Damn you Essie, you win this round!

Here's a quick NOTD using only Essie colors.  Sigh.  I've been experimenting with multicolors on one hand and decided to give Essie another shot.  Application was great, with 2 coats of each color over Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails, a coat of Poshe, then China Glaze Cracked Concrete to mute it down a smidgen.  I didn't want to like the Essie, but there's been minimal tip wear in 48 hours, which for me is very good!  I would get another full day of wear from this, except I've got a mini college ruin this weekend and will do a British and French manis in honor that.  Sorry I didn't take a pic of the mani before the crackle :(

Thumb: Fair Game
Pointer: Coat Azure
Middle: Dive Bar
Index: Incognito
Pinkie: Sew Psyched  (more of a textured look, even in RL not too much of a distinction)

Sunlight

 

More sunlight

Weird alien red light

Shadow with flash

Thanks and have a good one!!

Luci <(")

I say: "Never too many greens!" Military Green Comparison

Hello all!

Here is the second of the 2011 Fall Finger Paints I have to show you.  Military Green is exactly my cup of tea! I love green, especially something murky!  So much so, that I have 4 similar colors, so I did a very unscientific comparison.  Warning, this is pic heavy!  All swatches are on a base coat, 2 coats of color, no top.  It was very humid, so MG ended up bubbling, but I was pressed for time, so no do over.  MG is on my index and ring fingers throughout.


First off:  American Apparel Army Jacket: 

In the shade

In sunlight

 

 

 

AJ is much yellower, and MG looks much greyer than it is in real life.  Not close at all!

Next up, Essie Sew Psyched:

In sunlight

In shadow

 In the sunlight, you can tell that MG looks yellower now, but in the shadow, they're pretty close. 

Next: Sonia Kashuk Fatigued:

In shadow

In sunlight

 These two you can see the difference in shadow and sunlight.  Fatigued is bluer and deeper. But still pretty close.

Finally Zoya Gemma.  Yes I know Gemma has the purple flash, but I was curious about the base color.

In sunlight

In shadow

 Well, in sunlight the flash is distracting, but you can still see that MG is a bit bluer, but in shade, again, pretty close. 

Here are all five: 

In sunlight

In shadow

 In conclusion:  the closest would be Sew Psyched and Fatigued, with Gemma and Army Jacket being much too yellow.  Between those three, honestly, I think that SP and F are more dupes than MG with either of them.  Mind you close enough that if you're not a huge fan, I wouldn't get all three, but I'm ok with having them :).

Here are SP and F up close and personal:

In sunlight

In shadow

Honestly, I prefer Fatigued.  I like the formula better, not as watery, and at 3 bucks cheaper than Essie, score!  In truth, I don't think that Essie's worth the price tag, yet I sometimes get into the mob mentality and buy Essie, but I usually end up regretting it.  Unless it was at a deep discount.  I may be looking to give SP a good home soon. 

Thanks and have a good one!

Luci  <(")

Oh, there you are!

Hello All!

So sorry about the lack in posts, it has been crazy busy!  Started seriously training for my promotion which includes me traveling more than I used too, and I hate my apartment and the commute to work, so I'm looking to move closer to work, which means I'm going to have to move in a couple of months and then I'll move again in a coupleofyearsandI'mgoingonvacationbutnotuntilIgoonabusinesstripfirstandIhavenewneighborswhosedogwon'tstopbarkingand....
So...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

So super busy, but that hasn't stopped me from buying polishes!  I've taken advantage of the Earth Day Zoya promotion, since I only piggy backed off of Mac's BOGO order (Apple and Keiko: such restraint I know!), so I am awaiting my 10 polishes!  Of course I ordered Suvita, which is on back order for those who are thinking about it, which is holding up my order.  Hopefully, they will ship them separately because I totally want them before I leave for vacation. Ivanka please come home to me!

Anyhoo, this will be just a quick shot of my Earth Day mani.  I got the idea of a ombre mani from Chloe's Nails, which has some amazing patchwork tutorials that one day, one day I will be brave enough to try!

Earth Day Ombre Mani

Thumb:  American Apparel Army Jacket
Index: Sonia Kashuk Fatigued
Middle: Essie Sew Psyched
Ring: Zoya Shawn
Pinkie: Zoya Envy
All with base coat and Seche Vite

Sorry about the messiness, I was low on light, time and battery power. Lol, I tried retouching a nasty little cut on my cuticle and now it looks like I've got some weird patchy disease there.  Yay me! 

So I love green.  No, not love, obsess.  There has not been a green that I haven't wanted to purchase on the fucking spot.  I could purge every other color in my collection (don't hold me to that, it wouldn't be pretty for either of us) and live quite contently on just green nail polish alone.  Never enough.  never. I think I'm going to only do green ombre manis for the rest of my life.  That is not an exaggeration. 

Thanks and have a good one!

Luci <(")

Welcome to our little part of the 'verse

Well, Hello there!


So you've stumbled upon another new nail polish blog?, Well, good, good for you! So you're here for the pretty pictures and to mock our cuticles, well get in line!

Ok, seriously folks.  We know that there are a bazillion nail polish blogs out there, but that doesn't make our little blog of joy any less relevant or...joyous?  I, Luci, take full responsibility in dragging Mac into this kicking and screaming, but maybe we can form our own little niche in this great wide web.  We're here to add our two cents into one of the best obsessions out there:  spelunking, I mean nail polish.  Show some of our favorite colors *uh-hum greens and teals or reds and purples* on two different types of skin colors:  Eastern European Pasty Alabaster and Caribbean Exotic. 

We welcome all comments and opinions, just beware of the villagers with pitchforks and C4.

Just for laughs, I'm going to put up my very first attempt to capture my favorites for Fall '10.  You've been warned...

Nice and fuzzy...

Left to right starting with thumb:  Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure: Haute Chocolate; China Glaze: Riveter Rouge; Orly: Galaxy Girl; Essie: Sew Psyched; Zoya: Kelly

Well, this is the first of hopefully many posts with infinitely better photos!

Thanks and have a good one!

Luci