Sation Oh My Oceania

Yes, another NOTD! Sation has recently revamped their line of polishes, and Oh My Oceania is the first one I've tried. If the others live up to this one, there will definitely be more of these in my future.

First, Sation has revamped both their bottle and brush. The old standard round bottles have been replaced with this:

I really, really like the new bottles. They feel heavy and solid. The brush is super nice as well. The brush is of the wider and flatter variety, but not so wide that I had difficulty polishing my pinky nails - so smaller than an OPI Prowide brush, to give you an idea.

Look at this color! Look at the shimmer! I mean, seriously. This is one amazing polish.

The formula was very, very impressive. It was just the right consistency, no pooling or puddling or any other weirdness. Very smooth, very pigmented, but I didn't experience any staining either on my cuticles or my nails.

Two very enthusiastic thumbs up from me! =D

The new Sation line is available at nailsupplies.us and TransDesign, here and here respectively. They are also available on the Sation website, here. Since I was ordering just one bottle, I ordered mine from this eBay seller.

Hope y'all are all doing well, and thanks for reading!

butter LONDON Victoriana

I actually wore Victoriana for the first time months ago, and completely forgot to post my pictures. Whoops! 

Perfect formula, two easy coats.

I love the silvery shimmery finish on this one. It makes me think of brocade, which I suppose is the idea with a polish named Victoriana. =)

I don't own many Butter London polishes. I find the price tag a little hard to take on their more standard colors, but I will pony up when the finishes or shades are more unique. I guess that's true for me with a lot of brands though!

Sorry I didn't have more to say on this on. It's really a great polish, but I'm just coming off of a 2-day migraine, and I'm finding it difficult to summon much enthusiasm. Trust me, it's not the polish - it's me!

Hope you all are doing well. Thanks for reading! <3

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!

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! =)

SinfulColors Zeus

I finally happened upon Sinful's spring collection, Cast Away, at my local Walgreen's a couple of days ago. I only picked up two, Zeus and Neptune, as I deemed the rest of the display to be too close to other colors that I already have in my stash. Zeus is totally dreamy though, check it out.

Dusty purple with pink shimmer. I absolutely freaking love this polish.

Two easy coats, great formula, great opacity. The brush was a tad wonky, but nothing I couldn't deal with.

I've read that Cast Away is a limited edition collection, but I really hope this one finds its way into the permanent display. I feel like Sinful has really been stepping up their game lately, which is so nice to see in a cheaper brand.

Total love. ♥

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. =)

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!

SinfulColors Cinderella

I've been seeing some buzz in the blogosphere about the latest offering from SinfulColors, Cinderella. Since I am attracted to blues above all colors, I went out in search of this last night. It took me three stops, but victory is mine!

What we have here is a light blue polish with the most stunning pink and gold shimmer. It's rather subtle and delicate, but it's definitely visible and not one of those shimmers that completely dies on the nail.

The formula is really not bad. I was expecting a nightmare given how light the shade is, but I had full coverage in three coats. It's a little thick, so I tried to let it dry a bit between coats so avoid any pulling and that seemed to work fine.

The finish is interesting. It's not a jelly, but it has a really interesting milky quality to it that keeps the polish from looking stark like so many pastels tend to do. I had considered layering it over another light blue, but I really wanted to maintain that milkiness, and I'm so glad that I did.

The dry time was average, even with three coats. I always get worried about 3-coaters that have thicker formulas, but I didn't run into any problems with it at all.

It's so awesome when a drugstore polish brand actually comes out with a great color in an interesting finish. This one is pure love. ♥

Chemistry 186 - A Beauty From Down Under

This is going to be a short and sweet post today because I don't have tons of time.  One of my buddies, the lovely Kristy from The Polish Haven, sent me this polish out of the blue (pun very much intended) because my love for blue polishes is somewhat legendary.  Chemistry 186 is an amazingly rich, deep blue polish with a gorgeous purple-ish shimmer. The formula is to die for. I had almost no clean up to do at all. Observe.

Gorgeous, right? Just perfect. Thank you, Kristy! I love it so, so, SO MUCH! ♥ 

And now I'm diving back into a work project. At 5:00 pm. Gross. I hope your Monday evening is more fun than mine is shaping up to be! ^.^

Stargazer 305

Sometimes I love it when I'm wrong about a polish. A lovely friend sent Stargazer 305 to me as a surprise. In the bottle, it just looked like a purple shimmer - a very pretty purple shimmer, of course, but it didn't strike me as anything super amazing. It sat on my desk for a couple of days. Then I had major mani indecision the other night and started swatching polishes on one nail. When I got to Stargazer 305, my eyes almost popped out of my head.

First off, what looked like regular shimmer in the bottle turned out to be this INSANE blue shimmer that almost sits on top of the polish. It reminded me a bit of what oil looks like sitting on top of water (minus the rainbows, of course). I was turning my thumb this way and that admiring the shimmer, and that's when I saw the second surprise this polish had in store.

Oh, hai! We're a duochrome! It shifts from that deep purple to an almost fuchsia shade, and then on to a brighter pink that's almost red. I had a really, really hard time trying to capture the most extreme shift though.

Yeah. So what started out looking like an unassuming dark purple in the bottle turned out to be one of the most complex polishes I've ever owned. I took way too many pictures of the magic that is Stargazer 305, and here are some of the best ones.

Just unbelievable. 

Stargazer is a UK brand. According to their website, they do ship worldwide, but I have no idea what shipping is like. There also seemed to be a fair number of listings for Stargazer polishes on eBay when I had a look. They have some metallics that have really piqued my interest too!

Hope y'all are having a great weekend! Thanks for reading!