Haul And Oates.

Alrighty, then. First things first (and anyone on my Facebook has probably already seen me mention this): I don't think I like my blog name. I'm just not a "cute" girl. I mean, it seemed like a decent name for a nail blog on the day I decided to create this one, but every time I log in, I can't help but feel like "RealCuteNails" just isn't me.

So, I've been thinking about renaming my blog. I do have four make that five followers now (try not to be jealous of my immense popularity), so I'm hoping that if I do find a new name that I like, they'll be willing to make the switch with me.

My friend, Rhosslyn, suggested something along the lines of "Aren Gets Nail'd", which--with it's silly innuendo--seems more up my alley.

So, any feedback from the peanut gallery on this one? What do you think of getting nail'd? If I make the switch, will you come with me? Please? *puppy dog eyes*

Anyway, I got my second Kleancolor haul on Monday, which was crazy impressive, since it shipped from California and I placed the order at, like, six o'clock in the evening last Thursday. (On a related note, did anyone else hear about the postal service shutting down a bunch of offices and cutting back the delivery time on First Class Mail?)

I ordered from beautécosmétique through Amazon, and they were just awesome. I kept changing my mind about colors and all sorts of stuff, and they were super friendly and very prompt about replying to my emails. In fact, when I asked to change out one color just a bit too late (my fault entirely), they said that if I ever order from them again, they'd be happy to include the color I wanted at no extra cost, which I think is pretty rockin' of them. So yeah, if you're in the market for twenty four Kleancolors (you pick the colors!) for $29.00 plus shipping, I recommend beautécosmétique, all the way.

I'll do reviews on individual colors as I wear them, but for now, as promised, here are some pictures of my Kleancolor collection:

Bwaaahahahaha, twenty four new colors all for meeeeee!

All my Kleancolors. Acquired in a mere four orders. I'm good like that.

Because I'm anal, I had to line them all up by color. I was assisted by Merriweather, who decided to photobomb this pic a little.

This is what I do when I'm bored. Swatch the shit out of nail wheels, trying to come up with interesting ideas. The gradients on the two middle nails here were done using ten of the Kleancolor metallics, plus one of their other colors.

I'm so stoked about all my new polishes. I'm completely out of room in my boxes to store them, so I guess it's time to invest in some sort of storage unit so that I can keep all my stuff together, instead of having multiple shoeboxes of polish stacked next to my dresser, with even more loose polishes stacked on top of them...

Anyway, I figured that since I haven't even swatched half of the colors from my first Kleancolor haul back in October, I had better get crackalackin', so I grabbed a bottle and went to work.

When I was placing my order for this haul, I was a little hesitant about adding pastels, because I haven't really used many pastel polishes, I wasn't sure how they'd look against my skin or if they'd be too cutesy for me.

In the end, I decided to only buy one pastel polish, and went with blue. I seriously considered Pastel Purple and Pastel Teal, but in the end, blue just seemed the most wearable to me. Now that I've seen it on my hands, I'm thinking I'd like to get the teal and purple as well.

Kleancolor Pastel Blue is, as the name would suggest, a pastel blue (*shock and awe*). When I asked my boyfriend for his opinion, he said it's "very Easterly". Application was fine. The first coat went on a bit streaky, the second coat evened the color out nicely, and I added a third "security coat" just to make sure it was perfectly opaque with nary a streak in sight.

I loved it. Beautiful. Since my skin is so pale anyway (thank you, iron-definciency anemia and PMLE!), the color suited me very well. And, of course, the Aquarian in me just loves water-type colors in general--give me more blues and greens and teals and silvers!--so Pastel Blue was just chock full of win all around.

Almost.

Now, Kleancolors are great polishes. They're super affordable, and they actually have some really unique colors, which is always awesome. But there are two main drawbacks to this brand:

1. They're smelly. As I've mentioned before (and countless others have mentioned before me), Kleancolors have a pretty pungent chemical smell to them, unlike any other polish I've used. I didn't notice it with my Holos, but every other Kleancolor I own is definitely a bit stinky.

2. Some of them take forever to dry. I don't know what it is, man, but I know I'm not the only one who's noticed this. A lot of the chunkier glitters dry reasonably quickly, as most glitters are wont to do, but I've noticed with a few other colors that they just seem to want to stay squishy and dentable for way longer than seems normal.

As was the case with Pastel Blue. Even though I waited about seven or eight minutes between coats, then an extra ten minutes before adding a layer of quick-dry top coat, my nails just didn't seem to want to harden up.

After about an hour, I figured I was safe enough to go about my day, and decided to take a shower. This is were I made my mistake. Turns out, my nails were still not completely dry, so all my scrubbing and hair washing in the shower ended up leaving me with tip wear/chippies only an hour after application. Bummer.

Luckily, it's pretty minor and not really noticeable unless you're me, which I am, so it's annoying the shit out of me. But to the rest of the world, I'm sure my nails look pretty okay.

Artificial light, no flash. I think I also left my camera set for fluorescent lighting, which would explain why my fingers look so orange-y. Damn it.

Artificial light, flash. Totally used my non-dominant hand to snap these two pictures, since the tip wear on my right hand was less apparent than on my left.

So yeah. I dunno. That's all really. I kinda ran out of things to say...

Uhhhh... I like this color. I'm glad I bought it. Yay for my haul...

Ummm. No, seriously. My mind just went completely blank.

...

...

...

Yeah, if I was gonna say anything else interesting, I've completely forgotten what it was. You can stop reading now.

Hope you all have a fun weekend!

Lost In The Blizzard Nebula.

Holy smokes, will ya look at that? Another post!

I think I'm just going to kind of rely on pictures to do the work for me for a bit, instead of writing my full-on reviews.

First up, we have the loverly Orly Space Cadet. I had wanted this color for soooooo long, so I finally ordered it through Amazon. When it arrived, I'll admit to being a little disappointed. It kind of reminds me of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Amber Ruby, which I've owned, well, since the Nail Prisms line was still in stores, but never really loved. I'm not huge on rose tones with my skin. And even though this polish has a very pretty teal jelly-ish base, once it's built up to opaque, it's predominantly rosey. Bleh.

I do love a good duo/multichrome, though, and Space Cadet is plenty of that. And although it's smooth and shiny on the nail*, it's really gritty when you're taking it off, so I recommend the foil method.

Indirect sunlight. I think this was... four coats?

There really is a lot of color shifting with this polish.

This polish is definitely pretty, but it's just not my favorite. Oh well.

RCN Ratings:

• Price: 5/5 (Amazon usually has pretty good deals on polishes.)
  
• Packaging: 5/5
  
• Performance: 4/5 (I hate when polishes are a pain to get off, so it loses a point for being so clingy and gritty during removal.)

And here we have my new favorite glitter topcoat, China Glaze Snow Globe over Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Night Flight.

THE COLORS, DUKE! THE COLORS! (If anyone else remembers that commercial, they get a million cool points.)

With flash. This was also right after I applied my final topcoat, so everything looked super shiny.

Unfortunately, by the next day, this mani wasn't very shiny at all. Which was okay, since the matte-ness kind of helped to enhance the GLITTERSSSSS!

 So yeah, I don't even know what to say about this polish. I love it. A lot. It's like a sparkling cupcake wrapped in a bow with sprinkles and candy. On your nails. In glitter form.

It has small and medium iridescent hex glitters that, depending on the angle you're looking are cyan/orange, purple/yellow, or pink/green. It's friggin' amazing, basically, and I couldn't stop smiling at my fingers. I can't wait to wear it over white, which is a mani I'm planning for this winter. : )

As with all glitters, it's a bit tricky to get off, although it not as densly packed as some glitters, so it does break down a little more easily. Still. Foil method all the way.

RCN Ratings:

• Price: 5/5 (Again, check Amazon for some reasonable prices)
• Packaging: 5/5
• Performance: 4/5 (Loses one point for that weird matte thing it kept doing, even after I applied topcoat.)

 So yeah, in a battle between China Glaze Snow Globe and Orly Space Cadet, I'd be rooting for Snow Globe. What about you?



*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. 

Some Ladies Purple Their Fingernails.

...So much for not slacking. *dies*

Well, I've painted my nails a few times since my last post, and I only snapped pictures of a few of the polishes (shame on me!). And then I totally lazed out and didn't bother editing the pictures, and then I was all "Ughhhh, whyyy?" about having to put any effort into writing a post, so, uh, I didn't.

But I am now. So at least there's that, right?

Anyway, today I bring you pictures of Kleancolor Holo Chrome. I bought the whole six piece Holo set on Amazon (it's labeled as the Starry Spring collection). Five of the six Holos are jelly based (Holo Yellow has a more metallic finish than the others) and all of them fairly packed with holographic microglitter (read: RAINBOW SPARKLIES!!!!!).

Now, there's a bit of a pattern to this collection. Holo Pink is a pastel pink jelly with holo microglitter. Holo Blue is a pastel blue with holo microglitter. Holo Orange and Holo Green follow suit. And even though Holo Yellow has a slightly different base, the actual color of the polish is... you guessed it: yellow.

So it stands to reason that Holo Chrome would be a some type of chrome polish with holo microglitter, right? WRONG! It's purple. But it's called Holo Chrome. Because just calling it Holo Purple would've been stupid.

Anywho, Holo Chrome is one of the two polishes in the collection that have a second, more subtle glitter added to the mix (the other polish is Holo Orange).  Holo Chrome not only has the standard holo microglitter, but there's also some tiny iridescent blue/violet glitter in there. You can't really tell unless you really look for it, but when combined with the purple jelly base of this polish, that subtle iridescent glitter really helps this polish to pop.

Artificial light. You can kinda make out the iridescent blue glitters in this picture. Like I said, super subtle, especially paired with all the holo glitter. But it's definitely in there.

Artificial light. A little blurry to help show the glitter.

Artificial light. And angles! Because it's always good to have some perspective.

 Application was fine. Because of the jelly base, these polishes take a few coats to build up to opaque. I think I used four coats* for this one. The polish dries pretty quickly, though, so that kind of makes up for the need for so many coats. The finish is a bit gritty, and it took two coats of topcoat to even out the surface (and, as you can see in the pictures, it still wasn't quite glass-smooth).

Flash. Holo Chrome is the least pastel of the collection. All the other polishes are quite a bit less bold.

Flash. Oh, holo glitter, I love you so. I seriously just sit and stare at my hands all the time when I use the polishes from this collection.

Some people have complained that Kleancolor polishes have a horrible smell to them. I haven't noticed this with any of mine. They may smell a bit different than some of my other polishes, but it's been my experience that different brands and different formulations have slightly different chemically smells on a fairly regular basis. The smell of Kleancolors doesn't strike me as particularly strong or offensive.

Natural light, shade.

Natural light, shade. Again. And now I'm getting distracted and just want to finish this post, so I'm not going to think of a good caption for this one.

I really like this color. I'm like a four year old. Anything that sparkles--especially rainbow sparkles--is going to score huge points in my book. And ever since I read the book 'Hailstones And Halibut Bones' by Mary O'Neill when I was, like, seven years old, purple polish has had a special place in my heart. So yeah, this polish is chock full of win.

RCN Ratings:

• Price: 5/5 (I paid $12.95 for the six piece set)
• Packaging: 5/5
• Performance: 5/5

 And, just 'cause it still makes the little kid in me happy:

What Is Purple?

by Mary O'Neill

Time is purple just before night

when most people turn on the light--
but if you don't it's a beautiful sight.

Asters are purple, there's purple ink.

Purple's more popular than you think...

it's sort of a great Grandmother to pink.

There are purple shadows and purple veils,

some ladies purple their fingernails.

There's purple jam and purple jell

and a purple bruise next day will tell

where you landed when you fell.

The purple feeling is rather put-out

the purple look is a definite pout.

But the purple sound is the loveliest thing

It's a violet opening in the spring.

*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.

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.

Can You Dig It?

Well, I've been in a bit of a funk lately, so a few days ago, I decided to paint my nails blue to go with my mood.

I'm a pretty big fan of the whole green/blue/purple spectrum in general, and tend to gravitate toward those colors when painting my nails. But there was one blue in my collection that I'd only ever used on two nails, back when I did a crazy rainbow mani/pedi a few months back (which I'm sure I'll post pics of at a later date).

So I decided to give OPI Just Groovy a fair shot on its own*, and I liked what I saw. : )

OPI Just Groovy is a lightish medium blue. Almost a sky blue. Now, I don't know if I'm the only one that always pictures really pale, soft blues when I hear 'sky blue', and is always amazed at how vivid the sky actually is on clear, sunny days, but Just Groovy is definitely a vivid sky blue.

Direct sunlight

I only used two coats, although I probably would've been happier with three, because if I looked hard enough, I could still just barely see some areas that were thinner than others (you can see what I'm talking about on my index and middle fingers in the picture above). But I also obsessively scrutinize my nails, so there's always that.

Natural light, shade.

 Application was a breeze, which I expect from OPI polishes, and the color on my nails was true to what it looks like in the bottle. It also dried shiny as heck before I even added a top coat. This manicure did chip like crazy after about two days, though, which was disappointing.

Overall, I actually ended up liking this color more than I thought I would, and I'll probably use it more often now.

RCN Ratings:

• Price: 4/5 (I received this one as a gift, but OPI's generally retail for around $8 or $9, which is on the high end of my nail polish price scale. In my opinion, they're totally worth it, though.)
• Packaging: 5/5
• Performance: 4/5 

What do you think? Is this color totally groovy, or is it the pits?

*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.

Happy (Day After My) Zero-th Blogoversary To Me!

In honor of my zero-th blog anniversary (I don't think 'zero-th' is an actual word, but I don't know how to make zero like '1st', '2nd', '3rd', etc., so 'zero-th' it is)--which actually happened yesterday, but my friend Caitlin just suggested the idea of a zero-th blog anniversary today--I'm not doing much of anything. : |

Except making this post.

And since this is kind of like the beginning of things, I guess I should post some pictures of where I'm at with my collection at this time. I'm not going to name off all the colors in this post. You'll just have to wait until I do swatches. ; )

If I'm still doing this blog in a year, I'll take some new pics of my collection, and we can see how it's changed. Or something like that.

These pictures will stand as a testament to my neophyte photography skills. Ew. 

This is my "winners box"; the polishes I love--and use--most. Plus my stamping plates.

This is the rest of my collection (minus a couple I've put up for trade, so I don't really consider them "mine" any more).

My swatches. I also have two wheels of sheers, with each color swatched in one coat and then built up to opaque, but since all my sheers are also included on my color wheels, I didn't bother including them in this picture.

I'd really like to get one of those little plastic bin/dresser thingies with, like, three drawers so that I can store my stuff properly. Right now, I have a little too much to store in these two boxes, so when everything's in there (I also store my remover and my stamping tools in my winners box), it's all kind of jumbled and stuff's stacked on top of other stuff, and it's just a mess. But I'm fairly broke, so. I'm sure spending all my spare money on nail polish isn't helping matters...

So yeah. Um. This is the beginning. Woohoo. And happy zero-th anniversary, everyone. ; )

P.S. Ugh, can you feel how tired and bleh I am right now? My anemia's been so bad lately. I really should take iron supplements, but they upset my stomach. But anemia also makes nails weak and peely, so...