Wanna know how opaque a polish is? Check its balls!

Boy, oh boy, I can't wait to see the Google search that leads people to this posting.

Have you ever brought a bottle of polish home thinking you have this awesome bottle of polish only to find out that the color is so sheer that you need 7 coats just to get the color of the bottle? The opacity of many polishes will clearly be evident. However, if you pick up a bottle and are unsure, just check its balls.

The little steel mixing balls of course! Now, obviously, if your polish doesn't have the mixing balls, well, you're out of luck. However, it if does, hold the bottle up to check 'em out. With opaque polishes you will only see the little dot of the ball. Check out the pictures:

Looking at the two bottles above (China Glaze Mediterranean Charm on top and Zoya Jenine, yes I bought it just for the name, on the bottom), all you see are little dots. This are nice and opaque polishes, see:

Those are both only one coat of polish.

If you hold the bottle up and you can pretty much see the entire ball, you've got a sheer polish on your hands here:

With these two polishes, you can pretty much see the entire ball. Both of these polishes (Butter London Disco Biscuit on top and Revlon Grapefruit Fizz on the bottom), while pretty, are quite sheer.

These are both 3 coats of polish, and you can see how sheer the polishes are.

Now, granted, the opaque polishes I picked are pretty obvious, as are the sheer ones. But I have put down bottles based on the ball trick (one being a Deborah Lippmann, which is a brand that I love, but I wanted the color to be opaque, and it was just too sheer). As a rule, I just don't like sheer polishes, I'm way too anal about a visible nail line to futz with sheer polishes, and I never have luck with underwear polishes, I usually just avoid them. I did willingly buy Disco Biscuit after the ball trick because I just simply loved the color and couldn't resist.

I may be stating the obvious here, a thing that everyone knew and I'm last to the table, but just in case I'm not last - I'll repost it for those that are!

Between balls, anal and underwear, this blog is probably going to be placed on interesting lists. Weeeee....

The return, with holos! HITS No Olimpo Ares

So, I've been away for a bit, but I'm returning with a heck of a polish. I have been seeing the HITS No Olimpo collections make its way through the blogs, and there were so many that I wanted. I settled on the bright red Ares.

In Greek Mythology, Ares is the God of War, son of Zeus and Hera. He represents the brutality of war, so I guess it's fitting that this polish is a bright, blood red. But not only is it a bright red, but a bright red with a LINEAR HOLO. Sorry, I just get excited when I look at the bottle.

With flash

Unfortunately, this polish wreaked havoc on my camera, and Santa sent me a very nice upgraded camera and I still couldn't capture the lovely holo as good as I would have liked. It is definitely linear and actually looks like a silver shimmer, until it gets directly in light, then the colors dance off the nails. The polish smells a bit funny, and I doubt it's 3-free, so keep that in mind if you go to purchase this. Also, I have read that some people have had problems with the brush, however I didn't have any problems. The brush was on the thin side with respect to volume of bristles, but it was a bit wider than most brushes. The polish itself was on the thinner side, but not so thin that it was runny.

I do love a nice red nail, but adding a holo to a red - divine. This polish will most definitely go into high rotation.

In sunlight

I got mine at Llarowe, however it currently looks like Ares is out of stock, but there are other Greek Gods that are in stock that look just as lovely.

I promised this wouldn't turn into a baby blog, but I can't resist - here the reason I've been neglecting this blog:

My Little Miss - notice the lovely big drool spot under her chin, teething sucks!

Now, how can I focus on nail polish that that face staring at me?

Update

I know, I know... It's been awhile. Yeah, a loooooong while. I've been out of the baby game for a few years and forgot just how much time is spent with baby in arms (in fact, Little Miss is sleeping on me right now, making this one handed typing go very slow).

I'm slowly planning my return. I've got some holos (!) on their way to my home and a boat load of lipglosses to post. Don't write me off just yet!

Le Metier de Beaute King of Prussia Exclusive - All About Me

Today's post is brought to you by the word: multitasking. All the pictures you see were taken with a sleeping baby in my arms. The pictures may not be professional photographer quality, but I'm, pretty impressed at how I can multitask.

All About Me - please note my daughter's lovey as the background.

I am completely falling in love with Le Metier de Beaute. Everything I've tried so far (granted, not that many) I have loved. Most recently I've purchased a King of Prussia, PA exclusive Lip Creme called All About Me. This color was developed for the Neiman Marcus KoP counter by a personal Shopper.

The color is a lovely mauvey-brozne with a ton of sparkles. I mean this is sparkley. Really sparkley. However it doesn't make your lips look garish. It just gives them a lovely, neutral shimmer. Their Lip Cremes usually have a synthetic sweet smell to them, but no taste. I can't quite place this one - maybe some type of berry.

Look at those sparkles!

Here's the bad news. This puppy is Limited Edition. Limited Edition and only sold at the King of Prussia Neiman Marcus counter. Luckily KoP is 15 minutes from my house, but if you want one, I would call right now because as of yesterday, I think there were less than 25 left.

You can reach the Le Metier de Beaute counter by calling the store at (610) 962-6200 and asking for the LMdB counter.

I'm now having a hard time walking by the LMdB counter without making a purchase. I'm waiting to dive into a kaleidoscope, I just have to find one that really, really grabs me.

Why I love NARS nail polishes

See this bad, slightly blurry pic:

It's NARS Night Flight from the NARS Night Series. It's a lovely shimmery blue, yada, yada, yada... Scrangie and Vampy Varnish have reviews on this series. The reason I posted that picture? It's one coat. This polish is so lovely and deep that one coat is perfect, streak-free and opaque.

I also have Night Porter (the green shimmer). I can't wait to try that one, too. NARS is quickly becoming my favorite polish brand for their formula alone.

butter London The Black Knight

A few weeks ago I noticed a special 2-pack of butter London polishes in a stupidly large (read: wasteful) package. Of course, I bought it anyway. It contained two glitterbomb polishes, one being The Black Knight. It looked like a fun glittery polish in a dark base. I'm usually apprehensive about glittery polishes, but I bought it anyway.

The two things I don't like about glitterbombs are 1) the lumpy, bumpy feeling you get with the finish and 2) the horrific, cotton-shredding, get-out-of-the-room-while-mom-curses removal. I'm sad to say, both exist with this polish.

First two nails are 2 coats of TBK, the second two are one coat of black and one coat of TBK

The polish itself consists of blue and dark pink glitter, smaller silver micro glitter all suspended in a dark jelly base. As I was swatching on the first two nails, I noticed that the base was very streaky and splotchy. At that point, I thought it would look good over a base of a plain black creme, so I painted my ring and pinky finger with one coat of Orly Liquid Vinyl (which is a fantastic black creme, by the way) and then one coat of The Black Knight. Pointer and middle finger are two coats of The Black Knight plain. It looks much better over a base coat of black than on its own.

Two coats of TBK plain, click to embiggen

You can still see some bald spots in the plain coats. I'm sure a third coat would have evened it out, but it's already quite gritty as it is. I didn't put any top coats on this, but I would guess that it would eat up the topcoat as well. Maybe a coat of Gelous first and then one of Seche Vite would go towards smoothing out the finish.

One coat of TBK over one coat of Orly Liquid Vinyl. Click to embiggen

I think the glitter just pops a bit more when layered over black. You can really see the blue and fuchsia glitter really well like this. And just as I thought, it was a bear to remove. I almost sent the spitfire out of the room during removal in case I began cursing (spitfire 2.0 is still too young to understand my, uh, colorful language, she can stay). But I persevered. 

I'm glad I bought this. I'm sure I'll be hesitant to use it simply because I'm anticipating the removal, but I'm going to have to get over that!

Chanel/Sally Hansen comparison - and 1 year anniversary!

So, one year ago today I decided to start a blog and posted some really crappy pictures of my Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance manicure. Well, my pictures haven't gotten that much better, and there was a brief hiatus while I was birthing my daughter, and recovering from said birth. I'm still trying to find time for the blog, and I get little bits here and there now that she has a decent schedule, plus, I have a ton of lovely little additions that I haven't broken into yet so I can take pictures (the things bloggers do!)

In the meantime, I took these pictures some time ago, but only one turned out publishable, and barely at that.

I caught a glimpse of Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri in Bronze Ablaze and thought it may be a good budget friendly alternative to Chanel's Peridot. Oh, boy was I wrong! I have found that SH polishes can be hit or miss. Many are great, but when you get a doozy.. whooohooo..

Bronze Ablaze went on thick and clumpy, and it bubbled like a sucker, to boot.

Oh, hello bubbles! Peridot on pointer and ring, Bronze Ablaze on middle and pinky

Formula aside, the color can't compare to the duochrome complexity that is Peridot, but a flat metallic bronze color. This one is going into the swap pile for sure. Peridot, on the other hand, is staying put!