Making the Dream Come True

When I was little, I broke a mercury thermometer.  That little ball of liquid metal fascinated me.  I rolled it around in a bottle cap, then in the palm of my hand.  The weight of it, the shine, the....slipperiness.  Yes, I know, heavy metal poisoning, but I was young and had no idea.  Of course, it could explain a lot (tee hee).  Mom found me playing with it and freaked.  Denied access to the sleek weighted metal, my obsession with mercury began.

Flash forward to a creative writing class in junior high.  We did an exercise where we told the class what we would do if we had no restrictions and could do anything that we wanted.  Travel was the most chosen answer, Rome, France and even Australia.  When it was my turn, I asked if I could defy the physical laws of the universe with no consequences.  When the answer was yes, I stated that I would swim in a lake of mercury.....that or sleep under a blanket filled with mercury.  I got an A in that exercise.  

All this to say that it should come as no surprise that the only polish I purchased from the OPI and Gwen Stephani collection was Push and Shove, that it was featured in my New Years mani and that I am totally infatuated with it.  Let's take a look.

Now do you understand?  Maybe not, so I will show you this awe inspiring polish on it's own.

Arificial Light

With Flash

Yes, that is molten metal at my finger tips!  Push and Shove is a stunning silver chrome....as you can plainly see!

Push and Shove comes with a teeny, tiny bottle of base coat called Lay Down the Base.  I assumed that it was supposed to give a nice level surface for a polish that would most likely show every flaw in your nails.  I was right about it showing every flaw, but wrong about the base coat.  It didn't seem to do anything for application, so I figured I would try some of my other bases.  First I tried Orly's leveling base.  Nope, epic fail.  No matter how long I let the base dry, it dragged and made a goopy mess.  Next I tried the Nfu-Oh Aqua Base.  This is my go-to base when using holos as it creates a perfect surface for holo reflections.  Bingo!  I had to use a light hand and not overwork it, but it definitely made a difference!  I did have a bit of "gooping" of the base coat in the corner of my index as it is always more difficult to apply polish to my "wonky" fingernail.  In the pic above you can see my pinky (left) with Lay Down the Base and ring (right) with Nfu-Oh Aqua Base.  The only difference in application between these too are the base coats.  Both of these show two coats over the base.  Can you see the improvement?  I certainly could!

Now let's talk about wear time.  The blurb on the box states, "Like all limited engagements events, Push and Shove is intended for One Night Only wear."  Yes, they even capitalized One Night Only.  Do I pay any attention to this?  No!  I polished my nails on Sunday night and Monday morning I had the missing patch you can see on my pinkie above.  Yep, right there in the middle!  Bizarre!  I took this pic on Tuesday afternoon (with flash to clearly show the damage) after a day and a half of wear.  Other than the big sink hole on the pinky, there wasn't any additional chipping, but lots of tip wear.  Do you think I took it off and tried something else for NYE?

Nope!  I just threw on another coat!  One coat was enough to hide the flaws from all but the macro lens.  Although these pics show some brush strokes, they were barely noticeable IRL.  When you first apply the polish, the brush strokes abound, but as the polish dries, most of those disappear.  I found the less you mess with it, the better, especially if you are using a different base coat.  This was no problem as it lay down so well, staying right where I put it.  Couldn't stop looking at my nails, but I wanted to do more for the "special evening",even though all we did was stay home drinking champagne and have a Sons of Anarchy marathon.  The Hubby is fully obsessed with this "soap opera for men" and we have been catching up on earlier seasons through Netflix.

All this mercurial polish needed was a bit of black stamping.  

I wanted something other than the typical champagne, fireworks, date mani, so I searched through my ever growing stash of plates and chose the upper right image on Vivid Lacquer VL 019.

This is one of my first Vivid Lacquer plates, but it certainly will not be my last!  The images are well etched but easy to clean with no sharp edges to catch those stray cotton fibers. As you can see, they stamp wonderfully, even on the smooth slick surface of Push and Shove.

Without Top Coat

Light Layer of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

Even though the instructions state to not use top coat, I once again totally ignored instructions and added one thin coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.  I used a very light hand with only three strokes on each nail, center, side and side.  The pics above show the difference pre and post top coat.  It didn't mess up the finish, but I can't say this would be the case with any other top coat or application method.  It actually hid some of the brush strokes! 

This look totally bewitched me.  Liquid mercury stamped with swirly elegance.  Totally a Tina mani!  

Maybe you have noticed I have been a bit absent this past week.  Then again, maybe you haven't :)  I have been doing some detailed work on posts for January (Best of 2013) and preparing for another epic 3 month challenge that starts in February.  Whew, so much on my plate and I can't wait to share it all with you!  Thanks to all of you have been with me on this crazy blogging journey this past year, especially you regulars (you know who you are!)  Your views, comments and support makes all the work filling this blog with crazy nails very rewarding!  There is more (and hopefully better) to come in 2014!

Tina