Mintcicle

I have a *lot* of polishes (three guesses how many), and inevitably some of them have never been worn. That number is dwindling since I do my nails 2-3 times a week, and often layer two or more polishes at a time. Essie Mint Candy Apple was one of these. What's a little disheartening is I remember how much I LOVED the color of this polish at the time when I bought it, when it first came out in Winter 2009, but it went untried until now.

This is 2 coats of Mint Candy Apple, which applies fairly easily for a pastel. I was actually expecting it to be too thick just by the look of it, but it has a nice consistency and very good opacity for such a light color. Mint Candy Apple, while certainly minty, actually has a slight turquoise tint to it, more like Wintergreen Tic Tacs than actual straight-up mint green. It dries slightly darker than the color in the bottle.

As a topper, I applied 2 coats of OPI Pirouette My Whistle, which is one of my favorite topping glitters, filled with silver microglitter and pearly white hex glitter.

My Milkshake

It's time for another palette cleanser! I happened to see a swatch of Wet 'n Wild Megalast 2% Milk and liked it immediately--plus I don't have many pale-colored jellies in my collection, so it was a good fit. It was certainly nice by itself, but I couldn't leave it well enough alone so I sandwiched a coat of OPI Lights of Emerald City inbetween two layers each of 2% Milk. Have I mentioned I'm a sucker for food-themed names? I don't even like 2% milk (I'm much more partial to whole milk, or hemp milk if I can get it), but it's still a fun and cute name for polish.

2% Milk has a good formula for such a light color, and it flowed on the nail easily without being watery or streaky. It's a very nice, clean color that isn't as stark as a plain white; I'd call it an off-white or ivory.

Lights of Emerald City is a unique bird--I haven't seen another polish quite like it, even though the glitter combination of small iridescent squares and large matte white squares is a pretty simple mix. It is glitter-packed, so you don't have to fish for the big pieces of glitter (although giving the brush a swirl in the bottle helps get more of the larger white glitters on the brush).

Overall I really like this combination and I can definitely see myself wearing it again when I'm in the mood for something simple and refreshing.

Pastels...for Spring. Groundbreaking.

I'd apologize for the inconsistent posting, but let's be honest...this is going to be a regular thing. So, onward! Today's mani is Lynnderella Ghost of a Chance over Essie Marshmallow. I know, layering white matte and pastel glitters over a white is SO obvious, SO done...anyone care to guess exactly how many fucks I give about that? As far as I'm concerned, pastels over white go together like butter and raspberry jam (and if you guessed 0 fucks, you were correct).

I mean, look at this:

Ghost of a Chance is composed of multi-sized pastel matte glitter containing white and pink satin hearts and holographic microglitter. The formula was workable; most of the smaller glitters brush on with no problem. I did have to "place" the larger heart glitters, but it wasn't too difficult. My mani here was done with 2 normal coats of Ghost, with placed heart glitter. Marshmallow was streaktastic as usual, requiring 3 coats until it even began to resemble evenness, but until I find a better white jelly, it's here to stay as a staple base color.

Lynnderella Ghost of a Chance is available for purchase through her Ebay store for $23!

A Dream of Warmer Weather

I am ready for spring. I'm ready for sundresses, bare legs, and pastels! Unfortunately the weather here in NYC is the most bipolar I've ever seen it--a nice, balmy 57F one minute, and then dropping down to a chilly, windy 42 within a matter of a couple hours, leaving me with nothing but gooseprickles and the wish that I'd worn a sweater. I guess it's best to keep it springy on my fingertips and bundle up everywhere else, for now...

Revlon Heavenly atop Sinful Colors Cinderella is the perfect wishful-spring mani! Cinderella is definitely my favorite pale blue base--the slightly translucent quality of its formula plus the pink/gold shimmer keeps it from getting too chalky, and it's an easy three coats to opacity. Heavenly is a ethereal, dreamy sheer polish packed with hex and square iridescent glitter (it also happens to be a dupe of Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven), and since it's so glitter-dense it only took one coat to achieve the look here!