Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect in Tawny

purchased by me

Tawny is hands-down my favorite of the four Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect polishes I got at Walgreens.  It's brown, which I love, it's got a perfect formula, which I also love, and the scattered holographic particles you can see in low light actually show some linear holo effect in bright light!  Plus it hits bottle color in two coats and is shiny without top coat. :-)

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

Tawny is available at Walgreens for $5.99 + tax, and it's worth every penny!

Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect in Purple

purchased by me

"Purple" is an ordinary name for a far-from-ordinary polish!  It's a bright orchid purple with scattered holographic particles, and it has a flawless formula.  Purple was smooth, flowing, opaque in two coats and shiny without top coat.

Indoors with flash:

Indoors with flash:

Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect polishes are available at Walgreens for $5.99 each.

Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect in Dark Purple

purchased by me

Another bargain buy, another gorgeous scattered holo polish from Nabi!   Dark Purple is a medium, red-toned purple.  The formula was easy to work with, although it did take three coats for complete opacity.  Still, with that color, holo and shine, a third coat is really no work at all. :)

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

The Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect polishes are available at Walgreens, and even if they're not on sale any more, they're worth $5.99 + tax!

Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect in Hot Pink

purchased by me

Hot Pink was one of the 4 Nabi holographic polishes I got at Walgreens for $10.  They're $5.99 on their own, which is certainly not an unrealistic price point.  Hot Pink is definitely pink, nearly neon with scattered holo shimmer throughout.  It behaved beautifully--no running, dragging or flooding, dried shiny with no top coat and lasted four days before I had tip wear and was bored. :)

The Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect polishes are available at Walgreens, and even if they're not on sale any more, they're worth six bucks!

Zoya Awaken collection

press samples

Spring has sprung, on our nails if not in our neighborhoods.  Thank you, Zoya, for these beautiful, delicate colors!

Sneak peek: 2/24/14-2/28/14

                   

press samples/purchased by me

        

Butter London Beauty Awards and 50% Off Last Orders!

Liquid Sky Lacquer 24 Karat Rose, Tripindicular and Twilight Peacock

purchased by me

Liquid Sky Lacquer is a new-to-me indie brand, so I decided to try three different types of polish.  I got a thermal color-change, a holo and a duochrome from Color4Nails.  Swatches after the jump!

Zoya Magical Pixie Dust collection

press samples

For spring, Zoya brings us three insanely sparkly Pixie Dust polishes in soft (but not shy!) pastels.

Essie Full Steam Ahead

purchased by me

Full Steam Ahead, my other $4 Essie polish was so much more user-friendly than Rock The Boat!  It did take three coats for opacity, but it's such a soft, pretty lavender that I think it's worth it.  It also self-leveled quite well and dried shiny.  As usual, you can see some silver shimmer in the bottle, but not on the nail.

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

Full Steam Ahead, which was part of the 2013 Naughty Nauticals collection, is still available at etailers like Head2ToeBeauty.

Essie Rock The Boat

purchased by me

Rock The Boat was one of my $4 Essies, and as pretty as the color is, I'm glad I didn't pay full price.  A whitened light blue, Rock The Boat had the typical pastel difficulties of being streaky and sheer.  It took four coats to get to opacity, and it still didn't self-level all that well.  The trademark Essie silver shimmer is visible only in the bottle.

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

Rock The Boat is technically Limited Edition, because it was part of last year's Naughty Nauticals collection, but it's still available at etailers like Head2ToeBeauty.

Sneak peek: 2/17/14-2/21/14

press samples/purchased by me

                                           

                                              

                                                     

Sales! Buy All the Things!

The Cult Nails sale was supposed to end yesterday, but it's still active right now, so if you want $12 off for every $24 you spend, get shopping!

From now through 2/19, Zoya is offering a free mini set of their spring Pixie Dust polishes with any purchase of $30!

The Spring Collection at I Love Nail Polish is $1 off on each bottle when you pre-order.

Happy Valentine's Day

I still have pictures of several trial V-Day manicures on my camera, but I've got a bad chest cold, and in an effort to keep it from turning into bronchitis, I'm taking it easy.  So here's my rough attempt at a ruffian manicure using Butter London Prince's Plums and Love is in the Air polish strips from Incoco.

Butter London Brown Sugar

purchased by me

Brown Sugar is a gorgeous rose pink base with copper shimmer.  The combination has a complexity that I love to bits!  The formula is marvelous, smooth and flowing but not so thin as to flood, and dries super-shiny.  It's opaque in two coats, but I left my index finger at one coat to show the rose-colored base.

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

Brown Sugar is available at Ulta or direct from Butter London.

Butter London Double Take Duo: Ice

purchased by me

Ice consists of Bluecoat, a navy shimmer, and Leccy, a flaky glitter with copper and blue-to-green flakes.  Bluecoat is opaque in two coats, very shiny  and shimmery, and flowed off the brush on to my nails with amazing ease.  Leccy is beautiful and very unique--I have several blue-to-green flaky glitter top coats, but none that also have copper flakes!

Bluecoat, indoors with flash:

Bluecoat, indoors without flash:

Leccy, indoors with flash:

Leccy, indoors without flash:

Sadly, neither the duo nor the individual polishes are available at Butter London any more, but you can get the duo for $24 at Beauty.com.

Butter London Bit Faker

purchased by me

Bit Faker is a gorgeous compendium of gold and copper glitter.  It's opaque at two coats, and even at one is too glitter-full to really be a good layering polish.  It dries quickly and a bit bumpy, so a thick top coat is essential for smoothness.  I adore it!

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

Bit Faker is available at Ulta or direct from Butter London.

Butter London HRH and Prince's Plums

purchased by me

I got both of these polishes at Butter London's year-end clearance sale, but I was pretty disappointed when I swatched them, because they're identical.  Absolute dupes, right down to the base color.  Both are a deep, red-toned purple shimmer, and both behaved perfectly during polishing--thin but pigmented, opaque in two coats, self-leveling.  If I hadn't realized what was going on and left the bottle cap off when I photographed HRH, I'd never have been able to sort out the pics!  All swatches are two coats and no top coat.

HRH, indoors with flash:

HRH, indoors without flash:

Prince's Plums, indoors with flash:

Prince's Plums, indoors without flash:

HRH and Prince's Plums on alternate fingers, but I don't remember which is which:

If you're interested in buying one of these polishes, or both if you're a masochist ;), you can get them at Ulta or direct from Butter London.

Sneak peek: 2/10/14-2/14/14

purchased by me

                                                               

                                                                                                               
                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                                   
                                                                               

$23.20 haul at Walgreens!

purchased by me

I stopped in at Walgreens on my way home from work last night, and even though I was exhausted (it's been a rough week), I'm glad I took the time to rummage through the clearance shelves and bins!  I found two sets of Revlon Perfumerie nail polish, originally $10, marked down to $2.50 and qualifying for this week's Revlon BOGO1/2 off sale.  Since those polishes are usually $6 and I got all four of them for $3.75, that's $21.25 in savings.  I found two Essie polishes for $4 each (regularly $8) and the Nabi 3D Rainbow polishes were 4/$10 (normally $6 each).

So my total haul was:

Revlon Parfumerie Bordeaux Revlon Parfumerie China Flower Revlon Parfumerie Pink Pineapple Revlon Parfumerie Spun Sugar Essie Full Steam Ahead Essie  Rock The Boat

Nabi Dark Purple Nabi Hot Pink Nabi Purple Nabi Tawny