Layering is magic.

I have to admit, R.E.I.T. has always been more adventurous when it comes to layering unlikely nail polishes. I've worn Sinful Colors "Hottie" alone (pain in the butt to take off) and over light blues like Studio M "Whose That Girl". But I'd never though of layering a light glitter over a dark color, until Chloe over at Chloe's Nails tried it. She wore "Hottie" over black, and it looked fantastic! I resolved to try it.

Tuesday night, I was on the fence about what to do with my nails. I know that on Saturday I absolutely have to wear a patchwork manicure of the Barielle argyle collection, at the request of a friend who wants to see the colors in person. I didn't want to wear neutrals all week. I looked through our collection and realized that I had never worn Borghese "Mezzanotte Blue". It had been sitting in my collection, unloved. So, I decided to wear it. I've seen this blue described as a creme in some places, but I'm not sure if I agree. There is a strange, translucent quality to it that is almost jelly-like. It's one of those "almost blacks", a color that you can only really tell what it is by looking at it slightly sideways. My nails looked glossy and dark, so I was happy.

Then, Wednesday morning, when I was painting R.E.I.T.'s nails, it hit me: I could layer "Hottie" over "Mezzanotte Blue!" Here are the results:



I took about a hundred pictures, trying to capture how gorgeous this turned out, and none of them did it any justice. "Hottie" is a light blue jelly with opalescent glitter in various sizes. On it's own, it's a baby blue sparkler. Layered over "Mezzanotte Blue", it's orange and green and gold with hints of purple. I feel like I'm wearing pirate treasure. Or a mermaid tail. I can't stop looking at my fingers (dry cuticles and all). It's like having a little galaxy on my nails!

Next time, I think I'll try it over Orly "Galaxy Girl" and see what the results are!

Awesome Deals and a Swatch!

This weekend, I got some awesome deals! First up, my local Ulta had almost their entire collection of Borghese on clearance for four dollars! I hope this doesn't mean they plan on discontinuing the brand in their store, because I would love to see another super deep discount like that in the future. I snapped up "Mezzanotte Blue", which is a deep navy. It reminds me quite a lot of Hard Candy "Mr. Right", minus the shimmer.

Over at Sally Beauty Supply was the really exciting find, though. For some reason I always miss the good stuff on their clearance tables. I get there when it's really picked over and all that's left is scented cuticle oil and unbranded base coats. This time, though, I found two colors from Finger Paints's fall collection, marked down to $1.99. Not bad. And then I got to the register and found out that all their clearance merchandise was 50% off! So, I got two Finger Paints polishes for one dollar each! I absolutely loved their fall collection, so I was excited to get two more colors, "Harvest Hues", which is a shimmery dark green, and "Autumn Moonlight", a gray-blue with silver shimmer.

Now, exciting deals aside, the big find of the day was Borghese "Vigneto Berry". I had seen this polish swatched on a ton of blogs and read rave reviews, but none of the Meijers in my area seemed to have the limited edition display out! I thought for sure I'd find it at Ulta, so imagine my disappointment when they didn't have it, either. I had three OPI polishes in my hand, due to their buy two, get one sale ("Who The Shrek Are You?", "Rumple's Wiggin", and "Suzy Says Feng Shui"), along with "Mezzanotte Blue" and went to stand in the longest line ever. Luckily, the line wound right past the Borghese display with their fall colors! Excitement!

Unfortunately, the four dollar sale didn't extend to this one tiny little display (boo), but I was so excited that I didn't care. In fact, I was so excited to find this one that I asked them to put back all the OPI that I had picked out. It just didn't look as "must have" next to "Vigneto Berry."

I had to wear it immediately:



Pardon my messy fingers. Borghese makes very wide brushes, and it's a bit hard to get used to. This picture kind of highlights the problems with the polish. I love that it's matte. I love matte finish polishes. But I took this picture literally five minutes after apply the second coat, and it's already cracked. I think this must be due to the crazy shrinking the polish does while drying, so I would recommend waiting until the first coat is absolutely dry before apply the second coat.

However, just look at it. Matte magenta, with glitter. It's ridiculous that anything should look so good.

Another thing I noticed on the blogs was that this is a very versatile polish. It looks completely different when you put on a glossy top coat:



And again with the messy fingers. Chalk it up to my excitement. I couldn't wait to get it on my hands. This is with one coat of Seche Vite. Look how completely different it is! It's like I bought two polishes in the same bottle. I did one hand with top coat, one without, and the results were shocking. The hand without the top coat looked elegant and very "high-fashion". The hand with the top coat looked fun and funky.

R.E.I.T. absolutely loves this polish, too, but she prefers it without the top coat. Or, "bumpy", as she calls it. It's actually the first polish that I think she's worn twice in a row!