Snowed In! China Glaze Nova

We made it back to the city hours before the blizzard hit on Sunday. Our borough had an unofficial snowfall of 23 inches - the snow was bad, the response to the storm was worse. We were lucky to have our power, cable and internet stay on the entire time, but not all of my friends were so fortunate. And they have little kids. So they watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua on DVD over and over and over... so I call this layering mani "Blizzard Blackout" and dedicate it to all the New Yorkers who were snowed in this week.

I used one coat of Jesse's Girl Blackout (a freebie I received at Nails Night Out) and two coats of China Glaze Nova. These shots were taken in indirect sunlight. I think the first picture shows more of the holo rainbow sparkles, but the second is the crisper glitter shot.



I really like the brush on Jesse's Girl polishes. I didn't have a cleanup brush (I dropped mine *in* the bottle of acetone) and I couldn't get out to get a new one, but it turns out I didn't even need one. I wish the cap wasn't so large and rectangular because it makes it unwieldy, but it's still a great brush.

Nova is a glitter from the China Glaze Specialty Collection. It's filled with small silver square glitter and larger holographic hex glitter in a clear base. This is definitely a sparkly eyecatcher!  Next time, I'm going to try layering it over silver like Dori at Kiss My Acetone did earlier this month.

Related Side Story: I wore Nova to work and a coworker asked if I had snowflakes on my nails. The other ladies who were able to make it to the office quickly deduced that I had a "blizzard" mani on and renamed it "De-licorice-ous" to get our minds off the snow-filled streets. De-licorice-ous!!

Revlon Perplex - UWS Brunch Time

I love Broadway musicals.  When I was younger, living thousands of miles from the Great White Way, I'd make my siblings, cousins, friends, everyone watch PBS's Great Performances, the Tonys, and the odd random tour performance with me.  Now that I live here, I like suprising friends with tickets to actual shows (thank you, TKTS!).  This Sunday, we took our friends to see In The Heights and they took us to brunch on the Upper West Side. 

If I was going to be dining on microdairy cheeses and gourmet sausages while sipping bellinis, I figured I should switch up my sparkly holiday polish for something chic... perfect time to try out Revlon Perplex!

This is a dark grayish taupe with a faint purple shimmer - much like its pricier alternative Paradoxal.  Like other taupes, it can pull purple, gray, or a muddier brown, depending on skin tone.  For $4-5, it's definitely worth trying this shade out if you can find a bottle.

Indirect Sunlight - Dark Gray with Purple Tones on me

Flash to see the Purple Shimmer on Nail & in Bottle

Perplex went on deep and glossy on me in two medium coats.  It didn't agree with my Gelous-Seche Vite combo, though.  That's not tip wear in the pictures. That's major shrinkage :( Even with wrapping, it just pulled away from the edges.  Since I'm changing back to my holiday glitter bombs tomorrow, I'm not that upset, but next time I wear it, I'll try another top coat. This shade is awesome - I gotta make it work without shrinkage!

Color Club Magic Attraction

More sparkly snow-inspired polish because we're supposed to get stuff that sticks to the ground tonight!  I'm trying to also get myself mentally psyched up for tomorrow's expected high of 24 degrees.  Heh... 24.  That's about 55 degrees lower than the expected high in Phoenix... on to that sparkly polish!

Color Club Magic Attraction is from the Fall 2008 Glitter Vixen Collection - one day I will have the entire set! Magic Attraction does have a couple of relatives out there in the polish world. According to Scrangie, it's an available option for the hard-to-find OPI Paris Couture for Sure. It's also related to Hocus Pocus from this year's Color Club Halloween minis. If you're not a frequent glitter wearer and you'd prefer a smaller bottle, this would be a good time to look for that set on clearance.

The chunky holographic glitter throughout Magic Attraction makes this clear-base, silver glitter look sparkly and multicolored. This polish has dense glitter like the other Glitter Vixens so it covers the nail in one coat.  With two coats, it gets as close to opaque as you can get with a clear base glitter. This isn't a fine-grit glitter so double up on the thick top coat.

Despite looking very silver in the bottle, I think this has a pinkish tint in some angles when I wear it.

Indirect Sunlight

Direct Sunlight - Different Angle
but look! I caught some of the rainbow holo sparkle effect in the photo!

Bundle up & stay warm! More glitter to get me through this winter to come *wink*

Zoya Luna

What a Tough Tuesday!  Really!!

It started in the morning and didn’t stop all day - snow flurries came down during the morning commute for the first time this winter, I get yelled at by a crazy lady when I’m trying to get my takeout, I finally catch a bus after work & get told the stop right by my house is being removed soon, our upstairs neighbors overrun their sink and flood our kitchen with disgusting yellow water, I spill my chili dinner on our living room carpet – BUT I changed my polish to something very happy successfully so the day ended on a very positive note.

This is Luna from the Zoya Winter 2009 UltraGlitter collection.  I love Zoya's descriptions, so here's an excerpt - light, shimmering sheer silvery dove gray base loaded with silver glitter.  Just a quick side note - one reviewer on Zoya's website commented they expected a clear base so they must have gotten a bad bottle. Maybe they should read the description before buying and definitely before posting a review?  Sorry for the snark - I said I had a rough day!

Since the day was overcast and snowy, I have some indoor shots.

Looking a little matte, but still glitteriffic...

A glossier angle!

-Flash-

I put Luna on in two thick coats - if you use thin coats, you'll need 3 to get full coverage. This was the sparkly version of today's flurries - the little glitter is the falling snow flakes against the milky gray base that looks like that cloudy sky. This is a lot more sparkly and twinkly than the real stuff we had today, and it definitely brightened my day. Ultra Glitter!

Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings The Blues

I picked up this polish in A Polish Problem's awesome blog sale.  Megan has a great selection that she keeps updated, her prices are decent, and the polishes come very quickly bundled tightly in layers and layers of bubble wrap.  Thank you, Megan!

This is my 2nd Lippmann polish - I'd love more, but even with sales, it's very hard to find these polishes under $14 each.  You could buy a set and get the price closer to $12 or $13, but what happens if you don't like all of the included shades?  I want way too many other polishes to let myself buy something that I feel halfhearted about and I do love my blue polishes so I was happy to pick this one up on its own.

Lady Sings The Blues is one of the three polishes from the Fall 2010 All That Jazz Trio. I wore this shade to celebrate Hanukkah with my husband's family this weekend.  Doesn't it look like a party with the sequin glitter?  This is large hex and tiny square silver glitter throughout a navy blue base.  Some polish had leaked out in transport so I added clear polish to revive and thin it to a slightly more jelly consistency. I think it brought the glitter out a little bit more. Even with all this glitter and the dark base, the formula made it easy to do clean up and removal - no smurf fingers! really!!

Sun - The smaller glitter is more visible

Shade - That glossiness is from Scrangie's tip to use
Gelous + Seche over glitter polish

I like the effect of the glitter swimming through this polish because it gives the glitter a multicolored effect - some pieces look more blue and some look more silver as they lay in the polish at different levels. This polish was so pigmented that I only used one coat with minor touch ups. This polish also had great wear - with all of the holiday baking, cleaning, and running around, I only had minor tip wear after 4 days.

Holiday Season! - Milani Gems

I know it's late and tomorrow's a Monday, but I had to fit in this post because... I loved our four day Thanksgiving weekend, I love the holiday season (counting down the days to Christmas in AZ), and I love my husband for going out of his way to find Milani Gems for me.

I've been looking for Gems - it's a Milani Jewel FX off their Rockstar Heavy Glitter display - and the one display that I've found had all of the other polishes and two empty spaces where Gems was supposed to go. So close, so far!!  That was the only display I even found after looking in many other Duane Reades, CVS, and Rite Aides.  It's becoming a pattern with drugstore collections that the polish gets found once I stop looking for it.  And that happened again this time.

My husband goes out in the windy cold weather to get us some Dunkin Donuts breakfast - I'm addicted to their coffee - and comes back with the last bottle of Gems from the last CVS in Staten Island that I hadn't checked.  He's too sweet... awww.... so I put Gems on as soon as I could to show my appreciation.

My goal is to wear festive holiday polish looks through New Year's and here's my first post-Thanksgiving Jolly manicure - Orly Enchanted Forest layered with Milani Gems.

The Bottle Buddies Pic - aww, they like each other!

1 coat of Milani Gems over 2 coats of Orly Enchanted Forest

I love this festive glitter! Gems is supposed to be the $5 sibling to a Lippmann Polish that's more than three times that price. It's true that when macro shots of the two polishes are compared there are slight differences. Gems has large and small hex glitter and the color combination is slightly different. Lippmann's Happy Birthday has large hex glitter and small *square* glitter with a little more pink in the mix. I think Gems is definitely a good dupe-ish substitute and I'm so happy to have it!! 

Good luck to everyone else who may be on their own drugstore searches - you can find those polishes!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Plie

This post is dedicated to my best friend who just ordered her wedding dress.  Her wedding's next year and placing that order is one of the first big steps in making it all real.  Maybe next up will be picking out the bridesmaid dresses *cough, cough, wink, cough* 

I picked up Plie in the big, and most likely last, Rescue Beauty Lounge 50% Off VIP Sale at the beginning of November.  Plie is a perfect polish to try out during the work week.  I missed Opaque Nude last sale and Grunge was still out of stock for this sale, but I had to get a cool opaque nude from RBL this time so I picked Plie.  This shade did not disappoint - it's a wonderful nude with a touch of pink.  It really did remind me of ballet slippers.

After trying Dead Calm, Stormy, and No More War, I figured RBL's formula wouldn't let me down, but I had doubts because this was a light nude color.  After all, I picked up Opaque Pink when Opaque Nude wasn't available and Opaque Pink was NOT opaque!  I shouldn't have doubted the polish community because Plie is opaque in one coat, perfectly creamy in two. 

Since it's after the DST flip and I'm at work during sunlight hours, I only have an indoor shot, but this accurate to the pink-nude color that Plie looks on me.  As with all nudes, I think that skin tone really affects how orange or pink or gray-dead the shade can look on an individual's hand.  The finish is much shinier in real life, but I couldn't get the camera to capture it.  I also put the decal on my ring finger as an extra shout out to mi amiga's wedding dress order.

This shade is totally a shout out towards the color scheme my friend is contemplating.  I can't divulge all her details, but she knows what I mean.

Congrats again, Ash!  I can't wait for your big day!!

A GingerKittyDesign!

I'm a sucker for a sale - I picked up some RBLs, some Zoyas, and I got my very first piece from GingerKittyDesigns.  My bracelet just arrived yesterday and I've only taken it off while I slept and cleaned around the house.  It's gorgeous and I love it that much!

GingerKitty sells her designs through Etsy and the big thing is she handcreates each piece using nail polish of your choice.  She has a wide variety of beloved shades from OPI Absolutely Alice to Essie Starry Starry Night.  I ordered one of her new bracelets in purple.  She was beyond wonderful to work with - asking what colors I'd like, what kind of effect I'd prefer - I even got to pick my favorite out of multiple samples before she placed it in the setting.  Of course, I recommend checking her site out for yourself.

It's like looking at a galaxy on my wrist. It's so sparkly, so delicate, it's so pretty!!!  I'm not sure exactly polishes went into this final design, but GingerKitty did mention looking forward to trying Zoya Goldie when I asked for swirls of gold and silver through the purple.

In honor of my purple bracelet with a hint of Zoya, I'm wearing Valerie this weekend, which I, of course, picked up during their latest sale.  

Valerie is from the Zoya Winter 2010 Flame collection.  They describe this shade as a "royal purple with dark violet, red, deep pink and gold iridescence amplified by a glittering sparkle finish."  It's like Yasmeen got a makeover from this summer's Sparkle collection.  I think the shade shot really shows that glittery iridescence running through the bottle.  It was opaque in one coat, perfect and deep in two.  Yay for Zoya!

Nubar Knight's Armor

I don’t dislike this polish, but I’m definitely confused by it.  

This is Nubar Knight’s Armor from their Fortress Collection of grays.  It’s a charcoal base packed with square silver glitter.  The silver stands out, but I prefer more integration with my glitter polishes. I feel like I could have achieved the same effect layering a clear silver glitter over a dark gray. 

Sunlight - no bottle because we're on vacation & I left it at the house

The base of Knight’s Armor looks like a jelly but it’s overwhelmed by the silver on top. I love jellies and glitters combined in one polish – like CG Atlantis – and I’ve never seen a charcoal jelly, so I really would’ve liked to see some more of that base.  This was two coats and I was on the fence about a third.  It would’ve helped a few of the barer spots, but it also would’ve meant more glitter and I already felt overwhelmed by what was already on the nail. I think I would’ve liked the overall look more if it had been two polishes layered.  I would have had more control over the transparency and levelness of the jelly base without maxing out the silver glitter on top. 

I still loved the Nubar brush and this polish’s wear, but I only *like* the actual shade. Even a few days of wearing it didn't change my opinion. I know a friend who would love this polish so I think I should gift it her way so she can give Knight’s Armor the full appreciation a Nubar deserves.

Nars Zulu

My Zulu finally arrived on Tuesday evening! After all the hype, I was kinda nervous about my first face-to-face encounter with Zulu. When I finally got the nerve up to open the box and put it on, my fears were quickly assuaged. This dark green jelly flowed on to my nails like it wanted to be there. It was opaque, smooth, and very shiny in two coats.

I thought I loved Zulu because of what it symbolizes to the polish community - rare, coveted, completely beloved for its long awaited return. After it applied like a dream, I decided that Zulu had lived up to my expectations. Then I wore it to work this week and it completely blew me away!

My coworkers often check my polish to see the new shade I'm wearing. Normally, they come up to my desk and check my hand. Not with Zulu! They spotted it within minutes of saying hello from cubicles away. We'd be discussing something else and suddenly "What are you wearing? What's it called? Can you bring the bottle to work tomorrow?" They've asked the name of my polishes before, but never for a bottle loan. These ladies get their nails done, but they're not hardcore polish fans and Zulu still reached out and pulled them in.

What did Nars put in this polish? Zulu is bottled magnetism! (That's why I took my pictures with a magnet while my bottle was out on loan with a coworker.)

Sun - Visibly Green & Jelly - see those edges

Shade - Glossy & Dark

This is my first Nars polish and Zulu has incredible wear on my nails. When I took it off on Saturday evening - 4 full days of typing, baking, and even washing dishes without gloves - I still had polish on 4 of my 5 nail tips where I had wrapped the ends during the original mani! I rarely get chips, but I tend to get tipwear within hours even with wrapping.

I think I need a backup of this polish! I wonder if I can still find it anywhere...

LA Colors Color Craze!

These are Dollar Tree finds and I need to pick up some more because these three are awesome!  Just a note, their names are not printed on the bottles themselves - just the packaging.  And these names are cute, but have nothing to do with the actual color.

My first was Static Electricity.  I was not prepared for the opacity and vibrancy of this shade. I was hoping for a cheap dupe of Suzi Says Feng Shui, but there wasn't a bit of dustiness to Static Electricity on the nail. This is a bright sky blue - like the sky I would see in AZ on a clear day.  Here's one coat with a few touch ups and that was all for such a pretty, smooth, and shiny shade!

 Shade Shot - This shows how smooth this polish looks on the nail. 
And I like how the sun still hit the bottle so you can see how intense the light blue base is.  Ooooh...

Next up was Atomic, a teal-leaning green jelly-leaning creme.

This is two coats and the jellyish nature was more visible in person.

I love China Glaze and I wish I had the funds for the entire Up & Away Collection, but since I didn't, I'm very happy that I have some of their "cousins."  Really - Atomic & Static Electricity have the pigmentation and ease of application to be close relations to Up & Away.

Last, but definitely not least, is Wired. This was my favorite and I'm wearing it as a full mani this week!! I wasn't at all ready for the intensity of this blue shade - it's electric! This color blew my poor lil camera away, too, so I had issues getting it to focus and take a nice accurate shot. This is two coats of a royal blue infused with blue and turquoise metallic shimmer.  

Shade Shot - I think this is more accurate. I love the metallic intensity without the metallic brushstroke isses.
Check out the bottle - the turquoise shimmer in the middle is visible on the nail, but the purple or dark navy color at the top is nowhere to be seen.

All of these colors dried slightly lighter and a lot brighter than the bottle colors, so each one was a pleasant surprise as it was being applied.  Also, this brush was much nicer than I expected - these swatches were all done without cleanup.  I know the lack of cleanup is visible on my slightly blue-tinged cuticles, but really, there wasn't a stray hair on any of these brushes and they flared out so nicely. 

I can't believe how many times I passed this brand over in the dollar store.  My Lesson Learned: Don't judge a polish by its price tag!

Zoya Edyta

There was a one day sale for Zoya Remove+ about a week ago. I picked up Edyta from the Fall 2010 Wicked Collection and I put it on as soon as I brought the box in from my doorstep. 

In their promotional preview, Zoya described Edyta as a "fern green sparkling metallic."  Since then, Zoya has expanded their description to "A complex mixture of gold, olive, blue-green and smoky grey with a sparkling metallic finish. A dark shade balanced with sparkle for a dramatic look." 

I've tried out some shades hoping to find a nice dark olive-like green shimmer and they've never worked out because they look too black or too gold.  Edyta isn't a true olive green polish, but it is the shade I've been looking for!  This is one of the first polishes in awhile to make me just stop and say "....whoa..."  It flowed on to my nails and I felt like they were... gilded.  Gilded in green opulence...  Andi Translation:  This polish was like velvet on the nails - luxurious, textured, rich.

This is two coats, but it probably could have gotten away with just one with touchups because it's that nicely pigmented.  These are both shots in direct sunlight, but with different angles that show off the color differently.

See the blue-based green base

and the sparkly charcoal & gold effect visible on top and throughout the shade.

There's so much shimmer and sparkle to this polish in the sunlight - green, gold, blue.  I had the feeling of opulence when I wore Edyta and I'm looking forward to wearing this rich polish through the fall and winter.

China Glaze Medallion

I really love the glitters from the China Glaze Specialty Collection.  I saw them on Scrangie, got some to try for myself and I've really been hooked ever since. Honestly, NYC weather can make me feel pretty gloomy.  I don't like gray clouds and drizzle for days and days. I like putting on glitter polishes when I'm feeling kind of down and China Glaze Medallion helped me make it through the dreary, cold winter.

Since it has been a pretty dry summer in the city, I haven't worn it in a few months, so I decided to wear it for a very happy weekend just to celebrate. What was I celebrating? A roadtrip to DC to see Idina Menzel and Marvin Hamlisch in concert for my birthday!!

This is a clear-base cool gold glitter. There is a ton of holographic and larger hexagonal glitter thrown in among smaller gold and silver glitter. It's a rainbow of glitter. Blue, pink, green - you see something different sparkle up at you every time the sun hits it.

This swatch is taken with two thick coats. That's it. And check out the coverage! China Glaze didn't promise full coverage in two coats and I definitely wasn't expecting it since this has a clear base, so I was surprised and very pleased when I put on the first coat, let it set for a minute, put on the second coat, and... hey, it's time for a thick top coat - already?! - incredible.

The first time I wore this, I kept looking at my nails and thinking BLING-TASTIC!!! That's why I wore it for New Year's, my birthday, and every other time I wanted to feel extra sparkly.

Orly Country Club Khaki

Talk about Nail of the WEEK! Country Club Khaki is from the Spring 2009 Orly Prepster Collection, which was only one of three collections they released that season.

My husband has been encouraging me to invest in some more Orly polishes because of their wonderful rubberized top.  He tends to be my polish opener because I can never get bottles, jars, anything open. Before Country Club Khaki, I had one Orly polish that my mom had bought me randomly because it was on clearance at Sally's. 

This was such a nice polish to put on - easy to open, easy to apply, opaque and smooth in two coats, wonderful!  My cuticles have been such a wreck from the new soap at work.  I use lotion afterwards but nothing can defeat the dryness of that awful soap!  This polish made my hands feel elegant but edgy. It's a light brownish taupe creme that worked on my skin tone like a Nude But Not shade.

I liked this shade so much I put it on in Tuesday and didn't take it off till Friday night.  I wore this polish for almost an entire work week!  Go Orly!!

Never Again!!

I've used the Incoco Dry Nail Applique polish strips before and I really like them. I stock up when they're on sale at Walgreens because they're easy to use, last forever, have a nice finish, and they come with everything you need in the kit from a polish remover pad to a little orange stick. Only reason why I don't use them more is because I like to change my polish way too often.

Since I like the Incoco polish strips so much, I figured why not try out the Avon polish strips. They can't be that different, right? WRONG!

I got the Avon Instant Manicure Dry Nail Enamel Strips in a few colors when they were on clearance. Do you know why they were on clearance? Because they suck! I picked Bayberry because it looked like a light watermelon. Turns out it was a dull, matronly mauve mess on me - and when I say mess, I mean MESS!

The Horror!

I am pretty good at applying dry polish strips and these strips would not stay in place, they would not stop wrinkling, and look at that tip wear! This is what happened after wearing after wearing the strips a few hours. The tips lifted and tore right off like I was doing yardwork when all I was really doing was flipping through a magazine while we drove out to visit some relatives.

Awful color, awful application, awful wear - these Avon dry polish strips are hereby banned and will never be worn again.

Color Club Tru Passion

I've been so under the weather lately that I've barely been able to sit upright, much less polish and post.  We're supposed to be in the middle of the worst allergy season ever and, since I already have bad allergies, I've been knocked out.  So I picked a polish that I would love to see on my nails for awhile - of course, I picked a glitter *tee hee*

This is Tru Passion from the Fall 2008 Color Club Glitter Vixen collection. Flinty from Polish or Perish noticed this polish resembles Nubar Hyacinth from their recent Sparkles collection. 

I think of this polish as a lavender glitter. This glitter is a medium grit lighter purple, leaning more towards pink than blue, in a clear base. It's very sparkly, very opaque, very long lasting. I took this picture on Sunday and I've been wearing this mani since Wednesday. I only used two coats, but I think I should have used 3 on the fingers I used really thin coats, like my pinkie. To be honest, I was timid with application because I've read so many horror stories with this collection's removal. I put two coats of Redi Quick Dry topcoat on and I swear this polish got more shiny and sparkly as I wore it.

I love good glitters :)

Revlon Bubble Gum

I finally found a display of the Summer 2010 Scents of Summer Collection! I did it! I did it!!

Drug stores are so small around here so I rarely find cool polish displays, even when I'm actively looking for them. I found this display at the same Rite Aid I found my Maybelline Pie in the Sky. Their cosmetic section tends to look like a tornado hit it, but under all the mess and understocked shelves, this store is now 2-for-2 in my search for seasonal drug store polishes.

After a few happy days of sunshine, the rain rolled in. To counter the drizzles and brighten my day, I decided to try out Bubble Gum.

I tried to capture a really quick picture of Bubble Gum in the sunlight when the clouds briefly parted. Definitely not the best picture, but I wanted to show how how hot pink this polish can look.

In the sunlight, it's definitely a bright girly fuschia.

Inside, it's a bit mellower, but still bright pink:

(ooh, look how the CND Solar Oil soothes the cuticles, aah)

Bubble Gum is a bright medium pink creme. A slightly standard color, but these shades look good with my skintone and the color itself makes me feel happy. The formula was easy to use - slightly on the thin side. There was slight VNL at two coats, so I used three coats for my mani. For scent purposes, I decided to skip a top coat. This polish dried so glossy!  

You can smell the scent once the polish dries. This polish's bubble gum scent lasted about 2-1/2 days for me. I thought the scent was like Bazooka bubble gum. My husband thought it was like the bubble gum fluoride from his childhood dentist.

Since it's on my nails and not overwhelmingly strong, I'm really enjoying my scented nails. To be honest, I even tried talking with my hands more while I was wearing it to see how often I could smell the bubble gum. Ok, maybe I'm enjoying my scented nails a little too much!

China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea

Some of my favorite blues are from the China Glaze Bahama Blues collection, so I decided to wear some of my others ones this week.  Here is Blue Island Iced Tea!

I like this polish in the sunlight... 

 but it's pretty cool in the shade, too.

Is this a bluish silver or a silvery blue?  Is this a metallic, a microglitter, a shimmer, or a foil? 

Blue Island Iced Tea is hard to describe because it changes in almost every lighting. This is my interpretation of its description: a silver-based light blue foil.  It's got the sparkle and bling of a glitter with the smooth finish of a fol.  It's on the sheer, thin side, so it needs 3 coats.

What I really like about this polish is that it's a great polish to wear all year.  It feels icy when there's snow outside, it feels like sun off the waves in when it's summer time, it brightens up a cloudy day, it blings out on a sunny day. It looks different whenever you look at it.  Is that a jelly base? Is that a hint of turquoise glitter? It just keeps on sparkling.

Zoya Gwin

Gwin is from the Zoya Spring 2010 Reverie Collection.  Zoya describes Gwin as a "sunny melon metallic." I describe Gwin as pink-toned orange with a strong gold shimmer.

This polish really has a lot of iridescent shimmer. There are flashes of gold, yellow, and even green shimmer running through it. This is a lot more apparent in sunlight. Here's a blurred picture to show off some of sheen. It's like you think you're looking at a bright juicy orange shade and... it's glowing! from inside!! the shimmer!!!

My husband bought me the Reverie set a few months ago and today he picked up Maybelline Sunset Prisms for me. Yay for bright colors with a shimmer flash! (By the way - Lacquer Laine has a full swatch of Maybelline Sunset Prisms and it looks like this is one of those polishes that has a different color batch out there. One is orange with a green flash. One is pink with a gold flash.)

Side by side in their bottles, I thought Sunset Prisms might be a possible dupe for Gwin. On the actual nail, Sunset Prisms is a lighter melon orange shade. It's the early spring cousin to Gwin.

Gwin's on my index and ring finger.
Sunset Prisms is on my middle and pinkie finger.

Gwin is a darker orange with a gold flash and pretty much opaque in two coats. Sunset Prisms took four coats to get opaque but the gold shimmer and green flash is more obvious in most lighting. They both had decent formulas. Even though, Sunset Prisms took twice as many coats to get rid of VNL, it actually dried faster than Gwin. Not bad! Sunset Prisms even had a good brush - and it's a Maybelline Express Finish!

Soooo... since both of these polishes were nice to work with and they are related but different colors, both are staying put in the stash. No dupes this time!

Zoya Indigo

I was intrigued to see if my stash had a navy blue creme because I know that I have navy blues but they tend to have shimmer finishes. Zoya Indigo isn't supposed to be one of navy blue shimmers, but on the nail, it looks like it is!

Zoya describes Indigo as "navy blue with subtle multi-color micro glitter." In the bottle, I can totally see that. It's sparkly and full of rainbow glitter sparkles in a rich navy base. On the nail, it looks a navy blue shimmer. The glitter really gets swallowed up. Where does it go?! From some angles, a glitter piece will sparkle here and there, but in other lighting, they just look like bumps or bubbles.

Also, it looks almost black in some lighting. That gets under my skin so much because you shouldn't have to be in full sunlight to enjoy a polish. You might be able to appreciate it more in better lighting, but you should still be able to get the basic idea when you're inside or outside on a cloudy day.

So, instead of a navy blue with fantastic rainbow glitter, Indigo ends up looking like a standard almost-black navy shimmer that has odd bumps in it.

Good ponts - It is opaque in two coats. I didn't do any clean up above because I put it on, took the picture, and took it off, but you can still see that there's not any visible formula application issues. Indigo is from the Zoya Fall 2007 Downtown collection and still available for purchase if the look on the nail speaks to you - just don't go by how it looks in the bottle!

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway

A tweet from Michèle from lacquerized. inspired me to wear this shade.  She wanted to wear a navy blue creme but couldn't find one, so I got to thinking about whether or not I had one.

Bermuda Breakaway is from China Glaze's Winter 2008 Bahama Blues collection. They describe it as a "Deep Navy Purple Creme."

I don't really think of this creme as a true blurple, but this blue does have a touch of purple in it. I tried to adjust the picture so I could represent the shade as accurately as possible. That's actually why my hands look so dry and winterized in this picture.

I had been avoiding this polish because of the horror stories with the Bahama Blues formula when this collection came out.  Maybe the formula's been tweaked a lot since then because this polish went on really easily! It was opaque in one coat, but I used two coats to even out and deepen the color. 

Some might think that navy is a bit darker than this shade, but I don't care for almost-black shades at all, so I wouldn't want it to be any darker. I think that Bermuda Breakaway fits the bill nicely my stash's navy blue creme. It's clearly blue in all lights and it's a breeze to put on. To think I was going to let this sit untried in my drawer - Thanks for the idea, Michèle!

Maybelline Pie in the Sky

I know the Maybelline Sweet Things collection has gotten a notorious reputation for its bad formula, bad brushes, etc, etc. Their Express polishes have found their way in and out of my collection because I can't make their formula work, but I'm in a blue polish mood right now and I *needed* Pie in the Sky.

After extensively searching all my local CVS, RiteAid, and Walgreens (checked the Duane Reades, too, just in case), I couldn't find any of the polishes from this collection except for the random pinks. BOO! Then I saw the Essie Resort comparisons from All Lacquered Up and happily decided I didn't *need* Pie in the Sky. I was going to get Lapis of Luxury and successfully have my cornflower blue polish. Take that, impossible-to-find drugstore polish!!

Then my husband randomly got sick to his stomach (he's never, ever, ever sick) and I had to rush to Rite Aid for meds. What did I find the same day I had declared to be done with my Pie in the Sky search? Frickin' Pie in the Sky. Last one of its shade on the display. With a coupon!

Now that Pie in the Sky's mine, I have to agree with the blogosphere. What's going on with this brush? Mine had stray hairs that did not want to get clipped in to shape. What's going on with this formula? Runny and chunks?!

After all of that, though, the polish did have some good qualities. It's opaque in two coats. This is probably because the first streaky coat self-leveled itself for me. Really. I think it did. The chunks and bubbles and streaks went on and a minute later it was dry, smoother, and decently shiny. After the second coat, there was still evidence of tiny bubbles or some kind of mess in the polish, but in very trace amounts. Overall, the color and end result made up for this polish's very funky first impression.

I've seen other pictures that show it as a bright sky blue like Zoya Yummy, OPI Just Groovy, or Misa Right Here Now, No More Later. It's not that kind of blue. This is a light cornflower or periwinkle blue shade - meaning light blue with purple undertones.  Not even my picture really captures the purple-ness. Even though my index is a little bit out of focus, it's getting closer to being more color-accurate than the other fingers. Imagine a little more purple, a smidge more gray, a little darker, and that's what it looks like!

I thought it was an excellent color to wear right before Easter. I wanted to have a calm color that helped me feel quiet. I was so glad that's exactly what this one did and in only two coats!

Nubar Chocolate Caramel

I went to Nails Night Out in NYC last October. It was at the Martini Bar by Union Square. It was a great time - great drinks, yummy munchies, tons of polish people, and my first polish goodie bag. One of my gifts was a base coat, top coat, and Tiara from Nubar.  I LOVE Nubar's Foundation Base Coat. If I had to live with one base coat for the rest of my life, this would be my base coat.

Nubar had a St. Patrick's Day sale, so I decided to try out some of their colors and they arrived today! The first one I had to try was Chocolate Caramel from the Winter 2009 Chocolate Truffles Collection.

I love chocolate on Fridays - why not wear it on my nails? This polish is such a luscious brown-gold. All day I kept looking at this polish and wondering what tasty treat it really really reminded me of - chocolate, coffee, some kind of candy? I still don't know for sure, but I know whatever it is must be yummy. I'm definitely wearing this the next time I'm going through chocolate cravings. It's a visual appeasement.

Chocolate Caramel is a crazy sparkler with a warm medium brown base and golden shimmer. Many of the pictures I've seen of this polish have been in full sunlight to show off the shimmer. This makes the polish look so warm that it's practically a bright orange-ish or yellow-ish brown. It's definitely a shimmery polish, but those pictures didn't really show the green hints in the shimmer. I swear there's even flecks of pink in some light. 

My NOTD mani was two coats of Chocolate Caramel over Nubar's Foundation Base Coat and topped with their Diamont Seal & Shine Top Coat (of course I was going to try out their polish with their treatments).  The application was nice and their brush is so easy to use. I'm looking forward to trying out the rest of the Nubars I picked up!

Color Club Fashion Addict

I'm in the mood for spring. Still. After two days of rain and slightly cooler temperatures, there wasn't supposed to be a drop of rain today (and there wasn't) and the high was in the low 60s. That's not the best, but it definitely beats a high in the 40s!

I love pastels, but I was in the mood for something a little different so I decided to go with a color from the Spring 2009 Catwalk Queen Collection.

Color Club does excellent holo polishes and this is definitely one of them. The holo finish of Fashion Addict isn't as linear and intense as the China Glaze OMG collection. I think it's closer to to the scattered-sparkly finish of CG Kaleidoscopes.

This opaque, sparkly, rainbow of a light purple holo is just two coats of Fashion Addict without a top coat. There was no application issues at all, especially if you let the first coat dry first to prevent any drag on the second coat. Holos dry so fast that waiting time isn't even an issue.

Depending on the light and angle, this polish's base color can look more pink or more silver than light purple. If you want a real silver holo, go with Worth the Risque from the Femme Fatale half of the Color Club Spring 2009 collection.  If you love the pastel purples of this spring, but you need a getaway from creme finishes, go with Fashion Addict. It's such such a sparkly way to celebrate the return of sunshine after this crazy winter!

Barielle Beaches & Dreams

It's Spring Time!!!  Well, it feels like spring in the City so I'm celebrating this nice break in weather while it's here.  

Beaches & Dreams is a light peach creme from the Spring 2009 Shades by Barielle Sun Goddess Collection.  This was a very work appropriate collection and I think this was the "edgiest," most unique shade from this group.  I like pastel cremes that have a starkness to them.  I think it makes me look a little tanner while still feeling spring-like and feminine.

This polish is nice and opaque.  It only needs 2 coats.  Really.  A third coat would make it look too thick and it's so pretty in two.  I don't remember Beaches & Dreams being this easy to apply last year, but it was a breeze to put on this weekend.  I know my clean up's a bit spotty, but that's on me for trying out a new brush - not the polish.

Ok, time to head back outside.  Suzie has been stuck inside so much this winter because she's only a lil Toy Poodle and bad winter weather doesn't agree with her, so I've got playtime to make up!  One more YAY for spring weather!

China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

When someone from the polish community talks about “ES,” they say things like “Perfect,” “The Best Ever,” and other wonderful words of praise that never feel sufficient enough to describe the awesomeness of this green polish.

I wish my co-workers knew that! I wore this polish as one of my greens leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. Big mistake. “You look like you’ve been poisoned.” “It reminds me of Christmas wrapping paper.” Eesh!! Next time I wear Emerald Sparkle, I'll be sure that it's a weekend.

Let's get the positivity back in this post - here's Emerald Sparkle!

Surprisingly, given its celebrity in the polish community, Emerald Sparkle hasn’t been around for that long. It was the star in the Holiday 2008 China Glaze Sleigh Ride collection. It was also released again in the Holiday 2009 Love You Snow Much collection. This isn't a hard-to-find polish, but there was a “bad” version floating around in 2008. To make sure that you're getting the right one, check out Scrangie's article explaining the differences.

This polish made everyone stand up and take notice because it is bright green glitter in a dark green jelly base. It’s pigmented and perfect in two thin coats. With a shiny top coat, this is a smooth, grit-free glitter polish.  This kind of polish wasn't around until that 2008 Holiday collection.  The world had Ruby Pumps, but the polish community needed a special stunner like Emerald Sparkle and China Glaze came through for us.

This polish has depth, fire, and so much sparkle that it’s impossible to capture it photographically.  If you love unique, beautiful polishes, you should see Emerald Sparkle in person. Just don’t try to come around my office wearing it unless it’s Christmas...

Zoya Yasmeen

Zoya Yasmeen.  Do you love purples?  Do you have this polish?  If you love purple, then you should have this polish.

I didn't think I *needed* this polish, but I read other people's stories about how it was one of their favorite purples. During one of the really nice Zoya sales, I decided I loved purple enough to give Yasmeen a try.

This is one of the prettiest purple shimmers ever. Ev-er.

There's some magenta-red shimmer, some gold shimmer (very visible in the bottle), and it all translates so nicely on the nail. I kind of expected Yasmeen to be warmer and darker than I wanted. Totally wrong! This shade didn't look too cool or too warm on me. It was just right! The purple is dark and deep, but it's far from black. It's clearly purple in all light settings.

The application is great. This is two coats with base and top. The brush and the formula were so nice that no clean up was needed - which is good because I slapped it on after some unpacking and right before calling it a night.  I had to ease back in to wearing a more "New York" polish after the vacation.  This polish was so smooth and shiny, it did the trick nicely.

Yasmeen lived up to and exceeded all of its hype for me.  I kept pushing this polish aside because I thought it was just another purple-whatever.  Now I wish I hadn't left it sitting in my drawer untried all winter!!!  If you love purple shimmers and you don't have this polish, definitely bring it home the next time you're enjoying a Zoya sale.

China Glaze Atlantis

Atlantis is a dark turquoise-teal jelly base glitter. This has smaller silver glitter and multicolor holographic glitter.  I wore this polish as soon as I got back from Florida to keep the vacation going.

This polish is a glitter from China Glaze's Specialty Collection. These glitters are incredible! They raised the bar so high for all other glitters for me. Different size glitters, unique base colors, holo surprises - anything and everything you can imagine has been packed in to the Specialty Collection glitters.

This swatch was from the first time I wore Atlantis and I was playing around with the different looks from different coverage. My middle finger has three thin coats, my ring finger has a thick third coat, and my pinkie has two really thin coats.  After I put on top coat on it for the first time, I had to tweet rambling thoughts along the lines of "I've never seen anything quite like you, Atlantis. Beautiful Carribean oceany jelly sparkle fest glitter of awesome."

I love the base color so much - we honeymooned in Aruba and this base IS Carribean Blue. I even appreciated the way-too-bright-before-coffee lights on the subway ride to work because it gave the rainbow holographic glitter a mesmerizing sparkle. On repeat wears, I've aimed for coverage somewhere between my pinkie and middle finger so I can clearly see the base and the holo glitter stands out the most.

China Glaze Lemon Fizz

China Glaze Lemon Fizz is a light yellow creme from the Spring 2010 Up And Away Collection.  I have a few polishes from this collection and they are a like a confectionary delight.  They are beautiful pastels that make me think of cupcake sprinkles on a spring day.  Really!

I wore this color to Florida to celebrate our wedding anniversary with my grandparent-in-laws.  We got married a year ago on a beautiful spring day in Phoenix and this kind of yellow was our wedding's main color.  Perfect color to wear for a spring vacation to Florida to celebrate our wedding, right? 

This manicure was only 2 coats except for the middle finger which got a little bit of OPI Banana Bandana on it (I went polish shopping at the flea market).  I put this on Wednesday night and took the picture on the Monday we came back.  All of the polishes from this collection have had excellent wear.

I think this shade of yellow is green enough that it doesn't make you look red, but it's warm enough that it brightens the hand.  This shade is very flattering without your hands looking like big yellow taxis.  This is the kind of shade you should try first if you're interested in dipping your toe into the pool of yellow polishes.  Or if you're a yellow lover and you don't have an easy-to-apply, long wearing pale yellow in your collection yet.