The (B)Right Side of 25

Hello Interwebs!

I seem to have fallen behind on the blogging a little bit, but that blog topics list I mentioned last time is ever-growing. This means that, eventually, you'll have some wonderful, fabulous interesting things to read. Perhaps. It could just be wonderful, fabulous and interesting to me. Either way, it's gettin' posted!

My very next thing I wanted to share was my nail polish collection. I was inspired by a recent little trip to my local Sally's. Initially, I had just gone in to pick up some nail decorating tools (which I didn't find) but instead picked up a different, but still great, little tool - the nail colour wheel! As an extra bonus, I spotted a shade of nail polish that was on sale! Extra extra bonus, it was a shade of my new favourite colour, teal.

Now, I know at this point you are just DYING to see my little collection. Don't worry, I won't keep you waiting :)

1) Finger Paints: Art Dealer Teal-er
- This was the new shade I found. And I. Am. In. Love. I haven't used it yet, but sooooon, so very very soon. Aside from my utter love, perhaps I should give you a little review. I found this polish went on very well. It did take 3-4 coats for it to get a good opaque colour, but it was smooth and shiny.

2) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Ivy League
- This is also a favourite, as it is a bright and sparkly shade. It made me think of a neon green, but I think it's shine in it. It's just a healthy, bright colour. It looks lovely with accents.

3) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Blizzard Blue
- This colour is beautiful. Once you get enough coats on, that is. This colour goes on SUPER light, so it takes about 3 before it good solid color, unlike the Ivy League. But it is really pretty and can be wonderful for water marbling

4) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Hot Magenta
- What can I say? This brand has cool colours and really good prices. This colour has a huge pop and very hot pink. I love it. Also works wonderfully as an accent colour. It applies really well and, at most, I'll apply 2 coats.

5) Del Sol Colour-Changing Nail Polish: Peek-a-boo
- This is a tricky one. In the bottle, it's an unpleasant yellow, it goes on clear, and if you go out in the sun, it'll turn hot pink. Not as pink as the Hot Magenta, but still a very pretty colour. As soon as I can, I will grab a picture and post it for you to see. This goes on pretty well... but you can't really tell if it's streaky until it's dry and you go out in the sun.

6) Del Sol Colour-Changing Nail Polish: Superhero
- At first glance, this looks very similar to the Blizzard Blue. I find it's much gentler though. Out of the two Del Sol shades, this is my favourite. I love both the colour in the shade, and the colour in the sun - a lovely lilac. Although I like the colour, it still doesn't go on as well as some other shades. But I'm willing to keep it still.

7) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Virtual Violet
- This is very similar to the Blizzard Blue. Beautiful light colour, but needs a number of coats to get the solid colour.

8) China Glaze: Senorita Bonita
- One of my absolute favourites, this polish goes on lovely with just 2 coats. The sparkle adds a pop to the deep and vibrant colour.

9) Unknown Brand: Alexander the Grape
- A couple of polishes I've had for... well... pretty much for as long as I can remember. This is one of those. The brand name has rubbed off the bottle. This colour is pretty vampy. I'm not certain if I want to keep it. I can only think that I will use it for Halloween or possibly for accent. We'll see how it goes.

10) Show Colours: Couldn't read the name
- As stated... I couldn't read the name on this one. It's in the teeniest, tiniest writing I've ever seen, and I'm going to need a magnifying glass to read it. Might be a problem since I haven't had one of those on hand since high school.... but again, this colour went on surprisingly well for a polish that is so old and I liked it much more than I expected! I plan on using this one.

11) Oil of Olay: Terra
- I'm not even certain how this colour made its way into my collection. It's not something that I immediately like, and when I see it on the colour wheel, I start to like it. Then I hold it up against my own nail. It just seems like such an older colour for me. This is pretty well going.

12) Unnamed bottle and unnamed shade
- Does anyone remember getting those giant boxes of make up and nail polish kits as pre-teen/teen? The ones from places like Walmart? This shade came from that. I don't know if this picture does it justice, but this red goes on really really well. It's like a bright, fresh cranberry red. I'm really enjoying it.

13) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Gunmetal
- This is such a cool shade. Much love for this one, though I haven't worn it often. It's just so rocker chic. Happy Nail Bliss for me.

14) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Celeb City
- I always see this as a much brighter, much more FABULOUS, version of Gunmetal. It goes on really well. And if I don't want something too strong, a single coat is fine.

15) Maybelline Color Show: Bold Gold
- I have a love-hate relationship with this color. On one hand, it usually only needs one coat to get a good, solid, rich color. It is actually like liquid gold. And although that picture doesn't show it well, it does have a nice shimmer. Not strong, but again, like there's liquid gold on your fingers. That being said.

It's the goopiest, most quick drying crap I've ever used. It's unlikely I'll use another colour from this brand. They have beautiful shades, but it just clumps so easily, leaves lines and so many brush strokes. It does have it's uses, and I won't toss it.... I just probably wouldn't buy it again if I can find a similar one in another brand.

16) Sally Hansen Insta-Dri: Whirlwind White
- This is a nice crisp white, takes about 2 coast, and is really really good for doing french tips. Love it. :)

17) O.P.I: Black Shatter
- You'll notice I skipped one almost black nail. This was an attempt at a double coat of the black shatter. Clearly it failed. I'll clear it off and paint an actual black polish with it. In the mean time, I'm thoroughly enjoying the Black Shatter. I haven't used it on the white as shown here, but used it plenty on the Hot Magenta, the Blue, the Ivy League. It's a go-to favourite.

So there you have it, my polish collection! Most of these are under 3 dollars (Cdn), with the exception of the Teal-er (4.99) and the O.P.I. (9.99 to buy, but I won it for free).

And as much as I complained about the gold, I actually used it this week past!



Yes, I'm holding on the phone. Holding a bottle of polish just ... wouldn't work. So phone it is. You'll notice I'm wearing the red (number 12) as a base. I'm also a big fan of the accent nail lately. So I water marbled the gold and red together (many, many, many tries. Many. It dried ridiculously fast. I was not happy). I loved the accent nail the best. I think that, the next time I do this, I'll do the gold on red on all the nails with red on gold as an accent nail. I think it would look just fantastic. I also tried to keep the polish clean, using a q-tip to clean up the cuticle and as close to the nail as possible. I also try to make sure to put down a base coat (Pro-FX Protein Enriched Base Coat and Revitalizer) as well as Sally Hansen Hard as Nails topcoat. Helps it last quit a long time. :)

That's all I have for now folks. I'm hoping to use the rest of the wheels that I have for practice for nail art. Once those are done, be sure I'll be posting them here as well.

Enjoy all things everyone!