The Valentine's Day Manicure Conundrum

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. One, you get candy, usually. Two, it's the one day of the year that pink and red are totally acceptable when paired together. As such, I planned my Valentine manicure so as to achieve maximum foofiness. Last month, I gave this one a test run:

That was too saccharine, even for me. So, I decided to go with something more like this:
Which was a little more understated. But ultimately, I didn't wear any red or any pink on V-Day. I wore OPI "Simmer and Shimmer". I guess I just wasn't feeling the V-day spirit.

R.E.I.T., however, had her own plans for Valentine's Day. She wanted to wear OPI "Black Shatter" over red. Which would have been an awesome combination, if we actually owned Black Shatter. Mommy had to get resourceful. R.E.I.T. ended up wearing China Glaze "Salsa" with a very, very thin coat of Sinful Colors "Black on Black" over the top. The brush strokes were just enough to convince her that she was wearing "Black Shatter".

Barielle "Shades of Argyle"

Okay, I have a confession to make. I left the following comment on Frazzle and Aniploish when she shared her photo of the "Shades of Argyle" collection display:

I can't think of anything more boring than Argyle to base a nail polish line off. They should do, "The colors of Formica" next.

Okay, so, based off a picture of the internet, they really did look super boring. But at Ulta today (I had some money left on a gift card that just had to be spent, and they had a buy two get one sale) I saw them in person. And I had to have them.

First of all, if you're into flash bang whizz zoom colors, this is not the collection for you. But if, like me, you occasionally want to wear what I call a "grown up" color, you won't be disappointed in these. They are gorgeous.

Because my nails and cuticles are still horrorshow, I spared you the sight of them swatched these on a spare nail wheel:



Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do them justice. No matter what lighting I used, I just couldn't get a completely faithful representation. But anyway, from the left,"Wool You Marry Me", "Tight Knit", and "Cashmere Or Loose Me".

"Wool You Marry Me" is a dark (but not as dark as the picture) berry red cream with a slight brownish cast. The closest shade I have in my collection is Essie's "Wicked", but this is a shade or two lighter and leans closer to brown than purple.

When I first picked up "Tight Knit", I thought it was a brown. Then, when I swatched it, I found it was a muddy rose. I have nothing close in my collection, so I'm glad I picked it up.

"Cashmere Or Loose Me" (did they mean "lose"?) is a golden brown cream with very subtle gold shimmer.

All the colors dried super glossy without a top coat, and I'm sure they'll look amazing with my boring and extensive collection of sweaters and turtlenecks.

I tried to enlist R.E.I.T. to help me swatch, but she took one look at the colors and said, "No. No more brown!" So, I guess she'll be on board when we swatch something else.

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!

Autumn Colors!

Today, R.E.I.T. and I will be talking about autumn colors, at the request of Bronwyn Green. We're not much for "seasonal" colors over here. We like wear what we want, when we want. But we do have some colors in our stash that just scream fall.

For people who are into jewel tones, Sinful Colors "The Way" and Nicole by OPI "Show You Care" will be nice and colorful, but still dark enough for fall.

R.E.I.T thinks: Noooooo. Aha.

Some subtle metallics might also be nice. Mary Kay "Mocha Freeze" and Pure Ice "Jaguar"

R.E.I.T. thinks: I like that paint.

If you're gonna go red in the fall, I recommend a deep berry color. Mary Kay "Feisty" and Essie "Wicked"

R.E.I.T. thinks: Toes. For toes. I like paint for toes.

That's a good suggestion. A dark berry red for a pedicure!
And I like pinks to be along the mauevish spectrum. Sinful Colors "Wicket Mind" and Mary Kay "Sagewood"

R.E.I.T. thinks: I don't want pink.

Finally, what autumn color spectacular would be complete without some browny greiges?

With or without shimmer, cool-toned browns (wait, is that even possible?) look classy for fall. Finger Paints "Autumn Allure" and Rimmel "Steel Grey"

We don't even need to ask R.E.I.T. on this one. She knows what she likes, and she likes bright, bright colors.

Take our color advice with a grain of salt, of course. We're not fashionistas, we just know what we like. And because we never throw anything away, some of these colors are no longer available. These are just to give you an idea!

R.E.I.T. says today is pink.

Today, we're going to share our pink nail polishes! R.E.I.T. thought that would be the perfect color for today.

Mommy: Is there anything you want to say on the blog today?
R.E.I.T.: Mmmhmm.
Mommy: What do you want to say?
R.E.I.T.: Whoa! Careful. Be careful with the paint.

Consider that a reminder from R.E.I.T.: Be careful with your nail polishes. If you drop them, they might break. She knows from experience.

Message from R.E.I.T.: Careful paint. Like with babies.

Because we both like pink, our pink collection takes up two photos:


L-R: Sinful Colors "Wall Street", Mary Kay "Sagewood", Sinful Colors "Wicket Mind", Sinful Colors "Bali Mist"


L-R: Sinful Colors "Forget Now", Pure Ice "Flirt Alert", Studio M "Infusion"

Hopefully that's enough nail goodness to last the weekend. Monday will by Mommy Manicure, and I'll be reviewing China Glaze "Lubu Heels".