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: Pixie Dust

Meh... crappy formula, not the best color, not the best coverage all add up to something I'll probably never use again. 

Orly: Lunar Eclipse

I love the finish on the Orly Cosmic FX collection. And for the most part I'm happy with the colors. I grabbed Lunar Eclipse specifically due to the purple flash that I saw in the bottle at Ulta, and now that I've finally put it on - it seems to have disappeared. It is still a gorgeous blue.. I just feel it was false advertisement. Just like OPI's Austin-tatious Turquoise. If you're going to bother to include a duochrome do it all the way! Sorry - rant over. Onto the pics...

Nfu-Oh: 37

I decided to grab Nfu-Oh 37 on a whim because I wanted to see how it compared to Nubar 2010. Well this polish is does still have the awesome duochrome flakies, but it is extra special because it also is jam packed with tiny tiny tiny pieces of miniature flecks that look like glitter! yay "glitter"!! Here I am layering it over Ulta Moody Blues. As you can see in the numerous pictures below the flakie is still present, but the "glitter" gives it a more subdued appearance. Almost like a frosty covering over the flakes. I freakin love it. Especially because the flakies generally lean toward the warm side, turning red and orange for the most part (rarely green), but the "glitter" is definitely on the cool side - comprised of light blue miniature flecks. This polish is awesome. 

Orly: Sky Blue-Pink

I love this duochrome. I could stare at it for hours. 

Ulta: Dance Teal Dawn

Geez... Ulta has some of the cheapest, prettiest polishes I own. I like the fact that they care enough to make good quality polishes with excellent formulas in a huge variety of colors - most of which I adore. For 2 dollars. 

This is Dance Teal Dawn. Its great. I'm not sure how well the shimmer showed up in these photos - but I'm sure it looks more impressive if you make them larger. In real life both this polish and Ulta's Envy are to die for they are so shimmery and gorgeous. 

Zoya: Crystal

This was the first Zoya polish I ever purchased. And.... I love the color. I love the finish. But the wear time completely blows! I don't know why. Maybe I should use a different base coat. But do you see that giant chip on my middle finger?? I took this picture only a few hours after I put the polish on. Le sigh. But it is still an awesome color. 

Hard Candy: Sky

Great color. Horrrrrrrrrrrrible application. This was 6 coats. 6 horrible streaky uneven coats. And the shimmer isn't nearly as apparent on the nail as it is in the bottle. I kind of want to franken with it to try to make it better. 

Blue Water Marble

Here's my first real attempt at a water marble that came out good enough for me to actually wear for a day. I used China Glaze Sea Spray as a base coat, and then I marbled with Sea Spray, China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway, and China Glaze White Cap. The colors worked well together, and they all were great for marbling. The issues came with my application I suppose. I don't know how to get little bubbles not to form. Some of them are below the polish on my nail.. some of them happen on top of the polish cause water is on top and it becomes painfully obvious once I put the top coat on and it pops the bubbles. I suppose it will get better with practice. So that's what I'm going to do. Practice. 

China Glaze: Sea Spray

<3

China Glaze can do no wrong, in my opinion. I love the very very very subtle shimmer in this blue/grey polish. 

On an unrelated note - I just saw Blue Valentine. And it was so heartbreaking! I can't believe Ryan Gosling didn't get an Oscar nomination for that role. He was amazing.