Yep, here I am.

Oh hi, I didn't see you there. I suppose I should feel bashful about this vowing to blog more often, posting once or twice, and then going MIA for the better part of a year thing I keep doing. I will blame it on the part of my personality that immediately turns a task into something insurmountably dread-worthy. So what I am going to do is to post 10 swatches every day (or nearly every day) until my back catalog is empty, and then give blogging the old college try.

Easter Manicure - Various polishes This was a favorite of mine. It was surprisingly not-that-difficult to do and my students went nutty for it. I saw a picture on Tumblr that inspired this, but it didn't link to a blog, so I have no idea who to credit.

Essie “Go Overboard” with Pure Ice "Heartbreaker" on top. "Heartbreaker" is a cult favorite topcoat and I bought mine over a year ago but never used it. It did a great job of sprucing up a basic dark teal polish. This looked especially pretty under water, but alas, it is impractical to live life with sinks running on your hands at all times.

Glitter Gal "Light as a Feather" Major, major, major disappointment but I can't really blame the outcome of this manicure entirely on the polish. I did this manicure the night before I left to chaperone my school's Washington, DC field trip. I painted my nails, but in the interest of time I used Seche Vite to top coat them. I have heard that quick dry top coats (or maybe top coats in general) dull the effect of holographic polishes, but I needed to do to bed and my nails needed to be dry for that to happen. The holo effect was average at best and the Seche Vite darkened the polish and made the tips look dingy. I was seriously tempted to stop at some DC drugstore for remover and cotton balls. Does this Seche Vite darkening/dingy thing happen to anyone else? It usually only happens with light colors and it is quite distressing.

Revlon "Calla Lily" A better in theory than in practice. This is a white jelly base with lots of gold shimmer. I always want this kind of polish to work for me, but it always winds up thick and/or streaky.

Cult Nails "Crusin Nude" It was hard to capture the pink sheen in photos. This is a great understated but not old lady color. I had forgotten how much I liked this color until this blog post, so huzzah blogging.

Zoya “Bevin” I am pretty sure I got this in a Birchbox. It is a nice, but standard teal/jade creme. Nothing to write home about.

Butter London “Disco Biscuit” I like this polish, but I wish it looked more like it did in the bottle. Which is more blue, less pink. It should probably be noted that this dried to a matte and somewhat blah finish. It top coat really makes this.

Cult Nails "Living Water" The base is a bit too dark and overpowers the shimmer. This looks fantastic in the sunlight though.

OPI "Just Spotted the Lizard" One of the many Chanel "Peridot" dupes that have come out over the last year. The formula on this was pretty good and definitely less streaky than I feared. This was also a big hit, which confused me until I remembered that I don't live in a world populated exclusively by nail bloggers and sometimes people are just impressed with an unusual color. A nice realization.

Rescue Beauty Lounge "Chinoise" Classic, true red. As is the case with every RBL polish I own, the application was flawless and was nearly a one-coater.