Teal Appeal - The "Real" Teal

Ok so I have come to accept that my definition of teal might be more of a green blue than teal as I can't really find any "teals" that match my sweater.  Maybe my sweater is more peacock blue....whatever I wanted a nail polish that matched so I decided to mix my own. RBL Teal was pretty close to perfect, I just wanted a little more green and a tad lighter so I set out to make a "near dupe."


Materials:

• Sinful Colors See You Soon
• Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl
• New York Summer Amaranth
• Nars Thunderball eyeshadow (mine had sadly broke months ago so I figured I'd make use of the bits)
• Sally Hansen clear base (I don't remember which one I used)
• Ballz

1. Mix 1/3 of a bottle of See You Soon and 1/2 a bottle of Amaranth.
2. Add 30 drops of Tokyo Pearl
3. I then added 1/4 of the powder from my Thunderball eyeshadow to make the polish more pigmented and make the base more blue (See You Soon is blue glitter in a black base). 
4. I split this mix between 0.5 oz bottles and topped them both off with clear (one bottle was a gift).

The "Real" Teal

The color of the resulting polish was really close to the RBL Teal but, though lighter and greener.  It is also a shimmer.  Halfway through I realized I really wanted a creme but it was too late.  In retrospect I am glad it is a shimmer as it is pretty close to RBL Teal.  The shimmer gives it a different look and makes it more of its own color.

 

The "Real" Teal with flash (left) and in sunlight (right)...well cloud light, I hate winter.

A close to perfect match!  I could have added a touch more blue but I wanted to stop here.

Always remember that nail polishes don't always play well with each other.  If you are going to play mad scientist proceed at your own risk and use proper safety procedures....yes I am a science teacher.  I am not suggesting that frankening is risk free and my franken recipes are just me recounting how I mixed up my latest potion. I take no responsibility for your mad scientist experiments.

Teal Appeal - Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away

Number two on my list of polishes on my search for the perfect teal was Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away.  Well it was the second one I decided to test, between finding it and it arriving at my doorstep I stumbled on a few others, more on them later.  Don't Teal My Heart Away is significantly lighter and greener than RBL Teal so I was hoping it would be the shade I was looking for.  I hadn't tried Diamond polishes before this one so I wasn't really sure what to expect, their web site swatches frankly suck. Luckily there are MANY other nail polish crazed bloggers out there and I was able to find several good swatches.  

When the polish finally arrived (it took almost 2 weeks, though they shipped it the day after ordering) I was thrilled.  The color was a lot lighter than I was expecting in the bottle but as soon as I got it on my nails I was struck by how amazing it looked and how well it applied.  Seriously, I could have done just one coat and been thrilled with the color, the polish just flowed off the brush.  A word of warning, I like thicker polishes so this might seem thick to some people initially.    

 

Don't Teal My Hear Away (2 coats) and topcoat

So there I was with probably the most amazing color I have ever worn on my hands, admiring them, showing them repeatedly to my husband (even he agreed it was glorious) and then I realized that as perfect as Don't Teal My Heart Away is, its still not the color I was looking for.  Still not the elusive cowl neck sweater teal, so I have to keep looking.  I am ordering 3 bottles of this stuff.  This is officially my new favorite polish. 

After two days I chipped the polish but I wasn't ready to take it off yet (unheard of) so I painted over the chip with a fresh coat and then topped all of my nails with Sinful Colors Nail Junkie.  I have a love hate relationship with Nail Junkie, up until this point I love it in the bottle too much to franken with but I hate it on. I think this is the perfect solution.  It was raining so I had to photograph inside and you can't see how amazing this reflects the light. 

  

Don't Teal My Heart Away (2 coats), 1 coat Nail Junkie and topcoat

Close up of Nail Junkie over Don't Teal My Heart Away - I am not sure whose blog I saw the circular close ups on but its brilliant and I am adopting it so you guys don't have to look at my gross cuticles.

If you aren't familiar with  Don’t Teal My Heart Away or the Teal for Toes Ovarian Cancer awareness movement you should check out their site here.   Diamond Cosmetics donates $.25 from each sale of “Don’t Teal My Heart Away” to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition.

Teal Appeal - RBL Teal

I searched high and low on the internet for teal cremes and I found only two that seemed teal not turquoise to my eyes.  The first of these was RBL Teal (well duh, google teal and what do you think you get).  Happily they ran a 50% off polish internet sale and my polish buddy was placing an order so she included a bottle of Teal for me as a Christmas gift.  An awesome gift!

RBL Teal one coat, 2 coats Seche Quick Dry

If you haven't tried RBL polishes you really can't understand the fact that they are worth every cent of the $18 price tag.  I was highly doubtful of the promise of bottle color in one coat but its true.  If you are careful in application full coverage of bottle color is possible in one coat.  The swatch above is one fairly thick coat with two coats of Seche as I wanted my nails to be really smooth and glass like.  The first coat wasn't quite smooth enough so I slapped on a second coat before bed.

I adore this nail polish, I treasure the bottle, I seriously take better care of it than I do my normal polish.  The color is deep, highly pigmented and gorgeous.  It looks fabulous with my teal sweater.  That being said it isn't really the same color as the photo on the RBL site.  It is darker and more blue, there is less green.  There is a green tint to it but there is also a heavy dose of ink blue there with a slightly dusty quality.  While is is one of my favorite polishes and I am wearing it for the third time in a month, as Obi Wan Kenobi would say "This is not the the teal you are looking for."  The search continued....

On a side note...

You might be able to tell from the swatch that I have what appears to be tip wear on all of my nails.  I put this mani on late last night, watched some Top Gear on TV and waited for it to dry then tucked myself in for the night.  When I went to sleep my nails were perfect, when I woke up there was a very slight white rim on all my nails.....shrinkage!  ACK, shrinkage on a RBL mani!  What a waste of a perfectly beautiful polish.  I am pretty sure the culprit is the two coats of Seche as used it last week on a glitter and had a similar result (though much more extreme).  Has anyone else had issues with shrinkage using Seche or combinations of certain topcoats and RBL polishes?  I would really like to leave this polish on for several days but the appearance of tip wear is going to result in me taking it off fairly soon.

Teal Appeal

When I was 21 a family friend asked my sister and I to be bridesmaids in her wedding.  We were of course honored and excited as this would be the first wedding we were part of the bridal party.  Months past and several fittings later we were both the owners of teal bridesmaids dresses.  It was a shinny taffeta fabric, off the shoulder, fitted to the waist with a VERY full tea length gathered...skirt with a bow.  A typical bridesmaid's dress for the mid nineties.  Unfortunately the style was the worst possible style for me, I was too busty, the skirt made my butt look much larger than reality and the skirt hit the widest part of my calf.  Since then I have always associated teal with that dress and avoided it, that is until last fall.  In October I found a beautiful peacock teal cowl neck sweater that looks fabulous on me.  I am in love with this sweater, as a result I am now totally infatuated with the color teal.

In the hopes of finding the perfect polish to match my sweater, or at least convey the happy feeling I have when I don the sweater, I began a search for the "perfect teal" creme.  I wanted a creme originally because I was also obsessed with cremes at the moment due to an encounter with CG China Rouge, but that is a different post.

Sinful Colors Fall '09 Haul - Part 1

So my very first nail polish haul was 10 bottles of Sinful Colors from Walgreens.  I immediately used one to Franken.  I really don't like how these apply so I have been avoiding swatching them but am making a concerted effort to use everything I own at least once before buying more.

See You Soon is a black base with a teal microglitter.  In the bottle it looks almost like a dark teal shimmer but once you start painting you see the black polish and the shimmery glitter.   It applies fairly unevenly unless you use A LOT of polish on the brush.  I had bald spots and clear brush strokes after one coat.  A second coat and a layer of top coat takes care of these problems though.  In side it looks darker and more shimmery but in direct sunlight the glitter is really pretty.  I have worn this polish more than once despite the fact that it is a bit of a pain to apply and the fact that I have several polishes in the same color family.  I'm a Cowboys fan and while the color isn't quite right this has become my stand by for game day, though I admit that I typically Konad over it.

Sinful Colors See You Soon - 2 Coats and topcoat

I'm not really sure how to describe Mercury Rising.  Is it burgundy? Is it brown?  Is it bronze?  The answer is really yes to all of them.  There is definitely burgundy and dark red microglitter/shimmer in the base polish but that base is a bronze brown color.  It is beautiful when on though .  In doors it looks almost conservative but there is something that just keeps you looking at it.  When it catches the light though it just glows!  I keep looking at my nails and thinking how pretty it is.  I really want to put gold glitter on it or Konad an antique gold over it but I am refraining until I have had it on at least a day.  The Mercury Rising seemed to apply more opaque than a typical Sinful Color polish but once I was outside I notice VNL with only 2 coats so next time I wear this I will have to do three coats.

This shows two coats of Mercury Rising and a topcoat in sunlight. 
I didn't notice the VNL indoors but its pretty obvious here.

I am not in love with I Love You.  I don't know if it is even worthy of the "lets just be friends" status.  The first time I applied this polish I had such high hopes only to be utterly disappointed by the formula.  The polish itself is a purple jelly with purple glitter.  In the bottle it is a truly majestic purple, bright and glittery and holds a ton of promise.  Once you start painting though the problem becomes evident quickly...it is SOOOO thin.  The first time I tried this color I got 4 coats on and waited an hour, it never seemed to harden so I took it off.  I figured I had a bad combination of base/polish/top so I put it in a drawer to try later.

My second attempt It took me 4 coats to achieve bottle color and prevent VNL and by then it was really thick.  Combining that with the requisite Seche topcoat (I can't stand the bumpy texture of glitters) I looked like I had armored nails.  Ordinarily the thickness of a glitter polish doesn't bother me too much but there were other issues with I Love You.  Namely the color.  It was just too....bright?  It was almost garish.  I asked my nail polish buddy what she thought and her response described it perfectly.  It looked cheap...I mean it WAS cheap but I didn't want it to look cheap. On a positive side, it was possibly the shiniest glitter I have ever used and since it was 4 coats all the glitter blended together in the sun to look like a purple chrome. From arms length it looked like a purple chrome minx.  After swatching this I had to do something to tone the polish down a bit so I grabbed my WnW Black Creme and Konad plate M65 and subdued the violet glare a bit.

Sinful Colors I Love You 4 coats and top coat.  It is FAR brighter in person

Sinful Colors I Love You; WnW Black Creme M65

On a side note I had a disturbing amount of shrinkage after finishing this manicure.  Within three hours of this photo the tips of ALL ten nails had pulled back and exposed about 0.5mm of nail tips.  I am not sure if this was because I used Seche or the polish formula or just the thickness of the polish (6 coats total with base and topcoat). 

Fire Red is a typical red shimmer and was surprisingly easy to apply.  I have actually worn this polish a few times now and it goes on easy and wears about the same as a typical CG creme polish.  It is not fire red though, its a dark red, not vampy or anything just not true red and it has no orange undertones that I can see.  I really like to Konad black fishnet over this one.  Actually I did that immediately after taking this photo but then I forgot to take a picture of the final product.

Fire Red 3 coats and top coat