Essie After School Boy Blazer & Sally Hansen Copper Penny

Short and sweet today, since I have a mountain of housework to do.

After School Boy Blazer was the only polish from the Fall collection that really caught my eye. I’m not a fan of duochromes, and I’ve had too much experience with Essie glitter bits to want to wrestle with Cashmere Bathrobe.

It’s a gorgeous, shiny, blackened navy blue creme. ULTRA-pigmented, easy-flowing, and quick to dry. And because it looked a bit plain on its own, I added a couple accent nails of Sally Hansen Copper Penny, one of my favorite autumn-y glitters. Navy and copper is such an awesome color combo!

Two thin coats of After School Boy Blazer, one medium coat of Copper Penny, and Grand Central Station. Not sure about the gap between the polish and my tips since I’ve thinned GCS. I’m wondering if I should start wrapping my tips.

Time for laundry and vacuuming. Woo.

butter LONDON Bumster

First of all, I apologize for the staining on my fingers from Screening Room. While it does not stain the nail at all, it reallyyyyyyyyyyyy likes to stick to skin. I mean, I almost want to commend that damn nail polish. I did everything short of clipping the skin off to get rid of it. But since I’m not willing to go that far it’ll just have to offset the yellow in Bumster.

I know Bumster has a reputation for looking like baby poop, but when I asked my grandmother (who dealt with five rounds of diaper duty, plus a couple of honorable mentions for grand children) if it was a similar color, she laughed and said, “Oh heck no!”…so I’m going to describe it as a sophisticated autumnal goldenrod.

It’s one of those ugly-pretty colors that became big around 2009, when every hipster wanted an over sized cardigan in the color. It’s not especially flattering on me (at least I don’t think it is) but every time I see it in the bottle I get excited. Will I ever learn? Probably not. Do I care? Nope.

A bit streaky on the first coat, but subsequent coats evened it out. It has a pretty thin consistency, so it wasn’t especially forgiving to my various nail imperfections.

This was the usual 3 coats with Grand Central Station.

MAC Screening Room

I was perusing the MAC counter with my best friend last week and came across the Indulge offerings. I used to keep track of MAC collections religiously, but have since cooled on them. While I’d still love to come across a By Candlelight Skinfinish someday, makeup isn’t really my game anymore.

Naturally when I saw a new nail polish collection with the makeup stuff I got very excited. I zeroed in on Screening Room as the crown jewel. I mean, honestly…LOOK AT IT! GORGEOUS!!! It’s so bright and lovely!

Under the MAC counter lights it looked really blackened in the bottle, and I immediately snapped it up, but on the way home I began to worry that it would look too much like NOPI’s Khloe Had a Little Lam Lam (what the hell does that even mean!?) but am happy to report that KHaLLL is MUCH greener and darker.

Screening Room is a deep, vivid, blue-based teal; it’s reminiscent of the blue in peacock wings, actually. It’s a creme finish and dries brighter than the color in the bottle. I absolutely love it. I love it to the moon and back…a million times. In fact, I’m seriously considering booting someone out of my top 5 favorite polishes and adding this one.

In the past, MAC nail polish hasn't been that great in terms of quality. The formula was horrible and the brush left a lot to be desired. If you still have this opinion, NO. JUST NO. Screening Room had the most well-behaved, shiny, pigmented, smooth formula of any nail polish I've come across. The brush is a little firmer so you have better control. They've really amped up their game.

Although I think $16.00 is a bit steep for the amount of polish you get (.3 oz), the beautiful color and great formula made it worth it for me.

And naturally, couldn't resist seeing what Boom Boom Pow looked over it. Awesome? Yes.

This was 3 coats with my newly thinned Grand Central Station.

Sula Paint & Peel Merlot (and a review, I guess?)

So this tiny blog of mine is more about what I wear day to day, rather than reviewing polishes in depth. Admittedly, the latter is far more helpful,but I have fun with what I do. However this post will be a bit different, since there are only a couple other posts in the blogosphere about this particular polish, and I’d like to add to it in case anyone else is interested.

I’ve seen this brand in Sephora and Ulta several times and they have the cutest packaging, but I picked this polish up at Big Lots for something like a $1.50. It was the only shade they had, sandwiched between some Revlon sheers and a bunch of magnetic polishes.

The idea is that you don’t need nail polish remover to take it off, you simply peel it off when you’re sick of it (and no, it won’t damage your nails, that was my first question. The polish just sits on top and peels away without stripping the nail surface). I’m game for anything like that, since I use Zoya Remove + and it’s really, really expensive (but at least no skin irritation from it, yay!).

I had two reservations; first, that I wouldn’t be able to clean up afterward with acetone like it do with regular polish. I’m not the messiest painter, but I’m never able to get the area near my cuticles 100% perfect. Second, that my topcoat wouldn’t work with it. Happily I was proven wrong with both of them.

The trick with these kinds of polishes is to take your time. They can be prone to streaks so be sure to go nice and slow. My advice is to load the brush (which was great, by the way-nice and compact and medium-firm) with just a little more polish than you normally would and carefully apply-if you run out of polish halfway on the nail, you’re going to get weird little stringy lumps. I went slow with three coats using a more-than-normal amount of polish and my manicure was perfectly flat. It is also important to apply it without base coat, like those texture polishes.

I did have a bit of pulling at the tips but I’m not sure if that was from the polish itself or my Grand Central Station. It is getting a bit on the thick side, so I think it may be time to thin it out. I actually didn’t really need topcoat, but I added it out of habit. While the polish isn’t mega-glossy on its own, it does have a nice sheen to it that I think is enough to forgo topcoat.

It feels a bit tacky for a long time afterward, and you have to avoid hot water for four hours after application; I would say after about an hour they’re fully dry and you can do non-water related things without fear of denting. And bonus…no chemical nail polish smell! It smelled almost exactly like Elmer’s glue, but more subtle.

And as aforesaid, cleanup is possible, although it takes a little longer with this polish than with regular polish.

So overall, I love it. The color may not be exciting, but it’s perfect for autumn. Application takes a little more care than with traditional polish, but not enough to be a hassle…I hope Big Lots eventually gets more colors! Or I might just break down and go to Sephora.

Sephora by O.P.I. Under My Trenchcoat

I took these pictures a little late in the day so the polish looks a little greener than it is in real life.

Under My Trenchcoat has a putty/beige base filled with very pretty toned-down shimmer that can look gold or silver, depending on the light. The third photo down shows the silvery qualities, while the rest of them flash gold. It’s a really nice neutral.

Feeling headache-y and tired, so nothing else today. Till next time.

butter LONDON All Hail the Queen

It’s been a tough couple of days. My grandpa was in the hospital for the last two days and although nothing was seriously wrong, his age combined with my precarious mental state and the fact that I have no coping skills to deal with situations like that flung me into a sort of mini-freak out. I couldn’t do anything except hide in my room with the lights out, and cry. I felt horribly alone, yet I didn’t want anyone near me. He’s home now so I’m relieved, but my stomach keeps clenching. I thought polish would take my mind off things. It didn’t.

All Hail the Queen (or All Hail McQueen) is one of my favorite bL’s. It’s a lot of things: office appropriate, chic, toned down, and stylish. You could wear it for literally any occasion. It’s a gorgeous brownish-taupe that turns butterscotch in the sunlight. It has a bright pink shimmer cast that my camera was unable to capture (I think it’s more prominent in the bottle than it is on the nail), as well as a subtle holographic shimmer. The holo is definitely not linear, but rather speckled and flashes noticeably in the sun, and is much more toned down but visible in artificial light.

Formula was much better than Jaffa. It was smooth, thin, and went exactly where I put it. It was also surprisingly glossy on its own, I probably didn’t even need to apply top coat.

3 coats of All Hail the Queen, with Grand Central Station on top.

Essie Armed and Ready

This is the first manicure I’ve done in about three weeks that hasn’t either bubbled up like pizza crust or just melted off my fingers. It has been so flippin’ hot…Satan’s ass crack could not be hotter than it has been for the last three weeks.

Thankfully we seem to have hit a *sort of* lull in the life-sucking weather. It’s still as hot as ever, but there’s a bit of a breeze. So I snagged the opportunity to put on a polish I’ve wanted to wear for a very long time.

Armed and Ready is recent one (I want to say last year?) and I liked it because I thought it looked like Rescue Beauty Lounge Piu Mosso’s charcoal sister. It’s got a dark, pigmented base with the same coppery-gold shimmer that is shy, but not invisible. I’ve heard people call the base swampy green, but I firmly believe it’s a deep, warm charcoal. The copper and gold shimmer gives it a greenish cast, however.

I could have gotten away with one coat, it’s that pigmented, but I thought two would bring out the richness of the shimmer more. It was a bit thick and runny, and I got a tiny bit of pooling on one nail, but otherwise it was a joy to apply. Rich, pigmented, and went exactly where I put it.

Hurrah for the first manicure of “autumn”!