Take a Break with VV – Session 2
Alllllllllrighty then! (said in the voice of Ace Ventura)
It’s time for another edition of VV Coffee Break! Are you totally psyched or what? 
In case you don’t know what the hell these are, you can check out my first one here.
I am still noticing a large influx of new readers, so welcome to you all and thanks for reading! I am always trying to bring you the latest and greatest in nail polish collections and review them to the best of my ability. I always give honest reviews that are not influenced by any company or PR firm, no matter if they are given as samples or if I buy them myself. Just wanted to re-iterate that in case anyone wondered!
I also want to mention that I try and post every weekday (and most Saturdays), but sometimes I can’t simply because of time constraints. I do work a full time job, this is purely a hobby for me and I spend nearly all my extra time on weekends supporting this blog! But I find it fun so it’s not like I’m trapped in The Tower of London with someone threatening to draw and quarter me if I don’t do it.
Version 2.0 of Vampy Varnish was released last September, but there are already 7 million things I want to change. It’s the Gemini in me, I am NEVER satisfied! I really do love this site SO much better than the stock blog format I had before. I am really picky when it comes to esthetically pleasing websites, and like to have my own design. I will be asking for your input on what you would like to see or not see at some point in the next couple months. I hope to have Version 3.0 out sometime this summer/fall, but we’ll see!
Random question: How many nail blogs do you currently read and do you feel they are redundant in what they review?
Here is the part where I open up the floor to you! Please ask me anything you want nail related or otherwise. I love interacting with my readers and would love the questions, so have at it!
Oh and don’t forget to enter to win a set of SpaRitual’s Believe collection! Details here.
-VV
Welcome! My name is Kelly and Vampy Varnish is a animal friendly beauty blog.
i read about 10-12 nail blogs in total (but there are a core few that i read obsessively: you/scrangie/ALU [you guys are all the same calibre to me!]). i don’t really see much redundancy across the blogs i read (which is V pleasing), most blogs cover different brands or colours. or when the content is the same (like reviewing collections) i LIKE to see the same collection reviewed by 3-4 different bloggers, not only do the different pictures give me a really accurate concept of what the polish will look like on my nails but i enjoy reading everyone’s differing (or not) opinions. i am a knowledge fiend though, i can’t help it. i never trust things from one source alone, i need to read about it from at least 2 different sources to make any decision! maybe that’s the Virgo in me? needing to be assuaged before i make any decisions!
.-= sara´s last blog ..day two hundred and seven, obsessive compulsive cosmetics blackboard =-.
Hi sara,
Thanks so much for the compliment.
I am very glad you don’t find them redundant!
It’s nice to know that such a ”big” blogger like you does it because of pleasure. Nobody likes a sell-outs, right? =)
I think I’m following 230+ blogs. I like some posts and don’t like the others. There’s no such thing as pleasing all people and I think every review is good for someone. I can’t say they’re redundant.
.-= nihrida´s last blog ..…Another Thing… =-.
Hi Kelly,
I’m with Sara on the Holy Trinity of you , ALU and Scrangie (yours was the first nail blog I ever read, before VV I didn’t even know such things existed; so of course I hold you entirely responsible for my new obssession). I check in on other nail blogs sometimes but many of them just aren’t as satisfying, they don’t have that inclusive, friends-together tone. Some are just badly painted nails, a picture and a ‘This is a dark blue creme, it’s really nice.’ Booorrriing.
Oh, and any with really long fingernails give me the wiggins.
Hello Kelly,
I read 3 nail blogs. Yours, Scrangie’s and All Laquered Up. Yours was the 1st I ever read and I told my husband it was all your fault that I am a polish junkie!! (sorry <3 had to blame someone lol! ) I enjoy the differences each of you bring. I feel like you are very "connected" to your followers as people. You are the only one who ever replied to a comment I made and that made me feel "real" …. is that stupid?? Anyway, I love your blog and do not find it redundant. Keep up the fabulous work!! <3
Hi Lauren,
Thanks and NO that isn’t stupid at all! My fav blogs are ones that are connected to the writer also.
i read you and all lacquered up
i don’t find them redundant – you guys rarely write about the same things at the same time anyway 
here’s a question – did you watch alice in wonderland? do you know what shade anne hathaway wore in the movie? i loved the white queen’s nail polish!
.-= pam´s last blog ..POLICE FILES: Nail polish talk with Lenka =-.
Hi Pam,
I did watch Alice In Wonderland. I’m not sure what shade it was sorry! Just tried to Google it but didn’t find anything.
in accordance with the above comments, i check your blog, alu, and scrangie on a daily basis. none are redundant as each blogger’s pictures are different (lighting, angle, etc) although i know everyone tries to post their most accurate picture. what makes me check yours daily, aside from the good pics, is that you update frequently. i know you work full time so its much appreciated. the same with the other blogs. i also want to add that im really glad you actually respond to comments; youre the only one that has responded to me. I also check the hungry asian and polish mayhem, but they don’t update as frequently so sometimes if forget to check..whoops..
Hello,
Yours is the only nail polish blog I read. I had read a tweet from Alison Sweeney where someone asked her what nail polish she was wearing on an episode of the Biggest Loser. So, I had to google the color name and I found your blog and it did get me interested in polish and beauty goods like I’ve never really been interested before. Weird because now I feel like I kind of know you. Today I was listening to Breathe Me and I was telling my husband about your dog (and that you have 3 cats) and about your video tribute.
I have a question about using eyeliner on your waterlines. Is this something you always do or just sometimes? I used to do that a looooong time ago when I first started wearing make-up. I just thought that was how you wore eyeliner, then I realized that most people didn’t wear it that way. On a daily basis at work or on the weekend during the day….how do you wear your eyeliner?
Love your blog!!
Hi Leslie,
I actually usually do wear liner on my waterline. I like the way it looks, it makes more of an impact I think. I also don’t like that little flesh colored area to be peeking out when the rest is all colorful. But some liners just won’t stay on. MAC Blacktrack is the best!
I have a polish related question for you:
What is the best base coat polish you have found for making glitter adhere better to the nail? My glitter polish always peels off. Very annoying.
Hi Jenessa,
Hmm in my experience glitter stays on pretty good with anything I have used. My favorite base coat is Nubar’s Foundation. It has a “sticky”-sh texture so polish adheres pretty good.
i follow abut 25 blogs i really like yours,scrangie,nihrida THE most and its not repetitive cause there are various lenghts, lighting and i really need to see the polish more than one way in order to let the dough go! so i truly need to follow my main 3 or 4 or 5
ha-ha
I read a lot of nail polish blogs, simply because I love to see the pictures. But the three I check out every day is VV, Scrangie and ALU. I always trust your reviews. I really appreciate that you post so frequently. Have a nice saturday night!
.-= Tintomara´s last blog ..Illamasqua Elope =-.
Hi Tintomara,
Thanks you have a great night also!
I RSS feed about 22 nail polish blogs. I do love redundancy, because when I’m deciding to buy a new polish, especially more expensive ones, I want to see as many diffferent pictures in as many different lights as possible. I know how different the same polish can look in different lights (and a huge shout out and hug to those who include pictures taken in indoor light!).
I also like to read more than one person’s opinion. This is all the engineer in me, which says “more data = better”.
Q: How many nail blogs do you currently read and do you feel they are redundant in what they review?
A: I read about ten on a daily basis. They are redundant, yes, but I actually like that because I can get several different people’s opinions (and photos of the polishes on different hands/in different lighting) on the new collections coming out, which helps me narrow down my lemming list to the ones that I will actually buy.
I read about 80 nail blogs from all around the world (some of Google’s translations leave something to be desired). The ones from the US tend to be more repetitive in terms of the products, but like all the nail blogs, the opinions tend to vary. Some bloggers suggest buffing before putting on polish, others say to limit buffing to once a week. I’d think if you buff right before you polish that you’d be eliminating the “tooth” of the nail and thereby reducing the polish’s ability to stick. It appears that acetone is key to removing glittery polishes and easy cleanup of nail polish on cuticles, but if it eats through plastic, how do people who use it several times a day (to shoot swatches) keep their cuticles so healthy? Do they use it to remove regular polish? Cuticle maintenance seems almost as complicated as Konading. How does one time moisturizing nail and cuticle, filing the nail (with a glass/crystal file, apparently), removing any oil so the base coat will stick, letting everything dry between coats, putting on a topcoat, and cleaning up the cuticles? That’s a real newbie question, I know. Thick coats or thin? How does cuticle remover work? (I’ve read that trimming cuticles is a bad idea.) What’s a healthy nail like–doesn’t flake or peel and isn’t so hard it snaps, either? And is there a reliable way to thicken a nail polish for Konading?
I admire anyone who has the discipline to blog regularly and especially those with the patience to learn to put together their own page. How do you think it would look if you put the swatches on top in chromatic order? With Google ads and such, I don’t know where to rest my eyes. I like the font for the blog name, but I think the double border adds to my distraction. (I confess I know a little more about design than I do about nail care, obviously.) I’d rather see it larger and without the border. But that’s just my opinion–it’s easy to criticize when you’ve never tried it yourself. When it comes to art, I think the artist’s primary responsibility is to please herself.
Thanks for providing a place to ask all my questions.
Hi cc,
I only buff about once a week, and that seems to work fine for me. I haven’t heard that acetone eats through plastic, but I don’t think most nail bloggers use 100% acetone anyway. Normally a more mild acetone formula is found in removers (like OPI Expert Touch and Zoya Remove). Pure acetone is really harsh on cuticles and leaves them dry and white (ashy) looking.
I clip my nails about once a week and then file them (with a glass file). I use hand lotion a million times a day, but cuticle oil only once a day at night before bed. When doing a manicure I take the following steps: use a little polish remover on the nails to remove excess oils. Use base coat and wait 2 minutes. Polish nails using 2-3 thin coats of color, waiting a few minutes in-between each coat. Then I use a quick dry glossy top coat. After about 5-10 minutes, I then go back over my nails with a small brush dipped in remover and clean up the cuticle area making it look crisp. Then I apply hand lotion and cuticle oil before bed (I normally polish my nails in the evening time).
I read VV & ALU on a regular basis. I come and go with Scrangie. I enjoy your blog the most b/c you insert tidbits of your life and that makes it more interesting. I do like to read the other blogs & see their photos b/c the lighting can be different & the swatches show up differently. I appreciate the time it takes for you to do all the swatching! Also, you’ve introduced me to some brands (BB Couture, for example) that I’ve never heard of, and these new polishes rock!
Well you are the very first blogger that I followed, then ALU, Laquerized and Beautopia!
I read three blogs. There is vv, alu, and once in a big while scrangie. But yours is the best! I know this is too much to ask of someone you has a life other than nail polish blogging, but I noticed other blogs don’t post everyday but you do and I like that about your blog. So thank you. Also I trust your opinion cause so far you have been right. One question I do have to ask is when using you paintbrush to clean up. What exactly is your tecnique? Your nail look so perfect. And in your opinion what is the shelf life of nail polish?
I start with yours.
Then I log on to deeznailz because her blogroll (as many people have started doing) has thumbnails of a lot of the pages so I can decide more easily what I’m going to select or omit. I read many. All the ones mentioned above plus plenty more.
I like to find British ones as well as the many US blogs because it can be frustrating always to see things you can’t get – Lippmann, yes you! OPI is so expensive here!
I don’t like very long nails so avoid some of those.
I don’t do Konads so don’t bother much with the nail-art blogs.
Repetition is good because I want to see polishes in different lighting conditions and on different skintones.
Your design is your design so I’m with cc on that. You do what you do and that’s you.
I love your pix and the fact that you post each day. If bloggers don’t post daily they risk being overlooked. We need routine and regularity.
You provide plenty of information and I feel that you’d answer a query if I had one. You’re a guru and it’s also nice to know about you more holistically. I feel you do tick all the boxes!
Hi Kelly,
I read a lot of beauty blogs like ALU, Scrangie, Emerald Sparkle…etc but VV is the only one that i follow religiously! haaa. The reason being that i felt theres something personal here. The way you tried your best to reply to everyone’s comments, and I know that u try to read every single comments. And also the thing that touches my heart is when you wrote about Chase (sorry to bring that up) but I have a older dog myself, I felt a certain connection with u when Chase went to doggy heaven.
The only change i would like to see is the layout of VV. Maybe its my IE but the posts always seems to be at lower part the page.
Lastly…thanks for doing this blog.
Hi Jeraldine,
Thanks!
Can you tell me what version of IE you use? I discovered it looks weird in IE 8, but normal on everything else…
Hi.
Here’s how I came to read your blog (and ALU – now and then – and thenailphile – sometimes).
It’s a weird story and it involves the abominable ebay.
I was searching for a china bowl on ebay and one of the searches offered to me in the drop down menue was “china glaze”. Well, since I wanted glaze on my bowl, I chose that – and was confronted with nail polish – and in intriguing colors, too! I clicked on one article – and they were using your swatches (no idea if authorised or not) and there was a link to your page. I clicked – and got hooked. Now your blog is something like a morning newspaper – a small, but pleasant part of my day.
Needless to say, my repetoire of nail polish colors has increased dramatically ever since.
I don’t think that redundancy is much of a problem, since what I am looking for in polish blogs is information about colors – and they show differently in different lightings and on different skin types. If I am serious about purchasing a polish, I want to see as many swatches as I can find.
So, next time somebody steals your pictures – take comfort in the thought that they might unwittingly lead new readers towards you.
Best. Enjoy your blog!
Besides your blog — which I check every single day! — I read Scrangie, ALU, Getcha Nails Did, Polish Pixie, the Nailphile, and the Swatchoholic. But I can honestly say your blog is my very favorite because it feels so personal and has so many wonderful swatches. I’ve been cutting back on my polish purchases, so I really appreciate the help in making my polish expenditures really good. (If you get one bad apple out of a dozen bottles, that’s not so bad. But if you cut it down to 6, it’s a real bummer to not love one of them.)
I do have a question — I’ve noticed that when I wear a holo polish the topcoat seems to diminish the holographic goodness. Is there a topcoat that you especially recommend for holographic (and maybe glitter) polishes to really show off the shine?
Hi Jamie,
What top coat are you wearing that is doing that? I have never had that experience with Nubar Diamont, or any of the Essie top coats, which are the ones I use the most.
I looove your blog; I’ve been reading it since its inception, and it was the very first polish blog I came across. VV inspired me to start my own polish blog.
Currently I read about 20 nail blogs regularly, and a great many more irregularly. When I want to see what a particular polish looks like, I first check to see if you’ve swatched and reviewed it on VV, since the layout makes it easy to find a particular swatch.
I do like seeing swatches of the same polish on several blogs, though – it helps me see if the quality and color are consistent. So it’s not redundant at all.
Hi Kelly,
Your blog is my favorite nail polish blog ,I read it every day to see what is new. I read ALU and Scrangie too, I don’t find any of your sites or reviews redundant. You each always have a unique point of view about the polishes and collections and I enjoy your different writing styles. I also used to read thepolishaddict.com too, but I don’t know what has happened to her.
I can’t wait for Vampy Varnish 3.0, although I feel like you change up your header enough to keep it interesting.
Sonya
Hi, I’ve been reading your blog for a few months now. I love how you keep us informed on BB Couture’s new collections, they are quickly becoming my favorite brand!
I follow about 10 blogs , including yours. I read Scangie, ALU, Nihidra, Polish or Perish, Getcha Nails Did, Body and Soul and the Nailphile religiously. I’m always on the lookout for more but those mentioned above are the ones I follow all the time. I don’t find them redundant because I like to see as many different pics. and reviews of polishes before I buy. Thanks for all the hard work you do, and I’m glad you think of this as a hobby not a chore!
Thanks for replying to my question about topcoats with holographic polishes. I remember when I stopped lurking and commented for the first time on your blog, and I was so thrilled to get an answer — and I still feel excited about it! I’ve been using Seche Vite, and maybe my idea that the polish was a little less sharply holographic is my imagination . . . but I think I’ll take a page out of your book and try Nubar Diamont, since I’m planning on placing an order with them fairly soon. (I gotta get some of those Fortress grays.)
Thanks again, and thanks for all the time and effort you spend on your wonderful blog!
Hi Jamie,
Nubar Diamont is my all-time favorite top coat. It’s super quick dry, very shiny and you don’t get tip shrinkage like you can with Seche or Poshe.
Hi VV! I love your blog!
A friend of mine was wearing Dior le vernis in #681 reflets de litchi, lychee reflects. It was basically the most gorgeous nail polish I’d ever seen.
I went around to Macy’s, Sephora, Saks, everywhere. And they told me what I clearly did not know, that all Dior nail polishes are limited edition, and this was from last year. Ugh, I was totally crushed.
So my question to you, oh all-knowing and ever-wise legendary queen of lacquers, could you kindly suggest some substitutes for me? I would be forever in your debt.
Thank you so much!!
Hi Ridz,
Thank you! To be honest I haven’t seen this color, so I don’t think I would be of much help with this. You could email me a picture of what it looks like though and I’ll do my best to help!
Yours is the only nail polish blog I read religiously! I do have a question for you. You see, I paint my nails a couple times a week and almost constantly have polish on them. They, of course, have become yellow from the constant wear. I was wondering if you knew of any good tips for whitening fingernails. I’d like to wear them natural sometime but it’s embarassing when they’re yellow! Thanks!
Hi Kristina,
I pretty much always have my nails painted also, but luckily I don’t have yellow nails. But I do have ridges and splits so they definitely aren’t perfect! One thing is to always make sure you wear a base coat, especially with dark colors as they tend to stain nails pretty quickly. But I have always heard that soaking your nails in water with lemon slices in it helps to whiten them.
Your blog is my favorite NP blog. I read maybe 4 other ones frequently. What I love is that you added the swatch gallery at the end of your posts. Hope you keep the gallery when you release 3.0!
xoxoxo
Hi Sky,
Oh yes I plan on keeping that I love it.
Hey Kristina,
Sometimes I give my nails a break from polish to keep them from yellowing. I keep my nails active length (about VV’s length). It might be harder to go without polish if you have longer nails. It’s important to get oxygen to the nail surface.
Every now and then, I mix toothpaste (the regular white paste style) with hydrogen peroxide to form a paste. I put this paste on my nails for about 5-8 minutes. I’ve heard that using denture tablets in water may also help (but I haven’t used this method). I would try lemon juice too as Kelly suggested.
I want to say thank you for providing us with this awesome blog! You’re definitely one of my favorites and have been since you had your really old design. I also appreciate that you answer people’s comments, because as you know and what some people need to learn is that your fans are what make you what you are. I also love this layout of your blog! It’s very pleasing to my eyes. I’ll cut it off here so I don’t make this too long, but to answer your question, yes sometimes I find some blogs to be redundant. Okay, done!
.-= Arrianne´s last blog ..China Glaze Cowgirl Up =-.