Renewed green: Essie Maximillian Strasse Her

To those who were kind enough to respond to my pre-interview post - THANK YOU!!! I interviewed and got offered the job the next day. I felt great about it, and accepted! 

For the first time in a long while - years and years - I feel a sense of hope. I feel like everything in changing - in a good way. I feel like maybe all the effort and struggle of my PhD will somehow end up being worth it. How fitting that this comes right at the beginning of springtime, when nature is undergoing its own renewal.

In honour of spring, renewal, and hope (heavy), I feel that it is only fitting that I am wearing a fresh GREEN! This is Essie Maximillian Strasse Her.

While this colour truly feels fresh and modern to me, it brings back memories of times past. As I was looking at it on my nails, I could feel a memory trying to wriggle free in the back of my brain. It took me a while, but it finally hit me - this is the colour of an old school portable Olivetti typewriter! It feels odd to wax poetic about the predecessor of the laptop while typing on a thoroughly modern machine the Olivetti would recognize only as a robot from the future. And in a way, it is.

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I am not alone in re-discovering my love for this colour! I am told by my auto-industry-devoted father that the colour of the Olivetti typewriter was the inspiration and source for the verde chiaro paint colour of the re-imagined Fiat 500. (NB: My mother has this car - albeit in white with red interior - and loves it! I have to admit, it is super adorable.)

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This spring I hope all of you find something old to make new again, and find your own renewed energy - wherever it may come from - even if it's just a nail polish.

k2k

China Glaze: For Audrey, dotted

I've been craving cremes lately (which is really rare!) and that usually means China Glaze: For Audrey. I can confidently say this is my most favorite China Glaze and I've actually done more than a few manicures with it. I love the color :) The application is still pretty great with half the bottle gone.

I jazzed it up with a few dots here and there.

Love!!

Also, as a reminder, y'all can follow me on Instagram at xminhae, Twitter at miiinhae and Pinterest here!

Pahlish: Great Wide Open

As y'all know, I love glitter, but I ESPECIALLY love rainbow glitter. Add in white and it's UH-mazing and a must have for me, haha. Today's post focuses on the wonderfulness of Pahlish: Great Wide Open.

It's a glitter topcoat polish that is predominantly white glitter with different shaped rainbow glitter scattered throughout. I put it over Zoya Wednesday (which stains TERRIBLY, by the way!) and I wore it for almost a week, I think. Which is why there's a huuuuge gap. Also, excuse the chip :(

Finals are almost upon me and it's crunch time -- this semester has flown by! I have two back to back finals, which will suck greatly, but I'll fight through them as I always do. I've signed up for next semester's classes and have looked into applying to the MBA program for next year. Life is speeding by! I remember when I was younger, waiting for that day I'd be "grown up" (I'm not even there yet!) and now I'm wishing I were back being a young teenager.

Back on point, Pahlish can be found here on her Facebook page and bought through Llarowe or her Etsy shop. Her polishes are awesome :) check them out if you haven't yet!

KBShimmer: Proud Peacock

I love a lot of indies, and it's hard picking just one, so I'll say that I just have a lot of favorites. One of them is KBShimmer -- I love her mix of glitters along with the fact that her shop never goes out of stock. It's always open and she does her best to ship out within a reasonable amount of time.

Sorry for the black dot, my cut hadn't healed enough yet and didn't want to show something that "gory" in pictures, haha. This is KBShimmer Proud Peacock. It's teal, blue, black, magenta, silver and holo glitters (along with holo bar glitter) in in teal jelly base. This is about 3-4 coats. I loved this manicure! Only thing is that, because of all the glitter, it is very top coat hungry.

I sort of hesitated on getting this polish because I don't tend to prefer bar glitter, but it worked well in this polish and the unity of colors made me get it :)

You can find KBShimmer at her website here and her Facebook page here.

Worth Another Shot - Essie Mint Candy Apple

Essie's Mint Candy Apple is a polish that has confused me since it's release. I bought it instantly as I'm attracted to that soft-but-bright kind of aqua colour. My sheets are a light Mint Candy Apple colour! I remember trying it that winter and it was horrific on me. I swapped it away. Spring came and I got curious, picked it up again - hideous. Swapped it away. This pattern continued a few times. (Seriously. It was not smart.) Finally I decided just to keep the bloomin' thing. I felt the moment was right and busted it out again a few days ago...lo and behold I LOVE IT. WTH.

Something must have snapped in me, or the weather is right for it, or some strange voodoo is at work... It doesn't seem to make my hands look red anymore (less so in reality than in this picture actually!) and it's the perfect shade of mint green to pop against my 'brightpastel' summer wardrobe.

I'm still confused by this polish. I'm half convinced I will hate it again the next time I try it, but for now, we're in love...

What do YOU think of Essie Mint Candy Apple??

kittytokaren

Zoya & Sally Hansen: turquoise, white and gold

I'm not especially great at picking favorites at anything, from type of food or color or beverage... but I think in terms of color family, turquoise may be my favorite. But of course, that depends on my mood.

Zoya always has great promos and I pick up the lemmings I have every chance I can when there is a deal or two... and one of the colors I got a little bit ago was Zoya Wednesday. I looove the color, but I can't just have a creme by itself, which is obvious in my NOTDs, haha.

When Sally Hansen: White Veil was released, I knew I wanted it, but when I found it at Walgreen's, I couldn't buy it then :( So I had to pass it by. And then it was gone! Fast forward a few weeks later, I run into CVS for Red Bull (staple of any student's study diet) and I find one! I grab it, perfect, love it, mine!

I have my newer polishes in a rack near my computer desk (where I spend most of my time when I'm home) and I stared at it after putting on Wednesday and saw it. And decided to combine it, and it was so pretty! I love white and translucent white glitter.

sunlight

shade

So so pretty! No problem with the Zoya formula, if I recall correctly, about 2-3 coats and 2 coats of White Veil. :) Gold always goes well with turquoise and the translucent glitter adds a bit of depth.

What colors do you like White Veil over?

Having a go at gradients

This is my first go at a gradient manicure. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to pick a colour - marine green/bright teal - that doesn't photograph well. So you'll have to imagine this 'tip' colour as much more saturated and awesome and therefore the gradient as much more visible and contrasty.

I used the nailsaurus' tutorial (if you don't read her blog, you should, it's awesome) and a piece of kitchen sponge. In future I'd use a better/less hole-y sponge because I think the texture is a bit too obvious. I used Ilamasqua Nudge as the base with Nails Inc Warwick Way for the gradient. I only used two coats of Nudge for the base when really, it needed three (I assumed the sponging would cover up any gaps, but it didn't really). Overall I was pleased and I'll definitely try it again - although it does use quite a lot of polish so I think I'll stick with shades I don't mind using up!

Nail Art: freehand chevrons :)

I don't wear cremes by themselves that often because they don't keep my attention like glitter does. I love cremes on other people but I need a bit more "pizzazz" for my own nails... but I was going through my polishes that I had received recently and saw a few Zoyas that looked so good next to each other and I wanted to incorporate them somehow. Dots? A gradient? Or some kind of line nail art?

And then chevrons came to mind :)

The colors:
light green: Zoya Tracie
gray: Zoya Carey
orange: Zoya Arizona
teal: Essence Bella

The only color I had a little trouble with (because it wasn't as opaque) was Zoya Arizona but a couple of coats fixed that. I love how the colors work out together and happy how steady it came out for a freehand attempt! It really is easy :) I'm going to have to do something like this for all my cremes, haha. I actually ordered some striping tape from ebay, so expect some manicures using that coming up :D

Have you tried a chevron manicure? If not, try it freehand, it's really easy! My tips are to have your hand on a surface and just move the polish across the nail, and to use opaque polishes. Also be patient between layers! Good luck!

China Glaze For Audrey

Ah, the famous For Audrey! This reminds me of swimming pools, which is apt, since I've recently taken up swimming again. It's minced my manicures of late (seriously, nothing lasts after two hours in a pool!) but I'm really enjoying it. This was two easy coats and it looked perfect, or at least it did until I bumped my thumb (using a new top coat, still not used to the fact that it's not as fast as SV, keep trying to make tea with wet nails).

I really like the finished product, although I have to say I'm not quite down with it as a cult polish. Apart from the box and the film, I don't think this is *that* special.

For Leisel - Essie Go Overboard vs. OPI Ski Teal We Drop

Lovely reader Leisel asked for a side by side comparison of Essie Go Overboard (which I shared with you today) and OPI Ski Teal We Drop! I snapped a quick pic for you guys and I hope you can see the differences/similarities! To my eye, the Essie is lighter and *slightly* more green.

OPI Ski Teal We Drop is on the top, Essie Go Overboard on the bottom.

Hope this helps someone!

kittytokaren

I did go a little overboard - Essie Go Overboard

Ahhhhhh I just couldn't resist! I told myself that Armed and Ready was the only polish I was going to get from the Go Overboard collection, but when I saw the collection's namesake in reality, I had to get it. Some of the swatches I've seen of this make it seem like a bright teal, which is pretty unwearable for me. In person, or at least on me, it's actually a rather deep teal. It never ever looks black, which is perfect, but it's still a darker shade. It's like OPI Ski Teal We Drop- which I currently have on my toes! - just lighter.

The formula was truly excellent! Went on easily and covered like a dream - either one thick coat or two thin ones worked for me.

Just curious...but what are you wearing on your toes right now?

kittytokaren

Nails Inc The Wyndham Collection

There are some swatches I wish I could have done better... but I didn't sufficiently like the polish(es) enough to redo them. So I'm just going to post these and pretend like they never happened, OK?

Nails Inc The Wyndham Collection

Teal Black Kensington

The Wyndham topcoat over Teal Black Kensington

I loved The Donmar Collection but The Wyndham Collection pair was a huge disappointment. First of all, the Teal Black Kensington was just sad: it's a dark teal jelly but it does not apply evenly and needs at least three coats to be opaque (which is not desirable for a polish that you want to use as a base layer). Then The Wyndham, though a flakie, is kind of a plain flakie: it goes between dark green and lighter green and that's it. And it takes at least two coats to get any significant amount of flakies onto the nail. So at the end of it, if you want the nicest application, you need six coats of polish. (And that's not including basecoat and topcoat.) Not at all a fan of this duo.

I'm trying to decide if I want to buy any of the OPI Muppets collection. I'm kind of intrigued by Designer the Better and Warm and Fozzie. I kind of want Rainbow Connection, because I love the billions of Happy Birthday-clones. And I'm on the fence on Meep Meep Meep. It's possible I may only want it for its name. Though I have no desire for Wocka Wocka. 

Nicole ...Spotted! over Dior Nirvana

Nicole ...Spotted! over Dior Nirvana

Nicole ...Spotted! (one of the dumber polish names, imo) is multicolored (blue, gold) and multisized glitter (some hex, some micro) suspended in a turquoise jelly. The polish alone is pretty sheer so I layered it over Dior Nirvana, whose color is pretty much a perfect match for the Nicole jelly. It was less sparkly than I expected it to be, leading me to suspect that it might actually be a better layering polish over a contrasting color. Still, it was a nice way to extend my Nirvana manicure for another day before I got bored of it. :)

My lame nail art.

For some reason, I had the urge to engage in some nail art recently. Little nail art. Nail art is usually way, way, way out of my comfort zone, but I felt a burst of creativity! My mani at the time was Essie Geranium (which is actually much more orange-toned that this pic would suggest). I added three little dots of Essie Turquoise & Caicos on each thumb using a bobby pin.

Essie Geranium + Turquoise & Caicos

I thought the result was fairly cute and went well with my turquoise jewelry!

And yes, I took this picture in my car...I wasn't going to share it at first but then I felt like snapping a pic at the wheel. However, I was parked in a parking lot! Don't ogle your nails and drive ladies!

Please don't judge too harshly - nail art is not my thing! Have you tried any nail art lately?

kittytokaren

Dior Nirvana

Dior Nirvana

Nirvana indeed! A wonderful teal polish that has a very subtle but very real blue shimmer. I'm so glad Dior has started releasing more interesting shades because for awhile there, I was afraid I would have to start to enjoy reds, pinks and beiges in order to ever get a Dior Vernis fix. :P Two coats. Looked great for all four days I wore it.

Closeup of Nirvana

I took maybe two dozen photos with the express goal of trying to capture the shimmer. You can kind of see it in this closeup photo. I didn't even notice the shimmer when I applied it. I only realized it was a shimmer polish when I got out in the sun. (It was a great moment because my first thought was, "Aw, man, did I accidentally get some shimmer polish mixed up with my Diamont again??" (No, I didn't.)

Thumb accent mani: OP JITNB and CG Atlantis

Inspired by kitty2karen I decided to give a thumb accent mani a go. This is OPI Jade is the new black plus China Glaze Atlantis for the thumb accent. I like it, but I don't love it. I was kind of hoping more of the sea green jelly in Atlantis would come through, because this mostly just looks like silver holo glitter on green, and pretty though that is it's not subtle. JITNB looks a lot like Orly Wandering Vine to me (I planned to do comparison swatches before I took the mani off, but this chipped badly within two days so I didn't get a chance). I do like the glitter thumb idea, though, especially since removing only two nails makes me a little less suicidal than doing ten.

Any suggestions for colour schemes?

Butter London Henley Regatta

Butter London Henley Regatta is a gorgeous blue/green sparse glitter. It does nothing fancy - no holo, no multi-size glitter, and it's only two colours - but it is stunning nonetheless and so sparkly it practically goes *ping!* when the light hits it. Behold:

This has many many pros:

1. Just look at it! I spent ages twirling my hands and going 'ooh'.
2. Dries faster than I can say 'where's my topcoat'
3. Wears like iron (I took it off 8 days later with only tip wear)
4. Totally smooth with one coat of Seche Vite - you wouldn't know you were wearing glitter.

On the other hand,

1. Removal is a bitch, as you might expect
2. It's sparse, so requires at least three coats. I popped it on over my existing mani (BL Thames, which itself is sheer) so I had 9 coats in all. My nails were about an inch thick.
3. I failed my driving test while wearing it. (I blame the sparkliness for distracting me - definitely not my own fault for not indicating to move off, oh no).

Have another one for good measure. As an aside, the wear time is so awesome that I couldn't be bothered to take it off before the big conference I had to go to last week. So I rocked sparkly turquoise nails with my black suit in order to deliver a paper on public administration. The panel head said my nails were amazing (never mind the paper), so clearly a good choice if it took her attention off how nervous I was!

Butter London Victoriana: when good polish goes bad

Urgh...ever have those manicures when nothing goes right? This is one of those. Nice polish, gorgeous colour...crap manicure. Figured I should post it anyway because it doesn't look that bad in the pictures despite the awful inception.

This one was doomed from the start, since it was done on Eurovision night. For anyone who's not come across Eurovision - lucky you - it's an annual knees up where tragically awful acts from European countries get to perform, and then every country votes. Usually for their neighbour. Hence why Azerbaijan (where?) won this year. It's a cherished cultural institution in Europe, because it's wonderfully naff and usually involves parties where everyone gets dressed up as a country and then proceeds to get blind drunk. Can you see why this was a bad idea?

As it happens I wasn't at a party last night - we stayed in with friends over - and I decided to do a mani/pedi to keep me occupied, because I'm a fidget who can't sit still in front of the television. So I did my toes first, whilst knocking back the ale (the pedi was even worse, by the way - I took Illamasqua Alarm off which stained my toes tomato, and then tried to put a nude over the top. Result: hot mess). By the time I got to the tips I was polishing with the kind of exaggerated comedy concentration normally only seen in five year olds. I did two coats, and then the takeaway arrived, whereupon I dinged them to hell and lost the bottle cap. Epic fail.

The next day, cracking hangover in tow, I tried to tidy it with a third coat and topcoat. This was the point at which Neurotic Cat had a minor breakdown and decided that if I didn't give her a cuddle that very moment, she would leave home. Then Kamikaze Kitten got jealous of the attention and jumped on my lap too. They then had a fight. Meanwhile, I'm holding my hands in the air like I'm directing traffic. Finally I kick them off and go to put topcoat on, but my seche vite has set like jelly and makes it even worse. I give up.

This is the result. The Polish is a gorgeous colour - a kind of dingy teal-blue with silver microglitter. It would probably be fine with two coats if those two coats hadn't been applied through beer goggles. I find the BL brushes a little fiddly because they're narrow, and the glitter in this means that the polish doesn't move very far, so thick coats are necessary. But it's lovely and I will definitely be trying it again under more auspicious circumstances.

Comparison of Zoya Breezi and Sephora by OPI Slushied

This is why you should never de-dupe your collection by just looking at bottle color.

Zoya Breezi (Summertime, 2011) and Sephora by OPI Slushied (Glee, 2011)

OK. So Breezi looks a tad bit darker than Slushied, right? I mean, maybe if you look really closely, you could think that Breezi may look a tad more teal than Slushied. (Btw, thanks to my SO's mom for Slushied. It's awesome.)

From left to right: Slushied, Breezi, Slushied, Breezi

Seriously, this is not a weird camera quirk. They looked this different on the nail. They're barely even in the same color category (in my head -- granted, my head subdivides the rainbow into about a hundred colors). Slushied is this bright creme that falls somewhere between azure and cyan. Breezi is closer to a very blue teal and it's almost got a bit of a jelly squish to it. Both applied extremely well: two coats each.

*insert pirate joke here* - my POTC picks!

You've already heard (way too much) about the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean Collection, I'm sure, so let's get to the meat of this sandwich!

These are the colours I chose from the collection, and I think they are all must-haves!

Stranger Tides

Probably my #1 favourite - a murky pistachio green that feels like it was designed with my skin tone in mind. Neutral enough to be wearable as it doesn't scream "GREEN!", but different enough to be edgy and cool. I. Am. In. Love!!! Unfortunately, this is *really* close to Essie Da Bush - from the Essie Resort 2011 Collection, which you will see soon - but I love the colour so much I'm going to keep both. (For those interested, Da Bush is a bit darker and ever-so-slightly more blue-toned.)

Skull & Glossbones

Again, this feels like it was made for me. Usually greys turn purple on me thanks to my yellow skin - even Essie Chinchilly, which many people claimed had green undertones, looks purple on me. See? Other greys are just too cool-toned for me and look...off. But this is my perfect light grey! It is somehow grey and warm at the same time. *swoon*

Steady As She Rose

I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I do! It's a great pale pink - it looks practically lavender in the bottle! On the nail murky and blue enough to keep this pink from being too sugary and girly - it's feet stay firmly in chic territory. Hallelujah!

Mermaid's Tears

This is my one kind of iffy one, but to be fair, I haven't worn it as a full-on all-day-all-night manicure yet. (And it looks stunning on my friend Megan!) It's like a murky piece of polished jade - I was surprised to see that it was quite similar to Essie Turquoise & Caicos in colour, but not necessarily in saturation/brightness. To me, this is T&C's dustier, more sedate cousin. I think that while T&C is out at the beach in a bikini, Mermaid's Tears is brooding in a cafe. I'm just not sure this colour looks *quite right* on my tips...

Silver Shatter

This is probably the one I will use the least, but have the most fun with! A little fling every now and again is just fine (with polish)! Here it is over Essie Mint Candy Apple, for funsies. It's SUPER shimmery, but doesn't seem to crack as much as Black Shatter. I like to apply thicker coats to get more divided cracks - less of the spider-web effect.

I know this collection is being talked and talked and talkedandtalkedandtalked about, but I have to say it is my favourite OPI collection since Holiday 2009. I feel like these dirgy (dirty + dingy) pastels are right up my alley and will have a long, happy and loved life in my collection. Couldn't be happier. Just when we thought Johnny Depp couldn't get any better...

Did you score any POTC polishes? Which ones and what do you think?

kittytokaren

P.S. Shout-out to my friend Keeley who is doing her preliminary exam today! Good luck and knock 'em dead with your knowledge!!!