China Glaze Sea Spray: Swatch Picture

Sea Spray is a polish I wasn't expecting to like quite as much as I did! Normally I avoid cooler-toned colors, but this grayed-out pale blue was surprisingly pretty on my skin tone, I thought:


Sea Spray was opaque in 2 coats, but I wound up doing 3 just for complete evenness. This polish has an almost imperceptible pearly shimmer that gives it a beautiful softness. I will definitely be wearing this one again!

Nails Inc. Kabaret: Swatch Picture and Review

Knowing of my love for Nails Inc. (and its limited availability here in the US… although that's starting to change a bit with part of the Nails Inc. range coming to Sephora!), a sweet friend in the UK threw Kabaret in a parcel as an extra:



I like the smokiness of the color, but unfortunately this shade was thin and required 4 coats for opacity.

swatch: lippmann across the universe

i'm scheduling this post for monday morning, but right now it's sunday night and i'm frantically finishing a giant research & practice project, so i'll let the polish speak for itself:


and a close-up:


three coats of this gorgeous dark blue jelly with blue regular glitter, blue hexagonal glitter, and green hexagonal glitter.

boy says: "embedded hexagonal glitters. marvelous."

streetwear midnight and streetwear fx flash (blue version): swatch pictures and review

for today installment of streetwear saturdays, i started with three coats of sw midnight, a glowy dark blue shimmer:


i'm not really a fan of blue shimmers (well, any shimmers, but blue shimmers in particular), so i decided to top this mani with a little glitter to make it more my style. here's sw midnight with one coat of sw fx flash (the blue version) on top:


full disclosure: i got this idea from a gorgeous mani done by another np lover... afraid i can't take credit for it! while i like the blue version of fx flash well enough, it's the green/chameleon version that i really love. for pics of that polish, please check out my posts here and here.

swatch: nails inc. belgrave place

nails inc. belgrave place (not to be confused with nails inc. belgrave square, a shimmery pink) is amazing! it's a beautiful, vivid, super-glossy blurple jelly:


this polish totally, totally rules. depending on the lighting conditions, it ranges from a purple with strong blue undertones to a deep, rich blue to a shiny, gorgeous vampy. (my pic might be a bit too blue in some browsers; sorry about that!) a particularly great thing about belgrave place is that while it's a jelly, it doesn't come along with the annoying side effect of most jellies: vnl (visible nail line). instead, it was opaque in three coats.

rescue beauty lounge surf collection swatches: 360, bangin', and diddy mow

what better way to come back from my little blogging break than with the latest collection from my absolute favorite polish brand, rescue beauty lounge? the spring/summer surf collection is now available again for pre-order through this wednesday, april 7, so i thought i'd share my swatches for those of you who are debating whether or not to take the plunge on these.

by the way, the formula on all of these polishes is absolutely perfect. creamy, smooth, buttery, pigmented... exactly what i expect from rbl. each of these polishes was close to opaque in one coat and was perfect in two.

diddy mow is a completely unique and seriously cool blend of gray and green. i can see myself reaching for this polish again and again and again come fall:


here's a close-up of diddy mow to show its secret shimmer:


360 is a muted medium aqua that's very pretty. it's slightly darker than what i'd normally consider a summery color, but it works:


the secret shimmer in 360 is slightly stronger than the secret shimmer in diddy mow - here's a close-up:


and finally, bangin' is an amazingly bright warm red creme and my current notd. i know many are passing on this color because it seems dupey, but i consider bangin' to be the ultimate, most beautifully pigmented version of my favorite polish color. some browsers are doing funny things to this pic, so please know that this is pure red, not orange at all:


okay, basketball needs my attention again. gordon hayward is so boyishly adorable; i want to fix him a grilled cheese sandwich or something. maybe bring him a glass of chocolate milk.

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: opi suzi says feng shui

from opi's recent hong kong collection. from the same collection i also got jade is the new black, panda-monium pink, and red my fortune cookie, all of which i'll hopefully be posting in the near future!


i'm not normally the biggest fan of medium blues, but i do like this one more than i like most others, probably because of its dusty/darkened quality. application on this was smooth, and the polish required two coats to reach opacity.

bf says: "IDEAL BLUE!"

swatch: china glaze dorothy who?

my bf and i are going to go see the new alice in wonderland movie tonight, for which i meant to wear opi mad as a hatter... but alas, i forgot and put chg dorothy who? on instead!


depending on what browser you're using to view this pic, the polish may be a bit deeper and more vibrant irl. i do like dorothy who?, but unfortunately, after having worn opi absolutely alice i can't fully love the former polish, as it pales in comparison. of course, the two polishes are certainly not dupes, but when i think "amazing blue glitter" it's aa that immediately comes to mind! the consistency of this polish was quite good; the only note i have is that because of its jelly base, it did require three thick coats (plus a few touch-ups) for total opacity.

bf says: "dorothy who? dorothy YOU!"

swatch: opi absolutely alice

from opi's recent alice in wonderland collection, tied to the movie of the same name. i edited this photo to make the color of the polish more accurate, so please rest assured that my skin isn't actually red in real life.


i didn't expect to have the reaction to this polish that i did. normally i avoid all but the darkest blues and steer clear of glitter in a clear base, but i'm absolutely in love with absolutely alice! and i'm thrilled that it pairs blue and gold glitter - not only do i find the combination of blue and silver to be a bit played out, but gold also works much better on my skin tone than silver does. photos can't do justice to how incredibly sparkly this polish is; for example, when i wore this it was gray and snowing here and yet my nails were still twinkling.

while i chose to do four coats, this polish was all but completely opaque in three. for maximum glassy shine, i then topped aa with a thick coat of wet 'n' wild clear polish as well as a thick coat of seche vite.

bf says: "is that a lot of coats? it seems like a lot of coats."

swatch: bb couture impact driver

from the "tools for men" collection (i know, i know):


this polish had great application and pigmentation (this is two coats) - it flowed onto the nail beautifully and was easy to control. while i love the dusty blue color, this polish isn't ultimately for me because it has shimmer and i'm almost exclusively a creme and glitter girl. if you like it, though, it's available at overall beauty.

bf says: "that has a hint of shimmer... no, sparkles. is it sparkles? a hint of glitter?"

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: misa on the edge

a gorgeous, smooth, creamy medium-dark blue with wonderful pigmentation. this photo is of two coats:




i tried to do a comp of this with nails inc. the serpentine, but the pics didn't come out well (on the edge wound up looking practically neon, wtf?), so a description will have to do. the two polishes have equally wonderful formulas/application and are both opaque in two effortless coats. on the edge, however, is a purer blue, while the serpentine is dustier, like it's had a bit of dark gray or dark purple added to it. i prefer the serpentine (i find dusty colors more interesting than pure ones), but only slightly so.

bf says: "that looks like a liquid still, like it hasn't dried yet." (and people say poshe isn't shiny! ;))

in other news, just submitted my list for the nb top 20... can't wait for saturday!

swatch: nails inc. the serpentine

now *this* had the amazing nails inc. formula that i love. two coats to total creamy, opaque perfection.

a rich, deep blue with a hint of dustiness...

under the fluorescent lights at work today, it was a simpler/more straightforward dark blue creme, but still gorgeous:

and now, i'm off to nails night out nyc! will report back in my next post.

swatch: l'oreal ocean

all right, i made a major mess of today's notd (nails inc. little venice) - i was polishing while freaking out over top chef, which led to minimal mani focus and major cuticle flooding. so here's another photo from the archives:

i love night sky/outer space polishes like this one (which came to me courtesy of a sweet friend). my favorite of the old laquiresists!

bf says: "that is my favorite glitter."

swatch: l.a. girl rock star punk

i've been wearing this for the past couple of days and i really like it (although i'm about to change to a pink or coral creme, i think - craving a return to my np roots). it's blue with a strong purple duochrome effect and gorgeous large shimmer. this polish went on quite sheer at first, so i used three coats in these photos.

here it is in natural light, on a very overcast day:

and here's a pic taken under my desk lamp that really shows the purple duochrome:

by the way, if you get this at forever 21 (which is where i got mine - trying to delay a cherryculture order as right now i have >100 untrieds), this is simply labeled "blue."