Haul!

My nailsupplies.us haul arrived and it is a beaut! I am wearing Misa's Perfect Kiss today, and have taken pictures. Just need to get them uploaded to the computer which may not happen until Monday. This weekend, I am excited to say, I have practice with my rock 'n roll band almost all weekend. WOO!

Lusting for Fall

Because I like to see the objects of my affection in one place, I am linking to several bloggers' reviews of the polish companies' fall collections.

BB Couture: Eye Candy Women's and Men's collection. Links go to Kellie Gonzo's site.
Lusting after: Busty Bombshell, Playboy, Sexy Centerfold, Heavenly Hunk

Chanel: Illusions d'Ombre de Chanel. Link goes to Vampy Varnish
Lusting after: Peridot & Graphite

China Glaze: Metro Collection Link goes to The Polishaholic's review.
Lusting after: a few. Because I am new to the polish psychosis, I ordered the entire collection through nailsupplies.us. At present I am "patiently" waiting for my shipping confirmation.

Color Club: Back to Boho. Link goes to Scrangie's review.
Lusting after: When I first saw the press release, I thought I wanted the entire thing. After seeing these colors outside the bottle, I'm revising my shopping list to Artsy Crafty, New Bohemian, Nomadic in Nude, Noveau Vintage, Redical Gypsy, Shabby Drab.

Essie: Brand New Bag Collection. Link goes to Lacquer Lover's review.
Lusting After: The Essie fan girl in me suddenly wants the whole thing. Carry On, Glamour Purse, Lady Like and Power Clutch are my faves. (four out of six?)

Misa: Hip to my Jive Collection. I haven't seen any swatches yet; however based on the press release, I'm
Lusting After: Bop Till You Drop and Catch a Flick

OPI: Touring America Collection part one and part two reviews by Ommorphia Beauty Bar.
Lusting After: I'm SO not into corals in the fall. I generally live in them in the late spring and summer, but I just can't with fall... that said, I love Color to Diner For, Honk if you Love OPI, Road House Blues, Suzi Takes the Wheel, A-Taupe the Space Needle and Uh Oh, Roll Down the Window.

Orly: Birds of a Feather Collection. Link goes to Jaztee's review.
Lusting after: Nite Owl, Lucky Duck, Sea Gurl, Fowl Play (possibly a dupe for OPI's Merry Midnight)and Sweet Peacock.

Rescue Beauty Lounge: L'Oiseau de Feu Collection. Link goes to All Lacquered Up.
Lusting After: Pizzicato and Piu Mosso.

Zoya: Smoke and Mirrors Collection. Link goes to Never Unpolished review.
Lusting after: Anja, Dree, Nimue, Yara, Neeka and JEM. Holy cats, JEM.

Essie Brand New Bag Collection: Carry On

Last night I had bowling and it completely jacked up my nails. Because I needed a few supplies and I was in a Meijer, I wandered over to their nail supply section and found they had some of the new Essie collection sitting there. I immediately grabbed Power Clutch and Carry On (also? Trophy Wife) for some late night application.

The color is a dark, dark burgundy with some purple undertones. It's vampy. And it dried darker than it looks in the bottle. I've been accused of having goth nails today. But I care not because the color is gorgeous.

The application was smooth, per usual for Essie cremes. The color has a great shine to it. I'm wearing this on a hot July day, but can imagine rocking it out on a cool day in October. This is the kind of polish that I definitely associate with fall/winter.

The pictures below are two coats, no base or top coat.

Accent Toe Pedicure - Warning: TOE PIC.

So a goodly half of the polishes I wear are only ever on my toes. And this feels like a waste in terms of swatching. So today, with fair warning, I give you my accent nail pedicure. I did the pictures super close-up, taking only two toes' worth of picture and cropping out the rest of the foot. I know people can be foot squeamish and I want to respect that as best I can.

The main color is China Glaze's Bahamian Escape -- the color applied like a dream, self-leveling and achieving opacity in two coats. I would call this color a bright sky blue creme.

On my second toe, I added three coats of Sinful Colors' Pearl Harbor. I understand it's been discontinued; however, I was able to find it recently at my nearest Meijer. Pearl Harbor was a bit of a bear to apply. It was goopy and uneven (even after a judicious shaking). While the sparkles were absolutely gorgeous in the bottle, they're a little underwhelming on the nail. Perhaps it's because my feet spend most of their time 5' away from my eyes, but I just feel like the reward wasn't really worth it.

Have you had any luck with layering Pearl Harbor?

Essie Da Bush

I don't know how it happened, but suddenly I am an Essie fan girl. I bought my first Essie years ago. It was a sheer shimmery concoction and I wasn't wowed. I don't like sheer, and I had no idea from the bottle that it would be. It rubbed me the wrong way and I didn't go back until recently. The new purchases have been phenomenal, formula-wise. The colors seem like they're edgier than I remember from years' past. Case in point: Da Bush from this past spring's resort collection.

Da Bush is a gorgeous sage green creme that's been dusted up enough that I would call it an edgy neutral. I'm wearing it in my office today and I don't feel at all like I'm taking a risk. The creme formula self-leveled and went on like a dream, achieving opacity and in two coats, making easy for newbies and those with unsure hands to get a great looking manicure.

The nail blogosphere has tested often, and this color appears to be a dupe for OPI's Stranger Tides. Either way, full of win.

E-Tailer Alert!

China Glaze's Metro Collection has hit the e-tailers. I just picked up uptown and downtown for 17.94 a piece. Grabbed a couple of Misa polishes as well just because. I'm testing nailsupplies.us for the first time. Let's hope they're as excellent as transdesign!

Apparently it will take two days for my beauties to reach me. Please be Wednesday, please be Wednesday...

Essie Steel-ing the Scene

I'm a silver fan from way back. I used to rock silver Mary Jane's to school back in the 90s... when I was in high school (yuck... it's not even the aughts anymore). My very first OPI was this silvery sparkly concoction whose name escapes me now.

Thus endeth my silver-love resume.

So you can imagine my excitement when I found Essie's Steel-ing the Scene in my local Ulta as part of their "buy two get one free" promotion (which was still happening when I was there on Monday -- get thee to an Ulta). Its flippin' gorgeous in the bottle.

Unfortunately, it was less so on my nails. It has a really cool yellow undertone you don't frequently see in a silver. It gives it kind of a weathered-metal look and it's really unexpected in cool. I'd go as far as to say it's AWESOME. On someone who has warm-toned skin. On me? Kind of lobstery. You will see for yourself in pictures.

The formula itself was thin, but buildable. On the images below, the pointer finger had four coats, middle finger had three thick coats, ring finger had two and the pinkie had three thin coats. OPI natural base coat and Seche Vite (which once again shrank my tips) atop. One application note: be careful when applying as this color (like most metallics) has a tendency to be brush strokey if you're not careful.

Sally Hansen DVD

This one is an oldie but a goodie.

Sally Hansen DVD is in my most favorite of color veins: the periwinkle or "blurple." This color is really sheer and is great as a top layer (I tried it over Commander in Chic long before I started polish blogging and the results were delightful).

The pictures below are three coats with some seriously visible nail line. One is natural light and one is blur to really get a feel for the color and sparkle.

Misa Genie in This Bottle

Oh Misa, my love affair continues...

Genie in This Bottle comes from Misa's Wishes collection. You can see the Touch the Rainbow post for another gem from Wishes. Like the rest of the collection, Genie in This Bottle is a shimmery pastel. This one is tricky, though. In certain lights she looks purple, in others she looks pink, in others still, light gray with multi-color sparkles. I've seen her described elsewhere as a green with purple and pink sparkly bits. I think that may be the most apt description. Regardless, my camera had a hard time capturing her accurately as she changes quite a bit.

This polish comes in the wondrous square bottle. I find I love the Misa brushes more than is reasonable for this type of thing. Genie in This Bottle's formula is pretty thick, but not unmanageably so. I understand that's fairly common for the pastel princess polishes. Regardless, she's a beauty and worth any small amount of extra application trouble.

Images below are two coats with OPI Natural base and Seche Vite top coats.

Zoya Gemma

It's my first Zoya! And it won't be my last. The formula was dream-worthy (if a bit thin).

Gemma is a green creme with a blue shimmer running through it. I will say said shimmer is far more apparent int he bottle than it is on the nail, but in light you definitely see it.

The color did not stay nicely on my nail very long; however, this was during that dark period where I was without my base and top coats. Since found, so I'm hoping to do another Zoya run with their new Smoke & Mirrors collection... and full mani madness.

Perfect Pink Quest Part 2: Sinful Colors Glass Pink

My quest for the perfect baby pink continues with Sinful Colors' Glass Pink.

Sinful Colors is a delightfully inexpensive polish brand that can be found in myriad drugstores and your nearest Target. I picked this up for less than 2 dollars and figured it would be worth a try in my hunt for a sparkly (not shimmery), opaque baby pink.

The bottle is rounded and the brush was easy to maneuver for coverage. The formula was nice enough for what it was... a sheer pink with micro glitter. The color was nice. But it was very, very sheer. The pictures below are four coats and there is some SERIOUS VNL.

Close... SO close. And perhaps if I layered it over an opaque white, it would've been exactly what I'm looking for. But this quest is not about shorcuts. This quest is for the perfect stand alone pink. I know you're out there...

Hard Candy Beetle

At my heart, I love sparkles...and shininess. Also? Duochrome.

Thus, it was only a matter of time until I stumbled across Beetle. I'd seen pictures and eventually darkened Walmart's doors just to go get the stuff. It was totally worth it. This stuff flips in every kind of light and it's gorgeous.

It has my newly-discovered love of the square bottle with a decent, easy-to-control brush. The formula is thin and sheer. The pictures below are four coats (no top coat because my Seche was temporarily lost). I should've taken video because the pictures cannot begin to capture how flippy the colors are.

Warning: Seche Shrinks Cashmere

Late last week, my nails were Orly Rage. I didn't get a picture before I destroyed them with painting and manual labor. Whoopsy. It was sparkly foiled deliciousness, and I will certainly wear it again. And shoot pictures immediately upon completion...

I decided I was digging the more neutral color and replaced my ravaged mani with Soft as Cashmere from Color Club's Untamed Luxury collection. This was my first Color Club color and I was generally pleased.

First off, I have decided that I really love square bottles. I feel like I can get a better grip on them than the round ones. This probably is partially why I'm lately obsessed with Misa and Essie. The brush felt thinner, stiffer and slightly more difficult to control than what I'm used to, but it wasn't severely detrimental. The formula itself was watery/thin, but built to opacity in three thin coats.

The color itself is a lovely taupe with green undertones. It is what I would call "Office Edgy." Nobody is going to ever give you a hard time for wearing this neutral, but it's a lot more fashion-forward than mannequin hands or a sheer pink.

I used OPI Natural base coat and Seche Vite top coat. The Seche seemed to have shrunk beneath my tips in an unappealing way. I think I'm finally going to have to cave and buy another good top coat (I have a Sally Hanson quick dry that seems to have no protective qualities to it).


With flash!


Without!

Smooth Sailing

So, for as long as I can remember, I've been a fan of nail polish. I saved my allowance for weeks and bought three shades of Wet & Wild when I was seven, and I configured them into different designs over and over (my mom thought more than three was unnecessary). When I was a teenager, the first inexpensive nail salon came to town and I was forever getting acrylic nails with fun new colors on. What I'm sayin' is... despite my recent addiction to the collecting of nail polishes, I've loved nail polish the overwhelming majority of my life.

Along the way, I've had specific colors I've loved! Midnight in Moscow immediately springs to mind... as does Chanel's Vamp. If it's deep and sparkly, there's a better than even chance that I've given it an "oooh!" whilst it's applied to my nails, and vainly preen my fingers to glance at it myriad times once it's on.

But I only thought I knew love.

Because when I saw Essie's Smooth Sailing (from their 2011 Summer Braziliant line) applied to my nails, I knew I'd found the one. The polish that, were I forced to monogamously wear one color for the rest of my life, I would commit to. This is my would-be nail hubs.

Examine the awesome:
1. It's a gorgeous color of periwinkle (honestly, the color itself is my most favorite color in the entire known universe).
2. It has gorgeous, gorgeous silver sparkly bits in it.
3. The application is a dream.


With some flash.


In the fading natural light of the day. Apparently sunset makes my hands all pink. That part's not cute... but the color of my nails certainly is!


Close Up. Look at that sparkly!

Binging, Orly Girly... and My New Quest

So despite not having worn quite a few of my polishes from the last few hauls, I went on a bit of an in-store binge at Walmart (Hard Candy called), Sally's and Ulta last week. I picked up the following:
Hard Candy - Beetle
Essie - Da Bush, Smooth Sailing & Steel-ing the Scene (wearing Smooth Sailing today and it's magical)
Orly - Girly (to be shown below!), Rage, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe & Toast the Couple
Zoya - Gemma

Behold the beauty:


Today, I have a swatch for Orly Girly. It's a light pink foil finish with pretty silver sparkles in it. The picture below is two coats, no base or top coat (because they were temporarily MIA after being displaced during a recent trip to Florida). It's still fairly sheer at two coats, but I think a third would've made it opaque. The formula is amazing. This was my very first ever Orly. And these four from this haul will certainly not be the last. It was a joy to apply.


I am, however, on the quest for my IDEAL LIGHT PINK. In my head I feel like I'm looking for a light pink full coverage glitter or opaque creme with a micro glitter of some kind. I feel like I've seen a lot of shimmers, straight cremes and metallic looks. If anyone reading has any ideas, I would LOVE to hear them.

Thanks for reading and for any suggestions!

Happy Canada Day!

I've always been a big, big fan of our neighbors to the north (or south, if you're from Metro Detroit). So in honor of their birthday, I did a Canada Day manicure.




The red nails are done with China Glaze Ruby Pumps (two coats) and the white nails are China Glaze Frosty (four coats). My Seche Vite has gone missing, so these are sans top coat... and still with an insane depth of sparkle!

So happy birthday, Canada! And happy Canada Day to my beloved Canadian.