Steelers Throwback Nails

Because, Heather Miller:

AKA Glisten&Glow Great Balancing Act + hehe Hufflepuff stamping plate #029 with Twinkled T black stamping polish.

Everyone in Pittsburgh HATED those uniforms... But just look at him... How can you hate anything he wears?

Aaaaanyway, this was actually a huge fail. It started out with G&G GBA:

This pic is most color accurate:

This is a creamy, pigmented pollen yellow. I really dig the color (I love yellow polish).

Flash:

I did two coats plus one coat of Poshe quick dry topcoat. The weird thing with this Polish was, on the first coat, it laid down these weird lumps and chunks. I can only assume it was unmixed pigment? It looked like bit of my nail were peeling up under the polish (my nails have been in bad shape like that before). I was really worried but I'm glad I persisted because the second coat covered it up completely.

This applied great for a yellow! Two coats for a yellow gets the same status as one coater for any other color. First coat was streaky, but pigmented. Second coat evened everything out, but you do have to apply this in thick coats.

Then I thought, genius I am, how can I make this better? And what I should have asked was, why can't I leave well enough alone???

So, out came the stamping plates. 

Last time I wore yellow polish, I attempted horizontal stripes... get this... free hand. I'm a moron. It looked awful. Pretty sure I have a picture somewhere...

ZOMG! That's awful. It looks like a dyslexic monkey painted my nails. WTF was I thinking? And do you see that streaking??? UGH!

So this time, I decided to use a stamping plate for the same effect. It turned out only slightly better. First, I had major issues with the stamping plate. This was my first scrape attempt, using Cirque Memento Mori (WTF does that even mean?), a perfect one coat black. I didn't use stamping Polish for reasons I outlined in my last post.

Well, this is the mess that happened:

And again:

Then I decided to use a different scraper (even though the one above worked great on my Celtic plate with A England Polish). I used a credit card style scraper from Twinkled T (it came with my smaller clear stamper). And it worked! yay!

This is an XL semi squishy clear stamper from hehe.


It didn't pickup the damn image. grrrr.

Then I did the same thing, but used the Twinkled T black stamping polish and it worked! But... I made a mess on my finger. Now usually I can get this stamping polish off just by kind of picking at it with an orange stick because, as I said before, it's kind of rubbery or plasticky or something, but not this time. Of course not, that would be too easy!

I did the best I could, then got out the clean up brush. Big mistake. This shit is like ink... Acetone just smeared it around and adhered it to my skin even more! UGH!

You can even see what a mess it made on my mat and everything in the vicinity. I had to use a new cotton pad for every single stamp, because if I dipped it in the acetone after using it on the black polish, it turned the acetone black and would then deposit little black specks all over everything. It was almost like the acetone couldn't fully dissolve the pigments or whatever plastic crap they are suspended in. That meant that I used like 20 cotton pads, because sometimes the image didn't pick up properly and I had to clean it off and try again.

I then wised up and put condoms liquid latex on my fingers.

I thought this was pretty cool looking (the lint roller I use to clean my stamper).

Then I realized that, no matter how long you freaking let it dry, topcoat smears it. It's not just this topcoat either. I have tried SuperChic Marvel, Live Love Polish Quick Dry and Poshe. Same result every time.

So I decided to try applying the top coat really thick. And this happened:

But it did sorta work. It looked better than when I let the brush run over the black.

So yeah, it looks like shiz and I nicked the pointer nail. I hated this so much, I didn't bother with the other hand and I am totally taking it off tonight (yay peel off basecoat!!). Oh yeah, and that pink crap? Liquid Latex. oops. Better than black fingers. I really hope that shit comes off.

Oops, Honey, I Think I Stuck My Hand In It

Yeah, seriously. I'm not kidding... Why, you ask?? Blame Illamasqua...

Aka Illamasqua Load


Yep, you heard me. LOAD. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

It's actually quite a delicious color, even with that name. It looks like butter. REAL butter, not that awful hydrogenated oil crap that your body has no idea what to do with. It's only slightly less yellow than shown in this pic (thanks again, mercury bulbs and crappy Pittsburgh weather!).

Cost: Illamasqua retails for 13.50 GBP on their site http://www.illamasqua.com, I'm not sure of the exact exchange rate of GBP to Dollars, but given the constant and considerate devaluation of the American currency by the Federal Reserve Bank (hyper-inflation caused by printing fiat money), I'd imagine this is quite a bit more than $13. Anyway, it's easier to get some of their colors (like this one) at Sephora.com for $14. I used my FF 20% code to get 4 of these, since I refuse to pay $14 for Polish after my awful experience with paying $18 for Rescue Beauty Lounge. I digress.

What I used: One coat of Nailtek Foundation II, 3 coats of Load (I giggle every time, I swear) and one coat of Seche Vite.

Application: Well, it's white, with a yellow undertone (overtone? - whatever). Application was... well... spotty to say the least. It wasn't necessarily bad, in fact, better than I'd expect for a color like this. It's a little sheer and milky. I think if there had been a bit more pigmentation, it would have applied better, but not looked as awesome - maybe more chalky. This isn't chalky at all. First coat is a streaky awful mess, second coat starts to even out and third coat is absolutely necessary to even everything out completely. You have to be careful though, as there is definitely some balding that will occur if you don't let it dry sufficiently between coats. You don't have to let it dry completely, but I am the Queen of waiting a whole minute and a half between coats and that doesn't really fly with this one.

Dry time: Good on the Polish alone. Faster than most but not super fast and not so fast that you can't apply it nicely. With Seche, it was completely dry within 15 minutes.

Final verdict: A very wearable, flattering, white-ish Polish. The name, for me, makes it even more wearable hehe. Also, unique. I do not own nor have I even seen a color even remotely close to this. Winner!