SinfulColors Sweet Dreams

Sweet Dreams is the last shade I bought from the SinfulColors Girls in Pearls Sheer Shimmer collection, and I do believe it's my favorite. Sweet Dreams is the bright aqua cousin of Morning Star, with the same soft glass flecked type finish.

Note - Please excuse the jaundiced looking fingers. It took me four different lighting setups to finally get color accurate pics of this baby, and it took a warmer toned light to make that happen, which turned my fingers far more yellow than they actually are. The polish is pretty color accurate though, go figure.

I think that the formula on Sweet Dreams was slightly better than either Morning Star or Cinderella, though I did thin it slightly before using it. It only took me two coats for full opacity on this one as opposed to three on the others though, so that made me quite happy.

I love this finish so much that I'm seriously considering going back for the other shades (there's a pink, an orange and a yellow) even though I don't really wear those that often. I just love how soft these look, while still being so bright and beautiful for spring.

So there you go, my favorite of the new SinfulColors shades. =) Happy Sunday, Happy April (Can you believe it's already April?!), and thanks for reading!

Zoya Surf Collection - Swatches and Review

For Summer 2012, Zoya is releasing a two-part collection called Beach and Surf. Today I have swatches of the Surf Collection, six shades with a foil/metallic finish.

First up is Carly, a warmer toned purple. This doesn't really feel like summer to me. Carly is a beautiful color, don't get me wrong. I just feel like the rich jewel tone would be a better fit in a fall collection.

Then we have Kimber, a bright pink with almost coral undertones. I am not generally a fan of pinks, but I LOVE this. It makes me think of strawberries and watermelons. It reminds me a bit of China Glaze Strawberry Fields, but the finish is different, of course. Lovely.

Now we have Rory, a rather bubblegum pink with silver shimmer. I didn't expect Rory to be flattering on me, but I was pleasantly surprised. Shades like this one often give me the dreaded zombie hands, but nary a zombie in sight. I'm not sure it's a color I would reach for often, but I can definitely see wearing Rory as a pedi. 

Next up is Myrta, another one that took me by surprise. I think I own two orange polishes - it's just not my thing. I actually think that Myrta is pretty flattering though, and I think it would make a killer summer pedi.

Now we have Meg, my least favorite of the collection. I love green polish, truly I do, but these warmer greens just really don't look very good with my skin tone. Meg was also the one I found most likely to show brush strokes, so that didn't win her any points from me either. I do know some folks that this would look great on though - it's just not really a great shade for me.

And lastly Zuza, the star of the show for me - which is probably no surprise if you know how much I love blues, teals and aquas. =D Aqua foil? Yes, please!

The formula on the Surf Collection is pretty uniform throughout. Not too thick, not too thin, they all flow very easily onto the nail. They're all highly pigmented, and most of them could almost be one-coaters. The one caveat I have about the formula is that a certain amount of care is needed when applying them. They dry fast, almost like a matte or a holo, and because of that they have a tendency to get clumpy and leave bald spots if you go over the same section of the nail too many times. I would also let each coat dry for a couple of minutes between coats to avoid bald spots. If you follow those application tips, though, you should be golden. =)

The entire Surf Collection is shown at two coats with no base or top coat. I think two coats is pretty much fine for all of these, though you might need to go to three coats if you do run into problems with application. I'm wearing Zuza as a full mani right now, and I did three coats just to see if it made a difference, and I don't really see much difference in terms of opacity or richness of color. Zuza dried fast, even at three coats.

All in all, I really like this collection. There were a couple of nice surprises in here for me, colors I wouldn't normally have picked up, but that are actually pretty flattering. I can't really ask for more than that! 

The Zoya Surf Collection (and Beach!) will be available at zoya.com starting April 1.

These products were sent to me for review.

Some New Barielle Shades - Swatches and Comparisons

Barielle has added something like 90 new shades to their lineup, and I ordered four of them a couple of weeks ago. Once they arrived, I realized that I had somewhat similar colors in my stashes for three of them, so I did some comparisons. Here we go.

First up is Lilly of the Valley. It's a little sheer, but it built up okay after three coats. The formula is decent - a little on the watery side, but nothing horrible.

This reminded me a lot of FingerPaints Sketch N Etch. As you can see in this pic, they're not exactly dupes, but they are pretty close. Overall, I like Sketch N Etch better. I feel like the color is deeper, and the fact that it's slightly cooler makes it more wearable for me.

Next is Island Breeze. The formula on this one was better than Lilly of the Valley. It's opaque in two coats.

The closest thing I own to Island Breeze is Orly Bailamos. Bailamos is lighter, but these polishes are definitely cousins.

Then we have Sky's the Limit. Great formula, two coats, no complaints.

The interesting thing about Sky's the Limit is that it's nearly identical to FingerPaints Artistic Azure, which is one of my very, very favorite blues, and which is now discontinued. If you've had a yen for Artistic Azure, this could be a great replacement for it. They are even more alike in person than they look in this picture.

And finally, End of the Rainbow. Sadly, I am not a fan of this one at all. It was still patchy and kind of transparent at three coats, and it's frostier than it looks in these pictures. One of my friends said that it looked better layered over black and that it may look good layered over a darker teal, so I guess I'll try that before tossing it in the swap box. But on its own... yeah, not thrilling.

Overall, I guess I'm a little disappointed. They aren't bad, exactly, but they certainly aren't unique. The formula on them wasn't good enough to make me really want to chose them over the other similar colors I own. I'll probably keep Sky's the Limit just because Artistic Azure is discontinued and I love it so much. I'm afraid the others are probably destined for my swap box.

I hope these comparisons and swatches are helpful! Thanks for reading. =)

Models Own Aqua Violet

Aqua Violet is, as the name implies, a duochrome polish that flashes from Aqua to Violet. It is part of the Models Own Beetlejuice collection.

This is what it mostly looks like on me - metallic aqua. It's a little brighter than this picture appears, but not lots more. The violet part of it is a little more shy than I was expecting, but you can definitely see it in these pictures.

This is three coats, and it needed all three for opacity. The formula leaves a bit to be desired. It's not the worst formula I've ever used, but it was thick and goopy while also being slightly runny and hard to control. o.O 

All in all... Aqua Violet is pretty, but it didn't really rock my world like I thought it would. Next time I wear it, I'll try layering it over black or dark blue and see if that helps. *sigh* I hate it when a giant lemming isn't all that and a bag of chips like your head made it out to be!

Happy Mardi Gras, y'all! =D

Revlon Street Wear Next Dimension

This polish is... really old. From the '90s, I think. A dear friend of mine sent it to me and I almost swallowed my tongue when I opened the package. 

Two coats of old, chemical-laden 1990s goodness. The formula is ah-maze-ing. 

These were so cutting edge when they were new. I remember the dark days before Hard Candy, before Urban Decay, before Naturistics and Street Wears. Purple was about as out there as polish colors got. It was like an ocean of pink and red and mauve. 

I don't know what made polish companies decide that branching out into different shades might be a good idea, but I am sure glad that they did. ♥