Return to Revlon

Revlon and I have a long and tortured history. I'd find colors they had that looked gorgeous in the bottle, and then I'd put them on my nail only to find that it was difficult to apply, or I'd end up with bubbles. As this didn't happen with more expensive brands, I assumed it was their fault. Now I realize I was putting on insanely thick coats and it was fully user error.

But then I saw Starry Pink, and I couldn't resist giving them another go. This ballerina pink has huge chunks of glitter that gives it a really cool edge and little pieces of glitter that make it look light and sparkly. This was my Christmas manicure and I felt like I was a punked out Nutcracker ballerina. For me, this was full of win. Until removal -- that's painful.

Velvet Two Ways

So for today, I have Orly's Velvet Rope done two ways. The first is the basic Velvet Rope. And this is a great color. It's a nice deep pure purple with little teeny silver microglitter running throughout.

Next is Velvet Rope, but with two coats of OPI's stunner Serving up Sparkle on top of it. Serving up sparkle has a great holo glitter with big hex pieces mixed in. It was somewhat difficult to apply the hex glitter evenly. You really have to shake the heck out of the bottle. Frequently. But it was super pretty.

This combo is actually how I rang in the new year and it definitely felt appropriately festive!

CG in the City

So that hiatus happened. I apologize for the delay in posting. It's been the crazy busy season at work and September and October zipped by before I had a chance to catch my breath.

Today, I have for you CG in the City. It's been posted everywhere at this point, but here's my two cents. I didn't expect to love this given a lot of the negative buzz in the blogosphere. It's a multi-color glitter in a clear base. It took me three coats to build it up to a mostly opaque finish. Once I had done that, though, I adored how it looked!

I'm a sucker for all things silver, and this just looked like a silver glitter bomb on my finger. I have two pictures below for you. What do you think?

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?

Perfect Pink Quest Part 2: Sinful Colors Glass Pink

My quest for the perfect baby pink continues with Sinful Colors' Glass Pink.

Sinful Colors is a delightfully inexpensive polish brand that can be found in myriad drugstores and your nearest Target. I picked this up for less than 2 dollars and figured it would be worth a try in my hunt for a sparkly (not shimmery), opaque baby pink.

The bottle is rounded and the brush was easy to maneuver for coverage. The formula was nice enough for what it was... a sheer pink with micro glitter. The color was nice. But it was very, very sheer. The pictures below are four coats and there is some SERIOUS VNL.

Close... SO close. And perhaps if I layered it over an opaque white, it would've been exactly what I'm looking for. But this quest is not about shorcuts. This quest is for the perfect stand alone pink. I know you're out there...