ILNP Ultra Chrome Gradient

Hello my dears, today I have one of my absolute favorite manicures to show you.

I found ILNP a while back and have been growing my collection quickly! And by quickly I mean 3 or 4 polishes from each of her collections. Barbara makes some of the most amazing polishes I've ever seen! Today I will be showing you three of her Ultra Chromes that were released in 2013: Mutagen, Cygnus Loop and Birefringence.

Mutagen is a chrome polish that shifts from vibrant green, blue, red, orange and slightly greenish gold depending on the angle of your fingertips.

Birefringence shifts through various shades of blue and purple, to red, orange and sometimes even yellow.

Cygnus Loop shifts from bright purple to orange, yellow and green.

All are formulated without the need for a base color with full coverage in 2 coats, however I always find that black undies work best and prefer to use that in order to use less of my precious polish.

All photos are taken indoors under artificial light and have one coat of black undies and top coat. The gradient starts with Mutagen at the cuticle and then Birefringence and Cygnus Loop closest to the tip.

When moving your hands at different angles under the light, the color shifts are quite prevalent. All three shifting at the same time is quite amazing!

I love this picture because you can actually see bright green, blue and purple on my thumb then half green half teal, pinkish purple and royal purple on my other fingers. Possibly even a little orange on the left side of my pinky. The photo is a little washed out, but the color shifts are stunning in real life!

At times, it appeared as though there were 6 different colors on my nails at once. I'm wearing this mani as I type up this post and I honestly can not stop looking at my hands.

ILNP has a wide variety of polishes from cremes and glitters to amazing holographics (and Ultra Holos!!!) to Ultra Chromes. You can shop Barbara's store at www.ILNP.com but be warned....do not visit when you are on a no-buy! You will break it, and be ashamed of yourself at how weak you are.

There are 4 new Ultra Chromes with her new Spring 2014 Collection along with some sweet pastel holos and ultra holos. I picked up a few and cannot wait to show you what I'm sure will be more amazing color shifting beauties and holo magic.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Linda

Mari Moon So Unique (Pic Heavy Post)

Hello my lovelies! I have been a complete hermit lately and have barely even painted my nails. Sigh...but they are getting nice and strong again after a gross winter full of breaks and peeling, thanks to OPI Nail Envy.

What I have for you today is completely amazing! The Mari Moon Holographico collection was something I was drooling over after seeing a blogger abroad showing off these beauties. The first chance I got, I bought all four even though three of them seemed weirdly close in color. I'm soo happy I didn't skimp and got all four. ☺

This collection is all about showing off duo-chromes with a holographic sparkle to it. The holo effect is not very strong but is definitely visible. The duo-chrome is simply amazing. The two together is absolutely to die for.

Today I'm showing off So Unique which is a red/maroon color and dark eggplant purple as the two major color shifts. Don't let me deceive you...those are the two main colors, but you get about 8 varying shades of red, orange and purple depending on the light and the angle of your nails. AH-MAY-ZING

I've barely had luck getting these photos to look as great as IRL. Be warned...when I love a nail polish, I take tons of photos and by tons I mean 344. Pick your chin up off the table and take a look at some of my favorites. I painstakingly chopped it down to a manageable amount but this is still pretty pic heavy.

Unfortunately, as the sun and weather still do not want to cooperate here, all these pictures were taken indoors either in or out of my lightbox but using daylight bulbs.

So in case you didn't catch it the other 9 times I mentioned it....So Unique is amazing! I wish the holographic effect would have been stronger but it's possible that it is when in the sunlight. Damn you gray sky!

I'm hoping to get some sunlight this weekend so that I can pull together some pictures of the other 3 polishes in this collection and some of my Aly's Dream Polish.

I picked up the Mari Moon Holographico Collection at Llarowe but it seems they've sold out. She has periodic restocks, so don't miss out on grabbing So Unique and maybe some of the others.

Thanks for stopping by!
~Linda

OPI DS Magic

I introduce you to.... (drumroll please).....OPI DS Magic! I believe this polish was released back in 2010 but I have never seen it before. How you say? Well I must be living under a rock.

This polish is gorgeous, but a mega pain in the ass to photograph. I cannot even tell you the amount of pictures I took to try and show you the true beauty of this baby. The purple was very shy on camera but superb in real life!

This is three coats for maximum coverage although two decent coats should do the trick, and one thick coat of Seche Vite. The polish applied smoothly and definitely builds in depth with multiple coats. There are gorgeous glass flecks throughout the polish and it shifts from a deep royal blue to purple. 

Sigh...Look at all those lovely glass flecks ☺

I loved the color of this polish, the duo-chrome affect was very strong and it almost has a mettalic type finish in some lights. Consistency was good as usual for OPI and wear time was pretty good thanks to 'the Seche'. I think I wore this for 3 or 4 days before any tip wear or chips.

I picked this up at Ulta for $12 opposed to the normal $8.50 price tag due to it belonging to the Designer Series.  Do you think the DS polishes are worth the premium?

~Linda

China Glaze Bohemian Collection

Hi All! Ugh I've been so busy that I've had no time to play with polish. The first suckers I reached for were of course my lovelies from the China Glaze Bohemian Luster Chrome Collection. After seeing a few swatches on other blogs I decided to get only the polishes that I knew I was going to love. There are a few that are just totally not me (i.e. Swanky Silk, No Plain Jane).

All pictures are three thin coats but these are very well pigmented and two coats would be sufficient if applied properly. Brush strokes can be seen in the polish due to the chrome finish but that's to be expected. 

First up is Unpredictable which is described as a multidimensional green and I would have to completely agree with that. There are soo many different shades of green, and even blue, in this polish that no two pictures look the same. Here are a bunch to show you just how flashy this polish is!

 

 

Next is Want My Bawdy which was definitely the most sheer of these polishes. This goes on as a grayed out purple but as the coats add up the purple definitely becomes stronger. On the nail the duo chrome is barely existent but it changes from a purple to slight blue tint.

Deviantly Daring is my absolute favorite! This polish is soo rich in color and fabulousness I want to paint my walls with it! After buying my first bottle, I immediately bought two more. Yes I know I know, I'm obsessive. I can't help it. This has to be the best polish I've ever seen! It's described as a bold peacock teal and I think that suites it quite well. Of course my name for it would have been "Awesome Sauce"!

The last polish that I bought was Rare & Radiant. There was soo much fuss over this being yet another dupe for Chanel Peridot that I decided just to get it to see the big deal. I never wanted Peridot or OPI Just Spotted The Lizard because the color just didn't appeal to me. Now that I bought this and tried it out, I know I was right. The color is just not me. Coverage was good and the formula was just as nice as the others.

Overall I really like this Collection. There are some dupes or colors that we've seen before but I think that this was probably one of China Glaze's most anticipated collection in a while.

Side Note: I ordered these online from Head 2 Toe Beauty and this was my first time ordering from them. Since these have the 'special' silver caps I was kinda peeved when I received Unpredictable and the cap was all chewed up (you can see it in my bottle picture). Just because I ordered the product online doesn't mean I should get something that I wouldn't have picked up myself and bought at the store. After two completely unapologetic emails from customer service and pictures sent by me, I received a replacement cap. No brush...Just a cap that must have been on a red polish because there is traces of red inside the cap. I have no clue how to remove the brush from the damaged cap and put it into the new one. The larger problem is the completely ridiculous customer service. I cannot believe that no form of apology was ever made. Needless to say, I don't think that I will be ordering from them again.

Sorry for such a long post, but I hope that one more round of photos might help you make your decision if you have not yet gotten your hands on this collection.

Thanks for stopping by! 

~Linda

Nicole by O.P.I Count On Me

Today I have for you a Nicole by O.P.I polish that I like to use for layering. Count On Me is a sheer lilac pearlescent that really doesn't have a great color until you layer it over a dark polish. This is two coats of Orly Liquid Vinyl and one thick coat of Nicole Count On Me. 

Over black Count On Me shifts from a gorgeous light blue to purple. The effect almost looks metallic when in the right light. I've gone picture happy in an effort to get this polish to actually show off it's beauty. 

The following pictures were actually taken at work this afternoon when I realized that the duochrome effects were really popping under the florescent lighting. This is where it almost looks metallic to me. My skin looks orange, probably because the picture was taken with my phone. ( I swear I'm not an oompa loompa)

Thanks for stopping by guys! Please leave me some comments on what you think. 

~Linda