Zoya Matte Velvet Collection

Sample provided for review

Zoya has re-released six of their Matte Velvet colors for Holiday 2014. I knew there were plenty of swatches of these out on the internet already, so I didn't feel guilty about jumping right into doing nail art with them, using all the shades in this stained glass look:



Dovima, the black one, served as my base. Once it was dry, which did not take very long, I put three strips of striping tape across each nail, arranging them in a sort of skewed capital letter A arrangement.



I then used one of my medium width nail art brushes to fill in the spaces around the tape with the other five shades: Loredana (grey), Posh (red), Harlow (plum), Savita (purple), and Verushka (green). I could have been a little more careful to get into all the tight corners and not clump up polish along the tape in some areas, but for my first go at stained glass nails, I'm pretty pleased.



Before I moved on to my next experiment, I added glossy topcoat to this look. That definitely smoothed out some of the imperfections, but wasn't quite as interesting to look at. Maybe next time I'll try shiny "leading" and matte "glass".



Since I love purple and dotting, it seemed natural to put on two coats of Savita and adorn her with dots of Harlow and Loredana.





I liked this combination glossy as well.



For my last look, I laid down a base of two coats of Loredana and then made flowers with Verushka, Harlow, and Posh. Yes, these blooms look like a child could have made them, but if I keep practicing, I'll get better at freehand painting. I may never reach the heights my friend Maria does, but I can keep hoping.





Shiny flowers:





These are available now on the Zoya website for $9 each. You can follow Zoya on Facebook for more information about all their collections and sales and so on.

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

Smitten Polish Current Limited Editions

Over the weekend, I experienced the entirely too rare overlap of sunshine and swatching time, so I took advantage of that to try some Smitten Polish limited edition shades while they're still current.

The Halloween Duo has Fire Burn, an orange jelly packed with sparkly microglitter, and Cauldron Bubble, a black jelly just as packed with super fine holo microglitter. These are available separately, but you are a stronger person than me if you can get just one (and also if you can read the names without hearing the Frog Choir singing in your head). I alternated the colors on my nails, using two coats of each, then added topcoat to speed dry time so I could get to taping off narrow triangles to be filled in with the opposite color (I used regular Scotch transparent tape, putting it on the back of my hand first to make it less sticky and thus less likely to mess with the base layer). As noted in the shop listings, these polishes like topcoat; I put on one layer, let it dry, then put on a second to ensure smooth shininess.





Both of these turned up the sparkle in direct indoor light:



Outside in the sun, there was even more sparkle plus pops of rainbow colors from the holo glitter:





Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble was one of those manis that I wish I'd done as the last look in a swatching session, as I really didn't want to take it off, but remove it I did so I could sample Out of the Darkness, a color Smitten Polish created for Suicide Prevention Month; $6 of the purchase price of each bottle sold until the end of October is being donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. This is a purple jelly with teal and purple holo, and color shifting glitter.



I used two coats of color plus two layers of topcoat for my swatch. Of course I loved this, what with the purple and the glitter and the pretty.





Here's Out of the Darkness in direct indoor light:



In the sunshine, even more colors showed up to play:







As of the time I'm typing this, all three of these shades are still available in the Smitten Polish shop. You can follow the Smitten Polish Facebook page for swatches and information about restocks and such.

OPI Mustang 50th Anniversary Collection

There was never any doubt that I was going to buy the OPI Mustang collection when I saw it—I've lived in SE Michigan with its abundance of auto company headquarters and plants and suppliers pretty much my whole adult life, and Mr. Karen and I had a Mustang for years that I enjoyed zooming around in whenever it was my turn to drive it. Thus when I spotted the display at Ulta, I snapped up all six colors: The Sky's My Limit, Queen of the Road, 50 Years of Style, Angel with a Leadfoot, Girls Love Ponies, and Race Red. The overwrap on the handles is printed with the iconic pony logo, which I thought was a very nice detail.



I started my swatching journey with the black shimmer, Queen of the Road, and the hot pink creme, Girls Love Ponies. I did two coats of Queen of the Road on most of my digits, and three of Girls Love Power on my accent nail (it would have been two coats, but I dinged it before it was dry). I completed the look with racing strips of Queen of the Road on the accent nail, adding topcoat to finish things off.



In my lightbox and regular room light, the shimmer in Queen of the Road was pretty subtle. It came out a little more in direct light (below); I didn't have a chance to see it in the sun.



I paired up Race Red, the orange red cremes and Angel with a Leadfoot, the white creme next. My accent nail is three coats of Angel with a funky French tip of Race Red, and the rest of my nails are two coats of Race Red with white striping tape for that racy look. I also added topcoat to seal the tape down.





That left two colors, both shimmers: the turquoise The Sky's My Limit and the gold 50 Years of Style. I used two coats of each, no topcoat. The Sky's My Limit is a flecked shimmer with hints of gold in it, while 50 Years of Style is a more traditional finish, complete with some brushstrokes. 50 Years of Style would most likely benefit from sponging, like I did with Your Web or Mine from the OPI The Amazing Spider-Man collection back in the day, but it's wearable without going to that extent as long as you're careful when applying it so your brushstrokes all line up nicely.





I did a couple of quick comparisons with these. First, I was curious how the black would compare to the one from the recent Gwen Stefani collection, 4 In the Morning. I knew they weren't dupes, since 4 In the Morning was a satin finish, but I didn't let that stop me. I'm sure you can tell which is which below; Queen of the Road is the shiny one. Since the shimmer in these doesn't show in indirect light and I had no sun, you can't see how the shimmer in 4 In the Morning is more microglittery than that in Queen of the Road, which has some sparklies but also has some hints of frostiness.



I was really, really interested to see how The Sky's the Limit compared to Zoya Charla, the turquoise shimmer that launched what felt like a hundred dupes. In the bottle, I could see some strong similarities.



On the nail, they were more different than I expected; Charla is a lot greener, plus its shimmer has bigger particles. Top to bottom: Zoya, OPI, Zoya, OPI.



Whenever OPI does one of these tie-in collections, I always think about what colors I would have chosen if I'd been in charge, like when I wanted red, white, yellow, and black instead of all the pinks in Vintage Minnie Mouse. For this Mustang collection, I mostly agree with the choices. while it's not a popular car color, gold is a natural for celebrating 50 years, so I can see that. Red, white, and black are popular car colors, so those make sense, too. The turquoise is a stretch; it's a pretty polish, but I can't think of any Mustang I've ever seen that matches. I would have much rather they have done a multichrome to mimic the Mystichrome paint that Ford offered on the 2004 SVT. Sure, only about a 1000 of those were made, but man, they're gorgeous. (See some images here in this Google search.) But if I can't have a multichrome, I'm okay with this turquoise. It's the pink I really have a problem with. The pink is not a pretty shimmer like the turquoise; the pink is a plain old creme. If there had to be a pink to ensure that customers who only want to wear traditionally girly colors have something to buy, it should have been a shade that actually appeared on Mustangs. And yes, there were production Mustangs that came in pink; it hasn't happened since the early 70s, but this is an anniversary collection, a perfect reason to look back. None of those pinks were anywhere near as saturated and bright as the polish here. Of course I would have been delighted if the collection had included a match for the Canary Yellow of the Mustang I drove, but I can understand why that didn't make the cut; yellow nails are a hard sell. Any colors you would have liked to see in this collection?

SinfulColors Full Throttle Swatches and Comparisons

I was fortunate to receive review bottles of three of the shades from the SinfulColors Full Throttle collection. Before I had a chance to try them, I saw the rest of the collection (as shown in my recent display post and had to buy the other two new shades as well. Left to right: Rain Rubber, Burn Rubber, Race Rubber, Red Tried, Rubber Ball. The first three are the bottles I got for review; the other two I purchased.



You'll notice the stickers on the caps of bottles I got at the store; all five of these shades are what SinfulColors is calling rubberized textures. You might also notice that I've started writing SinfulColors as one word; I have it straight from their PR firm that that's the correct way to do it. Good to know.

I started my exploration of Full Throttle with the brightest color in the bunch, Burn Rubber, an orange that leans toward the yellow orange end of the spectrum. My swatch is two coats. At first I didn't see any texture at all, but as it dried, some tiny bumps started to appear. These bumps are much less dense than those in the previous textured polishes from SinfulColors, the Crystal Crushes, and there's no shimmer or microglitter here, either, just pure color.





When I first heard that SinfulColors was doing a rubberized finish, my first thought was they'd be like the Orly Plastix collection from 2010. Obviously they are not, as the Orly predated the whole texture craze and were not bumpy, but that didn't stop me from doing a comparison anyway. Here's how Burn Rubber stacks up against Orly Old School Orange (yes, despite saying back in 2010 when I reviewed Purple Heather that I didn't think I'd be getting the other colors in the collection, I eventually did). I used three coats of the Orly. No topcoat on either, of course. SinfulColors' interpretation of rubber is definitely shinier and bumpier than Orly's.



I next reached for Race Rubber, a deep burgundy. I left Burn Rubber on my ring finger as an accent nail and added a racing stripe of the burgundy. I should have realized that tape and texture are not the greatest combination, but my stripe still turned out pretty good. One coat of Race Rubber would have been fine for coverage, but I did two to amp up the texture.



I was curious how the SinfulColors rubberized texture would compare to a regular textured creme, so I grabbed two of the Milani colors from their fall release (which I never saw in stores but ordered online). Left to right: Milani Beautiful Bordeaux, SinfulColors Race Rubber, Milani Charming Carmine, SinfulColors Race Rubber (two coats of each).



Rain Rubber is a bright blue. I used two coats of it, then added double stripes to my index finger. I should of used tape for the stripes despite the bumpiness, as freehand work is not my strong suit.



I finished up wearing the last two colors together, putting Rubber Ball on my index and middle fingers and Red Tired on my ring and pinky. There were two coats as well. Rubber Ball is a classic hot pink, while Red Tired is a slightly orange-leaning classic red.



This collection is available at Rite Aid now and is scheduled to roll out to Walgreeens next month (though I have seen at least one Walgreens who already has it, in that big Declare Your Style sidekick I shared in my last display post). These retail for $1.99, same as regular SinfulColors. My top two picks are Rain Rubber and Burn Rubber; they're both bright colors that feel perfect for summer to me. This finish isn't quite like any of the other textures in my collection, either, so they're interesting from that perspective, too.

You can follow SinfulColors on social media for more colors and swatches. They're @SinfulColors_NP on Twitter and SinfulColors Professional on Facebook.

Three of the 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.

Actual NOTD: Festive for the 4th

I have just a few photos of what's on my nails right now for our Independence Day holiday. I put on a white base last night, 3 coats of Milani High Speed Fast Dry White on the Spot (which I did not like as well as my beloved and discontinued Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White). This morning, I put striping tape down the center of each nail and painted Cult Nails Kiss on one side and Essie Mesmerize on the other, then peeled off the tape leaving a white racing stripe. Then I went to town with my red, white, and blue glitters; each hand got a different set of five.

Glitters on my right hand, thumb to pinky: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Beach Ball (very goopy base on this one), Funky Fingers Fireworks, Oopsie Daisies 1776 Revisited, FingerPaints Red White & Hue (same as the Sally Hansen by the same name but this had nicer base consistency), Barry M Jewel Britannia.



Left hand: Pure Ice Freedom, Love My Nails Glory, Oopsie Daisies 1776, Girly Bits Vive la Revolution, Fergie 4th of July Parade.



And here's an outtake from me trying to get both hands in the same photo using the timer on my camera.



Hope those of you celebrating this weekend are having fun and staying safe, and I hope those of you not celebrating are doing the same!

Pahlish Zhang Qian's Expedition and Yu Lan Festival

Recently I was fortunate to get two Pahlish colors from the Voyage to the East collection for review.

Yu Lan Festival is an olive green with pink and purple shimmer.



I swatched Yu Lan Festival at two coats. I added topcoat even though it didn't really need it because I'd wear it with topcoat and thought it best to show it that way (also, I was feeling relaxed because I didn't have four or five or fourteen polishes lined up right behind this one to be swatched).



The shimmer in Yu Lan Festival is on the subtle side but definitely doesn't disappear on the nail.



Zhang Qian's Expedition is a light stone beige with charcoal flakies, copper microflakies, and brown shimmer.



Like Yu Lan Festival, I swatched Zhang Qian's Expedition at two coats plus topcoat.



On the nail, the charcoal flakies dominated but the other shimmer was visible (more to my eye than my camera).



I wasn't ready to put away these colors at this point, so I did some nail art. I really have got to make more time for that sort of thing because it's so much fun. First making sure Zhang Qian was dry enough to take it, I taped off points from the base of my nails and painted them with Yu Lan Festival. After I removed the tape, I added dots of Zhang Qian in the triangles, then made dots of Yu Lan bordering them. Then I added some topcoat to smooth things out. voilà, fancy nails!





Since I always like to see mrsrexy's progress shots at Canadian Nail Fanatic, I thought I'd share some of my own. Here's step 1, the pointy triangles:



Step 2, light dots:



Step 3, dark dots and done:



Both of these polishes are available in the Pahlish shop as of right now, along with the other color in the collection, Shilin Stone Forest, a blue-leaning grey shimmer; the trio is even on sale for $7 per full size bottle (.5 fl. oz.) There are a lot of other lovelies there, too, at $9 a bottle.

The 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.