Wild and Crazy Beloved Child

More Wild and Crazy? You bet! I go through phases in which I obsess over a specific nail polish brand for no particular reason. I've gone through it with Revlon Street Wear, OPI, China Glaze, and now Wild and Crazy -- it's this insatiable desire to collect every single bottle in existence. I have at least 40 of them by now, and if they weren't so dang hard to find, I'd be hoarding many more. 

I'm also posting about this brand so much because documentation of it is quite sparse. There aren't many swatches out there, and I haven't seen a full color list. It was just another cheapy brand that fell to the wayside, and it's a bit of a shame. I'm an archivist and preservationist by nature -- I don't like things being lost to history. Even if it's just a crappy 99¢ bottle of nail polish, I want there to be documentation of it somewhere.

And so today I bring you Beloved Child. I'm the proud owner of 2 bottles of this polish - twice the purple frosty goodness! Here it is in 2 thin, easy coats.

(Yes, my nails are short and square now. Had a couple of small breakages and figured I'd quit while I was ahead. I actually kind of like them like this!)

The frostiest medium purple known to man. I can't believe I ever disliked these kinds of polishes! I think it was mostly because the majority of vintage polishes I inherited from my mother were some variety of frosty purple, and I resented her for not picking more interesting colors. But in reality, I love a good purple! I also love a good brushstroke-y icy polish. Put them together and you get something like this -- how perfect is this color for winter? I'm partial to dark shades during the colder months, but a good frost encapsulates the frigid, ice-covered landscape of winter so well. I think I'll have to induct this one into my regular rotation well into spring -- this color just brings a smile to my face.

Until next time... PEACE! xoxo

Wild and Crazy Crush On You

Well, I can officially scratch another polish off the lemming list.

If you read my last post, then you will know about the close-knit history of Sinful Colors & Wild and Crazy. Both lines were manufactured by the same company (Mirage Cosmetics), and the only differences were the names and the packaging -- the polish itself was EXACTLY the same. The Wild and Crazy line spanned the first 400 or so colors produced, so if they can be found, they're effectively cheaper versions of those older Sinful polishes. (The polishes in both lines share the same exact number, just with a different name.)
I'd been after Sinful Japanese Violet for a while, ever since I saw it on Pinterest. And what do you know, Crush On You is the Wild and Crazy counterpart to that polish. I've basically got this old, rare polish that I've been wanting for at least a year... for $2 from a nice lady in the Sinful Facebook group. I've been quite fortunate in regards to vintage polishes lately, and my stroke of luck has only continued! 

So... let's see it! Shown here in 3 coats. (You could TOTALLY get away with 2, I just wanted it to be perfect.)

Aaaah, I don't even know how to go about describing this color. It's a sort of medium dusty blue with a strong purple shimmer, but there's something else to it... it just glows in a way that can't be captured by camera. I think this photo is a pretty good representation of the color in person, but it isn't exact. This polish is magical, I swear. Slap some Fairy Dust on this sucker and I think I might actually die.

I had made a comparison between this and OPI Ponce de Lilac in my post about the latter, but in reality, they're nothing alike. PdL is a sheer gray with purple flash, while this is an opaque creamy blue with purple flash. Honestly, if I was forced to toss one, it would be Ponce de Lilac. This one has a much better formula, not to mention that I find it much prettier.

I absolutely can't wait to wear this all week! I just finished painting and I can't stop staring at my nails. These days I've been trying to keep my polish on for at least 5 days at a time -- I think constantly going at my nails with acetone is a spell for disaster. I've also been trying to keep up with hydration -- at least once a day I'll either apply my cuticle oil mix (jojoba & argan) or this cuticle cream I found at a discount store a while ago (the brand is "Honest to Goodness Natural Products"). Additionally, I've been taking biotin daily, and my nails seem to be doing... okay? I actually totally snapped the thumbnail on my right hand today while putting the milk back in the fridge... I always break my nails in the strangest ways! I'm hoping that's just a fluke, though... I want my nails to be long & strong!

Well, that'll be all for today, girlies. Have a wonderful day! Until next time... PEACE! xoxo

Update: There is one con to this polish: it erodes in a really strange way. I’ve only had it on for 3 days as of writing, and it’s not chipped so much as cracked. You know when you’ve been wearing a polish for way too long and it starts developing cracks in the surface? This is doing that... after only a few days. It can’t be my base/top coat because I use the same ones every time. I’ve never had this happen so soon after applying a polish... very weird.

The strangest polish name in my collection

I've been trying to write an introduction for the last 10 minutes and I am just coming up blank. There are no words to describe what you are about to witness. This polish name defies conventions. Logic. Sanity. It will make you scrunch up your face, cock your head to the side, and say "Whaaaaa...?" It will haunt your dreams! You won't be able to sleep for days! It will ruin your life!!!!!!!!!

...Okay, maybe I'm being a little bit dramatic. But seriously, this name is weird. I bought it sight unseen from a random beauty supply site. Partly because I was already ordering some other polishes and needed to reach a certain total for a discount, but mostly because I needed this oddity for my collection.

Before I unveil the name of this polish, let me first show you the color and give you a mini-history lesson.

Wild and Crazy was a cheapo polish brand owned by the same company as Sinful Colors. They’re basically one in the same — Wild and Crazy is the same polish as Sinful, just bottled and renamed for different retailers. (Fun fact: the Sinful version of this polish is called “Old Gold”. Shoutout to Sarah on Facebook for that tidbit!) I believe they used to be sold for $0.99 at drug & dollar stores until the early 2010s. I must say, I vastly prefer these stout little bottles over Sinful's signature bulbous design -- much, much cuter! There was also another variation on the bottle that came later, a sort of chunky conical design, which also looks pretty cool in my opinion.

Anyways! I actually really like this color. It's a bronze shimmer, as you can see, but it's actually pretty rich and deep. I wouldn't call it "lit from within", but it's certainly a nice shimmer for such a low price. Opacity was also shockingly good - only 2 coats here! (This is the exception to Wild and Crazy's formula -- most need 3 or more.) Overall, I'm quite pleased with this polish, especially for something I picked blindly.

So, are you ready for the star of the show?! The name of this polish is...

"Popped out belly". Popped. Out. Belly. WHAT? (I know it kind of looks like "bally" on the label, but it's meant to be an E.) I'm genuinely stunned. I've got no idea what that means. Popped out belly, as in... when you're bloated after eating a lot? Or pregnant? I'm not even going to try to understand.

Well, I think that's enough shenanigans for today. I thought it'd be funny to share such an oddball polish name! I make fun of it, but in the end, I actually find it kind of endearing - it stands out from the crowd. 

I've got some other Wild and Crazy polishes that I'll be showing off soon, since documentation of this brand is sparse at best. I'm all for preservation of history!

Make sure your belly's popped back in and have a wonderful day! Until next time... PEACE! xoxo

NOTD (OPI Save Me) + Blog Update

Well hello there! It's been a while, hasn't it? This blog just hasn't been a priority lately, due in large part to the fact that nobody reads it. Of course, I've also been busy with school and the betterment of my mental & physical health, but the fact that I've got no readers allows me a lot of leeway in my posting schedule. I've got no obligation to post, so I just... don't.

I want to change that, though. You may notice that I've changed the name of this blog, as well as the look. A catchier name and more pleasant site appearance are only a small piece of attracting readers. The elephant in the room was the lack of photos. How am I meant to have a nail blog without any photos? I'd upload them, and they'd just... disappear. I finally figured out the problem, though, so look forward to posts that actually have pictures in them! (I won't bother with replacing the images on my previous posts, though... that would be a project and a half.)

Anyways! Enough rambling, more nails. My manicure today is mildly exciting. This polish isn't particularly old or rare, but it is super sparkly! This is OPI Save Me from the 2012 Nicki Minaj collection. I think it was meant to be a topper, but I decided to use it on its own. Shown in 4 coats. 

I really really really really really really like the way this polish looks. Small silver glitter with a mixture of blue & holo bar/string glitter is definitely a winning combination. That bar glitter is also the PERFECT size - not too big or chunky (like Street Wear Hologram), which is what usually gets on my nerves with these bar glitters. Not to say that this polish isn't afflicted with the usual chunky texture that plagues glitters - it totally is. It's just a lot more manageable than most other bar glitter. How many times can I say "bar glitter" in one paragraph? Bar glitter bar glitter bar glitter bar glitter bar glitter.

As stated earlier, I believe this was meant to be a topper, but if there's one thing I never do when it comes to nails, it's using glitter as a topper. I'm all or nothing, baby! I end up buying lots of glitters that are obviously too sheer to use on their own and never using them because I'm stupid, but hey. What's a collection if you don't have a few polishes that you scorn for being too sheer and banish to the back corners of your Helmer drawers? Thankfully, Save Me is spared from such a fate - she's buildable enough that 4 coats got me to full opacity. 3 coats would also be perfectly acceptable, but I had a couple of bald spots that needed just a little more sparkle. No sparkle deficiency on these nails, no sir!

Here's a nice close-up of all the beautiful shiny goodness. LOOK AT ALL THE GLITTERS... someone better get me a napkin 'cause I'm drooling! Seriously though, this is definitely being introduced into the regular rotation. I love a good silver nail, and this one certainly goes above and beyond the call of duty! I'm sure I'll have a ball trying to remove this... foil method, don't fail me now!

Well, it looks like my job here is done. I've got some hungry kitties to feed, a boyfriend to call, and a nap to be had... how very pressing! I suppose I should be on my way. Hope the rest of your day is positively sparkly, and until next time... PEACE! xoxo