I just recently placed my first order with Polish Me Silly, an indie polish seller on Etsy.  I oped to order from Polish Me Silly because they offer a generous mini size polish of 9 ml in every color of their polish for $650-$7.50.  That’s one ml more than a full sized Julep polish, and let’s be honest:  it’s a rarity to use a a 15 ml bottle of polish.

Alas, half of the order is for my sister for Christmas, so I can’t really swatch those polishes for you, and the other half of the order is for me for Christmas, and the hubby shammed me into putting them away until Christmas.  I did convince him that I should be able to keep out one polish to use before Christmas since it’s so blatantly Christmas-y looking that I wouldn’t want to use it after Christmas.  And this is it:

  It’s called Are U Elfin Kiddin Me?  I’m not a swearer really, but the name cracks me up a little.  The reason I really felt I needed this polish is because it’s a thermal polish.  My hands were ice cold when I did my nails, so this pretty dusty bluish-green is the “cold” color.  Now, from looking at other reviewers pictures, I know this polish is supposed to change to white when it’s warm, and since the part of the nail that extends beyond the nail bed usually is usually the “cold” color even when your hands are warm, I was anticipating having white nails with green tips a lot of the time.

Oddly though, even when I would stick my hands in REALLY hot water, I couldn’t get the polish to change really white.  Here’s  a picture right after I got out of a hot shower:

They are obviously a lighter green, but they are not white.  The only thing I could figures is that somehow either my base or top coat made a difference.  The base coat I used was Orly – Bonder and the top coat was INM – Out the Door.

To make a long-ish story a little shorter, I eventually painted a stripe of the polish on some aluminum foil.  On top of the polish, I painted a little stripe of INM – Out the Door and NYC – Clear, the only two topcoats I had on hand.

Here’s my little swatch after running it under cold water:

And Here it is after running it under hot water:

Ah-HAH!  Mystery solved!  You see that spot that stayed green?  Well, that was where I put the INM – Out the Door.  I haven’t really researched the science behind these thermal polishes, but there is something in my Out the Door that un-thermal-ed this particular polish.

By the way, I put this polish on my toes with the same Orly – Bonder base coat and the NYC top coat and they change color just fine.

So, the moral of this story for me is that the next time I get a thermal polish, I’m going to do a test swatch with my base and top coats before I dive in and do all my nails.

Now I’m a little torn.  Should I take off this polish that isn’t even showing any tip wear and redo them with the NYC top coat or should I give it a few days before I redo them?

Oh, and I fully intend to swatch and review the other polishes I got after Christmas, and if my sister is agreeable, I’ll show you the polishes I got for her, too.

Thanks for reading!