Minty Fresh

I love this.

It's Claire's Dream Catcher, supposedly a dupe or at least a very close relative of the sought-after Chanel Jade. But $4, instead of whatever godawful amount of money somebody wants on eBay.

Here are some other tasty minty greens, too.

L-R: Essie Greenport; Essie Mint Candy Apple; Dream Catcher; Sally Hansen Mint Sprint.

Mint Sprint! I love it!

Another Seasonally Appropriate Color

So here's a funny story.

My family got together today for my cousin's birthday and as we were waiting for dinner my mom noticed my nails. "Oh!" she said. "Now the other day when you were down here, your nails were red, and now they're green!"

God MOTHERRRRRR that was TUESDAY. AS IF I would leave a color on that long!

Anyway, here's the green. Ta-daaaa:

The name of this polish troubles me a little, not so much because I do or don't like it very much either way, but because it confuses people:

Other person: That's a nice color, what's it called?

Me: Thanks! It's 'Absinthe Makes the Heart."

Other person: Grow fonder?

Me: No, it's 'absinthe.' The drink. Just 'Absinthe Makes the Heart.'

Other person: Yeah, 'grow fonder' is the rest of that saying.

Me: But it's not the saying, it's 'absinthe,' not 'absence,' so it's just...never mind.

Anyway, naming troubles aside, it's a beautiful polish. This is one of those that causes some controversy on the MUA nail board (inasmuch as there can be said to be "controversy" there) because some people REALLY love it and some really hate it. And if you spend $9 on a polish you really want to love it, you know? So it's disappointing when it doesn't happen for you.

In my opinion, what's not to love about a dusty evergreen jelly loaded with green, gold and coppery-red glitter?

And here's a bonus: My Dita von Teese nails with a matte top coat.

Movie Star Nails

I have been obsessed with doing this for a while and I finally bit the bullet:

For this look, I used Illamasqua Jan as the base coat. I had this on as a regular manicure for a day or so before I attempted the chevrons, which I think is the best tactic. You will want the base coat to be very, very dry.

Incidentally, I love Jan on its own:

For the black part, I used Chanel Black Satin. Normally I would have reached for my go-to black, Milani Black Magic, but when I tried this out on one nail my boyfriend was still asleep, and I didn't want to wake him by rummaging through boxes of nail polish. But I knew Black Satin was within reach, and actually I really like this result because the polish has an ever-so-slight platinum shimmer.

A lovely MUAer suggested I used tape to create the chevrons, which worked like a dream. I used the wide, satin-finish Scotch brand tape. I just used the right angle of the tape to reduce the chance of variations. I put the tape on my fingernail to gauge placement, then trimmed around the bottom of my nail. (Creating a pie-shaped piece of tape.)

Once the tape was in place on all my fingers, I painted on the black polish. When that dried, I removed the small pieces of tape with tweezers.

Then I put a coat of OPI clear over the whole manicure, followed by a coat of SV.

One thing I would recommend is getting enough of the clear coats on the brush so you don't have to go back over the pink part...I had a few little streaks of black polish come through.

I'm not usually one for nail art, like, AT ALL. But I love the retro-glam appeal of this look, which is reminiscent of Dita von Teese's moon manicure.