Naked As a Jaybird

There are some bloggers that never seem to have a bad nail day. No lopsided file jobs. No raggedy cuticles. Not a mention of a broken nail for months at a time.

I am so not one of those bloggers.

Not too bad. The ridges on my ring nail are much more apparent than my other nails. This nail is also thinner than the rest of the nails on this hand. I don’t know why my free edges aren’t white all the way across but at least what is there is white.

This is my problem child. My ring nail as still growing out of a bad run in with a buffer. My index nail is recovering after yet another break. I swear it breaks just to mock me. See that raunchy cuticle? It farts in my general direction.  The ring, middle and index nails are all thin and bendy. 

 

A close up of the cuticle. It’s the debil.

“WTH is she posting these naked nails for?” you ask.

I don’t know why…  I just thought it was important to show you my nekkid tips. I know that I find myself wondering what lies beneath the surface of peoples’ polish. Wondering if their nails are as perfect as the mani implies or are they just faking the funk…

Shucks… It can be down right discouraging seeing perfect mani after perfect mani. You begin thinking “I will never get there.” Well… you may not.  But you can have healthy nails that make faking the funk a little bit easier. LOL!

(Not so much :-)) Lacquered Love,

Betty

 

Where It All Started

Last night I was organizing my polishes and came across this wonderful oldie but goodie.

Finger Paints Brilliant Brushstroke was the one that started it all. It was the polish that I used for my first mani after being a life long nail biter. I was sooo proud that I finally had nails worthy of polishing. I wanted a color that was eye catching and blingy. Something that said “What!?!?! Look who’s got nails now hussy!” Yeah… It was that big of a deal for me.

Oooh… Sparkly goodness!

My only issue with B.B. is that it is on the sheer side. This is 3 coats (I catch an attitude after the 2nd coat. lol) and the VNL is still visible under direct light. An opaque base coat (Nail Tek Foundation) would take care of that though.

Brilliant Brushstroke was also the first Finger Paints polish that I ever owned. It got the ball rolling for my love of Finger Paints. The formula is great. It applies easily and smoothly. The brushes are very nice. If I could change anything it would be a larger core line. The core line isn’t nearly as big as that as OPI or China Glaze but it has some fabulous colors none the less. Some new colors were just added to the core line. A very nice blue, a wonderful lavender cream, and a crazy blingy red-magenta are among the new shades. I should be making a trip to Sally’s soon. I’ll let you know what I grab.

Lacquered Love,

Betty

Dirty and Sexy Indeed!

Misa has quickly become one of my favorite brands. The formula is great. The brush is decent. I love the bottle design. And at $3 a pop, I can do my part stimulating the economy without breaking the bank!

I was very pleased with Misa’s spring collection, Living On the Fast Lane. All are bright, eye catching cremes but the standout by far is Dirty Sexy Money.

Behold the beauty that is Dirty Sexy Money.

Gah! I friggin love this color! Isn’t it ridic?!?!?

I know that this isn’t the greatest angle for a mani shot but this is the one that came the closest to the actual color. And it’s still a bit more green in real life.

DSM is a dirty greeny-turquoise. Color describing skills… I haz em’! It’s kind of dusky. It’s so hard to describe because I have never seen anything like it!  I don’t have anything close to this in my stash. While it is eye catching it still manages to be understated and chic. I usually feel the need to bling out my cremes with a glitter topcoat but DSM holds it’s own.

Cremes  can be rather unforgiving because the tend to show off nail flaws and application mistakes more then busier polishes. But DSM went on smooth and evenly. It settled into a smooth, high shine finish. This is 2 coats topped with Poshe.

I could see this being a great date-night color. A good conversation piece. What? I am the only one that wants to talk polish on a date? Oh… Well that answers a few past dating questions. LOL!

Lacquered Love,

Betty

Quirius Black Coal

Quri-who you say? That's exactly what I said when I first heard of this brand. I had to have it. The swatched that I came across were fantabulous. Then, I found out that it didn't have very wide distribution. I put my lust for Quirius on a back burner because I had no hope of ever seeing them in real life. Imagine my excitement when I came across a Quirius display on a recent trip to the Motherland A.K.A Philly! I am not sure it was a full display because there seem to be more shades on the QRS Beauty website than the display would hold.

Black Coal is a dark grey base that is LOADED with silver shimmer. The dark grey shows through just enough to give the polish some nice depth. The formula is decent. Not bad but not necessarily something to cartwheel over. It's opaque enough that it can be a 1 coater... It would be a kinda thick coat though but 1 coat all the same. This is just two thin coats on my nails. The brush is on the thin side but it is still very user friendly.

This is such a unique color. Or at least it’s unique to me. I haven’t come across any thing like it. The dark grey base makes it more wearer-friendly than your typical silver polish (which by the way I happen to LOVE!) I could see someone wearing this in a less conservative office. But I wear Sponge Bob scrubs and purple rubber clogs to work so I may not be the best judge of office appropriate attire.

I am still searching for a place to buy Quirius online. As soon as I find one I will post a link. Until then…

Lacquered love,

Betty

The Newest Hangout on the Web

Hey there and welcome! My love of nail polish seemed to outgrow my makeup blog so I figured it was time to give it it's own home.

Welcome to Scratching The Surface.

As far as I can tell, it's the first nail blog by a WoC. Woot woot! Look at me being all ground breaking and what not!

What? Too excited? You're probably right.

I am here to answer the burning questions: "Can I rock [insert name of latest most desired nail polish here] too?" and "This color is supposed to compliment darker skin.... Does it really?"

So add StS to your reader and let the good times roll!

Lacquered love,

Betty