Adventures in Nail Polish: Galaxy Quest

 So here I am thinking I must must must use my Coastal Scents polish collection creatively for my first-ever manicure and I decided upon galaxy nails! Now, excuse the photos as I didn't do much clean-up, but even so, I think they look fab!

The great thing about this mani is that it's really difficult to screw up. It consists of layering colors until you get your desired look. If you don't like what you see, just keep layering until you do!

For the first time ever, I think my right hand looks better than my left hand...



So here is a look at the polishes I used:

 From left to right:

• Coastal Scents, "Base Coat" (not pictured)-- I never normally use a base coat, so I'm going to be honest here and say I know next to nothing about what makes a good base coat. The only reference point I have is a base coat I used when I was thirteen that I received in one of those ginormous cheap make-up kits for Christmas. This seemed better than that one.
• Coastal Scents, "Galaxy"--This is a shimmery color halfway between bronze and pewter, which you can't really tell from the photo. Bummer. This polish really tied together the whole look for me, even if you can't see it individually on my nails.
• Coastal Scents, "Lunar"--This is a full-coverage silver. I didn't try it all over my nails, but lightly dabbing it on my nails with a cotton ball resulted in giant silver splotches, so I'm going to gladly assume that this is going to be rockin' when I attend a space-themed party someday and get to paint my nails straight silver.
• Coastal Scents, "Tweedia"--Although this looks silver in the photo, it's actually more like a frosty blue. Again, I love this color and the formula.
• Coastal Scents, "Comet"--Oh my, what a beautiful blue. I *almost* used this as my base coat, since it looks so space-y. It's another beautiful color that I think I will love solo or paired.
• Coastal Scents, "Cosmic"-- What a cool polish! This is a bronze polish with glitter flecks of varying sizes. It's definitely a layering polish, as achieving full-coverage with the thin polish that acts as a vehicle for the glitter would probably take forever. However, a full-coverage with this glitter would look cool...
• Coastal Scents, "Nebula"-- Meet my base coat. It's a dark blue color that looks awful on the first coat and beautiful on the second. I don't know how coastal scents does it, but it dries super quickly and still looks good (but does need topcoat, IMO).
• Nubar, "Fairy Dust"-- Again, my holo glitter polish that I got on amazon for $2. Love this stuff, but it's discontinued.
• Nubar, "Diamont"--My top coat love of my life.

Overall, I thought this manicure would feel thick on my nails, but I love it. The Coastal Scents polishes seem like a great bang for the buck, honestly. So far, I am 100% please with my purchase and would recommend the set to anyone who is looking to expand their collection.

Polish Frenzy

I got a pirate's booty in the mail today: 26 polishes from Coastal Scents. I ordered it two weeks back because one of my favorite bloggers, The Dainty Squid, wrote about what a sweet deal they were ($23 for the set) and I was looking to expand my, er, color palate.

They included this bumper sticker and the world's tiniest sample eyeshadow, but it's loose powder, which I'm not a fan of. Anyway, that's a lot of polish. This purchase added a base coat, another top coat and a ton of glittery/holographic/jelly/flat colors to my collection and I am so excited about the manicures to come!

To give you the lowdown on what it contains (no reviews as I haven't used it yet)----

The basics:

• top coat
• bottom coat

The staples:

• A dark silver/pewter--"Galaxy"
• Gold--"Solar"
• Silver--"Lunar"
• Enigmatic bronze with green flash with chunks of copper/bronze glitter--"Cosmic"
• Flat black--"Gravity"
• Flat white--"Star"

Pinks/Reds--Lightest to darkest:

• Very light pink, jelly?--"Cotton Candy"--looks very thin in the bottle
• Flat coral pink--"Carnation"
• Flat hot pink--"Peony"
• Flat true red--"Rosebud"
• Flat deep red--"Azalea"--also looks think in the bottle 

Greens

• Shimmery frosty green/blue--"Tweedia"
• Flat sea foam green--"Lily Pad"
• Flat dark green--"Cactus"

Blues

• Flat light blue--"Forget me not"
• Flat electric blue--"Morning Glory"
• Shimmery dark blue/turquoise--"Comet"
• Shimmery dark, dark blue--"Nebula"

Single, flat dusty purple: "Wisteria"

Beige/Browns:

• Ivory--"Vanilla"
• Touch of pink--"French Vanilla"
• Very light coffee color--"Capuccino"--Looks like one gradation darker than "Vanilla"
• Tinge of pink--"Butter Pecan"--Looks like one gradation darker than "French Vanilla"
• Dusty rose--"Cherry Blosson"
• Shimmery dark brown--"Meteorite"

I'm excited to get paintin'!

Adventures in Nail Polish: I'm going to get a herbal tea.

I can't think of a title for plain polish day, so I made it the first thing I heard, which happened to be Degrassi on television. Am I the only one with this as a guilty pleasure?

Up today we have a single shade manicure . . . ho hum.

• Two coats of Kleancolor's "Neon Purple"

Much more blue in the sunlight...

This purple is much more purple than the photo shows, but it does have a nice blue flash. The coverage of this polish is really nice, only taking two coats to full-coverage. Unfortunately, the dry time on this puppy is longer than most. All in all, I like the natural finish and feel of this polish, even without a topcoat.