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!

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!

Wet N Wild ATTEN-Hut!

Good morning! Hope your Monday is off to a good start. I had a jam packed weekend and could use another day to recover but that's not going to happen so I'll just have a big cup of coffee. :) Today I have a polish from Wet N Wild called ATTEN-Hut!  This is from a new collection called Tough Girl.  I actually had no idea that this was a textured polish collection when I bought this. I don't know if I just didn't look at the display that well or if it wasn't noted, but I really had no idea and it wasn't on the bottle anywhere. I saw some swatches on another blog before I had tried mine and that's when I realized it was textured.

ATTEN-Hut! is a lovely olive green with gold shimmer. The formula on this was nice and I used 2 think coats. I have to say though that I really don't like the brush on these Wet N Wild bottles. They're really short and kind of fat. The cap is also really wide, making it somewhat hard to maneuver. 

Just for kicks, I decided to add top coat to this manicure to see what it would like. I don't usually top coat my textured polishes (because that seems to defeat the purpose) but I was curious. 

This was pretty gritty and I used 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat to get it smooth. I like this look though not as much as I liked it as a texture.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Even though I didn't know it was a textured polish when I bought it, I really like it. I have one more polish from this collection that I picked up and I am hoping it's as pretty as this one. Thanks for coming by today!

China Glaze Howl You Doin'

Happy hump day! When I say the name of this polish in my head it comes out in the voice of Joey Tribiani from Friends - Howl You Doin'? :) China Glaze recently released their Halloween collection called Monsters Ball. I spotted them a couple of weeks ago at my local beauty supply store. I was trying to be good and only picked up a couple of polishes that really interested me.

Howl You Doin' is a dark purple jelly with flakie glitter pieces in blue and orange and maybe pink. There is also a bunch of small silver glitter in there that was hard to see on the nail but I really noticed when I was trying to remove this polish. There is a lot going on but the polish is sheer enough and really lets the flakes come through. If you are a fan of flakie glitter, I think you will like this one. I used 2 coats here

Then just for kicks I decided to throw on a matte top coat since I almost never use any of my matte top coats (and I have lots). Making it matte gave it a cooler, edgier look that I really liked.

I think I probably have a polish or two that is similar to this in my collection from when I bought up any flakie polish I could find. However, it's still a really fun polish and if you don't have a ton of flakie glitters, it might be a nice addition to the stash. 

I only have one more polish from this collection to try. Of course it's the one with orange glitter in it. Has anyone else tried out this collection yet? Which is your favorite? 

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?

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?

Zoya Carter

Hello and happy Monday! Did you guys all have a good weekend? It's been so hot here lately as the last bits of summer go away. I cannot wait for fall though because it is my favorite season. Anyway, today I have another textured polish for you (act surprised). This one is from Zoya's Pixie Dust Fall 2013 line and is named Carter. Carter is a gorgeous polish with blackened base and purple and fuchsia glitter. Seriously, it's amazing.  If we only get one polish from this collection, I would go with this one.

Carter seems a bit watery on the first coat but becomes rich and opaque after a second coat. Below is 2 coats with no base or top coat.

This was kind of what I was hoping OPI Vesper was going to be but just wasn't. This beautiful purple is a must have for any texture or purple lover. I am even considering getting a back up... :)

OPI Alcatraz Rocks

Yup, I am back with another textured polish today. I am not sick of them yet so you all must endure. :) Today's polish is Alcatraz Rocks from the new OPI San Francisco collection. I grew up near San Francisco so this collection is near and dear to my hear. I knew that Alcatraz Rocks was going to be one from the collection that I had to have. 

Alcatraz Rocks is a beautiful dark blue. But what makes it special, is the glitter, which ranges from pink, blue, silver and gold. There may be other colors in there as well. Formula was great and it took 2 coats to get what you see above. I really love how the new texture polishes are getting so much more complex. This is a great example of that. I don't have anything like this in my collection. I didn't put top coat on it but it would probably look great with top coat as well.

What do you guys think of this one? I have one other polish from this collection to show you. While I love the San Francisco theme, I don't know if I love all of the polishes. Right now I have two though I may pick up a couple more later on.  Thanks for stopping by today. Have an awesome day!