OPI The Amazing Spider-Man Number One Nemesis

Happy Cinco de Mayo!! Do you have any big plans for the day? I don't have any at all, just relaxing! Today I have a gorgeous polish from the OPI The Amazing Spider-Man collection, OPI Number One Nemesis. Number One Nemesis is a purported dupe for Chanel Graphite, a polish that I have wanted since it's release, but held off buying due to the price. Needless to say, I was SUPER excited to hear that the Spider-Man collection would have both Graphite and Peridot dupes!!  I know there have been other dupes around, but I never found them anywhere accessible, and I know and love the OPI formula.

Now, lately I am having problems with the constantly overcast sky interfering with swatching. I have not seen the sun in what seems like forever. This polish is SO awesome in person, and these pictures barely scratch the surface of it's awesomeness. To start with, there is no VNL in person and there is a bit in these pictures. There is also a LOT of gold/green shimmer in this polish that you can't see in the pictures.

This is three coats of Number One Nemesis. The formula was excellent, nice and smooth and very easy to apply. It is nicely opaque in person. This polish might deserve a re-swatch on a nicer day, because it is much more beautiful than these pictures make it seem. I think it's a Must Have, and it's my favorite OPI polish so far this year!

OPI Number One Nemesis and the other shades in the Amazing Spider-Man collection should be available now or fairly soon at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and ULTA, for  $8.50 ($9.95 CAN) suggested retail for each Nail Lacquer.
For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com.

This polish was sent for review. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy. 

The Zoya Surf Collection: Possibly the Best Zoya Collection EVER!

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I posted the Zoya Beach collection!! I was really hoping to get the Surf collection swatched quickly, but there were some rainy days in there and I had to work a lot. I also had 4 St. Patrick's Day shows on the weekend! Come on people, St. Patrick's Day is over!! Stop having parties! LOL... anyway, I finally have the Zoya Summer 2012 Surf collection for you today, and it is stunning!

Zoya Carly is probably my least favorite of the Surf collection, but it's gorgeous and I still really love it!! I first thought it would be similar to Zoya Valerie, but Valerie is much darker. Carly is like Valerie's lighter, more sparkly summer cousin. Zoya describes Carly as a "thalia purple foil metallic". Now, I had no idea what that meant, so Google came to the rescue. Apparently thalia is some kind of a red-purple plant or flower. I just kept thinking of the character Thalia in the Percy Jackson series (any fans out there? I'm a huge fan of those books!).

All of the Surf collection polishes had an excellent formula. I happen to adore Zoya's foil metallics anyway, and these were particularly excellent. They were buttery smooth, pigmented and easy to apply. I'm only going to say that once so that I don't sound like a broken record!! I used two coats of Carly for these pictures.

Zoya Kimber is one of the colors I was most looking forward to and it doesn't disappoint! Kimber is a beautiful pink mixed with a little peach/orange. Zoya described Kimber as a "magenta pink foil metallic", but in my mind, magenta is always more purple-toned than this. In any case, Kimber is a beautiful pink for spring or summer!!

I used two coats of Kimber for these pictures.

Zoya Rory was a sleeper hit for me! I can't believe how much I like this polish!! You all know pinks are not usually my thing, but Rory has a lavender tinge to it that it really beautiful! It reminds me of one of my favorite MAC lipsticks, Lavender Whip, but a bit more pink. Zoya calls this one a "lotus pink foil metallic". I (again) googled "lotus flower" and I guess this could be an accurate description. Lotus flowers are gorgeous, by the way!

YUM! Look at that macro shot! It reminds me of cotton candy a little bit too! I used two coats (!) of Rory. I feel like I never find two-coater awesome pale pinks that I actually like!

My absolute number one top favorite of this collection is Zoya Myrta! I am really having an orange make-up moment (hey, it's the color of the year!) and Myrta fits right in to my current orange-a-thon. Myrta is a stunning juicy red-orange foil metallic. Zoya calls it "coral orange" and I'd agree with that too. I would also remind you that including the word "coral" in a description of a make-up product statistically makes me 90% more likely to obsess over it.

I did use three coats of Myrta for these pictures. It looked perfect at two coats, but I wanted to make sure it would look perfect in the pictures so you could fully understand my obsession with this polish. When I finish typing this post, I am removing my current pedi color and putting on Myrta STAT.

Zoya Meg is a stunner for the green lovers out there! I wasn't sure how to describe this one, besides using the word "gorgeous" 50 times, but Zoya says it's a "mermaid green foil metallic". I don't think I can top the descriptive power of the words "mermaid green", so I won't even try!! Love this!

Meg was a very solid two-coater, definitely no need for a third here!

Zoya Zuza is my second favorite in this collection and a definite hit of summer 2012. Zuza is an amazing mix of blue and green (it's actually a hair more green than my pictures show). I don't anything like this! I think I own maybe somewhat similar colors, but with a creme finish. The foil metallic finish plus this color= a home run hit for Zoya! They describe it as an "aquamarine foil metallic". I think they could have done a bit better with that description. Maybe like "seafoam from an exotic Caribbean island beach foil metallic"... yea, that's better.

I did three coats of Zuza for the pictures, and it's the only one in the collection that I felt actually needed three coats. No worries though, it was well worth three coats and the foil metallic formula dries very quickly.

Overall, I think this is possibly my favorite Zoya collection ever. Period. I normally love Zoya collections, but I can't come up with one that I adore as much as the Surf collection. I normally tell you my top picks from the collection, and then I give you advice for which ones to get if you can only get one or two. I can't even choose here!! I know my top top picks are Myrta, Zuza and Rory, but I really think you should put the whole collection on your list! The only one I would even possibly contemplate skipping is Carly, but even that one is a gem! This whole post is a Never Enough Nails Necessity.

So which ones are on your list?? Are you better at narrowing down choices than I am?

The Zoya Surf collection looks like it is available now on Zoya.com!!! (That link is my "Share the Love" link.  If you click this link and set up a Zoya account, you get a $5 coupon to use immediately. For a full description of the new Zoya "Share the Love" program go here)

These polishes were sent for review. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Two More Excellent China Glaze Capitol Colors!!

After reviewing China Glaze Foie Gras and Harvest Moon, I couldn't stop thinking about the two polishes I REALLY wanted from the China Glaze Capitol Colors collection: Riveting and Electrify. Riveting has been selling out at various locations, so I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to find it. However, my local Sally Beauty Supply (usually a total dud in terms of finding polishes) really came through for me! They had both Riveting and Electrify sitting right there, just waiting for me to nab them.

China Glaze Riveting is a drool-worthy saturated reddish orange with golden glass fleck-like shimmer. This polish looks so juicy, almost like it's orange juice and the shimmer flecks are the pulp. But it would have to be blood orange juice, since it is a bit more red-toned than your average OJ. Riveting is just intensely gorgeous and I totally see why it's selling out. I advise you to get this one NOW, don't wait.

The formula of Riveting was very nice. Not too thick or thin, even application. I was hoping for two coats, but I ended up doing a third. I just felt like it needed a third, but you might be fine with two.

It's not going to surprise anyone, but I'm wearing China Glaze Electrify as a full mani right now. OMG I LOVE THIS!!! Electrify is an amazing combination of small round yellow gold glitter and slightly larger red hex glitter. The ratio of red to gold is just perfect in the polish and the glitter is the really sparkly kind, not the dull kind. Electrify looks way better in person, let me just say that. My camera kind of separated all of the glitter pieces, so it looks more sparse here too.

Let me be honest for a sec, I haven't read The Hunger Games books. They might be great. But I am intensely jealous that The Hunger Games gets a nail polish collection and Harry Potter never did. So, in my head, Electrify is called Gryffindor. That is all.

Electrify is very opaque and full coverage in three coats. If you do thick coats, two would be perfect also. It is definitely a full coverage glitter, so there is no need to layer it. It looks a lot more dense to your naked human eye than it appears to my camera lens. Application was pretty easy, I didn't really have to coax the glitter out or anything.

I really love these two China Glaze Capitol Colors. They take me back a few years to a time when China Glaze polishes made me turn into Gollum from LOTR and start petting the polish bottles. I hope China Glaze keeps putting out polishes that make me feel that way, I really want to go back to the days when I bought complete CG collections on the regular. Both of these polishes are Never Enough Nails Necessities. You need them.

The China Glaze Capitol Colors collection is available now at Ulta, Sally Beauty, and all the normal CG retailers. If you can't find Riveting anywhere, it's still in stock online at Sally Beauty.

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway of two Zoya Feel polishes!! It ends Saturday March 10, so don't delay!!

NerdLacquer Hyperspace Bypass

NerdLacquer is definitely winning all kinds of awards in my personal beauty book. The polish I have for you today, Hyperspace Bypass, is one of the most unique polishes in my collection. I dare you to name a dupe for this polish. Double dog dare!!!

Hyperspace Bypass is a golden yellow jelly-ish base packed with medium yellow glitter, maybe some silver/gold glitter, large yellow gold hex pieces, medium silver holo pieces, and of course, that stunning black glitter. It looks like the black glitter is present in at least two sizes. This polish is incredibly unique-looking. I am obsessed!!

I love yellow polish, but very often it's difficult to work with. Hyperspace Bypass is not, possibly due to the jelly-ness of the base. This is three coats and I am quite happy with the result. NerdLacquer's polishes do not seem to have that problem that some glitter polishes have, where you can't get the "good" glitter to come out of the bottle. I didn't use any special application techniques here, just regular strokes of the brush, and I have all kinds of glitter on my nails!!

If the above picture doesn't make you drool/order this immediately, you need to check to see if you are actually a fan of nail polish. I already own this polish, but that picture makes me want like 20 more bottles!!!!!

I cannot stop gushing over these NerdLacquer polishes. I wore All of Space and Time for about 5 days until this morning, when I took it off to swatch Hyperspace Bypass. Now I'm wearing Hyperspace Bypass as a full mani!! I need to order more NerdLacquer polishes STAT.

NerdLacquer polishes, including Hyperspace Bypass, are available on Etsy.com.

Zoya Fleck Effects: Chloe

Would ya look at that?? Just look at it! I am obsessed with this combination right now!!!!! Zoya Chloe might be my favorite of the three Zoya Fleck Effects! Zoya describes Chloe as a "pink tint with mylar green and gold fleck effect", but it is so much cooler than that. Look at how many colors these flakies flash! Chloe is DEFINITELY a Never Enough Nails Necessity!

I see gold, green, blue, orange, copper, yellow, etc. etc.!!

For this look, I used two coats of Zoya Stacy under two coats of Zoya Chloe. I felt Chloe's flakes were a little more sparse than those in Opal and Maisie, but two coats was perfect!! When we're talking about this kind of gorgeousness, two coats is SO worth it.

Obviously, I just couldn't stop myself from taking pictures of Chloe! We're in love. Check out this close-up. GAHHHH!

It is highly possible that Chloe could be my favorite flakie of all time. It will require further "testing". Lots and lots of testing (a.k.a. wearing) this polish, but I will let you know if it is deserving of the title of My Favorite Flakie Ever!!!

Zoya Chloe and the other two Fleck Effects will be available on Zoya.com for pre-order on January 10!!!

This polish was sent to me for review by a PR agent for Zoya. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Zoya Fleck Effects: Maisie

I spent most of this morning swatching and writing a post for an Irish dance fashion blog (link to come later), but I had to squeeze in some swatches of the new Zoya Fleck Effects!! I decided to swatch Maisie first. Maisie is a blue jelly base with gorgeous iridescent green/blue flakies. The flakies in this polish are practically glowing!!

For this look, I used two coats of Zoya Cynthia as my base. I then used one thick-ish coat of Zoya Maisie. Yes, this is just one coat of Maisie!! Unlike other flakie polishes, where you have to layer on two or three coats for maximum flakie density, Maisie packs a punch in just one coat.

Maisie is also really shiny and dries to a smooth finish. I didn't use top coat in any of these pictures. Maisie was really easy to apply, and it wasn't difficult to get the flakies to look evenly spaced. Overall, I'd say Maisie is the best flakie I have used. I love Nubar 2010, but it takes more coats than Maisie to be as flakie-filled as I like. I also really love how Maisie's flakes look so vibrant and almost neon green. Amazing!!!If you are a flakie lover, you need Maisie. In fact, I'm making Maisie the first Never Enough Nails Necessity of 2012!

I can't wait to try the other two Fleck Effect polishes!! I will probably get those posted on Saturday or Sunday I hope, so definitely stay tuned!

Zoya Maisie is available starting January 13th on zoya.com, although I think you can pre-order them starting January 10th.

This polish was sent to me for review by a PR agent for Zoya. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.