NUBAR Midnight Nail Polish - $7.50 at bynubar.com
Here's another of the Nubar polishes from my haul last week. I am in love with these matte sparkly numbers. You may recall my review of MAC Military from Alive & Olivia, and if you're mourning it's disappearance from the site, then Midnight is a must-have. This is super similar, but not quite a dupe. Unless you're a neurotic when it comes to nail polish, you'd scarcely notice the difference. I've included a comparison between the two after the jump.
Midnight is perfect in two coats, and like Twilight, this polish dries quickly, but not so quickly that you'll run in to gloppiness while you're applying it. The finish is satiny gorgeousness. It's matte but the shimmer gives it such a nice sheen. If you'd like to see more photos, clicky clicky.
Click to see more photos and the comparison...
NUBAR Twilight Nail Polish (Night Sky Collection) - $7.50 at bynubar.com
I've got a big appreciation for matte polishes with shimmer, also known as suedes by some. OPI, Zoya, and MAC have had a few, and this is my first experience with them from Nubar. I'm pretty impressed so far with the application and colors. I have tried Midnight from this collection as well and will review that for you soon, but today I'm showing you Twilight. This one is a steely grey matte with loads of teensy silver shimmer. It looks really edgy and chic, in my opinion and when you pair that with the easy application, it's a no-brainer for me. The application of these types of polishes varies widely in my experience; the toughest to apply being Zoya, and the easiest a tie between OPI and Nubar's versions. Zoya's dries quickly while you're trying to apply it, and it's a bit thick as well so it's a bit tougher to apply than is strictly comfortable. OPI and Nubar suede polishes glide on smoothly and evenly, and while they dry quickly, there is more than enough time per nail to get good application and coverage. The wear on Zoya's suedes is a lot longer, in my experience, than the OPI, Nubar, et al... so perhaps it's a trade off. Either way, I love this particular polish in it's suede form and with a glossy top coat added.
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I got in my new Bundle Monster plates this week and wanted to try them immediately! I picked this pattern because I love damask, and I still needed to use Nubar Prevail from last week's haul and I thought these two were made for each other. The idea was to make it look like a rich purple or wine velvet with black satin design, but the black didn't come out super glossy by itself, I think the bottle is on it's last leg, so I ended up adding topcoat. There is a photo of the mani without topcoat below the cut because you've got to see the beautiful matte finish of Nubar Prevail to appreciate it. I used two coats of Prevail, then used a Bundle Monster plate to stamp this design on with a crazy old and half full bottle of OPI Black Onyx. I ended up with a coat of Seche Vite over it, because it makes everything better.
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OPI Russian Navy Suede - $5 at amazon.com
This is the first OPI Suede I've tried, and I'm pretty happy with it. While this is nothing like the original Russian Navy, it's quite pretty. It's a dark-but-not-vampy blue with loads of silver shimmer. It reminds me of a matte version of China Glaze Midnight Mission. The application is really smooth and while it dries faster than traditional polishes, it doesn't dry mid-application which can lead to lumps and streaks in a matte polish. The finish is definitely pretty much matte, but the shimmer in the formula gives it almost a satiny look. The texture and finish almost remind me of a rose petal, delicate and silky, but not glossy at all. The wear isn't great, but we all pretty much know that matte polishes don't wear very well. Some wear better than others, but this is neither worse or better than the average. You can get it for a decent price online, or about $8.50 which is retail at Trade Secret and Ulta and the like.
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MAC's newest collection, Alice + Olivia brought us three new polishes, but the best of the bunch in my opinion is Military. This matte black with a profusion of silver microglitter is magnificent. The finish reminds me of the look of the OPI Suede polishes, and I like it. The application is perfect, two thin coats gives absolute coverage, and it's streak-free. Perhaps the best part of the formula here is that it doesn't clump and dry while you're trying to apply it. Like other matte polishes, the wear isn't that great. It looks wonderful until you start doing dishes or swimming, but those things take their toll on the most iron-clad of formulas. Before I started to torture this polish with housecleaning, it stayed impeccable on my nails. I just checked the site to see if it's still available, and unfortunately it's not, but you may still be able to find this at your counter ($12) or try a similar polish; Nubar Midnight ($7.49) is a very similar and easily accessible one, and Orly Iron Butterfly is still floating around for less than retail online.
Overall, I was really psyched about this polish, and I'm glad I got it, but I wonder about the wisdom of doing so with such great and inexpensive dupes. Call me crazy... The application is the best of any matte polish I've tried, but I'm looking forward to trying the Nubar version!
Click for another photo...
I love the idea of purple and metallic gold together, it seems so regal, but I wanted to have a pattern for this that wasn't obvious; I originally debated over a couple stamps with strands of beads and delicate lace. These just seemed too contrived, so I went for the most deconstructed sort of design I had in my Konad stash; the Pollock-inspired splats of paint on plate m70. Over a base of Seche Clear, I used two coats of Illamasqua Baptiste, and then stamped the design on with China Glaze Passion, a golden chrome. I really liked the way this turned out and wore it for three days before adding a matte topcoat, which you can see after the jump.
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I used China Glaze Admire and this swirly pattern from Konad plate m64 over Zoya Savita. I liked the bold shiny chrome over the matte finish and the pink sheen of Savita was really set off nicely by the pink chrome. I really liked this combo. I also tried it with Seche Vite topcoat which darkened the final product up a bit and made it much more shimmery in both the base and design colors. Below you can see topcoat on only my pinkie and middle fingers.
Click to see the photos of this manicure with topcoat!
Zoya Savita from the 2009 Winter Matte Velvet Collection ($7 each at zoya.com) is an interesting animal. I started out with a base coat of Orly Bonder, then applied the first coat of Savita. It went on a bit streaky and matted out quickly. The neck of the bottle got a bit congested with drying polish but I pushed on. On the second coat I realized that splaying out the brush to get the best coverage per swipe was really the trick and I had a better time with coat two. I began to think that it wouldn't self level at all as I saw lumps and ridges, but again, I pressed on. After the third thin coat, I just let it be to see what would happen. It already looked pretty decent, but after letting it dry for a few minutes, it leveled out quite nicely. It's pictured here with three coats over Orly Bonder and left to dry for about 20 minutes. Overall, I really love this polish and the satiny finish it has. I also really like the pink sheen it gives off in some lights. I'm very pleased with this polish.
Wow, Essie has a new matte topcoat out... that already existed. It's a different name and may very well be a different product, but I think another matte topcoat besides Matte About You might be (read: totally is) a little redundant.
Denim (and now beauty) favorite Rock & Republic has apparently teamed up with Essie for a totally weird denim promotion. Now you can have matte nails to go with your gross, stained black jeans. I'm not a fashionista and have never claimed to be but I think this is weird. I suppose that it's all about personal expression and one woman's road-salt-caked jeans is another woman's blue nail polish. I love Matte About You, it's awesome, so if you're a R&R fan, and this turns out to be the same product, why not go for it? What do you guys think of this? I DO want the tshirt though, OMG how cute with the little nail polish in the "pocket"?!
Can you get any more fabulous? Solar Flare (seen here layered over Essie Mesmerized) is one of China Glaze's new "specialty collection" that includes some of the coolest glitters I've ever seen. Stock photos of this one had me having fits, and I wasn't able to find a swatch online, so naturally into my cart it went. Solar Flare is a clear base with true gold hex glitter. The application can be a bit tricky: if you start at the base of your nail, it seems like the glitter does drag to the end. The glitter also seems to not want to lay completely flat. The neck of the bottle also gets a bit congested. Overall, the effect is super cool and unique. The color is a gorgeous bright gold and wears more like jewelry than nail polish. Check this one out.
CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PICS, AND TO SEE IT MATTIFIED!
