A Post! And Some Topcoat Trials

Hey dolls. So I've been MIA for a while, yes? It turns out that taking 18 credit hours plus working 9 hours makes for quite a busy Faithy. I'm going to try my hardest to post more regularly from now on. Say, shocker, twice a week? That would be nice, seeing as I haven't posted in more than a month. Now on to your scheduled entertainment. Remember the lovely Topcoat Trials in which I try to find a topcoat that's just as holy grail-ish as Seche Vite without all the yucky parts that Seche entails (i.e. thickening, bubbles, short brush, $$$)? Yeah, that's what this post is about. Last time I believe I showed y'all a Sally Hansen. This time I have CND Speedey for you, which I found on sale at Ulta. I had heard many good things about Speedey, so I picked it up along with CND's basecoat, Stickey (which I absolutely love, by the way).

How do I feel about Speedey? Well, it is most definitely speedy, and does not disappoint in that category. I do hate a long drying top coat. Life is much too short to spend waiting for your nail polish to dry. I'd say it's dry to the touch in 5 minutes, and completely ready to go in 10. About the same as Seche, actually.

Speedey did not get thick or gloppy on me, which is lovely. I also hate thick top coats. Thick nail polish in general is probably one of the most infuriating things ever. I know that that's what thinner is for, but when you have to keep adding and keep adding thinner, it gets annoying. There was minimal bubbling as well. I think the only times I had bubbling issues were when I did a poor job applying the polish and was too lazy for the necessary thin coats.

So thus far we have three wins. Speedey is cheap (at least, it was $3 on sale. But I think it is about $6 normally), fast, and stays thin. But I did find it to be a little unsatisfying. I couldn't get that beautiful glass-like shine from it like I can with Seche, and my nails felt a little unprotected while wearing it - I think because it didn't feel as thick as I like. Oo, explanation is needed here. Or maybe just a broadened vocabulary. When I say thick in this sense I don't mean the same thick that I mentioned in the last paragraph. This thick is that protective coating over the polish, not that yucky draggy will-not-spread kind of thick that I was talking about before. All better? Good. :) Also, the brush is rather short. Boo short brushes! Come on polish companies, please make brushes that reach all the way down the bottle! It is so irritating not to be able to get that last quarter of the bottle!

I believe the final count is 3 wins: 2 losses. That's a winning record overall. However, I am continuing the search! I shall not rest until I find the holy grail. :) Hopefully that does not mean I have to go back to Seche... I'm starting to think that I'll never find anything comparable.

Orly Enchanted Forest

Hallo, all. Looky at what I have! I finally got Enchanted Forest over break. EF is from Orly's Once Upon A Time Collection of last fall. This is my first Orly ever, since I've been shallow up til now and not bought any Orlys because of the ugly bottle. However, this collection comes with pretty little charms on each bottle, which makes up for the ugliness.

Enchanted Forest is a beautiful dark green creme, and is smooth as butter. I think I used 3 coats to ensure a non-streaky finish, since dark colors tend to be streakier than others. I wish that it was a tad brighter and less dark, as it tends to go towards the black side in poor lighting, but other than that, this is a wonderful green. Yay Orly!

Books I Read Over Break

I read 9 books over break. Woot! I love books oh so much. It was glorious to be able to read novels all day long for weeks on end. Here is the list.

Loving Frank ~ Nancy Horan

I, Claudius ~ Robert Graves

Wild Swans ~ Jung Chang

Shanghai Girls ~ Lisa See

The Mayor of Casterbridge ~ Thomas Hardy

Geisha: A Life ~ Mineko Iwasaki

Unwind ~ Neal Shusterman

The Looking Glass Wars ~ Frank Beddor

The Poisonwood Bible ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Has anyone read any of these? What did you think?

Moon Over ME

Just look at this gorgeous polish! OPI Moon Over Mumbai is from the India Collection of '08, and is a light grey almost-creme with hidden reddish shimmer.

I love it. I generally don't like sheers or light colors, but this one is just beautiful. I gaze at my hands constantly all day whenever I wear it. It does take 4 coats to get to this level of opacity.

Well, I was wondering how y'all would feel about a profile of one of my college friends each week. My friends feel left out of my blog, and I would like to post about other things than nail polish, as I've said before. So, what do you think?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLOG OF MINE!

So, as it turns out, I missed my blog's first birthday. I thought it was January 19th, but it was January 9th. Oops! That's ok, birthdays can be celebrated anytime. Or you could pull an Alice in Wonderland and celebrate unbirthdays. :)

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, GREAT LACQUER HUNT!

Thanks for reading me this past year!

Chine Glaze Cowardly Lyin'

Hallo, darlings. I go back to school tomorrow! It has been a good break, and I plan to try to post about a few things that happened, as soon as I get the time, and upload the pictures. :)

Here is Cowardly Lyin', from CG's Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection. Lovely, eh? CL is a very yellow light gold, with gold circle glitter. It is a very quiet gold glitter, meaning that it does not lend your fingers the appearance of flashing gold foil, but instead prettily adorn it with gold that is, on close look, a glitter. Fascinating.

I believe that I used 3 coats to get opacity. The one thing that has given me trouble with the all of the polishes from The Wizard of Ooh Ahz is the wear and tear of the formula. It invariably chips within two days... which isn't a problem if you change polish that often, but since I started school I find that I don't have enough time to change my polish more than about every 4 days. However, the colors are so fabulous that I think they will overcome any objections about wear.

OPI Comet Loves Cupid

Hola, dolls. Just look at that gorgeous red up there! :) I'm a big fan of Comet Loves Cupid from OPI's Holiday Wishes collection. It is a diva red - really really bright, but a creme, thus sophisticated. LOVE. I couldn't quite capture the true red of this color on my camera. It is actually quite a bit blue and is not nearly so orange as this pictures make it out to be. CLC went on smoothly and covered in one coat, but I used two so as to keep the bad voodoo from getting me. I wore this baby as my Christmas manicure.Once again, this polish had a rock solid formula. It didn't stay quite as flawless for 4 days as the other 2 I've tried from Holiday Wishes, but that is because it lasted through much cooking and partying and unwrapping of gifts. :) I must say, bravo to OPI on this collection, especially since their last two major collections have been completely boring. I hated South Beach except for Done Out In Deco, and was completely bored by España. The Suede and Mattes I'm sure would be interesting to someone who likes mattes, but I am not a fan - I like my polish glossy! I know I'm in the minority, but hey, at least I like green and blue, right? ;)