Zoya Neeka

Exactly one month ago today (AND on our blog's 100th post!) I showed you Zoya Yara that I picked up during Zoya's last big promotion.  They were giving away two free polishes with a purchase, and lucky me - I needed a new bottle of Remove +!  My second free polish that I chose was the ever-so-popular, Neeka.

Neeka is a smokey, eggplant purple with large, irregular gold shimmer, and super fine pink shimmer.  The finish is similar to Yara, but the gold flecks aren't quite as pronounced.  It dries a good shade or two darker than the bottle color, but I was totally fine with that.  The finished product is beautiful, but I'd say these photos show it a little bluer than it is (Suprise, surprise, right?).  The formula was perfect - definitely the best Zoya I've ever worked with.  It's super pigmented, but still easy to clean up.  I'm showing you two coats below.

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Neeka is probably hands-down the fan favorite from the Smoke and Mirrors collection.  While it's really beautiful, I just really wasn't wowed by it.  I don't know if I just can't get over my supreme love of Yara, or if it just reminded me too much of RBL Catherine.  Speaking of Catherine, here's a quick comparison of the two:

(L) Zoya Neeka, (R) RBL Catherine

Certainly not dupes, but maybe...kissing cousins?  Neeka is lighter in color and the gold shimmer particles are much larger.  Strangely enough, now that I've worn both I can say that somehow the smaller shimmer in Catherine shows up better on the nail.  I think Neeka's smokey base is the culprit.  They're different enough to own both, but you may be able to satisfy any lingering Catherine lemmings with Neeka, for less than half the price.

Bottom line?  I love Neeka, but I'm not in love.  Yara is the star of the show for me from that collection, and she already stole my heart.  I still more than recommend Neeka, especially if you don't already own RBL Catherine.  Zoya really knows how to put together a great collection, and they did it again this fall. :-)

Butter London Snog

I apologize in advance if it feels like I have been or will be overloading you on Butter London polishes.  After the Nordstrom Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale, the Ulta Buy 1 Get 1 Free sale (I'm choosing to ignore the current Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale, 'cause DANG, my wallet hurts!), and a few successful swaps, I've got a TON of these suckers to get through.  I'm super excited about it though, because I think I've decided that Butter London might just be my favorite brand of nail polish.  *gasp*  I know!  :-)

For the weekend, I decided to take Snog for a spin.  You guys are probably familiar with the term "snog" from various movies set in England, but just in case, it means "to kiss passionately" or, more commonly, "to make out."  LOL

Make-out-session-in-a-bottle turns out to be a saturated bright pink creme.  SO saturated, that Blogger freaked out when I tried to load the photos, and turned it this weird coral color.  Thankfully I didn't get the same issue when linking from Photobucket.  *phew!*  What you see in these photos is pretty color-accurate (for once).  The formula was top-notch and applied perfectly in two coats.

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You guys know I'm not super into pink polishes, but I ADORE Snog!  I want to snog Snog!  (Not really, I just thought it'd be a funny joke.  Ok, it was bad.  I know.)  It's not overly girly, and the color is just to die for!  The only thing I can't figure out is why they went with black type on the label.  They only use black for their lighter colors, since obviously white wouldn't show up very well, but there's nothing pale about this polish!  *shrug*  I guess I'm just weird...LOL

Anywho, Snog may have just worked its way into my Top 5 Butter London polishes, and probably my Top 20 polishes in general.  I love it THAT much!  I'd heartily recommend it, especially if you're looking for another polish to add in for the Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale at Ulta.  It definitely gets the thumbs up from me!  :-)

China Glaze Westside Warrior

A few posts ago I mentioned my new obsession love of weird olive greeny-goldy polishes.  I've shown you two out of five of the polishes I mentioned there, so I'm keeping the party going with number three - China Glaze Westside Warrior.

First of all, is it just me, or has it been FOREVER since I showed you guys a China Glaze polish??  I think it's been like, six months?!  Holy cow!  We're long overdue, but never fear.  The last two of The Five are China Glaze as well!  :-)  

Westside Warrior is your textbook olive green creme.  It leans on the yellow side, kind of "olive drab," so it plays nicely with my skin tone.  It's giving me slight lobster hands in these photos, but I promise you it wasn't apparent in real life.  It's super pigmented, and applied like a DREAM in two coats!

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YES YES YES and YES.  Perfection in a bottle!  After the epic fail that was Illamasqua Phallic, Westside Warrior was just what I needed.  I thought I'd love this one, and I was 100% right!  Olive green dream.  :-)

Just for funsies I did a quick comparison of Westside Warrior with Rescue Beauty Lounge Orbis Non Sufficit:

(L) China Glaze Westside Warrior, (R) RBL Orbis Non Sufficit

It's funny, because these are two polishes that I would describe in one word as "olive," but they're on two opposite ends of the spectrum.  Westside Warrior is very yellow (It almost looks like pea soup here!), while Orbis leans strongly blue.  You know what that means?  There's definitely room for both in my stash!  :-D

If you love these weird olive colors as much as I do, I highly recommend picking up Westside Warrior.  It's part of China Glaze's Metro Collection that's currently in stores, so you'll be able to find it pretty easily at your local Ulta or for even cheaper at www.nailsupplies.us.  I think it's perfect for fall!

And the Winner Is...

Kelly!!!

Congrats, Kelly!!  Illamasqua Raindrops and Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air will be on their way to you soon!  We hope you love them!!

Thank you to everyone who entered our giveaway!  We're so happy to have your love and support!  You guys rock!!  Stay tuned for more fun!  :-)

Love,

Courtney & Jessie

Illamasqua Phallic

After I showed you a polish named after an "infertile man", I thought it was finally the right time to show you a polish named after the male crotchal region.  Yeah, Illamasqua went there.  I put off trying this one far too long....here's Phallic!

It's not exactly what I would've picked when choosing colors to represent male genitalia, but Illamasqua went with a deep midnight blue with blue shimmer.  It's kind of that glass-fleck style shimmer, but it's super subtle.  Much more than these photos would suggest.  What surprised me most, though, was the formula.  Illamasqua is known for unbelievably smooth formulas and great wear, but this one was thick and globby and hard to apply.  I ended up using two blobby coats, and I had major chips within two days.  Not a good way to start off.

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These photos are too flattering of this polish.  I wish it looked like this all the time.  The shimmer is to DIE for - like little blue stars in the night sky - but it only comes out to play in direct lighting (i.e. sunlight or when you stick your hand under a lamp, lol).  Most of the time you're looking at a deep blue creme with, like, three shimmers.  I suppose if you love deep blues or vampy colors, you may be able to overlook the lack of shimmer, but for $14 a bottle, I WANT SHIMMER, DAMNIT!

I guess that's what I get for buying a polish named after a penis.

(Compliments of www.jamesvandermemes.com)

Zoya Dannii

Just when you thought our stash swap was over, Rach from stuff i (s)watched sent me one last polish.  But this one I get to keep!  I feel so special!  I was super excited to try out Zoya Dannii!

I feel like it's a typo every time I type "Dannii," but I'm sure it's namesake has to be the lovely Dannii Minogue, so I guess I can get over it, lol.  Zoya Dannii is a medium-toned purple shimmer fest.  It's so jam-packed with pinky-purple shimmer, that I'd almost call this one a foil.  It's like one of those shimmer/foil hybrids.  It really captures the light so well.  The application on this one was even better than I expected.  It practically applied itself, and I used just two coats for full opacity.  Please ignore the icky pinky finger.  I got a little...over-zealous...with hangnail removal.  Oops!

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 (click to enlarge)

I'm so thankful for two things.  First - that Rach sent me this particular polish.  I'd waffled on it for SO long, but just couldn't push myself to buy it for fear that it wouldn't look right on my skin tone.  Even as a shimmer-lover, Dannii was a little out of my comfort zone.  But ya know what?  I think it's pretty fantastic!!  With this polish, my number of Zoya Intimate Collection polishes goes up to four out of six.  Such a lovely collection!

Second - I'm thankful to have such a lovely friend!  Thanks again, Rach, for being awesome (as always)!!  If you guys missed her posts on the polishes I sent to her, you can check out Butter London Wallis, OPI Russian Navy, and China Glaze VII at the links.  Spoiler alert:  She makes them all look amazing!  ;-)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.