New York Summer - Hot Purple and Wet N Wild - Believe Me, It's Real

Is today the greatest day ever or what? I just found a photo app of my dreams. Here's a shot taken and processed with Photo Toaster:

I generally have difficulty capturing complex, glitter polishes like this one. You can actually see the purple, accent glitter in there (or at least I can... I kind of have Spidey senses when it comes to photos). I was also able to adjust the white balance while fiddling with the tint/contrast and so much more... it's really worth a look and it's only a buck! I also like Diptic but it needs to be used in conjunction with a more powerful app like Photo Toaster:

As for the polish, I wanted to give this manicure more depth which is why I used Hot Purple as a base; it's a wonderful purple, jelly on its own. But I topped it with one coat of Believe Me, It's Real and it looks amazing and has a pseudo-duochrome thing going on.

Orly Nite Owl

This dry weather is not doing my skin any favors. Here's Orly Nite Owl. It's a great nude for my skin tone although it looks more brown in the bottle. It gives the same effect as nude pumps - it makes my fingers look long.

Wet N Wild - Diamond in the Rough

From Wet N Wild's "Ice Baby" collection: Diamond in the Rough over two coats of Pure Ice Kiss Me Here.

The shimmer in this one is so dynamic, it kept confusing my camera phone and going in and out of focus. This one is packed with tiny, silver glitter as well as big, prismatic (holographic?) glitter. In an attempt to show you the rainbow goodness, here's a bokeh shot:

When Nouveau Cheap started an interactive map on this collection, I stalked it until a local Walgreens popped up. I feel lucky to have found the untouched display. They only stocked two of each color and I had to have one of each.

Don't you love awesome, drugstore brands? They make it easy to splurge without breaking the bank. I'm not looking forward to the day I have to take this off though. I know it'll take a good, acetone soaking to get all this glitter off.

Revlon Royal Cloak

Revlon has been knocking them out of the ballpark lately and Royal Cloak is no exception. I think this is limited edition and so beautiful. If you see it, grab it while you still can!

It's not actually as blue as it appears in these pictures. This is as close as I could get to color accuracy. At three coats, it looks darker (smokier even) than in the bottle. And it has a lot of sparkle and little flakies...

This is definitely going in my top 10.

Zoya Edyta

Even though I love Zoya's Edyta, I basically had to force myself to wear it. I tend to gravitate towards my brights and pastels. I can't help it - I love the way brights look with my skin. In any case, Edyta is perfect at two coats but I had to double up on my base coat because it stains like crazy.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Under the Stars + Zoya Vegas Freeze

I haven't done a funky french in a while so I figured I would dust off a couple of old favorites. Under the Stars, like most RBL polishes, is very pigmented but not thick so perfect for doing the tips. Topping it all off with a coat of Vegas Freeze brings out the subtle shimmer in Under the Stars and makes the naked parts of the nail more interesting.

Revlon Starry Pink

The pink is more pronounced in real life and I love the large, hex glitters among the tiny silver sparkles. This was sheer (almost jelly-like) so I did three coats though I probably should have done a fourth. I love it but it's quite subtle (by my standards anyway) and you know me and nail polish = go bold or go home.

Konadicure Failure

I was aiming for a manicure inspired by Urban Decay's gorgeous 15th Anniversary palette and what I got was something else... Base color is Revlon Carbonite, Mash plate m64 with Sinful Colors Verbena and Wet n Wild Buffy the Violet Slayer.

I realized too late that I didn't have a proper, rich velvety purple. I tried to use Sinful Colors Verbena but it didn't have enough contrast. So to up the ante, I restamped with Buffy but it was too watery and shimmery to have much impact.

I smudged my middle finger badly in the middle of all this and by then I was already uninspired so I just left it unstamped. If anyone asks, it's my "accent" color. :P

Speaking of Buffy, anyone catch Sarah Michelle Gellar's new show "Ringer?" I'm halfway through the first episode and so far so good!

Revlon Devil's Lure

Fall is here so time to break out the vamps! It's hard to capture this one on camera but it is a very deep red jelly. Great formula but you have to be careful about getting it on your cuticles because it doesn't clean up easily; the red is very staining and I actually had to remove and retry because I allowed it to pool in my cuticle and it just would not come off without a fight.