Zoya Fall 2012 Designer Collection: Natty

Zoya Natty (2 coats)

My house finally closed today. I wasn't exactly excited about it since the realtor screwed up the city tax information and now our payment is over $100 more than we expected. Great. Thanks for telling us this one day before closing. I'm just so glad this mess is over and done with. 

On to more bad news: I'm not thrilled with my Zoya Natty swatches. I feel like I have too much light on it and it makes it look brighter (and less smokey) than it really is. It's supposed to be a steel blue creme, but mine ends up looking royal blue for some reason. My apologies for the inaccurate photos. On the bright side, the formula and application was amazing, like I often find with Zoya polishes. 

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, and I have a backlog of pink colors, I'm thinking of having a theme week. Thoughts? 

Ulta Nail Polish: Maine Attraction

Ulta Maine Attraction (2 coats)

Never buy a house. At this point, that's all I can really say. 

I picked up Ulta's Maine Attraction during their 3 for $6 sale so I got a great deal on it. It's a medium teal blue color that is quite attractive. Oh, and the name is just darling! I had no problems with application, which is surprising since I had a little bit of bubbling if you look closely. Maybe my room was extra drafty that night.  Overall, nice color for a nice price tag. 

Sally Hansen Smooth & Perfect Polish: Whisper

Sally Hansen Whisper (4 coats)

Holy crappy swatches! I took these pictures in Knoxville so my lighting was a little off as you can see. I didn't love this one so I didn't bother to redo the manicure. Whisper is in the now discontinued Smooth & Perfect line from Sally Hansen and is a sheer lilac purple color with a very fine shimmer. I find these best for glitter sandwiches since they are so sheer (4 coats shown here), but if you're into the sheer nail polish look with VNL, then a couple coats will be fine for you. While I've enjoyed some of the other colors in the collection, Whisper leaves me wanting a little more pizzazz. You may be able to find a few of these left at your local drugstore, but no promises. 

China Glaze New Bohemian Collection: Swanky Silk

China Glaze Swanky Silk (3 coats)

Apparently we close on our house on Thursday. We'll see about that...

Anyway, I wasn't in love with Swanky Silk in the store, but it was like $1.50, so I couldn't resist. If you want a strong duochrome, this one isn't for you. It's a peachy gold color with a slight tint of green. The formula was a bit thin and needed 3 coats. Overall, this isn't my favorite. 

China Glaze New Bohemian Collection: Rare & Radiant

China Glaze Rare & Radiant (2 coats)

Happy Saturday! I find it ironic they named this polish Rare & Radiant when apparently every company has their own Chanel Peridot dupe. This one just happens to be China Glaze's version of it. Somehow I managed to not buy any of these dupes and Rare & Radiant is my first encounter with this color. I must say, I am very late to the show, but it's really pretty! It's a green and gold duochrome that shifts nicely when you look at it from different angles. If you have any of the other dupes, this is definitely not worth your time or money, but since I didn't have any, it's a welcomed addition to my collection. The formula was pretty good and only needed 2 coats. 

Revlon Bubble Gum Days Urban Nights Collection: Girly

Revlon Girly (3 coats)

Oh no, more wintery mix tomorrow! We'll see if I can make it into work tomorrow. How is it in your neck of the woods?

I really wanted to love Revlon Girly. It looked so gorgeous on the untouched display (thanks Walgreens, you put this display on the top shelf in the middle of the store...you tried to be sneaky, but I still found it!), but there's just something about this shade of pink that I don't find very appealing. It has all the makings of a beautiful polish-pink, blue and purple glitter that look good together, but with the base color, it somehow goes wrong. I didn't use another polish underneath this one, so maybe I'd like it better layered. The glitter was pretty dense, but the formula was a bit watery which was weird. Oh well, maybe you'll like it more than I did. You should be able to find this at your local drugstore for around $4-5. 

Sinful Colors: Dancing Nails

Sinful Colors Dancing Nails (2 coats)

Great news everyone, my scientific poster won first prize at a conference today! Since I am working in a completely new field, it was great validation that I know what I'm doing (sort of). In bad news, our house closing may be pushed back even longer. I have been so soured on the entire house buying process and it's sad because it's supposed to be such a great thing. Oh well. 

I've had Dancing Nails to show for such a long time. When I hear Dancing Nails, I immediately think of the show Bones where she says dancing phalanges to a baby over and over. Don't remember it? Well, here it is in video form: 

Anyway, it's a rose metallic color that I think looks really nice with my skintone. It may not be the most unique color ever, but that doesn't stop it from being a really nice staple. I had no complaints in terms of formula and application either. You can find Sinful Colors at your local Walgreens, Target or Rite Aid store for around $2. 

OPI Mariah Carey 2013 Collection: Stay the Night

OPI Stay the Night (3 coats)

I'm so excited about the new Kevin Bacon show on tonight! The only other thing I did today was go shopping with my husband where he ended up getting so many great clothes at JC Penny! I was looking into getting some jeans, but I could find anything. We stopped by the men's section and he found a suit jacket, 2 nice button-up shirts, a fall jacket, a tie, corduroy jeans, and a hat for $90! He basically got a whole new wardrobe. 

Confession time: I was a huge Mariah Carey fan when I was a kid. HUGE. My love has simmered over the years, but the new OPI collection made me reminisce my fandom. Part of this collection includes the new Liquid Sand polishes that are textured and matte. I only have one to show and it's Stay the Night which is a semi-matte black with bright pink glitter. I wouldn't call it fully matte because you can see the light reflecting on the nail, but it's pretty close. The texture didn't bother me at all, but if you are sensitive to a bit of roughness on your nail, these may not be for you. The formula and application was great, despite it being a bit sheerer than I expected (it needed a full 3 coats). I was also worried about removal, but I found it didn't need the foil method. Overall, I think this one looks really unique and cool if you don't mind the texture on your nail. If you didn't like the OPI polishes, other companies are jumping on the bandwagon with Zoya releasing their Pixie Dust polishes this week. 

Julep December It Girl Maven Box: Harper

Julep Harper (1 coat) over 1 coat Illamasqua Muse

Harper is hot off the presses, because I just did this mani a few minutes ago. I used it alone a few weeks ago (they said it was an opaque glitter!), but the jelliness could not hide the staining on my nails. I ended up putting it over Illamasqua Muse and I find it much better. Harper is a mix of green and blue glitters in a blue turquoise jelly base. It looks like mermaid scales! The formula was really thick, but still manageable. If you don't have stained nails, 3 coats might be good enough for you. 

Julep December It Girl Maven Box: Vivien

Julep Vivien (3 coats) over Essence Prismatic White (1 coat)

Happy 3 day weekend! We were supposed to move this weekend, but the closing on our house got moved again and will likely be next Friday. Grr, buying a house is so annoying!

I ended up wearing Julep's Vivien on Christmas Eve. (I wore a red on Christmas Day). I thought it was going to need some underwear so I put it over a coat of Essence Prismatic White (they called these full coverage glitters, but I am always dubious). I've seen a few photos of this and it does indeed get opaque on its own. Oops. It's a champagne color with small and larger hexagonal glitter pieces. I like the use of different glitter sizes, but this one wasn't my favorite from the box. I would have liked this one more if they would have added another glitter color to this one. 

Have a great weekend! Any of you going to the LA IMATS this weekend? 

Julep December It Girl Maven Box: Ivy

Julep Ivy (2 coats)

Ugh, snow tonight! Being a displaced northerner, it's awesome to see how people in the South cannot deal with inclement weather. 

I was actually pretty happy with December's It Girl Box which is a surprise since I've been a bit disappointed with the boxes lately. Up first is Ivy which is blue and purple duochrome metallic shimmer which looks gorgeous. I was worried it would be sheer, but it was fully opaque with 2 coats. 

China Glaze Holiday 2012 Holiday Joy Collection: Red Satin

China Glaze Red Satin (2 coats)

What's happenin, hot stuff? I had a few minutes to spare and thought I'd do a little post of the final China Glaze Holiday Joy polish I have to show called Red Satin. I find it much better than Merry Berry, but it's still just your typical red creme polish. Boring! It felt like China Glaze put a ton of red colors in the holiday collection this year, and Red Satin just gets lost in the shuffle. It's a fine red, but nothing special. The wonky brush made the application a little difficult, but if you have a normal brush, it will be fine. 

I hope your week is off to a great start!

China Glaze Holiday 2012 Holiday Joy Collection: Glitter All the Way

China Glaze Glitter All the Way (1 coat) over Merry Berry (2 coats)

I'm currently watching a documentary on sloth bears. Small fact: I love sloth bears. 

Glitter All the Way is a glitter topcoat full of red, gold, green and purple glitter of different sizes. It looks similar to a few other polishes (for example, OPI Rainbow Connection), but I don't personally own any that look too similar to this one. I was pretty impressed with how dense the glitter was, and I have 1 thin coat shown above. I didn't try to build it up to full coverage, but you probably could with 3 heavy coats. If you don't own any like this, I would definitely recommend Glitter All the Way. 

China Glaze Holiday 2013 Holiday Joy Collection: Merry Berry

China Glaze Merry Berry (2 coats)

It's (mostly) official! We close on our house next Friday! This week and next week are going to be very crazy, so posting may be sporadic. I hope you can understand!

Merry Berry is a berry red color that just isn't my favorite. It's not that unique and I don't like how it looks on my nails. The formula was also quite watery and I did a terrible job applying it. Pass! 

China Glaze Holiday 2012 Holiday Joy Collection: Winter Holly

China Glaze Winter Holly (3 coats)

Happy Friday! Do you have any good weekend plans? Not much going on here; perhaps relax before my busy couple of weeks. 

I apologize for showing the China Glaze holiday collection late, but I just got these on sale at Sally Beauty Supply a couple weeks ago. Better late than never, right? Winter Holly is a hunter green glitter with a healthy sprinkling of gold and holographic glitter thrown in for good measure. The glitter is really small, but fairly densely packed. As you can see, there is still some visible nail line with 3 coats, but it's not too bad. These are the mini bottles, and I found that the brushes on all of them were bent a little. Maybe the brushes are too long for the bottle and then are bending that way. This made the application a bit difficult on all of them, but it's not always the polish's fault. 

Jessica Cosmetics Spring 2013 It's a Girl Thing Collection: Nadia

Jessica Cosmetics Nadia (2 coats)

Why must Jessica Cosmetics include a frost with every collection? I guess there must be a market out there for it, but it's not for me. It's also disappointing because I know a Nadia and she is a doll, and I want to like this polish for that fact. But I can't because it is just too frosty. The formula also has much to be desired since it was quite thick. Oh well, we can't always like every polish in a collection. 

Overall, this collection is a win (besides Nadia). I really wish Jessica Cosmetics polishes were easier to get a hold of, but your best bet is to buy them straight from their website.


*This polish was provided by the company or PR representative. All reviews are based solely on my opinion. For more information, please see my full disclosure at the bottom of the site*