Sensible Nails

Diving right into the season with awesome indie polish, this...

Thu, 02 May 2013 18:31:52 -0500

Diving right into the season with awesome indie polish, this is The Fifth Element (Emily de Molly). It’s a gorgeous turquoise creme with different sizes of orange hex glitter and smaller blue glitters. It’s got great depth and dimension and applies easily and with relative smoothness for this kind of polish. I used three coats for evenness and to achieve opacity and only one coat of Seche Vite was necessary to get it all smooth and shiny.

Wow, you don’t even want to know how many coats I used to...

Wed, 01 May 2013 18:30:51 -0500

Wow, you don’t even want to know how many coats I used to get to this picture. Hell, I don’t even know. Thankfully it didn’t feel at all awful because Wild Card (Wet n Wild) is very easy to apply and is GORGEOUS. It’s a lovely sheer pearly purple that just makes me extremely happy. I love that it’s an all-season sort of color, I can see it for spring, fall, and winter. So pretty!! I love it so much!

onenailtorulethemall: Don’t forget to check out my review of...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:30:47 -0500

onenailtorulethemall:

Don’t forget to check out my review of the new Barry M nail art pens if you haven’t already! You can see it here

mynailsaredope: Should have entered something in...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:12:41 -0500

mynailsaredope:

Should have entered something in prettynailswag’s nail art competition.. too late now but it’s all good! Here’s a little something for spring. The accents match some floral wedges I own. The green is Essie’s “Navigate Her” from the Spring collection.

mynailsaredope: Had to do these vintage looking nails, which...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:12:13 -0500

mynailsaredope:

Had to do these vintage looking nails, which have been done before by unknown & has been reblogged/reposted repetitively on tumblr. Credits to the artist!!

mynailsaredope: Experimenting with velvet nails.. not my cup of...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:11:42 -0500

mynailsaredope:

Experimenting with velvet nails.. not my cup of tea.

Still can’t deal with velvet nails but this is pretty cool looking.

mynailsaredope: Close up of these floral, gold goodies! ♥

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:11:06 -0500

mynailsaredope:

Close up of these floral, gold goodies! ♥

This is Times Square (NYC) from their In A New York Minute line....

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:58:27 -0500

This is Times Square (NYC) from their In A New York Minute line. It’s a juicy looking red creme but nothing that hasn’t been done over and over. Still, a great red to have for the budget at around $1.99. Application was pretty simple though I should probably have gone for three coats instead of two as in the pic.

nailaday: NailaDay: Hare Why So Igneous? over Orly After Party

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:27:31 -0500

nailaday:

NailaDay: Hare Why So Igneous? over Orly After Party

I’m getting on that indie train and it’s almost...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:30:44 -0500

I’m getting on that indie train and it’s almost summer so of course my first indie purchase of this season had to be something in preparation. Neon Lights (Lush Lacquer) is a white base chock full of semi-transparent neon glitter in different hex sizes and colors (so far I can see, neon pink, yellow, orange, green).

It can get a bit streaky, especially when I have to deal with the large pink and green glitters but it mostly evens out on the second coat. I realized a little too late that I need to work with thinner coats to avoid covering all the glitter in the white base. My goal is to get it as close as possible to how it looks like through the bottle. There will be a lot of topcoat (I need to invest in Gelous). It was opaque in two coats, but I had some things to correct so added a third one.

It’s growing on me. I can’t say I’m in love yet, but I’ll try it out a bit more before I can truly let it go. What a cool concept though!

naznails: Essence Walk on the Wild Side Awesome dusty green...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 23:17:17 -0500

naznails:

Essence Walk on the Wild Side

Awesome dusty green shimmer. Almost perfect in 2 coats, but it did need a third.

making me want to try these essence colours!

nailpolishenthusiast: Misa A Sunny Smile Makes Me Go Wild,...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 23:14:14 -0500

nailpolishenthusiast:

Misa A Sunny Smile Makes Me Go Wild, Essie Mint Candy Apple, and Avon Classic Fit #nailart #dailynailart#nailpolish #nailstagram #nailsofinstagram #nailpolishenthusiast #misa#essie #avon #dots #flowers

I’ve actually had It’s A Trapeze (China Glaze) for a...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:31:01 -0500

I’ve actually had It’s A Trapeze (China Glaze) for a good long while now. Within the first few days of the collection’s release in fact. The idea of it caught my eye and I was a bit excited for China Glaze’s dip into the indie pool. One of the much celebrated aspects of indie polish is the sheer creativity that comes with the mix of bases and glitters which is definitely what CG went for. They used a milky white base and packed as much glitter as they could in the colors they could.

Which is how China Glaze might have missed the mark here by doing a bit too much. I couldn’t help but feel like it was just too much all at once and they missed a chance to edit their formula and make it more refined. It always looks effortless when indie brands like Lush Lacquer or NerdLacquer manage the perfect balance but it is the art of working those decisions out that makes them so popular. I hope that they keep trying because in the end they are very frankly more accessible ($7 for China Glaze vs. $9 and up + shipping for Indie Brands) but part of the fun of indie is their creativity and that it feels good to support something individual and homegrown that doesn’t have the resources of massive hi-tech labs.

Good try, but still no dice.

A blue creme from China Glaze’s Cirque collection....

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:02:54 -0500

A blue creme from China Glaze’s Cirque collection. It’s a bit of an ordinary color to have in a collection, I can’t say there’s no other place to get a blue like this. Immediately I can think of Why Not (Sinful Colors) as a more affordable alternative. The formula was a bit thinner than I expected, and as such took three coats instead of two as most other blues do. It’s a smurfer, so at least a double base coat should be used.

naznails: Essence Oh My Glitter! Again, thin, watery, 3-coater....

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:14:40 -0500

naznails:

Essence Oh My Glitter!

Again, thin, watery, 3-coater. Nice shimmer though. My camera didn’t pick it up, but there are little flecks of blue and pink and purple in there.

dailyenail: Neon Polka Dots!!

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:22:57 -0500

dailyenail:

Neon Polka Dots!!

From the 2012 Cirque du Soleil collection, Surreal Appeal (China...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:11:23 -0500

From the 2012 Cirque du Soleil collection, Surreal Appeal (China Glaze) is a yummy pink toned coral creme. It’s got excellent application, especially for a shade like this, and it was opaque in two coats. If you don’t have a spring/summer coral, grab this one as quick as you can.

14. a polish that I can’t pull off The last time I...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:30:40 -0500

14. a polish that I can’t pull off

The last time I reviewed Eye of the Tiger Lily (Flower), I was less than pleased with the results. Not only did the shade just not work for me (though it’s quite pretty on its own and has become a Flower brand favorite), the application was incredibly troublesome and didn’t deliver the promised results. So when I thought of a polish I can’t pull off, I immediately thought of Tiger Lily and just in case it was just bad luck application, decided to review it again.

I’m all for second chances, however some things are just not meant to be.

Application was hard to control and opacity even harder to come by (somewhat passable because it is a jelly, I suppose). At three coats, I can still see my VNL though the flash in my camera hides most of it in the pics. I experienced dragging and unevenness even when I waited an extra-long time between coats. One thing I will give it though is that it did dry shiny and glossy. For someone else, this might be worth the trouble, but for me this is going right back to the Blog Sale.

Stay Safe Lacquer Lovers ♥

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:13:38 -0500

My prayers and thoughts are with everyone in Boston, MA & West, TX.

This squishy looking coral creme is Thimbleberry (Sinful Colors)...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:30:40 -0500

This squishy looking coral creme is Thimbleberry (Sinful Colors) from their core line. Application was troublesome. The formula is a bit thin and I had unevenness and streaking after two coats. However, three coats managed any damage pretty well. Despite the issues, I adore the color I ended up with and would say that Thimbleberry was definitely worth the extra care.