Swatch & Review

   I've been so busy lately that I have fallen into a 1-mani-per-week routine.  Fortunately when I'm wearing polishes this gorgeous I'm happy to have them on my nails for a week!  Let's take a look at ILNP Washing Ashore and Zoya Bobbi, shall we?

Swatch & Review

   I have several polishes to share today, princesses!  Prepare your eyes for a feast of sparkly goodness!  If you were a fan of the jelly-with-holographic-microshards beauties Aurora, Blaze and Storm that Zoya released you will like these, too!  I couldn't resist trying these new L.A. Girl polishes, and seeing how they compare...

From left to right: L.A Girl 3D Silver, Teal Dimension, Brilliant Blue, Sparkle Ruby, and Dazzling Pink

   The 3D Effect collection has 3 more polishes that I did not pick up: Electric Coral (I'm not really a coral-wearing girl), Purple Effect (looks like an exact dupe of Zoya Aurora, which I already own), and Black Illusion (a dupe for Zoya Storm, again I already own that polish).  All of them include the same silver holographic microshard glitter in a jelly base, except for 3D Silver, which is a clear-based glitter.  On to the swatches!

Top to bottom: Teal Dimension, Brilliant Blue, Sparkle Ruby, Dazzling Pink

Teal Dimension 

   I used 2 coats, no topcoat.  This is a true, deep teal color.  It reminds me of jewels and peacock feathers!  The jelly coverage is fantastic while still being sheer enough to show off a lot of holographic sparkle.  Very beautiful and a great color for heading into fall and winter.

Brilliant Blue 

   I used 2 coats, no topcoat.  Deep sapphire blue.  It brings to mind the night sky or ocean depths.  Not normally a color I would grab but the finish and look of this is irresistible!  It should be perfect as a base for nail art or sponged into a galaxy manicure.  I think the darker jelly base gives an illusion of less or smaller pinpricks glitters.

Sparkle Ruby 

   I used 2 coats, no topcoat.  Deep burgundy-red.  I absolutely love this color and was really surprised not to find any swatches of it while picking colors to buy from this collection!  The darker base makes it look less glitter-packed, but it sparkles beautifully.  And yes, Sparkle Ruby seems to be an exact dupe for Zoya Blaze!

Dazzling Pink 

   I used 2 coats, no topcoat.  Fun, flamingo-ish, warm toned pink.  This color was the most sheer and could probably use 3 coats.  It really shows the glitter!  I was on the fence about ordering this color because I'm picky about pinks, and sadly I don't think this one is the right shade for me.

L.A. Girl 3D Silver, 2 coats alone and 1 coat over black

3D Silver 

  Again, no topcoat used.  If you love the glitter but don't like any of the colors in this collection, this would be the polish to get.  It isn't going to have quite the same depth as the jelly-based colors, but it layers over any color to create an effect that looks the same from arm's-length away.  This is definitely a topper, I imagine it would take 5 coats to try to get the glitter opaque by itself.

   I'm going to talk about formula now because these all had the same formula!  In most reviews I found the swatcher said the polishes were thick, but that was not the case for me.  They aren't thin and runny, but they are very easy to use.  I didn't have any issues with pooling, dragging, or glitter being uneven.  Also, they dried fast.  I didn't use topcoat because they dried to a perfectly smooth, glassy finish all on their own.  Durability was good; I only had minor tip wear after a full workday.  Removal was a breeze, as well.  In my opinion these are all real winners.

   As for the glitter particles themselves, they are fantastic.  The fact that they are tiny irregular shapes makes the polishes interesting and unique.  The rainbow sparkle is hard to capture in photographs, so please believe me when I say it is there!  And in some lighting these polishes give a very faint linear holographic effect.  Otherwise I would classify these as scattered holo nail polishes.

   While this collection may not be L.A. Girl's most original batch of creations, it worth noticing.  If you were left wanting more by Zoya's holographic jellies last year, take a look at these.  (Don't bother buying repeats of the identical colors, though.)  If you like delicate sparkly toppers, pick up 3D Silver.  If you like solid-performing polishes that can be found for $5 a bottle or less, definitely hunt these down!  Here is the official webpage for this 8-polish collection.  I hope you found my swatches helpful.  =)

Swatch & Review

   Hey everyone, important quick updates before I get into this swatch post.  First, my computer's screen is still being flaky.  It has decided to work for a bit right now so I took advantage of that by editing as many pictures as I could.  Replacing a bunch of parts has done nothing to keep it working and it appears that it must be a glitch caused by static, instead.  My husband is trying to find a permanent solution.  I'm just going to say that editing my photos on a CRT monitor (or our TV) is not my thing.  I've had a stern talk with my computer about it's behavior, so hopefully things will improve soon.

   Second, and more serious, my pregnant mommy check-ups are now happening twice-weekly.  The great news is that I'm basically feeling fine, and the baby seems to be good, too.  I'm being monitored closely because of my low amniotic fluid level, which can turn into a serious complication.  At any one of these check-ups there is the possibility that I'll be kept at the hospital, probably until our baby is delivered.  At this rate it's not looking like I'll reach my Sept 21st due date.  Personally I'm doing everything I can to hydrate myself and praying that the level will go up!

   So basically, if the blog suddenly goes silent, don't worry too much.  I'll try to keep updates going on Instagram if I can't post them here, so be sure to follow me there.

   Now on to the more frivolous and fun stuff.  ;D  Recently Michelle of the etsy shop Laquerlicious Unity moved some beautiful polishes into the clearance section of her shop, so this prompted a little spree on my behalf!  She was generous enough to send along a few minis, two of which are from her new All Things Diva collection, for swatching and sharing on my blog.  I'm really excited about the colors she surprised me with, because they are shades that I was curious about!

   First I tried Divine Doll.  The shop description is perfect: "a shimmery grape purple with an aqua shimmer and caramel and teal micro glitter" - yep, that's exactly what it is!  The purple tends to looks a bit like a blurple thanks to the aqua shimmer, and it's loaded with small glitters.  I used 2 coats for full coverage.  Application was a tad bit finicky but typical of this type of polish.  For best results you need to work quickly, applying a thin-ish first coat.  It wants to dry fast so if you mess with it too much the heavy shimmer pigment and glitters will start to drag and make bald spots.  So give that first coat a moment to dry and set up on your nail.  Then the 2nd coat applies perfectly!

   I took a bottle shot to try to show off the pretty glitters better.  Between the color purple and the heavy shimmer my camera was at a bit of a loss while photographing my nails.  I love the caramel and teal glitters in this polish!  They really pop, and I don't have anything like this shade in my collection.  This polish is a color combination that I would have never thought of, but totally works!  I was also very happy that it was friendly to my pale skin tone.  May I also point out that this super-duper shimmery polish shows not a single brushstroke?  Hooray for being frost-free!

   Being glitter-heavy, it does have texture when dry.  Not gritty texture, though.  I used 1 coat of Poshe to top this manicure off, and while it wasn't glassy smooth, I didn't notice my nails having texture.  Also, removal... actually not bad!  I soaked a cotton pad with remover, held it on my nail for a few minutes, and most the glitter wiped right off.  I advise against scrubbing at the glitter; then it does turn into a sparkle-splosion on your hands.

   The only complaint that I could mention about this polish is that it has a stronger smell than the other Laquerlicious shades I've tried.  It has the regular polish smell and a little something more.  A sort of sweet, chemical-y odor.  I'm guessing that these might use a different base to suspend all the shimmer, and that would be the cause for a different smell.  (My full-size bottles just smell like typical glitter polish!)  The smell disappears when you apply topcoat, so it is only a temporary suffering!

   Thanks for reading, princess!  Be sure to check out the Laquerlicious shop, and stay tuned for another awesome All Things Diva polish coming up next! =)

Laquerlicious Links:

Swatch & Review / NotD

   Yesterday I wore this manicure as a way to use some of my untrieds.  These are two really nice polishes and I was happy with them, but I wasn't really feeling drawn to the color combo right now, so my nails are bare again today.

   Pure Ice Scream is a really nice blue-green creme polish, sort of a turquoise, teal, or dark aqua color.  It dries just a little bit darker than it looks in the bottle.  It is easy to work with and has really good coverage.  I used 1 coat on all my nails except my ring finger, which took 2.  I also let this dry without topcoat, so you can see it levels nicely and has decent shine.  The only issue I had with Scream was when applying the glitter on some of my nails.  I had to use a light touch or it would start to smear and create bald spots.

   Pure Ice Over You is one of their newer glitter releases, and I really love the colors.  I think I will like this better layered over a pale base color.  It is made up of micro and tiny lavender glitter, and had holographic aqua glitter in small hexes and short, stubby bars.  I really like the bar glitter, it reminds me of splashing water.  I only used 1 generous coat on my nails and was very happy with the coverage.  The glitters spread well and I imagine this could easily be layered up for full glitter-bomb effect nails.  I used topcoat to smooth my glitter nails, and didn't notice any texture after that.  Check out the macro shot below to see it better!

   These polishes impressed me for $2 finds, with good formulas to match their pretty colors.  After realizing how nice Scream was to work with I might have to give a few of their other new creme colors a chance.  So, this is my short and sweet post for today.  As always, thanks for looking!

NotD / Swatch

   Really loving the manicure that I have on today!  It gathered compliments from little girls to little old ladies.  Definitely feels like I have a fairy-princess nail thing going on.  And it was super easy!

   I started off with 2 coats of Zoya Zuza.  This is a very pretty aqua/turquoise polish with silver shimmer.  The formula was excellent, and could even be a one coater if I used thick coats, but doing two thinner coats was easier to control.

   Next I grabbed one of my most favorite purple glitters, That Is So Fetch! by Different Dimension.  (Full review here!)  Because my nails are long I started out just painting the free edge.

   I did a second coat starting at about the mid point of my nail to the tip...

   And tada, it's done!  Finished with a topcoat and ready to enjoy.

   What are some of your favorite glitters to use in gradients?  =)

   Ever come up with something that you know is really pretty but you're just not sure if you love it on yourself?  That's how it is for me with this mani.  It looks beautiful, but I just wasn't feeling it the way I thought I would.  At any rate, here are what I call my "deep sea mermaid" nails:

   Gorgeous, right?  That is two coats of LA Girl Deep Sea Mica topped with one coat of Zoya Charla.  There are a few more pictures after the jump, including Deep Sea Mica by itself.