OPI Tickle My France-y

I have discovered a love for neutral polishes.  I still love my reds and blacks and sparkles, but sometimes I just want something different.  Here I have OPI's Tickle My France-y.  It's a kind of taupey pink or lavender color, depending on what light you are in.  It's a cream, and I do love cream polishes.  Unfortunately, I have some ridges and depressions in my nails, particularly at the sides.  I need a good ridge-filling base coat.  Anyone have any suggestions?  I have Zoya's, but I'm not really happy with it.  I also need to pick up some orange sticks.  I need to start cleaning as I go - I still get polish on my cuticles!

This was taken with a flash indoors.  All pictures are 3 coats of Tickle My France-y with kbShimmer's Basic Training base coat and Clearly on Top top coat.  Love this stuff!

This one was outside, but there was no sun.

 I really love this color polish and I can't wait to try more of the neutrals in my stash.

Products I Am In Love With

It's been a long time since I've been here.  My nails are finally looking decent again and hopefully, I will start posting some pictures again soon.  I have been polishing my nails fairly regularly and I've tried some new products that I am absolutely in love with.

The first one is Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A-Peel.  I have a lot of glitter polishes, but truthfully I don't wear them too often because, like everyone else, I hate removing it.  It takes forever and I always end up with little glitter pieces all over everything.  So when I saw this product, I had to try it and it is amazing.  This is how my last glitter mani came off.

This was two coats of Glitter A-Peel, my new favorite base coat, two coats of Julep Jackie, two coats of Julep Firecracker, a coat of Gelous to smooth out the glitter and then my new favorite base coat.  It sounds like a lot of product and I guess it is, but I had no issues with application or drying time and it really didn't feel that thick.

My manicure wore about the same amount of time without chips using the Glitter A-Peel as it does without it.  I noticed that if I'm really using my hands a lot, doing things I shouldn't be doing with my nails like opening cans or trying to open boxes, it can cause the whole sheet of polish to just pop off, which happened to me today while I was getting ready for my cookout tomorrow.  That was me though, not the product.  Showering or washing dishes did not affect my manicure in any way other than normal wear and tear that you would get with any manicure.

I use it on my toes too, even when I use regular polish.  I can never seem to get all the polish off my toenails and it always seems to get stuck on the sides and I have a horrible time getting them clean.  This solved that problem for me.  Thanks to Glitter A-Peel, I can wear my pretty glitters on my fingers and toes again.  I love this stuff.  I may need to buy 10 more bottles.

Then there is my new favorite base and top coat from KBShimmer.  I love her polishes so when I saw she had a new nail prep solution (Nail Prep pH Balancing Pre-Polish Nail Treatment), base coat (Basic Training Nail Polish Base Coat) and top coat (Clearly On Top Quick Dry Top Coat) I snatched them up.  I love them.  Using all three of the products has made my manis last much longer without chipping.  I've been trying different top and base coats, trying to find one a really like, and I believe I finally found them.

The base coat is slightly sticky and my polish adheres really well to it.  The top coat leaves my polish super shiny and dries very quickly.  The nail prep dries quickly also and seems to really help everything stay on the nail surface better.

These three products are definite keepers in my book.  I don't ever want to be without them.

And now I have to go do my nails again since my mani peeled off. :)

Purple Polish

Every time I use another butter LONDON polish I like it more.  I still only buy it on sale because I think $14 for a bottle of polish is crazy, But I love it all the same.  So far, every one I have applied has gone on flawlessly and looked amazing, except I think Fash Pack was a little thick if I remember correctly.

My purple polish manicure was no different.  I started with two coats of BL Marrow and then added a coat of Knackered.

It was pretty, but I banged up the tips of my nails at work, so yesterday I touched them up and added another coat of Knackered.  It was so much prettier with two coats than just one.

Marrow was pretty on its own, but I think the Knackered gave it the zing that it was missing.  The shine and sparkle is subtle, not in your face glittery, but in the sun it really brings out the different colors.  Unfortunately, today I did not have my camera when the sun was shining. :)

In my opinion, I think Knackered is probably too sheer for me to wear on its own, but I love it over other polishes.  I think I want to try it over black or even red or orange.

I like this manicure so much that I will leave you with one more picture.

Have a good one!

OPI Liquid Sand

I love OPI polish.  I've been trying a lot of indies lately, but I always go back to OPI.  I never have any trouble with application, it wears well, I love their brush and they have a zillion colors.  The other day at Ulta I picked up Stay The Night (Because it is black and I was intrigued by the finish).  ANd I have to say, I love it.

My pictures aren't the greatest, but it reminds me of gravel, with sparkly bits.  The first coat was patchy, but it evened out nicely with two more coats.  I was kind of leary of no top coat, it just seemed wrong to me, but I went with it.  I had some tipwear after the first day, so I added another coat and sealed my nail edges this time and this stuff wears like iron.  I've had no chips or anything.  I wonder how hard it will be to get off.

You can see the sparkles better in these pictures.  this is a base coat and four coats of the polish.  I did use drying drops on it and it did not seem to affect the matte finish or the sparkles in any way.

Now I want the other colors. :)

Above The Curve - Fallen Angel

I've had this polish for a while and have been meaning to try it and I finally did last week.  I've previously used I Pink I Can, I Pink I Can, a limited edition pink holo polish that was absolutely gorgeous on me, so I was eager to try Fallen Angel as well.  I hope to get the entire Angel line at some point, but for now, this will have to do.

I love Above The Curve polishes.  They have gorgeous colors and they apply beautifully and they donate $1.00 of every bottle sold to Shriner's Hospitals for Children and help raise awareness for Scoliosis.  Lots of good about a little bottle of polish.

Fallen Angel is a holographic polish with pink/purple/blue color shifting shimmer.  As you can see, it is beautiful!

You can really see the blue shimmer here. I wish I had a better picture.  It really sparkles in the sunlight, but sunlight was scarce around here when I was wearing this polish.  The other colors of the shimmer are very noticeable in the sun and it sparkles like crazy.

I found this formula thicker than I Pink I Can and had to use three coats to get it even, but I think I little thinner will fix that right up.  Otherwise I was great.  It dried quickly and I just needed my normal one coat of top coat - the polish is extremely smooth when it dries. I did get tip wear fairly quickly and it shows in the picture so please forgive me.  The tip wear is no fault of the polish.  My nails are at that length where no matter what I am doing I am hitting the tips on something and I have the tip wear issue with every polish I use.  If I was a lady of leisure it wouldn't be a problem. :)

There are now many more colors in the Angel line and they are all gorgeous!  Stop over at their blog for info and you can purchase your very own bottle at their Etsy and Big Cartel shops.

Liebster Award

I’ve been nominated for a Liebster Award! I was nominated for this a while back by my friend Mal at Enchanted Nails and Fluffy Dog Tails but I was having a hard time finding blogs with less than 200 followers.  Today I had some time to do some searching and I found 11 blogs that looked really interesting to me, so I nominated them.  Now I just have to work on updating my blog list. :)  Thanks Mal, for nominating me!

The Liebster Award looks to recognize new bloggers with less than 200 followers and help them get discovered. 

The rules are, you must post 11 random facts about yourself, then answer the 11 questions the other person asked.  Then come up with 11 new questions and tag 11 new blogs with less than 200 followers. And you can't nominate the person who nominated you.

 11 Random Facts About Me: 

1.  I am addicted to Diet Pepsi

2.  I have 4 cats - Riley, Jasper, Emmett and Jack

3.  My dog hated my cats so I had to take her back to the APL - it was sad.

4.  I smoke

5.  I used to write Trixie Belden fan fiction

6.  I named by blog after my dog - Ruby Tuesday

7.  I have 11 nieces and nephews

8.  I have lived in Cleveland or a suburb of Cleveland all my life

9.  My nail polish collection is embarassing large - especially since I only started polishing my    nails again this year.

10.  I have worked in banking for over 30 years.

11.  I have never been married.

11 Questions from Mal:

1. What’s your favorite mass market polish brand?

China Glaze and OPI

2. What’s your favorite indie brand (or which do you want to try the most if you don’t have a favorite yet?)

I'm still trying out my indie polishes, but I adore Above The Curve, Mentality and Different Dimension.  I'd love to try Girly Bits though.

3. What’s at the top of your bucket list?

You know, I don't have a bucket list.

4. What tv show would you want most want to star in?

Sons of Anarchy - Jax, yummm....

5. Does Tyra Banks & America's Next Top Model make you laugh or shake your head in disgust?

Both!

6. Desert or mountains?

Desert

7. Have you ever eaten dessert first?

Often

8. Have you ever won a contest?

Not that I remember.

9. What would your dream job be?

FBI profiler

10. If you could have a super power, what it would be?

Invisibility

11. What’s your favorite book of all time?

Trixie Belden - Gatehouse Mystery.


My 11 Questions

1.  When did your nail polish love start?
2.  What is your favorite food?
3.  Do you have any pets?
4.  What is your favorite drink?
5.  What is your go to nail polish color?
6.  Have you lived in any other state other than the one you live in now?
7.  What kind of car do you drive?
8.  Do you recycle?
9.  What is your favorite dish to make in a crockpot?
10.  Do you enjoy exercise?
11.  What is your all time favorite TV show?


I nominate:

Lena Loves Nails
Kat Stays Polished
And Then There Was Polish
Glittery Fingers & Sparkling Toes
Can't Hold My Lacquer
Denny's Digits
Erica's Nails and More
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Go Polish Yourself
Lacque Enthusiasm
Nail FREAK

Jolly Holly

Here is my Christmas Day manicure.  Not very creative but still I thought it was pretty.

I tried a new product today.  When I ordered my polish from Maya, I noticed they also had a new Smoothing Coat for Glitter, so I picked up a bottle.  I didn't have a chance to try it until today.

I really think it made a difference.  I used a base coat, two coats of China Glaze Jolly Holly (a perfect Christmas green IMO), one coat of kbShimmer Candy Cane Crush, one coat of the Maya Smoothing Coat for Glitter and a coat of Seche Vite.  Using the Smoothing Coat and the Seche really made my nails smmoth and even.  I think one more coat of Seche would have made them perfectly smooth.

The smoothing coat is not a quick dry topcoat and is recommended that you  use it under a fast dry topcoat.  I did and had no issues with the dry time.

The Chine Glaze went on perfectly as usual and dried very fast.  The topcoat of Candy Cane Crush gave it a nice contrasting look but I wish I had been able to pick up more red on the crush.  It still looks all festive and Christmassy anyway.

Merry Christmas everyone!