Rescue Beauty Lounge Killa Red

Hello and happy hump day. I hope everyone's week is going by quickly. Each day is one day closer to Christmas. :) Today I have another Rescue Beauty Lounge polish to show you. Originally I wasn't sure if I wanted this one. I have plenty of reds in my collection and wasn't sure if this one would be worth it. In the end though, the name put it over the top and I placed an order for it.

Killa Red is a beautiful medium blue-based red jelly. Formula on this was perfection and it still has that slightly squishy look of a jelly but it super pigmented, requiring only 2 coats for a gorgeous finish. Sorry, I can't remember if I had applied top coat in these pics.

I am so, so glad I got this one. I fell in love with it on the first coat and am definitely adding it to my list of holy grail reds. There's just something so classic about it and I can see it working on a variety of skin tones. Formula was also fantastic and a dream to apply. I love this so much I am considering getting a backup of it. I want to go through my stash to see if I have anything similar but, so far, I haven't found an exact match.

This may not look like the most unique red but I love it. If you are a fan of reds or need a good, classic red, Killa Red is a knockout. The name is also fabulous and I feel like a sultry noir character when I wear it.

What do you think? Are you a fan of reds? I'd love to know what your favorite red polish shade is.

Maybelline Emerald Elegance

Happy Friday, everyone. This has certainly been quite a week and I am glad that the weekend is finally here. I am going on vacation tomorrow and am looking forward to just chilling out. I am just visiting my parents so I will be driving. I had the hardest time trying to figure out what nail polish supplies to take. I don't want to take a lot but then I do want to take advantage of being on vacation to get some swatching in. I'll probably go polish shopping while I am there, too. :)

Today I have another polish from the Maybelline Brocades collection. I love this collection so much! Emerald Elegance is a gorgeous, deep yellow-toned green with tons of green hex glitter. I love the richness of the base color and I really like how the glitter lays. It reminds me of fish scales. Below is two easy coats with Poshe top coat. All of these swatches were taken outside in the shade except for the last picture which was taken in the sun.

Isn't this shade gorgeous? I love how the gold glitter peeks out to create a really rich base color. I am still missing 3-4 polishes from this collection though I have all of my favorites. I am keeping a lookout for the displays though because I will totally buy the others if I see them. :)

Hope you're all having a wonderful Friday. Do you guys know about the Rescue Beauty Lounge sale this coming Sunday? 5 hours only and RBL polishes (with exclusions) will be 50% off. I totally have my cart ready. Have a good weekend, everyone1

Maybelline Crushed Crimson

Hi, guys. Hope everyone had a good weekend and is having a good week. No idea how it got to be Wednesday already. Sorry things have been a bit quiet around here. My life's been a little crazy and it's going to be that way for most of this month. So please bear with me if things are a little inconsistent around here in the next few weeks.

Today I have a really gorgeous polish an one of my favorite of 2013. This is Crushed Crimson from the LE Maybelline Brocades collection. Every polish in this collection is super gorgeous and I need them all. I think I have 4 or 5 right now but I want to get rest. Crushed Crimson is a really rich burgundy red with gold shimmer and is filled with red and gold hex glitter. This polish was really pigmented and I only needed 2 coats to get an opaque finish. I did use top coat to get a smooth finish on this but it wasn't super gritty. All of these photos were taken outside on a cloudy day.

Brocades is a really great title for this collection because it makes me think of rich, opulent fabrics and the color combos and awesome glitter in these polishes really goes with that them. I love the complexity of this polish. I loved wearing it and it just looked so lovely and perfect for fall. If this polish is any indication of what the rest of the collection is like, then I am going to love them all.

If it's not clear yet, I love this polish. If you like glitter and intense jewel tones, then you should definitely try to find this collection while it's still available. Thanks for stopping by today!

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?

Sally Hansen Red-io Active

Happy Monday, everyone. This weekend seriously flew by. The heat wave continues here and I have spent most of my time indoors. I did try to do some swatching this weekend but the sun was so bright that even that was hard. Today I have a beautiful new polish from Sally Hansen's Insta-Dr line. I usually avoid this line because I hate the bottles with their long, skinny necks and the super wide, flat brush. However, this color looked too gorgeous to pass up.

Red-io Active (I have the hardest time saying that) is a dazzling red that is one of those lit from within shades. It has a serious glow to it that can be seen even in the shade. The sun was super bright out so my swatches are probably a little warmer than the actual color. The formula was great and I only used 1 coat below. There were a couple of nails that could have used 2 coats but I did not want to deal with the brush and bottle so 1 coat it was.

lighting: shade

You do have to be a bit careful when applying or you may get some brush strokes. But I literally slapped this on before work and it looked pretty good. I used top coat to make it extra shiny but you might be able to get away without it. All in all I am very impressed with this color. I picked up one other shade from this collection but I may be back for more since they were all pretty awesome looking. I still hate the brush and bottle but this color is worth it.

Have you picked up anything from this collection yet? Does the Insta-Dri bottle annoy anyone else as much as it annoys me?

Dare To Wear Ready For My Closeup

Hello there. Happy Friday. Today I have for you a gorgeous, sparkly glitter bomb. I picked up Dare To Wear Ready For My Closeup a month or two after seeing it on a blog (sorry, can't remember which one). It looked so awesome that I immediately went on eBay and found myself a bottle. Of course it took my until now to finally wear it. But it's a super gorgeous glitter that I think everyone needs. This is definitely what I would call "blurple," a cross between a blue and purple. This polish is packed with blue, purple and holo glitter. I put it over a manicure that was getting a bit old so I don't know if it would get opaque on its own. The base looks somewhat jelly-ish.

Below is 1 coat over Salon Perfect Playful Plum. You can see how sparkly it is with just one coat. 2 coats will probably blind you. It wasn't super gritty and I think I only had to do one coat of top coat for most of these nails, though I did do a second coat on a couple of them.

I stared at my nails a lot when I wore this one. If you like glitter, get this polish! Thanks for stopping today. Have an awesome weekend!

Salon Perfect Playful Plum

Hi, everyone. Hope you all had a good weekend. I spent most of my weekend reading the Beautiful Bastard series by Christina Lauren. Does anyone else like reading smutty books? I read other things, too, but I admit to a weakness for books with a bit (or a lot) of romance in them.

Anyway, today I have a gorgeous fall polish from Salon Perfect. I picked this up on my last trip to Wal-mart when I was searching for the Salon Perfect matte glitters. The new fall display was out and I picked up a couple from the collection, including today's polish, Playful Plum. Playful plum is one of those polishes that glows in the sun. The shimmer is just gorgeous and this pink/purple shade also has tiny flecks of blue shimmer in there as well. You can see it in the close up shot. Pigementation was really good on this and I needed 2 thin coats to get the coverage you see below.

I love colors like this that surprise you.  This reminds me a lot of some of the older shades that OPI used to do and are now coming back. It's also reminiscent of the China Glaze Rodeo collection from a few years ago which also had a lot of great shimmers in it.

I had a lot of fun with this one and am glad to add it to my collection. Are you ready for rich fall colors? Have a good week!

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams

How's everyone's week going? Mine has been kind of hectic. Nothing really particular is going on but it just seems really busy and I have been really tired at night. Not sure what's up with that but hopefully it'll work itself out. Today I have a really fun textured polish to show you. The textured trend is going strong into fall and I am still enjoying it.

Cinna-man of My Dreams is a polish from Nicole by OPI's recent Gumdrops collection. This is not to be confused with the JulieG Gumdrops collection. I had seen swatches of the Gumdrops collection pop up on some blogs in the past few weeks and knew that Cinna-man of My Dreams was the one polish that I had to have. A couple of weeks ago I finally spotted the display at CVS and there was one bottle left - just for me.

Cinna-man of My Dreams is a lovely cinnamon brown shade. But what makes this polish special is all of the awesome shimmer. This polish has really gorgeous gold and pink shimmer throughout that gives this polish a wonderful glow. Formula on this was good. A little thick as I think the texture finished often are but nothing problematic. I used 2 coats to get the finish above.

I am really happy I decided to pick this one up. It's a super unique shade and really beautiful. Glad to have this one in my collection.

Cult Nails Fetish

Oh Cult Nails Fetish. How I was lusting after you. When there was finally a sale, I didn't hesitate to pick you up and I am so glad that I did. As you might be able to tell, I am in LOVE with this polish. It's so simple but there's just something about it. The first time I saw a swatch of it, I knew I had to have it. I love the smooth black finish that't not quite matte and not glossy. With a name like Fetish, I think it's supposed to look like smooth, black leather, and it really does.

Formula on this was excellent. Like with any matte type polish, imperfections in the nail or application are going to be really noticeable so you have to be really careful when applying just so you get that really smooth finish. Because you don't use top coat, it is easier to ding and damage the finish. Below is 2 glorious coats.

I recently bought the Cult Nails wax top coat. I am really hoping that it gives polishes a finish similar to this one. I just love it and wouldn't mind trying all of my polishes with a wax finish. Imagine the possibilities. :)

Fetish is definitely going into my favorite polishes of this year so far. Does anyone else have this polish or other wax finish polishes? Let me know because I could always use more. :) Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend!

Easter Nails with Illamasqua Fragile

This is coming a bit late. I totally thought I wrote this post up but...I guess I did not. This Easter I am wearing the gorgeous Illamasqua Fragile on my nails. I can't tell you how much I love this polish. The formula was a dream and it's such a unique color in my collection. I got many compliments on it. Everyone thought it had to be two polishes and not one. Love this pale blue and the way that the glitter mixes with the base so that some glitter is darker and closer to the top while other bits are more hidden. It does have a very bird's egg look to it. Fragile wore really well and I did not want to take it off, but my nails were getting too long and I needed to file them (I like short nails). Another winner from Illamasqua! 

See how pretty it is? Now I want the rest of the polishes in this collection, especially the purple and green ones. Anyone else in love with this collection? 

Urban Outfitters Silver Holo

Hello and welcome to my first real post here on The Painted Ninja. Figured I would start off with a bang with one of my favorite recent polish purchases. Urban Outfitters came out with several holo polishes late last year. Rumors are that the UO holors are the recent Color Club holos, just repackaged. I don't know if this is true or not but this was available before the CC's appeared and I have to say that I love this polish.

Silver Holo is exactly that, a silver holo. It's a really fabulous and super strong linear holo. While holos are known to have some application issues, this went on like buttah. 

Here's Silver Holo in indirect sunlight. You can see the rainbows starting to appear. However, it doesn't become magic until you get it in full light.

Look at these gorgeous pics in the sunlight. The rainbow in this is intense and sooooo pretty.

Here are my nails outside in the shade. As you can see, it just looks like a shiny silver in the shade. Pretty, but not spectacular. 

But look what happens when the sun comes out. Magic. Seriously, y'all, I could not stop staring at my fingers whenever they were in the sun. The rainbow on this is really strong and so beautiful. If you like holographic polish, you need to get this. 

Ugh, totally gorgeous. It was almost to the point where it was a driving hazard because I kept wanting to stare at my nails while on the road. Like I said, formula was fantastic. This is 2 coats with top coat. The top coat did not affect the polish. As you can see, there was plenty of holo goodness shining through. No issues with chipping either which happens sometimes with holos. This lasted quite a while on my nails with no problems.

I believe this is still available at Urban Outfitters. There were two other colors but I haven't gotten them yet. I think I will just get the Color Club ones since I have a beauty supply store near me and it'll be cheaper. But I highly, highly recommend this one. Thanks for stopping by my first post. Hope you guys liked it and I'll be back soon. :)