Tres Risk - Secret Passion

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Ross, as part of a pack of four colors (polish names are on the pack, not on the bottles).
COMMENTS: I bought the set for this particular color and it didn't disappoint. I also added rhinestones and tiny beads from a microbead set to the mani. (By the way, if you get the Martha Stewart microbead set  for nail art, get the glass ones, not the metal ones - the colors on the metal ones run off once they come in contact with nail polish). I used the lavender colored ones (named Amethyst).

Nyx Girls - Algae

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: No
SOURCE: Beauty supply store in downtown Los Angeles
COMMENTS: I've loved this color since I set eyes on it, and it didn't disappoint. Lovely dusty teal. It was a pleasure to put on and behaved, so my mani needed minimal cleanup. Great color for a first day back at work, yes?

Bummer

I return to work this week, so will likely be transitioning back to mostly indoor photos. That makes me a little sad because not only is it easier to capture colors properly in sunlight, but it also meant I didn't have to take (and sort through) as many photos. Ah well...
Wait, with so many real issues in this world, this is nothing! Just want to prepare you though. :)
Less of this

 and more of this...

Have a great Monday everyone!

Beam me up, Spotty

Yes, I love dots. I used Quirius - Coral Reef for the dots, and it looks more pink over the base.

ABOP Franken - Green for depression awareness month

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2 - could have been 1 coat only if more careful.
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Frankenpolish made from Orly polishes = 2 parts  Enchanted Forest + 2 parts Sol Cabana + 1 part Lemonade.

COMMENTS: Green is one of my favorite colors, and I love the more subdued greens as nail polish. I've collected paint chips of colors I like but don't have, so I used one (Glidden - Truly Olive) as an inspiration for this and am very pleased with the result.

I use a mirror to mix my drops of color. I don't always keep track of ratios, but I really wanted to dupe this color, so I did in this case. You can see my other attempts on the mirror as well.

In late morning light:

In early morning light:

Not an exact match in this light, but looks exactly the same indoors:

Bottle comparison to Essie - Sew Psyched. I prefer the color of my franken - mostly because it complements my skin better:

All I used for this mani. The polish dried reasonably fast, but since I put it on last night, I used the topcoat to protect it until I could take pictures today.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Twisted Pink

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Not until adding nail art
SOURCE: Local drugstore (Rite Aid, Walgreens, or CVS)
COMMENTS: Here's a pink for breast cancer awareness month! This is still not fully opaque at two coats, but it's really vibrant and has hidden shimmer, so I'm happy. I added some crafting sticker strips to my mani after the color dried. Note that the strips are too thick so I cut them in two lengthwise for use on my nails. I also had to be careful putting topcoat over them as too many brush swipes would remove the color from the sticker. I cut them too short for my thumb, ah well...

In this last photo I was comparing the pink on my nails to the pink in the picture. My camera just doesn't capture it as hot/vivid as it really is. Take that visual difference and add the third dimension to understand how bright it is.

My swatch tip bouqet

Yes, swatch tip bouquet, because it's not a bouquet of flowers, but it's just as gorgeous. This is one of the ways I choose what color to wear next. So many pretties...not including most of my frankens though - just what I have recorded in my spreadsheet. It always surprises me how many pinks and reds I have since those are the colors I wear least often.

Same photo, just rotated a bit. Don't forget you can click to see these super-sized!

I also have used my spreadsheet to make random choices before. A while ago I wore everything with 77 in either the item number or brand number. I've added quite a few polishes since then so  I should probably finish that up.

I think I may jump on the bandwagon and feature pink and green next in honor of breast cancer and depression awareness respectively. Okay, I'm off to shop from my stash!

Nabi - Natural and NDB - Golden Bikini

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2 of Nabi - Natural, 1 of ND - Golden Bikini as accent.
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Two separate beauty supply stores in downtown Los Angeles.
COMMENTS: After a tough time deciding what color to wear, I settled on this recent addition to my stash. It needs another coat for full opacity, but I didn't feel like doing a third coat. I accented it with a dense gold glitter that from afar looks like bits of gold foil on the nail - me likey!

I can't decide!

Does this ever happen to you? You've taken off your previous mani and are prepared to put on a base coat when you realize you don't know what's going on after the base coat... That was me two days ago. I simply couldn't decide what color to wear! So I spent the day without polish. These are my bare nails with just some hand lotion on.

So much potential! Too bad my collection is so large that it hinders my decision-making ability!

Quirius - Coral Reef

APPLICATION: A little difficult - first coat was prone to bald spots if I didn't work quickly enough. 2nd coat was thick but had good coverage.
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: http://www.qnail.com/shop/

COMMENTS: I often looked at the pretty colors on the web site, but didn't feel the urge to buy any until Jaljen(http://nailpolishuk.blogspot.com/) started showing some of hers. This is a gorgeous neutral that I'm liking a lot more than I thought I would. Of course I'm itching to put some kind of nail art on it, and it looks gorgeous next to the bottle of Kleancolor - Brown, but I haven't decided what to do with it yet (if anything).

In the shade

Later added dots on the tips with Kleancolor - Brown

Kleancolor - Holo Pink

**For those who wanted to know - The silver bullion beads from my last mani stayed put for two days, and I actually had  a hard time getting them off! I did press them down into my polish after applying them and before putting a nice thick coat of topcoat on, so that helped keep them secure.


APPLICATION: Smooth

COATS: 2 (I'm only planning to wear this for one day and didn't want to invest in a 3rd)

TOPCOAT?: Yes

SOURCE: Beauty supply store in downtown Los Angeles

COMMENTS: You didn't think I'd wear just one of the Kleancolor holos and leave it at that, did you? This is another pretty one. I think this would really pop layered over a bright pink. It holds its own though, and I like it a lot.