Lilacquer The Diva Plavalaguna

I love duochromes. Loooove them. The Diva Plavalaguna from Lilacquer's Fifth Element collection is my new favorite.

This beauty shifts from a beautiful green to a gorgeous azure blue. I had a really hard time capturing the shift, I think because the shift isn't as dramatic as some, but trust me when I say this polish definitely shows off two different colors.

The formula is top notch. What you see here is two super-easy coats. Dry time was excellent. I should also say that this polish looks smoother in person than it does in these photos. Macro shows off every little flaw, but in person my nails look smooth and metallic.

The Diva Plavalaguna is simply perfection. And now I must order several of the others from the Fifth Element collection. So beautiful!

Lilacquer polishes are available on Etsy here!

Nails Inc Baker Street

What's this?? An actual NOTD post?! Yes! A couple of things happened to make this possible. 1) I got a new polish! I've been wearing either repeats or my own prototypes for so long, I almost forgot what having a brand new polish was like. 2) I got my new camera, and I thought that taking it for a spin with something as hard to photograph as Baker Street would be good. I have to say I'm pleased on all counts.

Here we are in full sun. This is the most bold, vibrant blue creme I have ever seen. The formula is positively luscious - two easy coats, barely any cleanup. I was worried with how bright it is that I'd end up with blue cuticles, but nope! Nothing going on here but a lovely, easy to control formula.

In retrospect, I feel kind of silly for resisting this one for so long. If you like blues at all and you don't have this, you need it. Trust me, just go to Sephora or order it online. You need it! =D

Other news - the Smitten Polish restock is probably about a week away. All of my supplies are en route, so I'm eagerly awaiting their arrival. I'll be posting here which colors I'll be offering and when the shop will open. =)

Thanks for reading! <3

Maybelline Sapphire Siren

My stores have finally started getting the new Maybelline Color Show polish displays, so I was able to pick up a couple of them to try out. Side note: I'm finding it pretty irritating that the vast majority of my stores have some sort of mini display with only about half the colors. There's a metallic blue that I have my eye on that's proving quite difficult to find in my neck of the woods.

ANYWAY. The one I have to show you today is Sapphire Siren. I picked this one up because it really looks like a navy jelly in the bottle, but it really isn't. Still though, it's a pretty nice navy creme.

The formula on Sapphire Siren is quite nice. Two easy coats, no cuticle pooling or other shenanigans. 

My only real complaint is that I've had Sapphire Siren on for only about 18 hours now, and I already have tip wear. It's not shrinkage either, it's definitely tip wear. I don't think that bodes particularly well for the wear of this polish, but I guess only time will tell.

So... yeah. If I seem pretty meh about this polish, it's because I am pretty meh about this polish. It's not bad or anything... but it's certainly nothing remarkable either. *sigh* Oh well, they can't all be winners, I guess.

I'm sorry I haven't been posting as many pictures lately. I've been wearing a lot of repeats lately, plus I've been having trouble with my camera that has progressively been getting worse and worse. I've ordered a new camera on Saturday, so hopefully it'll be here soon!

Hope you all are doing well, and thank you for reading!

Jaybird's Bomb Pop!

My sweet buddy Jaybird makes the most amazing frankens, and the one I have to show you today is called Bomb Pop. In case you don't know, this is a Bomb Pop:

This is the polish that Jaybird made that was inspired by the Bomb Pop:

Pretty awesome, no? These pics show Bomb Pop at three coats. I took pictures of both my left hand and my rarely seen right hand so that I could show how the glitter distribution is on both hands.

The formula is fantastic, completely non-fussy. As with a lot of chunky glitters, I just made sure to give it a good shake to get the glitters well distributed in the polish before application. Bomb Pop also wore like iron on me. I think I wore it for four days straight, and it looked just as good on Day 4 as it did on Day 1.

Jaybird hasn't set up a shop, but you can contact her through her blog. 

TGIF, and thanks for reading!

FingerPaints Inkblot Blue

FingerPaints has introduced a collection of neons for summer. I'm normally not a neon girl, though occasionally a blue or green one will grab me (go figure), and Inkblot Blue practically jumped into my hand the last time I was at Sally's. =)

Aw, yeah! The formula is perfect in two coats and dries mega fast, like most neons.

I love that once I added top coat, it almost looks like a jelly. It's really squishy in real life, even more so than these pictures show.

I snapped a couple of pictures of it in the shade as well.

I'm very, very impressed with Inkblot Blue. Great formula, gorgeous color, just stunning and cheerful and bright.

Once I had it on, I thought that it looked similar to Ulta Blue Streak (which is also very, very close to OPI Ogre the Top Blue), so I did a quick nail wheel comparison. As you can see, they are similar, but they're not dupes. Inkblot Blue is brighter and more squishy looking, and the difference is slightly more pronounced in person. But depending upon your tolerance for similar colors, you might not need both. =)

Hope you all are doing well! Thanks for reading!

A Very Special Pahlish

My husband picked me up the other day for us to go out to dinner, and he handed me a bubble mailer from Pahlish. "Hmm," I say. "I didn't order anything from Shannon recently." As I'm tearing open the bubble mailer, my husband says, "Well, maybe it's something special." Boy, was a he right. I present to you Noelie; Queen of Blue.

If you know me, or if you've been reading my blog for a while, or even if you've just checked my labels and seen how many blue polishes I have, you know that blue is my thing... and now that is forever memorialized with my name on a bottle of polish!

I actually gasped when I took it out of the bubble mailer. The color is even deeper and richer than I was able to show in pictures. For some reason, all of my pics make the jelly base look lighter than it actually is. But trust me, this is one of the most beautiful creations I have ever laid eyes on.

Thank you so much again, my sweet friend. I can't tell you what a pick me up this was for me or how much I treasure my bottle of Noelie; Queen of Blue. 

Shannon really makes some insanely beautiful polishes, including the incredible Train Underwater. Pahlish is sold on Etsy. It looks like she's scheduled to restock this evening!

Hope your week was good. Thanks for stopping by!

Pahlish Dance Across the Sea

Gah, I can't believe it's been almost a week since I updated. Life + work = busy Noelie! 

Anyway, the polish I have to show you today is another favorite of mine from Pahlish. This shade is called Dance Across the Sea, and I think you'll agree that it's quite aptly named!

Dance Across the Sea has a sky blue base that is both milky and packed with shimmer. Suspended within that base are medium and large blue hex glitters. It kind of gives it the effect of bubbles floating in the sea. Looove it. =)

The formula is quite good and easy to control. I needed three coats for opacity, but that's more or less what I expected, otherwise the larger hexes wouldn't show up very well.

I think next time I wear it, I'll do one coat over a similar blue creme base just to see how it looks that way. I'm very happy with it like this though, it's just a matter of curiosity for me!

Total love!

Pahlish is available on Etsy, her shop is here. Her shop is closed right now, but she's supposed to restock on April 27. 

Hope you all are doing well, and thanks for reading!

Hits Apolo, a Blue for World Autism Awareness Day

I'm actually a day late with this post. World Autism Awareness Day was actually yesterday, but I couldn't get my act together to make a post about it - it was just one of those days. But since it's also Autism Awareness Month, I figured being a day late wasn't too bad. =)

What is Autism?

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors. They include autistic disorder, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome. ASD can be associated with intellectual disability, difficulties in motor coordination and attention and physical health issues such as sleep and gastrointestinal disturbances. Some persons with ASD excel in visual skills, music, math and art.

 

The above paragraph is from Autism Speaks, and they have lots of great information there. I'm not personally affected by autism, but I have several friends with children on the autism spectrum, and I know from them what an important issue this is. So in support of my friends and their children, siblings and spouses who are autistic, I present you with a lovely blue for Autism Awareness Day, Hits Speciallita Apolo.

 

 

Apolo is simply stunning, a gorgeous medium shade of blue. The formula itself was great, opaque in two coats. My bottle of Apolo is, sadly, plagued with one of the defective Hits brushes, so it was a bit like applying my polish with a fuzzy, frazzled mop. I really wish that brush situation would get under control because I want to order more of these, and it would be great if they had normal brushes. 

Just perfect.

Apolo was actually a gift (Thanks, Daphne!), but it's available through Llarowe.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

SinfulColors Neptune

Neptune is the second polish that I bought from Sinful's Cast Away collection. Just like Zeus, Neptune is another winner from Sinful. (Please excuse how odd my fingers look in these pics. The sun was super bright out yesterday, and it totally washed out my pale skin. The polish is color accurate though!)

Neptune is like the darker, more saturated cousin of several of the blues we've seen in recent collections - it's reminiscent of OPI I Have a Herring Problem and Zoya Skylar, but it is decidedly more blue than either of those. The finish is the same though, that lovely almost micro flake shimmer.

The formula on Neptune is really great - not too thin, not too thick, easy to control. Full coverage in two easy coats. My bottle of Zeus had a wonky brush, but Neptune's brush was just fine. 

I honestly couldn't be happier with this polish. I feel like Sinful has really been upping their game lately, and it's so nice to see a $1.99 drugstore brand putting out interesting shades and finishes.

Happy Wednesday, y'all! Thanks for reading! =)

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. =)

Layla Ocean Rush

Layla Cosmetics has introduced a line of eight shades of holo polishes called Hologram Effect. I ordered two of them, Ocean Rush and Flash Black, and Ocean Rush is the star of today's blog post.

Bright medium blue holo perfection. O.O

Okay. Now that I got the initial oogling out of the way, here's the scoop. Layla is offering a special base file for use with these polishes that they say is like a base coat file... or something. I'll be honest and say that I didn't use that because I already buff my nails regularly (they are thick and strong, so they can take it), and I really didn't want to buff them further. Instead, I used my GOSH Fix Base Coat. Ocean Rush applied completely smoothly with GOSH Fix, and I didn't have any issues with bald spots or dragging or anything else weird. I think next time I wear it, I'll give it a shot with just my normal base coat to see if the application is any different. I did allow the polish to dry completely between coats (it dries super fast anyway), just to try to avoid any potential application issues. This is two coats.

I used my normal top coat, Pro FX Quick Dry, and didn't have any dulling of the holo effect once the top coat was completely dry. I had intended to put another coat of the holo over my top coat, which I often do with the more troublesome holos that are dulled with top coat, but Ocean Rush didn't need it.

I can't comment on wear because I've had it on for less than 24 hours at this point, but I really couldn't be happier with Ocean Rush. My first reaction upon putting it on was, "I'm gonna need about a million backups of this." It's pure amazingness. =D

I ordered Ocean Rush from Beauty Blvd (seller: directperfumes4u) on eBay. I was very happy with their service. They also offer the Layla Magnetics, LCN Magnetics and Color Club Magnetics.

Happy Friday! Thanks for reading!