Zoya-Lara

Hi all, back once again from the fun of work, here with a pink shade today. Yes, even though I am a guy I can get away with wearing pink. :P

Anyhow, here's a look at Zoya's Lara. This is going to be a 2-3 coat polish depending on how thin or thick you go, but the application was very nice. I'm finally getting used to the Zoya brush, so application has become a lot easier, and their cremes in general are very nice and pigmented for the most part. Now the picture I have up top is a shot I took in more "natural" light, as this polish is in the Neon Pink kinda family, meaning it changes up depending on the lighting. Here's a pic I took with my camera's flash on:

As you can see, it changes up a lot in different lighting, which is why I took the plunge and picked this one up. It's a really great summer shade to wear before Fall/Winter kicks into full gear, so go pick it up!

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Square Hue-Times Square

This is a polish I've been wanting to swatch out for a while now. Times Square is from the New York Collection, of which I've already reviewed one of the polishes, Fifth Avenue (which you can catch here), and this one I was planning on doing next, it just took a while, lol. Anyhow, this is a super glitter polish. Under normal light, it applies on grey, but in natural sunlight or flash, the multi-chrome aspects really come to life.

Application was a cinch as this only needed 2 coats to get going, plus you could even layer this over other polishes. The uses are pretty endless to be honest. I have to say that this color is a must buy, if you can find it, snap it up, the price would be worth it.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Square Hue-Shibuya

Alrighty folks, this is the last of the 3 Square Hue Tokyo polishes, Shibuya. This is a red-with-a-touch-of-blue polish, and it also has a lot of glitter shimmer to boot.

This one isn't as sheer as Roppongi, but it will still take probably 3 good coats for full coverage. I'm not too fond of the shade myself, but I do think this will be a popular one for summertime, plus that particular shade of red is usually easily duped, so I wouldn't go out of my way to look for it. This would probably be the only one of the three that just didn't do it for me.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Square Hue-Roppongi

Hi folks! Sorry I've been away for a while but I've been doing the job grind so I haven't really had time for polishing much, but I'm here today with the first of three Square Hue polishes for your viewing pleasure. The first one is Roppongi from the Tokyo Collection. If you recall, I reviewed the first polish from this one, Ginza a while back (you can check that out here), so part of what I'm doing over the next 3 days is to knock out the other 2 polishes in the collection.

This one is a smorgasbord of ideas. It's a glittery duochrome with extra hex glitter pieces thrown in for good measure. When looking at the bottle, it looks like a straight green polish, but when applied it actually takes on a copper tone until exposed to light, which really adds a cool effect. Only downside to this color is that it's very sheer, the pic you see here is 2 coats, so you'll probably need 3-4 for full coverage. I would still highly recommend it though if you can track it down through eBay or something similar.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Orly-Steel Your Heart

To round things up for the time being, I went with one more shimmer polish, except this one is very much on the dark side of colors, lol. This is another Orly polish, Steel Your Heart. I nabbed this one as I was lacking in a gunmetal grey polish for a while and was hoping this would work in it's place.

I have to say, I really like Orly, the formula was great for a shimmer and the brush makes things very easy to work with. With this being a darker silver-grey, you can get away with a little streakiness in your strokes, but with all Orlys, keep in mind their formula doesn't take much to coat the nail, so go thin. This here is 2 coats.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Zoya-Laney

For today's it's another shimmer shade, this time from Zoya, Laney. This is more along this lines of a traditional silver shimmer, which I absolutely adore as it's very gender-neutral, so I have a tendency to make silver shades my go to shades.

As with yesterday's Square Hue, how you paint your strokes is key. The Zoya brush is slightly harder to work with for me than the Square Hue, so there are a bit more noticeable strokes on my nails. It didn't help that I was in a hurry when swatching this, lol. The formula though is top notch, all nails were at 2 coats. If you're wanting a shade to break into Zoya with, this would be it.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Square Hue-Ginza

Alright, for today, I've swatched Square Hue's Ginza, from their Tokyo Collection. This is a shimmery-blue polish, of which anything shimmery comes with it's own challenges.

To begin with, this was a much easier polish to work with than most shimmers, but that may be due to the Square Hue formula. As I've said before, the brush is pretty small, so for those of you with big nail beds like myself, this might be a bit challenging. Also, this is a shimmer polish, so how you paint with your strokes is critical, no amount of top coat will be able to hide a ton of streakiness, so be advised. This is a great shimmer though, and a perfect summer shade to boot.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Essie-Chinchilly

Hey folks, I'm back once again with another 4 days of polish! For today, I swatched Essie's Chinchilly. I saw this color on Anna Kendrick at the Grammys and needless to say I had to get it as soon as possible myself!

This Essie was probably one of the easiest polishes for me to apply for once. It is a bit on the sheer side, so you will probably need 3 coats to get to where I have it in the picture. It does look awesome though, I'll track down a nice glitter so I can duplicate that French Manicure effect Anna wore. Chinchilly will go down to me as one of my all-time favorite colors.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Square Hue-Buckingham

Whelp, here's another Square Hue color, this time from their January Collection, Buckingham. This red I was very much into from the get-go, kinda makes the sub worth it. You'll have to excuse the lack of polish bottle, I painted my nails at a friend's house, then had to hit the road, so you get a pic with my Zelda 3DS.

Application was a bit smoother than Fifth Ave., for guys always be mindful of the brush, but I would have to say this is a bit easier of a red to wear on a regular basis if you're male. The ladies will very much love this color as it's darker and goes a bit better with winter.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Zoya-Dea

Here's the second of the Zoyas I got in, Dea. Not gonna lie, I always have a soft spot for brown shades. A lot of folks might complain that they are too safe and "granny" for them to wear, but that's okay, because I will happily wear them all.

Dea is along the lines of a Milk Chocolate brown, the formula was even better than Purity so I had no issues with this one. I did forget to say last time that the Zoya brush are more of a standard brush type, so as always, be careful on your thumbs.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Zoya-Purity

So I recently took advantage of a special that Zoya was holding where you could get 3 polishes for only the cost of shipping @ $12. Naturally I couldn't resist, so here we are with the first of those polishes, which is a creme white. Yup.

I should probably say most creme white polishes I have dealt with always have a problem with streakiness, and Purtiy was no exception. The reason why you see me showing off my nails in a odd angle than normal was due to me having to hide some of the imperfections I ran into during the swatching process as whites require a good deal of patience and time, and I didn't really have those on my side. I will say though that for a white, this formula was great, once I have the time to actually paint this on for normal wear, it will look fantastic.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Salon Perfect-Tropical Escape

This color here was part of a Secret Santa package I received over the holidays, and I have to say it's pretty nice. Before I got it, I had never heard of Salon Perfect before, but I do like blues, so I dove right in for the swatch.

I liked the formula, it went on pretty well, the brush is a standard polish brush, so as always, be mindful on your larger digits, but if you can get all that down, you have an awesome summer shade to wear out to the beach, or in my case, some conventions.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Square Hue-Fifth Avenue

Alright, I'm back from a nice little break. I should say I will take breaks in the swatching action from time to time, usually due to my day job keeping my busy, so just bear with me in that regards. I do have about 4 swatches over the next 4 days to show you, starting with this gem.

So, one of the things I did over my break was to set up a sub to Square Hue. I had heard a lot of good things about the service and the quality of polish, so I figured I would give it the old college try. The first box I got was the New York Collection, of which this shade was one of them. I do have to say, this is probably the first red color I actually like and would probably wear out and about in public. I'm not sure if it's the timelessness of it, but it just felt right.

The formula was good, I should warn that the brush is a bit on the small side, so it might be difficult to get a good amount of coverage all across the nail for fellow guys like myself, but otherwise, awesome polish. I may actually get more into reds now.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Playlist Polish-Do You Believe In Magic?

This beauty here is a glitter holo shade from Playlist Polish. I have to say it was a chore trying to get it, as it was limited edition, and I had to nab it on a restock. I think all of those Amazon Black Friday Lightning Deals paid off in this case, as I was very much in love with this shade. The application and bottle/brush themselves are great, and this color makes for a great everyday wear, and I think most guys should be able to pull this one off even in work settings as it doesn't pop out. If you have a chance to snag this one, do so.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

OPI-Black Onyx

For today, it's obligatory Goth Time, aka, OPI's Black Onyx. I actually used this as part of a layering idea, but I won't be able to show you that trick for a while, lol. Anyhow, great bottle and application from OPI as always, although I could tell not many folks actually shop for black nail polish nowanddays, as this was hell for me to get open.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Cadillacquer-Life's Too Short

Alright, today we have Cadillacquer's Life's Too Short, which is a creamy blue color with lots of blue glitter flakes to boot. Application was great, looked awesome. Should probably warn my fellow men who are into polish though, with these glitter polishes, you need to be careful about removal as if your not too careful, the glitter particles will not be easily removed. Make sure you dose your removal felt or cotton balls with remover/acetone, then press really good onto the nail, then after a few seconds, pull the pad/ball off away from the cuticle, and that should do the trick. You will probably have a few bits left over, but that's easy cleanup.

Enjoy and Happy Polishing Peeps!

Ludurana-Admiravel

The following here is Ludurana's Admiravel, which I picked up recently. It's a brand from Brazil, and this particular color is part of their duochrome line, and since I'm a sucker for duochromes, well, here ya go. Application was nice and the bottle didn't hamper anything at all, so I was pretty happy with how things turned out. Oh, the first pic here is the color under one form of light....

And there it is under flash. Pretty neat, huh?

Enjoy as always and Happy Polishing Peeps!

FNUG-Style Icon

Hey ladies and gents, sorry I've been away for a while, I've been having to deal with silly stuffs at work and home, so I've gotten seriously behind on my swatching, so over the next few days I'll have some stuff every day to even that out. First off is FNUG's Style Icon, which is a silvery color that's more of a light bronze.

Not gonna lie, was not a fan of the bottle and brush design. It's one thing to do up a small bottle, but when your brush is kinda tiny, it just becomes a pain in the posterior for application, same reasoning why I don't do Essie polishes that often. If you pick this up, just exercise caution as due to the bottle/brush, this can apply VERY streaky. That being said, this was awesome as a shade and one I'll probably go to when I want to wear something that will shine.

Have fun and Keep Polishing Peeps!

OPI-You're such a Budapest

Hey look everyone, it's my thumb! Yeah, I haven't been posting pics with my thumb in there mainly because of the giant dent in my nail, which is also on my index finger. The index isn't bad, by my thumb is, and I can't run off and get it filled in with acrylic or gel due to my day job, so I don't paint it that often when swatching, today I did mainly because I wanted to show how well the OPI formula worked on smoothing out the deep ridges there.

Now I do have to say, I love lilac shades, probably to where before it's all said and done I'll probably end up owning 20-30 different versions of this same shade, but I can't help it, lol. This is a nice lilac made by OPI, application was smooth as always and didn't have many streaking issues except on the ridged-up nails. This is 2 coats. Have fun and Happy Polishing!

CND-Fedora (Vinylux)

This particular shade I've been meaning to get my hands on for a while now, I'm a HUGE sucker for dark brown creme shades, so Fedora has been on my wantlist for years, but I've always missed out on the chance to get it, until now with the color being released on the Vinylux line. For those who don't know, Vinylux is a super-special polish line CND has been promoting, mainly with the concept that you don't need a base coat, and once you wear the topcoat you shouldn't have to worry about chipping and whatnot as the top coat gets stronger in natural sunlight. Now for this I didn't mess with the topcoat as I was swatching and it is from what I understand VERY hard to remove the polish once the topcoat is on, but I do have it and I'll probably test that out another time.

I can say though that CND is worth the hype, this is at two coats and to be honest, I probably could have gotten away with one. Anyhow, have fun and Happy Polishing!