China Glaze DV8

Good morning! Today I've got another OMG for you. I got into nail polish sometime in early 2010, and by that time, the OMGs were already long-gone and highly coveted, and for the most part I didn't care about them, but then I saw DV8 and it instantly became my biggest lemming. I pranced around dusty hunting for a little while in 2011, and acquired some delightful goodies, including this one! It's only half a bottle, but the bewildered salon lady only wanted $2 for it anyway, so I went for it. I'm going to need a backup, because this has to be one of my favorite holos. I have several favorite holos, but this is really great!

As usual, in the shade, not spectacular, but still a pretty blue! A lot of the OMGs look super dull in the shade, but not this one. Oh, and I should note that this had the opposite formula of L8R G8R. It was nearly solid in 1 coat, and it was a nice thickness.

♥♥♥

Layla Ocean Rush looks similar, but it doesn't have that teal lean of DV8. It's definitely more holo though. HITS Hera is another nice one, but the base looks jellyish, if that makes any sense? The finish is different, and it's more green-leaning.

Have you tried DV8? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

A-England Saint George

Whoops! Apparently I forgot to finish writing this post before scheduling it...sorry if you've seen it already, haha.

A-England Saint George was released with the Legends collection in early 2012. It was A-England's second collection, and to me, a HUGE improvement from the first! I think they were probably establishing themselves with some more basic colors with the Mythicals, which makes sense, but none of the colors were particularly interesting to me...and then they did this. I remember looking at Legends swatches from Ommorphia and Scrangie and thinking OMFG I NEED SOME OF THESE, except somehow it still took me over a year to cave and buy them. I am so glad I finally did, because these are just beautiful. You'll see Dragon on Monday, but in the meantime, here is my favorite:

As you can see, Saint George is a scattered holographic teal. There's no distinct rainbow to be found, but that prismatic shimmer imparts a TON of depth. I hope you don't mind the mini pic-spam I've got for you today, I'm just really excited (and hella late to the party)!

The great thing about scattered holos is that they don't look nearly as boring in the shade as linear holos do. Of course, they reach their full awesomeness in bright, direct sunlight, but this is still pretty freaking fantastic.

*dies*

Saint George has a thick, super opaque formula. It's almost perfect in 1 coat, but I did need a second. And I would also recommend keeping thinner on hand. I will probably add a couple drops before using it again. It wasn't unmanageable in its original state though, just a bit thick for my liking. Here's another photo...because I can!

Top 20 material for sure. And now I am even more excited about Briarwood! It looks sorta like the scattered holo version of OPI Royal Rajah Ruby, and you KNOW I will be all over that.

Now, as for similar polishes...I think this is pretty unique. L.A. Girl recently released a collection of scattered holos that included a teal, but the finish is very different, more like the Milani holographics in a jelly base. There's also Glitter Gal Lizard Belly, which is not only much greener but a linear holo. Basically, if you like this, I would absolutely recommend it! It's a really special color in my collection, I think.

Thanks for looking and commenting, and enjoy your weekend!!

NYC Tudor City Teal + Nails Inc. the Wyndham

NYC Tudor City Teal is a polish that didn't have a proper "release," as far as I know. But it started showing up on blogs and looked like a very cute color, so for 99 cents I thought, why not? I'll give it a try. Unfortunately, the formula is thin and watery.

I used 3 thick coats here and there's still a bit of VNL, but it sure is pretty.

And over that, I added 2 coats of Nails Inc. the Wyndham, a green-blue flakie.

I really like this combination! It kind of makes me want to go somewhere tropical, which is weird because I hate hot weather despite being from a tropical country. Bad South Asian. I do miss the fruit though!

Have you also succumbed to the 99-cent allure of Tudor City Teal? What did you think of the formula?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Contrary Polish Anna Maria

Good morning! Today I'll be showing you my one of my favorite Contrary Polishes, Anna Maria. It was released in Fall 2012 with the Islands trio. The other two colors in the trio are Aruba and Santorini, which are a lighter bluish teal with green shimmer, and a bold royal blue with white shimmer. They're lovely, and definitely on my wish list, but in my opinion, Anna Maria is the standout.

Anna Maria is a gorgeous, slightly murky teal jelly with gold/yellow shimmer. Because it's a jelly, it needs 3 coats for opacity, but the formula is excellent. 3 coats, plus top coat, in the shade:

It's such a cool color! And so unique. The shimmer has a lovely texture. In the sun:

Come on, you gotta admit, this is pretty awesome. I can't think of any dupes for it.

Twili

First of all, I'd like to clarify that I'm referring to this kind:

(screencap from spirefour's photobucket)

Not the sparkly, creepy vampire stalker kind. Anyway, if you know me from anywhere else on the interblags, you might know that I'm a big Zelda geek, so when I was RAOKed this custom, I was STOKED. Still am. Twili is a dark, murky teal with green shimmer. It's subtle, but not hidden at all. It's super cool and awesome and I love it 5ever (dat mean moar den 4ever). In the shade:

There was no sun that day, so I took a picture under artificial light.

I believe YSL Wintergreen is similar, but that one looks more saturated, whereas Twili definitely has some grey in it. Wintergreen is also quite expensive, which is not surprising, considering it's YSL, and if I'm not mistaken, it's also discontinued. You could probably franken this pretty easily with OPI Ski Teal We Drop, Pure Ice Heartbreaker, and a bit of grey, if you were so inclined.

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Pahlish Toxic and Timeless

Happy Friday, y'all! Today I've got Toxic and Timeless to show you. Just a note before I start with the photos, my bottle is from an older batch, has no bar glitter, and a darker, sheer teal jelly base. I think the barless batch was an anomaly, as was the sheer teal base. It's definitely a lot bluer than what's shown in the current listing, so I don't think this version exists anymore. Incidentally, I'm quite pleased with what I've got! Here is one coat over my franken, Across the Ocean. I had been wearing my franken for 5 days at that point, so I apologize for the growth. And for the cell phone picture, haha. I just really wanted to show you what this looked like!

Then I decided to layer 2 coats of Toxic and Timeless over Nails Inc. Kensington, the dark teal jelly/creme that was sold with the Wyndham flakie. Here it is on day 1:

I put this on just before finals last semester, so I had no time or energy to think about the state of my manicures. I made an excellent choice though, because check out the wear on this mani. Day 10:

There's growth and a bit of tip wear, but it never lost that glossy shine. I am quite pleased.

Toxic and Timeless is quite thick, but it's not unmanageable by any means. I despise greenish yellows, chartreuse, all that fun stuff, so I'm quite surprised to say that I love the bright hexes in this. They just...work. And when you add an additional coat of Toxic and Timeless, the sheer teal base turns the hexes into an awesome lime green.

I don't have any other Pahlishes, but I think Prayers for Rain and Like Calendars Dying are calling for me. Added to the ever-growing wishlist...

Have you tried Toxic and Timeless, or any other Pahlishes? Did it wear as well for you as it did for me?

Franken: Across the Ocean

Since it was released, Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe has been a favorite for many polish addicts. I briefly succumbed to the hype, but realized pretty quickly it wasn't actually my thing, so it went off to someone who would appreciate it more. I am a big teal lover though, and figured I would like a similar polish in that color scheme, so I decided to make one. Because I am so super creative and original (/sarcasm), I'm calling it Across the Ocean.

That is 5 coats. I kept it really freaking sheer because I didn't want to lose the glitter.

It's got quite a bit of depth. Not sure why I've got a bottle of Essie drying drops in the above picture, but we'll just go with it.

Boom. Glitter. It wore really well on me too- 5 days, no chips, no tip wear. Just the expected growth at the cuticle end. It makes a pretty great base for Pahlish Toxic and Timeless, which I'll be showing you on Friday.

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Revlon After Party + L.A. Girls Uninhibited

Today's manicure is one that I'm feeling pretty "meh" about. 3 coats of After Party, 1 coat of Uninhibited, 1 coat of Gelous, which clearly wasn't enough to smooth it out.

I think the glitter is cool, I just chose the wrong base for it. Or maybe it needs to be matte.

Thoughts? Feelings? Any recent manicures that just didn't do it for you?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great weekend!

Top 30 of 2012! (part 3)

I don't post a whole lot of layering combinations, but that's mostly because I don't get around to photographing them. Here are the colors that I've reached for the most. First up, the base colors.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Dorien Grey

A nice, simple, clean light grey creme. It's so versatile!

Ruby Kisses Regaled Out Blue

Dark blue goes with a lot of things, and I can't resist a nice jelly.

China Glaze VIII

An excellent basic eggplant creme. Smooth formula, dries quickly, completely solid in 2 coats.

Nails Inc. Kensington

Inky teal jelly, almost black. Works really well for water marbling, too!

New York Summer Hot Sky Blue

Another squishy blue jelly! This is great for jelly sandwiches, and also looks awesome under flakies.

And my favorite layering polishes:

Lynnderella Connect the Dots

Yep, it's on two of my lists. It's that good. With black and white glitter, there are so many layering possibilities!

Nails Inc. the Wyndham

This has the distinction of being my first flakie polish, and it remains my favorite. The green is so vivid, and there is a very evident blue shift.

Finger Paints Asylum

It has blue flakies!! I have been lusting after a flakie with just blue, but since I loathe Nfu Oh bottles and find Inglot to be too much of a hassle to get ahold of, this is as close as I will get for a while. It is lovely though.

Essie As Gold as it Gets

Sheer gold flecks. This is really delicate and pretty, especially over dusty, mid-toned colors.

Essie Shine of the Times

A basic orange-green flakie. It's very dense, so you don't need  much at all for a single manicure.

So, there you have it! My 30 favorites from last year. Thoughts? Do you like layering too, or do you find it troublesome?

Top 30 of 2012! (part 2)

Today I'll show you my favorite indies. To be fair, I don't own many indies, 13 or 14, but for the most part, I really like the ones that I have!

HARE King of Carat Flowers

Unique glitters in a light grey base? Sold. And hello, there's square glitter!!

HARE Cast in Bronze

Application with this one was difficult, but I can forgive that for such a beautiful color. And look, more squares!

HARE Star Tropics

Can you tell I like square glitter? This was my mani for New Year's, and while it is quite thick, the end result is fantaaaaaaastic.

Across the Ocean

This is a franken that I made over the summer! Although I'm not an indie seller (and do not ever plan on becoming one), I threw this one in here because it doesn't really fit in anywhere else. I'm sure you can guess what my reference was when I made this ;)

Contrary Polish Firebrand

I've told you time and again of my love for reds, vampies, and jellies, so it makes perfect sense that I love Firebrand.

Contrary Polish Inky Fingers

Just a note: Inky Fingers is more purple than it looks in my picture. It's like the dark, inky, moody sister of Sephora Pantone Parachute Purple. Excellent formula, and really cool shimmer.

Contrary Polish Anna Maria

Contrary Polish makes some really cool, unexpected shimmers. Murky teal with yellow shimmer? LOVE.

Twili

This one was a custom, and I am absolutely in love with the result. Great formula, and the balance of shimmer to base color is just perfect.

Pahlish Toxic and Timeless

I have an older, barless version of this polish, and it is just so freaking cool. The wear is amazing too. I wore this for ten days! When I get to blogging about this properly, you'll see the end result.

Lynnderella Connect the Dots

Even though this was released in 2011, it has a spot on my list because it's that awesome. Yes, there are 75083672308573028 different versions of this out there, but this has the distinction of having the only bar glitter that I don't hate. I actually like it. What.

Thoughts? Do we have any indie favorites in common? I know it took me a very long time to warm up to indies (aside from Lynnderella, whom I ordered from a few months after she opened), so I'm curious, have you jumped on the indie bandwagon?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're doing well!

Nails Inc. Whitehall Teal

Helloooo! Luckily, my hiatus wound up being much much shorter than I thought it would be. My exam schedule was quite nice this semester, so I didn't need an entire month like I did in the past. Anyway, today I'm going to show you Nails Inc. Whitehall Teal. I believe the Nails Inc. magnetics came out around Fall 2011 or something. I'm a wee bit late, but whatever. Here is 1 coat of the polish before using the magnet:

If you're one for nail art or stamping, magnetics would probably be useful to you since they are so opaque. Here it is at 2 coats, with the magnet held over it.

Photos can't capture the awesomeness of this effect. It looks so 3D and cool in real life, kind of like those marbles with the stripes inside of them.

Now here's the drawback. I've actually had a few magnetics for quite some time, at least 4 or 5 months, and I have a hard time with them. My nails are curved, and I have shaky hands, so I have a hard time keeping the magnet steady to get a crisp pattern, and the design also doesn't reach all the way to the sides of my nails. The formula is good, but basically, I can only get a good design when my nails are short like this. But out of the magnetics that I have tried (aside from this, Icing and Sinful Colors), this magnet is a pretty good one, and the color is really really nice. I think Layla Metallic Sky is similar, but much bluer.

How do you feel about magnetics? If you've tried any, did you have the same problems I experienced?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Revlon After Party + Comparison

Hey y'all! Today I'm going to show you Revlon After Party. It's from the same collection as Guest List, which I posted last week. After Party is fabulous. It's a dusty teal creme. Here it is in the shade:

And in the sun:

Unfortunately, it has the exact same formula as Guest List, meaning that you will probably have to let the coats dry completely in between to prevent streaking, and it will most likely need 2-3 coats to even out anyway. Oh, and ignore the TOP SPEED labels because I'm pretty sure these take longer to dry than regular polish. 

BUT. I do quite like this color, as evidenced by the fact that I've also got Revlon Chic...let's compare the two, shall we? 2 coats of Chic versus 3 coats of After Party, with top coat. In the shade:

And in the sun:

They're not thaaaaat similar right? RIGHT??? Oh well, it's ok, they are both great colors.

On a side note, the end of the semester is quickly approaching and it's going to be killer, so I'm going to go on hiatus for a bit. I will hopefully resume posting towards the end of December.

Anyway, talk to me about dusty blues! What are your favorites? Do you have Chic or After Party? Do you have a weakness for dusty blues like me?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Orly Halley's Comet

Orly Halley's Comet was released in Fall 2010 with the Cosmic FX collection. I've already shown you Galaxy Girl and Lunar Eclipse, and this is the last one I picked up. Like Galaxy Girl and Lunar Eclipse, I am smitten with this color, even if it is not the most unique. Here it is in the shade. 3 coats, plus top coat.

Yeah, 3 coats means it's pretty sheer, but because of the sheer base, you can see the shimmer very clearly. In indirect light:

Because the base is blue, the shimmer looks mostly greenish, but it is actually gold most of the time. I think it counts as a glass-fleck, but because the shimmer is so dense, it has foil-y qualities to it as well. In the sun:

This is one of my all-time favorite colors for pedicures. I love blues and teals on toes, especially in the summer, but it's a great pick-me-up in the middle of a particularly dreary winter.

As much as I love this color, I will freely admit that it is not unique. There are many versions available, including Zoya Charla (which I believe was the original), OPI Catch Me In Your Net (discontinued), Essence Choose Me!, and probably a few others that I can't think of right now.

How do you feel about these types of finishes and colors? Do you have a preference for color families when doing pedicures versus manicures?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!