Saturday, August 30, 2014

Random Spam Swatch Trio: 2

Today another trio of swatches, this time from the brand Zoya.  One has already been featured on this blog, but since my lighting situation has changed, I decided it was fine to do it again!



First is Destiny, a bright orange with yellow orange shimmers.  This is a pixie dust, and thus, dries to that beautiful matte shimmer finish. Formula was good, and required two coats.  I see this as a great summer color and would serve well as a transition to fall.




Next is Chita, another pixie dust.  This one is a deep, yet muted green with silver shimmer.  Formula on this was a bit thin...but I may have thinned this.  Despite that, it looks great at two coats.  My brush on this was a bit weird and fat but not problematic.  Great fall color and would make an easy transition to early winter.


(cats...sorry)

Finally, Dream, another of the great scattered holo jellies Zoya makes.  This was the only untried in the trio but it's a stunner.  Excellent amount of scattered holo in this.  Formula was really thin, but covered quite well at two thick coats and was a perfectly behaved polish.  This also dried especially quickly, but it gets a bit dull so it needs a top coat. Great color, I'd wear this any day.




Next trio will be some Dance Legends.  Stay tuned, they're something special.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Random spam trio - China Glaze

I'm back after a long hiatus. I decided to do something a bit different for me, and do some random swatches. I'm trying to be a good girl and not buy all those new China Glaze polishes out right now, so instead I reached for these.



First is Keep Calm, Paint On, a muted light green with very fine pearly white shimmer running through out. The formula on this was...just OK. It needs two coats for perfect opacity but it looked a bit lumpy and would probably better be served with three. This gives me MAJOR lobster hands. This has purge written all over it. It also photographs entirely different than it looks both in the bottle and on the nail so the picture has been color corrected to the best of my ability. EDIT: This came out looking way less lobstery on me after I uploaded the pictures, and actually looks decent.  


(This picture has been color edited, but it's still not accurate)

Next is You Drive Me Coconuts, a bold pink neon jelly. This needs three coats but for a full Mani, I'd probably do four. Formula was actually easy and it dries quickly but it must have top coat due to the matte finish. This is gorgeous. If you like neons, you need this.  First photo is how it photographed; second is my attempt at color correcting.  It's still not accurate (it's a lot darker) but it's closer.




Finally, we have Howl You Doin'?, and it's IMO, a very unique color. I'd describe this as a brown fuschia jelly (is that a thing?) with a generous helping of purple shimmer and orange flakes. This needs three coats but formula was stellar. Only problem was it was incredibly difficult to clean up. I wasn't keen on this at first (though I love the way it looks in the bottle) but put top coat on and BAM! It's really pretty. Dark but obviously not black, and sudden flashes of purple...it's a winner. It dries a bit bumpy and satin so it needs a couple coats if top coat.



That's it for now.  Next random trio will be Zoya.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Rainbow Honey Mystery Bag - August 2014

I'm back with another edition.  Unfortunately, this took a long time to get up.  This was in the mail for a week (the PO dropped the ball on this) and then I ended up seeing pictures of what was in it online and kind of lost interest.  But I've finally got off my butt and got these up.  Here's what's up.





To start, the non polish items.

We yet again received a cuticle balm, this time in Royal Fruits.  I don't mind these, really, but I have SO MANY cuticle creams and balms as it is.  Anyway, this scent is lovely, but I always get the wax note first and foremost.  Will use, but I really don't need another.

The bag also came with a Royal Fruits eau de parfum roller ball.  I don't know what this scent is, but I conjure up images of kiwi, strawberry and mango.  There's also something a little off about it...not sure what, but I still like it.

Last non polish thing is a body spray in Summer Fruit.  I think we've had this scent before in some other iteration.  This is also really fruity, but it has stronger notes of citrus than Royal Juice.  It smells like mango and oranges (lots of oranges).  I usually don't use body spray but I'll have to give it a go.

And now to the real goodies.  This month brought about a scented top coat in Royal Fruits.  I was initially disappointed to receive a top coat, but in the end, I like having it to see if it's my thing.  I don't think this dried especially quickly, but it does have a strong scent.  You can smell it in the air as you paint it on, and when the polish smell goes away, it becomes very noticeable.  I even ended up layering the glitter and Out the Door over it, and can still smell it.  It doesn't bother me, but it's a bit potent.  Shine wise, it was good but I'll have to test it out more to know if it's worth a repurchase.

The first color is 488nm (does anyone know what that means?), a mid toned blue.  I again, was a bit disappointed.  I didn't really expect a straight creme but it turns out I love this.  On the nails, this takes on a real deep teal look.  Formula was...alright.  It needed three coats for proper coverage and it didn't settle well, looking a bit bumpy where I didn't take my time.  This also thickened up a bunch during application.  Be ready for thinning.



The glitter topper of the month is Modern Hearts, a very pink based glitter with white hearts and honey suckle hexes.  This also has a nice iridescence floating in the clear base.  Formula was thinner than past RH toppers, so I was pleased.  I used the dab method and that worked well and gave good enough coverage.  IMO, this does not go with 488nm, so I found it odd they paired these in the same bag, but I've noticed their colors in these bags generally don't pair well.  It would probably look fantastic over a pink, orange or white.




Getting over the initial disappointment, I thought the extra goodies really saved the bag this month.  I'm hoping next month looks better, because I'm getting the "I might need to cancel" bug.