Color Club Halo Hues: Cherubic

Happy Halloween!  This is sort of an Opposite Day post--an angelic polish on the spookiest holiday. :)  Color Club has a new collection of pastel linear holographic polishes called Halo Hues.  Since I already have a pale pink, pale blue and pale purple holo, I just wanted the gold one from this collection.  It's called Cherubic, and it's fantastic.  The formula was perfect, I only needed two thin coats, and the rainbows are out of this world!  I just wish there'd been some sun here in NEO while I wore this polish. :(

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Aside from the insanely strong rainbows, the other thing I love about this polish is that it does not show even a single one of my many nail ridges!  Color Club polishes are available at Transdesign, Head2ToeBeauty and 8ty8Beauty and at some brick and mortar stores (some Rite Aid stores carry special collections but not the core line).

Color Club Winter Affair collection: Glitter Wonderland

The second polish I grabbed from Color Club's Holiday 2012 collection is Glitter Wonderland.  Truthfully, Color Club should just have called this Girlygirl Wonderland, because this is a magenta-purple that falls right in her favorite color category.  I adore it too, even if the name is a bit misleading!  Glitter Wonderland is more of a foil with some sparkles than a glitter.  Still, it's a gorgeous color and a gorgeous formula.  Neither too thin nor too thick, this beauty was easy to work with and reached bottle color in two coats.  All swatches are two coats without top coat.

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Color Club polishes are available at Transdesign, Head2ToeBeauty and 8ty8Beauty for sure and at some brick and mortar stores (just not any near me).

Serious Paypal Stupidity

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab recently re-introduced single note scents, which change monthly.  This month, the scents are (or rather were) Iranian Galbanum and Rum-Soaked French Tonka.   If you're a reasonably internet-savvy person who doesn't happen to know that these are perfume components, you look them up.

If you're a drooling idiot who works for Paypal, however, you shut down the account of a perfume vendor who is selling a perfume with that name.  Really, Paypal, have you NO employees there with brains?

Color Club Winter Affair collection: Berry and Bright

Berry and Bright is part of Color Club's 2012 Holiday collection,Winter Affair, and it's a beautiful deep red foil.  There are no orange tones in this red, it's much more on the pink side.  The formula was smooth and easy to work with.  All swatches are two coats and no top coat.

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Color Club polishes are available at Transdesign, Head2ToeBeauty and 8ty8Beauty and at some brick and mortar stores (just not any near me).

Halloweekends 3.5: Sally Hansen Salon Effects Numbskull

This is my final Halloween manicure, and the one I'll be wearing on Wednesday.  Numbskull is from the 2011 Halloween collection.  Application was easy-peasy and took me about 10 minutes.  Plus, I paid $3 for these at Five Below!

Halloweekends 3.0: Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Batty for You

Batty for You nail polish strips have a pattern of black bats on a purple background.  These are the shiniest Salon Effects strips I've tried yet, and even my conservative mother said "Ooooh, I like those!" :)  Application was typical for these--easy and quick.  Removal, however, was a bit more difficult than usual, because the black bats flaked off and stuck everywhere on my hands.  I used a bit of Skindecent Manicure in a Minute hand scrub after removal and got all the bits off, but it did take that extra step!

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Not only are these super-shiny and purple, but the bats are different shapes and sizes!  I got a kick out of looking at my nails when I wore these.  Wear time was about five days for me.  Sally Hansen Salon Effects are available at most major drugstores and cost from $9-$10 per pack.

Different Dimension Warm Fuzzies

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I love the polishes from DifferentDimension.  In addition to doing amazing things with glitter and glow in the dark, Missi also does a super holographic polish!  Warm Fuzzies, from her fall collection, is a milk chocolate with scattered holo glitter.  I love browns, love holos, so this is a perfect combo for me!  Plus the polish was easy-peasy to use--no drips, bald spots, pooling, running or dragging!  All swatches are two coats, no top coat.

If you love fall and you love holos, get yourself over to DifferentDimension and treat yourself to some Warm Fuzzies!

Sally Hansen lustre shine in Copperhead

Sally, I are disappoint. :(  In the bottle, this looks like a luxe brown with green shimmer.  On the nail, it's plain copper, of which I already have plenty.  All the disappointing swatches are two coats.

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Just to add insult to injury, the formula was very nice and easy to work with.  Still, Copperhead isn't worth the $8.39 CVS charges and I'm not even sure it's worth the $4.79 I paid.

Models Own Freak Out

Freak Out is part of the Models Own Mirrorball Collection.  It's a clear base with shards of aqua, silver and fuchsiaglitter.  I chickened out on wearing this alone because I was scared of the glitter removal, so my swatches are one coat of Freak Out over two coats of OPI DS Magic.

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The color combination is not the most unique, but I really love that it's shards rather than round or hex glitter, and it certainly is sparkly!  Models Own polishes are available on their website and at Ninja Polish, although the latter is sold out of Mirror Ball polishes right now.

Illamasqua Viridian

I have wanted this polish for so long it's not even funny.  I almost had it from a friend's blog sale, but someone else got there first. :(  So I grabbed it when Sephora had a sale a while back, and decided I'd post it during Depression Awareness month.  Viridian is a deep hunter green, dark but never so dark it looks black.  It's almost opaque in one coat, performs flawlessly on the nail (I did NO cleanup) and has a depth and a beauty that I adore.  All swatches are two coats without top coat.

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Viridian is available at Sephora online and in-stores, and at Illamasqua.com.

China Glaze Breast Cancer Awareness 2012: Exquisite

Since we're getting to the end of Breast Cancer Awareness month, I thought I'd better post this quickly!  China Glaze did 12 polishes for BCA, but only one appealed to me.  Exquisite is a bubble-gum pink glass-fleck, very girly, pretty and dainty but not boring.  The polish formula was perfect, not too thick, not too thin, it flowed nicely without pooling and I didn't really need any cleanup.  Swatches are two coats without topcoat, and the VNL you can see in the non-flash picture wasn't visible to the naked eye.

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Although I have a certain amount of philosophical disagreement with the whole idea of BCA month, this is a very pretty polish and I'm glad I got it.  The entire 12-piece collection is available at beauty stores and e-tailers now.

Halloweekends 2.5: Abstract Pumpkins

Very abstract pumpkins!  I started with one coat of Zoya Lianne, added one coat of Cult Nails Captivated, then dabbed Zoya Rina at the base of my nails to suggest leaves and called it done!

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Urban Lacquer is Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

Urban Lacquer is the brainchild of the lovely and talented Brenda, and I have my eye on several polishes for the next time I have some fun money. :)  Here are a couple of Brenda's test products which she generously sent me:

Halloweekends 2.0: Sally Hansen Salon Effects in How Corny

How Corny is part of the limited edition Halloween 2012 collection of Salon Effects polish strips, and it's an adorable pattern of candy corn on a silver foil background.  I really love this one, and not only were the strips easy to apply, they lasted for a full week without even tipwear!  As usual, I had a few leftovers due to my short nails, so read to the end to find out what I did with them!

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The last time I used Sally Hansen Salon Effects, I put the extra strips on my toes.  This time, I did something different--I used the strips for nail polish jewelry!  I had some triangle shaped glass pieces from Sun and Moon Craft Kits, so I painted those with a thin layer of DifferentDimension Candied Corn and then stuck on the Sally Hansen strips.  I had to piece together the strips, and you can tell from up close, but from conversational distance, they look adorable.  Plus, thanks to Candied Corn, they glow in the dark! :D

OPI Designer Series Magic

Magic is one of the newer Designer Series polishes, and while it's very pretty, it does not justify either the name or the price tag.  It's a well-behaved royal blue glass-fleck glitter, but it's not unique.  All swatches are two coats without top coat.

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OPI Designer Series: Reflection

Reflection is a red-hued coral scattered holographic polish from back when OPI's Designer Series designation meant stunning holo polishes.  *sigh*  This is a lovely polish, but it reminds me that the newer DS polishes don't deserve the name or the higher price tag.  The formula was a bit on the thicker side, but far from unworkable, and the dry time was good.  All swatches are two coats with no top coat.

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Whatever the Designer Series label has come to mean, this is a beautiful polish, in a coral dark enough to qualify as an autumn polish and vivid enough to qualify as a summer polish.

Butter London All Hail the Queen

"...shoot on sight anything wearing BEIGE."

So says my darling friend angelkitty, and while I would agree with her most of the time about beige, especially nail polish, All Hail the Queen is an allowed exception.  You see, this is a gorgeous, warm, dark-ish beige nail polish with a tiny hint of pink and a ton of scattered holo!  It's just lovely, and very unique, so it gets a free "Don't Shoot Me!" card. ;)  All swatches are two coats, no top coat.

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If you're looking for a work-safe or mother-of-the-groom safe polish that still has the power to make you look at your nails and smile, grab a bottle of All Hail the Queen. :)

Butter London West End Wonderland

My second Butter London polish from Coterie is West End Wonderland, which is a versatile gold glitter.  I've seen it used as a layering polish, and I'm going to try that very soon, but this little beauty is opaque in only two coats.  It does dry gritty and a bit matte, but one coat of Nubar Diamont shined it right up.  All swatches are two coats with top coat.

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West End Wonderland reminds me of a brown challis skirt I have--it's not the most unique or prettiest thing I own, but it's a workhorse which can go with many things and be worn in many ways.  If you don't have a reliable gold glitter which can serve both as a topper and on its own, you could do a lot worse than this polish.

Butter London Knackered

When Coterie first started up, they had a great deal on Butter London polishes, so I got three polishes plus the BL top coat.  Knackered was the first one I tried and my least favorite.  It's a decent duochrome, but it was terribly sheer and thin enough to pool if I wasn't super-careful.  All swatches are three coats, and you can see that I could have used four.

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Knackered is in the same family as a lot of duochromes out there, and unless you feel the need to have ALL THE COLORS, I'd recommend skipping this one.

Halloweekends 1.5: Witchy Stockings

My second Halloween manicure is a striped green & black that looks to me like witchy stockings!  I knew I wanted to do this with OPI Zom-Body To Love (green glow-in-the-dark from last year's Halloween collection) as the base, but when I tried it, the OPI was so sheer I despaired.  I tried Zoya Shawn as underwear, but the green was too dark.  Then it occurred to me that China Glaze Unpredictable was perfect, so I used one coat of that, then topped it with two coats of Zom-body To Love.  The stripes were done using black stamping polish and French manicure guides.  I'm pretty pleased with how in turned out, I love that a bit of the glimmer from the chrome shows through, and I love that the stripes show up when the polish glows in the dark.

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Halloweekends 1.0: Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Headbanger

These particular polish strips are not part of the Sally Hansen Halloween collection, although I do have some of those to show you later, but were part of the limited edition Avril Lavigne collection.  When I bought them, I knew I was going to save them for Halloween, since there's little room in my ordinary style for pink glitter with little black skulls and crossbones. ;)  The strips were pretty thin, which made them a bit more difficult to work with, but I managed to get them on fairly straight.  The advantage of short nails is that I could use one packet of eight strips for both hands and six of my toes.

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Sally Hansen Salon Effects real nail polish strips are available at most major drugstores.