Sweet Baby Octopolish!

I Love Nail Polish makes gorgeous "ultrachromes" - duochrome polishes that typically shine way more than just two colors, usually with a very smooth metallic chrome finish.  Nostalgia was from the 2013 Holiday collection.  I got plenty of compliments on this color while wearing it at work! indoor office fluorescent lighting Nostalgia is basically a pink-to-green duochrome (and maybe a near-dupe of the much harder to get a hold of Dance Legend Roz).  What makes it interesting is the number of personalities it has, each one peeking out in slightly different lighting situations.  Above, it's a smoothly metallic, almost pastel pink & bronze green. outdoor direct sunset light In direct light, though, it's suddenly very shimmery and sparkly, not a smooth metallic at all, and with much more saturated colors. outdoor indirect sunlight It can go from completely saturated emerald green with barely a hint of pink or gold... indoor office fluorescents ...

Everybody that gets into the madness of polish hoarding eventually comes across that impossible-to-find bottle that you'd jump off the cliff for: your lemming.  After seeing  some amazing   blogger swatches  of this one, my vibrant-green-loving heart was snared. Hey Jude is a whole bunch of colors, but most prominently, a rich green.  Internet opinions were about 50/50 as to whether this needed black undies like some duochromes do, so I went without to test the color and wear on its own - all pics here are 3 coats. indoor CF lighting The computer desk where i most typically paint my nails is in a smallish room with a single CFL bulb in the fixture overhead and behind my back - bright enough to see where I'm going, but certainly not full sunlight.  In this lighting, I was immediately disappointed with my hard-won lemming.  It went on smoothly and self-leveled almost instantly so that even the first coat covered evenly, but it was the subtle s...

Pahlish released Mad Man With a Box as a black Friday special, then again in January as part of her Dr. Who collection.  Now, I love me some DW (this is, I think, my 4th DW polish), but far more than a catchy name, I love me some sparkles. MMWAB is a deep midnight blue packed with microglitter, shimmer, and micro-flakes.  All that twinkle translates easily onto the nail. indirect sunlight.  POW! Most of the time, this polish appears to be a deep, shimmery sapphire.  In the shade, lighter blue to silvery bits are apparent, giving it a stars at night sort of appearance, but in the sun, WOW.  Check out the twinkles. indoor office fluorescents The micro-flakes look aqua-green in the macro pics, but other than a subtle suggestion of a teal flash, this wasn't obvious IRL. again, indirect sunlight, in the best nail photo studio ever: the car steering wheel. It's thick enough that I think I'll be thinning it down before I use it again, and next go...

Extremes of temperature (summer and winter) are my favorite times for thermal nail polish.  If it's frosty outside and the heat is running full-blast indoors, you're bound to get at least some of the funky french tip effect somewhen during your day.  KPT is known for her thermals, and today's Country Road from her fall/Halloween collection is no exception. all pics under indoor lighting.  check out the gradient on ring & pinky! Country Road is a warm-toned thermal with plenty of shimmery sparkle in all its color shifts.  When cold (same color the bottle shows on the shelf), it's a rich milk-chocolate chestnut. A good portion of the time, warm or cool, the shimmer in this polish appeared to be a rose gold shade.  Being as how rose gold is all trendy lately, consider snapping this one up if that's your thing.  The warm color was a sheer, soft nude, liberally sprinkled with gold, pink, copper, and a tiny hint of green sparkle. The green was...

After  being disappointed by my last purple jelly,  clearly the answer was to move on to ANOTHER purple jelly, so now I have KB Shimmer's Witch Way? for you. indoor, indirect sunlight Witch Way? is, as one of my non-nail polish pals described it, grape jelly.  It's straight-up concord grape purple, with a lovely translucent gloss even after the 3 coats it needed for full coverage. Mixed into this jelly is plenty of fine holographic particles, plus small holo round glitter. outdoor!  actual sun in winter! This stuff managed to always be sparkly, without ever being an obnoxious disco ball.  I'm not a huge fan of full-on glitter bombs (I do work in a real lab and don't need to look like a princess), but I do like me some sparkly bizness, and this delivers. actual for reals sunlight! Outdoors, the color showed up as just a touch lighter than inside, and wow did the sun play on those holo glitter bits! indoor, indirect/diffuse sunlight Most ...

Oxen is a nice bruisy holo from Colors by Llarowe.  I purchased it on its first run, before there were "proper" swatches out there, but an oxblood holo sounded good enough for this burgundian lover! Outside, in the sun Inside, mixed lighting Flash Outdoors, indirect sun A better catch of the sparkle in the sun Fluorescent lighting inside, lots of sparkle, just not looking holo It wore pretty well, was nicely pigmented and easy to apply.  I'm glad I grabbed it, even though I'm leery of things without lots of swatches. Definitely a winner! -S

I have a love/hate relationship with jelly-type polishes.  On the good side, the formula on these tends to be very easy to control, and because they're not as thick, they're easier to clean up.  In the minus column, though, they tend to wear just awfully on me - it's like the lack of shimmer/pearl/glitter particles makes it less strong or reinforced.  Today, I have one that has all the pros and cons of jellies:  Contrary Polish's River Market. sorry for the yellowy background, but color was most correct in the bathroom.  weird. River Market is a very deep purple jelly with fiery ruby sparkles peeking out.  Like the best jellies, this one looked way glossy and shiny once I was finished. pow!  shine! Unfortunately, it absolutely needed 3 coats to even it out (jellies being prone to patchy/imperfect coverage on their first coats, and this one was no exception), and that made the final result exactly as dark as it was in the bottle.  Other...