Street Wear Bare It

Today I've got one of the polishes from my Street Wear haul a few months back.

Here's Bare It, a light gold duochrome polish with gold glitter. It shines both gold and pink, a very pretty combination. It reminds me a bit of tarnished metal and, in a way, opal (only the pink range of opal, not the blue and green). I got quite a few compliments on it, so it must be pretty!

This is two coats of Bare It layered over a couple coats of China Glaze's Liquid Leather. I knew it was going to be thin, so I figured black would help it stand out a bit more (though I'm sure it would look subtle and chic on its own). All of my Street Wears apply fussy, and this was no exception, though it wasn't impossible. It dried somewhat slowly, and of course I dinged my index finger about thirty seconds after taking these photos.

Despite the application hurdles one must tackle to apply older polishes like Street Wears, these are totally worth it - not only for the nostalgia, but also for the unique colors and finishes. I wish Revlon still made this funky range of lacquers, as I think they are even more unique than a lot of polishes currently being made.

Street Wear Sky & Essie Shine of the Times

Today I have for you a manicure which could have been cute but turned out terrible.

I started out with Sky by Street Wear. Sky is obviously a sky blue frost. Very brushstroke-y, so it's probably not most people's cup of tea. I'm into it. It reminds me of the 90s, which makes sense given that it is, after all, from the 90s (perhaps early 2000s? When did Street Wear die?). All of my Street Wears are incredibly thin. I can't recall if Street Wear was always like this, or if it's due to the polish's age. It took me three coats to reach opacity.

Then I got the idea to add Essie's Shine of the Times because I had finally tracked it down and was really excited about it.

These pictures are horrid, I know, but would you believe that these pictures make the polish look better than it did in real life?! Shine of the Times was kinda thick and gloopy, which I guess was to be expected. It is very pretty, as flakies are. Over the blue, it reminded me of Cinderella's dress.

For about five minutes. Then the frustration set in.

The three coats of the thin, old Street Wear, combined with a thick coat of Essie (and base and top coat) did not make for a good combination. This stuff basically refused to dry. I had more dings and smudges than I could count. It didn't even last 24 hours before I was peeling this manicure off. And guess what? The layers underneath were still tacky!

Shine of the Times over Sky was really pretty, but so not worth the effort. I am excited to try it over every other polish I own though!

Galaxy Nails!

I'm up to day 19 of The Challenge, and that means galaxies!

All of the polishes I used: Street Wear Mmoody, 17 Glitter Top Coat, Love & Beauty Charcoal, China Glaze Cheers to You, ManGlaze Mayo, Orly Galaxy Girl, China Glaze White Cap, Love & Beauty Light Green, and Essense Choose Me! Phew!

I started out with two coats of Charcoal by Love & Beauty. If I was wearing this alone, I would have done three because there are some bald spots. Charcoal is, as you can see, a black base with silver micro-glitter. Application was smooth, and it dried decently fast. It does dry to a gritty texture, so top coat is a must. My biggest issue with these Love & Beauty polishes are their names. Charcoal? Really? Charcoal is just plain black! Graphite would have been slightly more appropriate, as that actually has somewhat of a sheen to it. Come on Love & Beauty, put more than two seconds of thought into your nail polish names!

And there's the final product! They are not totally perfect, but I think they look pretty nice. The shooting star on my index finger is a bit too prominent, but I adore the one on my ring finger. Doing these galaxy nails was so fun, and far less time consuming than you'd think (especially considering the amount of polishes that go into creating this look). My coworkers liked 'em, and they could tell what I was going for. And if the general public can tell these are space-based, then I'd call it a success. And I do have to say, a camera can not really pick up the beauty of these bad boys. Do some for yourself and see what I mean!

I was too lazy to take process photos, but I'll break it down into steps:
1. Paint base color. Ideally something dark and shimmery.
2. Sponge on white in cloud-like manner.
3. Add an iridescent color on top of the white to tone it down. I used Mmoody, Choose Me!, and Light Green for this, alternating on each nail.
4. Add a darker iridescent color to parts of the "clouds" that are too bright. This is where Galaxy Girl came in handy.
5. Add shooting stars with a silver or a glitter or a silvery glitter.
6. Use more white to add stars. It's pretty cute if you add some twinkling stars to the mix.
7. Cover said stars with a glitter to tone them down. Cue White Cap.
8. Add as many glitter polishes as you can find. This is where I used two coats of 17's Glitter Top Coat. I wish I had Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasure (or similar polish) because the flakies add some great dimension.
9. Add some top coat and tada! The universe has exploded on your nails.

If, like me, you are a visual person, here are the tutorials I followed when doing my galaxy nails: Here Comes The Sun's video tutorial, and Rebecca's photo tutorial.

With that, I am off to "space out" (heh!) to It's Always Sunny and fall asleep!

Street Wear Taxi

Yellow is the third color for the 31 Day Challenge, and I chose Taxi by Street Wear.

In the bottle, Taxi is a yellow with a really pretty shimmer to it. Unfortunately, the shimmer gets completely lost on the nail. Luckily, it's still a really gorgeous yellow, even without the shimmer.

However, application was a royal pain in the ass. The polish is pretty thin, which means two things. One: it had a tendency to spread all over, and got stuck in my cuticles and the sides of my nails. I always use acetone to clean up, but acetone couldn't get everything up. Two: it needed three coats, and even after the third coat, it still looked pretty crappy. Lucky for you guys, my camera makes things look better than they do in real life. It's fairly uneven in some spots. I got air bubbles. And it took FOREVER to dry. Even with my (brand new) Poshe top coat. I actually had to redo a couple nails because they ended up wrinkling. You can see the wrinkling on my ring finger in my photos. And that's the second time I redid that nail!

If it wasn't a Street Wear polish, I'd get rid of it. But I'm chalking up the issues to the age of the polish. And I'm still going to hang on to it and use it because as long as I'm not looking closely at my nails, it really does look awesome!

American Apparel Passport Blue + Street Wear Hologram

So, this was supposed to be my birthday manicure (I turned 24 yesterday!), but I was lazy and didn't paint my nails until this morning. Oops.

I showed you American Apparel Passport already - it was my second post ever, if I remember correctly. I took another photo of it for the sake of having a slightly better image of it up.

I wish I didn't, but I love American Apparel's nail polishes. I used just one coat for this manicure. My only gripe with this is the messiness. The brush is hard for me to control for whatever reason, so I end up getting it everywhere. And it's so pigmented, that my nails just end up looking sloppy because I can't clean it up. So, please forgive the messy application. I tried.

For some Birthday Bling, I added Hologram by Street Wear over Passport Blue. I was sort of expecting the application of this to be a disaster. You know the glittery polishes that never catch on the brush, so you have to practically dump it on your nails for it to show? Well, Hologram is nothing like that. I only needed ONE coat to get that many glitter pieces on my nail. Just one dip into the bottle, brush it on, and BOOM you've got a glitter party. The only downside is that if you wanted a sparser arrangement of glitter pieces, you'd have to work to get less on the brush. It's that dense!

The holographic-ness of it really shows! Even under dimmer lights. I've had a ton of compliments on it so far today. Hologram does dry with a rough texture though, and top coat didn't really help even it out.

This is one of those can't-stop-looking-at-my-nails manicures.

Street Wear Grape

Next up from my new collection of Street Wears is Grape.

Grape is a deep purple base with purple and blue shimmer. I absolutely love the combination. It's so pretty. The shimmer is fairly subtle, but when it hits the sunlight, it pops. You can see the shimmer better in the bottle than on my nails, but you get the gist.

The application of this was a breeze. It would have been perfect in one coat, but out of habit, I did two.

Overall, I have nothing to complain about. It applied wonderfully, and is such a great color. I've gotten lots of compliments on this bad boy.

Street Wear Mmoody + N.Y.C. Black Lace Creme

Last night, I saw Harry Potter at the drive in! I bawled. A lot. Any other HP dorks out there? What did you think of the last movie? How are you going to survive with no more HP movies or books to look forward to?!?

I decided to use Mmoody as my first Street Wear polish because it reminds me of a Patronus. It is definitely a polish that is meant to be layered (or worn very very sheer), so I decided to layer it over a simple black.

Black Lace Creme is pretty standard. I decided to show it since I haven't photographed it before. The first coat is pretty thin, but it becomes opaque in two coats. I painted it right in front of a fan (because it's like a billion degrees in MN), and got a bunch of air bubbles, as you can see. (On that note, I desperately need an AC unit!)

Then came the magic! I layered two coats of Mmoody over the black. Mmoody is a blue shimmer in a grey base. I love the juxtaposition of the shimmer and the murky grey. It is a great combination! You can see I still ended up with air bubbles. I moved away from the fan to add Mmoody, but still got them. Perhaps it's just because it's an older polish? Maybe it just doesn't like the Poshe topcoat? Who knows! Who cares! It's so pretty, the air bubbles don't even bother me. I also ended up with some weird scrunchy bits on my index and ring fingers. I don't care about those either! Mmoody was pretty thin (all of the Street Wears I got seemed quite thin), but easy to work with. The brush/lid design is awesome. The handle isn't perfectly round, so it's easy to grip. And the brush is very long, so it's easy to see what you're doing.

I wish Revlon still made these. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I was obsessed with Street Wear in middle school. I loved being able to go into Target and get some funky colored polishes for cheap.

I shall leave you with an image of Snape's and Lily's Patronus. I'm off to go cry some more over HP. Just kidding... maybe.