Layering With Pomegranate Polishes

Today's look features another spin on Curator, the black polish with gold and silver glitter from Pomegranate Nail Lacquer's latest collection. I was able to choose two polishes from Pomegranate to try out, and I chose Cardigan for my second color. I had a plan, and I couldn't wait to try it out.

I chose Cardigan for a couple of reasons: I love the color, and it's a jelly polish. While I'm the type of person who hates visible nail line, I'm also the type of person who absolutely loves layering polishes. I had a sneaking suspicion that I could layer Cardigan over Curator to create something spectacular.

Because Curator is a neutral polish, I imagined that the sheer teal of Cardigan would tint everything so that the black would become a deep velvety greenish with sparkling spots of brighter green and teal where the glitter showed through. For some reason, this brought to mind images of lost jungle tribes, lush greenery and golden treasures covered in moss. (What can I say? I really loved Indiana Jones as a kid!)

In reality, I had a bit of trouble keeping the teal layer even, and there's enough pigment in Cardigan to build up brighter streaks over the black. This didn't bother me, though, because it somehow didn't detract from the overall look. The gold glitter shined through with an almost lime green sheen, and the silver showed more of Cardigan's blue tones. All in all, I called it a win.

Surprisingly enough, I wore this polish for 3 or 4 days. That's odd for me, since I get bored so easily and I have enough polish to change my nail lacquer every day without repeating for... oh, let's just say a long time. I don't want to count how many bottles of nail polish I have now. It's starting to frighten me!

Here, have some more photos of this delicious sandwich.

Pomegranate Nail Lacquer is available for sale on the Pomegranate web site for $9 a bottle. However, if you like Curator, now is the time to buy it, because Pomegranate is selling the cutest Halloween treat bag! In it you'll find one bottle of Persimmon, one bottle of Curator, sweet treats and seasonal decorations, and it only costs you $15! This is the perfect treat for your friends who love nail polish. It's worth picking up two- one for you and one for a friend!

What do you think of this combination? Would you wear it, or are you just shaking your head at me, wondering why I do this weird stuff? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Polishes were provided by Pomegranate Nail Lacquer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Dr's Remedy Nails- Summer 2011

I'm having a horrible time with my email lately. I don't know why, but suddenly lots of emails are ending up in my spam folder that shouldn't be. I'm so glad I started looking through it every few days, although I really don't want to think how many mails I missed that I would have wanted to see...

Thankfully, I found the email from Dr's Remedy Nail Polishes telling me about their new summer collection! These colors are LUSH! The orange is calling my name, and I cannot WAIT to see the blue on my nails. I also have a feeling that I might actually be able to wear the nude pink... we shall see!

The descriptions for the polishes really make me want to try these. Just look for yourself!

* Lovely Lavender: a pale purple with matte depth and charm
* Glee Gold: a shimmer-infused coin of perfection
* Tranquil Tangerine: a bold, but wonderfully wearable, slice of juicy delight
* Bold Baby Blue: an aqua-meets-turquoise take on every boy's favorite color
* Nurture Nude Pink: a delicate, damsel-in-distress barely-there beautiful

Aren't these fab? That lavender looks like it might be one of those almost grey, almost lavender, neutral and lovely colors that's so popular at the moment, and really, do I need to say anything about those shimmers? I'm absolutely bouncing at the idea of getting to try these!!

Dr.’s REMEDY Enriched Nail Polish is DBP, Toluene & Formaldehyde free and is exclusively available for $17 online at www.remedynails.com, or call 877-323-6756.

Images and information were provided by the company for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Best Nail Treatments- Irish Rogue

Wow, I am so happy to share this with you! I recently learned about a fairly new brand of nail polish that looked really interesting. I was offered the opportunity to try out the color of my choice as well as their topcoat and base coat.

Since I absolutely love it, let me introduce you to Best Nail Treatments by the makers of Poshe products! After an agonizing time looking at their color chart, I chose to try a color called Irish Rogue, which is part of their neon shades. I also received the basecoat and topcoat so I could do my manicure the way they suggest.

First off, let me just say that this color is absolutely gorgeous! The color didn't photograph well for me, which is a huge disappointment. In reality this color is almost like the green on a can of Sprite, deep and saturated and absolutely dense with color. The best part was a surprise for me: Irish Rogue has almost-hidden shimmer that's easy to miss if you aren't looking for it. This photo shows the shimmer beautifully, and is closer to the color I see on my nails as I type this.

Unfortunately, I have to be honest about my experience with this polish. The basecoat states that it's quick-drying, and the topcoat states that polish will be dry to the touch in 1 minute and completely dry within 5 minutes. This absolutely was not the case for me. I attempted to paint my nails with this twice, and the first time I painted my nails, I gave up waiting after 15 minutes and applied a coat of Seche Vite. My nails didn't dry at all, and about 10 minutes later I removed it all out of frustration because it was all still horribly wet.

The next time I tried I decided to be patient and give the polish more time to dry. I know I've been spoiled with Seche Vite, but I can be patient when I need to. While my nails were nowhere near dry after 5 minutes, I'm willing to assume that's because of something in my body chemistry. My polish was dry within an hour, and since then it's worn like a champ. The only issue I had was with drying, and I assume most people won't have that problem.

Back to the positive points, since there are a ton of them! I have to share the selection of colors, since it overwhelmed me completely! You can choose between cremes, shimmers, glitters, pearls, and metallics. There are even two special effects polishes that I'm absolutely dying to try! Honestly, I believe everyone can find at least one or two polishes here to fall in love with... I know I've found at least 12!

Then there are the topcoat and basecoat. First of all, let me share my favorite part of this: they sell their topcoat in larger sizes! You can get a single bottle, a larger bottle, or you can even get it in a gallon! The basecoat is clear and extremely fast-drying. As are the rest of the BNT polishes, the topcoat and basecoat are big-3 free,  which is reassuring to those of us who do our nails so often! They also sell a polish thinner, in case your polish or your topcoat gets a bit goopy over time. I've found that a good polish thinner is an absolute must!

Also, let me take a moment to address a question I get frequently- how to make your polish last longer. This is probably the question I get asked most often, and I say this every single time. In my opinion, the brand of polish you wear isn't what makes the most difference in how long it lasts. Instead, I find even cheap polishes can last well when you use a good basecoat and a good topcoat. Also, a good basecoat does not work well as a topcoat, because the properties that make it a good basecoat prevent it from making a good topcoat (and vice versa). I'll write more about this a bit later, though... it's worth its own post.

I had one other small problem, but it wasn't a huge deal. The brush that came with my bottle of basecoat had a few long hairs on it, which made application a real bear. It would poke over my cuticle and make a mess!

It was easily fixed. I simply grabbed my manicure scissors! I took the brush out of the basecoat and wiped it off carefully, then held it up sideways in one hand while putting the scissors right up next to the flat part of the end of the brush. A couple of snips and the brush was as good as new!

Bottom line? I love this polish!! It's such a vibrant shade that it's perfect for the summer months. Plus, I've had several compliments on my nails since I put it on! (More than usual, which makes my day!) They're available at the Best Nail Treatments website, and polishes start at $5.99!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go start my wishlist at the website. I have some polishes to mark before my birthday in August! Til next time!

Polish, basecoat, and topcoat were provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Aiee, Poor Caribbean...

Oh dear. You ever do something pretty, and then just keep on going and destroy it? Yea, that's what I did here. The Caribbean Frost was pretty, but I got bored. Really bored. This is what happens.

See, first I grabbed my stamping kit. I have it all in a cute little bag that Kellie G. sent me. (If it wasn't for her, I'd still be stuck with the same single plate I had.) I dug through all the plates and decided to go with M78. It's a really cute pattern that I've wanted to use more than once, but never got around to using. Since I just got those gorgeous Maybelline Aluminum polishes, I decided to see how they'd stamp on this lovely shade of teal.

It was... pretty. It was fairly sheer, though. I wanted more! I then decided to fill in the cheetah spots with black and white. That was AWFUL!! Thankfully, the Sally Hansen Nail Art pens are water-based, and I could remove them without any damage to the stamp. It was really not something worth saving,unfortunately.

Then I decided to try the silver and gold. They were... better? I don't know. I'm not fond of this look, but I decided to keep it on for whatever reason. A coat of Seche Vite made it durable and shiny, and dried quickly as usual.

Oh, you may be wondering about the naproxen sodium in the photo. I've managed to damage my knee somehow, so I'm taking these around the clock to help with inflammation. I was amused at that bottle being closest to hand. I know, I have a weird sense of humor.

All in all, I don't think this is a horrible look. I just don't have long enough nails to make the best use of the pattern, and it ended up looking sort of disorganized. But it was the first time I used a whole-nail stamp and it turned out nicely. Also, I learned a lot about stamping and design. So overall, it was a great learning experience, right? :D

What would you consider one of your more educational nail polish experiences? Have you done a nail art design that just made you want to take it off and start over? Tell me about it in the comments! And coming up tomorrow, I got a special surprise in the mail that I get to share with you! See you then!

Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens were provided by their PR company for evaluation.

I always wanted to go to the Caribbean...

I have a problem. It's a great one, but it's a problem, regardless. I'm indecisive, and now I have a box full of untried polishes that is just almost impossible to choose from. Seriously, I'm sitting here looking and just totally overwhelmed. For this mani, I decided to ask a friend to choose my color.

"Pick a color. Any color, I'm bound to be able to come close to it..."

She laughed at me, then said, "Well, I'm wearing this sort of teal-blue-green color on my toes... how about that?"

And that's how I decided on today's color, Wet n Wild's Caribbean Frost.  I like it, I think, but I don't think it likes me. I can't quite decide if I like it on me or not...it's so green! But it's an absolutely lovely color, with just enough shimmer to make me smile.

Unfortunately, I had the same problem with this one as I did with Wet n Wild Eggplant Frost. I'm going to have to try it over a bare nail, maybe it's my base coat causing the problems? Whatever, these two polishes were horrible to work with. The polish didn't want to go where I wanted it! I'll try it without a base coat first, and then maybe try thinning it out a bit with my polish thinner. It's frustrating, because these are absolutely beautiful polishes!!

I finally managed to get the polish mostly where I wanted it, though, with only a few curse words. (I have a bit of a potty mouth when I'm frustrated... or, well, when I'm breathing. :D) A coat of Seche Vite made things look even nicer, and I managed to get this cleaned up better than ever before, I think. I'm finally getting the hang of using acetone and a brush to clean up. It only took me what... 3 months?

One good thing about how Caribbean Frost is how well it stamps. I've gotten a bit OCD lately, so whenever I get a new polish, I put it into my spreadsheet, then I do a sample stamp with it onto a small sticker. That way, I have a reference of how well it stamps without having to remember details on all of my polishes! I've managed to go back and do sample stickers on about 1/3 of my polishes... the ones I think would stamp well. It's so much easier than having to dig through the spreadsheet!

Clearly, this one stamps like a dream. I want to see what it looks like over black. Ooooh, that's an interesting idea for the future! *rushes over to make a note in her spreadsheet* Sure, that might be geeky, but it helps me remember what I wanna do!

So yea, this is what I've worn for the past day or two. I have to admit, it's growing on me. I think I'm going to have to stamp on it to see what it looks like then...

Then again, knowing me, I'll destroy it totally. I'm good at that! Oh well... stay tuned for tomorrow's exciting conclusion to Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost! Will it be stamped on? Will it be a masterpiece, or will it be ugly! Wait and see!!