15 February 2010

Lacquer Lundi

As many of my regular readers know, I don't do pink.  It's just too sweet.  A few years back, there was a student at my school that wore baby pink, head to toe, every single day.  She looked like a walking confection.  She also giggled a lot.  I never taught her, but then giggly girls that wear exclusively pink don't tend to take senior level chemistry courses.  It's a scientific fact - look it up.

I also don't do hearts.  Heart shaped things annoy me.  Heart shaped jewelery - retch.  Heart shaped embellishments on clothing - blech.  And the piece de resistance?  Dotting your "i"s with a heart - now you're just begging for a wedgie. 

I felt the need to get all that off my chest before presenting my Valentine's Day manicures.  As an aside, the fact that I even did special V-day manicures makes me want to chug a beer and play rugby, just to remove the girly taint. 


So, let's get onto the pretties:

Zoya - Jade
- purchased at spaboutique.ca for $9.00 CDN

Jade is a gorgeous deep red base with tiny red glitter interspersed throughout.  I originally bought Jade because it looked to be a perfect Xmas mani candidate, but it got pushed to the back of the untrieds storage drawer.  I'm glad I finally dug it out, as it is quite stunning.

Jade applied beautifully, just like every other Zoya I have tried.  I used three coats for full opacity.  I had tip wear after one day.  I am quickly becoming a Zoya convert - I love the colours, the formula, the shape of the bottles and it is toluene, formaldehyde, phthalate and camphor free to boot.  Nice!


Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear - Hot Magenta
- purchased at Rexall (chain drug store) for $1.53 CDN

Hot Magenta is a fabulous hot pink with a purply flash and extremely subtle silver micro shimmer.  If I'm going to wear pink, this is the kind of pink I gravitate toward.  This ain't no sissy pink, this is a pink with balls.

Hot Magenta is extremely pigmented, so I only need one easily applied coat (yes - one single coat - that almost never happens) that dried super fast.  The wear was also great - only minor tip wear after one day.  As usual, I love me some Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear!




Sally Hansen Insta Dri - Whirlwind White  & Revlon Glimmer Gloss - Cherry Fizz

- Revlon purchased at Rexall (chain drug store) for $5.49 CDN
- Sally Hansen was a gift from my Mom

Whirlwind White is a stark white that reminds me of grade 11.  During high school, some of my friends would paint their nails with Wite Out.  Whirlwind Wite is just a more sophisticated version of this teenage manicure.  Granted Whirlwind White is shiny and Wite Out is matte, but the concept is the same.  With that said, I can't believe I liked the white manicure as much as I did.  It is such a crisp, clean look.  I got several compliments the day I sported it

Unfortunately, Whirlwind White was difficult to apply.  Even after two coats, I had streaks and light bald spots.  It did dry very fast though. I wore this polish alone for one work day and had tip wear after 12 hours.

In an attempt to prolong this manicure, yet make it look fresh, I applied Cherry Fizz over top.  Cherry Fizz is a translucent scarlet base with bits of silver glitter.  At least that's how it appears in the bottle.  On the nail, over top of the white polish, it was just nasty.  After three coats of Cherry Fizz, I was left with pink highlighter fingers.  Thus, my office supplies manicure was complete.  It was so bad (I seriously thought about "losing" the photographic evidence) that I immediately removed the whole mess and made myself feel better with massive amounts of glitter:


Zoya - Nova
- purchased at spaboutique.ca for $9.00 CDN

Prepare for glitter awesomeness.  Nova is a sheer raspberry-coloured base that is absolutely jam-packed with dark pink glitter.  It has such amazing depth and sparkle.

The formula on this polish is wonderful.  The glitter spreads evenly on the nail and there is no thickness or gloppiness (which I have noticed is a problem with many glitter-ful polishes).  It covers beautifully in two coats, but I did three for maximum depth of colour.  The wear is also phenomenal, I only had very minor tip wear after two days (usually glitter polishes wear horribly at the tips for me).  I loved Nova so much that I will be picking up the other two polishes in this collection - a silver and a lighter pink (so you know I love this stuff if I'm willingly buying light pink).

15 comments:

KID, MD said...

Your nails are lovely, but I have to object to the pink, girly-girl comment as a pink-wearing, excessive giggling (at least in high school - I like to think I've gotten over that) girliest of girls who look as many upper level chemistry classes possible. It happens! (but perhaps not terribly often...)

Anonymous said...

Lovely nails, once again. My second daughter, Erin, used the hearts over the "i" when signing her valentines this year. I was a bit uneasy with it!! Hopefully she won't start wearing head to toe pink...

Unknown said...

Those are great colors!
Is a heart dripping with blood and a daggar sticking out of it acceptable? I just want to make sure I'm still cool...or is it uncool, I forget! :D

Rose said...

Pink doesn't do me (with the exception of bright, hot pink) and is guaranteed to make me look like I have a terminable illness. I learned not to wear it. Could that be why I took senior chemistry? Probably not - not a cause and effect thing. I loved putting stuff together to see what happens (Now I sew.). Thanks for sharing the "nails from office supply". I like seeing what doesn't work as well as the other beautiful colors in your post.

Jane M said...

Shannon, I never thought I'd enjoy your nails posts as much as those about Simon or about sewing....but I do. And I'm definitely a pink polish girl although I would never put the heart over an i (WTF?) , guffaw but can't giggle and enjoyed my HS chemistry teacher who was just as cool as you are. Of course, that was so many decades ago that when she got pregnant, she had to leave mid year, what a loss.

Shelley's Garden said...

I took Senior chemistry. I love pink...and your red polishes for Valentines are also lovely.

Unknown said...

ha ha! chug a beer! Good one!

I do like that Hot Magenta

Hope you enjoyed your weekend :)

Paige said...

Great swatches, perhaps you would like more anatomically correct hearts instead?

Deez Nailz - Canadas most fabulous hand model said...

all lovely - S.H. 'Hot Magenta' is a drug store stunner that totally surprised me - I could not even get a descent photo of it - but you got a great one.

I loooooooooooooove the glimmer gloss over the white - I tried to do something like this recently but it did not turn out as good as yours

Carol said...

Interesting colour choices. I am pleased to hear that you have good experiences with Zoya. I've decided I don't like them very much. The ones I've used are thick and hard to apply, but perhaps I need to try some newer ones. I love white polish and recently have worn a whole range of that sort of colour from stark white to a pale milky coffee. I find I only really get one good days wear out of them, though.

meredithp said...

Oh, how I wish I had you for Chemistry. I had one of those awful, smart guys, who could not teach worth a damn. And not being scientifically inclined, I really needed a good teacher. He worked for something like the Manhattan project (although not that of course) and had lost his fingernails to radiation. Ha! A chemistry-nails connection. I like pink (probably 'cause I'm blonde), and giggle (though not to excess and usually to myself), but never use hearts to dot my "i"s.

amber said...

While I don't dress in head to toe pink, I think I wear enough of the color for the both of us. ;)

Nancy Winningham said...

Fortunately, I don't run into too much of this in fifth grade.

JustGail said...

Very cool demo! We definitely didn't have such happenings when I was going into 9th grade. I also don't recall having kits to make molecule models (or memorable teacher moments).

I read your polish posts with much envy. Not only do I wish I could wear the untraditional colors you do, but I can't do polish at all. My nails are so soft/flexible that the polish starts to crack and peel within a couple of hours. Are there any polishes that are super-flexible?

Denise@thebluegardenia.com said...

I am all over Cherry Fizz over Whirlwind White.