Revlon Royal Cloak

This is the second polish of the set I picked up at Big Lots for $2. I was Googling like a mad woman in the aisle and saw all sorts of rave reviews online about this polish, so I snatched it up with a quickness. Then I put it on. Blech. Well, maybe not blech, but it wasn't as impressive as I'd hoped.

Royal Cloak is an opaque purple creme with small, clear-ish flakies. The formula wasn't bad at all, but the thing that made this polish stand out in the bottle was the flakies, and they lost their oomph on the nail and ended up looking like shimmer particles. Boo! Was it worth $1? Absolutely, but I still wish it were just a bit more fabulous.

2 coats Royal Cloak

OPI The Amazing Spider-Man Collection: Number One Nemesis Swatches

Number One Nemesis is the last of the Spider-Man polishes I picked up. It caught my eye and I snatched it right up, then when I got home, I wondered... Is this a dupe of Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous? In short, no it isn't. Lucerne-tainly is a similar color and finish, but it has a much cooler tone to it. Nemesis has a warmth to the base that makes it different and very nice.

3 coats with top coat and flash

I would advise thin coats and waiting a couple of minutes between. I think I could have gotten away with two coats, but I got inpatient and ended up with patchy areas. Next time I use this one, I think I'll try to use a matte top coat and see how it comes out.

Paint Box Polish... Making life confusing. :)

Hopefully things won't be too confusing... I am in the process of switching the name of this blog... and my twitter handle... and my pinterest account... and my facebook page. All to match the name of my Etsy store. I think it makes the most sense if I'm really going to give this polish making thing a go. I'm not expecting to make any real income from Paint Box polish by any means, but I figure I should put forth some effort, right? :)

I hope I don't lose any of you, but my new address will be paintboxpolish.com. Everything I read says Blogger makes the switch easy. Let's hope so, and I'll see you at the new digs!

OPI The Amazing Spider-Man Collection: Just Spotted the Lizard Swatches

This polish was the first in the collection to catch my eye when I first spotted the swatches over at Scrangie's blog. It was rumored to be a dupe for Chanel Peridot, and I believe it's been proven to be the case many times over. Application was a little tricky in that I had to be more careful than usual to avoid brush stroke marks. It wasn't as bad as I expected.

The photo below isn't that great is bad, but it does a decent job at showing the duochrome (multichrome?) effect. Gold is the dominant color that shifts to green and blue at the edges of the nail.

The photo below shows how this color shines in the light. It's really stunning and the photo does it no justice. One word of warning with this polish though... It has a foil finish that will show every flaw. I used a ridge-filling base coat and still missed a little bump on my ring finger. 

OPI White to Blue Gradient Mani and Super Bass Shatter.

Gradient manis and tutorials have been popping up everywhere, and as I said in my last post, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls was like a blank canvas mocking me and daring me to slap something fabulous on it. I spied this tutorial and decided to see how it would look with $OPI Slushied from the Glee collection. 

I think it turned out really great! I am very happy with my first ever attempt. Next time I'll take care to keep the fading further up on the nail. I got so many compliments on this mani, even from folks who usually pay no attention to things like this. A few people even accused me of pulling their leg when I said I did it myself.

Then I decided that I hadn't yet used my OPI Super Bass Shatter from the Nicki Minaj collection, and the purple would probably compliment the blue and white nicely. I was also very happy with what the top coat added.

My Boyfriend Scales Walls - OPI The Amazing Spiderman Collection swatch

I can't remember where I first saw swatches of this collection, but I remember being drawn to this shade. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of stark polishes, but I kept coming back to this one. I chose three from this collection (MBSW, Just Spotted The Lizard, and Number One Nemesis) but this was the first I wore.

MBSW is white, but it's a little bit dulled. Maybe more of a very, very light grey rather than a white. This keeps it from looking like your standard middle school White-Out manicure. :) I have been looking at these nails all day, and I find that it's like looking at a blank canvas. I keep thinking of all of the nail art things I can try on it.

The above photo is two coats over a ridge-filling base coat with a layer of Seche Vite thrown over. The first coat was a little thin, but the second coat leveled nicely and gave great coverage. It took a little bit longer to dry than I'm used to. I dented my thumb a tiny bit about 2 hours after I finished the mani.

Revlon Devil's Candy

Revlon Devil's Candy is a bright red jelly from their Fall 2011 Masquerade Collection. It isn't anything special or unique, but is a very classic, warm-toned red. Below are 2 coats over Orly Bonder and under Seche Vite Quick Dry Top Coat.

So why did I buy it if it's nothing special? I mean, I do own several reds. Several red jellies, in fact. I got it because I happened to read over on Nouveau Cheap that there were $3 philosophy cosmetics and $2 Revlon 2-packs of polish at Big Lots. Big Lots? What? Yep. If you have one near you, don't discount it for cheap beauty supplies.

I went to check it out and found a rack of $3 philosophy powders, eye shadows, blushes, lip glosses, and brighteners. Also, several Revlon polishes. This one came with Royal Cloak, which is a totally cool purple with clear-ish/silver flakies. I'm stoked to try it.

A England Dragon

This is the second A England polish I received recently. Like Tristam, it is a beautiful holo. Dragon is from Adina's The Legend collection. Dragon was definitely thicker than Tristam, but still applied nicely. I made sure to leave a few minutes between coats to prevent drag that can be associated with very thin or thick polishes. 

Below are 2 coats of Dragon topped with Seche Vite and I got average wear out of this one before my first chip. The brush is very thick and holds a lot of polish. I much prefer this to a thin, skinny brush. The cap is shiny plastic that is lighter than I expected, but very comfortable.

A England is available here for 9 GBP. (P.S. anyone know how to type the pound sterling sign on a laptop? I tried the fn-alt-0-1-6-3 thing without any luck!)

A-England Tristam

A quick note to apologize for sporadic posting. I was in my dear friend's wedding last weekend, had her bachelorette party the weekend before, Mother's Day this past weekend, and am working extra late shifts at work to cover said dear friend while she's honeymooning. All leading to a very tired blogger! I'm getting to old for all of this action. :) But enough of my complaining...

I have heard and seen such beautiful things about A-England polishes, this one in particular, and I have been so frustrated because it is never in stock!

Adina, the genius behind this brand, posted on Twitter that she was taking pre-orders for the next batch of Tristam, Lady of the Lake, St George, and Dragon. These are her most popular polishes, so I took advantage. I did show restraint, though. I only bought 2!

Tristam is a deep navy polish with a scattered holo. It reminds me of the night sky on a clear night in the country when you can see all of the stars. The formula was like butter! Flowed smoothly on the nail in 2 coats and was so easily controlled that I needed no clean-up. Enjoy!

Pretty & Polished Martian Salad

The other polish that came from my last Etsy order is Martian Salad. It's a pretty, light kelly-green holo.

Pretty color, but not as strong a holo as I hoped. The formula was thin, requiring 3 coats. It dries quickly, which is a good thing because if you are too impatient, you'll get bald spots. The following is 3 coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Pretty & Polished Swing

Today I have another indie polish for you! This is Swing from Pretty & Polished. You may have seen her fabulous polish Jawbreaker somewhere in the nail blogosphere. It's pretty popular right now, and with good reason. 

Swing is a fabulously squishy red jelly with large black, white, and silver hex glitter and smaller black and white glitter. It's the first polish I've experienced in which I've had to work to get the glitter where I want. It was rather difficult as I bought a mini bottle and it isn't as easy to pull pieces out with the brush, but I think I did an okay job. I contemplated pouring some out to make it easier, but didn't want to waste. 

The photos below are with 3 coats of color and Seche Vite top coat. I love how you get a jelly sandwich look with this one polish.

Right hand

My not-often-blogged left hand!

Swing is available here, as well as some great glitters, jellies, and holos. It looks like her store is due to be restocked today or tomorrow.