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!

NOTD Girly Bits Glo Worm

Today I'm wearing a polish that's not my own! My friend Pam over at Girly Bits has really outdone herself with her latest collection, Slapdash. Today I'm wearing Glo Worm, a magnificent BRIGHT green with the most beautiful glass fleck shimmer.

You have to imagine it even brighter than these pictures show. Glo Worm freaked out my camera, and it refused to capture the true brightness of this shade. It's absolutely amazing.

The formula is top notch, super easy to work with. What you see here is three easy coats. It definitely needed the three coats to obliterate visible nail line, but I expect that with these kinds of shades. 

Just perfect!

HARE Polish - Cosmo Blossoms

Today I have yet another indie polish to show you - Cosmo Blossoms, made by my buddy Nikole from HARE Polish. 

This is such an interesting color. It's a murky, greyed out lavender packed with various sizes of gorgeous green glitter. It doesn't seem like a combo that should work, but it does. 

The formula was a little thick, but it was pretty easy to work with. I'm very happy to say that I had full coverage in two coats and that I had to do very, very little cleanup.

I was going to point you in the direction of Nikole's Etsy, but it doesn't seem to be up at the moment. I know she's been struggling with the lacquer base shortage, just like so many other indie polish creators. Her Tumblr is here, and she does have a way to sign up for her mailing list. 

Happy Sunday evening, folks. 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.

China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses - A Christmas Polish for St. Patrick's Day

As I was digging through my drawer of green polishes trying to figure out what to wear for St. Patrick's Day, I came across a polish that I hadn't worn in a while - Mistletoe Kisses from the China Glaze 2010 holiday collection.

This is one of those perfect China Glaze glitters. Great formula, opaque in two easy coats, insanely sparkly. Just amazing.

I remember being so surprised when Mistletoe Kisses was released because it's such a light green and holiday collections typically tend to feature darker greens. While I do love Mistletoe Kisses as a holiday polish, it really feels like spring when I look at my nails right now. I think this was a great choice for my St. Patty's Day mani. =)

Total love. I must remember to wear this one more often!

Happy Saturday, and Happy St. Patrick's Day! 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. =)

Sephora Moody Woman

I fell for Moody Woman the second I saw nailXchange's post about it months ago. It's not available in US Sephora stores - it is available online, but there was nothing else I really wanted from Sephora and the shipping was going to cost more than the polish. Then one of my buddies in Canada offered to grab this for me as part of a swap, and I jumped at the chance. =D

Moody Woman is sort of the more cool toned version of Chanel's Peridot. Rather than shifting between green and gold, Moody Woman shifts between green and blue.

Given that the bottle is so teeny, I expected to hate the teeny little brush, but I actually loved it. Application on Moody Woman was actually pretty fantastic, even with the little brush. Two easy coats, very little cleanup required.

I wanted to love Peridot, but it's entirely too warm for my skintone. Moody Woman is the perfect answer to that problem for me. 

For a metallic, it's also very, very smooth. I was expecting it to show a lot more brush strokes than ended up being the case.

Two very enthusiastic thumbs up from me for Sephora Moody Woman! =D

Hope you all are having a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer Duckie

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I simply adore these boutique polish brands that are popping up these days. The latest of these that I've tried is Nostalgic Nail Lacquer. The shade I have to show you today is called Duckie, and it's part of Nostalgic's Pretty in Pink themed set, Bizarre Teenage Love Triangle.

Duckie is a mint green jelly with chartreuse, green and blue glitters. It is fairly sheer on its own, so I did three coats of Duckie over one coat of Colour Alike Catnip, which is a mint green creme.

The formula is good, though as is typical of these types of sparse glitters, I had to do a bit of digging and fiddling to get the amount of coverage I wanted from the glitter. It is completely worth it to me though. I absolutely adore this. It makes me think of spring time and Easter eggs. =)

The drying time was surprisingly fast once I had all the layers on there and added my top coat. I was expecting to have to wait quite a while for it to dry, so I was quite pleased when that turned out to not be the case.

And there you have it. I couldn't be happier with this polish. Nostalgic Nail Lacquer is available on Etsy, though she's currently out of stock as of the date and time I'm writing this post - apparently she's been inundated with orders, which I actually really like to hear with these independent brands. I love that the lacquerhead community is embracing these creations!

Happy Friday, and 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!