Stamped art on Nfu Oh 61 and Julep Renee

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Hello again. Here is another mangled manicure. I was truly smitten with this manicure. I think that Julep Renee is a perfect spring polish. The formula was a little thicker than most, but still super smooth and creamy. I stamped over Renee with Revlon ColorStay Amethyst using bornprettystore's m69. I had some trouble getting the image to pick up and apply completely, but I was pleased with how the two purples complimented one another. The purples brought me right into the springtime mood. I don't have a holographic polish basecoat, so I used essie matte about you as the basecoat. I topped the tip of the nail with Nfu Oh 61. The application was a little streaky and difficult, but I think that it's just a matter of practice to determine how much polish you need on the brush to get even coverage. I then stamped over the join of the purple and holographic polish with bornprettystore's M19.

Here is where I made my mistake. I will not use a topcoat over holographic nail polish again. The manicure looked nice, but would have looked worlds better with the full holographic effect of the polish. As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, topcoat eliminated the purple flash from the holographic polish.

This was definitely a short-lived manicure. After only 4 days, I experienced some significant chipping. I tried to touch up the tips, but the polish just wanted to keep chipping. Normally, when a polish chips so quickly, I don't wear it again except as accents, but Nfu Oh 61 is so spectacular that I will accept it as a one to three day manicure and just enjoy staring at its flashiness for those few days.

What polishes or colors bring your mind to spring? Any favorite holographic polishes?



Head over and take a look at some of the beautiful manicures at the nail files-week 16.

I'll be sharing my TARDIS Galaxy nails next week. I am in Doctor Who withdrawal right now, so I decided to soothe my longing with some nail varnish therapy. Happy polishing.

~Alexis

Revlon Colorstay Buttercup, Fairies, and Vegetables

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Here is my first, very beat up manicure. On my nails, is Revlon Colorstay nail enamel in Buttercup. It is a lovely creamy yellow. It garnered quite a few compliments. As I mentioned in my previous post, the application was streaky, but smoothed nicely with a topcoat. I am not crazy about the brush either. It is very rounded and the bristles are somewhat uneven, making it difficult to get the color on my entire nail without straying onto the cuticles.

As far as living up to the name "Colorstay," I am a little disappointed. At the end of one day, I had a small chip on my right thumb and middle finger. By the second day, the right index finger had a tiny chip. On the positive side, the chips did not get much bigger until about four days into the manicure.

The photo above is a little blurry (sorry), but it shows some crazing of the polish near the top, left side of my thumb that appeared about three days into the manicure. On such a pale color, this cracking was pretty noticeable.

This was not the most long-lasting manicure, however I did put a lot of wear and tear on my hands this week. I had a very messy cooking day that required tons of hand washing. I also started about a quarter of the seeds for the vegetable garden and two terrarium plantings with my daughter. This will still be a go-to yellow polish for me, because when fresh, it is lovely and it did not stain my nails like other yellow polishes I used in the past.

This is one of the only seedlings that has sprouted so far. This cute little plant will become some delicious kale. We planted jalapeno peppers, orange bell peppers, stevia, cauliflower, swiss chard, and a couple of flowering plants like hollyhocks, lavender, and calendula. I am taking a risk with some of these plants; this will be my third year with a vegetable garden and the past two years my peppers, stevia, and cauliflower have failed to produce. If anyone has some tips for growing these, I welcome the help.

As an early Easter present, we gave our daughter a fairy terrarium. She is four years old, so plants under her care would not survive if they needed water on a regular basis. The terrarium seems perfect because it only needs water about once a month. I was also happy that the seeds germinated so quickly. Seeing such rapid growth really keeps her engaged in the process. She loves the rainbow path the little plastic fairy; I call it a fairy decoy, to attract more fairies to her little garden.

That is all for this week's manicure. Next week, I will be using the Glitter Gradient French Mani Tutorial from The Hungry Asian with festive green sparkles. I've never done a glitter gradient manicure and am really excited to see how it turns out.

Fresh Paint

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Hello, and welcome to "Mangling my Manicure." I plan to post information about my manicure after I have worn it for a week. I will include at least two photos of each manicure, one when it is new and (hopefully) beautiful and another photo once I have worn the polish for the full week or until my nails are chipped to the point that I can't look at them anymore.

Let me begin by telling you about the nail products that I will always be using. I wear one coat of Seche Retain. I am very fortunate to have strong nails, but I have never been able to grow them for a long time without a break. I started using Seche Retain last summer on the nail and under the free edge. My nails have become even stronger. There are so many times that I jam or catch a fingernail, feeling sure that it must have cracked, but most of the time the nail is still in great shape with a little chipped polish. The other great thing about Retain is that it is Big 3 free. As i recall, the other two treatments in that Seche line, Rebuild and Recondition may not be able to make that claim. I follow Retain with one coat of Orly Bonder Rubberized basecoat. I don't know if my nails are super oily, but without this basecoat, my polish will sometimes chip the very first day. Finally, I top my polish with INM Out the Door Fast Drying topcoat.

I'm excited to show you my first manicure. On my nails are 2 coats of Revlon Colorstay in Buttercup. This is my first time using any Colorstay polish, but I have been happy with several other Revlon nail enamels. The application of this polish was a little streaky, but it looked much better than I expected after the addition of a topcoat. I did have to add third coats of Buttercup to my thumbs to combat the streakiness. I really love the look of pale yellow polishes, but found that Sinful Nails Unicorn stained my nails pretty badly. I hope that this polish does not stain. I'll get back to you next week and let you know how well my manicure stood up to seed starting for my vegetable garden and other activities.

Before I sign off, I love A England's Dragon that was posted about on the Swatchaholic. Definite lust going on right now. Her photos show it off spectacularly. What colors are making your mouth water right now?