Perfectly Polished Tips 260 - NOTD Monday OPI DS Mystery

For some reason I thought this polish was a lot more purple. Maybe batch differences? I just purchased this polish recently. It looks very brown in most lights, think the glitter bits make up for it though. It's a lovely fall polish. Two coats.

I found this in the clearance bin at Ulta, I'm not sure if that means it's being discontinued or not. 

Check back in this week, I'll be posting a giveaway :)

Perfectly Polished Tips 256 - Darling Diva Polish The Harbinger

Happy Friday! Today I have another polish from Darling Diva Polish. The Harbinger is a part of the Battlestar Galactica collection and is meant to be used as a top coat. The polish is a clear base with gold and red glitter, iridescent hexes, and blue flecks. Very pretty polish, I love how much the blue flecks stand out.

I had a hard time deciding what color to layer this polish over, I felt like black is always used and I am trying to branch out. For the longest time I did not layer, I like my manicures to be quick. I don't often have a lot of down time to wait for 19 coats of polish to dry. This manicure meant staying up a little bit later to ensure that it was completely dry. There is nothing worse than waking up with a sheet marked mani!

I decided to layer it over Jessica For Your Eyes Only, which is a dark purple creme. I have seen quite a few red/purple combos lately and I like the way they look. For this manicure I did one coat of the Jessica and two coats of The Harbinger.

It was tricky for me to get a direct sunlight picture of this. The sun kept reflecting off of the hexes and creating blobs of color. Other photos were just blurry. Overall though I think these two photos show each part of the polish well.

Darling Diva Polish is available on Etsy.

(this was sent for review)

Perfectly Polished Tips 243 - Zoya Designer Collection for Fall 2012

And I saved the best for last :) It is no secret that I love creme finish polishes. When I opened the box containing the Zoya fall collections I felt like Designer was made for me. I love every single one, even the red! Zoya does cremes so well, the formula is amazing and their brush is the only one that I can work with and not get frustrated. I know some people are probably getting sick of the smoked out grey that is being added to a lot of colors but not me. I live for them.

When Evvie was released during NYFW I had missed out on it and I was so upset. Evvie is a Peter Som custom shade and I thought that once it was gone that I would never get my hands on it. I am so happy Zoya decided to release it again because it is just as gorgeous as I had thought it would be. I think Natty has cured my MAC Blue India lemming, not to say that I wouldn't like to own the MAC. I haven't looked on ebay in a while but last time I did it was too much to justify buying. One day!

Evvie - smoky green

Monica - dark mulberry

Natty - smoked navy blue, has anyone compared this to Blue India? I would love to see pics.

Noot - charcoal green/grey

Rekha - blood red (Bibhu Mohapatra custom shade) this was slightly on the jelly side but perfect

Toni - dark maroon. I love shades like this but I suck at applying them, no idea why.

The Designer collection is available now at Zoya.com, the polish retails for $8 each.

(these were sent for review)

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 241 - Zoya NYFW Gloss Fall 2012

Zoya is releasing three sets for Fall 2012. It's only July and the fall collections have me craving cool weather. It has been hot here, I guess it has been hot every where but the humidity...oh my. I wonder what fall in NC is like, this will be my first. I might turn into one of those people that has to go to the north east to experience the leaves changing. Anyways, back to Zoya. This collection is made up of three sheer, jelly like polishes. They are very sheer but can be layered for more coverage.

I did swatches of 1, 2, and 3 coats of each polish. I found that at three coats it started to get a bit thick. It would probably work better to do thinner coats and let each one dry before moving on to the next. I had wanted to do a fourth coat but it would have been a mess. For the pictures pinkie is one coat, ring is two coats, middle & index are three coats.

Frida was the most sheer of the 3, there is 1 coat on my pinkie and it looks like a barely there wash of color.

Katherine is a deep eggplant color and gave the most coverage.

Paloma is my favorite of the three which is unusual. I had thought that I would have loved Frida, I think jellies are just not my thing.

These polishes can be used to create all types of nail looks. I have read a bit about jelly sandwiches but I have never tried it myself. I think it is when you put a layer of glitter or shimmer in between a jelly polish. These paired with some of the foily polishes in the Zoya Diva collection may make for some interesting combos. I have swatches of the Designer and Diva collections coming, I am editing now!

These polishes retail for $8 each and will be available on Zoya.com on July 15th.

(these were sent for review)

Perfectly Polished Tips 224 - Zoya Surf

I am having a really hard time accepting the fact that it is the end of March. Time is flying and I don't like it one bit. We didn't have much of a winter or spring here in NC! Not that I am complaining, well maybe a little. I don't like highs of 83 degrees in March.

For summer Zoya is releasing two bright and fun collections. One half is cremes (with a lone shimmer) and the other is foils. Today I have the foil half, Surf, to share. Each swatch is two coats of color, no base coat or top coat

Carly-Kimber-Rory-Myrta-Meg-Zuza

Carly-Kimber-Rory

Myrta-Meg-Zuza

The formula on these was a little thick but it dries quickly. I found that if I tried to do too many brush strokes it got goopy. All of the shades are very vibrant. My camera made Kimber a little too red, it's more on the magenta side. For once I actually like each shade in a collection. Meg gives me lobster hands and I don't love green but it is still a nice polish. I love the little shimmer bits in the polishes. I remember reading some where that these were foils like Rea & Kotori. I am wondering if the ones available now are similar. My Rea & Kotori are nothing like these polishes. I actually hate Kotori because it is such a pain to apply and so sheer. I didn't have sheerness issues with any of these.

I am waiting for the sun to be over my deck so I can swatch the Beach half. I will hopefully have those up later on today or tomorrow.

Beach & Surf will be available on April 1st. They retail for $8 each.

(these were sent for review)

Perfectly Polished Tips 221 - The Return of NOTD Monday

I liked doing NOTD Monday posts and was sidelined due to the nail challenge. While I don't think it will be beneficial to keep polish on all the time during the challenge, I do think it is okay some of the time. I will (hopefully) be doing weekend manicures so I can get back to posting polish photos! That and I miss having color on my tips!

This weekend's manicure was Essie No More Film. It's a beautiful, inky, blurple creme. When I first got into polishes that were not pink or red, blurple was the color I was on the hunt for. At the time the only blurple creme out there was one by L'Oreal and it was hard to find. I was lucky enough to snag a bottle but was disappointed to find that the formula bubbled on me. Every. Single. Time. I tried different base coats and top coats, nothing helped. A few others came out after that and of course I had to have them. Zoya Pinta comes to mind, I think I have a photo somewhere but I'm not sure if I still own Pinta.

No More Film is part of the Resort 2012 collection. I did not pay attention to any of the other colors in this collection, I saw NMF, grabbed it, and didn't have a second thought. This polish is a one coater, the coverage and formula are amazing. I did two coats out of habit though and because for some reason when I polish lately I completely miss the side of my nail. It takes the "gap" to a whole other level, a level where it doesn't belong :) 

I had to tweak with the color settings of the photos. My camera was giving me a boring, navy creme. This polish is far from that! I tried to get it as true to life as I could. I think I did a decent job representing the color. With two coats it dries slightly darker than the color in the bottle. This is no big deal to me. 

Essie No More Film is available now, I got my bottle at Target for around $8.

Perfectly Polished Tips 202 - NOTD Zoya Tru + Clarins 230

In my Zoya True post I wrote about how Tru reminded me a bit of Clarins 230 and how I thought the two polishes would look great layered. Instead of tossing the idea around and never doing it, I made the combo happen. This is the first manicure I have done since Christmas Eve! I usually don't go that long with out polished nails but I haven't had time to sit and polish. Thank god for Sesame Street! It kept my sweet little girl occupied for a few. Although when she finally did come in to see what I was doing she asked for a pedi. She's sporting Tru on her baby toes.

Clarins 230 was highly sought after, not sure if it still is. The company stopped making it some years ago and then apparently the pigments used in the formula became very hard to come by. I know many people have emailed Clarins asking them to release the polish again but so far nothing. I do think though that other companies are listening and have released some polishes that may fill the void. I was lucky enough to get 230 from a friend a couple of years ago. I didn't have to eat ramen for weeks to afford it either, which is always a plus.

This is only the second or maybe third time I've used 230. I don't know why I do this but if I know something is discontinued or reformulated I ration it and use it very sparingly. Really this makes no sense. After acquiring 3 bottles of another long gone favorite I realized I was probably insane or going to drive myself insane and I gifted 1 away. (Oddly enough, I haven't worn that polish in a long time either) We can't win them all.

On to the photos - One coat of Tru topped with one coat of 230:

Here is Tru on her own

topped with 230

Gold Shimmer

Red/Pink Shimmer

Here is the green shimmer. It took me forever to get the right lighting for the green/blue shimmer to show through!

My nails are super nubs right now, they were long but I lost a chunk of my thumb when I was buckling my kid into his car seat. Instead of being responsible and grabbing the glass file I keep in my purse I bit it off. Then because it was so much shorter than the rest I bit those off too. By the time I pulled out my file it was too late. I had to file most of them to the quick. 

I also have a bit of shrinkage, I used a different top coat because Poshe was MIA. I used NYC Grand Central Station. Worked just as well as Poshe but didn't play nice. 

Don't forget to enter my Zoya Fleck Effects Giveaway! It ends tomorrow at midnight!

Perfectly Polished Tips 198 - Zoya True for Spring 2012

Zoya True is a collection of six soft but beautiful colors. A perfect color palette for spring! I will admit that I am a bit thrown off as to why they chose to put two neutral colors in this collection, especially since they released the Feel Collection recently. Feel was made up of six neutral shades. I do think that the other colors they chose really made up for that though! In addition to the six True colors Zoya also released three Fleck Effect holographic nail glazes. I will have a separate post up for those but I did include them swatched over the three creme shades. I didn't put them over Tru, Skylar, or Lotus because I thought they were pretty enough on their own.

I found the formula on the cremes kind of on the thick side which isn't Zoya norm, at least not in my opinion. I had to do three thin coats for even coverage. The other three applied wonderfully though with two coats. For the pics with the Fleck Effect top coats it is three coats of polish + one coat of the Fleck Effect.

indirect light

with the Fleck Effect top coat

direct sun light

 Bevin is a muted sage green and probably my favorite out of the six. It's a nice change to the mint green that was all the rage last spring. I prefer muted colors on myself. To my surprise I loved it with Maisie, I'm really not into the flake-y topcoat that so many love. I think it would make a fun pedicure.

indirect light

with the Fleck Effects

direct sunlight

Cho is a yellow toned beige with a slight hint of silver shimmer. Zoya recommends this polish for olive toned gals. I am far from olive toned so needless to say I didn't love this one on me. I have been on the hunt for a "your nails but better" shade and have not found anything that I love. Any suggestions for me?

indirect light

with the Fleck Effects

direct sunlight

Up next is Farah, a khaki beige with green undertones. Farah is also too warm for my skin tone I think, still a nice neutral. To be honest I didn't love the Fleck Effects over Cho and Farah they seem out of place to me but maybe I'm just boring :)

I was not able to get indirect light & sunlight photos of Tru, Lotus, and Skylar. It started to get cloudy and since it had taken so long for a sunny afternoon to come about I just wanted to get the swatches done. When I got to Skylar I thought that the sun was done for the day but of course as soon as I removed it the sun came back out. That is always how it goes, right?

 Lotus is a very pretty blue toned purple. My photo does not do it justice, it has amazing shimmer that shows gold, pink, and red depending on the light.

Skylar is a light cornflower blue with silver sparkles. It's a fun color and now that I am really looking at the photo it probably could have used another coat.

Tru is my second favorite. This one is the darker, grape-ier version of Lotus. It has the shame gold, red, and pink shimmer. I like Tru more because the base color really makes the shimmer pop. It reminds me slightly of the coveted Clarins 230 and would probably look awesome layered. I may have to make that happen!

Overall this is a nice collection. Like I said in the beginning I'm not thrilled that Zoya chose two neutral shades. I would have liked to see a blue creme, or maybe even a pastel orange. I think for most though the release of the Fleck Effect top coats probably made up for Cho and Farah. I will say though that I am happy to see that the nail companies are listing to what their fans like and what they would like to see in their line up.

Zoya True & Fleck Effect collections are available now at Zoya.com. They retail for $8 per bottle or there is the option to buy all six for $48.

Be sure to follow Zoya on facebook & twitter. They offer great promos every now and again.

(these were sent to me for review)