Gradient mani: Take 2!

I think gradients are a new obsession of mine. I don't think I'm going to be able to stop doing them until I figure out how to do it really really well. I got paint all over my cuticles. Bah.

Photos are clickable.







This one isn't clickable. It was my 365 photo for my personal blog yesterday, and I thought I'd include it.



Yellow: L.A. Colors Live
Orange: Confetti Papa-razzi
Red: All Heart

What kind of brush is the best for cleanup? I've never cleaned up my nails and the way I post them is the way I paint them, but I'd like to start making things look a little cleaner.

My first gradient attempt

I think this came out pretty good for a first try! I've always liked the look of gradient manis, and I figured today was as good a day as any to attempt one. Before I try this again I'm going to pick up some Seche Vite to level the bumpiness that the sponging left on the nail.

Photos are clickable.









Light purple: Confetti Purple Pizzazz
Darker purple: CQ Mystical
Black: NYC 119A

I think my camera is dying. It won't focus on anything and it's driving me crazy. :(

CQ - Seashell and Blog Spotlight

CQ and I have a rocky history. I've found their formulas to be hit-or-miss, and when they miss boy do they miss. Seashell falls somewhere between "fabulous" and "meh". It took 5 (yes, 5) coats to reach semi-opacity (there is still some VNL), which I suppose is the not unheard of with colors like this, but unless a polish is made of rainbows and sunshine I'm not going to apply more than 3 coats. I don't have the time nor the patience.



While the formula wasn't anything amazing, the color worked pretty well for my skin tone. I haven't bought a nude polish since the lobster-hands fiasco of '98. I was surprised to see that Seashell actually looks half-way decent on me. I'd like to find a nude that both works on me and has a nice formula, though.



I have seen a lot of other nail bloggers spotlighting new blogs, and I really like the idea. If any of you have a nail or beauty blog and would like for me to feature it in a future spotlight post, email the link to dancingphalangesblog @ gmail.com with the subject "Blog Spotlight".

I told you guys yesterday about my sister-in-law's new nail blog. It's called Felix Phalanx (which basically means "Happy Finger"). I've known Colleen for about 8 years now. She's ridiculously smart and attentive, and I'm sure her blog is really going to be something special. I hope you guys all take a minute to head over to Felix Phalanx. Once Colleen starts posting regularly, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

CQ - Mystical

I woke up today to over 1,000 views (not counting my own)! This may not sound like a lot, but I never thought anyone would read this blog so it is very exciting to me. Thank you all for reading.

Light box #2 is better than my first attempt, but it still needs work. I'm going to replace the bulbs with a different type tonight and see if that helps. Luckily, the photos I took of today's polish are color accurate on the nail!



CQ Mystical is a very pretty purple with a pinkish tint. I really like the color, so it's a shame that the formula is horrible. It took a ridiculous amount of time to dry (read: 20+ minutes per coat) and was extremely sheer. These photos show 4 coats.



You can see how this polish drags and dents even with a crazy amount of drying time. Mystical was a total disappointment.

Sorry about my terrible cuticles! I'm hoping to deal with them when my husband comes home for dinner tonight.

CQ - All Heart vs. Crimson Pearl

For someone who doesn't really like reds or pinks, I sure do have a lot of them. I don't want to end up with a ridiculous collection of polishes I will never use. Even with my collection as small as it is currently, I thought I needed to downsize. I really don't care to have reds or pinks at all unless there is something particularly special about them.



CQ All Heart is a warm toned red with gold shimmer in the bottle that does not translate at all to the nail.



CQ Crimson Pearl is a deeper red in the bottle. It didn't photograph very true to life in any of the bottle shots I took.



Index and ring fingers show All Heart. You can see how the gold shimmer doesn't show up even a little on the nail. It's definitely a warmer red than Crimson Pearl, but not really anything you can't find in any other brand. The formula was quite runny but it dried reasonably quickly.



Middle and pinky fingers show Crimson Pearl. This one looks a lot darker in the bottle in real life, and almost identical to All Heart on the nail. It has a more pink shine to it in the sun, though. The formula was similar to that of All Heart.

Overall I'm not impressed with either of these shades. The formulas weren't horrible, but the colors don't wow me. I will probably keep them both for now in case I end up needing a red for something (frankens, perhaps?) but they will eventually be replaced.

Franken - #2

I've been going franken crazy lately. I am not a big fan of pinks and reds, yet every time I try to mix something it turns into a shade of pink or red. Sigh. It probably happens because the polishes I don't mind losing through mixing are pinks and reds, and no matter what else I throw in there the pink/red pushes its way to the forefront to mock me. Oh, franken #2. You had such potential. I had pictures in my mind of a magical blue-shimmering-something and I have no idea how I thought putting pink and purple into you would make this dream happen.


Two coats, no top coat. It's overcast today, so my outside pictures are a bust.

This started as a super old bottle of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms South Sea Pearl. I know people go batshit crazy for the Nail Prisms, but this stuff was gross. It was a yellow tinted frosty polish that had a blue shimmer if you looked at it at exactly the right angle. I've read other reviews where the same polish flashed blue/pink and was supposedly nice, but mine was horrible. I threw some CQ Cranberry and CQ Mystique into the bottle to see what would happen.


You can see a bit of blue in the bottle here.

This is what happened. It's a sheer pinky-purple that still has a bit of the blue shimmer that showed itself once every 600 years with South Sea Pearl. I like this much better than the way it was before I threw CQ stuff into it all willy-nilly, but I'm not about to marry it or anything. I think I have to have disgusting amounts of glitter in my frankens in order to like them. This must be the key. I had a hard time photographing the shimmer because the sun hates me today and decided it would laugh in my face the moment I braved the spider-infested deck door (yes, they're still there) to take some photos. You'll just have to trust me when I say that the shimmer is there, and it's pretty. For a pink.

CURSE YOU, SUN! I WILL BEST YOU YET! I see a light box in my future.

CQ - Cranberry

Natural light.

Cranberry is a pretty bright pink that looks more red than pink in low light and shadow. It's opaque in two coats (I used three for pictures) and dries in a decent amount of time. It can stain nails just by being in the same room as them so a base coat is necessary.


Natural light.

I'm not big on reds or pinks (which you wouldn't know by looking at my polish collection) and this isn't an exception. It doesn't wow me. It looks like Sunset Blaze without the blaze. I don't think "Cranberry" when I see this color. Maybe the 90% sugar cranberry juice cocktails, but that's not what I was hoping for. After seeing how much darker some colors can dry, I was crossing my fingers that this would magically turn into a cranberry saucey darker pink/red on the nail, but that wasn't the case. I was going to use this on Thanksgiving, but I think I'll pass.


Natural light.

CQ - Sunset Blaze

After the last time I tried a CQ polish I wasn't sure if I wanted to bother testing out the other colors I own. This formula was way better than the last one, so I will definitely be trying out all of my CQ colors.

Sunset Blaze is a bright pink shimmer that can flash red or orange depending on the light. I had a hell of a time trying to photograph this one, so apologies in advance if the pictures are kind of repetitive.


Sunset Blaze in natural light with flash.

Turning on the flash seemed to be the only way I could get the pink to show up in photos, even though it looks pink in real life more often than not. I used two coats and no base/top coats for the photos.


Natural light. You can see the red here.

The formula was pretty good, though it was a bit streaky. It dried pretty quickly and didn't drag or goop up the way Mystique did.


Natural light.

The flashes of color are really nice. I wish it weren't so hard to get good shots of it. We have a lot of sunlight today (FINALLY!) but I had to shoot through my kitchen window and hope for the best. It's tough to get outside for photos when you have a 7 month old and live on the second floor!


Flash.


Natural light. Orangey-redy goodness.

CQ still is not my favorite brand. The streaks in this polish are pretty obvious in real life, and I'm 100% sure another coat wouldn't have changed that. I like that it changes colors a bit depending on the light, but I'm not a big fan of pinks and reds so colors like this have to do something magical in order for me to fall for them. I'm not sure if I would buy this one again, even though it's miles better than Mystique!

CQ - Mystique

I have 8 CQ polishes. They're cheap and available at WalMart, so I went a little overboard. I'm hoping the experience I've had with Mystique won't be repeated with my other polishes from this brand.


With flash on a crappy, cloudy day.

In the bottle this shade is a pretty pink with gold shimmer. On the nail it looks like a totally different polish. It's some sort of mauve/pink/purple color. The formula is streaky, thick, and goopy. It needed three coats to be opaque, but dragged with every coat after the first. I applied coats as thinly as I could, but it still looks like a clumpy mess.


In natural light on the same crappy, cloudy day! My camera sucks and doesn't like to focus without flash on days like this.

I can only hope that not all CQ polishes will be such a let down. I would not recommend Mystique, unless you're into really boring colors and nightmarish formulas.

New Polishes!

Since I've gotten into nail blogs I've realized that my collection is AMAZINGLY SMALL. Every time I go out now I make a point to go to any store I can find that sells polish to see if they have anything interesting.



I've picked these two up over the past couple of days. The one on the left is CQ brand Mystical, and the right is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Rockstar Pink (I have this one on now). I only have access to WalMart and drugstores in the podunk town that I live in, so most of the polishes I have are less than fancy. I'm going to have to get out to Sally's more often to see what kind of stuff I can pick up there.

ANYWAY! I filed my nails the other night and noticed that they were kind of grossly uneven. They're now even, but a lot shorter. I don't mind, though, since now I can grow them and out just try to maintain the evenness I have going on.

The plan is to get some pictures of Rockstar Pink up tomorrow. I've got a few things to say about this polish, so stay tuned!