butter LONDON - Lady Muck

Here is Lady Muck.  About a month after I first got this color a year ago, I regretted it.  I just didn't like the color as much as I thought I would.  I haven't worn this since the first time I tried it, and I thought I'd give it another chance.  I am happy to report that I have a new found love for Lady Muck.  It is a dusty light blue with silver/grey shimmer.  I am wearing two coats here.

I really like this color for spring.  It has a little pop of color without being too overwhelming.

One of my favorite thing about butter LONDON polishes is that they have incredible wear time.  Lady Muck is no exception to that.

-polish. impress. repeat.

China Glaze - Pelican Gray

Pelican Gray is from China Glaze's Spring 2011 Anchor's Away collection.  It is a subtle creamy light gray.  It even has the smallest bit of shimmer to it if you look close enough.  LOVE IT!  It's formula is a little runny, but it goes on nicely with two coats and cleans up well.  For an accent nail, I used Sinful Colors Out of This World layered on top of Pelican Gray.  This gray is a great small change from the white manicure I've been loving lately.
China Glaze has a new feature on their site that I love where you can try on polishes virtually.  It's a lot better than the one that OPI has on it's site.  
Note:  Sorry that my cuticles are not cleaned up well, I was in a hurry and wanted to get pictures taken quickly.  

 

Do you guys like this color?  Leave me a comment telling me what you think.

-polish. impress. repeat.

Metallic Black Dupes?

Over the last year, I have purchased a few different metallic black polishes.  Each one had it's own quality that attracted me to it, but I worried that they were all too similar.  I put them to the test, and they are indeed all different and unique in their own ways.

The three colors I swatched are OPI's Lucern-tainly Look Marvelous, China Glaze's Stone Cold from The Hunger Games collection, and Zoya's Dovima.  Dovima and Stone Cold have matte finishes so I swatched them with and without top coats for you to see the compaisons.

Thumb- Zoya's Dovima, Index- China Glaze's Stone Cold, Middle- OPI's Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, Ring- Zoya's Dovima with topcoat, Pinky- China Glaze's Stone Cold with topcoat.

(topcoat) Dovima (no topcoat)

(no topcoat) Stone Cold (topcoat)

Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous (no topcoat)

Dovima is more black, Stone Cold is more gray, and Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous is more silver.  Dovima is matte, but also has a nice smooth shine to it, Stone Cold is a true matte, and Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous isn't matte at all.  I really like all of these, but it probably won't be until Fall that I'll wear these again.  They are too dark for me to wear in the Spring and Summer.  I can't wait to get them back out though!

-polish. impress. repeat.

Zoya - Cynthia & OPI - Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

Zoya's Cynthia nail polish has been on my wish list for almost a year and I found it on clearance at Ulta the other day!  SCORE!  It is a gorgeous deep navy blue.  It's spring and not really the time of year for dark polishes, but I've wanted this one for so long that I went ahead and painted my nails with it anyways.  I tried to lighten up the look a little by pairing it with OPI's Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous which is a dark metallic chromed silver.

Cynthia was a little bit more runny than all the other Zoya polishes I have, but it was still incredibly opaque.  Two coats was good.  Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous is on the thicker side, but it has great coverage and is easy to work with.  I used a mini Sally Girl silver chuncky glitter polish for a few nails too.

I love color blocking and doing fun designs, but I wonder if I am getting to old for it.  What do you think?

-polish. impress, repeat.

Essie - Fair Game

Here is Essie's "Fair Game" polish from their Resort collection which was released last year.  It is a nice metallic greyish blue.  I've had the polish for a year now and I've used it quite a bit.  The formula was great when I first got it, but I need to get some thinner to put in it; it's gotten a little thick over time.

 

Metallic polishes were 'in' last year, I hope that trend comes back...  :)

-polish. impress. repeat.

Zoya - Dovima (Matte)

I'd like to introduce you all to Zoya's Dovima matte nail polish.

 I haven't fully decided if I love matte nail polishes, but I do know that I really like Dovima.  When I want to wear something different, I grab this.  It's not fully black, I'd consider it more of a dark grey.  Although it is matte, you can see in the pictures that there is some shimmer which makes this polish even more gorgeous!  In order to keep the matte effect of the polish, I couldn't use a top coat, but this polish dries extremely fast anyways!  Definite bonus!  You can see in the pictures that the colors look really different in a variety of lighting.

 Isn't the bottle adorable too? The bottle is frosted to indicate that it is matte whereas their normal bottles are a see through shiny glass bottle.  I love the brush and handle of Zoya nail polishes too.  The handle is easy to hold and that is one of my biggest pet peeves with nail polishes!  Way to go Zoya!

For an accent nail, I used Revlon's Steel Her Heart.  Adorable name right?!  It's a little lighter than Dovima, and it isn't matte, so I thought they would compliment each other nicely.  It has a little bit of a streaky look to it, but I like that difference for the accent nail.  It has a quick drying time as well so I didn't even use a top coat on it either!

I hope you guys like this post.  What do you think about matte polishes?  Yes or no?

-polish. impress. repeat.

Ulta - Smoke Screen

And the paint hits the canvas...

 I wanted to have my first post be one of my favorite nail polish colors, but I just bought this polish the other day and couldn't wait to try it out.  I usually don't buy Ulta's Salon Formula, I usually go for the Professional Nail Lacquer because I like the formula better.  I couldn't turn down this color and I'm glad I didn't!  I really like it and it's wearing really well.
 

This polish is called Smoke Screen.  It is a greyish blue.  It reminds me of the the color of a whale or dolphin.  Is that weird?  This polish had a rather thick consistency, but it wasn't fully opaque with one coat.  I'm wearing two in these pictures.  I also added some sliver glitter for an accent nail. 

I think I found a keeper, and I'm glad this found its way into my collection.  Let me know if you have any questions or comments.  I'm not the best photographer, so I'll work on taking better pictures in the future.  :)

-polish. impress. repeat.