Golden Rose Paris 118

Talk about saving the best for last, THIS IS THE BEST ONE I HAVE.  Did I say that loud enough online?  :)  Golden Rose Paris 118 - Black is a charcoal black holo that is reminiscent of my favorite OPI "My Private Jet".


First I was using no base coat and no top coat and 2 coats of polish (see on my index and middle fingers) but then I realized I wanted a base coat so I used one coat of CND Blackjack and then 1 coat of 118.  MAGIC.

Without CND, 118 is a bit watery as you can see a bit of VNL on my middle finger but you add that base coat and BAM.  Hello holo!  Seriously in love.

You can tell how much more pronounced a base coat of black is here in the shade.

And finally an indoors with the flash.  Seriously, this is totally worth purchasing - especially for $3.50 a bottle! I can't wait to wear this again as a full manicure!


You can purchase Golden Rose polishes from their website.  They offer free shipping for orders over $20 and free samples as well.  Sadly, they do not ship internationally.  You can like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

BB Couture Sundance

Here's another BB Couture For Men polish today!  It appears that all the men bottles are squared and the women's bottles are round.  Kind of a cute twist.  :)  Sundance is from the Wild West collection.  This was a color that I wasn't too sure about in the bottle.  Orange?  Red orange?  Blarg?


I used a base coat of Grip-Base, only 1 coat of Sundance and a top coat of Top-Rock.  Formula was AMAZING - hello.

Do you see what I see?  Orange shimmer!  It's such a pretty surprise.

Even in the shade this is an amazing color.  I can't believe I was wavering on this!

And finally one indoors with flash - it's almost like little embers.  Totally love this color.


You can purchase BB Couture from their website or from a company called Overall Beauty which ships globally.  Additionally, you can like BB Couture on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

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

BB Couture Purple Haze

I have another BB Couture color for you today!  Purple Haze currently available in the "Bright Color" section of their website.  Purple Haze is a pearlish magenta purple.


I used a base of Grip-Base, 2 coats of Purple Haze and a top of Top-Rock.  The formula was super nice and smooth.

Hello sun!  You can see a bit of brush strokes because of the pearly finish but otherwise it's quite nice.

However in the shade?  Check that out - it's just smooth and creamy and beautiful.  Quite a nice surprise!

And finally one of those weird indoors with a flash pictures that I've been doing.  What do you think about these last shots?


You can purchase BB Couture from their website or from a company called Overall Beauty which ships globally.  Additionally, you can like BB Couture on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

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

Golden Rose Holographic 107

In addition to my Golden Rose Paris polishes I bought, I also got 2 of the "Holographic Color Nail Lacquers".  This is a smaller bottle at 6 mL/0.20 Fl Oz (OPI bottles are 15 mL/0.50 Fl Oz) with a smaller price tag (currently $2.19 USD).  It is a tiny little bottle with a square faux top that you can pull off to review a normal round top.  (Side note, I didn't realize that when I painted my nails - I learned it by accident today ^_^)


Once again I didn't use a base or top coat and this is 3 coats of polish.  The formula was nice but I can't wait until I have an Aqua Base coat to try out.  Here is 107 ... I think?  On the website, 107 is listed as purple.  This is totally not a purple.  I THINK this is actually 108 (grey)...

... drool.  I love holographics.  Seriously.

Shade shows that this is definitely more opaque that the Paris version... I definitely like it.

Here's a weird looking indoors with flash picture.  Sorry friends.


I definitely like this one and especially the price.  I kind of wished I had bought more of this line but maybe that will be my next purchase. ^_^


You can purchase Golden Rose polishes from their website.  They offer free shipping for orders over $20 and free samples as well.  Sadly, they do not ship internationally.  You can like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Golden Rose Paris 102

Here's another Golden Rose Paris Holographic for you!  This is 102 Silver which I was hoping would be like a China Glaze Sexagon (or Hologram).  I love how these are so blah in the bottle and always a rainbow on the nail.  Go silver!


I did not use a base or top coat and this is 3 coats of polish.

Okay, so yes I'm a bit of a sad panda.  I definitely need a base color coat so there's no VNL.

Boo shade.  :)  You can still see a bit of scattered holo in there.

And finally indoors with the flash - look at that holo!  I'm slightly obsessed with holos, as I've seen a lot of us are.


You can purchase Golden Rose polishes from their website.  They offer free shipping for orders over $20 and free samples as well.  Sadly, they do not ship internationally.  You can like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Golden Rose Paris 112

I have another Golden Rose Paris Holographic polish for you today!  This is 112 which is listed on their website as "Iced Latte" but I'm not sure that's right?  Anywho - the holo on this polish isn't quite as strong as the others but still quite pretty.


I did not use a base or top coat and this is 3 coats of polish.

You can see a bit of VNL here in the sun.

And one in the shade.

Yay indoors with flash!  You can see the holo now!  Especially check out that bottle.


You can purchase Golden Rose polishes from their website.  They offer free shipping for orders over $20 and free samples as well.  Sadly, they do not ship internationally.  You can like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

BB Couture Eros

My absolutely favorite part of blogging is learning about new nail polish colors, finishes, and companies!  BB Couture is definitely a polish I had never heard of before blogging but it's one of those you definitely should check out.  Not only do they offer an array of colors and finishes, but they also have a line specifically created for men (and loved by women!).  Eros is from the "A Touch of Greece" collection and is an interesting light avocado green with a bit of grey and has very very faint traces of silver shimmer and even a sporadic black micro glitter specs (like literally, you might get one per nail).  This is quite unlike anything I can think of that I own, so I was excited to try it first.


Now before I start my review - let me tell you about BB Couture.  Here is their official website.  What I think is so cool is that throughout their website, in addition to bottle pictures, they have actual swatches from various sources/bloggers.  Now that is cool - because we all know that what's in the bottle doesn't always look like what's on our nails.  In the men's products, that's actually a man wearing nail polish - and I think it's pretty awesome, personally.  Seriously, check out his flickr (linked above).  I like a guy with well manicured hands and feet - it shows a lot of thought in my eyes.  Now, onto the review!


I used BB Couture's sticky base coat called Grip-Base (available for $11.95), 2 coats of Eros, and a top coat of BB Couture's top coat called Top-Rock (available for $11.95).  Cindy, owner of BB Couture sent them in my press packet but mentioned that you can use any base/top coat you want.  I found that Grip-Base was easy to work with, Eros had a nice smooth formula, and Top-Rock did dry fairly quickly for me.

Ruffles have ridges... and so do my nails.  I really need to do something about them.  As you can see, this is more of a creme polish than a shimmer even though there is shimmer in it.  It's very camo retro to me.  Nice!

Not too much difference in the shade but this makes it look very smooth - almost buttery.

Indoors with flash, you can kind of see the silver shimmer now.  :)


As my introduction into BB Couture, I'm a happy camper!  It's pretty, it applied well, it wore well. 


You can purchase BB Couture from their website or from a company called Overall Beauty which ships globally.  Additionally, you can like BB Couture on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.


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

Golden Rose Paris 109

I have another Golden Rose holographic for you today!  Paris 109 Lilac is a light purple holographic (um, duh Krystal) that is almost more pink to me than purple.  I did not use a base or top coat and this is 3 coats of polish.  I do still plan on getting Nfu-Oh Aqua Base probably next month.

You can see a bit of VNL on my pointer finger and just a tiny bit of nail on my ring finger.  I think not only would an Aqua Base work well for this but also even maybe a base colored coat.  You'll see what I mean in another post later this week.  :)

Shade picture isn't as exciting but shade pictures of holographic polishes rarely are.

I felt like including a picture of the bottom of the bottle - I'm obsessed with the holo goodness in each bottle.  


You can purchase Golden Rose polishes from their website.  They offer free shipping for orders over $20 and free samples as well.  Sadly, they do not ship internationally.  You can like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Swirly Duochromes Comparison

Check out this line up.  From left to right we have deborah lippmann Wicked Game, OPI Not Like The Movies, Sephora by OPI Mash Up, wet n wild Gray's Anatomy, and Zoya Adina.  This was a reader suggested skittle to see how they all lined up with each other.  Here's a couple more bottle shots for fun.

I did three coats of each polish - no base, no top coat.

Thumb: deborah lippmann Wicked Game
Pointer Finger: OPI Not Like The Movies
Middle Finger: Sephora by OPI Mash Up
Ring Finger: wet n wild Gray's Anatomy
Pinkie Finger: Zoya Adina

Yay for cloudy pictures...  BOO.  I do hate that I didn't have sun this day.

This is a shade picture - look how dark Adina looks!

And one indoors with the flash.


Overall?
Wicked Game and Gray's Anatomy are VERY similar.
Not Like The Movies had a silver glitter which made the polish look more foggy than the rest.
Mash Up has a green flash instead of purple.
Adina is a darker orchid purple with a yellow olive green flash.


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

Golden Rose Paris 108

I had really hoped that 2011 would be the year of holographics, but it's becoming apparent that this is the year of crackles.  I had never heard of Golden Rose nail polishes until I was reading the blog Chromatic Misadventures and I knew I just had to have these considering the price.  :)


So Golden Rose is a company in Illinois that has a large range of cosmetics including holographic nail polish for GET THIS - $3.50!  Now the bottles are smaller at 0.39 Fl. Oz. (versus 0.5 Fl. Oz. in a bottle of China Glaze or Finger Paints) but they are holographic! As you can see, it's a little diamond shaped bottle with a long thin handle but I didn't find it hard to work with at all.  I do wish their colors had names instead of numbers, but I'll deal.


For Paris 108 "Burgundy", I didn't use a base or top coat and this is 2 coats of polish.

Check out that opacity and coverage!  Ohhh lovely.

In the shade, you lose the holo look but it's still quite pretty.


You can purchase Golden Rose polishes from their website.  They offer free shipping for orders over $20 and free samples as well.  Sadly, they do not ship internationally.  You can like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

deborah lippmann Bad Romance

deborah lippmann's Bad Romance is a purple hex and small round glitter in a black base.  It's funny, when I start humming this song, I start singing "Judas" at the same time.  It sounds a bit the same to me!


Okay, I went to YouTube just to see if anyone felt the same - and oh, they have.

Anyway!  I originally bought this color in August of last year, but just let it sit on my shelf... forever.  Well, not forever but still.  I don't know why?!  Purple, glitter, love!

Because I'm used to deborah lippmann glitters being a bit on the sheer side for its base color (black), I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 1 coat of CND Blackjack, then 2 coats of Bad Romance and a top of Seche Vite.  The formula worked SO well with that base coat of Blackjack!  I ended up wearing this for 4 days and took the pictures in day 2 or 3 I believe, which is why there is a bit of tip wear.

Hello sun!  The hex glitter doesn't get on the nail as well as the small round glitter but it's still so pretty.

Check out the richness of the purple in the shade!  Oh I love it.

And an indoors with flash - very nice.  The formula worked well over the coat of Blackjack.  When I tried this color alone, I had to use 4 coats to get the black opaque enough to cover any visible nail.

deborah lippmann [official website] sells for $18 a bottle.  You can also Like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

Maybelline Blue Brilliance

I routinely like to visit CVS/pharmacy and Walgreens which, in my town, are literally across the street from each other...  One of my last visits, I spied a display of "Limited Edition" Maybelline.  Now, I don't own any other Maybelline polishes - but Blue Brilliance looked so pretty with a green blue color with tiny flashes of lilac in it (totally not seen in the bottle above).


Even though it considers itself a 50 second nail color, I used my normal routine of a base of Seche Natural, 3 coats of Blue Brilliance and a top of Seche Vite.  After the first two nails, I realized this was going to be a sheer mess for me, so on my last two fingers I did a base of CND Blackjack.  

Okay, can you smell my frustration?  My ring finger is this stroke-mess, my first two fingers are sheer and a brush stroke-mess...  The only thing that redeems this color is all the duochrome (trichrome?) available... purple, blue, green.  LOVELY.  Maybe I should try putting it over a white?

Random shade shot to show you a few more colors this thing bounces off.

Indoor picture to show you a bit more of that purple green blueness.


Honestly, I'm not happy with this one.  I don't like the sheerness, I don't like the brush strokes.  I think I paid $4.50 for this (not 100% sure), and I probably would take it back if I could find my receipt.


Maybelline can be found in various grocery stores.  Check their website for more information.  You can follow them on Twitter or like them on Facebook.