Friday, September 23, 2011

It Ain't Easy Bein' Green... And Yellow.

A few weeks back, my friend, Amanda, asked me my opinion on color-changing "mood" polishes. I told her that I had bought two Mood Struck polishes (a blue-to-neon-blue and teal-to-turquoise) at my local drug store for about four dollars each, and that I thought they were pretty neat.

We started talking about all the different colors available, and I mentioned that they had a green-to-yellow at the store that I had eyeballed, since I love greens, but since I'm not big on yellow nails (they make me think of pee and fungus), I didn't bother getting it.

Well, after our discussion, my curiosity got the better of me, and I went back to the store and bought not only the green-to-yellow, but the berry-pink-to-hot-pink, and two other nail polishes, too!

Even though I wasn't sure I was going to like it, I decided to try the green-to-yellow right away*. 

The polish applies a kind of murky green that my camera can't quite seem to capture (with flash, it looks like a bright green, and in most pictures without flash, it looks grey--like my camera just completely desaturated it), and then turns yellow as your body heat warms it. I don't know if it's just my crappy circulation or what, but the "yellow" never went brighter than, like, a neon lime green on me, which I was totally fine with, and actually preferred. If you'd got long nails, the tips stay green while the rest goes yellow, creating a pretty neat french manicure-y look.

It must be much warmer in my bedroom than it is where I have my laptop set up in the dining room, because while my nails would go all lime green with dark tips in my room, down here, they were always just straight up green.

All with flash.
I took these shortly after going up to my room, after using the computer for a while. As my hands warmed up, the polish changed colors.

Natural light on a cloudy day--this is the closest picture I was able to get to the actual color of this polish.
Every time I looked at my hands, I started thinking about Kermit the Frog. ♥
I used hot and cold water to to get it the greenest and yellowest I could :

Left: After being dipped in cold water
Middle: My normal temperature
Right: After being dipped in hot water


As much as I loved the end result, I will say that application was a bit of a pain. The consistency of this polish was much thinner than my blue-to-neon-blue and teal-to-turquoise polishes, and it took SIX coats to build up to opaque, and even with all those coats, I could still clearly see my nail line when the polish was all yellow. Luckily, since the tips (at the very least) were usually green, that wasn't a problem. 

The color lasted about a week on me before I started to notice where it was starting to peel a bit at the sides of my nails. And I gotta say, I couldn't stop looking at my hands that whole week. I thought I was gonna hate it, but I actually really liked this polish.


RCN Ratings:
  • Price: 5/5
  • Packaging: 4/5 (The product label has big air bubbles under it and is peeling at the corners, which makes it feel a bit cheap. The caps on these are super chunky too--as wide as the bottles--which can be awkward sometimes.)
  • Performance: 4/5 (It loses a point for being so thin and needing so many coats)
So, what do you guys think? Would you wear this?

Also, does anyone else think that Mood Stuck's color names are super boring? I mean, come on. "Green-to-Yellow"? The whole time I had this on, I kept thinking that if I had been in charge of naming it, I'd have called it Toxic/Acid. But that's just me...


*I always use NailTek Foundation II Ridge Filling Base Coat to provide an even surface and prevent staining, and Sally Hansen Dries Instantly 30 Second Top Coat for quick and easy shine.

6 comments:

  1. I love that polish!!!! do they have any other colors or just mood green?

    SanD :)

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  2. They have a bunch of colors. I have blue-to-neon-blue, teal-to-turquoise, and berry-pink-to-hot-pink, too. I also saw a glittery pink-to-pale-pink, glitter purple-to-pink, and I think they had a glittery blue-to-pale-blue, too. But I wasn't as into the glittery ones as the cremes.

    Claire's (like, that teeny-bopper store) has a line of mood polishes, too, with similar colors. They have a coral-to-peach that I want.

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  3. awwww kermie!!!! pretty sure "it's not easy bein' green" is this polish's soundtrack (or something much more colorful like that).

    i would TOTALLY wear this if ever one of the stores down here would pick it up! where'd ya find 'em? i wonder if the color changing works as well if you put down a couple of white bases first so you only need a pass or two of this color. or something.

    gonna go sing rainbow connection to my dogs now. :D

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  4. @Nail Nerd Mannnn, I just watched the YouTube video of Big Bird singing "It's Not Easy Being Green" at Jim Henson's memorial the other day, since it was his birthday, and I cried like a little baby.

    Also: Do I get extra points for owning this jacket? http://www.jungle-life.com/media/1/20060531-adicolor_green_kermit.jpg

    I got all four of my Mood Struck polishes at my local grocery/drug store, Jewel-Osco, which I think only exist in Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana or something like that.

    I've seen a lot of posts about similar polishes offered by Claire's (as in the teeny-bopper store). They seem to have a lot of the same colors, although there are some differences in the collections.

    You know, I never even considered trying a white base under these. I'm sure they'd still work great, 'cause I seriously doubt using a regular polish underneath would affect the heat transfer that much. And MAN, they'd probably be so much brighter! Good call! : D

    And, hehehe, I'll sing with you. Can we follow up with "Moving Right Along?", 'cause those are my two favorite Muppet songs. <3

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  5. I know, my friend came over here already in tears re: Henson that day... I can't ever get through that video without crying either, bless him for bringing so much joy to everyone!

    And hells yeah, that's ridiculously cool!

    I avoid the mall like a scabby rash (gross) but maybe a trip in there (well planned with clearly marked emergency exits) to scour for some of these fun polishes would be worth it; because COLOR CHANGING, that's just too cool. You'd think New Orleans would be all over it for as weird as it is down here...

    Have you seen this one? http://youtu.be/RowwNXKEt4k Found it the other day while looking for Cookie Monster eating all the ways he could contact Santa.

    Send someone to fetch us, we're in Sasketchewan! :D

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  6. @Nail Nerd Haaahahaha. I love it. It's so fun when you can pick out which characters Jim voiced and which ones Frank voiced. : )

    Also: Cookie Monster with teeth. I can't decide if that's awesome or terrifying, but I'm leaning toward awesome.

    I generally avoid any place that's chock full of people, 'cause they make me feel nervous and awkward (woohoo for working from home *high-five*), which is why I get the vast majority of my polishes from the same grocery/drug store that I got the mood polishes at: It's a ten minute walk from my house, and it's open 24 hours, so I can go there at, like, one in the morning when it's pretty much empty.

    ... I may very well be a creep.

    ReplyDelete