A cat For Audrey

A bit long time no see. I’ve been a tad neglectful, a combination of forgetting to photograph manis before they chipped, my nails being manky from a lot of household work, and being completely uninspired by recently released polish collections. Seriously, just as one example what is up with the Amazing Spiderman Collection? I recoiled in horror at that coral frost. Paraphrasing a tweep, the only thing those shades have in common is that they all belong in the same clearance bin.

But anyway, on to my mani for today’s post. I’ve worn China Glaze’s For Audrey before as a water marble. It’s such a great shade I’m happy to wear it again and again! I really didn’t know if I’d like it initially — it’s very gimicky and I’m not into the whole Tiffany/Audrey Hepburn thing — but on the nail it is the most perfect shade of ‘Tiffany blue’ (i.e. a dusty baby blue/turquoise). I believe that those in the know don’t consider it an absolute dead-on dupe for the store’s patented shade, but it’s good enough.

For Audrey is more dusty and less bright in person, but my camera won’t capture that. Click all to enlarge.

For Audrey is an older China Glaze colour and has a great formula. Despite being light in colour it’s opaque in two easy coats. I used my regular Posche top coat and drew the design using my dotting tools and the following polishes: China Glaze Liquid Leather (black), NYX Girls My Sunshine (yellow – the moon), Orly White Out (white – cat’s eyes), Kleancolor Bite Me (red glitter – cat’s collar) and Kleancolor Pearl Silver (metallic silver – collar tag). I left my left (dominant) hand free of any designs out of both time constraints (friends stayed with us this weekend) and wanting to grab a photo of For Audrey by itself.

Inspired by one of my beloved boys, who wears a red collar.

This photo shows For Audrey‘s colour the most accurately, but it’s still more dusty in person.

Bumblebee Nails

Some summery nails today. My husband says they remind him of the transformer Bumblebee (original not Michael Bay, he adds) so we’ll go with that. These are polishes I bought from BeautyJoint. I will get around to showing you swatches of what I bought but for now I can say that I was very pleased with my shopping experience.

The colours for this manicure were Kleancolor Concrete Gray and Pearl Silver, and NYX Girls My Sunshine. I found Concrete Gray and Pearl Silver to be a bit thick and difficult to neatly apply, the grey particularly so. I’ll be adding a few drops of polish thinner to both. The grey creme has a blueish tint and comes up distinctly dark grey as in the bottle, rather than drying to almost-black. The silver is a standard silver foil that can show brushstrokes if you’re not careful, and has a slightly blackened shine toward the sides of the nail. My Sunshine is a summery yellow creme that shows mustard in some lights, which I love. It has a thinner formula and is a 3 to 4 coater. Most yellows are at least slightly frustrating and patchy to apply so this isn’t anything particularly unusual, but it does mean that this won’t be a polish I use frequently.

Sunlight indoors. True to colour.

I am now the happy owner of a bottle of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (also from BeautyJoint) so drying time was significantly shorter. It also seems to smooth out any small lumps. Seche Vite contains toluene which I know many people avoid, but it doesn’t bother me (though it does have a strong odor). It does what it says on the label and has a really glossy finish. Kleancolor polishes are also pretty foul-smelling in general, particularly the holos (the holos are headache material). They might smell like Beelzebub’s own arsehole but it fades as the polish dries, and I like Kleancolor‘s range.

Stats: base coat of Orly Top 2 Bottom, 3 coats My Sunshine (4 on thumbs), coat of Seche Vite before taping, coat of Concrete Gray, coat of Seche Vite before taping, coat of Pearl Silver, top coat of Seche Vite. I’m never the person to talk to about wear time as I change my nails every 3 to 4 days, but no chips so far.

Left (dominant) thumb.