China Glaze Jungle Queen - On Safari Collection, Fall 2012

Jungle Queen is from China Glaze's Fall collection, called On Safari. This polish was hyped up all over the blogosphere as a dupe/close-enough for Chanel Paradoxal (and the HTF Revlon Perplex). Jessica of The Polish Insomniac does a great comparison here. I'll direct you to her post as I do not own Paradoxal - and am fine with that.

This is a pretty color that changes depending on the lighting conditions. It sometimes looks grey, sometimes purple, sometimes an odd, dark purple-brown. It has an awesome pink shimmer that is pretty evident in real life, but hid from my camera until I gave up!

Formula-wise, this bottle was awful! I've yet to encounter one of those thick-and-runny-at-the-same-time polishes, but this one brought it in spades. Really yucky. Hopefully it was just my bottle and I'm not sweating it because I picked it up during Sally Beauty's 50% off clearance sales and it cost less than Wet n' Wild.

Zoya Myrta Swatches - Summer 2012 Surf Collection

Myrta is a bright orange glass-fleck polish loaded with irregular silver shimmer that is part of Zoya's Surf collection from this summer. I picked it up during one of their fabulous promos. Seriously, you've got to be a fan of Zoya for their promos if not for their awesome polish. 

These photos are with two coats of Myrta swatched quickly without base or top coats. This polish has tons of shimmer that catches the eye and looks great! I'm rather sad I didn't get this earlier in the summer.

Manglaze F*** Off & Dye!

I have such a fun polish for you guys today! I've eyed Manglaze polishes for a long time, but never actually "checked out" with one. Manglaze specializes in matte polishes, and does them fabulously.

In the interest of not offending any of my readers, I will post bottle pictures after a jump. It depicts violence and has a swear word. It is very cool, comic-book style art work. I would encourage you to check it out if it sounds like something you may appreciate.

Below is a shot of my nails only. I did use butter LONDON Nail Foundation for this manicure, but I gave it a good long time to dry. The brush was nice and full with a rounded edge and was nicely flexible. The formula was very smooth and super opaque. I used two thin coats and the polish dried very quickly.

Bottle shot after the jump...

Orly Buried Alive - A Great Brown Glitter for Cheap! (And, Duri gets along nicely with Poshe)

Orly Buried Alive is part of the Spring 2012 Dark Shadows collection. It consisted of 4 polishes, and this was the only one I was remotely interested in. I eyeballed it every time I went to Sally Beauty Supply, but never actually got it. However, last weekend was the 1/2 off of all clearance items sale at Sally's, and I couldn't pass it up for $1.45 

Buried Alive has a warm, yellow-toned brown base and lots of gold/bronze shimmer. It was rather thick, and the first coat literally looked as if I'd painted Hershey's Syrup on my nails, but the second coat evened out nicely.

Also, I've discovered that Duri Rejuvacote plays nicely with Poshe. Poshe isn't my favorite topcoat, but I want to be able to see if Duri really helps with my peeling nails. So, I'll use it until I can make that decision.

Cult Nails In A Trance and Duri Rejuvacote doesn't like Seche Vite

In A Trance is the second (and last!) polish I got in the $7 Cult Nails sale. It is a murky olive green with a pretty prominent golden shimmer. I think the shimmer is even more visible on the nail than in the bottle. It went on like butter and had absolutely perfect coverage in two coats. I really love Cult Nails' full brush. You can load up with polish very easily and the fat cap is a cinch to control. 

The thing about this manicure that makes me unhappy is that shrinkage. This is about 12 hours after applying the polish. I've heard the wonders of Duri Rejuvacote and snagged a bottle in hopes of improving my seriously peel-y nails with it. So far it's been a big fat fail, but I'm not giving up. The above photos are with one coat of Rejuvacote, two coats of color, and Seche Vite to top it off. I'll play with different combos soon.

Have any of you tried Rejuvacote? Any secret weapons or techniques for peeling nails? I use a glass file, and that's helped, but both of my index nails and my right spirit finger (As Maria from Cult Nails calls it) continue to give me fits.

Black Label OPI: St Louis Sorbet

My friend Gail sent me a box of OPI Black Label wonderfulness a few months ago, and there were some beautiful polishes in there! This one is such a pretty polish. St. Louis Sorbet was released in 1997's Route 66 collection.

This color is a deep, dusty, rose pink with gold shimmer. The shimmer is obvious in the bottle and in the sun, and doesn't completely disappear on the nail, even in the shade.

Bottle shot in the sun

The lovely, chemical-laden formula was a joy to work with. St Louis Sorbet is a very opaque polish and though I had very good coverage at one coat, I added a second for some depth. The brush isn't OPI's Pro-Wide brush, but it's long, skinny, floppy original one. Still, application was a cinch and the only clean-up I needed was due to a sneezing fit. :)

P.S. Thanks for the name, Gail!

Avon nailwear pro+ Absinthe

Today I have Avon's nailwear pro+ for you. I've been wary of trying any Avon polishes after I had not-so-great results with a Mary Kay polish I bought a couple of years ago (larger price for small bottle that didn't even last 12 hours before sliding right off my nail!). One of my coworkers sells Avon, and they had a sale on their polishes so I decided to try Absinthe.

This is two coats topped with Seche Vite. The formula was really great. I'm not too sure about the wear as I took it off after one day. I'm just not a fan of the color. It looked a lot more vibrant in the catalog, but in reality was just a pea green with a pretty silver shimmer. Just not enough to keep my attention.

Zoya Fall 2012 Diva Collection - Swatches and Review

Zoya has a pretty decent fall release this year with 15 new polishes in the Diva, Designer, and Gloss Collections. When I saw swatches of the metallic Diva collection, I knew I had to have them. I wasn't crazy about one of them, but I figured if I were going to buy 5, I may as well get all 6. 

2 coats, no top coat

Zoya Elisa is a polish that I would've gotten even if it weren't the perfect pearly, cherry red. I took 5 years of Spanish middle and high school, and we had to pick Spanish names. There was another Pam in my class who was before me alphabetically, and she picked Pamela. I wanted something different, so I picked Elisa.  The formula on this polish was great, as is usually the case with Zoya.

2 coats, no top coat

Ray is the one Diva polish I wasn't thrilled about. It's a pretty, frosty evergreen color, but I think it's pretty similar to butter LONDON's British Racing Green, which I own. Not a dupe, but close enough that were it not for my need for the complete set, I wouldn't have gotten it. Definitely worth getting if you don't have a deep green in your collection.

4 coats, no topcoat

 Zoya Daul, how impressed I was by this one in other blog posts, but it just didn't wow me in real life. Zoya's website describes Daul as such, "A medium red-toned purple base with heavy purple and gold iridescent metallic sparkle." It's also listed as a 5, which is the highest intensity level. I agree with the description, but definitely not the 5. I still had obvious nail line at 4 coats, and I waited for the prior coat to dry before adding another.

Highlighting Daul's glitter

 Daul is a very pretty color when the sun glints off of it. Maybe I'll try it over Suri.

3 coats, no top coat

FeiFei is a steel-blue base that is packed with blue, gold, and pink (!!) sparkles to lend a foil finish. While sheerer than the non-glitter polishes, I got great coverage with 3 thin coats. I think the pink sparkles in this one lends a very unique look to it. 

2 coats, no topcoat

Suri is a bold, blue-leaning royal purple metallic polish with very fine blue and red micro glitter. I wish that glitter translated on the nail a little better, but Suri is still a fabulous polish. It is a little warmer in real life, but my camera really freaks out with bright purples.

2 coats, no top coat

And finally, Zoya Song. Song! Wow. Pictures do not do this polish justice. Neither do the words bold, bright, or vibrant. The base is a true royal blue, and it is absolutely packed with tiny, irregular blue and silver glitter. It is totally opaque in 1 coat, but add a second because it adds great depth and really highlights the shimmer. This polish is hands-down my favorite of the set.

A completely gratuitous shot of Song

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza is the second polish I bought from the Zoya Surf collection. Zuza is pretty teal packed with a fine silver shimmer.

The formula is perfect. Two coats to opacity. Zoya's brush is one of my favorites as it is nice and full with very flexible bristles that are very easy to control. 

These are all of the polishes that I picked up from their summer collections as I am trying to be good. :) I have decided that I am probably going to pick up the whole Fall Diva collection. Have you seen it? Check out Scrangie's swatches here.

Zoya Kimber

Zoya Kimber is from the Surf half Zoya's fabulous Summer 2012 collection, Beach & Surf. Surf is full of bright, sparkly colors. Kimber is a bright pink with small, irregular gold and silver flecks. It's a very warm color and is very summery.

This is 2 coats of Kimber over butter LONDON Nail Foundation and Seche Vite.

I also picked up Zuza, so expect that post next. And, coming soon... Nail-venturous Floam and Max Factor Fantasy Fire!

Barielle Decadence

Today I have for you the beautiful Barielle Decadence. I picked this one up from Dana's (Polished Claws Up!) blog sale. She still has some pretties left, so go check it out!

Decadence is a beautiful, shimmery teal that is just perfect for summer! The formula was great. Buttery smooth and very opaque. Above is 2 coats topped with Seche Vite. Sadly, there was quite a bit of shrinkage, as evidenced by my pinky up there. The above photo was taken about 12 hours into this mani.

This is my first Barielle, and I immediately fell in love with the brush! It's a shame I'm married. :( It's medium in length, but is very full. Super flexible and easy to control. It holds loads of polish, but the polish wasn't super runny so it stuck there.

Love it, love it!

Essie Bikini So Teeny

This would be the first of several polishes I acquired during my time with Tropical Storm Debby... er... in Orlando for my annual nurse practitioner conference. Between Walgreens, blog sales, butter LONDON promos, and Sephora, I think I bought seven polishes while I was there. (And I'm totally not ashamed!)

Twinkle Bell had worn out her welcome, so I stopped in Walgreens on my way to the conference center. The Essie summer collection was front and center, and Bikini So Teeny is really the only polish from this set that has caught my eye. I hadn't brought remover, Seche Vite, nada, so I bought Essie Good to Go and cheap remover as well. 

Behold! My between-sessions-at-a-conference mani

This polish is a periwinkle blue that has a beautiful silver shimmer. Sadly, this shimmer is only visible in the bottle and in very bright light. This photo is a tad bit bluer than the polish really is, but it was really tricky to photograph. Formula wise, this one was thin and required three coats, but I think wear is much better with 3 thin coats than 1-2 thick ones. 

Good to Go worked pretty well too. I think it dried almost as fast as my beloved Seche Vite. It also had a very hard finish, but I love that thick glassiness I get with SV. It'll be handy to keep around as a back up.

China Glaze Summer Neons Swatches

I love having friends in high polish places (Hi, Christy!). I saw swatches of these polishes and made her promise to tell me when these came in. I had seen neons popping up all over blogs and stores, but none really caught my eye. I actually debated buying a bottle I wasn't crazy about because I knew neons were the in thing this summer. I'm glad I didn't because I genuinely love the five I got from this collection (six, actually, but I gifted one to my niece). I like that they aren't just cremes, but have a beautiful shimmer to keep them interesting.

The first polish I tried was Surfin' for Boys. It is a super bright orange-y red with a very fine silver-pink micro shimmer that brightens it up another notch. 

Picture is fairly color accurate to the polish

My second polish was Sun-Kissed. This color is straight up highlighter yellow. There is a smattering of silver microglitter to make it extra interesting.

Color accurate photo. And a chip. :(

After that, seeing them all lined up on my bookshelf was just too much. I had to do a skittles mani. They go together so well! I was going to remove it before work this morning because I thought it may have pushed the nurse practitioner envelope a bit, even if my day is full of kids and women. Luckily, my boss loved it!

Skittles Mani, thumb-pinky: Splish Splash, Surfin' for Boys, Flirty Tankini, Orange You Hot?, and Sun-Kissed

Splish Splash is a very vibrant blue with Silver micro shimmer, Flirty Tankini is a pink-y coral with silver/pink micro glitter, and Orange You Hot? is a shimmery highlighter orange.

Skittles mani with my fav bright pj pants in the background. :)

Formula wise, some of these are bears. I used 3 coats of Splish Splash, Orange You Hot? and Sun-kissed. just two coats were needed for Surfin' for Boys and Flirty Tankini. All polishes were rather thick and tended to run down the stem of the brush after you had already wiped it and begun polishing. I do think they are worth it, though. I may add a few drops of lacquer thinner and see how that goes.

What do you think? Are you picking up any of these?

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

Paint Box Polish - My new Etsy store!

My name is Pam, and I'm a nerd. I geek out most to Harry Potter. I'm also a knitter, and there is/was never a lack of Harry Potter inspired yarn. Imagine my surprise when I discovered very little in the way of HP polishes. I have been playing with frankening my own polishes, so I decided to start from scratch and make my own. Behold!

Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin

Hufflepuff is a shimmery yellow base with black glitter

Slytherin is an emerald green with small silver glitter

Gryffindor has a shimmery red base and an irregularly shaped gold glitter

Ravenclaw has a deep blue base with irregularly shaped bronze glitter (Canon book colors!)

All of the above swatches are two coats with one coat of Poshe. Hufflepuff has a slightly bumpy texture after the topcoat. The others were perfectly smooth. I am quite the fan, but may be a bit biased. :) I've got more ideas floating around in my brain, and if these actually sell, I plan to mix up more colors. If they don't sell, I can say I had fun playing mad polish scientist.

All polishes are in mini bottles, which hold approximately 6ml. They are selling for $5 each, or in a set of 4 for $18. Visit my store here, and tell me what you think!

Zoya LE Bibhu Mohapatra NYFW polishes

I couldn't deny this collection for many reasons. Beautiful red, pretty pewter, opaque nude, free shipping, Zoya color box... I love the colors, so I'm glad I got a set. Zoya website says they're now sold out. I love the story of Mohapatra"s inspiration:

"He told us that the red was an homage to his mother. When Bibhu was growing up, he remembered his late mother always wearing the most beautiful color of red nail polish on her nails. Because it was customary to eat with your right hand in India, she only wore the red on her left hand. So he always rembered her left had being painted." (zoya.com)

Say it with me, guys. "Aww!"

I swatched and took pics of the Color Box, but I think I'll save the box pics for another day.

Zoya Parveen is a yellow-based beige/nude with a very nice shimmer. Zoya says its opaque in 2 coats, but my 2nd coat was really streaky, so I added a third. It was hard to get a good pic of this one. It's not as yellow in real life. I had just scrubbed Starry Pink (removal was much easier than I expected), so that's why I've got lobster hands going on.

Zoya Zeenat is a lighter silver/grey with a fairly obvious silver shimmer. This is two coats, no topcoat. Looks VNL-y on my ring finger, but there really isn't any. Very pretty. It's got purple tones to it, so of course those jump right out on my hands.

Zoya Rekha is a classic red creme. It is similar to Sooki, but is cooler and more blue-based than her. This color was practically opaque after 1 coat, but 2 got rid of all VNL. I think I'm good for reds now. :)

Zoya Yara

I chose Yara for Zoya's 2 free polish promo they ran last month. It is part of the Fall 2011 Smoke & Mirrors collection, and I'm just not thrilled with it.

The application is fabulous, as always. The color was perfect and opaque at 2 coats. I just don't like the color. It is an olive-y green with a beautiful gold fine glitter. It's just... Brighter than I expected. I think I'll stew on it a bit and maybe it'll grow on me.

In the meantime, I'm super excited for my Bibhu Mohapatra Fashion Week set. It is sitting at my post office right now. I'll get it Tuesday evening since Monday is President's Day. :( I've also got Sasha in the box.  It was free from the Valentine's Day promo.

Layering - Essie Chinchilly and As Gold as it Gets with Pure Ice Heartbreaker

I've had quite a bit of blingy manicures lately, so I decided to try something a little more subtle. I picked up Pure Ice Heart Breaker at Walmart awhile ago, but haven't used it yet. I poked through my stash and decided to throw it over Essie Chinchilly and As Gold as it Gets.

Sadly, lots of shrinkage with this manicure.

Macro shot that shows flakes of AGaiG and green/blue shimmer of Heart Breaker

China Glaze Trendsetter

This color... Is fugly. Very, very fugly. But I like it a lot! I've seen pics of it, and it looks so different on folks with different skin tones! It plays more yellow on me. I've seen it look rather dark khaki-ish, bright yellow, green, and straight-up baby poop.

Trendsetter is part of one of my most favorite collections ever, the Metro collection (fall 2011). I wasn't that thrilled with the glitters, but the others are so great! I got Brownstone, and was gifted Loft-y Ambitions by Bestie. I decided I really did want Trendsetter, and wouldn't you know, they were gone! But, I was in Sally's last week and found it for $1.99 on the clearance table. 

Application was great. China Glazes almost always go on really sheer for the first coat, but the second really evens out and makes it all come together nicely. The brush is my second favorite behind Nails Inc. Long and flexible, but spreads over my nail nicely. Trendsetter also has that nice, irregular glass-fleck finish that China Glaze does so well.