Love & Beauty - Yellow

 Many times I have walked in to Forever 21, considered buying one of their polishes, and then for some reason, decided against it. The other weekend I decided to finally go with my gut and pick some up. (Why not... they're only $2.80!) This very creatively named polish is called "Yellow", and I'm wearing three coats topped off with a coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri top coat.

I picked this color up because it is very unique when you see it in the bottle; it appears to be shimmery, with very small blue/green and pink glitter. However, once on the nail, that shimmer and glitter is hardly noticeable. I have to say I'm pretty disappointed with this polish.

Application was very goopy and frustrating, and even with three coats you can still see some nail line on my pinky finger, and inconsistency in coverage. Overall - kind of a bummer.

Zoya - Gloria

Zoya can do no wrong. I have yet to try one of their polishes and dislike it - and that is pretty impressive considering I own lots of Zoyas. I'm still working through my haul from this December (my untried pile is ever-growing), and this was part of the bunch I purchased when they had so many great deals during the holidays. This is two coats of Zoya's Gloria topped off with one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.

Gloria is an older polish; it was part of the 2010 Winter Flame collection. It is a gorgeous magenta-y pink with gold foil flecks. It looks outstanding in the sun, and works great for any occasion: work, weddings, girls night out - you name it!

I decided to try Gloria out on my toes as well, and as much as I love the color on my nails, it's a bit too boring for my pedicure taste. This isn't a very summery pink (duh - it came out a couple winters ago!) and I like to stick with the seasons colors for my manicures so I don't think I'll be sporting this look much longer. Come fall and winter I will have to pull this gorgeous color back out for another go. :)

Wet n Wild - Blue Wants to be a Millionaire

This is an oldie but a total goody! I picked this up at Walgreens a couple weeks back when they had a sale. I couldn't pass up a very reasonably priced holo (my polish weakness), and I have to admit I grabbed a couple others, too. This is three coats of Wet n Wild's Blue Wants to be a Millionaire topped off with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat. This is a very sheer polish if you only use one coat, and I don't much care for polishes that show nail line, so I carefully applied three coats and I think the coverage is pretty good! Application was reasonable - I had to re-do my thumb nail a couple times because of the slow dry time and my own impatience when I have to do more than two coats, but overall it wasn't too much of a pain. 

I've been wearing this for a couple days now, and it has barely chipped, which is impressive (especially with three thick-ish coats). Blue Wants to be a Millionaire is definitely worth the $2-3 it costs. 

Lacqueristas beware - you will not be able to stop staring at your nails in the sun when you don this polish. The sparkle factor is out of control! 

Check back soon to see the other Wet n Wild holos I've yet to try!

Finger Paints - Warhol Wannabe

I have been so busy lately that I have had boring, unpainted nails for nearly two weeks! But after a trip to the cabin (where there's no sense in wearing polish, as it will get stripped away by bug spray), and a bit of down time, I am back with an amazing neon pink that I've had my eyes on since it came out earlier this summer: Finger Paints' Warhol Wannabe. This is the most fabulous, mega bright pink I own, and quite possibly my new favorite pink polish! 

I used two coats for full coverage (since one was a bit spotty) and topped it off with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.  Unfortunately, I've been wearing this only since Friday evening and I've already got some pretty big chips along the nail line. Chipping aside, this color is perfect for summertime. You can pick it up at Sally Beauty for around $5. Can't beat that!

What is your favorite pink? 

Zoya - Coraline (Blogger Series)

Oh my GOSH, I've been horrible about updating. Let my nails do the explaining, as they are proof of how stressful and crazy last week was! I work for an event management company, and we had a very busy week prepping for an event which was last Friday evening. It went smoothly, but after a week of loading and unloading, and a bit of nervous chewing... my nails were shot! Saturday I was up early to head home for my sister's graduation party, which was another long, but equally fun day. Monday and today I spent on tear down for Friday's event, and my nails were totally wrecked by this afternoon. So I hope that is enough excuse to make up for my blogging absence - and if that won't cut it, I'm sure today's polish will! 

And on another note - my camera batteries died, so I have crappy iPhone pics - SORRY!

This beauty is Zoya's Coraline, from Zoya's Blogger Collection. You might recall my post about Kate, another polish from this collection. I really love these gorgeous jellies. What I said about Kate holds true for Coraline as well - it looks like candy! It looks like I could lick my fingers and they'd taste like orange!

I used two coats to give an almost complete coverage, as I kind of like the nail line peeking through the jelly polish (well, the very minimal nail line I have after all my nails broke!). I topped this off with one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat and called it done. Here's to hoping my nails grow quickly, and my battery charger can be found soon! 

Zoya - Drew

If any of you followed my Tumblr account before I switched over to Blogger, you know my love for Zoya runs deep. Their polishes are amazing, they have excellent customer service, and the fun promotions they ran right around Christmas time had me hooked! I got this beauty in one of their awesome deals this December, and it's been sitting in my untried pile since. I love a nice pink polish, and Zoya's Drew does not disappoint!

I used two coats of this exceptional polish, although one would have cut it. You can see in the bottle that there is verrrrry subtle gold and pink metallic shimmer in it. It is even less obvious on the nail, but it gives it the mani just the right amount of kick. The thing that I love about Zoya is that the polishes stay on so well, the formulas are amazing, and the broad spectrum of colors to pick from is ridiculous. Dare I say, Zoya might be my favorite brand of polish? Hmmm... 

This look is very simple. All I used was one coat of Zoya's Anchor base coat, two coats of Zoya - Drew, and one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri Anti-Chip top coat, and wa-lah!

What do you think?

China Glaze - Prism

I was so excited when this Prismatic collection came out. I love lots of glitter, and most of my stash is made up of various glitter polishes. However, I only ended up buying two from this collection - Liquid Crystal, and the polish you see here - Prism, and I can't say I'm sorry I didn't buy more.  These two are very similar polishes. 

One of the things I don't like about this collection is how easy it chips. It makes sense, I suppose. Thick glitter is way more brittle than most formulas, so one wrong tap of your nail and there goes half of the polish. I painted my nails on Saturday evening, and already I have some sizable chunks missing. 

I decided to add a layer of China Glaze - Crushed Candy to my ring finger as an accent, but it didn't crack very well. That's something I don't like about crackle polishes as well - if you paint them on even a tad bit too thick, they hardly crack (which is frustrating after you've already put enough work in to the bottom layers below it!) 

I put Prism on my toes too and I think it looks much better than it does on my hands. It doesn't chip as fast, and it's always fun to have sparkly toes in the summer time for flip flop weather. I think I'll solely use Prism and Liquid Crystal for pedi polishes from here on out.

Was anyone else unimpressed with this collection, too?