Zoya - Reva

Reva is a beautiful glass-flecked berry with tons of gold shimmer.

Basecoat:  Zoya Ridge Filler (1 coat)
Color:  Zoya Reva (3 coats)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

Application was very nice.  Also, even though this polish is pigmented and packed with shimmer I didn't have a lot of problems cleaning up, similar to other Zoyas with this finish.

Essie - Smooth Sailing

Smooth Sailing is a cornflower blue packed with shimmer.  You've all seen this one a bajillion times.

Basecoat:  NailTek Foundation II (1 coat)
Color:  Essie Smooth Sailing (3 coats)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

Smooth Sailing might have the best application of any Essie I own.  No streaking, easy to control, no bald patches.  Beautiful.  This was something I found odd, though - you can see in the middle that I have some VNL, after three coats.  It's actually visible in real life, too.

I picked up two other polishes from the Braziliant collection.  I hope they are as much of a joy to work with as this one.

Tres Risk - Reddy to Go and OPI - Man of La Mancha

Man of La Mancha has been in my untrieds for probably close to a year.  I picked it up at a nail supply place while I was looking for La Boheme (yeah, right - I'm never gonna see that in person).  I knew just form the bottle that I was going to need "underwear", so I pulled out Reddy to Go.  Tres Risk is a brand I have only ever seen at Ross, and only in a multi pack.  I also only remember seeing it once, ever, in the same visit I picked up this set.

Reddy to Go is a red jelly.  It's fairly opaque for a jelly, but it looks nice and squishy on.

Three coats.  Application was very nice for an unknown brand.  Very nice pigmentation, too, which unfortunately means you'll get some staining if you're not careful.  This is with NO top coat.  Any weird lines in the polish are reflections of the blinds - it's THAT glossy.

Man of La Mancha is a multichrome red.  It shows orange, gold, and even some green.

Basecoat:  NailTek Foundation II (1 coat)
Color:  Tres Risk Reddy to Go (3 coats)
Color:  OPI Man of La Mancha (2 coats)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

The middle photo shows a hint of green in the bottle.  I could not get it on captured on my nails to save y life.

Man of La Mancha is a black label OPI - old, smelly, full of chemical goodness, and runny.  It was very hard to control and I had a lot of cleanup to do.

Next time I might choose a more orange-leaning base color to wear under this.  I hate when my "underwear" peeks out and Reddy to Go is just dark enough that I had to slop MoLM around a little to cover all the edges.

Milani - Purple Nail Art

Today I have an old untried in my stash.  Before Megan Chair stopped blogging, she posted a full mani done with the purple glitter Milani nail art polish.  As soon as I saw it I went out and bought two of these (okay, I bought one - it took me a couple of weeks to hunt down a second) and decanted them both.  I have no idea why it's taken me this long to wear them but when I saw Scrangie's recent post featuring this polish, it reminded me I had it.

Basecoat:  NailTek Foundation II (new bottle, yay!)
Color:  Milani Purple Nail Art (3 coats)
Topcoat:  Gelous (1 coat)
Topcoat:  Seche Vite (1 coat)

This is a pretty purple jelly PACKED with blue, pink, and purple glitter.  It looks like a lighter, glitterier China Glaze "Flying Dragon".  I own both but I'm not going to compare them.

Application was not too bad.  This polish is pretty thick so it was easy to control where it went, but when I messed up it took a while to clean up.  I actually took this photo the day after I applied it, because I had to resort to picking off the excess polish/glitter.

You really need to wear a topcoat with this.  It dries semi-matte, but it feels like very rough sandpaper when dry.  Much rougher than typical glitter polish.  I used the Gelous/Seche topcoat trick and I probably could have used another coat of Seche.  This polish "ate" topcoat - the night I applied it it was almost perfectly smooth, but when I woke up the next morning, it was all bumpy.

I imagine this would be a pain to remove.  I actually picked this off (as I do with almost every polish, sigh) so... yeah.  You'll probably want to use the foil method to remove this.

China Glaze - Ahoy

Ahoy is the only polish from the nautical collection I wanted (and, for once, the only one I actually bought).  I tried several Ultas before I finally found it in stock, and of course, once I bought it I saw it everywhere.

Ahoy is a berry almost-jelly base with tons of glass fleck shimmer.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network
Color:  China Glaze Ahoy (4 coats)
Topcoat:  Seche Vite (1 coat)

Ahoy was very easy to apply.  It is a tiny bit sheerer than I like so I used four coats.  I still had VNL at three.  Consistency is a little bit runny, so I had a lot of pooling at my cuticles and it was a little difficult to clean up, probably because I didn't cleanup between each coat like I usually do.

These photos do not do the sparkle justice.  I might need a backup bottle of this.

Comparison: Savina - Black Mist, Jordana - Night Fall, Hard Candy - Wicked

I was rearranging my untried drawers (okay, to accomodate a sh*tload of new polish I hauled over the weekend) and noticed that I have three untried black polishes with silver glitter.  I am pretty sure I don't need three, so I decided to compare them.  I'm going to guess these are all about as equally easy to find (unless Wicked is d/c'd).  I got the Savina at Nordstrom Rack, and I ordered the Jordana from Cherry Culture.

In the bottle they look pretty similar.  The Jordana has a lot more silver glitter stuck to its sides, but it's patchy.  A good shaking up fixes this.

Here they are at one coat each.  These are in the same order as the bottle photo:  Black Mist on my index finger, Night Fall on my middle finger, and Wicked on my ring finger.  From here we can see that Black Mist has more glitter and a sheerer base.  Wicked is the most pigmented.

Two coats.  Black Mist is still super blingy, and its base is starting to fix itself.  I have a big bald streak in Night Fall, but that's my fault.  Night Fall and Wicked are looking pretty dupe-y.

Three coats.  We can safely conclude that Night Fall and Wicked are dupes.  Black Mist is fairly different from the others.

I added a fourth coat of Black Mist, just to compare it with Night Fall and Wicked.  Still not dupes, but Black Mist is gorgeous on its own.

I went into this thinking I would find that these three are all dupes, and I would only keep one.  Instead, I am keeping Black Mist and Night Fall, and Wicked goes into the purge pile.  I liked Night Fall's application a little better than Wicked's, but this was almost a toss-up.

Sally Hansen - Jade Jump and Kleancolor - Holo Green

Why do I keep buying these minty greens even they look terrible on my skin regardless of the time of the year?

Jade Jump is a minty slightly dusty green.  Holo Green is a diffused holo pale green.  It's a little more "green" than Jade Jump, but when I swatched this on its own you can't really tell, so I opted to layer it.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (1 coat)
Color:  Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Jade Jump (2 coats)
Color:  Kleancolor Holo Green (2 coats)

The first photo is the most color-accurate.  O Hai, Lobster Hands!  Ugh.

I have a love-hate relationship with the InstaDri polishes.  The brush is hard to control on my pinky fingers so I usually end up with too big a gap at my cuticle, or I slop it everywhere.  Other than that, I think I've gotten the hang of this brush, though I still usually need two coats for complete coverage.

Unlike the Chunky Holo polishes, I didn't need to thin Holo Green at all.  It actually didn't even smell as much as the Chunky Holos I've worn do.  I will definitely want to try this over something else, because it's lovely and the holo is amazing, even though I couldn't really capture it on camera.

Notice I didn't list my topcoat - it's because I got disgusted and took it off before I got to topcoat.  I really should stop buying minty greens.

Orly - Ruby Passion

Ruby Passion is a foil-y orangey red I picked up at Sally.  It was on clearance and it has a sticker that says "Last Chance!" on it so it's probably discontinued.  I think I've had this for almost a year.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (1 coat)
Color:  Orly Ruby Passion (3 coats)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

The first photo is much more color-accurate, but this photo does a good job of showing off the shimmer in this polish.  Application was good, cleanup was surprisingly easy.  However... I feel like this is a Mom Color.  It's going in my purge pile.

Orly - Cotton Candy

Cotton Candy is not new or untried for me, but I felt like I needed a palate cleanser and didn't want to spend time looking through my untrieds.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (1 coat)
Color:  Orly Cotton Candy (3 coats)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

Application was really good.  I still had a very slight VNL but I'm probably the only person that noticed it.

This isn't my usual kind of summer polish color, but I feel refreshed and ready to get back to more vibrant stuff now.

Color Club - Where's the Soiree? and Kleancolor - Chunky Holo Black

Where's The Soiree? is a pretty standard black.  It's very pigmented (I only needed two coats, and maybe I could have gotten away with one).  It also dries to a satin finish.  I didn't bother taking photos of this alone. Chunky Holo Black is not like the other Kleancolor Chunky Holos.  Chunky Holo Black has different-sized glitters in it.  There's your standard small glitter, then a slightly larger glitter, then a small hex glitter, then larger hex glitter.  In the bottle it shows all the colors of the rainbow.

I could not get that blue tone to show up on my nails at all.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (1 coat)
Color:  Color Club Where's the Soiree? (2 coats)
Color:  Kleancolor Chunky Holo Black (3-ish coats)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

Where's the Soiree? has a pretty good application.  Totally opaque in 1 coat except the places I messed up so I went with two.  Cleanup was not fun.  This is a very pigmented polish so it's best to be careful or plan to spend lots of time on cleanup.

As with the last Chunky Holo I wore, I thinned this before I even tried it.  As a result I don't feel like my nails are super thick and I don't have any shrinkage even though I'm writing this post the next day.  I did two regular coats and then dabbed on some of the larger glitter wherever I felt like I was missing it or had patchy coverage.  The base of this polish is a weird grayish/brown sheer jelly.  I might try this next time over a different color, like a dark blue, but I'm not sure what the base jelly will do to it.

I spent all night staring at my nails.  This is a stunning combination.  If you see Chunky Holo Black, you need to pick it up - you won't regret it.

Color Club - Wicked Sweet and Kleancolor - Chunky Holo Teal

I love Color Club neons.  They are almost always a joy to apply (I'm looking at you, Starry Temptress).  The Wicked Sweet collection has a twist, though - they are scented.

Wicked Sweet is the blue neon from this collection.  It has a little bit of shimmer and looks a lot like China Glaze "Towel Boy Toy", except I think this is not as bright a blue.  Wicked Sweet is a little bit brush-stroke-y, too.  I meant to take photos of this on its own but I was on a conference call while I was painting my nails and couldn't leave it forgot.

Chunky Holo Teal is a teal jelly loaded with glitter that isn't exactly holo, but it definitely has a multichrome effect that is similar.

Basecoat:  China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
Color:  Color Club Wicked Sweet (3 coats)
Color:  Kleancolor Chunky Holo Teal (3 coats)
Topcoat:  David (1 coat)

Wicked Sweet's application was really good.  I might recommend using a not-sticky base coat because I had a little bit of drag, but it really wasn't too bad.  I had a bit of VNL after three coats so if I was going to wear this alone I might use four coats. It also shows brush strokes, but just a tiny bit.

I thinned the crap out of Chunky Holo Teal before I even tried it.  So, the application was a lot better than the previous Chunky Holos I've tried, but because I thinned it the glitter was a little sparser and I needed three coats to get the coverage I wanted.  It's all good, though, because it's gorgeous, and it's not so thick it will peel off in full-nail sheets.

As to Wicked Sweet?  After three coats of Chunky Holo Teal, and one coat of topcoat... I can definitely still smell it.  I don't know what Wicked Sweet is *supposed* to smell like, but I think it smells like...

....blue SweetTarts.

China Glaze - Virtual Violet

Virtual Violet is from the Tronica collection, which was available only at Sally Beauty Supply.  I only picked up a few polishes from this collection but I had to resort to eBay to get the one I really wanted, which was Techno Teal.  Virtual Violet is a dark purple - probably really close to LOL, but the holos are different.  LOL is a linear holo, and the Tronica polishes are a little more scattered.  I had a hard time getting a good bottle photo of this.

Basecoat:  China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
Color:  China Glaze Virtual Violet (3 coats)

I did not want to risk dulling the holo so I did not use a topcoat.  As you can see from the bubbles I have, I had a fan going in the room I was in.  Application was kind of a pain - I should have used a basecoat like Nailtek Foundation or even a matte topcoat.  I had all kinds of dragging because I used a sticky basecoat, so I ended up using thicker coats than I should have to compensate.  Because of that I had tons of pooling at my cuticles, and it made the bubbles worse, too.  Oh, well!