LE Borghese Tutti Gelati and LE Finger Paints Glitter Collection

The next time I returned to Sally Beauty Supply, they had put out the little display of their (Generic for OPI Alice in Wonderland) glitter collection. They are not dead dupes, but kind of a riff on the Mad As a Hatter and Absolutely Alice glitter polishes from that collection.
Sapphire Shimmer, the stand in for Absolutely Alice, is silver holographic glitter in a blue jelly base. The base seemed to be a little patchy, so it may be better as a layering polish, but it is pretty.
Wicked Glitter is the sub for Mad As A Hatter, MAAH had a dominant silver/neutral glitter undertone, while this glitter is dominantly red and pink with silver and blue mixed in. It also turns out a bit patchy, but is a very cool glitter anyways.
I found the Borghese Tutti Gelati summer collection at Rite Aid and purchased these three colors: Pistacchio, Menta, and Limoncello.
Limoncello is the best of these three in my opinion. Pistacchio is a great color, but both Pistacchio and Menta do not provide full coverage with three coats. This was my first experience with Borghese and I found them rather disappointing given their cost.




This mani is one coat Nubar Nu Nail, three coats polish, and one coat Nubar Diamont. Three coats was not particularly great for any of these polishes as they all could use more coverage.

New Finger Paints in the Permanent Collection

The last time I went into Sally Beauty Supply looking for the two new limited edition glitter polishes that I popped up on makeupalley, I was surprised to find a pretty different permanent collection Finger Paints display than I remembered. Sally puts out some great limited edition Finger Paints colors in their seasonal displays, but I was never very interested in their permanent collection of pretty standard pinks, purples, mauves, etc. They did have a few good colors, but this new display was a revelation. First of all, it had 4 greens! I can tell you from experience that green is a pretty rare commodity in a permanent collection. Times are changing, but the unfavorable Green to Pink ratio is disappointing to a green aficionado. Also, they had added glitters and interesting shimmers. Needless to say, I walked away with 5 new polishes, even though they didn't have the le glitters I had come in looking for.

L to R: Art of Theft, Easel-y Entertained, Sketch N Etch, Scenery Greenery, Tough Art to Follow
As you may observe, I took this picture wearing my keen sun hat.



Art of Theft looks like a blackish navy jelly indoors, but has a lovely purple-y shimmer when lighted properly.
Easel-y entertained is a purple-heavy blurple glitter with sparse silver glitter mixed in. I believe it's in a clear base, but it's hard to tell as it provides pretty dense coverage.
Sketch n Etch is my favorite of the bunch and recalls Essie Dominica Green with it's beautifully vivid tone and glittery shimmer.
Scenery Greenery is a blackboard green creme.
Tough Art to Follow is an almost black green creme that reminds me of OPI's Here Today, Aragon Tommorrow.
This mani is one coat Nubar Nu Nail, three coats of polish, and one coat of Nubar Diamont. Three coats of polish was highly unnecessary. It doesn't look much different from 2, and these polishes are pretty pigmented so you could probably even get away with one. I can honestly say that I really like them all.
Get thee to Sally.

Vibrant Skittles

Hello Vestiges of Former Readership!
It's been a long time.
I stopped doing my nails.
I went on vacation, twice.
I bought a lot of nail polish in New York and Japan. Along the way I learned that I'm not too sexy for this blog, or bad puns.
I am on my way to getting my groove back.

I went drugstore hopping this afternoon and found new displays for Milani Liquid Metal and Wet n Wild Wild Shine Limited Edition. The WnW display didn't have a specific collection name, but did have a smiling woman and a big lollipop - and alluded to candy in writing. Being $1 a bottle and beautifully summery, I bought all 12 colors. The Liquid Metal display is the second collection of that name that Milani has released, the first being pretty standard metallic colors like silver and gold, etc. I didn't buy one of the 6 colors on display because it looked dull.
Disclaimer: These are pictures taken with a new camera, indoors, at night, and with some tweaking courtesy of Photoshop to provide the most accurate photo possible in such conditions(color-wise).
Why didn't I take these in beautiful technicolor sunlight?
Well, I tried my hand at making hollandaise sauce as part of the dinner menu this evening. It was a crushing failure and I needed some manicure therapy.
I have done a couple (manicures, not hollandaise sauces) since returning to the states, but none up to blog standards. Maybe these aren't either, but I figured, to hell with it. My nails are far from perfect at the moment, as are my photos. Please hang in there. Hopefully things will get better...
*EDIT - Added sunlight pics...oh bad cuticles in the harsh light of day!





I realize this is somewhat blurry...
From Thumb to Pinky: Cherry Pop, Sunkist Paradise, Lemon Drops, Mint Fusion, Blueberry Fizz
This mani is one coat Nubar Nu Nails, two coats of Wet n Wild Wild Shine (with the exception of orange and yellow, which required three coats), and one coat of Nubar Diamont.
Thoughts on these polishes:
All are cremes except Mint Fusion, which has subtle shimmer. The orange and yellow could classify as jellies as they are much more sheer than the red and blue shades. This combo makes one heck of a Dexter-worthy skittle mani. They are dirt cheap and of pretty decent quality. If you don't like sheer - avoid the Sunkist Paradise and Lemon Drops and you'll be fine. I found these at Rite Aid.





From Thumb to Pinky: Melt Down, Metal Gear, Melt in the Sun, Molten Rock, Hot Metal
This mani is one coat Nubar Nu Nails, two coats of Milani Liquid Metal, and one coat of Nubar Diamont.
Thoughts on these polishes:
All of them are pretty great in 1 coat, better with 2, and I think they are beautiful. They have a rich foiled finish that almost has a holographic effect. I definitely recommend picking up any and/or all of these. I found these at CVS.

RBL Spring 2010

Just got an email from Rescue Beauty Lounge. The three new spring colors (Bangin, Diddy Mow, and 360) are available now for preorder.
Here's the link:
http://www.rescuebeauty.com/category/nail-polish-surf-colors.html
Looks like they won't be shipping until late March.
In other news, Ji finally adressed shipping fee complaints with a new free shipping offer. For orders over $100 ($200 international). woo. not really.
I'm heading to NYC in April, so I'm looking forward to picking these up in person. Maybe I'll even get a "professional" manicure.

Illamasqua Velocity (will hopefully help me to gain momentum)

Today's manicure is Illamasqua Velocity. This polish is part of their most recently released Dystopia collection (Autumn/Winter 2009). It has yet to be released in the US through Sephora, so I ordered it direct from Illamasqua in the UK.
Velocity is a dusty purple that looks more muted indoors than in sunlight.
This mani is two coats, one had decent coverage, but not entirely even. This polish was opaque and smooth for the most part - but a little overly thick in formula. If I hadn't been doing a speed mani for a wedding last night I would have added thinner.
This mani is one coat SpaRitual resurface bc, two coats polish, and one coat SpaRitual tout de suite tc.
I did the other Dystopia polish - Obsess on toes and my dh hated it - said it looked like Lisa Frank on acid. It is very bright and 80s.

I have been MIA for awhile because I have not been painting my nails - you can see the awful neglect on my cuticles (I left out the usual closeup pic to spare you). I have spent the past month totally overhauling my place - organizing, streamlining, redecorating, and using the toolbox a lot. I decided to take a break from nails while the sun was hiding and concentrate on getting things in order. Now it seems the sun is back and I'm pretty much done, so I'm hoping to get back on the horse.

Ciate Stiletto

Today's manicure is Ciate Stiletto. Stiletto is a green jelly-ish creme from their new Autumn/Winter 09 collection.
Pretty, but not entirely unique - it's close to Nubar Forest (Forest is a smidge darker) and BB Couture Poison Ivy (pretty dupe-y).
This mani is one coat ciate underwear bc, three coats of polish, and one coat ciate speed coat tc.

Ciate Power Dressing

Today's manicure is Ciate Power Dressing. Power Dressing is a new polish from Ciate's Autumn/Winter 09 collection. I have three more of the collection upcoming on the blog. This polish is a true blue jelly. I think it's fantastic - it's not a navy that looks black in most lights (I have a few blue jellies like this - Nfu Oh 119, Lippmann Devil in a Blue Dress). It looks blue in pretty much any light. It looks a mess with one coat, two coats is nice, but it takes three coats to achieve a perfectly even finish - but it's worth it for the effect.

Where to get Ciate:
Ciate is a UK brand. It can be purchased from many sources across the pond (it's on sale on Asos.com right now), but Asos does not ship to the US.
The 3 sources that I have ordered from and found to be reliable shippers to the US are:
1.Ciate's official site ciate.co.uk
9 gbp per bottle, 10 gbp shipping cost to CA
great deals on sets - you can buy the whole Autumn/Winter 09 collection (6 bottles) for 27 gbp - the price of three individual bottles (I wish that I hadn't ordered hastily, as I bought 4 of the 6 bottles before figuring this out)
Their new site still has a few kinks, but they do have good customer service.

2.ABC Beauty abcbeautyshop.co.uk
7.5 gbp per bottle, 12.95 gbp shipping cost to CA
great deals on sets - you can buy the whole Autumn/Winter 09 collection (6 bottles) for 25 gbp
They do not get individual bottles of new collections immediately.

3.HairHQ hqhair.com
9 gbp per bottle, 12.50 gbp shipping cost to CA

This mani is one coat ciate underwear bc, three coats of polish, and one coat ciate speed coat tc.