Adventures in Layering!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Dorothy Who? over Wet n Wild Black Creme. I put the Ruby Pumps on before Dorothy Who? and you can't see it very well. Next time I'll pick one or the other. I was just curious to see what it would look like with both! I think I need to pick up some Seche Vite to try over polishes that aren't totally smooth (like this).

What are your favorite combos for layering?

China Glaze - Blue Island Iced Tea

I had the hardest time photographing this polish. It kept showing up either way darker or way lighter than it actually is. The way to polish looks in the bottle is how it looks in real life. It's a super sparkley light blue that needs three coats for opacity. I've heard bad things about the formula for the entire line that Blue Island Iced Tea belongs to, but I didn't have any trouble.



The sparkle really shows in sunlight, but it's still pretty inside. I'm really into blue lately. I don't know if it's the cold weather or the fact that I've been a little depressed as of late.

What color are you into right now?

Can't win 'em all.

I was way over my head with this idea. Not only do I not own any real nail art supplies, but I have a limited amount of time to work since my husband can only entertain my daughter for so long. Everything is chunky, smudged, dented, and fugs. This was supposed to be a reindeer and some kind of candy cane-esque striping, but I think it looks like a melting mouse and a kindergarten art project.

Gold: Wet N Wild Goldmine
White: CG Snow
Brown: CG Goin' My Way?
Red: CG Ruby Pumps
Black: Wet N Wild 424A



The "stripey" nail's cuticle is nice and flooded. I need to learn cleanup.



Ho! Ho! Ho! Tacky Christmas!



Dent brought to you by my daughter's thumb.



Yes, that's a cat hair stuck to the polish on the right. Ugh.


Parts of the skin around my nails are pretty much callouses right now. I've dealt with some of the cuticle issues, but I don't know how to fix this. You can see it really well in the closeup of the stripes. It's really gross. The skin keeps peeling down to the edges of the nails and causing hang-nails on almost every finger. Does anyone know how to fix this?

China Glaze - Dorothy Who?

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting consistently. My daughter has her first cold and recently began teething on top of it, so there has been little to no sleeping going on in my apartment. I took photos for this post earlier today while I was at my mom's house doing laundry, but her dog had a massive seizure while we were there so the day was pretty chaotic. I'm not sure yet if the dog is okay, but they're taking him to the vet in the morning. I will update everyone on his condition.



Now, on to the polish. Today I'm showing you China Glaze's Dorothy Who?. It's a beautiful true blue polish with tons of glitter. The little glitter flecks look both blue and silver, so I'm not sure if there are two colors of glitter or if they're all the same and some look blue because they're embedded more in the polish. I'm still learning what the terms mean when it comes to polishes, so bear with me.



I love glitter, as you can probably already tell, so this is definitely a polish for me. I only have one other blue in my collection (Sally Hansen Marine Scene) and this one is my favorite of the two (and not just because of the glitter.)The shade of blue is really beautiful. I can't think of skin tone that this wouldn't compliment.



China Glaze has totally won me over. Do they make any polishes that aren't amazing? I have six now, and they're all better than any other brand I've ever tried. Application was a piece of cake with all of them, including Dorothy Who?. I've had this on my nails for two days now without any chips or tip wear.



These photos show three coats with both a base and top coat (some Sally Hansen stuff that's name I can't remember right now). The top coat didn't add any shine or texture change to the polish, so this is basically how it looks without a top coat, too. If you don't already have this color, I strongly suggest you go pick it up!

China Glaze - Goin' My Way?

Natural light.

Goin' My Way? is a really pretty shimmery brown. I used two coats and no top coat for the photos, and two coats were plenty. It went on without any problems. Normally I wouldn't be into brown as a polish color but this stuff has a really nice shimmer to it.


Natural light.

As you can see, the shimmer makes Goin' My Way? end up looking a little streaky. It's no big deal to me.


Indoors with flash.


Indoors with flash.

These indoor pictures are a hot mess but I couldn't get a good shot of the shimmer outside without using flash, and my camera won't take flash photos if it's bright enough to register a decent photo without it. My camera is terrible. Anyway, I love this polish.

The weather is back to overcast and horrible. I'm going to attempt to make a light box today or tomorrow so that I don't have to resort to posting sub-par photos on days like today. It would be great not to have to risk my life sprinting through spiderville, too. A light box would be win-win.

China Glaze - Snow (+ franken top coat)

Natural light.

Snow is white. It doesn't seem to lean towards yellow or blue tint or any sort of different type of white, it's just white. I found this polish to be quite thick and it was pretty streaky for the first two coats. These pictures show Snow with three coats and no top coat. This is my first white polish so I'm not sure if streakiness is normal for this color.


Failed attempt at a shot in the shade.

Overall I like Snow. If you're looking for a pure white polish, this might be the one for you.

I live in New England, and my favorite part of actual snow is the sparkle. I wanted to try adding a top coat I've been working on to see how it would look with a white base.


Natural light.


Full sun.

I had a bunch of super sparse glitter top coats and I was not a fan of how they applied, so I spent 100 years fishing out glitter and putting it all into one bottle of clear. These photos show one coat of this stuff, so you can see how much glitter is in here. Some of the smaller ones are semi-transparent (is there a name for these?), which looks really nice in real life but translated to photos as weird pastel pieces.


Closeup.

I'm not a fan of how this photographed in the closeup, but I LOVE it in real life. I will be trying this top coat over other colors later to see if it looks better in photos.

China Glaze - For Audrey

When I asked my husband which new polish I should swatch for you guys today he said "The Tiffany one". What a man.


Full sun.

I'm sure you are all familiar with For Audrey. It's a gorgeous light blue that supposedly matches boxes from Tiffany & Co. Since I don't own anything from Tiffany, I can't compare this polish with the box for you. All I know is that it's a really beautiful polish that I'm thrilled to have in my collection.


Indirect sun.

These photos show For Audrey with two coats and no top coat. I probably could have used a third for photos, but two worked perfectly for real life. This stuff applied very well. The first coat was a bit streaky, but it all evened out nicely with the second. It dried in a reasonable amount of time.



Indirect sun part deux.

All in all I love this color, formula, and name. I own a ton of Audrey Hepburn movies and probably would have bought this eventually just for the name. I have limited experience with China Glaze thus far, but from what I know it's well on it's way to becoming my favorite brand.

China Glaze - Ruby Pumps

I think I moved to the UK magically and nobody told me. Where is the sun? It's been cloudy and terrible for almost a week now! Sigh.


Ruby Pumps in natural light.

Ruby Pumps is a very popular color, and for good reason. This color is gorgeous. I've been in love with Oz since I was little, so of course I had to have this polish when I saw it at Sally's.


It's even pretty on crappy days! ;)

Application was a breeze. It's somewhat sheer and getting it totally even took 3 coats, but drying time was very quick. I'd recommend Ruby Pumps, but I don't think I need to since everyone seems to already have it and love it! I'm ending this with the photo I took of this polish in the bottle on the day that I purchased it, just so you can get an idea of the sparkle.