Sally Hansen, Green with Envy

Oh man. It's been a while, hasn't it? :) Sorry about that; I actually lived without internet for about half a week before I left for my parents' home, whereupon I spent most of it doing things away from the computer. This is the first time I've had time for myself, and I've never been so grateful for all of the pictures I've been keeping in the vault for such an occasion.  Sorry, everybody.  I'll try to let you all know if something like this will ever happen again.

Anyway, on to what you're here for! This is Sally Hansen's Green with Envy, a squishy green creme with jelly-like consistency.  Nothing to complain about here--this lovely applied perfectly in two coats and I performed little to no cleanup for it.  The brush was a liiittle bit stiff, like most of the Xtreme Wear line, and you had to apply lightly for the sake of perfect application. It may streak, depending on the wearer.

More pictures:

 Awesome.  Green with Envy is perfect for summer.

Oh, before I forget! I also wanted to thank you all for the suggestions and comments. I haven't ordered anything yet--further research seems to ask me to buy my first Lippmann polishes, as well! (Aaaaaaaah!) It's that limited edition All That Jazz set.  Looks awesome. So does Across the Universe.  What do you all think? 

China Glaze, 5 Golden Rings

Fun fact:  the only China Glaze 'I Love You Snow Much' polish that I never bought is...

Ruby Pumps.


(Gasp!)

I gave Tinsel to a suitemate for Christmas, bought Emerald Sparkle at a sale, and swapped for this while I was going through (er, still am going through) a gold glitter phase.

I LOVE Gold glitter, and I think 5 Golden Rings is actually very lovely for this.  It is three smooth-drying coats. You can see  VNL in these pictures but they're not as prevalent in real life. It is a very soft warm gold, and comes off as classy. It'd be something I would wear to an office holiday party. The first layer also goes on very sparse, so I think it'd also make a good layering color if you so wished. Very versatile polish color. Like it a lot. :)

Speaking of China Glaze glitters...


I don't own any of them from the specialty collection yet. (Gasp!) I'd really like to get three of them, as a graduation gift to meself. :) I've bought Atlantis for my bestie (hiiiii Mika) and we both liked it; I bought Ginger for a christmas polish blogger swap and it was absolutely lovely on the bottle; I'm interested in Stellar a little bit, and Dynasty, and Carnival Lights.


*shrug* it's either the specialty glitters, or BB Couture, or something else... but have any of you tried the specialty glitters? What did you think? Do you have any suggestions? :D

Color Club, Uptown Girl

Just a quick swatch for you all today:  this is the dusty mauve Uptown Girl from Color Club's Rebel Debutante collection.  This is a smooth, two-coater creme that dries with a slightly jelly-like finish. Wouldn't call it a jelly, but there's something wonderfully soft about it. It applied wonderfully, as per usual.

I really like Color Club! Why don't I have more of these, again?

China Glaze, Emerald Sparkle

Say hello to one of the nail polishes that started it all.

Admittedly, I think it was RBL Recycle that really started the madness (you can tell, since I think I have about three posts of it on this here blog), but Emerald Sparkle is noteworthy for being the one that made me sit there and think, "Hmm, it just might be a good idea for me to own every single green polish that ever existed, probably."  This was exacerbated by the fact that dark green is my favorite color and that a lot of prominent nail bloggers like green polish as much as I do.

Still, I wasn't a glitter person and I wasn't sure if I ever wanted to pull the haul for this one, and I dilly-dallied around it for a while.   But when I was dragging my brother around Sally's for a tub of Mango Mend on my birthday, I found this little pretty. On sale.

For 99 cents.

Uh, yes, I bought it.

I think I might legitimately say that Emerald Sparkle is my first lemming and for that reason is one of my favorite polishes that I own--not to mention that it's dark and sparkly and deep and wonderful in every possible way. (I didn't think this when I first put it on.  It was on a cloudy day and I thought, 'ew'. This is a more recent picture and I love it--this is two coats, and, as you can see, has slight VNL. The nail line is not actually visible in real life, but I recommend three thin coats of Emerald Sparkle anyway.

One last sentimental picture before I go back to studying for finals:
 

Awww yeah.

A Comprehensive Illusion D'or Swatch Post, Pt. 2

The madness continues.

Illudo over Essie Ballet Slippers.

Over ChG Emerald Sparkle.  My second-favorite combination!

Excuse the frazzle.  Over Color Club Uptown Girl.

Aaand my current NOTD:  Illudo over Sally Hansen's Green with Envy.

Final notes: Illusion D'or is pretty over cremes, but I like it over particle-d polish:  Emerald Sparkle, Groupie, Vampy Varnish.  It lends a foil-like texture to the layer under it, which I like.  It tends to be somewhat lackluster (as one coat) over cremes. Also, the color has a tendency to lighten and warm up with a coat of Illudo.

I know, I know, I know that I haven't covered well-roundedly a bunch of colors. What about metallics? Duochromes? Blues? straight-up glitter? But do not tempt me.  I had to put this polish away so I could stop compulsively layering it over everything I wore.  Given time and self-control, more swatches may come up!

A Comprehensive Illusion D'or Swatch Post, Pt. 1

Are you ready for this giant pile of crazy? Cause here it comes...

I'm not going to spend a lot of space and time writing things.  There will be eight swatches in total, some of which have more pictures than others. I'll make a note of the polish I put Illusion D'or over. There is one coat of Illusion D'or over each nail polish.

I decided to stop at eight swatches because I was afraid of how much Illusion D'or I was using. <<. Heh.

Anyway.

(As always, click the image for a larger (read:  more detailed) pic.)

Over LA Girls Rockstar: Groupie; quite possibly my favorite.

Over ChG For Audrey.  Not my fave.

Over OPI Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It.

Over BB Couture Vampy Varnish.I really enjoyed this one as well. It reminded me of $OPI 212. Take a look at the green glints that come out from the black base.

Okay! Phew, that was part 1. Part 2 tomorrow, folks. :)