More Swap Goodies

I was lucky to do a second international swap late last year, with Maria of Un poco de esmaltes. In a twist, she was traveling to the US so I shipped to her at her hotel and she shipped to me via the US Postal Service, which meant less expense and customs hassle. She packed a lot of lovelies into this cute bag:



She also wrote a note telling me which brands came from which countries, so I grouped the bottles that way for their photos, starting with the ones from Brazil. Left to right: Risque Color Effect in Granulado Rose and Nuvem de Paete, Linha Degradê da DNA Italy ombre kit in Lilás, Hits Phenomena in Air Glow, Miss Rôse unnamed color in an adorable apple bottle.



Brands from Columbia: Masglo in Brillo Escarlata and Vogue Fantastic Efecto Tornasol in Centella.



Brands from Argentina: Diva Duo Chrome Lilacblue, Cuvage 50, EV Arandano Dorado, Desseo Fantasia 1, Dulce Diallo Japon Okinawa, Amodil Spiagge (not sure of shade name), Laqueada in Clone Wars.



I couldn't resist the apple bottle, so started with the Miss Rôse, which is an autumnal orange creme. I used two coats.



The cap of this is unusual, too—sort of a wing shape.



I added two coats of Risque Granulado Rose to three of my fingers because glitter is usually a good idea.



I was curious about the DNA ombre kit, so tried that next. I first put the creme shade on; this was nicely pigmented and only took two coats, which was great for a light color like this. Then I added the sheer purple topcoat: one coat on my index finger building to four coats on my pinky. The topcoat was very thin so even adding four coats to the two of the creme didn't make that nail look too overloaded with polish.



I topped two coats of the Vogue duochrome shimmer with one of the Masglo glitter. I unfortunately didn't get a really good picture of the combination but hope this shot shows how the glitter blended with the brown/rust side of the duochrome shift and contrasted but still coordinated with the olive green side.



The black and white Laqueada glitter topper went perfectly over a base of two coats the Cuvage hot purple creme.



I finished my swatching session with the two milky glitters, putting two coats of the Dulce Diallo on my index finger and three coats of the Desseo on my other digits.



Even in retirement, I still run out of time to swatch before I run out of polish, but I hope to try the other lovelies from this swap one day soon.

SinfulColors CitrusTwist Swatches and Shenanigans

SinfulColors has certainly been keeping me busy swatching. First there were the Valentine and St. Patrick's glitters, then the opalescent toppers, and today I've got the three jelly shimmers from the CitrusTwist display: Ring the Belini (yellow orange), Zest of Times (hot pink), and Horizon Shine (red orange).



I tried these first on their own. Top to bottom: Ring the Belini, Horizon Shine, Zest of Times (3 coats of each of these); pinky has a layer cake of Ring the Belini, Horizon Shine, Zest of Times, and Ring the Belini. You can see that these can be worn on their own (though with my skintone, I likely won't with Ring the Belini, but it sure is fun to use it to layer with). They don't all have quite the same finish; Ring the Belini has shimmer and a big helping of microflakies, while Zest of Times has a more balanced mix of shimmer and even smaller microflakies, and Horizon Shine is mostly shimmer with only a scattering of microflakies.





Given how well these CitrusTwist colors layered with each other, I was excited to see how they'd look over different base colors. I reached first for Sally Hansen Insta Dri Enchantment (which was still hanging around from the SinfulColors Opalescent swatching session). I did two coats of that on all my fingers to start. Top to bottom below: Enchantment alone, plus 1 coat of Ring the Belini, plus 1 coat of Horizon Shine, plus 1 coat of Zest of Times. The combination with Ring the Belini yielded an orange shade that looks very weird with my skintone but I can see looking really good on other complexions. The other two pairings were quite pretty, I thought.





I figured the Sally Hansen shades had had enough fun with SinfulColors for a while, so pulled out the Bonita All Summer Long set to serve as bases for the rest of my swatching session. None of the Bonitas are labelled with shade names.



I gave Ring the Belini a chance to shine with a more compatible base color, the Bonita pastel yellow creme. I left my index finger with just the two coats of the Bonita, then built up coats of Ring the Belini over that, doing one on my middle finger up to three on my pinky. With a more orange yellow base, this could be the most subtle ombre mani ever.





For my next experiment, I put on two coats of the Bonita green shimmer, then topped with two coats of Ring the Belini on all but my accent ring finger. The SinfulColors really warmed up the green and the golden yellow microflakies and shimmer added so much visual interest. This combination would be perfect for St. Patrick's Day, for sure.





Back to the subtle ombre idea, I made one with a base of the Bonita pastel orange creme, adding coats of SinfulColors Horizon Shine in the 1 on ring to 3 on pinky pattern used above for the Ring the Belini yellow/orange look. It was hard for me to tell much difference between one and three coats over the soft orange base.



The ombre approach was much more effective with the pale orchid creme Bonita and Zest of Times. I could definitely see wearing this as a full mani, though I'm not sure what I'd do on my thumbs. Maybe I'd reverse the order of the fingers and do three coats of Zest of Times alone on my thumbs.



We all learned as kids that red and blue make purple, and I love purple so thought I'd try it with Zest of Times, layering two coats of it over the Bonita pastel blue creme, leaving an accent finger blue to show the transformative effect of the shimmer. This says "Easter candy" to me.





There was one more color left from the Bonita set, so I couldn't let it go untried. I did two coats of this hot pink shimmer, then layered one coat of Ring the Belini, Horizon Shine, and Zest of Times over it on successive nails. This is the same pattern as in the look I did with Sally Hansen Enchantment; Ring the Belini makes a much better for me orange shade over this pinker base.



I had to have a bit more fun before I finished up, so I did quick chunky gradients over the top of the above look, brushing on the CitrusTwist colors that weren't already on each nail. Some of the combinations were more pleasing than others, but all of them made me happy to look at.





I think SinfulColors has done a great job putting out interesting polishes this season. I do wish they'd be clearer on the displays which colors are new/core/repromote/limited edition, but I suppose that's what the internet is for, with an ad hoc army of intelligence specialists who figure this stuff out.

Dark and Mysterious Wet Paint Jellies

Samples provided for review

A few weeks back I shared some pale jellies from Wet Paint Nails and mentioned I'd gotten some other pretties I'd post about later. Well, later is now. Today I'm playing with three of the jellies (also known as top coat glazes) that don't give many hints about their true natures when glimpsed in the bottles: Prepare for Takeoff, Sheer Stockings, and Grape Minds Think Alike.



To start seeing what these three were about, I laid down a base of two coats of Paint Wear Love, a true red creme. I left it alone on my index finger and topped my remaining digits with one coat of each of the mysterious jellies: Prepare for Takeoff on my middle, Sheer Stockings on my ring, and Grape Minds Think Alike on my pinky. Voila—an easy almost-ombre mani!



And look how shiny they are, even without topcoat:



I was curious how these would do on their own, not used as a transforming topcoat, so I grabbed Bluesy Woozy, the pale dusty blue jelly from my last Wet Paint post, along with Prepare for Takeoff, the medium grey, and Sheer Stockings, the black. My first thought was do to a gradient with these, but then I remembered the clouds tutorial from Nailside and thought that would be fun to try with these. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I did two coats of Bluesy Woozy as a base, then did the clouds with single thick coats of Prepare for Takeoff and Sheer Stockings.





I could have put clear topcoat on my clouds to even out the bumps from layering the polishes like that, but instead tried toppping them with Carmel Breeze, one of the Wet Paint Special Effects polishes (which you may recall from this post or this one or also this one). I love the blue glow this added to my sky, and it even shifted from less to more intense depending on how I angled my fingers to the light.





Grape Minds Think Alike is a deep purple jelly. It's perfectly wearable on its own at two coats, though I couldn't resist adding Wet 'n' Wild Rebel Without a Claus on an accent nail.





Since Grape Minds Think Alike built up so easily, I wasn't sure how good it would be as a topper, but I needn't have worried. I added a coat of the Wet 'n' Wild glitter to my non-accent nails and then topped with another coat of Grape Minds and got this beautiful purple jelly sandwich.





Despite having already had some snowy days, I'm not ready to let autumn go, so aimed for a warm fall-appropriate look for my last experiment. I started with two coats of Grape Minds Think Alike, then added one of Raincoat Slicker, the yellow Wet Paint jelly, turning the purple to a deep rich brown, and finished with one coat of Stardust, another of the Wet Paint Special Effects.





I especially liked this combination in low direct light; I would probably would have worn it as my Thanksgiving mani if I'd been doing this swatching before the holiday.



You can find all the Wet Paint polishes (and their social media links) on the Wet Paint website. Jellies and Special Effects are $8 a bottle and Bases are $6. I hope someday they branch out into chunky glitters, as their jellies are so good with them.

The Wet Paint polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

Zoya Ignite Collection Swatches and Nail Art

Sample provided for review

For their main offering for Fall 2014, Zoya has two six-piece collections: Entice is all cremes, while Ignite is all shimmers. I'm starting with Ignite today, because shimmers are more interesting. (Next week I'll share Entice.) Left to right: Autumn, India, Teigen, Sansa, Yuna, Remy.



Of these six, Yuna intrigued me the most. It has a smoky slate grey base with gold shimmer. I did two coats for my swatch; it was nearly a one-coater, though.





Look how gorgeous Yuna is in direct low light:



My second favorite from Ignite is Remy, a deep, deep turqoise-leaning blue with teal shimmer. This was two coats as well. I think of Remy as the fall/winter Charla.





In direct low light, Remy goes even darker and more blue:



Remember this past summer when I was putting Zoya Bubbly collection on all the things? I'm not done. Here's Muse over Remy, with one finger left untopped for comparison purposes—I love this combination:



The other four shimmers in Ignite seemed to work well together, like autumnal ombre-esque Skittles, so that's how I swatched them. Top to bottom (2 coats of each): Autumn, Teigen, India, and Sansa.



Autumn is a deep orange with gold shimmer. Teigen has a berry base with gold and red shimmer. India is a wine red with orange and red shimmer. Sansa is deep purple with gold shimmer.



Low light shot of these four beauties:



I liked this quartet so much that I decided I wanted to try putting all four on each nail, so after taking off the Skittles, I grabbed a narrow brush and got to work. I put one stripe of Autumn down the center of each nail, then flanked it with Teigen, then India, then Sansa. I didn't want to have to go back over the stripes and probably mess them up in the process, so I tried to lay the polish on thick, and mostly succeeded, though there were some thin spots. I added topcoat to smooth things out when I was done. I was kind of fascinated with this look, angling my hand this way and that and watching the stripes blend more into each other then show up more distinctly depending on how the light was hitting my nails.





Much as I liked the stripes, I knew I had more swatching to do and had to take them off. Doing more Bubbly-ing cheered me right up. Top to bottom: Autumn plus Sansa plus Binx, Autumn plus Alma, Teigen plus Binx, and Teigen plus Muse. I'd wear any of these combos as a full mani.









Zoya polishes are available on the Zoya website for $9 a bottle. Follow the Zoya Facebook page for notice of sales and specials as well as plenty of swatches. Many (all?) Ulta stores also carry Zoya.

The Ignite collection polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider.