butterLONDON Tart with a Heart - Dressing Table Set

The first I'm going to show you from the Dressing Table set from butterLONDON is Tart with a Heart. It's a lovely and amazing pinky gold chunky glitter. It has an amazing amount of stuff going on in it.

Yeah, OK, it's sheer. I know, I don't like sheers, but really this should be over something else. I am not sure it really matters what for you won't be looking at it. Just in this swatch alone you can see pink, blue, purple, gold, green, teal...I bet if you keep looking at it, you'll see even more.
This is one coat. It would work very well as a top coat.

You can see here how dense the glitter is and that it's all different shapes and probably sizes, actually. It's hard to tell because there is so much of it.

This is a weird shot, I know but I wanted you to be able to see how dense the glitter is. It's blurry, which shows the sparkle, but you can see what I'm trying to show you. This is basically a bunch of really pretty tiny glitter held together with some clear pinkish lacquer.

OK, two coats. You could do this alone if you wanted. Probably three coats would get you a fairly opaque cover. I like this, though. Even though it's sheer. It's so pretty. It's like fireworks!

I think the camera was blinded by the bling.

Ehhhhh, I'd like a base coat under this, I think. I don't like nail lines. This is pretty and you could do it, but I think I'd prefer this as a top coat.

Lots of glitter!
This was easy to apply too, for a glitter. It's chunky, you have to pay attention, and this won't dry smooth. That would be almost too much to hope for. It needs a good top coat over it to make it smooth.

I'm so glad I got this shot. It is showing the crystal quality of this. It looks like I dipped my finger in some kind of decorator sugar. I love this. It's like a stained glass window or something.

OK, last one. This is just another shot at how gorgeous this is. You can't see much pink in this and there really isn't much to be had. Just a hint is all. That's really all you need. You wouldn't be looking at the pink anyways.

How can you not have Happy Talons with something like this in the world?

Ozotic 529 - The Sparkly Wonder

Ozotic 529 is an amazing sparkly starlight kind of thing. Select colors are now available at OverallBeauty.com, which will provide you great service, I promise! These are imported from Australia and are worth every penny. I actually wore this manicure so I can give you some idea of wear as well on this one.

It's incredibly difficult to photograph because it changes so much. There are a lot of swatches, so be forewarned.

The sparkle in this is blue and purple. These appear to be in a clear sheer black base with a great sparkle, but it's not glitter. These will dry pretty smooth.

OverallBeauty recommends putting the Ozotics sparklies over black, which is where Cash Black came in (see the last post). It gives it a firm base. I think these on their own would be a hot mess. They sparkle isn't dense, it spreads out in the application, giving a night sky sort of appearance. However, it's dense enough that you don't really need to layer it unless you feel you simply must.

As the polish is moved through light, it changes colors, it shifts. It's really amazing. It's not a holo, not even close.

You can see here the differences just on the curve of the nail, how on each finger you can see different colors. It's stunning and eye catching.

Meh. Kind of a crap swatch, actually. But you can see the particles.

A bottle shot...see there is even a little pink in here. Very nice.

So this was:

1 coat Seche base coat
1 coat Nailtiques Formula 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild strengthener
2 coats  BB Couture Cash Black
1 coat Ozotic 529
1 coat Seche Vite top coat

This wore beautifully until it didn't. It came off in huge peeled chunks. On some nails. On others there was practically no wear at all. It appeared to almost dry out and flake off. it was strange. Because this was such a complex manicure, I couldn't really repair it.

The Ozotic went on easily enough, no need to rearrange anything, not that I think you could. The particles are very small, almost micro. It dries almost smooth. It's very smooth, but a good top coat will clear up any random lumpies very easily.

Pretty great!

Happy Talons!

Orly Birds of a Feather - Nite Owl

Nite Owl...I picked it up. I put it down. I picked it up again. Put it down again. Finally...when I decided I would order the collection a lot cheaper than retail, I picked it up. So glad I picked it up. It doesn't look the best on me, others in this collection look better. I'm so creamy white that beiges tend to wash out on me, but I love it anyways. It's unique and pretty and sparkly!

 I have swatches that show it better, but look at the bottle in this shot! OOOO! Sparkly silver yumminess!

This is a nice creamy lovely beige neutral with a kick. That silver sparkle just sets this apart. It's not boring or plain, it's stunning and I love it. This is one of my favorites of this collection. It does remind me of an owl's wing, actually, the brown with the white spots...one of the cool things about this polish is that the silver sparkles distribute nicely throughout and you don't have any mess. It's so micro and so well distributed and so dense that it's everywhere.

Meh. I have definitely done better swatches. Let's try that again.

Oooo. That's what I'm talkin' about. See all that? And the shine? So pretty. So wearable! You could pair this with a staid interview suit and be showing a little personality without looking too daring or weird but this will also go just great with jeans and a sweater. Love.

 I just love this! It's not exciting but it is unexpected. Good stuff. It went on like the others: really nice formula, easy to control, good brush...typical Orly stuff. It's nice when a brand can be so consistently dependable. I can't think of a single Orly I've ever had that's been bad.

I hope you love it as much as I do!

Happy Talons!

butterLondon Bluey

butterLondon Bluey is touted as a peacock. Everyone I asked said peacock...I still say "mallard". Ever seen a male mallard's head? It's this dark blue-green...

Male Mallard

See the kind of iridescence? It's blue green, it's just plain green and it's just plain blue? That's Bluey.

Peacock

See that? That's not Bluey. That's "peacock" and it's a lot bluer.

Wanna see?

Mmmm....sparkly mallard!

See? Too much green to be peacock. These pictures are a couple days old from when I painted my nails. I was caught up in fighting with the Orly swatches and I didn't get this loaded in a timely manner. Sorry! But...this is dark compared to real life, but it's not a bad representation of the color. It's slightly brighter in real life. I think the last shot is better.

Yeah...what is up with the shadows. I feel like I'm shooting Hitchock...

This polish has a lot of sparkle. It's lively and bright but...oddly subdued. It's more curious than attention demanding. I enjoyed wearing it. It is photographing a bit more green than it actually is, but this is close. Note the tip wear. I think this was 3 days old? I don't have any pics, but when it decided to implode it did it big time. Big ass blow out, dudes. HUGE chips. No little pissy chips for Bluey. Oh no. It peeled off half my nail surface. My nail was fine, but it was half bald!

Honestly, it seemed to have the attitude of when it was done it was done. It chipped and peeled all over the place. Interesting.

Mechanics:

1 coat Seche bast coat
1 coat Nailtiqes 2
2 coats butterLondon Nail Foundation
2 coats Bluey
1 coat Seche Vite top coat

This didn't really want to dry and my one thumbnail, you may even be able to see it above, did a very odd surface crack thing. The nail appears to be strong but something odd went on there. I have no idea what. It was actually tactile. So weird.

This applied wonderfully, as butters tend to do. It's nicely pigmented and covers well. I find the Nail Foundation really extends the life of the polish. I think this one wore for about 6 days, one of which is scrubbed a sink with comet and no gloves. This was tough! Through it all, though, the polish held it's sparkle and shimmer. Pretty sweet.

Thoughts?

Happy Talons!

Orly Mineral FX Stone Cold Part Deux

I figured out the upload problem! YAY! So here are the other Stone Cold swatches for you. It's so pretty, I couldn't stand that I had these other pictures and I couldn't post them! That is not what I'm all about here.

So here they are.

See all the blues? I don't think there is anything in this polish that isn't a shade of blue.

So sparkly! I didn't even have to blue this up to show the sparkle. I love this polish.

Ooooo!!!


OK. I feel so much better I got these to load! Maybe I should have just edited the previous post but you know what? I kind of feel like we're all on this journey of polish discovery together. So...why hide the trials and tribulations?

The other colors in this collection are coming. Since I was able to load these I was able to get it all to load. Pretty awesome.

Happy Talons!

ButterLondon Wallis

butterLondon Wallis was another score on the Nordstrom sale. Wallis and the other Fall collection colors are now available and are uh-MAY-zing. Bluey...hello. Peacock sparkle. I mean...what more do you need to know, really? It's ordered, it just hasn't made it's way here yet, and along with it will be it's friend Toff. Yay! butterLondon is such a fun company.

I present to you Wallis:

OOOO. It's olive green with definite hints of not really gold but darker. What would be darker? Not bronze, there is nothing really dirty about it. It's a fascinating color, really. I was curious about it because butterLondon sparklies like this one can tend to be either glitter in a jelly or a dense shimmer. Dying to try it out, I thought well...let's try it over another Army green newbie for fall: Lippmann Collection Billionaire. Hmph. Was my color memory on some kind of trip? They are NOTHING alike! But complimentary all the same. My current manicure is biting the dust (good wear on it, check the last post to see it.) so why not play a little bit?

Deborah Lippmann Billionaire is a dark forest green. It's aptly named, it is approximately the color of the ink they use to print money, or at least the way it comes out afterwards. It was MISERABLE to capture, OMG. It either came out a lot grassier than it is in real life or black. I had a terrible time getting to the middle of those two things that Billionaire is. It's striking, but daring. This one isn't for the traditionalist.
This is KINDA close:

This color is really dark, but it's not actually as dark as it looks here. It's a lovely dark military sort of green. It's a straight up cream. It will be  a two coater. This went on a bit streaky but corrected itself on the second coat, which is nice. I'm never secure with only one coat, I'm always sure I am missing something so two coats is my standard. This swatch isn't bad....That brown is exactly the brown of the background so if that gives you any frame of reference then great.

Then I slapped a coat of Wallis over it. A coat. Not several. One.

Check that out. Isn't that phenomenal? First of all, it's not a jelly base, obviously! It is really dense, it covered a much darker color easily and it's sparkly. Sparkly is good. I did get it into a pillow, hence the markies on the tip, but if you can see past that you'll see a really amazing, almost indescribably gorgeous lacquer happening. The really weird thing is, and I am really interested to see what sunlight would do to it, with a flash it does this:

Yeah, that's pretty much emerald right there. Isn't that cool? I assure you it's the same nail, taken maybe 2 minutes apart. The only thing that changed was the lighting...and my hitting that pillow and making the dent. Which was after I took this. It didn't seem to matter what I was getting on the screen, this is the picture I got in that lighting. I took the flash off and moved to a spot under a lamp and got the last pic. Pretty fascinating, huh? Very interesting color. Obviously, it covered really well. This was one not particularly thick coat. I think I'm in love!

Happy Talons!

BB Couture Haul

Ooo. I went a little nutso. We know I am prone to do this. As much as I love OverallBeauty.com and as good as they are to me over there, I need to stay off that site. Maybe I need to stay off there BECAUSE they are so good to me and I love it...it's a vicious cycle. Regardless...I picked up both of the Eye Candy collections, plus a couple of the specials that were going on. It was a good time. The worst is, I have more coming. I love BB Couture....It may well be my favorite polish these days. I'm a fickle polish lover, but BBs are always fun, interesting and wear beautifully. So I was very very bad.

Here's the Eye Candy Men's Collection:

I'll give you the names in a sec because trying to view them through the labels is kinda tough.

OK, starting at the top left and going left to right we have: Heavenly Hunk, Playboy (LOVE), Silver Fox, Dirty Blonde, Rustic Romantic and Sexy Centerfold.

My personal favorite out of this lot is Playboy. It's gorgeous. It's shimmery teal and yum. As I sit here with nekkid nails, I'm thinking...Playboy....yeah....might have to go with that one. I was going to do an Illamasqua, just because I haven't in awhile, but...I don't know. I was also pondering Chanel Mimosa or Black Pearl, but...it might have to be Playboy.

The only one I'm not sure about for me is Rustic Romantic. That color would likely be problematic on my skintone. All I can do is try it...**bites lip thoughtfully**

Let's just do it. It's a caramel cream color and I like it better on me than I had anticipated. It's warm and more buttery than rust. Take a look:

It's kind of growing on me. I did a crap job on this because I had no intention to keep it...no base coat, no top coat. This was still wet when I snapped the swatch, but...I think I like it, actually. Sweet! Even better when the one color you're not sure about is one you turn out liking.


The ladies collection has some true stunners in it, as well. OOOO!

I didn't take a bottle back shot of this because you can see these really well. Gorgeous, right? I know.
Right to Left: Junk in the Trunk, Sweet Silicone, Busty Bombshell, Trim and Tassled, Feathered Vixen and Scorching Strawberry.
I actually accidentally re-ordered Scorching Strawberry because I couldn't find it, thought I'd thrown it out with the box by mistake, which was promptly burned, or hadn't received it or whatever. It was on my desk. Kim was nice enough at OverallBeauty.com to cancel it and give me a refund. She rocks. I'm tellin' ya.

Trim and Tassled, guys. Hello. Look at that bad boy. Oh yes.

What do you think? Will you pick any of these up? You will know that there will be full posts when I wear these! Some of them I can't wait to try.

Happy Talons!!

Zoya Tanzy – It’s the Sun!

WOW.

 
Fire for your fingertips.



This is…orange. It's the color of the sun. It's really very pretty, and striking.

 
This was outside on the railing of my back porch in the sun. This might have been the shade…but I think it's sun. Look at that. It looks like stained glass, but opaque. It's a lovely sparkly jelly kind of polish that was oh so sheer and scary when I put on the first coat. I was like…what is this hot mess I just wasted all those base coats on. Which, we'll get to that in a sec.



I loved wearing this. It's gorgeous. It's sparkly and rich and just a more sunshiney color of a tourmaline, which I know because I have tourmaline earrings. I think they're tourmaline….the tag didn't say, just that they were real stones and they're this color, or a hair darker.

 
Here's another one:

Ooooo! **does happy polish dance**


Check that out. Orange with a gold glitter? Heck yeah! And I have to say, on my cool/neutral skin tone it looks OK. A little lobster pawly, but nothing you can't handle.

I had fun swatching this. I was outside in the yard, I was enjoying the sun because it was bright but not hot…

 
Oh holy blurriness…oh well. Check out the color of that sparkle on the index fingie…see that darker rust sparkle? See the yellow and gold? This was just what I wanted. Something that screamed SUMMER like a heavy metal hair band singer. Ha…check the grass in the background there. Can you say "Drought"?

OOFA. I'm serious, this is the sun on my talons. It's the color of the sun…I thought that every single time I looked at it.

 
One more, just because we can:


 

Hm. The grass is lovely and focused. Check it out! I found some that's green!

New phone…new camera….I will have some faux pas, I'm afraid.



Obviously, this is sunlight. Look at how it lights up! It looks like fire. I love it.

Is the last one in focus? We wonder…

Oh, a dream shot. Now that is a true on swatch. It do'na get any better'n that, lass. Yes. This is it exactly.



OK, so…I got this for free on a Zoya promo. If you like Zoya's colors, want to try them, or have been wearing it a long time and buying it at Ulta or something…you need to know. They have the most awesome promos. Seriously. Get on their blog and subscribe or whatever you need to do. I just check them periodically, but if you love the brand you need to know about this. Maybe this wasn't a freebie…well, regardless, great deals. I hit the Buy the colorlock system for approximately $50 and get your choice of the sparkle or crème summer collections free promo. Not a bottle, the COLLECTION. So, you got the colorlock system and SIX polishes for $50, roughly. I was thinking no way. When it comes it will be minis of the colorlock. Nope. And it comes in an easy to tote little ziplock baggie. In case you were curious, it's full size, two basecoats, a full size remover…pretty awesome. (Sheilie, might send you the ridge filler. I don't need it and it might help you, plus it's vegan, which I know you support.) I went a little apeshit on that sale, I have to tell you. I picked up a bunch, which is weird of me as I don't have the best of luck with Zoya, and sadly, colorlock was no different in that regard. I did great until it came to dry time. Suck. Even with the drying drops, I wound up completely screwing one nail about an hour later and had to do it over from basecoat on up. After that, no problems and it wore well. This was an in-between mani for me, I put it on for a couple days before my real manicure so I didn't get to really test the wear but in that time, maybe 4 days, it wore beautifully. I did Seche it, though. After the not really drying drops didn't really dry it, I was afraid to leave it nekkid. Now, in it's defense, I did not use the colorlock system purely according to their specs. I did Nailtiques 2 and Rebuild and maybe that jacked it up. Don't know.


 
K, so the mechanics:


 

1. 1 coat Zoya Anchor
   
2. 1 coat Nailtiques 2
   
3. 2 coats Seche Rebuild
   
4. 3 coats Zoya Tanzy
   
5. 1 coat Zoya Armor
   
6. Zoya Fast Drops
   
7. 1 coat Seche Vite topcoat
   

I didn't wear it long enough to have need of the Zoya Renew, which is a renewing top coat. I also didn't take this off so I didn't get to try the Remove+ that came in the set.


 
Overall, gorgeous color, great sparkle, good wear. A little weird going on and definitely needs layers, I recommend 3, but see what happens when you do this on your own nails.


 
I hope you like it!


 
Happy Polishing!

I love BB Couture

Remember I had said that I had been snatching up yellows but I didn't know if I could wear them? I got brave. I tried BB Couture Daisy Dweller and found out that I could! It's bright daisy (how appropriate, right?) yellow. It's in your face, take no prisoners, not apologizing, pretty, girly, bright yellow. It also has some sparkle for good measure! It's M&M yellow. I have the proof! It's the yellow of your phone book cover and that I don't have a swatch to prove so you just have to take my word for it.

Check it out:

OK, this swatch does show that I do get a tad lobster paw-ish. Yellow honestly isn't actually my color and it's not a color I typically like. However, it does lighten your mood, no lie. I was fascinated by this polish, I confess. I took 12 swatches of it over time.
Wanna see the M&M shot? Betcha do!

You can even see some of the shimmer there on the pinkie.

There is the nearly obligatory work shot. That lighting is amazing for swatching. It's unnatural so be aware of that, though. However,  it really is this bright.

Here I got a good pick of the even brighter yellow sparkle that is in the polish. Unfortunately, the Seche Vite ate the shimmer. I'm not sure what you do with that because this polish did go on slightly rough. You could feel the glitter, which I hate. I like a nice smooth and glassy finish so I have to sacrifice the sparkle to the top coat gods. The shimmer could still be seen, it just became super subtle, which was a bit of a drag.


Here's a sunlight pic for you:

Meh. Could be a better shot. We've had bad weather here for...ever, and sunlight is something I have to catch by luck. Wow, my fingers look weird.




See? I told you I swatched the crap out of this. I couldn't stop looking at it.



Why isn't blogger letting me insert rows? Freak. [OK, on the preview read through, I had to reset my internet connection and the cut an paste and guess what? Rows. Sometimes I hate my internet.]

To do the mani, I tried the Seche Vite chocolate chip cookie accident again, just to see what happened. It was good. I might be on to something here. I will show you the chippage here in a bit because it did eventually chip, as all of them will, but more on that in a second.

1 coat Seche Base Coat
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
1 coat Seche Vite Top Coat
4 coats Daisy Dweller - I can't lie, it goes on sheer. To get opacity like I like, I did 4 coats. FOUR! Not a plus on this polish. However, it was 4 nice-to-apply coats. They went on beautifully, just not opaque.
1 coat Seche Vite

It did eventually wear and chip, but it took days. Of course, this was TEN coats of lacquer as well! That being said, none of the too thick polish problems you sometimes get. Peeling was never an issue, not even after it started to chip, which...that's kind of amazing.

Here is the chip mess:

MMM, yeah. You see that. However, it was confined to those two nails. In Daisy Dwellers defense, I had to have done roughly 90 sinks of dishes and cleaned the bathroom sink. This stuff saw a lot of water. Now...the interesting thing is, and I have to confess a sin here, once my polish starts to chip I can NOT leave it alone. I'm OCD about it, I want it off. I want it off now. It just looks cheap and lazy and defeats the whole purpose of  nail maintenance. I hate it. I hate when other people let their nails go and I definitely won't let mine. So I will pick at it. It's bad, I know. Want a nice way to start removing the surface of your nails? Pick your polish off. This swatch is after I had been picking at it. This is all that would come off. I don't have a top view of it because...all I could get off is pretty much what you see here and the left hand barely chipped at all. Maybe a little mouse bite on one nail.

Hm. Interesting.


Anyone else out there up for the yellows? Did I change your mind good or bad?

I'd love to know!

Happy Polishing!