Zoya Reece

From the Zoya Reverie collection, I decided to wear Reece out tonight.  Zoya calls this color "gilded rose metallic" but I'm calling it purple mauve with a yellow orange shimmer.  Again, I have NO SUN, so you really can't see the beautiful duochrome that this is.  Here's a badly focused indoor picture so you can see the yellow orange shimmer.

I must admit, getting used to the Zoya brush takes a bit.  It's shorter than China Glaze but that also leaves less room for pooling in the cuticles.  I had to go back and paint just the sides of my nails since I missed those the first few times.  I probably could have gotten away with one coat with just a bit of VNL, but I went for two coats over Seche Natural and topped off with one coat of Seche Vite.


One "sun" picture - you can see a bit of the shimmer.

One shade picture - you can see more of the base color in this one

And one icky inside picture so you can really see the duochrome (!).

Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website.

Zoya Reverie

When I first heard about Zoya's "metallic spring 2010" collection, Reverie, I was intrigued but it wasn't until I started to see swatches that I started jumping for joy.  Although Zoya calls these "metallics", I'm calling them all duochromes (!).


Official Press Release from Zoya
Laney - moonlit silver metallic
Adina - duochrome violet metallic
Reece - gilded rose metallic
Happi - pink blush metallic
Gwin - sunny melon metallic
Lana - rich red metallic


Zoya's ultra long-wearing, glossy nail lacquers are free of harmful industrial chemicals like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known to cause cancer and birth defects.  Zoya 2008 Awards - voted the longest lasting polish by Women's Health Magazine (beauty awards, US), named longest lasting nail polish by Lucky Magazine (green guide, US), named best nail polish by 9 AM with David & Kim (morning show beauty awards, AU) and voted best nail polish varnish by Lifescape Beauty Awards (UK).

I bought the whole collection online but haven't had a chance to take pretty pictures yet because THERE'S NO SUN.  What on earth is going on with this weather?! Grr.  I decide to make a blog, and I have no sun.  For weeks...


Well I did take some pictures myself but it's in no way showing off the amazing duochromes that each color shows.

Happi is a Barbie bubblegum pink with yellow orange shimmer.  Laney is a silver with a tiny bit of greenish purple shimmer.  Gwin is an orange with the same same yellow orange shimmer that Happi has.  Reece is a purple mauve with the same yellow orange shimmer as Gwin and Happi.  SURPRISE - Lana is a reddish orange with again, the same yellow orange as Reece, Gwin, and Happi.  Finally, Adina is a purple with the same green shimmer from Laney, but with loads more of it.  Adina looks like it could be a dupe of Ki, but I've seen a comparison before and they aren't dupes but I may have to blog about it later for you.  

Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website.

Polish Bloggers Network: Lacquer Link Love 1/29/10

* A few fellow bloggers help Babbling Brooke come up with a Konad of the Day that's a dazzler.

* Lavender lady bugs in silver spacesuits, Naive Nails shares her very cute, but accidental mani.

* Bright Lights Big Color brings out the Vampy Varnish as she shows off the stunning OPI Blackberry Chutney

* Blogger Euridice continues with her Rescue Beauty Lounge binge posts and shares a limited edition polish we lacquer fiends love.

* To help those of you who might be taking advantage of Models Own's special 72 hour sale and in celebration of the fact they now ship internationally, Helen's Nice Things has decided to compile some of her personal Model Own Swatches, for reference and your polish viewing pleasure.

* Polished Beauty Blog brings an old color back to life and shows a good thing can never go bad

* Cucumpear shares with us her "applicious" mani that will surely leave you thinking about a Golden Delicious apple.

* Polish Galore shows a shade I've deemed her new lucky polish and a few personal highlights as well. <- that's me!

* Manicure Mommas has received her first Diamond Cosmetics package and shares with you the 8 new editions to her collection.

* Polish Up breaks out a diamond dust polish and shows just how diamonds sparkle in the light.

* Chromatic Misadventures continues her "Week in Red" and shares with us different shades of this classic hue.

And now, on to the Network Giveaways....

* Tuli's Nails is having a fabulous V-Day giveaway for all her fabulous followers, so be sure to check her blog for the details.

* Also, Babbling Brooke is having a contest to Thank all of her wonderful followers and has tons of goodies she plans to share as well.

China Glaze Drive In

I got the job!  Starting tomorrow morning, I'll be working for a local high school (!) with their Media Technology program.  Considering I got my bachelor's degree in Radio/TV, this excites me, greatly.


While Gelato was a good interviewing color, tomorrow is my first day with the kids, so I wanted something that would pop, without being too off the wall and scary.  I liked the vampy colors of Retro Diva, so I decided on China Glaze Drive In.


This color is a very shiny shimmery red almost the same color of Ruby Pumps sans glitter.  It also reminds me a lot of Cherry Pie from the Summer Days collection (glass fleck).  Either way, I think it's a nice introduction color to these kids, who are going to be seeing a lot of different nail colors in the coming year ^___^


Sadly, I painted my nails at 9:00 p.m. so no outdoor sun/shade or bottle pictures... instead it's just my "sunlight" bulb from my lamp.  I got my light box in, but I still need to pick up some lamps for it, and iron the backdrop - I don't even think I own an iron :o


I can't wait until my nubbins grow out.  I used Seche Natural this time to help smooth out my ridges, and two coats of Drive In.  I could have gotten away with one, as this is a very nice smooth and highly pigmented shade, but I like going for two just to make sure I didn't miss anything.  I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.  Despite how orange it photographed, there's very little orange to it , more stop light red than tomato red.

And an original picture from the first time I threw this shade on.  My best friend really liked this color - it's such a come hither color!

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

150+ Followers Giveaway [Winner]

Thank you to the 110 wonderful readers that all signed up for my 150+ Followers Giveaway!  To make it simple and easy, you were each assigned a number by the way you comments (first person was #1, etc).

Then I went to my rusty trusty Random Numberizer located at http://ma.tt/tools/random-number/ and asked for a number between 1 and 110 and I got this:

YAY #19 aka Flavia http://www.blogger.com/profile/12188655207393958559

I've sent you an email from krystal[at]polishgalore.com  so I can get your mailing information.

If for some reason, I haven't received a reply by next Tuesday at midnight:01 GMT, I will redraw for another winner.

Thanks again and I'll be holding my 300 followers giveaway if/when I get there!

China Glaze Gelato

Tomorrow I have a very important meeting regarding my future (can I get more cryptic?) and I went out and bought a new pair of pants and a top... then it was time to decide my nail polish color.  This is the shirt I'm wearing (regardless of what you think, LOL I've had some choice comments) from Maurices [official website].

I love the pop of pink but I know I can't go as wild with my polish color.  I pulled some colors from the Creme and Glitters collection, and finally decided on China Glaze Gelato.

This is a nice creamy pink with a slight dusty rose tint to it.  I figured it would be a nice neutral shade to go against that hot pink collar.

It was near sundown but I grabbed a couple of pictures - this was in the remaining sunlight - you can see how it's a nice smooth pink almost giving me "mannequin hands".  This was 3 coats, but honestly I should have gone with 2.

And one picture in the shade - again, a nice soft pink.  The application on this was nice and buttery as well, I used 3 thin coats but I ended up smudging it shortly after - got impatient.

Eep!  Web camera fail.  This makes Gelato look very pink - more bubblegum pink.  This was an older picture, as you can tell.


China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

China Glaze Peachy Keen vs V

Today I have another comparison post after looking at all my polishes, and wondered "Is this the same color?"

On the left is China Glaze Peachy Keen from the Up & Away collection and on the right is China Glaze V from the X Collection.  Peachy Keen is described as "nectar" and V is described as a "coral creme" - already by just the bottle pictures you can see that Peachy Keen is lighter and less orange than V.

This is two coats of each color - in the sun, you can tell that indeed, these two bottles are not the samer. V is much more orange and oddly a little more streaky than Peachy Keen.

Same with the shade picture - Peachy Keen is more vibrant and well, peach.  Well I tried!  Indoors sometimes, I can't tell what's what, especially the way I have my polishes in acrylic spinner shelving units.  (I'll have to take pictures soon.)  

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

CND Indian Rhubarb & Violet Shimmer Effects

So last week, I got home and there was this little box from CND (Creative Nail Design) at my doorstop.  The bad part is that it wasn't my name but it was my address.  After posting on Twitter and talking to other bloggers, I was reminded that I had filled out a survey on their website [official website] awhile back, and turns out I won!  Well, I think I won... it was my address...  Oy.  I've read a few other bloggers who said that it was just a mail merge problem - so I think I'm a winner and someone got a box with my name, but their address.


CND complete redid their polish line, removing all their old polishes and coming up with a new concept - 50 "base" colors and 15 "effect" colors.  You take a base color, then layer it with an effect color.  Here is an amazing blog from The Edge of Sanity where she swatched several of them. [CND Effects: The Pile Up!]


From what I've read, all the winners received CND Indian Rhubarb #528 as their color.  Indian Rhubarb is listed as a Warm Opaque.  It's a solid cherry tomato red that goes on smoothly in one coat.  However, some winners received Copper Shimmer and some received Violet Shimmer.  I received CND Violet Shimmer #558 which is listed as a Cool Sheer.

I used only the Indian Rhubarb on my middle and pinky fingers, and Violet Shimmer on my pointer and ring fingers.  Here are pictures in the sun.

I also took some shade pictures - you can really see the shimmer here.

Indian Rhubarb is definitely a show stopping red - It's a little starking for me but the Violet Shimmer makes the color more wearable for me.  I'm still trying to embrace starking colors.  I also really would like to try more of the "effects" line.  I found the colors for $4.50 and the effects for $5.50 on both TransDesign [official website] and Head2ToeBeauty [official website].

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company because of a website survey giveaway.  For more information, please read this post.

Polish Bloggers Network: Lacquer Link Love 1/22/10

* Chromatic Misadventures has put together a wonderful array of swatches that include nail colors from Nails Inc., Zoya, Butter London, Essie, and so many more.

* Polish Up brings you the sparkled beauty OPI Blues in the Night.
* Can you appreciate a good haul? Well if so, let Black Nail Polish and Lipgloss show off the awesome goodies that she received from Lisa of Glammed Up.
* The Nail Nerd has a polish sweet tooth caused by Orly's Sweet Collection.
* Happy Vamp Valentines Day! The Swatchaholic shares a wonderful Konad sweet... I mean treat with all of you.
* Raz from Manicure Mommas swatches her CND survey goodies and gives you an up close and personal preview.
* Are you quite unfond of the scent of polish remover and feel you could live without the smell?! Well if so, Polish Galore gives a wonderful review of the lavendar scented polish removers Seche Erase & Zoya Remove.
* Kellie from "Also Known As" dazzles us with the gorgeous new shades of OPI's Designer Series featuring polishes infused with diamond dust.
* Probably one of the most popular colors in the China Glaze Up & Away Collection, Prim and Polished brings you gorgeous swatches of Four Leaf Clover.
* Naive Nails gives us a little Absolutely Alice from OPI's Alice in Wonderland
Green is the hottest color of the season.
* polishSWATCHES brings you a shade you'll adore.

and now for the goodies....

Bring on the Network Giveaways!!!

* How would you like to add 3 bottles of China Glaze polish to your collection? Well, let Polish Galore show you how! <- That's me!

* You'll definitely want to be sure and check out the Nail Nerd Giveaway... she's giving away some gorgeous Viva la Diva Nail Lacquers.

* Black Nail Polish and Lipgloss is having a fun and creative contest that you just have to see for yourself. I just can't spill the beans on this one!

* And lastly, have you been dying to get your hands on polishes from the China Glaze Up & Away Collection?! Well, if your answer is yes... check out the Polish Freak and she'll be glad to give some to you.

Claire's Magic with Nfu-Oh 40

On Tuesday, I stopped at Claire's and found some crazy Jolly Rancher scented nail polish and the manager told me that all cosmetics were buy one, get the second one half off - so I started looking at the 3-1 Color Polishes but some jerk had shaken up the bottles, and then I found this.

Claire's Magic is a beautiful dark purple with a dusty rose shimmer to it.  I thought it was originally a duochrome, but especially on the nail I saw that it was really a shimmer.  Because of the half off sale for this, I paid a whole $2 (instead of the normal retail of $4).  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of just the Magic because I was way too excited for this.

Nfu-Oh 40!!!!  This is a green and blue flakie suspended in a clear polish.  Flakies are awesome - it's not glitter, it's not a shimmer... it reminds me of mica flakes.  Depending on the light, you either see a deep royal blue or a emerald green.  This is definitely more expensive at $12.50 a bottle, but I received free shipping so that helped.

Here's a couple of sunlight pictures and you can tell the Magic has the red shimmer, and you can see a strong blue flakie.

A couple of pictures in the shade - now you can see the deep purple shade with the green flakie.  This was a seriously fun manicure to wear.  I originally called this my stepchild to Scrangie from Rescue Beauty Lounge, but especially with it on, there's no comparison - it's pretty but it's no Scrangie :)


Claire's is available world wide or online [official website] and I purchased Nfu-Oh at Fabuloustreet.com [official website].

China Glaze Raspberry Festival vs Heli-Yum vs Sneaker Head

I have a quick comparison post for you of some of the newest raspberry shades from China Glaze.  On the far left is China Glaze Raspberry Festival from the 2009 Summer Days collection, in the middle is China Glaze Heli-Yum from the 2010 Up & Away collection, and on the right is China Glaze Sneaker Head from the 2009 Kicks Collection.

In the sunlight it's obvious that Raspberry Festival is one of the glass fleck glitter polishes and has a slightly darker base than the others.  However, Heli-Yum & Sneaker Head are pretty close to each other - both cremes, both 1 coaters, both the same shade of raspberry.

Then I took a picture in the shade, hoping for something - anything to tell Heli-Yum & Sneaker Head apart.  Honestly, I couldn't find one.  Are they exact dupes?  Well it was hard for me to say no on this - Sneaker Head was SLIGHTLY darker with a tiny bit more blue in the base but it was very hard to tell, especially at a glance.  Do you need both?  Well, if you ask me, the answer is always yes, but that's because I love having complete collections ^___^

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

150+ Followers Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed


I am truly humbled and honored that I have so many blog readers. This will be my last giveaway until I reach 300 followers, but I really do appreciate that you have chosen to read me.

[1] You must be a follower of my blog.
[2] You must leave a comment on this blog entry and make sure to include your email address!

Simple, huh? I'll draw one winner Wednesday January 27 at midnight:01 GMT. (That's 6 p.m. on Tuesday January 26 for people in the central time zone like me!) International users are welcome - I can ship anywhere that the United States Post Office ships to.

* 1 brand new bottle of China Glaze Atlantis (from the Glitters and Cremes Specialty collection)
* 1 brand new bottle of China Glaze Medallion (from the Glitters and Cremes Specialty collection)
* 1 brand new bottle of China Glaze Cleopatra (from the Glitters and Cremes Specialty collection)
* 1 brand new bottle of China Glaze Matte Magic (top coat released in 2009)

Bona fortuna!