Zoya Shelby

Zoya Shelby is a perfect girly, Barbie pink. Not quite soft enough to be a pastel, yet not bright enough to be considered neon.  I did have to do three coats of this to get it completely opaque and to even out all the patches.

Three coats + 1 coat SV:

Are you a big fan of pink polish? I normally don't wear such girly shades, but more bright pinks when I do wear them.

Glitter Gal Black Sparkle

Glitter Gal Black Sparkle is a black cream polish with subtle silver micro glitter. There are also some large holo pieces of glitter in there, as well, but kinda get lost of the nail.

I know there are probably many other swatches of this on other blogs that really show the sparkle. While that is really pretty, these are honestly more true to life. When you look at this polish from far away, it really just looks like a black polish. The light has to be hitting it just right or you have to be looking closely to see the sparkle.

This was a breeze to apply. Only two coats and no application issues at all. Pictures are two coats plus SV.

Personally, I don't wear a lot of black polish, but I do like it for nail art. Do you like to wear dark colors like this, or stick to using them for special occasions?

More nail mail

First, a small package from my friend Sharon in England. I had a couple Orly doubles, so she swapped me for a couple Nails Inc polishes. They are so pretty....The next on my list is Baker Street. I want that blue sooo bad!

Nails Inc. Hanover Square and Park Walk.

And then, my final birthday group package from Britany! She totally spoiled me and sent me so many polishes from my wishlist!
 

OPI: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Deutsch You Want Me Baby?, The World Is Not Enough, Liquid Sand mini's, Urban Outfitters Scented Top Coat Cotton Candy, Urban Outfitters Sea Dust.

 Do you all love getting nail mail as much as me? I especially love seeing the polishes that other ladies pick out for me. It's so much fun!!

China Glaze Shower Together

Shower Together is a dark, yet bright, blue leaning teal. I love shades like this...dark, but still colorful. I don't like colors that are so dark that by the third coat, they look almost black. With that said, this did take three coats. The first two were streaky, but the third finally evened things out. Also, watch out for pulling with this polish. You can see a couple bald spots towards my cuticle on the ring and pinky finger.

I also just want to say that this polish was a complete bitch to photograph. Everything was turning out way darker that it looked in real life, and in the pics it was looking almost grey. I don't even want to talk about how many pics I had to take, then check on the computer before I finally got a couple that were accurate. Ugh.

This is three coats, plus SV:

Zoya Megan

Zoya Megan is described as a "full coverage, taupe gray cream". Definitely full coverage, but I would have described it a little more like a purple leaning gray. This was released as one of the polishes in the winter Feel collection.

Coverage was really good, and was opaque in two coats. Pictures are two coats, plus SV.

I love using neutral colors like this in the winter as a palette cleanser.  Sometimes you need a good gray after wearing so many glitter polishes!

Do you find yourself leaning towards neutrals after lots of glitter polish or just glitter all winter long?

Small haul

My childhood best friend was in town to visit over the holiday and we spent an afternoon out shopping and browsing. Here are the polishes that I picked up from Marshall's and Sally's.

Sephora by OPI Blasted Silver, Barielle Green Opal, Orly Passion Fruit, China Glaze Creative Fantasy, Beauty Secrets Cuticle Oil, and some pear lotion.

I'm so glad there is a Marshall's closer to me now because they have Color Club, Sephora by OPI, Barielle, Orly, Sation, and sometimes OPI for a seriously discounted price. I definitely will be stalking!

 My only complaint was that once I got home and opened my Barielle polish...this is what I found:

No brush?!!!! WTF! How does that even happen? I'm torn because I know this was the only bottle and I really like the color...it's a metallic army green with gold shimmer. So, I don't know weather or not just to put it in an empty bottle, or return in. Plus, it was only 2.99...I mean, I wouldn't have bought it if I knew there was no brush, but since I already have it home, I kinda want to keep it. lol.

What would you do? Put it in a cleaned out bottle...for 2.99 you almost can't beat it. Or take it back?

OPI Black Spotted + Milani Cyberspace

My friend Felicia was so kind and sent me some decanted OPI Black Spotted in a swap package because she knew how badly I wanted to try it. I don't think I ever would have gotten a hold of it otherwise.

I had been dying to try it, but was doing mostly Christmas and holiday manicures for the past couple weeks. I wore Milani Cyberspace for a day, and then knew it was time to bust this baby out and give it a try.

It is a VERY thin polish, and applies almost like a crackle. You want to do very thin coats...so thin that you think you don't have enough on the brush. You can see on my index and pinky finger that I used too much. Also, it dries very quickly, so don't try to over manipulate it. Just do a couple strokes and then move on to the next nail. My right hand ended up looking better than this because I got the hang of applying it.

These pics are without top coat, but if you are going to wear this for an extended period of time, you will want to put a top coat on or else the Black Spotted is easily scraped off. It could be because I layered it over a finished mani with Seche Vite, though. I guess I need to do some trials to see what works best with it.

Overall, I find the effect to be pretty cool and definitely unique. I don't think this is a polish I would wear frequently because most non-polish enthusiasts wouldn't 'get it'.

So, what do you think? Is it something you would try/wear? Or are you going to pass on this trend?