Zoya Hudson

Purchased

Hello again! Seems that I am on a bit of a Zoya kick lately. What can I say? They have beautiful polish and frequent sales. :) Zoya Hudson is a recent release from their spring 2014 line. Hudson is a cool toned lavender with tons of silver shimmer. If you are familiar with Zoya Stevie, I think of Hudson as its non-textured sister. I am showing 2 coats with top coat.

Formula was smooth and I had no issues with it. I love how bright and shiny this shade is. While it did not seem like the most unique shade, I had a hard time finding something close to it in my current collection.

I had to take these pics on my camera phone because my regular camera was not getting the right shade. So if these look a little blurrier than usual, that's the reason. Overall I like Hudson a lot. It's very girly and pretty but the silver gives it a fun edge.

MAC Grey Friday

Hey, it's Friday! Does anyone have any good plans for the weekend? I don't have anything too exciting up my sleeve except for hanging out with some friends and watching the first episode of Season 8 of Psych. I love that show.

Today I have MAC Grey Friday to show you. I picked this up recently at the Cosmetics Company Outlet. If you don't know, it's an outlet store that I think mainly sells Estee Lauder company products at a discount. They usually have leftovers from seasonal collections and limited lines. I like this one because they carry MAC and sometimes you can find some fun gems. There were only a couple of polishes that I really liked and Grey Friday was one of them. I don't really know how to describe the finish. I think the closest thing would be a foil though it's not shiny. It actually dries to more of a satin finish. Grey Friday has a really cool brushed metal sort of look that reminds me of the OPI suedes or the Orly metals collection that came out a few years ago. This isn't as matte as a suede finish but it has the same look. It was extremely pigmented and I used 2 easy coats below, no top coat.

So a funny thing happened while I was wearing this. Originally I put top coat on it but, when I did, it seemed to do something weird to the finish. It seemed to move the silver pigment around and the finish got kind of weird. I am not sure if it's because I didn't wait long enough for it to try or if it's just some weird quirk of the polish. But I ended up putting an extra coat of polish on top of the top coat to get back the original finish. I took a picture of my thumb below where you can kind of see how the top coat affected it. Weird, right?

I think Grey Friday was a pretty limited release. Most of my searches came up with the Grey Friday lipstick that went along with this. I am really happy with this polish though. It's pretty unique in my collection. It does remind me a lot of Orly Iron Butterfly so I may have to pull that out to compare someday.

Does anyone else love hitting up the beauty outlets? I wish I lived closer to one because I'd go all the time. Well maybe it's better that I don't then. :) Have a great weekend!

Cover Girl Pyro Pink

Hump  day is here again. It comes so quickly but also feels like it takes forever to get here. The mysteries of time, I suppose. This week I have another polish from the Cover Girl Catching Fire. Pink Pyro is a dark pink foil with silver and purple flecks in it. This one was definitely more foil-like than the last polish in the collection I tried. It's a very pretty shade that would look good on a variety of skin tones. Formula was good and I used 3 thin coats below with no topcoat. You could totally get away with only 2 coats but I found that with 2, it looked sheer in the sun. In person though you probably would not be able to tell.

You can see a bit of the purple peeking out at this angle. 

I think it's pretty but it's not blowing me away. I think it might just seem a little boring compared to some of the other colors in the collection (at least to me). I like it though and can see myself busting it out when I am looking for an edgier pink. 

That's what I have for you today. Let me know what you think of this polish in the comments below. Thanks!

ulta3 Striking

Happy hump day, everyone. This week is going by really slowly but my friend got us advance screening passes to the Veronica Mars movie tonight so that's pretty exciting. Well today I have a polish from an Aussie brand called ulta3. I got this in the swap I did with The Bookish Manicurist a while back. I was really excited when the Glitterati collection came out and Mandee was kind enough to track some of them down for me.

Striking is a gorgeous aqua blue foil that is super sparkly. Really nice formula on this and I used 2 coats for all this foil-y goodness. I did not use a top coat for this swatch.

I have been impressed with all of the polishes that I have tried so far from this brand. I really wish we could get it in the States but I guess we shall have to rely on our Aussie friends. If you like foil finishes and can get your hands on this, do it. I love this sparkly, fun polish.

Short post today. Hope your week is going great. Anyone start doing Halloween nails yet? I actually have some Halloween nail art on this week, which you'll see closer to the actual holiday. Have a great day!

Cover Girl Black Heat

Hello! Last week I found a full display of the new Cover Girl Catching Fire Collection at my local CVS. They were also having a BOGO50 sale so you know I bought all 9 of the polishes.  This is my first time trying the new Cover Girl Glosstinis and I have to say that I like them. The bottles are tiny but the price point isn't bad, especially when there is a sale.

The first polish I tried out was Black Heat, a murky black with strong green undertones. The finish on this is a foil/glass fleck with tons of green and gold glitter. I found the pigmentation to be good and only needed 2 coats below, no top coat.

Oooh look at all those beautiful glittery bits.

I am a fan of foils and glass flecks so this polish was right up my alley. I like how the green and gold really came out in the sun and it had a lot of depth. If you like this finish or dark, olive-y shades then definitely give this one a try.

I hope to try out the other polishes in this collection soon. If they are all like this one, I think I am going to really like them. Is anyone else excited about the Catching Fire movie? To tell the truth it was my least favorite book in the series but the trailer looks good so I am sure I will see. Thanks for stopping in and have a great weekend!

Zoya Kerry

Hi! I am going to do a really quick post tonight. It's kind of late and my internet has been super slow so I want to knock this out quickly before it slows to a crawl again. Today I have a polish from Zoya's most recent summer Irresistible collection. Kerry is a really beautiful, warm toned gold foil. This was super pigmented and sparkly. I don't have many golds that are this warm in my collection and this one is pretty unique to me. Below is 2 thin coats with top coat.

I wore Kerry for about 4 days before I got bored and wanted to take it off. It wore extremely well during the time I had it one and I loved how shiny and sparkly it was. Removal was a bit of a pain and I definitely needed to let the remover sit on my nails a bit before I took it off or get glitter all over myself.

If you're a fan of gold or just want something really fun shiny, then Kerry is a great choice. I can't wait to try out the rest of the Zoya polishes that I received during the recent exchange. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Essie Butler Please

Happy belated Valentine's Day, everyone! I really wanted to post some of my favorite V-Day manicures this week but I just ran out of time. Instead, I will show you what I actually wore on my tips this Valentine's Day.

This is Essie Butler Please, which I believe came out in fall or winter last year. I had been lusting after this shade for awhile and finally managed to pick it up over Christmas. As you can see, I also did an accent nail with Orly Dazzle. Butler Please is a bright blue creme. Here you see 2 coats with top coat.

I actually had some issues with this formula. It was slightly thick and goopy, making accurate application harder than usual. I found it to be somewhat streaky on the first coat as well though it evened out after the second coat. I definitely think I will be adding a drop or two of thinner before I use it next.

Despite my issues with the formula, I have to say that I love this color. The blue is so vibrant and pure. I don't think I have anything in my stash quite like it. This dried to a satin finish so you'll need a top coat to get it to shine.  Accent nail is Orly Dazzle, which is a really pretty silver foil. This one came out a few years ago and remains one of my faves. Super sparkly and fun with a great formula. It's not a manicure that screams Valentine's Day but it was what I wanted to wear and I am loving it.

What was your Valentine's Day manicure?