first polish review

It's about time, right?

I saw Lindsay and Diane on Saturday, after a month of not at all. So...getting Japanese food, seeing these two, that's all I could ask for. But! It turns out they brought the one thing that could improve on that formula: BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!

One was a set of jellies and jams that I am very much looking forward to trying with croissants from Witherspoon Bread Co or the Little Pastry Chef, depending on whether I'm in the mood for flaky or hearty. I'll put a review of those soon, I'm sure.

For tonight, we have the second present: a bottle of FUNKY DUNKEY, from the OPI Shrek collection. Overall, I wasn't impressed with what I saw of the collection, but I thought this and one other were possibles! When I saw the bottle I gasped--I thought at first it was one of the bottles on my wish list. It looked just perfect. A color I didn't have AND wanted!

I got home and tried it out over CND ridge-filler and under Poshe's fast-drying topcoat. The topcoat, by the way, is fantastic. Super quick dry, cheap, readily available. It has the same issue that all fast-drying topcoats do, though: it starts drying out slightly every time it gets used, so when it's about half empty (or gets thick) I start adding maybe three drops of Seche restore about every other time I use it.

The ridge-filler base coat is awful. I'm really disappointed, since lately I've been picking at my nails and liked CND's stickey (regular base coat), so I wanted to like the ridge-filler. Nope. It feels tackier, doesn't hold as well--lots of chipping, and many polishes don't flow as well over it. Not a great choice for trying out a brand-new polish, but I want to use this damn thing up, and I figure since I'm doing a lot of drill-work, I'm going to redo my nails pretty soon anyway.

So: the polish itself! The application was streaky, and felt, paradoxically, watery on the first coat and very thick and tacky on the second. In general good 2-coat coverage, but because of the streakiness a third coat would not have gone astray. I'm inclined to give this the benefit of the doubt; my arms are slightly shaky from all the work they've been doing, the light wasn't great (though that's not really a factor), I was a bit impatient since it was late, and of course, I used the ridge-filler base. Next time I wear this I'll use stickey and see how it goes.

Because there WILL be a next time. The bottle color is a perfect purple that I didn't have. On the red-based side but slightly muted; mid-tone. It's not as dark (or red) as Pamplona Purple, and it's darker and less creamy than Uptown Girl. Yum, I couldn't wait to see it.

And boy was I surprised. I know polishes dry a bit darker than the bottle, but this is FAR darker. It's still very different from Pamplona Purple, and I'm actually still loving it just as much, even though it didn't turn out as expected. It's a great summer-fall color: intense and different enough for summer, but dark and smokey enough for fall. By the way, this is a picture from Wednesday morning, and I applied the polish Saturday night...and in between I've been doing a lot of handiwork. My right hand is more chipped, but this is still excellent wear, especially considering the inferior basecoat.

You can see the slight streakiness on my pointer that a third coat would have evened out.

This is a GREAT color, guys. Thank you so much: you made my day, and the polish was the least of it. And because I promised Diane: