Ballou, Bayou, Ballroom?

Bayou Blitz was a long time lemming for sure—as long as I had wanted it, it had not been restocked I couldn’t find it anywhere (except eBay :( = $$$). Then a stroke of luck hit when a sweet gal swapped with me! I've said it before (no I haven't, but I will in the future) and I'll say it again: if you really love a lemming, let it free, and it will come to you.

Bayou Blitz arrived in all of its neon, black light reactive glory, matte glitters ablaze from within. I hadn’t actually thought about it until after application that Blitz is a matte glitter (in a base of gorgeous sheer bluey green neonish wonder). As far as I can remember this is my first matte glitter. I was having application problems, but I think this is probably due to my impatience between coats drying.

I found my base had a little bit of the goo quality that some colored jellies have and that is hard for me to work with because I am polishing challenged. Second try was better for sure, but because it was packed with teeny glitters I found removal to be best with some individual pick off action combined with my regular acetone scrubby jar. Of course there was some fishing action with the gorgeous GIANT glitters, but I don't think it would be possible for there not to be for that sparse effect to take place, which looks great here, imo :)

Bayou Blitz. Natural Light. Angle One.

Bayou Blitz. Natural Light. Angle Two.

Bayou Blitz. Natural Light. Shade.

Bayou Blitz. Flash. Macro.

Bayou Blitz. Natural Light. Macro.

I do wonder the story behind the name on this. As far as I can tell the ONLY thing called Bayou Blitz is this polish. And maybe a band? Maybe my curiousity will be fulfilled when my dream of going to the bayou is realized ;) PS. The Misfits to my knowledge DID NOT cover Ballroom Blitz.

A favorite, revisited!

I said I would dedicate another post to Jawbreaker and here it is! There's not much more to say--original Jawbreaker post A sheer-ish white base with almost all rainbow colors of glitter: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple, I maintain that Jawbreaker looks like, well, a jawbreaker, only more beautiful. 

I've seen some really beautiful paint jobs with Jawbreaker and I've been practicing, but I'd like to get it down perfect (if you have any tips...feel free to leave). So you may see another post on this lovely polish! Stay tuned. 

Jawbreaker. Natural Light (some sun).
 

Jawbreaker. Natural Light (shade).

Sometimes things don't go exactly how one plans and while I love every flavor of pudding that comes to mind, I had to use a nail wheel for this pudding. Pudding Lane is a gorgeous turquoise possibly teal but I'd say turquoise blue sheer base with two different small hex glitters--a navy and a lime greenish gold. Nails Inc and Sephora say gold for the latter but they look more green to me, which might just be the mix of the blue polish over the gold.

I think Pudding Lane applied similarly to it's counterparts Sugar House and Sweets, maybe closer to Sugar House in that it was a tad thicker, though my brush in this bottle was a funky brush, it's bristles splaying every which way :( imo best method as with many thicker polishes is maximum dry time between. It's easy because these dry pretty fast! 

I used one coat each of Gelous and Poshe on top of each swatch below. I didn't use my own nails for this because after using these other two glitter bombs over the past week, my nails felt like they needed a break from the serious removal process.

As for using Sprinkles as a topcoat, I've seen a couple people do it and it looks awesome! I have layered it below over OPI Teal the Cows Come Home, which was the closest color I had to the base. I think a contrasting color would look awesome under Sweets Way, perhaps a light pink :) perhaps with just using one coat, I wouldn't get the break neck removal :)

Sprinkles...

Natural Light (overcast). Pudding Lane. Sweets Way. Sugar House Lane (from left).

 

Natural Light. Pudding Lane. One. Two. Three. One + OPI Teal the Cows Come Home. Two + TtCCH.

IMO in nail "three" and "Two + TtCCH" the extra layers give super depth. But as in One + TtCCH, I think even one coat over a base color looks great.

Artificial Light. Same order as above. I realized I labeled these in the photo, but they came out tiny :(

 

Pudding Lane. Macro Bottle.

OPI Teal the Cows Come Home and Pudding Lane.

 $40 in one place is a lot for me to drop on polish, yet I realize I don't have a favorite from this line. I wonder if it's because of my failure to buy the pink! I did this because I own two versions of Lippmann's Candy Shop and thought it was close enough. Which is your fav? Which should be mine ;)

Glowing Up--One of Several nom de Glow Polishes

My nails still need a little break from the major glitters. I couldn’t get this polish out of my mind all week though so after seeing it at the Walgreens I had to add it for $3.49 (not $1.49! See below) to my purchase and slather it on right away.

As I desperately brushed on this screaming neonish green shimmer with an arresting yellow flash, I was pleasantly surprised by the glide-y and thin smooth application.

After testing WnW’s Spoiled Collection, I didn’t have high hopes for their other special collections, especially since I’ve heard that the Fergie Collection is comprised of many colors from the “Spoiled,” repackaged, renamed, and double the price. See:

http://nouveaucheap.blogspot.com/2012/06/wet-n-wild-fergie-nail-color-collection.html

http://impoverishedbypolish.blogspot.com/2012/07/fergie-by-wet-n-wild-dupes-displays-and.html

Say what? Scandosh. 

The Glowing Stick! Glowstick. Full Sunlight.

Glowstick. Shaded Natural Light.

A very happy surprise, application was pretty pleasant, all except for the brush...the sad, sad, brush. It was a combo of the “Spoiled” fluff n’ stuff brush, the slant Dior/Nicole/that weird Sally Hansen Brush. Not so easy to use for me, but do-able. If you want to do three coats I think it's possible, because I found two to be a tiny bit patchy, but for me (die hard two-coater) three was too thick.

Wear was only about 1 day, maybe two. I used a coat of Gelous, waited and did Poshe, to avoid bubbling. And voila...glowissimo! I'm in glowve. Dare we say...Fergalicious? Eh...

A Brief Interlude

I had to take a quick break from my Sprinkles swatching to show you another sweet polish--one of my fav Pretty and Polished, if not my favorite. This is Candy Coated. Its lovely pinky lilac or lilac-y pink with multi-sized pink and purple hexes seemed to glide onto my nails. It’s versatility allows it to look beautiful in two coats (slightly sheer) three coats (opaque), and one coat (over another polish).

While I normally prefer multicolor glitters, Candy Coated is really a standout for me. Part of it is surely the formula, but the pretty girly-ness of it, without being sickeningly sweet really appeals to me. It's a pretty unique combo, as well. I tried it as a jelly sammich with Beclaus I Said So $OPI and I thought that was pretty cute. I have a crappy picture of this.

I would recommend not using a quick dry topcoat over this, unless you have one that results in minimal shrinkage, because I think I noticed some. It goes on smoothly without a topcoat though, so you may skip all together. I was wondering if Candy Coated is anything like Tart, but I don’t own both. Thoughts?

Candy Coated (two coats). Artificial Light.

Candy Coated (three coats). Natural Light (overcast).

Candy Coated (three coats). Close up.

Candy Coated. Macro.

Hello, Sweetheart!

Today we have: White Sprinkles! Or Sweets Way—a lovely sheerish white with lots of smallish light blue, light pink, and silver hexes.

Sweets applied a bit easier than Sugar House. There was a lot less chunking and it went on my nails much smoother. I think this formula was ideal and they did a great job. These colors are cupcake adorable and super sweet as the name implies.

The one issue for me that I think will continue to be a problem with Nails Inc is the lid :( I don’t know if the big silver lid is too helpful to my not too dextrous fingers, as pretty as I think it is. 

Sadly, I have a little issue with these pretty Sprinkle polishes, which is, as you can see, a little bit of shrinkage, even with one coat of Gelous, some waiting, and then a quick dry topcoat (Poshe). In pics you an actually see where the polish shrunk and the basecoat stayed the same size, haha! It took me forever to figure out what that was! No topcoat or just Gelous or something similar might work--I'd love tips :)

Sweets Way. Natural Light (overcast).

Sweets Way. Artificial Light.

Sweets Way. Flash.

What Do We Have Here :)

Nails Inc, the UK-based polish-maker has released a line of what I will call jelly-sandwich in a bottle polishes called Sprinkles or Special Effects Sprinkles. So far in the US I believe they are only available at select Sephora stores (where I purchased--I had to go in the hidden drawers) or on the Sephora website.

Stock Photo.

Sprinkles is a line of fairly sheer jelly-ish polishishes with smallish hex glitters tossed in. The jelly gives depth to the glitters for an awesome sammichy effect, yay! If I am correct, three of the polishes have three colors of glitters and one has only two colors (but is awesome and I think two is the perfect choice).

There are four colors and I'm lucky or crazy enough to have three of the pretties :) The color I "NEEDED" was the one I keep referring to as brown, though its name is Sugar House Lane. This is what I have on today. 

A friend said she layered one coat and it turned out great. I told her it was reminding me of all the favorite mushroomy colors--OPI Tickle My France-y, You Don't Know Jacques, and $OPI Metro Chic. Maybe RBL Grunge, but not so much as I have only seen this color once in person :( 

 

Without further ado...

Sugar House Lane. Sunlight.

Sugar House Lane. Flash.

Sugar House Lane. Macro.

Application on this may have seemed a little...lumpy, I guess. But I think that is because the glitter is so incredibly dense and smooths out with topcoat. Because of this and because I did two coats--one coat is absolutely possible, I just felt a little patchy--I decided to give Gelous a shot. I think this was actually a great decision, because even though I put on my quick drying Poshe after the polish was mostly dry (probably because of high glitter content these dry super fast), there was major shrinkage--major shrinkage. Gelous topped with Poshe really helped to lessen that issue. Tasty!

I can't help but be drawn to pastels. Though I almost won't touch touch them in the clothing or accessories department, they were huge in the late 80s and the 90s and that is when I did most of my growing up (sort of). It's part of the color nostalgia of my generation. That and mauve.

The last polish I have from the China Glaze Up and Away collection: Refresh-mint. I have four or five colors that are in or near this minty/pastel turquoise color family and I did a few comparison swatches. 

Pastels seem to have a fast dry time which can be helpful, but I don't think they are known for their ease of application. I find the fast dry can also equal add to challenging application because it leads to dragging, especially at the tips (evident on nail wheel swatches). I encountered this dry-time effect with Refresh-mint.

In pics I swatched it next to Mint Candy Apple (left), I think it looks close in the pictures, but also is a bit more toward being a light baby blue with green mixed in, slightly muted, where Refresh is more of a true pastel lime. I also added in Nicole by OPI My Lifesaver because I thought it would be similar. Obviously it is way off (in pics and real life) and more like a blue-leaning turquoise. 

Two more I might have added would be Milani Dressmaker which I couldn't find the YSL mint green from the Spring Duo no.7 which I didn't think to do. Oops O.o

 Refresh-Mint. Sunlight.

Refresh-Mint. Mint Candy Apple. My Life Saver. Refresh-Mint. Shade.

Mint Candy Apple. My Life Saver. Refresh-Mint. Artificial Light.

One of my first nail pictures. Refresh-Mint with Spoiled Don't Pet My Peacock and Trust Fund Baby topped with Don't Touch my Tutu.