It's Chartreuse not Ogre

I get super excited to review Dermelect polishes because I get to skip base coat! I mean, I can skip base coat anytime I want, but with these polishes it is almost like they are giving me permission. I always feel guilty and afraid to skip base coat; I fear and loath staining. This way, if my nails stain, I have someone else to blame other than my laziness/nonchalant attitude. 

Dermelect is adding a few more shades to their peptide infused color treatments. I reviewed a few here and also did a comparison post here.

There are 3 new shades coming out in the 2013 Resort Collection.

I got to try one of the three colors... All The Envy

Dermelect - All The Envy

I was given a choice between the three colors. The other two were much more normal (Lust Struck - Coral Creme; Moon Kissed - shimmery off-white). I thought about it long and hard, all of 3 seconds, and came to the conclusion that I own nothing like All The Envy, thus decided to give it a whirl!

Although the top picture gives my skin a lovely purple hue, it is very color accurate. Simply put, the shade is a chartreuse.

VERY interesting. 

In terms of application, this polish takes a couple coats to get there. It will take about 3-4 coats depending on how thick you normally polish and how much visible nail line you can typically stand.

Dermelect - All The Envy ... 1 coat

This was the first coat. Oh man it was so sheer, but look how even it is!

One the bright side... my nail damage is growing out on my ring finger. Remember this?

Dermelect - All The Envy ... 2 coats

Coat # 2.

No way I could stop here! Not only do I see nail line (which I personally don't mind), but I still see nail bed. Again, this coat is very even.

Dermelect - All The Envy ... 3 coats

At three coats, this shade becomes more solid. You could definitely stop here. In some lighting situations some visible nail line peaks through.

Dermelect - All The Envy ... 4 coats

Overall, the formula was very nice. I experienced no streakiness or bubbling problems.

The rest of the pictures are with 4 coats.

Dermelect - All The Envy ... 4 coats

Depending on the lighting, the shade leans more yellow or green.

Dermelect - All The Envy ... 4 coats

As I understand it, chartreuse made Pantone's fashion color report for spring 2013. See here.

Dermelect - All The Envy ... 4 coats

I mentally prepared myself for the real possibility I'd be left with chartreuse nail beds after removal. I am happy to say this scenario was not the case. 

If you want to be cool, on trend, have healthy non yellow nailsbeds, and are too lazy to wear base coat sometimes ... Dermelect's All The Envy may be just what you need in your collection.

Note: A few coupon codes popped up in my email:

$10 off $50 - 50LESS10
$20 off $100 - 100LESS20
$30 off $150 - 150LESS30

This polish and the rest of the color treatments can be found on the Dermelect website.  $14/0.4oz.

 *Sent for review*

Chameleon Round 2

As I was saying in the lat post... Check your bottles.  Here is another great one by Scherer Chameleon...

Scherer Chameleon - Waltz


When it's good... it's good.

Nuff said.

Check your bottles

I hate when I run across a great polish only to find batches of reject lots the next time I go to repurchase. Such was the case with Scherer Chameleon.

Scherer Chameleon - Blue Sky

I couldn't stop photographing this one because the duochrome is so pretty.

This picture is with top coat.

The topcoat does bring out the shimmer a bit. Otherwise it's very smooth and flat like pictured here.

And now for way too many pictures...

If you happen to find these, make sure to check that the duochrome is easily visible because I have seen reject lots.














Wearing these (yes there are more!) combined with the fact that I have not bought polish in forever (at least no serious hauling), I went a little crazy and bought the whole damn China Glaze New Bohemian Luster Chrome Collection for Fall 2012. The Swatchaholic is completely to blame.Warning: visiting her blog will cause your wallet to empty.

I played catch up with a few of the other collections...

Hunger Games
Wicked
Holiday 2012


YAY!!

:)

Matte Moments

When it comes to mattifying my manicure I can be pretty resistive. I REALLY like it when my nails are shiny, but sometimes a girl likes change. When the mood strikes me, it helps to have a decent matte top coat to make everything look meticulous. I think I found a good one!

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Before I even tell you what matte top coat I am using, can we please read the warning on the bottle?! Go read ... I'll wait...

I would be one pissed 7 year old.

When I first received this matte top coat by MASH, I only dipped one toe in the pool, so to speak, to test the waters. Actually quite literally my pinky is the only mattified finger here.

This was at least 3 coats of KleanColor - Fuschia Glitter

MASH matte top coat is only on the pinky; the rest of the fingers were probably Seche Vite.

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Orly - Meet Me Under The Mistletoe

What a fantastic green!!! Gollie g. 

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Right?!

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It is equally as awesome with matte top coat. Good job MASH!

Here is an equally fabulous green (see more here) made LESS FABULOUS...

Sinful - San Francisco

I don't know... it kind of takes the life out of it.

BUT in terms of matte top coat quality... it is superb.

I do like a nice matte cream on occasion. It makes me feel like I am wearing Illamasqua's rubber finish polishes. That dirty post can be found here.

This is Revlon - Rock with MASH matte top coat.

Look how smooth!!










How good is this matte top coat?

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Battle of the top coats...

Seche Vite vs. MASH

.... uuuhhh, it's like apples and oranges people. They are both great.

 Bonus picture here!

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Barielle vs. MASH

Barielle Matte-inee is the only other matte top coat I own.  This is Barielle Matte-inee over Lime Crime - Peaches <3 Cream

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but there were visible streaks in the finish. Sad face. This is probably why I don't use it much. I am not sure whether the problem is the brush (it's horrid!) or the formula, or a combination of both.

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MASH matte top coat is like butter. The brush and formula worked like a charm EVERY time.




Can I just say how much I enjoy a mattified pastel!

More Lime Crime Pastels can be found here.










More manicures with MASH...

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I decided to layer Orly - Royal Navy with a bunch of glitters and mattify them!

Bonus picture here!

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Left to Right:

Pinky: Finger Paints - Asylum
Ring: Revlon - Galaxy
Middle: Revlon - Radiant
Index: Orly - Royal Navy shiny!
Thumb: Orly - Royal Navy matte!









I am completely convinced. Not only does MASH deliver a high quality matte finish, but the dry time was great too. What is your favorite matte top coat?

MASH matte top coat is $7.99 for 15mL (0.50 fl.oz.)

*This product was sent for review*

Stop me if you've heard this one...

I love sheer whites. I think I have said this probably 347 times on this blog. Here, here, here, here, here, here. So what's another post...

Essie - Marshmallow

I don't remember how many coats this was because this was from a while back. I would venture to say the standard 2-3 coats.

I do like to dress up my sheer whites on occasion. One of my favorite KleanColors is Cream Pearl. I have never worn it alone, but do like it over other colors. It has blue and purple sparkles.

I have shown it over a barbie pink in this post.

Very subtle and pretty.

I also have enjoyed NYX - Spotlight on top.

If you want to see NYX - Spotlight over a dark green check out this video... here. I put it over Nabi - Teal

I have a white cat. She gets jealous of my sheer white obsession.

She screwed up my mani last time I wore a sheer white.

Barnacles off a hull

On this random night I decided to push back my cuticles. But the usual method was not good enough. For whatever reason I felt compelled to break out the metallic instruments. I was reminded why I rarely use them and in general recommend them only under adult supervision, or never.

My usual method:
There are two parts to the cuticle area, the live skin (eponychium) and the dead skin (true cuticle). I have discussed them in great detail in this post and many others. I push back my live cuticle everyday; I have a problem, I know this. The reason is well documented in this post. In short, I apply moisture and massage and push them back. It's glorious and gives me longer nail beds. Now, the dead skin is a bit more difficult to remove. Here, I resort to chemicals; they are my friends and there is no reason why they should not be yours. They rarely disappoint. Take it from a chemist ;) ... I'm slightly biased, clearly. I showed how I remove my true cuticle in this video and post. To summarize, I like to be really gentle and use a q-tip to apply the product and remove the true cuticle. I think a wooden stick is also safe, but personally don't use if very often.

My regrettable method:
The following got me into some trouble...

The perpetrators:

Ignore the innocent bystander (wooden stick). He's an okay chap, but if you use him, be careful nonetheless.

It's true some metal scrapers are sharper than others. I thought I was safe. These felt pretty smooth to me.













I still used Blue Cross cuticle remover, but decided to use the metal scrapers instead of my usual q-tip. Here was the result...

WOOPS!

Ugh. PANIC! NAIL DAMAGE!

IDIOT.

Of course this needs fixing PRONTO!
DON'T PULL IT!! It may pull off more nail deeper down.

Instead...

Grab a semi rough nail file or buffing block, somewhere in the 220/320 or 400/600 range. I like the files from Tropical Shine for these types of jobs.

The first order of business was to remove that large flap. My nails are fairly healthy. I used the blue 220/320 file from Tropical Shine.

Next, I evened out the rest of the nail plate with a buffing block.

I am still in love with this sponge board. I used the 240 grit strength.

TA DA! Beautiful!

right?

NO. The following week I saw what those metal implements did to me...

OMG! Yes, my nails are yellow from Sinful - San Francisco. Don't judge me. Instead see the full story here.

The red circle shows the trauma the implements inflicted.

With time the damage will grow out.








 

 
As the damage grows out, the white spot appears and disappears depending on how moisturized my nail plate happens to be.

Here my nail was moist, the spot appeared to dissipate.

**Side note** 
Isn't MOIST the best yet worst word ever?!

Here my nail was more dry, the spot appears more solid.

















Moral of the story? I prefer to leave long hard metal objects for self defense purposes OR scraping barnacles of a hull, not cuticle removal.

How do you remove your cuticles?

Green fungus ... Not really

I came across a Sinful bottle of green polish. It made my fingers look pretty and then it made them look gangrenous. First, let's oooh and aaah...

Sinful - San Francisco


A warm tone deep green with a shimmery jewel type finish. I love this type of finish and want one in every color!

I was hoping it would look like the bottle color... sadly the duochrome was not visible on the nail.

*sigh*

Still awesome though!

In the shade... 
This is my other hand. My nails are shorter on this hand because I had a nail break. :(

If you can't tell, I have a nail fix on my middle finger. This will come into play later.






How to for nail fix using Shellac here.

But basically, this polish made this happened. Holy freaking jaundice fingers!!

So that nail fix.... it got beat in the face and turned GREEN! On the bright side, the break had already grown out and I could remove it.

I discovered the nail fix protected the nail from turning yellow! Thanks Shellac! Which is more than I can say for the 2 coats of regular basecoat. Watch out for this beauty!

See that white spot I circled in red? There is a reason I have it and I will tell you about it soon.