Shimmer Polish - Mary

Good morning! Happy Monday! Sorry for not posting in a few days, I've been fighting a bit of a bug. Everyone at work is sick with the flu and I woke up on Wednesday congested and with a sore throat, which is still hanging around but thankfully it never turned into anything more. Does anyone have any plans for New Years Eve? I have work today, but I'm hoping that they will close my office at least a *little* early. Other than that my boyfriend and I are just making dinner at his place and then probably coming back to my house to watch the ball drop with my parents. I'm off tomorrow and we may take a drive, since the weather here on Saturday kept us on the island. Enough rambling....

Today I have a super awesome polish for you, Mary by Shimmer Polish. Mary has a tinted base, which I would consider a raspberry red. There are different size glitters in a mix of red, purple, black and silver. There is an amazing purple glitter that looks blue at times, depending on the way the light hits it. The formula was easy to work with and not goopy in the least. I found the dry time to be quick and I rocked this mani for almost three days before I removed it. All of the glitter pieces laid flat and I topped this off with a coat of Seche Vite.

 

You can purchase Shimmer Polish on Etsy, here. You can also check out all of the polishes offered by Shimmer Polish on her website, www.ShimmyShimmer.com. They are full size bottles that retail for $12.00 each.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year. See you in 2013 ;)

The polish in this post was provided for my honest review.

China Glaze 'Violet Hush'

Today's swatches are China Glaze 'Violet Hush' which is an older polish. As you can see from the pictures, the writing on the bottle is different and the cap is silver instead of black. I found this polish while dusty hunting. I'm not sure what collection this is from or from what year, I can't find anything out on Google.

This is not my style. At all. The reason I bought it was that I saw the silver cap and made the woman working at the salon dig through her showcase to get it for me. As soon as she handed it to me I knew I wouldn't love it but felt bad and took it anyway. Plus I figured I may never see it again.

'Violet Hush' is what I would consider a rasberry purple with a high frost finish. It's full of brush strokes no matter how hard I try to get rid of them. It shows every flaw in my nail (like that enormous split on my middle finger). The formula was a watery and liked to run to my cuticles. This may be the first China Glaze polish I really don't like.

I wasn't sure if I even wanted to show these swatch photos. I decided I should since it may help someone out one day if they come face to face with 'Violet Hush'.

China Glaze 'Metro Collection' swatches

I've waited for China Glaze's Metro Collection for months now. I picked it up last Saturday at 8ty8Beauty and finally got a chance to quickly swatch them all. I was able to control myself and only purchase the 7 that I wanted the most. As you can see, I left without most of the reds and browns. Reds aren't really my thing unfortunately.

Without further ado, here are the swatches:
(in no particular order)

Urban Night

Urban Night is what I would call  fantastic eggplant purple. It's a medium purple. It's not too light but there is definitely no mistaking this for black. It's a gorgeous creme that was completely opaque in two coats. This is super close to Orly 'Plum Noir', which I do not own so I can't do a comparison swatch. I know this isn't the most unique color but it's so beautiful in person.


Traffic Jam

Traffic Jam is a bright raspberry creme. It leans a little more red on my skin tone. This was hard to photograph as far as color goes. The formula was a little more runny than some of the other polishes in this collection. It wasn't terrible though.

CG In The City

CG In The City is a lovely glitter polish. With three coats this is opaque and has a smooth texture. I would consider this micro-glitter. The glitter pieces are all of the same size and small. The glitter varies from purple, silver and pink which is suspended in a clear base. In my opinion this is unique, I don't have another glitter that looks like this.


Westside Warrior

Westside Warrior is a gorgeous medium green. This totally reminds me of camo/army green with yellow undertones. This is almost a one coater as well! It's completely opaque in two coats and the formula is lovely. This is definitely one of my new favorites. I couldn't wait to finish the swatches so I could wear this as a mani! I'm completely in love. If you are into greens, pick this one up!

Skyscraper

Skyscraper is silver glitter that is suspended in a light blue base. As the coats are applied the base becomes a medium blue. This is absolutely gorgeous, and deserves much more attention than the three photos I gave it. This is my favorite from the collection (with Westside Warrior right behind it). This is super flattering and I think it would look great on any skin tone. At first I thought this would be too close to Dorothy Who but they are completely different. Just like CG In The City the texture on this is smooth.

Concrete Catwalk

Concrete Catwalk is the one polish from this collection that no matter where I saw it swatched I had a complete lemming for. It's a deep gray creme polish. On my skin tone I'm not 100% crazy about it (but, after Skyscraper it had a lot to live up to). This is much darker than Recycle. I'm planning on reswatching this one eventually. I loved it too much in other swatches to give up on it so soon. (I'm headed to Miami in two weeks, maybe a tan will help!)

Midtown Magic

Midtown Magic is a dark brown polish with gold and rust colored micro shimmer, depending on how the light hits it. This really is magic. I wasn't sure how I would feel about it, but once on the nail it's definitely something special. I don't have anything like this.

Overall I'm super happy with the polishes. My favorite is Skyscraper. I tried to list them all in an order but I couldn't leave some at the end of the list, they are all stunning in person. I can't wait for the fall to finally get here. I feel bad wearing my fall colors so soon when I have so many summer colors that haven't been worn.

My next post will be OPI's DS Signature, so stay tuned!