what I’m wearing and my poll results

Just a quickie post today to show you what I’m wearing on my nails.  But also to give you a little update on that poll I put together last week.

I kinda wish I was still wearing those peacock nails from my last post.  They were epic.  But the base coat I was wearing made the design peel right off.  Boo freakin hoo!  I will have to fill you in on this lamo calcium-building base coat soon.  But anyway, since the work week is in full effect now… I went with a quick mani sans nailart.  It’s a nice purple holo that I swatched only once here and have been wanting to wear again.  It’s called Aurora by AVON and it’s from their special Cosmic Collection.  I have been obsessing over every AVON polish I’ve gotten recently.  Their formulas are great, and the brushes?  I dunno what it is about their brushes, but I love them, especially when it comes to painting my dominant hand.  My AVON manis come out looking so clean and professional, even on my “Cinderella hand”.

Originally I wore two coats of Aurora and got perfect coverage.  It dried so fast that I was able to go to bed afterwards without seche vite on top, and still, I got no sheet marks in the morning!  That is unheard of for me.  I think I must lay directly on top of my hands or something because sleepy Jacqui can be a real manicure wrecker!  That’s why I cannot live without seche vite.  But this quickie dry polish was a nice surprise.  AND THEN…. then today I broke two nails!  Whhaaa?  Yup, two.  I think that calcium builder I’ve been using really sucks. So I had to file my nails down, to get them to all match.  But I’m okay with it, they don’t look too short.  So after filing them down I added another coat of Aurora to nicen it up.  So these photos are: one crappy base coat, and three coats of AVON Aurora, and no topcoat.  But really, you should only need two coats of this one.

Now, on to my poll results.  Remember last week I asked your opinion on changing my font?  Well, the results are in and it’s been a really close call between B and C!  Initially after posting this poll I got cold feet about changing my font… I thought I was really gonna miss my little hearts from my current Craftynail logo.  But you know what, my readers have spoken and it’s time for change!  I’m going balls to the wall and taking it one step further too!  I’m changing the whole look of my blog!  I’m keeping the shabby chic appearance, but I’m doing a full re-vamp.  So stay tuned.  Within the next week I should be unveiling my new and improved Craftynail blog !

And I just wanted to say thanks for all your support.  I love you guys. 😀

 

#TheBeautyBuffs – my favorite yellows!

Welcome to another Wednesday with The Beauty Buffs! We are discussing YELLOW this week.  I’m always on a quest to find some yellows that don’t need a zillion coats… and today I’ll share my findings with you.  I’m showcasing my top three yellow two-coaters!

Now I know that yellow is not a fave among nail bloggers. The formulas can be disappointing and a lot of ladies find yellow unflattering with their skintone.  But, I happen to love yellow! This stems from my childhood where one year the Easter Bunny gave me two Revlon polishes.  (The bunny never gave me candy.  So sad.  Yet I wonder why I have food issues.)  So one year my easter basket contained two cream polishes- a robin’s egg blue and a pale butter yellow.  I cherished them.  If I got peanut butter cups they’d be gone in two seconds flat.  But my nail polishes… they were the gift that kept giving!  I still remember the exact images of the bottles in my head.  I can’t remember my school teacher that year, but I remember my pastel Revlons.  Oh, Jacqui!!  Anyway, I think those nostalgic feelings about yellow polish carried into my adulthood.  Plus, my mom loves yellow polish and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

I don’t know if one-coat yellows exist or not.  But for now, I’ll covet these three yellows which need only two coats each to be opaque:

First up is I Just Can’t Cope-Acabana by OPI.  We’ve all seen a lot of swatches of this one lately.  It’s the perfect true yellow- nice and bright and most similar to the primary yellow on the color wheel.  I thought the formula would be a little chalky since a couple of the other Brazil collection polishes were a wee bit chalky to me. But honestly, the formula is really nice for a yellow.  It dries glossy and you can’t go wrong with OPI !

Next I’ve got Pull Over by Sinful Colors.  This mustard shade has a touch of orange to it.  It’s similar to egg yolks, or a school bus.  I like that it’s a little different than your average yellow.  The formula is so fluid and juicy.  It has some jelly-esque qualities too it, but it’s opaque in two coats so it’s definitely not a jelly.  But it looks sorta glassy on the nail and I really enjoy the hue.

Last but not least is Inspire by AVON.  Remember when the 2013 Peter Som Trio came out by Zoya??  The collection contained a yellow, an orange and a mint?  Well AVON sorta copied them and came out with a trio of their own last year.  The AVON shades were darker, but still, very similar in concept.  I jumped on that train and picked up the AVON yellow called Inspire.  Wow, I love it.  How do I describe it?  It’s a bright yellow cream that has a tinge of green to it.  It’s almost a little bit pukey (especially in sunlight), but in the best way possible LOL!  It sorta has a 70’s retro feel to it.  The formula is really good and opaque (but as it ages I notice it’s getting a wee bit string-y).  I love how intense and opaque this yellow is, especially for nail art. I’ve used it tons and tons and now my bottle is getting low.  Good thing I have backup!  Surprisingly, Inspire is THE ONLY bottle in my entire stash that I own a backup of.  That says a lot I think.

My post wouldn’t be complete without a little yellow nail art…

I hand painted some blue triangles on the base of my nails using Orly Sweet Peacock.  I think the metallic blue really looks cool against my AVON Inspire.  I loved wearing this to work yesterday.  It’s simple but a little quirky and definitely bold.  I hope you like it!

After all this, if you still hate yellow-  oh well, I tried.  I look forward to hearing your opinions though!

Don’t miss what the other Beauty Buffs have to say:

 

 

Poshinality Dreamer- Review

Have you heard of this new nail polish brand called Poshinality?  If you’re into socially responsible companies then you’ll be happy to hear that Poshinality nail colors are vegan, toxin-free and they even donate some proceeds to charity.  Another cool thing is that all of Poshinality’s nail colors are named after a fashion style, or a personality trait – so every girl can find a bottle to help her express herself.   Oh wait, and men too, let’s not exclude them now!  My boyfriend’s a painter and I’m gonna see if he’ll let me do his nails with this purple called ARTISTIC.  Wish me luck with that.  Anyway, for my review I was able to select from a few different shades, so I picked the one that matched closest to my personality- DREAMER.  Let’s look at this pretty!

I would always wear a glitter topper over another color, so for the purpose of this review I applied Dreamer over a black polish. Dreamer is a copper chunky glitter.  It’s a clear base with copper hex glitter, tiny copper glitter, and tiny gold glitter.  The addition of the gold specks really kicks it up a notch and in my opinion, gives it a ritzy luxurious effect.

I only needed one coat of Dreamer.  I got really great coverage with just the one coat.  No glitter fishing either.  I think all the tiny glitters in there make the formula nice & fluid so the glitters dispersed evenly on my nail.  The glitters lay flat and are not too bumpy either.  Huzzah!  One coat of seche vite topcoat made it pretty smooth.  No glitter food needed.

I also took a few photos outside so you could see the glitter in natural light.  Just as pretty I think!

I’m really happy with this polish and I look forward to picking out my next bottle.  I’ve been eyeing DRAMATIC since I tend to be a tad bit emotional and dramatic at times.  Just a tad (wink, wink).  But really, look at this bright blurple hue >> DRAMATIC!  Yowza!

If you’d like to find out more about Poshinality check out their site here at http://poshinality.com or track them down on pinterest, twitter or facebook.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Ruby Wing Moonstone

This is my first Ruby Wing polish!  This one is called Moonstone and it changes color under the sun’s UV rays.

Shown here is one base coat, two coats of Moonstone and one topcoat of seche.  I had a few bald spots, I could’ve maybe went with three coats of this polish.  But it was really late at night and I didn’t really feel like it at the time.  I painted them and then went to bed… then I woke up with some serious shrinkage on the tips of my nails.  It looked like big time tip wear.  I guess this stuff really shrinks with seche vite?  But how well does it change color?  That’s the real question.  I couldn’t wait to run out into the morning sun to check them out.  It was overcast that day but Moonstone still performed well!  My nails turned from a pale bright blue to a deep dusky purple.  The next day I demonstrated this polish to my mom and she immediately had to borrow it.  So, Moonstone is no longer in my possession!  I’ll have to pick up another one of these.  And here’s the kicker–  the Ruby Wing sales display is only a minute from my office.

2 Bobbie swatches

Today I have two Bobbie polishes for you which are made in the Philippines.  The Nailinator sent quite a few to me in our swap, and so far I love them all (see the other one here).  These are holographic, but not extreme linear-rainbow kinda holos.  The effect is much more subtle, but still epically beautiful.  I think they’re perfect for everyday wear.

Weng Weng is a grey holo with a purple duochrome effect.  The formula is great.  Shown here is a basecoat, and two coats of Weng Weng.  Don’t you think the flash of violet makes it unique?  I don’t own any polishes quite like this one.

Next up is Margarita.  Maybe it’s named after a woman?  Because the name makes me think yellow/green, not pink.

This one is much more sheer.  This is one base coat plus four coats of Margarita and I still have some visible nail line.  It didn’t seem to bother me though since the formula is very easy to apply and I really like the brush.  I enjoyed wearing this polish more than I thought I would.  The pink shade has such a romantic, soft, feminine feel to it.

After a day I added some gold studs to my Margarita mani.  I love how the pink has a really warm tone to it and I think the gold studs really play off that.  Here’s a shot with some photo editing, for fun. I also tested the waters with a new watermark.  Not sure if I’m ready to make the switch though!  Let’s see what my poll results say about my prospective fonts! What if I change my mind and decide to stick with my Katy Berry heart font?  Will you still love me?  Because I think I’m getting cold feet!

The Beauty Buffs- Royal Blue

Have you heard that one of the hot nail colors for spring 2014 is royal blue?

Just because cobalt and royal blues are trending right now that doesn’t mean you need to run out and buy new bottles of polish!  This is a perfect chance for you to ‘shop your stash’ and see what blue beauties you have tucked away in your nail polish collection.

Blue is one of my favorite shades to wear!  I have a bunch- shimmers, navies, pastels, holos.  But I wanted to find one that reminds me of the intense blue hues that I’ve seen on the runways this season.  And I think I found the perfect shade!

Here I’m wearing two coats of  Butler Please from Essie.  This color is actually my very-first-ever bottle of Essie!  It’s intense, eye-catching and is the personification of blue.  It dries sorta matte so you’ll want some topcoat to make it shine.

I went ahead and did simple nail art on top using another color that I notice is on trend this spring- chartreuse.  I think I was in Kohl’s when I realized how hot this color is right now. I looked around and saw tons of this funky yellow/green color dotted throughout the women’s clothing section.  If you’re looking for a great chartreuse you may want to try Sinful Colors Innocent.  I have a few funky greens, but none are as perfect as this one for nail art.  It’s nice and opaque and the formula is great.

Now I’m styling for spring!  You should totally shop your stash for the perfect blue too!

See how the other Beauty Buffs will be wearing royal blue this season >>

ILNP swatches – Grape Alicious and Molly

Today I’ve got two I LOVE NAIL POLISH shades for you.  I won these from Brijits Digits giveaway.  I’ve never tried ILNP before, so I was thrilled to get my paws on these!

First up is Grape Alicious…

Grape Alicious is a purple holo. I used two coats here along with basecoat and topcoat too.  The holo didn’t seem too strong for me in Grape Alicious.  But I love this shade!  It’s a purple that leans more towards blue than red, which is my fave kinda purple.  Dark blue-ish purples look so rich and regal to me.  So I love this one.

Next up is Molly…

Molly is a magenta holo.  Shown here is a basecoat, two coats of Molly, and topcoat.  This shade is so pigmented and the formula was great.  So easy to apply.  I wasn’t expecting this, but Molly has tiny flecks of sparkle in it!  On the downside, it chipped pretty bad within 24hrs.

I’m so happy to have some ILNP added to my small stash of indies.  Do you have any of these??