Tropical Storm

Polish - L.A. Colors Tropical Storm

Tropical Storm is a nice steel gray, that I'm gonna call a cross between a shimmer and a foil. It's almost both, but not quite fully one or the other. It's got a bad habit of showing brushstrokes, which I don't like, but a coat of Seche Vite made those a lot less noticable from far away. I think I can live with that.



The application, as with almost every L.A. Colors polish I've tried, was pretty much hassle-free. Coverage was very good, requiring only 2 coats for complete opacity.



I'm telling you all again, don't let the $1 price tag on this brand fool you. It's a great go-to, that rarely disappoints, and there are some really fantastic colors out there. While Tropical Storm may not be my favorite polish, it's still a good alternative to dove-gray, when you're not in a bright and cheery mood, but don't want to go vampy either.



Go get'cha some!

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.

Star Spangled

Polish - Orly Star Spangled

As you can see, I'm a bit behind on my posts.  This was my 4th of July manicure.

I'm one of the few people who really enjoy these little "sample" size Orly polishes.  I love the little tiny bottles.  The brushes work well for me, and I don't have any trouble gripping the cap.  I once took one to get a pedicure (back before I learned not to pay for a pedicure) and the girl almost wouldn't even use my polish.  I always took my own polish, so I was ready to just leave, but she finally gave it and used the little bottle.  I thought that was so strange.

Anyway, Star Spangled is a sparkly red, that leans just ever so slightly toward pink.  In the bottle it looks like it might have some black flecks in it, but that must be some sort of optical illusion, because on the nail it's just a red with red flecks.  It's so pretty in the sun!









If you're looking for a sparkly red, or need a go-to 4th of July or Valentine's Day color, go get this one.  I'm pretty sure it's still available, at least in the mini bottles.  Enjoy!