China Glaze - Pink Plumeria

GOOOORRRRGEOUS!  This color is stunning.  Pink Plumeria is another gem from the Summer Neons collection from China Glaze.  So many of them are wonderful!  I would describe this color as the perfect pink highlighter color.  Literally, if you pick up a pink highlighter, this is most likely the color you will see.  This is two coats of Pink Plumeria over two coats of OPI's Alpine Snow.  The trick of putting neon polishes over white polish to get the color to pop holds true!  I also put a top coat over it since this is a neon polish and it has that semi-matte finish.

Seriously, look how it sparkles in the sunlight!  *drools*

What is your favorite neon color?

-polish. impress. repeat.

China Glaze - I'm With the Lifeguard

Readers, let me introduce you to China Glaze's "I'm With the Lifeguard" from their 2012 Summer Neons collection.  I have a few from this collection, but I've been enjoying wearing them on my toes!  I figure I needed to do some manicures with them.  I'm With the Lifeguard is a STUNNING neon green.  It reminds me of a glow-stick lime green color.  Pictures cannot capture how much this really 'glows'.  I attempted with the 'vivid' setting on my camera below.  This truly is a NEON green, so don't expect any thing less than that. 

Unlike most neons, many of the polishes in this collection have a shimmer to them.  Which I LOVE!  I'm With the Lifeguard is one of those polishes.  Because it is neon, it dries to a semi-matte finish, but nothing that a little top coat can't do to help make it shine!  I used Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri on top of two coats of the polish.

I tried to capture the color as best as I could.  I put my camera on a 'vivid' setting and while it makes my skin look super tan (no complaints there), it is as close to what the polish really looks in the sun.  See how it GLOWS!

I'll try to get some of the other polishes I have from this collection swatched and posted soon.  I wouldn't quite say that this is the easiest polish to match clothes with, but it sure is a fun color and I do love this neon trend!

What is your favorite neon color to wear?

-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 - 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.