Thursday, December 20, 2012

NOTD: Christmas Tree Nails

Hello all!  Can you believe that Christmas is only five days away??  I still have one more gift to buy, but I'm dreading shopping.  I went to Ulta today to use up my $5 off coupon and it was a mad house.  I can't imagine how bad the mall is going to be tomorrow...

My NOTD today is actually a repeat from a few months ago.  After I put it on it reminded me so much of a decorated Christmas tree that I knew I would have to repeat it closer to the holidays.  I started with one easy coat of China Glaze Jolly Holly, a forest green shimmer...


Then I topped it with one coat of China Glaze Ray-Diant.


For some reason the first few nails I apply this polish to always end up with a denser coat of glitter.  You can see my index finger has way more than the other three.  Doesn't the multicolored glitter look like Christmas lights?


I had to take these pictures inside, because this is what it looked like outside:


What you can't see in this pic is that the wind was crazy (see the snow blowing across the porch?).  Fortunately I didn't have anywhere to go, so I watched the snow fall out the window while sipping hot chocolate instead.  ;)

The next week is promising to be a little hectic for Mr. Innocuous and I, so if I apologize if I lag a bit in posting.  If I don't talk to you before then, Merry Christmas!  Hope everyone has safe and happy holidays.

as always... innocuous

(Products featured in this post were purchased with my own money.)

Monday, December 17, 2012

NOTD: China Glaze Ahoy!

Hello again!  Sorry to have missed posting on Friday - we had some last-minute changes of plan and I ended up leaving home with naked nails.  -collective gasp-  Actually, it seems like I've had naked nails more often than not lately.  I'm desperately trying to get the white glue basecoat to work for me, because I hate removal and my poor cuticles don't need the acetone, but without fail the polish starts to pop off my fingers one by one within hours.  Eventually it gets to the point where it looks ridiculous, so I peel them all off and go bare until I paint them next.  Argh!  I've tried changing my topcoat, different finishes of polish, putting basecoat on underneath the glue (makes it nigh impossible to peel), wiping my nails with acetone before polishing...the list goes on.  I feel like I'm either going to have to give it up or decide to live with the limited up-time.  :(  If anyone else has had similar problems with the glue basecoat and worked out a solution, let me know!!

Anyway.  Today's NOTD is China Glaze Ahoy!, my favorite pink in my whole collection.  It's a perfect berry pink that's not too bright and not too pale, and it's full of gold-to-red glass fleck shimmer.  Squishy, deep, sparkly.. this baby has it all.  Lest you think I kid, I have included this in my list of Top 20 Polishes on the nail board every year since it came out.

The glass fleck finish was really hard for my camera to catch, so my lighting today might look a bit different than usual...



In the sunlight the color washes out a little, but the glass fleck shines.



That's it for today!  Hope you love Ahoy! as much as I do.  And if you have any protips for using a glue basecoat, leave 'em in the comments!  Thanks for reading!

as always... innocuous


(Products featured in this post were purchased with my own money.)

Thursday, December 13, 2012

NOTD: Holiday Glitz

I headed out to the mall today to brave the crowds and try to finish up my Christmas shopping.  To get into the holiday spirit, I decided to try a festive manicure with China Glaze Party Hearty.  Party Hearty is fabulous, but it's definitely a polish that you can really only wear at Christmastime... red and green glitter isn't very versatile!  I have only gotten to wear it once (the year I bought it; last year I was in Germany and didn't have it with me), so I had to make absolutely sure I used it more this year.  I was initially going to put PH over a silver or a white, but as I was going through my stash my sister suggested gold - kudos to her, because I think it's a perfect combination!  I used two coats of Orly Luxe, a cool-toned gold foil, and topped it with one coat of Party Hearty.

It finally got cold here, so my fingers look a bit shrivel-y in these pictures.  I don't have wrinkly hands normally, I promise!


Orly Luxe is so incredibly shiny in real life!  I can't believe this has been languishing in my untrieds.


Admittedly I didn't think Luxe looked great on my skin tone... it seems I can't wear really cool-toned golds OR really warm-toned golds (OPI Goldeneye looks weird on me too).  I wonder what that means? 


Orly Luxe was an old LE, but I think it might have gone core??  Don't quote me though.  ChG Party Hearty was a holiday LE two years ago and unfortunately has become a bit hard-to-find.  I have heard that there's an off-brand dupe right now at some Wal-Marts though!

In spite of the color not looking great on my skin tone, I totally loved this look, and even received a compliment on it from a cashier (a really rare occurrence for me)!  I think it looks really festive without being too kitschy.  

as always... innocuous

(All products featured in this post were purchased by me.)

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

NOTD: Color Club Wild and Willing

I was going through my stash today trying to figure out what polish to wear, when I found Color Club Wild and Willing -  an LE from a few years ago that I used to love but haven't worn in ages!  I remembered it having a coppery duochrome, so I decided to layer it over OPI Just a Little Rosti at This, a burgundy creme, to see if I could get the duochrome to shine a little more.  Here's the result:


I did two coats of each color for opacity's sake.  Wild and Willing is just as foil-y and gorgeous as I remembered!  The duochrome is a little shy.. it looks primarily gold and copper in most light.


I always see duochrome effects best in my shower (haha), so I took one more picture there.  My camera doesn't do well in low light, but you can really see the copper-to-green shift here:


Unfortunately I didn't let my glue base coat dry enough before I polished, so this manicure peeled off a few hours later as I was cooking dinner.  :(  Oh well, at least I've got a clean slate for tomorrow!

Side note:  Does the name of this polish make anyone else giggle?  "Wild and Willing" sounds like a tagline for an ad in the "18+" section of Craigslist to me...

as always.... innocuous


(All products featured in this post were purchased by me.)