SWATCH & REVIEW: Pahlish - Partridge in a Pear Tree

Happy New Year guys!  Sorry for the lack of posts lately!  I got busy with last minute shopping and gift wrapping right before Christmas, and then I kinda took a break from the internet, lol.  So I failed at the challenge, but I'm still planning to upload my last 3 days of the challenge sometime during this month.  After Christmas, I really didn't do much of anything the last week of the year except bum and catch up on some TV.  No swatching time at all! o_o;;

But I'm up and running again.  Today I have Partridge in a Pear Tree which is from Pahlish's holiday collection.  This is the one that first caught my eye when she released this collection.  I think it's a pretty polish that's complex and quite unique.  Also, it's very festive for the holidays!

This has a linen colored jelly base with fine red shimmer, burgundy hex glitter, and green square glitter.  I used 3 coats to achieve the opacity above.  It was easy to apply and I had no problems with glitter application (didn't have to do any fishing).  Overall, a nice polish and I really recommend picking it up while it's still available!  You can find it at her etsy shop.

SWATCH: China Glaze - Winter Holly (12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge)

This is a bit late, but for day two of the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Challenge, I have Winter Holly from China Glaze's Holiday Joy collection.  This is a clear base filled with lots of green, gold, and holographic micro glitter.  It's really pretty, and I don't think my camera capture the full effect of the glitter.

3 coats polish, 1 coat seche vite

3 coats of polish, 2 coats seche vite

This applied very patchy for me at first, and I had quite a few bald spots, but it evened out after the third coat.  I still had problems with the tips though, for some reason, especially my ring finger in these pictures.  The polish just did not want to apply, so it looks like I have tip wear already.  :(  It dried to a rough, gritty finish, so I would say you definitely need a top coat.  But 1 coat was not enough to completely smooth it over, so I used 2 coats of Seche Vite.

REVIEW + SKITTLE SWATCHES: Blue Cross Holiday Lights Polishes & Candy Shop Polish Set

I stopped at Rite Aid at the end of my Black Friday run and while I was there, I noticed that they had put out a new Holiday Lights nail polish display and it had the two colors I couldn't find before (I had previously picked up the 3 Nouveau Cheap posted about here).  So I picked up those two colors and it turned out they were buy 1 get 1 50% off!  That was pretty cool.  Always nice to save money unexpectedly, haha.  And in addition, I also found the Candy Shop set also mentioned in that Nouveau Cheap post, and I decided to get that too because I'm loving milky glitter polishes a lot lately and I wanted to compare them for you.  Warning: picture heavy post ahead!  :)

bought the middle polish and right end polish this time around!

So as you can see the five full size polishes I have look almost exactly like the set, with the exception of the last polish on the right and the fact that the glitter in the full size hot pink polish (middle) is not multi-colored.  Now for some comparisons of the three that do look like dupes!

this is the one that's supposed to be a dupe of Deborah Lippmann's Candy Shop, I think

The pinks are the same for the most part, but I did feel like the glitter was denser in Lollipop than in its full size counterpart.  Now the blue is a different story.  They're not the exact same polish, at least in my set the blues are different.  I feel like Blueberry Swirl leans more green than its full-size counterpart, and the glitter is denser and easier to apply, though still quite sparse compared to the pinks.  As you can see in the swatch below, the glitter from the full-size blue polish did not want to come out at all.

I used 3 coats for the colored glitters and 2 coats for the holo and flakie

some close ups:

You can better see what I mean about Blueberry Swirl (left) being more green in this swatch!

I wonder why they decided to make this smell like a chocolate cupcake?

I did not have the same problem with the flakie eating my base color, like Nouveau Cheap did here.  I wonder if it could be that there are batches that were mixed differently? Or maybe it could be the polish used as a base.  Who knows?  I used 2 coats of the flakie over 2 coats of China Glaze VIII.  The flakies are sparse, but the small multi-chrome round glitter still gives it a pretty effect.  I think this is best layered over dark polish, so that the colors in the flakie and glitter can show up more.  The holographic glitter on the other hand looks good over light or dark polish.

The brushes are not much different.  The handle on the mini polishes are obviously smaller, but the brush is a little longer and a little thinner.  That difference didn't really affect application for me, though.

Overall, these applied pretty well and had nice glitter payoff, with the exception of the blue.  I've only seen these at Rite Aid, with the full-size polishes priced at $4.99 each and the Candy Shop set, which is scented, retailing for $5.99.  The Candy Shop ones kinda do smell like what they are labeled as...very sweet smelling!  I definitely recommend the Candy Shop set over the full-size polishes because you get more colors for less and Blueberry Swirl performs better than full-size blue (I wish the full-size ones had names!  It would sound less awkward when writing about them, lol.)  Blueberry Swirl is actually probably one of my faves from the set!  As for that flakie, I think you could pass due to the sparseness of the flakes.  You really have to fish them out and dab them on the nail if you want more coverage.  I think there are better ones out there!

HAUL: Indie Fun! ~ Cult Nails, Lovely Lacquer, Darling Diva

I've discovered the world of Indie Nail Polish! Oh, my poor wallet.  Hahah

It all started with Cult Nails!  Back in October, I saw a post on a blog I follow about a sale Cult Nails was having.  I had been wanting to try their polishes for a while and decided to take the plunge.

Look at the pretty that is Seduction!!!

It's been quite a plunge!  After that purchase, I started browsing a bunch of other indie polish makers.  There are so many out there!  All with beautiful polish!  I wish I could by all the pretty polishes!  But for now, I started with 3 from Lovely Lacquer:

And 6 from Darling Diva Polish.  I got her 5 for $25 deal, which I think is an amazing deal, and also her Ringer polish, which is supposed to be a dupe for Max Factor Fantasy Fire dupe.  Ringer is the polish that caught my eye, and her other polishes kept me glued to her etsy store! :)

 

That's my recent haul.  I've got some polish on the way from Pahlish and also from Daily Lacquer.  Can't wait to get them and show you!  And of course, stay tuned for swatches!  I will probably do swatches for Lovely Lacquer first, because I think she's restocking again soon and that way you can see how beautiful these polishes are!   Also, let me know what some of your favorite Indie polish brands are~! :)

REVIEW+SWATCH: Orly - R.I.P.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!  Today, I have for you Orly R.I.P., which I wore as my Halloween mani.  I saw it at my local nail supply store and thought it would be perfect for the occasion!  It's small round orange glitter and larger orange hex glitter in a black jelly base.  I used 2 thick coats for the photos below (no top coat).

in the shade

in the shade

in the shade

in the sun

close up of the glitter on my nail, in the shade

This applied okay.  It was a bit thick and I I had to stop and shake the bottle a couple times because the glitter kept settling to the bottom.  The hex glitter is abundant in the bottle but didn't want to stay on the nail, when I was applying, so I had to kind of just glob a dot and maneuver the brush around to cover the nail with the glitter.  But it was opaque in two coats, and I really like how it looks.  Very festive! 

REVIEW+SWATCH: Sinful Colors Faceted (Holiday 2012)

Sorry this is a bit late!  I didn't consider studying or napping into my equation for calculating when I would get time to swatch this, haha.  But here it is!

Sinful Colors Faceted is small purple round glitter and color-shifting bar glitter in a clear base.  I used 1 coat of Faceted over 3 coats of China Glaze Light As Air.

under natural light

under fluorescent light

I really like this combination!  But the bar glitter doesn't really show up on this lighter color, so I also swatched it over a darker polish.  The next picture shows 1 coat of Faceted over 2 coats of China Glaze VIII:

under natural light

As you can see the bar glitter shows up a lot more over a dark base.  You get to see color-shifting in the bar glitter a lot more, but the purple glitter is less obvious.  This combination is also nice, but I still prefer it over the lighter polish more.  I normally don't like bar glitter, but have to say, this one is really pretty.  I think it may be because of the color-shifting glitter, as I mentioned in my last post. :P

This was a little thick, but applied well.  I didn't use any special maneuvering to get the amount of glitter I have on the nail, though I don't think this is a glitter you can wear alone.  I tried 3 coats on its own, and it still showed a lot of my nail.  (I didn't take any pictures of that though :x)  Overall, I'm pleased with this polish and am happy to have it in my collection!

SPOTTED: Sinful Colors Holiday Shimmers (Holiday 2012)

I stopped by Rite Aid last week and look what I found!  It's the Sinful Colors Holiday collection!  This one is all sparkly goodness, I think.  I can't be too sure because the display was kind of picked over, so there are some shades that I'm not sure about, if they're supposed to be part of the collection or not.  But let's get to the pictures!

The display! It was next to the Sinful Colors Fall display, or at least what was left of it, haha.

The colors from left to right: Nova, Frenzy, Super Star, Winter Wonder, Queen of Beauty (behind a bottle of Winter Wonder), Ice Dream, Faceted, and Dazzle

I know Queen of Beauty is part of the permanent display, so I'm not really sure if that one was part of this collection or someone just decided to misplace it there.  And I think Frenzy might be permanent too.  But there's two here, so it's probably part of the collection.  I wouldn't be surprised since Sinful Colors has repromoted permanent colors in "new" collections before.  The rest are new and limited edition, I think.  All are pretty, but the one that really stood out to me was Faceted, even though I don't really like bar glitter.  Faceted just looked so pretty, and the bar glitter is multichrome glitter, so that kind of made up for it.  :P  You can probably guess, I left Rite Aid with Faceted in hand.  Swatches should be up either tomorrow or Friday, when I get time to photograph. :)

In addition to Faceted, I was also interested in Nova, Winter Wonder, and Dazzle.  I'm hoping to stop by Walgreens this week and see if they have this collection out yet, since they're having a $0.99 sale on Sinful Colors again.  

Of note: if you own China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara, you might want to skip Ice Dream.  When I saw it, I immediately thought it could be a dupe for Lorelei's Tiara.  But, if you're lemming Lorelai's Tiara and have had no luck finding it, you might want to check this one out!