Show Me Your Nails 2.0

[Tamara76]

Due to some technical glitches with the original Show Me Your Nails Thread, I am starting a new thread with @vegchililover78's blessing (She says "hello," by the way!).

Please share your nail looks, nail art and manicures!

...And don't forget to check out @Beadshopgirl's Nail Stamping Thread for stamping inspiration! ❤️  

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Nailed-It/The-Nail-Stamping-Thread/m-p/3328865

[ather]

@itsfi  Oooooo I saw the blue thumbnail and blue is one of my faves. I had to get a closer look!!! They look amazing!! Perfect combo 😃

[itsfi]

Thank you @ather! I really like the different color glitters in this polish. Blues make for such pretty polishes. 💙

[RGbrown]

@itsfi 

Ooohhh, pretty! 😍 That is one fancy silver glitter mix, and I am loving it! It looks pretty spectacular with that decidedly-not-very-denim-at-all blue! 😂 💙

[itsfi]

@RGbrown, yeah, I’m just not seeing the denim connection. Since wearing this polish, I’ve been more aware of people wearing jeans 👖(or a denim jacket) when I’m out and about and my eyes have yet to catch sight of a pair of jeans that comes close to this blue. 😂 

I’ve been surprised with Essie’s glitter polishes. I’ve picked up 4 during the pandemic and love ‘em all! ♥️

[WinglessOne]

@itsfi  Congrats is very pretty. I can see that working atop many different shades, and now I kinda wanna look at Essie again. (It's been a very long time since I last bought an Essie polish.) Even if the look wasn't quite what you were going for, it's lovely! 

[itsfi]

@WinglessOne, I only have a few Essie polishes. The cremes are okay, but I’ve been impressed with their glittery polishes. ♥️ 

[WinglessOne]

@itsfi  I have a longstanding love-hate relationship with Essie. I have a lot of Essies and wanna offload most of 'em. Some I love, like Dive Bar (a discontinued shade) which behaves well and gives me a deep dark bottomless ocean vibe. But others kinda drive me nuts, especially cremes. Most of my Essies are several years old, so I don't know if their creme formula's improved lately. I sure hope so. I'll definitely take a closer look at their glitters soon. 🙂 

[itsfi]

@WinglessOne, I understand that love-hate relationship. I did a big declutter a few years back and re-homed almost all of my Essie polishes. Their glitters are recent finds for me. During one of the early modified lockdowns, I'd take a walk to get some fresh air and exercise and would occasionally go into the Target nearby where it was me, a few Target employees re-stocking the shelves and maybe 2 other customers in the store. That's when I discovered their glitter polishes - I only have 4 from them, all of which were purchased during the pandemic. At one point, I tried a creme in one of their new lines and was reminded why I rehomed them. 

[RGbrown]

Butter London is up on View Your Deal! 50%+ off, free shipping at $30. Pretty dang nice polish and sets selection this time. I keep saying I'm done buying for a while, then something else pops up, whoops 💸

 

[itsfi]

Wow @RGbrown, what a great deal! I'm intrigued by that orange marmalade and strawberry rhubarb duo. Hmmm... 🤔

[RGbrown]

@itsfi 

I'm not sure what to think about the orange tint. As someone with several nails stained so badly they're practically orange, I just can't envision an orange tint being desirable. But I'd also imagine it's a brighter/cleaner/lighter orange than my nails are, so perhaps I'm way off base. I have been curious about the purple one though, to maybe try and cancel some of my staining, but didn't think to put it in my order earlier today. Ah well, maybe next time.

[WinglessOne]

@RGbrown  Great, now I'm trying to whittle down my cart... thanks a lot. 😂 

[RGbrown]

@WinglessOne 

Weirdly, I had a hard time building a cart...I'm in a "I've got more than enough creams" phase, and there wasn't much sparkle that interested me. Tickety Boo was the last one I added, as a "fine, I'll give it a shot just to be done shopping" polish 😋 I'm growing more open to sheers from time to time, so it'll be one to add to my tiny collection of them. 

[WinglessOne]

@RGbrown  I wound up with 2 lacquers (including Empire Red, and I hope it has a strong enough fiery vein), the plum and strawberry Jelly Preserve duo, minis of Butter's base coat and top coat to try (I've never used them before), and the cuticle remover + nail removal wipes duo. I had a very hard time letting go of All You Need Is Love. 😄 

[RGbrown]

@WinglessOne 

All You Need Is Love is pretty spectacular...I grabbed it the last time 😂 I haven't worn it on my fingers yet, but it stood in for Christmas lights on my toes over black back in December 🎄 Their remover wipes are pretty good too! I have a few that I save for travel (couldn't tell you the last time I traveled anymore, but that's a different story), and they work well. 

[WinglessOne]

@RGbrown  Yeah, I miiiight have gone back earlier tonight and placed a second $30 order to stop that glitter topper from haunting me. As in, I definitely placed a second order and had to reach the free shipping minimum. I'm hopeless. 

I've used the remover wipes before, but it's been a while. I'm optimistically stocking up on travel-ready things, as if The Before Times will return soon. My local CVS usually has those wipes in stock, but not at this price, so I'm happy to order more. 

[RGbrown]

@WinglessOne 

🤣Can't have that polish haunting you! I'm glad you got it, I think you'll like it!

I tried a G&G brush on an MT bottle, and the results were eeehhh. Turns out, if you grab an MT stem and pull, it'll just break off. Whoops 😬 Thankfully I tried this on my back up Little Black Dress, so I don't care that it doesn't have a brush anymore...I can just swap it out later whenever I finish off my current bottle of Black Shadow. The G&G cap does seem to fit, so a swap is possible, but my goodness, it's an unholy abomination I don't think I can look at for long. 

(will add a pic in a sec...wound up at my desk somehow, but pics are on my phone, and I'm way too lazy to download them over here. brb!)

ETA: pics!

Oopsie daisy 🤭

I knew MT caps were unique, but dang, I had no idea how much they contributed to the overall look of the bottle. 

[WinglessOne]

@RGbrown  "The G&G cap does seem to fit, but my goodness, it's an unholy abomination I don't think I can look at for long." 🤣🤣 Now I can hardly wait to see it!  *refreshes page* Oh dear! 

Also, yikes about the MT brush breaking. 😱 I'm glad it happened to a backup, but still! Thanks for testing that. 

[RGbrown]

@WinglessOne 

Pics are up! Apparently I accidentally deleted the one I took earlier with a full g&g brush + cap combo on it, so I had to retake it, but...I didn't feel like cleaning the polish off the brush itself again, so I left it out this time, that's just the g&g cap on the MT bottle. What does this mean for picture-viewing? Without the brush, the cap actually screws down just a wee bit further than it does when the brush is in there, so imagine it screwed up another quarter inch or so, leaving a big old gap between the cap and bottle, making it look like it isn't closed all the way. It looks even worse than it does here lol (to me at least, but I love MT bottles just the way they are ❣️)

[WinglessOne]

To help with my 2022 goals to heal my battered cuticles, get back into a nail/cuticle care routine, and keep my nails covered at all times (even with just a base coat), I should start posting in this thread. I keep my nails short out of necessity and preference, so you’ll probably never see them longer than this. In fact, my right pinky nail is still too long; that one seems to grow faster than the others. 😄 

As I go through my Zoyas to replace the old brushes with the newer wide brush, I’m more tempted to wear them again. Someone asked what I do with the old brushes: I clean ‘em up with acetone and use them when I need more detailed application control. Sure, I could use “nail art” brushes for that, but the standard Zoya brush works well in tight spaces—for instance, with polishes that tend to flood my pinky cuticles if I use a wide brush, or when I’m doing nail art that doesn’t require a fine tipped brush. 

Currently wearing: 

Day 2 of manicure; left hand’s the same, except I swapped the order of Tabitha and Olivera. Pearly Seabed is 3 coats, everything else is 2 coats.

Notes: 

Spoiler

Kiko Milano New Power Pro Nail Lacquer, shade 220 Pearly Seabed - looks very antique olive gold from afar. Up close, you can better see the layers of gold and green glitter, along with random copper glitter. I used 3 coats for full opacity and maximum color layering. I have a weakness for polishes that evoke oceans and seas, and Pearly Seabed fits the bill. It’s one of the very few Kiko polishes I own. 

Zoya Olivera - one of my oldest Zoyas, maybe even the first Zoya I ever bought… would’ve been 2015 or 2016. I remember the first time I applied this, I was bummed because it just looked dark navy on my nails. But in different lighting, I noticed the subtle oil slick shift from blue to purple. I’ve loved it ever since. 

Zoya Edyta - looks smoky grey + almost black + silver shimmery in some lighting (like my photo’s), but other lighting brings out more of an olive shimmer. It rarely looks as olive on me as I’ve seen it look in some people’s photos. But it’s one of my favorite deep charcoal shimmer shades. 

Zoya Tabitha - a reliable, pearly, deep dark hunter green, and another of my oldest Zoyas—though not as old as Olivera. I remember when I bought this one: I was looking for a dark green with a pearl finish that performed well, to wear to a friend’s fairy forest themed wedding (I was a bridesmaid). I’ve used Tabitha many times as a base for ombre looks and nail art, and certain topper polishes look amazing over it. 

Previously wore: 

Day 3 of manicure, left hand. Daisy and Dancing Dragon are 3 coats, all others are 2 coats.

Notes: 

Spoiler

Smith & Cult Color Me Curious - this mustard shade's a bit brighter than my photo depicts (that nail was caught in a shadow). Brighter and less orange than Honey, but not as bright as Darcy. Very easy to work with for a yellow. I’ve had this polish for a year or 2, I think, but had only used it 2 or 3 times. I think the S&C brush keeps me from wearing it more often: it’s not terrible, but it annoys me. Also, the short wide shape of S&C bottles + length of brush stem = hard to use up the polish once it hits a certain level in the bottle. And I hate decorative brush caps that have to be removed before using the brush—and S&C’s is so big. But the polish itself is very nice. 

Zoya Honey - hmm, I think I forgot to post this and a couple other polishes in the hauls thread... I recently bought it. Note to self! Anyway, I've been stalking Londontown Lakur Bee's Knees, waiting for a good sale. I didn't jump on the brand's Valentine's Day sale because I'm optimistically holding out for a better deal. Meanwhile, I thought Zoya Honey might be close enough to Londontown Bee's Knees to keep me happy for a while. I'm still buying Bee's Knees if/when the price is right for me, and then I can do a direct in-person comparison. But Honey is a very nice marigold that applies easily. 

Zoya Darcy - I’m always surprised by this shade's decent 2-coat coverage, without all the usual visible streaky lines that happen with yellows. I do tend to use thicker coats of this than I would of other shades, though. Darcy shows off the ridges on my left middle nail. I don’t always mind the look of ridges, so I don’t often use a ridge filling base coat. 🤷‍♀️ 

Zoya Daisy - I meant to use a base color (white or silver), and next time I’ll remember to do that so I can stop at 2 coats. I can’t do thin coats of this one—they must be thick coats—and 3 thick Daisy coats are kinda hard to level out. This nail is also ridged, but it’s a bit harder to tell under all that Daisy. 😄 

Great Lakes Lacquer The Dancing Dragon - this is from a 2020 HHC order. It’s one of those “gotta see it in direct sunlight, from multiple angles, to fully appreciate all the sparkly color shifts” shades. It even has a purple shift I couldn't catch in my photo. I love this shade. Eh, I might be biased by the Avatar: The Last Airbender theme (and I’m still bummed that I missed out on the gorgeous fiery Agni Kai shade). Oh, and the rusty smudge on the outer edge of that nail is Kiko Sunset Copper: I accidentally brushed that nail against my right thumb while both nails were drying. 🤦‍♀️ 

Day 4 of manicure, right hand; my day 3 right-hand photos were all too dark. Tanzy and Gunter’s Get Down are 3 coats, all others are 2 coats.

Notes: 

Spoiler

Kiko Milano 211 Sunset Copper vs. Morgan Taylor Gunter’s Get Down vs. Zoya Tanzy - I wanted to see these against one another. Sunset Copper is a true copper penny shade. Tanzy is the sparkliest of these 3 and shifts a bit from copper to orangey gold, but it never gets as orange gold as Gunter’s Get Down. Tanzy's also the messiest to remove: glitter all over the place. But I love it anyway. It's one of my newest Zoyas. 

Live Love Polish Vaporize - one of my all-time favorite polishes, and I’m very tempted to buy a new Mooncat bottle just to have the better wider brush, even though my old LLP bottle’s still 3/4 full. That aqua > teal > green > gold > copper color shift is amazing in pretty much any kind of lighting. Vaporize is the epitome of “multichrome.” It’s also very easy to work with, even with LLP's stupidly skinny and short handled/stemmed brush. Maybe I'll reserve a Zoya Z-Wide brush just to use with this shade, though it'd be a pain to always thoroughly clean that brush and store it separately. 

China Glaze Solar Power - an old favorite that I recently repurchased. My photo doesn’t show any of the subtle shimmer. Also, I meant to put this over a base of white or silver but didn’t; you can see the resulting bare streaky patches on my pinky nail. “Why do you love Solar Power if it’s so streaky and temperamental?” Because once upon a long time ago, this was the best yellow polish I’d ever tried (which says a lot about other yellows circa 2012), and I’m a sentimental fool. 🤣 There are better behaving yellows nowadays, but Solar Power will always have a place in my heart. 

FYI, if you're curious about Kiko Milano's polishes: they sometimes have some shades on sale for $3-4 USD, and they're normally $6. I can only speak to the Power Pro Nail Lacquer (both original and "New" versions) line; I've never tried their other polish lines. But the Power Pros have a nice wide brush that makes up for the decorative removable cap and kinda short stem. I don't have many of these polishes, but I haven't been disappointed by the ones I've tried. 

[ather]

@WinglessOne  Loving your rainbow nails!! I love yellows. So those are my fav but also like tabatha it looks like such a perfect green.