♥ Nat Robbin's - 'Phantom' ♥

 

Nat Robbin's 'Phantom' 4 coats and 2 coats of  Nailene Top Coat

Where in the 'F' did that piece of fluff come from? I swear to gosh, that was not there when I was taking photos!!!! Anyhoo- here is a very lovely polish Nat Robbin's 'Phantom' 4 coats and 2 coats of  Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat. I guess this would be a shimmer with a strong flash.....I took some photos with extremely crappy lighting, just for funz..........I call it 'gloomy window' lighting.

This polish was extremely thin, and I want to leave the bottle open in a window or outdoors for a few hours so it will thicken up, but it is waaaaaaaay to cold to do so right now I am pretty sure it will freeze.. I did have some bare spots with my application -  but I barely noticed them becuase I was enchanted by the super-strong violet flash in this pretty light chocolate polish.

I picked this up at a bargain store in my town. Nat Robbin's polish's are discontinued, but the three I grabbed were really nice. I love polish's that have a strong flash like this. it's such an odd pairing, chocolaty brown with violet..... = I like it and I think that these types of color combos are really special ♥

-fluorescent lighting-

 

 -fluorescent lighting-

 

 -fluorescent lighting-

  

 ♥

♥ Claire's - 'Red Slippers' ♥

 

2 coats of Claire's 'Red Slipper' 1 coat of Nailene Top Coat

Ring China Glaze for Audrey 'Amoeba' design

I think the swirly design on my ring finger looks like amoebas..... or like cartoon 'cells'. I was just messing around and added a few dots of China Glaze 'For Audrey' over 2 coats of the Claire's 'Red Slipper' and swirled with a toothpick. 

This beautiful shimmery polish from Claire's surprised me. I thought for sure it would be 3 to 4 coats but it looks perfect in 2 coats. It's very shimmery and extremely shiny on it's own. It dried very fast as well, which was really, really nice.....

I hope to get some sunshine photos tomorrow of this one, as all of my photos today are indoors under fluorescent lighting. I was surprised that when i searched for this polish, as well as Claire's 'Under the Sea' there was not any 'Under the Sea' manis or swatches, and so far I have only found 3 photos of this polish' Red Slipper'. I picked this up at Claire's in there 10 for $10 deal going on right now.

I only own a  few Claire's polish's and before purchasing this batch - I was never impressed by them. These are really nice and I will definitely have a different perspective after trying these.

Below is a photo where *hopefully* you can see the polish on my cuticles curling and lifting ( right hand corner of photo). I apply a bit of barrier cream, Avon Moisture Therapy hand cream, with a little tiny brush around my cuticles, and when my polish is dry, sometimes I can peel off the polish that has gotten onto my cuticles..... and sometimes I can wash my hands when my nails are dry and the majority of polish mistakes just slough off it's pretty awesome and saves me from doing an acetone clean-up. And.... I have noticed a dramatic difference in the state of my cuticles due to using the barrier cream.

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

♥

♥ super cool 'ruffian inspired' ♥

 

I saw something similar to this just 2 days ago and wanted to copy - Emerald Sparkled's 'Ruffian Inspired' Mani. I think she may have done this free-hand- which is very impressive. I have done the opposite, putting the darker color at the base of my nail. I think this looks super-cool; and will try it with a lighter color  towards the base of my nail and a darker color on top.

after inserting the little copy card into the computer I marred my middle finger nail - 1 out of every 3 times that i touch that little card, i mess up my Mani.....if not in the camera, in the computer.

I did this by applying 'reifinder' or 're-binders' or whatever people call them to create a circular area at the base of my nail, and then used 2 super-duper thin coats of Sally Hansen 'Raven' a shiny solid black. When it was dry i removed the 'refinders' which left a  tonne of gooey paper behind. so i had to wait even longer to wash my hands and pick off the little pieces of paper. Then I filled in any sparse area, buffed raised edges, and applied 2 coats of Nailene Top Coat.

All my photos are indoors under fluorescent lighting.... its friggen freezing outside! Having that huge gouge that i tried to 'cover-up' is driving me nuts so i am changing this Mani right away.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

♥ Claire's 'Under the Sea' ♥

 

Claire's 'Under The Sea' 3 coats with 2 coats of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat

awwwwww, this is another gorgeous Claire's polish.  It is a pretty sea-foam green shimmer.

In the last few years most Claire's polish's I have bought were deceptively sheer, and I am a 2 to 3 coat maximum kinda gal, so I haven't really snagged any unless they were in the 10 for $10 section - which is pretty seldom in my town. But this polish is lovely - I am glad I grabbed it. This is 3 thin coats, all dried very fast. I did a quickie job and got a few pieces of fluff in this mani. I'll likely disguise this with some nail art tomorrow.

All my photos are indoors under fluorescent lighting.....

  

  

  

 

  

  

 

Claire's 'Emerald City'

 

Claire's Emerald City - 2 coats & 1 coat of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat 

WHEW  the nails i am wearing in these photos are NOT the Nailene nails below - i cannot remember a time when this many nails popped off in 24 hours............... I like to try new things and i like bargains so i picked up another -unnamed- brand and my nails are popping off like crazzzzzzy! It may be different factors such as; glue adhesion, the state of my nails, aliens.... whatever it is - I know that I am not doing this stunning Claire's polish any justice.

This polish was in the Claire's 10 items for $10 bucks at my towns mall, so i snagged it and a few other colors...... If there are any more left at the end of the week i hope to snag those, too; for back ups and franken fodder. This is heavenly!!!!!

I have read that this polish 'Emerald City' is a shimmer, but to me it appears to be a foil- I hope to do a little more research as this polish, along with a gorgeous red, blue and gold came out around X-mas time and were blogged about heavily. I suppose I will find out for sure when I remove it as foil polish's leave a lovely silver haze all over your fingers. If I knew how lovely this was, I would have picked it up for full price, it's totally worth it.

I also rushed to pick up a fresh supply of the shorter nails I use= Nailene 'full cover nails in square' they are $8.99 at Zellers stores in Canada, and right now at the Zellers store in my town, The Nailene 200 pack of 'Curved' active nails are $6.79..... on clearance. 

Sad news though, no new Wet n' Wild polish's have appeared in my small Canadian town yet..... 

 - these are NOT the nails I am wearing right now the ones i have on are not fab -

 

fluorescent

  

 sunny window

  

 weird flourescent

  

  

  

  

  

 ♥

NYC ' Chinatown' with WnW Sparkling Diamonds

 

NYC 'China Town', 2 coats & 1 coat of WnW Rock Solid 'Sparkling Diamonds' NO T.C.

 RING is just 2 coats of NYC China Town NO T.C.

Why oh why didn't I buy these beautiful Wet n Wild polish's when they were still available?Whhhyyyy!!!

This one is truly gorgeous. I'm going to mentally torture myself for the next little while knowing that the navy blue and dark umber Rock Solid colors with this amazing sparkling finish were within my grasp.

I'll get over it eventually. I cam upon this while gorgeous polish on clearance at one of the stores in my town that sells Wet n' Wild products. I have been staking it out hoping that the new polish's in the Wild Shine collection will show up. Here I have layered 1 coat of 'Sparkling Diamonds' over 2 coats of the fabulous NYC 'China Town'.

The few photos I have seen of these polish's are very pretty, there doesn't seem to be much out there though. I love how they affixed that humongous crystal on the top of the lid!

Any-hoo all my photos are indoors or under fluorescent lighting.I placed a question on MUA and someone from Toronto said they may be at her local walmart♥  Fingers crossed!!!

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

♥

♥ New goodies lately ♥

 

Rock Solid Pink Sapphire ( ends) Sparkling Diamond  (middle)

So they are discontinuing these polish's out of the Wet n Wild Line-up. Had I known how pretty they were I would have picked them up when they first came out. They had several unique and beautiful colors. Had I only seen photos swatched before......

Rock Solid Pink Sapphire

  

 cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

  

 I found these at a dollar store in my town..... I'll have to do a comparison with my current Nailene T.C.

  

 hmmmm

  

♥ Chocolate Watermelon ♥

 

- HAPPY VALENTINES DAY -

I wouldnt say that this is a very Valentine-like Mani, but I didn't expect to be able to post anything for a few more days. My computer issues are all sorted out and I am very very greatful that I can take photos and update my blog.

Here is the lovely Billie scented polish 'Watermelon' - 3 coats, and on my ring is the gorgeous Nat Robbins 'Phantom ' an extremely cool brown based polish with violet flash = I am doing a full Mani with this tonite. I picked this neat polish up at a dollar store in my town, HERE is the full post for those beauties.

This polish required 4 coats, sadly. I initially thought I could get away with just 2 if I layered it over a buff opaque polish as I had seen a great post on this technique over at The Manicured Manitee, but I still needed 4 coats to cover and vnl. Luckiily it dired fast and it lasted overnight with no sheet marks. I smartly added 2 coats of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat, and that saved me from having waffle nails.

Here is another post where I wore this pretty pink polish, Billie scented polish 'Watermelon' in the summertime. Even with T.C. I can still smell the watermelon scent, and its been 16 hours. I was eating pretzels and they overpowered the pretzels..... kinda ruined my snack time.....

Anyhoo- here is a few photos, all indoors under fluorescent lighting. The color accuracy, tone.... blah, blah, blah, is out of my hands. I'm gratefully working on a different computer and I don't quite have the hang of editing and such yet.

  

 

  

- Products I used -

  

♥ These are so girl-y ♥

 

Before filing in sparse areas with the black french tip pen.

 

Here is a close-up of the very edge of my nails......on my middle finger ( black tip) i have applied the nailenen french tip pen to the very edge, and will apply a good amount of Top coat the the very edge and underneath my nail as well. You can see the bare edge of my ring finger ( brown) where i had not carried the polish 'Phantom' over the edge.

  

Ring 4 coats of 'Phantom' layered over 2 coats of an opaque Buff shade

  

  

 Dang - those are some dry cuticles!!!!!!

  

@ 3 coats of Billie 'Watermelon' & 4 coats Nat Robbins  'Phantom'

  

@ 2 coats of 'Watermelon' & 2 coats of 'Buff' color 

with 1 coat of Nat Robbins 'Phantom' & 3 coatf of 'Watermelon'

@ 4 coats of Phantom = Apply Nailene French Tip guides..... these are the ones for toes♥

Apply Nailene French Tip pen in black - I got this perfect in 1 shot!!!!! Apply cutsie hearts from nail stickers # 17026 Bedazzle Earth Angle. 

Remove French Tip Guides, fill in any sparse areas & applied 1 coat of Nailene Acrylic Strong T.C. 

♥