Cult Nails Divas and Dramas Collection - Day One: Scandalous

so i got my divas and drama collection presale in the mail on monday and have patiently waited to start playing because lets face it, that tinkerbell mani was too fun to pass up. i was stoked on the whole collection, but after reading the description that maria posted about scandalous "sheer jelly/creme polish that toes the line between being a creamy pastel orange and a vivid orange" i was chomping at the bit to get my grubby little paws on it. at one coat it was squishy and sheer and delicious looking. like i had a drip of sorbet dripping down each nail. at two coats i still had VNL, but it had great coverage and the color is still drool inducing. i am not a fan of how opaque the flash makes it look. i think the lamplight is the most true to color though...

oh! and in that same lovely nail-mail i got a bottle of Wicked Fast. i have two distinct preferences in polish. Glass or flat matte. that is it. so if a top coat doesn't accomplish one of those two it is of no use to me. that said, the pictures below are of *one* coat of WF on top of Scandalous. WF is super easy to put on, it is more runny than both Zoya Armor and Seche Vite, but the shine is comparable if not better than the Zoya Armor. nothing touches SV in my opinion when it comes to glass finishes, but WF is perfect for my daily mani's. 

now...if only i could stop staring at my nails i might actually get some work done today. 

with the flash

by lamplight

sunlight through my bedroom window

Can't wait to swatch the rest of the collection!

sneak peek of sneeze breeze

played with this last night, but it didn't quite fit my mood. but i will totally do this again and believe me, this is worth seeing in all light and from every angle!

pixie dust comin' out of my finger tips

not a very exciting story here... i read and have seen the tinkerbell movies a few too many times and got it in my head to do a tinkerbell/pixie dust manicure. i used OPI Who the Shrek are You? as a base, did two layers of essie's as gold as it gets (one covering half of the nail, the second covering a third) and then a kind of pressed on the Milani Jewel FX Gold on the tips of the nails. it isn't perfect and it sure doesn't photograph easily, but it is sparkly and to me, entirely tinkerbell-tastic.

purple sisters from two very different misters

okay, i only have two medium purples from zoya, so in my head the two morphed into dupes. which they obviously aren't. just look at those bottles. btw - caitlin looks super grey next to her more flashy sister, but she really is a true dusty lavender. 

so i thought i'd swatch one finger malia with my caitlin manicure tonight, just to laugh at how different they really are, despite my earlier lapse in memory. and i decided i liked an accent nail in malia. so i left it. hence my purple sisters from different misters mani. btw - myperfectpolish swatched malia  last week and though it looks more pink on her and much more blue on me (imho) it was utterly gorge on both of us, which is super fun if i want to activate lacquer twinsie powers one day! both covered sublimely, as most of zoya's cream's do, in my experience. oh, and i topped it all with a coat of zoya armor and then one quick swipe with SV. 

final note - judge me not on my wrecked cuticles. please? i spent most of my weekend in the garden and my hands are one huge collection of thorn scrapes, swollen knuckles and some seriously destroyed cuticles. you'll learn someday, oh single reader of my blog, that i do not do cuticles at home. so i can only promise to apply some cuticle oil and hopefully hit up my local manicurist this coming weekend for some damage control.

just a quick look at the bottles.

by the light of the lamp - and game of thrones

outside, on an overcast morning

One Saturday / Two Easter Inspired Manicures

 so talking about Pippa yesterday got me itching to try it all over again. so two coats later, as the AT&T guys worked on setting up my new internet connection, i applied two coats of Pippa, and then decided that Lola could be a good companion for dear Pippa.i did the Lola with an almost dry brush, working my way to the tip where i pretty much just drew in a french tip in Lola. Lola was sheer enough layer well for this, but i think for wear on it's own it would be a little too sheer for my tastes. the colors truly popped and it was 80's-riffic. until i decided to toss on my gardening gloves an *HOUR* later to finish planting some herbs. i took off my gloves and whomp, whomp...i had wrecked nails. i didn't take pictures, though i was tempted :D so this was my three hour super bright easter manicure

so bear went to bed and i got out my brand new GMA trio and decided to play with my newest creamy periwinkle, Yummy. Can we just laugh for a moment because my first non-school email was ExtraYummy at some horrible old url? anywho. Yummy was a dream to put on, i want to say this is just one thick layer on some fingers, and two thinner layers on the others.  the color was dreamy and soon enough i'll wear it on it's own, but as it dried i started thinking about April showers bringing May flowers, so my manicures represented this. just backwards. okay it's a stretch, shut up. so along that train of slightly warped (i blame sun exposure) i put Pure Pearlfection over top and had a shimmery, delicious cool manicure to counter the super warm and bright one from earlier in the day. actually wore it most of the day today too...

My Stash

so, i was updating my spreadsheet (yes, i keep a spreadsheet of all of my polishes, sortable by brand, name, color family and finish) and i decided it would be fun to take a picture of all of my stash. my daughter had fun arranging them all by color, we had a ton of arguments about where specific colors belonged (i'm looking at you holos) but it was fun. and slightly frightening to see the actual size of my collection... oh well, here it is!

Lantana Inspired Orange Gradient

had to take the day off with my beautiful little bear, since daycare was closed. and the options for the day were: 1), sit inside and watch movies and nap or 2) hit the garden store, rip up a winters worth of weeds, wreck my nails and plant flowers. obviously i made the right decision, because not only did it lead to my now pristine (well, much improved) front beds and butterfly garden, but the wrecked manicure and flower selections inspired today's manicure!

so, as a kid i was obsessed with lantanas. they are gorgeous little flowers that grow in natural gradients. i used to pick them and use them as bouquets for my Jem doll. anywho, as bear laid down for her nap, i searched my polish box for just the right reddish orange and i popped up with Paz. i was super excited to order this a few weeks back and eagerly anticipated it, as orange is one of my favorite spring/summer colors. i was disappointed at how streaky this went on (even compared to Pippa, Zoya's finnicky yellow). two coats in i was still unhappy with at least three nails but decided it was smooth enough at the tips to reverse the gradient from tip to base. that said, the color was much richer than i'd expected. more red tone and much less neon than it looks in the bottle. 

i feathered China Glaze Sun Worshipper from the base of each nail then did a coat of Zoya's Armor top coat and a quick swipe with SV because i was a *little* eager to post the pictures of this mani, well that and i still have one more trip to the garden store to pick up a few more types of basil and another blueberry bush. hmmm...if i plant them tonight i might be able to sneak in another manicure today :D

Inspiration from the garden

Lamp

Shade

Direct (and super hot) Sun

Work Safe Wednesday - Thursday Edition

ok, we all know i was super bitter about how badly my EUT accent nail turned out yesterday. so i decided to keep the Amanda and jazz it up a bit. i redid the ring finger with one coat of Amanda and added Set in Stones. I did my best to use a light hand with SiS, but all of that glorious shiny silver glitter has a mind of it's own. i have read some complaints about the flat nature of the silver glitter, but i happen to love it. the shine is phenomenal and i get so many compliments every time i wear it. it truly is eye-catching. 

also if you can't tell from the massive dent in the bottle, i love matte top coats, they dry so quickly and especially combined with glitter it adds an unexpected element to my manicures. there is also something so pretty about the combination of a nude + glitter + matte...

i am resisting the urge to take this manicure 2.0 and make them all matte. 

oh, excuse the broken pinkie nail. i got a little manic with the cleaning yesterday and in my enthusiasm i apparently lost a little soldier. it ripped low so it'll be a little hidden for the next week or two.

Work Safe Wednesday - Amanda meets Entirely Unlike Tea

so Zoya Amanda is like my all time favorite neutral. and i am slightly sad to admit it took seeing it on Rachel Zoe at one of her fashion shows to see the potential in this gorgeous rosy nude. either way, it is my dearest love. i've worn it with a little silver sparkle and a matte top coat (i'll try to find pictures) and when i found NerdLacquer Entirely Unlike Tea (EUT), i thought they were a natural pair. Amanda is a dream going on, with a steady hand it is pretty perfect at one coat. i did two coats just to smooth out a few problem spots (watching Game of Thrones while i do nails is such a bad idea). my problem came with adding top coat to EUT. you can see on both pictures that i had issues with some wrinkling on my ring finger. now, being that i have so little time, it'll have to do. but it is still annoying as hell. i did a coat of Gelous and then SV on all of the nails. (btw, this totally cancelled out the shrinkage problem i normally have with Zoya + SV) the shine on the Amanda is GORGEOUS, but i am plagued by the desire to redo my ring finger...

i just know that EUT is stunning, i just have to figure out the right way to wear it.

natural light (even if it was cloudy outside)

by the light of my lamp (and tv)

now, i'm linking to MyPerfectPolish's Work Safe Wednesday, which i love the concept of. keep in mind however, that i wear all of these nails to work, wild colors/glitters included. *but* this one falls into the Work Safe category for most people...i think.

NerdLacquer Fun Week!

After Resolutionary, i decided to go ahead and play with all of my NerdLacquer haul :) i still have two more to go, but here are Hyperspace Bypass, Crunchy Frog and Cyance Friction.

So, i have had so many issues with Zoya Pippa. I love it in the bottle, LOVED it on a girlfriend of mine...but on me? not so much. once i get it past the streaky phase, it looked really odd on me. so it has just sat in my box staring at me wistfully... so i combined it with Hyperspace Bypass and then spent the next two days wiggling my fingers around just to catch glimpses of the silver hexes and black micro glitter. it went on super easy and the picture above is lamp light (sunlight was almost impossible to capture) with only two coats of Hyperspace Bypass. I do have to note, that i'm currently rereading the Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe so the nerdgasm level on this right now is officially at SQUEE!!

This is two coats of Crunchy Frog over Zoya Dea. it dried super smooth, compared to my other NerdLacquer purchases, but i still did a coat of Gelous and one of SV over top. The name is super silly, but the combo is so unusual that i can't help but love it. The base on this somewhere between caramel and chocolate, so it made the Dea (which is totally milk chocolate) a little less meh for me.

MyPerfectPolish swatched this last week (find it here) and had a hard time getting those gorgeous champagne colored flecks off the sides of the bottle. my super technical fix for this was just to screw the top entirely back on between each nail, shift the bottle back and forth a bit and then lay the brush lengthwise down each nail (More Nail Polish did a really good video on the technique here, using The Glittering Crowd by Lynderella *LE DROOL*) . technique worked pretty well and this is only *one* coat of Cyance Friction. The base of the glitter was speckled with tiny coppery glitter so that mellowed out the Hard Candy Frenzy a ton. only issue, it totally gobbled my Gelous+SV combo which is annoying the hell out of me. i am a sucker for a glassy shine.

Birthday Party Nails

needed something somewhat fun and girly for a girlfriends birthday party, hence the China Glaze Purple Panic topped with NerdLacquer Resolutionary. The CG Purple Panic is so pretty, i think i actually have pictures of it on it's own that i'll have to dig up, but it is kind of chalky and matte. no more so than any other neon though. The NL Resolutionary is so much fun, though there is more tiny glitter than my other NL's. but it did get a lot of comments, including one from my man describing it's beauty as "JUST LIKE A FISHING LURE!" 

i'm taking it as a compliment.

Fancy Nails

so shopping with my little bear for accessories for her (she's my little princess after all) and i ran across a bottle labled only Glitter Top Coat at Claire's. *le drool* three coats for full coverage and it is super duper shiny. so of course i made it into my accent nail paired with Zoya's Raven. I love nothing more than a shiny black nail, so i added two coats of Seche Vite. did the SV ompletely unthinkingly though, because i was immediately treated to ripples. the next morning i had major shrinkage. so, i have finally broken down and ordered Zoya's topcoat, i'll be trying this again soon. 

well, until it was rippley, it was super gorg.