Summer of Untrieds: Week 3

Another week down, and only one more day left for the Summer of Untrieds challenge!  Without anymore preamble,let's get to week 3's polishes!

Here are the prompts and the rules:

Rules:

• Use at least 1 untried polish that fits with the prompt for the day.
• If you don't have anything that works with the prompt, then consider it a free day and choose a random untried from your stash.
• There won't be an inlinkz, so keep up with the group by tagging your photos #summerofuntrieds.  I've also been including #julyuntriedchallenge in my posts, so you can add that too if you want.  Also, feel free to add a tag to me if you'd like (either @blueeyedlawyer or #wishesofablueeyedgirl).
• Start crossing off those untrieds in your stash!

[I purchased these polishes or received them as gifts from friends.]

July 15: Pink

For pink I chose to use Zoya Kitridge, Peita's Polish Pinkaholic, Accessorize Lilac Sorbet, and Lilypad Lacquer Bubble Yummo.  Kitridge went on smoothly and easily without streaking and built well in three coats.  I chose to top this baby pink with the vibrant neon Pinkaholic, which was also easy to apply with the glitters coming out and spreading easily.  I did a watermarble using Lilac Sorbet, Kitridge, and Bubble Yummo over a coat of Cult Nails Tempest.  This is probably the best watermarble I've ever done in my life, and I'm super proud of how it came out!  All three of these polishes were easy to marble with, and I can't wait to wear Lilac and Bubble Yummo on their own.

July 16: Flakie

I decided to try something different for my flakie manicure, and I wasn't in love with the outcome.  Someone told me that it looked like mermaid scales, which made me feel a little better about them, though.  I used OPI's Amazon... Amazoff, which applied easily but stained just a little bit on the accent nail that had all of the flakies combined.  I used Finger Paints flakies from a few years ago (from thumb to pinkie): Asylum, Flashy, Flecked, all 4,and Motley.  The flakies were easy to use, but I wouldn't recommend layering them over each other unless you've got some time to wait for them to dry!

July 17: Elevation Polish

The EvPs I chose to wear were Higravstinden and Haba Xueshan.  I was hoping these two would look nice together, and they really did!  The mint accents of Haba on top really pulled the look together nicely.  Hig applied well and in only two coats, but it had a bit of staining on my nails upon removal.  The blue shimmer in Hig isn't as noticeable in my photos, but it's very clear in person.  Haba was also easy to apply, and the glitters came out and spread across my nails easily.

July 18: Green

I feel like I have a million green Enchanted Polishes that I haven't worn, which I admit is probably an exaggeration, so I went with two of those for this prompt.  I used July 2013 topped with Wish Me Good Luck.  July was amazing!  It applied so well and could've been a one coater, but I chose to do two to ensure no bald spots in my photos.  The pink shimmer in it is striking, but I couldn't get a photo of it to save my life.  In person, however, it's extremely evident in the bottle as well as on the nail.  WMGL was a pain in the butt.  Application was difficult as the glitter to base ratio pulled heavily in favor of base.  The glitters were difficult to extract from the bottle, and if you tried to get enough glitter on the brush you'd end up flooding your cuticles because there was too much base.  All in all, I wasn't really in love with this mani despite the fact that I adore July.

July 19: Neon Glitter

I always love the look of neon over pastels, so I knew I just had to do Enchanted Polish *69 over something light.  I looked around my stash and was afraid that I didn't have anything untried that would work, and then I remembered my bottle of Enchanted J'adore!  This dainty pink was thin, a bit watery, and applied with some streaking and frostiness.  Thus, wearing it as undies for *69 was the perfect use for it!  I used three coats of J'Adore with one coat of *69, which is a lovely neon green and pink glitter topper with a shimmered base.  I have a decant, so I can't really speak to the polish's application truthfully since I was using a mini bottle.  However, in the mini bottle, everything came out alright and very easily and spread without much manipulation.  I was pretty disappointed with J'Adore, though, because the holo effect was practically nil, and even with three coats, I could still easily see my nail line.  It's not at all like the other EP holos I own.

July 20: Duo/Multichrome or Shifter

I received a couple decants of the I <3 Nail Polish chromes, Cygnus Loop and Birefringence, from a friend to try out before I took the plunge in purchasing them myself.  I'm really glad she let me try them because it helped me realize that I don't really need more than a decant.  While the end effect is lovely and the shifts are gorgeous, I just didn't love them.  Plus, they both had the same base color, which made differentiation a bit difficult.  As you can see, I was able to easily smudge two of my nails even though I had used a coat of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top at least five minutes or longer before the smudges occurred.  I don't like polishes that don't dry quickly on me, so these two were nice to try, but I probably wouldn't buy full sizes of either of them.  Plus, they're so similar to the million of other, cheaper, chromes out there, that I just can't justify spending that type of money on a bottle or two of something I can get for much cheaper (and that could be better quality!).  I can't really speak to their application because I used the mini bottles, but I will say that they were a pain to apply from the mini bottles leaving bald spots and streaks with not-so-careful application.  Keep in mind that could be because the mini brushes are annoying to use.

July 21: Girly Bits

My mani for Girly Bits kind of reminded me of Christmas in July with the rich green and dark maroonish red.  I only had two Girly Bits polishes I hadn't used yet, Fathomless and What Happens in Vegas Ends Up on Facebook, so I decided to wear them together!  What Happens in Vegas Ends Up on Facebook is a lovely maroon scattered holographic with a pretty dense smattering of blue iridescent glitters.  Application was super easy, and the rainbow effect was really nice with the bits of iridescent peeking out.  Fathomless is a dark hunter green with silver micro glitters.  Again, application was great, and it only really needed two coats for full opacity.  Here, however, I used three for photo purposes.  Dry time for both was average.  

July 22: Teal

For my teal mani, I decided to cheat and do skittles using five different teals.  Is that really cheating, though?  I'm going to pretend like it's not since I did wear all five of these for over 24 hours.  From my thumb to pinkie I wore: Elevation Polish Arabian Sea 2 (a light teal with gold flakies), Lilypad Lacquer Neon Ocean Lights (a medium teal holographic with a super strong pink/purple flash), Lynnderella Do You Paraiba? (a medium teal micro glitter), Elevation Polish Twinkle in Yeti's Eye (a darker teal with a green to red shift), and Enchanted Polish August 2013 (a dark teal linear holo).  All of these guys applied amazingly, and I don't have a single complaint about any of them.  I wore three coats of them all except Paraiba and August, which only needed two coats.  Dry time on them all was quick.

So, what do you think?  Are you playing along still?  I think this is the first nail challenge I've done every single prompt for through completion!  I've gotten through an outstanding number of untrieds, so I think I'll be bringing it back again in October!  What do you think?  Do you like doing challenges like this?

[I purchased these polishes or received them as gifts from friends.]

Pretty Little Liars: Rainbow Honey Sample and Annual Emotion

Tonight's post is going to be a combo just like last week's where I combine both my #RedCoatTuesday post with a Summer of Untrieds post!  As per my usual, I haven't seen tonight's episode and won't be able to until sometime tomorrow or later tonight, so no spoilers please!  Today's Summer of Untrieds theme was Rainbow Honey, and I chose a red polish, fortuitously apparently, that also doubles as my Pretty Little Liars Mani!  So, let's get to it, then!

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The rules are easy!

• Paint your nails red, do your lips red, do a shadow design in red, or do anything beauty related that is mostly red.
• Add your blog and photo to the inlinkz!  If you don't have a blog but do have an IG, you can check this link for directions on how to use your IG for inlinkz.  If you don't have a blog or IG, you can just add your photo to the linkup or send it to Color Me So Crazy, and she will get them up for you!
• Use the #RedCoatTuesday tag when you share your photos on IG, Twitter, or Facebook!

For the Rainbow Honey challenge, I chose an unnamed sample I received from a random blog sale and Annual Emotion, which came out last December.  I got bored easily with the plain silver foil, though, so I went ahead and added some stars using @Teismom's Nail Vinyls.

The unnamed sample polish is a cherry red with red and silver micro-flakies with bits of silver holo particles.  It built up very easily in two coats, and I didn't need to use any extra topcoat to help smooth down errant glitters.  Dry time was pretty average even using a coat of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top.  

The particles came out of the bottle easily and spread across the nail without needing the dab method or other placement.  The consistency wasn't bad, as it wasn't too thick nor too thin.  I didn't need to add in any thinner, which happens often for me with Rainbow Honey polishes.  The consistency stayed nice and fluid the whole time I did my mani without any further thickening or clumping.  Application was easy and didn't require cleanup at all.

Annual Emotion is a silver foil with a touch of linear holo in the base.  The first coat covered pretty well, but it's definitely one of those polishes that you need to carefully apply or it will drag and bald.  Make sure you wait until each coat is dry before you apply the next coat.  I ended up using three coats to ensure there weren't any bald spots in my photos.  Otherwise, the consistency was a bit more fluid than the sample, and required a bit more cleanup.  Dry time was average between coats and was fairly quick with a coat of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top.

The Nail Vinyls were easy to apply, but make sure your polish is completely dry before you use them.  I always make the mistake of trying to use them before my polish is dry and, inevitably, have to redo at least one nail.  Someone in one of my Facebook groups recommended taking the vinyl and pressing it on my palm once or twice before applying it to my nail, and that helped me keep the stickers from pulling up my polish too badly.  I used one coat of the sample over the vinyls and quickly removed the stickers so the fresh paint wouldn't stick to the stencils when I removed them. 

I really like how unique these polishes are in my collection.  The silver holo is the only one I own that's more foil than holo, and I wish that the holo was a bit stronger even in the sunlight.  The flakies in the sample were dense without looking cluttered.  All in all, I truly enjoyed the look of this mani!  

You can purchase Rainbow Honey polishes at their store.  Follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for news and updates.

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Pretty Little Liars: 100th Episode | Summer of Untrieds Glitter in Colored Base

Tonight's post will double as both #RedCoatTuesday AND! #summerofuntrieds day 8: Glitter in a Colored Base!  Normally, I try to put all of my July Untried Challenge manis into one post a week, but tonight's post really went well with the theme for today, and both polishes I used were untried!  So, let's hop to it!

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The rules are easy!

• Paint your nails red, do your lips red, do a shadow design in red, or do anything beauty related that is mostly red.
• Add your blog and photo to the inlinkz!  If you don't have a blog but do have an IG, you can check this link for directions on how to use your IG for inlinkz.  If you don't have a blog or IG, you can just add your photo to the linkup or send it to Color Me So Crazy, and she will get them up for you!
• Use the #RedCoatTuesday tag when you share your photos on IG, Twitter, or Facebook!
• Tonight's extra rule was to add a 100 in your design somewhere to commemorate the 100th episode!

For this week's challenge, I wore Nerd Lacquer Warrior Ethos with an accent of Alter Ego Nymph of the Night, which was a gift from Cynthia, Alter Ego's creative genius, as part of an indie polish maker swap.  I then used Zoya Sookie to add in the 100 and -A using the brush from a Kiss striper.  This review will focus on Warrior Ethos mostly, but I'll mention a few notes about the AE in the Overall Thoughts portion below.

I purchased the Nerd and Sookie myself.

Color: Candy red jelly base with purple iridescent, red, gold, and black glitters in varying sizes.

Finish: Glitter Jelly – glitter in a colored jelly base.

Bottle / Brush:  Round bottle – the brush and wand are the standard width and length.  Easy to control and manipulate.

Opacity: High – opaque at two coats!  Yes, TWO.  A jelly based glitter that is opaque in TWO COATS.  Uncanny.

Glitter Application: Difficult – difficult to dig the glitters out of the bottle, but spreads evenly once you get them out.  The glitters are hard to get out of the bottle because they sink...  That is probably my biggest gripe about this polish.  I had to turn it upside down for quite some time to get the glitters top the top, and even then they had a tendency to settle back down as I was painting.

Consistency: Medium – applies easily and doesn’t flood the cuticles.

Overall Ease of Application: Medium – applies well with minimal pooling, dragging, streaking, or balding.  Spreads well without much manipulation.

Stampability: Not designed for stamping.

Dry Time: Quick – dry to the touch without smudging in under 3 minutes. 

Overall Thoughts:  I was so surprised when I applied WE and it was only two coats.  That is probably the thing I was most excited about, to be honest.  Plus, the glitters laid flat and didn't require the use of any tamer to smooth out.  I used one coat of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top, and the glitter looked glossy and felt perfectly smooth, which was awesome!  There's nothing I hate more than thick layers and chunky glitters on my fingers.  Because I only needed to use two coats and one coat of topcoat, it dried super fast!  Like I said above, my only real complaint about WE is the sinking glitters, but it's not so horrible that a little flip upside down wouldn't fix.  Alter Ego's Nymph of the Night is a blackened base polish with ultra micro fine red glitters that dries matte.  Application is tough on the first coat because it's matte, so you have to work quickly to make sure it doesn't drag.  After that first coat, though, application is super easy and self leveling.  While the matte looks pretty awesome in its own right, I have to say that I fell in love with the way this polish looked with topcoat.  The subtle shimmer really pulled this look together.  I did some crappy as always nail art to commemorate the 100th episode using Zoya Sookie and a brush from my silver glitter Kiss Nail Art striper.  I'm not good at freehanding, so I wasn't really pleased with this.  I should've known better, though, because I can't even write with a normal pen much less a floppy skinny brush, hah!   That's definitely something on my list to work on - free hand nail art that doesn't look like the nail polish equivalent of macaroni jewelry...  I'll keep trying, though!

Sadly, Nerd Lacquer hasn't been the most reliable with regards to restocks...  or even actual delivery of her products.  I've really enjoyed working with this polish, though, so I would recommend nabbing it if you see it on a blog sale.  As I mentioned above, Nymph of the Night was a special edition created for a group, but you can purchase other Alter Ego polishes here.  Follow her on Facebook and IG for news and updates.  Lastly, you can purchase Zoyas at most beauty supply shops.

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Summer of Untrieds: Week 1

Welcome to my first weekly installment of the Summer of Untrieds Challenge!  If you follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you'll know that I've created a daily challenge for the month of July to get through as many untried polishes on my list as I possibly can.  Because changing my polish every day is pretty ambitious, even for me, I'm going to stick to one weekly post showcasing the week's manis instead of trying to post them every day.  This will allow me to keep certain other weekly features going while I do this challenge (i.e. the return of Comparison Thursday!).  The last challenge I did went pretty well for a while, but I just got so busy and stopped wearing polish for a few weeks.  I know!  Quelle horreur!  I'm determined to keep up with this one, and maybe after the month of July is over, I'll get back to the Crumpet's Golden Oldie Thursdays.  Until then, though, I hope you take the untrieds train with me!  Here are the prompts and the rules:

Rules:

• Use at least 1 untried polish that fits with the prompt for the day.
• If you don't have anything that works with the prompt, then consider it a free day and choose a random untried from your stash.
• There won't be an inlinkz, so keep up with the group by tagging your photos #summerofuntrieds.  I've also been including #julyuntriedchallenge in my posts, so you can add that too if you want.  Also, feel free to add a tag to me if you'd like (either @blueeyedlawyer or #wishesofablueeyedgirl).
• Start crossing off those untrieds in your stash!

Eventually, I may make a collage of all of the manis for each day's prompts and make an album on my Facebook page or Pinterest.  So, I'll let you guys know if I do that so you can tag yourselves!  Ok, let's get down to the nitty-gritty!  As always, click on the photos to view them in greater detail.

July 1: OPI

I purchased these myself.

For the first day, I wore OPI's Hey Baby and Push and Shove.  I know I'm a bit late on the Gwen polishes, but I haven't really been in the mood for mainstreams lately.  That being said, I have no idea why I waited to wear these.  Holy lord, they are sooooo pretty.  Hey Baby is really a one coater, and application was beyond easy.  I highly recommend it for everyone!  Push and Shove has a great ending effect, but it's a pretty annoying polish to apply.  It reminds me of the Nfu Oh and Layla holos that really needed an aqua base to go on smoothly without balding.  You can definitely see all of the imperfection in my nails, too, so I decided to do a little bit of testing to check out wear and the final application.  On my ring finger of my left hand and pinkie of my right hand, I have 3 layers of Push and Shove over 1 layer of my strengthener, Quimica Alemana Esmalte Endurecedor para Unas (what a mouthful!), and 1 layer of Lay Down that Base. On the thumb, index, and middle fingers of my right I have 2 layers of Lay down that Base topped with 3 of Push and Shove. All have topcoat. The P&S over the strengthener is holding up WAY better than the one over only LDTB and has 0 chips so far while the nails with just LDTB are chipping like mad.  [They say that it's a one-day use polish, which I can totally see if you're wearing it with only LDTB and without a topcoat!] You also can't see as many nail imperfections on the nails over the strengthener!  If you decide to go with a normal base coat underneath LDTB, you should really wait until it and LDTB are completely dry before applying P&S, otherwise it'll drag like mad.  Also, use caution when applying P&S and try not to go over portions that have already been painted until it has dried.  This means you'll need to get a little less polish on the brush and try not to overlap while you're painting.  I was planning to stamp over these, but I'm liking the fresh look they have on their own.  I do wonder, though, how they will stamp!  I'll have to give that a try and report back!

July 2: Glitter Topper

I purchased these myself.

For this manicure, I used OPI Can't Find My Czechbook topped with the ultimate glitter topper - Lynnderella's The Glittering Crowd.  Application of the OPI was pretty easy with only minimal pooling.  It only required two coats and dried fairly quickly.  Unfortunately, this blue isn't exactly super unique, and I'm planning to do a comparison of about 3 other blues in the same range soon.  TGC was fairly easy to apply as well.  It didn't require digging to get the glitters out of the bottle, and it spread evenly without pooling.  The base to glitter ratio was perfect, which can sometimes be a crapshoot with Lynnderellas.  Don't get me wrong, I clearly love me some Lynns, but she tends to pack her bottles so full of glitter that they require the dab method to spread evenly.  This wasn't the case for TGC!

July 3: Creme

I purchased or swapped for these.

I love wearing a creme as much as the next gal, but I get sooooo bored with them super easily.  Plus, since this is a challenge to slash through my untrieds, I wanted to make sure I used more than just one.  As such, I decided to try out some Nail Vinyls from @teismom on IG to go with my cremes.  I've used her stars and chevrons before, but I had some lightening bolts laying around that needed some attention, so I pulled those out for this mani to use with my cremes: Illamasqua Jo'mina (purple), Cult Nails Nakizzle's Shizzle (baby blue), and Illamasqua Cameo (periwinkle).  I didn't exactly think this one through, though, and didn't do them in the correct order.  Oops!  Next time, I'll be more prepared and do them in the right order so that I won't have to do what I did this go around, which was to freehand one of the lines of the baby blue.  Jo'mina was a two coater, but it definitely got all over the skin around my nails, which was sad.  Cleanup was fairly easy, though, without any staining of my skin.  I only needed one coat each of Cameo and NS, but I can't accurately describe their application since I didn't exactly use them for a full mani.  All in all, I still really like this mani despite the imperfections!

July 4: Red, White, and Blue

I purchased or swapped for these.

I wanted to do too many things for my red, white, and blue mani, so I did a bit of a skittle manicure to try and incorporate a lot of the good stuff into the one day I allotted myself for the challenge.  I used Barry M Cobalt Blue on my thumb topped with two coats of Lynnderella Flurries of Starlight.  Cobalt was practically a one coater, but I used two coats for fuller coverage.  I should've used only one coat of Flurries, but I got a little over eager...  As a base for my index, middle, and ring fingers, I used three coats of Emerald and Ash's Mie Scattering, which is my all time favorite white right now with it's crelly texture and subtle shimmer.  On my index finger, I used one coat of Kawaii Lacquer's Aren't the Stars and Stripes a Little... Old Fashioned?, which was super easy to apply with glitters that came out of the bottle easily and spread well on the nail.  On my middle finger, I did a waterfall manicure using Barry M Cobalt, KBShimmer's A Whole Lava Lovin, and Maybeline Silver Gleam.  On my ring finger, I did a water marble using Cult Nails Tempest (white) and Kiss (red) and Barry M Cobalt.  All three were fantastic for water marbling!  I had a bit of trouble with the marble on my swatch hand, but my right hand looked pretty good.  Lastly, on my pinkie I used two coats of Whole Lava Lovin topped with one coat of Lynnderella Sapphire Starfire.  Both were super easy to apply without much manipulation.

July 5: Lynnderella

I purchased or swapped for these myself.

For my Lynnderella day, I chose to use two Lynns: LE Sleepy Holo and core the Stars in Her Eyes, which I wore in one coat over two coats of Chanel April.  I received SIHE in a decant from a friend, and I love those little baby stars!!  For Sleepy Holo, I used two coats of this amazingly full coverage glitter jelly alone.  Even at one coat, it was almost opaque!  Dry time on this mani was fairly quick, and I used one coat of Peita's Polish Glitter Glaze with a coat of Seche Vite to tame those glitters.

July 6: Orange

I purchased or swapped for these myself.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll either know or have noticed that I don't really wear much orange.  Oranges typically don't look great on me.  Plus, I have an aversion to it because of my having gone to the University of Georgia (and a strangely large amount of our rivals use orange!).  For this prompt, I really only had one orange that I hadn't used before, and this gave me a great excuse to wear it!  I used Essie's Bright Tights that I found dusty hunting a while ago, and I topped it with one coat of Alta Costura Vernis BrightSide.  Stupidly, I decided to try this neon without a white base coat...  As such, I couldn't get a fully opaque look at even four coats!  However, I was lucky in that the glitter topper helped to cover up some of the VNL.  Application for Bright Tights was also a bit difficult.  It dries a bit matte, so you have to work quickly to get it on the nail and keep it from dragging.  Plus, my bottle is wicked old, so it was a touch clumpy.  BrightSide applied well, but I wish there was a better glitter to base payoff since it was hard to get the larger bits of glitter out of the bottle.  I really liked that the pink and yellow glitters reminded me a bit of pink lemonade!  Both of these polishes have been discontinued, sadly, so you won't be able to find them anywhere other than blog sales (or maybe dusty hunting for the Essie).

July 7: Textured

I purchased these myself.

The last mani for tonight is a gradient I did using only textures.  I started with a base of white using Cult Tempest.  Then, I used (going from thumb to pinkie): OPI You're So Flippy Floppy, OPI Jinx, OPI I'm Brazil Nuts Over You, OPI Samba-dy Loves Purple, Sally Hansen Royal Icing, and OPI What's a Little Rain Forest?.  Sadly, Samba and Royal Icing weren't as easy to apply using the gradient method as the rest.  They just weren't pigmented enough and required an extra coat for each.  I can't really speak to proper application on any of these polishes, though, since I did the gradient instead of a normal mani.  The first photo shows the mani without a topcoat.  Next, I put on a coat of Peita's Polish Glitter Glaze, which really made the colors look richer than without the topcoat.  Lastly, I attempted a little palm tree nail art, which I copied from this awesome tutorial, using Kiss Nail Art's black striper.  (I did this on three nails but only watched the video to do it on my middle finger...  The picture got increasingly worse until the final attempt on my not-pictured pinkie looked like a weird bug...  Next time, I'll rewatch the video as I do each nail until I'm positive that I know how to do it without it looking like a second grader's abstract art.)  I topped it off with a coat of Alter Ego She Shines! topcoat.  I almost wish I could have been able to wear this for a longer period of time, but this challenge slows down for no (wo)man!

So, what did you think of this past week's manis?  Come back next Monday for next week's installment of the Summer of Untrieds Challenge!  Tomorrow we'll be taking a look at another #RedCoatTuesday!