Pure Ice - French Kiss

Application: Smooth
Coats: 2
Source: Walmart
Comments: This is a beautiful rich blue. Cleanup was a pain because it was so pigmented! Either way, this is the color I chose on my right hand as a base for the blue glitter franken.

 With flash:

Sally Girl - Mean Streak

Application: Smooth, although a little harder because of the tiny brush.
Coats: 2, no topcoat
Source: Sally Beauty Supply
Comments: I was looking for blues to use as a base for my blue glitter franken. This is one of them. It's a decent color, but really needs three coats for opacity.

Frankenglitteration!

I stopped in at Big Lots (I so wish they'd kept the name Pic n Save!) the other day and ended up with a few polishes.
First, has anyone seen these striping polishes? I would have passed on them, but I noticed that they were made by Diamond Cosmetics, so figured I would give them a try.

Then I noticed a plethora of these boring Wet N Wild multi packs. So dull, blah blah, but wait, at least 6 of them could be good for frankening! Built in shimmer? Check. Light enough color to not interfere with added pigment? (the middle four) Check. For four bucks, I couldn't go too wrong, right?

I decided to try frankening with glitter.

Started with this glitter and this bottle.

Poured out about 1/3 of the polish into any empty bottle for later use. Added glitter. Mira!

Swatched on a tip - one coat

Two coats:

And with topcoat:

Whaddya think?

Nina Ultra Pro - Leaf Me Alone

Application: Smooth
Coats: 2, no topcoat, still a bit of visible nail line.
Source: Sally Beauty Supply
Comments: Wowser! This is a fabulouus green. It's so fresh and squishy and fresh and... Oops, getting distracted. I guess the finish is what would be called a "jelly"?  I stamped the tips from Konad again - better on my left hand, but my right - not so good. Just need practice. Stamping polish was the unnamed light green pastel from Icing.

The next day, I played some more with this - this time with a Bundle Monster plate pattern:

Icing - Unnamed Pastel Yellow

Application: Streaky first coat, smooth second
Coats: 2, no topcoat
Source: Icing, by Claires (part of this multi-pack)
Comments: Another pretty yellow, though this one has more pastel (white) undertones than the last one I wore. I didn't keep this on  me as a mani because it's just too stark against my skin, and I didn't feel like wearing something with that much contrast. I did venture into Konad-land with it though, as shown in the last two pics.

I'm not very good at stamping, and that's especially obvious when I try using the french tip patterns! However, I do think the non-uniformity of the stamped patterns still keeps it interesting.   I used Sally Hansen Insta Dry - Flyin' Fuschia and then later added a red line with a Color Club Art Club striping polish.

Comparison; Petites - Tahitian Green, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - The Real Teal

Comments: I was able to capture the color of Tahitian Green more accurately in these pictures. Both polishes are gorgeous and apply easily. They're not as close in color as I originally thought. Below, from L to R:

Tahitian Green   |   The Real Teal   |   Tahitian Green   |   The Real Teal

I then decided to have some fun with stamping using a Bundle Monster pattern. I used an unnamed pastel green Icing polish, and Pure Ice - Free Spirit for stamping. The Icing polish shows up more on my nails, but neither one is really stark, which I like.

Petites - Tahitian Green

Application: Smooth
Coats: 2, no topcoat
Source: Rite Aid (can be found in most drugstores and Walmart)
Comments: This is my first Petites color, and a pretty one at that. It makes me feel like jumping in the pool! This actually has a little more green to it than my photos show. I'll try to show it more accurately in my next post - where I compare it to Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - The Real Teal. Either way, this is nice and shiny straight out of the bottle, with a healthy amount of shimmer.

Reader Request: Jordana - Smoke (Mattified)

Chi-Chi from The Phalanges Files said she'd like to see this color as a matte. Here is the original color again - here I used one coat, no topcoat.

Next, with one coat of China Glaze Matte Magic. Still a little shimmer peeking through.

And finally, with a second coat of Matte Magic.

Tip Management

You may remember this post about how I keep track of my polishes by swatching and numbering them on fake nail tips. In that post, I showed how I store them, separated by color group, in partitioned wooden trays. As someone who shops her swatched tips instead of her bottles of polish, that wasn't working for me because I would have to dig through them to see all the colors.  I also didn't want to mount them because then it would be hard to get colors side by side when I wanted to do comparisons.

I've solved this problem, though not on my own. I noticed on one of the blogs I follow, tips were glued on to wooden crafting sticks (can't remember what they're really called!). Excellent idea! This wasn't going to work for me because my tip swatches are of varying sizes, with the smallest ones being quite skinny. I found the perfect alternative though! Coffee stirring sticks! I already had these in the kitchen.

Just put a bead of hot glue on the end, attach the polished tip, y la voila! Problem solved. I just rubber band them in color groups now.

Comparison: Diamond Cosmetics - Tira-Mi-Su

*Thanks so much for your comments - I may not respond to all of them but do try to answer any questions. I do appreciate the time taken to post a comment!

After wearing this color, I realized I had at least two others in the same family: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails - Toffee and Color Club - Best Dressed List.

Colors used in this comparison - from left to right:
Diamond Cosmetics - Like Satin
Sally Hansen Hard As Nails - Toffee
Diamond Cosmetics - Tira-Mi-Su
Color Club - Best Dressed List

Where does that lighter color come in? Well besides using it on my thumb, I used it on my middle finger - two coats followed by one of Tira-Mi-Su. So from left to right below:
Sally Hansen Hard As Nails - Toffee
Diamond Cosmetics - Like Satin + Tira-Mi-Su
Diamond Cosmetics - Tira-Mi-Su
Color Club - Best Dressed List

Kind of boring, but no time for a fresh mani, so you know what I did...