I'm Swatchin' You - OPI Banana Bandanna

Sadly, today's color is a disappointment.  This is OPI's Banana Bandanna, a sheer pale yellow.

I absolutely hated the formula on this one.  Each coat is very streaky, and this was just very difficult to work with.  You need to be sure to allow each coat to dry thoroughly.  You are looking at four coats here, and it is STILL streaky.  I'm not sure this one will be remaining in my stash.  If you are looking for a pale yellow, I would suggest SC Unicorn, which I reviewed here.  Oh, and of course, as I was taking pictures, I dented the polish with my camera.  Awesome.  But I was so frustrated with the formula, I decided against trying to fix it.  Oh, well.

SH Double Duty and SV as base and top.

I'm Swatchin' You - Orly Glitz

Here comes some Orly bling!  This is Glitz, a gold shimmer.

Glitz is a true gold with strong shimmer.  This was good to go in only one coat, which is what you are looking at.  The formula was great, but this dries a little dull.  So you really do need to add a TC, which really adds depth and brings out the beauty of this color.

SH Double Duty and SV as base and top.

I'm Swatchin' You - Sinful Colors Unicorn

Do you know that shade of yellow that was popular in the 50s?  It's a light, buttery yellow, and I love it!  Today's polish is very close to that yellow.  It's a yellow creme called Unicorn from Sinful Colors.

This is one of the few yellows I would wear alone.  The first coat is streaky, which gets a little better with a second coat.  Therefore, you really need three coats with this one.  I have found that the formula on SC polishes can be hit or miss.  The formula was decent, and it self-levels nicely.  However, I did have an issue with the drying time, even with a fast dry TC.

A word on my ravaged cuticles.  I have been doing some minor renovations in my mother's house.  Despite constant moisturizing, the cold winter weather and manual labor are taking their toll.  Please don't look too closely!  Hopefully, they start looking better soon.

SH Double Duty and SV as base and top.

I'm Swatchin' You - China Glaze Lighthouse

Apparently, I love this color so much, I bought it twice.  Well, kind of.  This is China Glaze's Lighthouse, a yellow glass fleck from the 2011 Anchors Away collection.  And it is basically a dupe of CC's Daisy Does It, but ChG's Lighthouse is sheer.

You are looking at two coats.  The formula on this was decent, but I have to say I liked CC's formula better.  It was almost opaque in two coats, and just looks better IMO.  Of course, Lighthouse is a sheer, and I do prefer more solid coverage, so there may be some bias there.  For reference, here is the link to my review on CC's Daisy Does It.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the two, with ChG Lighthouse on the left and CC Daisy Does It on the right.  For the ChG swatch, I used SH Double Duty and SV for base and top.

I'm Swatchin' You - China Glaze Trendsetter

Alright, folks.  Brace yourself for what lies ahead.  Today's color is from China Glaze's Metro 2011 collection.  It's called Trendsetter, and it's anything but!  LOL  It's a green-yellow with a subtle gold shimmer.

The nitty-gritty:  2 coats, applied very nicely, great formula.  And I did my best to capture the gold shimmer for you.  Now, let's be honest.  This looks like baby poo.  Anyone who has ever changed a diaper knows what I'm talking about.  BUT, this is so ugly, I love it!  It totally reminds me of the zombie apocalypse.  LOL

SH Double Duty and Insta-Dri as base and top.

I'm Swatchin' You - Sinful Colors All About You

Today's color comes to you from Sinful Colors.  This is called All About You.  It's yellow and copper glitter in a clear jelly base.

For a micro glitter, it applies very nicely.  The formula was great, and you get a nice, fairly even application with it.  You are looking at two coats here.  But I have to be honest, I'm not in love with this one.  It's very nice, and may serve its purpose when layered over something else.  It's just not something to get very excited about.  I think it would be a great polish if the base had been tinged with some color, too.  What do you think?

SH Double Duty and Insta-Dri as base and top.

I'm Swatchin' You - Orly Glowstick

Yowza!  Watch your eyes...crazy yellow ahead!  This is Orly's Glowstick, a neon yellow.  It is quite literally highlighter yellow.  Now, I love me some Orly, but I was pretty disappointed with the formula on this one.  Details to follow.  First, the specs.

Due to this being a neon, it dries lightning fast.  Therefore, I experienced a lot of balding.  I typically try to keep my swatches to two coats, unless it really looks horrible and I have to do more to get a decent swatch for you.  You are looking at FOUR coats, people persons, and it still doesn't look as good as I would like.  I highly recommend using this neon over white.  Some neons you can get away with wearing them au naturale, but Glowstick is not one of them.  And as you can see, I dinged my ring finger.  Poo.  So, while I love the color, the formula is a pain to work with.  Sorry, Orly.

SH Double Duty and Insta-Dri for base and top.

I'm Swatchin' You - Sally Hansen Lightening

Hello, everyone!!!
I know, I know...I'm so sorry for my unexpectedly long absence.  I have been (and still am) out of town dealing with some important family matters.  But, I have been slowly trying to get back to swatching my little heart out, and have finally gotten around to getting the swatches I have managed into posts for you guys!  Please excuse the pitiful state of my nails and cuticles.  They have been quite neglected for the past couple of months.  Actually, this may prove to be a fun little adventure.  We can see just how long it takes to get pitiful looking cuticles back into some form of decent shape.

I also need to throw out a little disclaimer on my photos.  As you can see, I do not have my light box with me or my little swatch background rolls.  So please excuse the craptastic photos that will follow.  Just bear with me as I play around with the options I have on hand until I find something that I like that works well for me.

Today, I've got Sally Hansen's Lightening, from the Insta-Dri line.  It's a rich yellow creme.  If you remember, I can't stand the paddle brush on the ID line.  That still holds true.  And the formula on this one wasn't that great.  I got some balding on the first coat, which got better with the second coat.  Usually, the ID polishes are one-coaters, but not this one.  It takes 3 coats for solid coverage, but I stopped at 2 for the swatch.

SH Double Duty and Insta-Dri for base and top.

I also want you all to know that I greatly appreciate you sticking around!  It's so great to be back and hope to be able to bring you lots of great colors, and maybe some fun, too!

I'm Back! And I'm Swatchin' You - Color Club Daisy Does It

Hello everyone!!!  My blog is finally off auto-pilot and I'm glad to be back!  Thanks for sticking around.  So, for the month of June, I had the incredible opportunity to go on a study abroad trip to finish off my M.Ed.  I was in Fiji for one week and New Zealand for two.  I'll try to do up a post to show you some of my favorites pics from the trip and give you some details.  But for now, I'll just say I loved the trip and had a wonderful time!  However, three weeks of constantly dragging bags, packing, unpacking, packing again, and going from a dry summer, to wet tropical weather, to a cold winter, and back to dry summer has most definitely taken its toll on my nails and cuticles.  They are quite ragged.  I'm hoping to be able to get back to swatching soon.  Until then, I'll be digging into a few more archived colors.  Well, let's get on to today's color.  I know, I know, it's Tuesday.  My brain isn't quite working well enough to come up with a good tip, trick, or tutorial.  In fact, I most likely will be trying to come up with a different weekly series.  Until then, bring on the swatches! 

After an epic water marble failure, I rocked this color for my graduation!  This is Color Club's Daisy Does It, from their Take Wing collection.  It's a beautiful yellow glass fleck that looks stunning IRL.  Both the formula and brush were great.  This was just about opaque in two coats, which you are looking at below.  A third coat would have really been solid, but I left it at two.

Sunlight

SH Double Duty and SV as base and top.

I'm Swatchin' You - Nail-Venturous Floam

Hi all!  Here is the polish featured on Friday, Floam, an indie polish made by Nail-Venturous.  This is only the second indie polish I liked enough to buy.  Floam is neon blue and neon yellow matte glitter in a clear base.

As I've said before, I'm not usually a big fan of most of the indie polishes out there.  But this one was too unique to pass up.  Plus, I have all of the earrings I wore back in the 80s, and this polish totally reminded me of one of my favorite pairs!

On to the deets on Floam!
The formula was a little thick and finicky.  I had a hard time controlling it, so I wasn't able to get a clean cuticle edge.  The glitter also seemed to be very attracted to my cuticles!  I found that the first stroke did not have much glitter, but the following strokes covered well.  After a little trial and error, I found that it is best to do a light first coat and thicker second coat.  This can be layered, but I decided to wear it on its own.  You are looking at pre-cleanup, and cleanup was no fun!  Floam dries matte, and it is a bit of a top coat muncher.  I topped with two coats of SV and it still was not very smooth.  All in all, a very cool polish that is definitely unique!  You can purchase this through Ninja Polish or the Nail-Venturous etsy shop.  However, the owner, Amy, is currently taking a break.

SH Double Duty and SV as base and top.

Feature Friday - Floamy Stripes

Make sure you get entered into my Facebook giveaway for Layla Flash Black...ends Sunday!  I'll be showing you a swatch of this polish next week, so I'll skip those details.  I'm not really crazy with how this turned out.  I started with my SH Double Duty as a base, and added two coats of Floam by Nail-Venturous.  Since Floam is a top coat eater, I did two coats of SV.  Then, I taped off some stripes and painted on one coat of SC's Black on Black.  Unfortunately, since the Floam base was still a little rugged despite two thick coats of SV, the stripes look a little wonky.  Oh, well.  Lesson learned.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Feature Friday: National Day of Silence

Happy Friday!  So, Heidi over at DIY Polish and More came up with the idea of doing manis today in support of the National Day of Silence, and I jumped on board.  For those of you who do not know, the National Day of Silence is a day when students take a vow of silence to raise awareness of the silencing effect of bullying and harassment of the LGBT community.  You can learn more about it here. 

Here is the mani I came up with in support of the National Day of Silence.  I used the polishes shown below, which are (from left to right):  ChG Liquid Leather, SH Silver Sweep, WnW 414, OPI A Roll in the Hague, SH Lightening, Essie Pretty Edgy, and ChG Electric Beat.

I painted two coats of Liquid Leather on all of my nails, except for the accent.  I stamped the lips image from BM 02 (shown below) using Silver Sweep.  Then I used tape to create the line with 414.

My accent nail was done with the remaining colors using tape.  Thanks for looking, and I hope you will join in and take a vow of silence.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Update:  Click here to see Heidi's mani!