Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Blackboard

Good morning, Dear Reader!

One of Scrangie's recent posts got me interested in Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics nail polish, and I got a few.

The first one I used was Blackboard. It went on well, and took three coats to be opaque and even. Here it is with a top coat.

What goes on a blackboard? A little white. I added an arrow-through-hearts pattern from Fauxnad plate M70 to my tips.

That's one from The Vault. I used another OCC nail polish just now, and it's drying while I type. I'll give you a peek at that one later.

Until then, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

OPI Sun-believable Collection

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Rather than hauling out pics from the vault, I have some new ones for you from OPI's Sun-believable Collection. I only went for two from this collection - the pink and fuchsia did not seem noteworthy to me.

The brush and the application on both was good, but both required a few coats to be opaque. First up is Sea? I Told You!, the sparkly blue, and this is three coats over a base.

The other I got is Banana Bandana, which took five coats to be opaque and even. It looks like I'm sticking to Nubar Lemon Sorbet for my go-to pale yellow...

Banana Bandana looked like it could use a little Konad, so I added a pattern from plate M69 using Pastel Pink Konad Special Nail Polish.

That's it for today, Dear Reader. Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

Nubar Orange Crush & Konad Plate M69

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm feeling almost like myself again today, so I did a nice manicure this morning. I was so sick yesterday I didn't even do my nails (gasp!).

I've been eyeing Nubar Orange Crush for a while, and finally used it this morning. This is one from the California Dreamin' Collection that I recently showed to you. I stamped the tips with a pattern from Konad plate M69, and as a test of my theory that I like Konad polishes best for stamping, used Orly White Out to stamp. Turns out my theory is accurate - the stamp isn't either as clear or opaque as with White Konad Spacial Nail Polish.

Here's the end result - not bad, but not as good as it could be. What does show is how crazy glowy Orange Crush is. I love this collection, and really do think it's the most underappreciated of all time.

So that's my Konadicure of the Day. Even though the white stamp doesn't really look white, it doesn't bother me enough to change it. I have a couple more in The Vault that I haven't shown to you yet, and hope to be able to do that this afternoon. Until then, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Nubar Hot Red & D-Day!

Good evening, Dear Reader!

Today was D-Day (Divorce Day), and I'm single and free again. What a great feeling!

Here's the mani I wore to court - I decided to go with something that would make me happy all day. It's the new L'Oreal Gold and the Konad leopard print (not sure of the plate number offhand), stamped using Lippmann Collection Fade to Black.

Yesterday, I couldn't stand my ridges with the Dazzle Dry, and changed to Nubar Hot Red. It's likely my most retina-searing nail polish. I stamped it using White Konad Special Nail Polish and Fauxnad plate M70. Be careful of your eyes as you gaze upon this Fauxnadicure!

Today's post is a little random, but truthfully, I'm really sick today, so please forgive me!

Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Dazzle Dry Passion Purple & Konad Plate M56

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I used another Dazzle Dry nail polish last night, this time a moderate success - not the raging failure of the first, not the complete success of the second. Again, the ridges in my nails show even after three coats of color. It's a bummer - theses are good colors and really do dry fast, but I'm just not willing to weaken my nails with buffing to make them look right.

Here's what Passion Purple looks like on its own.

Ridgetastic, no?

I like the color though. It's the same color as the amethysts in my favorite earrings. I won't punish you with more pictures of jewelry, but my favorite earring have square cushion cut amethysts bordered with tsavorite garnets. I decided to add some true green to this manicure to make it even more like the earrings, added a tip pattern from Konad plate M56, then slapped on a coat of Diamont. Not quite as ridgerific, but still pretty bad. I might just redo using Pasadena Purple, we'll see. The nail polish used for the stamping is Konad Special Nail Polish in green.

In the Konad pictures, you can see that the Diamont smoothed things out considerably, but that the ridges are still really pronounced. That may drive me too crazy to leave on!

That's what I have for you for now, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

MAC Mercenary & Dior Gold Nugget

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'd heard that MAC Mercenary and Dior Gold Nugget were dupes, but when I saw Mercenary I did not think so. This morning, I thought I'd compare them for you. Unfortunately, there's no sunlight, but I can still see the diffference in artificial light. They're close, but not the same.

Here they are side by side, with my middle and pinky being Mercenary and index and ring being Gold Nugget. Gold Nugget is more golden and the sparkle is more pronounced, while Mercenary is more bronze.

If I had more pictures to show you, I would, but I don't so I won't.

Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

The Offload the Ring Manicure

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I thought I'd do a special mani for one of my tasks to do this week: offload the ring. If all goes as planned, I will be single and free on Friday (YAY!), and so I'm going to offload my engagement and wedding rings this week. The down side to that is that I really loved my engagement ring, but since I'll never wear it again, I'm getting rid of it.

I figured I'd memorialize the ring by showing it to you, but I sure as heck wasn't going to put it on for a new picture. Here's an old picture of it, with me wearing Essie Ruby Slippers.

Ah, well. It was nice while it lasted!

To commemorate getting rid of it, I started with Color Club What a Shock! from the Electro Candy Collection, since me getting rid of the sprakliest thing I own is quite shocking. Then I added the heart-shaped diamond Konad pattern to my tips (I forget the plate number - it's the one with the cow print on it), and to top it off, a sparkly decal on my ring fingers. Since decals are the closest thing to a diamond I'll be wearing for a good while, I thought I should get used to it!

That's what I have for you for now, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Dior Purple Candy & Lippmann Prelude to a Kiss

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I was so displeased with my failure of a manicure yesterday that I changed it to the opposite of what I had. Since the problem was that it was way to much, I thought I'd change it to simplicity itself: Lippmann Collection Prelude to a Kiss. This is three coats.

Much better! The last time I wore this, I didn't care for it, but I like it now.

I had a new one to try out this morning, so I just used it, this time Dior Purple Candy. Here's two coats.

I thought Purple Candy could use a little something, but having learned my lesson yesterday, I kept it simple with a delicate pattern from Konad Plate M67, using Konad Princess Nail Polish in Coral Blue.

I really like it! I wavered on Purple Candy for a while, but am glad I went for it while I could.

That's all for now, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Chanel L.A. Sunrise & Step One

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

This morning I was thinking of what color I'd like to use, and decided I should pull out a summery favorite that's been neglected for a while to unofficially start this summer. Since I ended last summer with Chanel's Robertson Collection, I thought I'd start Summer 2009 with one of them as well. It's tough for me to call a favorite from that collection since I really love them all, but since I wear yellows infrequently, I went with Chanel L.A. Sunrise. Want to hear the really good news about this Limited Edition Nail Polish? It's still available on Chanel's site, along with L.A. Sunset. Rodeo Drive and Melrose are gone, but the other two are still there.

Even though I truly love L.A. Sunrise, it's not the easiest yellow for application. Yellows are, for me, the most temperamental color for application, and this one took four coats to be even and opaque (as many do). Here she is in the sun.

I live the subtle glowy shimmer of this one, as you can tell by the dent I've put in this bottle of nail polish (it's all the way down to the 287!). That's makes the first half of the title.

The second half is Step One: My name is Siobhan, and I am a Konaddict. Yes, I did. I Konaded a Chanel LE! There was just so much plain space there, I had to do it. Perhaps once I am willing to admit that I am powerless over Konad and my life has become unmanageable, I'll be able to stop myself! Not in this twenty-four hours though...

So I let my four coats dry, then pulled out Konad plate M68, Konad Princess Nail Polishes is Cool Red and Apple Green, and had at it. Indi500fan, don't look!

This is one I liked better without the Konad, but I thought I'd start working Step Twelve by carrying the message to other Konaddicts and sharing my experience, letting you know that you are not alone. If I can stop just one active Konaddict from over-Konading as I have, particularly on a high end limited edition nail polish, my failure of a Konadicure will have been worth it.

That's all for today, Dear Reader. Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

Cosme DeCorte Prism Illusion

Good morning, Dear Reader!

It seems that I'm just constitutionally incapable of leaving a creme nail polish alone. Yesterday after swatching, I added two coats of Cosme DeCorte Prism Illusion to my Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away manicure. It had to be done!

The Cosme nail polish is from Japan, so I can't read the ingredients to find out what's in it, nor am I familiar with the restrictions on chemicals in cosmetics in Japan. However, I can tell you that it stinks to high heaven. It looks fantastic, I think, but the smell for an hour after I applied it - whew!

That's what I have for you this morning, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Diamond Cosmetics Summer 2009 Collection

EDIT

These are now available on Diamond's site!

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I have a new brand (for me) to show to you today, and it really surprised and pleased me. I'll tell you the little story of why: last week, I got an email from someone at Diamond Cosmetics offering me samples of their Summer 2009 Collection to swatch. Since I like to try and to show you lesser-known brands, I figured what the heck, and said sure. Then I went to their site, www.diamondcosmetics.com, and saw that these polishes are $2 each retail. At that price, I was thinking there was no way they'd be that good, but they proved me wrong, wrong, wrong. I really like them.

They're free of toluene, formaldehyde, and DBP (yay!!!), and apply about like Barielle Shades - a thick, somewhat gluey, well-pigmented Big 3 Free polish. That's not a criticism at all, just the easiest and most accurate way to describe the application. Since I've been sticking to 3-Free, I've gotten used to applying them, and thought they went on really well and were very surprisingly well pigmented.

I swatched the six colors in this collection over one coat of Nubar Foundation Base Coat, which is like CND Stickey, but without the staining. The reason I always use a base when swatching is twofold: to protect my nice clean new growth from staining, and also to give the polish I'm swatching a fair representation. Since it will be worn over a base that grips it, it seems only reasonable to swatch over a base that grips it. Five of the six swatches are two coats, with one being three, all photographed under a good halogen light while wet, no top coat except for the one which is my NOTD.

I just checked www.diamondcosmetics.com and saw that they list the colors online by number rather than name, so I'll give you the number for each. I can't find this collection online yet, but I'm going to email the contact there and tell her so - maybe they'll put them up this week. In order to end strong, I'll show them to you in numerical order (the last three are great!).

First, #323 is Passion Pink, a deep, intense pink creme that stops shy of being hot pink.

Second in line is the three-coater, Fiery Coral, #324. It's a strong coral with a hot pink shimmer. The shimmer in the bottle is pretty strong, but much more subtle on the nail.

Next is is Cotton Candy, #325, which is a basic modern pink with a very, very slight shimmer. In the bottle, the shimmer shows up, but no so much on the nail.

Don't Teal My Heart Away, #326, is my NOTD with a coat of Diamont over it, and one coat of this teal creme was almost sufficient for opacity. This one is particularly noteworthy because $0.25 of the sale of each (12.5% of the total price) goes to ovarian cancer research.

#327, Hot Summer Pink, is a really fantastic glittery hot pink. It has a subtle pink flash and lots of silver microglitter in a HOT pink base. I ♥ this one!

We end on a strong note with Oh Tiff!, #328, which is presumably Tiffany & Company inspired. I find the shade slightly more grey than a true Tiffany blue, but that's not a bad thing at all. I really love this color! In the bottle, there's a subtle shimmer than doesn't really show on the nail.

That, Dear Reader, is Diamond Cosmetics' Summer 2009 Collection. I'm really impressed, especially for $2 a pop. You'll likely see more of these from me!

Until next time, love and nail polish to you!