Perfectly Polished Tips 122 - Carolyn New York Colors Holiday 08

I am a huge fan of Carolyn New York polishes. I got my first ones about a year ago and instantly fell in love. Since then they've branched out with colors and I think have a great line of polishes. They have rubberized caps which I am always a fan of, the brush is small enough for me to comfortably use and not make a mess with, and the formula is great. It's not too thick, or thin, even the lightest colors are not streaky. They wear amazingly too, I got 5 days each out of the last two polishes that I used. The only thing I wasn't in love with when I ordered was the customer service, however since they were just starting out I suppose it was to be expected. Now everything is great and I really recommend this brand overall.

Here is the Holiday 2008 collection:

Holiday Shopping - is pretty orange, maybe not as bright as the photo but I wouldn't call it rosey as the website does. It has gorgeous gold mircoshimmer.

House Party - red with gold glitter, this is my favorite one. It's festive and fun.

New York New Year - purple with subtle yet pretty purple and gold shimmer. This is a must for purple lovers.

Tinsel Town - yellow gold with silver sparkles which give it a foil finish. There are still a few brush strokes but the glitter makes up for it. I go through these phases where I love gold and collect a million, than I realize that gold doesn't look good on me and I pass them along. Well I'm back on that gold kick and I hope I keep them all this time.

Carolyn New York Colors are currently on sale for $5.99 each or you can buy the Holiday Collection as a set for $29.45. Carolyn is also offering free shipping until the end of the year, no code needed.

Perfectly Polished Tips 121 - Essie Love, Beverly Hills xx

This time Essie teamed up with the Beverly Hills Conference Center and Visitors Bureau to create another red nail polish. This polish is unique though in that it is infused with real 24 karat gold. The polish is very beautiful even if it is not unique. It applied well and does have an amazing glow. Love, Beverly Hills is a Limited Edition item and can be found on Nordstrom.com. However the price is $18. I am an Essie fan however, $18 is a bit steep in my opinion.

I wish Essie would step away from red for a little while and use some of the other amazing colors out there; blues, greens, glitters. The possibilities are endless and yet milky pinks and red show up every time.

Perfectly Polished Tips 120 - Octa Gone Wild

The China Glaze Kaleidoscope Collection is full of holographic glitter and comes in colors that will work with every skin tone. These have recently been discontinued, they are still for sale on the e-tailers (which are listed in my side bar) but I don't know how much longer they will be available for.

I also wanted to apologize for the lack of posts lately. It's the end of the semester so I've been focusing on that. Tomorrow I will be offically on winter break so check back. I have China Glaze Romantiques as well as Carolyn New York Color's Holiday Collection to share.

Perfectly Polished Tips 119 - Essie Pama

Essie and Pama teamed up to create a polish capturing the lush red of a pomegranate. Pama hosted a give away of the polish, and it went fast. I was surprised that I was able to get one. It's pretty much your run of the mill pink based red creme polish. It applied wonderfully and might even be jelly-ish. If you missed out on this give away don't be disappointed because it's dupe-able. I've been really impressed with Essie as of late, awesome colors, formula, and wear.

As for pomegranate flavored liqueur, I've never tasted it. The website is pretty nifty though and they seem to have some good recipes. Head on over there and explore, Pama Liqueur.

Perfectly Polished Tips 118 - China Glaze Swatches

Inner Beauty is a sheer milky pink. The picture is two coats and as you can see it's a bit streaky. I don't normally wear colors like this. A ridge filling base coat would make this polish look a million times better. This is a great color for a french manicure or if you are going for that clean look.

Blushing is another sheer color, this is more beige than pink. Again a ridge filling base coat is needed for these types of colors.

This polish was sent to me unlabeled. I've gotten a few suggestions of it possibly being Summer Rain or Rio but I'm not 100%. It's a bit brighter in real life. This picture is two coats and I have a visible polish line, so another coat would probably fix that.

For Audrey is pretty much a dead on dupe for Tiffany's blue boxes. I love this color but only wear it on my toes. Swatching it was the first time I had ever put it on my finger nails. I'm not sure if I would ever do it again. It applies nicely and is opaque in two coats.

Long kiss is a deep red with very subtle gold shimmer. It's an awesome holiday color.

As far as I know all of these colors are current and can be purchased where ever China Glaze is found.

Perfectly Polished Tips 117 - China Glaze Operation Color

I'm kinda late to the party with this collection. It's still fall though! China Glaze released Operation Color for fall 2008. I personally felt like these colors would have been more appropriate for a spring collection but I really like them. As I've mentioned before I love almost every polish with a creme finish. Combine that with hues of blues and purples and I'm hooked. I didn't have any application with these polishes and even though my pictures show two coats of color I have a visible polish line, so in the future I would use three coats of color.

Secret Peri-wink-le is a pastel periwinkle creme. The color shown in the photo is pretty true to life.

Agent Lavender is a delicate lilac creme. I hate how my camera likes to assume anything light colored is white. The color is more intense and less blue. Every since I wore Zoya Miley I fell in love with all lavender and lilac colors. They are so clean and lady like.

Pink Underground is a pepto bismal-y pink with subtle pink shimmer. A year ago I would have been all over a color like this now not so much. Believe it or not though I don't have anything similar in my stash.

Here is Pink Underground with flash to show the subtle shimmer.

Revolution is a tomato red creme. I had to alter it a bit to actually make it look like the polish. The picture is pretty close, it's a bit brighter in real life. This red applied very nicely but I just don't do red as much as I used too.

This collection has two more colors as well; Code Orange, and Golden Opportunity. I don't do yellow or orange so I don't have those to show you. I know a lot of the other blogs have posted swatches though so you should be able to find them easily if you're curious!

Perfectly Polished Tips 116 - Piggy Polish Part 2

Here is the second half of my Piggy Polish swatches.

Sunshine on Snowflakes is holographic glitter in a clear base. I probably should have layered this over another color. My nails are so yellow and not in any shape to be photographed naked. This polish reminds me a lot of China Glaze Fairy Dust but I think the glitter pieces are larger.

Purple HEYS is a fuchsia creme and a bit more purple in real life. It applied wonderfully and dries shiny. It's similar to Zoya Audrina but slightly less pastel.

Pirates & Giggles is a sheer pink with pink shimmer. The above picture is three coats of polish. I would prefer to layer it over another polish but that's just me.

Pirates & Giggles with flash.

Pinkerbelle is a bubble gum pink creme. It has no hints of coral like the picture might suggest. It wasn't chalky at all though which is always good.

Like I mentioned in my last Piggy Polish post their polishes seem to look better with three coats, all of these swatches are three coats except for Sunshine on Snowflakes which is only two.

Perfectly Polished Tips 115 - Two Things to Share

1. China Glaze's Romantique collection is up for sale on Transdesign.com

2. Butter London is having a friends and family sale. From December 4-9 enter code FF2008BL during check out to receive 20% off any online order.

Happy shopping!

Perfectly Polished Tips 114 - Piggy Polish Part 1

Piggy Polish is a new brand to me. As I don't have an Ulta or any little beauty supplies around here (that I know of anyways). You can order from their website though, www.PiggyPolish.com. All of the polishes applied really well, I wasn't crazy about the brush. I think the stem was a weird length; not as long as BB Couture but not as short as Zoya. It was just strange to me. These polishes look great after two coats but three makes the shimmer just pop. The website has a color chart up but they aren't accurate so I pretty much picked the colors based on names.

You're Blue-tiful is a sheer, shimmery sea green. This is three coats. I have this on my toes right now, but I have China Glaze For Audrey underneath.

You're Blue-tiful with flash.

Something Blue is a metallic blue with amazing blue shimmer. It's not quite as bright as the picture above but it's a beautiful color.

Something Blue with flash.

Blue Me Away is a slate blue color with a light blue shimmer. It's a pretty interesting color, it looks grey in some lights and blue in other. The shimmer is pretty subtle. This picture is three coats.

Blue Me Away with Flash.

Piggy Polish retails for $6 on thier website and at Ulta.

Perfectly Polished Tips 113 - Zoya Kalista

For the long holiday weekend we went to visit family. I was worried about my polish chipping but didn't want to be bothered with bringing my manicure supplies. I put on Zoya Kalista and decided I would just deal with any mishaps. To my surprise and delight Kalista lasted a whole week. I applied it last Tuesday and removed it today to swatch some new polishes.

Here is photo from earlier this afternoon. I had one tiny chip on my left thumb but other than that all I had was some tip wear.

I was surprised because I've never had a Zoya wear this well for me. I used Color Club Vita Base and Out the Door top coat. When I first started getting serious about my nails I would worry about chipping and it would always happen with in 2-3 days. Finally I stopped worrying and decided it wouldn't be the end of the world if I walked around with a chipped, or *gasp* naked nails for a couple of days. Now I get awesome wear out of pretty much all of my polishes. I don't think it's the base coat because before that I was using Lippmann Hydrating and I got great results as well. Maybe it's Out the Door.

I just wanted to share because I love Zoya polish but always shy away from using them because I don't have as much time to change my polish as often as I used too.