Nails Inc. Victoria & Albert: Swatch Picture and Review

If I recall correctly, Nails Inc. Victoria & Albert is one of the favorites of the red creme queen herself - tobywoo - so you know it has to be good.


And it is! Unfortunately, my picture doesn't do it justice, but Victoria & Albert is a super-smooth, even-flowing, beautiful red creme. When I first wore it, I remember being so impressed with the ease of application and rich pigment of the polish, especially considering that it's quite thin. While V&A was perfect in two coats, it's not quite warm-toned enough to make its way into my very favorites… but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate how lovely and high-quality it is!

OPI Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It: Swatch Picture and Review

From the OPI Australia collection:


Bright, super-orange-toned red! Easy application and nice pigmentation, but for orange-toned reds my heart belongs to OPI Monsooner or Later.

OPI Monsooner or Later: Swatch Picture and Review

I think this is my very favorite red creme. RBL Bangin' and OPI Girls Just Want To Play are up there, but at the end of the day my tan skin makes me prefer my reds orange-toned.


Super bright (maybe too bright for some, but perfect for me), warm-toned, and a dream to apply! What more could I want?

Streetwear Mrs. Claus: Swatch Picture and Review

Rounding out the last of my collection of Streetwear holiday polishes (the others I have are Elf, Grinch, and Merry), here's Streetwear Mrs. Claus!

I was lucky enough to stumble across Mrs. Claus in a dusty with some friends last year. It's a fairly uncommon holiday Streetwear which I'd been hunting for for a while, so I was giddy when it turned up in one of my little bags of 4-for-$1 polishes! Since Mrs. Claus is a jelly, I used 3 coats to get it completely even and was really pleased with the result. So shiny!

Streetwear Merry: Swatch Picture and Review

In my opinion, this is one of the less exciting SW holiday polishes:



Pinkish-red shimmer with a watery formula? Do not want. I bought it to help round out my collection of Streetwear holiday polishes (so far I have Merry, Mrs. Claus, Grinch, and Elf) but as I'm moving away from being a collector and more towards being a minimalist in all aspects of my life, I think I'm getting ready to give this guy a new home.

thanksgiving notd/swatch: nubar raspberry truffle + finger paints holly good time

hi everyone! sorry for the extended absence but my new job and grad school are keeping me very busy (not to mention far from my camera during the daylight hours!). i have a couple of days off for thanksgiving, though, so i thought i'd post pics of the mani i wore for the holiday:


this is two coats of nubar raspberry truffle topped with one coat of fp holly good time (courtesy of my dear friend michelle, since we don't have sally's here!). i was really impressed by the smooth application of the nubar as well as how dense the glitter was in the fp. in fact, my original intention was to do a holly good time gradient over raspberry truffle, but i had to abandon that idea once i realized the glitter in holly good time was offering far too good of coverage for that to work. it's hard to tell in this picture, but holly good time is also super sparkly, and i look forward to wearing it again (perhaps layered over a different polish, perhaps solo) closer to christmas.

boy says: "you can't focus your eyes on it. it's just too much."

hope all of you who celebrate had a nice thanksgiving!

swatch: opi girls just want to play

i love this! from the 2008 holiday in toyland collection:


girls just want to play is brighter and more pink-toned irl and has a totally fabulous formula (two coats seen above). i can see myself wearing this again and again!

swatch: opi paint my moji-toes red

i got this on sale for $1.99 at ricky's... hurray!


two coats. this polish was an absolute dream to apply - it glided on soooo smoothly. the color of this photo unfortunately varies a bit from browser to browser, so if it looks salmon or quite muted to you please know that that isn't an accurate representation. irl, paint my moji-toes red is a pink-red that's quite vibrant.

comparison swatch: rescue beauty lounge bangin' and opi red my fortune cookie

if you missed the recent rbl surf collection pre-sale or didn't want to shell out the big bucks for those polishes, you're in luck... because opi red my fortune cookie is pretty much a perfect dupe for rbl bangin'.


in this photo, i have bangin' on my index (leftmost) and ring fingers and red my fortune cookie on my middle and pinky (rightmost) fingers. please note that some browsers distort colors and that rmfc and bangin' are both bright warm reds... neither is orange at all irl.

in terms of color: in indoor/dim lighting, these two polishes are perfect matches. in bright lighting, bangin' appears to be just a hair more vividly red than red my fortune cookie, but i had to really look to make out this tiny difference.

in terms of formula/application: i would describe the formula of red my fortune cookie as great, and the formula of bangin' as absolutely perfect. both of these polishes went on very smoothly and had great pigmentation (requiring two coats for total opacity), but the formula of bangin' is just… sooooo unbelievably buttery smooth.

swatch: opi red my fortune cookie

here's another polish i picked up from opi's recent hong kong collection - red my fortune cookie:


i love warm, bright reds, so rmfc is a great addition to my collection (please note that while this color looks orange-toned in some browsers, that isn't accurate). its application is good as well: not only is it thin yet pigmented enough to be opaque in two coats, but it also has opi's awesome pro-wide brush, which helps me to do a neat mani in just a few minutes.

this polish is also a nearly perfect dupe for rbl bangin' - i'll post a comparison later.

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: american apparel downtown la + china glaze medallion

after i got bored with my aa downtown la mani, i topped it with chg medallion (fine gold glitter and larger holographic glitter in a clear base) to give it a fresh look. please keep in mind that these photos were taken right when i woke up and in the middle of a storm… in other words, not in the best lighting conditions. i can only imagine how blingy this manicure would be in full sunlight!


and here's a blurred close-up to show how glittery and fun this look is:


love! i needed something sparkly to cheer myself up in this gross weather, and this fit the bill perfectly. for the base color, i used two coats of downtown la, and for the glitter effect i used one coat of medallion on my ring and pinky fingers and two coats on my index and middle fingers. just a warning, medallion is a pain to remove, but i'm sure the foil method would get it off quickly and painlessly!

swatch: rescue beauty lounge chinoise

i'm planning on posting today's notd (american apparel downtown la) in the next installment of my swatches/reviews of the aa line of polishes, so for now here's a picture of what in my mind is a somewhat similar red creme - rbl chinoise. please note that the color accuracy of this photo varies from browser to browser - for your reference, chinoise is a cherry red with no orange tones at all.


this polish had smooth application and was opaque in two coats, but for some reason i'm not wowed. first, i think i prefer the creamier, super-pigmented rbl colors - shades like teal, mismas, and orbis non sufficit. second, i think opi does many red cremes that are every bit as good as this polish but come with a much lower price tag. and finally, i just don't think cherry red is my preferred shade of red polish, especially for my skin tone. i like for my red polishes to really pop, and so i gravitate toward uber-bright reds with orange undertones - for example, opi monsooner or later.

american apparel polish swatches, part 2: berry berry, factory gray, office, and poppy

here are a few more swatches of american apparel's new polishes - my first set of swatches (with dynasty, mount royal, palm springs, and peacock) is here if you missed it earlier.

given that i'm a huge fan of bright warm-toned cremes, it's no surprise that i love poppy:


this is unfortunately another picture that looks quite off in firefox (way too orange) but normal in safari - it's a vivid red-orange in the same family as opi cajun shrimp. pigmentation on this is great, requiring only two coats for nice opacity, and i know i'll be wearing this polish a lot come spring and summer. excuse the smudged ring finger!

office looked better on my skin tone than i expected, although my favorite mint green is still bb couture laguna lagoon:


this picture is unfortunately off in ff as well (only slightly this time - it's just a bit too light and not blue enough). office was a bit less pigmented than the other aa polishes i tried, requiring three coats for opacity instead of the two the rest required. in a lot of the swatches i've seen this has a strong grayish tinge, but that's not detectable on me. as i look at it against my skin right now, it appears to be pretty much a plain mint green… which unfortunately makes it a lot less interesting than i'd expected!

factory gray changes quite a bit depending on the lighting. sometimes it's a standard gray creme...


while other times it has a strong purple tone (which is again, unfortunately, only really showing up in safari):


factory gray, like dynasty from my last post, is less pigmented than many of the other aa cremes i swatched but is still opaque in two coats. i find it quite unusual and interesting when it has that purple hue to it, but when it's just a regular gray it seems pretty boring to me. this may be because i don't much care for grays on myself, though… i mean, i'm sure poppy has lots of close dupes but you don't see me calling that one boring! ;)

and finally, i loved berry (edit: the aa website is now calling this "berries," but i could've sworn it used to say "berry berry"? weird.):


this polish seems to me like it should be dupable… but whatever the dupe is, i can't think of it! i don't have much to say about this one except that it applied very smoothly and was quite pigmented (perfect in two coats), and i can't wait to wear it as a full mani!

i plan to go back to posting my regular notds for a bit now, and then when i get a bit of free time, i'll add a third part to this american apparel series with some comp swatches. :)

swatch: essie ruby slippers

last week i wore essie ruby slippers to a holiday party with my bf... and i loved it so much i kept it on for five days straight!


this is my hg red glitter polish, and i think it's absolutely perfect for the holiday season. it strikes me as much more complex than the widely popular chg ruby pumps, although having never owned the latter polish, i can't say for sure.

ruby slippers has a jelly base so it does require a number of coats for opacity (i used three for the mani above), but it's quite easy to work with. and one coat of seche vite was enough to make the finish glassy and totally smooth!

swatch: zoya blair

a quickie post, since i'm running out the door:


a gorgeous example of the "lit from within" family of polishes many people love.

swatch: zoya dakota

hi everyone! this will be a quick one, as i'm totally swamped today. here's a swatch of the polish i'm currently wearing as my pedi, zoya dakota:


that's three coats with some touch-ups. the formula on this one is nice and thin without being watery; if you're scared of vnl, however, do be forewarned that dakota is a jelly and will thus require some work to get totally opaque. also, for some reason this polish looks much darker on my feet than it does on my hands...

bf says: "that looks like blood."

swatch: maybelline juicy tomato

from the archives, since i kept astra on for a second day...


as a polish newbie, i fell in love with maybelline juicy tomato only to be disappointed when i learned it was discontinued and htf. however, a sweet nb friend sent it my way recently, making my orangey-red-loving self very happy. it's much more of a jelly than i expected - normally i prefer cremes for maximum opacity, but on juicy tomato i don't mind the jelly factor as it makes the polish soo impossibly glossy. the above picture is three coats.

swatch: china glaze stroll

a photo from the archives... stroll is a gorgeous crimson jelly jam-packed with microglitter. here it is with three coats:

p.s. nails night out was a blast! will post pics of the polishes i got as soon as i have a chance.