Temporary Hiatus

Hello, hypothetical readers. I'm an American, and two days ago, something extremely terrible happened in my country. The white supremacy, misogyny, selfishness, admiration of aggression, and arrogance that have been traits of United States citizens for as long as this nation has existed have resulted in the election of Donald Trump as our next president. This has left me sick at heart to a measure I could not have fathomed. I am extremely privileged to live in Portland, Oregon, a bastion of liberalism, and therefore I feel obligated to spend my spare time taking political action in any way that I can. This means that I have neither the time, nor the will, to blog about nail polish right now. This is a temporary hiatus; I will make time to continue blogging, and I will achieve the balance in my life necessary to incorporate self-care, including painting my nails. I am currently in a state of shock and horror, and I don't know when that's going to wear off; I am struggling to find ways to cope, but I am compelled to look outward and do anything I can to serve in this time of fear. I don't know what's going to happen, but I know we let this happen and I know I cannot accept it.
Thank you for reading Unsweetened Nails. See you again.

Zoya Blaze

Today's polish is perfectly wonderful, in my opinion. It's sparkly holiday sensation Zoya Blaze!

 Zoya has a whole lovely line of scattered holos that everyone adores. Blaze is definitely the black sheep of the bunch, because it's the least holographic. The base is a bright cherry red (sorry it's so many different shades in these pics, the indoor lights make it appear darker than it is), and the saturated jelly base tints the holo flakes so that they mostly appear as pink, purple, and gold sparkles. Personally, I love the way this polish looks! It's definitely not as spectacular as Dream or Aurora, but it is very pretty in its own way.

I feel like I just gave myself holiday whiplash, going from so much Halloween directly to Christmas. Is this a blog, or Macy's? Haha! Yeah, that was totally lame, but Friday's polish is another fall-appropriate vampy sensation. Stop by to check it out!

ILNP Black Orchid

Today's polish is a classic from one of my favorite brands, ILNP. Black Orchid is a stunning vampy holo that apparently looks quite different in various lighting. 

 In real life, it's a rich deep burgundy with a metallic, linear holo finish and a bright magenta sheen. The indoor lighting brought out this sheen so intensely, the whole polish looks magenta in this photo.

 In the muted autumn sunlight, Black Orchid is the color of blood. This isn't one of ILNP's Ultra Holos, but it's still full of gorgeous prismatic sparkle. In a couple of these pics, you can see there's a little patchiness close to my cuticles; the formula on this one is a touch finicky, and like most ILNPs, it's at its best at three coats. The patchiness isn't visible in person, just in photographs, but I still recommend letting it dry thoroughly between coats.

This is such a classic color and a must-have ILNP. I've got another excellent burgundy holo that'll make an appearance on Friday; join me tomorrow for a less well-loved, but still quite lovely, holiday red holo!

Halloweek Spooktacular - The Final Chapter

I'm not going to lie, I really overextended myself this week. I decided to do this Spooktacular, came down with a terrible cold, and just wanted to spend my weekend loafing around in bed...although I also had to catch up on the housework I'd been neglecting. So yes, this post is a day late, and I'm going to avoid trying to post every day from now on because this is crazy. Today's post is just a bunch of Halloween nail art.

Here's China Glaze Getting to Gnaw you, mattified and stamped with Powder Perfect Orange Stamping polish and an image from their Halloween plate.

A collage of various spider-themed manis I did, all of which I posted on Facebook. Upper left and lower right are Pahlish Rum Runner Hibiscus, stamped with Powder Perfect White Stamping polish and the Halloween plate; lower left is ILNP BFF's, stamped with Konad White and Hehe 046 plate; upper right is Fantasy Makers Whiteout, the webs were hand-painted with Fantasy Makers Black as Knight, and the spider was built out of Butter London Gobsmacked with little red eyes made from Fantasy Makers Bloody Marie. As an aside, I tried to tag all the polishes I used in this post but I ran out of characters.

 Here's a franken I made out of Sally Hansen Pumpkin spice and orange holo craft glitter from JoAnn's Fabric. The craft glitter bled and colored the base this nice umber color, and the formula remained surprisingly workable; I think it's actually better than it was when I picked it up at the Dollar Tree. I hated the streaky jelly base and sparse glitter.

 Here's the franken stamped with Powder Perfect Golden Stamping Polish and the Halloween plate. Can you tell I really love these? I've been calling this "the franken" because when I initially made it, I thought it would be funny to call it "Pimpin' Spice." Because I pimped this polish out, get it? I have since come to realize that that is gross and I'm embarrassed to have called it that. Pimps are terrible and it's not cool to glorify them.

 Lastly, here's a polish I did for a contest in the Hella Holo Customs Facebook group, using all HHC polishes. The black is Crows Toes Sleep With One Eye Open; from left to right, the other polishes are Dreamland Lacquer Makai, Crows Toes Beyond Your Fears, Girly Bits Terra with red eyes of Powder Perfect Bruised Rose, and Dreamland Mauka.
So concludes Halloweek! Tomorrow we're back to regularly scheduled swatching of three lovely red and burgundy holos! See you later!

Halloweek Spooktacular Day Five - Sinful Colors Nice Guise

Tonight's post is a comparison. When I was picking out colors from the Guys and Ghouls collection, I hemmed and hawed over this one, Nice Guise. I thought, "Doesn't this look kind of a lot like Zoya Remy? No wait, isn't Remy greener? I've never even worn Remy so maybe I should skip this one."

 In the bottle, it does look a lot like Remy. The base color is a really similar deep blue, and it has a similar golden shimmer. Despite the claims of its sticker, Nice Guise doesn't really have any magical color-shifting chameleon properties. Still, I decided it would be worth it to buy it and compare the two. As it turns out, they're the same color but far from dupes.

In these pictures, I'm wearing Nice Guise on my index and ring fingers and Remy on my middle and pinky. Here they are at one coat; you can see the shimmer in Nice Guise is sparser, and while the base is pretty equally pigmented on both, Nice Guise applies a bit patchy.

 At two coats, Remy's shimmer is so built up that it looks like a completely different polish. It's very much a shimmering glass fleck, while Nice Guise is more of a sparkly jelly. Being so packed with shimmer definitely makes Remy look greener, too.

Here they are in their final form: under a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy. Remy gets a glowy, mermaidy quality. Nice Guise, lo and behold, actually does do a little gold-to-green color shifting! Is it worth it to buy both of them? I mean, Nice Guise is only $2, so...sure?
For nail art Saturday, I've got a whole bunch of random nail art, a franken, and one last Halloween Sinful Colors. Come by tomorrow for the last day of the Spooktacular!

Halloweek Spooktacular Day Four - Sinful Colors Cloak and Swagger

Here's probably my favorite of Sinful's Halloween offerings, Cloak and Swagger. Haha! I love the name! And I love the polish, which is a gorgeous, vampy, plummy burgundy with the same fine grained texture and silvery sparkle as a Zoya Pixie Dust. I mean seriously...

 I adore Pixie Dusts, but I don't have one this color. Rather than using cute imagery involving sparkly fairies, Cloak and Swagger boasts a "tombstone matte" finish, which is just so spooky. It's so great!

 And it's maybe even greater with top coat. One coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top eventually got sucked up by the texture, so that the finish was glossy but pebbly. Wet, like a tongue. Two coats makes it perfectly smooth; the silver glitter spangles the dried-blood base, and the result is a polish that is good all year round. Play Dead impressed me with its formula, but it was obviously a novelty polish.

Tomorrow I'll show another Sinful from this collection that also reminds me of Zoya, although it'll actually be another first for the blog: a comparison post! Come back tomorrow night to check it out!

Halloweek Spooktacular Day Three - Sinful Colors Play Dead

What's this? What's this? A new polish on my blog! I had been reading about Sinful Colors' Halloween collection, and I just had to go check it out. I neither work nor live near a Walgreen's, but I made a special trip to the closest one and picked out a few new Sinfuls. Today, we're looking at Play Dead, a truly special polish.

Here it is at one coat (all other pics are two). The base is a pretty foily silver that's somewhat sheer, but gives great coverage. I mean, look at that! There's barely even any VNL!

 At two coats, it's a silver metallic with a somewhat lumpy look and orange hex glitters peeking through the base. It's got a warty look that makes me wish someone would use this finish with a green palette. Maybe Sinful Colors will bring this finish back next year. I know of another company who made quite a few polishes like this, collection after collection...except in a Halloween collection, where this weird finish is actually appropriate and fun.

 Top coat brings out the sparkle of the foil, but also emphasizes the lumpy bumpiness. If I was going to wear Play Dead out and about, I'd either skip the tc completely or do this:

With a matte top coat over the quick dry, Play Dead becomes its best self, in my opinion. It has a surface-of-the-moon quality, but the orange glitter makes it uncanny and strange. I'm kind of blown away that Sinful Colors took this horrible finish, adopted it, and found a way to make it effective and interesting. The formula on this one is also surprisingly excellent. In a time when mainstream brands have been basically ignoring Halloween - and even Christmas, this year - Sinful really stepped in and took control. Come back tomorrow to see what other outstanding offerings this collection contains!

Halloween Spooktacular Day Two - China Glaze Howl You Doin?

Today's polish is a real beauty. It's a rich, red-toned violet jelly filled with little purple glitters and orange flakies. It's so rad!

 Apologies for the sticky stuff on the front of the bottle, pretty sure that's reside from the price tag. This polish is super neat, although I did get a little dragging. I wanted to stamp over this mani, but I wore peel-off base coat under this polish and it wrinkled and slid around my nails when I pressed down with the stamper. Maybe next year!

It looks amazing matte, too. It's so tragic that China Glaze decided to just re-release cremes this year for Halloween instead of making some more great flakie-packed jellies. We've got indies to fill the Halloween void, I suppose, and there's a drug store brand that really knocked it out of the park this year. Join me tomorrow for my first swatches of an excellent spooky collection!