Polished Casual

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Adventures in Shellac

Let me start off this post by saying that my plan to show you my 14 days of Shellac was an epic fail. Mostly because I had absolutely no time with the move to even begin to take pictures but also because this Shellac mani did not hold up. I've had good luck with Shellac in the past, and honestly I think it has to do with the poor shape of my nails. I've got so many peelies and the tips past the nail bed are so weak, that the nail was breaking underneath the Shellac. So then the Shellac would chip because there was no nail under it....

Shellac is a gel hybrid by CND that goes on like regular nail lacquer but then cures completely dry and hard under a UV light in a few minutes. The process is quick and painless and gives you a full proof (normally) mani for 2 weeks without the damaging effects of acrylics. My only gripe in the past with Shellac (I've done it twice before) is the lack of colors. Luckily they put out a set of brand new colors recently, so I was able to get something much more my style. This is Rock Royalty topped with Iced Coral. Rock Royalty is a great royal purple, where Iced coral is essentially nude with a green iridescence to it. Layer the two together and you get a rocking teal that flashes purple. LOVE!

Shellac Manicure - Iced Coral over Rock Royalty

The whole process took about a half an hour. My nails looks perfect for 3 days. Then I started to get chips because some of my ring and middle fingers broke under the Shellac. By the time my move came around (almost a week into the mani) my finger nails were horrible and my cuticles were a mess. So you only get to see my mani on day 2. Next time I do Shellac will be for my vacation in September, so I'll do better keeping you guys updated then.

Shellac mani's are usually about $20-$25 more expensive than a regular mani, which is why I usually do them for vacations only. In the past they have lasted for me for 14 days, no chips, no breaks, shiny as the day they were painted.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Another Look: Essie Smooth Sailing

A few months ago Jessie showed you guys Essie Smooth Sailing, and her glowing review had me drooling over it, but for some reason I just hadn't pulled the trigger on buying it. An amazingly generous girl on MUA was nice enough to throw it in as an extra in a swap, so I was dying to try it out! Jessie and I decided to introduce the "Another Look" posts to give each other the chance to review polishes that the other had already posted, while giving you guys another perspective - and of course, more pictures! Win for everybody! :-)

Without further ado...here's my take on Smooth Sailing!

(click to enlarge)

Smooth Sailing is really a gorgeous polish. It's brightish, but still somehow muted, which I really like. The shimmer shows up well, especially in the sun, though unfortunately the silver shimmer tends to drown out the pink and blue. Application was a bit of a problem for me. The first coat went on kind of gloopy, but also patchy at the same time. Kind of like a holo, maybe? I don't know, but it was strange. Thankfully, all patchiness was smoothed over by the second coat, and all was well. :-)

Remember a while back when I said Smooth Sailing might be a good substitute for RBL Catherine H? Now that I finally had both, I decided to do a comparison to see just how close they were. GUYS - I finally did an on-the-nail comparison! LoL I really want to do more of them, it's just that it's so much quicker to do them on the nail wheel. I promise I'll try to do more on-the-nail for you. Anywho, check it out:

Index and Ring: Essie Smooth Sailing, Middle and Pinky: RBL Catherine H

Erm...well...looks like I was a bit off. A lot off. They're in the same vein, but quite different. Smooth Sailing is much lighter and brighter than Catherine H, while Catherine H shows off that pink and blue shimmer much better. In all honesty, even though I was disappointed in that strange cloudiness of Catherine H, I prefer it to Smooth Sailing. Thankfully all the Queens are coming back, so you'll have a chance to pick that one up in just a few months!

As for Smooth Sailing, it's nice, and I like it, but I really don't love it. I wanted to love it. I wanted it to fill that strange void that Catherine H had left, but it fell a bit short. I can't really explain why (D'oh!), especially since it really is a beautiful polish. It's certainly worth getting if you don't already own it, but I just can't whole-heartedly get behind it. It makes me haz a sad. Now I need some chocolate and glass of wine...

;-)

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (Over Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow)

It's Layering Time!!!!!

So by the time we got back from NYC, my quick Diddy Mow mani was looking very sad. I had a couple of days until my Shellac manicure and didn't have time to redo everything (my big move was less than a week away) so I decided a coat of Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasure layered over Diddy Mow would look good. Turns out I was right!!!

I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but Hidden Treasure looked AWESOME over this dusty sea foam green. If you have something even remotely like Diddy Mow, try layering Hidden Treasure over it! I promise you won't be disappointed. The red/gold flakes just really completed my mani. I might had to wear Diddy Mow like this from now on!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Butter London Bluey

After sadly removing the lovely Wallis earlier in the week, I was kind of having a hard time deciding what I wanted to do for my weekend manicure. I've got a ton of untrieds I need to get to, but nothing was really jumping out at me. Luckily, Jessie saved the day and picked Butter London Bluey for me! :-)

As with most of my Butter Londons, I feel the need to address the name first. Knowing pretty much next to nothing about British slang, "Bluey" reminds me of when I was a kid and I named my teddy bear "Blackie" because he was black or "Brownie" because he was brown. (I promise I got more creative with my names as I got older.) So...."Bluey" because it's blue, right?! Negative. Apparently "bluey" is "vintage slang for a pornographic film." AWESOME. Haha!

So what kind of polish does a porno film inspire? Well. Bluey is a deep teal shimmery blue. It's got that awesome glowy look it to it with the blackened edges. No worries, though. True to it's name, Bluey never looks black. It's a little on the sheer side, so I needed three coats for opacity, but the formula was great!

(click to enlarge)

I gotta say, it's truly stunning! My coworker almost fell out of her chair when she saw it for the first time! I really loved it, but I was sure I had something pretty similar to it. I went Helmer diving and here's what I came up with:

(L) to (R) OPI Catch Me in Your Net, Butter London Bluey, $OPI Teal We Meet Again

Um...yeahhhh...those two on the right? Pretty much dead-on dupes. Sigh. I really thought they would be different! In the bottle, Teal We Meet Again looks deeper and more green than Bluey. I even showed hubby, and he agreed with me. Some kind of weird polish warping goes on when it makes it to the nail though, 'cause I had a REALLY hard time telling these two apart. Here's a close-up of just Bluey and Teal We Meet Again (apologies for the blurriness - my camera really hates these kinds of polishes):

(L) Butter London Bluey, (R) $OPI Teal We Meet Again

Bummer. As excited as I was over Bluey, I couldn't help be a little disappointed that I already had a dupe living in my stash. Since I'm happy enough with the $OPI, and it only requires two coats for opacity, I'm sticking with that one. Bluey is being re-homed to Jessie. :-)

I figured I may as well get my money's worth out of Bluey while I still had it on, so I decided it would be the perfect base color for Butter London Henley Regatta. This is one coat of Henley Regatta over three coats of Bluey:

Duuuude. These two were made for each other! It's really a great combo for "work to play." I wore Bluey to work on Friday, and then added Henley Regatta for the weekend. Love it! Soooo sparklayyy!

As much as I love Bluey, if you don't already own it, I'd opt for the Sephora by OPI option instead. It's more opaque, you'll get a little more polish for your money, and it'll cost you $4.50 less. Though Teal We Meet Again was released with last summer's Havana Nights collection, it's still available at http://www.sephora.com/, and I'm pretty darn sure it's in the core collection in stores. Henley Regatta, on the other hand, is a MUST-HAVE! If you don't already have it, RUN to your nearest Ulta or Nordstrom and pick that bad boy up! It looks great on its own or layered. And I love me a versatile polish! :-)

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow

Wow, how long has it been since I posted? Seriously?!?! I can't even begin to tell you how crazy the last 3 weeks has been. So I'll just skip that part. It's not over unfortunately, so I'm probably going to be missing for a bit longer. But tonight I wanted to make sure I at least posted this 3 week old mani I wore in NYC. I wanted to wear an RBL in NYC because it seemed fitting, I hadn't swatched Diddy Mow yet (although I have worn this puppy quite a bit) and it matched my super cute top from Anthropolgie.

Here is Diddy Mow, a gorgeous dusty pale army green with secret shimmer. You can't really see it on the nail but it just gives the polish depth. Please do not enlarge this one. My cuticles and nails are a mess at this point, between packing and cleaning and doing this mani, it's not my best.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow

Now here is a much more fun shot! Diddy Mow atop the Empire State Building!!!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow, over lower Manhattan

Diddy Mow was released as part of RBL's Spring 2010 Surf inspired collection. It was unfortunately limited edition and now sold out, so this would be pretty hard to find. However Essie Sew Psyched is supposed to be a pretty good dupe. I don't have it so I can't do a comparison, but you can see one here from GildedNails. My next post will be what I did to spice up my Diddy Mow manicure when I came back from NYC!!!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Butter London Wallis

Sometime around Thursday(ish) of last week, I heard a buzz on MUA that Nordstrom was having a giant Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale on Deborah Lippmann and Butter London polishes last weekend. I easily could've gotten at least six from each brand, but I decided to spare my wallet the pain, and just go for one set of three. I'd been lemming Butter London Wallis, so picking out another two to go with it was a breeze! I couldn't wait to try out Wallis, so that's what I've got for you today! :-)

Wondering about the name? ME TOO. I immediately rushed to my handy dandy Butter London Dictionary and found that it's named "in honour of the Saucy Yank who ran away with the king's heart." Being a silly American, I still had NO idea what that meant. Wikipedia to the rescue!! I learned that Wallis Simpson was an American socialite from Pennsylvania who apparently struck the fancy of Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII). Their relationship was a controversial one, but Edward was so smitten with her, he abdicated his throne to marry her. She became the Duchess of Windsor. WOW! Read that article! She had quite a lot of gossip and controversy surrounding her! I imagine that to be the equivalent of Prince William abandoning his throne to marry Paris Hilton.

WELL. That Wallis sure does have a lovely namesake! It's a foil polish that has a color that's kind of hard to describe accurately. It's kind of a deep greenish antique gold? Sometimes it appears more gold, sometimes more green. I love that it's darkened around the edges! It gives it such a gorgeous glowy look. I had no problems with application, and in true Butter London fashion, it's almost a one-coater! Two coats was perfect for opacity and evening out any imperfections. :-) I couldn't take enough pictures of this! Definitely click to enlarge these babies!

Under my Ott-Lite:

(click to enlarge)

Sunlight:

(click to enlarge)

Hubba, hubba! Guys. I don't know what's up with me, but this is SO not typically my kind of color, but for some reason I am, like, obsessed with these weird greeny-goldy colors lately! It's so...sophisticated? Magnificent? Beautiful! I can't get enough! I LOVE Wallis! So unusual for me. *throws confetti* YAY!

I was curious to see how Wallis compared to China Glaze Zombie Zest (dupey to Orly It's Not Rocket Science). It took me a good 10 minutes to get this pictures because all the sparklies were freaking out my camera. Cameras no likey sparklies. Anywho. This is two coats of Wallis and three coats of Zombie Zest:

(L) Butter London Wallis, (R) China Glaze Zombie Zest

Initial impression: NOT dupes! Yay! On closer inspection, they're certainly similar, but there's a lot of differences between the two. Color: Wallis is much deeper and more complex in color. Cilucia described Zombie Zest in her comparison with Wallis to be "snotty" in color, and she couldn't have hit the nail on the head any better. Formula: Zombie Zest is much sheerer than Wallis. It would take at least three coats to be opaque on its own. Finish: Wallis is a foil, while Zombie Zest is a jelly with glass-fleck style particles. I suppose we could call these two...kissing cousins?

Wallis available now as part of Butter London's Fall/Winter collection. You can find it at Norstrom, Ulta, or http://www.butterlondon.com/. I can see where it may not jive with everyone's skin tone (I was heartbroken when Cilucia didn't love it on her!), but I think if you're thinking about getting it at all, it's worth the $14 to bring it home and try it. I think it'll be perfect for fall!

Also, in case you were wondering, I also picked up Jaffa and Bluey during my Nordie's sale adventure, so stay tuned for those! :-)

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Awards! And a Little Bit About Us...

We're a little behind on this (Forgive us - we're still new at this!), but some really fabulous bloggers tagged us for some awards, so we wanted to say the biggest THANK YOU!! We're still a baby blog, but we appreciate all the love from everyone!

AccroPolish tagged us for the Kreativ Blogger Award:

This award comes with 10 fun facts about us:

1. Courtney - I'm a huge sci-fi nerd. Live long and prosper!

Jessie - I played the tuba and sousaphone in high school and college.

2. Courtney - I have three tattoos, and I'm planning on a fourth (and maybe fifth).

Jessie - I stood behind Danny Masterson in line at the Catacombs in Paris, France.

3. Courtney - I live in Maryland, but I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Jessie - I've lived in the Greater Baltimore/Washington area my entire life but never been to Canada.

4. Courtney - Because of #3, I'm a New Orleans Saints fan! WHO DAT! ;-)

Jessie - I'm a huge So You Think You Can Dance fan, but I never call/text to vote.

5. Courtney - I have an unnatural obsession with Chipotle. Mmmmm...

Jessie - I've had my car destroyed my a tornado; I was not it.

6. Courtney - If I could meet anyone, living or dead, it would be Carl Sagan.

Jessie - I'm a horrible speller.

7. Courtney - I've never been out of the U.S. :-( (But I'd LOVE to!!)

Jessie - My dog, 2 cats and I just moved in with my amazingly patient boyfriend.

8. Courtney - When I was a kid, I did Shotokan Karate. I received my black belt when I was 12.

Jessie - When I was in middle school, I did Tae Kwon Do and recieved my black belt in 8th grade.

9. Courtney - I'm the biggest klutz on the planet.

Jessie - I LOVE pilates!!!

10. Courtney - I could go my entire life without eating ice cream again, but I loooove CAKE!

Jessie - If I could have Pinkberry (or equivalant) everyday I would. I once did 30 continuous days of yogurt at Baltimore's Mr.Yogato (a Pinkberry like place) to get a flavor named after me!

And Liquid Jelly tagged us for a string of awards: