Revlon has a new nail display out with a few cremes and matching glitter topcoats. I picked up two of the glitters, and the first is Galaxy. It's a clear base with blue and silver specks of glitter and then larger hexagonal holographic pieces. In the bottle it was so awesome and unique, but once I got it on I felt that I probably could have re-created the look with a China Glaze glitter like Shooting Star or Techno. However, I don't own a lot of Revlon because they don't make that many stunning shades in my opinion, and it's sort of cool that they're doing glitter. I also purchased Slipper from this collection which is absolutely amazing and I can't wait to share. For now though, my opinion is that if you don't have a similar glitter, try it out. It's a lot more sparse than you'd think by looking at the bottle, but it's still pretty with two coats over another polish. Another thing to keep in mind is that the smaller glitter lays down more easily on the nail, you have to keep on passing over the nail to lay down the larger glitter. In other brands like China Glaze or Lippmann I really don't have this problem. For the price it's a fun polish, and I would recommend picking up at least one of these just to have in your stash o' polish for a day when you want to spruce up an existing manicure.
When Halloween collections start being released, it's such an exciting time for me. Among other things it means that Autumn is nearly here, and I'm not exaggerating when I say I absolutely LIVE for Fall! Another thing is that the "holiday" itself is just a lot of fun. It's pretty much also guaranteed that there will be awesome nail polishes coming. My first Halloween purchase of this year is China Glaze's Awakening collection. Not to be confused with China Glaze's pink-with-gold-sheen shade of polish, this is a set of three super cool glitter polishes. Last year's Fortune Teller by China Glaze was one of my favorite polishes ever. Spellbound was another that they released for Halloween but sadly I didn't manage to get my hands on that one, and I'm still bruised by that, haha. This year I bought the Halloween set the very day it went online, and I'm pretty happy with it. I've swatched and reviewed each of the three shades below, so click to keep reading!
Gem is the first of Nubar's Prisms polishes I've tried. I've been looking forward to this one since it's release because it seems like it would be such a cool polish to fly under the radar with. What if you're a holo-fanatic but work in a conservative office? I think that this is the kind of polish you can get away with. It's got a beige base but in the sun you can see a rose sheen and holographic microglitter blazing. It's two polishes in one! This is a very unique polish and though I don't work in a conservative office, I think I'll enjoy wearing this often. It's a eensy bit gritty, but a coat of Seche Vite clears that problem right up, since the glitter is so small and fine.
Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe - ranging from $3.75 to $6 at Transdesign.com,Ulta, Sally Beauty
Orly's Holiday collection is already up online at transdesign.com, and will soon be available from the other etailers as well as in your local brick-and-mortar stores. This is the no-brainer pick from this collection; a brilliant sparkly emerald with golden flecks. Last year we saw OPI Smitten With Mittens, with it's addition of golden shimmer to the stand-by red glitter polishes of the holidays like China Glaze Ruby Pumps. This year we have a contender to dethrone China Glaze's other powerhouse holiday polish, Emerald Sparkle, again with the addition of a splash of gorgeous gold. I still adore Emerald Sparkle, but this is a tie for the greatest emerald polish EVER! The application and wear are great, and the pigmentation is pretty great for a jelly. The shimmer/glitter flecks are really profuse and while it shimmers like crazy in the sun, in indirect light is where this polish really impresses. The gold really jumps to the forefront then. In this way it really reminds me of the Zoya Sparkle polishes from this summer.
Deborah Lippmann - Bad Romance - $18 available at deborahlippmann.com sometime in August.
Deborah Lippmann has got a couple cool shades coming out in August! This polish and Across the Universe were available for a while during the Nordstrom Anniversary Pre-Sale, but will be available again soon on deborahlippmann.com so keep an eye out for them. Bad Romance is a sheerish black base with magneta glitter and sequins. It might remind you a bit of last year's Ruby Red Slippers, but this is a lot less blingy. RRS had so much glitter that the overall look was more red than black; that's not what you're getting here. It's a simple black polish with a smattering of interest. The base on this one is a bit more opaque as well, so the glitter that is there isn't as in-your-face. If I'm not comparing this polish to another one, it's pretty cool. It's nothing you probably couldn't make on your own with some black polish and a vial of craft glitter, but we live and learn. Promo pics on Nordstrom looked insanely cool, so I was expecting more bling, but I'm pretty happy with what it actually is. I like that it's edgy and fun. Plus, anything to do with magenta glitter; I'm so there. I used three thin coats and am pretty happy with the coverage. The trick with this polish is that you apply a thin coat (which won't contain much glitter) then without dipping the brush, go back over the nail and that will deposit a good bit of glitter. It's not the smoothest way to apply a polish, but it makes the glitter really lay down. The end result of this polish isn't really terribly textured; the glitter lays down very flat and a coat of a good top coat like Seche Vite smooths it right out.
Lippmann Collection Nail Lacquer in Across the Universe
This is one of two open-stock polishes launched during the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale this month. They're sold out right now but they're going to become available at the Lippmann site sometime in August. First of all, I really felt like I had to get this because of the name because I'm a huge Beatles fan, and Across the Universe is one of my favorite songs of all time. Add to that the fact that blue is my favorite color and that I've also been a fan of Lippmann's foray in to glitter polishes, and I had to snatch this up. At $18 it's a little pricey, not to mention all the Nordstrom snafus (this was supposed to be delivered on July 12th because I pre-ordered it, but didn't even ship till the 16th). The polish is a sheer deep cobalt blue jelly with small square and large hexagonal light blue glitter and a bit of green hexagonal glitter as well. The effect of the deep but sheer blue base causes the glitter to appear as varying shades of blue and turquoise depending on the amount of coats of the base covers each piece of glitter. I used three coats here, so while it's a bit sheer, the effect on the glitter is well worth the work.
Here's another of the four Nubar Sparkle polishes I bought recently. Petunia Sparkle is miniscule vibrant magenta glitter in a clear base. Three thin coats gives great coverage and the color is just POW! It's like a lighter version of Zoya Roxy, almost, but a bit brighter and youthful somehow. The glitter in these is just so small and glitzy, I almost feel the need to own them all, but I've stopped at half of them. These are awesome polishes, I'm somewhat new to Nubar on the whole and I am dying over almost all that I've tried. There's not much more to say about this other than it's slightly gritty before topcoat, and wears quite well. I used two coats of Orly Glosser and one coat of Seche Vite over Petunia Sparkle and I had a completely smooth glassy finish for days.
Here's another of the Nubar Sparkle Collection polishes I purchased recently, Night Sparkle. I recently reviewed Fire Sparkle, and I quite like this one as much, to say the least. I'm a blue polish fanatic, and this is one of my new favorites. I've not always been a big fan of glitter, but it's growing on me. One of the things that usually determines whether or not I'll like a glitter is if it's at least somewhat opaque, or perhaps has a colored base. Like Fire Sparkle, Night Sparkle is a glitter suspended in a similarly colored jelly-like base which really adds depth and richness to each polish. The way this glistens in the sun makes it well worth the removal, which in any case can be made less annoying and time consuming with the foil method of removing glitter polish (illustrated here by the lovely Pink Sith.) In these photos you see a swatch applied in two coats. I applied one coat of Seche Vite over the swatch, though when I wore it as a mani, I used two coats of Orly Glosser and then one coat of my go-to Seche Vite and I had a completely smooth and glass-like finish for days on end. This polish applied very smoothly and evenly, and was amazingly pigmented. Despite that lush pigmentation the glitter shines through awesomely and creates a mesmerizing show on the fingertips.
Nubar Fire Sparkle Nail Lacquer - $7.49 at bynubar.com
I recently caved and bought four of the Nubar Sparkle collection polishes, and I'm in love people. I'm not the world's biggest glitter fan, but sometimes I crave a really great one. All four of the Nubar Sparkles I bought belong in the "great" category, hands down. The first is Fire Sparkle which is a warm red glitter with a red tinted base. The bit of color in the base helps with opacity, and gives the polish a more rich look. The glitter itself is incredibly small, though I wouldn't go so far as to call it micro, but instead of looking chunky it just glimmers. Like most glitter polishes, to counterbalance the awesome there is a caveat; the gritty texture. With two coats of Orly Glosser and one coat of Seche Vite I get a smooth-as-glass finish that lasts days without wear on almost every glitter polish. This technique worked perfectly with Fire Sparkle. All the photos I'm showing you were taken the morning after I applied it, so you can see that the topcoat didn't sink down into the polish, and that the finish is still glassy.
Index and ring: Wet n Wild Night Prowl ($1 at most drugstores), Middle and pinky: Petites Black Amethyst (around $1.50 at Walmart)
Wet n Wild Night Prowl: Of the two this one is a bit more pigmented in the base and the glitter is larger and a little more vibrant in color.
Petites Black Amethyst: While a little more sheer, it's still very similar to the WnW, but the glitter is a tad smaller and more pink. Both are nice choices, but because I like the WnW a bit better, not to mention that it's cheaper and in a bigger bottle, I choose the WnW as my pick.
