Merry Easter!

Was anyone else's Easter reminiscent of Christmas morning? SNOW in April? When will this winter end! Luckily the weather was warm enough to melt the fluffy snow by the next day and the sun was shining brightly again Monday morning.

I wanted something light and bright for Easter so I chose China Glaze Dandy Lyin' Around. Little did I know it would also match the snow! Dandy Lyin' Around is a soft white crelly polish with a beautiful glass fleck shimmer that shines throughout. I used two coats in my photos below. It provided decent coverage at tow coats, however some people may be fore comfortable with three. It appears slightly more sheer in the photos than it does in real life.

I decided an accent nail of chevrons would be a great pattern for Easter. I chose a soft pink, Sally Hansen "Chrome Nail Makeup" in Amber Chrome. It's been a while since I have used my nail art plates or a chrome polish. I'm not sure if it was my lack of practice or the plate it's self but the pattern was not 100% opaque, it looked like it had a texture running throughout. Luckily it was not completely visible to anyone but me, However, in a test mani I tried out before this one it bothered me to the point of removal! That post to come next week.

For the accent nail I used Bundle Monster plate BM-423. I have to get back in to stamping, so much fun :) Maybe once my China Glaze Road Trip polishes arrive in the mail I will be inspired with some spring printed nails.

Color Club Pardon My French

I have another lovely spring polish today, I just love spring polishes! This is another Color Club polish, Pardon My French, which is a baby pink creme with just a slight hint of yellow which makes it a slight coral pastel.

The formula was just okay. The first coat was streaky, the second coat was a little less streaky, but also not 100% opaque either. For the third and final coat I decided to add some thinner to the bottle of polish to add one last thin layer to even out any remaining streaks. This is common for me to do so I don't have loads of polish on the nail which can lead to bubbling or premature wear/peeling.

Three coats still did not produce 100% coverage, however, once I added a good coat of Seche Vite it helped to even mostly everything else out. I would say the final mani looks about 95% opaque, the camera, however, does not appear to show the polishes flaws. From a distance it looks great, so it works for me!

Color Club Bell Bottom Babe

Happy Friday, Good Friday that is! Let the long weekend Easter feasting begin...

Also time for my first summer polish of 2015! Well, it's not in your face summer neon, but it was apart of the Color 2014 Poptastic Summer collection. The 2014 collection, not to be confused with the originals from a few years back, is a compilation of neons with shimmer running throughout. I chose to wear Bell Bottom Babe.

 

Bell Bottom Babe is an almost periwinkle blurple base with a pink/purple shimmer. The first layer was quite thin, but the second coat built up pretty well. In hindsight a third thin coat would have been perfect, although it is not 100% apparent in the photos.

 

As an accent nail I layered a thin coat of L'Oreal, Too Dimensional? over my ring fingers and thumbs. Too Dimensional? is a glitter based polish with gold and purple glitter of various sizes in a deep purple base. I LOVE it! It is so smooth on the nail unlike most other glitters that can dry gritty.

I've included a few other right hand shots above to show you even nail shape. They will all be a little shorter and closer in relation to each other in my next post! Happy Easter to those who celebrate, hope you all have a great long weekend!

Cosmic Fate

Holo photo spam ahead!

I haven't worn a holo polish in a while and was feeling springy, so today I have (what I think is) Color club Cosmic Fate. This polish doesn't have a label at the bottom unfortunately, but I am pretty sure it is Cosmic Fate... I hope!

In the bottle the shade appears to be a peachy nude holo, but on the nail it looks more of a peachy pink, more saturated that I originally thought it to me. Maybe it's just my skintone? I am still wearing my Bio Seaweed Gel base, I find that when I have worn this before under a holo polish it really helps the holo to come through more and look glossy without a topcoat. It also makes application a breeze! I don't recall if Color Club's formula for holos is usually difficult, however, I did not need to apply a special (ie. Aqua Base) base polish.

I only needed two medium coats for full opacity and it dried quickly and smoothly as most holos do. What a rainbow effect! So fun and bright. Below is a photo of my rarely seen right hand, in case you can't tell in the photos above, I had a break in my middle nail, of course, just when everything else is growing out perfectly! I figured I should include a photo with a more even length of nails.

I plan on filing my nails down a bit, not to match the break exactly, but to help them look more even. I'll do this after removing the gel base in a few days.

...This is the Most Craziest Shit Ever!

I can't help but hum a Gwen Stefani tune while applying this polish! Although this polish has nothing to do with the song Don't Get It Twisted, OPI's Push and Shove is so crazy cool!

I had originally tried this polish shortly after it's release last year. It is now infamous for wonky application and short wear time and requires you to follow some steps usually not taken with regular polishes such as using a special base and no topcoat. Since my nails already had a base of Bio Seaweed Gel that I applied to avoid staining from this polish, I wanted to test how well the Push and Shove would apply over the gel alone when compared to the mini Lay Down That Base, base coat the polish comes with. That bottle is hilarious by the way! That is another reason I decided to try out a gel as my base, what happens when that tiny base polish runs out?

Compared side by side the Push and Shove over the gel base appears the same if not better then the Lay Down That Base, base. I used Lay Down that Base on my pinky nail and no base, other than the gel previously applied, to my other nails. Not only did it apply well, but the gel smoothed out my nail bed giving a beautifully even, streak-free mirror finish that is so awesome! My photos hardly do this polish justice!

You guys, my nails are literally tiny little mirrors, so shiny! Two coats were applied since I did not plan on applying a topcoat. I find you can easily get away with one thicker coat, but noticed during application that two thinner coats product better results. The gel base helps to smooth out any imperfections in my nail making the chrome appear strong and flawless... well as flawless as I think I can get! The best part is application was five about minutes, probably including dry time as well.

Unfortunately wear time is about the same as over Lay Down That Base. I for it for a few days, then when I couldn't stand  the tip wear and slight chipping I just changed my mani up.

Four Leaf Clover + How to Comabt Nail Staining Polish

Trying to be festive for St. Patrick's Day, I pulled out one of my all time favorite green polishes to wear for the better part of the week. China Glaze, Four Leaf Clover is such a vibrant and saturated green which is why I love it. However, it stains probably the worst out of all the polishes in my collection. I'm glad I remembered how bad it stained before applying it because when I removed it my nails were sooooo yellow...

Luckily, I decided to layer a gel base under the polish to avoid discolouring my nails. I chose Bio Seaweed Gel soak-off LED no-sanding base which was quick and easy to apply and cure with my UV light. I applied one even coat, cured for two minutes and wiped with 99% alcohol for a smooth and shiny base!

 

Four Leaf Clover is a breeze to apply, and was no different when applied over a gel base. Two thin coats were needed for full opacity and I applied Seche Vite over top to add a high gloss shine.

I wore this polish for almost a full week with little to no wear! I started to get a few chips on the last day of wear and I attribute this to the gel base. It really stuck to the polish and would not let go! I was not going easy on my hands at all this week either, lots of washing of dishes, food prep and of course daily hand washing and showers. I am so impressed with the extension of wear provided by a gel base.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post Four Leaf Clover will stain, have a look:

I also managed to rip off most of my middle nail on day three :( The nail was
super weak so I will have to wait for it to grow in completely... yet again

So happy the gel got stained instead of my natural nails! I will be able to tell for sure that the staining did not penetrate down to my natural nail once the gel is removed, but I plan on keeping the gel as my base for now, I have a few other polish tests I'd like to try with it!

Dahlia

Although the texture trend seems to be so passe, I feel myself gravitating towards them for a quick and easy mani. I also just purchased a few, as you can see here, from Zoya. Surprisingly I am actually wearing them! I don;t know about you, but I usually tend to forget about some of my newly purchased polishes, especially when they take over a month to be delivered... Today I pulled out Dahlia to wear.

 Zoya Dahlia is a dark charcoal textured "Pixie Dust" polish that reminds me of the most awesome coal ever. As always I love the Zoya Pixie Dust texture, rough, shiny and sparkly. I applied two thin coats for full opacity. I like that it was not a stark black polish, it is on the softer side of black which really compliments the sparkle and finish.

The Pixies always wear well and Dahlia was no exception. I love textured polish for an easy and quick option when I may not have a lot of time to spend on my nails but NEED to change a chippy mani.

Which is your favorite textured polish brand? OPI definitely comes in second for me!