Catrice Heavy Metallilac

Recently Catrice discontinued some of their older shades and introduced some new ones, and Heavy Metallilac is one of the new shades. I actually waffled on this one, but my swap buddy Nola convinced me that I needed it, and I am so glad that she did!

I tend to struggle a bit with purples - warmer toned purples tend to make my skin almost look dirty, and that's why I was concerned about Heavy Metallilac. I think that what saves it for me is that it looks a good bit darker and cooler at the edges of my nails with that warm glowing pop in the middle. Amazing.

Application was quite good on Heavy Metallilac, as it is with most Catrice polishes I've tried. I was concerned that it would have lot of brush strokes since it is a metallic finish, but it applied pretty smoothly with only very faint brush strokes.

I will say that I wish Catrice hadn't changed their brush. The old Catrice brush was one of my very favorite brushes of all time. My nails are pretty narrow, and the new more rounded brush was almost too wide for my pinky nails. For me, this was definitely a situation of, "If it ain't broke, don't fit it." *sigh*

Here are a couple of shots I took of Heavy Metallilac in the shade. I almost feel like it looks even more metallic in the shade. Just stunning. 

Even though I'm not a fan of the new brush, Catrice remains one of my favorite polish brands. I love their assortment of colors and finishes, and the formula has always been top notch for me. I feel quite lucky to have access to them through my swap buddy. I wish that they would start distributing them in North America because I feel like they would be really popular here!

So that's it for Heavy Metallilac. Hope your week is starting off well. Thanks for reading!

Catrice After Eight

Anyone who is a fan of After Eight Thin Mints will immediately realize that this shade looks a bit familiar. =)

Image Source

Catrice After Eight is a blackened green shimmer. There's the tiniest hint of blue shimmer in After Eight as well, but it's not really visible on my nails except in direct sunlight. The shade is beautiful even when the blue shimmer isn't evident though. It makes me think of plush green velvet.

The formula is first rate, just like all my other Catrice polishes. Application was completely effortless with two coats providing total opacity. The first coat looked like it was going to be pretty sheer, but it built up really well on the second coat. 

One of my favorite things about this polish is that while it is very, very dark, it is always green on my nails and never just looks like I'm wearing black polish. Polishes that just turn black on my nails are a HUGE pet peeve of mine. When I want black nails, I just wear black polish. =) 

Anyway... that's After Eight! Catrice is a line that I really wish was available in the US. Thankfully I have friends who are willing to indulge my Catrice habit in exchange for packages of goodies from the US. ^.^

Happy Sunday, folks! Thanks for reading!

Catrice Blues Brothers Vol II

Did I mention that I love Catrice? Oh, that's right. I did! I love Catrice, and here's another example of why.

Blues Brothers Vol. II is a deep shimmery blue. I have lots of dark blues (well, I have lots of every kind of blue), but I particularly love this one because it's dark, but it never looks black. Dark polishes that look black are a huge pet peeve of mine. If I want to wear black, I wear black. 

The shimmer in this baby makes this polish just glow. It's blackened around the edges, but the middle of the nail is shimmery, glowy goodness.

The formula was great, as I've come to expect with Catrice. And I love the brush. It's a flatter brush, slightly wide, but not as wide as the OPI Pro Wide brush (which I despise because I have narrow nails). The Catrice brush is just perfect for me. If I could put a Catrice brush in every polish I own, I would. 

So there you have it. Blues Brothers Vol. II, glowy vampy blue perfection!

Thanks for stopping by! ♥

Catrice Sold Out For Ever

Sold Out For Ever is Catrice's dupe of the infamous Chanel Jade. Jade has several dupes now, including Milani Dress Maker, Jordana Mint Candy and Claire's Dream Catcher (which is itself hard to find now). Despite having Mint Candy, I always wanted Sold Out For Ever both for the name and because I simply love Catrice. Sold Out For Ever has now been discontinued, so I was losing hope of ever getting it, then a sweet friend of mine sent me a bottle for my birthday! =D

This shade is pretty much the perfect mint for my skin tone. It's got that same very subtle shimmer that Jade has... which is to say that you don't see it very often, but it's there.

The main advantage of Sold Out For Ever over the other Jade dupes that I own is the formula. It takes three coats of Mint Candy to get it looking decent (and I've heard the same is true of Dress Maker), but this was two easy coats. It's got a fantastic formula for a lighter shade.

I love Catrice. I've never been disappointed with one yet. Love the brush, love the formula. 

I am very, very happy to finally own Sold Out For Ever... and just in time since it's literally about to be sold out forever. (Yes, that was groan worthy, I know. I'm a dork at heart, what can I say?) Thank you once again to the sweet lady who sent me this. You know who you are!

Hope the week is treating you guys right. Thanks for stopping by!

Catrice Up In The Air

I'm too tired to wax too poetic about this baby. It's not that I don't love it - I really do. Up in the Air is a lovely dusty medium blue creme. I'd seen a few posts of people having trouble with the formula, but mine was the same great formula I've seen in my other Catrices. I'll just let this one mostly speak for itself. =)

Thanks for stopping by!

Catrice Houston's Favorite

I don't have that much to say about Houston's Favorite, oddly enough. It's a lovely blackened teal, but it pulled darker on me than I'd hoped. I wanted the shimmer in the bottle to show up more on my nail than it did. It's not that I didn't like it - on the contrary, I really do love it, but I just wasn't in the mood for something quite this dark. Fabu Catrice formula, as always.

Catrice Beam Me Scotty!

I love Catrice, oh yes, I do. =) I'm so lucky that I have a long distance buddy who is able to get these for me. I love the bottle, I love the brush, I love the formula on all that I've tried, and this baby is no exception.

Beam Me Scotty! is part of Catrice's Out of Space limited edition collection. I totally needed it just for the name, but luckily it's also a stunning polish. It's a beautiful forest green with a suede finish. I know it looks grey here, but trust me, it's forest green.

Here it is with shiny top coat, which is how I wore it. This is two coats, but only because I wasn't sure how the wear would be. This was perfection in one coat. I took some shots outside as well to try to get it to show green instead of grey.

These are better, but still not perfect. The Swatchaholic has some great swatches of this collection. I'm sorry I couldn't get mine to be more color accurate. =\

Bottom line - another winner from Catrice!

Happy Wednesday, folks... and thanks for stopping by!

Catrice Dark Lavender - Which Is Not Lavender At All

Yeah, so. Meet my nubs.

My middle fingernail on my left hand was getting... weird. Wonky. Like it was wanting to flare out on the side. I've been fighting it for about two weeks now. Then the corner started acting like it wanted to break, which my nails pretty much never do.

So I decided to take them way back and kind of let that nail reset. Well. I got carried away. I went too far. They were actually painful last night, and my nail beds were (still are, in fact) sticking out past the tips of my fingers. I took some pics of that too, but I won't post them cause I don't want to gross people out. >.<

Anywhoo. I was so mad at myself that I almost went to bed without polish on, then I decided that I would wear this little gem that I got as a swap extra, Catrice Dark Lavender.

Does this look lavender to you? Yeah, me either. It's beautiful though, SO beautiful.

It's actually a teensy bit more brown leaning than these pics would have you believe. And the finish is incredibly rich, almost metallic.

These lightbox shots are closer to the color it actually is, but still... not quite there.

So there you go, a beautiful polish that wouldn't have ever even been on my radar if some nice person hadn't included it as a swap extra. And the story of my nubs. Thankfully they grow fast. *sigh*

Mermaid Nails! Featuring Catrice I Sea You + Nfu Oh 52

This week has been mythical creatures week over at the nail boards, but I just couldn't seem to get my act together to do a themed mani until today. Today's theme was mermaids, and I used Catrice I Sea You and Nfu Oh 52.

It was admittedly a loose interpretation of the theme. I Sea You! has always made me think of mermaids. The color itself makes me think of them, and I can just imagine mermaids popping up out of the waves and shouting, "I see you!" Yes, that's what it looks like in my head. And Mary Janice Davidson's mermaid trilogy didn't help anything.

I added accent nails in Nfu Oh 52, which represents both the changing colors underwater and the scales of a mermaid's tail.

I absolutely love this combination. The Catrice is fabulous, great formula and I love, love, love the brush. I love any polish where I go to do cleanup afterwards and realize that I barely made a mess at all.

And the Nfu Oh is, of course, amazing. Their flakies are some of my favorite things on the planet.

This was just perfect for both my mood and for the nail board challenge. It makes me happy every time I glance down at my hands, and really, that's what this is all about. =)

As always, thanks for stopping by!