Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

'Tis the season for Jellybean! I've featured this polish twice already on my blog, once in the most early days, here, and once last April, here, which made my list of most-viewed posts for 2014. It's too sweet and springy not to visit again, so Happy Easter to you if you celebrate and Happy Jellybean Day to you either way!

Jellybean was released by now sadly defunct indie polish maker Candeo Colors for spring 2012. It's a glitter crelly with a pale soft creamy yellow creme/jelly hybrid base loaded with multicolored glitters in two sizes. There are medium-sized pink, turquoise and purple hex glitters and tiny square microglitters in lime, yellow and pink. The bright springy melange of colors pops from within the yellow base color in the prettiest way -- it's just a little darling of a polish!

Previously I had layered this puppy over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, a brighter yellow that leans to the lemony side of the spectrum. I've seen Jellybean perform beautifully solo with opaque coverage in two coats, but my bottle is particularly dense with components and I wasn't certain that I wanted the same abundance of glitters on my nails that two coats had provided in the past, so I chose again to layer. Taking a cue from Lacey of Lace and Lacquers, I dug out my bottle of Sinful Colors Unicorn, a pastel fluffy chick yellow that's part of Sinful's core line. Unicorn turns out to have a decent formula for a yellow polish,  if a bit sheer and streaky at the outset. It has a smooth, creamy consistency with a nice flow over the nail and it actually self-levels. I used the lightest touch I could muster and floated on two thin (for me) coats, which wasn't streak-free or even wearably opaque but definitely suitable as a base for Jellybean. 

I used about one and a half coats of Jellybean over the Unicorn base. The first coat I simply painted on as I would a non-glitter polish. The consistency of Jellybean is fluid, smooth and super easy to work with, a really outstanding crelly formula for a yellow. It has a lovely flow over the nail with no tumbling of the components, very few protrusions over the free edge and excellent self-leveling properties. Glitter payoff is also excellent with a substantial mix of components per brushful dispersing fairly evenly over the nail. I had just a few bare-ish patches on various nails so I subsequently dabbed on extra Jellybean over those areas. I was really happy with how well this worked out, there was no ghosting around the dabbed on patches and the amount of glitters on each nail was a bit less than in past manicures with this polish -- goldilocks! Cleanup was a snap. Jellybean dries in fairly good time to a finish with some texture from the components. To smooth the finish I used one coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and one coat of Seche Vite.

Photos show one and a half coats of Jellybean over two coats of Unicorn over treatment and basecoat, with a surface-smoothing layer of Glitter Food followed by a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

Sinful Colors Unicorn and Candeo Colors Jellybean, bottle shot

Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

Candeo Colors Jellybean over Sinful Colors Unicorn

Adorable! I've had this polish for a while and never tire of it. I like it with Unicorn even better than with Mellow Yellow. Unicorn is a pretty good match for the base of Jellybean and doesn't overbrighten the yellow, leaving it soft and delicate. It's still a party, though!

We're having guests from out of town this weekend -- my sis and her family (including my wonderful niece, Eleanor, for whom this blog was originally created) are here to  celebrate Easter with Fuzzy, John and me. We're having an Easter feast and just hanging around the place enjoying the spring. Perhaps you'll be doing something similar? Enjoy!

love,
Liz

Addendum: Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

I've been waiting to reprise Orly's Purple Poodle ever since I first swatched it back in October and my Sinful Colors Fig manicure gave me a chance to try it over a medium-dark plum. 

Purple Poodle is a bright and vivid but sheer magenta jelly with plenty of electric blue shimmer and purple flakies. I must have grown into my polish enthusiasm a bit since the first time, because any trace of difficulty applying Purple Poodle that I once had is gone now. After my battle with Fig, Purple Poodle went on like a DREAM. 

Photos show two coats of Purple Poodle over two coats of Sinful Colors Fig (over treatment and basecoat) with a topcoat of Seche Vite. I am really happy with how it turned out. 

bottle shot: Sinful Colors Fig, left, and Orly Purple Poodle -- although Purple Poodle appears darker in the bottle, it's sheerness makes gives it a much lighter appearance when worn alone...

Orly Purple Poodle, macro shot in the bottle

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig on the nail, Orly Purple Poodle in the bottle

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

Orly Purple Poodle over Sinful Colors Fig

I actually got compliments on this manicure from folks who aren't related to me!

Purple Poodle brightened the plum of Sinful Colors considerably. On the nail, this combo just glows and the bright blue shimmers of Purple Poodle not only pop but add a beautiful blue flash to the look. The look is dark but intensely colorful at the same time.

I like it very much.

love,
Aunt Liz

Sinful Colors Fig

I believe that Fig is part of Sinful Colors permanent line, although it apparently has been promoted and re-promoted over the years in various collections. It is a medium dark red-leaning purple, or plum color with fuchsia shimmer. The shimmer viewed through the fairly well-pigmented base comes through mostly as a tone-on-tone royal purple, giving the polish a nice dimensionality with a certain dreamy quality. It's a pretty polish if you can get it to apply well.

The problem comes in part with the consistency of the polish, which is very liquid with an awkward sort of viscosity that makes the polish want to cling to the brush and itself rather than your nail. Successful application depends a lot on how you load the brush. And therein lies the other part of the problem. 

I don't particularly care for Sinful Colors' brush. It's of good size but the bristles seem to lack flexibility and tend to splay outward at the tip. The bushy tip makes accuracy a little dicey, and the stiff bristles don't seem to want to fan out generously over the nail. Even edges are generally a matter of finessing brush flair as you draw it up from the cuticle. But this brush is not easily finessed, and either the outward side of the brush seems to run out of polish right about the time you get to where the free edge starts or it is overloaded with polish and pools along your edge.

For me, application of Fig was a tedious hit or miss deal nail by nail. And by miss, I mean pooling around the edges and swipage of skin around the free edge as well. My largest frustration was in creating a balanced even shape with the polish on the nail. I've always had trouble with this, but it seemed especially difficult with Fig. Fig is not the best self-leveler I've ever experienced either. I did a very thin (for me) first coat and got ok coverage with a few light streaks. The pigmentation in Fig is pretty good so everything evened out during the second, thicker coat and I left it at that. Fig dries naturally in good time (if the layer is thin) to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Fig over treatment and base coat with a topcoat of Seche Vite to accelerate the drying process, add gloss and boost the color.

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

This medium-dark purple really blossoms in the sun when the shimmer comes into force. In the shade and in diffuse light it has a glow and dimensionality that a creme might lack. As far as my application issues go, I'd certainly like Fig more if it were less troublesome to apply. But it is still a pretty color and is one of the only medium plum polishes in my collection, so it has a place with me for that fact alone. 

For the record, I redid this manicure using two thin coats to see if there was an acclimation curve and indeed there was, the second mani went a lot better than the first although there were still a few issues with the lack of self-leveling. I've had excellent experiences with Sinful Colors cremes, so maybe it's just the shimmer formula that disagrees with me.

love,
Aunt Liz

Addendum: Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream Nail Art

Amateur Nail Art Alert!

So while I had Mermaid's Dream on my nails it occurred to me that I should try some nail art, just to see how it would go. I knew I wanted to try a starfish design on top of Mermaid's Dream, inspired by some beautiful designs of this type I'd seen online. I've collected some photos on a Starfish Nail Art Pinterest board, you can see that here, but the manicure that planted this particular seed in my brain was by a nail art enthusiast and blogger named Debbie. Her blog is called The Crumpet and you can see her starfish design post here.

I created the starfish with Sinful Colors Island Coral and a dotting tool, then added dots to the starfish with Zoya Darcy. I also added a few random dots on each nail with Island Coral. It was slow and ssshaky going, let me tell you, and the nails I tried to do with my non-dominant left hand are a hot mess. The nails I did with my dominant right hand are better, the starfish are smaller and the dots a little more precise. Still, it's a very very messy nail art mani. At least I got some more dotting practice in. 

My pictures turned out ok considering the subject, but I must warn you about one nail in particular. It's the pinky nail on my right hand. Somehow, from somewhere, a random CHI HAIR snuck in and got trapped under the starfish with the ends of the hair sticking out from either side. ARGH! At first I thought it was a John Fortys hair (it would be just like him to shed a hair into my nail art) but closer inspection revealed the reddish brown coloring of a certain dog we both know. 

So anyway, it's grotesque and quite visible and I thought about omitting all the photos of my right hand because of it but then you'd never get the chance to laugh at how funky the starfish turned out on that hand, and far be it from me to deprive you of the considerable benefits of laughter. 

Photos show my starfish rendering, such as it is, over Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Oh man, I can't help but laugh. Why am I posting this? I don't know. Next time I'm going to try doing the star fish with a toothpick. And I'm going to try it on a day when my hands aren't so shaky. I'll say this about Mermaid's Dream, though -- it looks great with topcoat.

When your mom and I were little, our family used to go down to Tangerine FL for three weeks every summer, to Exeter Farms where Fuzzy's mother lived. We called her Mimi B. Mimi B had a beautiful little in ground pool and my cousin Shaunn, who's the same age as me, and I would play mermaids in that pool for hours and hours. Sometimes I got to go to Shaunn's house in Mt. Dora to sleep over and I had a little pink plastic suitcase that I would pack my clothes and stuff in to take with me. One time I was waiting to get picked up by Shaunn and her father, my Uncle Bob.  I was all dressed and ready to go and was walking around the edge of the pool with my little pink suitcase, daydreaming and looking into the water...  and the next thing I knew I was in the pool! I don't know how it happened but there I was in the water with the suitcase. Grownups came running from everywhere to hoist me out in my soaking wet clothes and shoes. I was so embarrassed I thought I would die. Everyone was asking me did I fall in and I guess they decided I did but to tell you the truth, I don't remember falling. I think I was imagining playing mermaids with Shaunn and just got so into it that I forgot I wasn't really a mermaid and jumped into the water.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

love, 
Aunt Liz