Rimmel Night Before

Rimmel Night Before is one of those polishes that I have no clue where or when I got it - all I know is that I've had it for quite a long time. Night Before is a deep purple with gold shimmer, and while the base color isn't all that unique, the gold shimmer really makes it stand out. I kind of think of it as a darker sister to Zoya Zara (which I should really show on here sometime, seeing as it's my name). Application is quite good as well, and this is two coats.

indoors, artificial light

outdoors, sunlight

bottle shot - outdoors, sunlight

I couldn't get Night Before to photograph properly on my nails, but the last picture is a good example of what it looks like in real life. The polish has a subtle glow even in low light, and the shimmer looks even better in the sun. I'm not sure if this color is still a part of Rimmel's line or not, but if you can find it, I would definitely recommend getting it.

I'm planning on doing some layering over this, so expect to see that next. It'll probably be at least a little similar to my Rimmel Black Satin, SH Blue It, and Sinful Nail Junkie manicure.

Color Club Yachty, Yachty Yadda

Color Club Yachty, Yachty Yadda is a bright hot pink from the Yacht Club collection that's rather reminiscent of Barbie, and though I haven't been a fan of Barbie for quite a few years now, I really like this color. In real life, it "pops" more than it does in my pictures.

indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I'm feeling kind of ashamed of the quality of my blog lately...I feel like my posts aren't that great, but school wears me out so much that even though I want to do more long and detailed posts, I'm just too brain-dead most of the time. Hopefully I'll get fully back into the swing of things soon, but until then, I'm afraid I'll be being rather brief. Happy Friday!

EDIT: Whoops, I almost forgot! I've been sitting on a couple of new nail blogs I've found and kept forgetting to share with you...here they are, both recommended by myself (for whatever that's worth).

The Brrrds Nest
Colorful Bottle's Blog

Barielle Coco Bar

I originally bought Barielle Coco Bar because I was looking for the perfect chocolate-y brown creme. In all reality, I think this is it. Here are two coats of Coco Bar with a coat of Rush top coat (though it didn't need it to be glossy):

indoors, artificial light

Coco Bar is the color of a Hershey's bar...and it makes me want one, too. I love how it looks on my nails, and it was very easy to apply. While it didn't wear well, I honestly suspect Rush is to blame for that, as the last few polishes I've used Rush on have worn horribly. (But when I use Orly In a Snap, which I have a mini bottle of, my polish wears well.) I think my bottle is getting old, which is not good - I still have 15 mL left.

In other news, my thumbnail broke past the quick today. Ow. I fixed it with some nail bandages I bought in a pack for a dollar at a local grocery store, but I don't imagine it'll look too pretty under a creme for a while. Oh well, I'm going to wear whatever the heck I want anyway! :) I hope you are all having a wonderful week!

Layering with San Francisco

As I am wont to do, I added some glitter to my nails today. I'd been wearing Sinful Colors San Francisco, and I added one coat of a teal Simpli glitter, one coat of Sally Hansen In the Spotlight, and another coat of the Simpli. My pointer fingernail chipped at some point this evening, though, which you can kind of see in the picture.

indoors, artificial light

In other news, Lacquer Ware for Tips and Toes tagged me in a meme, and since I haven't done one in a while, I thought I'd add it to this post.

Here are the rules: Mention 15 facts and tag 5 other bloggers. So on to the facts!

#1 My middle name is Michelle.

#2 I am the only person I know my age or older who has never had any dental problems. Lucky me!

#3 I really love cold weather. If it would never get about 65 in the summer, I would be thrilled.

#4 I don't watch a lot of TV, but I LOVE The West Wing - even though I never watched it when it was actually running.

#5 I've made my mom's Christmas present every year for about ten years (since I was seven or so).

#6 I used to do gymnastics, but I was never very good.

#7 I played the tuba in band for several years.

#8 Our television is over twenty years old, maybe thirty - my mom got it from Zenith when she worked for them. It's in one of those big wooden boxes and everything. Did I mention that we don't watch a lot of TV? :)

#9 We also still have a phone that is attached to the wall (and works when the power is out). Oddly enough, this is the same house where both residents have a smartphone. Go figure.

#10 I LOVE Nerds. Love them. Especially the red ones...they're my favorite kind of candy.

#11 Once, when my mom took me to be used as an example toddler for a babysitting class at our library (I was 2 or 3), the lady teaching the class asked me what my favorite food was. I answered, "Artichokes."

#12 I'm pretty crafty. I love to sew and design things...in fact, I'm saving up to buy a pair of shoes that I designed via Zazzle, which you can see here.

#13 I have always loved fantasy books. And books in general - I own far more books than I do nail polish.

#14 My first bottle of a salon brand nail polish was China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise. I still love it.

#15 I only have one college left to apply to! Yay!

I tag....

Oh, what the heck! I tag whoever wants to do it. Let me know in the comments if you do, because I'd honestly like to see this from anybody.

Sinful Colors San Francisco

I really thought I was not going to have time to post today, but voila! I'm literally doing this and going straight to bed - I want to be at least half awake for my first day back at school tomorrow. Blech. Today I wore Sinful Colors San Francisco, a green shimmer I got a mini bottle of in the Wild About Color pack. I couldn't really capture this green very well. This is the closest I got, and as you can see, the polish is the only remotely color-accurate thing in the picture...I do not have orange hands. This was two coats, and was surprisingly easy to apply for a mini.

indoors, artificial light

I really, really like this green, and I wish I could've gotten a picture where it actually looks like it does in real life. It's a gorgeous emerald green, and I have a feeling I'll be wearing it come March 17. Okay, I really have to go to bed now. Goodnight!

Revlon Royal

I don't think I'm going to be changing my nails today, so I thought I'd show you Revlon Royal, from their new Top Speed line, which I was wearing alone before I added all that glitter.It's a dark cobalt blue jelly that I am absolutely in love with. This is two thickish coats, and I took two pictures (though none outside because it's been misty and rainy for several days now): one to show the true color of the polish, and one to show how jelly it is.

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

The first one is color accurate. Under bright light, it's still a dark blue, but it glows. I couldn't manage to capture that effect on camera, unfortunately...you'll just have to trust me that it's gorgeous! I'm so glad I picked this one up. It doesn't dry glossy, but it does dry fast, and I always use top coat any, so it wasn't an issue. It's only my second Revlon polish (after Minted), but if Revlon keeps it up, it will definitely not be my last.

Happy New Year!

Okay, so it's not 2011 where I live yet - it's only about 8:42 P.M. But still. For my New Year's Eve manicure, I covered Revlon Royal and $OPI Flurry Up, which I had on yesterday, with one coat of OPI Simmer & Shimmer and two or three coats (I can't remember which) of Wet n Wild Kaleidoscope, a silver glitter top coat with scattered holo. Hey, I said it was going to be a lot of glitter! Since Simmer & Shimmer isn't really meant to be used as a top coat, it covered up most of Royal, especially I added Kaleidoscope on top. The nice thing is that there's still enough blue showing that it gives it a sort of interesting look, at least in my opinion. I couldn't capture the holo, which is too bad, but definitely, definitely click to enlarge on these. Apologies for the bits of glitter on my fingers.

indoors, with flash

indoors, with flash

I'm really, really happy with the way this turned out. In fact, if I hadn't already posted my favorite manicures of the year, this would be on it. It's really glitzy, but the multicolored glitter and holo (even though you can't see the holo in the pictures) keeps it from being boring. I'm thinking I'll definitely have to try variations of this with the other Burlesque glitters I have. 

I'm not sure if I'll post on here tomorrow or not. It depends on whether or not my glitter chips and I have to redo my nails. I'll be on Sunday, at any rate. Hope your 2011 is off to a good start (or will be soon)!

2010 Favorites

I wasn't going to do a favorites post, but I changed my mind at the last minute (as often happens). However, not all of these will be polishes that were released in 2010, and some are going to be frankens or nail art or layering. Anyway, here they are - my ten favorite (blogged) manicures of the year, in random order. I hate how short my nails are in some of these pictures, but oh well. I still love the polishes.

Give Me Gallifrey (Franken)

OPI Mad as a Hatter

Essie Mint Candy Apple

Chanel Paradoxal

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure

Snowglobe

WASP (Franken)

Hard Candy Beetle

Sinful Colors Nail Junkie

Ahh, I'm on Fire!

OPI Jade is the New Black

Zoya Roxy

So, do you like my favorites? I hope to have a chance to post my New Year's Eve manicure later on tonight, but if I don't...Happy New Year!

Royal + Flurry Up

I did wear Royal alone for a little while, and I will post a review on it by itself, but in the spirit of the New Year coming up, I thought I'd wait and do that after all the bling is over. So, I added Sephora by OPI Flurry Up, which has silver hex glitter and smaller silver glitter in a clear base. It's basically the silver sister of $OPI Only Gold for Me (which I used in my military bling manicure), which I adore and have used half my bottle of. I need to buy backups. Anyway, this is two coats of Royal and one coat of Flurry Up.

indoors, artificial light



Sorry for the crappy picture, awkward hand position, and random object in the background...I didn't manage to take a picture until I got to my grandma's house, so I was without my nail polish bottle and lightbox. That aside, I really like this combination, and I plan on adding a ton of additional glitter to it for tomorrow. My nails are probably going to be about ten coats thick with all that glitter...it'll be lots of fun to take off. :) Thanks for reading, and I hope your 2010 is wrapping up nicely.

Walgreens Excitement

I went to Walgreens with my mom this evening hoping to find some new polish displays...and I found not one, but six! How exciting! Although I'm sure it's all stuff you've seen before, I took some crappy iPhone pictures anyway, so I thought I'd share.

First, the Sally Hansen Instant Salon Effects display (the ones that are like Minx, but cheaper). I took a photo of the whole display and of the fingers so you could see all the different designs. They also have plain colors, but at $10 a pack, I'm not seeing the appeal for those. The houndstooth ones, on the other hand...I want those. Click to enlarge, as usual.

The Sally Hansen Insta-Dri French Manicure thingies. These are pretty gimmicky to begin with, and even worse, look at all those boring colors in the display! Come on, couldn't you have gotten some of the nice ones? Not that I would have bought them anyway...but still.

Next, the Revlon Heavenly Metal collection, which contains three nail polishes: a gold, a silver, and a bronze. I've only seen this collection mentioned on Nouveau Cheap, but surely it must have come out other places too.

The first Revlon Top Speed display. Actually, this is just a general Revlon "new things" display, but there are a bunch of Top Speed polishes at the bottom.

 Revlon Top Speed display number two. This was the Top Speed display to end all Top Speed displays. I saw a couple in Target when I was out of town a while back, and it was a midget next to this baby. I grabbed Royal immediately - I've been lemming that gorgeous jelly ever since I first saw it!

And finally, the Revlon "Scented When Dry" display. This came out ages ago, but not where I am...nope, it's new here. I didn't get any of these, though I will admit I was very tempted.

While I was there, I also killed two lemmings! I bought a bottle of Revlon Royal from one of the Top Speed displays, and I grabbed a Sinful Colors Wild About Color mini pack, which includes San Francisco, Sugar Sugar, Rich In Heart, Secret Admirer, and All About You. I'd been lemming both San Francisco and All About You, so I was/am very excited. I'm in the process of applying Royal right now, and it's everything I thought it would be!