Belle of the Ball

New colors from Pure Ice!  Although I have little official news — OK, none — a new set of spring/summer colors from Pure Ice has started appearing in Wal-Mart, and the collection is called Belle of the Ball.  Pure Ice, as you may know, is a budget brand that costs $1.97 or so for a full-sized 0.5 oz/15 ml bottle.

I’m not sure how many new colors there are.  I’ve read six or eight, and the new ones are mixed in with the old ones so it’s really hard to tell.  I picked up three:  Playful Princess #1041, Castle of Dreams #1046, and Fairy Godmother #1045.

I don’t know why the label on the lavender bottle is different than the other two; it had something else weird going on with it, which I’ll explain later.

Pure Ice is one of the very few budget brands that I truly like, and I’m not just saying that because they sometimes send me samples (these three bottles were bought at retail with my own money).  Pure Ice and Sinful Colors seem to have mostly consistently good colors, finishes, and formulas that rival more expensive brands.

Playful Princess is a true teal creme.  It and the other two colors were similar in that the first coat was streaky but the second covered very well.  All photos are under indirect outdoor light and then in direct sunshine, with no top coat.

Gorgeous summer color!

Castle of Dreams is a periwinkle blue creme with a faint shimmer that’s visible in the sun.  I have an unreasonable love for periwinkle blues; don’t know why!

Fairy Godmother is a slightly dusty dark lavender or light purple with a faint shimmer.  The polish itself was fine but the stem of the brush was attached very crookedly to the handle, so trying to apply the polish neatly felt like trying to put lipstick on in a moving car.  I did the best I could.

Since this bottle had a bad stem and a very different label, I wonder if I got a maverick somehow.  No big deal.

I love all three colors, and you can’t beat the price.  You may have to comb the Pure Ice displays to find these new colors but they’re worth it!

Hello, beautiful !

It’s been quite a while since I swatched a polish from budget brand Sinful Colors.  SC is available at Walgreen’s, Wal-Mart, and other thrifty locales, and its SRP is usually $1.99.  Walgreen’s sometimes has a sale where it’s only 99 cents and that’s a good time to stock up if you’re so inclined.

Today let’s look at Ciao Bella, a cobalt blue with lighter blue micro glitter or flecks.  I don’t speak Italian but am pretty sure the name means Hello Beautiful.  And beautiful it is!

The formula was smooth and dry time was good.  Two coats gave adequate coverage but I used three to intensify the color, and it’s very shiny even without a clear top coat.  I LOVE this one and think it rivals similar colors from other brands that cost four or five or six times as much.  ** cough cough **  OPI  **cough**  Butter London  **cough**

Under indirect outdoor light, with the flash, and then in direct sunshine:

Gorgeous, and I love it when a budget polish is so satisfying.  But now the bad news — I’m not sure this shade is still available.  I read it was part of the core line (not limited edition) yet I don’t see it on the Sinful Colors web site.  Probably looking in person in stores is your best bet.

Ciao!

Out of This World

Today I have both a polish to show you called Out of This World and a music video that’s literally out of this world.

Polish first!  Out of This World (OoTW) is a milk chocolate brown with a slight gray tone from Misa.  It has a subtle bronze-gold shimmer that certainly keeps it from being a boring brown.  I don’t review many Misas because sadly no stores near me carry the brand.  So I buy them online but it’s tough when I can’t see them in person first.

OoTW is from last fall’s Wanderlust Collection.  The formula and application were great, and two coats gave excellent coverage.  I used a clear shiny top coat.  Under indirect outdoor light, with the flash, and then in direct sunshine:

I know it doesn’t particularly look like a summery color, but who cares?  It’d be a great office-safe neutral, or a change of pace from beachy brights.

And now I don’t know if you caught this on the news, but the first music video filmed in space is here.  Remember David Bowie’s haunting “Space Oddity” from 1969?  Here it is performed from the International Space Station by 53-year-old Commander Chris Hadfield (proudly Canadian), proof yet again that we over-50s can rock:

Watching and listening to it makes me feel nostalgic, sad, and proud all at the same time.  In 1969, who would have thought this was possible?

P.S.  If the embedded video doesn’t work in your viewer, the link is:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo

Some SquareHue polishes revisited

I’ve been subscribing to the polish-of-the-month (POTM) club called SquareHue since January, and have swatched and reviewed each three-polish box.  Several times I’ve said, “Oh, I should try this” or “I should try that” with some of the polishes — either a different look or giving a polish I thought was too streaky another try — and I’m finally going to do it.

If you’d like to see all my original review posts:

January

February

March, part 1 and part 2

April

May

As you can see, over time you’ll start to build up a varied and interesting collection.

I mean, is this a gorgeous gaggle for spring or what?  (One from January, three from April, two from May)

I had no issues at all with the January collection, but don’t feel I showed the sparkly top coat, Arctic Frost, to its best advantage.  I took a photo of it over the light blue of Glacier Skies and you could barely see the top coat.  Here’s Arctic Frost over a much darker color, February’s Dear John which is a blackened red shimmer:

Speaking of February, I’d found the peachy-nude shade, High School Crush, thin and streaky.  I tried it again over a base coat of opaque white, which worked sooooo much better.  Also, I was more careful to mix up the bottle before application.  Here I have two thin coats of High School Crush over one coat of white.  I like this much better than the four coats of HSC I tried originally.

Oops, I didn’t wrap the tip, but otherwise it’s great.

On to March.  I had problems with Blond Ale and this time I made sure to mix the bottle more thoroughly since it had been sitting for a long time.  Three coats was sufficient instead of four, although the frost finish showed brushstrokes.

Then I tried a matte top coat from Butter London that practically eliminated the brushstrokes.  An interesting look, like suede.

April’s box was perfection.  Wouldn’t change a thing!

Yesterday when I swatched May’s box I had a hair-pulling fit with the frosty Mother’s Pearl.  Today I tried to slow down more in my application, and also I topped three coats of it with the matte top coat.

Whoa, soooo much better, although I got a little sloppy.  What can I say; I’m tired.

So when you have a polish of any brand that’s just not working right for you, try these tips.  If it’s thin or patchy, use an opaque base coat — white/light for light colors, black/dark for dark colors.  If the finish isn’t to your liking, change it with a top coat — clear and shiny, matte, glitter, and so on.  If it’s too thick, use nail polish thinner (not polish remover!).

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Some readers have asked me what other POTM clubs or subscriptions are available.  Here’s a brief roundup that is by no means complete.  I haven’t personally tried any of them.  Check with all companies regarding features, availability, commitment, prices, and so on.  By the way, there are some companies that take your money and then send an old bottle of OPI or whatever.  Beware of those!  Also beware of ANY company, polish or not, that isn’t up front about cost.

Julep is probably the Big Mama of POTM clubs.  You take a style quiz which asks for your email to receive results and then you can either go with whatever style they think fits you or browse all the styles.  Some boxes appear to contain two nail polishes plus one other beauty product and some contain three polishes.  You know in advance which colors you’ll get, but the polishes are only 0.27 oz/8 ml, which I consider a mini.  Some people like the bottle shape, which is tall and skinny, and others don’t.  There are many reviews online regarding formula and wear time.

Lacquerous is one where you rent polish.  That’s not a typo.  Rent.  It’s $18 a month and you receive three polishes that you can use up to three times each (yes, appaRENTly they measure it upon return and they reserve the right to charge you for the full bottle price if you use too much) and then send back in prepaid packaging.  They have designer brands like Chanel and Dior, plus more quotidian ones like OPI.  From the web site it sounds like you get to pick the ones you want to try, and I don’t know if you’re limited to, say, one Chanel a month or whatever.

Sorry, but I don’t want to use polish that’s already been used by strangers, plus how do you know someone didn’t sneak in some cheap dupe?  Sharing with friends is one thing, but this is different.  If I’m going to spend the money I want keepers, and besides, my luck would be that the last person to use the polish I got was Typhoid Mary.  (I kid.)

Color Me Monthly appears to send one polish a month for $7.  I’ve read very little about this program but the reviews I have seen are generally favorable.

Are you more into nail art?  Nail Art Society has a club that sends one polish plus some nail art supplies.  I’m not into feathers and sequins, but if you are, it might be worth finding some reviews of the company.

As for me, I’m very happy with SquareHue, but it’s good to have choices.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a fantastic Mother’s Day!!

Knackered

Knackered:  [ˈnækərd] Brit Slang

adj

1. exhausted; tired out

2. worn out; no longer working, esp after long or hard use

and don’t forget

3. a very cool duochrome polish from Butter London

I’ve had Knackered in my stash ever since I bought it in a sale last year, so long ago that I don’t even remember what I paid for it.  Actually, that doesn’t mean anything — I can barely remember what I did yesterday.  At any rate, the SRP for Knackered at Butter London’s web site and in retail stores is $15.  Kind of pricey; I love BLs but almost never get any unless they’re on sale.  Ulta often has coupons you can use.  Right now BL is having a web sale that offers free shipping.

Anyway — Knackered is a real chameleon.  In the bottle it looks blue with a purple tint.  BL calls it an “oyster shade” which to me is vague; I thought oysters were white or gray.  It’s actually a very sheer duochrome that flashes mostly purple with some green, and it also has sparkly micro holographic glitter.  That’s a lot going on in one polish!

I knew from other bloggers’ swatches and from my own experience of swatching it on a nail wheel that it’s so sheer that it’s hard to build up enough coverage on its own.  So I used a base coat of plain black polish and then three thin coats of Knackered.  An application tip for Butter London polishes:  be aware that the large square black cap pops off so you can grip the cylindrical ridged handle underneath.  The first time I used a BL, I didn’t know that and thought, “Boy, is this awkward.” 

I saw both purple and green duochrome shift on my nails in person, which did not show up well in my photos no matter what I did.  Mostly just the purple was apparent.  But the micro holo glitter — something I think Butter London does very well — is so pretty and eye-catching.

Under low indirect outdoor light:

With the flash:

Two angles in direct bright sunshine:

And a closeup:

I think Knackered might look different depending on what base coat you used.  Over green it would probably look more green, and so on.  It’s a fun one!

OPI Bond Girls — the mini set review

I’ve been looking forward to OPI’s Bond Girls Collection of Liquid Sand matte textured polishes since I first heard about it in March.  I picked up the mini set of four this weekend at Trade Secret, a chain beauty supply store.  The set of four was $12.95 US which I thought was a bit high, but then again the Liquid Sand polishes are more expensive than OPI’s regular ones.

As is typical of OPI’s minis, the bottles are super mini — only 1/8th of an ounce or 3.75 ml.  You couldn’t get more than a couple of full manicures from one bottle, but they’re more like samples to see if you like a polish enough to buy a full-size version.

Application was good; be sure to apply thin coats and let each coat dry thoroughly for the matte look.  I used three coats of each polish.

First I tried the one I’d been looking forward to the most, the light pink Pussy Galore (hate that name!). It was very sheer and looked OK after three coats but could have used a fourth.  It’s a light baby pink with subtle darker pink sparkle that didn’t show up well in my photos.

I think it’s only OK, which surprised me ’cause I’m usually such a fan of pink.

Vesper is unusual.  It’s a sheer dark purple with tiny specks that look like black pepper.  It looked so different depending on the number of coats that I wanted to show you.  Left to right, I have one coat, two coats, and three coats.  Not a fan of this one; it looks more like dirt or a stain than polish to me.  As you can see, one coat and two coats look patchy, but three coats look almost black.

I liked the purple Can’t Let Go from OPI’s Mariah Carey Collection better:

Jinx is coral — more orange than pink — with lots of gold sparkle.  In fact, all the sparkle keeps it from looking matte but it’s very pretty and summery.

Where have I seen this look before?  Destiny from Zoya and JulieG’s Sugar Rush are very close.

I do like Jinx better than The Impossible from OPI, which was more reddish and didn’t dry matte for me:

Finally, the white polish called Solitaire is unique.  It dries matte but has a small amount of silver shimmer that’s pretty without being overwhelming.  It reminds me of sunshine glinting off fresh snow, and I love it!  I’d wear this summer or winter, and wouldn’t it look stunning on dark skin?  Under indirect outdoor light and then in direct sunshine:

There are two other colors in the Bond Girls set, which I didn’t buy — gold Honey Ryder and blue Tiffany Case.  You can see swatches of them here at work/play/polish.

My favorite of the four Bond Girls minis is definitely Solitaire and I want a full-sized bottle.  White polish is tough for me — usually I think it looks like I spilled White-Out on my fingers — but Solitaire is different.  Pussy Galore doesn’t thrill me like I thought it would, I have dupes of Jinx, and Vesper is too blackened for me.  If you don’t have a coral-orange like Jinx, though, I highly recommend it.  Seems to be a very “in” color this summer.

Let’s compare: rose golds

Disclosure:  One of these polishes was provided by Zoya for review.

Yesterday when I was swatching Zoya’s Irresistible Collection of foils, I kept thinking of other polishes I wanted to compare them to.  When Irresistible was first announced, I thought Tinsley looked like a foil version of one of my first ever Zoya polishes, Happi.  Is it?  Let’s find out.

Surprisingly, at least to me, Happi and Tinsley are not similar at all.  Happi is a cool pink gold duochrome shimmer, and Tinsley is a rose gold foil.  Tinsley has a definite glittery look.

Tinsley is, however, very close to another Zoya shade called Tiffany.  I just bought this one in the Earth Day sale and am kind of bummed that they’re so close!  Tiffany is from the older Flame Collection and I really thought from its picture that it would be more peachy or coppery.

Here are all three, left to right:  Happi, Tinsley, and Tiffany.

I applied three coats of each and here’s how they look under reflected outdoor light, next to a bottle of Zoya Purity for contrast:

In direct sunshine:

The base of Tinsley is slightly more pink than the peachy base of Tiffany, but all the gold foil/flakes (beautiful!) make the two polishes almost duplicates on the nail.

One great thing about doing this comparison is that I was reminded all over again how much I love Happi.    Also, I think what I’ll do with Tiffany is pour some of it out and add some copper or brown polish (?which one?) to make a copper foil that I might like for fall.  That’s something to do if you end up with duplicates — play with them and change them to make something new!

Disclosure:  One of these polishes was provided by Zoya for review.

Simply Irresistible

Disclosure:  This set was sent by Zoya for review.

Took me a while, but I finally have Zoya’s Irresistible Collection to show you!  Through no one’s fault that I can see, the first set that Zoya sent me was lost in transit.  It was entered into FedEx’s system and then… nothing.  But as they say, better late than never.    It was much appreciated for Zoya to send me a replacement.

Irresistible is a set of six bright foils.  I’ve only mentioned about a hundred times how much I love a foil finish, because it’s shimmery and glittery without having either visible brushstrokes or chunky glitter.

The formula of all six was very consistent — not too thin, not too thick.  For each polish, two coats would have been enough for decent coverage but I used three coats because I think the third coat brought out the richness of each color.  All photos are shown in reflected outdoor light and then in direct sunshine, with no top coat.

First — Kerry, a sunny yellow-gold.  It’s not a daffodil color nor a bronzed gold.  If anything, it might have a very faint greenish tint.

Amy is an intense orange with a lot of gold shimmer.  Outdoors in the direct sun (second photo) I think it leans red.

Tinsley is the one I was looking forward to the most, and I’m not disappointed.  It’s the epitome of the term “rose gold” — a pretty rose pink with tons of gold shimmer.  It kind of has a duochrome look going on too, because at different angles (first and second photos), you see either more gold or more rose.

Bobbi is another pink, but is cooler in tone, much more fuchsia, and it has silver shimmer instead of gold.  Love this one too.

I liked Rikki, a cool fern green, a lot more than I expected.  Greens are tough for me to wear and often bring out weird tones in my skin, but I think Rikki looks great.  Must be the silver shimmer it has.  I also saw a few flecks of gold in the direct sun.

Similarly, Hazel has both silver and gold shimmer, and is a light steel blue that looks darker in the sun.  Could be wintery-looking but also great for summer — a nice change from neon blue or turquoise.

I love the Irresistible Collection and it’s perfect for summer.  My favorites are Tinsley, Bobbi, and Rikki.  Hazel’s right up there too but I wonder if I have a near-duplicate.  Kerry and Amy would probably look much better on someone with a different skin tone than mine (I’m such a self-critic).

Here are all twelve of the Irresistible and Stunning polishes together.  As you can see, each one in its set has a somewhat close shade in the other set, but Stunning is all cremes.  From top (12 o’clock position) and moving clockwise:  Kerry, Darcy, Amy, Thandie, Tinsley, Micky, Bobbi, Yana, Rikki, Josie, Hazel, and Rocky.

Disclosure:  These polishes were sent by Zoya for review.

Crazy for Kieko

I loved reviewing Zoya’s Stunning Collection last week, but what’s one color the set was lacking (not that every set can have every color)?  Purple.  So let me show you another summery shade.

This is Kieko, from the 2011 set of six cremes called Summertime and it’s got enough red and berry tones to make it really interesting.  Zoya describes it as “Warm, red toned dusty light purple with berry tones with an opaque cream finish. A nice alternative to pure pink or berry, especially flattering on warm skin tones.”

Well, my cool skin tone loves it anyway.  This kind of color makes me happy just to look at it.

Kieko applied very smoothly and two coats gave wonderful coverage.  I was going to add a clear shiny top coat, but Kieko is so glossy on its own that I didn’t.  For a full manicure, I’d add one for protection, as always.

Under indirect outdoor light and then in bright direct sunshine:

I think Kieko is one of those colors people might not expect on an older woman… which is partly why I love it!

Reva

Ready for the last Sunshine Collection polish from Zoya for me to swatch?  It’s Reva, another red.

Reva differs from yesterday’s Kimmy in that Reva has a dark pink base and has a cool tone.  Overall I’d call it a true red, though.  The gold microflakes warm it up a bit and keep it from being too dark or cool.

Confusingly — to me, at least — Zoya calls Kimmy “candy apple red” and Reva “strawberry red” yet I think it’s the other way around.  Your individual candy apples and strawberries may vary.    Either way, they’re both beautiful.

Excellent coverage was achieved with two coats, and again, the formula was very smooth and streak-free.

Reva, two coats, no top coat, under indirect outdoor light, with a fill flash, and then under direct cloudy sunlight:

Normally I would be more drawn to the cool tone of Reva as opposed to the warm one of Kimmy, but I think for summer I actually prefer Kimmy.  I believe I’d be more likely to wear Reva as a holiday color; it’d be perfect for Christmas.