Sky High Top (or ALMOST Honolulu Blue)

My Lions made the playoffs this year, and this blue shimmer from China Glaze was how I celebrated. Be aware: this color is so bold that you WILL get looks and comments from nail polish muggles. But it's fab and makes you feel good in the rather unfestive mid-January.

Loft-y Ambitions

Loft-y Ambition came from the China Glaze Metro Fall 2011 collection. This color is a deep wine shimmer color -- kind of like a nice Malbec. And now I'm thirsty.

Meet Me at My Mom's House

Today I have for you OPI's Meet Me on the Star Ferry. This went on pretty easily, has a cool micro glitter in an already shimmery base. But... it's mauve. As was everything my mother ever wore growing up. I never saw her wear nail polish that wasn't mauve... in fact I think I still haven't! She, of course, loves this color. So if you want to find it, you'll have to go to her house.

Nite Owl

I somehow managed to only pick up one of the Orly "Birds of a Feather" collection, despite great intentions of getting the whole thing. But oh, if there was just one... I'm glad it was Nite Owl.

This is a great work-appropriate shade of beige with a lovely silver microshimmer running through it. I've decided that microshimmers are my favorite finish of polish. This and Smooth Sailing were my favorite polishes last year, and they have a very similar finish to them. Two pictures for your viewing pleasure below.

Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

I had an occasion to dress up in September, and I went and got my nails did. Because I was rockin' a bright blue dress with sparkly gunmetal shoes, I went with a sparkly gunmetal polish. I heart the matchy, matchy.

Lucerne-tainly look Marvelous is from OPI's Switzerland collection from fall of 2010. Its a shimmery gunmetal grey -- maybe a foil? It's close if it's not a true foil. It is SUCH a great color for us pale, cool-toned girls. Pictures below.

Zoya Jem

When I saw the previews for the Zoya Mirrors collection, I knew I needed to have Jem. Then I found a blogger who was having a mystery grab bag blog sale (10 for 27!) and this gem came in it (hah, Jem/Gem!)

Jem is a lovely purpley-red color with a lot of shimmery goodness. It pulls redder on me than most people (which is odd, because I tend to pull things bluer). Pictures 'neath:

Branding Iron Is the Hotness.

In one of my very first e-tailer purchases, I bought China Glaze's Branding Iron. Despite the fact that it was spring at the time, it caught my eye and I thought I'd wait and use it as a fall mani color. Well, it turns out I'm crap at waiting and wore it in mid August. I got a ton of compliments on it, and it's really and truly a special color. I went to transdesign to see if they still have it, and it seems they're out of stock. 8ty8beauty does still show it on their site (at least as of last Thursday).

The formula was great, and I'm a big, big fan of China Glaze brushes. The color is a deep red shimmer that leans more towards rust, rather than burgundy. It's one of those "glows from within" colors that I'm a HUGE fan of. HIGHLY recommend.

Perfect Kiss

I've been a fan of most of the Misa products that I've tried. I found this past spring's Wishes collection to be an exercise in magic. Light, sparkly colors? Some of which seem to shimmer in multiple colors? IN. I've bought some of their earlier stuff as well -- Dirty Sexy Money was a big pedicure crowd pleaser, and I've posted about my adoration for Spinning Out of Control on this very blog (and it's my twitter avatar -- @tinybottle if you're interested). So when I was creating a new haul, it seemed only natural that Misa would be represented. I bought two colors that were new to me: Perfect Kiss and It's You!

Today I'm reviewing Perfect Kiss. This color is a deep, bright fucshia with a lot of shimmer. I had a bit more trouble than normal with the formula on this -- it came out really thin for some reason. The color was nice, and had great depth, but I'm not crazy about it. I think my newly-formed nail polish obsession has me "over" the brighter pinks already.

Picture below contains blur to best see the shimmer and the depth of color.

Sea How Far You Go

About a month ago when I was going through my crazy nail polish shopping spree, I saw some Nicole by OPI shades on clearance at my local Target. A couple I was ambivalent about, but I had to grab this beauty.

To me, Sea How Far You Go looks like a gold doubloon that's been sitting at the bottom of the ocean for centuries. The gold has darkened and has gained a green patina around it. I love this color and it was one of my most complimented colors of the summer.

The shape of the bottle, admittedly is odd, but the formula and brush are both easy to work with. Overall, I'd say grab this lovely shade before it's forever gone from your local Target.

Orly Rage

I find I delight in Orly products for the most part (one sadly undelightful manicure post will be coming up shortly). This was one of the good ones. Rage is a champagne with multi-color sparkles in it. It went on smooth and light and looked good for nearly an entire week with only minor tip wear. I got this from Sally's last month on sale for 4 dollars. I'd recommend them to anyone who likes sparkly neutrals.

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.

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!