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.

Starting Out...

I might not be the best photographer or have the biggest stash, but I do have a passion for polish. And it's a contagious passion. I got caught up in home manicures when I was little and I started passing out little nail treats when I got older. Shaping and buffing for a friend here, some cuticle treatment for a buddy there, and polishes for amigas who are across the country from me now. It's time to take sharing to the next level with a blog.

Tomorrow I'll show you what I wore all weekend on my vacation to celebrate my wedding anniversary...

Viva Polish!