2014, Jetsetter and Me Couture. Today I have all six of the Me Couture shades to share: Vintage Gown, Taupe Notch, Berry Posh, Soho at Night, Moda Bleu, and Boho Chic.



I started with Vintage Gown, a rosy brown, and gave it an accent nail of Boho Chic, a dark blue-leaning green. I used two coats of each, though they were quite pigmented and very nearly one coaters. Boho Chic is a creme, while Vintage Gown has a barely there shimmer.



Here's the shimmer showing in the bottle of Boho Chic; I had to put this right under the lamp to get it to pop even this much.



In direct low light that generally brings out shimmer, Boho Chic barely showed that side of itself. Direct sun might have been different, but my nails are so rarely in direct sun.



To spice up this pair, I added dots of the opposite color.



I added bling to the next two right from the start. Here's Taupe Notch, a brown-leaning grey creme, and Berry Posh, a deep pink creme, with black stones added. I am not entirely comfortable with embellishments that stick up as far as these stones do, but I can't deny they add some flair, so I'm taking baby steps to push my nail art boundaries. I used two coats of each of these cremes.



I decided I might like the stones more if they weren't the only thing sitting on top of the Barielle base colors, so I added dots of the opposite color alongside the stones.



I did like the stones plus dots better, but couldn't leave well enough alone and added more dots, including some black ones to match the stones.



The festival of dots and stones looked somewhat better when I smoothed topcoat over it, but still I think I should have stopped after the first set of dots.



I alternated the last two cremes, Soho at Night, a dark purple, and Moda Bleu, a dark blue. Each was two coats; my swatch below has no topcoat.



I added dots of a different kind to these cremes: round sequins (I think these are too big to be considered glequins, even; they're definitely way too big to be called glitter). These were quite cheap and the finish on them showed it, though they were still plenty shiny and interesting to look at on my nails.



They even exhibited some color changing tendencies as I moved my hand around to shift the reflective surfaces.



What they did not exhibit was the ability to stand up to topcoat; I slicked some on and the color started sliding off the sequins, plus they still stuck up more than I'd like, so I'm calling these a fail. I've found some great stuff at dollar stores over the years, but these aren't in that category.



The polishes in this collection have the creamy, well behaved formula I've come to expect from Barielle. I'd swatched Soho at Night previously, as part of the Barielle New York Style box set and had the same opinion then. I would like to see Barielle do some flecked shimmers, and if they could come out with some cousins of Elle's Spells, the fabulous flakie from Winter 2010, I'd be so happy.

Follow the Barielle Facebook page to see more swatches and hear about specials like the one they have going on now for 20% off plus free shipping for purchases from the Barielle website (ends October 11th, see FB for the code).


The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider.

Steel Ball Nail Art

Born Pretty nail art store continues to enable me to try new things on my nails. This time they sent a set of steel ball decorations. They came in a set of twelve colors in screw top containers. I believe the colors can vary from set to set; I got a nice mix of greens, purples, blues, bright pinks, and a dusty yellow.





My first thought when I saw these was "sprinkles!". I considered trying a cupcake mani (see a version from Rins here) but wasn't feeling that confident about my freehand abilities so instead did a geometric accent nail on my Owl's Lust/Pitch Black Glimmer mani using two colors of balls.



To do this, I taped off a triangle on my nail, laid down a coat of Gelous in the open area, then picked up balls with the flat side of an orange stick and patted them into the wet polish. Then I moved the tape to do a second triangle opposit the first. The last two I didn't use tape for but just put the balls in the open areas. I pushed the balls around with the pointy end of the orange stick to try and get them where I wanted them, then covered the whole design with a thick layer of Gelous. Next time I'm going to try a different top coat, as the Gelous took some of the color off the balls, most noticeably the blue grey ones.





These balls are available on Born Pretty's site here. They cost $5.41 for one set; quantity discounts are available if you buy more than one at a time. They also have a wheel with 12 colors of steel balls for $3.33 (look in the Glitter/Fimo/Slice/Sticker section of Nail Art Decoration). Use code KARENDK31 for 10% off.

The steel balls used for this entry were provided to me for free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the products for my own use.

Rainbow Texting Thumb

Poor Berry Hard—few people seem to like is at much as I do. Never mind that, on to today's fun. I finally got a chance to play with the last untried item in the package of goodies that the Born Pretty nail art store sent to me for review: a wheel filled with 12 colors of flat-backed rhinestones.





Rather than try for a subtle or sophisticated design with these, I decided to go in the opposite direction and used five of the colors to make a rainbow on my thumb. I first put down a silver foil base (Nicole by OPI Give Me the First Dance from the Justin Bieber collection—don't judge me). I laid down a line of light green stones first, then added the adjacent lines until I mostly ran out of space on my nail and definitely ran out of patience. To pick the stones up and place them, I used the end of one of the dotting tools; keeping the end wet helped with that.



Before I put topcoat on to seal the stones, I could see the faceting:



After a liberal application of topcoat, the stones looked more rounded but also more shiny:



I don't tend to like things sticking up off the surface of my nails, but these weren't too bad in that regard. They do have some thickness, obviously, but lay pretty flat on the nail and don't catch on clothes thanks to the rounded edges.



Disco rainbow nails are obviously not practical to do very often, but can see myself using these rhinestones as accents for stamping designs.

Born Pretty sells this wheel for US$3.33 (or less if you order higher quantities). They also have other wheels: heart-shaped rhinestones, flat-backed pearls in white and colors, flowers and other motifs. If you use code KARENDK31 you will get 10% off from now through March 31, 2011.

The rhinestones shown in this entry were provided to me for free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the rhinestones for my own use.