I've got almost enough nail polish right now I can almost wear a
different colour everyday for 2 years. And with that being said, here's
some polish spam action...
The magnetic nail polish trend is still hanging in their and yet I still don't have the hang of it. This one is Gold Nugget from Layla. It's nice but I'm not seeing the colour gold in here. I still have to practice tons more to master this trend before it's all over!
I so badly wanted Essie's Sexy Divide to be totally awesome but instead it ended up being totally awful. Three coats couldn't stop the the bald spots and the thin formula lead to chips within less than 12 of wear. beautiful in the bottle, disastrous on my nails.
I don't wear a lot of pink polish but when I do, Maybelline's Timely Rose is my go to polish. It's not childish or bubble gummy in any way. It's positively lady like!
It's pretty obvious by now that grey nail polish is never going to go away. Good! The more funky neutral colours the better and Essie's School of Hard Rocks is a pretty good one with a thick and even formula that went on with ease and had staying power and a strong shine.
I haven't even worn To Buy or Not to Buy from Essie yet so I had to rely on my sister to model this lavender shimmer for me. It looks so much nicer on the nail than in the bottle doesn't it?
Someday, I'll pick up a bottle of gun metal nail polish and say that I've really bought enough of these types of colours and place it back on the display. Since I didn't have that voice in my head telling me to "just put the polish down and back away" I bought L'oreal's VIP Status. You can see a bit of balding at the top of my index finger but that's mainly the fault of an unbuffed nail base and not the polish.
Hey! Did I hear someone say they wanted to see a picture of Tom Hiddleston, Michael Sheen and Queen Elizabeth? No? Well too bad...here it is anyways:
Her Royal Highness Must Have Thought He Was Tony Blair!
Anyone who knows me well, know that Wonder Woman is one of my favourite things and frankly I think that DC Comics reboot of the classic character is the best that series has been since it's relaunch in the 1980's but I'm not here to talk about that...L'Oreal's Amazon's Flash is one of the dumbest polish names I've heard in a while. When I read the name out loud, somehow it sounded like a microscopic fingernail was scraping across a chalkboard deep in the classroom of my brain. I wasn't wild about the polish either. Not that I had any issues regarding application or formula: it's a perfectly acceptable polish but it's just not really anything special. Yeah, it's a shiny, shimmering gold that would work better as a top coat than as a stand alone polish but I think the fact that I couldn't be bothered to try to get a better photo than the one I've posted here really demonstrates my my complete and total apathy towards it. It's like it's the nail polish equivalent of my feelings towards the new Spiderman movie:
On Second Thought, No...This Guy's Ass is So Much More Underwhelming!
Actually, I hate that guy's ass a lot. I vomit a little bit in my mouth every time I look at this picture. I like Essie's As Gold As it Gets a lot more than Amazon's Flash, probably because it wasn't pretending to be anything else but a top coat.
As Gold As It Gets Over Maybelline's Natural Beauty
I intentionally chose a warm toned neutral colour as a way to judge just how sparkly is. I felt that if I applied it over a red or a black polish it would stand out anyways, just based on the unavoidable contrast that would naturally occur and that wouldn't be the best way to judge it. I really like this combination quite a bit as I liked seeing a little bit of extra flash to an extremely neutral polish colour but if you want more flash, you'll have to apply a second coat. It also dried much faster than AM so if you find yourself in a pharmacy with AM in one hand and AGAIG in the other, pick up the Essie polish. It's just the more versatile choice.
I just maybe the only nail blogger out there who is still into matte finishes and because of this I was happy to find a bottle of L'oreal's 502M Titanium Matte polish just a couple of weeks ago. I loved 500M & 501M and of all of the matte polishes that I have purchased, this line was the best of the best. It dries with a smooth, satiny finish and can last for days and not just a few hours, which was the case with many of the matte polishes that have come out in the last few years. Its formula is not 100 % perfect though. There were a few bald spots and some minor bubbling (I did lay it on a little thick) but I don't have any serious complaints about it. The colour is a classic, a very deep wine tone that no matter what colours come and go, is a mainstay for even a casual polish wearer. The colour puts me in mind of the ruckus that Chanel's Vamp caused when it was released in the 90's. That was really the first time I can recall a nail polish garnering a cult following, especially after Jennifer Tilly wore it in what was the Watchowski Brothers best film...
And That Film Is NOT "The Matrix"!
Despite owning nearly 500 hundred bottles of nail polish, I only have a single bottle of Chanel. Perhaps that would change is Vamp were still available in Canada as it is in the U.S. Oh well...
Language is a funny thing: take two words, swap their order and you end up with two completely different meanings. The marketers at L'Oreal could have decided to call this polish Night Owl instead of Owl's Night. One sounds like a nocturnal bird, the other like an awesome premise for a horror movie. Either way, I ended up with a dark & sparkly polish that could have easily ended up looking green but instead is a black polish with abundant gold shimmer. The formula is, however, quite thin and needs 3 coats instead of 2 in order to avoid bald spots and very obvious tip wear.
Edward Hopper's Nighthawks
I used to be a night owl but long gone are the days that I could stay up for days and days and feel no ill effects. These days, I find myself crawling into my bed at 7:30 PM on a Friday night and passing out immediately! I sort of miss the days of stumbling into all night diners and donut shops to chow down for the morning and listening to the birds chirping away as the sun came up...
I've got a few photos of polish kicking around that are just waiting to get posted. So without further ado, here's a bunch of polish.
I picked up Personal Shopper from Sephora by OPI in a boxed set with 2 other polishes for free with beauty points, Yay! Lord knows I love good red and this one is a pretty good one. This red creme had a smooth application, was glossy & opaque in two coats and had minimal staining when I removed it. No complaints here!
This one's from my sister's stash. Rockstar Candy from the Complete Salon Manicure by Sally Hansen is a lovely pinkish/mauve shimmer with a terrible name. I dislike marketers slapping the word "Rockstar" on anything and everything in a lame-ass effort to make it sound like it's cool or edgy: e.g Rockstar Chef...ugh! Regardless, this is a good polish that has a durability that is standard with this line. It's a good choice if it's still available.
Canadian clothing retailer Joe Fresh continues to expand, both in locations and with their cosmetics line. They have added 24 new polish colours for spring: More than any other company that I can think off of the top of my head. One of the new polishes that I picked up is Pineapple. It's a yellow so bright it verges on orange. I would have named it Mango. You'd think this polish would glow in the dark and I like it a lot. The round brush handle is still difficult to hold but the brush itself is wide and I got good coverage in 2 coats It's funny how sometimes the simplest image can bring out a memory that you don't expect. When I took this picture, I immediately thought of this image:
I love Duran Duran and John Taylor & Nick Rhodes are awesome guys, but that colour combination wouldn't look good outside of a country kitchen!
Rose Blush by Estee Lauder is a polish that I bought by accident. The salesperson at the store that I bought it from put the wrong polish in my bag and I didn't realise it until I got home. At first I was pissed but then when I looked the polish, I knew that I actually really liked it and now it's one of my favourites! Go figure. it's a calm and warm, shimmery neutral that's slightly on the pink side. It's light enough that a few little nicks or chips can go unnoticed so bonus points for that.
This golden oldie comes courtesy of my sister's collection. As you've probably noticed from the bottle, Cuckoo a light green shimmer, is an old polish from L'oreal's Wear Extraordinaire line from God know when. It's like OPI's Simply Smashing without all of the glass flakes and if you're looking for complete coverage, you'd need 4 coats! If you like this one, you'll probably have a hard time finding it. I think she bought this in Montreal and that would have been, I don't know, 10 years ago?
I'm still feeling just as nostalgic as I was feeling last week. I guess sometimes when you're down, you want to think about happier times. Because of this I've compiling a itunes playlist called My Favourite Songs of All Time. It's a pretty wacky mix that would most likely reflect the tastes of someone with multiple personalities. I've got no specific taste in music, I just love what I love but the choices are odd enough for it to include songs from:
Electric Light Orchestra
David Sylvian
Enrique Igelisas
Danielle Dax
Bauhaus
Gladys Knight & the Pips
John Hiatt
Nick Cave
Roger Miller
Janelle Monae
Actually David Sylvian's song Red Guitar is the song that kicks of my list and it keeps on worming through my ear, so I'll leave you with a little bit from the guy who was once named "The Most Beautiful Man In the World"
It’s time to play The Price is Right, unless some legal department tells me I have to take down this logo.I was in Pharmaplus last week picking up some necessities but that never stops me from checking out the cosmetics aisle.I came across the Resist & Shine TitaniumMatte polish by L’Oreal and they were in clearance for under $3 CDN!Yay!
500M
501M
I picked up 500M & 501M, two very pretty but very different reds. I had a little bit of bubbling with 501M, probably because I laid it on too thick and I didn’t have any problems on my other hand. They dry a little bit slower than other matte polishes but the results are worth it. I was pleasantly surprised by these polishes, not because they look good but because for matte polishes, they had a lot of staying power.In fact I did a ton of housework, including washing a big pile of dishes and there were no chips or wear.Of course the polish didn’t last 7 days, they never do but when you consider how quickly the majority of matte polish doesn’t last five minutes it’s a big plus.
I do have one complaint though.Look at this brush handle!
Whaaaa?
The gold cap is constructed to come off and what’s left is difficult to hold, let alone paint with.If the nice flat gold cap didn’t come off, it would have been a really sturdy, great brush.But no, they had to give us something roughly the size of an eyedropper tip.Too bad!
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and got all the presents that they asked for! I thought about going out and facing the Boxing Day Pandemonium that is going on in Malls & Store right now, but then I thought, why?I got awesome presents and I can’t buy myself a job, so why not stay home, eat ham and turkey leftovers, and post some photos that I didn’t get around to yet!People, get ready because it’s Purple Pandemonium here at She Has Green Fingers!
First up is two polishes from Sinful Colours in which I was excited to find at my local Pharmaplus store!I’ve seen this brand on other blogs but as far as I knew, it wasn’t available in the T.O. area so I was glad to see it.What made me even happier was the price, $2 CDN!I could have easily bought all the colours they had but it was disappointing to see that they only had a small selection of purple shades.I decided to hold back on buying too much since I didn’t know what they quality was like but I shouldn’t have worried.
Bali Mist
Let Me Go
I chose Bali Mist & Let Me Go since the other colours they had looked very similar to other polishes that I already had.Bali Mistis a light purple that’s very reflective, with a hint of duo – chrome that you can see in the bottle but not on the nail.Let Me Go is a sheer lavender that's even more reflective. It reminded me of OPI’s the Colour to Watch but they are quite different, as CTW has more of a blue sheen to it and is less sheer in its application.Frankly, these two bottles of Sinful Colours was $4 well spent.They applied well, dried well and had good coverage, although I did need 3 coats of each since the colours are quite sheer and there was a little tiny bit of bubbling with Bali Mist but not enough for it to be a problem. I’m looking forward to layering with them.
Diva of Geneva
Man, I love this colour!Seriously, this thing is one of my favourites this year and I never get sick at looking at the red & blue shimmer going on in Diva of Geneva fromOPI.Perfect in every way...
Luminescence
A couple of weeks ago my sister bought me Luminescence from L’Oreal.It sort of falls between a dark purple and navy blue but I think it leans more towards purple in my eye.I like it very much, it’s my thing and as I usually have good luck with L’Oreal polishes. I had no application problems but removing it was a lengthy process.
And just for the hell of it, I’m including this nail fail of mine.It’s Sally Hansen’sMystic Lilac with an Essie matte topcoat.
Ewwww!!!
Man!That looks just awful, I really should swatch ML as is because that combination is just straight up ugly.
That’s it for now and until next time, don’t break a nail!
I just picked this up the other day as consolation for not being able to find a bottle of Kelly everywhere I went. It's not a secret that I love blue nail polish but I'm not crazy about the extra amount of time and effort it takes to remove shimmers, glitters and flakies but look, So pretty! Crystal put me in mind of Opi's Absolutely Alice because of the blue and gold colours but the similarities end there. For a polish that's got blue, gold and sparkles like this polish does, I'm surprised that I would describe it as subtle but that's exactly what it is. It's lovely!
The application went well and smoothly and the first coat dried very quickly and it was opaque in three coats.
Stash it/Pass it: Stash it!
I picked up Le Sangre by L'oreal at the drugstore and I believe that their Mysterious Muse collection has been available in the US since October but I hadn't seen it before. I always keep telling myself that I have enough wine coloured polishes but when I see one that catches my eye, then all bets are off!
I found that this polish colour was a little bit more dusty than most of my other wine polishes, but that was what caught my eye in the first place. Even though the polish seemed a little thick it went on smoothly, even with a few wonky hairs on the brush. I don't buy many L'oreal polishes but when I have, I haven't been disappointed with them, in fact, I'm downright satisfied!
