Barry M Sugar Apple

Purchased

Hello and happy Monday, everyone. I hope you all had a good weekend. It was super crazy hot where I am this weekend. Clearly the weather did not get the memo about fall. I stayed mostly indoors this weekend because of the heat, which was OK because it meant I got a lot of reading time in and watched a couple of episodes of Hannibal.

Today I have a polish that came to me all the way from England. My cool friend offered to pick me up some UK makeup and I asked her to bring me back some shades from Barry M. So this is Barry M Sugar Apple, a bright pastel blue that leans a little green. I expected this to be more green than blue because of the name but it's definitely more blue. I love this polish so much. It's super bright and beautiful.

Despite this being part of the Gelly line, the formula really isn't jelly like at all. This shade was very pigmented and I only required 2 coats for full opacity. This had a really great formula and was super shiny when it dried. 

I loved how bright this was. It falls into that category of neon pastels that I really love.

I really wish that Barry M was available in the States. I know you can order it online but it's just not the same as being able to see it in person. Really happy I got this one though. 

Do you have any favorite foreign brands that I need to try?

Sally Hansen Coral Reef (Original)

Purchased

Hello, everyone. I hope you all had a nice, long weekend. I actually just got back from my vacation last night. Nothing too crazy but I went to visit family about 5 hours away. It was nice to just hang out and relax for a few days. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to do my nails before I left so they were bare all weekend.

Today's polish is an oldie but goodie. I am sure that some of you are aware of the recent hooplah over Sally Hansen changing some of the formulas and shades on really popular shades. Sally Hansen Coral Reef was one of those shades. I managed to snag a bottle of the original formula (even though I am pretty sure I have a bottle in my stash somewhere).

Coral Reef is, unsurprisingly, a coral shade that is that perfect spot between pink and orange. It is a creme finish and the formula was good though not fantastic. I used 3 thin coats to get the finish you see here. Topped everything off with one coat of Out the Door topcoat.

I am a sucker for a good coral so it's no surprise that I really like this one. It's great for the summer or for when you need a punch of color. I am not the biggest fan of the Xtreme Wear bottles or brushes, but I will put up with them for this polish.

I am really glad I was able to get the original formula of this beautiful polish. I had given up hope of finding the original Pacific Blue but I found one bottle just last week. I hope to have a swatch of that one up soon. Happy hump day, everyone!

Zoya Odette

Purchase

Hi, guys, Just popping in for a quick post today. I have the day off of work today and I plan on just vegging out and catching up on my reading and sleep. :) Today I have Zoya Odette, a shade from their recent Naturals collection. I am a sucker for most purples and could not resist picking this one up. It's a dusty purple creme with a hint of pink. I love dusty shades and I can see this one being funky but also work appropriate.

Odette seemed a little watery on the first coat but evened out a lot after the second. Shown here over base coat with Zoya Armor top coat. 

This is a really pretty shade and it wore for almost a whole week without any chips or much wear. I eventually took it off because I wanted to wear a new shade, but I feel like this would have work well for several more days. Not sure if it was the combo of the Zoya polish and Zoya top coat or just a fluke but it was pretty awesome.

I have a couple other polishes from this collection to try. Hoping all of them are as easy to apply and wear as this one. Happy hump day, all!

China Glaze Queen B

Hello, stranger.  I know I keep saying that I am going to post more but it just hasn't been happening. So I'm not going to say it anymore and we'll just see what happens. I recently made myself a little light box setup and got some Ott-Lite type lamps, but I'm still experimenting with it right now. On the one hand, I like that I can now swatch at night. But on the other hand, I need to get used to this new light and new angles to shoot. I am still working through my backlog of pics but you may start seeing some light box pics soon.

Today I have China Glaze Queen B to show you. This was part of I think their Fall 2013 collection. I wasn't super excited about the collection at the time but I spotted this one recently and fell in love with it. Queen B is a medium blue creme with purple undertones. This polish definitely falls in the "blurple" category. It has a dusty quality that I really like as well. Formula was fantastic and super opaque. Showing you 2 easy coats below. 

This color was really hard to capture on my camera. I fiddled with the color correction and I still don't think I got it right. I loved this polish though. It was super pigmented and creamy and looked great on my skin tone. 

As you can see, I am playing around with my watermark a bit. I am really not sure what to do with it. Some days I want it to be really unobtrusive and other days I want it to be huge. We'll see where I end up. I may try a few more things. 

I feel like this collection didn't get much love when it came out but I really like Queen B. I am going to have to check out some of the other shades in this collection. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you're all having a fantastic week!

Orly Country Club Khaki

Hi, everyone. Sorry I've been MIA this week. My office is getting ready for a big move and it's been crazy packing up and organizing. It doesn't help that my allergies are horrid right now. Last night I basically slept from 8pm to 8am. Crazy.  Anyway, today I have a nice palate cleanser shade. It's Orly Country Club Khaki.

This shade has been on my wishlist for a while now and I finally managed to pick up a bottle over the holidays. Country Club Khaki is falls into that nude/mushroom category. It's not quite beige but not quite taupe either. I quite like it though and it has a really nice, neutral look. The formula was nice and creamy and I only needed 2 coats for the swatches below. Shown with top coat.

I don't wear shades like this too often but I do like them on occasion. I can see this working for a lot of people who have more conservative office environments or who like neutrals. Another lemming off the list!

Thanks for coming by today. I hope you've all had a lovely week!

Zoya Sailor + Tomoko

Happy Friday, all! I am so glad that the weekend is just about here. I have been having a hard time adjusting to being back at work after my vacation and it's taking me a bit longer to get up to speed. I also think I may have caught a mild cold somewhere in the last couple of days, which isn't helping. But, to cheer myself up, I gave myself a fun, sophisticated manicure that is festive but still classy.

I paired Zoya Sailor, a dark navy creme with an accent nail of Zoya Pixie Dust in Tomoko, a cool toned gold textured polish. I have to say that I love the combo of these two together. They are both beautiful polishes. Sailor is extremely pigmented with a smooth formula. Even though it's quite dark, it definitely still looks blue. I only needed 2 coats for opacity. Tomoko is similar to the other Pixie Dust polishes and has a fine, textured look to it. I think this cool, champagne gold would look good on a variety of skin tones. Also shown with 2 coats.

Zoya is definitely one of my favorite polish brands since they consistently put out new and interesting shades with good formulas. Speaking of Zoya, have you guys been following them for their Flash Promos? Every holiday season the Zoya fairies release limited coupon codes throughout the day for great deals and freebies on Zoya.com. You have to be quick though because sometimes the codes go in seconds. But they are great deals and it's worth stalking their social media sites in case a good one comes along.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Halloween Week: Jack Skellington Mani

OMG look! I actually have something ready in time for a themed/holiday week. It's really a miracle. I have been getting a Halloween manicure or two done every week for the past few weeks just so I would have something fun and Halloween-like this week. First up is a manicure inspired by Jack Skellington from A Nightmare Before Christmas.

I actually saw something like this on Zoya's Instagram account which inspired me to try this. For  this look I used Kleancolor Black for all of the black creme accents and Cult Nails Tempest, an awesome white, for all of the white details. For accent nails, I used OPI Emotions from the new Mariah Carey holiday collection. It's a very cool textured black Liquid Sand. I will be reviewing it at a later date. 

I used a small brush for Jack's face and used tape to make the stripes. For my index finger and thumb I used 2 coats of Emotions without top coat. Other nails have Poshe top coat on them.

This manicure was super easy to do and it looks great.  You could also do endless variations of this and play around with the accent nails. A quick and easy Halloween manicure. Thanks for coming by today. Stop by later this week for more Halloween nails. :)

Color Club Silver Lake

Hello and happy Friday! I can't wait to start the weekend. It's been a long week and I really need the break. Hoping to finally see Gravity this weekend as well. Today I have Silver Lake by Color Club from their recent About Town collection. I was looking for a soft white/grey with a good formula that would work for nail art. Silver Lake is a super pale grey or white tinged with grey, depending on how you look at it. Formula was a bit streaky on the first coat but leveled out nicely on the second. Shown here with top coat.

I like this one a lot. It reminds me a lot of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls but with a better formula. I can definitely see myself using it for nail art, so mission accomplished!

Thanks for coming by today. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Zoya Pepper

Hello again. I hope that you're all having a wonderful weekend. Surprisingly I don't really have any plans this weekend so I'll probably end up just lazing about the house. It's been a bit cloudy around these parts lately, hence the cooler one to my pics. I am not really great at color correcting so just let it be known that today's swatch pics were taken on a cloudy day.

Zoya Pepper is a reddish brown (brownish red?) creme from the Zoya Cashmere collection from this past fall. Zoya does some really awesome cremes and this one is a winner. This is a great color for fall. It totally reminds me of turning leaves and the rich, warm tones of the season. The formula on this was great and I used 2 coats below. I did use a top coat though it was already pretty shiny on its own.

I got this color when Zoya was doing their CAMO promotion. I bought some polishes and then got 4 free polishes from the Cashmere collection. Seriously, Zoya has the best promos. This probably would not be a color that I would normally get on my own. It's a little subdued for me. However, I am glad that I have it now and it's unique in my collection.

What are your favorite fall nail polish colors?

butter LONDON Trout Pout + Orly Harmonious Mess

Hi, everyone. I hope you all had a nice weekend. I was feeling a bit under the weather this weekend and took it easy. The weather has been great here though and is starting to really feel like fall. Fall is my favorite month and Halloween is my favorite holiday so I am looking forward to it. I guess I should maybe do some Halloween nail art. Hmm, yeah I'll think about that. :)

But I love bright colors all year round and wore this fun mani the other day. I'd been lemming butter LONDON Trout Pout for a while but my local Ulta was always out of stock. A couple of weeks ago when BL was on sale for $10, I popped by the store to see if there was anything I wanted. I was just about to walk out empty handed when I saw a little display of BL by the front door. A little searching and I managed to find one lone bottle of Trout Pout, and you can bet I brought it home.

Trout Pout is a really beautiful pink-coral creme. I can never tell if coral is pink or orange but I think this leans a little more pink. Formula was a tad streaky on the first coat but evened out. I used 3 think coats here. You can probably get away with 2 if you are more careful.

Sorry - the sun seems insanely bright in these pics. I wanted to pair Trout Pout with a contrasting color for a bit of fun and picked Orly Harmonious Mess. I picked up this periwinkle blue creme at TJ Maxx the other day in a 2 pack. This is a lovely pale blue with slight purple undertones. Really nice shade and it looked great with Trout Pout. Used 2 coats of it here. Top coat on both shades.

I am very happy with both of these shades and super happy to check Trout Pout off of my wish list. Thanks for stopping by today. Have an awesome week!

China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle

Hello! Today I am back with another bright polish. Big surprise, I know. I can't help it though. Bright colors just call to me. This is China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle, a glorious neon turquoise. This is what I like to call a pastel neon. This is from the recent Sunsational collection and was part of the cremes.

I had read some pretty scathing reviews regarding the formula on this collection which made me hold off getting it for a while. But I kept seeing them and I could not deny that I loved the colors and broke down and bought the whole set. I am so glad I did, too, because this shade is so beautiful and it makes me happy just looking at it.

As is the case with many pastels, the formula on this was pretty streaky. I had to do 3 coats to even things out to my satisfaction. Top coat also helped smooth things out and gave it a super shiny finish.  Though the formula required a little bit of extra effort, the results are worth it. I mean look at this color!

This would make a fantastic pedicure color as well. Seriously I loved wearing it and was sad to take it off. Have you guys picked up the Sunsation collection yet? Which is your favorite?

Zoya Mia

Hello and happy Monday! Summer just does not want to die here and we've been having some really hot weather. I hope it cools down this week and weekend. I hate using the A/C so much but I have to when it's this hot. So today I have for you Zoya Mia, a dusty, medium pink creme. I saw this the other day while I was looking for another polish in my Helmer and decided to try it on. I don't usually wear these kinds of colors but it was very pretty and a nice change from my normally bright digits. I had no issues with the formula and used 2 coats below with topcoat.

This is one of those great palate cleanser shades that just looks really clean and feminine. This would work well in an office environment or when you want to be a bit more toned down.  

Thanks for stopping by today. Happy Monday!