Gosh: Black Passion

I've been mia for so long!! My apologies. I have bought so many polishes during my little hiatus and I can't wait to show them all to you. I'm still trying to set up a light box so I don't have to rely on the sun... but I don't really know where to begin. So that will be coming along later and I will just do my swatching on the weekends. 

Today I want to show you an old and crappy photo session of Gosh's Black Passion. This polish is actually pretty awesome, but you can't really tell from these pics. It is black with bits of silver/gray swirled into the bottle. I'm pretty sure the swirling is unintentional and were caused by the polish separating... but I don't care - its awesome! Of course the swirls don't come out on the nail.. but the bottle is pretty cool. The color on the nail is equally cool. I got compliments on it from my mom, who usually hates dark nail polish. It has a cool graphite look. If you can get your hands on this polish I would really recommend it.

Zoya: Tanzy

I wanted to show you guys another Zoya polish from the Sunshine collection today - Tanzy. It is a really bright, fun orange shimmer. I love the finish (Zoya's flecked finish is probably my favorite polish finish. I love the irregularity). I love the orange with golden shimmer. I wish the color were a tad darker, but that could totally be fixed by layering this polish over a red base. Also - it is a bit sheer, but nothing that another coat of polish wouldn't have fixed. I'm really happy with all of the polishes I've purchased from this collection so far. 

Milani: Silver Dazzle

I only grabbed one of the Milani One Coat Glitters (unfortunately) because I was afraid of the removal process. But the color that I did get, Silver Dazzle, was totally worth it. I want to hunt down some of the other colors now. 

The polish went on pretty smoothly, but the finish was anything but. That is to be expected though. 

I love the blue-toned silver color. Wonderfully cool-toned. I couldn't ask for a more perfect silver glitter mixture. It reminds me of some pictures that I've seen on Nubar's Knights Armor, but with the sparkle factor amplified by 100. 

These next two pictures are a little bleached out from the ridiculously bright sun. My apologies. 

But you can get a good sense of the grittiness of this polish. It is basically as if you had coated your nails in glue, and then dunked them into a pile of glittery sand. 

Essie: Secret Stash

I loveeeeeeeeeeeeee this polish. I don't usually go for pinks, but this is just so bright and cheery. The perfect Barbie pink. And it's a jelly... so squishy Barbie. J'adore.

Though, you have to work for the jelly-ness. This was at least 4, possibly 5 coats. 

I found this on clearance at my Ulta, so if you're into pinks and don't have this one - grab it while you can!

Sally Hansen: Love in Bloom

Well this polish didn't turn out at all the way I expected. This was 5 coats, and as you can see it was no where close to being opaque. But I'm kind of okay with that. It is a nice layering polish, and it has a really nice and unique finish. It seems almost like a foil, but clearly not metallic. It has little tiny flakes of shimmer in it, but it is very muted shimmer. Just a hint of reflection, really.  Hopefully enlarging the images will help to explain them better. 

Zoya: Kimmy

I like this polish - it is bright and sparkley, which are my favorite things. Though if you're interested in this shade of polish check out the comparison at The Phalanges Files, and see if you'd be more interested in Hard Candy's Lava. I actually prefer the prominent orange quality of Lava to Kimmy. 

Nubar: Reclaim

Hands down, the best green holo polish ever made. Nubar Reclaim is phenomenalllll. Love love love it. I love the shade of green - the perfect bright springy green. I love the holo-ness of it. I love the formula. I love the wear time.

Pure Ice: Iced Merlot

This is a polish I've been waiting to try for a while, and I'm glad I did. It is a nice wine-colored shimmer polish from Pure Ice. I loveeeee Pure Ice polishes.

Ulta: Hot Spot

I didn't think I would like this polish... I never would have picked it up for myself - but it came for free in one of the awesome Ulta specials that was like, spend 10 dollars get a huge bag full of goodies. But I do like it. Before I put it on I wished it was lighter, but this darkness is actually fantastic. Its great for summer and fall. And I have enough light oranges. It has great shimmer, and a terrific formula. 

Sinful: Gorgeous

Sinful's colors are totally hit and miss when it comes to color payoff. But thankfully Gorgeous is a hit. This was two coats. The formula was both good and bad. Good that 65723942 coats weren't required... Bad that the finish ended up being a bit brushstrokey (though I was rushing - so it could totally be operator error). Looking at the pictures, I love it. I remember when I wore it though, I was just kinda iffy about it. But at only a few dollars, you really can't go wrong with picking up a bottle and trying it out for yourself. The color is great - reminiscent of mermaids. Specifically Weeki Wachee mermaids doing The Little Mermaid (because I'm pretty sure that's the only show they'll ever have). Lovely blue with green flashes. Great shimmer. I'm going to give this another shot soon and see if I take more time on the application if I like it better. 

Orly: Gilded Coral

I really really wanted to like the color. It's a great color! Just not on my skin. Perhaps if I were darker. Or even lighter, it would really work. It is a fabulous light golden color. I certainly wouldn't describe it as coral. But it is very pretty and summery. 

China Glaze: Custom Kicks

Hey! Sorry for the long breaks between posts. But I have moved closer to my job - so hopefully I'll be able to get back to posting on a semi-regular basis soon. Today I wanted to show you China Glaze Custom Kicks. It is a great color - I especially love the golden shimmer running through it (you may have to click on the pictures and enlarge them to see). But let me warn you - this stains like a bitch. And I tried to be especially carefully and only wipe from my nail bed out, and my fingers were still smurfy/