CND Sapphire Sparkle over OPI Y'All Come Back Now Ya Hear?

CND Sapphire Sparkle over OPI Y'All Come Back Now Ya Hear? 

I'm super lazy of late so I generally apply a creme, jelly or a very, very subtle shimmer, wear that for a few days, and then layer something on top of that and wear it for a few more days. CND Sapphire Sparkle was maybe not the most intuitive choice to put over Y'All Come Back but I rather liked the combination. It didn't really show off how pretty Sapphire Sparkle could be (as when put over a dark polish) but it gave the orange a slightly unusual look. This was applied on day four of Y'All Come Back and I think I wore this particular combination without chippage for another few days after that.

Hey, want to see the worst NOTD I've had in a long time? (CND Brigitte with Anna Effect, Jason Wu collection)

I was really into the idea of the Jason Wu/CND collaboration. So much so that I actually bought it for full retail price and then some from Cult Beauty (because I was getting the Rococo Gold Leaf polish anyway and if I was going to pay for across-the-pond shipping... etc).

I like interesting textures. I like taupey, underplayed colors. I really like CND's new polishes. (Though I just saw some old glitters from 2008 on the Pretty Random blog and holy effin' crap, I so want. Even though my experience with old CNDs was pretty bad.) So when I heard about a whole collection of sophisticated shroomy types of colors with an Effects polish that promised a "tweedy" texture, I was pretty excited. (No one else was but I was.)

And then I put this on. I mean... I've been having bad mani days (much like bad hair days but worse because I can see my nails at any time and I need a mirror to see my hair) but this took the cake.

Behold, the cake:

CND Brigitte (Colour) and Anna (Effect)

Mauvey, taupey... warm and sort of dull. But that's not the worst part. The worst part is the bubbling. This polish did not enjoy my Gelous bc and/or Diamont tc and reacted very angrily to me when I made them all play together. Also, what happened to the fantastic CND creme formula? Some of the core CND Colour polishes are simply perfection (completely opaque and smooth in two coats) with a dummy-proof brush. This, in comparison, was watery, thick, and needed three coats (which is not desirable in a polish meant to be layered underneath another).

Actually... no, I change my mind. The worst part was the "tweedy" texture, the Anna polish. In the bottle, it looks a lot like a matte topcoat (and indeed, it does mattefy). But when applied, it mostly looks like I stuck a hand with wet nails into the pocket of an old wool coat. The little linty shards coming off the nail... I mean, that just kind of put it over the top.

Closeup of Brigitte and Anna

A bubbly, hairy manicure. Couldn't wait to take this one off and I kind of didn't want to post it... except... it's a bubbly, hairy manicure and that's kind of funny in itself.

CND Sparkle Effects - Raspberry and Sapphire

I resisted these Sparkle Effects for a while, but when I fell, I fell hard.

Here is Sapphire Sparkle:



And Raspberry Sparkle:


Both are absolutely MAGIC over Ulta Wild Night, a lovely dark navy shimmer. These Sparkles are unbelievably capable of transforming a polish; the Sapphire Sparkle coats your polish in a dusting of bright blue shimmer and the Raspberry Sparkle gives it a light coat of pink shimmer. I am amazed by how different your base color looks when topped with what appears to be a simple top coat but is in reality a game changer.

I find myself thinking about interesting color combos with these Sparkle Effects - yellow base color with blue, orange with pink... the possibilities are ENDLESS!

Happy day, all!

*Insert "getting shellacked" joke here*

I did it! I finally broke down and returned back to the nail salon, which is exactly what the fine people of CND wanted when the created the miracle Shellac, isn't it?

I'm going to be honest - I am not a nail salon kind of girl. With a passion for polish like mine you'd think that I would love those havens of hand massages and racks of color, but alas, no. Instead of being a treat, I tend to associate those places with strangely shaped nails and gooey polish and I rely on my own at-home manicures which I think are very nice, thankyouverymuch. Also, I like to humor myself and think that I am saving myself money by staying out of the salon, which then means I can buy more polish. It's a viscous cycle.

So anyway, enter the CND Shellac. I couldn't do it myself, so I found myself in a shwanky salon with incredibly comfortable chairs and lovely workers that kept offering me water. You know how it works, so I'll just show you the fairly awful photo that I took a few days after my manicure. Here's my CND Fedora manicure -


I know, bad photo, right? Right after I received my manicure, I left for an artist residency and proceeded to beat the hell out of it for a week and only stopped to take a photo after several days of work, so I apologize for the crapola image. Here are my thoughts on the Shellac in no particular order:

• I got a hell of an awesome manicure, I have to admit. I don't know if it was because the manicurist had to be trained to a certain degree in order to be able to do my mani or what, but it was killer. Nice job, Mandy!
• The color selection was totally limited - I know, old news. Here's the thing, though - CND is all about claiming that you can layer colors to make bold and bright versions, right? Yeah, not so much. When I popped this idea on Mandy, she made me a little sample of the colors I wanted (Fedora with a coat of Tutti Frutti in order to get a shocking blue) and what came out was a color that looked like brown with a coat of pink on it. I ended up just opting for Fedora.
  
• The wear was pretty darn good, because I was not being coy when I said I beat the hell out of it. We're talking hands-in-water-for-hours followed by lots of picking at stickers and occasional power tools. HELL.
  
• shiny, shiny shiny! This polish retained its shiny quality until the moment I took it off.

I enjoyed the Shellac, I really did, but I was a little disappointed in the wear of it. I really expected to have to chip this crap off, but it started coming off on its own after a week, and I have to tell you, I DID NOT have to do that with *gasp* the Sally Hansen Salon Effects stickers that I put through a similar hell a few weeks prior.

Speaking of taking it off, I'll be honest - I peeled it off. And I enjoyed it. My nails may not have enjoyed it, but I did.

In conclusion - good manicure, shiny, expensive, didn't wear as long as I would have liked it to. I'll pass on the Shellac for now and opt for stickers until I desperately need a manicure AND they come out with more colors. The end.

Happy day, all!

CND Amethyst Sparkle

You know when you buy something simply because Everyone Else is buying something, and then you realize that they were buying it because it is AMAZING?

Enter CND Effects Amethyst Sparkle:



Well, hello there, my love! You are a light dusting of purple shimmer AND I LOVE YOU.

This is Amethyst Sparkle over Ulta's Smoke Screen, and I have to tell you, this was one of my favorite combinations EVER. Gaze into the shimmer, my friends -



I tried this CND Effect over a metallic and you could barely see it, but over a dark creme? Hello, nurse. What I think I liked the most about this polish was it's mullet-like effect on my nails. What does that mean, you might ask? Well, some describe a mullet (short hair in the front of the head, long in the back, also known as "The Kentucky Waterfall") as "business in the front and a party in the back," and that is exactly what this was on my nails - all business and professional from a distance, but under examination, POW! A party. I wore it to a Board of Trustees meeting and loved every minute of it.

Go get yourself some mullet nails.

Happy day, all!

CND Shellac experience: uh, guys, it's kind of awesome. (warning: FEET!)

I loved the idea of using the phrase "getting shellacked" when I first got Shellac done at the end of October. But then the midterm elections came along and people started overusing the phrase "got a shellacking" or "was shellacked" all over the news in any story even remotely related to politics. So now it sounds weird to me to use that phrase to refer to the nail polish process.

Anyway! When I was in New York at the very end of October, I met up with Piff to get Shellac pedis at a salon. We took a few pictures of the process (and I'm pretty sure I don't have permission to post the photos of Piff's feet). But I'll post some of my pics after I ramble for a bit. I know some people are sensitive to pictures of feet so please... don't read much further if you don't like 'em.

I got Wildfire and Piff got Tropix.

First of all, I'm loving Shellac and I'm still wearing my Wildfire pedi. I think we got our nails done on October 28th and it's mid-December! Even though it's grown out a bit (and a little worn at the tips), it's still almost nearly as glossy and bright as it was when I got it. What is that, about six weeks? I'm not one to change my pedis too much because I hate painting my toes -- they're tiny and it usually ends up with me painting most of my toe -- so I'm pretty thrilled when a pedi looks good for so long. Typically, at this point, any other pedi I've had would've looked pretty ratty and worn; typically, I would've replaced it by now or put glitter over it to refresh it.

To me, the longevity justifies the cost. I don't remember exactly how much it was but I remember paying a total of around $90... though I also got talked into an eyebrow waxing (I needed it) by the aesthetician so subtract at least $15 from $90. That's how much I like Shellac right now: I liked it so much that I didn't bother to remember how much it cost me to get it done.

Also awesome: it really was rock-hard dry by the end of the CND Shellac topcoat and the UV light curing. I mean, this thing could not be dented. Unlike more traditional manis, it doesn't really look like nail polish on my nails as much as it looks like a thin coat of glossy plastic over my nails.

The Shellac process is probably familiar with people who have done anything that's UV-cured. Basic process: basecoat, UV curing for a couple of minutes, color coat, UV curing for a couple of minutes, second color coat (all I needed though Piff needed three on her slightly lighter color), topcoat, UV curing for a couple of minutes. Then done! Totally, utterly done. Didn't need to waddle around on the balls of my feet or anything; when it was done, it was actually done.

Putting on the basecoat.

Applying the first coat of color.

I was sort of annoyed that the woman literally painted right to the very, very edge of my cuticle but I'm grateful for it now because it looks so much less grown out than it would've if she had left a gap.

Second coat of color.

UV curing after final topcoat step

Finished pedi! (Not a particularly good photo though...)

The one thing I do not like about Shellac (besides that I can't really afford to do it on a regular basis or buy the entire Shellac system) is that the color range is currently very narrow. I've heard that new colors are coming out but what they have so far is mostly your typical reds, pinks, nudes and a couple of vampies. Basically, colors I almost never wear... (though you wouldn't know it from my posts since coming back from my hiatus from the blog).

CND Shellac Wildfire, six weeks later

Why yes, that IS an Xbox controller on top of the most recent edition -- 6th? -- of the American Psychological Association's Publication Manual. If you added cough drops and antibiotics to the picture, it would be a very good summary of what my quarter has been like. Thank heavens it is OVER. OVER OVER OVER.

I'm told removal's a bit of a pain but I haven't tackled that yet...

CND Green Scene

This polish had me at hello.

CND Green Scene

So we all know about my issues with spending too much cash on polish, right? Well, in an effort to avoid paying $8 for Essie Pretty Edgy, I opted to purchase my first CND polish last week from TransDesign. I've heard great things about this brand forever and I am SO not disappointed.

Green Scene is an all-star polish of the highest degree. Let's start with the color - it is AMAZING. If a Lacoste polo shirt from the 80s (complete with the alligator on it) had a lovechild with a miniature golf course and made it a nail polish, it would be this. I know that sounds crazy, but I am serious - it is a perfect, bold green. Fabulous! Add to that a perfect opacity that could have been a one-coater if I wanted to really be careful, a glossy shine and fabulous wear and you have this little sweetie.

CND, you have a new admirer, and it is me. Woohoo!

Happy day, all!

As pristine as the newly fallen snow: some white swatches

This is probably going to be a visually boring post as it is devoted to one single color: white. But hopefully it'll be informative to somebody -- hopefully, D's whet some appetites on white nail polish with her Underware comparisons.

I'm pretty much always on a quest for a perfect opaque white creme. WnW White is often recommended. But in my experience, it isn't as fab as WnW Black. Very streaky and chalky on me.

I can't locate photos of all the opaque white polishes I've tried out and so before I forget, here are some of the ones I've tried but won't be showing photos of:

• Anna Sui 015: Soft white. As much as I love the candy rose scent of these polishes, this one was a nightmare. Three coats, totally uneven, goopy, and it never dried. (And it resembled White Out in texture.) Smelled nice... but nice-smelling nail polish is of no use to me when I can't wear it!

• Rescue Beauty Lounge Underware: Stark white. D's covered this one already. I've heard tell that this is a brilliant one-coat wonder! For me, that was simply not true. Three coats, also uneven. I tried it under the pastel jellies like Bikini Bottom for the "lit within" look... It looked pretty bad because the Underware was very streaky. So whatever power other people have over RBLs... I certainly do not possess it.

• CND Cream Washed: Beige-white. Not opaque at all. Trust me, I tried...

• OPI Alpine White: Stark white. It's been years since I've used it but have found this to be a pretty trustworthy white: two coater for me, IIRC.

OPI Tickets to Paradise

This is definitely not meant to be an opaque polish: the photo above shows five or six coats. It also leans a bit pinkish grey. It's a very nice polish with a pleasant jelly finish but not quite what I want in an opaque white creme.

Missha WH001

Soft white. Four coats, still VERY uneven. It was only a couple of dollars but totally not a worthwhile polish for me.

CND Brilliant White

Stark white. Four coats, very easy to build (please ignore the ugly chips that happened because it refused to dry for hours and hours). Certainly very close to what I want in a white (opaque, smooth and creamy in texture) but four coats was pushing my patience. Brilliant White was probably one of the better ones I've tried though!

American Apparel Cotton

Cream white. I like how soft this white is: it just has a tinge of tan in there. It does even out in three coats -- and does apply quite nicely for a white -- but man oh man, did this totally not dry at all.

Revlon Street Wear White Out

And saved the best for last: I need backups of this one. It's closer to a softer white than a super stark white. Passable at two coats but really needs three... but when you apply that third coat, it's opaque white polish perfection. So smooth (though not glossy). And so easy to apply! I hate having a discontinued polish be an HG of any sort -- and thus, the search continues -- but really, quite a jewel of a polish and one of the ones that I got for 4 for $1. :)

Playing with Konad and Layering

Hello! Guess what? I got 2 more grades the other day and I got....2 As! WOOHOO!!!! Now I'm in the midst of writing my 4th paper for the semester and then I'll be done! Thanks to everyone who offered their support - I really appreciate it. I won't have the 4.0 GPA I wanted but I'll aim for a 3.9.

This is yesterday's Konad of the Day (KOTD). I received all of the Coraline (one of my all-time favorite movies) Konad plates (from kit #1 and #2) for X-mas. Please be kind - I'm still new to Konad and I'm not good at it yet. Anyway, I started out with Orly Wild Wisteria, a dark purple. Then I layered CND Crimson Sparkle on top of it to make it more interesting. Lastly, I used Konad Special Polish in silver for the designs. My ring finger is just Wild Wisteria and I stamped the button/skull French design multiple times.





Thumb:


With flash:


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Blurred to show red sparkles:


Orly Wild Wisteria and CND Crimson Sparkle can be purchased from most of the major e-tailers. The Coraline Konad plates can be purchased from OCNailArt.

Have a great New Year's!

Reader Request: CND Colours and Effects swatches

Apparently, CND is trying for a renaissance. First, it shortens its official name to CND... much like how Hong Kong-Shanghai Banking Corporation is now only HSBC, except HSBC's name became incongruous because they ventured outside of those two cities and presumably, CND still does creative things with nail design. (So maybe the HSBC comparison was not appropriate.) After cutting its syllabage (not a word) in half, it decided to completely cut its old line of polishes and develop a whole new line that has nothing to do with the old line.

Methinks someone hired a consultant of some sort who told them CND would tank if it didn't pick up steam. But then, I'm really cynical -- maybe the company decided to remake itself because they had reconceptualized their conceptual premises, experienced spiritual awakenings and did a lot of soul-searching retreats in the mountains with monks and squirrels.

Still, regardless of who got the idea to change everything or what the impetus was to implement such drastic change in an old established company, you gotta admit... it takes balls.

The idea is simple: a collection of cremes, a collection of sheers, mix and match to your heart's content. Nevermind that a lot of nail polish owners already have their own collection of cremes and sheers -- and that a good percentage of these owners already have discovered the miracle of layering -- it's still an elegant idea. Despite being on no-buy, I had to scoop a couple of Colours and Effects up, just to see if their execution was as slick as their plan.

CND redid all their bottles; the design is very sleek. I love their shape and weight, even if they do hold about three-fifths as much polish as they used to (but cost more, big surprise). And I swear, in some meeting, someone must've held a bottle up and said, "Hey, when people hold these comfortably in their hands in order to take photos to blog about these, part of the logo will always be visible!" They're perfect bloggers' polishes: the bottle is curved one side (perfect for nestling in your palm), square on the other... with either the word Effects or Colours written in big clear font on the square side (perfect for easy identification). The first picture is NOT a good example but in my defense, it was the first photo I took and I was trying to figure out which grip was ideal.

CND Blueberry Crush

A blue-toned pastel lavender. A chalky color but not at all chalky in application. Oh. So. Smooth! (And I will sing praises of the new brush after the swatches.) Two coats.

CND Blueberry Crush, left to right: Scarlet Shimmer, Lavender Pearl, Jade Sparkles and no Effects

SEE, THIS is what I mean when I say perfect blogger polish: fits comfortably in my hand, lines up my fingers in a neat row and the brand is identifiable by the easily read text. GENIUS! Whomever they hired to design these was worth the money. (Also, I just can't get over how human-hand-friendly these little suckers are.) Anyway, back to the polish: can't see much of a difference in the Scarlet and Lavender; it's there but not too significant. Jade definitely sparkles! When I saw Scarlet and Lavender, I totally regretted getting both. When I did this swatch, I definitely regretted it. (It got better though...)

CND Bicycle Yellow

My elation at the super smooth application of the chalky-looking pastel above died with this one. I think I use yellow as my litmus test for if a brand knows what it's doing: it's such a finicky color that if you've got yellow right, that probably means you've spent time developing your polishes. It's not the worst yellow but definitely not the best: three coats and there's still a bald spot that's driving me crazy. Great color though.

CND Bicycle Yellow, left to right: Scarlet Shimmer, Lavender Pearl, Jade Sparkles and no Effects

Here the differences between Scarlet and Lavender are a tiny bit more noticeable. Unfortunately, whereas I think the appearance of Blueberry Crush was enhanced by the Effects, I don't think Yellow Bicycle got the same boost from these particular Effects. Although the Jade one made the yellow nice and sparkly (and I like sparkly). Buuuut... the Effects were truly best shown against a dark Colour base...

CND Asphalt

Dark grey. What a great color! And it marked the return to the fabulously smooth application I had with the first polish.

CND Asphalt, left to right: Scarlet Shimmer, Lavender Pearl, Jade Sparkles and no Effects

It was only when I used dark base that I realized what differentiated a Scarlet Shimmer and Lavender Pearl (besides the color difference which is very obvious here): the Pearl has a minor purple/green duochrome effect and the Shimmer only reflected red. Pretty cool! (No different from a lot of sheer topcoats but still...)

Click on the handy dandy chart to see a bigger version:

Let me first say what I love about these polishes (besides the design of the bottle):

1. The brush: good gravy, I LOVE this thing. It's flat like an OPI Pro-Wide but more flexible and not as wide (which is fabulous for my small nail beds... the Pro-Wide does miserable things to my "gap"). Gives you really great control of the polish and allows you to make really clean strokes. The rubberized grip is also a nice touch.
2. THE BRUSH. I'm going to write CND and ask them for as many of these extra brushes as they can spare!
3. The bru... (kidding!) The good application of the non-yellow polishes: because Colours are meant to be layered, they are opaque in two thin coats and they dry fairly quickly. In addition, the Effects are not at all thick or sticky. In other words, when you apply an Effect, there's not much of a reason to worry that your Colour's color will be dragged along for the ride from cuticle to free edge (to the brush, to the bottle... and then to all subsequent manis using that bottle). The polishes do what they were designed to do. Maybe I shouldn't be so impressed but I am.
4. The sparkle in the Jade Sparkle: it's aptly named and it's a great medium between glitter and shimmer.

All that being said... layering polishes is not exactly a revelation and the Effects I chose are kind of a snooze. I'm positive I have sheer polishes that do the same as the Shimmer and Pearl. Why would I buy new ones? (Actually, I'm sure I have dupes for the Colours too.) Everything that I have is enough to recreate really similar looks to what I can create with the CND line. So I personally do not "need" these. A person with a less extensive collection, however, would probably do very well to buy a bunch of these because they can mix and match and the very nature of the polishes encourages experimentation (something most polishes do not do). A salon just starting out could conceivably buy the entire line and not need anything else. It's a great "system" for that.

Also, this system isn't as conducive to the... dimensionality characteristic that I PERSONALLY love in so many polishes. For instance, the jelly polishes with glitter or flakies that get built up with each layer and glow from within (Nfu.oh does this wonderfully). The CND shimmer, pearl, sparkle just lies flat on the nail. Pretty but no depth. I did try some Effects layering and though I still didn't get the dimensional look, I got some interesting results nonetheless:

CND Asphalt with layered Effects

From left to right:

Index: Jade on top of Lavender

Middle: Jade on top of Scarlet

Ring: Lavender on top of Jade

Pinky: Scarlet on top of Jade

Doesn't seem to make a difference which one is on top or on bottom but you can definitely still see the effects of the Scarlet and Lavender with the Jade sparkling through!

Closeup on Asphalt with Effects (L->R, Scarlet Shimmer and Lavender Pearl)

By the way, these are available at Head2ToeBeauty at considerably less than in salons ($4.50 for a Colour, $5.50 for an Effect).

P.S. When several of you guys suggested CND, did you mean the new line or old line? I assumed new but it occurs to me that maybe people wanted to see the Oldies but Never-Drying Goodies.