Coupla Ulta Yummers

Snapped these two up on a fast "grab as walk to the cashier". For two bucks who wouldn't? I think the green is a bit too dark, but I like it, and the blue metallic is a dupe for my beloved NDB Midnight I can't find anywhere. They are a whopping $2!! Buy some!!!

Ulta Envy:


Ulta Alter Ego:

Zoya Flash and Sparkle Collections Summer 2010

Well well well what have we here!? Another double collection from Zoya, which to me seems like bright cremes for summer days and shimmery jellies for summer nights. Hot, just like the season! I like that they went with deeper colors for the season, not light shades or pastels. By making the Flash brights, they keep the summer feeling for the cremes, and by making the Sparkle shimmery they catch a "night out on the town" summery feeling. Hot days, hot nights, hot nails.

Let's start with the cremes - the Flash collection. These remind me of the OPIs of last year which were inspired by those dumb tight pants which make everyone look fat except supermodels and wimpy boys. The Zoya creme formula is nice, maybe a touch thick, thin it with Zoya Renew or another thinner like my favorite, Poshe Polish Reviver, which is like 2 bucks or something for a pretty big bottle.

The sky blue, Zoya Robyn, is very close to OPI No Room for the Blues and Creative Hot Pop Blue (which was my better/cheaper alternative to OPI No Room for the Blues), but it is actually a shade darker.


Zoya Jancyn is a smooth citrus orange, I like it even though I don't, as a rule, like orange. I know OPI had In My Back Pocket - very similar though I believe that was a shade darker than Jancyn.


Zoya Perrie is a medium purple with some red in it, so it isn't much like Zoya Malia or OPI A Grape Fit. It's like a lighter Creative Studio 54 or MAC For Fun.


Zoya Jolene is a pretty standard candy pink. Very very close to China Glaze summer offering, Sugar High, which is much cheaper. It's a lot like Black Phoenix Croquet also, but hotter pink.


Zoya Maura is your standard hot red. I actually kinda like it, even though it's not my style, and is that kind of red I always shreik at when I see it on people's lips. It's a tad bluer than Zoya America, but not so different I see the point, really.


Zoya Dana: fuchsia pink. What's more to say? Cute. It's the same fuchsia pink we see everywhere but it's mercifully free of the omnipresent blurple shimmer, which makes this a kind of relief.


Onto Sparkle Collection - the SHIMMERS!!! The size and style of shimmer reminds me very much of OPI's Winter 2009 Collection I loved so much. These are nice, easily applied shimmery jellies (except for Zoya Nidhi, which is a creme). DELUMPCIOUS!!! They loosely follow the color array of the Flash Collection, with a couple replacements, but in a darker shade. Love!

Zoya Gilda is probably Dana's match, and even though it adds that tired blurple back to the fuchsia, it manages, with the jelly and the shimmer grain size, to be fresh and yummy. I guess it could be Jolene's match if Zoya Alegra is Dana's match, but Gilda matches Dana better than Jolene (see below).


Zoya Mimi is a deep royal purple shimmer jelly. Sweet.


Zoya Alegra, Dana's match? Who knows. Anyway this is a magenta with blurple shimmer. I like it.


Zoya Charla is, in my opinion, the masterpiece. It's like looking at tropical waters. It's an absolutely stunning teal my camera could not do justice. I just stared and stared at this, it is so beautiful. It absolutely glows on the nail, with an almost metallic shine. An instant addition to my top 10 polishes of all time.


Zoya Ivanka is, thankfully, NOT dark green. I am fucking sick of dark greens. I don't think it's the greatest green ever, but it's nice, shimmery, and I love the jelly!


Last but not least Zoya Nidhi is a cream with large blue shimmer. I wish the shimmer showed up more because this counterpart to Zoya Maura is an absolute STUNNER because of the blue shimmer in it. It's hot and original and a must have. LOVE.


Enjoy them, you shouldn't be disappointed with any of them unless you already have a close dupe. But BUY CHARLA!!

Gettin' Warm! China Glaze Poolside Collection for Summer 2010!

They're bright, tight and dy-no-mite! Well, I love neons, so of course I am going to say that. These are probably not colors you don't already have something similar to, though maybe not exact. But they are a great, manageable formula, very bright, and semi- to fully-opaque. These are all three coats, a thin bottom coat, and two relatively thick coats, with, of course, a topcoat, as they dry matte. They dry pretty quickly, so they are easy to apply, and they are inexpensive, one of the reasons (with the fact their colors can't be beat and their whoppingly magnificent glass fleck) they are my favorite brand. I like this collection but I would added a purple to make a full rainbow!

China Glaze Pool Party is the bright hot pink. My favorite of the group. This is actually a bit different than most of the hot pink neons I have. I'm keeping it.


China Glaze Sun Worshipper is a great neon orange. A calmer neon orange than some, kinda like a neon clementine fruit. I was surprised to find the only neon orange I had other than this is Orly Orange Punch, and this is nothing like it. It's a true orange, not reddish orange.



China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini is greener than shown here, but is still too much like China Glaze Celtic Sun in color to be worth it - but - this is far more opaque than Celtic Sun, though it is not fully opaque. It may be worth it to spend the few bucks on this and throw away Celtic Sun.


China Glaze Kiwi Cool-Ada is a grassy green neon. And while I like it a lot, it is far overshadowed by China Glaze In the Limelight, which is far more opaque. But still what's not to like about this (providing you like neon, and if you don't you have probably already stopped reading)!


China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy is that pink with a hint of orange my camera can NEVER capture, so sorry for the picture, but you can get a hint of the color. It's juicy and very bright. At first I thought I had a dupe for this - Essie Punchy Pink, but that is actually darker and pinker, this has a lot of orange in it, and nothing I have is a dupe for it. Claire's Fabulous is the closest I have, and that too is pinker.


China Glaze Towel Boy Toy is a summer sky blue with the lovely blue shimmer that my beloved Color Club Electro Candy neons of last year had. And in fact Color Club Pure Energy is an almost spot on exact dupe, but the Color Club has more shimmer in it.



Are you ready for summer yet? You better start!!

BleachBlack Dick Weed

Got hipped to this by a friend, dude. http://needsupply.com/womens/brands/bleachblack/dick-weed.html

It looks jawdropping in the advertising picture doesn't it???? I thought it would be like wearing the carapace of a beetle or a bluebottle fly.

It's pretty but it's basically shimmer in a smoky jelly base. It needed to be a fully pigmented color and have more metallic to it.

BleachBlack Dick Weed:


Looks like a not so shiny Zoya Akyra.


Color Club Emerald Depths is better too. Both are cheaper.

A Couple Green Zoyas

Remember that very cool "Buy $20 worth of polish" or whatever it was and get seven free green Zoyas? Here are a couple of them I had not already posted. For some reason they sent me two Veruschkas and didn't send me one of the other greens, and I cannot remember which one it was. Anyway enjoy these two beauties!

Zoya Tangy:


Zoya Irene:

Zoya Matte Velvet Winter Collection 2009

This is the last late post I have for 2009 Collections. Thankful sigh! And there's little to say about these except that I think Zoya perfected the suede/matte formula. These have sparkle even when matte, tons of color, great texture, apply easily, and are colors we didn't have before in matte. Great collection. I love them, even if they do remind me of Vegas casino Mardi Gras beads. I mean these colors are exactly the beads they give you.

Zoya Sativa is a gorgeous deep purple.


Zoya Harlow, yummy red grape? I dunno. Very pretty whatever you call it.


Zoya Veruschka is complete perfection. FOREST green, not the everpresent yellowish greens we get, and full of tiny sparkles.


And like I said a month or so before, if you already have FingerPaints Evergreen Dream (sold at Sally's and a lot cheaper than Zoya) if you slap a matte topcoat on it (here shown with Essie Matte About You)you have an exact dupe for Zoya Veruschka. I needed both, obviously.


What a great year it was eh?? Within the week I will post my 2009 Polish mayhem Awards for 2009, so stay tuned!!

China Glaze Spring 2010 Up And Away Collection

I've had these a while, but with Holidays and an issue on the 30th I had not yet posted them.

What a bullseye. China Glaze Spring 2010 Up And Away Collection exactly hits that happy fresh spring mark, and this time while there are many colors I find few if any superfluous. Fun, frisky, candy-coated confections!! Exciting! There are only a few colors I would call pastel, most are vibrant. And I LOVE them. They are all cremes and I had to start thinning them after a bit to apply better, but a few drops of thinner and a topcoat makes these lovely shades I will be reaching for often. So well done, China Glaze. Kudos!!

China Glaze Flyin' High is a smoky medium blue. I can't wait to wear this with a matching tshirt. Dunno where THAT fashion mistake idea came from. But I want to. :P


China Glaze Four Leaf Clover seems more teal to me. But so great!


China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint! Mint is not my color but this is fresh and sweet.


China Glaze Lemon Fizz, light yellow. Nice shade, not orange, not gaudy.


China Glaze Happy Go Lucky is a bright sunny yellow. I don't like yellows, but this is well done.


China Glaze High Hopes. I think this orangy red looks exactly like a persimmon.


China Glaze Peachy Keen. Peach! I am sure somewhere I have a dupe of this. But it is a lovely peach. Not too pastel, not too orange.


China Glaze Heli-Yum. Yum indeed. Love it.


China Glaze Sugar High. So sexy girly candy. I want to suck on my fingertips like a flirt. COME AND EAT ME.


China Glaze Something Sweet is a pretty standard pink, but I like the hint of blue.


China Glaze Light as Air. Again we probably all have a dupe, but this is soooo nice.


China Glaze Grape Pop - GREAT shade. I don't recall having anything exactly like this, certainly not in a creme. Edited to add this shade is very close to China Glaze Grape Juice but no glass fleck.



Pick some of these up. These will be great fresh pops of color for spring, and will easily transfer into summer.

S'More China Glaze Glitters!

Yay! I can has moar glitar?? I has a glitar!! I can no has long fingarnalez, tho. U forgiv?

China Glaze Dynasty is kind of a dark rose. But it has a bit of red in it, sometimes I almost think this is brick red. It has small rainbow glitter.


China Glaze Techno, large rainbow hexagons and small rainbow glitter in a clear base. Dab this one on, don't stroke it, so you get good coverage on the hexagons.


China Glaze Sour Apple - what else? Apple green jelly with small opalescent glitter in it. Nice! This is two coats I believe.


China Glaze Mahoganie is on the browner side of brick red. It has small rainbow glitter.


China Glaze Shooting Stars, I think this is indispensible. It's got tons of microglitter in nice opalescent shades, and big opalescent hexagons. It layers so beautifully over other polishes!! This is only two coats, it has great coverage!


Ther is moar glitar in teh futur!!

FingerPaints Holiday Collection

I like FingerPaints. They have a good formula, easy to apply, looks great. Their holiday collection is six shimmers. I did not get the medium red with very fine subtle gold shimmer (Snowman's Scarf), it just looked like a ton of other stuff to me. Also I did not get Sparkling Snow, which is your standard silver shimmer. IMO if you have one you have them all.

The other four are pretty nice, though! the shimmer in most of these is large grain, almost like clear sheets. It's neat. It manages to be subtle and yet impactful. If glitter is a rhinestone covered dress, and shimmer is a sequinned dress, this is a satin dress. If you get me. It shines yet it is not on your face. If you can wear these color shades to work, you won't be worried they'll be too bling and get you a raised eyebrow. I think they're sophisticated.

FingerPaints Candy Cane Shimmer is a medium red with smaller shimmer than the other polishes. The thing about this is it really does kind of have a satin sheen, rather than any shimmer. And the genius of this polish is that it looks EXACTLY like the red ribbon you buy at the store to wrap presents with. Not the new prismatic or mylar ones, the old style. Go check it out and see! I think it's so cool.


FingerPaints Decked With Dazzle is my least favorite. It's a reddish purple, kinda a red grape look. It has very nice chunky shimmer, but it's very sheer. It's pretty but I am not wowed. But you may be and the quality is nice, just the sheerness was unwelcome.


Gorgeous deep purple with the same chunky shimmer, FingerPaints Icy Iris is absolutely taking a place in my "keep" pile.


The clear queen of the bunch is FingerPaints Evergreen Dreams. Wow, a green not named after Envy. Imagine that! It's a gorgeous emerald green shimmer. One incredibly cool thing about it is when you apply a matte topcoat, it looks EXACTLY like Zoya Veruschka, which I will be demonstrating in the next couple of days when I review the Zoya Matte collection which came out a while ago, which I somehow neglected to be sent review copies of. :disgruntled and horrified face: Grin. Anyway this is a winner.


Here's FingerPaints Evergreen Dream first topped with Hard Candy Break Up, then FingerPaints Evergreen Dream topped with Hard Candy Break Up and Essie Matte About You topcoat! What I won't do for fun, eh?