Wicked Style

Polish - China Glaze Wicked Style

The color of Wicked Style is so hard to describe. I want to call it pink, my husband insists that it's purely red.  It reminds me of my favorite shade circa 1993 that was called Fruit Punch (I, sadly, can't remember the brand) and I wore it almost every day for 3 years, when I had big long acrylics in high school.  So, we'll go with "fruit punch" to describe this color too.

The formula is not as good as Kinetic Candy, which is from the same collection, but I honestly don't have many other polishes that are.  Wicked Style needed 3 thin coats for full coverage.  With 2, I still had a visible nail line, which I hate.  I used a coat of Out the Door on this, as I didn't have any mistakes that needed to be corrected, so that's a good sign too.

Wicked Style's color is very hard to get a good photo of.  As you can see in the last photo down the line, it simply freaked out my camera from time to time.

This is the photo I took that's easiest on the eyes, and actually the shade of the bottle is pretty much spot-on.  On the nails, not so much (it looks a little too red by my eyes).  But the bottle color is accurate here.




This is another fairly accurate bottle shot.






And this is the most accurate nail color I could get a photo of.




This is the photo that really shows how hard this polish is to photograph.



If you made it past that last photo without losing your vision, go out and get this shade.  It's worth it.  It's a nice pop of color that you'll enjoy looking at all day long.

Kinetic Candy

Polish:  China Glaze Kinetic Candy

I saw this polish in the clearance bucket at Sally's and I almost didn't pick it up.  I was afraid it was too close in color to For Audrey and Tiffany Imposter.  So I whipped out my phone and searched for some swatches and I saw nothing but excellent reviews for the formula and the color.  Of course, for $2.50 I went ahead and picked it up and brought it home.  And it didn't disappoint.  I was still thinking it was pretty close to FA and TI, but I was wrong.  It's lighter and more blue/less green than either of them.

Kinetic Candy is a real 2 coater and has an excellent shine.

shade



bright sun






I decided to go ahead and do some swatch comparisons, to see where Kinetic Candy fits in.  From left to right is CG Kinetic Candy, SH Blue Away, FP Tiffany Imposter, and CG For Audrey.

To show how truly awesome the formula is, I did 1 coat for this first photo.  As you can see, Kinetic Candy isn't perfect, but if you were in a hurry, you could totally get away with just 1 coat.  The other three look awful and streaky.




The final photos are 3 coats of each.

shade



bright sun



So all in all, I give this polish an A+.

If you liked For Audrey, but needed something a little less green for your skin tone, pick up Kinetic Candy (and be sure to check your local Sally's clearance bin!)

I think it's a great summer shade and will look good all year long.

You're Blushing

Polish:  Orly You're Blushing

Fuzzy photos courtesy of my iPhone.

You're Blushing by Orly is a nice gray-purple cream polish.  It went on smooth, and even though I applied 3 coats for the following photos, I could have gotten by with just 2.  It didn't pool, flood, or leave bald spots.  I have a feeling I'll be wearing this polish quite a bit in the fall.  It's a nice, funky, muted neutral.

The skies are very overcast today, but I feel like the color is pretty true in these photos.












Do you own this shade?  If so, let me know what you think of it.

Mango

Polish - Savvy Femme Couture Mango

I'll have to start with a lot of apologizing.  First, sorry it's been so long.  Second, these are crappy iPhone pics.  The color is fairly accurate, at least.

This is Savvy polish in Mango.  I am not sure, but I believe Sally Beauty Supply might be in the process of removing this brand of polish from their collection.  I got this bottle of clearance (what's new, right?) and I didn't see any in a normal display.

Overall, the application of this polish was very nice.  It went on smooth - didn't drag, flood, or leave bald spots.  I also think the color is pretty unique.  In the bottle, it seemed more pink to me, and I wondered why they'd named the shade "Mango" - but on the nail, it's a nice shade of coral/orange and I think it would work on a lot of different skintones. 

The following photos are 3 coats.







If you have this polish, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

Shades of the Season

About a month ago, Keith and I were in CVS and I was looking through the nail polish area, as usual.  I was rubber-necking the Sally Hansen Crackle display, and almost ran over this...



It's a tube-a-plenty of polish!  Then I saw the sign, which alerted me to the fact that this whole tube was only $9.99.  Then I counted the polish and realized that was less than a dollar per bottle.  How could I pass up such a deal, even if it turned out to be a totally crappy product?  It would at least be fun to play with!  So, I bought it.  Keith rolled his eyes.  When we got home, I immedately took off my current polish and decided to try every single color at once.  I think sometimes it's ok to revert back to Jr. High.



There really are some lovely shades in the collection.  The light blue and the yellow caught my eye the most, though I rarely have high hopes for yellow polish.  I was still excited to try it.



The yellow surprised me a bit.  It wasn't horrible to work with.  It wasn't perfect, and there was a tiny bit of cuticle drag, but overall, I was impressed with every color that went on my right hand.



Even that ballet slipper pink on my thumb gave excellent coverage.  Not a streak to be found!  And even in the extreme closeup, you can barely see my nail line.



The light blue ended up being a real stunner.  It's a perfect shade of baby or sky blue, in my opinion.  And again, I didn't have any real issues with any of the colors that went on my left hand.



I'd say in the long run, my favorite ended up being that lovely bright coral red on my thumb.  It went on so smooth, and I probably could have actually gotten away with 1 coat.

Overall, I am very impressed with the Shades of the Season colors.  If you're in CVS and see this tube-o-polish, pick it up.  It's worth it for these staple colors.

Purple Rain

Polish - Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in Purple Rain

Cue the Prince music!  This color really should have been named Raspberry Beret.  It's a super dark raspberry purple cream.  It goes on smooth, self-levels, and really did wear pretty well.  I didn't do a 10 day or even a 5 day test on it, but I think I ended up wearing this color for a good 3 days, which is a long time for me, and it help up very well.



I applied Hard as Nails basecoat, 3 medium coats of polish, and a coat of Seche Vite.  With three coats, it has great coverage, but comes out very very dark.  If you have a steadier hand than I do, and want it a bit lighter, you could probably get by with just 2 coats. 





This is a pretty shade, a little vampy and dark, but pretty.  I'll be keeping it around for sure.

Banana Bamba

Polish - Maybelline Express Finish 50 Second Nail Color in Banana Bamba
Nubs - Days 10-15

I know you'll be shocked, but I got this polish on clearance at Big Lots.  I got it because it looked like a nice mellow yellow in the bottle, and I didn't have a nice yellow in my collection.  I had a possibly-school bus yellow (that's later on down the list of untrieds) but nothing soft like this one.

The brush was squat and very thick.  It really sucked up the polish, which you'd think would make it go on a lot smoother.  Well, it didn't.  It was kind of a streaky mess to apply.  But with 3 thin coats and some Seche Vite, it came out as well as could be expected.

The day after I put on this polish, I started reading about how horribly the Maybelline Express Finish polishes chip and don't wear well at all.  Well, at that point, it became a quest to see how long it would last.  I wore it for 5 solid days and it wasn't as awful as I'd expected.  I never reapplied my top coat, and it still ended up with just tip wear and just a couple of small chips.  I will say that the first of those chips came within 12 hours of application, though.  If you look closely, you can see it on the edge of my thumbnail.  But that was it until the last day.  I was impressed, for the most part.  But that doesn't mean I'll be flying out to scoop up anymore of this polish.  If I come across another color that I like the look of, and it's cheap enough, I'll probably buy it.  But I don't plan to start hoarding it or anything.



You can see the soft shimmer in this photo.  It gives it a little extra kick and makes it just a little more special, don't you think?






And this is after 5 solid days of wear.  It's not a wonderful photo - the sun was almost set by the time I remembered to go out and take it.  But you can still see the wear.  Not too bad.

In the Mood

Polish - Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer in In The Mood
Nubs - Day 6

Well, y'all, I hate to admit it, but this polish was 99 cents in the Ulta clearance bin when I picked it up.  Do I own ANY full price polish?  I don't even know anymore.

I don't usually enjoy wearing creams all that much.  The application is never easy for me.  My nails have ridges and flaws, and creams seem to show every single one.  But this polish wasn't bad to apply at all.  It gave me pretty good coverage and didn't streak much.  I was pleasantly suprised.

I used my usual cream trick and applied my Orly Bonder basecoat, then 2 coats of In The Mood, then a coat of  Seche Vite fast drying top coat, a final coat of In The Mood, and then a final coat of Seche Vite.  And, it worked like a charm.  I've had experience with a couple of other Ulta polishes, and I have to say, they're typically really nice to work with.  In The Mood was no exception.

It was cloudy yesterday, so it was difficult to get a good photo representation of the color.  The first photo is the closest to the true color, which is a nice gray-purple.  I wanted to show it in shade and shadow as well, so I'm including the other photos too.

Mega Bite

Polish - China Glaze Mega Bite
Nubs - Day 1

I purchased this polish for $1.99 from the clearance rack at Sally Beauty Supply, and I'm glad I did.  The application was very nice and smooth.  I got decent coverage with the first coat, but went ahead and applied 3, for a nice deep finish. 

For my base and top coats, I used Sally Hansen Double Duty.  It's my go-to when I'm not in a hurry.





In these photos, you can see my pre-nub nails.