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.

Loreal Walk on the Beach 300: Review

 

I'd call this a cool leaning to neutral light tan. Basically I saw it, and thought, "Ohhhh... I've got the perfect color to go with this." I had gotten Pure Ice Viva Las Vegas a few days before and had already done my nails with it. So this was just sitting there, looking all creamy and pretty, and I knew what I was going to do with it.

On it went, and I do like the way it looks as the tips of the nails, but for the beds, it went on kind of streaky. It took two thick coats to get a smooth surface, and it still looks a little uneven.

Oh well, that'll happen sometimes when you layer polish A over polish B, and the tips looked quite good.

Next came the on it's own test, where I took off that look, and went for Walk on it's own.

I needed three coats to get true to bottle color.

That's sixteen hours after I put Walk on. You can see there was a tiny bit of bubbling on my ring finger, and there's some tip wear on the first finger. This is my left hand, and I'm a righty, SAHM, and writer, so it's not like those fingers were doing anything all that strenuous. (I should probably also mention that 9 of those 16 hours were spent in bed.)

Close up after sixteen hours:

Now, when I test a polish, I don't use a top coat, and only use a base coat if I think it'll stain. I don't want to test how well my top and base coat work. I already know how well they wear. So those pics are Walk all on it's own.

Still that's more tip wear than I like, so I decided to camouflage it with a second color combination I had planned for this. Walk on the Beach x OPI I've Got A Herring Problem. It's a basic, put on one color (Walk) let dry, apply tape, paint second color (Herring), remove tape, volia, you have a manicure type of thing.

Pretty combo, yeah? Well, I think so. But still, why is one finger all blue, and why is there some sort of weird goopy thing on the thumb?

Here's what happened when I took the tape off the first finger:

Yeah, that's pretty ugly.

Remember, Walk had been on for more than sixteen hours at that point. So, it's not like I didn't give it enough time to dry, and it just peeled right off.

I honestly don't know why this happened to the thumb. It wasn't like that before I put the top coat over the manicure on, but it was after. (Yes, I use a top coat when I'm not testing for wear.)

I left my right hand with just Walk on it. I wanted to see how it did on a longer test. This is 40 hours after I put it on.

 

So, that's a bit more wear and chipping than I like in a nail polish. Anyway, I like this color, but I'm not terribly impressed by the wear or the application. 

Other reviews:

http://kittypolishnbags.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/loreal-walk-on-the-beach/

http://prettysquared.blogspot.com/2012/10/notd-loreal-colour-riche-polish-walk-on.html

http://www.allaboutthejoy.com/2012/10/loreal-walk-on-the-beach/

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...)

Pure Ice: Viva Las Vegas

Pure Ice Viva Las Vegas

Pure Ice Viva Las Vegas is the sort of color that makes me squee with joy. It's a purply-taupey-white-gold-shimmery little bottle of joy. I love, love, love this color.

Two coats provided pretty solid color, and three got me to to true to bottle level. Depending on how I hold my hands, and how the light hits them, I get everything from taupe to shimmery gold, to an almost blue-tinged light dirty-purple (that absolutely refused to be photographed). Did I mention I love this color?

I am somewhat less impressed by the dry time.

So, I put it on, skipping the top coat because I wanted to see how it wore on it's own. And the correct answer was, great, once it fully dried. Now, I used OPI's drying drops, because I just don't have hours to lay about without moving my hands. Most of the time I plop on the drops, give my hands a good twenty minutes of down time, and I've got bullet-proof nails.

Not so much for this shade. An hour after I put this on, I was getting dings and scratches. Two hours later, and I had bullet-proof nails. There's a tiny scratch on the middle finger, and I ended up with a large ding on the thumb, that also refused to be photographed.

Once it dried, I got two days of no visible wear or tear. Little tip wear by day three. On day four the nail was showing through on the tip. No chips or fading. 

Other Press:

http://beautybycrystalstore.blogspot.com/2012/11/mani-monday-pure-ice-viva-las-vegas.html

http://lizzysblogplace.blogspot.com/2012/12/pure-ice-underwear-4-viva-las-vegas.html

http://glitterandunicorns-angiebee.blogspot.com/2012/11/pure-ice-swatchfest.html 

Other Shots:

Free Zoya

Head over to Temptalia, she's got a code for 3 free Zoya nail polishes. You pay $10 in shipping and handling. (I guess that means, 3 Zoyas for $10.) It's good from today until 1/12/2013

I'm getting:

 

 

Daul (All pics from Zoya.com)

Maisie

 

Jinx

How about you?