Manicure Monday

I got through 6 unworns this week! Yippee!

Sinful Colors What's Your Number

I got this awhile back to use in nail polish jewelry for galaxies, but hadn't yet worn it. It's a really nicely opaque black with duochrome shimmers that shift from turquoise to purple. You can see the shimmer inside, though the duochrome is really only evident in the sun when you tilt your nails. Formula was good, opaque in two coats, though I had noticeable tipwear after less than a day (see photo).

What's Your Number topped with Color Club Nouveau Vintage (1 coat), Saran-wrapped

Saran-wrapping is a relatively new nail art thing, and guys, it's great. It's nail art even I, with my tremor and complete lack of artistic talent, can do! Paint your base coat, then when it's completely dry paint a coat of whatever you want to top it with––I chose Nouveau Vintage, a green-brown foil from last fall. Then, take a little ball of Saran wrap and dab it all over the still-wet polish. This makes it look like it was sponged on, but without any of the mess! I really loved the result––it looked like brocade! It's also a good technique for refreshing a tipwear-infested mani.

Zoya Storm

Part of Zoya's Winter 2012 Ornate collection, Storm is a totally awesomesauce black with scattered holo. It looks like a rainbowy night sky! Though my pictures don't do a great job of capturing that. It also looks great indoors. Gotta love holos that don't need sun! On my left hand I did 3 thin coats, on my right 2 thicker ones, but I liked the result on the left hand better. It dries really quickly, sparkles like crazy (even when it's in cloudy light, it's still a very pretty black and silver glitter), and removes easy as pie. It also lasted 2 days with no tipwear, but that may have been due to the base and top coat (Zoya's––we're gonna see how I like them!). Awesome, awesome polish. You should definitely get it. Right now. Go.

Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid

I applied this right before going to the ling colloquium on Friday, and didn't have enough time to let it dry completely (I literally put the drying drops on the polish, sat there for a minute, and then pulled on my socks and rummaged around in my purse) so I ended up with some dents and tipwear, which I proceeded to make much worse while listening to the talks. So afterwards, I went to Sally Beauty and got some nail polish remover and pads to take it off in the car, because it was annoying me so much. It's a really pretty polish, though; it has enough grey in it to keep it from giving me zombie hands, and enough purple to look pretty and delicate. I wish the shimmer were more prominent, since it's basically completely invisible unless it's under direct bright light, but the color and formula are nice enough for me to be willing to forgive it. It's one that I deemed winter-appropriate as a rain-colored polish, and at that it definitely succeeds.

Wet N Wild Saved by the Blue

Holy shimmery blue, Batman! This is a rich cobalt blue, very bright and vibrant. I love it. I don't usually like blues on my fingers, but either I've gotten more okay with smurf nails, or this polish is just so bold and awesome that I don't care! Two coats for opacity, really fast drying (touch-dry in 2 minutes), but prone to tipwear. I don't care, it's less than $2. And SO BLUE!

Saved by the Blue topped with China Glaze Make a Spectacle

This glitter is from China Glaze's Halloween collection, and it is awesome. So sparkly! You can't see it in my photos, but it's actually duochrome iridescent hexes in two different colors, one red-orange-yellow, the other green-blue-turquoise. It's also got fine shimmer. Combined with the blue, it looks like fish scales and really reminds me of that book "The Rainbow Fish". Super cool. To have a glassy finish, it would need 2+ coats of top coat, but I liked the slightly rough finish––no less sparkly, and it really emphasized the scaliness of it.

All the polishes I wore this week were happily added to my full collection––no rejects! Some I'll be wearing more often than others, obviously, but I'm glad to have them all. Which ones are your favorite? What polish(es) did you wear this week?