Nubar Violet Sparkle

              Fwee it's Friday again!! Has this week been uber fast, or is it just me? The days seem to just be flying right by...I feel like tomorrow, I'm going to wake up, and it'll be time to pack back up for school. Or even worse, I'll be a little old lady in a house full of cats and nail polish and nothing more. Spending my days throwing rocks at kids, telling them to get off my lawn. Even though there are no kids and no lawn. :( 

       But I digress. In celebration of Friday and because the sun was shining like mad, I wore Nubar's Violet Sparkle.

Violet Sparkle is as simple as its name. It's a ton of small square and round violet glitter in a clear base. The shade of violet is pretty even... it doesn't lean towards either blue or red. Or at least not to my unprofessional eyes. lol!

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

     Violet Sparkle truly surprised me with how much I loved it. I'm the kind of person who likes more complicated nail polish....I like for a polish to be holographic and to have like ten different kinds of glitter and to be duochrome, with a secret shimmer, and maybe some flakies in there too, all at the same time. So I hemmed and hawed when it came time to put this in my cart, because I thought it would be boring. But I was wrong!! Violet Sparkle is so glittery, and the shade of purple is so saturated and rich that it's hard to keep my eyes off it. I found myself walking down the street moving my hands and watching the glitter dance in the light. I don't think I'd go as far as to call it one of my favorite purples, but it's not a purchase I regret in the least. 

    Application was easy and fuss-free. The polish slid right on, and was opaque in three, moderate thickness coats. It did have a matte-ish and rough finish, which took three coats of Poshe to get fully smooth and shiny. I have lots and lots of bubbles on my nails (I turned back on my fan too soon, I guess)....when I tilt my hand just right, I can see them. And I nicked the surfaces of some nails when I was cutting something. But Violet Sparkle really hides such imperfections, which is nice. 

   And that's all I've got for today! I hope everyone is having a lovely Friday evening!

Urban Decay Cosmopolitan

           There's a bajillion stuff to do today and not enough time to do it all, so today, I have a quick post about another Urban Decay polish, Cosmopolitan.

Cosmopolitan is a purple-leaning burgundy jelly base, stuffed with small silver and pink square glitter. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash. 

     Cosmopolitan is a really pretty polish.  It has a ton of depth and richness, and really looks amazing in sunlight. The jelly base is all glossy and the glitter twinkles from inside the jelly and just gives it an incredibly appetizing look. Like, I really wanted to eat my nails. Funnily enough, bottle Cosmopolitan really fails to impress. It only looks good on the nails, which is better than the other way around, I guess.

   The formula on Cosmopolitan was wonderful too. There were no problems with application at all, and it was opaque in three coats. Cosmopolitan also dried smooth and shiny, but I did use one coat of topcoat just to really enhance the shine.

   And that's all! Have a great day, everyone!

Urban Decay Bruise

            I'm so mad at my nails...they just refuse to obey me. I had another break and a split on my left hand on Sunday, and instead of fixing them, I opted to cut everything off and start fresh. So pretty much, right now my nails are rightt back to where they were in March. I'm trying to be optimistic, because it is easier to do things now, and I can enjoy the Bundle Monster plates more easily. Plus, now my nails can grow back strong and healthy. But I can't help but still be mad. Maybe if I baby them, they will be back by August? Bleh, idk. 
       But that's enough whining for today. I'm going to move on to what I reallyy wanted to talk about, which is Urban Decay Bruise, the first in a trio of beautiful, but very sadly, discontinued colors. 
Also, please excuse my disgusting hangnail. 

Bruise is an interesting fusion of blackened eggplant and peacock blue, with a strong green shimmer. In the picture, the shimmer is showing blue (my camera is obsessed with blue) but really..it's green.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. 

      I realllyy failed at capturing the aptly-named Bruise. Aptly named because it really does remind one of a bruise.Both have that slightly sickening but oddly fascinating quality where purple, blue, and black morph together to form an ugly-beautiful color that sort of defies description. The green shimmer is a great detail and elevates the overall look from just being a bruise to being a bruise-colored beetle sitting in the sun. Very pretty.
    Application was okay too. The first coat was a little streaky, but it got much smoother and easier as I put on more coats. The pictures are with three coats, and one layer of topcoat. Drying time was exceptionally good too, because normally, I can just use an orangewood stick to push the polish off my nail after I'm done swatching it. Polishes usually come off in one big, plastick-y lump. But with Bruise, I couldn't do that because it had completely dried in the ten or so minutes that it took me to take my pictures.
    Even though they don't make Bruise no more, it's happily not so hard to find! It's still available through ebay for a reasonable price. I purchased mine from sledgely76, and got fast shipping and awesome service from her. 
  And finally, I was wondering if anyone had any tips to help me hang on to my nails. Right now, I try to keep my hands moisturized, I use a glass file, I clean under my nails with a brush, I never use my nails as tools, I don't pick at things, I use Duri, and I take biotin. I'm also going to switch back to Beauty Secrets remover, as well as making sure to scrub my nails before painting. Maybe residual nail polish remover is drying them out and making them break? If there's anything else I'm forgetting or if there's something that you do or use that works well for you, I'd be super happy to hear about it. Thanks! ^_^

Nina Ultra Pro Purple-Xing

            I've been wanting to do a post about Nina Ultra Pro Purple-Xing for a really long time. I've actually worn it about three or four times, but there was always something interfering with the picture taking...not enough time, dry ugly cuticles, bad weather, couldn't find my camera, a chipped nail, etc. But today, everything happened to work well enough together that I could take pictures. My cuticles still look kind of busted, but that's okay.

Purple-Xing is kind of complicated. It's a mid-range purple jelly base packed with a riot of multi-sized glitter. There's round, square, and hex glitter, and they're silver, violet, and holographic, with some of the larger hex glitter being that like...transparent, opalescent stuff. And then running beneath all that stuff, there's a electric blue shimmer thing going on. It's ridiculously entertaining to look at. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. 

The second one is blurred a bit to show a little bit of how Purple-Xing sparkles in the light.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

I think you can see a little bit of the blue shimmer thing I mentioned earlier.

      Purple-Xing is one of my favorite purple polishes in my collection. I can't really give it a solid rank, but it's definitely up there. It's just so flashy and fun, and I really appreciate all the thought and work that I'm sure must have gone into this color. And for the money, it's a great value. 

   Application was just okay. Purple-Xing seemed on the watery side to me, so it was a little difficult to control, but that aside, there were no problems. It was perfectly opaque in three coats, but dried a little gritty. I used two coats of Out the Door Topcoat and one layer of Poshe on top to get it perfectly smooth and shiny. Dry time was reasonable as well. I went to sleep 30 minutes after application, and there were no sheet marks, wrinkles, or dings that I could see or feel. And as far as I can tell, it wears fantastically. I wore it for five days at one point, and when I took it off, there was no chipping and barely any tipwear. 

  My only solid gripe about Purple-Xing is the name. Why though? Why name it that? How do you even say it? Purple Crossing? Purple Shing? Purple Exing? Purple Christing? How? I would have been happier if they had named it Purple Glitter. Or even the terrifically overused Purple Rain would have been better. Or Barney's Tweaking. Anything but Purple-Xing. 

Sorryy!!!

          Whee, it's been a while. I hope everyone had an excellent week and is getting ready to enjoy their weekend. I've been MIA because long story short, I got into a huge fight with my mom and it made me really mad. So I started watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand to take my mind off it, and ended up hopelessly entangled in that madness. I have done pretty much nothing this week but watch that show. I didn't even do my nails, so I still don't have anything new to post, but there are some  things (one a polish, the other a fauxnad) that I haven't posted yet. So first, I'll do the polish and then the fauxnad. This is Nubar Prevail, from the Modern Matte Collection.

Prevail is a slightly shimmery, deep eggplant matte polish. It has a little grey in there too.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

    I'm a total fan of Prevail. The shade of purple is really rich and royal, as well as unique. And I really like how it's a true, flat, matte without appearing too chalky or gross like some mattes can. 

   Application gave me a little bit of trouble though. Prevail didn't instantly dry like my other mattes, which in theory should have made it easier to apply. But instead, I had lots of problems with dragging and consequent bald spots. That said, I am not used to working with this type of matte, so it really could just be my inexperience that led to the problem and not so much the formula itself. 

  And I also wanted to show the mani that I ended up wearing to my mom's birthday get-together. I intended to wear China Glaze Cosmic, but it was ooglay, so I had to nix that plan. In the end, I wore this:

The base is Milani I'm Online, and the stamp is the interlocking ring pattern from BM21. I stamped it on with Color Club After Hours and then covered the whole thing with a layer of Essie Matte About You. I did have to double stamp and there were smudgies here and there, but overall, I was really pleased at how it came out. I got a few compliments on it too! ^_^

Nubar Purple Rain

           Today is looking like a good day...the sun is shining, it's not too hot outside, and I finally got off my butt and did my nails. I'm currently wearing Nubar Purple Rain, which was a color that I was fiending over for a really long time. And then I got it, and it took me about...three months to wear it. lol!

Purple Rain is a deep, mid-range purple jelly base full of round violet (or silver, I really can't tell)  and holographic glitter. My thumb nail (and only my thumb nail o_O) was plagued with bubbles, so this picture kind of sucks. Sorry!

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

     I really love Purple Rain!! It's my favorite kind of purple (dark and rich) and the glitter really sparkles and shines. At the same time, the sparkle is on the subtle side, which adds to Purple Rain's beauty. This is not a glitter polish that will blind your friends, but it'll probably distract you on a sunny day. It's like..glitter polish for adults. If it were dark blue, or if the sky was purple, I'd probably liken this to a night sky full of stars.

    But even though I love Purple Rain as a color, I hated the application of it. The first coat was really streaky, draggy, and all around, just horrible to put on. By the third coat, the polish went on pretty smoothly and easily, but those first two were nothing short of war. That won't deter me from wearing this, because it's just too sexy. But I will not smile or enjoy myself while I'm putting it on. >:o

   I kind of want to Konad over this, but I have to go. Maybe I'll do it when I come back.  I hope everyone is having a great day!

Zoya Bebe

            So I totally did not change my nails....I just kind of forgot. But that's okay, because today is kind of cloudy and lame and not really good weather for taking pictures. So I'll be posting my final Zoya...I had this post written and done like two weeks ago, but I just never pressed the publish button.  

Bebe is a pale pearly pink base with tons of multi-colored microshimmer. The shimmer is mostly silver, but it does flash the occasional pink, green, and blue. The color in this picture is all wrong, but it was the only one that showed the shimmer clearly.

Sunlight, no flash. This picture is much truer to color.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

    Bebe is a really pretty, ladylike color. The pale pink in combination with the shimmer gives it a girly, airy look. It makes me think of Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.  I miss my old nails. :(

   Formula-wise, Bebe is pretty good. Like the other Zoyas I have, it applied really smoothly and easily. My only complaint is that Bebe is really sheer, and I ended up struggling with it a bit, because I wanted it opaque. On the Zoya site, they give it a three in the intensity department, but I think that they were being a bit generous...two would be more accurate. After trying it in various ways, I ended up with what I have in the pictures, which is five coats of Bebe over one coat of Seche Ridge Filler. Five coats is alot of work....Bebe is cute, but she's not that cute. So going forward, I guess I'll just be using it as it was intended (as a sheer) or over a similarly colored base.