Ruby Velvet & I'm A Convert!

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm up and about early with a fresh mani today because of the time change.  Whenever we change the clocks, my sleep schedule gets a little out of whack for a few days.  The good news about that is that it gave me time this morning to relax, watch the news, and do my nails.  The bad news is that it also gave me time to load up on a whole bunch of coffee for the first time in a long time, so this might be the worst application you've ever seen from me!  It's still a pretty color worth showing that you haven't seen in a while, and I wanted to tell you about my conversion, so I'm posting anyhow.

After wearing greens this week, Bloom Bianca for several days then Orgasm Easy But Not Cheap yesterday, I decided I was due for a nice red manicure.  I wanted the most deep, shimmery, anti-green red I could dig up, and that was Nubar's Ruby Velvet.  It was opaque and even in two coats, but I tested on my left thumb and found that a third coat added a real richness to the depth of color, so I went with three coats.  Here she is.

 

That's the Ruby Velvet.  Now on to I'm A Convert: that's about the top coat.  I mentioned yesterday that I tried Nubar's Diamont Seal & Shine for the first time, was impressed, but not convinced.  Today I'm convinced.

The thing is, the Diamont bottle is not labeled quick dry, and I don't have the patience for anything but quick dry top coats, so I was reluctant to try it.  Yesterday when I tried it, I found it really is a quick dry that worked quite well, but honestly it wasn't a great test for it - coats two and three of yesterday's Orgasm color were very thick relative to what's normal for me in an attempt to make the polish opaque.  Today, I did three of my normal thin coats.  Usually, when I post right after applying a color, my nails are still drying while I type the post.  Today, my nails were literally dry by the time I was uploading pictures from my camera to the computer.  I checked them by trying to mess up my left thumb.  I won't tell you how I know they're dry enough to do that safely, but I have a way!  I don't recall that they have ever been that dry that fast before.  

I found the Diamont went on like a cross between Seche Vite and Lippmann Collection Addicted to Speed - a heavy drop spread thickly does the trick, and although the window of time to work with it is shorter than Seche Vite, it's much more reasonable than the Lippmann.  With SV, there's no risk of it freezing up, with the Lippmann, if you don't work at warp speed it freezes up mid brush stroke, and Diamont allowed time to apply to the surface of the nail and wrap the tip before showing any potential to start freezing.  The brush did not pick up color while I allowed zero time between the third coat of color and applying the top coat, even though I "wrap the tips" (run the brush along the free edge after applying to the surface of the nail), and I had no shrinkage (slight pulling back of the color from the tip of the nail that looks like tipwear, most typical of Seche Vite for me) when I used it yesterday.   Previously, the top coat that has dried my manis the absolute quickest without shrinkage was Lippmann Collection's Addicted to Speed, which I saved for special occasions because of the cost, $20 for a full size bottle.

Until now, my top choice overall for the combination of quality, performance, and cost has been the refill bottles of SpaRitual Tout de Suite, but my beloved Tout de Suite just got bumped to the number two slot.  It requires between eight and ten minutes to dry three thin coats and a base, still entirely repectable, but the two to three minutes Nubar Diamont took just blew me away.  I know for many, six to seven minutes wait time is no big deal, but I mentioned patience above: I have none.  Particularly between the time I apply top coat and I wait to Konad, the waiting just kills me, so reducing that time to 1/3 of what it otherwise would be matters to me.  Ten minutes is annoying, three, I can handle.  When I'm on a mission, I just want to get on with it!

So that's the story of Ruby Velvet with lots of coffee and my top coat conversion, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!