Shiny stripeness!

Hey guys,  

Just added a bit of shiny to yesterday's mani.

Thumb and index : essie Shine Of The Times,  CND Sapphire Sparkle
Pointer middle and pinkie : CND Sapphire Sparkle
Middle and index: essie Matte About You

My favorite by far is the simple pointer,  loves it.   Went a little heavy with SOTT.
Thanks and have a good one!
<(")  Luci

Edit : and picture!

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 <(")

It's the end of the world as we know it...

Lol, I couldn't resist.  Here's my Weekend mani: 
Zoya Irene with an accent nail of Essie Smooth Sailing.  Ohh, and my first Poshe use!   Loves It! My other hand is the reverse.   Color combination is kinda weird but welcome to my world.

Be safe fellow East Coasters and don't forget to fill your bathtub with water!

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  <(")

Double Rainbow...

Hey All!

Today:  little words:  much pictures.  Me John, Big tree!

Here's some old Sally Hansen Nail Prisms.  I swatched them on base coat only, 1 coat Essie Playa de Platinum and 1 coat Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out, frankly I wanted to see what was my preference of layering.  I am not a huge fan of layering, I should be able to get the color of the bottle in 1-2 coats (hah!) and I tend to be a purist when it comes to colors.  Well, I've been neglecting these beauties because I can't stand doing any more than 3 coats.  Listen, I'm a Dragon, I'm distracted by shiny things and waiting for anything with 3+ coats to dry is beyond my capabilities.  I tend to get cranky.  And destroy villages.

So here we go!

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms

I did same colors on the same fingers for each swatch: (right to left in above pic)
Thumb:  Diamond
Index: Amber Ruby
Middle: Platinum Plum
Ring: Ruby Sapphire
Pinkie: Turquoise Opal

Diamond

 

Amber Ruby

Platinum Plum

Ruby Sapphire

Turquoise Opal

One coat on CG Strong Adhesion Base Coat

2 Coats on CG Strong Adhesion Base Coat

Ehh.  They're pretty enough but I do NOT do VNL (what proper Dragon would?)!  Amber Ruby and Ruby Sapphire are ok with only the 2 coats, but the rest would need at least another 1-3 to make me happy.

2 Coats over Essie PdP

I didn't realize that my photos with only 1 coat all came out fuzzy!  Oh well.  *Total tanget alert*  Listening to Pandora radio online and "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco is playing!   "I'm a Danish, I'm a Danish! Rock me I'm a Danish!"  Or alternatively: "Apple Danish, Apple Danish..."  <3 *Tangent alert over*  I didn't really like the one coat look anyway, the 2nd coat made a difference. The duochrome really comes out!  I don't own any white polishes (yet) so PdP is my base layering color, when I do layer.

1 Coat over SHXW Black Out

2 Coats over SHXW Black Out

 

 

 

Lurv.  I'z in totally Lurv.  So much so that I have broken my rule of not talking like a 12 yr old on a sugar high.  Talk about gorgeousness!  The duochromes are amazing, and I kind of like the black edge almost framing the colors!  This is my winner by a landslide.   Here, look at more pictures!  No, no, I insist!

One angle where the last 3 look like dupes...

Ha Ha!  Just kidding.  We're  motherfucking AWESOME!

Fiery Opal on my Thumb!

So now I have to decide which one I'm actually going to wear as my mani.  Who am I kidding, I'm gonna do all five!


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