Review! Zoya Gilty over Nails Inc Chelsea

I declined to get Gilty for myself, but picked up the trio (Gilty, Purity, and Raven) for bestie for her birthday. Basically, she totally deserves it but wouldn't get it for herself. :) So I posted a pic on my Facebook when it came in, and she was all, "Swatch it for the blog!" And I was all, "Okay!" So, here it is...

Of the 18K topcoats I've seen, Gilty is my favorite. Several have teeny, tiny flakes (I'm looking at you, $OPI!) but these were a nice size. Noticeable, but not gaudy. Says the girl with gold nail polish.

The texture of this polish is odd. It's rather gel-like. I decided not to brush it on like normal polish after the first nail. I found that it worked best to dab on. The flakes stayed nice and flat, but the base was thick enough that the texture showed very nicely. All in all, it allows a great effect and will be a fabulous addition to our holiday wardrobe!

I'd like to end with a super belated birthday to the best bestie ever. We've been attached-at-the-hip for the past twenty-one years (OMG!) and it seems like both 2 months and forever I the same time. I <3 her hard core.

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.

St Patty's Day mani - butter London British Racing Green

Way to go, Pam. Looking at the blog today, I realized I talked about my St Patrick's Day mani but hadn't posted it! I saw Jacqui's post on The Scholarly Nail and was inspired by her green & gold mani. Hers was a total glitter bomb, you should definitely check it out. I decided to go for a little more subtlety.

I used butter London British Racing Green as my base color and topped it with a coat of Essie As Gold As It gets. I loved the combo! It has a pot o' gold look to it. I have yet to find anything this top coat looks bad with.

China Glaze Foie Gras with Essie As Gold As It Gets

I recently used Foie Gras from the China Glaze Hunger Games collection (Capitol Colours) for my NOTD. I got bored with it after 2 days and decided to throw on As Gold As It Gets. I loved the effect! One coat of AGAIG leaves a very dense spattering of tiny gold flakies that is shiny, but also very subtle over a neutral like Foie Gras. It dries very quickly, so I didn't use a top coat. Look at that shine! It wore so well I was begging for a chip so that I could change it. I get so bored so quickly!

Fingerpaints Special Effects Flakies and I am a Lucky Aunt!

I was absolutely thrilled when I wandered into Sally's and found the display for the Fingerpaints flakie polishes. I had completely forgotten that they were out and was surprised to find they hadn't completely sold out! I couldn't remember which ones I wanted, so I pulled up Jen's post on my phone in the store and decided to go for Twisted. I also decided not to do plain old black under it, so I threw on China Glaze First Mate, and was so happy with the result! This reminds me of a party way more than Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday and the many dupes of that polish.

This was 2 coats of Twisted over 2 coats of First Mate. I don't know that there are any colors that aren't part of Twisted. You will find red, blue, green, yellow, and purple depending on how the light hits your fingers.

2 coats Twisted over 2 coats First Mate

Last week I got a random (so I thought) text from Abbie because my niece (see Sarah's pretty nails here) wanted to know who my favorite Disney princess was. I decided Ariel had the best songs and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty, for those if you who aren't in the know) had the best dress. Later on, Abbie texted me from Sally's to ask my opinion on the new flakie top coats.

A few days later, a package from Sarah with the following, picked by her and Abbie. Not such a random princesses question, after all! :)

Aurora and Ariel with Asylum, Brushstroke Blush, Motley, and  Artist's Inspiration

Sarah was sick a couple of weeks ago, and like any good Aunt who happens to be a Nurse Practitioner would, gave her mom some advice. So, they sent me polishes and a super cute card!

I had just chopped my nails down and did a mani with China Glaze Loft-y Ambitions (I love the Metro Collection! Found Trendsetter in a clearance bin yesterday!) so I decided to see how Asylum would look under it. Here's the standard view...

2 coats China Glaze Loft-y Ambitions and 2 coats Fingerpaints Asylum

 And here's what it looks like with my fun new Photojojo macro lens!

The red/orange flakies are the most dominant, and flash yellow/green at extreme angles, but I think the blue flakies look really awesome over the red/purple of Loft-y Ambitions.

Many thanks to Abbie and Sarah for being such awesome ladies! 

Christmas Top Coats - Essie, Nails Inc, Fingerpaints

As I've said before, I have some serious polish fairies for friends/family. These three polishes came from fabulous ladies whom I consider both. :) 

I came into the polish world after the wonder that was Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (I'm not a fan of the new one that just came out). I'm talking about the fabulous flakie HT. Word quickly spread that Essie Shine of the Times was a dupe, and I had to have it. Sadly, the stores here that carry Essie didn't have this one, but Bestie lives in Chicago and she loves me enough to have gotten me a bottle. 

The pic below is just one coat of SotT over Hot Topic black creme. It covers really well. It has an odd consistency... Thick but runny, maybe a little jelly-ish. You get used to how it works quickly. I imagine you need a thicker base to properly suspend the small red/yellow flakies that reflect green at certain angles. Is it a HT dupe? I have no idea, but do I love it? yes!

Essie Shine of the Times over black creme

I have a serious weakness for flakies and a Bestie who feeds that weakness. I'm okay with this. In fact, I'm trying my hardest to turn Abbie! This pic is 2 coats of Nails Inc Donmar Overglaze Top Coat over Chelsea, which is a very blackened plum. The flakies in Donmar are much larger than in Shine of the Times, but they are much sparser. It is very easy to see both the green and yellow flashes at the same time in this polish.

Nails Inc Donmar Overglaze over Nails Inc Chelsea

 Abbie gifted me my very first Fingerpaints polish this Christmas. Fingerpaints has the most comfortable handle I've ever polished with. It's long and tapered with a fairly long stem and flexible brush. There was no squinting or holding my head/hands at an awkward angle to see what was going on. Sparkle Top Coat is very pearlescent. I applied it over Hot Topic black creme and it flashed purple. Abbie says it flashes green at times, so I'll definitely need to do some experimenting with this one!

Fingerpaints Sparkle Top Coat over black creme

Essie As Gold As It Gets over OPI DS Mystery

I first saw the Essie Luxeffects swatches over at The PolishAholic and thus began the drooling over As Gold as it Gets and Shine of the Times. Out of the six, those are the only two that caught my eye. I've been on a no-buy for a while now, but happened across a display at Meijer and there were only 2 AGAIG bottles left. Um, see ya no-buy! 

I got so excited about having it, I threw a coat on over my DS Mystery in the parking lot. This polish has an odd consistency to it. It's like a thin gel packed with gold flakies. It went on a little thick to my index and middle fingers, but dry time was great. The above shot is one I posted on Instagram, and I used the Brannan filter. There is so much shine (without a top coat!), it was difficult to capture without the filter. The polish color is still very accurate.

I absolutely love this combo. It wore like iron for 5 days without a chip. I only took it off because I got another polish (for free, so it was still no-buy legal) and was excited to try it out. I am also very anxious to try out Shine of the Times because Bestie picked it up for me in Chicago! My bestie is the best bestie.

Layering! Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pumpkin Spice

I picked this polish up over the weekend at Meijer. I had recently seen it floating around the blogosphere, and knew it was a rather hard to find LE, so in the cart it went. Honestly, I'm a sucker for fall and pumpkin anything, so I'd have gotten it even if I thought it was ugly. Which I don't. :)

It's very sheer. Round orange glitter suspended in a smoky jelly base. I put two coats over China Glaze Brownstone and lookit!! I swear it makes me want to jump into a leaf pile. I love it! The finish is very smooth. I used a coat of Seche Vite for the quick-dry-ness, but didn't need it to smooth things out.
I remember seeing someone layer this over Essie Super Bossa Nova and it was fab. If I can find it again, I will link.

UPDATE: Laura from LaquerWear is the brilliant lady who layered this over a bright fuchsia polish. See it here.

butter LONDON British Racing Green

I love this polish! As I said in the last post, just seeing how OCD/meticulous the shipping box was taped made me want to love the contents, and they did not disappoint.

I painted my fingernails with British Racing Green and my toenails with Marrow as I couldn't decide which to do first. Then, this morning, I broke a nail. This screws the whole manicure for me, so I'm going to take it off and paint Marrow on my tips. I'm so damn fickle. :) Actually, I know that if my polish gets blemished, I'll start picking. My cuticles are destroyed enough as it is. I need no encouragement.

One thing I didn't notice when I was looking at swatches of BRG was the shimmer. It's pretty obvious in the light and gives this color a glowy look. I also really like this look of the very dark green against my paler than pale skin. However, I'm not as pale as that picture would lead you to believe. It captures the color of the polish very accurately though.

Application was great. I really like the brush in these polishes. This is 2 pretty thick coats, as I am wont to do. Will try thinner ones with Marrow just to see how it goes.

Also, dear readers (are you out there?), I will be needing new topcoat soon. My Seche Vite is about half full, and getting thick. Will lacquer thinner ruin it? What topcoat would you recommend? I've used Poshe and wasn't wowed at all. (In fact, let me know if you want it, and we can swap something) I love the thickness of Seche Vite and the way it evens things up. Debating refilling it or trying something else. Wisdom is much welcomed.