Zoya Pinta + Finger Paints Asylum

Happy Friday, everyone! Today I've got for you a combination that I wore a few days ago.

Zoya Pinta is a "blurple" creme from the Dare half of Zoya's Truth or Dare collection from Fall 2009. It's supposedly a dupe for the long-discontinued OPI Sapphire in the Snow, which I wanted for a while. It's definitely on the purple side, but there's enough blue in it that I can't call it a plain purple creme either. In direct sunlight:

See what I mean? It's not blue, but it's not purple either...I'm not usually a fan of random portmanteaus like that (or needlessly shortened words, for that matter), but it's just...blurple. Indigo doesn't really seem like the right word for it either, lol. Either way, it's a great color!

There is a "but" though, and it's a pretty big but. Heh, butt. I'm so mature. Anyway, the formula. The formula is awful. I've read on NB that Pinta is a smooth one-coater for many people, but I think I got a bad bottle or something, because the formula is just terrible. I know a lot of people have issues with Zoya's formula in general, but I have 6 or 7 Zoya polishes, and this is the first one to give me trouble. The rest are wonderful.

Pinta feels sticky, is super prone to dragging and pooling in my eponychia, and takes ages to dry. And then by the time it dries, it bubbles. I don't get it. Usually, with cremes and jellies, I'll wait for each coat to dry completely before the next to keep things as smooth as possible, but Pinta streaked anyway, so it needs anywhere from 3-4 coats to become fully opaque. Mind you, I took these photos immediately after applying top coat, so it looks nice and smooth and glossy here....

My top coat couldn't fully disguise the flaws in my mani, so I added a thick coat of Finger Paints Asylum, which did the trick.

The blue flakes in Asylum actually show up pretty well over top of Pinta! Yay flakies. They fix everything. In direct sunlight:

It was pretty late in the afternoon, which is why the sunlight photos are so warm, but aside from the freakish yellow tinge to my hands, they're fairly accurate depictions of the polish.

Have a great weekend, and I hope that everyone in areas with a Tornado Watch stays safe! I spent most of the day in the basement while it stormed, haha.

Revlon Chic + Nails Inc. the Wyndham, Finger Paints Asylum

Recently, Revlon revamped their nail polish line and added a bunch of new colors, and Chic is one of them. It's a dusty blue with a fantastic formula, smooth and opaque in 2 coats. It dries glossy on its own.

I looooove this color, as evidenced by the fact that it's in my Top 20. I bought it last December, and I've worn it several times since then. It's fantastic as a base color for layering, so versatile! Of course, being the space case that I am, I forgot to take photos of most of the layering combinations that I tried, but here are two of them, both glossy and matte:

I've shown you the Wyndham before, but it's just so freakin' pretty! I love the green-blue shift, which is even more prominent when matte.

And here is Chic with Finger Paints Asylum. Indoors, Chic turns into a dusty teal, but I think that also might have something to do with the slightly milky base of Asylum.

Of course, I had to try this combo matte, and I think it's my favorite combination so far!

It doesn't really translate in the photos, but the blue flakies in Asylum show up really nicely. 

Thanks for looking and commenting!

Essie Poor Li'l Rich Girl + Finger Paints Asylum

Essie Poor Li'l Rich Girl is a cool-toned red jelly from the 2004 Winter collection, Frozen Assets. This collection was released before Essie made the switch to a Big 3 Free formula, so Poor Li'l Rich Girl is chock full of toluene and whatever else Essie put in their formula before. It smells terrible, and I have to make sure the windows are open when I'm using this polish, but it's fantastic! The formula is very smooth, dries quickly, and since it is a jelly, it's very shiny even without top coat. This is 3 thin coats over 1 coat of Essie Fill the Gap. I made sure each coat was completely dry before I added the next, just in case.

There is still some visible nail line, but it's barely visible in most situations. I know reds aren't the most exciting, but this is a really really great one.

Since I love layering and flakies, I put 2 coats of Finger Paints Asylum over the Essie, and while I'm not too crazy about the result, I don't think it looks too bad either.

Maybe a warmer red base would look better under Asylum? I do like how the blue flakies pop against Poor Li'l Rich Girl though.

Unfortunately, I think the Finger Paints flakies are sold out in most areas at this point, but if you like flakies, you don't have any dupes in your stash, and you come across them, they're definitely worth getting. I only have 2, Asylum and Flashy, but I'm happy with them despite the relative sparseness of the flakes.

Thanks for looking!

William Tell Me About OPI + Finger Paints Sparkle Effect Topcoat

William Tell Me About OPI is a super dark raisin creme from OPI's Swiss-themed Fall 2010 collection. When the collection first came out I though "Meh, boring. Not interested." and yet I eventually wound up with 3 of them (Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, Ski Teal We Drop, and William Tell). I'm not one to get a color from each collection just to have it, nor am I one to buy entire collections, so the fact that I have 3 of them is surprising.

Despite the fact that OPI stuck Pro-Wide brushes on their polishes and I'd much rather be painting with a floppy mop, William Tell Me About OPI was shockingly easy to apply. It has a very nice, smooth formula and is nearly opaque in 2 coats, but I used a 3rd for good measure. Here it is without top coat:

So glossy! It's pretty dark, and does look black sometimes, but most of the time you can tell it isn't. Here it is in direct sunlight:

It's a bit conservative compared to my usual choices for nail color, but I love it. I thought I'd add a layer of Finger Paints Sparkle before removal just to see how it turned out.

Not too bad. Sparkle definitely needs a blue or purple base color to work though, and it's more dense than I would like. I might decant some for a franken, since it's nice and glass-flecked.

It's apparently a dupe for CND Raspberry Sparkle, as well as Dollish Pollish Aurora Australis and Nostalgic Lacquer Magic Dance. Actually, Nostalgic and Dollish Polish have trios of effects that are identical to each other, and at least 2/3 are identical to CND Effects (raspberry and sapphire sparkle). I haven't compared prices but know that you've got several options. As far as Raspberry Sparkle goes, if you can find Finger Paints Sparkle Topcoat that would definitely be cheapest. I got it on clearance for $1.99 at Sally Beauty Supply.

Sparkle has a slight multichromatic shift, from pink to purple to yellow-gold. It usually just looks purple but sometimes you can coax the pink and gold out.

Thanks for looking!

Franken Friday #2 + Finger Paints Asylum

Today's franken isn't a particularly interesting one, but it's a 1-coater and I'm quite fond of it all the same. The only problem is...I couldn't get it to photograph in such a way that it didn't look identical to the first one! It's a greyish blue, and it's very clearly blue in person, but every photo I took of the darn thing just looks grey.

Yeah.....it just looks grey. It's not, I promise! I added 3 coats of Finger Paints Asylum over top. Asylum, like Flashy, is super sparse...

A closer look at the flakies in Asylum:

Before I took it off, I decided to try it with a matte top coat, and I'm very happy with the result!

And a closeup of the flakies with matte top coat:

Thanks for looking!

Lavender Creme franken + Finger Paints Flashy

I've been hunting for my perfect lavender creme for almost a year now. Everything out there right now is too white, too chalky, too lilac, too bright, or too blue. Picky, I know, but there's a very particular color that I've been after! Planks a Lot was released with OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean collection earlier this spring, and lo and behold, the exact color that I wanted! But of course, I wound up with the brighter, warmer-toned version, and later found out there are two versions of this color. What the heck, OPI. I got tired of looking though, so I added a few drops of Essie Mesmerize and a few drops of this grey creme, and I'm very happy with the result!

And as you may have heard, Finger Paints is releasing a collection of flakies! The official release date is New Year's, but I got lucky and found a Sally's that already had Flashy.

Flashy is your standard red/gold/orange/green flakie, and is exactly like SHCSM Hidden Treasure, Nubar 2010, Nfu Oh 38, and Essie Shine of the Times. The only difference between these is the density. Shine of the Times is the most dense, and I think Flashy is the least dense.

Advance apologies for the random bits of water in these photos! It was raining a little when I went out to take them. What you see here is 3 coats of Flashy over 3 coats of lavender: 

I really like how coppery these flakies look over lavender! Here's a macro at an angle so you can see the color shift:

Thanks for looking!