Twitter Swatch Requests: Hard Candy Pea Soup, OPI Two Plums Up & Essie Lollipop

Happy Saturday everyone! Hope you are all enjoying your weekends so far =)

On Thursday I asked some of my twitter friends to go through my stash spreadsheet and pick out a manicure for me because I was feeling super indecisive and couldn't make up my mind what polish to wear. I got three different answers from three lovely ladies, so I decided to do them all in this post!

First up is Hard Candy Pea Soup, requested Madeline over at Girl Germs. This is vintage Hard Candy (pre-Walmart) and probably came out sometime during the late 90's. I got this decant from a lovely blog sale, as I was in need of some green Hard Candy polishes to round out my collection but wasn't having luck finding any. I figured that a decant was the best I could do! Pea Soup is a yellow-green frosty shimmer, and it is relatively sheer so it took 3 coats to reach the color you see here. The formula was decent, your typical non-3 free texture and smell. It's not my favorite vintage Hard Candy polish by any means, but it is fun! Very evocative of the '90s, being a sheer, frosty light green. It just makes me want to go shop at Limited Too, drink some Clearly Canadian and watch Clueless =)

Anyways, here's 3 coats of Hard Candy Pea Soup, indoors.

Next up is OPI Two Plums Up, requested by Maria over at Nails Made Simple! Two Plums Up is an old black label OPI from the Hollywood collection from fall 1999. I am currently in the process of collecting the polishes from this collection, because as I mentioned before, my husband is a film maker and I am a sucker for anything film-related. Two Plums Up is a plummy-magenta color. It's a bit frosty but not so much as Pea Soup is as it has a nice shimmer to round out the brush strokiness (not even a word, ha) quality. I did 3 coats here, as it was a bit sheer and I wanted it to be nice and vibrant. I quite like this color, and although it's not something I would normally wear, I'm glad I took the time to try it out today =)

OPI Two Plums Up, 3 coats, indoors.

 

Lastly, I have Essie Lollipop as requested by my lovely Jamie on Twitter! Lollipop is from Essie's 2009 holiday collection, which was the collection that also contained Mint Candy Apple - the color that reignited my passion for polish. I had originally thought that Lollipop was a jelly, but it turns out that it is just a wonderfully shiny red creme. It only needed 2 coats to opacity, and the formula was perfection. Lollipop is an orange-leaning red, and I think it would look amazing on all skin tones. It is so vibrant and so squishy, and is definitely one of my favorite reds in my entire stash! I'm glad this was the last one that I swatched because now I can leave it on and admire its awesomeness!

Here's Essie Lollipop, 2 coats, indoors. Enjoy!!

So there we have it! I hope you have enjoyed these swatches. I am always willing to take requests, so feel free to take a look at my collection spreadsheet in the link at the top of the page (I fixed the link so everyone can see it now)! Let me know if there is anything that you would like to see =) I love hearing from you guys, so don't be shy!

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday and I will see you all tomorrow!

Pure Ice Heartbreaker over Nicole by OPI The Grape Debate

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you are all having a nice, relaxing day and not being forced to watch football like I am (unless, of course, you enjoy that sort of thing). Anyways, today I have for you a manicure that I have done many times because it is so awesome.

Pure Ice Heartbreaker may be one of my top 25 polishes of all time. It is a green microshimmer in a sheer blue base. Slap Heartbreaker over pretty much any polish, you've got something amazing. The idea for this particular manicure came to me because I wanted to combine my two favorite colors in a manicure - green and purple. I thought that the green shimmer in Heartbreaker would make an interesting contrast with the dark grape color of The Grape Debate, and man did it ever!

I'm not too crazy on the formula of NOPI The Grape Debate, but it's the only color I have like this so I just kept on trucking. As always, Pure Ice Heartbreaker was a dream to apply and I had no problems with it whatsoever. I put a coat of Seche Vite over everything and I was good to go!

These first few pictures are outdoors, then the rest are all indoors with flash to show the awesome sparkle that Heartbreaker gives to this manicure. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sally Hansen Arabian Night

Hello my lovely readers! Those who know me may know that I have a penchant for old, vintage polishes. The older it is, the better it is in my opinion - especially if it is a drugstore brand. Sure, I enjoy vintage OPI polishes just as much as the next girl but if I come across an old Maybelline or Cover Girl polish then I get pretty damn excited. I think it's because these aged drugstore polishes remind me of my childhood. I had SO MUCH awesome nail polish as a kid, which sadly, I eventually threw out because I did not know the wonders of nail polish thinner. I weep a little thinking of all those old Hard Candy, Urban Decay and Sally Hansen polishes that went to waste.

So today, I have for you an old-ish Sally Hansen polish. It is from their now-discontinued Salon line and it is called Arabian Night. Arabian Night is one of my most favorite polishes that I own. It is from 2008, so it's really not THAT old (heck, I have polishes in my stash that are nearly as old as I am) but since it's from a discontinued line, I like to lump it together with my old polish collection.

Arabian Night is a STUNNING deep blue-based purple with amazing golden shimmer throughout. In some lights, the shimmer even has a pink tinge to it. Ack! It's amazing! Application was very straightforward; two coats and I was good to go. It's one of those "hidden shimmer" polishes that I love so very much. When you are looking at it from far away, it just looks like a nice deep purple color, but once you're up close you can see the amazing golden shimmer in there.

So here she is, Sally Hansen Arabian Night. Hope you enjoy! (Oh, and please excuse the nasty gash on my ring finger!)

Have a fantastic Friday everyone!

Lynnderella Cauldron Drippings over Revlon Royal Cloak

Hi everyone! So sorry I've been delinquent on blog posting the last two days. I am back with two posts for you today! First up is Revlon Royal Cloak smothered in Lynnderella Cauldron Drippings.

I was stumped for a while on how I wanted to wear Lynderella's Cauldron Drippings. It is quite a unique glitter polish, with a base of orange hex, square and bar glitter with green, purple and gold glitters of different shapes. I tried it on its own, and it was pretty but I prefer layering the Lynnderella glitters so I am not using a ton of them at once. I kept seeing swatches of it over orange polishes, but since the majority of the glitter in it was orange it would get lost among the background. So when I tried it over Revlon Royal Cloak, I knew I had a winner! It stood out amongst the purple and the orange glitters were able to shine! Plus, it feels very Halloweenish to me.

Revlon Royal Cloak is from Revlon's limited edition Masquerade Collection fro Halloween. It is definitely my favorite polish in the collection. Royal Cloak is a dusty blue-leaning purple with flakies! I am a huge sucker for flakies, so I had to try Royal Cloak. The application was very good, and I just love how thin Revlon's brushes are because it allows me to do precise, thin coats of color. Two coats was good for complete coverage on this one!

Over Royal Cloak, I did one coat of Cauldron Drippings. Application was pretty standard for Lynnderella polishes - I had to be a little more careful than usual to get the glitter to disperse evenly, but other than that it was perfect.

So here she is! Lynnderella Cauldron Drippings over Revlon Royal Cloak:

These are all photos of my right hand, which is not my default swatching hand so please bear with me as my left hand photographing and polishing skills are not 100%. Plus, my right hand looks weirdly red and yellow today. Odd.

Anyways, here is two coats of Royal Cloak alone:

Thanks for stopping by! Stay tuned for part two of today's post!!

-Jacqui

Correction Tape Manicure TAKE TWO!

Before I removed this manicure, I wanted to snap a few pics outdoors to show you the true colors of the glitter in Correction Tape. Today it FINALLY stopped raining, and the sun has actually come out as well. It's an October miracle!

Anyways, here's a few pics for you. Please excuse the skin dehydration =)

Macro Shot

Wet n Wild On The Prowl: Correction Tape over Funky Fingers Cheshire

Hello my lovely readers! Just wanted to drop in today real quickly and show you my NOTD. I decided to try out Correction Tape from the elusive Wet n Wild On The Prowl collection. This collection is almost impossible to find! A friend of mine (Krista over at Starlet's Nails) was able to find the collection where she lives and was kind enough to send me Correction Tape! On the Prowl is Wet n Wild's core Halloween collection. I know Correction Tape doesn't look very Halloween-ish, but I decided to throw it in my October mix since it is part of a seasonal collection.

I did one coat of Wet n Wild Correction Tape over 3 coats Funky Fingers Cheshire. Cheshire is a neon blue-based purple, and application was pretty streaky. By the third coat, the polish was becoming super thick and will probably need thinner before its next use. However, I don't have a neon purple quite like this in my collection, so I will keep it around just for the color. However, I'm still on the hunt for my perfect neon purple.

Correction Tape wasn't exactly easy to apply either, but it wasn't terribly difficult. It just requires a bit of skill and patience to get the glitter to go where you want it to. The glitter in this is phenomenal! It has gold, pink, blue and black square and hex glitters. I don't know about you, but I am a huge fan of black glitter so I was super excited to see that this polish had some in there. One coat worked perfectly for this manicure, and I feel that this polish works best for layering.

This looks way more awesome in real life, I had a hard time capturing the different colors of the glitter. Perhaps that is why I have so many pictures for today. Hope you guys at least are able to catch the essence of amazeballs that is Correction Tape. Don't forget to click on them to make them bigger!

Thanks for stopping by the Scholarly Nail today! Hope your Monday hasn't been too terrible so far. See you all tomorrow =)

-Jacqui

Lynnderella Love Potion 99 over Illamasqua Baptiste

Happy Sunday everyone! So I'm on day 3 of the nubs and I'm starting to regret it. I miss my long nails already. Ahh well, the good thing about nails is that they will grow back. I'm not the most patient person though and I'm thinking about running about to Sally's and getting some sort of growing potion.

Speaking of potions, today I have for you an amazing polish from the one and only Lynnderella! For those who don't know, Lynnderella is a polish making goddess! All of her polishes are handcrafted from several different types of glitter. Her collections are very limited edition, as she only opens up shop every once in a while for an extremely short time window. I was lucky enough to squeeze in and snag some of these babies for myself!

The one I have for you today is Love Potion 99 from the Early Halloween Collection, which has medium purple hex glitter and smaller holographic glitter in a sheer purple base. It is phenomenal! These glitters tend to go on a bit thick, and once they dry they are a bit rough. It is advisable to do at least two layers of top coat to get a smooth and shiny finish. With my limited photo skills, I wasn't able to capture the true beauty of the polish, but I did my best! Hopefully, I will be satisfied with my picture taking skills one day =)

So here is 2 coats Lynnderella's Love Potion 99 layered over 2 coats of Illamasqua Baptiste. So sparkly! Also, please excuse my cuticles today. I forgot to moisturize last night =/

Artificial light

Artificial Light

Natural Light to show the glitter shapes better.

The last two shorts are of Illamasqua Baptiste. Illamasqua is a British brand currently only available in the US on Sephora.com (as far as I know). I love, love, LOVE my Illamasqua polishes! They apply so smoothly and the colors are so rich and beautiful. They wear like iron too! I currently have around a dozen Illa polishes, and they are all well-loved. 

Baptiste is a gorgeous shimmery dark purple. In certain lights, it looks almost black. It has awesome red and blue shimmer throughout, making the purple tone stand out in bright light.  Those photos are two coats.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jacqui