Rimmel - Wild Orchid and Sally Hansen - No Hard Feelings

APPLICATION: Smooth on Rimmel (I love the brush!), a little watery on the first coat of Sally Hansen.
COATS: 2 each
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Walgreens
COMMENTS: I have both these bottles next to me as  I write this, and noticed that they coincidentally also have the same "color number" - 370. How random! My camera doesn't capture purples well, but these are both lovely lavender polishes. The Sally Hansen was used on my ring finger as an accent.

In the sun:

Water Marble - with Kleancolors

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 1 of Kleancolor - White over base coat.
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Downtown Los Angeles beauty supply store.
COMMENTS:  I'm not sure why I tend to stay within a brand when I water marble lately, but I saw these colors together and just had to see them all at once on my nail.
Either way, I loved this so much I kept it on from Sunday night till last night (Friday). Not perfect, but so pretty to me!

Colors Used, from Left to right:
Kleancolor - Green Grass
Kleancolor - Pastel Yellow
Kleancolor - Love Affair
Kleancolor - Mango
Alternating left and right hands:

 

 

 

Tuesday night - added two coats of matte topcoat:

Friday morning - still going strong!

Simple Pleasures - Unnamed Dark Berry

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS:1 of each
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Simple Pleasures - Ross, Sally Hansen - my old stash, Ruby Kisses - local beauty supply, Love My Nails - Walmart
COMMENTS: This is a pretty color from one of the MANY Simple Pleasures polishes I've acquired (why do they have so many sets? I love sets and just can't resist!). I didn't want to  commit to full color, so did just tips over my base coat.

Then I decided to add some matching glitter at the edge courtesy of Sally Hansen - Planetary.

Just as an aside - I've had this glitter (and quite a few like it) since it came out. On the back it's dated 1999, which makes sense because by then I was out of college and working at my first job.
Anyway, back on topic - I then added a layer of Ruby Kisses Madmoiselle:

And  finally a layer of  Love My Nails - Dazzling

The final look is okay.  My husband liked it a lot because he likes being able to see my bare nail for a change. I of course keep noticing my stained nails...

Diamond Cosmetics - Plum Pie in the Sky and Drift Away

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 1 of Plum Pie in the Sky (darker purple), 2 of Drift Away (lighter purple), 1 of flakie franken
TOPCOAT?: Yes, in most photos
SOURCE: www.diamondcosmetics.com, ABOP flakie franken (Only 3 left in my blog sale!)
COMMENTS: I'd forgotten how nice the Diamond Cosmetics formula is. It was a pleasure to apply these two gorgeous purples. Loved them even more with my flakie franken over them!

One-coater! No topcoat

 

 Still no topcoat. The flakie franken dries matte.

With topcoat:

Outdoors the next day:

Indoors in regular lighting - it seems to sparkle the most in this light.

Golden Rose Super Shine & Lasting - #107

APPLICATION:  Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: www.goldenroseusa.com
COMMENTS: Given that I hauled so many neutral polishes, it seemed only fair that I wear one right away. I decided to start with one of the cheaper ones (this one is 99c right now) and it's quite lovely on me. It has the tiniest bit of micro-shimmer which makes the polish look even smoother on the nail. Nice!

Silly me, I felt like it needed something.  Silly, silly me!

The next night, Iproceeded to destroy it with  rub-on decals that were cute, but looked scary on the base color.

RAAWRR!

That lasted all of 2 minutes and I had to take it off.

You know you have a problem when...

COMMENTS:  I don't usually show photos of what I buy, but the sheer silliness of my polishaholic tendencies on my last Golden Rose order required that I share this.

I recently made a "last hurrah" order from Golden Rose (goldenroseusa) and I really must have been wanting a lot of  neutrals because I couldn't believe how many I actually ordered! The three in the top left of the photo are ones  I had already, but all the rest arrived this past week. I think I need to check myself into nail polish rehab...

And in the same order, despite the fact that I already have similar colors from the same brand as well - posted here: Golden Rose with Protein - 268 and 269

  and here: Golden Rose with Protein - 326

- I still picked up some more coral/orange colors (new ones seen below).

Yikes!
Admitting you have a problem is the  first step, right?  Now I just need to figure out how to regain my sanity (and my storage space) by drastically cutting down my stash!

Making crackle polish work for me

COATS: 2 of the base white, Kleancolor White
TOPCOAT?: Oh yes!
SOURCE:
COMMENTS:  A few of you know I really haven't been feeling the crackle trend as I simply don't find it attractive - even after buying a few crackle polishes to see if it looked better in person. Well, the other day I wondered what it would look like as background texture for stamping, just like one would use sponged on colors as background. I made sure to use a stamping color that would take my attention away from the crackles, and it worked - and I like it! Now my two Mia Secret crackle polishes have been removed from the blog sale, lol!

What do you think? Do you see crackle or just a textured background?

Colors used: Kleancolor - White, Mia Secret - Pastel blue (it's really not blue though), American Apparel - Peacock
Stamping pattern from Magnonails XL plate B

Stamping with Diamond Cosmetics - Tranquility

COMMENTS:  This post is for Paillete, who wondered in this post on her blog (Paillette: a little nail polish journal) what this color would look like stamped over certain colors. Well here you go my dear!

I used no base coat in these photos, and one coat of topcoat. Ignore the messy cleanup and dryness - I swatched outside so didn't bother washing and lotioning between swatches like I usually do.
All photos are clickable to enlarge.

Diamond Cosmetics - Tranquility over:
Revlon - Powder Puff, 3 coats

Nina Ultra Pro - Never Glum Plum

Nyx Girls -  Fierce Purple

Thumb to pinky -
1. Diamond Cosmetics - Cool & Creamy
2. Essie - Marshmallow
3. NYC - Park Ave
4. Diamond Cosmetics - Under the Willow Tree
5. Simple Pleasures - unnamed dusty periwinkle blue

I ended up leaving this on and wearing it to church the next day, lol! 

And a sneak peek at some right hand "play" that I ended up duplicating for my next mani: