GlitterDaze Minty Mojito, Flirtini, and April Rain

I finally jumped on the Indie Polish bandwagon. Well, at least I'm just now on the Indie Polish Buying bandwagon. I do have my own Etsy shop set up (www.etsy.com/shop/PaintBoxPolish if you're interested!) but these three GlitterDaze polishes are the first I've bought. They are beautiful, aren't they? They are part of the Simply Spring Collection.

Minty Mojito first caught my eye because my friend is getting married in a few weeks, and I'm a bridesmaid. It's pretty much expected of me to have crazy nails, and this color matches her green perfectly. Plus it has green and gold sparkles. How can you go wrong? The above is 3 thin coats of color topped with Seche Vite and it dried very smooth and shiny. It also wore like iron.

Flirtini reminds me of cartoon cupcakes. You know, the ones with pink icing and sprinkles? It's such a cute polish! This photo is 3 thin coats (but I think I forgot the third on my index finger) with Seche Vite. It was still smooth, but not as smooth as Minty Mojito. Wear time wasn't quite as good either, but I got about 2 days before my first chip, which is pretty decent for the amount of hand washing I do.

The last of the polishes I got from GlitterDaze is April Rain. It's rather poetic in that I wore it on a very rainy, gross day in April. It is a beautiful blue that was not as opaque as the others. If I were to use it again, I think I would layer it over a light blue to preserve polish. The above photo is 4 coats with Seche Vite. It really didn't last that long, but I find that always happens with me when I use more than 3 coats of color.

Overall, I'm very happy with Sana's polishes. All of the Simply Spring polishes are named after cocktails, and she has thoughtfully included recipes in each polish description. :) The GlitterDaze shop is here, and her full sized polishes are $8.50 and minis are $4.50. She also sells her polishes in sets.

Ulta Little Black Dress

This is another polish that came in my package from Bestie.Ulta Little Black Dress is a deep black creme packed with irregular silver, blue, and pink/purple micro glitter. It is very dense and was opaque after one coat. It is difficult to capture the depth in this via photo, but it is beautiful! If the shimmer in China Glaze's Smoke and Ashes showed as nicely as the shimmer in LBD, I think there would be many, many happy people!

2 coats of Little Black Dress

I also wanted to note that The Swatchaholic wrote a really interesting post about the shimmer in Smoke and Ashes and why it sort of disappears on the nail after applying topcoat. She talks about the possibility that since quick dry top coats like Poshe and Seche Vite dissolve the polish a bit to meld it into one layer, the black base gets swiped over the glass flecks. Very interesting. I love chemistry! Sometimes...

Nail mail! (and I've got awesome friends)

I had a generally not fun day today and came home to a package from England in my mailbox. Tristam and Dragon arrived! I did a happy dance into the house when my son told me I had another package in the house. I literally squealed, "it's Gail's black label OPIs!" DH has decided that I must now have every color imaginable and surely I don't need more nail polish. Heh, heh.

Holy cow dear readers... I got 27 black label OPIs, 4 Sinful Colors, 2 Sally Hansens,1 China Glaze Crackle, and my A Englands. I am a happy blogger. I think I'm gonna go roll around in some polish bottles...

I haven't even begun to really sift through these

nails inc. The Boltons

This polish is one I got at Sephora during my trip to Chicago. I was eyeballing butter LONDON Knees Up at Ulta, but didn't get it. We went to Sephora and were checking out the Nail Bar and this shiny one caught my eye. It is the same deep red with a fine foil finish as Knees Up. I don't think they are dupes, but they are very close. And they nails inc. price of $9.50 is more appealing to the wallet than the $14.00 of bL.

2 coats of The Boltons in artifical light, no flash

The Boltons with flash

These photos are two coats with no top coat.

China Glaze Magnetix - Pull Me Close & Attraction

Thanks so much to Bestie for grabbing up these polishes and the China Glaze magnet for me! I saw swatches of this collection on Scrangie's blog, and knew I had to have Pull Me Close and Attraction. On a side note, the names in this set are awesome! Very magnet-y. :)

Pull Me Close is a cornflower blue base with black magnetic particles. I did each nail in a different pattern so you can see how they look. My index finger is a starburst pattern, the middle finger is a diagonal stripe, and ring finger is a chevron pattern.

Attraction has a glittery grey base with black magnetic particles. This one caught my eye because of the large glitter particles. I haven't seen a magnetic polish like this one yet.  Again, I used all three designs in this mani to show the differences in them.

I've seen lots of complaints about the China Glaze magnet being weak. I thought the patterns were very clear with Pull Me Close, but not so much with Attraction. Maybe it's more to do with the polish itself than the magnet.

I did read yesterday that China Glaze is releasing new colors and a different magnet. I'm excited to see it because it seems that everyone is releasing magnetic polishes but using the same patterns. I saw a fishnet pattern that nails inc. is releasing and it looks super cool.

China Glaze Prismatics Collection Swatches

I passed up on the Prismatic polishes in Chicago - I was distracted by all the pretty, but couldn't leave them behind at Sally's when they have polishes Buy 2 Get 1 Free. (That deal is good on all polishes all month long, BTW.) I didn't get the whole collection, but picked up one of each of the three they had in stock.

The Prismatic Collection is China Glaze's Spring 2012 release. It a collection of duochrome glitters. Extremely dense, tiny glitter that shifts from one color to another and larger, multi-colored round glitter in a clear base. The shift is subtle in most of the colors, but it's definitely there. Swatch photos do not do justice for these colors. They must been seen in person to be appreciated. 

First up is Liquid Crystal, which shifts from blue to purple. There is a smattering of silver, gold, green, pink, and orange glitter. Liquid Crystal is the most obvious duochrome of the three polishes I purchased, and is definitely something special. 

Next up is Polarized, which is a pretty silver that doesn't really shift much. The larger glitter in this one is yellow, pink, orange, and green.

Prism is the last polish of the group I picked up, and it is a purple holo that shifts to a light blue with chunky pink, blue, green, orange, silver, and gold glitter.

All of the swatches are 2 coats of polish with no top coat. They are very dense and very dramatic. Application wasn't difficult at all. They all flowed off the brush and onto the nail quite nicely. I imagine a thick topcoat would make these look even better. I will probably pick up more of these if I find them out and about.

OPI DS Extravagance

Oh, DS Extravagance... You are fabulous. And distracting. And holo. And magenta/purple. *sigh*

I grabbed this one up at the Ulta in Chicago with Bestie. I debated whether or not I really wanted to spend $12 on an OPI polish, so I did what I always do. Pulled out my phone and googled it! I didn't even have to enlarge any pictures. The teeny thumbnails on my screen were enough to seal the deal. 

The formula is wonderful. It has the OPI Pro Wide brush, which can be a little awkward on smaller nails. The polish itself applied like butter and was almost opaque at one coat. I have two coats here, and I find that adds a really great depth. 

And I have tons of pictures. You're welcome.

Full Sun

Full sun, but blurred to see the holo sparkles

Sparkles!

Sunny, blurred macro shot.

Essie No More Film - Resort Collection 2012

This would be one of three polishes I got during my marathon Chicago shopping venture with Bestie. This is the only polish from 2012's Resort Collection that caught my eye. I love purple and this is unlike any purple in my collection. 

It is a very dense indigo creme that is definitely a one coater. I used two coats for the photos below because one chips very quickly on me. Though it is extremely opaque, the formula doesn't level very well with one coat. 

I really try not to use a flash in my photos, but No More Film is one of those colors that is very difficult to capture accurately. This picture is pretty close. In low light, the color looks like a very deep plum. I tried to get a picture that would convey that, but every shot looked horrible. So, I think you should go buy it and see for yourself. :)

On a different note, I see that this is NPW's 150th post! For those of you who read, thanks for hanging out with us for the past year and a half. :)

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Hello from Chicago!

So I ended up going on a whirlwind weekend trip to see Bestie in Chicago. We're having tons of fun being silly in Ulta and Sephora. I'm excited because I snatched up DS Extravagance.

And Gail, we saw Jade Is The New Black at the Schaumberg Ulta (the one by Woodfield Mall). I'm thinking you said you were looking for it.

Essie Too Too Hot

This polish is from last summer's Brazilliant collection, but seems to be a dupe of Olé Caliente - which is from this spring's Essie collection. I've seen some argue that they are just close, not dupes. See what you think. I find it very buggy when a company releases polishes that are so similar this close together. These two came out less then a year apart. But, moving on... I felt like something bright and cheerful. Too Too Hot's red/coral/orange/pink-ness really fit the bill.

Essie's brush is very skinny and long, but it spreads very nicely. I never have to do very much clean up with them, which is always a plus.

I used two coats and got decent coverage, but there was definitely VNL. I've come to learn that I'd rather have some VNL than use a third coat in most cases.

Autism Awareness Day - Zoya Charla

I admittedly did not have this planned, but today is Autism Awareness Day, and I was wearing blue polish. I have some sweet, sweet patients (and their families) who live with this everyday, and it is a difficult condition to live with.

So, here is 2 coats of Zoya Charla, though I definitely should've used 3, VNL or not. This pic does not due this shade justice. It is incredibly sparkly, glittery, intense, and attention grabbing. One of those polishes that had toddlers petting my nails while I listened to their hearts. :)