Soflajo Review - Shirley Temple and Manhattan

Today I have two Soflajo polishes, Shirley Temple and Manhattan. This was my first time trying Soflajo and I'm glad I get to type it to you since I'm not sure I can pronounce Soflajo, I can hardly spell it!

Soflajo Shirley Temple (left) Manhattan (right)

While these colors look similar in the bottle (I was a bit worried when the bottles arrived that I should have ordered something different) but they are completely different on the nail. 

First up is Manhattan, a gorgeous dark copper metallic shimmer. The formula was nice, this is two coats that dried relatively quickly. No complaints here. :) This will definitely be a great fall color. 

Soflajo Manhattan

Soflajo Manhattan

Next is Shirley Temple. This is a real win for me. It's a coppery-pink metallic shimmer. I own a lot of pinks but this one is unique in my collection. Somehow the shimmer makes it more of a subtle color and it's gorgeous. Formula was similar to Manhattan and I had no real issues. 

Soflajo Shirley Temple

Soflajo Shirley Temple

These polishes were shipped quickly and are great quality. They apply nicely and are very pretty. I won't hesitate to order again.

Spoiled Are Mermaids Real?

My internet is out at home so here's to the android blogger app! Today I just have a quick swatch of Spoiled Are Mermaids Real? This is a great purple jelly with golden shimmer. It is very similar to one of the Zoya polishes, but I can't think of the name right now...

This is slightly sheer, two coats and still visible nail line but the formula is decent. The brush is horrible as usual for Spoiled polishes (I wish they'd hear all of us complaining and switch over to a new brush!)

The name of this one makes me laugh after all of the drama surrounding a documentary-style science fiction show, Animal Planet's "Mermaids: The Body Found" that fooled many people into believing that mermaids were real. It also aired on the discovery and caused quite a stir. Google Mermaids: The Body Found and you'll find some entertaining reading. :)

Cult Nails Iconic

I'm back from vacation! I have a bunch of polishes to get swatching and I can't wait to start posting more regularly.

First up is a polish that I wore a while back but didn't get a chance to photograph until just now. This is Cult Nails Iconic, the first bottle I owned that turned me into a total cultie! This Polish Is Fantastic. It's a berry-red with strong gold shimmer and flakies. When the sun hits this polish.. all I can say is wow. If you are a fan of gold shimmer you have to see Iconic in person.

OPI California Raspberry

OPI California Raspberry is an older OPI that I picked up from a blog sale. I'm not sure when it became available, but I never heard of it before I saw it on the blog sale. This one sat around in my untrieds pile for a fairly long time before I actually pulled it out, and I'm sad I waited so long!

California Raspberry is a gorgeous dark berry pink with subtle shimmer and tiny holographic glitter. The glitter is the type that are barely visible in the bottle, but just pop in direct sunlight. The formula is fantastic, two easy coats. 

Some people consider this a red polish, but it's just too pink for me to call it a red. I think everyone has a very different perception of every color. I tend to want to distinguish between every tiny difference in color. For example OPI A Roll In The Hague is considered a red on their website, while I would definitely consider it an orange.

X-Rite, an organization heavily involved in the science and technology of color has a 100-hue test where you attempt to arrange 100 little squares of color into a spectrum. All of the colors seem similar so it helps to determine how well you distinguish colors. I scored a 4 (which means I got 4 wrong out of 100). How well can you distinguish colors? Visit the test at: http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?pageid=77&lang=en

(I in no way endorse X-Rite Incorporated nor claim any right to the 100 hue test. It is merely a fun activity for those of us who actively collect colorful polishes)

F4 Polish Mermaid's Tail Layering

I have a deep and dear love for all indie polishes. Whenever I see a review of a new brand that has great polish, great customer service, and something unique to my collection I always order a bottle (if I can). By now I have a nice little basket of indie polish minis. 

So when I first heard about F4 Polish I had to try it out myself. The polishes are blended by three sisters: Jenn, Lacey, and Lexey. I picked up Five colors: Mermaid's Tail, Rainbow Sky, Hawaiian Punch, Pink Cadilac, and Emerald City. 

First up is Mermaid's Tail, a dense blend of blue and lilac purple glitter in a clear base. Here is two coats layered over Julep Daphne, which adds a hit more green to the mix. The mani is very mermaid-esque and extremely sparkly (see blurry picture below). 

F4 Polish Mermaid's Tail - Sun

 F4 Polish Mermaid's Tail - Shade

F4 Polish Mermaid's Tail - Blur

F4 Polish Mermaid's Tail - Macro

All of my F4 Polishes have fantastic formulas. I've done swatches on a nail wheel and they are all 1-2 coats for layering and opaque at 3-4 without any fishing for specific glitters. If you are interested, F4 Polish is available on Etsy and a full size 0.5 oz bottle sells for $8. They will set up a custom order for anyone who wants mini-polishes and I paid just $16 for my five.  

Barry M Cobalt Blue Swatch

I've been using Barry M Cobalt Blue for a lot of nail art, but haven't actually swatched it yet! So here is Barry M, a beautiful blue creme. The formula is very nice, easy to control and I used 2 coats for full opacity. You could probably get away with one thick coat, as it is nicely pigmented.

This one will stain your cuticles though, so be careful with application, clean up isn't easy. 


I'm really happy with the three Barry M polishes that I own, they are pretty, creamy, shiny, and smooth. I'm always looking for a brand that can produce flawless cremes, and Barry M definitely gets top marks. Do you own any Barry M polishes? 

(For those of you in the USA, Barry M can be purchased from Harlow & Co.  for very reasonable prices.)

Aqua Daisy Summer Collection Swatches and Review

I couldn't decide which colors I liked the most from Aqua Daisy's summer collection, so I got them all!

Swatches after the jump!

Turquoise Swirl Stamping

This was my rainy-day-manicure from about two weeks ago. I started out with two coats of Cult Nails Let Me Fly, a beautiful light dusty turquoise with silver flecks. The next day was a gloomy rainy day so I pulled out my stamping supplies and used MASH plate #40 and Zoya Zuza. The combination was perfect, the colors coordinate and it looks beautiful!

Cult Nails Let Me Fly:

Julep Daphne

Just a quick swatch today! This is Julep Daphne from my July Julep maven box. It's a very pretty medium seafoam green creme. In the photos on Julep's blog it looked much lighter but I'm actually happier with the darker color, it's very balanced. I don't have anything like this in my collection, it's like a darker more green version of China Glaze for Aubrey.

I had a little difficulty with the brush but the formula was great, 2 coats and minimal cleanup needed.

Julep Daphne - 2 coats

Julep Daphne - 2 coats

Whimsical Ideas by Pam Saturday Morning Cartoons Swatch

I'm quite happy with each of the Whimsical Ideas by Pam polishes I own, but I must admit that I was pretty much obsessed with Saturday Morning Cartoons for about two weeks. This polish is probably my all time favorite blue glitter, it might be my all time favorite blue ever. I don't normally wear blue polish. I tend to favor reds, pinks, and oranges. Wearing a polish 5 or 6 times in two weeks is a remarkable obsession.

Saturday Morning Cartoons is a vivid royal blue jelly base packed with glitter. There is silver, red, blue, and green hex glitter, and tiny red and blue glitter. It's a bit sheer but build-able though I prefer it layered over another color. This is one thick coat over one coat of China Glaze Ride The Waves. One single coat, and tons of glitter of all sizes and shapes evenly distributed on the nail you say? What a miracle!

sun:

shade:

Love love love love love this polish. 

Zoya Carrie Ann Swatch and a Comparison

I think I'm in love with Zoya's reds... there are so many varieties: different shades, finishes, and hues. They're all so gorgeous that I just want to own all of them. So I've picked up yet another. This is Zoya Carrie Ann.

Zoya describes Carrie Ann as a "Light warm scarlet red with copper, gold, and pink-red foil metallic glitter." I really like this combination. It was opaque with one thick coat, but I used two which darkened the color to perfect bottle color. The flake-like glitter is a great finish because it has a lot of sparkle without being hard to remove.

Zoya Carrie Ann - 2 coats

Click Read More for more swatches and a comparison!

Real Gold Red Review (Part 3)

For the last two days I've reviewed the Real Gold and Real Silver topcoats by the brand Real Gold Inc. Today I have the last lacquer from their Holiday Collection to show you. This one is a red jelly nail polish with 22k gold glitter suspended within it.

Real Gold and Real Silver can be purchased online. Visit the Real Gold website by clicking here.

The red jelly polish was really quite pretty, it had a nice application and was opaque in two coats. The only sad thing about this polish is that the effect of real gold glitter is dulled a bit in the colored base. The glitter no longer has that intensely metallic/glittery finish to it. That being said it's still a gorgeous polish. For some reason red and gold together remind me of the holidays and ornaments hanging on a tree. I'll have to pull this one back out when the snow starts to fall!

Shade:

This would also look great with a layer of the Gold Glitter top coat on top to just add a bit more gold to the mix. 

Sun:

My one reservation with this polish is that unless you know that it contains real gold glitter you wouldn't say it was any different than your typical red jelly with glitter. What do you think, just another red? 

Real Silver Review (Part 2)

Yesterday I reviewed a real gold glitter top coat, and today I'm going to show you their Real Silver top coat. This one is said to contain pure silver glitter, but I'm not sure how they are defining pure. I was probably the most excited for this polish out of the Holiday Collection that I picked up. I love silver as an accent color and most of my jewelry is silver. I can imagine it as a top coat to dark pinks, purples, blues, even some shades of green.

For this swatch I started out with the ever faithful Essie Licorice. One of these days I'll swatch it alone, but for now it has two coats of Real Silver layered over the top. For some reason this combination reminds me of stars, the tiny pinpricks of silvery white on a black background. It's SOOO pretty! I'm loving this top coat. It doesn't "sparkle" as much as some holographic glitter mixes, but it's truly silvery and gorgeous. I'm not sure how to describe it, so appreciate the photos below:

sun:

shade:

With all of the supernatural TV shows, books, and movies I can't help but imagine how a silver nail polish would go over with vampires around. Yet another novelty to this polish. 

shade:

The Real Gold glitter is also reviewed by Goose's Glitter (a fantastic review that I recommend checking out if you are considering buying Real Gold). When I inquired about her bottle of Real Silver she said that it was tarnished! I never imagined that problem with silver glitter, but I'm sure it could happen. My bottle looks fine but I'll be keeping my eye on it just in case. 

Real Gold Review (Part 1)

I've seen several glitter top coats advertised as real gold, and they usually retail for a pretty penny. Gold glitter is fairly common, but making it out of real pure gold?

Sephora sells an 18k gold flake top coat that retails for $30. But if you like the idea of wearing real gold on your mani for less than half the price look no further. Over the next few days I will be reviewing the real gold and silver top coats from Real Gold Inc. These glitter top coats are 22k gold, making them more pure than Sephora's expensive concoction. Real Gold nail lacquer retails for $8.95 for a 15 ml / 0.5 oz bottle. Rather than buying an individual bottle I went with the Real Gold Holiday Collection which comes with one bottle each of clear topcoat, 22k gold glitter top coat, pure silver glitter top coat, and real gold red nail lacquer (you know how I feel about red).

Real Gold and Real Silver can be purchased online. Visit the Real Gold website by clicking here.

First up is the Real Gold glitter top coat. This is two coats of gold glitter over one coat of Essie Licorice. The formula was nice, fairly dense with glitter but easy to apply to the nails. It dries slightly bumpy, but nothing good top coat won't fix. 

shade:

The photos really don't capture how great this polish looks in person. I'm not big on gold polish or accessories, but this looks great! Now I just have to wait and see if I'll wear it very often.

sun:

How do you feel about wearing real gold on your nails? I think it's quite the novelty item, but on the bright side I know the glitter isn't going to bleed. :)

The Real Gold glitter is also reviewed by Goose's Glitter (a fantastic review that I recommend checking out if you are considering buying Real Gold).

See part 2 here (Real Silver). 

See part 3 here (Real Gold Red). 

I'm With The Lifeguard: put on your sunglasses!

I haven't seen a single blog post from a blogger who doesn't like the new China Glaze Neons. This collection is something spectacular. Now that I have neon polish that can be opaque in two coats I doubt I'll ever pull anything else out of my stash.

This is China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard, a gorgeous neon green shimmer. The shimmer gives the neons an almost glowing quality, and man is this one bright! I'm absolutely in love with these neons. I've been wearing every one of them rather than just swatching my way through. 

Sun:

Shade:

Shade:

Zoya Charla, a Unique Blue!

I've been eyeing Zoya Charla for quite some time. Zoya describes Charla as: a "tropical blue sparkling metallic." An apt description... but Charla is so much more. The shimmer particles in Charla are large and have a very strong green shift. In shade or indoors the green is very apparent and difficult to capture on camera.

Zoya Charla - sun

Zoya Charla - shade

Zoya Charla - indoors

Overall a beautiful beautiful color. It's bright blue and still very unique! Zoya impresses me yet again. Do you own any Zoya polishes? Which one is your favorite?

Away but not gone. :)

Just a quick update! I will be on vacation for the rest of July with limited internet access. I've been working on getting manis and swatches scheduled to post every other day and will fill in the blanks when I get the opportunity. Please bear with me! I've got some great polishes ready to show you.

I also finished the new blog header and got it uploaded! What do you think of the new design?

Aphrodite Lacquers Mai Tai Swatch and Review

Want some extremely shiny squishy jelly goodness? Look no further. This is Aphrodite Lacquers Mai Tai. I originally chose Mai Tai out of all of the beautiful Aphrodite Lacquers because I do in fact love mai tais. Such a delicious drink... I also love the fact that this is a great red polish. It's a red jelly with scattered glitter and I really like the look with just a few glitters.

The formula was nice, very smooth although a little sheer. I used three fairly thin to normal coats. Just look at that shine, you can see my reflection taking the picture!

Aphrodite Lacquers Mai Tai can be purchased from Etsy here and cost $8.