Tuxedo in the Nude

I've missed you. No seriously, I have. 

The past few months have been a rollercoaster for me. Excuses, excuses. I know. Anyway, I'm going to try and see if I can get back into the swing of things here. A weekly post is seeming to be something I can stick with. Let's see what happens.

I went through my old drafts and found a mani I thought was pretty cute and somewhat appropriate as a Halloween themed manicure. I present my nails, all tuxedo'ed up. ;)




I used:
 Essence "Modern Romance", 2 coats
Wet'n'Wild "Black Creme", 1 coat
Top coat: Seche Vite.

Voila!

Mint Polish Comparison Post

This is rather late, but better late than never, right?

I have NO IDEA what is going on with my formatting, but please bear with me.

1. Gosh "Drizzle" - 2 coats

Not even close to mint, this polish is a very greyed out and
dusty, faded green creme.

2. Revlon "Minted" - 3 coats

This is like a more muted cousin of Sally Hansen's "Mint
Sorbet" (#10). Smooth and very pretty.

3. Essie "Turquoise & Caicos" - 4 coats
Jelly based polish, needing 4 coats for opacity. Leans slightly
more green and is darker than the others.

4. Essence "You Belong To Me" - 2 coats
More blue toned rather than a "true" mint. Great coverage
and application.

 

Round Two

5. Gosh "Silky Mint" - 3 coats
Medium warm toned green creme. Although the name says
it's a mint, it leans just a little too green for it to be
considered a traditional mint. Gosh has great formula's,
very easy application.

6. OPI "Mermaids Tears" - 3 coats
A dustier version of "Silky Mint" (#5). Love this colour,
perfect for a more muted mint polish. 

7. Cosmetic Arts, un-named - 3 coats
Very cool, blue-leaning mint creme. Wish it had a name. No
complaints with application.

8. Color Club "New Bohemian" - 3 coats
This is the quintessential mint - my favourite out of them all.
It leans the slightest bit more blue than green and I think
that's why I like it. It works well on my skin tone (it causes
the least amount of lobster-clawness out of all the swatches)
and looks very refreshing.

 

 

Round Three
 

9. Sally Hansen "Green Tea" - 3 coats
Pale, muted mint green. Pretty and whimsical. I love this
type of greyed out polish.

10. Sally Hansen "Mint Sorbet" - 3 coats
Vivid but pale green mint. Perfect for summer; looks
awesome on tanned skin. Application was slightly thick.

11. Avon "Aqua Fantasy" - 2 coats
Very blue but has a very slight edge of green so I included it,
just to compare. White shimmer gives it a frosted feel and
the application was AMAZING. I need more Avon polish in
my life. Like yesterday.

12. Wet'n'Wild "I Need A Refresh-ment" - 2 coats
I kind of hate the name of this polish ... but the polish is
beautiful. More blue than green, the creme formula glides
on smoothly. Pretty but not quite mint. Mint-esque.

 

I wasn't exactly strict with my polish picking; I wanted to
include some polishes that lean a bit more blue (or green) just
to show the contrast to the what is traditionally thought of as
a mint polish. Personally, I feel like this helps the comparison
process.

My favourite "true/traditional" mint out of these 12 that I've
shown is Color Club's New Bohemian. As I mentioned
above, it is a great polish against my skin tone. Unfortunately
for me, most polishes in this colour family give me lobster
claws and a bit bonus, and part of the reason why New
Bohemian won out, is that it didn't cause my hands to look
so red. The fact that it is the perfect blend of blue and green
also helped, haha. ;)

My friend J wanted a review on Minted by Revlon which I
swatched in this post, so for J and all else who want to know
a bit about this polish ...

Application was good although a little thin on the first two
coats. I added a third to smooth everything out and make it
perfectly opaque. It dries shiny in case you're wondering. (I
would still add topcoat for longevity.) I can't comment as to
the wear of the polish because I only swatched it but I find
Revlon to be fairly decent. I don't wear polish for much
longer than a 2-3 days and it lasts well during that time. All
in all, I would give you a big thumbs up and green light:
go buy it! :)

What is your favourite mint polish? Let me know!

- A Polished Touch

Blue Monday: Boy Meets Girl

It's that time of the week. Blue Monday is here again.

I'm trying to get through some of my older mani's and this was one that I really liked. It is very simple, but I think that's what drew me in.

Let's go see.

*
 
 

 

Blue: Essence - Walk On Air (2 coats)
Pink: Essence - Ultimate Pink (2 coats)

The pictures above are without topcoat.

Walk On Air is a very saturated medium blue which leans the slightest but purple. Application was simple and effortless. Opacity was perfect at two coats and it dries very shiny.

Ultimate Pink is a pigmented medium pink that is slightly cool toned. I think cool toned colours work well with my skin tone. Again, application was easy and this polish dried very shiny as well.

I have to say, I'm very impressed with my Essence polishes. They regularly retail at $1.49 at Shoppers Drug Mart (in Canada) and this week they were on sale for $1.34 (5ml each). They are mini's but the bottle shape makes it look like they hold more. The brush is full sized and flat which makes application very easy. The handle isn't too small, you really get a good hold of it. As they release new shades, I will be only too happy to pick them up!

Do you participate in Blue Monday? Let me know in the comments, I'll link to your blog in future posts.

- A Polished Touch

Blue Monday: Raindrops Are Falling On My Head

As promised for the past few days, I will be debuting my "new" nails.

While polish shopping at Wal-Mart about a month ago I saw a new end-cap with NYC polishes that said "2 for $3" and I immediately spotted a few new colours as well as a matte top coat. At that price point I snatched a few up and today I will be showing you "Matte Me Crazy" which I did a fun layering mani with ... let's go see!

*

Essence "Let's Get Lost" (1 coat)

with NYC "Matte Me Crazy"

Clear polish dotted on top

  

Essence "Let's Get Lost" no topcoat

 

 

Matte Me Crazy layered over Let's Get Lost

 

 

 

Indirect daylight shot

Let's Get Lost is amazing. It is a very pigmented medium blue creme that only needed one careful coat for a nice, smooth application. This polish dried very shiny and at $1.49, it's a steal! I also can't get the song of the same name by Beck out of my head now. Haha.

Matte Me Crazy is nice although I did do two coats to make this manicure reach the level of "mattification" (made that word up, haha) that I was looking for. I could have left it at one, but I wanted a strong contrast between the glossy and matte finishes.

I've been wanting to try this type of mani for a long time and I really like the way it looks. Very textured. I will mention as well that ironically enough, it is raining outside today. Careful what you post, weather-wise. ;)

Have you ever tried this type of manicure?

- A Polished Touch

Wet'n'Wild Gets Glittered

Good morning! 

Before I decided to turn my long nails into nubbin's, I wanted to try out a rounded nail style rather than the square tip that I had been wearing for months. Looking back at these pictures I'm still unsure what I think about this shape on my nails.

I wore this manicure at the start of Spring and got a lot of feedback on it which surprised me because it is so simple. Let's see, shall we?

*

Wet'n'Wild "I Need A Refresh-ment"

2 coats, no topcoat

Essence "Space Queen" layered on top

Simple, see?

I Need A Refresh-ment is a beautiful light teal crème polish that leans slightly more green than blue. Application was easy, although I did have a few bubbles which I believe were from user error. I applied my second coat almost immediately after completing my first. 

This is the type of colour (as well as light blue crème's) that I am immediately drawn to while polish shopping - I can't help it. I justify owning many of this type of polish by thinking, "I can do comparison's and help people decide which they like best - it's to help others."

*grins*

Anything for another bottle of polish, right? ;)

Space Queen has an  extremely sheer pink jelly base, which doesn't seem to show any colour when layered over other polishes (ie: I Need A Refresh-ment), with fairly small round rainbow glitter. I only did one coat of glitter and the coverage is nice. I waited about 3 minutes after my second coat to apply Space Queen and didn't experience any pulling at the cuticle line. 

A coat of Seche Vite and voila!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and happy polishing.

 
- A Polished Touch

I MISSED YOU!

*peeks around corner* 

I'm sorry. No, really - I am.

... and I was doing so well with my blogging schedule. Part of me thinks that I have committment issues. Strange, considering I'm quite happily married. Ah well.

Update on me (that you are free to skip) and then I have a beauty to show you.

I (clearly) have not fallen off the face of the planet. If I had, it would be pretty super that the internet magically followed me. 

It's been a pretty roller coaster two months for me in the personal life arena, specifically with my job. (ie: applying and interviewing for higher up positions.) I had a pretty major emotional setback along that journey and am finding myself in a better place at the moment. Perhaps that's why I've found myself back here. 

I hold myself to standards that are too high and then my perfectionist/OCD tendancies get in the way when I can't reach those impossibly high standards. Then the anxiety kicks in. Compound that with personal/work/life stress and there you have it ... a receipe for a 2 month hiatus. 

I realize this is somewhat deep compared to what I usually post. Normally I try to keep my blog fairly light on the emotion (unless it's polish related - GOTTA HAVE POLISH PASSION!) however I felt like I needed to say a few things to let you, my cherished followers, know that I haven't abandoned my blog. Sometimes I just need a breather. If this was a means of income for me, I would be posting daily. Probably even twice. *dreams*

Anyway, enough with the heavy.

Shoppers Drug Mart recently got the Essence line of cosmetics back in their stores. (Recently as in March.) I was in polish heaven. If I remember correctly, I purchased 19 out of the 21 shades available. Good thing they retail at $1.49 each. ;)

The one that immediately caught my polish-lovin' eye(s) was "Where's The Party?" which is a purple and green duochrome that played very nicely with my camera. I layered one coat of WTP? over one coat of a basic black creme polish. (Please forgive me, this manicure was done back in late March/early April and I can't remember which black I used.)

I added some less-than-stellar quality photo's but I mean, c'mon, LOOK AT THE DUO-Y GOODNESS. You can't blame me.

Wow. 

PS: My nails have undergone a huge change. I'm quite nervous to share this change so until I pluck up enough courage to show you, I'll be raiding my drafts folder and blogging that stuff first. 

PPS: It's nothing dreadful, just different.

Sister Mani: Gone Dotty

I went to visit my sister a couple weekends ago armed with a lovely bunch of polishes and dotting tool in hand. She mentioned that she liked my "Polka Dotting Fun" look that I posted earlier this month and so I re-created it for her on her cute (short) nails.

Polishes Used:
Base Coat - Rimmel 60 Seconds "Clear" 740
Base Colour - Rimmel 60 Seconds "Silver Bullet" 730
Polka Dots
Essence Colour & Go "Check Me Out" 18 (Green)
Essence Colour & Go "Sundancer" 23 (Yellow)
L.A Colors Color Craze "Atomic" NP420 (Teal)
L.A Colors Color Craze "Nuclear Energy" NP417 (Purple)
L.A Colors Color Craze "Static Electricity" NP421 (Blue)
Wet'n'Wild Fast Dry "Everybody Loves Redmond" 221C (Red)
Wet'n'Wild Fast Dry "How I Met Your Magenta" 233C (Pink)

This time around I chose an opaque pearl finish base colour rather than a sheer one. I feel like it allows the dots to really pop. I like the contrast between the pearl base colour and the polka dots with their creme finish*. Personally, I prefer this take rather than my first try. Experimenting always pays off. This could be really fun with a creme finish base colour and shimmer or glitter polishes for the dots as well.

* "How I Met Your Magenta" has a slight shimmer but because so little polish was used they appear to all be creme finishes. (Noted for those who are polish-obsessed and know that she isn't a 100% creme finish.)

Thanks for reading. :)