Polished Casual: Tony Moly

Monday, January 2, 2012

Out with the Old and in with the New!

Happy New Year!! I hope you all had an awesome weekend full of fun and festivities. Or a quiet night at home with an early bedtime, if that's more of your thing. The hubby almost always has to work on New Year's Day, so just about every year we opt for the latter of the two options, but since the New Year decided to fall on a weekend that we were both actually OFF work, we had a few friends over for drinks and silly games. We actually almost missed midnight, but I happened to look up at the TV from the gaming activity in time to see "4! 3! 2! 1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!" It was close, but we made it! :-D

Nothing says New Year's Eve like glitter, so I picked out the craziest, glitteriest glitter I could find - Tony Moly Jupiter. This polish has SO much glitter packed into a deep purple base, it's ridonculous. It's got small purple hexagonal glitter, and larger blue-ish/holographic-ish glitter, and from what I can tell from the photos, maybe even some smaller reddish glitter? I don't even know. It's crazy and awesome. Crazy-awesome. It's SO dense that this is only two coats I'm showing you here, and I didn't even remotely feel like I needed a third. Application was actually pretty great for a glitter. Definitely some of the easiest glitter I've ever worked with. The downside? This polish STINKS. HOLY HELL DOES IT STINK. It smells like a mixture of liquid whiteout and jet fuel. Yeah, it's that bad. I'm pretty sure I lost at least a few hundred brain cells applying this stuff. But click to enlarge these photos and see how worth it it was!

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AMAZING. LOVE. You need it! Tony Moly is a Korean brand, so while you won't find this in any retail stores around here, it's pretty easy to get from eBay. You can buy the whole Galaxy Collection for about $10 each and free shipping. I piggybacked on Jessie's order to get this one, and they all arrived shockingly fast for coming overseas. I'd highly recommend getting at least one of the collection - if you can handle the smell! LOL

You guys get a two-for-one in this post! I felt like I needed to change into something symbolic for New Year's Day. A new year is a clean slate and a chance to kick my butt into gear and make things even better this year! I thought a good nude would be appropriate, so I tried out Essie Brooch the Subject - a warm-toned opaque nude creme. It applied super easily and super opaque in two coats. Just what I wanted on my "recovery day," lol. Readers that have been around for a while know that I've had a less-than-successful quest of finding my perfect nude creme. It's so epic it gets capitalization - "Perfect Nude." So is Brooch the Subject my Perfect Nude?

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Not quite, but I think we're getting DANGEROUSLY close. I can't quite put my finger on what the problem with this one is, but it's just a little off. Like maybe a smidge too dark? Too...brown? I don't know. I actually don't hate this. In some lights I even like it. Usually the nudes I've tried go immediately into my "Get-this-disgusting-thing-out-of-my-sight" pile, but I think I'm gonna hang onto this one for a bit. I've got a few other nudes up my sleeve to try out, but this one will certainly do for now.

You may (or may not) be wondering what my New Year's Resolution is. I actually hate resolutions and typically don't do them, 'cause I think they're stupid, but for some reason I felt the need to make a few this year. Weird. So anyway, without further ado...

1) Stop dressing like a lazy slob. I WILL find my sense of fashion this year. DAMNIT.

2) Stop BEING a lazy slob. I look mostly in shape, but I actually couldn't run from my couch to my front door without being out of breath. I hate working out and anything involved in fitness. Enough of that. The hubby got me a sweet pair of running shoes for Christmas, and I got some good pants that I can even run in while it's cold. I just want to feel healthier.

3) (Nail polish/blog-related) No more hanging onto awesome polishes without trying them for months/years at a time. Seriously, I've had GOSH Holographic since last February and STILL haven't tried it. Unacceptable. Must stop. I think I've been doing pretty good cranking out some of my Lynnderellas and other cool polishes lately, so I just need to keep that rolling into the new year.

So, now I gotta ask - what polish(es) did you wear for the New Year holiday? What are YOUR New Year's Resolutions? Let's hear 'em! :-D

Friday, September 23, 2011

Tony Moly Galaxy Collection

Tony Moly Galaxy Collection. Enough said.

Pam posted these polishes a while ago here and here. I knew I had to have them, so I hopped on Ebay and ordered one of each. So glad I did. These are really special. Each one is named after a different planet: Mercury, Earth, Mars, Neptune, Jupiter.

Tony Moly is a Korean Brand nail polish and comes in cute sleek little bottles. Each one of these is a different jelly that can only be described as a glitter bomb. I had these for 2 weeks before we had enough sunlight to spend time swatching them. I had read that each one of these polishes was top coat hungry, meaning that you needed to put on at least 2 THICK coats of top coat, maybe more, to get a perfectly smooth texture. These guys dried pretty quickly, a little matte (minus the glitter) so that was nice. These are all 2 coats. I tried to give you some close ups of the glitter for some of them as well.

First up is GT01, Mercury. This one was fun, but not my favorite of the bunch. It is a blackish base with blue, gold, red, and silver glitter. The first two are without top coat. If you click to enlarge you can see how gritty it is without top coat.

Tony Moly GT01 - Mercury

The next ones are with top coat. Sparkly goodness!

Tony Moly GT01 - Mercury

Close Up of Tony Moly GT01 - Mercury

Next up was Earth, or GT02. Easily my favorite (surprisingly). It's a steely blue base with light blue, lilac, and pink (barely) glitter in it. I think I saw some silver. And at least one of those is iridescent as well. With top coat, this was totally galaxy nails, my new crush. Again, the first two are without top coat. If you click to enlarge you can see how gritty this one is too.

Tony Moly GT02 - Earth

After some THICK top coat (2 coats) I've got a beautiful shiny glittery finish. The first picture shows you more of what you see normally. The second picture is when you get the light to hit it just right. Then, of course, the obligatory close up nail. I just loved Earth.

Tony Moly GT02 - Earth

Close Up of Tony Moly GT02 - Earth

Next up is GT03 - Mars. I liked this way more than I expected to. In fact, I'd rank it #2 of the bunch. I do think it's a lot prettier in person. It's a great fall polish. It's a dark brown jelly packed with gold, amber and blue glitter. I definitely see me wearing this to work. Bottle shots are without top coat.

Tony Moly GT03 - Mars

Add some top coat (2 thick coats) for a beautiful glossy polish. I think this is a great way to wear glitter in a more subdued way. I grabbed two up close shots of this one.

Tony Moly GT03 - Mars

Close Up of Tony Moly GT03 - Mars

Next up is GT04 - Neptune. I'm kind of surprised I didn't like this more. I'll hang onto it cause I think it'll make an awesome St. Patty's Day mani, but I don't think I'd reach for this any other time. Neptune is a dark green jelly with different shades of green and gold glitter. I like the close up shots better than the full shots. I think because they look more green and less gold.

Tony Moly GT04 - Neptune

Here are the close up shots with top coat. I like the way it looks here much better. Far cooler, but most of the time it looks more gold.

Tony Moly GT04 - Neptune

Close Up of Tony Moly GT04 - Neptune

Out of all the polishes, I think this one gets the most love, although I do find people either love it, or they were completely disappointed. Maybe it's just cause I put this one on last, but it just wasn't super special for me. GT05, or Jupiter, is the last of the collection. It's a deep purple jelly base with purple. blue, and orange glitter (yes orange...).

Tony Moly GT05 - Jupiter

Now we add top coat. It's definitely pretty. I think I'm disappointed because the purple on purple is too subtle.

Tony Moly GT05 - Jupiter

Close Up of Tony Moly GT05 - Jupiter

The Tony Moly Galaxy collection is definitely fun and unique if you can get your hands on it. I got mine off of eBay, for $9.99 a bottle with free shipping. I highly recommend this seller. I think these are a must have for glitter collectors, but if you don't wear glitters often, you may want to just pick one or two of your favorites.