The One That Started It All and Mother/Daughter time!

Back when I was around 22-23, I was really into having long nails. I babied my nails like crazy, and kept them polished at all times. I would re-do my mani every other night, although I always used the same color.  At some point, I ended up breaking most of my nails and I just stopped growing them out. Every time I had decided to paint my nails since then, I had gone searching for this color. No luck! I had picked it up at Sally’s, but have never been able to find it again. It wold probably help if I knew the name of the color, or even the brand, but it’s been a long time, and I have no clue what it was.

Last week at Sally’s I was perusing their clearance bin. And there was a perfect match to my previous color! Could this be the gorgeous shimmery, almost duochrome blurple that I had been hunting for? I snatched it up and rushed home to try it out. And wow! If it wasnt the same exact polish, it sure as heck is a perfect dupe for it!

Without further ado, here is that color, China Glaze Tempest:

Artificial Light:

and with flash to show shimmery goodness:

Oh how I love this color! The formula was like butter, and although I have read posts where people said it took a good 3-4 coats to be opaque,  I only used 2 coats.  It does have some brush stroke streaks, but its worth it to have this color again. And look at those cuticles! This was taken before my gardening fiasco, but after I stabbed myself with my cuticle pusher 😦

I also wanted to share the product of my mother/daughter time this past Tuesday. My daughter is not into polish at all, but decided that she really liked how my stamps come out. She came to me and asked if I would do her nails for her! We sat down and she went through my stash, choosing Essie’s Aruba Blue as her base, and Pure Ice Pussycat for the stamping. She wanted to be different and have a different stamp on each nail, and she picked a few that I thought may not come out on her tiny nails, but they turned out pretty awesome! Here is the final product:

Forgive my messy polish table! She insisted on holding the bottles like mom does. So adorable! I had a blast doing her nails for her, and she is already clamoring for another mani!

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

Happy Polishing!

-Kimber

 

Playing with purple!

I finally parted with my Lubu Heels Mani. Normally when I have new colors to play with, I don’t keep a Mani for more than a day. Especially since I work in a field where I use my hands a ton, wash them a ton, and I have a 15 month old which means I’m going to chip my nails fast. Not with that Mani! After 48 hours I had 1 minor chip! And that had more to do with Seche Vite’s notorious shrinkage.

So today I decided to play with purple. I can’t go anywhere without picking up a new polish, and while out grocery shopping I came across Rimmel’s Wild Orchid. It’s a beautiful purple creme, like a dark lavender. It applied beautifully and was opaque in just 1 coat. I’m a serial 2 coater though, so this is shown with 2 coats. I could’ve easily worn this alone, but I recently acquired Busted by Pure Ice, a purpley pink glitter in a sheer purple base. I’ve also been dying to try sponging so I broke out my Rimmel Night Before and set to work!

This is Rimmel’s Wild Orchid on it’s own. Please forgive the lack of clean up and my poor, traumatized cuticles. I’m trying to let them come back to being healthy cuticles after a decade of nipping, cutting, biting, etc. So far it’s a long process. No matter what I use, they remain ragged and scary. Suggestions are welcome!

Isn’t that a lovely color? My lighting sucked, but I assure you that for a drugstore brand it’s lovely! My only issue is the brush; I’m not used to that short, wide brush so I had to be extra careful during application. I did make a little mess, but I’ve done way worse with normal brushes!

After 2 coats of Wild Orchid (over my base coat, of course. I detest staining so a base coat is a must!), I sponged on some Night Before. Then I used the same color to darken the tips of my nails. When that was dry, I added a single coat of Pure Ice Busted to make it sparkle. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite ( and waited for the shrinkage to appear so I could add another coat to fix that!). This is the final product. Not bad for a first attempt at sponging, but I have some ideas for a better gradient next time.

The camera makes Night Before look more blue in this lighting, but its more of a deep purple with some shimmer. Think shimmery eggplant.

All in all I am pleased. Not too shabby since I’ve only been playing with things outside of straight polish for a few weeks. Practice makes perfect, right?

Enjoy your weekend and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber