Wet n Wild, Eggplant Frost

Whew! I finally get to wear some of my birthday polish! Actually, I was wearing it in yesterday's haul entry, but I hadn't talked about it yet. I'm wearing the Wet n Wild Eggplant Frost polish, and I have such mixed feelings about it.

First, there's the color. This didn't photograph anything near what it looks like in person, not that there's anything surprising about that. Interesting (to me, at least) fact- lots of digital cameras have problems capturing purples. It's something to do with the sensors inside the camera, but it's beyond me to explain. Just know that when your purples look blue, it's not your fault!

So, back to the polish... It's a deep, gorgeous blurple. You can see the blue tint in the bottle, but most of that shimmer is hidden, so that just the tinest hint comes out with your topcoat. It's a rich, warm royal purple, incredibly deep, and I just love it to bits.

I'm not sure why they named it Eggplant Frost, though, since this is about as far from a frost as you can get without being a creme. The tiny bit of shimmer it has almost disappears, which is sort of frustrating for a shimmer/glitter junkie like me. That's ok, though... it's so pretty, I could deal with it.

Except for one this. This polish was so incredibly difficult to work with. I don't know if it's just this polish, if it's all Wet n Wild Shine polishes (I have some others to test out, so we'll see, right?), but this one had me cursing. It's like after the first sweep of color onto the nail, it dried and became miserable- clumpy, draggy, uneven, and then it bubbled like mad. I didn't do anything different than I normally do, so I can't imagine what the problem is. It was frustrating enough that I'm tempted not to use it again, though.

The good news is that once I got it on, two coats was totally opaque. Adding my topcoat made the bubbles almost disappear, and within minutes I was in love again, my cursing all but forgotten. It's stayed on well (3 days so far, with extremely minimal tipwear other than 1 small chip I repaired invisibly.) It's a workhorse polish, I just wish it wasn't such a prima donna to work with!

I'm planning on picking up a bottle of thinner this afternoon, maybe that'll help it. As for this manicure, I've got a hint as to what tomorrow's post will be. ;)

Birthday Haul!

This is something I will rarely do. I don't generally spend money on nail polish stuff. Because of that, I don't do haul posts. Even this time, I went for colors I can use in artsy stuff to round out my palette. Still, I got $50 from my dad for my birthday day-before-yesterday, and I spent a bit on me. Don't get me wrong, $20 went to fix my car's AC, because I live in hell South Louisiana, where the heat index has been reaching 110° or higher on a regular basis. AC is not a splurge, it's a necessity.

But then, my husband told me he wanted me to get something for myself, something to make me happy. (This is where everyone is supposed to smile and saw, "Awww, he's awesome!") So I did. I went digging through online coupons and things, and I decided to look for what I might be missing, and so... well... here we go. I took pictures.

First off, I was running low on remover & acetone, and you know how important those are! So, I grabbed one of each. The remover was $0.98, the acetone was $3.45 or so.

Then I went to look for the stickers I've been drooling over for months. Seriously, well before I started painting my nails, but alas, they were sold out.  No cute cupcake & crossbones decals for Laynie. =(

That's ok. In a way, it's better, because that leaves more room for polishes, and boy did I ever shop well for polish. Now, the two purple Wet n Wild polishes (Eggplant Frost and Wild Card) were from the other day, I just hadn't photographed them, so I stuck them in with the birthday haul. They were birthday, just not from Dad's contribution. I also decided to get the Carribean Frost because it's such a pretty teal, the Shield because OMG, it's a gorgeous sort of warm pewter color, and I'm always needing clear polish to mix with. All were $1 except Shield, which was $2.

I also grabbed a couple of Love My Nails polishes, because hey, $1 polishes make me happy. I chose Hot Tamale because it's such a gorgeous, vibrant shimmery orange, and Dazzling because it's such an understated, purple/green shimmer. Seriously, it is insane, and it's so pretty!

Rockstar Pink was the biggest splurge of all, and it was from my actual birthday. I spent $2.50 on it, and it was worth every penny. It's a crazy glittertastic party, and I wouldn't change a bit of it. Well, I might make it a little easier to remove, but hey... it IS glitter, right?

And here's the fun part: I found a coupon at Walgreens online to get Sinful Colors polishes for $0.99. Be sure to double check if it's valid in your area, unfortunately it's not valid everywhere. There's a limit of three polishes per person, but that's why you bring a friend. I dragged my husband along and picked out six polishes that I think I am absolutely in LOVE with!

Happy Ending is a beautiful grassy green shimmer, Love Nails is an absolutely KILLER sky-blue shimmery/frost (not sure which), Let's Meet is a summery golden yellow shimmer, Dream On is the most impossible-to-photograph vibrant purple (almost fluorescent), All About You is a mix of gold and coppery glitters in a practically-clear base, and Call You Later is a crazy mix of multi-sized Green and Gold glitters in a practically-clear base.

And because that's not enough, I also got a nail art kit from the Dollar Tree because I have all sorts of strange ideas running through my mind for nail art, and lots of them involve little multicolor stones of some sort. it comes with 120 gems and a small bottle of top coat, and it, too, was $1.

If you've been keeping track, that's less than $20 spent today and less than $25 spent total. Not bad for 15 polishes, 120 rhinestones, a bottle of acetone, and a bottle of remover, yes? I'm giddy. I love getting a good deal! The only problem I have is...

... how the heck am I gonna STORE these babies? O.o

Quick tidbit... Art Deco Illustration Nails = Konad Clone?

While looking through the Poka Pika Nails blog, I saw that she'd gotten a set of Art Deco stamping plates. I was excited to see this, since I seem to be obsessed with nail stamping for some reason. I did a bit of digging and found the website for Art Deco Nails, but I wasn't able to actually view the site due to an error. The google site cache showed me I was on the right track, though. A few more minutes of searching and I found the Art Deco stamping items on Amazon.co.uk.

I'm a bit surprised, I have to admit. The image plates look like they've got the same images as the Konad plates. Can anyone confirm this, or does anyone know anything about these? They look to be at least as expensive as Konad stuff, if not a bit more! I was hoping for more images to choose from...

Sunday Sweets- Cupcakes!

Another Sunday rolls around, and I've got more Sunday Sweets for you. After my nephew's birthday party last weekend, I've got cupcakes on my mind! I just had to go looking to see what sorts of cupcake goodies I could find!

First off, I found the cutest emery boards! They come in a set of three- one with stripes, one with bubbles, and one with cute little cupcakes. These are too cute, and the bright colors made me smile. Not bad, for $1.97!


Then for £2.99 there are the cupcake nail polish remover pads. They're supposed to smell like vanilla, but I'm not sure how much I believe that! But would it really matter? The container is SO CUTE!! I love the pink and the blue, I love the cupcake, I even love the fonts!

I know, I'm a sucker for cute. But this is a surprise?

Moving on, we've got the cupcake manicure set, with all the various little manicure tools that can wreak absolute havoc on our pretty nails. But honestly, would you buy this for the tools inside, or would you buy this for the absolute adorableness?

That's what I thought. It has SPRINKLES!! I think this is just the cutest little set, and it would be even better if it were handmade by someone awesome on Etsy, don't you think? Still, at $8.95 it's not horribly expensive, and it's so sweet!

Once you've got your nails all shaped and pretty, then what? Well, of course you paint your nails with the cupcake polishes set! For $8.00 you get six polishes with cupcakes on the bottles, along with separators for your toes, and a big cupcake tag to make gifting a breeze. Seriously, could it get any better than this?

Well, since you asked? Yea, yea it can. This cupcake pedicure set may only have two polishes, but its toe separators have cupcakes on them! Plus, you get a cupcake-shaped emery board, a vanilla frosting hand/foot cream, and cupcake nail decals, all for $12.99! I wish someone had sent me this for my birthday, because adult or not, I'd have had a ball with this set! Ah well... it was still a good day.

I honestly am surprised I found so much fun cupcake manicure stuff, but it was so much fun to track down! This makes me look forward to next Sunday's Sweets. What would you like to see- cute nail art? High end products? Maybe a hunt for your favorite animal? Leave suggestions in the comments, and I might just see what I can find for you!

Til next time!
♥ Laynie

Incoco Dry Nail Applique- too good to be true?

I've been seeing the Incoco Dry Nail Applique packets at my local drugstore for a year or more, but I can't lie, the price was definitely an issue that kept me from trying it. But every so often, I would wander over and look at the various colors and wonder if they were any good.

Part of the problem for me was the display. The colors looked so dull, so boring. I'm not a creme polish sort of girl. I like glitter, I like shimmer, and I like colors that are deep and interesting. From what I could see, the Incoco selection seemed limited and bland. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $8 on a pack of nail polish stuff that I couldn't even really tell what kind of color and finish it was.

Then one day I was browsing through the Walgreens' clearance section. I don't know about you, but I adore finding things on sale. I'm not bad about buying things just because they're on sale, but if it's something I'm interested in? Oh, heck YES I'll jump! So, when I saw packs of Incoco stickers for one dollar, I couldn't resist. I pulled out my wallet and left with Sinderella feeling like I'd just made a super purchase!

The packet sat in my nail box for ages. I'm not even sure why, but I always seemed to have something else to do, or I was worried I didn't have enough time to figure them out, or I was just flat out intimidated. How on Earth would I be able to put nail polish stickers onto my right hand without making them look horrible?

Then I decided to try them. I sat down with the packet, opened everything up, read the instructions and decided to go for it. If I'd had any sense at all, I'd have looked on YouTube for instruction videos. Incoco has a channel with instructions for both plain and French tips, and the videos are very clear and informative. I'd have had much more luck if I'd watched them first!

Of course, if I'd been thinking ahead, I'd have photographed the whole process of applying them. I didn't, though, because I hadn't really gotten into this whole blog thing yet. I did take pictures of things five days after the application, though, because I'm weird like that. (I even have pictures of me in an ambulance, because my husband is as much of a photojournalist as I am. One of the pictures has me with the emesis bag over my mouth and my middle finger in the air, because it captured the spirit of the moment so well. But I digress...)

The first thing that surprised me was the color of the polish. This wasn't a creme after all! No, this was an absolutely amazing deep golden shimmer polish that was intensely beautiful. Still, getting it on was a bit intimidating, but I found that as long as I took my time, they came out beautiful. And amazingly enough, they were actually dry immediately, with no dinging or smearing at all!

As soon as I finished the polish, we left to go run errands, and it seemed like we didn't stop for days. This polish stayed on like a dream, though. Look at the tipwear, for pete's sake... that's insane for 5 days! All of my nails were like this. They stayed beautiful and glossy, and made me so incredibly happy every time I looked at them.

One thing, though. The Incoco instructions say that their one little packet of nail polish remover will clean the polish off all 10 nails. Maybe they're talking different people than me, because this stuff was on there. Their polish remover pad is made of felt, so that it really did work nicely, but I still only managed 5-6 fingers before needing my own remover. Still, if that's the worst I can say about the stuff? Not bad...

So let's look at the pros and cons. It's fast, it's easy, and it's incredibly neat. The product has no bad smell at all. You could use this on an airplane, in a hospital, wherever without any guilt at all.

As for the negative aspect, I'm not fond of the packaging. It's too hard to see what type of finish you'll have. I also find it pretty expensive, since you're getting one manicure for $8, as opposed to a bottle of China Glaze polish (or Orly, or OPI, or whatever your favorite brand is). Also, there's not as much flexibility with these as there is with a bottle of polish. You can't really layer them (I think?), and you can't do any frankening.

Still, these are sweet as heck if you need them in an emergency. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for sales, because these would be fabulous to keep on hand. What do you think- would you like to try Incoco Dry Nail Appliques? Do you think they're priced well, or over- or under-priced? Tell me what you're thinking...

An experiment that works!

I should wait. I know it. I get way too excited about things before they're finished, then I tell everyone and the surprise is ruined. But I'm halfway through the first set of these, and I think I can share my test nail without ruining too much of the surprise. So, humor me, will ya?

Yesterday, my husband and I went walking through a variety of shops- hobby stores, craft stores, etc. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love wandering through a creative-type store, because I never know exactly what's going to catch my eye, or what I'm going to go home with.

Thanks to this wandering I get to show you a preview of my next set of nails. They're for halloween ... they're spooooky monster nails! Be afraid!

Ok, maybe they aren't exactly scary, but they're monsters! Monsters with googly eyes! The nail in the picture is the second to smallest size nail tip, so most have more room for painting and detailing. Thankfully, I've got all sorts going.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I'm enjoying this set. I was painting last night in a room alone, giggling to myself about how silly and cute some of these monsters are. There are no details yet, but personalities are already starting to show. I cannot WAIT to finish this set!

So, what do you think? Have you started thinking about halloween at all? Am I the only one who starts thinking about halloween in August? Talk to me!

No H8- my inspired reaction to the overturning of Proposition 8.

I'm not even sure what to say about this, really. When I heard yesterday that Proposition 8 had been overturned, I was so overwhelmed. I sat and smiled, feeling history being made, and wondered what had taken so long to get to this point. I told my husband, my son. My online friends and I talked and laughed, happy for some good news for a change.

Then last night before I was heading to bed, I found this post- the Daily Nail's post about her No H8 manicure. I love rainbows as you may have noticed in my past blogs, but even more so I love the idea of the No H8 campaign. I also absolutely agree with every word she said in her blog. So when I saw her manicure, I knew I wanted to do my own spin on the idea. But be aware that this one came directly from the Daily Nail.

I immediately pulled out all my stuff and got down to business. Sally Hansen Hard as Nails base coat, then I mixed custom colors for the rainbow in acrylic paints*. For some reason, I like my rainbows with brighter colors, rather than the traditional red, so I used Medium Magenta, Brilliant Blue, and Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue straight from the tube and mixed the purple, green, and orange from these. For my left thumb, I used 2 coats of Fantasy Makers** white, then used a dotter with Fantasy Makers black and Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff in Red Forever Creme to do the lettering.

I took the picture to the right before I'd even finished cleaning up. My fingers are so messy... don't judge me, please! At that point, it was something like 2:30 am and I was absolutely crashing. I shoved everything back into my polish box and tried to sleep some. Once I got up, I realized that I didn't like the way the colors looked, so I decided to top the rainbow fingers off with a holographic top coat. I grabbed my Milani HD and did a thin coat over all the rainbow nails, leaving the NO H8 thumb alone.

I did another round of cleanup and scrubbed my hands nicely and wound up with this, and I think I'm pretty happy with it. Unfortunately, no one has noticed my nails yet. But it's ok. I know what they mean... they sum up my belief that love doesn't discriminate between color or gender, and that our laws shouldn't either. I have no problem with churches refusing to marry couples of the same sex, because that is their right. But there is a difference between marriage in the church and a legal marriage, and the church, in my opinion, has no right to step into legal matters.

Be happy, be safe, and be kind to each other. Those are the best suggestions I have for this life...

*I use Liquitex Professional Acrylic Artist Color in Heavy Body for my acrylic paints.
**Fantasy Makers polishes are distributed by Markwins Beauty Products Inc.