china glaze - first mate + milani - gems

When I first got Milani's Gems, I remember looking at it on my nails thinking, "didn't someone say this wasn't as nice as Lippmann Happy Birthday because there was no pink glitter? But there is pink glitter!"
Today while blog surfing I learned that there are actually two versions of Gems!
One with pink, one without. I guess they heard that it was lacking pink, and decided to add it!
Anyway, I'm totally pleased that I happened to end up with the pink version.
And this bit of knowledge made me decide to show you my Gems swatch today!

But first I'll show you what I was wearing under Gems.
China Glaze - First Mate!

I'm sure you've all seen this a billion times by now, but I only got this shade recently! I had assured myself that out of the whole Anchors Away collection I only needed Below Deck. But then I realized I didn't own any navy cremes. So First Mate came home with me a few weeks ago.

The second picture is more color-accurate. The flash lights it up and makes it look lighter than it is.
2 easy coats! Really great formula.

Now for the bling!

I found out while photographing this  (and Party of Five Glitters a while ago) that managing to capture all the glitter is hard. Some pieces catch the flash funny and they get lost.

No flash, better glitter-visibility. Hah! Click the picture to enlarge it and see all the pink glitter!
This was just one coat!

This polish delights me.
The removal however, did not.
The base color actually came off before the glitter, and the color of the glitter dissolved, just leaving little colorless glitter pieces on my nails that I ended up picking off.
I know, I know, use the foil method. But I can't bring myself to do that to my cuticles!

Despite the horrific removal, I love this polish. A lot. And I might not even need Happy Birthday now.


Remember how only yesterday I mentioned wanting to buy less polishes than there are days in the month?
Heh...

They were 60% off! OPI on sale! A salon in the mall where I work had a little basket full. Originally I thought the ones I chose were 30%, so I had 2 picked out. Then when I was checking out they rang in at 60% off! So I picked up the third one. $13.49 for three OPI's!
Conquistadorable Color (not a big red fan, but I loved the name too much not to get it,) Yoga-Ta Get This Blue, No Spain No Gain.
It is now the 5th. I have 8 new polishes.
I need to slow down!