Shimmer Polish - Cindy & Vanessa

I have some fun indie glitters to show you! Indie nail polish makers have been popping up a lot lately, and they all manage to deliver something unique and eye catching. "Shimmer Polish" is no exception. Cindy really knows how to serve up a good glitter bomb! Check out her Etsy shop, her website, or her facebook for more information on purchasing. Or you can always email her directly with your paypal address and the colors you would like to purchase: shimmer484(at)gmail(dot)com

She graciously sent me 10 polishes for review. I chose to break it up into several posts so as to not overwhelm you with pictures. :)

She has named all of the polishes after herself and her closest friends. (Maybe one day she'll have a Leslie!)

First up is Cindy 

I am in no way going to be able to describe all of the many different glitters.... Cindy is primarily red with some gold and holographic thrown in the mix. It applied very easily. Glitter polishes can often times be very thick and difficult to apply. Shimmer Polish Cindy went on evenly and this swatch photo is 3 thin coats.

Next up is Vanessa

 Vanessa comes off primarily charcoal with hints of red. 

Composed of black, silver, red, holographic bits, etc.

Same story..... Applied evenly with 2 coats of this polish. Glitter disperses well across the nail without having to be "placed." The formula was not too thick or too thin. Wonderful!

Cindy of Shimmer Polish has told me that she's made some changes to her formula lately. We all know that the indie polish makers are learning and get better each day, so she's improved her mix to suspend the glitters better. Of the 10 polishes she sent me, 7 of them had sinking glitter. Some worse than others. Not that it makes the polish un-usable or anything though! Just give it a shake and you're good to go. But so you know, she is aware of this issue, and is changing things accordingly.

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Lynnderella - Connect The Dots

Hey everyone!
I neglected posting all day today just because I'm lazy so I decided to do a quick little post before I go to bed so I don't feel guilty for not posting 2 days in a row... Haha!

A few weeks ago I got a bottle of the infamous Lynnderella's Connect The Dots.
Black and white glitters are all the rage and there is really no questioning why. They're just so freakin' cool on your nails!

I layered CTD over two OPI polishes I wore just to try some layering combinations! I'll show those to you tonight along with one small comparison.

Lynnderella - Connect The Dots over OPI - I Don't Give A Rotterdam!
I loved this combo, the muted blue color really looks nice with the crazy glitter and added shimmer of CTD. I think CTD is best over bright colors but I like seeing it over more soft things for a change. It's versatile.

Lynnderella - Connect The Dots over OPI - Paint My Moji-toes Red
I tried out CTD over a coral red, seeing as coral/tangerine is supposed to be the color of the year, or whatever that nonsense is. As usual, it looks great.

My one complaint about Connect The Dots is the bar glitter. Good grief, the bar glitter likes to poke out of topcoats and annoy the crap out of me. I end up picking most of them off with tweezers in a few hours. They lie flat at first... And then go rogue.

You may remember my post before about Cover Band - Sticks 'n Stones, an amazing creation made to resemble CTD.
If you're not crazy about polish, you would probably think these are identical. But for us polish lovers, you can totally see how these are different when they're next to each other. and I love them both in their own way. I don't think I could part with one, like I previously thought I might.
Here's a quick comparison I did:

CTD has some pretty shimmer going on and overall more glitter, but overall smaller glitter. I also found my CTD to be pretty heavily white.
SnS has no shimmer, lots of big glitter pieces, and a pretty even black/white mix.

They give two different looks. You know, if you've got polish-eyes. I can't pick a favorite.
I saw this picture on Pinterest earlier and thought it would be appropriate for this post:

Photo from Like A Candy Shop. Soooooooooo true.

If this black-and-white-glitter-post wasn't enough to fill your glitter appetite, please head over to Chalkboard Nails and check out her massively huge comparison post.

Tomorrow I'ma be posting a neon CTD mani I wore last week sometime. It's a good one. See you then!

More about → Lynnderella - Connect The Dots

Zoya Beach & Surf Collection

Hi everyone! I  have a long awaited post today. Today's review is on Zoya's Beach & Surf Collection for summer 2012. The reason I took so long for this post was because two polishes got destroyed during transit so I had to order the other two. But as always it's better late than never right?

Zoya Beach Collection consists of 6 gorgeous summer colors, 5 of which are cremes, and 1 with a slight shimmer.

Reagan is a dark fuchsia creme which leans toward to a little on the purple side. 2 coats

Lara is light fuchsia creme. 2 coats

Shelby is a bright bubble gum pink creme. Very girly and barbie pink like. 2 coats

Arizona is a light orange creme. Not light enough to be categorized as pastel, but this is a pretty bright orange. 2 coats

Tracie is a light green with a semi pearly finish. This is the only one that is not a creme polish. 2 coats

Wednesday is a turquoise creme. It is a lot more greener in person. 2 coats

Overall, the Beach collection is one of my favorite collections so far for the Summer 2012. All the colors matches Summer perfectly and they matched my skin tone. The formula were pretty good, it wasn't thick or thin and I had no problems with application.

Zoya Surf Collection consists of 6 bright colors with a foil/metallic finish.

Rory is a light pink with lots of silver flecks giving it a shimmery finish. 2 coats

Carly is a reddish plum with metallic finish. This color seems to be 'glowing' if you understand what I'm talking about! 2 coats

Kimber is a reddish pink with golden flecks. This one is super bright and super gorgeous. I think this might be my favorite one of the collection. 2 coats

Myrta is a bright orange with silver flecks giving it a metallic finish look. 2 coats 

Meg is a super light midori green with silver flecks. This one is super bright and also glows. 2 coats

Zuza is a teal blue with silver flecks. My picture makes this color look so dull, but in person it's so bright and gorgeous. 2 coats.

Overall, the Surf collection is STUNNING. I love the whole foil/metallic like finish which makes the polishes stand out on your nails. The formula for these were perfect. I would've thought there will be streak marks being they're a little metallic ish, but there was none. It applied so perfectly with no problems at all.

Zoya did an excellent job with the Beach & Surf collection. There is not a single color I did not like or enjoy. But I got the most compliments with the Surf collection!

Well that's all I have for today, what do you guys think of these two collections for summer?

(These were sent to me for review, except Tracie and Meg, which were purchase by myself)

More about → Zoya Beach & Surf Collection

prom nail wheel

Hi everyone! Sorry for being so inactive this week - I've been working a lot at a new job but after this week it'll slow down! (Thankfully because if I keep working this hard I might die! Haha!)

I don't have time for a long post so I'm gonna show you guys an awesome nail wheel that I made for my cousin Megan who was having me do her nails for her prom. Her dress was black and her shoes were red, so I stuck to those colors and added some silver and gold for accents. Before she came over, I made this wheel so that when she came, she could easily pick what she wanted!

Tada! It was a lot of fun making this wheel.
I'll put a list of the polishes I used, but if you have any questions about a particular nail, leave 'em in the comments and I will answer you later tonight after work.

OPI - Comet Loves Cupid (all the reds)
Essence - Black is Back (all the black)
OPI - Getting Miss Piggy With It (red glitter)
China Glaze - Blonde Bombshell (gold glitter)
Essence - Make It Golden (gold glitter)
Urban Decay - Superfreak (gold)
China Glaze - Millennium (silver)
Milani - Gold Glitz (gold glitter)
Deborah Lippmann - Happy Birthday (rainbow glitter)
Essie - As Gold As It Gets (gold flake)
Glitter Gal - Red Sparkle (holographic red)
Lynnderella - Connect The Dots (black and white glitter)
Color Club - Nomadic In Nude (nude)
OPI - Black Shatter
OPI - Red Shatter
Sephora by OPI - Blasted Gold Shatter

Phew! That was a lot of polishes.
Megan chose to wear Glitter Gal Red Sparkle and a black accent nail with a row of red rhinestones. It looked great!

Doing wheels like this really help get my inspiration going. I hope you guys like it!

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super random OPI swatch spam

Hey everyone! I've got some big, random OPI spam for your viewing pleasure today!
The last time I was doing a swatch marathon I hauled out my OPI drawer and swatched pretty much everything inside it that I hadn't already done.

There's some super old stuff, some Touring America polishes, a shatter, a Christmas polish... All thrown together. Enjoy!

OPI - 18K Ginza Gold
Here's an old black label OPI that I found in a clearance bin. This stood out to me in a bin full of neutrals and pinks, so I decided to take it home. It's not the prettiest, but it's decent! It's really thin but it covers in 2 coats. I wouldn't pay full price for it but for $2 on clearance, okay. 

OPI - Chicago Champagne Toast
This is another $2 clearance bin find (hence why the label has been ruined) which I had to buy because of the name. I'm a Chicago Blackhawks fan for life, so of course a polish with Chicago in the name came home with me. (I want all of the Chicago Collection too!)
This is a pretty awful color... Streaky nasty pink frost. But hey... Chicago.

OPI - Comet Loves Cupid
Another clearance bin find, a beautiful one! This polish comes from the 2009 Holiday Wishes collection, the same collection as the hard-to-find Merry Midnight. It's a great red creme. It's actually a creme, not a jelly. And it covers completely in one coat. Amazing! And so vibrant. I love it! New fave red.
(The visible nail line you see in the photos is not noticeable in person.)

OPI - Eiffel for This Color
Another gem from ye olde clearance bin. A beautiful shimmering dark purple. Vampy and gorgeous. Just 2 coats! Adore this one.

OPI - French Quarter for Your Thoughts 
A medium gray creme from last year's Touring America Collection that covers in 2 coats. I picked this up thinking I would love it the way I love Skull and Glossbones, because it's a similar color, but this one doesn't do it for me. I don't know, it's okay. But not my favorite of my grays. But hey, it was another $2 find.
Also, the pigment is all settled weird in the bottle:

See? Strange! I shook the crap out of it and it doesn't want to mix back together fully.

OPI - I Eat Mainely Lobster
Another color from Touring America, again, $2. Not the hugest fan of this kind of color on my fingers but I adore it for toes! A bright coral with subtle shimmer. 2 coats.

OPI - Paint My Moji-Toes Red
Yep... clearance bin. A very similar color to the last one but without shimmer. Again, I can't love it on fingers but I do love it for toes. Moji-toes! Great formula, almost one coat, but you need two.

OPI - Heart of Gold
A sheer golden shimmer that came to me via my aunt who - you guessed it - got it for me on clearance. I hoped it would be a little bit more intense than it is, it's quite subtle. I've shown it here over black to try and show it as best as possible! It just adds a subtle gold shimmer. I bet it could be very pretty with the right combo!

OPI - Lemonade Stand By Your Man
Another polish that I bought just for the name. I adore the name of this one, it's just so silly and cute. I'm not a big yellow polish lover but hey, that didn't stop me.
This is three coats and it's still a little sheer but I think it's a fun color.
I bought this one at a Trade Secrets in Toronto, on clearance, but for like $7 I think instead of my usual $2. Haha!

OPI - Not Like The Movies
Yep... clearance. $5 this time. I picked this up because I decided that I want all the Katy Perry polishes. (I still don't have The One That Got Away... I guess it's the one that got away!)
A gray/purple/green duochrome with some slight holo sparkle. I don't love this color. It's interesting but not my thing. Maybe someday I'll wear it and like it! My tastes have been changing, so you never know.

OPI - Red Shatter
Hey look, a polish I didn't buy on clearance! ... I got it for free. HA! A local beauty supply is giving away free shatters with any purchase of a full-price OPI. I got this one when I picked up Shatter The Scales (which didn't count as a free shatter where it is brand new.)
I was pleasantly surprised at how well this shatter worked and I really liked the look! I layered it here over Essence's Nude It.
I really like the look of shatter over nude. I might have to try that again!

Phew! There you have it! I hope you enjoyed my random OPI spam. Which one is your fave?

More about → super random OPI swatch spam