Perfectly Polished Tips 242 - Zoya Diva Collection for Fall 2012

Here is the second set from Zoya's fall release. The Diva collection was inspired by the magic of NY fashion week. This set is made up of 6 gorgeous metallic polishes. I was really surprised by the Diva collex, normally it's not my thing but wow. The formula was awesome on all of them. FeiFei and Daul would be perfect with three coats, I did two but in the sun I could see they were a bit spotty.

Daul - magic purple with amazing gold flecks

Elisa - true red. I am so not a red gal, especially a shimmery red gal..this polish made me gasp. It is truly beautiful

FeiFei - Zoya calls this a magic blue and it is. The color shifts a bit, a little blue, some purple, a tiny bit of gold.

Ray - deep forest green, my least favorite. I had a bit of trouble with brush strokes with this one.

Song - I feel like this is going to be the star of the entire Fall release. An amazing, bright, royal blue.

Suri - deep purple with slight pink and blue sparkle.

With the exception of Ray these all applied like a dream. I love Zoya's brush and I love that they branched out a little with the Diva collection. I hope they continue to do so!

These are available now at Zoya.com, they retail for $8 each.

(these were sent for review)

Perfectly Polished Tips 217 - the Balm Hot Ticket Collection

the Balm nail polish is a new to me brand. I have used their lip products before but I had no idea they sold polish as well. I found the Hot Ticket Collection on a dusty shelf in TJ Maxx and decided to give it a shot. I think this may have been a holiday collection of sorts, mostly because of the colors that are included. I liked it though because all of the colors were different! No similar reds or pinks, or beige that you can't tell apart.

My cuticles are so raggedy looking, I though the TIPS for Toes nail conditioner was going to be a miracle worker and that I would have gorgeous hands by now. You are not supposed to push back your cuticles as it does more harm than good. I will just have to deal for now but I feel like my pictures look so unappealing. Sorry!

Better Off Red - pink based red creme, always a classic color IMO. Best part about this one? It's a one coater!

Counterfeit - Dusty teal creme, possibly a dupe to OPI Jade is the New Black

Disco Ball - The name says it all. I kind of sponge painted it on. I can never seem to find a proper time to wear silver glitter. Any tips?

Dodged a Bullet - This polish was really the only one I wanted out of the whole collection but since they were a package deal I had to take them all (boohoo right?). Steely grey with blue, pink, and purple shimmer. Of course my camera did not pick up the awesomeness of the shimmer. It's there though I swear!

Goldfinger - Metallic, shimmery gold. I always have a love/hate relationship with gold polish. I want to wear it but I feel like it doesn't look great on me. 

I love the brush on these polishes. It's a nice normal size! The formula was awesome for the most part. Counterfeit was a little on the thin side and I had a bit of a drag. I was surprised by Better Off Red, in a good way! I also adore the pin up girl on the bottle. I'm a sucker for pretty packaging.

I checked the Balm's website and they have a few colors that look very interesting. The names are questionable LOL but worth looking into. I got this set at TJ Maxx for $10 but it looks like each bottle retails for $10 on the Balm.

Perfectly Polished Tips 124 - China Glaze Romantique Part Two

Here is the warm half of the China Glaze Romantique collection. I was drawn to the golden shades in this collection but I feel like I probably won't ever wear them. Unfortunately my camera almost made all of the colors look similar (to me anyways), hopefully the swatches are still helpful!

Emotion

Joy

Poetic

Passion

Magical (more of a sandy color)

Delight (bronze-y brown shade)

My favorites from this part of the set are Magical and Poetic. I love golds but I don't think they love me. I can always wear them on my toes!

Perfectly Polished Tips 123 - China Glaze Romantique Part One

Sorry for the long delay in posts! The holiday season is killer. China Glaze's newest collection Romantique includes 12 gorgeous metallic colors. They are perfect for the upcoming spring season or any time really. They apply smoothly and while I did have brush strokes they didn't ruin the polishes for me. My favorite part about this collection is that they are all one coaters! That alone made me forget all about the brush strokes. I am posting the cool part of the collection first followed by the warm.

Devotion

Awaken

Cherish

Adore

Admire (as with almost every pink my camera distorts it, it's a bit lighter/truer pink in real life)

Harmony (a bit deeper in real life)

Being a cool toned girl myself, I am partial to this collection with my favorites being Harmony and Adore. I wasn't a huge fan of Cherish but it might be a fun pedicure color for me. Personally I think silvers look better on me than golds but I always find myself disliking the silvers and craving gold.

I hope to be back to posting regularly, and I hope you all had wonderful holidays!

Perfectly Polished Tips 95 - China Glaze Romantique Sneak Peek

The lovely Carey over at Make Up Alley scored these beauties today. Carey was kind enough to let me borrow her photos. Click the photos for larger pictures.

(l-r) Passion, Magical, Poetic, Delight, Emotion, Joy

(l-r) Awaken, Adore, Cherish, Harmony, Admire, Devotion

The first set is the warm palette and the second set is the cool palette. These are for Spring 2009 and will probably be released around January or February.

Perfectly Polished Tips 74 - NYC Molten Metal

NYC has released a metallic shade called Molten Metal for fall, I believe as of right now it is a limited edition color. It has been spotted in various drug stores and Target. I wasn't able to find it here in upstate NY, but it might just not have made it here when I looked. I am usually not a fan of drug store polishes, but this one was too unique to pass up. It is very sheer though, my swatch is 3 coats and it was mostly opaque. It was slightly streaky though but it is a glitter polish.

While I do like it on it's own I decided to try a layering experiment. I put one coat of Molten Metal over two coats of China Glaze's Bermuda Breakaway. The result was interesting, I don't think it's too pretty but it's grown on me. I put it on two nights ago and I have zero tip ware and no chips. It's probably a combination of the polishes, I don't think I put a base coat on though, I don't remember. Here is the result of my layering experiment.

NYC polishes are usually $2-3 depending on where you get them. They can be found at various drug stores, Target, Walmart, and possibly KMart. I am not sure what the display for this one looks like because it was sent to me since I couldn't find it here.

Perfectly Polished Tips 72 - Zoya Pulse

This fall Zoya put out two collections, this is the shimmery metallic one. It's full of rich colors and even though there were no blues this time around I'm still really impressed. I have Blair on my toes and I wore Sloane for almost 5 days, and the wear was great. I didn't use Zoya's base & top coat so I was really happy with the amount of time I was able to keep Sloane (neatly) on my tips. Before I get to the pictures I want to note that I broke the nail on my middle finger. I had to clip it pretty far down to prevent what I am assuming would have been a horrible rip. I was going to go naked until it grew a bit but I had sun light today for the first time in about a week. So please excuse that nail.

Zoya describes this color as Blackberry Plum and I suppose I agree. It's a lot more red to me in real life. It does have really pretty pink sparkles though.

Mikka is an icy grape with a metallic finish. In the bottle this color looked more on the purple side than it does on my nails. I think this might be my favorite out of this collection though.

Rihana (excuse my spelling on the pic) is a raspberry wine. I picture wine a little darker but I guess it's pretty accurate, this is another favorite.

Jacy is a purpley mauve with the most amazing sparkle. If you really look at it in the sun it has pink and purple sparkles. My camera never picks up the best parts of a polish. It's there though. My only gripe is that I wish it was a little darker. And of course since it has the dreaded "mauve" in the description it might scare people away from buying it. haha. It is a pretty color though.

When I first saw Jacy I thought hey that looks like OPI Louvre Me Louvre Me Not! So I compared the two and Jacy has a pinker base, but they are pretty close in my opinion. I don't think there is any need to have both unless you absolutely love the color.

Zoya calls Blair Elderberry, what exactly is an elderberry? This is a metallic red with a magenta base. I have this on my toes right now and my husband said it reminded him of crushed velvet. Which made me laugh.

Since we've seen the shimmery pinky reds before I compared a couple. Ok, I just realized I labeled the picture wrong. The polish on my ring finger is OPI Bogoata Blackberry and the one on my pointed is OPI Pretty at the Premier. PatP is closest to Blair, but Blair is a hair darker.

Colbie is a russet metallic. It's another red but it's more on the orange red side rather than pink red. I didn't have any other reds close to this because I think I'm on the cool side. This polish is not cool. It reminds me of OPI's Wine Me and Dine Me, maybe a bit lighter though.

Pulse is now shipping on Zoya.com, and if you order before October 31st you can take advantage of Zoya's Polish Poll code. I have a link to it in my side bar, you need to purchase $20 of product and you can receive three full size polishes free.

Perfectly Polished Tips 68 - Priti Polish

Priti Organic Spa is an 100% eco-friendly spa. They use all natural products for their spa services and manicures and their packing is completely recyclable. Priti polishes do not contain Toluene, Formaldehyde, or DPB's. Their nail polish remover is even made from soy and will take off any brand of polish. They have a pretty big variety of colors as well as a line of minis called Princess polish, which were created by the owner's 7 year old daughter. These polishes are safe for pregnant women and young children.

I chose four polishes based on the chart, I don't reccomend this because you cannot really tell what the color truly looks like. I think many of you prefer to make purchased based on seeing the polish in real life first anyways. The colors I chose ended up being ones that I would have never purchased myself. However after trying them I think I found some new favorites. The application was pretty smooth, a few of them have metallic finishes so I had a lot of visible brush strokes. One of these days I am going to figure out how to avoid them. I got a dark creme as well which had a very streaky first coat but after the second it was fine. The bottles and brushes remind me of the Boys In the Bottle ones, the handle and brush are small which make it slightly awkward to manuver with. It didn't give me too much trouble though.

Cornflower is a metallic royal blue, this picture is two coats of polish in sun light. It's a little more subdued in regular lighting. I love blue but I think I already have something similar however I think I'm going to keep this one based on the application.

I ordered Dreamland Tulip by accident. Priti has a line of mini polishes that even though the color is the same the names are not. When I placed my order I listed the wrong number, I was hoping for a blue but I accidentally ordered the orange underneath. However this color is beautiful, it's not as bright as some of the other oranges I have owned are. It's more on the pink side which I like, I think it works better with my skin tone. I don't do oranges on tips though so either it will be a pedicure color or maybe I will take the orange plunge next summer. You can see the brush strokes but I think the coverage is great.

Ice Maiden Violet is not at all violet, it's a pale baby pink. This color is loaded with brush strokes but it reminds me of the holiday Lippmann I am lemming. I think I'll keep this one instead. This is two coats so for being as light as it is this polish has amazing coverage which I love.

Widow Iris was another I ordered by accident. From the swatch it looked purple but it's actually a deep chocolate brown. This is two coats and there are no streaks at all. I have only owned shimmery browns and I would only swatch and never wear them. This brown I like, it reminds me of Hershey's chocolate. Who doesn't love chocolate? I'm not too sure if it goes with my skin but I like it and will be wearing it, probably tonight.

Overall I really like this brand of polish. Apparently they are chip resistant and you can see how glossy Widow Iris is, there is no top coat in that picture. Priti does not test on animals either. There is a location a few hours away from me and if I ever get the chance I am going to go there to see the colors in person. You can order them online from PritiOrganicSpa.com. The color chart is downloadable at the web site. Priti polishes retail for $12.50 and the Princess line for $10.

Perfectly Polished Tips 66 - Gimme More Gimme Gimme More

BLUE! In addition to nail polish I have an undying love for Britney Spears, she may have a few screws lose but I've been rooting for her all along.

Anyways, I mentioned China Glaze Blue Sparrow the other day. It is apart of China Glaze's Ink Collection which came out last spring/summer. It is a neon blue base with intense blue glitter. In addition to drying matte it is also very bumpy. The bumps can be smoothed with a couple coats of top coat. The polish wears well for being glitter and needs only two coats to be opaque.

There hasn't been sun here in days and I have yet to work on my light box. I took a few pictures with flash but it washed me out and the polish. So here is two coats with out flash, if you look close you can see the glitter.

Here is the 6th polish from the China Glaze Bahama Blues collection, Blue Island Iced Tea. It's a light blue base infused with silver glitter. This picture is with flash only because it looked like a muted grey with out it. This is on my toes right now and I love it. I'm really liking these metallic polishes as of late. That is something new for me.

Perfectly Polished Tips 64 - Preview of Zoya Flourish for Winter 2008

For this winter Zoya has put together a rich color palette filled with six metallic finished polishes.

(left going clockwise) Zara which looks like it may be a dupe to the once elusive Sally Hansen Arabian Night, Richelle looks like brozen molten metal..I might even be able to love this one, Shivon is a golden rose shade, Cyma (which is shown on the model) is Zoya's typical berry shade, Kalista is a deep almost plummy brown (I am dying to see this one in real life actually. I don't usually wear shades like this but I'm drawn to it), and Mieko looks a little on the coral side from pictures, but I'm wondering if it's a reddish orange a la last year's Kamilia

Please excuse the grey blob on the first photo, my photo editing skills are not up to par. There are no blues or teals this year, but I'm looking forward to this collection. I've been all about the purples lately, and I even want to wear a metallic. I'm not sure when this collection is going to be released, I think last year's winter collection was released at the begining of November but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Perfectly Polished Tips 60 - China Glaze Bahama Blues

Here are the blues minus Blue Island Iced Tea. It was cloudy here today so the pictures aren't 100% but Blue Island just wouldn't photograph. As soon as I have a sunny day I will get a picture of it. These all applied fairly well. My Bermuda Breakaway was a little thick but nothing to horrible. I wish the names were a little more creative but in all honestly I'm just happy to have a whole entire collection of blues. None of these are similar to any of the other blues I own so that is always a good thing. Anyways on to the pictures.

Bermuda Breakaway is my favorite from the collection. I've been asking about a blurple creme for awhile now. I'm glad someone finally made one!

Calypso Blue is my second favorite but only because I love cremes. This is a true navy polish, it doesn't look black under any lighting. This makes me happy because all the navy cremes I currently own look black.

Bahamian Escape is a light sky blue creme. It's a smidge darker than Color Club's Blue Light but lighter than OPI's Just Groovy.

Blue Paradise is a lovely medium satin blue. I had a slight problem with the brush strokes since it does have a metallic finish, but it's such a nice color that I don't mind.

Carribean Blue has that amazing glass flecked glitter in it. This is probably my favorite out of the lighter colors of the collection. I'm a sucker for the glitter and the color's not so bad either.

China Glaze has done it again. I really cannot wait to see what next year's collections look like. Seriously this, Rodeo Diva, and Ink? All amazing. Way to go China Glaze.

These can be found on the etailers, I've included a link to them on my side bar. *I'm not affiliated, just a happy customer.*