OPI Spotted Black (!!!!) over China Glaze Mani's Before Mimosa's

I don't know if you guys know about OPI Black Spotted, but it was released with their The Amazing Spider Man collection in the summer of 2012. Only in Sephora. In France. So, this is a very limited Limited Edition. I tried to get my hands on it for a long time to no avail, so I jumped quickly when I saw that one of my IG friends had a few spare bottles for sale. 

The premise is the same as with crackle polish. When your base coat of polish is completely dry, paint on a very thin layer. The cool thing about this one is that there is no waiting. It immediately starts to look like an oil-slick on your nails. It also dries super fast and super shiny. I would definitely throw on top coat because Spotted wore off within a day or so.

A Study In Polish 221B

Today I've got another great one from indie polish maker A Study In Polish. I reviewed four polishes from her initial launch in this post. There were two additional polishes released recently, and since I'm trying to keep some money in my bank account, I only chose one. Take your pick from the full collection here.

221B is a glitter topper with varying sizes of gold and black hex glitter in a clear base. It is inspired by the black door with gold numbers that leads to Sherlock's flat. Here you see one coat of 221B over 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls from their Spiderman collection.

221B was simple to apply. The base is thick enough to keep the glitter suspended, but not too thick to be easily workable. There was no need for dabbing or fishing at all, and the glitter dried smooth. I used two coats of Essie Good to Go, but I think that was overkill.

Valentine's Day Mani - A Quickie



Revlon Colorstay Nail Color in Ripe Raspberry with a Stiletto accent nail. Accent nail stamped with Color Club Halo Hues Eternal Beauty, other nails stamped with Color Club Halo Hues Kismet.

I can't remember the names and numbers of the stamping plates, so I'll add those later. Accent nail from Cheeky CH15 from the Vibrant Collection, and others are from Vivid Lacquer plate VL001

I wish it were better, but it's only the 2nd or 3rd stamping mani I've done.

Happy Valentine's Day!

a-england Jane Eyre

I snatched Jane Eyre up during a fabulous promo a-england ran on their website before Christmas. I'm glad I got in when I did as they have temporarily suspended shipping outside of the UK due to Royal Mail being very stringent about shipping polishes.

Jane Eyre is from Adina's Gothic Beauties collection - inspired by classic characters.  It is a blackened polish with fine red shimmer. It is described on the website as "intensely smouldering crimson embers, imprisoned in a veil of sombre black." This description is poetically accurate. 

These photos are two coats without top coat. I am always impressed by the shine of a-england polishes. This one was practically a one-coater. It is a beautiful shade, but I wish the red was a little more pronounced.

Some polishes have what is known as "hidden shimmer" i.e. obvious shimmer in the bottle that disappears on the nail. That isn't the case with this polish. What you see is what you get, and it's lovely.

Quickie swatch - My picks from the Color Club 2013 Halo Hues collection

I first saw swatches of the new Halo Hues colors on Sheila's blog. Honestly, I had no clue that Color Club was coming out with a new holo collection. While I was looking for more swatches, I saw that they had inadvertently sent polishes out to some distributors. So, I did what any good polish fiend would do and I hunted those suckers down!

Unlike a polish fiend, I thought, "Pam, you already have a blue and a pink holo from the last collection, so don't get those." I was probably feverish, but I only bought the four you see below.

The formula is smooth and easy like the last set. Beyond was rather thick, but workable. As you can see, a quick dry top coat (Essie Good To Go) didn't dull the holo whatsoever. 

I couldn't pick just one, so I did a skittles mani. L-R: Eternal Beauty, Kismet, Beyond, and Cosmic Fate. 2 coats with top coat.

What do you think? Did you get any of the 2012 Halo Hues? Are you getting any of the new ones?

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

Vivid Lacquer The Harlequin's Adoration and Your Princess is in Another Castle Swatches

Have you had the opportunity to look through Vivid Lacquer's Etsy store? Anni has a great selection of awesome glitter polishes, and she designs nail stamping plates. Her first two plates are out of stock right now, but hopefully she gets more stock soon, because they are fabulous. I'm still practicing my stamping skills, but plan a post with the designs soon.

First up to The Harlequin's Adoration. Anni's description is as follows:

"This polish is a dazzling red and bronze flecked polish, rounded out by black and white diamond, red heart, and fine black and white glitter."

The polish is a little thick, but that's necessary to suspend all that lovely glitter. The photo below shows Harlequin over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (index and middle finger) and OPI Steady As She Rose (ring and pinky). This is one coat dabbed on. I didn't have to fish out the larger glitters, and check out the bronze flash! Such a fun polish.

Your Princess is in Another Castle... 

"Jelly nail polish featuring a pink, jelly base loaded with holographic glitter, multiple sizes and colors of pink glitter, and black glitter."

YPIIAC is so packed with glitter, and is fairly smooth. These swatches show one coat applied over (ring - pinky) OPI MBSW, Sally Hansen Black Out, OPI SASR, and OPI MBSW. No difficulties with application with this polish. I'm excited to try the Elmer's-Glue-As-Peel-Off-Basecoat thing with this one on its own.

Also, how stinking cute are Anni's bottle labels?? Have you tried Vivid Lacquer's polishes or stamping plates? I definitely recommend them. Anni and her products are a joy to deal with.

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

Today I have one of the two Cult Nails polishes I ordered during Maria's birthday promo. I have no idea why, but I haven't indulged in any Cult Nails lacquers before. The company has a cool story, as Maria started as a blogger, but launched her own polish brand with lots of success. I've heard nothing but good things about Maria, her company, her company's customer service, and the polishes themselves. 

I Got Distracted comes from the most recent collection - Coco's Untamed. This collection is made up of five polishes that were designed by Maria's daughter, Coco, and they were released on her 13th birthday. How cool is that? 

I Got Distracted is a black polish absolutely packed with fine holographic glitter and small, green hex glitters. The formula is pretty thick, which is to be expected with so much glitter, but really easy to control. Only two coats are needed and it has such great depth! I really wish the sun were out so that you could see the scattered holo sparkle.

Consider me a Cultie. I'm in! Check out Cult Nails polishes in their online shop. Maria still maintains her blog as well. You can follow that here.

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...

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.

Revlon Scandalous, or Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance for $3.99

 Happy February! How better to ring in Valentine's month than with a cheap dupe of a polish called Bad Romance? This is the only Deborah Lipmann polish I've been tempted to buy, and was very excited to see the Revlon dupe out last summer/fall. So why didn't I buy it when I saw it at Meijer? I have no clue. Because I'm silly? All I know is that I went back to get it, and they were gone. There are some people with fabulous taste in polish on this town.

So, of course I was super excited to see it again, in the new Revlon display for only $3.99! So much win I can hardly stand it. I saw a dupe for DL Glitter in the Air on the same display and snatched it up, only to realize that I didn't even want to pay $3.99 for that one. I just don't get the appeal. Too sheer. But, Scandalous... zomg, it's fantastic.

The photo below is 3 thin coats of polish with a coat of Seche Vite. I debated stopping at 2 coats, because the base isn't as sheer as I thought it would be, but I'm glad I used a 3rd because it gives a great depth. The finish was fairly smooth with 1 coat of Seche Vite. So, so glad I got this one!

butter LONDON The Black Knight

The Black Knight is the first up in my Christmas Gift Extravaganza. I got so. much. polish. Love it! The Black Knight is one of butter LONDON's Holiday 2011 collection. It is a black jelly that is chock full of pink and blue glitter and a finer gold glitter. The first coat is pretty sheer, but it is nicely opaque with a second coat. The picture below is the second day of wear with 1 coat of Seche Vite. It stayed pretty gritty, but it didn't bother me enough to add a second coat.

Day 2 - 2 coats polish and 1 Seche Vite

I noticed that I began to get awful chips pretty quickly. Some quick internet trolling showed me that I am not the only one! Apparently glitters (not just this one) are prone to chipping. I imagine it's due to the grittiness. The polish on my index finger began to lift after the 4th day, so I decided to throw a coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps over it. This is a very thick polish, so it smoothed the finish nicely when topped with another coat of Seche Vite. All in all, I absolutely love this one and am thrilled Bestie got it for me! :)

2 coats The Black Knight, 1 coat SV, 1 coat HaW, 1 coat SV

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Plaid for You

I was texting Abbie an realized that I haven't written a post about this pattern! I was thinking it was a red and green plaid, but it's really red and black. Wear time has been better with this set than Snow Bunny, but I'm not going to make it 10 days. My nails must be growing really fast. I've got to take them off, because it's driving me nuts!

ETA (12/29/2011):

Removal on this one was so weird. The black came off in rubbery pieces that lodged into the sides of my nails and had to be picked out with a toothpick and orange stick. I had to use pure acetone. Blech. I'm wearing Prep's Cool now and am kinda dreading taking it off.

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.

Mummy Mani

Nailside posted more awesome pics on Tumblr, and the next thing I know, I'm cutting strips of Scotch tape. :) This is Zoya Raven over butter London Victoriana. It turned out pretty well. There were a couple of places where the tape pulled up the polish, but I think it's because I wasn't careful.

Zoya Raven

Last week Zoya ran a promotion on facebook that allowed you to get 3 bottles of polish for free once they hit a certain number of fans on the page. It didn't take long, and they probably got twice the number that was their goal. I picked Raven, Crystal, and Valerie.

Crystal was a given because I've seen it on quite a few blogs, and it's totally beautiful. I saw Valerie on Scrangie's blog, and since I've got a huge thing for purple, that one was a given. I couldn't decide on my last polish, so I cruised through more blogs and discovered that people thought Raven was a dupe for a Chanel black polish. What kind of polish collector would I be without a black polish? And why not get a bottle for free that would be mistaken for one costing 30 billion dollars? :)

I texted my bff and asked, blue with silver sparkles, purple with gold sparkles, or shimmery black? She chose black. I say good choice. So, here's Zoya Raven once again in my crappy fluorescent light. Shimmery isn't showing here, but I promise it's there. Orly Bonder, 2 coats of Raven (very smooth, best Zoya application I've come by yet!), and 1 coat Seche Vite.

I didn't mind doing my nails again since when I got to work, Peace on Earth was half peeled off my L thumb. It came off in a sheet. Started peeling off other fingers through my 45 hand washings today. Note to self... Always use rubbing alcohol to the nails before starting.