Zoya Gilda

As soon as I saw this color, I immediately thought Wizard of Oz - did anyone else?  Gilda was apart of the 2010 Sparkle collection, and listed as "fashion pink sparkling metallic."  I'm still not sure why they considered this to be the "metallic" collection.  I'm still going with microglitter.  Pictures in the sun don't even remotely show how pretty this color is.


I used a base of Zoya Anchor, 2 coats of Gilda, and a top coat of Zoya Armor.  This polish was so pretty, went on like a glove on my nails - very nice, very soft.

My sun was setting at this point, so I snapped a quick sun picture so you can see how pretty this shines.  The pink is more reddish but did have a blue flash to it, which was quite awesome.

I adore microglitter or glass fleck or whatever - it's just so pretty.

Here in the shade, you can see that blue flash I was talking about - it comes from the glitter - quite cool.


Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle.

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

Claire's Mood Daring/Innocent

Oh back to Claire's.  This was another one of their Mood polishes that I didn't think I'd like all that much.  As you can plainly see in my bottle picture, It looks like "Daring" is a greyish color (and in the hot Texas sun, the bottle looked like it too), and the "Innocent" color looked like a whitish cream color.  Unlike "Calm/Wild", this was a creme polish, not a glitter.


I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 3 coats of Daring/Innocent, and a top coat of Seche Vite.  Imagine my surprise when I saw this.

Um what?  Now granted this is in the sun, but that's no creme, that's butter yellow.  The tips almost look greenish grey.  It reminded me a tiny bit of a banana, but I was going to roll with it.

In the indirect sun, you can start to see more of that butter yellow/olive green color again.  Now this was actually the next day (I applied it at night) and frankly, I had a bad day that day.  Lots of construction type work, so the polish was starting to chip and peel just a bit.


Now here's the fun part.  I went into my bathroom and ran the water.  First, I used super cold water to get the "Daring" color to show up.

That is totally a weird yellow green!  Not grey at ALL.  I'm so confused.


Next I used some hot water (ow) to get the "Innocent" color to show up.

This color is definitely a buttery yellow, not a white cream.


I turned off the water and was able to snap a slight wet but very true picture of how my nails looked most of the day.

Overall, I was pretty happy with this one.  I love my glitters, but sometimes I can love a creme too.  Again, this was $5 but they seem to constantly have the buy one, get one half off deal.


Claire's is available world wide or online [official website].

American Apparel Dynasty

I kind of missed the American Apparel craze in my lifetime.  That's what happens when you live in a small city and well, we all like to eat BBQ and Mexican food (oh man, valley tacos are amazing).  In fact, American Apparel was just one of those things that didn't exist in my small world.  When they came out with their nail polish earlier this year (or was it last year?), I wasn't quick to jump.  Then all the bottles were recalled voluntarily, so I really wasn't jumping.


However, this past spring, I was at a very upscale mall with my Married Friends (as I call them) - E & B.  E (husband) gets slightly irritated with my nail polish collection and tells me I can't buy anymore, but it's nuts.  B was pretty fascinated by it, so HAH.


Anyway, we found an American Apparel, and I rushed inside to see if they had nail polish.  Now, I don't fit in their clothes.  Not even close.  Well, maybe I'd squeeze into an XL, but whatever.  Back to the polish.


I grabbed 3 bottles as they were 3 for $15, but that's about where my love affair ended.  They've just been sitting on my shelf.  The bottle is a bit awkward for me - it's very tall and slim but still the standard 0.5 Fl oz - tall bottles mean tall brushes, and I kept thinking I was somehow going to knock over the bottle when I'd pull the brush out, but we're okay.


Dynasty is a light purple, almost lavender creme polish that is pretty much my favorite color ever, so I was pretty excited about this color.  The formula wasn't too bad on it either - a little thin but not pooling into my cuticles.  


I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 2 coats of Dynasty, and a top coat of Seche Vite.

I feel that in the sun, on my nails, it turns into more of a mauve purple, but it's still a very pretty color.

Here in the shade it's kind of just there.  Nothing too special, but at the same time, a nice pretty color.  I think I was just so underwhelmed after wearing that crazy gold brown Wet n Wild.


American Apparel nail polish can be purchased in their stores or on their website [official website].

400 Followers Giveaway!

Woo!!!  Thank you again to everyone who reads my blog.  Now that I'm officially up to 400 Followers via Google Connect, it's time for another giveaway!  (I like giveaways, what can I say?)


Before I start the signups, I have a starter poll to see what you'd rather see.  It's pretty simple... either I'm going to have 4 winners with a smaller prize amount, or 1-2 winners with a larger prize amount... which would you rather have?  Please vote below ^_^

Would you rather have more winners w/smaller prizes... » make web polls
Tags : giveaways

Wet n Wild Rustic

After my frustration with Claire's, I decided it was time to try another brand for a bit.  I really love that Wet n Wild is only 99 cents for these bottles - it makes my wallet even happier.


Rustic is a brown gold shimmer that looked like it could be a really pretty color to wear in the evenings.  I used Seche Natural for my base, ONE COAT of Rustic (!), and a top coat of Seche Vite.  The formula was amazingly awesome - perfect coverage in one happy, even layer.

Holla.  This color almost looked a little orange brown in the sun than yellow brown, but it was still just so pretty to me!  I was really happy with this one.

In the shade, the shimmer dies down to a pretty little soft shimmer, almost like a wood grain.  Again, I couldn't be happier with this polish - I really want to go look at the rest of the line that it available in my drug stores.


Wet n Wild is located at a variety of drug and grocery stories.  You can use their product finder on their website [official website].

Claire's Glitz and Glam

Can you see my sarcastic face?  Just wanted to make sure you knew I was wearing it.  I picked up this bottle at the same time as Claire's Technopop.  At the time, the pink layer wasn't bleeding into the top or the bottom, that happened after my manicure.  The top layer LOOKED like little beads.  It's not.  It's hexagonal flat silver glitter. The middle layer is the same pink neon glitter from Technopop, and that bottom layer is a beautiful silver rainbow mix.


I used a base of Seche Natural, 3 coats of Glitz and Glam, and a top coat of Seche Vite.  Ready for this one?

LAME.  Three coats didn't even barely get rid of my VNL, and in fact, it just kept dragging the hexagon glitter to the top of my nail.  I was getting frustrated fast.

It's almost a Pepto Bismol pink... This may be nice for your 5 year old daughter but not for me.  I'm not happy with this one either.


Claire's is available world wide or online [official website]

Zoya Jancyn

I just recently found out that Zoya names ALL of their polishes after women.  Well Zoya, you need a Krystal.  Just because.  Hah.  I don't know anyone named Jancyn - I don't even really know how to pronounce it other than "Jan - Sin" but hey, whatever.  This was from the 2010 Flash Collection and listed as a soft tangerine cream.  That's pretty much on the nose.


I used a base of Zoya Anchor, 2 coats of Jancyn and a top coat of Zoya Armor.  Normally I wrap that with Seche Vite, but I was pretty iffy on orange, and didn't think I'd wear it all day (I didn't).  You can tell by my pictures that it was getting late in the day.


Jancyn was a happy little color - no formula issues, and I do love Zoya brushes a lot.  I did have a little cleaning up to do since I attempted to clean up my cuticles and ended up peeling one down (ouch).

This would probably be an amazing Halloween color with some black Konad or for some black glitter thrown over it.  Are there any real "black" glitters out there in a clear base?  Hmm, start thinking polish companies.


I really liked this color in the shade too.

It kind of reminded me of pumpkin pie.  I see a really cool nail art design in my head, but I still haven't gotten to that level just yet.


Good job Zoya, like I said, I was iffy on orange,  but this is a great color.


I meant to post this in like... days, but my finger slipped and it published now.  Oh well, deal with it.


Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle


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

Claire's Technopop

Every time I go to Claire's, I get all excited by their layered nail polish mostly, because I don't "get" it.  What color comes out? Why don't they mix?  Questions!  Normally, all the bottles have been shaken like crazy by the teenieboppers and kids that wander in there, but I saw this (and another) and was all kinds of excited.  It's a little hard to tell, but each layer is not just a neon but also has glitter in it!  SOLD.  I paid $5 but they were having buy one, get one half off at the time.


I used a coat of Seche Retain, 3 coats of Technopop, and a top coat of Seche Vite.  The brush wasn't too bad, but the smell wasn't the most pleasant despite them being big 3 free.  The polish didn't pool in my cuticles but it wasn't very thick either.  I NEEDED 3 coats to get ... well, this.

Blech.  What IS this?  The first two layers were definitely pea soup puke vomit green with sparkles.  In my 3rd layer, I started pulling some of the pink, which you see in the middle of my index, middle and pinkie fingers.

The shade picture isn't much better.  Overall I'm VERY disappointed with this polish, and have half a mind to shake it out of spite.  Not a happy camper here.


Claire's is available world wide or online [official website].

Boo Media Reader

Once again, my media reader went belly up.  Hopefully I'll get it fixed soon - I have some reviews of 2 of the "Layered" Claire's polishes, an American Apparel and another Wet n' Wild.  Depending on when I get this fixed, I may have more done than that.  I'm wearing a different Claire's Mood polish today but it started to rain, so I'm sitting inside singing for the rain to go away.  ^_^


PS: Giveaway coming at my 400 Followers - so... soon!

Wet n Wild "Craze Collection"

Holy awesome, check out all these new colors!  At just $1.99, I'm so tempted to get them all!  It looks like they have one creme and one shimmer per color.

Wet n Wild is located at a variety of drug and grocery stories.  You can use their product finder on their website [official website].