Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I decided to try Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven when I ordered another Lippmann, and it got here in record time so I thought I'd give you a peek.  I looked at some pictures to decide on it, and it looked sheer-ish white with light colored moderately sized glitter.

I was surprised at how sheer Stairway to Heaven looked in the bottle and I simply don't have the patience for a million coats of color these days, so after applying base coat I applied one thin coat of Misa Heaven White.  I picked Heaven White not for the handy name tie-in but because it's not as stark a white as my other layering standby, FingerPaints Papier Mache.  On the very first nail, I was glad I'd put something under Stairway because I found it to be both sheer and incredibly thick, so thick that it was kind of hard to get it on the brush well.  In getting it on my nails, it was so thick that I had to got over some spots to flatten out the little square glitter bits I'll show you in a minute - the base was letting them stay standing on end.  I missed a spot in the flattening process of the first coat on one nail, and it's still lumpy after it dried (but it's on my right hand and not in the picture).  I did a total of two coats of Stairway to Heaven and  finished it off with Addicted to Speed, and the polish on my nails is pretty thick, so more coats of Stairway wouldn't have worked well for me.  I let it dry and went in the sun for some pictures, so here's Stairway to Heaven.

Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven Nail Polish, Two Coats over White

Here's a look at the glitter, which looks like itty bitty squares of colored transparent plastic.

Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven Nail Polish's Glitter

I liked it more when I started writing this than I do now because I've snagged a piece of wayward glitter on the edge of a nail about seventeen billion times so far.  I did wrap my tips with top coat, but extra clear wasn't an option when the polish was so thick to start with (I understand that's to suspend glitter, but there are limits to what's useful and I could always mix it before applying it if glitter settled...).  This isn't something I'd wear on its own, and it seems like a Springtime glitter to me.  I also have to point out the lack of gold - not many songs have specific color references, but what what do we know from the very first line of Stairway to Heaven?  There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold.  I would have put some gold in, because looking at this polish, this lady is sure all that glitters is pastel.

That's Lippmann Stairway to Heaven - not a huge failure, not a huge hit, but kind of a disappointment for me.  That's the update for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Edited to add a little note on removal: What a nightmare!  Imagine the worst Nfu Oh flaky removal you've ever had and square it.



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

OPI Excuse Moi

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Today I have a new polish that's also pink to show you, OPI Excuse Moi from the OPI Muppets Collection for Holiday 2011.  I only got a few of the OPI Muppets, and I'm especially happy with this one.

Excuse Moi is a pink base that's opaque enough to completely cover in two coats, but not so opaque that it obscures any of the myriad glitters it's completely loaded up with.  For today's manicure, I used base coat, two coats of Excuse Moi, giving each coat of color several minutes to dry a bit, then two coats of clear polish over Excuse Moi to smooth it out before applying one coat of SpaRitual Tout de Suite.  When applying the clear, I covered the edge of my nails all the way around with each coat and also gave each coat of clear a few minutes to dry, then applied the top coat, covering the edges a third time.  I did that because sometimes when top coat wears a little from typing or just proceeding with the day, if there's a piece of glitter exposed, it'll catch on everything it possibly can and annoy the heck out of me, but I've found the extra padding of some clear polish tends to bypass that.

Once it dried, I went out into the sun and took some pictures, so here is OPI Excuse Moi.

OPI Excuse Moi Nail Polish, Two Coats

Check out all the glitter it has - this is a close up of part of one nail.

OPI Excuse Moi Nail Polish, Close Up of Glitter

That seems like a fair representation of The Muppets to me!  I loved really The Muppets growing up.  My mom only let us watch PBS when we were little, and Sesame Street was my favorite.  My dad was cooler and would let us watch Sonny & Cher sometimes, and he'd also get us Tater Tots and Lucky Charms when my mom went on trips (maybe that was so we wouldn't whine about when she was coming home...), but I was a Sesame Street gal at heart.  We'd watch The Muppet Show as a family when it started later on and going to see the movies was a great big deal, so I was glad that some of these polishes appeal to me for the nostalgia factor.  Some of them really, really don't - I currently have a pretty strong preference for smaller glitter.  The glitter in Excuse Moi is small but very visible, about the same size as that in OPI Teenage Dream.

Two coats of color and two coats of clear for a very smooth and totally opaque glitter manicure is about as good as I could possibly expect, so Excuse Moi makes me really happy.  I have a whole bunch of work to do this afternoon that's going to keep me inside, and this is a polish that make me really want to look at it in the sun, so I'll be fighting that impulse all afternoon.

That's my OPI Excuse Moi manicure, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!


All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Black Magic

Good morning, Dear Reader!

When I got home last night I changed my nail color to one of the Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers, Black Magic, which I'd shown you bottle pics of but not swatches when I got them.  It's a black that's loaded up with very fine glitters, and it turned out to be quite nice.

The tombstone cap wasn't a problem to use as a brush handle, but the brush itself falls short of ideal.  It's long and kind of floppy, and mine had some wacky stray hairs.  My experience of Wet n Wild is that the quality of the products is generally good, particularly for the price, and that the quality of the packaging is what keeps the cost as low as it is, so I wasn't horrified to discover that the brush wasn't great.

I applied base coat, two coats of Black Magic, which was enough for even and opaque coverage, and a coat of Poshe.  The brush only interfered with one nail, my middle left, where the edge of the polish along the cuticle is imperfect, but not enough of a problem to actually do something about it.  This morning, after it dried nicely, I took pictures of it in the sun.  Here is Wet n Wild Black Magic.

Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Black Magic Nail Polish, Two Coats

Here's a closer look at the glitter.

Glitter in Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Black Magic Nail Polish

I absolutely love this polish - it's really fun to wear.  Out of bright light, it's clear that there's glitter in it, and then in bright light it's really sparkly and cool.  I was definitely worth the $2-$3 I spent on it.

That is what I know about Wet n Wild Fantasy Maker Black Magic, my manicure for the day, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

China Glaze Skyscraper

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I felt like a fun polish today, so I used China Glaze Skyscraper from their Metro Collection.  I think this might be the only one I have from that collection, maybe one other.  Skyscraper is a really striking deep blue with very, very fine silver glitter.

I used base coat, three coats of Skyscraper, and a coat of Poshe.  After two coats, the blue base of Skyscraper had some uneven spots, so I added a third to make it even.  It dried just fine after a third coat of color, so it wasn't a problem at all.  I also noticed that despite being loaded up with glitter, the surface of the polish is quite smooth after drying.  This is Skyscraper in the sun.

China Glaze Skyscraper Nail Polish, Three Coats

This is a fun cool weather polish, so I like it, and a smooth glitter is always a plus.

That is China Glaze Skyscraper and just about all there is to tell you about this morning, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I thought I'd try out Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, which seems to be Revlon's take on Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance, a black jelly base with fuchsia hex and regular glitter.  In the bottle, the black base of Facets of Fuchsia looked less pigmented than that of Bad Romance (which fell shy of opaque at two coats), so I decided to layer it over a black creme.  My thought was that drying issues would be inevitable with 4+ coats, and I wanted to make this one work.

I started with a base coat, using up what I have on hand, which was NailTek II (so my nails should be orange from the formaldehyde in it in short order).  I let that dry for a minute or two, then applied one coat of Revlon Lunar, the black creme released with a few glitters not too long ago, which is even and almost opaque at one coat.  After giving that a bit of drying time, I applied two thin coats of Facets of Fuchsia, giving each a few minutes to set before moving on to the next.  The glitter's surface was pretty pebbly at this point, so I added one coat of clear polish then one of Seche Vite (my thickest top coat) to even it out.  It's dry and very glassy smooth now, so the hassles involved in ensuring drying issues didn't appear seem to have been worth it.  There's no sunlight today, so this is Facets of Fuchsia in indoor lighting (mixed fluorescent and light bulb).

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia Nail Polish, Two Coats over Black

The consequence of the less pigmented base of Facets of Fuchsia versus Bad Romance is that the glitter shows through it more clearly.  The Lippmann seems to have more glitter, but a third coat of Facets of Fuchsia would even the score, and since this cost me less than $3 versus the $18-$20 for the Lippmann (I didn't look it up to see which it was since my point's the same either way), for me Facets of Fuchsia would be the winner in a showdown against Bad Romance.

That's what I know about Revlon Facets of Fuchsia and I don't have a heck of a lot else to tell you about today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Revlon Blue Mosiac

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I changed my polish to Revlon Blue Mosaic, one of Revlon's new glitter polishes, and I thought I'd give you a peek because it's a nice one.

Blue Mosaic is fine blue glitter along with blue and silver hex glitter in a clear base.  I used three coats of Blue Mosaic, and at three I figured it covered well enough to skip the fourth that would have made it better since I've always had drying troubles with Revlons.  I left a few minutes drying time between coats, then added one coat of regular clear polish to even out the surface and one of Lippmann Addicted to Speed since it's high-powered on drying and I had it out from yesterday.  That seems to have worked well, and I think it's totally dry now, but I still don't trust it enough to test by digging something into it to find out.

This is Revlon Blue Mosaic in the sunlight.

Revlon Blue Mosaic Nail Polish, Three Coats

It looks kind of mermaid-y to me, but without the touch of green most like this have.  I like it, although I'm not looking forward to removal.  It really does take pure acetone to remove glitters like this, which is kind of rough on my skin.


That's Blue Mosaic and what I know today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers 2011

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I ran into the 2011 Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers display last night in a really unlikely place, and I have two of the nail polishes from it to show you.  Fantasy Makers polishes are the ones that come in the little tombstone bottles, so the Halloween theme of these is pretty campy in a good way.  It's raining, so the pictures are indoors.

It was strange to find them because I was in a store that has just a few basic beauty items as kind of a convenience afterthought, not anything to get people there, and I ran into two full standalone displays in completely different sections of the store, and near one of them, on a shelf with extension cords, were several of the tabletop displays of the round little jack o' lantern glow in the dark polishes.  I eyed a hot pink one, and moved along without it.

In the Fantasy Makers displays, I noticed something odd.  There were two little rows of a polish named Black Magic in each, and in both displays there were two versions of Black Magic.  One was a black creme, which I left that behind along with the glow in the dark top coat, and the other is full of lots of fine glitter.  This is the glitter version of Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Black Magic.

Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Black Magic Nail Polish Bottle

Here's a closer look at the glitter.

Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Black Magic Nail Polish, Glitter Version

The other one I brought home is call Purple Potion.  It's similar but the glitter is purple-y fuchsia, and this might be the most poorly formed bottle I've ever seen.

Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Purple Potion Nail Polish Bottle

Here's a better looks at Purple Potion's glitter.

Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Purple Potion Nail Polish's Glitter

I'll be trying these out soon, but I wanted to let you know the displays are showing up and that there are two version of Black Magic in it.

That's just about it, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pumpkin Spice

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm wearing Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pumpkin Spice, which is a very cool but kind of oddball glitter from the display that held Midnight Sky and friends.  It's a black jelly base with fine orange glitter, which sounds like the old Halloween standard, but Pumpkin Spice is a little bit different.

The black base is very lightly pigmented even for a jelly, and I ended up needing four coats to make it opaque and even.  It's not stark black at four coats, that's just enough for me to make it even without bare looking spots.  It seems like that could be by design - the result was that the glitter really got loaded up nicely, more than the Halloween polishes, and the impression I get from it is very late Fall, not Halloween.  I noticed applying it and again now that the glitter in Pumpkin Spice is very smooth, which is one of those factors that strongly affects the likelihood of me choosing a glitter polish over another when I go to change color.  I applied it last night very shortly before bed, so I used China Glaze Fast Forward to dry it.  Four coats of color right before bed is a bit ambitious and I was prepared to have it messed up this morning, but it dried quite nicely with only one flaw.  Unfortunately, that one flaw was the one that puts me off to various quick dry top coats - Fast Forward shrank the polish at my tips a bit.  I'd noticed some shrinkage with Fast Forward before, but I think it might be evaporating a little with use because it's more pronounced today.  Thinner might fix that right up, but that presents the question of where the heck I have thinner.

This is the finished Pumpkin Spice manicure in sunlight after it dried completely.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pumpkin Spice Nail Polish, Four Coats

I think it's a nice polish, but particularly nice for a Fall novelty polish.  In the picture, the spots where the sunlight really hits the polish show just how smooth the glitter in Pumpkin Spice is with only one coat of top coat.  There's no unevenness to the surface, and I hope Sally Hansen keeps using glitter from whoever made this stuff so nice and flat.

That's Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pumpkin Spice and just about all I have for you this morning, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Givenchy Vernis Miroir Multiple 771

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I have a little something different to show you today, and interesting glitter top coat.  It is, as you might have guessed from the title, Givenchy Miroir Multiple Nail Lacquer and Top Coat 771.  It's an older one that's a clear base, but not perfectly clear, the slightly yellowish kind, with lots of really bright, very fine holographic glitter.

I tested it on a nail with the last manicure still on, and the glitter reflects really bright red, green, all the rainbow colors, so I was trying to decide what to put it over for today.  Black and navy blue seemed obvious enough to take the wind out of the Givenchy's sails, I considered a bright red and concluded that I too often use that as the backdrop for glitter top coats, then finally settled on white.  Since the Givenchy does have a tint to it (I doubt it's really tinted that way, some polish bases are not completely clear), I picked the whitest white I have, which is Orly White Out.  Every time I use White Out, there are a ton of comments asking if I mean the typing correction fluid, so I'll be really clear on this one.  White Out is an Orly white creme nail polish, Wite Out is a brand of liquid paper. They're two different things and it's the nail polish on my nails.

I did a base coat, three of White Out to make it non-streaky, then two of the Givenchy, which did add a bit of  a cast to the white, making it more of a pale ivory.  That's fine with me since it diminished the starkness of the white.  I left several minutes between each coat since I'd planned to layer, and I found that the Givenchy dried to a really exceptional high shine, far more so than most top coats.  Still, that's a heck of a lot of layers of polish, so I topped it off with China Glaze Fast Forward.  Fast Forward was just right - the fact that it's not terribly shiny wasn't an issue since it went over something very shiny, and it did a really nice job of drying all those layers.  I accidentally tested it a few times, with the first being fifteen minutes after applying Fast Forward. I knocked a nail into the side of my wire-framed glasses, which is noramlly a sure fire way to make a tear in the surface and take the polish all the way off, but it didn't even dent, which was really impressive.  About an hour after that, I used a nail as a tool for something and got a deep dent, which I figured I had coming, but it popped back out while I slept and I woke up with smooth shiny nails.  Here's the manicure in sunlight - the focus isn't the best ever, but that's intentional to show the glitter a bit.  All of it sparkles like the few pieces that show.

Givenchy Miroir Multiple Nail Lacquer and Top Coat 771

It would definitely be more vibrant over a dark color, but I was up for some variety.  Know what's really funny about that packaging here?  The stem on the Givenchy bottle  is super long, and the round bottle part is as tall as the Orly White Out 0.60 oz bottle, but the Givenchy holds only  0.27 oz.  I'd previously thought the 0.30 oz Estee Lauder bottle, that giant block of glass that would make an effective paperweight in a wind tunnel, was the most masterful job of deceptive packaging, but Givenchy topped them with this one.

That's Givenchy Miroir Multiple 771 and jst about all I have for you today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sephora by OPI Fall 2011

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I received a Sephora gift certificate recently, so I picked up a few of the Sephora by OPI Fall 2011 releases to show you.  I just have three, not all of them, but they're most likely the only ones I'll be getting out of this release so I felt good committing to a title anyhow.

The first is Sin-cerely Violet, which is a delicate, pale lavender pearl, not violet and with nothing even hinting at sin.  In three coats, Sin-cerely Violet was even and opaque, and it dried well with Fast Forward.

Sephora by OPI Sin-cerely Violet Nail Polish, Three Coats

I like it even if there's nothing Fall about it.  The other two are separate releases not from the same collection, but since they're coming out at the same time, I think it's close enough.

Next up is Spark-tacular!, which is multicolored glitter of different sizes in a clear base.  I found that the glitter is much denser than  in some regular OPI glitter top coats, like Disco Ball Sparkle.  I added one coat of it to Sin-cerely Violet, a coat of top coat, then took a picture in the sun.  You can see that it's pretty smooth and the glitter lies flat, so I'm sure another coat of top coat would even it all out.

Sephora by OPI Spark-tacular! Top Coat, One Coat

I like it, but again I don't see anything seasonal about it, as I'd be more likely to use it in Spring.

The last is What's Your Poison, and I have a bottle picture rather than a swatch.  It looked like Sephora by OPI Merry Me, which I wore to celebrate a month of not smoking (and still going strong!).  I took out Merry Me, and but for the labels and the shrink wrap still on What's Your Poison, I can't find any way to tell them apart (the shrink wrap makes the bottle look a shade darker in the pic).

Sephora by OPI What's Your Poison? and A Dupe

Merry Me is especially fabulous, so if you missed out on it, it's back with a new name.

That's about all I know about Sephora by OPI's Fall 2011 releases, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nal polish to you!


All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Orly Prisma Gloss Silver

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I thought I'd show you Orly Prisma Gloss Silver this morning because it's an exceptionally nice fine holographic glitter top coat, my favorite of the ones available in brick and mortar stores in this area, but I rarely hear anything about it.

I started out with base coat, two coats of Orly Pixie Stix, one coat of Orly Prisma Gloss Silver, then one of China Glaze Fast Forward.  This is the first time I've used Fast Forward, and it's pretty nice.  It dried all the polish thoroughly and quickly, but it's not very shiny.  Still, sometimes I'd rather just get a manicure totally dry in the evening so I can go to sleep without getting sheet marks, then just shine it up with a non quick dry top coat in the morning, so it's nice to know this works well for the drying part.

With Prisma Gloss, using one coat was good because I usually need more than one coat to get as much glitter as I like.  Since I only use glitters like this for layering, being able to shave a coat off the total count matters - the difference between two coats of color and three isn't huge, but beyond that I always have a sense of lots of question marks around whether a manicure will dry well, and I've messed up more than I could count waiting for a lot of coats to dry.  With a total of three coats of color on this one, it's dried really well.  Here it is in sunlight.

Orly Prisma Gloss Silver, One Coat, over Orly Pixie Stix Nail Polish

I have the gold version of this as well, but I don't recall ever trying it out.  I'll break it out this week so we can see if it's as cool as Prisma Gloss Silver.


That's what I know, so until next time, Dear reader, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pink-y Ring

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm working my way through the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears with today's being Pink-y Ring.  It's smooth fine fuchsia glitter in a clear base, and not quite as much of a hit as the last several.

The glitter in Pink-y Ring is pretty sparse, so I used an opaque base color under it, one coat of Misa's I'm Going to Love Myself (I'm really hoping that name means in the Free to Be... You and Me sense).  Then
I added three coats of Pink-y Ring, and it's all nice and sparkly.  The pictures show the color, glitter size, smoothness, and density, but the focus made the sparkle go away.    On the nail, it's just as sparkly as in the bottle.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pink-y Ring Nail Polish, Three Coats over an Opaque Base

The glitter in Pink-y Ring is perfectly smooth with one coat of Diamont, so that's a good thing.  I picked this polish up and put it back a couple of times because I was concerned it wouldn't be opaque, and I got it hoping it was, so overall this one's kind of a disappointment even though I was able to get a manicure I like out of it.

That's Sally Hansen Pink-y Ring and the next installment in the Xtreme Wear Saga, so until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!



Edited to Add: At 11:00 p.m. after wearing this  out and about on a sunny day and running around all evening, I love this manicure.  The glitter just glows throwing off fuchsia light and is flawlessly smooth.  I clicked the picture to see if it could give a sense of that on a 17" freshly calibrated monitor, and am pleased to report that it does.

The whole glitter photography thing drives me nuts, where the combinations of light, focus and shutter speed mean either I can get a picture to show glitter size, smoothness, and color clearly or the sparkle accurately, and the sun was so bright for this picture that out of the twelve I took, not one was the blurred version that would clearly show sparkle.  However, if you click on the picture for the great big version, there are glitter bits visible on my nails that show the fuchsia glow individually.  Since I didn't get the picture, here's the leap to how it looks in real life: see all the non-glowy glitter bits?  In person they do sparkle like the few, even in normal indoor light.  Between the girly color and the smooth, bright glitter, this one has won my heart whether it requires layering or not.

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

OPI Hollywood Blonde & Twinkling Lights

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm wearing a favorite layered polish combination, OPI Hollywood Blonde topped with OPI Twinkling Lights.  I knew I needed redemption after yesterday's manicure, and that was on my mind when I came across a little plastic box of long-lost polishes that included these two.  The little box is like a time capsule from the era when I was married - I'd use the little box to bring out some polishes for the week, and I guess it just got stashed with computer stuff when we split up household stuff.  Finding things stashed is far more common in this home than you'd expect - the ex was big on packing random stuff together when I wasn't looking.  I recall one that was clothes on top, then framed family pictures and breakable memorabilia under that, and about seventeen million coffee cups and and kitchen knives under that (none of those things would even go in the same room!).

Anyhow, Hollywood Blonde, which was part of OPI's Holiday in Hollywood Collection (2007, I think), is a delicate sparkling blonde.  My bottle has a Trade Secret price tag of $7.50, and that release was right about when that price increase came, and that's the point that I decided that retail was far too much.  I begrudgingly paid it for Hollywood Blonde because she's a beauty.  Here's Hollywood Blonde in low natural light.

OPI Hollywood Blonde Nail Polish, Two Coats

The only way to improve upon Hollywood Blonde is to make it sparklier, and that's just what I did when I added two coats of OPI Twinkling Lights to it.  Twinkling Lights and her sisters were my cruel introduction to the world of OPI's Japanese releases.  You know the six reds in OPI's Holiday in Hollywood Collection?  Well in their place, Japan got more like Hollywood Blonde and  some amazing glitters (I don't recall how many of each kind offhand, but my hope that I might find them around here has been renewed).  I'd commented on a message board that they were gorgeous and it was a mean joke that they weren't available to us, and a really lovely Japanese woman contacted me to do a trade that was my all-time best and coolest.  My side was the six Japanese Hollywood shades, which she bought for me at her local beauty supply for just under $9 each including shipping (wow, I just turned into my mother, citing deals from years ago!), her side was several Tazo teas and a bunch of American cookies aimed at kids (Nutter Butters, Chips Ahoy, shopping for her was like my parents were out of town).  Everything went perfectly, and as a result I have Twinkling Lights here and I was able to provide the woman who sent them lots of happy snacks of fun teas and cookies.

Twinkling Lights is about the same hue as Hollywood Blonde, but it's a base that seems to be between a sheer and a jelly that is full of fine holo glitter and cool hex glitter.  I added two coats to Hollywood Blonde, and this is what it looks like in sunlight.

OPI Twinkling Lights over Hollywood Blonde, Two Coats Each

What I particularly love about this pairing is the unexpected nature of the combination of this really safe shade and all that glitter.  Hollywood Blonde provides more opacity and adds depth with shimmer that shows through Twinkling Lights, and although it's not especially eye-catching in indoor light (the glitter shows and all, I just mean it's not flashy), in the sun the fine glitter explodes with a bunch of light and colors and the hex glitter starts shifting color.  It's great!

That is my OPI Hollywood Blonde and Twinkling Lights redemption manicure, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Bit of This. Bit of That.

This is one of those mani's that I was constantly looking at and thinking 'I could add this'. There's a very real danger there of it turning into a tacky abomination of a manicure but I think I managed to reel myself in enough to leave it at a slightly over the top mumble jumble of things!

It was originally just a nude nail and I wasn't going to apply any kind of nail art but I wanted to try out my Barry M Cyan Blue for stamping because I've had it for quite a while and it's gone too thick to really paint my nails with anymore. It actually worked really well! It would not have been this opaque when I first bought it but over time as it's thickened, it has turned in to a stamping polish!

The glitter is one that I found in a £1 bucket. It's not really packed with glitter so it's really just for layering. It reminds me of China Glaze Medallion. It's got gold glitter and holographic hexagonal pieces.

Plate: Bundle Monster - BM223
Base Colour: E.L.F. - Innocent
Stamp Colour and Tips: Barry M - Cyan Blue
W7 - Black
BYS - Gold Finger
Top Coat of NYC


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Zoya Mirrors Collection

Good morning, Dear Reader!

After I thought I was all done yesterday, a set of Zoya's Mirror Collection sent for review arrived, and I have swatches of them for you today.  This is a really cool collection - each of them applied really beautifully, the one I'm wearing dried well in reasonable time, and they're fun to look at.

All of these are base coat, two coats of color, and top coat, and I let each dry for a few minutes before taking a picture in sunlight.  There's no real significance to the order of the swatches.  Now that you know all of that, let's look at pretties.

Tao, which Zoya describes as "smoky slate gray metallic", is what I'd call a light gunmetal shimmer, and a good one.

Zoya Tao Nail Polish, Two Coats

I'd agree with Zoya that Marina is "smoky steel blue," but I say it's a shimmer and not so much metallic.

Zoya Marina Nail Polish, Two Coats

Nimue is called "smoky rich thistle metallic", and and strange as it sounds, I think "smoky thistle" is the best description of Nimue, a shimmer.  A technical difficulty resulted in less nails swatched for this one.

Zoya Nimue Nail Polish, Two Coats

Zoya says Neeka is "sparkly amethyst purple  metallic," it's a bit deeper purple than Nimue and has little gold glitter.  Neeka is right along the lines of Sally Hansen Salon Arabian Night from a collection Tracy Reese did with them a few years ago.

Zoya Neeka Nail Polish, Two Coats

The other with glitter just like that in Neeka is Yara, where it's in an olive green shimmer base.

Zoya Yara Nail Polish, Two Coats

These five are all lovely, but I think almost any polish would pale in comparison to Zoya Jem.  It's described as "sparkly fandango pink metallic," but mine's nothing like fandango pink at all.  It's a fantastic red plum shimmer, and there's something about the shimmer in it that makes it look just like cool custom car paint.  It makes me think of a neighbor I had when I was a teenager who was terribly proud of his IROC-Z.  The custom paint job even included his name on the driver's door - too bad it was spelled wrong... Anyhow, this is Zoya Jem - see if it transports you back to the days of watching a whole bunch of guys trying to construct an entire car out of Bondo.

Zoya Gem Nail Polish, Two Coats

I think the whole Mirrors Collection is excellent (Zoya's really been making great colors), but Jem put it over the top.  Jem is one amazing nail polish.

That's what I know about Zoya Mirrors, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Revlon Grape Fizz

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I chose another Revlon Fizz to try out today, Grape Fizz, but before I move on to that I'll mention a couple of things about Watermelon Fizz and its removal.  By mid-morning my sense of smell was back to non-smoking normal, and I found that the fragrance of Watermelon Fizz was light and not too sweet, not overpowering at all.  Since it was more flaky sparkly bits than glitter (like the non-glitter OPI Burlesque shades), removal was really easy.  I used non-acetone remover, a good strong one, and one little square of felt and very little effort was all that was required to take off three coats, so if fear of removal is putting you off from these, that's not an issue.

So on to Grape Fizz!  It's higher maintenance than the last one for me, and I needed four coats.  When applying the fourth, my thought was that it was just needed to make the polish completely even for a macro picture, and somehow that fleeting thought put me into swatching mode and I only did my left hand, so the right only has three coats.  Three coats is so blotchy it's uneven and falls short of bottle color (it's kind of faded and washed out on my right hand), so this one really will need four coats for me.  With drying often being an issue for me with Revlons, I waited a couple of minutes between coats then finished it off with quick dry top coat, and it seems to be drying just fine.

Revlon Grape Fizz Nail Polish, Four Coats

It's quite pretty, but I'm deciding if its four-coat pretty and leaning toward No.  As for the fragrance of this one, it's much stronger than the watermelon.  When I was applying the first coat I noticed it (strongly), and it's the pleasant scent of 100% grape juice, but almost totally dry on my nails I can still smell it very strongly while sitting here typing.  If it remains this heavily fragranced, that'll be a dealbreaker for me - I sleep with my hands right by my face, and I can tell you now that even half this much grape juice smell would really get on my nerves trying to drift off to sleep.

That's Grape Fizz - a beautiful but demanding sparkly purple that may well have too much scent for me.  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Revlon Watermelon Fizz

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I put on Watermelon Fizz, one of Revlon's new-ish scented glitter polishes.  I've seen this one, been tempted, and managed to walk away many times, but the last time I saw it was on sale while I'd been carrying a Revlon coupon for just such an occasion, so it became mine.

My reluctance was that I thought the glitters were probably somewhat repetitive of others I have, but I found Watermelon Fizz is not.  It's a jelly with medium sized smooth glitter, and I don't have a heck of a lot of jellies.  The finish works really well with the pink-orange-red watermelon color, so for this one I was willing to suck it up and see through my tips a bit.  It took three coats to reach completely even bottle color, and then I topped it off with quick dry top coat.  It wasn't totally dry when I took the picture, but it seems to be moving in that direction pretty well with no Revlon oddities like a Braille finish (as with Revlon Blue Lagoon), so I thought I'm probably safe to go ahead and post it. I mention that on the off chance that something goes south, but in that case I'll make a follow up post.  This is Watermelon Fizz in the morning sunlight.

Revlon Watermelon Fizz Nail Polish, Three Coats

As for the fragrance, it seems like a pleasant enough, not-too-sweet watermelon scent, but I'm not the best judge today... I'm still not smoking (three months tomorrow!) and using an e-cig, and my e-cig gets refilled with nicotine "juice."  Well, the juice is available unflavored or tobacco flavored, but then it also comes in flavors like Cinnabon and Honeysuckle and everything in between that you could imagine.  I replenished my supplies during 4th of July sales and received some of them yesterday, but now I find my sense of taste and smell are a little diminished by the overload of trying a couple out.  I can still lightly smell the watermelon scent in the Revlon, but even if it were nauseatingly overpowering I'd quite likely lightly smell the watermelon scent in the Revlon.  I'll have to wait for my olfactory sense to recharge to have a strong opinion about this one.

That's the update for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

OPI Serena Glam Slam England

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have one of the OPI Serena Glam Slam England sets to show you, the purple one with Grape...Set...Match and Servin' Up Sparkle.

Grape...Set...Match is a truly fantastic purple, about the same shade as Nubar Pasadena Purple, and the OPI has distinctly visible pink and blue shimmer bits.  It's very well pigmented, requiring only two coats and very easy to apply.  Here's Grape...Set...Match without top coat.

OPI Grape...Set...Match Nail Polish, Two Coats

I topped it off with two coats of Servin' Up Sparkle, which looks just like Disco Ball Sparkle, the UK exclusive from a couple of years ago, but the glitter seems to reflect more colors in Servin' Up Sparkle.

OPI Servin' Up Sparkle Nail Polish, Two Coats over OPI Grape...Set...Match

This is my favorite of the Serena Glam Slam sets so far - the purple is gorgeous, and I think Servin' Up Sparkle is just more versatile than the shatters in the previous sets.

That's the news of the day, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!