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 ^_^;)

Nicole by OPI Dream Catcher

           Since yesterday was Saturday, and I was fully planning on procrastinating my way through life, I got a chance to swatch some polishes. I'm not going to post all of them (more on that later) but I did want to get this one up as it rounds out the last of my Nicole by OPI shades. The name of this lovely polish is Dream Catcher.

Dream Catcher is a pale tangerine jelly base, absolutely packed with silver shimmer.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. The sun really warms up the shade.

     Dream Catcher is pretty much what I wanted Peach Sherbet to be. It's warm, sparkly, squishy, and very flattering. The formula was easy too. The only problem that I had with it was that it was so damn sheer. I don't even know who in their right mind makes something so sheer, and doesn't intend for it to be layered. This here is SIX coats. Yes, SIX coats. And it needed every last one of them too. I may end up re-swatching this, and if so, I'll wear it over a white instead of on its own. 

   And the reason why I'm not going to post most of my other swatches is because of my cuticles!!  Thanks to the macro function on my camera, I see now that my cuticles are a train wreck, severely in need of emergency assistance. Last week, they did not look like this....they were not the best cuticles ever, but they weren't this ugly, and I know exactly why. I ran out of my Beauty Secrets NPR, and my Mango Mend at the same time (last week). Since then, my cuticles have gotten uglier and uglier, no matter what I try. I look back at my cuticles in some of the pictures from before, and it makes me sniffle a little.
So I'm going to have to break my no buy and make the trek to Sally's to stock up on Beauty Secrets and Mango Mend. Or maybe they'll send me a coupon for free shipping and I can get it that way. Whichever. And I know it's bad...I shouldn't break my no buy. But this is a serious matter!

   Already, I've used cuticle remover in the corners (that's where most of the ugly is) and I've been applying plenty of oil to my hands all day. And my cuticles feel and look (IMO) a little better already. Hopefully, when I get everything I need, my ugly cuticles will soon be naught but a distant memory. ^_^

    

     

NOTD: Nicole by OPI Party at 3AM! + Fauxnad

            Today, I'm wearing Nicole by OPI Party at 3AM! The exclamation point is their's, not mine. This is a pretty polish to be sure, but it's not thaaat pretty to where I'll be exclaiming over it every time I write its name. But it was lots of fun to photograph, so there are going to be tons of pictures.

Party at 3AM! follows the trend of the past two NOPI's  that I've shown on this blog. It's a black creme base, packed with shimmer. In this case, the shimmer is violet most of the time, but will occasionally show blue. 

Sunlight, no flash. We already know the deal with the bottle. There it is lurking in the corner.

I just need to post this bottle shot. Too bad it's not doing all this on the nail. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Artificial light, no flash.

Sunlight, and flash. The picture is washed out, but this was the only light that would let me capture the color change. 

Sunlight, no flash.

        Party at 3AM! is beautiful. Full stop. 

        Although it does that annoying thing where it just looks black indoors, when the light hits it right, the violet shimmer pops right out. Sometimes, it even makes me feel like the base color is really dark purple and not black. But no, it is black.Anyway, if I was going to be indoors for the most part of the time, I wouldn't wear this. It's paradoxical, because this is not a summer shade, but really, that's the only time that its beauty can really be appreciated.

         The formula was great. No dragging or streaking, not too thick or too runny....it went on like butta. This is three coats, with a healthy dose of Poshe on top. The topcoat is really necessary to get it looking its best, because without it, the sparkle isn't that cute. 

       

    Then, I made a design over it with my B14 fauxnad plate:

I used the pattern right below my middle finger, in between the doggy and four flowers.

I stamped the pattern at my cuticle with Sally Hansen White On, and then I covered the whole thing with one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. I need to learn to leave well enough alone though, because I think I liked it better sans Fairy Dust.

NOTD: Capri Coral + Konad

           I decided to keep Capri Coral on for another day, because I really like this color. But I didn't want to wear it the same way, so I konaded over it. 
   

I used the circled pattern on the Konad M20 plate. 

I double stamped the flowers on, side by side. It still looked a little naked, so I put a rhinestone in the center of each one. Then I sealed it all over with Poshe, and that was it.

   I used Wet n Wild Black Creme to stamp on the flowers, and of course, Borghese Capri Coral was the base color. In retrospect, I should not have put the rhinestones in there, but that's okay. It looks good enough to wear for today.

NOTD: Borghese Capri Coral

           After removing Peach Sherbet, I replaced it with Borghese Capri Coral, a color I've been meaning to wear forever. 

Capri Coral is pretty. It's an uber bright, teetering on the edge of neon, coral-ish creme. I say coral-ish, because when I look at it, I don't think coral. I definitely think more...bright pink with a splash of orange. Which is not really coral, to mee....

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     Now this, I love. I love how the color looks with my skin, and it's an instant mood lifter for me. It's just so cheerful and bold.

     I liked Capri Coral's formula too. It was nice. Not as well pigmented (this is three coats, and I still feel like I can see a hint of VNL) as I would like, but it was easy to apply and dry time was good. And it dried so shiny! I almost forgot to even put on my topcoat, because it was shiny already. 

     And I liked the brush! It's two little brushes stuck together:

Which looked scary at first, but wow, it works great, and it actually took a little less time to paint my nails than normal. The color applied smoothly and evenly in two strokes, and I liked how heavy the brush felt in my hand. Nice and sturdy. ^_^

Nubar Peach Sherbet

           After a few days of walking in the darkness, I was ready to come into the light. So I reached for Nubar Peach Sherbet, since it looked really promising in the bottle. A pretty, apricotty shimmer with plenty of sparkle...the perfect thing for a sunny spring day. Right? Haaa, wrong!

Peach Sherbet up close. It's a ton of gold shimmer in a pale, bronzed-peach base.

And you can't see it in the first picture, but please peep the shrinkage at the tip. And this was after I had worn it for about...six hours. 

I was holding the essie because I couldn't hold the Nubar bottle without having light reflecting off my nails at crazy angles. But it's there in the corner, like that creepy cousin who always stands off to the side in the family reunion pictures, staring doom into the camera. Anyway, this is sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

With one coat of Essie Matte About You. Sunlight, no flash.

     I reallyyy do not like this color. I was hoping for a shimmery, peachy, glittery confection and instead I got a hot ass mess. Looking at the pictures now, it doesn't look that bad, but when I was wearing it, I would stare at it and think "Yuck". Instead of looking sweet and warm, Peach Sherbet came out looking frosty and metallic. Frosty and metallic is okay some of the time, but with this color...I don't know. I just didn't like it. And it looked really...rough. I used topcoat, but it just looked broke down. Bleh. It does look much better in its matte incarnation, though. 

     On the positive side, the formula was nice. It was sheer, but not as bad as some. These pictures are all with four coats. And removal is easy.

    Wanna know how I know?

     Kay, it's because I took this off right after my last morning class. I have a three hour break in between my morning and afternoon classes today, and I used some of that time to change my polish, because I couldn't take it anymore.

   
Why you trying to play me, Nubar?! T__T

NOTD: Puppy Love

           This design was inspired by the wonderful girls in my dorm, who fight with and scream at their boyfriends at all hours of the night. 

      I used the puppy and the flower design in the center from this fauxnad plate. I need to take some good stock photos of these plates for future reference.

This looked much better in my mind's eye. I promise.

Close up of accent nail. I almost used the little hysterical girl from my fauxnad B11 plate, but then I decided that I'd rather have a cute, silent doggy/whatever this thingy is instead.

     The base polish is three coats of Orly Iron Butterfly. I stamped the flowers with Sally Hansen Celeb City, and the puppy was created with Brucci Snow White. The little heart came from a packet of decals from Rite Aid. Like I said earlier, this looked so much better in my mind, and I really should have only stamped the flowers on my nail once, but it's cute enough to wear for today. 

     My real problem is that I couldn't find any polishes in my stash that would work with the plates and show up against Iron Butterfly. This is why I need some chromes and holos from China Glaze.  Or some real, actual Konad paints. ^_^; Anyway, I may try this again with more compatible colors and less flowers. 

    Also, in the course of doing this, I had to use a shiny topcoat over Iron Butterfly, so I snapped a few pics. I'm usually a big proponent of wearing mattes as mattes, but this one looks way too good shiny. It really brings out the color...when Iron Butterfly is matte, the shimmer makes it look dark grey at times. But with the topcoat, it maintains its blackness.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, soft flash. 

And that's all!