Melissa unnamed blue

This was a yard-sale score from last summer.  There isn't any label on the bottom so it has no name, and I wasn't able to find anything about this brand via Google.  Based on how it looked in the bottle I thought it would be a jelly.  It did apply very sheer and streaky and took four coats to even out but the final result isn't as jelly-ish as I expected.

Snowman "ornament" glitter?

I found this on clearance at Kinney Drug the other day. Snowman polishes come out every year around Christmas and each year there is a different selection of colors. They are manufactured by Blue Cross (who also makes Claire's, Icing, and the now discontinued Hot Topic "skull" polishes). All the snowmen I have just say "snowman" on the bottom, but this one is different:

It was SO INCREDIBLY THICK. I had to decant it because the brush was wonky, and even after reconstituting it with thinner to a full bottle, it was so thick I had to transfer it using an eye dropper! Here it is decanted - this was how dark it looked in the store, too (you will be amazed when you see the swatch):

And swatched on a wheel:

The empty bottle:

I LOVE THIS GLITTER. It looks like it dries matte, and the glitter in it is translucent - almost like the jelly polish of glitter. It's not iridescent or shiny or "glittery" if you get what I mean. I have *never* seen anything like this before, have you?

Essie Mademoiselle

After the last one I needed a palette cleanser.  This is Essie Mademoiselle. There are a lot of streaky uncooperative Essies out there, but I am happy to report that this is not one of them. This is two coats topped with one coat of my newly thinned Seche Vite.

Happy Mardi Gras!

This was inspired by the golds, purples and greens of Mardi Gras celebrations.

Nicole by OPI - A Million Sparkles

It's been a while since my last post because I thought my last manicure wasn't photo-worthy. Well, compared to this one it was perfection so I'm not going to censor myself for that anymore. This is a Nicole by OPI that just came out. I love it in the bottle, and it is definitely sparkly in real life, but application was truly awful.  I'm not quite ready to give up on it completely yet though.  I need to try it over a base color, maybe OPI Swimsuit...Nailed It from the Miss Universe collection.

Butter London Disco Biscuit

I made a cardboard lightbox!  So now you get a picture of the bottle as well as my nails.

The formula on this was fine for application, but the finish is...weird. It's between smooth and gritty, shiny and matte. Even after one coat of Seche Vite it still appeared to have texture, though I couldn't actually feel it.  I love the color and the blue glitter is gorgeous with lots of depth. 

Warning: nudity

They look a little rough this close up, but my nails are in so much better shape than they were a year ago.  I'd say this is mainly due to moisturizing and making a concentrated effort not to use them as tools.

NOPI Silver-ella with stamping