Zoya Tomoko and Maria Luisa

And my string of Zoya polishes continues! This mani is the super awesome Zoya Tomoko from the Fall 2013 PixieDust collection. Tomoko is a champagne colored textured polish packed to the brim with silver/gold glitter. I used three thin coats without any base or top coat and got excellent wear, as I have with all of the PixieDust polishes.

I also got a blurred shot to show the glitter in Tomoko. Definitely another winner from Zoya.

The only other polish I picked up from Zoya's fall collection was Maria Luisa (look at me showing restraint!). I remember seeing it in shots from NYFW, but  it wasn't available in the Zoya Fashion Sets. I was so happy to see it available to purchase!

Maria Luisa is a gold flake polish in a clear base. I'm sure you can build it to opacity, but I chose to layer it (one coat) over my Tomoko mani and to use it as an accent nail with Carter. What do you think?

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?

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.