L'Oreal Sparkling Soirée Holiday 2014-- Bring The Rubies

  L'Oreal polishes are always kind of a treat for me.  I love the elegance of the rectangular bottle and the brushed gold cap, the small, flat, tapered brush is a perfect fit for my nails, and the formulas are consistently nice, regardless of finish.  For $5.99 a bottle, it's a treat that's totally affordable, too.

   L'Oreal's holiday 2014 collection is made up of eight different polishes, including four glitter toppers and four corresponding solid colors, including the rich and lovely Bring The Rubies.  This color isn't unique.  As prolific as metallic reds are, and as much as I adore the shade in the first place, though, I've never actually managed to land one in my stash until now.

L'Oreal Sparkling Soirée Holiday 2014-- Bring The Rubies

LVX Cliquot With LVX Graphite Accent

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  Hi everyone!!  In pondering what to do with my nails at 1am last night, I decided to go with another accent.  Now some of you are really adventurous and know how to have a lot of fun with color and do so on a regular basis.  This would mark the second time I've worn an accent nail in less than a week so that is as wiiiild and crazy as I've ever gotten, lol.  This time I decided to do a small variation on classic pink and grey with two gorgeous LVX polishes, Cliquot and Graphite.

LVX Cliquot With LVX Graphite Accent

piCture pOlish Eyre

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  Happy Caturday, all!!  Picture Polish is one of the more prolific indie companies around and one that I've become familiar with through Christine at Polished Marvels.  In fact, if you're looking for an extensive Picture Polish swatch gallery, hers is fantastic, boasting 65 posts (including some art, all shown {HERE}).  For my part, I'm excited to finally be trying a polish from what I feel safe in assuming is one of my friend's favorite brands.

  This is Eyre, a blue violet metallic scattered holo.

piCture pOlish Eyre

Zoya Ignite-- Fall 2014

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Zoya Ignite collection, Fall 2014

  Hi all!!  I'm back from my self-imposed break a week early because when you've got gorgeousness like the Zoya Ignite collection staring at you every time you walk into your living room, it's extremely hard to resist wanting to wear those suckers right away (and talk about them, lol).  So I'm not fully used to my nubs again/yet but the fact is, there is not a shape these colors won't look spectacular on.

  Zoya describes the finishes in this set as liquid metal, but they're unlike any metallic I've ever seen.  These all have a sort of metallic-jelly hybrid finish, going on sheer with the first coat but balancing out perfectly with two, and each with an abundance of golden and shade-specific glassfleck-like shimmer.  There's so much sparkle in these that my camera had the worst time focusing.  These shades are stunning.  Let's get started.

Transitional Metals

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Transitional Metals

  Hi all!!  I've been on a metallic kick since {Mommy Does Her Nails} mentioned how much she'd been loving them on her toes a couple weeks ago.  Their bright, shimmery glowiness feels perfect for August and the transition from summer to... well, late summer.  Fall can wait :) Here are a few of my favorites.

Zoya Awaken Collection

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  Hi friends!!  FINALLY, after so much waiting and inclement weather holdups around the country, the Zoya Awaken Spring 2014 collection has landed, and when they started showing up in our mailboxes, whether as a set or with our spring promos, weren't we all just pretty much stoked to pieces?!  I know I was.  Awaken is a gorgeous and vibrant set of pastel metallic, shimmer, and creme polishes with one iridescent glitter topper that complements each solid color in a unique and lovely way.

New Indie Alert!! Baroness X

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  Good morning everyone!!  I'm excited to share with you all today a few polishes from an indie maker so new that her logo was finalized as I was in the process of reviewing her polishes.  Baroness X is no stranger to hand mixing her lacquers, though-- she's been doing it for years, for herself and her friends, and only recently decided to go public with her creations.  I get to show you five of them today, from two different collections.

  The first three are from the Holiday collection.  First up is Snowball Fight, a sheer and very pale jelly base filled with iridescent powder and mylar flakies that totally works as a classic French with a slight twist polish but really shines over a dark base.  I layered one coat of Snowball Fight over an indigo creme and I love the effect-- the opalescence over the deep purpley blue make it very Revlon Moon Candy-esque.  I finished this with one layer of HK Girl Glisten & Glow topcoat.

LVX Winter Resort 2014

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Good morning, everyone!!  I hope your holidays have been wonderful so far.  I'm sitting here wishing I'd have requested today off to recover from all the Christmas festivities, lol.
So now that the Big Day is over and New Year's and the depths of winter are imminent, I feel like this new collection is highly appropriate-- it's LVX's Winter Resort 2014.  Winter Resort says complete luxury to me, speaking of those for whom "holiday" is a verb and December swimsuit shopping is necessity.  This collection is firmly grounded in the here and now, though-- it's a set of five deep and luxurious shades and one onyx-black texture that are easily taken from New Year's Eve through the chill of February and beyond.

12 Days of Christmas Nails!! Day 5-- OPI Burlesque Take The Stage + Extrava-Va-Ganza

Hi everyone!!  Welcome, new readers, whether you're here because of the giveaway or because you happened upon la blog and liked it enough to follow, I'm glad you're here and I hope you stick around :)

Day 5 in my 12 Days of Christmas Nails spectacular is two polishes from OPI's holiday 2010 Burlesque collection, Take the Stage, a warm, bright, shimmery, red-toned copper metallic, and Extra-Va-Vaganza, a twinkly silver, orange, and light blue glitter topper.  I was soooo in love with this collection when it was introduced and I allowed myself only two, but I wish I'd have lived a little dangerously and picked up more, lol.  I still think it's one of the best holiday collections ever, even with three similarly toned copper foils in my stash.  Apparently, I like this color, and I adore this duo!  This was my first experience with glitter and I have to admit I was fascinated (though not with the removal process... I remember first putting this on my toes and being rather horrified at how hard it was to take off, lol).

Zoya Zenith Collection-- Holiday/Winter 2013

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Hi everyone!!   First off, I want to say THANK YOU to all you veterans for your service and sacrifice.  You are, and always will be, one of the greatest things about this country.

Zoya's holiday/winter collection is a particularly exciting one because rather than steep themselves in the trappings of most holiday themed collections, they went full on winter, with a twist.  The six-polish set is comprised of cold foils and metallics, dark, sparkling scattered holos, and one unique topper that gives the foils and metallics a decidedly and very cool sci-fi feel.

Zoya Satins Saran Wrap Skittlette

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Good morning!!  The Zoya Satins have been calling my name lately, asking me to do something fun with them, so I complied.  Zoya collections are consistently some of the most cohesive and that, combined with a foolproof art technique, makes playing around with the brilliant colors a lot of fun for the creatively challenged among us.

In case there's doubt in your heads about just how easy a saran wrap mani is, I've only done this one other time to results that did not make me want to poke my eyeballs out.  I have no idea who this idea originated with (enlighten me if you know) but I will post some simplified steps at the end.

I started with bases of Neve (blue) and Giovanna (green).  I paired Neve with Mason, a shimmery fuschia, and Giovanna with Channing, a cool burnt caramel shimmer.

Celestial Cosmetics King Slayer

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Good morning, guys and gals!!  Duochromes seem to be having a moment in the polish world this fall, from the big names of Essie and OPI to indies I Love Nail Polish and Celestial Cosmetics.  The only thing that'd make me happier is if Sally Hansen decided to bring back the Nail Prisms line (or if Turquoise Opal magically fell into my lap for less than $40, lol).

I've got another fantastically beautiful duochrome from Color4Nails/Celestial Cosmetics collaboration collection The Seven Kingdoms gracing my nails today.  Remember a couple days ago I said each polish in this all around gorgeous collection has been better than the last?  Well, it rings true again.

This is King Slayer, a shimmery, blackened midnight blue to deep violet duochrome with a faint dark blue and silvery royal purple shimmer and a slightly metallic finish.

I adore this color; it's so deep, rich, dark, and dramatic.  Like Mother Of Dragons, King Slayer is reminiscent of my beloved Nail Prisms-- the shift isn't as strong, but it comes with a definite plus.  Celestial Cosmetics has set a precedent for itself regarding formula.  I have not tried one CC polish that didn't apply impeccably.  I used two coats of polish and one of topcoat.  Wear time is nice, too-- this made it through a rough day at work with very minimal tipwear.

LOVE.  Here's an outside shot.

The Seven Kingdoms is a collection of nine polishes and I honestly feel I got to try four of the best, with King Slayer being a standout even among those four.  You need this polish in your life.

King Slayer and the rest of the Celestial Cosmetics The Seven Kingdoms collection will be available for sale internationally within the next few days at color4nails.com.

  Like color4nails on facebook to stay up to date on specials and new releases.

Thank you for reading and carpe diem ♥♥♥

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Celestial Cosmetics Mother Of Dragons

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It's a fun and rare thing when each polish you try from a certain collection is better than the last, and in the case of Color4Nails and Celestial Cosmetics' collaboration set, The Seven Kingdoms, this is most certainly true.  Mother Of Dragons is a classic and beautiful magenta to gold duochrome with a shimmery metallic, slightly pearly finish.

I seriously cannot say enough good things about Mother Of Dragons.  This will be my go to festive nails-like-Christmas-ornaments polish this year, something I've regrettably skipped out on in years past.  Of course, the difference between this and the red/cranberry metallics and foils we've seen in years past is the brilliant gold flash.

 The formula is outstanding-- very easy to apply, minimal cleanup (in fact, I had zero), rich and opaque in two coats.

Here are some outside shots.

This, ladies and gents, is why duochromes are in my top three favorite finishes.

So I've been thinking, and noticing, since my nails are all long and stuff now, that I perhaps need to switch my standard poses up a bit.  C decided to offer me some advice and suggested I hold the bottles as if I'm holding a guitar (he used to play bass so this is for real here, mkay?).

It's niiiice, no?  lolol.

Anyhoooo, Mother Of Dragons and the rest of the Celestial Cosmetics The Seven Kingdoms collection will be available for sale internationally within the next few days at color4nails.com.

  Like color4nails on facebook to stay up to date on specials and new releases.

Thank you for reading and have an amazing day!! ♥

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Honey Bunny Lacquer Pantera Collection

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Good morning, friends!!  Happy Monday, lolol.  I've got an exciting new indie collection to show you today, one that takes me back to the best part of my very early twenties, when I was discovering a lot of really great music for myself.  I was a bit of a metalhead and one of my favorite bands at the time was a Texas based group called Pantera.  I was fortunate enough to get to see them play live once before the band's demise and the untimely death of lead guitarist extraordinaire, Dimebag Darrell.

Deb, a longtime blogger friend and creator of Honey Bunny Lacquer, has launched a set of three glitter toppers as an ode to three of her own favorite Pantera songs.  Whilst choosing appropriate base colors, I noticed the three glitters match perfectly with three of the Zoya Satin colors, which kind of made me excited... nail polish serendipity strikes again :)

First up is Honey Bunny Lacquer Cemetery Gates, over Zoya Claudine.

Cemetery Gates is a silver holographic glitter mix of tiny and small hexes interspersed with medium sized matte black hexes and silver circles in a clear base.

Honey Bunny Lacquer The Sleep over Zoya Mason.  The Sleep is a violet purple holographic glitter mix of tiny and small hexes and small squares, small magenta hexes, and large purple circles in a clear base.

Honey Bunny Lacquer This Love (purportedly the song that gets all the girls hooked on the band... proof positive right here, lol) over Zoya Channing.  This Love is a bright pink holographic glitter mix with tiny and small light and dark pink hexes, small red and light pink squares, and large dark pink matte hearts in a clear base.

The formula on all three glitters is nice and self leveling, neither gloopy nor stringy.  I adore the fact that Deb included the trending circle glitters in two of these, but having said that, the larger pieces, including the hearts, do need special placement.  They're all a little topcoat hungry-- two thick coats of Seche Vite smoothed these out nicely for me.  The glitters themselves are all gorgeous, like jewelry for their respective base colors, and I will always have a soft spot for musically themed polishes.

Honey Bunny Lacquer is available in both 15ml bottles for $9 and 5ml bottles for $4.  Her shop is full of good vibes, right down to her wish that you leave with a song in your head, if not a polish.

Honey Bunny Lacquer etsy shop

Honey Bunny on twitter

Honey Bunny on instagram

email Deb directly at ab74csr10@gmail.com

Thank you for reading, and have a lovely day. ♥

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Rescue Beauty Lounge Cuprum

Hi friends!  It's another Saturday and I'm doing what I want and reposting a favorite.  Rescue Beauty Lounge Cuprum, from 2012's Fan Collection, impressed me right out of the gate and immediately went on my list of desert island polishes--  the ones you'd choose if you happened to be stranded and got to have three, five, ten of your favorite nail polishes to keep you company, of course.  Cuprum, despite the fact that blue is not my favorite color to wear in general, is top three.  And maybe I'm being a little shameless here, but it's been a pie in the sky dream for me to be one of RBL founder Ji's bloggers since I discovered the brand for myself (note my response to the seventh comment down, lol) and thanks to a contest call for new reviewers via Ji's blog, I get to throw my hat in the ring.  So, you can bet one of these photos is going up on the official contest instagram later today, because the truth of the matter is, #IWant2ReviewRBL ;)

 

Cuprum is an out of this world bright frosty metallic electric blue with a multitude of tiny copper flecks that are readily apparent both in the bottle and on the nail in real life but seem to show up on camera where the light doesn't directly hit.  This is one of the most notoriously hard to photograph polishes ever but that only adds to its intrigue.  The blue, however, is every bit as vivid as my photos suggest (and the color in these is, as always, unaltered; my camera is freaking out a little where the light is reflecting off my nails... seriously, this polish is something else).  I used two coats of polish and one layer of topcoat.  RBLs are spendy and the formula reflects that-- this applies beautifully.

Cuprum ( Latin for copper, if you want to know) was the definite dark horse of the Fan Collection and the only one still available (here).  And to my fellow bloggerettes, if you've got an instagram and feel like entering RBL's contest, click here for details.  Also, since I brought up the whole desert island scenario, what are your top three? 

Thank you for reading and have a terrific weekend!! ♥

OPI Muir Muir On The Wall

Good morning, guys and gals!  Early rumblings about OPI's Muir Muir On The Wall, from this fall's San Fransisco collection, suggested it is reminiscent of, and possibly a dupe for, one of the long discontinued OPI On Broadway polishes (holiday 2003 collection), Man Of La Mancha or La Boheme.  The fact is, even just in photos, it's apparent that Muir Muir On The Wall is much more subdued, but is still a fascinating creature.

Muir Muir On The Wall is a blackened metallic plum alit with monochromatic shimmer.  Inside the bottle, it looks like a plum to green to gold multichrome but this doesn't translate onto the nail.  It's a bit of a bummer but that feeling doesn't last because Muir is still so richly, darkly beautiful. 

 I used two coats of polish and one layer of topcoat.  The formula is on the thin side so beware of cuticle flooding and take extra care to wipe the excess off the brush before applying.

I just... I love this.  It's everything a fall polish should be.  If you (like me) only go for one out of the San Fran collection, I highly suggest this one.  As long as you aren't expecting a wild duochrome, you won't be disappointed.  At least, not for long. ;)

Thank you for reading and have an amazing day! ♥♥

Zoya Fall 2013 Satins

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Hello everyone!!  Today I get to show you my take on the second half of the fall Zoyas, the Satin collection.  It could be because I was so immediately taken with the cremes in the Cashmere set, but the Satins didn't really speak to me right out of the gate.  Metallic isn't my favorite finish, but once I got these Satins on my nails I started to change my tune.  They've each got something remarkably cool going on.  I'll not be repetitive and say up front that the formulas on all are consistent and wonderful.  I used two coats of color and one layer of topcoat in each swatch.

First up is Neve.  Neve is one of two I was actually pretty excited for, as it debuted earlier this year as part of Zoya's fall Zang Toi trio and I was really hoping for a rerelease later in the year.  Wish granted!
Neve is a deep, inky indigo packed with blue and fuschia shimmers.  It reminds me of one of my favorites from last year, NARS It, and a little of OPI Russian Navy.  Neve is lighter on the fuschia than It and more violet leaning than Russian Navy.  I adore colors like this.  They look so edgy to me. 

Channing is fall's requisite coppery metallic offering.  It's different because amidst the gold shimmer, the copper's got a cool touch of pink.  Instead of the warm and classic burning leaves shade, Channing is all candy apple.  And look at the glow!  My camera's not quite sure what to do with it.  The color almost looks cartoonish in my photos.  I love this one.

Ahh Giovanna...  This is another from the same Zang Toi collection as Neve.  I could not for the life of me capture this one accurately, no matter the angle or the light, but by golly, I tried.  Giovanna is a gorgeous and rich ever so slightly blue leaning emerald.  It is not anywhere near as teal as the photos suggest (or as washed out, for that matter).  Do not take this color at face value.  I seriously might as well not even post pictures of it.  You have to see this one for yourself, and then get it.  It is astounding on.

 

This is Mason.  Mason is one of those colors that looks pretty and everything, but everyone's done one like it so nobody really pays much attention.  The color, a bright magenta, isn't the most original.  But the glow on this thing is out of this world.  It's that deep, it from within thing happening, and the shimmers flash a purpley-blue.  And is that a coppery brown color shift I see on the edges?!  Mason is something else.  It's got a jelly-like transparency but a metallic opacity.  I can't tell you how giddily surprised I was by this one.

Claudine is the least visually striking (to me, anyway) of the set.  It's a dark charcoal grey with silver woven throughout.  It's a little bit flat and a tad brushstrokey.  Interestingly enough, though, it reads as having a slight brown tinge in certain light. 

That brown tinge makes Claudine a perfect base for the final polish in the Satin collection, the gold cellophane topper, Maria Luisa.  I talked about Maria Luisa in my Cashmeres post because it fit so beautifully with all those rich cremes and I felt the Satins were best demonstrated on their own.  But over Claudine, it takes on that trending for fall antique gold look, and as accents, takes Claudine to a striking and hip new level. 

Choosing personal must-haves from the Satins is tougher than I anticipated.  Each of these colors brings something fun and unique to my collection.  In the end, the only one of the six that maybe isn't must-have for me is Neve, but even so, if it goes core line (which it probably will) it'll be an apt replacement for my LE NARS shade.  If you get only one polish from the Zoya fall collections, get Maria Luisa.  You'll likely not stop at that one, though.

The Zoya Satins are available for $8 each on Zoya.com.  Like Zoya on facebook to stay up to date on specials.

Thank you for reading and have a loverly day!! ♥♥

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