orly bloom collection

i got a few orly polishes from their 2010 spring bloom collection a while ago to review and i'm just now finally able to post good pictures of them! sorry for the delay and i'm sure you've all seen these guys before, but well you're going to see them again!

wild wisteria is a deep, smooth, and intense dark blue-purple.  i've heard it compared to opi's sapphire in the snow and zoya's pinta, but i have heard that people pick this guy over the others because of it's great formula. this was almost completely opaque in one coat! i really liked how it looked against my skin.

the next color i received from orly was thorned rose. talk about pretty! seriously, i must be warming up to wearing reds or something, because i loved wearing this color! i wore this on my right hand the same day i wore wild wisteria.  i got a lot of compliments on it too!  this is two coats of uber creamy dreamy-ness. i would characterized this in the "berry" colors, like a dark raspberry.

 and the last color i received from this collection was ginger lily. i was pretty sure that i was not going to like this one, but hey of course i'll try anything once! and i'm glad i did, because i ended up really liking it! ginger is pretty much the color of candied ginger, orangey rusty colored with a bit of shimmer.  it looked awesome in the sun too!  this is 3 coats.

sun (actually slightly overcast)

overall i think this collection was really pretty and a nice addition to the spring collections, with all the pastel and "predictable" colors. (although orly did put out a pastel collection for spring as well) it is nice to mix it up once in a while!  great formula on all of them too. ya know, i think i forget that about orly. i need to wear more of their polishes, they're really good and don't get a lot of love!  i wish i would've gotten blushing bud from this collection too, it's a pretty bright berry pink creme.  did you guys pick out any polishes from this collection? what was your favorite?

zoya ki

this is a post about zoya's lovely duochrome polish Ki, another gift from lovely reader Amy. one of my biggest lemmings and i'm sooooo glad to have gotten it! unfortunately, these pictures do not do the gorgeous polish justice. these are actually kind of old pics, and i wasn't making sure the duo was showing up in them. so...you don't get to see how spectacular it actually is. but i'm sure if you're really curious you could look up a few other swatches huh haha. the polish is a deep purple with a gorgeous green duochrome flash. in fact, i'm almost disgusted with my swatches not showing the duochrome sooo much that i'll save you some trouble and link to Beautopia's blog here to show you some proper pictures of this guy. eat your heart out ladies!

 sun pics

have a great monday my dears!

zoya dea

this zoya polish is one that i got in a big random act of kindness present from a special reader. you can check out the post here. it is a yummy light chocolate color, creamy dreamy! dea is a great color and even though i wasn't in love with it at first glance, i'm totally diggen it now! this is three coats.

i'm getting down to the nitty-gritty last week of the semester. *phew* then i get a week off (i'm getting my lasik eye surgery then!!) and then first block of summer classes start. bleeech. haha it'll be the first time i've ever taken summer classes. they're shorter so they're way more intense. hope i can hack it! if it works out, i should be all finished with my bachelor's degree in december. then what?? haha i guess i'll be a "real grownup". phooey, i wanna be a kid still!

zoya's polish exchange and freja on my sista

in case you haven't heard, Zoya is doing their annual "polish exchange" program right now, effective from april 22, 2010 to june 30, 2010. the details are on their website HERE but the gist is that you can exchange old, empty, or just plain ugly nail polish that you don't want anymore for BRAND SPANKIN' NEW zoya polishes! that's right. bomb-tastic! the minimum is 6 bottles of polish, no maximum. and you can do it as many times as you want until the end date! all you pay is shipping & handling for the new bottles, $3.50 each. which if you figure the shipping costs to send them the polishes, and then if you see it as paying $3.50 per bottle w/ free shipping, you still come out way ahead. and the REAL winner is the earth! because lots of nail polish has certain chemicals in it that need to be disposed of in a different way then just throwing them in the trash, fyi. i am fully going to take advantage of this promotion, at least once before it ends and i can't wait! i've already picked out 42 colors that i want haha, so i'll probably have to narrow it down somehow.

anyway, my main point is that i wanted to show you a few of my favorite zoyas over the next few weeks in case this helps anyone to pick out their new bottles. first up is zoya's freja. a marvelous charcoal frosty metallic that shimmers too. this is a manicure i did for my sister Clarrisa so no, these are not my cute petite little hands. she got all the good genes :( haha but i la la love her!  this is two coats.

happy friday! i've had a pretty great week. and it's only gonna get better :D

ulta black diamond

this is a professional ulta polish called black diamond. it was given to me as a present from my sister clarrisa. (oh yeah, go check out her blog please :D) at first i was like, oh hmm another black polish, but then you see all the lovely gold and sort of green and orange sparkles in the polish! it's very subtle on the nail but i really really like it. great formula and really good wear. this is 3 coats.

lamp light

sunlight

how was everyone's weekend? it's finals time for me, so i've been wicked busy, :P oh well what can ya do? hope you have a great monday kids :)

opi ds reflection

this polish i got in a swap from the lovely and talented miss gildedangel of naive nails. go check her out if you haven't already, cuz she's AWESOME possum and super sweet. i felt like maybe i was pulling the wool over her eyes a bit when i fished this out of her swap bag when we met up last winter (although there is still snow on the ground here, so it might still technically be winter). did she seriously put an OPI DS series polish in a swap bag??! seriously? dope! i even double checked and yes indeed miss samantha did not care for the polish so it quickly became my little treasure. idk about you kids, but $12 for an OPI is a bit much. and i freaking love OPIs. i will pay it for a really spectacular amazing DS polish (a series OPI calls "designer" and has diamond dust in it) but honestly i could really pass on a lot of them. so yeah i felt special and lucky to get this pretty lady!

ds reflection is a beautiful berry coraly pinky reddish color with tiny holo glitter sparkles. there's also a hint of gold duochrome in the bottle, but i couldn't see it very much on the nail (however the flash pictures pull it out a bit). very smooth, even and opaque coverage! this is two coats.

sun to show more sparkles

more direct sun

this mani was very glam in my opinion, very old hollywood. which usually seems more dark red or whatever, but this looked really classy against my skin. i adore it, thanks again samantha!

random notd's

welp, it's snowing here in utah today. actually, it has stopped and the sun is shining as bright as ever but there is lots of snow and slush and flooding around the streets. that's bipolar utah weather for ya. no bueno. i really would like to step back into my sandals already! and i have wet pant legs. forever wet pant legs. that's a curse of being short, having long pant cuffs and when there's any bit of precip, you get wet ankles. that NEVER DRY.

sorry. that was a dumb rant. but i hate having cold ankles.

this is a shot of sally hansen insta-dri teal take-off. i've said it before and i'll say it again, i literally HATE these polishes because of the stupid triangle bottles, long narrow necks, and clunky brushes. but, this color just called to me. so i got it. and ya know what? i didn't even have that much trouble with application. two coats.

this monstrosity is from hot topic, as you can see from the trademark skull "poison" style bottle (which is adorable). i saw this on steph's closet and HAD to have it. these don't have names on them (grrr) but steph called it Hot Pink Iridescent Blue Violet Glitter and someone told me the hot topic website sometimes has them listed, but i'm too lazy to see if they match up. the polish has truckloads of glitter and heart pieces in it. o.m.g. flash overload. pretty much one of the worst formulas i've ever worked with, smelled of fresh asphalt, thick, chunky, awful awful awful. and i couldn't stand wearing it more than half a day. this is four coats with two coats of seche vite because of the horrid texture.

sunlight

i even tried mattifying it with essie's matte about you to try and make it more presentable. didn't help. ewww, i didn't even make the edges presentable, GROSS. i kinda can't believe i'm showing you this. forgive me. look away. hurry.

this pretty deep blue is ulta's professional blue for you. nothing really special or unique about this guy. *yawn* i don't get why this is toted as "professional" and their other line isn't. probably something to do with the ingredients. but honestly, when you sell them in the same place, imo it doesn't matter. plus all the professional ultas that i've tried have been kinda lacking in pizazz. this is three coats.

i'm off to sleep during my lunch hour. YESSSS. with wet ankles. boooo.

lincoln park after dark suede

i was chomping at the bit to get the suede polishes that opi came out with back in winter of '09. i was over the moon for them! literally head over heels. uhh...what's another cliche i can throw in there...haha. seriously though, i needed them baaaad. i have them all now except suzi skis in the pyrenees. and i la la love them! you're probably getting sick of me saying that, but i don't like posting pictures of polishes that i don't like haha. makes sense huh? although it can be helpful so i do it on occasion.

anywhooo, this lovely gem is lincoln park after dark suede by opi. again i don't understand why they just renamed their suede collection polishes after their core line polishes. but whatev, what's in a name? LPADS is a gorgeous deep purple matte with that "trademarked" suede look. the new mac studded polish has the same look, and a few of the china glaze glass fleck polishes take on the effect if you mattify them IMHO. i love the suede collection as far as mattes go because they are super easy to apply, easier than most mattes because they don't dry immediately. but you do have to be more careful than with regular polish as brush strokes can and will happen if you aren't. this is two coats :)

lamp light

with a coat of shiny seche vite

shiny, under lamp light

 have a great monday! i have a sore throat *rasp, choke* i need a lozenge, yuck!

hard candy lava

this polish is one of the awesome reds that i adore. i don't usually get into reds all that much, they make me feel kinda silly and flashy--which doesn't make a whole lot of sense considering i'll wear a bright orange or glitzy bright blue without batting an eye. but oh well, ho hum, that's just me. hard candy polishes, the new ones anyway, are actually not my favorite. i find they stink something awful and the formula is usually hard to work with. but this baby, lava be her name, is a shining star amongst the pack.

three coats and you get warm red shining with glitzy gold glitter. it has the ember-like glow that i adore and the glitter looks almost melted into the color, hence the name lava. the formula on this polish was really good too, looking a bit sheer on the first coat but fully opaque in three. la la love it!

 

made it matte using china glaze's matte magic (the cutest little bottle!) and gave it an even more intense "glow". gawd i love making polishes matte! how did i live w/o matte topcoats??

and a big ol' macro shot

hope everyone's weekend was fun! i went to an awesome pro soccer game and saw "how to train your dragon". that movie was so good, definitely recommend it. now i should probably go to bed, back to the weekday grind in the morning :P