NERD LOVES NAILS
...do you?

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Polish Find!

When it comes to nailpolish, the CVS that's closest to my college is a barren wasteland. Of course, there's Maybelline, Revlon, and some other polishes that are part of the standard cosmetic lines at CVS, but as for individual nail polish brands, there's really only Orly, Sally Hansen, and Borghese. I looked for the new Milani polishes...not there. I looked for the new Sally Hansen insta-Dri polishes...not there. Barren.

Last night I was visiting my aunt in Marietta, and after a delicious dinner of pasta, I needed to stop into CVS to grab some aspirin and other misc. items. As I always do, I stopped by the cosmetics section to check out the polish. I was GOBSMACKED. I found the new Sally Hansen insta-Dris. They had Barielle (!), and new collections by Orly, Milani, and many other brands.

As I was checking out, the girl at the counter saw that I obviously had a lot of polish. She informed me that she had the new Milani 3D holographic collection in the back, if I'd like to check it out. So she brought it out and let me have first pick!. So, I grabbed all of the colors except for silver and gold, two colors that I never wear.

So, I'll be swatching those in the very near future. If you live near Marietta, Georgia, go check out the CVS on the corner of Johnson Ferry Road and Roswell Road NE...I'm pretty sure it's NE...it's the CVS by the Trader Joe's and California Pizza Kitchen. Check it out!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Introduction + Sally Hansen

Hello! *waves* Welcome to the very first post of Nerd Loves Nails, a new blog where I can talk about something that I love...nail polish! My name is Valentine, and as of today, I am a 21 year old college student living in Atlanta, Georgia and part-time in Orlando, Florida. I'm 10 kinds of quirky, but it's a good kind of quirky. I don't bite. :D Besides being a nail fanatic, I'm also a creative writer of poetry and short fiction, a WoW addict, a Trekkie, and a fan of Asian pop music.

The idea for this blog first came about when I was thinking to myself, wow, Barielle's "Blackened Bleu" reminds me of the Death Knight class from World of Warcraft! It was a a perfect moment in time when two of my major interests were suddenly combined into the most amazing ball of nerdy awesomeness ever.

To say the least, I'm a total nerd. So, chances are that I'll be combining a lot of that nerdiness into this blog. So, if that sounds like your cup of tea, stick around!

So, the other day I was quite bored after class so I swung over to CVS to look for the new Milani holograms. I didn't have any luck (my local CVS is quite small and lacking in nail polish), but I did pick up two Sally Hansen polishes from the Insta-Dri line.


This is "Lively Lilac" (#26). Shown here with one coat plus a coat of Seche Vite on top. Depending on the lighting, this color can appear to be a bit pinker than my image shows. It has a slight pearl-finish to it, which adds a little bit of dimension to the finish. I'm such a sucker for lilac lately!

The consistency of this is...really thick, which wouldn't really be a problem, except for the fact that this polish dries incredibly fast. So, you really don't have time to fiddle with your preparation. It can 'gloop-up' quite easily during application, so you have to be steady handed and get things right the first time! Other than that, application was very simple. I normally *hate* polishes with giant brushes because my nails are so narrow, but this one was tapered and slightly rounded at the tip, so it didn't bother me that much.

It's also really pigmented, so I only needed one coat! Awesome!


I also picked up "Mint Sprint" (#28). This is two coats + Seche Vite. I just adore the name of this! It's not incredibly original, but it rhymes so it's cute :p Anyways, this polish is actually a bit less turquoise than it appears in my picture. I just couldn't really capture it accurately for some reason.

Anyways, this is a standard creme. It had pretty much the same consistency as "Lively Lilac." The only distinct difference that I noticed was that this one was a bit streaky and a tad less pigmented. It required two coats to be completely opaque rather than just one.

See you next time, Space Cadets :)