You look like Vegas, Baby!

I haven't been feeling too inspired to post lately, but you can all thank the very kind sales associate at the liquor store for making me want to share this beauty with you. Yesterday, while buying a very serviceable bottle of Moscato D'Asti in which to drown my sorrows, he got one look at my nails, and, excited by the glitter, exclaimed, "You look like Vegas, Baby!" And I decided, you know what? I do.

Despite my deep love for Deborah Lippman's glitter polishes, I had been resisting buying this one for some reason, probably because I don't particularly like brown nail polishes. However, my mother recently called me from Nordstrom and said, "Do you need anything?" And I said, "Yes. Glitter." And she picked this up for me. Gotta love that woman.

This beauty is called Superstar, and has a brown jelly base the color of weak coffee that is packed full of copper glitter. Totally opaque (not just can't see the nail line opaque, but can't see through the nail opaque, which I favor) in two coats, this has worn very well despite me being very hard on my nails since I applied it two days ago. My primary complaint about this color is that the glitter is not smooth. What I mean when I say that is that some glitter-packed polishes feel as smooth as a creme on the nail and you can't feel the texture of the glitter at all, but even after a shocking three coats of top coat, this one still feels bumpy to the touch.

Also, despite those shocking three coats of top coat (including my usual go-to when I have this problem, Orly Glosser), this never really looked very shiny. I am a big fan of glossy, wet-looking nails, but this looks somewhat dull to me. I'm not sure if it's the fault of the base color or the glitter, but it could pack even more of a punch if you could see your reflection in it.

Overall, I give Deborah Lippman Superstar a gold star, though I know it is going to take forever to remove all of that glitter! Polish to the People!

Drinking while Polishing: A Cautionary Tale

As a person obsessed with polish and committed to bringing that love to the people, I want to also educate the people so that the bad things that happen to me do not befall you. There are several things one should not do while drinking adult beverages: drive, call ex-boyfriends or girlfriends, and polish one's nails. Last night, while I was not drunk, I had a few vodka and tonics, and rather than just live to fight another day and leave yesterday's perfectly serviceable manicure on, I figured, take it off! Do something else! So I did. I could not bear to share with you a picture of what it looked like before clean-up, so we're just going to pretend everything turned out okay in the end as the photographic evidence proves. But it was bad. Bad like the first time you painted your nails and got more polish off the nail than on bad. Bad. Shiver. Anyway.

Now, I picked the combo when I was still sober, so it's no mistake that I put one of the most difficult to remove glitters, China Glaze Nova, over Color Club Gossip Column. I really did mean to do that, though I know I will pay when it comes time to remove it tomorrow. But I just couldn't resist. I had a horrible week, and I needed glitter. Big, loud, holographic glitter.

As I mentioned yesterday, I love Color Club with a deep passion, and Gossip Column is no exception. It is a lovely creme, opaque in two coats (but I had vodka, so I did three against my normally better judgment), that, when you are not blurry-eyed with drink, applies so smoothly and evenly that it makes you want to cry. This picture is actually with flash which shows better than natural light pics how sort of dark and stormy of a teal it is. I have a matte MAC eyeshadow this color, and it's really one of my favorite kinds of shades. Vibrant without being bright, bold without being loud. And Nova? Well, what can I say. It's a dense as all heck, silver holographic glitter, hexagonally (is that a word? It is now.) shaped, and a real pisser to get off. Oh well. Thankfully tomorrow is Saturday, so I can spend all day wrapped in acetone. Even with the China Glaze glitter, which I find dries very slowly in general, this was perfectly dry in 30 minutes after a good coat of Poshe.

So, yes, kids, be careful, and do not mix polish with vodka. Because you will have to get up early the next day to painstakingly remove the excess from your fingers. And you will still be secretly picking it off your cuticles by lunchtime. Until next time, Polish to the People!

Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings the Blues

Every year for their anniversary, Nordstrom has a big anniversary sale, and as a part of that sale, different cosmetics companies will release some kind of collection, special product, or Nordstrom exclusive shade to celebrate, well, one of my favorite stores in the world. Deborah Lippmann, a pretty nice department store polish brand, has been taking that opportunity for the last couple of years to bring us some very fun glitters - some, not all, like last year's Funky Chunky which looked about as yummy as it sounds. This year, they released just for Nordstrom's use a set of three polishes called the All That Jazz collection as well as two other polishes (I believe all of these will be available on Lippmann's website later in the year), all of which are like glitter orgasms.

I just got the set in the mail last week, so after the LiLo manicure, I had to break into it immediately, and out of the three colors, a blue with chunky silver glitter, a magenta with magenta glitter, and a rose glitter in a clear base, I had to go for the blue. I am a glitter H00R.

Lighting was not my friend today, but here is this stunner, Lady Sings the Blues. It is a deep blue base filled with silver glitter, both small and large pieces of hexagonal glitter. Some people hoped it would look like the elusive Essie Starry, Starry Night; it doesn't really, but it does look like SSN's loud-mouthed cousin, so if you want a blue jelly with some kind of silver glitter, this is your girl. What really wowed me about this shade was the application. I will expound on what it means to be a jelly polish in a moment, but usually jelly polishes require several coats before you can no longer see the nail line beneath it, but not this bad boy. I am a serial three coater, and I simply couldn't justify more than two coats. It applied smoothly and dried very nicely with a coat of Seche Vite. Now, what do I mean by jelly?

This is a little lesson for the people out there who are not as, shall we say, totally crazy about nail polish as I am. A favorite finish among nail fanatics is the jelly finish, which I am demonstrating above by holding jelly (actually it's preserves, but I don't think too many Americans make much of a distinction). You know how jelly is sort of transparent, but you can't actually see through the jar when you look at it? And, depending on the jelly, sometimes you can't even see through it when you put it on toast? But you know, somehow, that the light penetrates it somehow so that it can't be totally opaque? That's what we mean by jelly nail polish. The light penetrates it giving it a kind of squishy appearance, but it isn't necessarily clear or sheer. Some jellies are a little easier to deal with than others. This is by far the best in terms of coverage. Lippmann has some other very problematic jellies like Rehab which is named for a fantastic song and a pretty color, but took me seven coats the last time I tried it to get it to the opacity that I like. And even for me, that's not cool.

So, yeah, I love this polish. It is the awesome. Polish to the People!

July 4th Mani

I know, I've been MIA and I never posted that neutral mani I promised. I just couldn't. It was.... unsightly. Then I got an airport mani on my way home from the trip that required the neutral mani because I couldn't handle the sheer polish anymore, and that wasn't really worthy of posting either. So I decided to come back with a bang!

American Independence Day is one of those great holidays that just beg you to come up with some obnoxious, over-the-top manicure with glitter and nail art. Other such holidays are Christmas, Halloween, and the first day of football season.

As such, there's a lot going on with my July 4th mani. It's got an accent finger, it's got Bundle Monster, and it's got glitter. It's also a combination of easy to find, not so easy to find, and hard to find polishes, because if I don't show you something it's almost impossible to get, how will you know to look up to me?

Okay, on to the manicure. For this monstrosity, for the majority of my fingers, I used a white base, OPI's The Ghostess with the Mostess, the glow in the dark treat from OPI's 2008 Halloween line. As a consumer, you could only get a mini of this, and only nail professionals got a complimentary full-sized bottle, so if you could find a nail professional with loose morals, you could get a regular bottle of this. Which I did. So, as you can imagine, it's very difficult to get now, but honestly the only reason I used it is that it was the only white I have. Yes, that's right: I, crazy nail polish maniac, have no white polish. Like other whites, it is streaky and somewhat difficult to work with, but it does glow in the dark (pretty well, actually), and it served its purpose.

Over the white is Untold by Illamasqua, which I bought this week when I had the chance to go to one of the few Sephoras in the US who carry it. I was always attracted to this primary red glitter when lusting after Illamasqua, and now it is mine! This is one coat, so if you wanted this to be opaque, you'd probably be looking at three coats or so. Like all Illamasquas, this was perfection.

For the ring fingers, I pulled out an old stand by, China Glaze Frostbite. It's a nice shimmery, bright, primary blue, and it actually applies and dries pretty well. I have a very hard time wearing China Glaze because of application, drying, and wear issues, but this one isn't actually too bad. The ring fingers also feature a Bundle Monster pattern in Konad white Special Polish.

Pretty festive, eh? Freedom and Polish to the People!

Essie Pretty Edgy and Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure

There are so few universal truths in life, but one that you can bet on with absolute certainty is that if there is a green nail polish in a ten mile radius, I will buy it. It doesn't matter if I already have one like it, I will still buy it. It is my favorite nail polish color, hands down, and any time I am not quite sure what color to wear, I will reach for green.

This is why when a brand like Essie, who usually create a safe array of neutrals and pinks, makes a fabulous green, I cannot control myself. As soon as I saw previews of their summer collection with this stunner, Pretty Edgy, I knew I would love it. When Essie decides to think outside of their usual comfort zone and make a green, blue, or some other unusual shade, they really do something special.

I was hoping for some more natural light to take these pictures, but the sun in Pittsburgh wasn't cooperating with me, so I had to go with a bit of flash, which is okay because it didn't alter the color of this too much. Pretty Edgy is a nice, fairly bright, green creme. It applied nearly opaque in two coats, but I added a third since I almost compulsively apply polish three coats at a time. It wasn't streaky in the least, and applied like butter.

You may be asking yourself already, "Does this girl ever just wear a creme alone?" The answer is yes, but right now I have a split on a nail on my right hand that requires a patch to keep it from spreading, so I like to use glitters and shimmers to hide the lumpiness of the patch. Once it is grown out, provided I don't get any more splits, you will be more likely to see me with cremes on their own. So, I added a coat of the truly fabulous Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, an iridescent flakey glitter that looks beautiful over almost anything. It is limited edition, so run, don't walk, to your nearest CVS, Walgreens, etc., to buy it, because it is beyond awesome. If you can't get it, Nubar's new 2010 is a good dupe.

I usually don't wear polishes for more than a couple of days, but I wanted to say a word about wear. It is really difficult for one person to give advice on which polishes will wear best on others, not just because of what base and top coat each individual uses, but also because of body chemistry. For instance, Essie and OPI consistently have the best wear for me (and are usually the brands I wear when I go on vacation since I don't always have time to repaint when I am away from home), while brands like China Glaze and Zoya can sometimes chip on me pretty quickly if I am not careful. Other people have bad luck with Essie and OPI and great success with others.

That being said, I was pretty impressed with the wear of this combo given the beating I gave my nails yesterday. I cooked an elaborate dinner for my father for Father's Day which included baking a pecan pie and making braciole (stuffed Italian beef rolls), all of which included the certain abuse of my manicure. Between shopping, cleaning, doing dishes, and even opening the wrapper on a new DVD, I had no chips and nearly no tip wear. That's pretty impressive, if you ask me!

I hope to do some nail art with my new Bundle Monster plates this evening, so pics of that may come later today or tomorrow. Until then, Polish to the People!

Funky Fingers!

For my first real post, I present some hidden treasures of the nail polish kingdom, Funky Fingers. The brand is made by Forsythe, who also make the equally delectable Color Club polishes. They can be found at the most fabulous dollar store ever, Five Below, and are 3 for $5, a real bargain! Okay, on to the pics (which you can clicky clicky for a bigger view)!

The blue creme is called Cottage Stripes. The glitter makes it look a little darker on my nail, but on its own, it is a beautiful cornflower blue, opaque in two coats, but could stand a third for good measure.

On top I added Bella's Boy, a nice iridescent glitter in a teal tinted clear base. As I mentioned, the base is tinted just enough to darken what's underneath it, but it isn't too bad. I almost never meet a glitter I don't like, so I have few problems with it. It is a tad thick, but dried quickly with a fast dry topcoat and didn't bubble.

I really love Funky Fingers. They apply like a dream, if a little thinly, like their Color Club counterparts, and though the bottle looks, well, funky, the handle is really nice, and perfect for a nail novice. The brush itself is full but not huge. Overall, awesome.

Well, that's all for now. If you have any questions or something you want to see bring it on, and until next time, Polish to the People!