CQ Gem Green

            Okay, confession time. My nails currently look a hot mess. I've been wearing Masquerade Ball since Saturday, and haven't had time for a full change. And because of the chips, I can't just layer something or konad over it. Add in that we are having some crappay weather here in the District, and you have a recipe for blog fail. So I'm going to show you guys something from my backlog. Meet CQ Gem Green, from the core line.

          

Gem Green is a pale and silvery mint green polish, with very weak holographic shimmer. My camera has a blue fetish, so it gave the pictures a bit too much turquoise. In reality, it's actually thisclose to being a perfect match for those green snuggies.  I forgot to take a picture of my hand next to my snuggie. 

But here's a generic picture:

If you don't have a snuggie, please get one. It will change your life.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

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     Gem Green was such a wonderful find for me. I think the shade of green is pretty unique. I can't even really describe it correctly. It's like there was a pale mint green, and they added a little bit of turquoise, a little bit of silver, and a touch of grey, and they all came together to make this gorgeous dirty green. When I leave my hand flat on the table, I see the dirty mint green, but when I lift my fingers a little, there's a more vibrant green that comes out in the center of the nail. It's very pretty. I'm a fan of the shimmer too, even though it doesn't make for a very good holographic effect. Like, if I look closely or hold my hand a certain way, I can see the holo-ness. But most of the times, I can't. 

    Gem Green also had a nice formula. It wasn't too thick or thin, and it didn't apply badly. I needed two coats for opacity, and then one more  thicker one to make it perfectly smooth. In these pictures, I didn't add topcoat, because the holo was already super weak, and I didn't want to completely kill it. But even without the topcoat, dry time was good. By the time I was done taking pictures (about 15-20 minutes) it was completely dry, and had a little gloss and shine to the surface. 

   And there's a winnah for my giveaway! I only had ten entries, so I thought that Random.org would be overkill. I asked the security guard to pick a number between 1 and 10, and he picked 9. Entry 9 was Li Lian from shortwidenails, so she was the winnah! Yayy! And thanks to the lovely ladies who participated! ^_^

And that's all I've got for today. Take care, everyone!

   

Vampy Week: Confetti Masquerade Ball

            Woww, this has been the wackest vampy week ever, huh? LOL. Foolish life, getting in the way of all my  hopes and dreams. But anyway, for today, I tried to pick a good one to end the week on, and (if I do say so myself) I think I did a pretty good job. Behold, Confetti Masquerade Ball:

Masquerade Ball is a thin black base with a crapload of coppery-red microshimmer. The shimmer is like the colored of freshly dried blood. The overall effect is a glowy, blackened burgundy polish. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

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          Masquerade Ball has to be one of the best reds I own. To be fair, I own like pretty much no reds because I tend to hate them, but still...this color is seriously hot. The shade of red itself is super rich, very pretty and flattering. And the overall effect of the polish is gorgeous...there's a ton of depth, and it does that thing where the center of the nail is red and the edges are black. It's not the most unique thing out there...I'm sure you'd be able to find a dupe for it. But but but...Masquerade Ball was only $1.99 so I think you'd be hard pressed to find a cheaper dupe.

         Masquerade Ball's formula was pretty middle of the road. It went on okay, but was a little thin, so I needed three coats to get it to bottle color. Dry time was pretty good though. 

        And as a reminder, this is the last day to enter my wittle giveaway. So if you'd like to enter, please leave your comment by midnight, EST. 

        Have an awesome Saturday, guys!

Nubar Unfaithful Red + Fauxnad

            Man...today was one of those days where halfway through, I had to stop and ask Jesus to take the wheel, because if not, I would have driven the car right off a cliff. I'm so le tired. But I just wanted to write a quick post about the konad that I did on my mani from yesterday, because I actually like this one. 

I used the little scrolly pattern from BM12, and stamped it on with China Glaze 2030. 

Then I put a little clear gem where the scrolly part was skinniest. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. 

      Lol, in all the frustration, embarrassment, misery, confusion and despair of today, my nails were the one thing that kept a smile on my face. And really, isn't that how it should be? 

Have a good night, everyone!

Vampy Week: Nubar Unfaithful Red

           Today, I'm wearing Nubar Unfaithful Red, from the Liquid Metals Collection. I'm not sure if it really counts...it ended up brighter than I expected, but whatever. I'm still counting it. lol!

Unfaithful Red is a bold, saturated, and slightly deep crimson red in a metallic finish. There's also an undercurrent of gold shimmer throughout, although the gold is way more evident in the bottle than it is on the nail. 

 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

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      Unfaithful Red is super hot...I'm looking forward to wearing it again when my nails are longer. It has a little bit of that awesome quality where it's bright in the center and darkens at the edges of the nail, and the faintly gold shimmer is a wonderful little detail. I felt so grown up (in a good way) wearing this today...much less like the Zoloft blobby. I'm only a tiny bit sad because I would have preferred something darker. Maybe a little closer to burgundy. 

     The formula was also very agreeable. Unfaithful Red was opaque in one smooth, buttery, trauma-free coat. I used two coats for security and out of habit, but I think I would have been able to get away with just one. It was already glossy, but I put one layer of topcoat anyway. It also dried really fast...thirty minutes after application, it was just barely dentable. So yay for Unfaithful Red! 


Oh yeah, and there are only three days left to enter my giveaway!

OPI Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow + Konad

            I have a test I'm supposed to be studying, so I'm gonna be quick. But in the interest of trying to post once a day, I just wanted to pop in and show what I wore on my hands today. Yesterday night, I only had about thirty minutes to spend on my nails and that wasn't enough time for a full color change. But I didn't want to do nothing, so I did some stamping, which turned out nicely, if I do say so myself. It was supposed to be like a garden at night, and it looked fine. But me being me, I just had to put a gem in there too, which is where things went horribly awfully wrong.

I used Konad Plate S9 and China Glaze Millenium for the stamping. 

The gem came from maytheps-uk on ebay. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

I think I should have just stamped some more stuff instead of sticking the gem in there. Or I should have quit while I was ahead. The good news is that I don't think anybody noticed.  LMAO. 

Have a great night everyone! ^_^

Vampy Week: OPI Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow

            I love vampy nail polish. It's kind of funny because in real life, I have zero sex appeal. Like, when I was a kid, I imagined that I'd grow up into Jessica Rabbit or Betty Boop, but I ended up more like:

LOL. 

Even so, something about those colors just make me happy. So when the lovely nail fanatics at the hair board that I frequent declared vampy week, I literally squealed in delight, and began planning. I may have to skip Tuesday and Thursday, but I'm going to try to wear as many vampy colors as possible this week. To start, I put on one of my more recent acquisitions, Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow, from OPI's Coleccion de España. 

Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow (HTAT from here on out) is a blackened blue-based green creme with a super secret shimmer. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. 

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Natural light, no flash. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. 

          Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow was one of those colors that I'd been going back and forth on. Like one of those that you keep on taking out of the basket before checkout. Finally, I caved and bought it, and in some ways, I'm really happy that I did. HTAT's shade of green is absolutely lovely. It's very deep, sexy and mysterious, and I can see it flattering a ton of skin tones. But if you aren't wearing it in the sunlight, most people will think that it is black, which for me is a bit of a drawback. I wear polish for my own benefit, and not for others, but still...it kind of sucks when a color doesn't look like what it is.

      Application-wise, HTAT also turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. The first coat was terribly streaky and difficult to apply. Second coat was better, but it still looked a mess. Third coat got it opaque, but bald spots and uneven-ness remained. The fourth coat finally made everything smooth and perfect, so I congratulated myself on a job well done, slapped on my topcoat, waited an hour and then went to bed. Please, someone tell me why I woke up to bubbles and sheet marks. 

     So even though I'm in love with the color (minus the whole black thing), the horrors of application will probably be enough to keep me from wearing this very often. Que tragico. 

   

    Do you guys like vampies? What are your favorites? 

Urban Decay Cult

            This past summer, I bought three old school Urban Decay polishes and posted about two of them here. I meant to do the last one, only I kept on getting distracted by other shineh things, so I never got around to it. But today, I'm going to rectify that situation, because I am wearing Urban Decay Cult. And I'm gonna show it to you. Muahaha. 

I took this picture a few months ago, which is why my thumb looks like that. But anyways, Cult is a seagreen to blue metallic polish (I'm reluctant to call it a foil) with a ton of gold shimmer. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

        Cult is such a pretty polish, and to me, it's very unique. It's like a mermaid-y foil, which I've never seen before. In most of the pictures, it looks blue, although it can look very green too. It's not a duochrome, but Cult is one of those polishes that is highly affected by the lighting situation. In sunlight and natural light, it looks blue. But I notice that in artificial lighting, it will go green. Like right now, I'm in my room and my nails look perfectly seagreen. I just couldn't capture that in a photo. :( Anyway, it's an awesome color. 

    Cult applied okay too...it was a little on the thick side and for a minute, I was a little concerned about brush strokes. But it went on okay and without bubbling, and with the help of one layer of topcoat, it dried quickly and evenly. I don't know if it's B3F though...it doesn't smell of chemically goodness, and that + the label is how I usually tell.

   I paid $4 for this (that includes shipping) and I'd definitely say it was a bit of a steal, especially because this color is discontinued. It's still available on ebay for a reasonable price too. 

  

  My internet acting up again, and I'm tired of fighting with it, so I'm going to go burn this shitty dorm down do non-virtual things. *shudders* I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing Sunday!