Twinsie Tuesday - Spring-to-Summer Transitional Polish

Good Morning, everyone! I hope that everyone had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend (if you are in the US). I was excited to have a three day weekend just to relax and I'm bummed about having to be back at work this morning. Ugh! This week our challenge was to pick a Spring-to-Summer transitional polish. Easy! I've been wearing some 'in-between' shades lately, all which consist of pinks, light purples and corals.  For today's post I decided to go with Essie Madison Ave-Hue, a medium shade of pink with subtle shimmer. I used two coats and topped this off with Sally Hanson Insta-Dri (I'm out of Seche Vite and on a no buy/cash diet, so I'm going through older top coats at the moment lol). This polish makes me feel super girly and I think it's a great transitional shade. I always think pastel pinks for Spring and neon pinks for Summer so this is right in between.

Don't forget to check out my Twinsies and what they chose for their transitional polish:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Traci at DrinkCitra

Shimmer Polish - Kelly

Happy Friday! To kick off the weekend I have another Shimmer Polish to share with you today. This one is Kelly, and it's utterly amazing. Kelly is made up of medium green and gold glitter in a clear base. The formula was easy to work with and it was completely opaque in two coats. The glitter laid flat as well, even before I topped it off with Seche Vite. This may be my favorite Shimmer Polish yet!

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.

This polish was provided for my honest review.

Zoya Lovely Collection for Spring 2013 (Swatches and Review)

Good Morning and happy Friday! Today I have something super exciting to share with you, swatches from Zoya's Lovely collection for Spring 2013. The Lovely collection features six season appropriate pastels consisting of three beautiful cremes and three gorgeous metallic shimmers. I've been meaning to post this review for over a week but I've been sick with strep and the flu. The one good thing about delaying this post is that I can comment on the wear for about half of this collection.

Zoya Blu

Zoya Blu is a lovely baby blue creme with a strong white undertone. The formula on Blu is a bit thick but easy to work with. Blu was fully opaque in two coats and I wore this polish for three days with minimal tip wear. I actually got quite a few comments on this polish. This seems to be pretty popular even with those who aren't polish obsessed like the rest of us  ;)

Zoya Jacqueline

 

Zoya Jacqueline is a creamy nude polish with a slight tint of yellow. It was opaque in two coats but I found the formula to much thicker and stringier than the other cremes. It took more work than the other cremes to get it even and opaque. You can even see some areas on my ring finger that started to bubble. (For reference on this nude shade, I'm NW15)

Zoya Neely

 

Zoya Neely is a gorgeous pistachio green creme. This was my favorite of the cremes. It was opaque in two coats and had the same formula as Blu. I can report that the wear on Neely is phenomenal. I wore Neely for a total of SIX days with minimal tip wear and no chips.

Zoya Piaf

Zoya Piaf is described by the Zoya website as "fresh forsythia yellow metallic" which is spot on. I wasn't sure how I would feel about Piaf once on my nails but I found it to be flattering for a yellow. I looked through my large stash of polish and the color of Piaf is very unique. I used three coats of Piaf to get it fully opaque.

Zoya GieGie

Zoya GieGie is an icy light pink shimmer. This is what Barbie would wear if she traded in her bright pink for a shimmery pastel for Easter. This one wasn't one of my favorites, but I think it would be nice if you needed a color similar to this for a special occasion. I used three coats to get GieGie fully opaque.

Zoya Julie

Zoya Julie is my standout favorite from the Lovely collection. This gorgeous pastel purple shimmer is so gorgeous and flattering. I didn't expect to love this one as much as I did. I used three coats of Julie to get it fully opaque. I wore it for three days with minimal tip wear.

The Zoya Lovely collection is available now on Zoya's website here. They retail for $8.00 each, or you can buy the set for $48.00. Has anyone purchased any of the Lovely collection? Do you plan to? My favorites are Blue, Neely and Julie.

I hope everyone has a good weekend.

*The products featured in this post were sent for my honest review.

Essie - Coat Azure

Good Morning ladies. Happy Friday! Super quick post today. Today I have Essie Coat Azure up for talk :)  Coat Azure is a medium blue with subtle shimmer. The shimmer in this one gets a bit lost on the nail but it's still pretty. I've worn this three times in the past two months, so that says something in itself. Shown below are two coats of Coat Azure topped off with a coat of Seche Vite...

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

NOTW: OPI Danke-Shiny Red

Hey all! Yup - you read that title right! I had a suuuuper lazy week as far as polishing my nails go and I wore this polish just one day short of a week. I'm going to call it my 'nail of the week' anyway  ;)    This one is Danke-Shiny Red from the new OPI Germany collection. Danke-Shiny Red is a medium toned red with a slight metallic finish. It's not completely metallic, it has a touch of shimmer to it as well. The formula was fantastic and it was completely opaque in two coats. The color here is not completely color accurate. It showed up on my camera as having a touch of orange and I couldn't get it 100% accurate. The photos below show two coats of Danke-Shiny Red and a coat of Seche Vite.

I hope everyone has a good Monday. Does anyone watch the Real Housewives of New Jersey? I'm obsessed with that show (and Melissa Gorga's makeup) and last night was a really good/sad ending to the season. I can't wait until next season.

Essie Mochachino

Hi all! Happy Saturday! Today's post might look familiar to you - it was a guest post I did over at Amandalandish a few weeks back. Essie Mochachino is a taupe/gray polish with subtle silver shimmer. Essie's website describes Mochachino as a "perky gray with shimmer", but in my opinion this has more of a taupe/brown base. The formula was fantastic and this was fully opaque in two coats. The photos below show two coats of Essie Mochachino topped off with a coat of Seche Vite.

 

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!  :)



Twinsie Tuesday - Fugly Polish (China Glaze Trendsetter)

Good morning! I hope that everyone had a fantastic Labor Day weekend! I was on the go all weekend and I have yet to catch up on blogs and my internet gossip sites. Today's theme was a fugly polish, which to me means pick a polish that is freakin' ugly! Right off the bat I knew which one I was picking for today....China Glaze Trendsetter.

China Glaze Trendsetter is one of those ugly, yet super unique polishes that I love to hate and hate to love. It's an olive green mixed with mustard yellow and some beautiful shimmer. Before buying this polish I went back and forth with whether or not I would ever wear this or if I could even pull this off on my skin tone. The selling point for me was that it was on the clearance rack at Sally's for $1.99. This has sat in my China Glaze drawer untried for months.

As quickly as I put this polish on is as quickly as I took it off. I felt like this just didn't work on me. The shimmer is gorgeous, but the color itself reminds me of the mushed peas in Gerber baby food. The photos below show three coats of Trendsetter with no top coat....

Yikes! I can assure you that this looks even worse in person on me  :0X

Be sure to check out the other Twinsies today, I'm curious to see if anyone else picked this polish...

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

Twinsie Tuesday - Regional Polish (Duri - Mystic Elements)

It's Tuesday again! Today's theme is a regional polish. I picked Duri, since they are a nail polish brand based in Brooklyn, NY. I'm not sure if they are sold in all areas of the US, but I know they are available for an affordable price online. I purchase my Duri polishes from a supply store in Queens, NY for approx $2-$3 each. One of my favorite Duri polishes is Mystic Elements. Mystic Elements is a dark burgundy with red shimmer. It's a gorgeous vampy polish. The formula was fantastic and this was opaque in two coats.

Don't forget to check out out my Twinsies! I'm interested to see what brands everyone picks:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Srsly Swatched

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

OPI It's My Year

Happy Friday everyone! I mentioned the other day that I was going back to basics as I have recently been shopping my existing stash. I recently picked OPI It's My Year out of the OPI drawer; I forgot how amazing this polish is.

It's My Year is pretty unique. It's a purple shimmer polish with strong bronze/gold shimmer mixed in. Formula was easy to work with. The first coat looked pretty sheer but with three coats it was fully opaque with no bald spots. Also, I should mention that these photos were taken on the fourth day of wear! I barely had any tip wear, as you can see. This mani was topped with a coat of Seche Vite.

This was from the Miss Universe collection in 2011. OPI also has Rally Pretty Pink, which is the pink version of this polish. I have both. I felt they were unique enough to justify owning both versions....

I hope that everyone has a good weekend! It's supposed to be in the 90's in New York this weekend. Tonight I'm headed out with my bestie to watch Magic Mike and gossip about all the nail polish/Lynnderella drama lol  :0)

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Good Morning! Today I have Max Factor's Fantasy Fire for you. This is a UK exclusive, as Max Factor no longer available in the US. I did a swap with an amazing girl who lives across the pond and she was nice enough to send me Fantasy Fire (FYI - it is available on Ebay for $16+).

I held off on using Fantasy Fire for at least 1.5-2 months. The bottle is SO small I didn't want to use it. I finally got the guts to crack it open last week and I've used it twice since. I used one coat of Fantasy Fire over two coats over Revlon Royal, which is a layering combo I saw on LTHP. I'm loving this polish, it's pretty much draw dropping.....

The Revlon Royal looks pretty sheer by my cuticles but in person it's not that bad. Royal just doesn't like to be photographed! As I'm sure everyone is aware Fantasy Fire is supposed to be a dupe of Clarins 230 aka Unicorn Pee. I actually *accidentally* won Clarins 230 on Ebay last week, so I will eventually have a comparison post once I have the guts to use that one.

I hope everyone has a great day today!

Zoya Skylar

Good Morning! Since I put myself on a "low-buy" in January I've been really good about saying no to nail polish. I'm not sure whether my self control is finally kicking in or I'm just not feeling the new collections that are being released. Since January I've only bought a few polishes, but I was lemming a few from the Zoya True collection.

I waited for a promo code and bought the ones I wanted most. I picked up Skylar, Lotus and Tru. When I finally tried Skylar it definitely lived up to my expectations. Zoya's website described Skylar as a "medium steel blue with a softened, dusty look and speckled by visible gold and silver shimmer flecks. A soft blue that's bold without being too dark, bright or flashy."  Pure fabulousness. Need I say more? Formula was easy to work with and it was opaque in two coats.

So they aren't the best swatches but I'm sure you've seen this polish about 30 times by now. I've been really bad lately with taking photos in a timely manner. I think these photos were taken after 3-4 days, so this mani was a tad beat up. You can see the SV shrinkage pretty bad. I'm still looking for another top coat that I will love as much as SV for when I wear my Zoyas. I'm waiting for Zoya to release another promo code so I can pick up some of the new Beach & Surf collection.

Zoya Gemma

Good morning! I'm so excited for Zoya's Beach and Surf collections that I decided to celebrate with one of my untried Zoyas. I decided to swatch Zoya Gemma, which I scored on the clearance selection in Ulta. I picked Gemma up for $4 a couple of weeks ago, which is a steal. I also got 7 new Zoyas in the mail today, so I'm a happy girl right now  :)

Gemma is one of those polishes that everyone raved about. I remember seeing swatches everywhere! I love greens and all but I didn't quite *get* it. Well, when I finally put Gemma on last week, I totally got it! The olive green base has a blue/lilac shimmer and it's gorgeous! Formula was easy to work with and this was opaque in two coats. While I didn't notice it in person, I have lobster hands in these photos. I don't think that will stop me from wearing this again.

The photos below show 2 coats of Zoya Gemma topped with a coat of Posche...as well as my nails pre-nubbin lol...

Thanks for stopping by!

Twinsie Tuesday: Discontinued Polish (OPI My Auntie Drinks Chianti)

 

Good morning everyone! Today we have another Twinsie Tuesday post. Before I begin, I apologize that my swatches today aren't the best. My nails are in such bad shape and nothing is really helping them. No matter what I do they are breaking and after walking around with 6 patched nails I decided to file them down and start from scratch. I completely forgot that I didn't have any 'discontinued' swatches in my back log of photos, so my apologies for the nubbins :0/

Today's Twinsie Tuesday topic was a discontinued polish. During my free for all polish spree last year, I bought almost anything I could find with a black label (no joke). I wanted to pick a polish that had been discontinued for quite some time for today's post, so I chose My Auntie Drinks Chianti from the Italian Collection. The Italian Collection was released in Spring 2001, so this is just about 11 years old. I found this not too long ago in a small beauty supply store up the road from my grandmother's house.

My Auntie Drinks Chianti is a hard color to describe. Each time I look at down at my nails it seems to have morphed into another shade. When I first put this on it looked very rose/mauve to me. After a few minutes it looked more pink, and then I started seeing purple and then raspberry. In the bottle it reminded me a little of OPI Dim Sum Plum, but with a subtle shimmer. When not in direct lighting it seems to be a shade darker than what my photos show.  Formula was easy to work with and this was opaque in two easy coats. It also has the older OPI brush, which I miss. Overall, it's nice...but I don't think it's a me color. I've had it on for about six hours now and I'm going back and forth between liking and not liking this. Right now I can't see myself wearing this for a second day. I'm without a doubt impressed that after 11 years the formula on this was like new. I didn't have to add a single drop of thinner to this at all. There seemed to be some evaporation within the bottle but that's nothing! Right now, My Auntie Drinks Chianti appears to be sold only on Ebay. It is currently retailing between $15.99-$30.99.

Enough talking....on to the swatches:

Thoughts? Am I being too hard on this polish? Part of me wants to rename this My Older Auntie Drinks Chianti, due to the fact that it seems too mature for my liking. The rose/mauve is not me. While I'm still in my 20's I'd like to keep it as funky as possible lol. I originally wanted to swatch OPI Santiago Sangria, but I misplaced it and found it once it was too late. Oh well.

Don't forget to check out the discontinued polishes the other Twinsie Tuesday ladies are posting about today!! I'm excited to see what everyone chose (and what I may have to shell $$$ out for on Ebay, haha)

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

 

Thanks for stopping by! :O)

St Patrick's Day NOTD: China Glaze Paper Chasing & Lynnderella I Can Afford It

Happy St Patty's Day everyone! I hope everyone has a fantastic day, no matter if you are celebrating or not. Just be safe whatever you do  :)  Today I'm showing off my St Patrick's Day manicure.....and I'm looooving it.

I've been dying to try Lynnderella's I Can Afford it, but since it's an amazing green I naturally had to hold on to it until today, St Patrick's Day. I wanted to try it with a matching base for the first time so I picked out China Glaze Paper Chasing, which was pretty close.

 Amazing bright green shimmer. 2 coats. Strange formula. It feels almost oily to me. The first coat is sheer but it builds nicely. If I was going to wear this one alone I would have added a third coat. I can get by the sheerness of the formula as long as the outcome looks as vibrant as the color above. Paper Chasing is from the Summer 2009 Kicks collection.

Then, I topped it all with Lynnderella I Can Afford it (2 coats)

I Can Afford It is made up of different sized green glitter with a few gold and purple pieces mixed in. I have a few purple and gold pieces on my nails, but my camera didn't really want to pick them out for the photo. You can see them if you look hard enough. This combo is pretty darn great if I can say so myself, LOL!! My co-worker saw my bright sparkly green nails from about 20' away yesterday. That's what I would call a win.


What is everyone wearing on their nails today??

EDIT: 3/19/12 -- Double up on your base coat when using China Glaze Paper Chasing because this one was quite the stainer. My nails are now stained lime green  :o/

OPI Tease-y Does It

Hi all! Happy Friday! Super quick post today - just some random backlogged swatches I need to post. Does anyone have any plans for this weekend? I'm getting my very first kitten!! I'm SO excited. I've always had dogs but I've wanted a cat for a while. They have 4 of them and I have no idea how I'm going to choose.

Anyway, back to nail polish. Today I have Tease-y Does It from OPI's Burlesque Collection. I own the entire collection and each polish is worth having. Tease-y Does It has a smoky burgundy base (if that makes sense?) with red shimmer. The shimmer in the bottle looks like it has a golden flash as well, but on the nail the duo-chrome doesn't show up. Formula is easy to work with. The photos below show 2 photos of Tease-y Does It and a coat of Seche Vite.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!! :0)

Misa Spaced Out & a question for my ladies across the ocean.....

Hello! Quickie post today, because I ran out of time last night. I've been having sleep issues, where I can't fall asleep until after 2:30am and I have to be up by 7. I've trying to give myself a midnight cut off, where the computer and tv have to be off. I haven't even browsed all of my blogs this week and I'm going through withdrawals lol. I'll have to make up for it this weekend!

Today I have Misa Spaced Out, which is a grey polish with silver and dark gray shimmer throughout. Formula was easy to work with, and it was completely opaque in 2 coats. It's not the most unique, but it is very pretty. I have Misa Gray Matters, which I think may favor more ;)

Now....a question for my international ladies....can someone get me a bottle (or two) of Max Factor Fantasy Fire? I will pay for it, swap for it, whatever you want to do. I need this in my life.
I'm also looking for the Teeez holos if anyone knows of a place where they are laying around.
::::fingers crossed::::  Thanks lovies!