ELF Fuchsia

So, first of all, I'm going to apologize for the quality of the upcoming photos. I don't have my DSLR with me, and out of laziness just used PhotoBooth. While they are not the highest quality, they are actually rather color accurate. Here's ELF's Fuchsia.

Fuchsia is obviously a fuchsia colored polish. Consistency-wise, it's one of those creme-jelly combos. It is opaque enough to need only two coats for coverage, but it dries nice and shiny. Applying it was strange, though. With the first coat, I noticed that the polish started separating, for lack of better word. It almost looked like how crackle polish works, only in one or two spots on the nail rather than all over. I'm not sure if it was just part of the polish, or it reacting to my base coat? It was weird to say the least. The second coat did cover up those spots, so it wasn't a total deal breaker.

It looks more purple in the bottle than it does on the nail, and at first I was disappointed, as I'm not a big pink person. But it immediately started growing on me, and I think it was just what I needed. I've been so stressed out with grad school stuff (damn you, FAFSA!), it was nice to put something cute and bright on my nails. It's definitely a summer-y color, which is welcomed.

And yes, I was hanging out in my parents' kitchen when I took these photos.

Love & Beauty Olive

Here's a polish I purchased a while ago, and am unfortunately just now wearing - Olive by Love & Beauty.

Olive is a ton of olive shimmer packed in a smokey base. I absolutely love this. It's vampy and antique-y and murky and still really pretty! It reminds me of moss. My pictures are not the greatest as shimmer/glitter tends to freak my camera out a bit, but I think you get the gist of it. It also gave me some lobster claws, so sorry about that!

Olive is a bit on the thin side, but not hard to work with. I used three coats to cover bald spots, but the coats dried quickly so it wasn't too inconvenient.

I love the Love & Beauty/LA Girl polishes. The price point is perfect, and they have a wide variety of unique shades.

Misa Date Nights to the Twilight

Here's a polish I purchased a long time ago but am just now getting around to wearing - Date Nights to the Twilight by Misa.

Date Nights to the Twilight is the only Misa polish I own, and was part of the Winter 2010 Spark My Interest Collection. It's a medium purple that's got this shimmery/foily thing going on. Super pretty, though not super unique. In some lighting situations, I noticed it can lean a bit more blue (blurple, you might say). I used two coats, and they applied smoothly.

The only thing I don't like is the name. It's really wordy and doesn't seem to make much sense. Is it even grammatically correct? I'm assuming Misa is implying that you could wear this out for a date night, but surely there's an easier way to say that. Why not just Date Night? Or even Twilight? Misa, I don't get it!

Revlon Sheer Seafoam

I have been lusting after Rescue Beauty Lounge's Bikini Bottom for at least a couple years now. I have come close to purchasing it quite a few times, but always talk myself out of it. $20 for one bottle of polish? I have only heard good things about RBL, but I just can't bring myself to spend that much on one bottle. So, when I was at Walgreens the other day, getting passport photos taken, I saw Sheer Seafoam by Revlon and snatched up the last bottle.

When a polish has Sheer in its name, trust it. This stuff is sheer. I used four coats, and the nail line is completely visible. But I absolutely love it! This definitely satisfies my desire for Bikini Bottom, and for a quarter of the price! I loved the sheerness, and I loved the jelly finish. I got air bubbles throughout, which I actually liked because it made the polish seem like the ocean. A friend of mine commented on the same thing.

Overall, I'm a huge fan of Sheer Seafoam. It's great on its own, and would look great used in a jelly sandwich. But, for those of you who aren't into visible nail line, steer very clear of this bad boy.

What do you guys think? Too sheer for you? Or do you find the hint of color interesting?

Color Club Gingerbread

A while back, I won Nailtopia's giveaway of Color Club's Beyond the Mistletoe collection. I just got around to trying my first of the four, Gingerbread.

Gingerbread is a glittery polish that reads as gold, but is made up of more than just gold glitter. There's glitter of pretty much every color packed in that little bottle. I love the blurred shot which gives you an idea of how the light bounces off all the glitter. I used three coats of this because I wanted to wear it on its own without a base color. But with one coat it covered well, and would look great layered over another color (I was thinking a teal... perhaps OPI's Ski Teal We Drop). The nice thing about Gingerbread being a glitter is that it dried super fast! A huge thanks to Nailtopia for holding such a great giveaway.

OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster

Of all the polishes in OPI's Touring America collection, this is probably the one that I normally would have been attracted to the least. With all the darker colors and funky colors, it seems unlikely that I would have chosen something like I Eat Mainely Lobster. I guess I was in a coral mood, because this is the only one I picked up.

I Eat Mainely Lobster is a pink-leaning coral that freaked my camera out. It's not nearly as... hot pink as these pictures would lead you to believe. It also has pink and gold shimmer, which somehow showed up kind of blue in my photographs? It's not blue. It's also not very noticeable on the nail, which is a bummer. I hate half-assed shimmer. What's the point of adding shimmer to a polish that barely shows on the nail? Surely brands test the polish before sending it to production! I think I used two coats for this.

Despite the fact that this polish is not very "me" and could use some more shimmer, I still really love it. It's definitely a warm weather appropriate color.

Boots No 7 Salsa

Here's another polish sent to me in a swap with Nicole, Salsa by Boots No 7.

Salsa is a shimmery red. It obviously has some magenta going on, but the pink is not as visible in real life as it is in my photographs. This was a really pretty color that I loved wearing. It is also rather festive, and I bet it would look great paired with a shimmery green for those Christmas celebrators out there. Application was a breeze, and I believe I used two coats.

Please ignore that state of my cuticles here. I've been so busy that cuticle maintenance has fallen on my list of priorities.

Zoya Jules

A while ago I jumped on a sale that Zoya had for the Intimate collection. I think the entire collection was $25, and included free shipping, which was a steal. Here's a polish from that collection, Jules.

Jules is a nude base with gold and silver shimmer mixed in, which combine to create a gorgeous champagne. I love nudes with some shimmer or glitter mixed in. I unfortunately can't remember how many coats I used, but I don't recall it being too finicky, so I'm going to guess two. This is definitely a pretty color, and the shimmer gives the nude base some extra oomph.

Models Own Purple Blue and GOOD NEWS!

I'm still here! I apologize for being absent, but I have a good reason for it. First, let's get to the nail polish. Even though I haven't been blogging, I have still been wearing polish and photographing my nails, so I have a backlog of posts that I am working on getting through. Up first is a polish sent to my by the ever-lovely Nicole at Top to Toe. Here's Purple Blue by Models Own.

Purple Blue came out with the Beetle Juice collection that made a big splash. My pictures are not the greatest, but it's a pretty duochrome that shifts between (you guessed it!) purple and blue. It was on the thin side - I used three coats - but it applied easily. I really loved looking at my nails and watching the colors shift back and forth.

Now, onto my exciting news. I've officially been accepted into graduate school! In London! Starting this fall I will be studying Art Conservation at Camberwell College of Arts. I am equal parts excited and terrified. This will be my first time out of the country, and my first time away from my family for so long. I'll be gone for two years. I am really excited to be back in school and back in an artistic environment. And I can't tell you how excited I am to (hopefully!) get out of retail.

As far as my little blog goes, I honestly have no idea what its future is. I plan to continue updating until I leave in September (though I have TONS to do, and don't know how regularly I'll post). But I only intend to bring a few nail polishes with me to London, as I'm trying to travel as lightly as possible. I'm sure I'll buy some nail polish while I am there, but hopefully not a lot as I will have to bring it all back or leave it. I will keep you all updated with my plans.

All that said, I'm sorry I was gone so long. I missed not only updating my blog, but commenting on your blogs as well. How have you all been?