Honest Babes

**CAUTION: NERD(LACQUER) ALERT** I am going to be geeking out for the Trek-esque polishes because they bring back such good memories. A great color of polish is wonderful, but it's even better when it evokes a feeling or memory. That's what I think at any rate.

My first choice of NerdLacquer to swatch was Warrior Ethos because I must admit that I prefer the Klingons over the Vulcans (Purely Logical) and the Romulans (Cold & Calculating.) Three coats by itself was perfect opacity. If I hold my finger up to the light, I can see my nail tip, but otherwise it looks opaque. I love the different colors and sizes of glitter in Warrior Ethos- everything just works for me. I think this is a great unconventional holiday red and I've been surprised by how well it's worn for me.

A lot of pictures... for serious!

I had avoided signing up for Etsy because I knew what a time suck it would be. Cute, clever one-of-a-kind handmade items like jewelry or stationary? Totally up my alley. If you had told me a month ago that I'd be buying nail polish on there, I would have scoffed at you. But one night last week, I followed a link to someone's Flickr. She had pictures... of Star Trek-themed nail polish. Within 24 hours, I had not only signed up for Etsy and wasted hours browsing, but I had also bought the Trek polish set and another polish to go with it. If you're selling something that references Star Trek ("The Next Generation" in particular), I am certainly going to take notice and then potentially hand you all of my monies. Which was the case here. 

NerdLacquer sells a variety of geeky polish influenced by awesome things like Doctor Who, Star Wars, the actual universe and Monty Python. (Love that!) I opted for the Trek trio as well as Don't Panic. While Amanda's pictures are excellent, these polishes exceeded my expectations when I opened the box and unwrapped them.

I've been having trouble with my Nikon, so I finally reset the settings a few nights ago (perhaps in anticipation of getting these polishes) and hoped for the best when I took pictures the day I received my NerdLacquer package. I found a patch of late afternoon sunlight and tried to work quickly.

Today I tackled the lightbox. These pictures may be a bit big, so I apologize if you have to scroll to see everything:

My first choice to swatch was Warrior Ethos, so I will have swatches up soon (and I really mean it this time!) I noticed that NerdLacquer's next set might be "Firefly"-themed. Will there be a color called Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal? A girl can hope! And after you buy NerdLaquer, just try to not make up polish names referencing your favorite shows and movies. Based on my experience with Warrior Ethos and Amanda, my overall impression of NerdLacquer can be expressed in macro form as:

This is the culmination of things I've found interesting over the last few days. Sorry, no pictures! The ones I wanted to add kinda stink, so I need to retake them. 

I've been waiting on Ulta to get the OPI Muppets collection, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. At this point, I may forgo the Muppets and save for the Holland collection instead. Thanks a Windmillion is killing me softly. And speaking of pale greens (I'm surprised this trend is still going, to be honest), I am DYING to get my hands on the Spring 2012 Dior green called Waterlily. Here it is on the nail.

And speaking of Ulta, apparently OPI is discontinuing 14 colors: Calendar Girl, Sit Under the Apple Tree, Give Me A Coral Sometime, Peach-a-boo!, Red Hot Ayers Rock, Chapel of Love, Bullish on OPI, Take the Stage, My Big Break, Paint My Moji-toes Red, Bronzed to Perfection, Clubbing til Sunrise, Bling Dynasty and Chopsticking to My Story. From what I understand, they may all be on sale, two for US$10, but I didn't receive that Ulta ad so I don't have the exact details. (Thankfully this was reported on Ulta's Facebook page.) To be honest, I'm kind of surprised that a majority of those colors are still around.

Is it me or do these Inglot flakies look like the Nails Inc Gossip Girl flakies?

Did Karl Lagerfeld actually have anything to do with the cosmetics and nail polish for a Sephora line? If only WWD was free to read online! Not that I'm a fan of his or anything...

Does anyone else randomly check magazine giveaway pages? I'm not really digging Glamour's stuff this month, but People StyleWatch has the Kardashian Kolors from Nicole and Lucky has Zoya. I really want the Guerlain set from StyleWatch. And speaking of the Kardashians, I support this.

No joke, I have about a hundred different comments about this report from Cleveland on CND's Shellac. Yes, you do have to do research into any beauty treatment you're thinking about getting... unless you're making a snap decision on the spot. You can only do so much in that case. And sure, looking at bottles is probably a good idea, but that isn't the first thing I think of when I'm getting a pro manicure. (The last time I got my tips done with regular polish, the manicurist used clear polish as a base coat, then base coat as top coat before sticking me under a lamp. Whaaaat?) I'm not surprised that some people had wear issues since it seems that not everyone applying Shellac knows what they're doing. But I think it's cool that this news team looked into something nail-related!

If none of that was even remotely interesting, maybe this video will be worth your time. I laugh every time I watch it.

Revlon's Top Speed fast dry polish in First Class is allegedly a Target-only shade.  While Essie has their own Target-only shades, most (if not all- I'm curious about Red Label) have already been sold before at other retailers.  I wonder if First Class has been sold elsewhere before, but then I wonder why I'm bothering to wonder.  First Class was decently opaque at one coat, but there was a little sheerness that became more evident as the polish dried.  Honestly, I had an easier time with this polish than the Misa and China Glaze polishes I tried out at the same time, both in formula and in brush.  Color me impressed!  I didn't find it to be superbly fast drying, but after a few minutes, I put China Glaze Fast Forward on and my polish was dry (but still dentable) 10-15 min later.  If I exerted enough force, I could dent it the next morning, but I didn't get any dings aside from the ones I gave myself.  I have a little bit of tipwear almost two days later, but I'm pleased with how well this has worn.

The first picture is a maybe little more color accurate as far as I remember, but the second isn't too far off:You know the deal... click if you like blue!

I love midnight showings and I love good books, so of course I had to attend the last Harry Potter film as soon as it came out.  While the theater's disorganization and disregard for previous policies sucked, I'm still glad we went to see the movie.  Neville and Snape were particularly good in my opinion, and this was my favorite part by far!  We're going to have to see it again since we were so close to the screen the first time.   Did anyone else go see it?

Funky Fingers' Snakeskin (901) is mostly gray with a slight green tinge and gold shimmer.  You can see the green tinge if you're looking for it, but it definitely looks gray at first glance.  The formula is a bit metallic, so you may see slight brushstrokes.  I had no problems with two coats, but the topcoats I used gave me bubbles so my pictures below are with three coats.  I had no complaints about the brush, the formula was easy to work with, and the bottles are so darn cute!  Funky Fingers polishes retail for US$5 for three bottles at Five Below stores, but I'm not sure what the cost is if you only want one bottle.  Since Funky Fingers and Color Club are made by the same company, you can get Color Club Snakeskin if you don't have a Five Below near you.  Scrangie reported that Color Club's Snakeskin has microglitter, so it's possible that this is also microglitter (and not shimmer like I'm seeing) or the formula was tweaked just slightly.  It's a bit of an unusual color, and even though it's a bit too warm for me, I like it.

Bottle picture:

Snakes on a blogpost!

Pixel nail polish is a Big 3 free brand that's new to Ulta, and I'm not even sure that it's sold anywhere else.  The bottle is 0.17 fl oz/5 mL, so it's pretty tiny.  I picked up five colors at the low, low price of US$1.99, but they are currently on sale and will apparently be going up to $2.49 a bottle soon.  In comparison, Sinful bottles are 0.5 fl oz/15 mL, retail for $1.99, and are are frequently on sale for buy one, get one half price.  The bottle has no balls and the cap is a little slick so you may have to twist harder than usual to open the bottle.  I did like the Pixel's brush.  It was pretty easy to control and just stiff enough.

More pictures... of course!

I've been hanging around the blogosphere as much as I could.  But not blogging.  A lot has been happening at Chez Babes and I promise to not bore you with the details.  But I am working on three posts, may have to redo yet another that I wrote up in early March (!), and I have plans for two more posts.  So I guess we'll see what happens.   I may slip a few beauty reviews in between nail stuff, but I promise to make it easily skippable whether you're reading here on the website or in a reader.

For the moment, I'll leave you with Lil Debbie (I think!) of the White Girl Mob (image source is here):

"So posh, nails fierce with the gold gloss" - Kreayshawn, "Gucci Gucci"

While I can't say anything positive about flipping someone the bird- I feel so old!- I can at least dig the nails.  My next posts will include: no one finger raised, no faces, no hipster DJs no matter how stylish or style-impared they are, and certainly no glasses.  Unless I find polish that matches any of the pairs that I have.   And if anyone has any idea how to get this nail look, let me know.  Unless it involves Rococo Gold Leaf.  Space NK, I'm onto you... *hides wallet*

I pretty much covered my description of Obscurity here, but I do want to say that Obscurity's wear does depend on the quality of your base.  I must've used CND's Stickey (my non-Big 3 Free bottle, no less ) or Ridge Out (possibly more likely ) as a base coat this time, and the wear has greatly improved.  I wouldn't bank on this color lasting forever- I have the very, very tiniest bit of tipwear after a few days- but the lasting quality is not as poor as I had once believed.

In these images, the base coat on long nails is NailTek Foundation II.  On the short nails, it's one of the CND base coats I mentioned above.

Can you guess what book that is?

***Disclaimer: I always hesitate to post my own opinions on non-polish items that could be inflammatory.  I am not aiming to offend anyone!  So I'm going to take a deep breath and post this, because it's been on my mind.  As always, please feel free to comment or e-mail if you agree, disagree, or couldn't care any less.   This is a big, daunting chunk of text, so feel free to click the "next item" in your reader or scroll over this! ***

Rodarte for MAC, Ginger + Liz and Oprah

A few weeks ago, one of my most favorite bands finally came to town. I only had to wait five years... I didn't end up doing my own nails in time, but I did end up having enough time to get a salon manicure. My buddy showed me a blingy, light holo by Color Club that was perfect for the occasion. Unfortunately, the manicurist only did two coats, which was far from adequate for opacity. But only having two coats meant that the whites of my nails were clearly visible so chips didn't really show up until almost a week later.A few pictures...