Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy

           The other day, I was in Walgreens when I stumbled upon the Wet n Wild display for this spring. It had already been ransacked so there was not much left. But I did find this little guy cowering in the cornerof the bottom shelf, so I scooped him up and brought him home. Meet Gray's Anatomy! (Have I ever mentioned that I hate how Americans spell grey? It's just looks wrong).

Gray's Anatomy is a very pale, frosty silvery-grey polish with a strong duochrome effect. It mostly looks silvery-grey with a lavender flash, but it can look blue and green, as well as a little bit gold.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

     Gray's Anatomy is such a beautiful and complex polish. It just has this awesome airy, ephemeral feeling to it, and there are so many colors! When you're still, you get the silvery base with the lavender shimmer floating on top. But as soon as your hand starts moving, you get all this blue and green coming out of nowhere. The whole thing reminds me of a gasoline rainbow. Or maybe a younger, more washed-out version of Zoya's Ki. Gray's Anatomy did end up a tad bit brushtrokey, but I liked the brushtrokes. Upon drying, they looked a bit like ribbons of shimmer, so you didn't notice them if you weren't looking too closely.

     But as lovely as the color is, Gray's Anatomy's formula drove me absolutely crazy. It's very thin and sheer, so it took four coats before I was satisfied with the coverage. But that in itself was fine, since the polish went on super smooth. What made it annoying was that after all those coats, the polish would just bubble up. I reapplied Gray's Anatomy to my left hand no less than five times, trying to get a bubble free application. Normally, it wouldn't be that serious at all, but with this finish, bubbles are like...ten times as ugly. I couldn't just leave them there. Maybe the polish just didn't like me, but I would advise others to let every single layer dry all the way. It took forever (fastdry my ass) but it was the only way I could avoid bubbles. 

    However, I would still recommend Gray's Anatomy to anyone who loves duochrome polish. It really is quite pretty, it's uber-cheap ($1.99) and is supposed to be a dupe to Deborah Lippmann's Wicked Game. Nothing like saving $14 + shipping to ease the sting of a bad application. ^_^

   

But that's all I've got for today! Thanks for reading and have a great night! :D

Wet n Wild Night Prowl

            Rawr, it's Friday!! I'm so happy...this has been the longest week of my like whole life. And it got a little worse today, because my ceramics teacher caught me in my insubordination. What had happened was we were making teacups (damn teacups) and all of mine had little nail marks. I tried to smooth them out, but she caught me doing it, inspected my nails, and declared them too long. I don't have to get rid of them until next class (Tuesday), but I decided not to prolong my agony. I filed them down to nublets, and I guess that's how they're gonna be for the rest of the semester, amen. I'm a little sad, but on the bright side, they weren't long to begin with, so it wasn't as painful as it could have been. And I can finally grow out some staining and little corner cracks, and my nails will finally have a more consistent shape. Yay for silver linings. 
      After the massacre nail cut, I wanted to pour out a little lacquer for my lost millimeters, but that's a waste of product and moniez.  So I settled for wearing a dark nail polish, and chose Wet n Wild Night Prowl.

Night Prowl is a black jelly base with a ton of small, round magenta glitter. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

      I think black glittery polish can be hard. Sometimes, the base completely swallows up the glitter and it becomes a lumpy horrible mess. Or the glitter will kind of show through, but not really, so the look ends up being dull and a little messy. But Night Prowl manages to nicely avoid both pitfalls. I don't know if that's because the glitter is small, or because the base is jelly, or because of a combination of both, or maybe because of neither of those things. What I know is that even indoors and away from direct sunlight, the glitter is very obvious on the nail. And in direct sunlight, it really sparkles. Even the glitter that isn't directly on the surface is visible, which gives the polish a nice bit of depth. Finally, since the base is jelly, Night Prowl has that amusingly squishy look to it. The overall effect ends up being an attractive blend of vampy, sexy, and fun, which makes this more wearable for people like me, who don't know how to pull off that hardcore femme fatale look.

    Application-wise, Night Prowl was okay. The brush was fine and the formula wasn't horrible. It was pretty watery on the first coat, but was fine by the third. It dried glossy and slightly rough, so I put on two layers of topcoat, and that fixed everything. For $0.99, Night Prowl is pretty much a steal, and I'm glad I bought it. 

    That's all I've got for today! I hope everyone is ready for a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!  Do you have any plans? And what are you guys gonna buy? You have to buy sumfthin. ^_^

Wet n Wild Nocturnal + Ooglayness

           Yesterday was such a bad day. My aunt and uncle wanted to go to a couple's night thing, and I had to watch their children while they were gone. I love my little cousins, and they are so cute and cuddly, but it was rough. I was with them for ten hours and they did such naughty things the whole time. ;_; I was sad. 
           When I woke up this morning, I was still feeling a little down and wanted to paint my nails something dark and somber. I chose Nocturnal, from Wet n Wild's Craze line. 

Sunlight, no flash.

I don't have an close picture (I forgot) but Nocturnal is basically a blackened midnight blue creme. In most lights, it will look black. Although you can tell that it's blue sometimes.

 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

    As a color, I do like Nocturnal. Even though it is a little pointless (you might as well wear black), I enjoy the deepness and richness of this shade. I think it looks sexy! 

    But I didn't like the formula or packaging at all. The formula was a little gloopy, and it bubbled and was kind of streaky. And the bottle and brush was horrible. The top was hard to hold onto, and it kept on banging against the table that I lean my hand against to paint. The brush was moppy, and I had to cut quite a bit of it, because it was all crazy. On the upside, Nocturnal is highly pigmented, and can be opaque in one coat, with a really careful application. I wasn't careful, so the pictures are with two coats. Even though I probably won't be wearing this again because I don't want to deal with putting it on, I think it will be good for konading. And if anyone knows of a dupe-y color, please let me know in the comments? Thanks!! ^_^

 Then, I was bored, so I did some ooglay decorations on top of Nocturnal. I wish I had left it alone. 

Shh, don't tell nobody. 

It looks like Beetlejuice. :(

Have a great evening, everyone!!

Happy Nails for a Sad Day

          Yes indeed...this is a sad day. It marks the one year anniversary of Michael Jackson's untimely death, which as far as I'm concerned, is a sad. It's true that he sometimes acted in bizarre ways and had some personal issues, but nobody can deny the incredible talent he possessed or his huge influence over music and dance. There are so many modern musicians who have built entire careers off of MJ's stuff. I'm looking at you, Usher. At you, Ciara. And at all of you, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Ne-Yo. And for decades to come, people will still be gathering inspiration from what he left behind in this world. 
      I personally owe MJ a debt of gratitude, because when I was a little kid visiting relatives in Nigeria, he saved me from going outside, laying in the main road, and waiting for a car to run me over. That's how damn bored I was. We had been there for two months. There was one more month to go, and I was getting to the end of my rope.  I had exhausted every book I brought with me. I colored in all my coloring books, traced the pictures on fresh paper, and then colored those too. I played Ludo and cards until I wanted to die. I chased my grandparents' goats and chickens until my mom made me stop. The only thing that still held my attention was a collection of Michael Jackson videos on VHS. I watched that tape over and over again, and I thankfully never got tired of it.  That tape legitimately saved my life,  and if not that, then it certainly saved my sanity.
       I don't have any nice Michael Jackson themed nails today, but it wasn't for lack of trying. The stuff I attempted came out ugly, and I didn't have the right materials to execute some of my other ideas. I do have errands to run today, so I had no time to keep on trying, and settled for a sucky konadicure. Here it is:

I started off with three coats of Milani Hi-Res. First, I used Color Club Groove Thang to stamp the floral full nail pattern (the one with the stems) from Bundlemonster plate BM16. Then I put on the white leaf flower things from Konad plate M20, using Wet n Wild French White Creme.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

     I don't really think this is sucky. It just wasn't what I wanted. But objectively, I like how this looks, especially because I've never tried any like...layered stamping before. I would have liked to go a little further with it too, but I didn't know what else to do, and was too scared to try any more experimenting. Maybe I'll try more later, when there's more time. 

    But at the moment, I've got to poof,  so I'm just going to finish this by posting my five favorite MJ videos. 

And of course,

Bow in the presence of greatness, ya'll.

RIP, Michael!

Brucci Typhoon Lagoon + Konad and a Haul!

            Okay, so I lied. If anything, I'm wearing more purple today than I was yesterday. But yesterday, I was le tired. Far too tired to remove nail polish and reapply it and then let it cure. So I decided to do some nail art over it, to keep it fresh. I based the design off the name of one of OPI's new colors, Catch Me In Your Net.

Sunlight, no flash.

Brucci Typhoon Lagoon is the base color, and I used Wet n Wild French White Creme to stamp the fishnet pattern from Konad (yes, real konad!! o_o) plate M57.

Sunlight, no flash.

Then, on my ring finger, I applied a purple fimo butterfly. It's supposed to be caught in the net. lmao.

Natural light, no flash.

Lastly, because I couldn't help myself, I put on one coat of Finger Paints Floatin' on a Cloud, and finished the whole thing with two coats of Poshe. The Floatin' on a Cloud is ten times more obvious in person.

    I'm suprisingly happy with this design. I fear fimo, because in the wrong hands, it can look tacky and gaudy. And yes...my hands are so so wrong. But I like how subtle this is. I think the key for me will be to just use it in moderation, and to cut the stuff as thin as possible. When my nails get longer, I'll probably use more, but for now, this is enough. 

 And I bought the fimo from i_fact, a Hong Kong seller. I paid $6 USD for 100 canes, which I think is a pretty good deal.

   Muahaha, but that is not the haul that I mentioned in the title. I was talking about some stuff that I bought from maytheps-au.com. I don't really have plans for all this stuff, but I'm sure something will come up. 

I've been dying to have a set of these, for when I need to soak off some hardcore glitter. They even have a little scraper on the inside of the liquid receptacles to help with removal. 

I also got a 12 piece set of nail art brushes. ^_^

A set of rhinestone picker uppers. I've used toothpicks, but I hate how the splinter and have to be thrown away. I also have a silicone one from Sally's, but when I try to press in the gems, they like...slide around and mess up the design. I hope these will let me put them in neatly and securely. And they'd be good for decals, which toothpicks and the silicone picker upper does nothing for.

Clear rhinestones, in 10 shapes: round, square, rectangle, teardrop, crescent, heart, star, flower, triangle, and oval.

Oval Rhinestones in 12 Colors, Round Rhinestones in 12 colors.

Gold and Silver Beads.

These things are seriously tiny. And they move in the package by themselves, so I think mine are haunted.

    Demon infested beads aside, I'm really happy with the service I received from this company. The products appear to be of a good quality...the rhinestones aren't the nasty dull kind, the brushes feel sturdy and aren't shedding, and the soakers have good rubber seals. They have scary fast shipping too. I ordered on June 15th, my order shipped out on the 17th, and I received it this afternoon. Considering the weekend and the fact that this stuff came from Hong Kong, that's really amazing. And best of all, the prices are really great. This stuff came out to $20 USD, which is inexpensive to me, considering what I got. 

   They also have an ebay store where the shipping is just as fast, and it's free. I think the ebay store is better for individual or smaller purchases, like if you want a few rhinestone wheels or some acrylic powder or something. But for bigger purchases, I think the storefront is far more convenient, because there's a cart and if you register, they keep track of your purchases. 

   Well, that's enough shameless promotion for today. I hope everyone has a great and relaxing evening! 

Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost + Konad

           I'm not wearing this today, but I wanted to post a color that I wore recently, Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost, and the konad print that I did over it. So polish pics and review first, and then konad pics. And, I have to say that I manipulated these pictures..my camera was picking up the wrong color entirely, so I had to correct it to match what I saw on my nails.

Caribbean Frost is a metallic, sea green polish. It actually looks much like the waters in the Caribbean...clear and bright.

Natural light, no flash. 

Natural light, no flash. 

For comparison's sake, here's the unretouched version of the photo.

     Besides the fact that this polish does not get along well with my camera, I think it's fabulous. The color is beautiful and perfect for warm weather. And the formula is amazing. The pictures are all with only two coats of color, and there were no issues with dragging or brushstrokes. Dry time was quick, and overall, I can definitely put this into my category of nail polishes to put on when it's late and I need to quickly slap on a color and hit the sack. Not bad for 99 cents, man.

    

    After this was dry, I decided to Konad over it.

I used plate M57, and the circled pattern. 

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

    I stamped the pattern with Sally Hansen White On, and then topped it with one coat of Nubar Opulent Pearl, for a little iridescence. The pattern is smudged, but that's my fault, not Opulent Pearl's. The flakes show up when the picture is enlarged. But anyway, this definitely confirmed my suspicions about Opulent Pearl...it definitely needs to be put over lighter colors. 

   And I need to complain about Konad real quick.

Wtf, man?! Why the patterns so small for?! My thumb so looks so jank right now because I had to double stamp on it, and my nails are not especially long or anything. I think they're normal. They need to make the plates with full nail patterns bigger, so they can make the patterns bigger and so people don't come out with jank looking manicures. Shooo. *sucks teef*  (end rant ^_^;)