Anyway, on to the nail polish. I'm not sure if it's just me or if everyone has recently become obsessed with nail polishes. I must have spent hundreds of dollars over the past few months on unique varnishes. I do my nails almost every single day and have enjoyed fancy manicures like half moon manicures and funky french manicures. I think that I'm going to start doing nail of the day posts when I come up with a combination that I'm particularly proud of. Today my nails are chipped because I did not wait long enough for them to dry before starting on dishes so, sadly, this will not be a nail of the day post.
I wanted to share some of my favorite polishes and recent acquisitions. I apologize for the crappy pictures. They were taken on my kitchen table right after I finished eating dinner. Sorry if there's dirty dishes and other random things in the background. Also, excuse any random gross lighting. I am no where near a professional photographer.
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| Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers |
I like this polish. I don't love it though for the simple fact that removal is a pain in the butt. The larger glitters stay on your nails forever and removal generally does scratch up my nails a little. I know that soaking my nails or wrapping the cotton pads in aluminum foil will help with the removal process but I don't usually have time to sit around unable to use my hands for an extended period of time. Also, it's really cold.
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| Revlon Starry Pink and Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance |
Similar to Ruby Red Slippers, these two also have the various size hexagonal glitter. They are exceptionally beautiful polishes though and so I do use them frequently. I also own Revlon's Facets of Fuchsia which is an exact dupe for Bad Romance.
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| Butter London The Black Knight, Bluey, and Knees Up |
I love Butter Polishes. This is kind of where the obsession started. Around the Holidays, Ulta would have deals on these and I would scoop them up whenever that happened. The Black Knight was a must have for me because of all the multi colored glitter. Unfortunately, this is not a love once applied. It's a super thirsty polish that drinks up all of the top coat within minutes necessitating multiple coats of Seche Vite.
Bluey is a unique color that was #1 on my list and the very first Butter polish that I ever purchased. It screams Fall to me. Its beauty is hard to explain...like a blackened turquoise with subtle blue and green shimmer. A mermaid at night, if you will.
Knees up was another must have for me. This metallic true red reminds me of a Christmas bulb and for that reason, it was featured in many holiday manicures. Though it is no longer the holiday season, I'm still sporting this color under another glittery red nail polish (I'll get into that later).
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| Butter London The Full Monty, No More Waity, Katie, and Henley Regata |
The Full Monty is a fantastic gold with micro silver glitter running through. Along with Knees Up, this was another staple Christmas color. I don't love it though because I don't think the color is super flattering with my skin tone. I always think it's funny when people say that because it's just nail polish, but this is the only one that I feel that way about. Also, it's a very dupable color. Almost every other brand has something exactly like this color and the $14 price tag is not worth it to me.
No More Waity, Katie is fantastic in theory. In practice, however, it leaves me wanting. In the bottle, the purple glitters accent the taupey color beautifully and I do think of Kate Middleton when I see this polish. Butter was dead on when they came up with this concept. However, it's sheer and requires 3 or more coats to get what you see in the bottle which in turn, leaves a lot of room for mess ups. It's also somehow very clumpy and another thirsty thirsty polish. The glitter once again makes removal a serious chore. If you ignore all the flaws though, it is a beautiful color and I would repurchase.
I've probably only used Henley Regatta once but not because I think it's bad. On the contrary...I think it's a fantastic color that accents Bluey beautifully. I just don't have a lot of places to wear a glittery blue and green nail polish. This reminds me of mermaids even more than Bluey. I love it and the glitter isn't actually as difficult to remove as some others.
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| Butter London West end Wonderland and Victoriana |
West end Wonderland is probably one of my most used colors overall. I love the opaque gold glitter with little flecks of red and silver. Another love for the holidays. Since the glitter is so finely milled, I do not have a lot of problems removing this polish.
Victoriana is another fantastic color from Butter. It's sort of a mucky Robins Egg blue with little silver dust running through. It's not the most flattering shade on me but I think that come spring time, this will be a well loved shade.
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| Butter London Tart With A Heart |
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| China Glaze Blonde Bombshell, OPI Teenage Dream, China Glaze Love Marilyn |
Teenage Dream is definitely in my top 5 favorite polishes of all time. I originally posted about this polish here. I found it in my hair salon on my way to the shampoo station and immediately scooped it up. I have since worn this around a zillion times and bought a backup (I found it in a nail salon near my parent's house in the middle of nowhere Delaware). In about 4 coats, you get opaque pink and holographic glittery goodness if worn by itself. This is a thick OPI polish though, so with that many coats, you're pretty much guaranteed only a few hours before the entire nail length of the polish just peels off. While kind of annoying, this does eliminate the problem of how long it's going to take to scrub through that many layers of glitter. I usually like to do 2 coats over a sheer pink polish like Essie's Ballet Slippers. You still get the full impact from Teenage Dream but your manicure lasts a lot longer.
I'll admit, Love Marilyn is not one of my favorites. I think that if it was all red glitters, I would appreciate it a lot more. The silver in it makes it look kind of polka dot which takes away from the beauty of the polish. The glitter is pretty and this is a statement nail though.
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| China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Some Like it Haute, and Orly Tiara |
Some Like it Haute is my favorite Marilyn movie (this color again, from the Eye Candy-Marilyn Monroe Collection) but sadly not my favorite polish. This was not a color that originally jumped out at me on the display and I only ended up purchasing this while on the hunt for unique polishes to make Christmas Bulbs. (Click for video) Fantastic in glass on a Christmas tree...loses its luster on my fingers. I love the idea of this. Gunmetal glitter and holographic glitter. I should be all over it. It just didn't wow on my hands. I am however happy to have this in my collection, if for no other reason than the name.
Tiara...nothing but a silver glitter. Great quality at that and fantastic for frankening. I do not like this on its own but I am a sucker for silver glitter. This is fantastic as a glitter top coat. My first and favorite franken ever was my interpretation of Essie Starry Starry Night. See below. Not an exact dupe by any means but beautiful none the less
Going through my collection I realized I have a ton of pink glitter polishes. It's like 7. Each one different and Material Girl is no exception. Another one of the Marilyn Monroe Polishes, Material Girl has that same 3-D glitter thing going on as Blonde Bombshell. This one does not have the string glitter like Blonde Bombshell but it makes up for it in pink holographic glitters. One of my favorites from this collection.
As excited for the Muppet collection as I was, this was the only polish I ended up getting. And it was an after thought. I purchased this at the same time as my backup of Teenage Dream and I kind of regret getting it. It looks like birthday cake and is so fun and my recent obsession with glitter would not let me pass this up. This is a clear base with multi color and different size hexagonal glitter. Great in theory but it does not coat evenly and looks really funky and lumpy on my nails. Also a PIA to remove.
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| Orly Tiara, China Glaze Material Girl and Lorelei's Tiara |
Lorelei's Tiara is my favorite from the Eye Candy collection. It's composed of mostly silver micro glitter with a few brighter silver specks, but the part that is really fantastic is the little blue glitters scattered throughout. It looks like icicles and is so beautiful. This is another statement nail polish that is great for the holidays. I think I wore this on new years and I've had it on my toes for some time now. The glitter is kind of annoying to get off but well worth the hassle.
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| China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara and OPI Rainbow Connection |
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| Essie Ballet Slippers, China Glaze For Audrey, and Sally Hansen Blue Me Away! |
For Audrey is my most recent purchase and a definite love. Developed as an homage to Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, this "Tiffany Blue" color is the closest to the iconic brand's color as they get. There's supposed to be some sort of color trade mark on "Tiffany Blue" so the exact panetone wasn't used but it's pretty darn close. This was a must have for me because everything I this sort of light aqua color. My cell phone case, my computer shell, even my makeup studio. This is the color for me and I don't even have any sort of obsession with Tiffany's. I only recently saw the movie and my room was painted like that when I moved in. It just happens to be a color that I have grown to love recently and the nail polish is no exception.
Blue Me Away! is a fantastic midtone blue cream polish. Another recent addition that has not yet been used but I see many blue manicures in the coming months. I want to pair this with a hot pink or maybe use this as the tips for a funky french manicure...who knows. I like the ideas though.
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| OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, China Glaze Up All Night, and Borghese Arrivederci Mist |
Up All Night has been in my collection for a while but not used very often until recently. This color is coming out a lot lighter in the photo too. It is a true creamy navy. This is one of my favorite winter polishes. I like wearing it with silver.
Arrivederci Mist is one of those purple greige colors a la Metro Chic. I do like this polish although it is a little thick. It does go on nicely and resists chipping wonderfully. I admit, I do not wear this very often anymore because I've been favoring more trendy glitter polishes but I will go back to this again next fall.
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| MAC Bad Fairy, Orly Halleys Comet and Galaxy Girl |
Halleys Comet is another beautiful duo chrome glitter. This one flashes blue and teal and looks fantastic in the summer. Another "mermaid" color.
Galaxy Girl is significantly more beautiful than my pictures show. In the picture above it looks almost like a brown but I can assure you, it does not in real life. This polish is a dupe for MAC's Formidable which came out in the Venomous Villains collection. It's a dark purple and teal duo chrome which is so striking when you walk out into the sunlight. There are a lot of dupes for this but I think this is probably still readily available.
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| OPI INK |
When you see this in the bottle, it's an instant must have. Purple Micro Shimmer which flashes gold in the right light...divine. Unlike a lot of the OPI polishes I've tried, this one is not nearly as thick and therefore, does not chip off as easily. It's opaque in 2 coats and lasts a long time.
Well, that's about it for tonight. I do have more polishes but that about does it for my high end ones and favorites. After writing this and going through all of my polishes, I decided it was time to give myself a proper manicure. I leave you with pictures of my stubby hands.
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| Orly Galaxy Girl. Photos really don't do this justice. |
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