Wet N Wild Ice Baby Collection

I have a fabulous friend who gifted me with the entire wet n wild coloricon Holiday Glitter 2011 Ice Baby Collection.  The entire set!!

Let's get started with a look at these cute little bottles...

Rockin' Rubies - Believe Me, It's Real - 24 Carats - Give Me A Price Quote

It's All In The Cut - Back Alley Deals - Cost Is No Issue - Diamond In The Rough

Here's one coat of these glitters over one coat of black creme polish.  All of these polishes are clear-based and their opacity varies, but I wouldn't describe any of them as sheer.  They are gritty, top coat-sucking glitters so I think layering makes wear and removal easier.  If you want to wear them solo, you'll only need two or three coats to get full coverage.

Rockin' Rubies - red microglitter with pink hex holo glitter
Believe Me, It's Real - blue microglitter with purple hex glitter
24 Carats - yellow-gold microglitter and bar glitter
Give Me A Price Quote - warm gold microglitter with gold and orange bar glitter with pink flash. I can't tell where that pink is coming from, but it's there.

It's All In The Cut - lavender microglitter with pink hex glitter

Back Alley Deals - purple microglitter with red hex glitter

Cost Is No Issue - light greenish blue microglitter with blue hex glitter

Diamond In The Rough - charcoal microglitter with silver holo hex glitter

As a glitter fan, I love every single one of these polishes. The colors are bright, the color and texture combinations are creative, and the overall feel is so playful.  They cover the nail easily, dry quickly, and wear for days without chipping.

If I had to pick my Top 3 Favorites from the Ice Baby collection, I'd go with... 

Back Alley Deals - It's like an awesome glitter version of China Glaze Flying Dragon.

Believe Me, It's Real - Blue and purple and it's all glitter? oh yeah! 

It's All In The Cut - It's so girly and Lisa Frank-like.

I'm wearing these all as NOTDs, so I'll have future posts showing them off on their own.  If you live by a Walgreens and find this collection, buy these polishes! Pick up your favorite colors and I'm positive you'll be wearing them non-stop through the winter/holiday season.

Revlon Black with Envy - Last Day to Enter!

Guess what my Ulta just got in? A full Revlon Backstage Revealed - Runway 2011 display... which means that I was able to get my hands on the limited edition Black with Envy!

For anyone who can't find Wet N Wild Morbid from their Craze line, Black with Envy is also supposed to be another close cousin (aka probable dupe) to Chanel's Black Pearl. This small display is only supposed to be up from March through the end of May, so you'll have to look quickly to find this shade. 

Is it worth the search? It was for me because I wanted a polish like Black Pearl without having to pay $25 for it. Black with Envy went on in two coats - it has the graphite base with blue-green shimmer - it's worn nicely with only minor tipwear after housework and dish washing.

Sun - Graphite with Green Shimmer

Shade - Green Shimmer gives a pearl-like finish

But if you don't feel like dealing with the frustration of a potentially fruitless polish hunt, just enter my giveaway because Black with Envy is the tenth polish I'll be giving away! I'll also be giving away the new addition to the Lippmann Happy Birthday dupe family - Ulta Piñata-Yada-Yada!

Black with Envy, Piñata-Yada-Yada

You have until midnight PST tonight to enter. Don't miss out on your chance to get all of 10 of these fantastic polishes! The winner will be announced tomorrow afternoon so hasta mañana!

Butter London No More Waity, Katie

I have to admit that I'm fascinated by Prince William & Kate Middleton's upcoming wedding. I'm already in a wedding frame of mind for 2011 because all of my friends' upcoming nuptials and I think Kate is so stylish - not that I would wear all of those tiny hat things, but they look cute on her!

As soon as Nonie Creme, Butter London's Creative Director, started making the fashion press rounds talking about this new limited edition shade, I knew I would have to have No More Waity, Katie. I didn't do the pre-order but I did buy it from B-Glowing immediately after I saw a tweet that No More Waity had already sold out on Butter London's website. I think it's back in stock and available at both online stores right now.

The official description of this color is a "soft, elegant greige shade with a splash of lilac glitter." Isn't "greige" the combination of gray and beige?  I'm seeing lilac glitter, I'm seeing gray, but I'm not seeing the beige.  If anything, I'd describe this shade as "gravender" because this gray definitely leans purple.

This wasn't the easiest polish to apply. The base is sheer, but the formula is a bit thick and gloopy, so it took three coats plus touch up to be opaque and it still looks like there's visible cuticle drag and too much polish bunched up at the tip. It doesn't look too bad in these pictures, but I think a good layer of top coat helped smooth it out to lay more evenly on the nail.

 

I think I'll add a few drops of thinner next time I wear No More Waity, Katie. That should help the polish apply more smoothly *fingers crossed*.

This might be a polish that's riding the wave of collectible memorabilia being pushed on to the market to cash in on the royal wedding, but it really is a well thought out shade. All of its elements are feminine, edgy, and unique from the lilac glitter to the purplish gray base (that I'm calling the It Color of Spring 2011 - it's certainly my favorite new shade of the moment).  Even the opacity of the polish makes sense - the base had to be thin enough to suspend the glitter at different levels for a multicolored layer effect. It's all lilac glitter but it looks brighter purple the closer it gets to the surface. 

I think this shade is brilliant!!

Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid

The first polish by Cult Nails is here!! Maria from R3Daily has made her dream a reality and launched her very own polish line this year. Her spring collection kicks off with My Kind Of Cool Aid a "purple/gray creme polish with a delicate shimmer." I normally babble first, but I'm so excited with this polish that I have to rush right on to the pictures!

The Lovely Bottle - Isn't that some pretty font?

Sunlight - Looks Gray

Indirect Sunlight - Looks Gray with a Touch of Lavender

Lamp - Looks Grayish Lavender.
Under fluorescents, it looks even more completely purple.

The brush is long and flexible and the polish formula is just right, so My Kind of Cool Aid flowed on my nails without pooling or drag.

Now it's time for enthusiastic babbling... I didn't even need a top coat with My Kind of Cool Aid because it dried so fast and shiny. Really fast. After putting on other polishes that claim to be top speed, 50 seconds, quick dry, express finish, and all of that, this polish actually dried faster than all of them without even claiming it would. I wonder if that was planned or just a happy surprise resulting from an awesome formula. I eventually put a top coat on because I love this shade and I want my mani to survive weekend housecleaning.

My Kind of Cool Aid isn't a duochrome, but this purple/gray color - it's a chameleon! Depending on the lighting, it ranges from a light gray to an edgy gravender to a medium dusty lavender. I kept checking my nails all night to see what color it looked like and it was slightly different every time I looked. The delicate shimmer looks mostly silver except for direct sunlight where it looks multicolor. Even the shimmer changes color.

I can't think of one thing I don't like about this polish. I don't have another color that even comes close to resembling this shade, the formula is ridiculously easy to work with, it's B3 and Camphor Free, the bottle looks pretty, and it arrived quickly in recycled mail packaging. I think the cotton ball initiative is brilliant. Maria has great customer service, so don't let international borders stop you from thinking about ordering a bottle for yourself.

Living Water and Iconic, the other shades in the spring collection, look equally unique and awesome. I can't wait for more polishes from Cult Nails!!

Milani Silver Dazzle

After I found Gems, I took a better look at the other polishes in the Milani Rockstar Heavy Glitters collection. I love dark gray polishes. I've always liked the shade before, but lately I have to have a polish if it's charcoal, gunmetal, or steel, so I picked up Silver Dazzle.

Silver Dazzle is a charcoal gray glitter with silver and black microglitter throughout. It dries rough and dark like fresh asphalt, but it becomes a cool almost-blue shade with a shiny topcoat. In the sunlight, it looks like it has blue and green sparkles at times, but there isn't any blue glitter in this polish. It's all gray sparkly goodness!

Here it is with one full coat and one touch up coat of polish and Gelous + Poshe on top.


Indoor Lighting - No Flash - It leans so blue inside!

Sunlight - More obvious Charcoal Base with Blue/Green Sparkles
Blurred & Focused to show off the Sparkle

After seeing the fabulous-ity of Silver Dazzle, I really really want Purple Gleam, too. I'm so glad Milani is going to be making this collection part of their permanent line this year. Glitter for everyone!

My coworkers have renamed this polish, too - it's now Steel Magnolias (but I've really been calling it Be Steel My Heart in my head -shhhh....)

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.