NFU OH #51 Oh Yessss! (Julie)

I know I keep becoming even more enthusiastic with each new blog I write, but I think I have just found the messiah of all nail polish. And it is NFU Oh #51. How does one even describe just how awesome this color truly is? In some light it's a deep purple, others a lighter purple, pink sparkles, rainbow prisms, gold undertones, I could go on and on and still not describe this color with nearly enough justice. But I do feel that my photography will better depict the beauty of this swatch. And the bottle, too!


I used 3 coats, and 4 would have been even better. It gets even more bold and amazing with each application. This would probably be better worn on top of a burgundy polish though, because it's expensive!! I want to salvage what I can of this.

Like Yin and Yang - Sinful Colors And Ulta Wintry Swatches (Julie)

I dropped into Walgreens, my trusty supplier of Sinful Colors just to see what they're up to, since I haven't bought any of their NP in ages. I wanted to see if they had anything wintry and glittery, and there I spotted the swatch they call "Nail Junkie". It is a sparkly, flaky, super shimmery green jelly with blue, silver, and gold flakes of various sizes. I thought it looked amazing and really impressive next to the other swatches they had in the store. When I brought it home I had a feeling it would be lack-luster by itself, so I paired it with my Ulta swatch "Dance Teal Dawn". So glad I did! The color is so bright and vibrant, and they work perfectly together. This has become my "favorite for now" color. The teal of the Ulta really helps the blue sparkles in the Sinful Color swatch pop! The Sinful Colors swatch is rich and loaded with sparkles, and has brought me back to understanding just why I fell in love with them to begin with! Thanks Sinful Colors. I think I'll be back :) Now just try and not chip so fast...

This application was a nail hardener base, 1 coat of Ulta's Dance Til' Dawn, 1 coat of Sinful Color's "Nail Junkie", and seche vite to seal the deal.

Collection Pics (Julie)

So I had to follow suit since Erika has such an amazing collection! Mine isn't nearly as large or beautiful, but I'm working on it. Actually, this past summer, I sold just about all of my NP at my yard sale because I had no room for anything! Everything you see here is pretty much brand new, as of late summer '10. So rest in peace former collection! I am impressed with how far I've come since then though! My heart belongs to sparkles, the chunkier the better. I have many different brands, and plenty more coming in the mail this next week. So I will update this post as they show up. Here's what i have so far:

I have a horrible make-up bag that is soon going to be replaced with some kind of kaboodle. Take a peek inside...kind of a beautiful mess!

We'll start with Finger Paints. A nice inexpensive brand with really pretty swatches. I am not really too into their NP because I notice that even with a decent base and top coat, they like to peel off in one big strip. So I've limited my FP collection to strictly colors I MUST have. And these are really beautiful!

My Nubars *Swoon* Nothing much needs to be said about this brand. It's a growing obsession and I expect many more soon.

My Ulta swatches - the aqua color is fabulous!!! The pink is gritty and I'm not a fan, but the sparkles in this color attracted me to it. It's very beautiful.

My love, my life...China Glaze! I have more CG than any other color. I'll start with my very favorite 2 colors. This is Pixie Dust and Golden Enchantment. I don't remember the name of the gold one. But they're top coats and complete just about any color you can imagine, and reflect about every color of the rainbow. These should serve as staples to any nail polish collection, because they really do complement just about every swatch.

I have the blues....My China Glaze Blues...

Metallics:

Some random beauties (my favorite of the 4 being the black with red sparkles.

Prior to my yard sale NP clean out, I had just about every color made by Sinful Colors. Now I only have two. Mainly because I'm not a huge fan of their formula. But these colors are irresistible.

My Color Clubs - do you see that orange/pink/luminescent swatch to the right? Wow, i know!! I need to get a few bottles of this because I run through this color really fast. I probably wear it more than any other color.

Here is my first nail art swatch. It's a really pretty black with colorful sparkles.

My very lonely and bland Essie collection. I do like them, but I haven't explored essie all that much yet.

My 3 Orlys. Another brand I don't care for the formula all that much. But they do come out with some really great colors once in a while that I can't leave behind.

Hello, sparkles! My one and only O.P.I (more are coming!), NYC in the most amazing swatch I've seen from them, and a Forever 21 color that I adore.

Just LOOK at this color! I know! Gorgeous!

You're not so bad yourself OPI. (this is from the burlesque collection)

2 extra brands - Sally girl I won't be buying again, the application is awful. Nail Savvy I found new at the thrift shop and have no idea where to find this brand.

It's a nice concept, I love the pink and blue sparkles though! Anybody else make a better formula with a similar color?

My beloved Deborah Lippmann in Bad Romance.

And you see? I wrote this too soon, because just as I posted this blog, my brand new Hard Candy showed up! Do you SEE this swatch? No I mean do you really see this swatch? Holy moly, it's freaking fabulous! It's called Hot Pants. It's infused with large and small sparkles and a translucent pink jelly base. Woohoo! This just made my day brighter!

Collection Pics (Erika)

So over the past year and a half I have amassed a little collection of nail polishes. I tend to buy my polishes in groups instead of just one at a time... (hence the Zoya) What can I say I like varity;)

My Zoyas!

I love Zoya and for years I would see it advertised in magazines and wanted to buy it but it was only available in salons at the time. But now if you go to zoya.com (art of beauty) you get sucked into buying at least 3 or 4. They always have some kind of promo going on, so wait for them or follow them on twitter.

Zoya glitters!

Waiting for a new shelf!

Some of my collection. I need to get another display for the other NP that I have gotten in the past months.

Just some OPI for Sephora minis. This is a great set, because it has so much variety from pale pink to a dark shimmery purple

More Zoya, and then Essies, and at the bottom are NYC nail polishes. Affordable and a great selection of colors!

This is just a few pics that I wanted to get up before I forgot, I would love to take group shots but.. Im sure that would take to much time, and well Im kinda lazy too.. I kid. Sorta.

Deborah Lippmann showed up in the mail today (Julie)

I've heard so many rave reviews over Deborah Lippmann - how edgy and unique the swatches are. When I first saw this color I was floored at how beautiful nail polish has become these days! I feel I've started yet another obsession, and goal - to own the entire collection. I am surely going to be getting more in due time. But here's Bad Romance, the swatch designed for (or by?) Lady Gaga. I am not a gaga fan by a long shot, but this redeems her a bit in my mind!

The color is a lot smoother than it photographed (again, I'm new! Bare with me!) but it really is. No bumps whatsoever. The pink just glows through the black and makes this a lot less "goth" than I thought it might appear. This color is worth the $19 spent.

OPI for Sephora "Flurry up!"/ Sally Hansen "Celeb City"

I'm still wishing for snow.. nothing yet. So here is a look inspired for my love of snow...

Flurry up has to be the coolest silver glitter nail polish next to "Luna" from Zoya. It's got tiny specks of glitter to huge chunks all over. The base is clear so it makes an awesome top coat as well. They have a gold version called "only gold for me" but being a silver lover.. I couldn't resist this color when I walked into Sephora a few weeks ago.

Luna by zoya

Now it was really hard capturing the look of this nail on film, this was the best out of about 20 pictures that I took. (yes I did take 20 pictures of my hands, don't judge me)

I love the Sally Hansen color, its like a foil.. but it still has some shimmer to it.

Two Swatch Combinations - O.P.I Burlesque And China Glaze Rainbow (Julie)

I'm starting to get more experimental, and I really love my glitters, so the last few applications, I've been testing out what sparkle top coats go with which swatches the best. I still haven't figured out the very best looks, and I certainly haven't learned to apply it as nicely as most, but here are two color combos I did recently, and rather like.
First is from O.P.I.'s Burlesque collection (released for the Christina Aguilera flick) called Sparkle-icious. It's an extra sparkly polish mixed with flakes of purple, blue, and gold. It works well as a birthday color! Reminds me of birthday cake. I'm not a huge fan. Lately I've been growing more fond of the chunkier sparkles (at first I was on the fence) over the smaller sparkles like these. Anyway, I started with 1 coat of Rainbow by China glaze, and followed up with two coats of Sparkle-icious. And voila.

Next I tried Orly's Velvet Rope and topped it off with one of my favorite top coats ever - Fairy Dust by China Glaze. Do you have this color yet? If not you need it!!! The rainbows still never cease to amaze me. And it's really easy to remove.