China Glaze Intelligence, Integrity & Courage

I really wish I'd been able to get more than three posts up this month, but it's been a busy one for me. My sister leaves tomorrow for Seattle, and apart from wrestling with my mixed emotions of envy and sadness, I've been culling a lot of polishes I don't wear for her to take up with her, as well as some of my less-used makeup. She's used to raiding my various beauty stashes and I want her to have what she uses most. I know at some point I'll be making my way up there, but until that day comes, I'll just have to ease my way along here as best I can alone. 

In addition to that, I'm moving bedrooms. I'll be taking her old room which in addition to having a very large built-in closet, is almost twice the size as the room I'm in now. I'm in desperate need of the extra space, especially since I'll be taking care of her dog until she and her boyfriend can find an apartment. 

Anyway, this polish sparked a lively debate in my house because no one could agree on what color it was. Some said grey, some said blue. I see more blue than grey, sister sees in more grey than blue. It's obviously both, but since it's my blog I'm going to say it's a soft silvery blue with heavy yellow-based grey undertones. I love these types of colors. It's soft, but interesting, and looks different in every light. 

This was three buttery coats. I love the consistency of China Glaze cremes, even if the brush isn't my favorite. It's long, skinny, a little floppy, and doesn't spread over the nail the way I'd like, but the excellent formula sort of meets the brush halfway and doesn't make painting the nightmare it could be. 

See you in February!

Nicole by O.P.I. Yoga-Then-Yogurt

While it would have been nice to keep Sansa on longer (at least in terms of my remover, which is running dangerously low), I've felt a sudden need to wear cleaner colors. Whites, pale pinks, taupes, greys...that's all I'm drawn to right now. It's almost like anything louder makes me feel...I dunno, seasick?

I love whites, but I really don't wear them often. I was very guilty of the whole 'white-out-as-nail-polish' in school, so I have vivid memories of my huge red sausage fingers sporting messy, streaky globs of white out because it was so gauche to buy white polish. Ugh, I'm shuddering just thinking about it. 

As a result, I'm very much against chalky, bright whites, and even white-based colors. It's very rare for me to buy a white-based pastel-I have some, but rarely, if ever, wear them. I like those sort of bone, off-white colors that have a hint of translucency to them. Funny Bunny is probably my favorite white, but I just didn't feel like doing the 3-4 coats it takes to get it the right shade of opaque for me, so I bought Yoga-Then-Yogurt during a drug store run. I remembered Rachel from stuff raving about it, and she's never steered me wrong. 

Yoga-Then-Yogurt is the first 'bright' white I've come across that hasn't been chalky, whee! I don't think of white-out when I look at it...just a nice, clean white. And it really does remind you of greek yogurt (yohgurt?). The polish separates (like many of its kind) and the suspension is yellow-ish and sort of looks like that weird juice you get on top of yogurt before you stir it. 

Needless to say, I love it. I love the way white nails look, and now that I've finally got a white that doesn't remind me of my horribly awkward school days, I don't feel so self-conscious of wearing it. Even my red sausage fingers don't bother me as much. Yay for adulthood!

Zoya Sansa

Well I'm almost a month into 2015 and haven't managed to get pictures of what I'm wearing until today.Up until last night I've been wearing the same Nails Inc. manicure...there wasn't much left of it, but it was sooooo pretty, and I was also sooooo lazy. I'll probably have it up here next month. 

Sansa is all kinds of gorgeous, but unfortunately the weather was a little spotty, so I can't show it to you in all its glimmery glory. You get the idea though. It's a rich purple base, slightly red-based, and is full to bursting with different colored rough shimmer. I hesitate to say glass fleck, so I'm saying rough shimmer, because the pieces are large and you can sort of see where they begin and end. The most prominent is the gold-lemon shimmer, but I also see pink, purple, green, and coppery-orange. 

I did two coats (probably should have done three, I see a bit of balding in the pictures, but in real life two is more than enough) and topped it with the O.P.I. top coat. It's an okay top coat, I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't have a coupon, but my CVS Extrabucks were stacking up and I thought why not? I'll probably use it when I do my toes.