Eyeko and GOSH - how not to be bored by pink..

I had a nude nail and some other nails. I can't remember what they were doing to annoy me but they had to be brought into line.

Dull pic. In both senses.

The nude nail is the one on the right. Eyeko Nude.

The others are Eyeko Petite. But as pretty as it was I had to mess with it. Anyway I'd put a few coats on and it was a bit bubbly. And there may have been dog hairs. Did I TELL you about that dog?

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Oo, you little cutie-pies. 

GOSH Rainbow on middle and little.

Attitudes Oyster Pearl on ring.

You may not love this. I do.

A word to the wise. Get GOSH Rainbow. Don't say I never give you any good advice.

The accent nail yesterday didn't work either so the red jelly was replaced with blue foil. This works better and yet...

The blue nail is China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea.

Which has led me to a moment of illumination. It is this.

Blues don't suit me.

Consequently there will be a cluster (what is the collective noun) of polishes up for grabs. Should I do a blog sale. Or would you prefer a giveaway? I think I can guess! Ebay?

OK, if there is to be a giveaway can we begin with a survey, please?

A Your fave blue?

B A suggestion for the collective noun for polishes/varnishes (what you will).

Some of the polishes are likely to be:

China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea    (cue my habitual expression of disgust at the beverage-abomination that is known as iced tea)

BB Couture Sea of Cortez

Barielle Falling Star 

There will be about 20.

So - A and B, if you'd be so kind.

Jenni

A cautionary tale - no, 2 cautionary tales!

1 Easy. Use basecoat before you apply Jessica Aqua Tint or you will get smurf-paws like this... Ta da!

See those cuticles! I have had pumice stone all over these fingers. I was 50 kinds of fool not to use basecoat under a blue. (This looks slightly washed-out in the sun. My cuticles are much worse IRL.)
This is part of universal nail-lore. Blues stain. Yellows streak.

What's on my nails today?

This is cautionary tale 2 btw.

CT 2
I check ebay for OPI bargains. The one on the left was sold as an unnamed OPI. Caveat emptor. Look at the pic, buy it if you like it. Fine. Nowt exciting but..fine.

The one on the right was described as Overexposed in South Beach. The pic wasn't great. Hey, it was described....(Yeah, I did that bit). Now that's a polish I wanted. £5.99. Ting! Thank you.

It duly arrives. I tear open the parcel to be confronted by....all I know is this. It ain't OE in SB. I negotiated a partial refund from the seller because I couldn't be @rsed to go through the faff of returning it. It's a pink foil of no particular distinction whatever. It's functional for days when I just can't decide. They said that the labels had been mixed up. It came with a label saying: Not So Berry Daring. It isn't that particular baby either! I don't mind them guessing at an attribution if they make it clear that there is a degree of doubt. I got a fair deal for an average polish so it's OK. It was meant to be love but it's just the nice lady I talk to at the supermarket - pleasant but not earth-shattering.

The accent nail?

It has to be slightly blurry to pick up the fleck in the jelly. It's over the lighter unnamed OPI. It is???

Who said BB Couture Napa Valley Red? All of you? Good.

My daughter's dog is moulting like a moulty-thing and I am getting white dog hairs all over my nails. I must be inhaling its hair because it's everywhere and on everything.

Jenni

Jessica jellies - Aqua and Coral

Aqua and coral - they ought to go well together, yes?

Hark at me! As if I go diving in the lucid waters off the Great Barrier Reef every morning before breaking my fast with a grilled sea-trout and papaya.
I did go to Blackpool once...


Lots of coats. In sun.
No base coat and no top coat.
A I'm getting lazy
B I'm somewhat thrifty
C I'm desperately impatient and I just wanted to get on with it and it took an age to remove the glitter plus I knocked a brush on the carpet, made the mistake of squealing involuntarily and thus alerted the OH to the catastrophe, hastily swabbed carpet, assured OH (still downstairs) that no bones were broken and no further intervention was required and got on with it...

I love these even though Coral is too orange for my taste. But it does speak to the Aqua (a genuine aqua IMO) and so I will graciously accept it.

In shade.

Bottles. You can see how clear the Coral and Red are. The Pink appears essentially creme which it emphatically is not. The Emerald is far left and the other dark one is the Violet (my fave so far).

They are so GLOSSY. I smooch them.

Btw I hate real jelly (I hesitate to say edible food-item as it is neither palatable nor of any value to the human body). Does anyone like it?

That's the QUESTION OF THE DAY.
What about jelly? (Not jam.)
What ABOUT jelly?

Fave flavour? Fave combinations? Do you loathe it? Best jelly mould?

Jenni

Just one of those days...

Could not get my nails the way I wanted them.

The green jelly I was happy with. Fairly.
The pink jelly wasn't pink enough. Too orange and muted. My skin is beginning to look dirty with some semblance of tan (which I hate).
So I had to look for a pink. Impatiently because I was dissatisfied and always in haste whilst attempting not to wake the OH who is slumbering above.
Finger 1 - Attitudes Cleopatra (not right)
Finger 3 - 2000  Hot Looks Vixen - that's better, more magenta
Phew! Not great but not as dreary

Lastly the improved green

The bar glitter picks up lots of blue and brightens it up.

What kind of nail day are you having?
Good
Bad
Indifferent

Jenni

Pink and green - the sequel - Jessica polishes

OK, here's where I lose 90% of my readers.
There's VNL coming and d'you know what?

I don't dislike VNL. At all. Ever. It's not a problem.
I do not get the bitter hatred. So pass this by if you are a hatah!


These are called tints.
Emerald and Pink.

They just proved too cool (not cool in a good way, you understand) alone so out with the glitter. Sinful UFO and something I picked up for £1 that has bar glitter and isn't a PITA to remove (always a bonus). I enhanced this pic because my camera is showing my skin too pale. I've begun to tan and my camera hasn't caught up...

Loads of coats. Add a soupcon of dog hair and a dash of bubbles. Garnish with a dent and a re-slop. And I like it. Not as much as the purple. Oh, no.

But I love these translucent polishes. Lucky for me that I alone in the whole world like them because, thanks to the economic law of supply and demand, they are cheap.

Looks blue but it so clearly isn't. The pink appears positively opaque but it is not.

I love them because there were a host of these when I was a teenager in the 60s/70s and it's a nostalgia-thing.

Watery, jelly, summery. Crystal pools and shady rills. They're even called: Vernis Cristallin.

The other hand still sports the immovable glitter-fest. I shall probably have to wait a few geological epochs before that comes off....

A fail - Barielle - and a pass - Jessica

Context is all.

Yesterday I did the bling-thing on the LH so the RH had the much-anticipated Barielle Belly Dance. It was lovely - now my official fave taupe - but I couldn't see the pink iridescence as promised so I was frankly "meh" about it and (highly unusual for me because I hate waste) changed it after a couple of hours.

To this..

Jessica Violet Tint

I got 6 of these for £6.50 all inclusive. 

This is probably 4 coats but it goes on without any effort so who cares? I actually enjoy ladling it on with a trowel. 

These are true jellies. If you hate VNL then you'll loathe these.
I have always loved this kind of translucent finish so I am in 7th heaven with these.
I have emerald, aqua, pink, red and coral to try.
Because it isn't opaque it doesn't verge on that tedious "looks-like-black-all-the-bleedin'-time" territory. Looks black in the bottle to be sure but not on the nail.
Hurrah, say I. And at that price I've ordered another 6 as back-up. Now that is a rarity!

And here's the Belly Dance with Mavala Pink Diamond attempting to distract the eye from a c0ck-up. It's a lovely taupe but it simply didn't suit my mood.

"What larks, Pip!"
(In honour of elder daughter's 22nd birthday today - not that she reads this)

Happy Friday
Jenni

My entry to the Bling Challenge on PHD - Polish Hoarder Disorder

That's it really..

Mine isn't really bling-y enough but I don't have the bits'n'bobs. I'll submit it anyway. There's no prize. Do you do any of these? This is the first one I've "entered". I wouldn't dare enter a genuine competition as my nail art is 7 kinds of potato-peelings.

Hey, it's a good way to fill a post though. Get other people to provide the pix!

I used the target colours but it doesn't sing Bling!

Oh, flubber dub. Never mind.

The bare bones..

Short nails don't lend themselves to this kind of artistry. I'm try to kid myself here.
I'll close with the inevitable parting words. Are you ready??

It looks better in real life...


Jenni

The Untrieds...more than I thought...

Before we start. Any guesses as to the number of untrieds? What about yours? Do you know to the very bottle? Do you keep them all together? Do you group according to brand and "lose" new acquisitions?

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

CG Lasso My Heart next???

Barielle June Bug soon?

Eyeko Vampira? Red glitter in the sun??

Hard to pick from these. Hard Candy Hick? I don't know..

Second left is much more of a pinky-red IRL. Witches Brew. That sounds like me!

Again - not sure. Rubbish pic anyway!

Probably the BB Couture Napa Valley Red. We're up to 35 now. How many more?

Absolutely Alice perhaps...

Barielle Belly Dance (in the middle) could be my next mani.

Those Sinfuls look well groovy but they will thoroughly st!nk on me. But they are dramatic and they have interesting formulae. But I will hate them. But they'll be great for autumn. But...

50 untrieds. With 10 on order. I may just be able to call a temporary halt. 

Now tell me about your untrieds. Do you keep a spreadsheet? I started to. Do they have a special place? Do you work through them in order of purchase?

Thanks to everyone who has commented since I started this blog. Everyone has been very kind and I love reading your thoughts.

Jenni

It had to happen...NYC Starry Silver Glitter

What had to happen?
I ran out of hands. So that leaves only......a foot.

But you have time to look away because the bottle-shot comes 1st.

This is one of the 1st polishes I bought when I started this game in September. I am a glitter-sucker. A coupla squid from Superdrug as I recall. They always have plenty. You have to layer it over something. It's full of pink and blue circular glitter in a speckled base.

I didn't want to change my mani - even something simple like putting GOSH Rainbow over it. That's how much I love BB Couture.

Now for the foot.

I started with a coat of BB Incognito but it wasn't working so I grabbed the glitter. Slosh slosh.

Obligatory blurry pic to show the spectacular glitz of this under-appreciated varnish.

I'm such a child. I love glitter and I don't have to worry about all that work-appropriate b0ll0cks. I do work btw! But nobody's telling me what to wear on my nails. Or if they did dare they might live to regret it. Ha!

2 questions
A - How much do you love glitter? I'm giving myself 95%.
B - How much do you love feet? I even thought of retraining as a podiatrist but it would entail a large loss of earnings so I passed on that one. Foot-love - 90%.

Jenni

BB Couture - Impact Driver - Incognito

REPORT on my BB experiment w/out base and top coats

Removed the pink and green very reluctantly
After 2/3 days had tipwear
1 chip on a thumbnail but that was due to a slight peel beneath and was easily remedied

Verdict: you can afford to dispense with the base and top coats with BB Couture (as claimed), moreover BB doesn't always cooperate well with other products so it also safer not to take the risk and go commando

As a consequence I decided to forego the usual preparations again today (and it's easier for lazy slobs like me)

The blue is ID and the other one is Incognito

Both from the men's range

ID has 3 coats

Incognito 4 but could take more (don't moan - how long does it take to wipe a brush over a nail?)

Very easy to apply, very thin, very streaky unless you put more polish on the brush (not rocket-science, is it?)

They have a matte-ish (satin) quality and are the first polishes from the men's collection for me - but not *fiendish cackle* the last...

MORE details

This is my attempt to show the oil-slick mauve/violet/pink aspect of this grey (?) polish

Simply unique

I am harping on about Incognito and took many a pic to display what the naked eye can perceive but no luck...I mean, can you glimpse a special something in this pic (middle finger)? No?  Bah. Well, go google some better photos - and there are certainly better swatches out there. This particular colour was only released a couple of weeks ago so there aren't many examples of it but they are all sharper than mine!
Impact Driver is tremendous too. It has particles. Not glitter. Particles. BB is the only brand I know that makes these innovative finishes. There's no sun here but I know they have more to give and they are more colourful than they look here.

This has been very frustrating trying to capture these! Boo.

Got my Barielle quartet. NOT brilliantly packaged. Nor were they the first time I purchased from them. Why skimp on that?

Stuck in the house and waiting for the rain to cease before parading my dogs.
 Do you think muddy/dirty colours are OK or do you hanker after brights? Answers on a postcard, please.

Jenni