SpaRitual Conduit and Rusted Lux - Swatches and Review

I spied the SpaRitual gold-infused polishes at Sephora when I went to Chicago to visit Bestie last year, but didn't want them for $12.50 a piece. However, when a friend on Twitter tweeted that she found them in a store for MUCH cheaper, I jumped on it!

Conduit is a warm, bronze-gold polish that has a beautiful foil finish. It was rather thin and watery, and these swatches are three coats with some visible nail line. I allowed a couple of minutes between each coat, but I think this one may have benefited from layering or a fourth coat.

I was very excited about Rusted Lux. SO excited about Rusted Lux. And so disappointed when I actually wore it. These photos are three coats with a good 2-3 minutes between each, and check out that bald spot on that first finger!

This photo shows the lovely rose-red base with that intense gold glass-fleck shimmer. So stunning in the bottle, but really a poor payoff on the nail. I may try it layered over a color like Zoya Kimber and see how that looks.

Isn't it pretty? *sigh*

My picks from the OPI James Bond collection - Live and Let Die and GoldenEye

OPI's Holiday collection this year is in celebration of fifty years of Bond... James Bond. (Sorry! I couldn't help myself!) It was full of great colors, but my Helmer is getting full, so I tried to show restraint. I grabbed GoldenEye because I have nothing like it in my stash, and after seeing swatch photos pop up on the internet, I knew Live and Let Die had to be mine.

Application with both was just lovely. I love OPI's brush and the formula wasn't to runny or too thick. Neither of these swatches involved any clean up.

Live and Let Die is a dark, muted green with prominent green and gold flecks. We have had very little sun here, so I wasn't able to get an outdoor shot to show off that shimmer. I may have to add one later. The above photo is two coats, no top coat. Beautiful.

This is three coats of GoldenEye, a warm-toned gold foil. So stunning! I think this would be great for a holiday party. I do believe I read that this polish is featured in the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, which is in theaters now. I don't know if I can tear my eyes away from Daniel Craig long enough to notice. :)

On a non-polish note, I hope all of you people who Black Friday-ed it up made it out with what you wanted and were unscathed. I went out for the past two years, and I just didn't have it in me to do it again. I also hope that your Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it) was full of family, good food, and enjoyment.

Enchanted Polish Austin Powers

I've had this one in my stash for awhile now after snatching it up in a blog sale. I've recently read that it's being re-released, so I thought I'd dust off my photos and post this thing. 

Austin Powers is a densely packed gold glitter polish with a linear holographic component and copper/bronze hexes. It is very versatile polish, looking great over both light and dark colors, as well as on its own. I originally swatched it over Zoya Dove, so that's what is shown in these first couple of pictures. Please, enbiggen these photos.

One coat of Austin Powers over Zoya Dove

I was inspired by Jeanette's post, so later threw it on over a mystery dark mani. :) I did paint just two coats of Austin Powers on the index finger.

Two coats of Austin Powers on index nail, one coat over a dark creme on other nails

Blurred to show the linear holo, rainbow glitter beauty

The nail polish world was saddened by the news that Austin Powers was being retired. This is why I may have been fist pumping and emailing in Walmart when I happened to see a posting on Instagram that this beauty was being sold (unused!!) in a blog sale. Groceries? What?

As I said at the beginning of the post, it's being re-released with Ballerina Slippers and will be able to be found at the following sites: shop.llarowe.com, pshiiit-boutique.com, harlowandco.org, and meimeisignatures.com. Keep an eye out!

Maisie Shine Orion's Belt - Swatches and Review

I saw this polish one day while surfing around Etsy and I just had to have it. The name is what drew me in, as Orion is my favorite constellation. Silly? I don't think so. 

Lindsey describes Orion's Belt as follows: "A dark navy and green shimmery base that shifts in the sun. This galactic nail polish is littered with gold glitters that emulate a perfect night sky." It is definitely easy to pick out the navy base and the green shimmer is pretty prominent. It is also packed with small gold shimmers, small gold squares, small gold hexes, and larger gold hexes. Super beautiful in the bottle and on the nail.

Application... Wow. Application wasn't great at all. This polish is very, very thick. It could definitely do with some thinner. It seemed a little off though. I poured some out onto a sheet of waxed paper and found several chunks of navy blue mica that wasn't completely mixed in. The good news is that I didn't have to fish out glitters or place them at all.

I think I'm going to dump out the whole bottle, thin it down and mix it a little more, and see where that gets me. I do think it is a beautiful color. Two coats of polish, one coat of Gelous, and a coat of Seche Vite gave a beautiful, smooth finish.

Orion's Belt and several other beautiful polishes are available at Lindsey's Etsy store, Maisie Shine. She sells full sized, 15 mL polishes for $9.00 each.

Zoya Storm - Swatches and Review, and a Rejuvacote update

Zoya's Ornate collection is full of some stunning polishes, but Storm and Aurora are the only ones I felt the NEED to have. I had decided to hold off on ordering them right away in hopes that there would be one of Zoya's fabulous promos soon. I checked Twitter right before bed the night Sandy hit the East Coast and saw Zoya posted a promo. Storm for free with any non-spoon purchase. 

Please forgive the tip wear and growth. I took these photos after five days. Five!! We've had several cloudy days so I was holding out for the sun. I got a bit in the middle of errands, so I whipped out my phone and snapped some pics.

Storm is an opaque black creme that is packed with an irregularly shaped silver/holographic glitter. The formula is the standard wonderful one that we always get from Zoya and was perfect in two coats.

 
I used one coat of Duri Rejuvacote, one coat of CND Stickey, two coats of Storm, and one coat of Essie Good to Go quick dry top coat and got fabulous wear. Again, these photos are after five days. Keep in mind that I wash my hands at least twenty times a day at work. Rejuvacote is working wonderfully. My nails aren't as peel-y, and they're growing so fast! I just had to find a good combo that worked well with it and me.

Blurred to better show the holo sparkle

Paint Box Polish Winter Collection is live! *Pic Heavy!*

I scrapped so many colors coming up with this collection. Bleeding glitters, sinking glitters, too thick, too thin, etc. In the end, I'm super happy with the five that made the cut. I hope you love them, and if you'd like to buy any, there's a link to my Etsy shop in the left column over there!

Solstice is an opaque purple duochrome polish that shifts to bright blue and features violet flakies. This polish is unique in my Winter Collection as it is the only polish that is completely opaque on its own and the only duochrome.

Northern Lights is a stunning blue jelly polish packed with blue flakies and golden shimmer. Can be worn alone as a jelly, but also able to be layered over a darker shade to make the shimmer really pop!

This shot shows the golden shimmer. Northern Lights is layered over Zoya Natty here.

Ice Cap is a squishy, white, jelly polish packed with multi-colored flakies, gold shimmer, and silver shimmer. A fabulous polish both on its own and layered over other polishes! 

Index and middle fingers show Ice Cap layered over China Glaze White on White.

Son of a Nutcracker is a fun, green jelly polish packed with green flakies and a hint of red ones. The Fraternal twin to Santa's Britches, it looks great both alone and layered over other polishes.

Index and middle fingers show Son of a Nutcracker over OPI Jade is the New Black.

Santa's Britches is a fun, red jelly polish packed with silver, gold, and green shimmer. The Fraternal twin to Son of a Nutcracker, it looks great both alone and layered over other polishes.

Index and middle fingers show Santa's Britches over Zoya Sooki.

L-R: Son of a Nutcracker over OPI Jade is the New Black, Santa's Britches over Zoya Sooki, Northern Lights over Zoya Natty, Ice Cap over China Glaze White on White, and Solstice on its own.

butter LONDON Dodgy Barnett and Shag - Swatches and Review

It seems that butter LONDON had released a store-exclusive polish every other week shortly after their regular Autumn/Winter collection was released. Several seemed lovely, but I've been trying to reign in my polish spending lately and if there are two things I have trouble backing away from, it's holos and browns. So, to my home came Dodgy Barnett and Shag.

Dodgy Barnett is a very fine silver glitter with scattered holo particles. It's rather thin, but builds up easily. I have two coats on my ring finger and three on the others. Dodgy Barnett is a beautiful, clean-feeling polish. I wish the holo were a bit more pronounced, but I'm still pretty happy with it.

The other polish I ordered from this collection is Shag. Shag is a warm-toned, brown shimmer polish. I was so excited for this one because I love browns, but I was very underwhelmed by this polish on my nails. I don't know if it's because of my skin tone or what, but just don't like the look of it. I'll probably give it another go before I completely give up.

What do you think of butter LONDON's new offerings? Any you just couldn't say no to?