Quick post

I'm back just to get into the swing of things.  One polish is up on deck today to get me back on track and hopefully posting more regularly soon.

Today is A-England Wuthering Heights.  I recently ordered my first A-Englands from Color4Nails and this was one of them.  This is a deep toned gray with a nice helping of fine gold shimmer.  Elements of this remind me of Illamasqua Facet.  Formula wise, this was excellent and it was nearly opaque in one coat.  This is two coats.

Virago Varish Birthday Trio

I am back again, sooner than expected, to share three beauties today.  My nails are looking a bit...quirky, but I couldn't wait any longer to get these up! Virago Varnish is having their first birthday and to celebrate, released three colors.  Let's take a look!

First is Triumph.  I believe that this one is limited edition, so if it's catching your eye, you might want to snag it while you can.  This is a darker green family duochrome with a healthy dose of linear holographic.  This is such a unique shade!  I feel that while my photos are color accurate, they're doing no justice to this. Not my first pick, but I really like this one. Formula is very easy and only needed two coats to get perfect opacity.  Good dry time on this one too.

Gala is a teal linear holo.  These kinds of colors are right up my alley and so I have to say this is my favorite.  Great formula and only needs two coats to get this opaque.  Skunky smell, but oh so lovely.

weird angle...

Jubilee is the final polish in this trio.  Back in the day, I ate raspberries like they were going out of style and this color reminds me so much of that delicious fruit!  This is a jelly finish and really needs three coats to get good opacity.  Even then, you might find it to be on the sheer side when you hold your nails up to the light.  Great color and easy formula.

Bonus photo: Nail stamping! Here is Nail Stamping Queen polish in Black stamped over Triumph, using a Marianne XXL plate. Love this look.

Randomness! - A Sequel

I've got another beautiful mix of whatever jumped into my hand and onto my nails.  Let's take a quick look.

Femme Fatale Fire In The Sky

This is a Color4Nails exclusive and it looks like it's currently in stock.  This is a dusty purple tinted base with a mix of glitter and multichrome flakies.  Application was pretty easy but I found that I didn't care for the color much. Despite this being purple, my camera did a great job capturing the true color. Three coats.

Zoya Posh

A stunning matte red.  I'm not much for red but this might be one of the prettiest polishes I've ever seen.  It's nearly opaque on one coat, and I'm sure if you were in dire straights, you could get a good enough look at one coat.  Really, really beautiful and a great application to boot.  Highly recommend.

Colors by Llarowe Believe in Miracles

This is the first of their monthly series.  This is  a gorgeous green with enough of a blue tone that you might question what color this falls under.  The holo is pretty strong and it's kind of chunky looking, if that makes sense,  This is a color that will fit in with most any time of the year, and I so appreciate that.  Formula is excellent as well, and only needs two coats for good opacity.  This one will dry dull.  I really love this one.

I can never leave good enough alone, and stamped over this.  While I like the results, I ended up snapping a nail opening a drawer (my Melmer is too heavy!).  This is my back up hand, so I will nub and see how I like the look but this might be my last post for a week or two.  Ugh, I was on such a good streak.  I will be willing my nails to grow in the meantime.  See you soon!

Emily de Molly - Moment of Impact

I don't think I could possibly be happier that today is Friday!  I NEED this weekend like no other.  Today is a special polish that's been untried in my stash for way too long!  Today is Emily de Molly, Moment of Impact.  This is gorgeous.  Photos are showing it a bit more blue than IRL. I guess I'm really having a purple week. 3 coats, great formula. On to the photos!

Flash

Flash

I'll keep putting up what I can.  Post are likely to continue to be short and sweet.  See you soon!

Randomness!

Today is all about random. These are polishes I pulled from the stash and decided they needed to be seen.

KBShimmer Bahama Drama is an amazing bleached neon peach. This is bright and bold (and neon) but it's not in your face because it's a bit whited out. Formula was not great, dried to quickly to really work with and thus, unevenness. Thick coat of top coat fixes this, and it needs it anyway to shine. 3 coats.

KBShimmer Precious Petals is a beautiful glitter topper. I think this will compliment many base colors and I love the added scattered holo. Good formula that only needs mild dabbing and one coat will provide excellent glitter payoff. 1 coat over Bahama Drama.

Broadway Gels Ultra Violet is a sheer shimmery purple with golden iridescent shimmers. This is so..so..so pretty. I'm sort of surprised how great this looks. Formula is fine but it dries slow and, even built up, it is semi sheer. I did layer this over a black and a midtone blue (on a wheel, no photos! Sorry!) and it gave completely different looks. It looks phenomenal over blue btw. Well worth the $2 or so this costs. Three coats alone.

Cirque Concord is a linear juicy grape.  I actually was expecting this to be blue but was pleasantly surprised when it arrived.  The color name suddenly made sense!  This has a good formula and would probably be fine at two coats, but I did do three.

Bright Light (turns blue in camera)

Flash (turns bluer in camera)

Low Light (color accurate)

BSquared Lacquer Trance is another peachy neon.  This is not really bleached looking to me.  It is pretty in your face and I love it.  Formula was tougher to work with but it's worth it.  Three coats.

Sinful Colors Lets Talk is a shimmery royal purple.  This is bordering on frosty but it does dry down to lose that finish.  It's a very nice shade.  Three coats.

Finish (turns bluer in camera)

Low Light (color accurate)

I'll be back soon with more to share!

Cirque Colors - Vice Collection (partial)

Greetings all!  Today I have a special partial collection from Cirque to share!  My usual hand is currently out of commission so I've got my left substituting for a few rounds.  I apologize in advance for the awkward you're about to witness.  But what really matters are these fabulous colors.  So lets dive in.

Nympho is a hot hot deep pink.  This one wins it for me.  After seeing this on PeachyPolish, I decided that I did NEED it and I'm so glad I got this one.  This one is hands down, my favorite. Very good formula and very easy to apply.  This will dry sort of matte (as do the rest) so they need a top coat.  The opacity is quite good; I didn't use a base but it probably would have popped a bit more if I had.  Three coats.

Miami-Dade is a mid toned blue with a hint of bleachy-ness going on.  Formula was ok but started getting difficult there at the end.  Three coats but two might have sufficed.

C.R.E.A.M. is a bleachy but bright green yellow.  This is a pretty color and has decent pigmentation. Three coats are needed to really get this opaque and even, and it still was a bit lumpy.  Formula was difficult, drying too quickly and not leveling well.  Use a good top coat to get it as even as you can.

Comparison time!

I realized pretty quickly that I owned a couple of very similar colors so I whipped those bad boys out.  Let's look!

Miami-Dade vs KBShimmer In Yacht Water.  These are not that close.  The KBShimmer is much more bleached and almost looks dusty.  I like them side by side.  KBShimmer has a decent formula, and needs three coats.

Kbshimmer, Cirque, KBShimmer, Cirque

C.R.E.A.M. vs KBShimmer For Sail By Owner.  These are remarkably close.  The camera actually does a better job at showing they're different than my eyes can.  They're so close in real life, the Cirque is maybe a quarter of a shade brighter.  The KBShimmer is sheerer, but the formula is SO MUCH BETTER!  It also needed three coats but it was a pleasure to use it. I ultimately will purge the KBShimmer, but only because my Cirque started getting black specs in the paint from the cap and I don't anyone to have to deal with that.

KBShimmer, Cirque, KBShimmer, Cirque

That's it for today! I'll be back soon!

ILNP Summer 2015 - My Picks

I'm back! I just returned from a long trip and luckily, my swatching hand survived (though I have a split nail), and I also came home to find my package in the mailbox from ILNP! It was a hard decision but I only picked up seven this time. I still want quite a few but I'll snag those another day. For now, let's see what we've got.

First up: Summer Crush

I describe this as a hot Barbie pink with a bit of holo flakie bits.  This has a slight coral lean.  It's a stunner polish and is a great summer color.  I used three coats; I might actually do four IRL, but it looks fine at 3.  Formula is very good but dries a bit matte.

Paige:

This is a berry pink maxed out with flakie holo goodness!  It's amazing.  I wanna meet Paige because she must be one great chick to get a polish this pretty named after her.  This has a jelly finish and I needed three coats to get very good coverage (and I even probably would have wanted a fourth).  Formula is easy though and dries pretty quickly.  I think it needs a top coat to make it look perfectly smooth.

Super Juiced:

This is a blurple with a good amount of firey red copper shimmers (or flakies?).  This has a thin formula and goes on a bit jelly.  It's also a tad runny but only ever so slightly.  I'd still call the formula good.  This dries to a matte finish.  Also, preliminary wear suggests it's not a stainer!  Yay!  I did a bit of fudging with camera settings on one of the photos; this one turns too blue on me in my camera.

Kaleidoscope: 

This is the mother of all flakies, combining all of the metallic chrome flakies into one bottle.  A very lovely polish.  I did need FIVE coats on it's own and it was still a bit see through; two coats layered over Super Juiced created a good opaque coverage.  I haven't tried sponging it on but that might be an option.  Formula was fine but don't expect it to be opaque quickly.

Mega (X):

The newest edition to the Mega family, this is a blingtastic flakied out holo.  It's really something to behold, even indoors!  Love this.  I used four coats but you could probably get away with three (or layer it).

Harbour Island:

This is a turquoise sea-esque jelly.  This is, IMO, a take on sheer tints; it's very sheer and would be a good layering polish.  I found the formula a bit too runny and thus, my least favorite formula out of the seven, but I still wouldn't call it bad.  At four coats, this gives decent coverage but if held to the light, you'll see straight through it.  It's pretty nonetheless, and I appreciate the unusual take on layering polish.  It's also a non-stainer!  I also fudged a bit with the camera on a picture; this one turns too blue as well.  I wasn't able to capture it's true form.

Float On:

This is a medium denim blue packed with flakie holos.  This color is probably my least favorite of the 7, but it is still quite beautiful.  I used four coats.

Overall, I love the colors and the formulas are all decent to excellent.  My grip is the sheerness of every color; I don't find them hard to work with, but each one requiring at least three coats can be a bit of a bear.  I'd still repurchase them because they're beautiful, but I just wished they contained a bit more pigment.

This is gonna be in for awhile. I decided to hack away at my damaged nail, so back to nubbins!  Thanks for reading.