So many colors...

Barielle has been offering free shipping this week (it ends tonight, so order now!) so I took advantage of it. This was not a hard sell since their polishes are buy one 50% off to begin with; the free shipping was just icing on the proverbial cake. I ordered Hidden Hideaway (an exotic metallic purple), Berry Blue (creamy navy blue), Decadence (turquoise metallic), and Falling Star (marine blue with gold glitter). Within minutes someone from the company e-mailed me to say they were out of Falling Star and asked if I would like to hold my order until it was available in early August. I responded and asked if I could get Blackened Bleu (black with sapphire sparkle) instead, and they replied very quickly and said they would change my order and ship it that day. How's that for customer service?

Unfortunately I don't think the color swatches on their website are very accurate so I am relying on swatches from All Lacquered Up to reinforce my color choices. As far as I can tell from her swatches I am going to really like all these colors. The only problem is going to be deciding which one to try first. This is a recurring problem with me. Nearly every time I go to paint my nails, I can't decide which polish to use. It's the nail polish version of "I have 500 channels but there is nothing to watch on TV." Apparently the solution to this problem is to just buy more nail polish. I will keep doing that.

China Glaze Tree Hugger

So I'm pretty much in love with this color. I don't have a lot of greens and this one caught my eye when I was browsing at Sally's yesterday. It's a great green apple color with a slight shimmer. Of course the picture doesn't do it justice, but if you like green I highly suggest picking this one up. I achieved nearly perfect coverage with two coats and have a couple small bald patches, but that is probably due more to user application error than the formula itself.

Side note: I usually use Orly Sec 'n' Dry top coat and it seems to me that when I do, it kind of diminishes the shimmer. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just my imagination?

Anyway, here's Tree Hugger in all its glory.

I also bought a bottle of Palladio Fuse base coat that I'm trying out. Even though I have nail polish ADD I'm going to try to ride this manicure out until it wears out.

SUMMARY: I'm loving on this color, and it applied like a dream with the exception of a couple tiny bald patches.
GRADE: A-

Le sigh

Yesterday I did one of those boneheaded things that I knew was not going to end well while I was doing it, but did it anyway. Long story short, when I was retrieving one of my nail polish totes from the closet, the lid came off and it tumbled to the ground. No polishes were harmed...except Teenage Dream, which must have hit the track for the closet just right as the bottle shattered and beautiful pink sparkles were spilled everywhere. I was able to get most of it out of the carpet (and am thankful that it was a light color with a thin formula that shattered and not, say, a black creme) although there are a few remaining sparkles. Decoration!

I am super bummed to lose Teenage Dream, though, a polish that I looked for everywhere, ordered for a jacked up price on the internet, and then waited an extra several days for after it went on back order. But it could have been much worse, so I'll cut my losses and move on. American Apparel Neon Red is helping me do just that today!