Up All Night with Orly Twilight

I picked up Orly Twilight and Shining Star at Sally's on clearance at the end of this Christmas season. Got 'em for $2 each! I wanted to try Shining Star on Enchanted Forest because I love gold and green, but I've really attacked you guys with Enchanted Forest as it's one of my favorite polishes. I had on Up All Night and I figured it might look pretty with Twilight.













2 coats China Glaze Up All Night
1 coat Poshe
1 coat Twilight

Twilight is an interesting TOP COAT. Yes, it is a top coat. I saw a couple of reviews on MUA rating this polish low because I don't think they realized it was meant to be a top coat. But as a top coat, it's actually very pretty.

The formula was fine. It's a top coat, hard to screw that up when it's something simple like this. It did not smear my polish underneath. You could use a light touch and get just a little shimmer, or go over it a few times (which is what I did) to pull out a lot of shimmer.

Restoring A Hidden Treasure

... literally!! I posted this on MUA, but I'm making it a post here, too.

I haven't posted in 4 days because I had been at work and ended up working late every day. And I had the most traumatic nail break I think I've ever had in my entire life. More on that in another post, but my finger is currently just bandaged because I have not a clue what to do about it. Anyway...

I was at a Walmart on Thursday that I just never tend to go to. It's definitely near me, in the city that I work and everything, but I just never go to that one. They had an awesome Wet n Wild display where I grabbed Gray's Anatomy. I hadn't found that ANYWHERE in my area. They also had bins of "clearance" cosmetics (which the Walmart I usually go to NEVER has). They were red tagged, but I know that at Walmart, red tag doesn't necessarily mean clearance (I hate how sneaky that is). But these red tags were all 50% and some were legit cheaper than they usually would be before the 50% off.

So anyway, I saw some SH CSM but I already had them. And then... I saw it... Hidden Treasure!! I had no idea this was sold at Walmart. I was under the impression that it was only drugstores, particularly Wags. So I'm super excited. One problem though. It looks like this:









So in the post I made on MUA, I was asking if people thought I should use just thinner alone or if I should add some clear polish. I had been aware of this post by Scrangie for quite some time, and I myself have witnessed the wonders of thinner. However, I wasn't sure if I should be adding something else because HT is more of a top coat while the polish(es) Scrangie restored were actual pigmented polishes. My bottle is just filled with clumps of flakies, so I'm afraid if I add pure thinner, the consistency I'd end up with would be horribly off.

Ultimately, I decided to start with thinner alone and not fill the bottle completely. My thought being if the consistency is that off, I could add clear polish or I could just leave the cap off, let the thinner evaporate, and start over.

So here's HT after the first round of thinner 10 minutes into the thinning process:

Here it is after being shaken


I turned it upside down so you could see how much is still clumped at the bottom.


Some of the flakies have started to break away from the giant clump.


The brush is already starting to look normal again!!


After an hour and a half letting it soak in and intermittently shaking it, I decided to add more thinner because there was still a good deal that was still clumped at the bottom.

You could even see the ball stuck in the clump.


But overall, almost all of the flakies had started to unclump!!


Two hours in I decided to top it off with thinner because pure thinner was clearly the best option. Here's the end result several days later (there was no real change from the day after I added thinner after letting it sit overnight, and when these photos were taken).

This is before you shake the polish. I don't know if unthinned HT does this, but you can see how the flakies have fallen down and there's a cloudy area at the top.


And this is after giving it a couple of shakes just as you would a normal polish. All the flakies are evenly dispersed.


And the brush is now completely normal!!


So thinner is amazing. Best thing ever. If you're curious, I used Beauty Secrets from Sally Beauty Supply, which can be found online here (my bottle looks different than the one in the photo). It's also sold in stores, which is where I picked it up.

I did mix it around with a toothpick, but not too much because I was afraid I might destroy the flakies. Overall, looks like it came out gorgeous!! I haven't tried it on my nails yet (obviously, considering I've been at work), but I did swatch it on a nail wheel:

Left is Sinful Black on Black
Right is OPI Mermaid's Tears

Crazy Week! China Glaze For Audrey with Sweet Nothings

Ahhh!! It's been 5 days since I've updated my blog! It has been an absolutely insane week for me. Wednesday was finals at school and I wore my leopard nails for that. Then I went into work for the evening, and no polish for work, so no update on the blog. Thursday was my boyfriend's graduation from the CT Fire Academy (Brag Moment: He now has his dream job as a fire medic for a city in north central CT). I wore For Audrey and wanted to update, but the graduation and after party stuff was an all day thing that prevented me from so much as touching a computer (totally worth it, though)! Friday I worked (no polish), and was going to post my For Audrey that night, but it was a friend's birthday that I went out for right after work and didn't get home until late. No blog update. Then yesterday, they were short on medics at work, so I offered to stay until 2100. My shift is 0800-1800. Well, I had a student (I love taking students), but I ended up not getting out of work until 0030!! So I spent 16.5 hours at work total. Obviously, that meant I went to sleep the second I got home, and no update again. (If you haven't read my other posts about it, I'm not allowed to wear polish to work).

So here I am Sunday morning, showing you my nails from Thursday of last week. Better late than never!! I'll hopefully put up another post with today's nails, or I may end up posting it tomorrow. We'll see how things go!







With Flash:


iPhone:


Close-Up:


2 coats China Glaze For Audrey
1 coat Poshe
1 coat Revlon Sweet Nothings in Rendez-Blue

I know these photos aren't the best. I wasn't able to upload them until now, and it was then I realized how difficult this was to capture. This is not the first time I've worn this combination, and I'm sure it won't be the last, so if I wear it again, I'll add better photos.

I don't have any photos of just For Audrey, but this is it with a gorgeous top coat. I'm not focused on talking about For Audrey as much as I am Rendez-Blue. Revlon Sweet Nothings collection was an LE collection that came out I BELIEVE in early 2007 or late 2006? What I'm basing that on it a review of Sweet Nothings on MUA. The earliest review I found was from 2007. I looked at reviews of Dark Pleasures (which seem as though they would've come out in the same collection or around the same time), and the earliest one was from December 2006.

Anyway, Rendez-Blue is a sheer, two-toned (blue and pink), shimmery polish that I think goes beautifully over other polishes as a top coat. It adds an interesting dimension to a creme polish. When topped on For Audrey, it gives FA an all over shimmer, not glitter, but with an opalescent, duochrome-y feel. I'm not one to wear a polish like this on it's own. I wish I had more info about these polishes, but I haven't found much. I'm not certain what Revlon's intention was with them. But I vote use them as a top coat.

I picked this up at Ocean State Job Lot a while ago. I believe I paid $1.99? I also grabbed a Dark Pleasures (Talk Dirty) that looks VERY similar to China Glaze Wagon Trail. But that polish is not my thing. I have it up for swap on MUA right now. Anyway, the last time I was at OSJL, I remember still seeing Sweet Nothings. Regardless, if you come across this polish, I definitely suggest it. I think it's absolutely gorgeous!!