Sky High Top (or ALMOST Honolulu Blue)

My Lions made the playoffs this year, and this blue shimmer from China Glaze was how I celebrated. Be aware: this color is so bold that you WILL get looks and comments from nail polish muggles. But it's fab and makes you feel good in the rather unfestive mid-January.

Accent Toe Pedicure - Warning: TOE PIC.

So a goodly half of the polishes I wear are only ever on my toes. And this feels like a waste in terms of swatching. So today, with fair warning, I give you my accent nail pedicure. I did the pictures super close-up, taking only two toes' worth of picture and cropping out the rest of the foot. I know people can be foot squeamish and I want to respect that as best I can.

The main color is China Glaze's Bahamian Escape -- the color applied like a dream, self-leveling and achieving opacity in two coats. I would call this color a bright sky blue creme.

On my second toe, I added three coats of Sinful Colors' Pearl Harbor. I understand it's been discontinued; however, I was able to find it recently at my nearest Meijer. Pearl Harbor was a bit of a bear to apply. It was goopy and uneven (even after a judicious shaking). While the sparkles were absolutely gorgeous in the bottle, they're a little underwhelming on the nail. Perhaps it's because my feet spend most of their time 5' away from my eyes, but I just feel like the reward wasn't really worth it.

Have you had any luck with layering Pearl Harbor?

Sally Hansen DVD

This one is an oldie but a goodie.

Sally Hansen DVD is in my most favorite of color veins: the periwinkle or "blurple." This color is really sheer and is great as a top layer (I tried it over Commander in Chic long before I started polish blogging and the results were delightful).

The pictures below are three coats with some seriously visible nail line. One is natural light and one is blur to really get a feel for the color and sparkle.

Smooth Sailing

So, for as long as I can remember, I've been a fan of nail polish. I saved my allowance for weeks and bought three shades of Wet & Wild when I was seven, and I configured them into different designs over and over (my mom thought more than three was unnecessary). When I was a teenager, the first inexpensive nail salon came to town and I was forever getting acrylic nails with fun new colors on. What I'm sayin' is... despite my recent addiction to the collecting of nail polishes, I've loved nail polish the overwhelming majority of my life.

Along the way, I've had specific colors I've loved! Midnight in Moscow immediately springs to mind... as does Chanel's Vamp. If it's deep and sparkly, there's a better than even chance that I've given it an "oooh!" whilst it's applied to my nails, and vainly preen my fingers to glance at it myriad times once it's on.

But I only thought I knew love.

Because when I saw Essie's Smooth Sailing (from their 2011 Summer Braziliant line) applied to my nails, I knew I'd found the one. The polish that, were I forced to monogamously wear one color for the rest of my life, I would commit to. This is my would-be nail hubs.

Examine the awesome:
1. It's a gorgeous color of periwinkle (honestly, the color itself is my most favorite color in the entire known universe).
2. It has gorgeous, gorgeous silver sparkly bits in it.
3. The application is a dream.


With some flash.


In the fading natural light of the day. Apparently sunset makes my hands all pink. That part's not cute... but the color of my nails certainly is!


Close Up. Look at that sparkly!