swatch: opi lincoln park after dark suede

hi everyone! sorry for my absence this past week - i got caught up in helping a friend with a cross-country move, yikes! today i'm headed back to california to spend the holidays with my family; while i won't have access to my full stash during my trip, i did prepare a few swatches so that i'll have something to post for the next couple of weeks. and since for the next few weeks i won't be living on the sixth floor of a walk-up apartment building, i may actually be able to do a few outdoor photos as well!

here's a polish i wore as my notd recently, opi lincoln park after dark suede:


imo, opi's suedes are far better than their mattes (which just look like gloppy dried paint to me); their chunky shimmer gives them a unique appearance, and they look very smooth on the nail. they apply smoothly as well - the above swatch is of two coats that went on quite effortlessly and dried very quickly.

unfortunately, when it comes to wear time these polishes fall short. my manicure above was absolutely destroyed after a day and a half - we're talking huge chips and polish rubbed off in swaths on at least half of my nails. boo!

swatch: nails inc. curzon street

this is from the qvc uk autumn/winter set available here.

this polish goes slightly muted/dusty in strong light:


but looks like this in typical indoor lighting:


very smooth application, two coats

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 envy

i absolutely love this super-dark green creme. i know many dislike envy because its green tone disappears somewhat in dimmer lighting, but i'm a big fan of almost-black shades. please excuse the polish i accidentally slopped all over my ring finger:


envy has an unusual texture - on the first coat, it's quite sheer and somewhat grainy-looking, but then it becomes extremely dark and even with just one more coat. the graininess of the first coat of polish suggests that envy would have some shimmer; however there is nothing i hate more than subtle/"secret" shimmer and i promise this polish doesn't have it, not even when right under a bright light.

bf says: "...is that black? black and something else? what color is it?"

ughhh the weather is so gross here, so i'm off to eat mac & cheese in bed while watching entourage. happy saturday!

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: bb couture for men grenade

i'm having pangs of swapper's remorse over this one... but then again, i never wore it in the months that i owned it, so it's good that it went to a better home. a gorgeous olive green absolutely packed with gold shimmer:






very smooth application, three coats. bb couture polishes (including the men's collection) are available at overallbeauty.com.

swatch: illamasqua hectic

for the past couple of days i've been wearing illamasqua hectic, a polish that unfortunately didn't make it to sephora stores stateside. here's how it looks on me in indirect sunlight:


and here's how it looks on me in indoor lighting (i.e. most of the time)... quite a bit more browned:


when i applied the first coat of this polish, i almost wanted to laugh at how horrible it looked with my coloring - it was basically a sickly green version of my skin, really awful. but as i built up a couple more layers of this shade, the color deepened considerably, and i found that it wasn't actually so bad. that said, i wouldn't exactly go running to recommend it to other tan and olive-toned girls...

hectic is a bit more sheer than most of the illamasqua polishes i own, requiring three coats plus some additional touch-ups for opacity. besides the lack of heavy pigmentation, however, the formula was quite good. and now i'm really looking forward to trying out my mac dry martini, as it looks to be quite a bit darker than hectic and will thus hopefully provide a better contrast with my skin.

by the way, if you're in the market for a browned olive green, you have a few options besides hectic: rescue beauty lounge no more war, the aforementioned mac dry martini, and obsessive compulsive cosmetics swamp thing. check out flinty's great comparison of the last two here!

as i mentioned earlier, hectic is not currently available in the united states. i received mine as a gift from a generous friend, but if you're interested in getting one for yourself, hectic and other uk-exclusive polishes can be purchased from illamasqua directly. unfortunately, buying from the illamasqua site is quite pricey - the polishes retail for £12.50 (= $20.63) each, plus shipping to anywhere outside the eu is £7.50 (= $12.38). all that said, illamasqua is currently offering free shipping worldwide on orders of £65 (= $107.25) or more; details on the promotion are available here.

bf says: "are you in the military now? that looks like camouflage."