All that Glitters is Blue

I had OPI's I've Got A Herring Problem on my right hand, and Sally Hansen's Lustre Shine in Firefly on my left. After forty-eight hours, Herring was done for the wear test. But Firefly was still going strong. Since trying to take polish off of one hand while wearing it on the other never works for me, I decided to spruce up Herring by adding a coat of all of my blue (or blueish) glitters.

Here they are all together:

I did one coat of each, just to see how they looked.

On the thumb:

Pure Ice French Twist is a black jelly with blue mirco glitter and hex glitter. It's got a very nice depth, looking like the glitter is embedded in a slick of color, not just glued onto the finger.

On the first finger:

Seriously, that's one coat.

Sally Henson Gem Crush 01 Showgirl Crush. That's one coat. This is insanely packed with glitter that goes on like a dream. Tons of silver micro glitter and little bitty blue hexes.

Middle finger:

Really, in most lights it reads green.

Sinful Colors Nail Junkie. This one is not very blue, it's more a teal-y green. I love looking at this one, it's green jelly base, with silver and green micro glitter and copper, pink, blue, and green flashing holo glitter. Sooo pretty.

Ring finger:

 
Spoiled Trust Fund Baby. This was a Littlest Dude pick. It's a pretty straight forward mix of blue, black, pink, and silver glitter. Not a ton of it in there, but it does a nice job as an accent.

Pinkie:

NYC Long Wearing 105 Starry Silver Glitter. Name pretty much says it all. It's silver micro glitter with pink and blue hexes. The Hexes don't seem to want to join the party on the nail. They'd rather hang out on the brush, so getting them on my nail was a bit of a challenge, but eventually I got a few on there. 

OPI: I've Got A Herring Problem Review

I got this one while stalking about Ulta, enjoying one of their sales. I thought it was a matte gray-blue while in the store. Once home, I noticed it was a nicely sparkly little thing, with some tiny glassy bits adding a little bling to what might otherwise be a drab color.

I wasn't sure if it would stain or not, so I put a base coat on to go with it. Usually I try to test out a color sans base or top coat. I already know how well my base/top coat combo works (five or so days with no issues besides a bit of tip wear.) I want to know how well the polish wears on it's own! But in that I'm still growing out an unfortunate experience with a red polish, I'm being careful about this sort of thing now.

Three fairly thin coats got me true to bottle color. It's not entirely opaque, I can still see the nail line if the light hits my hand right, but the color looks the same as it does in the bottle, so I stopped at three.

Coats one and two were both a little patchy, but by coat three everything had evened out nicely.

Here it is right after I did the manicure:

Seriously, right after. I haven't even cleaned up the edges, yet.

Twenty four hours:

Little bit of tip wear on my first finger.

Forty-eight:

The dreaded hot shower test killed this one. None of those chips were there until I hopped in  nice, long, steamy shower. So, I got 47.5 hours of just dandy out of this, and my guess is that if I had held off on the shower this would have worn a whole lot longer. 

I'm fairly pleased with this one. A bit more wear time would have been good, but it's a great color, and wore just fine as long as I didn't stress it too badly.


Other Press:

http://www.the-crumpet.com/2012/02/opi-i-have-herring-problem.html

http://www.amandalandish.com/2012/04/opi-i-have-herring-problem.html

http://www.nailzilla.com/2012/02/opi-i-have-herring-problem-holland-2012.html



I used it in this look with L'Oreal's Walk on the Beach.

And a different look I did a bit earlier with OPI's In Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Yeah, I've worn a few letters off my keyboard. It's one of the
rarely mentioned perils of being an author.

Blue on Blue

I Have A Herring Problem

In Her Majesty's Secret Service

Since I'm remarkably lackluster at fine detail painting, most of the manicures you'll see here are variations on the French tip theme. Mostly I like playing colors off of each other, and something about a monochrome/texture variation just makes me happy.

I was in Ulta, eyeballing the OPIs because they were on sale and found two I knew I had to put together.

OPI In Her Majesty's Secret Service and OPI I Have A Herring Problem. In real life they're both a bit more blue than they came out in these pictures. Both look more like grays that had blue added, as opposed to blues that have been toned down with gray.  I Have A Herring Problem is lighter and has a subtle glimmer to it, a sort of glass particle look, rather than a micro glitter. In Her Majesty's Secret Service looks like silver/gunmetal shimmer in a blackened navy base.

Together, I think they're looking pretty snazzy in a subtle sort of way.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri: Brisk Blue

When I'm out and about running errands with my youngest, we have a deal. If he behaves, he can get a little treat. When we're at Target, that little treat is often a bottle of nail polish. (This is how I actually ended up collecting nail polish, and why I have so few pinks, corals, pastels, or "girly" colors in my collection. My four-year-old son may like nail polish, but he does not like pink.)

This is the latest addition to the collection due to Littlest Dude behaving.


It's a cream finish bright blue. Pretty enough, but nothing earth shaking.


Littlest Dude wears his polish on his toenails. Between the fact that it lasts longer on his toes than on his fingers, and that no one teases him about it, because he usually has shoes on, it's a win all the way around.

I thought the formula was very thin and drippy. For painting his nails, which are awfully small, (and likely to move about suddenly, because at four he's not the king of sitting still) the wide brush and drippy texture were problematic. However, assuming you do not intend to paint a four-year-old's toenails, this combo of wide brush and thin formula may be a bonus.  And if you're an on the go sort of person (like, for example a four-year-old) the quick dry aspect is very welcome.

Alas, since Littlest Dude was the test subject for this polish, I can't give a very detailed accounting of how long it lasts or how well it wears. I can report, that after three days of running about (in shoes and out) that it's chipped and flaked, but most of it is still on his nails. I can also report that for him, a good long-lasting polish is one that's still on three days later. So, it's lasting longer than average, but it is not unscathed by the trials of life attached to a very active little person.


Other reviews:

http://eatinglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/08/nail-of-week-brisk-blue.html

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2009/05/sally-hansen-insta-dri-summer-shades.html#.UOSd9ay5Xqc

http://latteandstilettos.blogspot.com/2011/03/photos-sally-hansen-insta-dri-in-blue.html

Michael Westen on the Beach

I'll admit, my first thought upon buying Loreal's Walk on the Beach was that it would go really well with Pure Ice's Viva Las Vegas. My second thought was a color combination I'd been thinking about for... oh... call it two months now.  I already had the blue, OPI I've Got A Herring Problem, all I needed was the perfect light tan color.

And there it was!Sitting in it's little square bottle, waiting for me...

Behold, Michael Westen on the Beach.

Now, some may claim that I'm obsessed with Burn Notice. They might bring up this or this as proof of that. To which I say, well, call a spade a spade and don't be shy about it. Of course, I'm obsessed with Burn Notice! It's worth being obsessed about.


I really like these two colors together, and just wish that Walk on the Beach wore better. I did a basic tape stripe for the nails and ended up with:

Yeah, that's all sorts of ugly.

And this:

Now bear in mind, I painted Walk of the Beach 16 hours before adding I've Got A Herring Problem, so it's not like Walk should have done anything besides play nice. There was no chance that it was wet.

Anyway, I got three out of five nails done well, and one passably so.

Will I do this look again? Maybe.  Especially if I'm looking for something for a day or two. Like maybe to celebrate Season Seven when it comes on in the Summer. (Or maybe by then I'll have a color combo for Fi...)