Greens, Greens, Greens!

This next bulk post consists of all of the green manis I wore during the week of St. Patrick's Day. Green is my absolute favorite color, so I'm always psyched for St. Patrick's Day week, and it gives me a good excuse to wear greens! I probably have enough green polishes to wear one every day for a year, but I kept this to a week.

First up is Zoya- Vespa. This is by far my favorite from the Pixie Dust collection recently released in February. The finish on these is amazing!! I previously wore Chyna, which is the red from that collection, and Vespa has more of a gritty, sandy texture. I would describe this shade as a dark mint green.

The application was simple, and I could have gotten away with just two coats of this, but I added a third one just to make it more textured. The dry time wasn't too bad either. It was tacky for a little bit, and I hate not being about to use fast-dry topcoat. It took about a half hour to dry completely.

Indoors with the flash, the shade looks really different! The name is so fitting too. When I think of a Vespa, I think of those scooters that have the exact shade of green.

Indoors without the flash. You can see how much darker this looks in lower lighting. Removal of this was challenging in the sense that it was more difficult than a creme or shimmer finish, but not as difficult as a glitter. It was worth it though!

Pretty & Polished- Bubble Tea is stunning. I've been lemming this one for a while and finally caved in and bought it right before it was discontinued. It's a yellow green base filled with medium black hexes and small bits of yellow matte glitter giving it a slightly textured finish. 

The base was more opaque than I thought it would be and this only required two coats for full coverage. I love how the black hexes look suspended in the base. I am a huge fan of bubble tea, so I just had to have this one.

Indoors with the flash. You can see in the bottle how the tiny pieces of glitter have a slight shimmer effect to them.

Indoors without the flash

Hare Polish- Asteroid Turf consists of medium pink hex glitter suspended in a kelly green jelly base. I just love this combination of colors. It's a jelly sandwich in a bottle. 

Car picture! (I apologize this was before I cleaned up fully, I had to run to work before I could clean up) I thought that this showed the suspension of the glitter well.

Indoors without the flash. I believe I used three coats of this, but it can also be pulled off with two.

For St. Patrick's Day, I wore the combination of Candy Lacquer- Kiss Me I'm Irish layered over China Glaze- Running in Circles. The shades of glitter in Kiss Me I'm Irish match the Irish flag perfectly. There are various sizes of green, red, and white glitter in hexes and squares. There are also red and white hearts! 

The glitter in this was so concentrated that it only needed one coat! I'm always impressed with Candy Lacquer's glitters.

Here's China Glaze- Running in Circles by itself indoors with the flash.  I am wearing two coats of it. It is a beautiful emerald green shimmer. This was from the Cirque de Soleil collection released in December 2012.

Here it is indoors without the flash. It has that glassfleck type shimmer.

Here is ORLY- Monster Mash. This one blows me away! It has various sizes of prismatic green glitter suspended in a yellow-green jelly base! When I first started applying this, I was questioning if it could be worn alone because the first coat was so sheer. It built up nicely with three coats.

Monster Mash was released last summer in ORLY's Flash Glam FX collection, but repromoted around Halloween. I was so amazed with how many different colors flashed in the glitter and I couldn't stop staring at my nails.

Indoors with the flash, you can see what the yellow green jelly base looks like.

Indoors without the flash. I used the white glue base coat with this one and it peeled off easily in sheets. I imagine that this one would be a nightmare to remove the old-fashioned way.

This next combination was an unexpected success. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did! This is Nina Ultra Pro- Electric Slide layered over Venique- Ga-lashes Glow.

Nina Ultra Pro recently revamped their line and branding, and this shade stood out to me. A green neon jelly? It immediately caught my eye and I just had to have it. It was quite sheer and I recommend layering it over another shade. I used two coats of this. This mani was very long-lasting too! 

Here's Venique- Ga-Lashes Glow taken indoors without the flash. I don't know much about Venique. I received this from a partner in a secret swap in one of my facebook groups. I think Venique is only sold at Cosmoprof, which I don't have a membership to. This came in a set with four minis. It's a lime green creme. It reminds me a lot of OPI- Who the Shrek Are You? It applied like butter in two thin coats and the finish was so smooth! 

Indoors with the flash

Hockey fans, just for fun I wore this mani to an autograph signing and met James Neal. He signed this puck, and I held it wearing this combination. It looks so bright in the photo! Just thought I would share :)

Last is Funky Fingers- Pixy Dust. I picked this one up at 5Below. It's a green apple colored glassfleck shimmer. The first coat applied very sheer, and I was unsure if I would like it. It was another one of those shades that I had doubts about, but once the coats built up, I was surprised! It's absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me of Tinkerbell. This needed three coats.

Indoors with the flash

Indoors without the flash

Some Indie Brands

I have some various indie brands that I wore throughout this week.

This combination is made up of Liquid Lacquer- White Walkers layered over Pretty & Polished- Slime Time. I just love the way that my camera captured all of the different colors shifts that occurred in White Walkers.

White Walkers is an iridescent glitter. It works best as a top coat or to layer with because it is very sheer. I used two coats of it over Slime Time.

White Walkers was part of a limited edition Game of Thrones collection (which I love!!!) I refer to this mani as the "zombie swamp".

Here's Pretty & Polished- Slime Time taken indoors without the flash. I really wanted to like this shade. The formula was great. Slime Time is exactly what it was advertised to be. A murky, yellow-green jelly. I liked the concept and execution of it, and the formula was great for a jelly. I just didn't like the way that it looked on my nails.

Taken with the flash: Slime Time is super sheer! I am wearing three coats of it here and you can see visible nail line. This would be a good shade for jelly sandwiches. With only one or two coats of this, my nails look very stained. As much as I love greens and jellies, this one just didn't work for me. This shade has been discontinued, but Pretty & Polished polishes can be purchased through their Etsy store.

Next up is Enchanted Polish- Gummy Worm. This is the only Enchanted Polish that I own (but I'm definitely open to purchasing more if the opportunity presents itself)

Gummy Worm is a green-apple shade and there is a subtle holo effect. The holo was actually more apparent in the bottle than on the nail, but I don't own any holos in this shade of green.

For being a holo (which usually have difficult-to-work-with, runny, streaky formulas), this one applied like butter in two smooth coats. In fact, it was almost a one-coater! I was amazed with how opaque it was with minimal effort and the finish was amazingly smooth.

I took a picture indoors with the flash to show the holo effect. It's not quite linear, but it's not scattered either. It falls in-between. I just love this shade of green! Enchanted Polish can be purchased through their website.

The next combo is Amy's Nail Boutique- For Jonathan layered over Essie- Where's My Chauffeur? I was a little iffy about how this combination would work, but I ended up loving it!

For Jonathan is a very special polish. It was custom made for charity, and the proceeds went to Colon cancer. My fiance's father is a survivor, and this cause is very close to my heart. It is a cause that I am eager to donate to. For Jonathan is composed of blue microglitter, and larger blue and brown hex glitters.

I only put on one coat of For Jonathan because I really liked how Where's My Chauffeur? showed through. It reminds me of a robin's egg! With multiple coats, I believe that For Jonathan would be able to build up to opacity. Amy's Nail Boutique polishes can be purchased via her Etsy Shop.

Here's Essie- Where's My Chauffeur? This picture was taken indoors without the flash. It is a light turquoise creme and it's very reminiscent to the classic China Glaze- For Audrey. Where's My Chauffeur? was released in Essie's past holiday collection titled Leading Lady.

Here it is with the flash. I cannot stress how great the formula was with this. Application was a breeze and it dried rather quickly.

Last is Glitzology- Neapolitan. Being a fan of ice cream and all things sweet, I just had to have this one.  It's composed of pink/copper glitter, brown and white hex glitter of various sizes, and some tiny long pieces of white bar glitter. 

I love the way that this turned out! It definitely reminds me of Neapolitan ice cream.

I have to confess that I did struggle with the application of this. The formula was rather thick (that's to be expected of densely packed glitters). Because the application was so thick, I only needed two coats. As I was painting my nails, the polish kept progressively getting goopy. I had some polish thinner on hand, and I dropped in a few drops every couple nails. Due to how thick it was, it might be difficult to wear this one layered over another shade. 

I was able to smooth it out using two coats of Gelous followed by one coat of Seche Vite. I used the Elmer's glue base coat with this, so the polish just peeled right off when I wanted it to. I imagine that this would be very difficult to remove and would probably require the acetone and foil method if the glue base coat isn't used. Glitzology polishes can be purchased through the Etsy shop. There are sometimes really good promos posted on the facebook page, so make sure you "like" Glitzology.

Super Mega Haul!!!

It's not news that I am an avid polish purchaser, but throughout the past few weeks, I seemed to have accumulated tons! I purchased a vintage lot of polish on ebay, bought a couple from blog sales, received some gifts, and stumbled upon many at stores for good prices! I figured all of this polish merited a separate blog post. I still have some manis to share with you, and I will be posting them soon.

Vintage Loreals! top row: Fatigues, Orangeade, and Mandarine bottom row: Sea Violette, Sea Lily, and Spice

Julie G- You-niverse, Essie- Play Date, Butler Please, and We're in it Together

OPI- On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Living Daylights, My Address is Hollywood, I Eat Mainely Lobster, and Chocolate Moose

Candeo- Zef, OPI- Midnight in Moscow, Megan Miller- Lemon Ice, and China Glaze- Kaleidoscope Him Out

OPI- Hey! Get in Lime, Paris Couture for Sure, Skip the Gift Wrap, and Dulce de LEche

ORLY minis found at Marshall's! Cotton Candy, Pure Porcelain, Meet Me under the Mistletoe, and Take Him to the Cleaners

Pretty & Polished- Bubble Tea, Diner Daze, Cuttlefish, and Black Swan

vintage Maybellines- Lilac Haze and Two Timer and Covergirl- Midnight Forest

Max Factor- Starlet Satin, Bombshell Blue, Rose Garden, and Momentum Moss

I have these all grouped together in one picture, because I found ALL OF THIS on clearance at Sally's and applied the $10 off birthday coupon, and got everything for about $20! Top Row: China Glaze- Roguish Red, Bizarre Blurple, Blue Bells Ring, and Bend over Backwards. Bottom Row: China Glaze- Red Satin, Def Defying, Red Pearl, ORLY- Unlawful, Sally Girl- unnamed pink mini and ORLY- Rose Radiance mini

Color Club In True Fashion minis (another Marshall's find!) Model Behavior, Port-folio, First Looks, and Editorial

Covergirl Crackles- Boo Hou and Ghost and Covergirl- Anti-freeze and Gold Front

More older Covergirls! The Continuous Color ones are a bit newer than the Nailslicks. Here's Fireworks, Classic Red, Spiced Tea, Wedding White, and Quicksilver