Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Last night I had to do a quickie gel and color change, and the polish I used was Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe from their Scent-suous Holiday Collection.  It's a light green foil, very well pigmented (two coats was plenty), and it smells like a mistletoe scented candle.  I've had it on for close to twenty-four hours, and it's worth noting that the fragrance is pretty much gone while the others I've tried from this collection have stayed pleasantly scented for a couple of days.

I was dreading changing the soak-off gel base I've had for a little over a week because I initially applied it to repair two cracks, and I really hate doing repairs.  I took a short nap yesterday and in that weird half-asleep state waking up, saw a teeny edge of gel lifted from a nail, decided I'd change it when I got home late, and peeled off a big piece.  I have no idea why it would make sense to do the last part, but evidently it did.  On this gel application, I violated all manufacturers' suggestions and didn't do any of the prep (buffing, primer, bonder) to see if it would hold and make the removal easier.  It turned out to be a good but inconvenient decision - when I was washing my hair to go out last night, I kept feeling that peeled edge snag, so once I was done with my hair I peeled it again, and the soak off gel and polish peeled off just like a regular manicure will in the pool after you've been swimming for a couple of hours.

When the that one came off completely, I started trying to get the others to do the same while still under the super hot shower, and it worked surprisingly easily - I scraped a corner of each nail with the opposite thumbnail to get an edge to come up, and once the edge lifted I could peel it right off with ease.  So that made for one of the easiest removals of anything I've ever had, but had to be somewhere shortly and suddenly had bare nails.  With the cold, they'd break right away while bare, so I went with drip-dry hair and no makeup in order to at least get some gel on them.  I felt like I was in one of those Lee nail repair kit commercials from the 80's.

Re-doing the glue on the cracks then applying and curing the Gelicure base and sealer took only twenty minutes, so I figured I'd get the polish on and be done with it.  I used two coats of Kiss Me Mistletoe and one of Essie Good to Go, and it dried fast and smelled really good.  I'm a little sad that the smell is gone, because I kept finding myself sniffing it!  I took a picture just a bit ago in the last afternoon sunlight.

Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe Nail Polish, Two Coats

Even without the fragrance, Kiss Me Mistletoe is a pretty polish - I'd wear this one even if it were not scented.

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Last night I had to do a quickie gel and color change, and the polish I used was Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe from their Scent-suous Holiday Collection.  It's a light green foil, very well pigmented (two coats was plenty), and it smells like a mistletoe scented candle.  I've had it on for close to twenty-four hours, and it's worth noting that the fragrance is pretty much gone while the others I've tried from this collection have stayed pleasantly scented for a couple of days.

I was dreading changing the soak-off gel base I've had for a little over a week because I initially applied it to repair two cracks, and I really hate doing repairs.  I took a short nap yesterday and in that weird half-asleep state waking up, saw a teeny edge of gel lifted from a nail, decided I'd change it when I got home late, and peeled off a big piece.  I have no idea why it would make sense to do the last part, but evidently it did.  On this gel application, I violated all manufacturers' suggestions and didn't do any of the prep (buffing, primer, bonder) to see if it would hold and make the removal easier.  It turned out to be a good but inconvenient decision - when I was washing my hair to go out last night, I kept feeling that peeled edge snag, so once I was done with my hair I peeled it again, and the soak off gel and polish peeled off just like a regular manicure will in the pool after you've been swimming for a couple of hours.

When the that one came off completely, I started trying to get the others to do the same while still under the super hot shower, and it worked surprisingly easily - I scraped a corner of each nail with the opposite thumbnail to get an edge to come up, and once the edge lifted I could peel it right off with ease.  So that made for one of the easiest removals of anything I've ever had, but had to be somewhere shortly and suddenly had bare nails.  With the cold, they'd break right away while bare, so I went with drip-dry hair and no makeup in order to at least get some gel on them.  I felt like I was in one of those Lee nail repair kit commercials from the 80's.

Re-doing the glue on the cracks then applying and curing the Gelicure base and sealer took only twenty minutes, so I figured I'd get the polish on and be done with it.  I used two coats of Kiss Me Mistletoe and one of Essie Good to Go, and it dried fast and smelled really good.  I'm a little sad that the smell is gone, because I kept finding myself sniffing it!  I took a picture just a bit ago in the last afternoon sunlight.

Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe Nail Polish, Two Coats

Even without the fragrance, Kiss Me Mistletoe is a pretty polish - I'd wear this one even if it were not scented.

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Orna-Minted

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I tried out Color Club Orna-minted, the silver glitter from their Scent-suous Holiday Collection, to add on to my Blue Year's Eve manicure.  I added one coat of Orna-minted, which I found to be similar to Sugar Plum Yum as far as application - it's thick, and the easiest way to use it was to get out a blob, put it in the middle of a nail, and smooth it over the nail.  I used a total of three coats of Sally Hansen Speed Shine over it to smooth it out.

Color Club Orna-minted Nail Polish, One Coat over Blue

I like Orna-minted and applying it gave me what seems like a good idea for a mani with it, but this isn't the best use of it.  I was going for a cold, icy manicure, but I think it looks more like I fell on some sparkly gravel with wet nails.

I was a little apprehensive about a mint scent, but it turns out that Orna-minted has the best possible variation of it.  It smells like peppermint tea with just a little bit of white sugar, and although definitely there, is not too strong.

I don't think I'd be so bold as to call this manicure a success, but I figured I'd post it anyhow because it gives you a good look at one coat of Orna-minted, and that might prompt some fun ideas for a better use of it for you, too.

That's it for today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Edited to add a note on removal: Orna-minted was surprisingly not bad to remove.  Even with three coats of top coat, I had it removed with felt and acetone in ten minutes even.  The only part that took effort was the free edges (that's always true of glitter removal) , so getting this off of shorter nails should be even easier.

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Orna-Minted

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I tried out Color Club Orna-minted, the silver glitter from their Scent-suous Holiday Collection, to add on to my Blue Year's Eve manicure.  I added one coat of Orna-minted, which I found to be similar to Sugar Plum Yum as far as application - it's thick, and the easiest way to use it was to get out a blob, put it in the middle of a nail, and smooth it over the nail.  I used a total of three coats of Sally Hansen Speed Shine over it to smooth it out.

Color Club Orna-minted Nail Polish, One Coat over Blue

I like Orna-minted and applying it gave me what seems like a good idea for a mani with it, but this isn't the best use of it.  I was going for a cold, icy manicure, but I think it looks more like I fell on some sparkly gravel with wet nails.

I was a little apprehensive about a mint scent, but it turns out that Orna-minted has the best possible variation of it.  It smells like peppermint tea with just a little bit of white sugar, and although definitely there, is not too strong.

I don't think I'd be so bold as to call this manicure a success, but I figured I'd post it anyhow because it gives you a good look at one coat of Orna-minted, and that might prompt some fun ideas for a better use of it for you, too.

That's it for today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Edited to add a note on removal: Orna-minted was surprisingly not bad to remove.  Even with three coats of top coat, I had it removed with felt and acetone in ten minutes even.  The only part that took effort was the free edges (that's always true of glitter removal) , so getting this off of shorter nails should be even easier.

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Santa's Cinnamon

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Last night I changed my polish to Color Club Santa's Cinnamon, the red glitter from their Scent-suous Holiday Collection, after discovering a decent sized chip in Gingerbread Man.  I couldn't really tell if it the chip was in the polish or the nail, so I'm suspending judgment about whether Gingerbread Man is chippy.

Santa's Cinnamon was one of the two from this collection that I was uncertain of, and now that it's on I'm glad I got it.  It's fine red glitter in a red jelly base, but the glitter is so dense that two thin coats were all that was needed for it to be even and opaque.  It went on easily over a base coat, and after a coat of Tout de Suite had a few minutes to do its thing I added some Nubar Freeze Dry drops just to be sure because the glitter is really incredibly glowy and bright, so I would have gotten annoyed if I'd smudged it.  Once it was dry, I noticed the surface was very grainy despite the glitter being very fine, so I added a coat of Sally Hansen Speed Shine.  That helped, but it needed one more coat of Speed Shine to be smooth this morning.  This is what it looks like under artificial light.

Color Club Santa's Cinnamon Nail Polish, Two Coats

The glitter in this is great.  Here's a closer look at part of a nail.

Color Club Santa Cinnamon Nail Polish's Glitter

The fragrance is Santa's Cinnamon is milder than that in Gingerbread Man or Sugar Plum Yum, and it smells like a less sweetened version of Cinnamon Red Hots.  I think I would have preferred a cinnamon stick smell, but this isn't too far off and is mild.

That is Color Club Santa's Cinnamon and the update for today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Santa's Cinnamon

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Last night I changed my polish to Color Club Santa's Cinnamon, the red glitter from their Scent-suous Holiday Collection, after discovering a decent sized chip in Gingerbread Man.  I couldn't really tell if it the chip was in the polish or the nail, so I'm suspending judgment about whether Gingerbread Man is chippy.

Santa's Cinnamon was one of the two from this collection that I was uncertain of, and now that it's on I'm glad I got it.  It's fine red glitter in a red jelly base, but the glitter is so dense that two thin coats were all that was needed for it to be even and opaque.  It went on easily over a base coat, and after a coat of Tout de Suite had a few minutes to do its thing I added some Nubar Freeze Dry drops just to be sure because the glitter is really incredibly glowy and bright, so I would have gotten annoyed if I'd smudged it.  Once it was dry, I noticed the surface was very grainy despite the glitter being very fine, so I added a coat of Sally Hansen Speed Shine.  That helped, but it needed one more coat of Speed Shine to be smooth this morning.  This is what it looks like under artificial light.

Color Club Santa's Cinnamon Nail Polish, Two Coats

The glitter in this is great.  Here's a closer look at part of a nail.

Color Club Santa Cinnamon Nail Polish's Glitter

The fragrance is Santa's Cinnamon is milder than that in Gingerbread Man or Sugar Plum Yum, and it smells like a less sweetened version of Cinnamon Red Hots.  I think I would have preferred a cinnamon stick smell, but this isn't too far off and is mild.

That is Color Club Santa's Cinnamon and the update for today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Gingerbread Man

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Last night I changed my polish to Color Club Gingerbread Man, another of the Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection that's at Sally's.  I added a little note on removal to Color Club Sugar Plum Yum as well, as it was surprisingly not bad.

For Gingerbread Man, I used a base coat, two coats of color, and SpaRitual Tout de Suite.  I found Gingerbread Man to be well pigmented and easy to apply, and it ends up as a foily gold.  What was noteworthy about it was the drying time, which was unusually poor.  My experience with Tout de Suite is that five minutes per coat of color is a safe bet for drying time in order for the manicure to be set enough to go do things, so ten minutes should have been good in this case.  However, a good hour after finishing it, I was still getting dings in the very soft polish.  I wanted to go to bed, so I got my Nubar Freeze Dry drying drops and used those before turning in.  Since all I could smell going to sleep was Freeze Dry, I was concerned that I'd killed the gingerbread scent of the polish and would just have a dented up regualr gold mani today, but that wasn't the case.  This morning, the gingerbread fragrance is there and the drying drops did the trick.

The scent of Gingerbread Man is quite nice.  It makes me think of a natural bakery I like, where they make a lot of quick breads with ground ginger.  I've never made or had actual gingerbread, but I like really good ground ginger in baked things, and it smells like that.  I find the fragrance of this one much more noticeable than that of Sugar Plum Yum, likely because I didn't bury Gingerbread Man in a thousand coats of top coat, but still definitely not overpowering or too strong at all.  Here's what it looks like under artificial light.

Color Club Gingerbread Man Nail Polish, Two Coats

It's just a nice, foily, kind of unusual shade of gold, which is a good thing, but it smells wonderful so I'm a big fan.  Again, a little high maintenance with the drying issues, but also worth some extra effort.  I'll probably stamp this today or tomorrow, but I don't know how well adding to a manicure that's been dried with drying drops works out.  We'll see!

That is Color Club Gingerbread Man and the update for today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Gingerbread Man

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Last night I changed my polish to Color Club Gingerbread Man, another of the Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection that's at Sally's.  I added a little note on removal to Color Club Sugar Plum Yum as well, as it was surprisingly not bad.

For Gingerbread Man, I used a base coat, two coats of color, and SpaRitual Tout de Suite.  I found Gingerbread Man to be well pigmented and easy to apply, and it ends up as a foily gold.  What was noteworthy about it was the drying time, which was unusually poor.  My experience with Tout de Suite is that five minutes per coat of color is a safe bet for drying time in order for the manicure to be set enough to go do things, so ten minutes should have been good in this case.  However, a good hour after finishing it, I was still getting dings in the very soft polish.  I wanted to go to bed, so I got my Nubar Freeze Dry drying drops and used those before turning in.  Since all I could smell going to sleep was Freeze Dry, I was concerned that I'd killed the gingerbread scent of the polish and would just have a dented up regualr gold mani today, but that wasn't the case.  This morning, the gingerbread fragrance is there and the drying drops did the trick.

The scent of Gingerbread Man is quite nice.  It makes me think of a natural bakery I like, where they make a lot of quick breads with ground ginger.  I've never made or had actual gingerbread, but I like really good ground ginger in baked things, and it smells like that.  I find the fragrance of this one much more noticeable than that of Sugar Plum Yum, likely because I didn't bury Gingerbread Man in a thousand coats of top coat, but still definitely not overpowering or too strong at all.  Here's what it looks like under artificial light.

Color Club Gingerbread Man Nail Polish, Two Coats

It's just a nice, foily, kind of unusual shade of gold, which is a good thing, but it smells wonderful so I'm a big fan.  Again, a little high maintenance with the drying issues, but also worth some extra effort.  I'll probably stamp this today or tomorrow, but I don't know how well adding to a manicure that's been dried with drying drops works out.  We'll see!

That is Color Club Gingerbread Man and the update for today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Sugar Plum Yum

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm wearing Color Club Sugar Plum Yum from the Sally Beauty Supply exclusive Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection I showed you bottle pictures of.  It's the purple and green glitter, and I did find the glitter hard to work worth but well worth the effort.

I didn't want to load up on tons of coats of glitter, so for the manicure I started with a Nutra Nail base coat and two coats of OPI Grape Set Match as a base color.   I gave each coat a couple of minutes to set, then added two coats of Sugar Plum Yum.  It's really gloppy andI found the best way for me to cover each nail was to scoop out a big blob with the brush, plop it down in the middle of a nail, then spread it from there.  The glitter is pretty dang big, so I knew I'd need a good bit of top coat.  I use SpaRitual Tout de Suite to dry it, and after about 15 minutes added a second coat of it.  I switched to Sally Hansen Speed Shine after that and have added a total of three additional coats of top coat.  It's still not perfectly smooth, but since I'll probably have to rent a sandblaster to remove it at this point, it's as smooth as it's getting.  What's cool is that the sugar plum fragrance is still there - it has a really nice scent, like a sugar plum scented candle rather than an artificial flavoring smell.  Like with the Color Club scented  neons, it's not overpowering at all, I just catch the occasional whiff (well, and I keep sniffing it, too!). Aside from the smell of it, I love the finished mani just for how it looks.

Color Club Sugar Plum Yum Scented Nail Polish, Two Coats over Purple

I'll likely wear this until at least tomorrow night because I'm still working on the arduous project I mentioned, so it works out well that I like it so much.  It's a high maintenance polish, but the payoff definitely makes it worth the extra effort for me.

That's my tale of Color Club Sugar Plum Yum, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Edited to add a note on removal: I knew this one would have to soak off.  Six minutes with acetone-soaked felt held on with plastic baggies and rubber bands made it painless, like completely not a hassle, and it contained all the glitter so there wasn't a mess.  It's now officially two well-manicured thumbs up for Sugar Plum Yum!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Sugar Plum Yum

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm wearing Color Club Sugar Plum Yum from the Sally Beauty Supply exclusive Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection I showed you bottle pictures of.  It's the purple and green glitter, and I did find the glitter hard to work worth but well worth the effort.

I didn't want to load up on tons of coats of glitter, so for the manicure I started with a Nutra Nail base coat and two coats of OPI Grape Set Match as a base color.   I gave each coat a couple of minutes to set, then added two coats of Sugar Plum Yum.  It's really gloppy andI found the best way for me to cover each nail was to scoop out a big blob with the brush, plop it down in the middle of a nail, then spread it from there.  The glitter is pretty dang big, so I knew I'd need a good bit of top coat.  I use SpaRitual Tout de Suite to dry it, and after about 15 minutes added a second coat of it.  I switched to Sally Hansen Speed Shine after that and have added a total of three additional coats of top coat.  It's still not perfectly smooth, but since I'll probably have to rent a sandblaster to remove it at this point, it's as smooth as it's getting.  What's cool is that the sugar plum fragrance is still there - it has a really nice scent, like a sugar plum scented candle rather than an artificial flavoring smell.  Like with the Color Club scented  neons, it's not overpowering at all, I just catch the occasional whiff (well, and I keep sniffing it, too!). Aside from the smell of it, I love the finished mani just for how it looks.

Color Club Sugar Plum Yum Scented Nail Polish, Two Coats over Purple

I'll likely wear this until at least tomorrow night because I'm still working on the arduous project I mentioned, so it works out well that I like it so much.  It's a high maintenance polish, but the payoff definitely makes it worth the extra effort for me.

That's my tale of Color Club Sugar Plum Yum, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Edited to add a note on removal: I knew this one would have to soak off.  Six minutes with acetone-soaked felt held on with plastic baggies and rubber bands made it painless, like completely not a hassle, and it contained all the glitter so there wasn't a mess.  It's now officially two well-manicured thumbs up for Sugar Plum Yum!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection

Good evening, Dear Reader!

I took a break from busily toiling away today to run some errands, and while I was out I came across the Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection of scented nail polishes that's exclusive to Sally Beauty Supply.

One of the tasks on my list took me near a Sally's, so I stopped in, found nothing noteworthy, and on the way out decided to drift over to the register to ask whether they'd be getting these in.  It turned out they were on a little display right behind me as I asked the cashier, so I went over and took a look.  The display can hold two of each color, and they'd sold only one bottle from this display, so all six colors were there.  I waffled on two of them, but then considered my sheer love of scented polishes, especially the last batch that Color Club did (the neons that I wore the heck out of), and got one of each.  Since there was end of the day sunlight left when I got home, I took bottle pictures to give you a look at them.

Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Nail Polishes, Round I

Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Nail Polishes, Round II

The two I waffled on were Santa's Cinnamon and Orna-minted since I need another glittery red and another silver hex glitter like I need a hole in the head, but then thought about whether I'd like a cinnamon and a mint scented polish, and you can see where I went with that idea.

Looking at the top picture, you might be thinking "That's some big glitter!"  Yep, it sure is.  I hope it's not too big to manage because the notion of sugar plum scented nails, especially purple and green glittery ones, makes me very happy.  For fragranced glitters, I think I'm willing to make some concessions about my preferences regarding glitter since scented polishes appeal to me so much.

I'm trying to decide which I want to wear first, with Gingerbread Man and Sugar Plum Yum running neck and neck.  I have a lot of work to do tonight, but it's really boring computer work requiring little attention, so it might be a good time for a layered glitter manicure while I do my thing.  We'll see which is the winner!

That's all I have for you today, Dear Reader!  I was just really excited to find Color Club Scent-suous Holiday, and I wanted to let you  have a quick preliminary look at them in their bottles.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection

Good evening, Dear Reader!

I took a break from busily toiling away today to run some errands, and while I was out I came across the Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection of scented nail polishes that's exclusive to Sally Beauty Supply.

One of the tasks on my list took me near a Sally's, so I stopped in, found nothing noteworthy, and on the way out decided to drift over to the register to ask whether they'd be getting these in.  It turned out they were on a little display right behind me as I asked the cashier, so I went over and took a look.  The display can hold two of each color, and they'd sold only one bottle from this display, so all six colors were there.  I waffled on two of them, but then considered my sheer love of scented polishes, especially the last batch that Color Club did (the neons that I wore the heck out of), and got one of each.  Since there was end of the day sunlight left when I got home, I took bottle pictures to give you a look at them.

Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Nail Polishes, Round I

Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Nail Polishes, Round II

The two I waffled on were Santa's Cinnamon and Orna-minted since I need another glittery red and another silver hex glitter like I need a hole in the head, but then thought about whether I'd like a cinnamon and a mint scented polish, and you can see where I went with that idea.

Looking at the top picture, you might be thinking "That's some big glitter!"  Yep, it sure is.  I hope it's not too big to manage because the notion of sugar plum scented nails, especially purple and green glittery ones, makes me very happy.  For fragranced glitters, I think I'm willing to make some concessions about my preferences regarding glitter since scented polishes appeal to me so much.

I'm trying to decide which I want to wear first, with Gingerbread Man and Sugar Plum Yum running neck and neck.  I have a lot of work to do tonight, but it's really boring computer work requiring little attention, so it might be a good time for a layered glitter manicure while I do my thing.  We'll see which is the winner!

That's all I have for you today, Dear Reader!  I was just really excited to find Color Club Scent-suous Holiday, and I wanted to let you  have a quick preliminary look at them in their bottles.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.