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!

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!

Zoya Beach Collection - The Pinks

Yes, I am slowly making my way through swatching Zoya Beach! My cuticles are feeling much less brutalized now that I've switched back to my normal hand lotion. (Which is Gold Bond Ultimate Healing with Aloe, for the record. My cuticles were NOT pleased with the generic version, sadly.)

Today I have the three pinks from this collection, Reagan, Lara and Shelby. 

I'm still not sure what Zoya was thinking with releasing a collection with three pinks. Maybe it's just because I'm not a huge fan of pink, but I really would have liked to see some more diverse colors here.

Reagan is the darkest of the shades, an almost berry leaning magenta shade.

Lara is the middle child. This one is really rather eye searing on me in person, almost crossing the border into neon territory. 

And the lightest one is Shelby, which is also my favorite of the pinks, oddly enough. I expected to like Reagan the most, but I found Shelby to be very, very flattering with my skin tone. 

The formula across all three polishes was uniformly great. I used two coats for all of them and I was quite happy with the results on all three with just two coats. All in all, these really are quite lovely polishes; they're just not terribly exciting to me. But if you're in the market for some pink cremes, you really can't go wrong with these. =)

It's also worth noting that the Zoya Earth Day Polish Exchange is back this year. You can find the details here. If you're wanting any of these, now would be a good time to order!

Thanks for reading!

** Products provided for review **

Zoya Arizona

I'm slowly making my way through the Zoya Beach collection for you guys. My cuticles have been rebelling lately, so I'm trying hard to not do any extended swatch sessions while I get them back into shape. Hopefully it was just a change in moisturizer, and they'll be back to normal soon. *crosses fingers*

Today I have Arizona, the bright orange creme from the Beach collection.

I don't own many oranges. In fact, Arizona brings the number of oranges in my stash up to FOUR. Yahoo!

I actually find Arizona oddly flattering though. I think the key for me liking orange is that it has to be a pure orange, not red or coral leaning at all. This one certainly fits the bill. The formula on Arizona is good, though a little thin.  These shots were taken at two coats, but next time I wear it I think I might go for three. You can't really see it in the pics, but there were some little sheer patches here and there. Three coats should make it just about perfect though.

And I took a few pics of it in the shade as well, since the sun was making it look a little bit more searing than it actually is. =)

So what do you think? The formula is what I've come to expect from Zoya, but the color is a really pleasant surprise for me. ^.^

Thanks for reading!

This product was sent to me for review.

Two Zoyas - Kristen and Tallulah

I took advantage of Zoyas most recent promo and picked up two polishes that I'd been wanting for a while - Tallulah and Kristen. First up I'll show you Tallulah. I'm not sure why my fingers look so orange in these pics of Tallulah. The polish looks color accurate to me on my monitor though, so try to ignore the orange fingers. 

Medium blue with a cerulean shimmer. Perfect coverage in two coats, great formula. I love this one. Even with the amount of blues I own (a lot), this one is unique in my collection. =)

Now for Kristen.

Blue toned grey creme. This one is actually pulling less blue on me than I expected it to, so in that respect she's a bit of a let down for me. I had read some complaints on other blogs about the formula, but I didn't have any problems with this one. The formula was good, not too thick, not too thin. It was a big streaky on the first coat, but completely leveled out on the second coat. I do like Kristen, I just wish she pulled a hair more blue on me. 

So there you go, two blue Zoyas for this Monday morning. Thanks for reading!

L'Oreal Now You Sea Me

I had just read on Nouveau Cheap that there was a new line of L'Oreal polishes polishes appearing in drugstores, and I was so surprised to find a nearly full display of them at my local Walgreen's - I feel like I always wait months to find things I see on blogs in my drugstores, so it was nice to be ahead of that curve for once! The display that I saw was completely bare of the Trendsetter colors. I'm not sure if they were already sold out or if they hadn't put them out yet. I ended up grabbing Now You Sea Me from the Iconic Muse line, and that's what I'm showing you today.

I would describe Now You Sea Me as a light grey-out teal that leans every so slightly more blue than green. It's very reminiscent of Misa Dirty Sexy Money and Catrice I Sea You, though I'm away from my stash and can't do a side by side to tell for sure. I think this one is more blue than either of those, but again, I can't be positive.

The formula on this baby is just yummy. It's one of those that's sort of halfway between a jelly and a creme. I used three coats in these photos because I wanted to make certain I had full coverage, but it honestly looked fine after two coats. I was really happy with the formula, and I thought it wore really well. I ended up wearing it for about three days, and there was only a bit of tip wear when I took it off, no major chips at all.

Now, is this polish the most unique snowflake? Of course not. I have a lot in my own collection that are very similar, but I just can't resist these types of shades. But Now You Sea Me remains a solid choice based on the formula and wear that I experienced. It's certainly not a bad addition to a stash that doesn't have a lot of shades like this one - or even to a stash like mine that has a bunch! =D

And I also have to say that I absolutely LOVE L'Oreal's brush and bottle. I think the color choices they're offering are really strong, I just wish that they were in more interesting finishes. So many of us collectors have cremes in every color of the rainbow, so it makes it hard to buy yet another creme that's likely a dupe of something we already have. I'd love to see more shimmers or perhaps some glitters or glass flecks from L'Oreal - I'd snap those up in a heartbeat.

Thanks for reading, and I hope that 2012 is being kind to you all so far!

Colour Alike 405 - The Big Blue

Today I have another Colour Alike to show you, number 405, also known as The Big Blue. Much like Nubar, Colour Alike has introduced a denim collection as their answer to Les Jeans de Chanel collection that Chanel released earlier this year. 405 is the one that is meant to be similar to Coco Blue, which is the only one of the Jeans collection that really interested me. I hesitate to call it a dupe because I haven't seen them compared side by side.

As you can see, 405 is a light blue with hidden shimmer - very hidden shimmer. Normally shimmer that dies on the nail is a major pet peeve of mine, but I love this shade so much that I really don't care where the shimmer goes when I put it on. =)

This shade of blue is so perfect for my skin tone. I have lots of light blues, but none of them are exactly like this one.

The formula is absolutely to die for. What you see here is two coats. I expected there to be streaking issues, as is often the case with these lighter shades, so I was very pleasantly surprised when this one was perfect with just two coats. 

Love, love, LOVE.

I wish I could get in the mood to do some real holiday manis, but I keep getting awesome things in the mail that aren't holiday related at all. I guess that's a good problem to have though! ^.^

Hope you guys are doing well and are surviving the pre-holiday craziness. As always, thanks for stopping by!

A Couple of Blues

Today I have a couple of blues that I hadn't posted yet. The first is Zoya Noel, which is likely the closest thing I'll ever have to a polish with my name. It's a beautiful ice blue metallic polish, very reminiscent of Zoya Crystal, but without the flecks of gold. The application was quite good, two easy coats. Somehow I managed to ding the tips of a couple of fingers within just a couple of hours of putting it on. This worries me a bit because I didn't really do anything that could have caused that, so I hope this doesn't just tend to being chiptastic. =\

And the other is China Glaze Flyin' High. I was expecting this one to be more teal than it looks on me, but on me it's pretty much pure blue. In the lights indoors, it had a very tiny tint of teal to it, but yeah, mostly blue... which is fine with me. =) Great formula on this one though, not fussy whatsoever.

I'm so sorry that I haven't had much time to answer comments lately. I do read them all, and I appreciate every one. I've just been so busy with work, and then being sick and then being busy with work again that I feel like I barely have time to put together cognizant blog posts. So please, please know that I really do love all of your comments, even when I don't have time to reply!

Happy Friday!

China Glaze Winter Berry

I kept telling myself I didn't need another red creme. Turns out, I was wrong! =)

China Glaze's Let It Snow 2011 holiday collection features two red cremes (three if you count the vampier Velvet Bow), with Winter Berry being the one that is cooler in tone. I went back and forth about getting this one. I have a fair amount of red cremes. And honestly... I'm not even sure this is unique in my collection. But the lemming was there and it wasn't leaving, so I went ahead and bought it. And I'm so glad that I did.

Winter Berry is just perfect in every way. The formula is great - two easy coats is what's shown here. It's sort of halfway between a creme and a jelly, so it borders on that wonderful squishy quality of a jelly without any of the opacity or streaking issues that jellies sometimes have.

It's also just about the perfect shade of red for my skintone, which doesn't hurt anything either. =D So do I have a dupe in my collection for this one? Yeah, I probably do. But I love this so much that I'm not even inspired to go and check to see what I have that might be close. And when I do get around to de-duping my collection again (We all know it'll happen eventually!), I'm pretty sure this one will stay over whatever else I might have that's close to it. I just love it that much. =)

Just perfect. *sigh*

Thank you everyone for the well wishes with the bug I had earlier this week. =) I'm finally starting to feel human again, yay! 

And, as always, thank you for stopping by my little blog. =)

FingerPaints Black Expressionism - My New Go-To Black

Like most lacquerheads, I felt like I was constantly on a quest for a good one-coater black polish that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I know a lot of people swear by Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, but it just never worked that great for me. It was super thick, even with thinner. It was an uncooperative consistency. Plus, it chipped really badly on me. I was just on the brink of breaking down and getting Illamasqua Boosh, when one of my nail buddies told me that she really likes FingerPaints Black Expressionism. I figured it was worth a $5.00 gamble to see how I liked it.

The verdict? I don't just like it, I LOVE it. Great formula, easy to work with. I could tell it would probably need thinning within a few uses, but meh, I can live with that. Super pigmented, what you see here is one coat.

I found that I was really enjoying having plain black nails, which I hadn't done in a while, so I left it on for about three days as a wear test. No chips, barely any tip wear. And I kept getting compliments on it, which I thought was funny cause it was like, "Thanks... they're just black?" =D

So if you're looking for a good black creme and you have access to FingerPaints, I highly recommend Black Expressionism. Love, love, love!

SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder

I have a bit of an odd choice for me today - SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder. I've sort of developed a penchant for buying these bright warm-leaning greens, but then I put them on and I can't decide how I feel about them. This one is super, mega-bright on me. I'm on the fence though... not sure whether to keep or purge!

The formula on this one is pretty decent. The first coat was streaky, and I had to apply the second coat with a light hand. It wanted to drag around my cuticles, but all in all it wasn't too bad. Not as great as some of my other SpaRituals, but these yellowy greens can be problematic.

Happy Hump Day! Hope you all are having a good week. Thanks for stopping by!

FingerPaints Cordur-Orange

We had our first blast of fall last week, which is actually kind of early for the deep south. It's warming back up again, but I've been in a fall mood ever since. I don't normally feel a desire to match my polish to the seasons (I wear what I want!), but this polish just screams fall. =)

It makes me want to go and pick apples and drink cider. It makes me want to drink pumpkin lattes. It makes me want to eat pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread and wear a jacket and closed-toe shoes instead of flip flops... it makes me want to do all the things that mean fall to me.

I never buy orange polish, seriously. But I just fell in love with this when I saw it at Sally's. It doesn't disappoint either. It's a little thick, but that's often the case with FingerPaints' cremes. About 4 drops of thinner and all was right with the world. This baby is super pigmented and all around awesome - I did 2 coats, but it was honestly fine with one.

Maybe wearing this will conjure more of the cooler weather that was so nice last week!

Happy Hump Day and, as always, 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!