China Glaze White Cap

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I started a Valentines Day themed manicure today, which I was going to Konad the heck out of, but the layered base turned out so nicely that I thought I'd show you that and skip the Konad.

I wanted to use China Glaze White Cap from Anchors Away, but I knew it was sheerer than I wanted and I'd need to layer it.  The choice of polish to layer over was where I went wrong - I chose Revlon Powder Puff, the shimmer white matte one.  I needed three coats, so I waited several minutes between each, then finally added a coat of White Cap and one of top coat.  It looked great, but I'd heard of drying issues with Powder Puff (which is why I went to the trouble of drying time for each coat), and I'll be danged if they didn't get me.  I messed up one nail flossing my teeth before bed a full hour and a half after I finished applying polish.  I almost redid it this morning, but then figured it was a good illustration of the drying problems with Powder Puff.  I woke up without sheet prints on my nails, so if I'd managed to avoid the dings from the floss, I would have been good.

China Glaze White Cap Nail Polish Layered over White

See the two big dents in my index nail?  That's where the floss dug right in.  Otherwise, I love it.  I'll have to find another soft white to use as a base for White Cap because it's really gorgeous.

That's the scoop for today, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!  

China Glaze White Cap

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I started a Valentines Day themed manicure today, which I was going to Konad the heck out of, but the layered base turned out so nicely that I thought I'd show you that and skip the Konad.

I wanted to use China Glaze White Cap from Anchors Away, but I knew it was sheerer than I wanted and I'd need to layer it.  The choice of polish to layer over was where I went wrong - I chose Revlon Powder Puff, the shimmer white matte one.  I needed three coats, so I waited several minutes between each, then finally added a coat of White Cap and one of top coat.  It looked great, but I'd heard of drying issues with Powder Puff (which is why I went to the trouble of drying time for each coat), and I'll be danged if they didn't get me.  I messed up one nail flossing my teeth before bed a full hour and a half after I finished applying polish.  I almost redid it this morning, but then figured it was a good illustration of the drying problems with Powder Puff.  I woke up without sheet prints on my nails, so if I'd managed to avoid the dings from the floss, I would have been good.

China Glaze White Cap Nail Polish Layered over White

See the two big dents in my index nail?  That's where the floss dug right in.  Otherwise, I love it.  I'll have to find another soft white to use as a base for White Cap because it's really gorgeous.

That's the scoop for today, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!  

China Glaze Hey Sailor

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm wearing a manicure that just fell into place, and I like it.  There were three things I absolutely had to include this week, but I wasn't clear on how I wanted to do them.  Then China Glaze sent me their Anchors Away collection to review, which arrived yesterday, and as I looked through the colors I saw a good way to  do a mani for one of my top three on the list of Produce I Wish I Had.

Strawberries!

Yum!!!

I love strawberries.  In 2004, my then-husband and I bought a house that was in a new development, and the extent of the builder's landscaping was to put sod on the front and side yards.  The good part of that was that we could make the yard anything we wanted it to be, and my first order of business was to get a garden sectioned off.  I ended up with a 10'x20' plot, and I dedicated a quarter of the space to strawberries.  I'd ordered special varieties of strawberries from a gardening site, and they took beautifully.  I managed to fight off my nemesis of that year, Baby Bunny (he might show up in another story - this cute, tiny little bugger was always trying to eat my plants), and my strawberry plants thrived and actually produced a bunch of fruit the first year.  I'd go out and survey the progress a few times a day, but every time the berries were just shy of ready to harvest, birds would come and take one bite out of each.  I was so mad!  I eventually collected two under-ripe berries and ate them just so I could get any of them.  In the fall, I had the then-husband till the strawberries and I pulled up the roots, thus ending my strawberry growing attempt.

I knew I didn't want another really loud mani today, and when I looked at the Anchors Away colors, I saw good choices to do a quieter one.  Hey Sailor is a great, vivid, classic red, which I decided to use for the main color.  Starboard is a darker green creme that seemed good for a leaf, and I used China Glaze Midnight Kiss for the seeds.  Rather than doing a tip for accent color, I wanted to try a technique I've seen Nihrida use many times, her Ruffian manicure.   That meant two coats of Starboard on the accent nail, then two of Hey Sailor, then the dots.

China Glaze Hey Sailor Strawberry Manicure

I finished it with Poshe, which as you can see, gets scuffed easily.  All I did between the manicure and a picture was wash my hands with a nail brush a few times and sleep, so that's a lot of scuffing for what I did.  It's disappointing because you can't see the great finish to Hey Sailor so much through scuff marks.  It's incredibly glossy like a jelly, but opaque, so it's pretty much a perfect finish for a red for me.  I like this one a lot.  Also, I'm not counting this as using Starboard, since you can't really get a good look at it here.  I just wanted to try it out.

That's my strawberry manicure with China Glaze Hey Sailor, and it's a great cheery one to wear today.  That's just about all I have for you for now, so until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!  

China Glaze Hey Sailor

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm wearing a manicure that just fell into place, and I like it.  There were three things I absolutely had to include this week, but I wasn't clear on how I wanted to do them.  Then China Glaze sent me their Anchors Away collection to review, which arrived yesterday, and as I looked through the colors I saw a good way to  do a mani for one of my top three on the list of Produce I Wish I Had.

Strawberries!

Yum!!!

I love strawberries.  In 2004, my then-husband and I bought a house that was in a new development, and the extent of the builder's landscaping was to put sod on the front and side yards.  The good part of that was that we could make the yard anything we wanted it to be, and my first order of business was to get a garden sectioned off.  I ended up with a 10'x20' plot, and I dedicated a quarter of the space to strawberries.  I'd ordered special varieties of strawberries from a gardening site, and they took beautifully.  I managed to fight off my nemesis of that year, Baby Bunny (he might show up in another story - this cute, tiny little bugger was always trying to eat my plants), and my strawberry plants thrived and actually produced a bunch of fruit the first year.  I'd go out and survey the progress a few times a day, but every time the berries were just shy of ready to harvest, birds would come and take one bite out of each.  I was so mad!  I eventually collected two under-ripe berries and ate them just so I could get any of them.  In the fall, I had the then-husband till the strawberries and I pulled up the roots, thus ending my strawberry growing attempt.

I knew I didn't want another really loud mani today, and when I looked at the Anchors Away colors, I saw good choices to do a quieter one.  Hey Sailor is a great, vivid, classic red, which I decided to use for the main color.  Starboard is a darker green creme that seemed good for a leaf, and I used China Glaze Midnight Kiss for the seeds.  Rather than doing a tip for accent color, I wanted to try a technique I've seen Nihrida use many times, her Ruffian manicure.   That meant two coats of Starboard on the accent nail, then two of Hey Sailor, then the dots.

China Glaze Hey Sailor Strawberry Manicure

I finished it with Poshe, which as you can see, gets scuffed easily.  All I did between the manicure and a picture was wash my hands with a nail brush a few times and sleep, so that's a lot of scuffing for what I did.  It's disappointing because you can't see the great finish to Hey Sailor so much through scuff marks.  It's incredibly glossy like a jelly, but opaque, so it's pretty much a perfect finish for a red for me.  I like this one a lot.  Also, I'm not counting this as using Starboard, since you can't really get a good look at it here.  I just wanted to try it out.

That's my strawberry manicure with China Glaze Hey Sailor, and it's a great cheery one to wear today.  That's just about all I have for you for now, so until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!