SpaRitual Knowledge Is Power & Konad m56

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I have another bright one for today, this time SpaRitual Knowledge Is Power, the neon pink, with two patterns from Konad plate m56.  It's about as girly as it gets.

SpaRitual Knowledge Is Power & Konad m56

That's just about all for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

SpaRitual Reveal Yourself & Konad m83

Good morning, Dear Reader!

The Stay Chipper Through Festive Manicures Campaign continues with the one I have for you today, SpaRitual Reveal Yourself with two of the patterns from Konad plate m83 stamped on it.  Reveal Yourself is the pale pink from SpaRitual's Truth Collection, which took three coats here (not too bad for a shade this pale), and I stamped the hearts-on-stems pattern on it with Konad Psyche Pink, then decided to perch the vixen kitty pattern atop a heart in Konad Black Special Polish on an accent nail.

SpaRitual Reveal Yourself Nail Polish with Konad m83

It's hard to get too mopey when the kitty's winking at me...

That's just about all there is today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

SpaRitual Face of Destiny

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm finally wrapping up the SpaRitual Truth Collection with Face of Destiny.  Face of Destiny is a very assertively named polish for a mom color - it's kind of a muted orange-ish creme, and it was the only color family my mom ever wore.

It was perfect in two coats and really easy to apply.

SpaRitual Face of Destiny Nail Polish, Two Coats

I think some Konad would spice it up quite nicely.  In fact, I tried with a pattern from m83, but I failed and decided not to hurt your eyes with that picture.

That's it for today, and that's the end of SpaRitual Truth for Spring 2011.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

The rest of SpaRitual Truth:
Enlightened Soul
Eye of the Beholder
Reveal Yourself
Knowledge is Power
Circle of Life

SpaRitual Enlightened Soul & Konad m83

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm back to the SpaRitual Truth Collection today with Enightened Soul, a crayon yellow creme.  I don't know what, if anything, it's a dead-on match to, but I know there a lot of basic yellow cremes available.  What makes Enlightened Soul special amongst them is that it only took two coats to be good, while yellows are usually a huge PITA and often require more.  I think RBL Yellow Fever is a two-coater, but it costs twice as much.  The application of Enlightened Soul was also very good - the polish is very easy to control.

SpaRitual Enlightened Soul Nail Polish, Two Coats

I rarely wear yellow alone, it's usually a base for Konad.  Since my new Konad plates got here from WowSoCool, I tried out a couple of patterns from plate m83.

Konad Plate m83 over SpaRitual Enlightened Soul

Now it's more fun!  The stamp on my ring nail is just one big stamp, and I painted the little bird blue and the rest red before scraping the pattern to get two colors in it.

That's the scoop for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm back to the SpaRitual Truth Collection today with Eye of the Beholder, a light Springy green creme.  It's both darker and more yellow than the plethora of mint greens that are around now.  The polish is thick, so I did very thin coats.  After the second, it was opaque but a bit streaky, so I added a third coat.  I could easily have just made the second a little thicker and been done with two, which is what I'll do next time.

SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder Nail Polish, Three Coats

I really like the color a lot, but it looked a little plain on its own so I added the tip pattern from Chez Delaney plate H5 in Konad White.

SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder Nail Polish and Chez Delaney Plate H5

I love the finished manicure.  It's really cheerful, so I keep peeking at it.

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

SpaRitual Reveal Yourself

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Another day, another polish from SpaRitual's Truth Collection, this time Reveal Yourself.  There's a name that can be taken a lot of ways...

Reveal Yourself is a super pale pastel pink creme, very Springy.  The polish is quite thick, as is usually the case with very white shades, so I found myself doing really, really thin coats, which resulted in the need for three coats.  I wasn't aware that I was doing that until the second, so I think it could really be fine with two normal coats.  The dry time on this one was good, although not unusually fast like Knowledge is Power and Circle of Life.

SpaRitual Reveal Yourself Nail Polish, Three Coats

I like the color, but it looked plain so I added some flower nail decals to it.  Unfortunately, those were a cheapo crappy purchase, so they did't stay laying down flat and pretty much wrecked the manicure.  I intend to leave it unless the edges of the decals snag on things and bug the heck out of me!

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

SpaRitual Knowledge Is Power

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have another from the SpaRitual Truth Collection for Spring 2011, Knowledge is Power.  My sense had previously been that a lot of SpaRitual names sound like public service announcements, but this one clinched it.  I have a vague recollection of PSA's ending with that, so this one's really overtly PSA.  Fortunately, it's a great color.

Knowledge is Power is an almost neon pink creme, and like Circle of Life, it only takes two coats for it to be perfectly even and opaque.  The polish was very easy to control, and had much better than average dry time.

SpaRitual Knowledge Is Power Nail Polish, Two Coats

I love neon pinks, and this one goes high on the list for me.  It's not as retina-searing as the Essies, Punchy Pink and Pink Parka, and the shade of it really appeals to me.  I'm a big fan.

On an entirely unrelated note, I got an email this morning with a link that I thought I'd share with you.  In December, Guiliana Rancic started an online newsletter called FabFitFun.  The name's descriptive, it addresses beauty, health, and general living issues of interest to women.  They sent out a piece today on leopard nails that I participated in, so I thought I'd give you a look if you want to check it out: http://bit.ly/catmani

That's just about all I know, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

SpaRitual Circle of Life

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I finally removed my manicure from last Thursday (more about that at the end), and today I got to try out SpaRitual Circle of Life from their Truth Collection for Spring 2011.  This is a really fantastic collection, but unfortunately, I don't have any press info on it.  A while back, there was a change in PR for SpaRitual, and I seem to have fallen off of their radar for now, so I'm winging this one.

The Truth Collection consists of six cremes, some washed out pastel, some medium pastel, and some vibrant, so even though they all have the same finish there's a good bit of variety.  I chose to try Circle of Life, an amazingly vivid, clear, blue, because I'm only wearing this manicure for a day.  My reasoning was that in my experience, shades as vivid as Circle of Life are often a huge hassle to get as opaque as I like, so I figured I'd two-coat this one and I could live with whatever the result was for one day.  The happy surprise was that it's perfect in two coats, so I'm really thrilled with it.

SpaRitual Circle of Life Nail Polish, Two Coats

I see a piece of felt lint on my index finger, sorry about that.  We can just ignore the lint and the imperfect application for a moment to revel in the glory that is SpaRitual Circle of Life, can't we?

As for application, it was good, nothing really noteworthy.  My hands were on the shaky side when I applied it, so user error is the cause of imperfections.  The dry time was markedly better than average, which is good news for me.  I think Circle of Life is crying out for Konad as loudly as it can, and the faster a base color for that dries, the better.

So that's the new manicure .  I mentioned that I planned to see how much life I could get out of Essie Ruby Slippers topped with Konad top coat and Poshe, and it was seriously tough.  I've been very hard on my nails, especially this morning, and it held up.  When I say I'm hard on my nails, it's because sometimes all of my suggestions regarding protecting them goes straight out the window.  I know from experience, not just from reading tips, that simple things like wearing gloves to can clean make the difference between a break and no break, but somehow there are still days when that falls squarely into the Take My Advice, I'm Not Using It category.  Today was one of those days, and I scrubbed the bathtub, shower, sinks, etc., without gloves.  I felt what I thought was a tiny chip on my ring finger, so it was time to remove it.  As it turned out, I took a tiny chip out of my nail, and the polish didn't chip at all.  Here it is right before removal, at the beginning of Day 5.

Busted Up Ol' Manicure

See the chip?  The polish around it stayed perfect even through a shower and hair washing after the cleaning.  Not bad!  Truthfully, I was a little scared to remove this one, but it came off just like a non-glitter polish.  Getting through all the top coat was harder than getting the glitter off.  I think Konad top coat under quick dry is going to be my new way to protect a mani I want to stay good for a long time.

That's the scoop for now, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!