My NYE mani and the elephant in the room

press sample/purchased by me

So, if you're one of my few faithful readers, first of all, thank you for sticking with me and second, you may have noticed I semi-disappeared.  At the end of last year, I hit a wall when I realized that I had too much nail polish, had spent too much money on nail polish, and that I wasn't willing to put in the work to make this anything other than a hobby blog.  That, plus the holidays, plus the realization that my house was a pigsty and I had only myself to blame, led to a (mercifully short) bout of depression.

After a few weeks when all I posted was press releases, I've decided that there's nothing wrong with being a hobby blog with fewer than 50 followers, as long as I enjoy it.  So going forward, I'll continue to swatch Zoya collections, but I'm not going to try to buy every new thing out there to try to run with the big dogs.  I'd rather wear the polish I've only swatched but still love and share true excitement with my readers.  I also plan to practice stamping and share my results no matter how bad they are, and maybe 2015 will be the year striping tape and I become friends, if not besties!

As a reward for reading all this crap, here's a pretty picture of Nicole by OPI On a Gilt Trip with a bit of Zoya Monet:

Butter London Cut-Up collection

purchased by me

After inadvertently using an ethnic slur as a nail polish name, Butter London has re-released their Cut-Up collection with one re-named polish.  In the interest of not repeating myself repetitively, the clear base of all three polishes is just thick enough to hold a nice amount of glitter, which spreads easily on the nail.  Swatches are one coat of each Cut-Up polish over two coats of Sprog.

Anorak is a clear base with white, black and silver glitters in shards and hexes both large and small.

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Dust-Up, the re-named polish, is gold micro-glitter and rose gold hexes.  It's my favorite of the three.  I'm also thinking it would look great over Trifle.

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Titchy (small, insignificant) is a vibrant multi-colored glitter topper which is a lot prettier than its name suggests!

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The Cut-Up collection can be purchased as a trio of minis for $25.00 or individual full-sized polishes for $15.00 each at Butter London and at Ulta.

OPI Alcatraz Rocks

purchased by me

Alcatraz Rocks, part of OPI's San Francisco collection, was the polish everyone wanted last year, and no wonder!  It's a phenomenal navy textured glitter, loaded with multicolored sparkles, opaque in two effortless coats and widely available for $10 or less.

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If you don't already have Alcatraz Rocks, you can find it wherever OPI is sold.

Cirque Lullaby and Glam Polish Mermagic

purchased by me

I was clearly in the mood for soft, pastel glitters, because I bought Cirque Lullaby and Glam Polish Mermagic at almost the exact same time.  Both are pretty polishes with a variety of glitter in a clear base, both have good formulas that are thick without being gloppy and both have a nice spread on the glitter.  The differences between the two are that Lullaby has matte glitter and includes squares and Mermagic has shiny glitter.

One coat over black, Mermagic on middle and pinkie fingers, Lullaby on Index and ring

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One coat of Lullaby over Zoya  Taylor

One coat of Mermagic over Zoya Taylor

Lullaby can be purchased at Cirque Colors, and Mermagic at Color4Nails.

Urban Lacquer Holiday Phase II

press samples

Launching this weekend at Urban Lacquer is Brenda's holiday collection Phase II.  I was lucky enough to get three of these pretties to show you, and you can see a ton of pics after the jump!

Glitter Daze Sunset in the City collection: Dusky in Dallas

purchased by me

Dusky in Dallas is part of the Sunset in the City collection from Glitter Daze, and it's a lovely multichrome shimmer.  It's opaque in three coats on its own, but light enough to look good as one coat over a dark color.  The formula was smooth and very easy to work with.  For swatching, I used three coats on my index and middle fingers and one coat over black on my ring and pinky fingers.

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Dusky in Dallas is available from Glitter Daze for $11.50 + shipping.

Cult Nails flash sale!

Hi, my name is John and I am Maria's husband.  She left me in charge of the Cult for the next few days, and I thought I would throw a FLASH SALE out there to introduce myself to those of you who don't know me.  Enjoy! Buy 6 Get 3 FREE!!!! I'm pretty much giving things away with this one!  Simply add nine regular priced polishes to your cart, enter the coupon code of BUY6GET3 at check out, and you'll only pay $72 for all nine!!!  WOW!!!  Remember, orders OVER $75 qualify for FREE shipping, so add a Wicked Fast Top Coat to your order for $10, and you'll get this shipped FREE as well!!!  THE LINK ABOVE WILL AUTOMATICALLY APPLY THIS COUPON! Buy 2 Get 1 FREE! Just add three regular priced polishes to your cart, enter the coupon code of BUY2GET1 at check out, and you'll only pay $24 for all three!  Plus shipping and tax where applicable, of course. THE LINK TO THE RIGHT WILL AUTOMATICALLY APPLY THIS COUPON! Buy 4 Get 2 FREE! Same process here, add six regular priced polishes to your cart, enter the coupon code ofBUY4GET2 at check out, and you'll only pay $48 for all six!  Again, shipping and tax will be charged where applicable. THE LINK TO THE RIGHT WILL AUTOMATICALLY APPLY THIS COUPON! OFFERS MAY NOT BE COMBINED WITH OTHER COUPONS.  FREE SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS OVER $75.00 ANYWHERE WE SHIP WORLDWIDE.  TO QUALIFY FOR FREE SHIPPING, ORDERS MUST TOTAL $75.00 or more AFTER COUPONS HAVE BEEN APPLIED!

http://shop.cultnails.com

China Glaze It's a Trap-Eze!

It's a Trap-Eze! is part of the China Glaze and Cirque de Soleil collection.  It's a lovely, soft, milky white jelly absolutely stuffed with multi-colored glitter.  It's fantastic and feminine and fun!   It was surprisingly easy to work with and was perfect in three thin coats.  It dried a bit bumpy, but I only needed two coats of Zoya Armor to smooth it out.  All swatches are three coats plus top coat.

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The Cirque de Soleil collection was LE, but the polishes are still available at most e-tailers, and brick and mortar stores like Sally Beauty and Ulta might still have some bottles.  China Glaze polishes retail from $3.25-$6.99 each.