Yesterday's Nails

I really like this stamping I did yesterday.  I think this plate has a lot of potential - it's like the "saran wrap" technique, but without the mess!

Tarnished Gold

I know crackle polishes are kind of yesterday's news, but I still really like them.  Especially the China Glaze Crackle Metals.  I had a little tip wear on my mani, and wanted to extend it for another day or two, so I topped it with Tarnished Gold:

Mmmmmm.  I love it!

butter LONDON No More Waity, Katie. Now with more clutch.

Last weekend I went into Ulta to pick up the Butter London Victoriana and Wallis I've been lusting for.  When I got up to the checkout, the clerk told me that they were having a buy two, get one free deal.  So I went back to look over the colors again.  Honestly, for the most part I don't find the Butter colors to be very unique, and it took me quite a while to decide to go with No More Waity, Katie.  It's a color/effect that's underrepresented in my stash.

This one applied like butter.  Cold, hard butter straight from the fridge.  Butter that clumps up and won't spread properly.  Overall, I'm rather disappointed with this one, although it seems to be a must-have color for a lot of people.  It was much sheerer than I was expecting, so I had to do three coats.  Three laboriously applied coats.  And the sparkle just . . . isn't.  It's very subdued.  In real life, it's no where near as shimmery as this photo shows.  I considered adding a little thinner to make it flow more readily, but chickened out because I thought I might have to up the ante to four coats.

Moving on . . . Yesterday my mom told me she loved my new clutch (thanks, Mom!) but couldn't tell how big it was, and that she thought it was coin purse size.  Au contraire!  Look:

I added a sweet little tulip pin that Hubby gave me years ago.  The flower is crystal. 

I knew when I took the photos for the first post that it wouldn't be obvious how big the clutch is.  But at that point, I was wearing a polish that looked so hideous on me (Urban Outfitters Barstool) that I just couldn't bear to take a picture of it!

Today I'm off to look for some leather for clutch #2!

Almost

I decided to go ahead and do a comparison with Zoya Elodie, since I was getting some tip wear and I wanted to add a little sparkle over Jaffa.  Here it is, with Elodie on the middle finger only, three coats:

To my eye, Elodie is ever so slightly darker and pinker, but they are very close. Good thing I love colors like this!

Next I added Nubar 2010:

Mmmmm . . . sparkly!  I used to have a polish just like this years ago, Creative "Sugar" (before they changed to CND).  I really loved it but it got gloopy and I had to get rid of it.  I was planning on ordering 2010 from Nubar's website, but a few weeks ago when I went to the fabric store, I wandered into a nail art and jewelry store (!) a few doors down, and they had a couple of Nubars, including this one! Score!

Pass the Butter, please.

butter LONDON Jaffa

I wasn't sure why people would spend $14 on a bottle of nail polish.

I get it now.

This has got to be one of the silkiest, easiest-to-apply formulas I've ever used.  The brush is perfect.  It went on like . . . well, butter.

I was curious to see if all the raving people were doing was warranted, so when I got a 20% of promotion from drugstore.com, I decided to try it out.  I had a hard time choosing a color though, because honestly, most of the colors looks like things I have in my stash from other brands.  I settled on Jaffa because I've been looking for a retina-burning orange.  Not neon, just true, balanced orange.

And I still haven't found it.  This one is more coral than I was expecting, and sheerer too.  Even with three coats, there is still a little VNL:

But I don't care.  I really like it.

I did check my stash to see if anything I have looks like a dupe, and Zoya Elodie is a contender.  If I can remember, I'll swatch it out before I remove this.

One last look:

essie first base basecoat
three coats Jaffa
essie good to go