Petites Black Diamond

        For today, I've got Petites Color Fever Black Diamond, from its core line. 

Black Diamond is a charcoal black base with small, coarse holographic shimmer. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. 

    Black Diamond is just okay. I appreciate how dark it is, because while it is actually pretty close to being a real black, its cousins are more on the grey or brown side. However, I was pretty disappointed in the lack of holo goodness. There is some, and I think you can see it in the pictures, but I really expected more. In all fairness though, I did use topcoat, so that may have dulled it a bit. But I don't think it would have dulled it THAT much, you know? 

  However, the formula on Black Diamond was pretty good. It was a good consistency, and applied smoothly and easily. It wasn't as opaque as some of its cousins, but it was still nicely pigmented, becoming opaque in two coats. The pictures are with three coats though, because there were bald spots that needed to be filled in. That may have been user error though. It also dried pretty shiny...I don't know why I used topcoat on it. Probably force of habit. It didn't need topcoat.

  Anyway, while this is a pretty polish, I'd actually recommend that you do not buy it. LOL. I got mine second-hand and didn't have to pay full price, but honestly...I feel like Black Diamonds is a rip-off. It's $3.99 for .25 oz of a polish that isn't unique. It doesn't even have a truly spectacular holo to save it, and it's too thin to really be effective as a stamping polish. So unless you just really want it, or you need to fill a hole in your collection, please leave this one in Rite Aid and pick up Color Club Revvvolution instead. It's half the price for twice as much product, it's more holo, amazing for stamping, and way more accessible. The only thing is that it's not as dark, but that's a small trade-off to me. 

And that's all I've got for today! Have an awesome Friday! 

Scherer Calypso

           Good morning to everyone! I hope the Monday blues aren't hitting folks too hard. I'm personally feeling a little down about my nails, because they refuse to cooperate with my dreams. Can you believe that I broke another nail over the weekend? This time, it was thanks to my little cousin who swears that he's a stuntman. He was showing me his flying kick, and of course, he kicked the pinky nail right off my left hand. I picked the fool thing up off the floor and glued it back on, because I really love that nail and I wasn't going to give up on it. I'm so mad. Not at him, but at my nail. Man, this sucks. *roars*
        Now that I've got that out of my system, I can talk about what I really meant to talk about: Scherer Calypso, from the Chameleon line. 

Calypso is a frosty duochrome. Its main color is a silvery-lavender, but it shows green and blue as well. 

Also, I replaced my patch! It's not perfect, but it's better, so I can stop complaining about it.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash. This is a really unflattering angle, but I wanted to show the color change. 

Natural light, no flash.

      Calypso is such a beautiful duochrome. The color change is obvious and fun to watch, although I'm not too keen on the frosty finish. 
      Although Calypso is beautiful, applying it sucked! There was lots of cuticle drag, the polish felt too thick and it wasn't easy to spread, brush strokes were visible, and the bubbles were horrific. All my fingers looked like this:

     I tried to ignore it and go about my day, but no ma'am. I had to take that mess off...it was just too ooglay. When I reapplied it, I was ridiculously slow and meticulous, and that helped some, although I still have bubbles and some visible brush strokes. I'm not surprised though, because Blue Sky gave me some application issues as well. Additionally, wear is horrible. I've been wearing this application for two days now, and I'm already getting cracking and chipping. 
    Overall, I'd say that I'm pretty much torn about Calypso. I love duochromes, and colorwise, this polish is a real winner. But putting it on was just too hellish for me to honestly say that I like Calypso. So I guess I'll call it a draw, and say that I feel meh about this one. I won't be getting anymore Chameleon polishes because I can't do it with the application. But I will say that I sincerely hope that CQ or Scherer reworks the formula on them, because these polishes are really quite lovely. It's a shame that something like formula would be what sinks them.

Stash Pictures + Konad!

           In order to procrastinate on my homework, I decided to take some pictures of my stash! It's a baby one, compared to some people's, but I am a college student...I ain't big ballin like that. Besides, I love my baby stash...it's like my little family. And I think it'd be fun to look back on these years down the road, when I'm fifty years old, with a bunch of cats and nail polish. Also, I have a couple of konad pictures too. So stash first, then konads.
Also, wtf man....why did blogger change their picture thingy? At least you can add more than one picture at a time now.

These are all my untried nail polishes. A few of these, I've actually worn already, but I don't like the pictures of them that I have, so I need to take them again.

These are the ones that I've worn and photographed to my satisfaction. I'm going to get a real basket for these someday. The Borghese Hydrati treatment, Seche Ridge Filing Base and Orly Bonder snuck into the picture though.

Here is where I keep my black and white nail polishes. Not many here. 

Here are all my topcoats and basecoats.

And here are some untrieds that I couldn't fit into my basket, along with my matte top coats. 

     At some point in the future, I'd like to find some real storage for these. Like a cabinet or rack. The baskets are okay, but I'm quickly running out of space, especially as I make a dent in my untried polishes.

And now for Konad pictures.

This is actually from my fauxnad hello kitty plate. The base is Brucci Chris's Green Belt, and the pattern is stamped on with Wet n Wild Sterling Silver. The rhinestone decal in the center came from Rite Aid. And the lighting is weird because it was dark, so I used my bootleg studio lighting. I made it by taking an old lamp and covering the opening with a T-shirt and some tissue paper. It would have worked, but the lamp makes yellow light, instead of white. So that was that. But interestingly, the yellow light gave me a more accurate picture of Chris's Green Belt. I didn't manipulate this image at all; the color is how the camera captured it. 

This was made with Konad plate M66. I used the butterfly and flower patterns. Sorry for the lack of diagram. But anyway, the base is Scherer Blue Sky and the pattern is stamped with Sally Hansen White On. This is in natural light, no flash.

And a closer look. I don't like this one though..maybe I should have done it in black. And the pattern is a little effed up. But that's okay.

    And that's all the rambling randomosity I have for today. *drags self off to do homework*

Earth Week Day 7: Scherer Chameleon Blue Sky

           LOL, this has been the longest week in history, but it's finally drawing to a close. Today, I'm wearing Blue Sky from Scherer Cosmetics' Chameleon line. I thought this one would be fitting because with some environmental stewardship, we can have blue skies all the time, instead of brown or yellow or black.

Blue Sky is a strong, frosty/metallic (honestly, I can't really tell the difference sometimes) duochrome. Its base color is a mid-range blue, and it shows lots of violet, green, and silver.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Indoors, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

       Blue Sky is fabulous. My pictures don't really capture how nice this one is. Most of the time, my nails are violet, with green and blue hovering at the corners. But with a tilt of my hand, the whole nail goes green, or the violet is reduced to a sliver, with the nail showing primarily blue. Or the violet ends up at the edges, and the nail is mostly green. As you can imagine, this makes it terribly entertaining to watch my fingers type. And I don't know what it is about this polish, but damn son...it makes my nails look good! They look all long and sexy! 

    But every rose has its thorn, and Blue Sky is no exception to the rule. The application of this was tough, because of the awful cuticle drag. The only way to avoid it was to really load up the brush and to never try to go back and correct brushstrokes. It sucked. And I got some bubbles when it dried. However, the color is nicely pigmented. It would have been a two-coater, if I didn't have to apply another one to even out brushtrokes and dragged places. Also, dry time was great. I slapped on Poshe and ten minutes later, I was in bed. In the morning, my polish was pristine, except for the bubbles, so yay! 

   And even though the application was hellish, I'm still wearing this one again and I'm going to recommend it to people too. A duochrome of this strength for only $2.99 is nothing to trifled with. The Chameleon line are all duochromes and can be found exclusively in Rite Aids, although other polishes by this company can be found in Walmart too. 

  And the tip for today is simple, but may take some discipline: don't buy cosmetics from companies that test on animals. Admittedly, this doesn't really have anything to do with saving Earth as a whole. But animals are an important part of the world, and we have to look out for them. And covering them with potentially harmful chemicals is not looking out for them. I won't be buying any cosmetics that have been tested on animals, no matter how great the lemming. I also plan on going through my collection and purging any polishes that have been tested on animals, and I hope others will join me. If you find six or more, maybe you can do the Zoya Polish Swap thing. And if not, then maybe you can donate them to a women's shelter. Or return them to the store if you still have the receipt. I can understand why medication is tested on animals, because medication can save lives. But eyeshadow is just not that serious. 

This post on Nevertoomuchglitter features a great list of companies that are and are not cruelty-free. The list isn't exhaustive, but it's a great reference point. And FYI, CQ and Scherer Cosmetics (the makers of Blue Sky) are cruelty-free. I made sure to write in and ask. ^_^

And with that, Earth Week is officially OVAH!!  And I can finally wear some other colors...I'm embarrassed to say that I've been craving red.