Manicure Monday

GUYS! I DID IT! I finally finished wearing every single one of my polishes. It would have happened sooner if I could have stopped myself from picking up new ones, but...whatever. New Year's resolution DEFEATED. Boom.

This is a pretty massive post, so I'm going to try and keep it short(ish) and sweet(ish). I got gradually less successful at being brief over time...

Sally Hansen Rosy Outlook with Wet N Wild Waves of Enchantment, taped

WoE is sheer, but it's really pretty layered over Rosy Outlook.

Manicure Monday

Hi, y'all! Sorry I've been so MIA (I mean, even more than usual). I'll ease into posting again with a new Manicure Monday––it's been more than 2 months since my last one (wtfffff), but I've been trucking along with my NY resolution. It might go faster if I stopped buying new polishes, but...well, I'm only (a nail polish addicted) human. This isn't everything I've worn, but I'll include the rest in my next MM :)

Color Club Eternal Beauty

This is a polish I haven't already posted, in spite of having had it for, like, a year. It was part of the set gifted to me by the lovely Amanda! All the CC holos are super holographic and incredibly pigmented (this was one coat!), and really fast to dry. Unfortunately, it doesn't get along with uneven nails, and chipped on my middle fingers (both of which had lost the upper layer of nail on the tip). It's real pretty, though, and good for days I don't have much time to devote to my nails. I also want to use it with others from the line in nail art! Rainbowy holo goodness.

Manicure Monday

Hi again! I hope y'all have had a great holiday season. I've been enjoying my time off school and indulging in some reading for pleasure (it'd been years since I'd really done that!), which has left less time for research and blogging, but whatever. It's winter break! I'm going to hibernate. And code. (I finally actually made some headway in that department, and wow, I totally understand why people do CS. When it works, you feel like a GOD. It's awesome. When it doesn't work, you want to kill yourself and everyone you've ever known, but you can't, because then you'll never figure out the puzzle of why it's not working...)

Here are some pictures of manis I've done the last few weeks; I did a green and red one for Christmas, but didn't take pictures because I felt like ignoring my duties as a blogger, but I'm sure you'll see the polishes I used at some point in the future. For now, here are these!

Winter Wonderland

Schnee! Kar! Nieve! Snow! (All the languages I speak
use the same writing system. Sorry to be so boring.)

This is a single coat of three white polishes layered to try and create snowy nails. I did it during our week of snow, when I was trapped at home, before I got annoyed with the stupid white stuff. It's Wet N Wild's white $0.99 polish topped with Orly Au Champagne and Orly Winter Wonderland. It wasn't fully opaque, but I didn't really care, because the shimmer from Winter Wonderland helped disguise it. That polish is really appropriately named! It does look like frosty magic.

theBalm Nude 'Tude

I picked this up from Birchbox several months ago when I had a coupon. I'd heard good things about it, and I was wanting a replacement for my Too Faced Natural Eye, which has deteriorated in the pigmentation department over the years.

Some Random Polish Swatches

I'm not wearing polish on my nails for the time being while I use Nailtiques on them to try and make them not suck, but I have some swatches from before my self-imposed polish absence that I don't care enough about to write individual posts for, but that I would nonetheless like to be able to get off my computer, so I figured I would just throw them at you! And use a really long sentence to do so!

Essence Where Is The Party?

How it looks in the bottle most
of the time

The name of this polish makes me laugh, because you would never hear it said like that (except by ESL speakers, which I would guess the namers of this polish are, since Essence is a German company). It sounds so formal! So funny how little things like not contracting sounds so weird (even though I wrote that sentence, I was still momentarily confused by the status of "sounds". I've clearly spent too much time linguisting...).

And how it looks in the bottle at an angle!

How it looks in head-on light

Crazy color shift!

Anyways. Linguistic entertainment aside, this is a pretty cool polish. It was the first duochrome I got, though I've actually yet to wear it as a full mani. It's a purple-green duochrome, and shifts from being a rich purple head-on to being a softer grey-purple that shifts to green in different light. It's got a slightly frosty finish, so you do have to be a bit careful about applying, but it's not really high-maintenance. It's a little thick, too, so you have to let it dry between coats if you ever want it to fully dry, but for a buck, I can't complain! I think this was 3 coats, but it's been awhile, so I'm not sure. You can get Essence at Ulta and Fred Meyer, as far as I know, though there may be other retailers, and from drugstores in Germany (and possibly elsewhere in Europe?).

Orly Nail Polish in Au Champagne (from the Holiday Soiree Collection) Review and Swatches

This polish came out for the holiday season, but it's still available online and may be floating around in some stores, so I figured I might as well post it. I got it on sale at Sally's after Christmas and wore it as part of my NYE mani. I finally got around to taking pictures of it by itself, and now have this lovely review to share with y'all.

Orly Au Champagne

Ross Nail Polish Haulage: Pics and Swatches

I went to Ross yesterday, because Nouveau Cheap posted that a reader had found a set of (long discontinued) Sally Hansen Nail Prisms, and, being the duochrome whore that I am, I had to go and check out my local Ross to see if I would be lucky enough to find it myself. I not only found the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms, but also picked up a set of Color Club holos and glitters, Beyond the Mistletoe, which is, according to Fashion Polish, new for the season. So, for $14, I walked away with 4 duochromes, 5 holos, 2 glitters, and a top coat. Needless to say, I was hyperactively excited (and tweeted Nouveau Cheap about it, because if anyone can appreciate a good deal, it would be her!). I haven't had the chance to test any of them for wear or anything, but I wanted to get swatches up so you can see what the dealio is, and hopefully get yourself to a Ross to check them out!

Color Club first; the bottles I have don't have names on them, but I got the names from Fashion Polish (who got them from Color Club, so one assumes they're accurate).
ETA: These were $7.99 at Ross, and the Color Club website has them listed at $48.00 ($8 apiece). So, if you're interested in the set, it's definitely worth checking your local Ross!

Beyond the Mistletoe, left to right: Sugarplum Fairy, Beyond the Mistletoe, Holiday Splendor, Jingle Jangle, Candy Cane, Gingerbread

Sugarplum Fairy is a pale lavender holo in a clear base; it's the strongest holo out of all the ones in this set, and it's reeeeeeeally pretty. In some lights it approaches being linear (still wanting a linear holo polish like whoa, though). Very delicate and sparkly, much like a fairy!

We'll pretend it's blurry on purpose, mk? 3 coats Sugarplum Fairy with 1 coat top coat

Beyond the Mistletoe is a light blue holo in a clear base; it's a bit sparser than Sugarplum Fairy and not quite as holographic, but very close.

3 coats Beyond the Mistletoe with 1 coat top coat

Holiday Splendor is a subtle green holo in a green tinted base. This one's not nearly as sparkly as SF and BtM, but it's really, really green, which definitely makes up for it. I'm thinking I may need to wear this for my next Duck manicure...I can pair it with Gingerbread and be super glittery and awesome!

3 coats Holiday Splendor with 1 coat top coat

Essence Holographics.Com LE Nail Polish in Prism@tic White Review and Swatches

Essence came out with a "holographic" collection (scare quotes because the products were not, in fact, actually holographic, but rather duo/multichrome, a distinction apparently lost on the German brand) a few months ago, and I happened to come across a small display of some of the products in Ulta a few weeks ago.  I decided to only pick up one polish, Prism@tic White (stupid name, guys), that I thought I could use for wintry-themed nails and to layer over other polishes.  I decided to wear it over black to start with, because I knew its duochromeness would show up better over a dark polish.

Essence Prism@tic White