nails inc primrose hill

Today's manicure is nails inc primrose hill. I bought it from Sephora for $19.50. It's a limited edition polish that is only available in the more expensive, decorative crystal cap bottle.
primrose hill is a mellow grayish lavendar with pinkish purple shimmer. It's fantastic because it has a secret color shift. As a massively crazy nail polish addict and collector, I can't tell you how many times a beautiful duochrome/color shift that looks entrancing in the bottle just doesn't show up on the nail at all. It's such a disappointment. I can't really catch the color shift looking at this bottle, but at certain angles to the light, the normally pinkish purple shimmer flashes green.
Sorry about the tipwear. I did this manicure on Sunday night and it was raining on Monday, so I had to wait until Tuesday for the sun.
This mani is one coat Spa Ritual Lacquer Lock bc, one coat CND Stickey bc, two coats of nails inc primrose hill, and one coat of Seche Vite.
Pictures taken outdoors in natural sunlight:


Here's the color shift:



Pictures taken indoors with artificial light:

Butter London Spring/Summer 2012 Bossy Boots + Knackered over black

Today's manicure is Butter London Bossy Boots. Bossy Boots is a slightly yellow toned pastel mint green - a pistachio color. The formula is decent, but a little thick and not perfectly self leveling. The coverage is excellent, only the formula defects required a second coat.
I have almost 350 greens, and I actually couldn't find a dupe. It's a very white and yellow loaded pale green. I thought of the Pirates collection, but it's much whiter than Stranger TIdes and Mermaid's Tears. I don't have Skull & Glossbones to compare though, so I can't speak for that one.
This mani is one coat Spa Ritual Lacquer Lock bc, one coat CND Stickey bc, two coats of Bossy Boots, and one coat of Seche Vite.

Photos taken indoors in artifical light:

This pic captures the whiteness, but it's a bit more yellow IRL.

Photos taken outside in natural sunlight:




I had more than one reader comment on the opacity issues with Knackered in this post:

Butter London Spring/Summer 2012 Knackered
and Liz actually requested I swatch over black, so here it is:

Indoors in artificial light:


Outdoors in natural sunlight:





When it's sheer it flashes purple, light blue, and green in some lights, but the black underneath makes it pretty strongly purple or teal. It also seems to make the holo less noticeable when the base is more saturated.
This mani is one coat Spa Ritual Lacquer Lock bc, one coat CND Stickey bc, one coat of Illamasqua Boosh (black creme), two coats of Knackered, and one coat of Seche Vite.

Butter London Spring/Summer 2012 Knackered

Today's manicure is Butter London Knackered. Knackered is a silvery blue/purple duochrome frost base with holographic glitters. With two coats there is still VNL, so it is somewhat sheer. I didn't have any exact dupes, but it is in the flavor of Lippmann Wicked Game (similar duo base without glitter) and Barielle Jess' Champagne Toast (no duo in the base, but otherwise similar). I did include a bottle comparison photo.
This mani is one coat Spa Ritual Lacquer Lock bc, one coat CND Stickey bc, two coats of Knackered, one coat of Revlon Quick Dry tc, and one coat of Seche Vite.

Photos taken indoors in artifical light:



Photos taken outside in natural sunlight:

Chanel Peridot and Graphite

Today's manicures are two new polishes from Chanel's three polish Fall collection. I couldn't bring myself to buy the frosty beige. My grandma is too cool for that.
The other two colors besides Quartz (being Peridot and Graphite) are both amazing in my opinion. Good application and beautiful depth. Peridot appears mostly as a sparkly gold shimmer but shows green around the edges and at certain angles to the light. Graphite is almost a silver foil, the purple and golden green sparkles give the appearance of rough texture.
As to dupes, the closest thing I could find in my collection to Peridot was OPI At Your Quebec and Call and Nicole by OPI Sea How Far You Go, AYQAC it is much darker and more subtle without duochrome and NOPI SHFYG is more similar in finish but not as vibrant as Peridot. As for Graphite, Ulta Pro Twilight is of a similar flavor, as is OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous (what a terrible name...). I believe Revlon has put out a dupe called Carbonite, though I haven't seen it yet. I would be happy to do comparison swatches if some people want them.
These manis are one coat Spa Ritual Lacquer Lock bc, one coat CND Stickey bc, two coats of polish, and one coat of Seche Vite tc.
These pictures were taken indoors using artificial lighting.

Hard Candy Walmart The End and Break Up

Today's manicure is Hard Candy Walmart Break Up over Hard Candy Walmart The End.
The End is a simple black creme. Break Up consists of microglitter and large hexagonal chunky glitter that flashes orange, yellow, and green depending on the lighting in a clear base. Since The End is not unique or interesting in and of itself and Break Up is glitter is a transparent base, I thought these colors would make good a good layering combination.
Disclaimer: I think that Break Up is beautiful, but unlike Hot Pants, the glitter is so chunky it does not lie flush to the nail. It doesn't look horribly chunky to the naked eye, but even with top coat the nail surface still feels bumpy and uneven.
We'll see how difficult removal will be.
In case you were wondering, The End is a good black creme. It's easy to apply and opaque in two coats, but a comparable polish can be found cheaper in the drugstore.
This mani is one coat SpaRitual resurface base coat, two coats of The End, two coats of Break Up, and one coat of SpaRitual tout de suite top coat.

Hard Candy Static and Glitch

Sorry I left you guys hanging. Things got crazy.
I decided to reward your patience with a double header.
Yesterday and Today's manicures are Hard Candy Static and Glitch. Hard Candy released these colors as part of a line of new bottles with Swarovski crystals embedded in the jelly rings in 2002. I was a bit disappointed in these colors and my manicure/photo skills this week.
Static is a sheer pale blue that flashes lavender. Glitch is an odd almost neon-pastel yellowish green sheer with gold shimmer. It's a bit like Opi Fireflies without the duochrome.
I did 3 coats of Static and 4 coats of Glitch (which may explain my wrinkly middle finger) and both still show visible nail line. I think both of these would be better suited to layering over black, white, or a tonal creme.
I am pretty excited about Hard Candy being repromoted as a Walmart exclusive brand (since I love Hard Candy, although I don't love Walmart). I should be getting all 16 colors in the next day or two. Let me know in the comments if you want to see them on my blog. They aren't really rare or unusual - but if it's what the subscribers want...
My mani is one coat of Nubar Nu Nail, 3-4 coats of polish (as described), and one coat of Nubar Diamont.