A public service announcement

Please note, the link below is not an affiliate link, and I am not being compensated for this post.

Apparently, China Glaze is bringing back their first holographic polishes, and right now, you can get them at Head2Toe Beauty for $4.75 each plus shipping!  Below are my swatches of 2NITE and BFF, which were the only ones I could grab the first time the collection was available.

Alchemy III by Formula X for Sephora

purchased by me

Hey, it's been a minute, but look!  A nail polish post!  Just in case anyone is looking for a little something to add to their bag during Sephora's Black Friday event, here's a gorgeous polish.  The Sephora description is "iridescent rose shimmer" and mine is "addictive rose foil".  Alchemy III is a lovely combination of minute gold and rose shimmer particles that add up to a polish that is both subtle and shimmery at the same time.  The pale color makes it work-safe, and the beauty of it garners compliments!  It's also one of those polishes where you can't see any VNL, even when the polish is technically sheer, because of its reflective nature.  My swatch is two coats and no top coat.

Last year's Alchemy II was $14.00, this year's is $15.00 and it's available now at Sephora.

Lush Halloween products mini reviews

purchased by me

I splurged on a few goodies from Lush when the Halloween stuff came out, and they're all still available, so if you're considering any of these, the mini-reviews are after the jump.

Goth Fairy:

Monsters's Ball, Pumpkin, Autumn Leaf:

A little hometown pride

Even if you ignore sports, you have to know that the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA playoffs and brought home the city's first major sports trophy in 64 years.  Cleveland had partying in the streets on Sunday, more partying when the players came home on Monday, and a parade on Tuesday.

I work in Akron, which is LeBron James's hometown, and we got to wear Cavs gear on Wednesday and today, and tonight Akron is throwing its most famous local boy a party.  I did up my nails and my eyes in honor of the Cavs.

The gold is Color Club Cherubic, the wine is Nabi 3-D Rainbow Effect in Wine and the navy is Darling Diva Queen of the Night

The gold is Milani ShadowEyez in Golden Bronze, the wine is ColourPop Porter and the navy is the darkest shade from Inglot Rainbow shadow #110.

Incoco Vintage Charm

purchased by me

Spring has finally sprung, but because the building in which I work is so cold, I've not been able to wear most of my spring clothes.  So I'm sporting spring on my nails--mint and silver stripes with black and pink floral bands.

Vintage Charm polish strips are available at Incoco for $8.99 + shipping.

Incoco Lavender Fields

purchased by me

I was so excited to see these as part of the Incoco spring collection because lavender is my favorite flower.  When I got my hands on these strips and these strips on my hands, they lived up to my expectations!  Beautiful, detailed sprigs of lavender on a silver background.

You can find the Lavender Fields nail polish strips for $8.99 + shipping at the Incoco website.

Deborah Lippman Marrakech Express

purchased by me

I'm back!  Did you miss me?  If you want to know where I've been, check out Curmudgeonette. :-D

Anyway, today is all about Marrakech Express.  I love this polish so much!  It's been a longtime lemming for me, and when I finally grabbed it from HSN, it did not disappoint.  It's a red-copper foil with gold flakes, the formula was easy and it was opaque in two coats.

It's available at the Lippman website for $20 or at HSN for $21 with a free mini bottle of top coat.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

purchased by me

Formula X for Sephora: Dazed

purchased by me

Dazed is a pale pink-lavender shimmer.  It's very shimmery but doesn't show brush strokes.  However, this particular polish is thin enough that even when it's at bottle color (2 coats) it still shows every. single. ridge.  Dazed is also discontinued.

Rainbow bubbles

I decided I need more practice stamping, so I used the OPI Color Paints and Vivid Lacquer stamping plate 024:

Formula X for Sephora: Groovy

purchased by me

Groovy is part of the Technicolor Silks collection from Formula X.  It's an insanely shiny orange-toned red with a pink flash.  The formula is good, thin but opaque and fast-drying, but I mostly love it for the color. :-)  Swatch is two coats, no top coat.

Groovy and the other Technicolor Silks can be found at Sephora for $12.50 each + tax and shipping.

Formula X for Sephora: Destiny

purchased by me

Destiny is one of 12 matte polishes in the Brushed Metallics collection, and it's a soft blue with pink shimmer.  It's a true matte, drying very quickly, so your brush strokes need to be precise.  There's not much self-leveling here! Still, I love matte polishes, and this is a very pretty one.

 Destiny is also very pretty with top coat:

Destiny and the other 11 Brushed Metallics are available at Sephora for $12.50 each + shipping and applicable sales tax.

And this polish name makes me think of this:

Essie Going Guru collection: Taj-ma-haul

purchased by me

Taj-ma-haul is a mid-toned orange crème with a nice formula that covered easily in two coats.  It's not my favorite color, but it's a good version of a spring staple.

Taj-ma-haul and the rest of the Going Guru collection are available at Head 2 Toe Beauty and Ulta, but the only place I've seen the set of 4 mini polishes is at Ulta.

Essie Going Guru collection: Nama-Stay-the-Night

purchased by me

Silly name aside, I pretty much knew going into this collection that Nama-Stay-the-Night was going to be my favorite.  It's a cobalt blue crème with a flawless formula that was opaque in one coat and didn't stain.  That's my idea of a perfect blue!

Nama-Stay-the-Night and the rest of the Going Guru collection are available at Head 2 Toe Beauty and Ulta, but the only place I've seen the set of 4 mini polishes is at Ulta.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Scent of the Day: Ask the Nearest Hippie

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

Ask the Nearest Hippie (The Collected Poetic Works of Antonin Scalia, 2015)  

Obergefell vs Hodges

Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality [whatever that means] were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie.

An olfactory guide, created to assist you in locating nearby hippies: patchouli, hemp, smoky vanilla bean, and cannabis accord.

On first sniff this smells relatively unthreatening:  a bit of vanilla, a bit of green, nothing too pungent or unwashed.  Wet on my skin, it starts off foody vanilla but quickly turns toward patchouli with a spiky green note in it.  Haha, I think some of the vanilla in this has aged into gentility; it was much more vanilla when it was fresh.  It still reminds me of Banshee Beat, though. 

It dries down more explicitly smoky, with stronger green notes among the patchouli; the vanilla is still there but it's a fairly deep note, more a sort of absolute than the creamy or foody type.  Ask the Nearest Hippie smells much more hippie-ish than it did when it was fresh, and that suits me just fine.

This scents in this limited edition group debuted in the summer of 2015 as a charitable effort benefiting the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Trevor Project, and the National Center for Transgender Equality.  The scents are still live as of this writing. 

Essie Going Guru collection: Going Guru

purchased by me

Going Guru is a medium yellow-green crème.  The formula is very good, smooth and opaque in two easy coats (I didn't see the bubble until I got this post ready, and I'm pretty sure it's a bit of cotton ball and not the polish!).  It's definitely a sweet and hopeful spring color.

Going Guru and the rest of the collection are available at Head 2 Toe Beauty and Ulta, but the only place I've seen the set of 4 mini polishes is at Ulta.

Essie Going Guru collection: Delhi Dance

purchased by me

Essie Delhi Dance is a vibrant pink crème, the color of the pressed-sugar wintergreen lozenges my grandparents used to have in a dish on their coffee table.  The formula is lovely, well-behaved, nice viscosity, and quick-drying.  It wasn't quite opaque in two coats (still a bit streaky) but that's not visible at conversational distance.

Dehli Dance and the rest of the Going Guru collection are available at Head 2 Toe Beauty and Ulta, but the only place I've seen the set of 4 mini polishes is at Ulta.

Formula X Photoelectric

purchased by me

Photoelectric is described as "purple + blue micro glitter in sheer bright blue".  On my nails it's a blue-toned turquoise glassfleck.  It's not quite opaque at two coats, but it's so very sparkly the VNL is not really visible at conversational distance.

Photoelectric is limited edition and available for $12.50 + shipping and tax at the Sephora website.

Formula X Alchemy II

purchased by me

Alchemy II is described as "a champagne rosé shimmer".  It's a stunning rose gold foil that was opaque in two easy coats.

Alchemy II is limited edition and available for $14.00 + shipping and tax at the Sephora website.

Essie Sequin Sash

purchased by me

In addition to Starry Starry Night, I also grabbed a bottle of Sequin Stash from the Essie Retro Revival collection.  It's described as "sheer glittery bronze" but to me it lacks the greenish tones of a bronze and feels more like a sheer, glittery peach.  It's quite pretty, behaves well, dries quickly but is still sheer at three coats.

Sequin Stash and the rest of the Retro Revival collection are available at Head2Toe Beauty for $8.00 each + shipping.  I got mine at Beauty.com, where they're currently out of stock.