Catherine H + DVD

While I like Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H, I wanted to add a little more excitement to it - but without making it blingy. I decided to add Sally Hansen DVD and a coat of Essie Matte About You. Here are the results, and sorry for the notepaper background - it was that or the tablecloth at my grandma's house, and I thought paper would be a little nicer. :)

indoors, artificial light

When I put this on, I didn't like at as much as I thought I would. Looking back at the picture now, though, I really like the combination. I'll be curious to see what else I can do with layering the HD polishes I have - while I love them, I don't think I've worn them much over other polishes. I don't really have much else to say...until next time!

Miss D Dance Til Dawn

I received this polish in a giveaway from You've Got Nail. As Miss D is an Australian brand, I would never have tried this otherwise...shipping costs, anyone? However, I'm very glad to have gotten a chance to try this - for a start, the bottles are completely adorable:

And here are three (or two? but I think it's three...kind of sad that I did my nails last night and can't remember how many coats I used) coats of Dance Til Dawn, with a Piggy Polish sticker on the thumb:

indoors, artificial light

outdoors, shade

outdoors, sun

The sun! It's the sun! I haven't been outside with my camera AND the sun for several days now...it was very exciting. :) Excuse my poor fingers, especially the terrible hangnail on my first finger - my hands really, really do not like the extremely dry weather we've been having lately. Anyway, you didn't come here to read about my poor dry hands. Dance Til Dawn is a bright purple with bluish silver shimmer, and I am very happy with the color and the application. While it doesn't dry completely glossy (this is with one coat of Rush), it was easy to apply, even with the short brush, and it dries very quickly. I feel like this would be a really good base for Sally Hansen DVD, and I may try that later today. Because the shimmer isn't purple, but silver, Dance Til Dawn is sort of a purple-silver duochrome, but it's a subtler effect than most duochromes. Either way, it's a very pretty color, and I'm really glad I got the chance to try it.

Here are my new and new-to-me blogs of...well, whatever time period it's been since I last did this. Most of them fall into the new-to-me category and I'm sure you probably follow several of them, but if you haven't, definitely check them out.

The Nailtress

My Leetle Nails

(Squoval)icious!

Atours de Magie

Nail Talez & More!

Katrina's Nail Blog

FAB UR NAILS

Polish Galore

Enamel Girl

Hard Candy Beetle

I picked up Hard Candy Beetle the other day at Walmart. It's a mauve, green, bronze and gold multichrome that is (from what I've read) an exact dupe for Orly Space Cadet...and it costs half as much. Beetle's foil finish is absolutely stunning, and I love how it shifts from color to color in different lights. Application was absolutely perfect - Beetle was opaque for me at two easy coats. I was curious to see what Beetle would look like with a matte top coat, as well as what it would do to the multichrome effect, so my pointer finger has one coat of Essie Matte About You, and the rest have one coat of Rush top coat.

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

 outdoors, cloudy (The sun is refusing to come out.)

  outdoors, cloudy

 outdoors, cloudy

As far as I can tell, the matte top coat didn't change the multichrome effect at all. This is an absolutely gorgeous polish, and I'm very glad I got it - especially as it was only $5 compared to $10 for the Orly (or even more for the MAC dupe). Now, I'm off to see the wizard...er, the doctor. Have a great day!

Sally Hansen Laser

Sally Hansen Laser is a deep blue glass-flecked shimmer with purple duochrome. When I applied the first coat, it looked very sheer, but I got a good opacity with three coats. However, I had a heck of a time getting the purple to show on camera - most of the pictures I took made Laser look like a simple, bright blue. For some reason, the picture that shows the purple the best is also the blurriest...oh well.

indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

outdoors, shade

outdoors, shade

I did take a picture in the sun, but it's not color-accurate at all, so I'm not including it. However, none of these pictures are truly accurate. The polish in real life is more like royal purple and royal blue - the shade is closest to that shown in the second picture. It's absolutely gorgeous, and if you like blurples at all, definitely get your hands on Laser.