swatch: zoya charla

since i hated that last mani so much, how about i now post a mani i love:


zoya charla is probably my favorite of this past summer's sparkle collection (although ivanka is a close second). so sparkly and vivid (and a bit more green) irl! i actually haven't worn this since the summer, as in my opinion this color and finish don't go well with the more professional attire and fairly subdued hues i sport during the school year (i know there are others who disagree and wear any nail polish with any outfit, but this is what works for me and my style). but i loved this color when i wore it a few months ago and can't wait for the warmer months (with their accompanying bright colors and bold prints) to roll around again so that i can break this shade out once more! this picture is of three coats.

boy says: "zoya seems to make good nail polish." direct quote, i kid you not.

bloom bianca + streetwear fx flash: swatch pictures and review

i'm lucky enough to have some gorgeous revlon streetwears in my collection, thanks to a great dusty where i live as well as some generous friends. for some reason, though, i don't break out my streetwears as much as i should, so i'm starting a new feature on my blog to encourage me to swatch and wear my sw collection, one polish at a time. so welcome to streetwear saturdays!

after i got bored with yesterday's bloom bianca mani, i decided to layer one coat of streetwear fx flash (the green/chameleon/mermaid version) on top of it. here's fx flash in the bottle:


and here are some pics of the resultant mani. unfortunately these pictures don't do the manicure justice at all - in real life most of the colors you see in these pictures (the teal, the light green, and the yellow/gold, although not the blue) are much more vivid, and there's also a very strong copper tone to the glitter in certain lights.




i'm completely in love! i described this layered effect as "totally crazy and delicious" to some friends earlier, and the more i look at my nails, the more i think that's the perfect description for this mani.

by the way, if you'd like to see sw fx flash layered over black, please check out this post.

swatch: bloom bianca

bloom polishes unfortunately aren't available in the u.s., which is a shame since i've had my eye on a few for a while! luckily, i was able to score this one through a swap:


the consistency of this polish is a bit odd - it felt like i was spreading a gel over my nails (and a fairly sheer gel at that, as bianca required three or four coats for opacity depending on the thickness of the coats i used). the color is soooo worth it though... i have mermaid nails!

bf says: "your fingernails look like the shells of ten jade turtles."

swatch: nails inc. portland place

i got this gorgeous jelly polish from a uk friend as part of an asos christmas duo set that also included nails inc. duke st. i love that this is a teal that leans green rather than blue; this quality makes it quite unique in my collection. three coats:


bf says: "this is a good photograph considering that you took it on a moving train! note that my sister is a photographer so i would know! it is in my blood."

american apparel polish swatches, part 1: dynasty, mount royal, palm springs, and peacock

i own an embarrassing number of tri-blend tees and lamé leggings, so i was stoked to hear american apparel had come out with its own line of nail polish. even before i did my research, i was pretty sure they'd be all cremes… and much to my delight, they were! just fyi, these polishes are available on the aa website for $6 each, although i got mine at my local aa store, which was selling 3 for $15.

i want to start with my absolute fave from this collection, peacock:


it was love at first sight for me and this polish! peacock is a gorgeous, richly pigmented teal that was perfectly opaque in two thin coats. when i get a chance i plan to compare this to illamasqua muse and a couple of other teals i have. gahhh i can't stop staring at this color; it's so beautiful.

probably my second favorite of the aa polishes i swatched was mount royal:


unfortunately, this photo looks quite different in different browsers, and i have no idea which version most of you are seeing. :/ please know that mount royal is *not* a straight-up blue creme; rather, it has a purple tone to it. the first time i tried to apply this polish i found it a bit on the thick side, but upon a second attempt it was pretty workable, so i may have to blame user error for this issues i originally had. like peacock, this polish is practically opaque in one coat and perfect in two. quite unique in my collection and really lovely.

i'm still undecided on how i feel about palm springs:


one thing i can say in this polish's favor is that it applied very well for a a pale shade - it was smooth and opaque in two coats, with only a couple of touch-ups needed. i'm not entirely sure who this shade would suit (don't you think it kind of looks like i smeared too-light concealer on my fingertips?)… i need to try it on myself again now that i've chopped my nails. i pretty much always feel better about a polish when i wear it on super-short nails.

and i absolutely hated dynasty on myself, but luckily it'll soon have a good home with a friend of mine:


a dusty light-medium purple in the same general family as opi parlez-vous opi and streetwear jelly, dynasty was less pigmented than the other aa polishes i swatched but still opaque in two coats. unfortunately, wearing this shade reminds me of the reason i got rid of pvo - polishes this color are too close to my skin tone, so they make me look like i've lost circulation to my fingertips or something. if you're ~nc42, i'd steer clear!

part 2 (featuring berry berry, factory gray, office, and poppy) will be up soon, as soon as i have a chance to swatch.

swatch: nails inc. rodeo drive

i fell i love with the rather un-festive notd i wore earlier this week, nails inc. rodeo drive... so much so that i kept it on for four days!

here's how this polish looks in the sun:


and here's how it looks in the shade (this more blue-toned color is what shows up in indoor lighting as well):


please excuse the lotion and poshe residue in these pics, yikes!

rodeo drive is a gorgeous color, just a bit more blue than rescue beauty lounge teal. the formulas of the two polishes are also quite comparable (creamy, pigmented, and fully even in two coats), although i personally find the rbl easier to apply because of its smaller cap. imo, while the two colors aren't exact dupes, they are close enough that most people won't need both... i'll do a comparison when i get back to new york!

bf says: "this is a nice polish named after a gross road in a bad city."

swatch: sally hansen nail prisms turquoise opal

please excuse how unbelievable crappy these photos are. not only was it gray and rainy all day, but my camera has also started refusing to go into macro mode. argh!!! hopefully once we have a bit more sunlight here these problems will resolve themselves.






(can you believe that last pic is of the same polish?!)

this is one coat of turquoise opal over one coat of wet 'n' wild black creme. bc is such a pain to use, thanks to its horribly floppy and imprecise brush, but i've been using it for layering 'cause i'm hesitant to overuse my booooooooosh lest i run out. i should've bought nine million boosh backups during sephora f&f!

i hate to tag turquoise opal as a duochrome when it actually flashes teal, red-purple, lilac, blue, and on very rare occasions (like for half a second under my desk lamp last night), amber-gold... a very unique polish. it's a little frosty for my taste at times, but once it starts flashing all these amazing (and seemingly unrelated) colors, its frostiness becomes a non-issue in my mind.

bf says: "that's the t-1000 of nail polishes... it's ever-shifting!"

intro and swatch: bb couture night ops

hiii. :) there's such a dearth of darker-skinned bloggers in the nail polish world, so i'm hoping this notd log (i hesitate to call it a blog) will help other girls with my skintone who've struggled to visualize how certain polishes might look on them (btw, i'm ~mac nc42). i collect nails inc, love street wear, hard candy, and urban decay, and am a major sucker for a good vivid pink or orange-red creme.

anyway, here is yesterday's notd, bb couture for men night ops - a beautiful murky deep teal jelly full of microglitter. this photo is of 3 coats in indirect sunlight:

welcome!!