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 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!

Stashed (19): European Vacation

Hello! It's been a while since my last Stashed post. I've been trying to be good and save money, so that means no new collections for me. While this makes me a bit sad, I know that I have a ton of pretty polishes that I've never used that I need to make time for. However, I could not resist it when a friend told me that she was going to Germany and London this summer and asked if I wanted her to pick up anything for me. She came home with the pile of goodies you see below.

Most of the nail polish is from Barry M and there are also a couple of German brands as well (can't remember which ones right now). I was really excited to get some of the Barry M Gellys and a couple of the matte shades. My friend also grabbed a couple of seasonal shades for me (hearts on the cap). I also asked her to pick up some tins of Vaseline. I love how Vaseline is packaged in the UK in adorable tins. In the U.S., we get this tiny plastic tubs that look that the big Vaseline ones. I don't like how narrow the opening is on the U.S. containers but love the tins. So every few years I will have someone who is going to the UK pick me up a few. Really excited to try the Limited Edition flavor. 

Thanks to my friend A who didn't think I was a total weirdo for asking her to get these things for me. What other non-U.S. brands do you guys love? Are they available here in the U.S. or do you get someone to mule them back for you?

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!