Sweet Baby Octopolish!

One of the things I cannot resist, is the very idea that I might be missing out on something.   So, since I've discovered Enchanted Polish does a monthly series, I order what I can get.  Even though I have no idea what's going to come out or even if I will like it.  It's a bit of Russian Roulette: Polish style, but I kind of hope that I can just get my money back by selling on Ebay or something.  I've started purchasing them in March and I haven't been unhappy yet. So here's the newest batch, starting with the orange:   May, June, and July: The orange is May, purple is June, and red is July.  The first three are other brands. At first, I was really annoyed about May, the orange polish, because my skin tone usually has a stone cold had for anything with any warmth to it, but this orange has a bit of a burnt orange tone to it, and as I had Digital Nails's "Hook 'em" on the wishlist, I think this will take care of that need.  I love the ...

In what I consider a hilarious bit of irony, CoverGirl released a whole truckload of makeup as a tie-in for the most recent Hunger Games movie (it's like the didn't read the book or get the point there... like releasing fashionable red Handmaid's Tale cloaks).  The nail polish was all in mini "glosstinis," most of which are glass flecks with fire names.  When I found them on clearance for $1.75 at Ulta, I snapped up a few.  Scalding Emerald is a very sheer color, so to get the bottle color, I layered over China Glaze Cherish. indoor CFL.  one coat, no cleanup Cherish is an older (~2009ish?) faded dollar bill green that has a very skinny brush and a pretty terrific formula.  Though it has a frosty look, it was relatively free of brush strokes, and one coat covered very nicely (a huge plus in an undies polish).  I layered 2 coats of Scalding Emerald over Cherish for the rest of the pics. outdoor, direct sunlight SE is a sparkly glass fleck with pr...

The description for Darling Diva's recently launched Don't Call Me, I'll Call You sa ys, " Every once in a while I make a polish that makes me seriously hold my breath its so pretty. This polish made me do that."  The swatch pic had me agreeing completely, so that came right on home to me. indoor CFLs This bottle shot has everything you need to know:  deep, dark, saturated wine color, nice linear holo flame, and rose gold flakies.  I'm a big fan of holos that have a little extra something that makes them gorgeous in both bright and lower lighting, and this certainly delivers. outdoor, mixed sun and shade With even a little light, the holo peeks out - bright sun isn't necessary to get that rainbow flash of predominantly blue and red. indoor, indirect sunlight DCMICY is saturated enough that it looked good at one coat and almost left it that way.  I added a second and the color was even richer, but if you paint thick coats, the one may b...

Walgreens was recently having their 99cent Sinful Colors sale, which had me searching for swatches on my phone for the 2 lovely greens that caught my eye.  Checking out other people's opinions on Mint Tropics, I came across  this right here from Liesl Loves Pretty Things.   To even sorta kinda a little bit suggest that I could squash my OPI Damone Roberts 1968 lemming for less than a buck had me tossing that bottle right on into the cart pronto. indoor CFLs Mint tropics is a light but bright green of somewhat less than stellar formula.  To completely rehash Liesl's blog post there, it's a little watery and prone to flooding, it definitely takes 3 coats to even things out, and it's reeeeeeeeeeally tricky to accurately photograph (exactly like DR1968 is rumored to be).  I haven't color-adjusted anything here because I think it'd be futile.  MT does tilt a little more blue or a little dustier or a little more saturated depending on the lighting, so at le...

The gem out of OPI's recent Gwen Stefani collection was the mirror-bright silver chrome.  Apparently remembering they used to do that pretty well, Sally Hansen has put out a 10-polish Color Foil collection (that are all chromes, not flakie foils).  I only felt the need for two of them, Sterling Silver and Rose Copper. outdoor, direct sunlight Rose Copper reads in all of these pics as somewhat lighter and more silvery than it was IRL - it's exactly the color of rose gold, so if you're into that trend, start hunting for this in the stores right now. Unlike their OPI counterpart, these SH chromes don't need any special base coat.  In fact, the instructions on the bottle say to specifically not  use any base coat at all.  Having learned several key and important tips from ye old internets, here's how to best use these guys: Shake them up like crazy just prior to painting.  The components tend to separate out over time, and must be thoroughly re-mi...

After buying books for years on Amazon, they've totally figured me out.  More than once, when they've put a new book on the very top of the recommendations pile, it ends up being for very good reason.  A while back, I was looking for something totally unrelated, and Amazon had Orly's Fantasea as a top rec for me.  Whaaa?  Random pinkish stuff?  Why?  Well, it took me looking at about 2 swatches online to realize they were 100% right, I did need this. indoor, indirect sunlight Fantasea has nothing aquatic about it at all, other than its pearlescent glow.  In most lights, it's a dilute/soft purple, but it's light enough that it sometimes appears closer to "radiant orchid" pink. outdoor, early evening indirect light It's fairly sheer, and needs 3 coats to get to what you see here.  In bright lighting, I had a subtle VNL, but that seems to look right with this polish, so NBD. outdoor, direct sunlight The brighter the lighting, the mo...

Another quick post while I'm still at my professional thingy... only the public part of the meeting is completed, so I don't have to be quite as work-appropriate anymore.  Here's Pahlish's wonderfully flashy Pyrite. Pyrite is a foil finish that took 2 coats for total opacity.  It looks exactly like it says it does: straight-up natural (fool's) gold color.  One of my committee members said it looked like I'd literally gilded my fingernails, and I completely agreed. It's sparkly but luxe, and was glass-smooth with just one layer of topcoat (ignore the weird ripple on my middle finger in some of these pics, no idea why the camera did that).  Huge bonus in that the flakie foil finish removes 100x easier than glitter, other than the little microflakes ending up everywhere. Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  The naturalness of the gold color would be interesting enough, but the flakie foil effect makes it absolutely look like real gold.  nice. Wh...

I have a professional event the next couple of days, so I picked out something a little more work-appropriate than flaming green, and just have a quick post on Dance Legend's Road to Nowhere. Road to Nowhere is part of DL's wow prism collection, a large batch of polishes with similar finish in an array of colors.  Most are jellies with chunky scattered holo particles, and RtN is a rich mahogany brown.  It's gorgeous on my skin tone, full of lovely sparkles, and dries to a fantastic gloss even before I top coated it. Unfortunately, I appear to be on a losing streak of polishes from brands I love that are weirdly chipping quick on me. Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  Despite the chippy bizness, this color is exactly what I'd wanted it to be.  Office appropriate if you're ok with a little kick. Where to buy:   DL's list of international stockists . ~Michelle

CrowsToes is one of my fave indie brands - always something interesting going on with her collections!  Here's One Trick Pony (cuz, obvs, it's not) from the 2013 mad crazy summer collection. One Trick Pony is a purple-navy-charcoal holo, with plenty of different moods in different lights.  Since I just got in a package that included a couple of Hits Mari Moon that had been on my wishlist for a while, the ring finger additionally has a coat of Moonbow, a color-shifting micro-glitter. In shade or low lighting, OTP's holo is very subdued, and you get a subtly shifting charcoal.  Moonbow was most obvious in these low-light situations. outdoor, overcast lighting In bright light (or with a camera flash), the purple base color & holo came to the front, and Moonbow sank into the rest of the rainbow. flash flash In some lighting, it came up as more deep navy blue than purple. I really like dark holos - rainbows that flash from deeeeeep colors are...