Happy St. Patrick's Day

This is Wet 'n Wild Garden Hose topped with Pure Ice Mint Dreams and Finger Paints Go Van Gogh for the shamrocks.  The garden hose link has a pic of Garden Hose alone at the bottom of the page.  The pic below shows Pure Ice Mint Dreams over Garden Hose.  Mint Dreams adds a green iridescent finish to any polish it is layered over.  This combo reminds me of glow in the dark stickers in daylight, but greener.  Sometimes I like it, sometimes I think it is a bit much. 
I used a dotting tool to make the shamrocks.  The large shamrock on my ring finger was a fail on both hands.  I won't do it next year.  If you want to try one, it is basically four heart shapes joined in the center.  I find the medium size dotting tool makes the best normal sized shamrocks. 

St. Patrick's Day Manicure/Wet n Wild Megalast Garden Hose

Happy St Patrick's Day (in a few days).  This is Wet n Wild Megalast Garden Hose with Emerald City clovers.  I used a tooth pic to paint the clovers.  I made the dots with a tooth pic.  Making dots can dull the end of the tooth pic.  Make sure to use a sharp end to paint on the stems.  Most of the clovers are three leaf clovers, but there are a few four leaf clovers in there.  Below is a picture of my right hand, painted by my non dominant hand.

Wet n Wild Megalast Garden Hose was limited edition from the 2010 spring collection.  Wet n Wild has changed the formula and bottles since then.  I've read the new formula is similar but better then the old formula.  I haven't tried the new formula, but I'm completely in love with the old formula.  It wears like iron for me.  My newspaper manicure where I used this polish lasted about 13 days with only minor chips.  I could have worn it even longer, but the bottom that was growing out from the cuticles was driving me nuts.  I normally get about 6-7 days wear with this polish.  Not only is the new formula reportedly better then the old formula, it is also in bigger bottles for the same price, 2$.  They also added a big brush, and I love big brushes.  The old formula is one of my top two favorite nail polish formulas, the other being Zoya.

Revlon Emerald City

Revlon Emerald City has a matte suede finish.  The finish is matte, but not as matte as you will get with a matte top coat. The first picture (big one) is without a top coat.  The second picture is with Essie Good to Go as a top coat, which gives this polish a shiny finish.  Without a top coat, this polish will begin to chip the first day for me.  If you wear a regular top coat, the finish of the polish will be shiny, like a regular nail polish.  Matte top coats do nothing to extend the wear of a manicure.  So what is the solution if you want the matte suede finish?  Lets say you are planning to use 3 coats of this polish (2 work fine, like in the first two pictures, but three wouldn't hurt).  Put on your base coat, two coats of Emerald City, one coat of top coat, and finish with one coat of Emerald City. This way you get the extended wear of a top coat and the matte suede look. 

In the third picture I did a funky french tip with Sinful Colors Green Ocean.  Pic four is Revlon Emerald City topped completely with Green Ocean in the shade, and pic five is in sunlight.  Green Ocean is a flakie polish.  The mica like glitter flakes in this sheer polish flash from blue to green to purple.  Green Ocean is part of Sinful Colors St. Patric's Day collection.  So if you want it for about 2$, you should pic it up soon.  I got mine at Walgreens.  This polish was also part of the 2011 St. Patric's Day Collection, so it may show up again next year.  The formula for Green Ocean is thick and gloppy.  Unlike Essie Shine of the Times, you need to add a top coat for a smooth finish.  Also, if you don't have a top coat, the flake glitter will pull away from the nail.  If the flakes pull away, they look like white bits of lint instead of cute color changing glitter.  This is my first time wearing Green Ocean, so I haven't fully formed an opinion yet.  You may want Green Ocean just to stare at the pretty bottle.  It glows in sunlight (see picture five). 

To do the funky french manicure I used a DIY nail art brush to paint a straight line.  Then, I used the brush that comes with the polish to fill in above the line.  If you have more skills, you could just use the polish brush to make a french tip.

The last step in this evolving manicure was to add a coat of Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love, a matte top coat (picture six).  The versions of this manicure I liked are the Green Ocean funky French and the matte suede finish.