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".

e.l.f. Holiday Set

While at Target the other day, R.E.I.T. wisely said, "I want yook," and pointed to the health and beauty aisles. I couldn't say no. We found the e.l.f. (eyes. lips. face.) holiday promo end cap and this:
The e.l.f. holiday nail trio. We'd never used e.l.f. before, but for three dollars, the price was right to try it out. Here's what you get:

From left to right we have "Cranberry", a holiday red with some subtle red glitter, "Golden Goddess", a translucent gold with varying size and shape gold glitter, and "Twinkle", a clear with opalescent round glitter.

My cuticles are so stained from "Mezzanotte Blue"! But here's "Cranberry". I'm not wearing a topcoat here so that you can see the finish of the actual polish. In a word, it's bumpy. However, it's also a really pretty red, perfect for the Christmas season.Next up is "Golden Goddess". Since "Golden Goddess" is so sheer and the glitter so sparse, it really wouldn't work on its own, in my opinion. What you're seeing here is two coats over "Cranberry". We might do some layering experiments with this one soon, since it's a nice dazzler for New Years Eve.

And finally, "Twinkle". Which is a very strange polish. It's another one suitable for layering, but probably not that spectacular on its own. Here's one coat over a generic black polish from our Halloween clearance haul. It dries matte, which I was completely not expecting. Unfortunately, drying matte leaves the sparkle pretty dull. I'm wearing a coat of Seche Vite on the right finger, so you can see how cute it is.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this offering. The fact that it was three dollars helps that along greatly. If I had paid more than a couple of dollars for these, I probably wouldn't be so positive, but that's the nice thing about cheap nail polish. You don't have to judge your choices as much!

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.

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!