Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Like A Starlight Mint. Only Not.

Alrighty, I've got two reviews for you today. (That's right. I'm getting over-ambitious after my bout of slackeriness.)

First up is a red. And before I get into the review, let me tell you this: While I adore a cherry red toenail, I am not a fan of red nail polish on fingers. I mean, I guess some people can pull it off (Penn Jillette, I'm looking at you!), but to me it always seemed kind of *cough-whorey-cough*. Aaaaaand proceed with the hate comments.

But no, really. I just never liked the look of red on hands. Least of all my hands. So even though I have a few reds in my collection, I usually just stick to a certain trusty Revlon (which I'm sure I will review eventually) or a couple of my wine/berry-red OPIs when I feel the need to do my tootsies red, but never, never my hands.

Then I started this blog. And that's when I decided I was going to have to get over my thing about certain colors being "hand colors" and certain colors being "feet colors" (to be clear, there are plenty of colors that are both "hand" and "feet" colors. But there are also some that I feel are better used exclusively for one or the other). So I decided to go ahead and go red.

OPI Got The Blues For Red is one of the colors my dad's lovely ladyfriend, Tracey, gave me a while back. I think I'd only ever used it on my toes once, and then for some reason, I kind of relegated it to the back of my nail polish box. But I dug it out and got down to business just so I could post this review for youuuuu. (Feel loved, damnit!)

Got The Blues For Red is a rich blue-based red creme. The consistency is actually a bit sheer--imagine if a creme and a jelly had a baby--but it totally works. The pictures below are two coats*. I probably should've gone with three, since I can still make out my nail line, especially in the natural light shot.

Artificial light.
Natural light.
 Got The Blues For Red surprised me. I actually loved it. It applied like a dream, and it didn't look *cough-whorey-cough* at all, although I did think it looked pretty sexy. But there's a difference.

I don't know if I loved it enough to convert me to a red fingernails kind of girl (maybe in the summer, with a cute retro bikini?), but this polish definitely earned a more coveted spot in my box-o-polishes--which is actually three boxes now, since my collection has outgrown the first two boxes.

RCN Ratings:
  • Price: 4/5 (Technically, I got this for free, so that's definitely 5/5, but OPI's typically retail for about $8-9, which is on the higher end of what I usually spend. I'm a drug store kinda girl.)
  • Packaging: 5/5
  • Performance: 5/5

Next up is a polish I'd been wanting for a while (and by 'a while', I mean, about a week; patience is not one of my virtues).

After my Vanilla Glitter Milkshake mani, I started wondering if I could find a sheer white polish to use over glitters that wouldn't cast the same yellow/nude-y tint that Sally Hansen Sheer Me Now did, but would still work to create the milky effect. I was pretty sure I had seen a sheer-looking white in the Sally Hansen polish display at my local drug store, so over I went, and triumphantly returned home with a bottle of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Polar White.

I tried swatching it over a few of my glitter polishes on my nail wheel, and was a bit disappointed. Even though the consistency in the bottle looked the same as Sheer Me Now's, the Polar Bare just didn't have the same sort of coverage. So I decided to try it on its own* (I don't remember if I used two or three coats for these pics, sorry!):

Artificial (incandescent) light.

Artificial (CFL) light.

This polish was a pain in the butt to apply well. The nails on my left hand looked decent, but the nails on my right hand were a streaky mess (like, to the point where I had to take the polish off immediately after snapping these pics, 'cause it looked so awful). And, to be honest, the color didn't really blow me away, either. Not great over glitter, not great application, and a not great color. Paint me disappointed. : (

RCN Ratings:
  • Price: 4/5
  • Packaging: 5/5
  • Performance: 3/5

So, which do you prefer? Are there any polish color families that you just can't stand?


*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.

2 comments:

  1. Welcome to the top of the rainbow, the reds embrace you! :) Jeez that OPI's a stunner too -- don't have it in my collection but will definitely need to add it to the wishlist, it looks gorgeous (and totally know what finish you're talking about, love it). I still can't fully get behind sheers -- they all seem to take a lot of work and it's sort of a one-note look (you can have a hundred different shades of green, but a sheer's got a pretty limited noticeable spectrum). At least you tried it out!

    How are you storing your polishes (stackable cosmetic or shoe or whatever boxes)? I realized today that in the whole storage of/accessibility to polishes battle I never really considered the looming issue of scaling up, so now it's just a big scattered system...

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  2. @Nail Nerd Yeah, OPI GTBFR really won me over, and I'm glad. Plus it's from their Chicago collection, so of course it suits me! I think maybe as long as I keep them cool-toned, I may be able to get used to red fingy-nails.

    And yeah, I'm usually not big on sheers either (See: ee sitting in my bedroom for hours, building up a zillion coats of sheer polish so that it will look as opaque as possible), but I do like them for layering. I was sooooo happy with the way Sheer Me Now worked out over glitter, and sooooo bummed that Polar Bare didn't work out the same way. If it wasn't so streaky, I might try layering over solid colors to see how it modifies them, but it IS streaky, so that sucks a lot of butt. : (

    Right now, I have my polishes in two Reebok shoeboxes (they have attached lids, and are made of pretty sturdy cardboard) and a square gift box (about 8" x 8") I got several years ago. The gift box (my Winners Box) and the first shoebox (where I store the polishes I use often but not all the time) are both full, so the third box is currently being used to store my nail wheels and about a dozen "loser" polishes that I almost never use, but don't want to get rid of for one reason or another. Any time I get a new polish now, I have to shuffle everything around based on how much I think I'll like it. : P

    When I was a kid, my dad always had these little, 3-drawer, plastic storage dresser things for storing his tools and stuff in, and I've been thinking about trying to find one of those to keep my polishes and supplies in. Something like this: http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/551312/Office-Depot-Brand-Medium-Plastic-Storage/?cm_mmc=Mercent-_-Google-_-Filing_and_Storage-_-551312&mr:trackingCode=CB620D1B-EC81-DE11-B7F3-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA

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