Wet N Wild Distressed To Impress

Purchased

Hi, guys. Happy Halloween! I was hoping to have some cool Halloween nail art up this week but I just got so busy. Oh well. I hope that you guys are rocking some spooky manicures in my stead. Today I have a polish that I swatched a couple of weeks ago but didn't have time to post until now. It's Wet N Wild Distressed To Impress which was part of their recent matte collection. I think it came out a couple of months ago and it may still be available in stores.

Distressed To Impress is a dark taupe color with a satin finish. Like the other shade of this collection I have, it's not quite matte enough to be a true matte. Instead it has a cool rubber texture that makes gives it a really edgy look.

Formula on this was was alright. It wasn't bad but I don't remember it being great either. I used two coats here without top coat. 

Even though this one is kind of cool looking, I don't think I love it enough to keep it. I just don't see myself wearing it very often. What do you guys think? Should I keep it or give it away?

I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!

Barry M Copa-Cabana

Purchased

Hi, everyone! Wow has it really been a month since my last post? Geez I guess time really does fly. I admit that painting my nails has taken a backseat lately due to other commitments on my time. So sorry this blog isn't very consistent. I don't know when I'll be able to blog more regularly but I hope you'll still pop by from time to time.

Alright, so today's polish is another one from my European haul. It's Barry M Matte in Copa-Cabana. This is a really bright red almost leaning to coral. The finish is more of a satin than matte as you can see below.

Reds and oranges can be hard to capture on camera and I did have some issues with this. It looks slightly more orange in these pics than it does in real life. I really liked this shade. It's super fun and bright. The formula was amazing and it was super pigmented. I did 2 coats here but you might be able to get away with one if you're careful. Shown here without topcoat.

Like I said, it's not super matte but has more of a rubbery, satin finish. I actually like this finish a lot so I wasn't disappointed. If, however, you want a true matte, I would just slap a matte top coat on it.

I am very impressed with this line so far. Every polish I've tried has had amazing color payoff and I love that they have some unusual shades and finishes. I really wish it was readily available in the States though I know you can purchase it online.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope to have another post up later this week. :)

Wet n Wild So Berry On Trend

Purchased

Hi, guys! I hope you're having a great week. It's still super hot here and the air conditioning broke in my office yesterday. Instead of sending us home, which would have been the humane thing to do, they sent people around with fans until they could fix the problem in the afternoon. I swear, I almost passed out at one point it was so hot in my office. Anyhoo, today I have for you Wet n Wild So Berry On Trend. This is from their Megalast line and is a new shade that is part of their Matte collection. I don't know if it limited edition or not so I'd grab it if you like it.

 

So Berry On Trend is a deep berry shade. I am a sucker for these kinds of purple/pink plum shades and I can never pass them up, even though I probably have tons of dupes. This one is a bit different because it is a matte. As you can see though, it's not a true matte and has more of a satin finish. Pigmentation was pretty good though a bit patchy at times. I believe I did 3 really thin coats for my swatches here. 

 

It's not the most exciting shade but, like I said, I can never resist colors like this. I also like the satin finish, which reminds me of leather. I have one more polish from this collection to try out. 

What do you guys think? Do you like the satin look or do you prefer a true matte?

Stashed (20)

Hi everyone. I hope you're having a great weekend so far. It is insanely hot where I live right now and it's made me not want to do anything. I don't know about you but I can't wait for fall weather.

I still haven't been buying much lately but Ulta is doing their 30 days if deals right now and had butter LONDON on sale 2 for $15 yesterday. So I stopped by and grabbed these two shades. 

Sorry for the bad lighting. This is Wallis and British Racing Green. Racing Green has been in my wishlist for ages so it's nice to finally have it. 

That's all I've stashed this week. What's new in your stash?

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?

Zoya Sunshine

Purchased

Hi and happy hump day! Today I have Zoya Sunshine for you. Sunshine is a shade from Zoya's Pixie Dust line of textured polishes and is a beautiful, rich medium blue.

Like all of the Pixie Dusts that I have tried, Sunshine had a good formula, thick and pigmented but not hard to apply. I just made sure that each coat dried thoroughly before going on to the next coat. I think it helps it dry with a better texture. The color payoff on this shade is really great and I did 2 thin-ish coats in these swatches.

Sunshine is chock full of evenly sized silver glitter which gives it a nice grit that isn't too chunky or too fine. I love the finish on the Pixie Dusts and I think this blue is pretty awesome. 

I love this polish to bits and am glad to have it in my collection. I haven't tried it with top coat yet but I bet it would be stunning as well.  

I am so behind on all of the summer and fall collections. I saw the new Zoya display at Ulta the other day and had to refrain from buying all of them. Hopefully I'll have time to stash more polishes soon. Until then I have plenty of untrieds I can swatch. Have a great week, everyone!

Sally Hansen Liquid Gold

Purchased

Hi, guys. Look, I'm back! I had a really fun, whirlwind trip to Atlanta last weekend. I can't believe that I am back already. My polka dot manicure held up really well and was oohed and ahhed over. I am probably going to take it off tonight but I had a lot of fun wearing it. So today I have another of the Sally Hansen Color Foils to show you. This one is called Liquid Gold and, as you can imagine, it's a gold chrome.

As noted in my previous swatch of another Color Foil shade, this one had a slightly problematic formula. I originally tried this over base coat and that was a big mistake. It was super patchy and weird over base coat so I took it off and had a much easier time applying it. For this swatch I used 3 coats without top coat. 

You definitely need a steady hand when applying this, as every little bump and mistake will show. It does smooth out a bit as it dries so it wasn't too bad. 

Chromes aren't for everyone but I think this will be good for stamping. I haven't tried them for that yet but I'd like to soon. 

That's it for today, folks. Hope you're all having a great hump day!

Sally Hansen Minted Metal

Purchased

Good morning! Look, posting twice in one week. I wonder how long I can keep this up. :) Today I have Sally Hansen's Minted Metal from the most recent Color Foil collection. Foils and chromes are coming back with a vengeance and I like them. Sure, application can be a bitch but it looks really cool when it's done right. They are also great for stamping. I only picked up 2 polishes from this collection because they were kind of pricey ($6.99 I believe).

Minted Metal is a blue-green foil. I tried this over base coat first and that was a big mistake. It was really patchy and weird so I switched to no base coat, which worked a lot better. Minted Metal is a weird shade and looks green in some lights and blue in others. This dried a lot lighter than I thought it was going to and it ended up being a sort of seafoam silver. The formula was pretty pigmented and I only needed 2 coats for the swatches here. No top coat used. I don't know if it really would have affected the finish but I didn't feel as if I needed it so I just skipped it.

As with most chromes, application was a bit tricky but if you're careful it should not be too hard to get a smooth finish. Just be sure that your nails are smooth and free of any bumps or even dust, because this polish will showcase all of your nail imperfections. 

 

I haven't tried to stamp with this yet but I plan to soon. This is a very fun polish that requires a bit more work but is worth it in the end. 

What do you think of the new chrome trend? Do you love it or hate it?

L'Oreal La Pastille

Purchased

Hello! I hope you are all had a fantastic Fourth of July weekend if you happen to celebrate. Today I have the second polish from the recent L'Oreal speckled polish collection. L'Oreal La Pastille is a light nude shade with mixed matte black hex glitter.

If you recall, I was pretty disappointed in the other polish that I bought in this collection. I was hoping that the other one was a fluke and that the formula on La Pastille would be better. Unfortunately it wasn't and I actually found it to be even more watery and sheer than Spot Me. I used 3 coats for these swatches and you can see that it's still very sheer. I didn't want to do more coats because it was just getting super thick and chunky.

I don't really know what else to say about this one except that I didn't like it. Formula was way to sheer and watery and this shade does nothing for my skin tone. I am pretty sad that I don't like these as I was hoping to find more speckled polishes to add to my collection. It was a nice try by L'Oreal but the execution needs a little work.

:)

L'Oreal Spot Me

Purchased

Hello! Man it's been a while since I last posted. No real excuse except that I've been busy and the last thing I have been wanting to do at night after looking at the computer all day is edit more photos. I am trying to get back in the swing of things but posts may be erratic for a while.

Today I have a L'Oreal polish that came out a couple of months ago. I love, love speckled polishes (Illamasqua's Im'Perfect collection is still my favorite) so I'll snap up any speckle type polishes that I find. L'Oreal came out with a small collection this past spring and I had lost all hope of finding them when suddenly a full display popped up at a local Walgreens. Score one for me!

L'Oreal Spot Me is a pale blue creme with different sized black matte hex glitter. This was the one I was most excited by because it had that robin's egg look. Unfortunately, while I loved this in the bottle, I did not love the formula or the final look. Spot Me is very sheer and it took me 3 medium/thick coats to get what you see in these swatches. That might not sound like a lot but the formula was really thick and goopy and hard to apply. I think this actually had too much glitter in it, creating a pretty lumpy finish. The base was also very sheer, requiring multiple layers just to get it to look blue. It doesn't have that squishy, delicate quality I am looking for in a speckled polish. 

To even out the finish, I applied one thick coat of Out the Door Top Coat, which has become one of my new favorite top coats. 

While I think this looks OK in pictures, it didn't do anything for me in person. The base is too sheer and pale and the glitter overwhelms it. Sadly I think this one is going to go in the giveaway pile.

I have one more speckled polish from L'Oreal to review. Will I like it better than Spot Me? Tune in to see!

Zoya Chyna

Purchased

Hi, guys. I hope you all had a nice long weekend. I had a good weekend and that extra day off was just awesome. I feel so refreshed and not tired. I really wish every week was a 4 day work week. One can dream. Today I have one of the classic Zoya Pixie Dust polishes. Chyna was one of the original Pixie Dusts if I remember correctly. I did not manage to snag it when it first came out by fixed that with my Zoya Earth Day order.

Chyna is a beautiful and deep cherry red polish with tons of red and silver glitter. This is a textured polish so it dries matte. The formula was thick (like most textures) but not problematic. It was very pigmented and the glitter payoff is fantastic. These swatches are 2 coats over base coat and no top coat. 

I don't usually put top coat on my textured polishes since I like their intended finish, but I have a feeling that this one would be really pretty with some top coat on it. 

This is a winner for me and I am glad to finally own it. I love all of the Pixie Dusts I've tried so far though I have not had the chance to try the Magical Pixie Dusts yet. Not sure if they'll be too chunky for me but I should pick one up the next time I place a Zoya order.

That's it for me. Hope you're having a wonderful week so far!

Rimmel London Sherbet Sweetheart

Purchased

Hello! I am back again today with another polish from the Rimmel London Sweetie Crush collection. Today's polish is Rimmel London Sherbet Sweetheart, a pretty, pale yellow with gold shimmer. I picked up this polish because I don't have too many gold/yellow textured polishes. I have a couple of the Zoyas but this one was much more yellow vs gold and I wanted to try it out. No issues on formula and I did 3 thin coats here for full coverage.

The glitter in this one was slightly chunkier than the glitter for the other shade in the collection that I have. I liked this one a lot. It's pretty unique in my collection and the gold shimmer was easy to see. I don't wear yellow too often but this is a fun twist on it. It's a very pale yellow so I think it blends in a bit with my skintone. It would look fabulous on really dark skin but may be too light for paler tones.

If I remember correctly, there were 6 colors in this collection. If you like textured polishes and don't have similar shades, I would definitely recommend these. They are incredibly inexpensive, too, which is always nice. The Sweetie Crush collection should be in stores now, so get it while you can. :)

Rimmel London Violet Sizzle

Purchased

Hi, everyone! Wow this week is just flying by. I can't believe that it's Thursday already. Have any good plans for the weekend? I am not doing anything too exciting except for one book signing, which should be fun. We've been having really warm weather where I am, which makes me want to bust out all of my summer brights. Before I do though. I have a few spring things to show you. Up today is Rimmel London Violet Sizzle which is part of their Sweetie Crush collection. This is a textured polish collection and I just stumbled upon it a couple of weeks ago while at Walgreens. The shades were not super unique so I only picked up the two that interested me the most.

Violet Sizzle is a pale, silvery lilac with tons of shimmer. It has a very even finish and reminds me a lot of Zoya Stevie, though I think it might be a little lighter. Formula was good and I had not problems with it. Shown is two coats with no top coat.

While I think this is pretty, I don't know if it looks great on my skin tone. I think it looks a little washed out though it would probably look great on darker skin. I liked the texture a lot as it was even and not too bumpy. If you like this sort of finish, you may like this one. I think it cost less than $2, too, so it's a good alternative if you want to try something trendy and not invest too much money into it. 

The other shade I bought was a yellow, which I'll be posting later this week. Hope you guys liked this one. Let me know what you think of it in the comments below. :)