All My Teals

I've had a recent hankering for teals. I like the idea of blue-green toe nails.

I've watched for this year's "shade," the warm aqua that Pantone has released as Color of the Year - Pantone 15-5519, turquoise.

I would say that China Glazes's "Passion in the Pacific" is closest. I have VNL at two coats, so some lacquer ladies would not approve.




















From Left to Right (Green to Blue):
Pointer - Barielle Sweet Addiction
Middle - China Glaze Passion in the Pacific
Ring - Barielle Decadence
Pinky - Illamasqua Muse


Two coats each. I was very surprised at how quickly the Illamasqua dried. None of these were slow driers.








































Illamasqua Muse























Barielle - Decadence




















China Glaze - Passion in the Pacific























Barielle - Sweet Addiction

More OhNos from the give away pile

I'm not against light or "neutral" polishes. But I am strongly opposed to boring polishes. And most of these are boring neutrals that don't work for my skin tone. Too orange a lot of them.


The next two photos are of SpaRituals "Solid as a Rock"




























Not exactly a bad color, but the silvery undertone blew it for me.

If Solid had been gold or copper undertoned, we'd have gotten along better.





The next two are Zoya Dea


































Zoya Dea is a dark orange, and it clashed badly with my skin. It would be a great neutral ... for someone else.





Zoya Flowie

















Zoya Flowie - There's a lot of -ish in this here polish. It's a tanish, mauvish, pinkish color depending on the light source.

It was pretty thick and I got bad coverage from two coats. After thinning out the bottle, the third coat "flowed" very nicely. Ha!

It was fairly quick to dry, but it is a funky little color. I can't decide if I like it or not. It got a drab, work camouflage vibe going.

There was some noticeable tip wear following day two, but nothing as bad as my recent RGB or RBL lacquers.

RGB Cognac Review

Another high priced polish with lackadaisical longevity. Some tip wear and cracktastic nature revealed before two days were up.

Beautiful application and fairly quick drying ... though not too. It was amazingly easy to fix boo-boos.

This is a gorgeous, though dark, color. A deep rust, or orangey-red color. It dried darker on the nail than the bottle color.

Layers:
1 OPI Envy base coat
2 lacquer coats
1 CND air dry coat

These pictures are from 36 hours wear at the most, and this is how they looked after only 12 hours wear. I guess that means after the first days wear, this polish settles down and you don't have further wear the next day.

As such, tip wear is a concern within hours of application. I had a minor chip at the nail edge. This just doesn't fit my needs for longevity.

I'm getting sick of buying high price point polishes that give me crappy wear times. I'm now concerned about the Illamasqua and Barielle polishes I've ordered. I read great reviews on products, but I'm having a poor experience with them.

Not recommended for office wear due to poor longevity.

This would be beautiful in a warm brown gradation ... but should I bother keeping it for such a rarely used reason?

Rescue Beauty Lounge Bruised Review

Rescue Beauty Lounge's Bruised Swatch and Wear




















Bruised is just gorgeous in so many ways. Beautiful reddened deep plum color. Much darker than I expected from other swatches.

No pulls and very little streaking. You could get by with one coat IF you were in a hurry. I had excellent coverage with two light coats.

Awesome formula, crappy brush. This is only the second or so bad brush I've come along. It made application near the cuticles a nightmare. I need to figure out how to replace the brush.

If was very glossy with a top of CND Air Dry.

HOWEVER, the downside is that I had horrid chipping within 5 hours. ON. BOTH. HANDS.

Before I write it off, I will have to try again because my nails are going through the winter peelies. I want to figure out if that is causing the chipping, or if it was the two coats of Nail Envy I started with, or a severe dislike of Air Dry TC. ???

It does make me thankful that I don't like most of RBLs polish colors. I hope longevity is better next time around. Compared to my $3.00 China Glaze polishes, so far, not overly impressed.

The Recent OhNos Polishes

For lack of great swatches, rotten to non-existent descriptions, and/or manufacturer blobs, every polish order inevitably reveals some OhNos upon package opening.

OhNos are polishes that make you want to cry because they either: 1) are so totally NOT your color, OR 2) are so close but still lots-o-ugly on the nail.

I'm packing up my latest OhNos collection for delivery to the local nail salon, so without further adieu, that which made me cry ...



















Nubar Dark Plum on pinky and middle.















Zoya Kierra on ring and pointer.

Both of these were a thin streaky mess to apply. The first coat was atrocious, but they both settled (mostly) with coat two. I suspect polish addicts would want a third coat.

I can't see myself in either the way too purple leaning Dark Plum nor the magenta of Kierra.



















SpaRitual Pinks: Love Your Mother (darker middle and pinky) and Weathered the Storm (the carnationy color on pointer and ring)

These both applied nicely but had the typical slow dry of SpaRituals.

Weathered the Storm is a slightly "warmed" pink that I would never be caught with on my fingers. A real clash with the yellow.

Love Your Mother is a mauve that I'm iffy over. I still can't see myself reaching for it. So I should get rid of it, or should I? Maybe the name is giving me trouble. I have a good relationship with my mother, so I can't donate "Love Your Mother?" It could be 100% psychological.























Nfu-Oh 31, a peach ... with pink shimmer. Ick.

Great application from what I remember.

No longevity reading since I pulled it off after 5 minutes.





















One coat of Nfu-Oh 46 ... magenta base.



















Nfu-Oh 46 with two coats.

I ordered this after seeing it described as an "orange" based red. So totally NOT orange based.

The lacquer base is a deep magenta, which places this firmly in the "cool" portion of the red spectrum.

However, having worn several Nfu-Oh flakies, I have come to the conclusion that there are two flakie types: cool flakies and warm flakies. The cool flash blue and green. The warm flash green and orange.

The flakie of Nfu-Oh 46, as well as most of the other non-blue/purple colors, is the warm based flakie that flashes orange and green. As such, I suppose I can see why someone would label this a warm polish, though I disagree.



















Zoyas Demi, Ciara, and Coco ... all red-violet based colors ranging from very purple to very red, with the muted Coco reaching the plum definition.



















Zoya Ciara, a very red leaning red-violet. I would be comfortable calling this a berry color. Pretty, but also pretty bright, and not a color for which I would ever reach.



















Zoya Demi, a very purple leaning red-violet. Again, another pretty, though bright color. If it will only collect dust in my own drawers, why not give it a chance to live on another nail?











Zoya Demi on left, Ciara in middle, and Coco (the one I kept) on the right.

Ottobre Dress 02/2009 #04

Ottobre Dress - "almost" a dumpy dancer's dress ... needs work for this pear shaped body.




























I described this as a Japanese/Norwegian fusion pattern. It does remind me a bit of Japanese minimalism (Miyake perhaps?) and Van Den Akker's designs. I guess Japanese/Dutch fusion would be more appropriate.

It looks really cute in the drawings and photographs, but it has problems. Part of it is the changes I made, and part of it is the combo of my body shape and pattern. In short, the pattern was not created for tall pears.





















I did add pockets, which gave me a touch more width at the hipline. Not extremely flattering. However, the extra width I added to the skirt caused more hip width problems than the pockets.

I wanted to wear this dress to work, and I didn't want to be flashing massive amounts of thigh. As originally drafted, the side of the skirt hits mid-thigh. NOT attractive in my opinion.

However, having worn it for a day, the extra width is unnecessary. The shape of the skirt makes it hang such that thigh flash is not a concern ... there's quite of bit of protective underlayer wrapping hither and thither at that leg :).





















The side view shows the biggest problems.

#1) A bunch of fabric at my lower back, simply oodles of "this needs to be fixed with a sway back adjustment" ... about 2 inches by eyeballing it. I usually do 3/4" or so.

#2) This draft also renders my chest flat and my torso waistless.




















Oh, there they are!


Final problems are location of waistline. The draft has a low empire, I added an inch and it still hits two inches above my waist. I believe it is this that gives it the no body shape effect, especially with the weight of the skirt.

Possible future fixes ...
- lengthen bodice

- narrow waistline

- narrow skirt?

- narrow front neckline by 1/2" (it gapes a bit, not uncommon)


On the plus side, the dress does have some fun movement ... leg swirlies!

AND, the bodice seams are lovely.


As to construction details, I interfaced the side seams, neckline, armscyes, and bodice angle seams to minimize stretching with skirt weight.

I did not put a hem on the skirt, as the cheap knit fabric is heavy enough that it hangs well and does not curl.


I can see taking the bodice pieces and turning this into a top/tunic combo.

Brown Ombre Gradation Manicure

Fam's comment, "Did you have to pay extra for that?"

Revlon Sheer Nude (thumb)
CND Desert Suede (pointer)
SpaRitual InnerSanctum (middle)
Revlon Totally Toffee (ring)
Nubar Milk Chocolate Creme (pinky)















(Really bad bathroom light pic in an attempt to get all the fingers in one shot!)
































I wore this gradation for three days before anyone noticed the oddity.

It blended well enough that I'd almost consider this work appropriate, depending on your field.

All of the colors wore really well, and the small bit of chipping that occurred could be completely blamed on moving family to a new house.

The colors were not a perfect mix, but "close enough."

I've never done a full mani of any of these lacquers, so no true longevity readings.

Nfu-Oh 62, polish swatch

Here's another polish that seems to defy other bloggers' descriptions.

I purchased this because the color card seemed to suggest 62 was a peach shade, even though many word descriptions described this as a silver holo. I took a chance.













What is it? Peach.




















62 is a highly reflective polish, and the difficulty comes in seeing more flash than base color. The direct light hits a beautiful peach shade, and immediately gives way to the rainbow reflections of green, blue, purple, gold, and silver.

I think this will work on just about anybody because of the rainbow integration. Regardless, it was nice to find a "warmer" holographic.


Having (unfortunately) used the Nfu-Oh Aqua Base recommended for holos, I got squat wear out of this polish. I think it lasted a day ... maybe.

As such, I do NOT recommend the Aqua Base. I really need to try it again with an appropriate base for a true longevity reading.


One really (REALLY) interesting note occurred during top coat application. The top coat mattified my Nfu-Oh polish. I was heart-broken. There goes all the lovely holo goodness. Then the TC dried, and the holo reappeared. I've never seen anything like this response from OPI's My Private Jet (the only other holo I own). Anybody else seen this?

I can only guess that the wet top coat scattered the light in such a way as to disrupt the holographic flash.


62 is NOT a work appropriate shade! :) But it is fun. If you have the chance to try them out, and like/love holographic polishes, Nfu-Oh has several of them.

China Glaze Robotika, polish swatch

Robotika had an awesome application for a chrome. It went on smoothly, and dried quickly.

What came in my bottle does not seem to match a lot of the descriptions I read, and I pulled out my color card, because I don't see a lot of brown in this polish.

































What I get is a light plum. Located between purple and red, it is comfortably situated in the red-violet portion of the color spectrum.

Definitely a cooler color, and wearable with the appropriate accessories and colors.

Longevity wasn't great, and I believe this lasted three days before chipping.

Nail Treatments: what works, and what works best ...

Once you start polishing your nails, you kinda need to keep up with it. Even the "safest" polishes stain my nails a rather sickening yellow color.

In all my 'net searches for "how do I keep polish from staining my nails," the gurus say use a base coat. In my experience, it doesn't work. I've never gone without a base coat, and I still have staining. Maybe you need two coats of base, but that's an extra step (and dry time) I haven't tested yet.


To this point, I've used -


Base Coats -
Zoya Anchor
OPI Nail Envy Formaldehye Free
Nubar Nu Nail
Nubar Foundation

They all work. I don't think the base coat does much more than smooth out the nail bed and give some gripping surface to your lacquer. You are paying for their advertising, so I'd go with the cheapest 3-free base you can find. In my case, either Zoya Anchor at $8 or Nubar Foundation at $7 depending on the deals I find during polish acquisitions. I suspect Revlon offers a reasonably priced 3-free base.

As with every treatment, finding 3-free is getting easier, but even the companies that tout their 3-free lacquer are selling 3-full treatments. Buyer beware.


Top Coats -
Zoya Armor is pretty much the only slow dry top coat I currently have ... it was a freebie with purchase. It didn't get regular use until I started topping my manis with Nubar Diamont.

Being that top coats have a very similar ingredients list to base coats, I'd find the cheapest 3-free and use it for both base and top. Once again, I suspect Revlon has a good candidate.


Quick Dry Top Coats -
This is where companies have to stretch the imagination of their chemists.

These quick dries are either 3-full or simply don't work:
Seche Vite
Posche
Zoya drops
Qtica drops

If you still insist on putting a layer of silicone (dimethicone, etc.) on your drying nails, it would be less expensive to pick up a bottle at the hardware store.


My two HG speed tops are:
CND Air Dry
Nubar Diamont

CND Air Dry was my favorite for a long time. It drys to a hard coat in about 30 minutes. I had to be careful, but could return to typing within minutes of an "Air Dry" coat. This is the mani that could be extended for seven days. Every once in a while, I'd follow an Air Dry mani with Zoya top coat and the sides of my mani would give before the tips would.

Air Dry plays nicely with tops coats, though it takes a while to dry to a hard enough finish for normal or extreme use.

Awesome longevity.


Nubar Diamont now edges out Air Dry for ease of returning to normal activity. This is, literally, a half hour mani (tops) from start to finish. However, I sacrifice longevity. Diamont is the dominatrix of the treatment bunch. She doesn't like ANYONE on top. Not even herself.

Diamont with a Zoya Armor layer two days later will peel within a day. Ruined mani.

Diamont with a second Diamont layer two days later does not hold or look good. Another ruined mani. She's particular.

The only way I've been able to extend my Diamont mani (from two to four days) is with a topcoat underneath Diamont.

So this is how I've arrived at my current "pressed-for-time" layer system:
1 base
2 lacquers
1 top
1 Diamont
- maybe four days of wear


If I'm not in a hurry:
1 base
2 lacquers
1 Air Dry
- add top coats every three days or so to extend mani for upwards of seven days

To be honest, I end up with enough bare nail near the cuticle with my "Air Dry" system that even though the polish is in good condition, it just looks odd. And I change my polish based on nail growth, rather than polish aging concerns.

Zoya Jinx, polish swatch

Zoya Jinx is a lovely medium chestnut brown.

I've had it for quite a while, but the paper swatch didn't do it any justice.

On the nail it has a fire that is completely missing in the bottle. It makes me wonder how many other wonderful colors I've written off due to a poor bottle show.



















This mani is approximately four days old and starting to show slight tip wear, no chipping or breakage.

My current regime is to use:
1 base coat
2 lacquer coats
1 top coat
1 quick dry

This mani has Zoya base and top coats, and the quick dry is Nubar's Diamont. Diamont is an amazing quick dry top, but it does not have the longevity of CND's Air Dry. It also doesn't play well with others. However, when time is of the essence, Diamont is the answer, dry to touch in a short period of time (a minute, maybe) and dry to normal/moderately tough use within 10 minutes.

I don't believe I've had the slightest oops after using Diamont. However, I don't get seven days of wear from a Diamont top mani.

It's the way you word your questions ...

To all my future college students,

Saying, "It's the way you word your questions that cause me to fail your test," is not the way to endear yourself to a professor.

If you can't be bothered to study, just own up to the fact. Your professor needs the truth to make suggestions ... lies can't help us pinpoint the underlying problem.

When I have students aceing the test, while you are flunking the test ... the problem is usually pretty obvious.


AND, when I tell you to make an appointment to visit with me and go over your test ... MAKE the appointment.


Sincerely,
Your professor in Academia


AHHH, rant over. All better.

As if Milk Allergies weren't enough!!!

Yes, I have a sun allergy.




I developed a funky rash on my lower legs after spending a couple minutes reading while my dogs romped around outside this summer.


It went away, but the next time we did the same routine, the rash came back.


My culprit was the sun. Only the lower legs were exposed and the rash stayed around for several days to weeks, and then disappeared as if never there. It wasn't itchy on my legs.


I have a sun sensitivity. Ye gods, what's next?

Fast forward to our summer vacation - setting, Wauseon, Ohio. I've got SPF 75 sunscreen on (chemical base), I'm wearing a hat, and I have a floor length gown made out of "SPF" fabric draped over my summer clothes. I develop a rash at my collarbone area. And this one IS itchy. Being that I'm wearing the mineral foundation, I don't rash on my face. But this does give me the to idea to run out for sunscreen with a physical sunblock, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. Obviously the chemical sunscreen wasn't hacking it.

Welcome me to the micro- and nano-sized particle family. I'm staying for a while.

I apply the physical sunblock and have no more problems the remainder of the trip. My rash fades quickly and stops itching.

Now I just have to worry about white face, and leaving titanium dioxide and zinc oxide residue everywhere. It is on my pockets, on my collars, on the car handle ...




















Purple Prairie Botanicals


I've been wearing two sunscreens since:
Purple Prairie Botanicals SPF 30, a very low 1 on the hazard scale of Cosmetics Safety Database.
Ingredients:
Water
Olive Oil
Hammamelis virginiana Witch Hazel
Kosher Vegetable glycerin
emulsifying wax
Cocos nucifera Coconut
Butyrospermum parkii Shea Butter
Jojoba oil
zinc oxide
titanium dioxide
vitamin E
Salix nigra extract Black Willow
Rosemary extract

This does have a fairly strong smell at application, and I wish they would use "light" olive oil. But the smell does disappear fairly quickly.

I do have a bit of white face on first application, but it seems to fade within 10 minutes.

It has much better slip than the other sunscreen. I wear this on my face and upper body.




















Neutrogena's Purescreen Line, currently a hazard of 3 on the Cosmetics Safety Database:
- Sensitive Skin SPF 60+
- Pure & Free Baby SPF 60+

Ingredients:
Titanium Dioxide 4.9%
Zinc Oxide 4.7%

Alumina
Arachidyl Alcohol
Arachidyl Glucoside
Ascorbic Acid (Avena sativa Oat Kernel Extract - in Pure & Free Baby only)
Beeswax
Behenyl Alcohol
Benzyl Alcohol
BHT
Bisabolol
Butylene Glycol
Butylocytl Salicylate
Cetyl Dimethicone
Dimethicone
Dimethicone PEG-8 Laurate
Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate
Disodium EDTA
Ethylhexylglycerin
Glyceryl Stearate
Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer
Isohexadecane
Methicone
Methylisothiazolinone
Pantothenic Acid
PEG-100 Stearate
PEG-8
Polyaminopropyl Biguanide
Polyhydroxystearic Acid
Polymethyl Methacrylate
Polysorbate 60
(Potassium Sorbate - Pure & Free Baby only)
Retinyl Palmitate
Silica
Stearic Acid
Styrene/Acrylates Copolymer
Tocopheryl Acetate
Triethoxycaprylylsilane
Trimethylsiloxysilicate
Trisiloxane
Water
Xantham Gum

The two are so close in formula and ingredients as to be the same. I've found that with the oat extract in the baby formula, "Pure & Free Baby" applies slightly more easily. They both drag quite well, unfortunately.

I wear this on my arms and legs.

May I just point put that, man, these have a bunch of alcohol and silicone in them.

43(41) ingredients vs. 13 ... can you guess which one I reach for most often???

Polish Swatch - Nubar Cinnamon

Nubar Cinnamon. Looks nothing like.

Depending on the lighting, two coats of Nubar Cinnamon look yellow, gold, or beige. And the microglitter mixes gold and light red. It is not a duo, just very susceptible to light changes.

It is not a very attractive color with my skin tone. Perhaps it would be better as a top coat or in a frankenpolish.

It did seem to have staying power. Even after four days I couldn't find noticeable chips.

Funky French - Polish Swatch - China Glaze Yee-Haw and Nubar Mon Amour

I'm not a big fan of the basic french or american manicure. I think they are boring, predictable, and utterly passe.

However, I do like a funky french on occasion, and my first trial in a very long time is below.

The tip color is China Glaze Yee-Haw and the nail color is Nubar Mon Amour. The Nubar is so colorless that I see no difference between a painted nail and a non.

China Glaze Yee-Haw is a frosty tanned apricot. Strongly recommended for the sunny days of spring and summer.

Polish Swatch - China Glaze Oh How Street It Is

For the first couple of days wear, I swore that China Glaze "Oh How Street It Is" was too orange. But it has grown on me.

It is right on that line of being a more reddened orange than an orange-red. Definitely one of the most orangey colors I have.



















Unfortunately, I can't recommend the longevity. I have obvious tip wear by day three. Which is when these photos were taken.




















In an attempt to make them last a couple more days, I added a coat of Nubar's "Gilded Gold." Which is my new favorite effects coat. It really looks like an aging Tuscan finish, where part of the gilded outer layer has worn away to reveal the base color.

I bought it to wear over my cremes. I've given up on finding a orangey-red frost or microglitter. But if I can find the creme, I can make it a microglitter. And this does it one better. It is a lovely effects coat. I suspect this is one bottle I will use up.