Studio M Nouveau Vintage

Nouveau Vintage is a lovely, shimmery, olive green polish with a pink base. I loved the look in the bottle, but wasn't such a fan of it on my nails. It was rather sheer, needing 3 coats for full coverage. I found this at Meijer, but is the same as Color Club Nouveau Vintage.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Spun for You

I love these things! My friend gifted them to me and they turned out fabulously. Sadly, I broke a nail after wearing them for 3 days. :( I was able to carefully trim all my nails down to the same length and save the mani.

I have gotten so many compliments on these! The kids at work absolutely love them. After 3 days I had only minimal tip wear, but after filing down, tip wear is gone!

I got a Nails Inc haul from Sephora, but am patiently waiting until the strips get worn (10-14 days usually) to swatch them.

Orly Fowl Play

This is from Orly's Birds of a Feather collection. It's the only one I had my eye on, and my lovely friend at Sally's called me when she saw it in their shipment. It came in a set with Lucky Duck (which is very similar to Jade is the New Black) and Peacock Blue (which is similar to Bluey). Those two may find new homes, but this one isn't going anywhere! *ETA: Looking back, Lucky Duck is lighter than JITNB.

Fowl Play has tiny silver/gold shimmer, larger pink/purple glitter, and warm-toned flakies suspended in a very pretty purple jelly base. It's rather sheer, but three coats gives it very nice depth. I tried to choose a picture that showed all of those elements. It does not do this polish justice. It reminds me of a galaxy manicure. You should definitely snatch it up if you see it in the wild!

Zoya Morgan

I think I've found a new favorite! It's been a toss up between Zoya Marina & Sooki for a while, but Morgan is sooooo pretty! No sparkle, no metallics, just good old fashioned cream polish. This is two light coats. Could have done one heavy coat. I've been struggling to find a top coat I like and think I've finally found it. Surprisingly, it's just Sally Hansen Dries Instantly. I really like it & have never had a shrinkage problem. Plus, with coupons, it's way cheap! Anyway, I love Morgan! Next up (as soon as I get a chip) I'll be putting Zoya Kissy on top. It's part of the new Gems & Jewels. Bar glitter is new to me, so we'll see!

OPI Muppets Animal-istic

This is my second (and last) Muppets polish. The photo below is a little bit dark, but I think it shows the glow of this polish very well. It is a pinkish, coral-y red this is full of shiny, glass-fleck particles. It is so bright! This polish reminds me of $OPI Express Yourself to Yourself (from the Glee collection), but with more red.

Application was wonderful. Excellent coverage with 2 thin coats. I had a hard time keeping the polish off of my skin at the sides of my nail. I usually do okay with OPI's ProWide brush, so maybe I landed a wonky one.

I just couldn't pass up this polish as it reminds me of my father in law. One of his many nicknames is Animal. As in Muppets Animal. He has an Animal patch sewn on his badass Harley-Davidson leather vest. He is a pretty badass guy himself. :)

Zoya Zanna

Yeah! I'm back! After a brief break because my nails were going through a terrible peeling stage, I'm finally able to paint them again! Good thing too since I finally got my B1G1F BACKORDERED Zoyas today!

I absolutely love this one! I wasn't too excited about it in the bottle (it looked a little mauve-y), but I let my 3 year old pick which one of my new polishes to try out first and this is the one she chose. I gotta say, she has a good eye! It's a nice (as Pam would say) palette cleanser after some of the crazy colors. It's also a great pink for fall. Muted and subtle. As always, love the Zoya polish! This one only took one coat! Definitely a keeper!

OPI Muppets Collection Warm & Fozzie

I wanted this polish from the time I saw the first bottle shots. I don't have anything like it in my stash.

It has a sheer greenish-brown base, but is packed with tiny glitter particles. I see pale gold, dark gold, green, and red glitter. The first coat is rather sparse, but the second coat makes it pretty opaque. I really like glitters because they are pretty forgiving as far as coverage goes. The shininess detracts from any bald spots. I am very happy with this polish and am getting excellent wear with Zoya Anchor and Poshe topcoat. The finish is very smooth. I'm so glad I was able to get my paws on this one!

Essie Chinchilly

There is an interesting story behind this polish. I got a coupon in the mail for $2 off an Essie polish from Meijer, so I went in to check out their display. They have a good selection at this store, which is not the case for most Essie retailers in my town. So, I decide on Chinchilly and am trying to find a bottle without a gunked-up top. There was one of the OG style bottles (raised E on the cap), and I decided to get it. When I got to the register, it rang up on clearance for $1.99. The cashier told me they marked down all of the original-style bottles! Am I going to head back and dig through the display? Yes!
I'm pretty happy with the polish itself. It was pretty thin, but I got great coverage with 3 thin coats. I used Zoya Anchor for the base coat and Seche Vite for the top coat and got 4 days of wear before my first tiny chip. In most lighting, it looks like a dark grey, but there is some purple in there, so that pulls through almost all the time. If a polish has any purple at all, it'll definitely show on my hands!

Wet N Wild Blackmail

Sorry for the break guys. :( My trusty PowerBook G4 bit it for realz last week and doing non-work computer stuff made me sad. I'm thinking of getting a shiny new netbook. People I know who have gotten one in the last few months have loved them. Every one I have looked at has had a bigger hard drive and more RAM than my old lappy anyway...

So! Polish! Abbie let me know that CVS had a 30% off deal for Wet N Wild a few weeks ago, so I went to browse and this one caught my eye. It's a very shiny, opaque black with tiny blue/grey and orange glitter. Nice! It's fall-y and Halloween-y. A very big hit with my patients.

It was very difficult to get a good, representative shot of it on my nails. When I get my new computer, I'll add a bottle shot. The glitter is much more visible there.

The brush is great. Wide and flat like the OPI ProWide brushes, but not as long. It covered very nicely in 2 coats.

I like this polish a lot, especially considering that fact that it was less than $2. Maybe less than $1.

Zoya Sooki vs. OPI Color So Hot It Berns

I've had Sooki for ages, and remember thinking that it looked like Berns. The last time I wore Sooki, I decided to do a comparison photo before I removed it. The photo below (index to pinky) is Berns, Sooki, Berns, Sooki. I call dupe. :)

The price is very similar unless you catch Sooki in one of Zoya's fabulous promos. I also prefer the formula of Sooki. Berns was a watery 3 coater and Sooki was completely opaque in 1. All in all, if you have one, no need for the other.

Zoya Valerie

Post mummy, I decided to go with an old favorite, Zoya Valerie. I believe I've posted this before, but don't think I had the greatest photo. This one is by no means awesome either, but I think it's more color accurate.
Valerie is a red-based purple with purple shimmer. It's a very warm shade and reminds me of raspberry jam or raspberry cobbler.

And now I'm thinking of dessert, so am going to go raid my stash of pumpkin ice cream. Have a great week, folks!