Mint Apple

Hello!

For all of you who are college students like me, I hope that this time of year is treating you well! It's crunch time at my school, and everyone is scrambling to work on final projects, put together creative writing portfolios, and catch up on any makeup work that needs to be done. So, while I might not be painting my nails as much as usual, I did have time for this baby:




This is SinfulColor's Mint Apple (#957). It's name is an obvious take off of Essie's Candy Apple polish, which is also mint colored. However, the two polishes are definitely different. I have Candy Apple at home in Florida, and from what I remember, it's lighter than Mint Apple and also a creme, not a shimmer.

Mint Apple is an awesome color. I have similar shades in my collection, but none quite like this one, although I'm sure similar polishes do exist. It's a little on the thick side, but not difficult to work with.

If you love this kind of color, at about $1.99, you really can't beat Mint Apple!

Hello again! The other day I picked up four of the new Milani "3D Holographic" polishes. I got Cyberspace (blue), Hi-Tech (green), Digital (pink), and Hi-Res (purple). The names aren't exactly original for holographic polishes, however, I think that their finish makes them unique. The holographic glitter in these is VERY fine and very bright. It almost makes the polish look 'coarse' in the bottle, but on the nails, these are perfection!

The formula was thin but manageable, which is pretty much the norm for Milani polishes. All of the pictures below show two coats and no top coat. To bring out the brilliance of these holos, I would recommend pairing them with a super shiny top-coat!


"Cyberspace"

"Digital"

"High-Res"

"High-Tech"

For you ladies who love drug-store polish (I do!) you should be sure to pick these up! I found mine at CVS, but not every CVS has them...I know because the one by my college does not!

Also, two random bonus polishes, both by Sally Hansen, and both purple!

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails X-treme Wear "Virtual Violet." This polish is hard to describe. It's not really a pearl, and it's not a duochrome...it has an opalescent finish, it that makes sense. It's quite sheer, and required three coats for me.

"Grape Going!" DRUGSTORE DUOCHROME GOODNESS! This is a purple with subtle flashes of blue when it hits the sunlight. Shown here is two coats, but I think that at three you'd really see the depth and shine of this polish better.

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 :)