Pure Ice Heartbreaker over Revlon Royal

HI GUYS!!! Long time no see, eh?! Instead of excuses, I come bearing pictures!! Today I have for you all a manicure I have been wanting to do for awhile, Pure Ice Heartbreaker over Revlon Royal. These two polishes are truly a match made in heaven.

Revlon Royal is a gorgeous deep royal blue jelly in Revlon's Top Dry line. The formula of this polish was thick but relatively easy to work with. If this polish was any thinner, it would have been flood city and as pigmented as this polish is, it would have been a nightmare to do cuticle clean up. I usually prefer my polishes a bit thinner but I was grateful that Royal was as thick as it was. After 2 coats of Royal, I did one coat of Pure Ice Heartbreaker on top, a gorgeous green shimmer. I believe Heartbreaker is still available but last time I saw, the formula had changed and it wasn't nearly as shimmery as it was before and had a milky base. I'm glad to still have a bottle of the original version.

The only disappointment with this manicure was the drying time. As Royal is supposed to be from the quick drying line, I expected a quick drying time. Sounds reasonable, yes? Well, even with taking short breaks between coats and my handy dandy Seche Vite topcoat, I am writing this post a few hours later and I am still able to dent the polish if I try. Not really a fan of that aspect of the polish. But, it looks really fantastic so I suppose I can look past its shortcomings. I mean, if I can wait hours for my Kleancolor Metallics to dry, I can forgive Revlon Royal for a bit of dentiness (NEW WORD ALERT!).

Pictured is two coats of Revlon Royal and one coat of Pure Ice Heartbreaker. As I've digressed from being a regular nail blogger, my nails are a bit misshappen, my cuticles a bit dry and my pictures kind of blurry. But hopefully you guys can look past all that and see how amazeballs this combo is!

Thanks for stopping by today friends! I probably still will not be posting regularly but I will be checking in every once in a while with a new manicure =) I miss you all and hope you all are doing well <3

Retro Sunday Squared - OPI Creme de Menthe

Happy Sunday my lovelies! Dana at Polished Claws Up and I are back today with another edition of Retro Sunday Squared. We're bringing out the big guns today folks - VINTAGE GREEN OPI's!! Ahh! So excited!! Don't forget to check out Dana's post, she is showing off one of the polishes we found dusty hunting together this past summer!

Today I will be sharing with you OPI Creme de Menthe, possibly one of the top 3 most rare OPI greens in existence. This one never pops up on eBay and even through my extensive dusty hunting adventures, I have never seen a bottle of this anywhere. Why is this polish so rare? Because it is from 1989! Yes, 1989 which makes this bottle of polish 24 years old! That is almost as old as I am =) This is by far one of the oldest polishes in my stash. But as old as it is, OPI Creme de Menthe is absolutely gorgeous!  Creme de Menthe was part of OPI's "X" Collection, and not much is known about this collection. It contained other now-VHTF polishes such as Rainforest, Real Teal and Iridescent Opal.

OPI Creme de Menthe is a mint green with gold shimmer. I have seen many near dupes of Creme de Menthe but none of them were ever quite as vibrant or as shimmery as it. You would think that in the 24 years since this polish has been released, someone would have come out with a viable dupe. I know that Lindsay over at Yacking about Lacquer came up with a dupe of it and it was definitely the closest I have seen. But as far as the big retail brands go, I haven't seen anything close. This is a very special polish.

The formula on this one was kind of meh - it was actually kind of thick for an old non-3-free polish. It was a bit streaky and kind of hard to even out. Nonetheless, it is still gorgeous and I can't begrudge a 24 year old polish its formula. I'll thin it out a bit next time but for now, the formula was workable.

Here's 3 coats of OPI Creme de Menthe. I took a boatload of pictures and couldn't decide which ones I liked the best, so here's a bunch! Enjoy =)

Thanks for stopping by today everyone! Don't forget to check out Dana's post!

A Scholarly Nail Side Project!

Bonsoir mes amis! Just a quick post here this evening to alert you all to a new side project I've been working on, The Scholarly Nail's Wax blog!

If you follow me on twitter, you'll know that I have a bit of an affinity for candles. Well, my new blog is going to showcase my adventures in scented wax! If you're interested in candles, tarts or fragrance in general, mosey on over! Or, if you're looking for another hobby to dump all of your hard earned cash in, hey, check it out! Haha.

I will be doing a giveaway over there soon so follow to stay in the loop!

Here's the link! I'd love it if you would take the time to check it out!

The Scholarly Nail's Wax Blog

And don't worry, lots of new Scholarly Nail polish posts are soon to come <3 Thanks for stopping by!

Retro Sunday Squared - Maybelline Electric Apple

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Today Dana and I are back for another edition of Retro Sunday Squared! For those just joining us, Retro Sunday Squared is when Dana over at Polished Claws Up and I share some of our vintage nail polish gems. We have chosen to showcase some of our vintage Maybelline Express Finish polishes on this fine Sunday in January. Vintage Maybellines are some of Dana's and my favorite old school polishes, and for good reason - they are awesome! They had so many fantastic collections, finishes, and colors back in the day. Due to time constraints, we are only going to show one polish each today but I promise they are good ones!

I have to share with you all today Maybelline Electric Apple. Electric Apple is a lovely (albeit frosty) bright apple green polish. I first fell in love with this shade when Kaz over at Pretty Random swatched this for her blog. Her picture of it is much more beautiful so definitely check it out! Anyways, Electric Apple never was released in the US, so not only is it vintage, but it is even more hard to find because it was released in the UK and not here in the States. I ended up finding this on Amazon UK. Oh, the places we will go to find our vintage polishes! This bright, metallic green polish is definitely one of the stand outs in my Maybelline collection. The frostiness lends itself to the metallic finish and I don't mind it at all. I know frost is the devil in the nail polish world, but as I've said before, I have a certain affinity for frosty polishes.

So pictured here is 3 coats of Maybelline Electric Apple in all of its frosty glory! Enjoy =)

Thanks for stopping by today! Don't forget to check out Dana's post over at Polished Claws Up!

Retro Sunday Squared - Vintage Holiday Revlon Streetwears!

Happy Sunday everyone!

Today Dana and I have for you some vintage holiday Revlon Streetwears! Of course, Revlon Streetwear is one of my all-time favorite vintage brands and I feel very lucky to have quite a few of the holiday ones in my collection. All of the ones that I am going to show you all today are quite rare, and I never thought I would own any of them in my lifetime!

A quick note - my cuticles are absolutely ravaged right now. I have been so busy with school and finals, getting ready for the holidays and then the blog sale this past week that I have just not been caring for them like I should. I have naturally AWFUL cuticles anyways so it's just difficult to keep them up to par in the winter anyways. So be warned, my cuticles are awful this week!

Don't forget to check out Dana's Holiday Streetwear post over at Polished Claws Up!

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First up is Revlon Streetwear Rudolph. Rudolph is a red glitter in a clear base. Pretty standard, but essential for any Streetwear collector. The formula of Rudolph was pretty tricky. It was thick and gloopy and upon my first coat of it, I realized that there was no way this glitter was going to be opaque. So, on top of that first coat of glitter, I layered a coat of Revlon Streetwear Mrs. Claus, a red jelly from Streetwear's holiday collection as well. The effect of this jelly sandwich was amazing! It looked like China Glaze Ruby Slippers! I layered another coat of Rudolph on top of that and it was perfect. Just gorgeous! I am definitely going to be wearing this combo again before the holidays are over. It just screams Christmas to me!

So here's 1 coat of Streetwear Rudolph, 1 coat of Streetwear Mrs. Claus and 1 more coat of Streetwear Rudolph. Enjoy!

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Next up is Revlon Streetwear Kwanza (yes, that is the way this polish is spelled even though the correct spelling for the holiday is "Kwanzaa"). This is probably one of the rarest Streetwears I own and one of the most unique polishes in my entire stash. Kwanza has a clear base with green square glitter, thin red bar glitter and then a thicker black bar glitter. I don't have any polish with that combination of glitters, nor do I know of any! 

I've decided to show you guys Kwanza over two different polishes today to showcase the different types of glitter. First, I've layered it over a pure black to let the red bar and green square glitters shine! But I always wanted to show you all the black bar glitters as well, so Streetwear Mrs. Claus to the rescue again! I layered Kwanza over Mrs. Claus, which helps the green and black glitters stand out, and the red glitters just glow against the darker red background of Mrs. Claus. So fun and festive!

So here's 1 coat of Streetwear Kwanza over Finger Paints Black Expressionism and then 1 coat of Kwanza over Streetwear Mrs. Claus. Enjoy!

Here's all the polishes I used today! From L-R: Streetwear Kwanza, Streetwear Mrs. Claus and Streetwear Rudolph.

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That's all for today! Hope everyone is having a great December so far!

Retro Sunday Squared - Vintage Sally Hansen Christmas Glitters

Hi everyone!! Long time, no see! I have missed you all lots! I've been running low in the time department lately so sadly my blogging has taken a back seat but I had to squeeze in a blog post for you all today! Today, my vintage partner in crime, Dana over at Polished Claws Up and I have decided to share some of our vintage Sally Hansen Christmas glitters with you all today! You guys may remember our vintage SH Halloween glitters, and these ones are just as fantastic. Both Dana and I are huge vintage Sally Hansen fans so we are super stoked to share these with you today! We don't know the exact date on these polishes, but I assume they came out during the late 90's-early 00's like most of the other amazing vintage Sally Hansens out there.

Don't forget to check out Dana's post over at Polished Claws Up!

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First up is Sally Hansen Festive. Festive is a green and red bar glitter with little green and red micro glitters scattered throughout. It has a clear base, so it is best for layering. I decided to layer it over black and I love how it looks! 

Here's 1 coat of Sally Hansen Festive over black. Enjoy! (P.S. gnarly cuticle warning!)

Next up is Sally Hansen Sugar Plum. Sugar Plum is a light pink, blue and light purple glitter in a purple jelly base. I don't know if the base is purple due to age or if that's how it was back in the day. Either way, the purple base allows me to layer it to full opacity and that is a win in my book! Love how this is still Christmas-y without being your typical red or green. Love it!

Here's 3 coats of Sally Hansen Sugar Plum. Enjoy!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by everyone! I hope to see you all again soon <3

Retro Sunday Squared - Vintage Urban Decay Polishes!

Happy Sunday everyone!! Dana over at Polished Claws Up and I are back today with another edition of Retro Sunday Squared! We decided to swatch some of our vintage Urban Decay polishes for you all today. For those who know me or have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that Urban Decay is one of the brands that started my vintage polish obsession. Back in middle and high school in the 90's and early 2000's, Urban Decay was one of my favorite brands of polish.When I got back into nail polish, I set out to find myself some old bottles of UD polish. While it was quite easy to get my hands on the 2nd generation Urban Decay polishes (the silver capped ones) what I was really looking for were the older, 1st generation UD's from the original 1996 release.

Acquiring these super vintage Urban Decay polishes proved to be quite a challenge. I found it easier to seek out OPI polishes from the 80's and first generation Hard Candy polishes than to get my hands on these 1st generation Urban Decays! By chance, I found a bottle of 1st generation Dude (swatched here) on etsy and I figured that would be it for 1st generation Urban Decays. It took me almost two years to find that one and I assumed I would never find another one ever again. However, the itch to find more quickly resumed and I started turning to other bloggers to find them. I found the lovely Diane over at The Beauty Alchemist had 2 old school UD's on her blog and I contacted her and asked if she would be willing to part with them. Luckily, she was and I have swatched both of those polishes today!

When these polishes came to me, they were completely dried up. Every single 1st generation Urban Decay polish I have acquired has been dried up. This is part of the reason why I believe that hardly any 1st generation Urban Decay polishes exist today - there is a default in the design of the cap that allowed too much air in and dried up the polish inside. Back in the day when no one really knew about thinner, the solution was to just toss these polishes away. Thank goodness for the lovely people who knew better and kept their polishes despite the fact that they resembled little hockey pucks sitting in a bottle. Anyways, I took a huge bottle of my handy dandy vintage polish reviver, Seche Restore, and with some shaking and mixing, these bad boys were as good as new!

Soon after, I received four more vintage Urban Decays from the awesome Jet over at Idee Fixe and my first generation UD polish collection now has a grand total of seven! I am pretty happy with my little collection, considering I never thought I would own even one of them! With a lot of thinner and a little bit of patience, all seven polishes have been brought back to life and are ready for polishing! I will show you the polishes from Jet soon but today I have for you Urban Decay Shelter and Stray Dog from the 1997 Urban Animal Collection.

So I hope you guys enjoy these first generation Urban Decay polishes I have for you today! Don't forget to check out Dana's post over at Polished Claws Up! today. She has some second generation Urban Decay polishes for you all. Note the different in the bottle shapes and the logos! 

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One quick note - I have nubbed my nails. Not really a big deal but I just wanted to warn you all. I have gone without a break on my swatching hand since July and I'm sure I could have gone for much longer, I was just getting sick of having long nails. To be honest, I'm not really a fan of having long nails but my nail beds are all different lengths so it bothers me to have short nails. I keep my nails long so that they can all be a uniform length. But this week I said TO HECK WITH IT and chopped those babies off. Let me tell you, I am really digging having nubs again. I may keep them this way for quite a while. Yeah, they're all uneven and look kind of weird but I love them. Sorry long nail fans, these nubs are here to stay!

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Anyways, first up today is Urban Decay Shelter. Shelter is from the 1997 Urban Animal Collection, which Urban Decay created in collaboration with designer Todd Oldham to benefit animal welfare. If you are familiar with the Urban Decay brand, you know that animal welfare is always something they have advocated which is one of the many reasons I love UD. Shelter is an AMAZING green glass fleck polish that is so packed with glass flecks that it is almost metallic. LOVE IT! The formula was fantastic even as old as this polish is.


Here's 3 coats of Urban Decay Shelter. Enjoy!

 

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Next up is Urban Decay Stray Dog, also from the 1997 Urban Animal collection. Stray Dog is probably one of the most unique and amazing polishes in my entire stash. It has a gunmetal grey-taupe base, and it is packed with red and green shimmer. When I first saw this polish, I figured it was just a grey with green flash but it is so much more than that. Never have I seen shimmer like this in a polish before. The green and red color of the shimmer almost make this polish Christmas-y! It is absolutely amazing! I had a tough time capturing the shimmer in pictures, so you may have to enlarge the pics to see what I'm talking about. The formula on this one was a bit tricky, but the reason why I had a bit of trouble with this one wasn't because of the formula but because of the brush. It was extremely misshapen and just terrible. Oh well, I still managed to get this on without any major problems.

Here's 2 coats of Urban Decay Stray Dog. Don't forget to enlarge these pics to check out the phenomenal red and green shimmer in this puppy!

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What do you guys think? Do you have any 1st generation Urban Decay polishes? Any 2nd generation Urban Decay polishes?

Thanks for stopping by today everyone! I know I have been in and out lately as I have been extremely busy these past few weeks so thanks for sticking around. Love you guys!