Polish or Perish: Piff

Showing posts with label Piff. Show all posts

Monday, November 28, 2011

Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

(2 coats)

I've worn this as a mani twice now. Once last year and once this year. I've been bored both times. Goodbye MMUtM.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Lynnderella Snow Angel

(3 coats)

Unlike the others I've tried, this one does not do well at all without a base color. It just looks straight up ugly and weird. This one is also a huge top coat eater. I think this has 4 coats of TC?

Will not be wearing this one again without a base white underneath.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Lynnderella Gotta Love Brains

This one is my hands down fav except I haven't yet tried Mercurial.

(3 coats)

This is exactly what I wanted Lippmann's Glitter in the Air to be: a little more opaque, a little more glitter.

The greater variety of actual glitter is a major bonus too. Love this. Perfect polish for my birthday (28-booooo)!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Lynnderella Ruby Red Ruby

Siggghhhhhhh

I tried to ignore Lynn's polishes. I TRIED. But I saw one too many photos of Mercurial and broke down.

I'll be posting up photos of each as I try them.

(4 coats)

I think for now, all the swatch photos you will see of the Lynnderellas will be without a base color. That is typically how I wear my polish (I don't layer, I'm just too lazy) and I think it's a better way to know exactly what a polish looks like.

However, for RRR I will be wearing it over a warm red. The jelly base is quite a cool red/pink and is not flattering on me. Which is why I went 4 coats, I was trying to get the warmer glitter to give me as much coverage as possible. Love the hex/square glitter of this!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

China Glaze Rated Holographic

(2 coats)

This applied so nicely but alas the color is a little too close to my skin color it just sort of it blah. Chipped really quick, which isn't a surprise I suppose.

Friday, November 4, 2011

China Glaze Devotion

(2 coats)

I prefer Sci-Fi. Devotion is more purple (a preference) but the brushstrokes are unacceptable.

Monday, October 31, 2011

China Glaze Agent Lavender

(2 coats - first photo is much more color accurate)

So I figure everyone's posting Halloween manis. How 'bout a palate cleanser? Like a plate of crudité on a buffet table full of pastry and fried snacks, you're surprised at how much you're happy to see it.

A bit chalky but applied fairly smoothly and was good in 2.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Nfu Oh 570

(3 coats)

This is a streaky mother. I wish it applied like 119. But I like the color very much. It's quite a bit greener on the nail than in the bottle.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Nfu Oh 119

Over my several month purge effort, I've gotten rid of well over half of my Nfu Ohs. I either had dupes, the formula was deplorable, or I wasn't feeling the color enough to see myself ever wearing it again.

This one was the first in the keep pile. I love an almost black. This is a particularly good one because the base color (which you see in the first coat) is a vibrant cobalt blue. It gives the mani a glow even though the ultimate color is very dark.

(3 coats)

This is three coats but I actually wore it as just two (I sloppily applied a third coat because there was two days wear and I didn't feel like showing off my tip wear). It dried very well (unlike the majority of my Nfu Ohs).

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

(3 coats)

I needed three coats to get it totally even, which meant the mani didn't dry as quickly as I was used to (hence the dents).

I always said this one didn't look good on my complexion. I could use a darker, warmer red, but frankly it doesn't look bad at all. Glad I finally wore this as a mani.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

China Glaze Stroll

The only one from the 12-piece Retro Diva collection I ever bothered to acquire.

(3 coats)

For me, it's good in two coats. But I wanted it as dark as possible so I went three.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

6/8 StrangeBeautifuls Volume 3

I never posted swatches of this volume! Here's 6 of 8. I did some

Sadly I don't remember coats. These are super rough swatches. Sorry!

(UNF this one UNF)

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

OPI Spark de Triomphe

***Update - my Blog Sale has been updated with Fire Sale pricing***

Everything everyone has said about this is true.

(3 coats)

Glorious.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Nail Shape Experiment Failed

So I went on vacation to Central Europe for a few weeks. My general rule for vacations is to not wear polish at all. Bring a nail file and some cuticle cream and call it a day. I love nail polish, but not enough to lug around all the equipment and chemicals I need to keep my manis looking presentable.

Still, that means that my nails come home looking worse for wear. Cuticle cream is not enough to protect my forever weak talons from the elements, peeling, my teeth/mouth.

Upon my return home, inspired by

a lady on the subway with THE MOST PERFECT almond shaped nails I have ever seen (so elegant; I swear the look was flawless),
Adele's nude nails at the VMAs, and
the peels going on in the corners of my nails,

I decided to try almond shaped nails.

First came the round phase, which I quite liked. Then, as my nails grew away from the nail bed, I tried ever so slowly to fashion them into a more pointed shape.

This is what they looked like after 3 weeks.

(1 coat Essie Waltz, 1 coat Essie Vanity Fairest)

Yikes. It was even more insanely creepy and weird in person. Turns out, VNL does have the ability to sicken me.

I also hated wearing dark colors with them, drawing attention to these monstrosities. But the nails looked better all hidden away.

(2 coats BBCouture Erotic Night)

My most obvious problem is that my nail beds are too short and flared for this look to work after just one month of trying.

The fact is, I would have needed at least another 3-4 weeks of unbroken nail growth (impossible) to properly pull the look off, and I wasn't willing to deal with the ugly duckling phase in between. Especially since (i) I didn't know if the end result would look good on me and (ii) it would have been impractical anyway, given my keyboard-focused job.

Oh well, back to normal squoval nubs. (And back to regular posting!)

Maybe I'll go oval like K2K. I did quite like it.