OWWWP - SinfulColors Cotton Candy

It's Wednesday. You know what that means? On Wednesdays, we wear pink!

The Sinful Colors Sugar Rush collection has eight spring-y shades that look like they're all creme finishes under the fluorescent lighting of Walgreens. But look closer!! Some of these new colors have fine, hidden shimmer!

Cotton Candy is the light pink of the collection. The shimmer is extremely subtle, but the slight twinkle is visible in real life. It's slightly more visible in the top picture - the one I took in full sunlight. On my index finger. That shimmer's really there. Slightly.

I was so excited to put this happy pretty color on that I needed three coats to smooth out some streaks due to rushing. Using a little bit steadier approach, Cotton Candy should be fine and opaque in two coats.

With two full Helmers, I know I have a few colors similar to this - OPI Strawberry Margarita, Zoya Lo, China Glaze Empowerment - but those are all a little bit darker and definitely cremes.  I'm going to recognize and appreciate Cotton Candy's slight shimmer which makes it different enough to stay in my stash!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Cross My Heart

For a weeklong, no worries mani, I turned to my favorite type of dry polish, Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips. I picked up this box on clearance after Valentine's Day last year.

Cross My Heart has a dark pink X's and O's design, with hearts in the place of the O's, on a light pink background. Depending on your cuticle shape or personal preference, the hearts' point could face towards or away from you. I totally didn't realize this until after I had all ten nails done that I had flipped both ring fingers in the opposite direction of the other nails. It looked deliberate, so I told people that I'd done it on purpose (shhh! our secret!).

I wondered if there'd be any issues with these strips being a year old, but they were still crazy flexible without any additional heat (i.e. blow drying, heat lamp) needed. If you see any of the core collection of Salon Effects Polish Strips on clearance, pick them up! Now I know, they have a great shelf life. These strips went on quick and easy with an extra layer of top coat to seal the free edge and add some extra durability and shine.

That's when the awesomeness really kicked in! These pictures were taken AFTER our vacation!! 

Where's the tip wear? Where's the chipping? There's a little bit on the ring finger and pinkie, but it was only visible really close up, like in a macro shot or holding my hand up to eye level.

Not bad at all for Day SEVEN! Seriously. Siete. A week. A busy, activity-filled week. I think these strips could've easily lasted their full 10 day claim, but I was ready for something different. 

After struggling and fighting with the L'Oreal Nail Stickers, I was so happy to wear these Cross My Heart strips. I got them for only a few dollars, they practically applied themselves, the design was adorable and much-complimented, and they outlasted our vacation. Good job, year-old Sally Hansen strips - you did good!!

OWWWP - OPI A Sparkle Yule Love

Can you believe it's February already?  I'm in the mood for lots of pinks and reds, so let's get started with a pink. This is A Sparkle Yule Love from the OPI Ulta Exclusive Holiday 2011 Deck Your Nails mini-collection.  I don't have Excuse Moi from the Muppets collection, but this may be a dupe of that shade. 

A Sparkle Yule Love is a pink jelly with tons of glitter - silver and pink microglitter and larger multicolor glitter in tons of colors like blue, yellow, and green.  Here it is with two coats and two layers of top coat.  It's not a gritty glitter, but it does need a little bit of extra smoothing.

I think I like this shade so much because it's like a remix of China Glaze Carnival Lights, one of my favorite glitters from their Specialty collection.  It's the same kind of idea - colors, multicolor glitter, jelly base - but with a few tweaks to make it feel updated.

This is a very sparkly polish, so be sure to wear it when you need something extra twinkly on your nails.

OWWWP - Ulta Grin & Berry It featuring WnW Correction Tape

Even though our days are still warm (we're talking highs in the 90s), it's October so I'm wearing some fall shades.  I think berry is a great shade of pink for fall.  It may be on the conservative side, but it's a little darker and richer as it moves us closer to the deep jewel tones of winter.

I'm wearing Grin & Berry It from the Ulta Salon Formula line. I picked it up because it was on clearance (they were changing from the rectangle bottles/black caps to the new round bottles/silver caps) and I thought I saw an orange-gold flash. That flash of color isn't really visible on the nail except slight hints of it in low lighting.

It's a berry shimmer that definitely looks best with three coats. The brush and the formula made the application really easy.  I wore this for a few days this week and I had really bad tip wear, but no chipping. The shimmer and the color of Grin & Berry It is so rich that it kept playing with my camera so I could only get a decent shot of it in indirect light.

This berry shade made me think of one of the glitters in the new Wet n Wild Fast Dry polishes I just found.  Yep, I was lucky enough to find a full display of On the Prowl, their limited edition Halloween 2011 collection.  Here's Grin & Berry It with one coat of Correction Tape layered over it. There was slight bubbling on one nail, but nothing at all like the Party of Five Glitters bubble-fest.

I was on the fence with buying Correction Tape because of the awful time I had with Party of Five Glitters but look! There's more glitter coverage with one coat. It has hex and square glitter pieces. I even like the color combination of Correction Tape more - check out that black glitter!!

I did want more glitter on the nail, but I didn't go any farther because I already had three coats of Grin & Bear It on.  Next time, I think I'll use multiple coats of Correction Tape on an accent nail or over a base color that needs less coats for full opacity.

OWWWP - wet n wild How I Met Your Magenta

This polish has been shown off since it was released earlier this year, especially for Pink Wednesdays, but I just recently picked it up during the month-long Walgreens sale on all their $1.99 items.  I was reluctant to try more Fast Dry Color polishes after the bubble fest from Party of Five Glitters, but why not give the line a second chance for $.99 a bottle?

Wet n Wild How I Met Your Magenta is a warm bubble gum pink with fine gold shimmer.  This polish dries to a semi-matte finish.  I prefer to wear this shade with a shiny top coat because it makes brush strokes, which are visible in its semi-matte finish, disappear.  My index finger doesn't have any top coat so you can the difference between its matte vs. glossy.

The brush is full and straight so it was easy to work with but definitely had to be manipulated and worked around where the nail bed has curves, like the cuticle edge.  The brush did make getting a medium-thick coat of polish on the nail in only a few strokes easy.

Unlike Party of Five Glitters, How I Met Your Magenta really did dry at lightning fast speed.  Maybe because this polish is kind of a matte? hmm.... 

Unfortunately, I don’t think this polish has the opacity to ever fully cover the nail line.  The VNL isn’t that visible in pictures or some lighting, but it’s there about 90% of the time staring at you from under the bright pink.  However, the quick dry time makes it easy to put on three coats of color and head out the door in 15 minutes with a fully set mani.

The VNL is almost a deal breaker for me, but this is a very pretty color that’s fast and easy to use.  I think I’m going to keep How I Met Your Magenta around for one day manicures when I need something quick and peppy but will come off before that VNL bugs me.

OWWWP - BB Couture Hermosa Surfer Girl

I finally have one of those comparisons I mentioned before!

Hermosa Surfer Girl is from the BB Couture California Beaches collection. This reddish pink jelly is packed with multicolored glitter and happens to be BB Couture creator Cindy Scott's favorite shade.

I don't think I could achieve full opacity with this jelly because it is on the sheerer side. From swatches online, I've noticed that people will use four coats to achieve a darker raspberry shade with Hermosa Surfer Girl.  I used three coats because I think the pink looks brighter and more summery.

The absolute best thing about this polish is the incredible glitter. This shade is packed with tiny silver microglitter and slightly larger multicolored glitter. You can see gold and green and red and orange - like an explosion of pixy stix sugar!

Zoya Lindsay is a pretty pink jelly with a lovely silver-lavender shimmer running through it, but I think Hermosa Surfer Girl spoiled me. Shimmer is nice, but I love that multicolored glitter... shall we compare on the hand?

 Lindsay, HSG, Lindsay, HSG

These two polishes are definitely similar with minor differences - Lindsay needs that fourth coat (either full or touch up) because it's that sheer, Lindsay dries faster and smoother, Hermosa Surfer Girl has a slightly redder base and it needs a top coat to smooth the fine grit finish that it dries to on its own. I like them both on their own, but side by side, I prefer Hermosa Surfer Girl.

I'm in a Project Runway mood (counting down the days to the new season premiere) so to paraphrase Michael Kors - it's like someone took the volume dial on Lindsay and *zhoosh* cranked it up to get Hermosa Surfer Girl. Maybe I could layer or add something to Lindsay for a *zhoosh* boost?

OWWWP - Color Club Raspberry Rush

I have put the comparisons aside for another week so I can show off my latest find. After months of stalking Ross, I have finally found Wicked Sweet!!!

Wicked Sweet is one of the two Color Club Summer 2011 collections - this is the candy scented one! I found this set looking nice and shiny (which is surprising given how polish sets normally look in my local Ross) and put on Raspberry Rush as soon as I got home.

Raspberry Rush is a vibrant raspberry creme - a cool leaning hot fuchsia that is so bright that it must be part neon. I say "part" because the first coat dries matte, but the second and third coats dry shiny so this polish can't be entirely neon.

I think these pictures begin to convey the juicy raspberry vibrancy of this polish, but neons throw the camera off. Imagine the polish a brighter, cooler shade with a bit more purple that makes my hands look more tan.

And the scent - it is fruity candy to the extreme! I thought the scented Revlon shades were decent because they kept their scent for a few days. This polish put that scent strength to shame! Usually, I have to bring my hands past my face to catch a whiff of the scent. After Raspberry Rush dried, I could smell the candy scent even when my hands were far away, like in my lap. The scent is pleasant, but it is strong - you have been warned :)

 I can't wait to try all the other Wicked Sweet shades. I'm so happy I finally found this set - eeeee!!

OWWWP - Zoya Lindsay

I prefer Zoya's shimmers and glitters. Something about the pieces and particles they use make these finishes look extra unique. Most of their shimmers glide on relatively easy and opaque in two coats. That has not always been the case, though.

In the summer of 2006, they released their Glitterati collection - 6 shades that were translucent and packed with shimmer. Most of the Glitterati colors were pink and today's Wednesday, so I'm wearing one of those pink shades today.

Zoya describes Lindsay as a "translucent medium pink with sparkling silvery shimmer." On some people, this medium pink is bright enough to be a hot pink. Since I have some summer color and this is a cool pink, Lindsay looks more like a vibrant fuchsia on me. The Glitteratis are on the sheer side, so it took three full coats and some spot touch-ups to get Lindsay close to opaque.

Zoya and Seche Vite don't always get along, but I decided to use SV anyway to get all these coats of polish to dry. Lindsay was still dentable almost an hour later and I dinged my index finger. I slapped on a second coat of SV and it seemed to harden it up really quickly, so maybe I should've put two coats of topcoat on in the first place. Although Lindsay was dentable for awhile, once this polish actually dried, it wore like iron for days - we're talking no tipwear.

I like the brightness and femininity of Lindsay, but I'm not sure how I feel about it in comparison to some of my other sheer, shimmer-packed pinks - like BB Couture's Hermosa Surfer Girl.  I think next Wednesday will be a comparison week to show Devious Nature and Hermosa Surfer Girl against these other OWWWP shades.

OWWWP - OPI I'm Indi-a Mood For Love

Happy June to all!! I just ordered Devious Nature from Cult Nails during their fantastic Memorial Day sale. While I wait for my perfect hot-pink-with-a-touch-of-berry polish to arrive, I decided to wear another bright, cool leaning pink - I'm Indi-a Mood for Love from the OPI Spring 2008 India collection.

One of my favorite pinks of all time is OPI Strawberry Margarita from their Spring 2006 Mexico collection. It's a great bright warm pink, so I didn't pay attention to any of the cool pinks in the later spring/summer collections. Warm pinks made me feel tan and summery golden - until I moved to New York and looked for a cooler color that seemed more appropriate for their milder seasons.

I'm Indi-a Mood for Love is a bright, cool pink creme that goes on smoothly and dries shiny. I prefer three thin coats for full opacity. This polish is opaque enough to be worn with only two, but that does leave some nail line visible in brighter lighting.

 

There's enough blue in I'm Indi-a Mood for Love for this shade to look more purple-magenta on me. That tames this bright pink down enough to make it sophisticated enough to be work appropriate for me in the summer months.

I wonder how Devious Nature will measure up against this shade? Given the extremely fast shipping from Cult Nails, I'll probably have it my hands in time to share for next week's On Wednesdays We Wear Pink post.

OWWWP - Zoya Lo

I love the elongated and feminine shape of tapered oval nails, but my nails felt so delicate and breakable. And I was scared to put in my contacts. My nails grow fast and I put my dailies in before coffee - I was freaked out about the possibility of scratching a cornea!! I've gone back to a shorter squoval and my eyes feel safe again.

On to Pink Wednesdays! Lo is from the Zoya Summer 2008 Gossip collection - the creme companion to the metallic shimmer Chit Chat collection. This polish looks a little bit lighter in the bottle. Even the bottle shot on the Zoya website makes it looks like a gentler pink, but trust the swatch shots you find online or order a spoon to get a more realistic idea of what this shade looks like on the hand.

Looks kinda neon, but absolutely isn't! Dries very bright & shiny

Shade

Lo flows on so easily - Zoya's creme formula has never let me down. The shade is fully opaque in two coats, but I get the best wear from Lo with three. Like most Zoya polishes, this shade fights with my quick-dry top coats. To avoid shrinkage, denting and scratches, it's important to seal the tips and give Lo just a few extra minutes to set.

This pink looks a lot like the warm bright medium pink creme shade that OPI tends to release with their summer collections. OPI Strawberry Margarita happens to be very near and dear to my heart, but my black label bottle has gotten older, emptier, and more sheer (is that possible??) so I'm happy to have Lo on hand as a close substitute.

OWWWP - OPI I Pink I Love You

This is my Interview Edition of Pink Wednesdays - because I had my first interview in Arizona today! 

The universe works in mysterious ways. I've been applying for jobs that I felt lukewarm about, but I knew they weren't *the job* I wanted. I had my mind set on a certain place in a certain city for a certain county - and they were the ones who called me up for this interview! 

This called for my most professional-while-still-being-quite-interesting pink sheer in my collection - OPI I Pink I Love You. This is a soft light pink with a hidden blue shimmer from the Soft Shades 2009 Fairytale Bride collection.

Early Sun - such a gentle light :)

The blue flash may be a bit hard to see, but click through and you should be able to see the shimmer more when the pictures are larger.

This is only two coats because I wanted to maintain the delicacy of this sheer. Adding a third coat makes this polish more opaque and pink. It also adds on to the slightly long drying time, so I recommend enjoy this streak-free sheer in the more translucent, two coat state.

OWWWP - Color Club Space Case

Time for my first Pink Wednesdays Pink!! If you haven't heard of Pink Wednesdays yet, check out the On Wednesdays We Wear Pink site for all the details on this latest polish community movement.

Now that I'm surrounded by Ross stores, my friends are getting used to the "let me run in real quick" request whenever we pass one. I've been finding great stuff for my hair, but no polish luck. Persistence paid off and I finally found two Color Club sets that I really wanted - Catwalk Queen and Starry Temptress!

Space Case is a neon pink glitter from the Color Club Summer 2011 Starry Temptress collection. The base is a medium pink with a silvery green shimmer. This polish is filled with small silver holographic glitter.

The base is heavy and covers most of the holographic sparkle, but the glitter that reaches the topmost layer does show some of its rainbow in the sunlight. The layers of glitter throughout the pink shimmer help give the polish a starry sky-like effect. It dries matte, so it needs top coat for a shiny finish.

The bright colors of the Starry Temptress collection are reminiscent of the neon shimmers in the Color Club Summer 2009 Electro Candy collection. Starry Temptress has glitter, but are the base color dupes? Nope!

Here are bottle comparisons of the two pinks from Starry Temptress 

with the pink from Electro Candy:

Space Case, Electro Candy, Ultra-Astral

Space Case is definitely lighter and cooler than Electro Candy. Ulta-Astral is a much darker fuchsia-like pink. Whew! It's always good when new polishes don't look like our old polishes ;D