Nina Ulta Pro: Never Glum Plum

I grabbed Nina Ultra Pro Never Glum Plum on a whim a few weeks ago and I'm really gad that I did! It is a gorgeous dusty dark purple. Can't get enough. 

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...

Nina Ultra Pro: Leaf Me Alone

Hehe. I love funny names. I love the formula of Nina Ultra Pro's Leaf Me Alone. It quickly became opaque and has a smooth glossy finish (this picture was taken without top coat) and seems a bit jelly-like. The color... eh. I think it is too yellow for my particular skin tone. But I still like it. Very spring-ey. And since its 80 degrees here and super sunny all the time, I guess it's spring time

. 

Franken: Twilight Green

For Christmas I treated myself to a huge freakin haul of mica pigments from tkbtrading.com and I've been contemplating what to do with them. I got too much. And it is sort of overwhelming. I was going to use them as eyeshadow (as if I don't have enough) but they really don't stick to your eyes for very long. I also got a bunch of the mineral bases to mix the pigment into - but I didn't feel like the combination of the two stuck any better than the pigment itself. So I decided that I would see how they franken - and they are awesome when paired with nail polish! I'm so excited to try some more! I did this the other day - it is just a tiny amount (maybe 1/4 teaspoon) mixed into clear nail polish (this happened to be Color Club top coat). I threw a ball in there but I really don't think it was necessary. This polish mixed together well and hasn't separated at all (unlike some of the other disasters that I've created). And on top of that, I really like the color. So yay! 

I love the shimmer in this pigment. I kind of want to add glitter, but I don't want to ruin it. I haven't had good experience with glitters in frankens yet. I've tried a couple different kinds - with one large hex glitter set I have the color comes off of the glitter almost instantly, and with another set I have I think the glitter is too heavy because when I put it on the nail the glitter got sucked into the polish and it just ended up pretty bumpy. I'll show you that tomorrow. 

And this is how it looks in the shade. It takes on a pretty strong blue tint - which I love. 

Sally Hansen: Coral Amber

I got this polish after seeing tons of gorgeous pictures of Sally Hansen Prisms all of the internet. And I checked ebay to see if they had any.. and they certainly did. I found someone selling a lot of 10 polishes for like 20 bucks. So.. I jumped at it. This was the polish I was most excited about - a gorgeous duochrome that is mostly orange but in the bottle has a huge golden flash. Well - unfortunately it doesn't play out that way on the nail. It just looks like regular old orange. A very pretty orange - but plain old orange nonetheless. So this polish was a huge letdown. Hopefully the others will be better. 

Oh and also, this polish was extremely sheer. I suppose these were meant for layering. This was 5 coats. 

Nina Ulta Pro: Candi Apple

I found this at Sally's and just had to try it because I'm constantly on the search for a nice bright red with golden shimmer. This isn't exactly bright, but I still really like it. I can't wait to wear it a lot in the late summer/fall. 

OPI: Austin-tatious Turquoise

When I was at Ulta a few weeks ago I came across a lovely huge display of the OPI Texas collection. And I held off on the jellys (sorbets.. whatever) because I wanted to see swatches of them first, but I couldn't not get the most awesome teal in the world. Or so that is what I should Austin-tatious Turquoise was. But I was misled. Because in the bottle in the store the polish looks like a lovely turquoise polish with a strong purple duochrome. But on the nail - do you see any purple?? no! Well maybe you can if I got a picture with just the right light.. but for the most part I was really mad that there wasn't more purple in it. I wish I had some turquoise/purple duochrome glitter/pigment so that I could franken my own. Maybe I'll just add regular purple glitter. But anyway - here are the pictures. If you have any other turquoise polish this is something you could pass on because it is super sheer (this was 4 coats) and it just seems really reminiscent of the whole Charla/Catch Me in your Net/Halley's Comet polish.

Ulta: Devious

Here is Ulta Devious. A very nice purple creme. I'd been looking for a nice dark purple that didn't look black inside and this is it.  And it was super cheap! You can't go wrong with Ulta polishes. Always great quality.. fantastic color selection.. fantastic choice of finishes.. and cheap. 

Zoya: Delilah

I don't like Zoya Delilah as much as other red glitter polishes (like say... China Glaze Ruby Pumps) but it  is still nice looking. I think the glitter is too small and sinks into the polish too much for my taste.