Kiss My Acetone

So a while back a really cool nail polish company called Tip Top contacted me asking if I’d like to review some of their nail polishes on my blog. I’d honestly never heard of the brand but when I looked into them and noticed that the brand was based out of Johannesburg, South Africa I was immediately excited. I literally love anything foreign and foreign beauty products are my favorite beauty products to try out since usually I’ve never heard of them and/or they’re really hard to get a hold of here in the states. Also, just as a side note, I have a small obsession with South Africa and I really, reeeeeallly want to go one day. But now that I’ve gotten all off topic… onto the swatches…

Wild Thing. Probably my favorite of the collection. It’s a bright, pigmented blue creme with subtle silver shimmer. The hue of blue reminds me of Smurfs or silly putty… I really quite like it. And it’s very bright and pigmented and I literally own no other blue in my collection that’s even sort of similar to this color.

Lazy Lizard. A really pretty lizard-lime-grass green with green, silver and blue shimmer. This one is pretty unique and it really does remind me of the color of a lizard. It’s a tad frosty and if you’re not careful with application, the brush strokes will be noticeable but it’s really very pretty and nice for spring.

Baby Cheeks. A really pretty off white cream color filled with light yellow gold shimmer. The shimmer in this polish really isn’t very obvious on the nail unless you’re looking for it but it adds a really soft and feminine touch and it’s not as stark as it would have been had it been a solid creme with no shimmer. It’s not very unique but it’s soft and clean looking with a feminine touch so I quite like it.

Dangerous Robot. A cherry red jelly. I really like this red cause it’s not cool or warm toned. It’s very neutral and a really true red. I also like that it’s a jelly finish so it looks squishy.

The formula of these polishes is really good. I didn’t have any troubles with any of the formulas being too thick, runny or gloopy and they all applied very nicely. All of these polishes are swatched here with three coats. These polishes are available online for viewing (thought I’m not sure where you would purchase cause I didn’t see any place to do so on the website) at www.tiptopnails.co.za/, or you can like Tip Top on Facebook www.facebook.com/TipTopNailsSouthAfrica.

Dori

(These products were sent to me for review.)

Little late on this post but better late than never! I took these pictures ages ago and have yet to post them so here they are… finally!

A Butterfly Moment. A light peachy pink with frosty gold shimmer. I honestly thought I would hate this polish… it looks sooo boring and way too frosty in the bottle but on, it’s actually very soft, feminine and flattering. And the frostiness? It’s actually really not bad at all. I’m a fan!

Pink Yet Lavender (over A Butterfly Moment). What a heck of a name this is. And on top of it, it’s really only pink, not lavender at all. Soooo I’m not really getting it..? Anyways, it’s a slightly pink/lavender(?) tinged clear base filled with large light pink hex glitter and small square holo glitter. I don’t think I would really like it alone which is why I topped it over A Butterfly Moment but it is pretty dense I suppose. This is just one coat.

Sprung. A warm copper-bronze with gold and rose gold shimmer. This reminds me of a mix between OPI Pros and Bronze & Warm An Fozzie. It’s very pretty and probably my second favorite of the collection.

Anti-Bleak. A warm, red-toned plum-purple creme. Meh, not very interesting or unique. This is two coats here.

These last four polishes all have the sand finish without top coat. The last picture of each of the sand polishes have top coat on top. I prefer them all without top coat, just for reference.

Can’t Let Go. A royal purple that’s slightly blue filled with large purple hex glitter and tons of micro glitter.

The Impossible. A bight cherry red filled with some large silver star, medium red hex, small red and small micro glitter.

Get Your Number. A bright jelly blue with medium hex and small holo glitter. Even without glitter, you can see the holo which I think is really pretty.

Stay The Night. My FAVORITE of the collection. Its filled with small red glitter. I love, love, love this polish. Now, this may be a really weird statement, but I think this polish is even prettier on days two and three. Why? Because something happens with the red glitter.. maybe it flakes off or something? I have no clue. But some of the red glitter turns silver for some reason that is beyond me and so the polish has mostly red and some sparse silver glitter shimmering. Sounds odd but it’s soooo, soo pretty

Seriously, I was not impressed at all seeing swatches of these sand finish polishes online but they are way prettier in person. Even if you think you don’t need these, I reassure you, YOU DO. You’ll thank me later.

Dori

(These products were sent to me for review.)

I was really excited when I first heard of Zoya’s Pixie Dust collection. I was all about the matte finish trend of 2009 (I hope that’s right. Was it 2009? I think so.) and so I’m all about this whole sandpaper-y finish of 2013 that each polish in this collection has. It’s unique, innovative and I love the fact that even though there’s no glossy finish, these polishes still appear sparkly as hell on the nail. Now, as a disclaimer, I feel like pictures really don’t do these polishes justice. They sparkle in the sun like no other. And even if after looking at these swatches you don’t feel like you need to go out and buy any of them, you do. Trust me, you do. This collection is fantastic. On to the pictures.

Godiva. I would expect this to be a deep chocolaty brown with a name like Godiva but nope. It’s a light grey-cementy-tan with silver glitter. Usually I’m not really drawn to these shades of polish but the finish on it makes it look like a spiced of nude. It’s pretty in a subtle way. This is two coats.

London. I LOVE the name of this polish. Even if the polish itself was ugly, I’d probably still love it for the name. Fortunately, the polish is pretty. And despite the fact that it only rained twice when I was in London, the city is known for it’s grey skies and gloom so the name fits this polish perfectly. It’s a medium charcoal grey with silver glitter that in the sun shines rainbow. Really very, very pretty. Two coats on this as well.

Vespa. A light avocado green with with silver finish. The polish is a tad on the sheer side. I only did two coats and clearly I probably would have been better off with three. Avocado green polishes aren’t really my thing but… it’s still really pretty.

NYX. A light Blurple with silver glitter. It’s like a periwinkle blurple. Reminds me of flowers and springtime. Another one that’s a bit on the sheer side. This is two coats and I should have done three but at least these aren’t streaky in the least bit so two coats can still be pulled off without looking bad. Three just would have looked better I bet.

Dahlia. My favorite of the collection. A solid black with silver glitter that shimmers rainbow colors in the sun. If you buy only one polish from this collection; this is it. It seriously is so, so pretty. And at two coats, this polish is super opaque.

Chyna. A deep red with bright red glitter. This one is just stunning. It reminds me a lot of China Glaze Ruby Pumps but with the sand finish, it’s just so, so pretty. I absolutely love it. I’m wearing it right now and I’m pretty sure I’m gonna be wearing this polish for days til it’s chipped. I’m in love. This is two coats as well.

Overall, I absolutely love this collection. Zoya always has the most unique collections in my opinion and again, I’m not disappointed. This Pixie Dust Collection is available now in stores and online at Zoya.com and retails for $9 a bottle.

Dori

(These products were sent to me for review.)

Right now I’m pretty embarrassed to mention that I’ve had this collection swatched for a month now. A month exactly. I know cause I just checked the date the images were uploaded to my computer. The 17th of October. It is now the 17th of November. I’m terrible, I know. So without further adieu, here are the swatches from the OPI Holiday 2012 Skyfall collection, inspired by the new James Bond film… Skyfall. Bet you didn’t see the one coming.
Moonraker. A light frosty, silver-shifting-gunmetal metallic. It appears very light silver when you look at it head on but around the edges it darkens quite a lot into a medium toned gunmetal silver. It’s a bit frosty and brush stroke-y so you have to be careful on application. This is two coats.

Tomorrow Never Dies. A bright royal purple with tiny shimmer particles in blue, and fuchsia. This ones also a bit brush stroke-y. This is two coats.

The Living Daylights. A clear polish sparsely filled with large hex glitter in light gold, teal, silver and peachy-rose gold. This here is two coats and you can see how sparse the glitter is. This is clearly meant to be layered over another polish rather than being worn alone over bare nails.

The World Is Not Enough. A brownish-grey-taupe with rose and gold shimmer. It’s hard to describe this color. It looks more brown/taupe in some lighting and more silver-grey in others but then the gold and rose shimmer in it is heavy and very apparent and shifts the color too… it’s very odd and very unique but I quite like it. I own nothing at all similar to this polish. My only qualm is that it’s on the sheer side. This is three thick coats.

Live And Let Die. A dark blackened forest green creme with gold fleck glitter. I swear this polish is so… weird… or something. It’s like, a creme but the fleck glitter still shows through so much when normally creme polishes hide and cover up all the glitter from showing through. It’s so cool. I really like this polish. This is two coats.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. A smokey silver jam packed with fleck glitter in gold, blue, light silver and green. It’s like a darker, more silvery version of The World Is Not Enough… same idea. This one is also on the sheer side so it requires three coats.

The Spy Who Loved Me. A bright cherry/apple red with red fleck glitter. This one is seriously so pretty. It’s way prettier in person, I promise. If you love reds, you need this one. This is two coats. Three may have been better but two was sufficient.

Die Another Day. A metallic tomato red with red and orangey-gold shimmer. This is two coats.

You Only Live Twice. A bright raspberry pink jelly filled with hot pink fleck glitter. Really pretty. This is two coats.

Casino Royale. A warm toned medium plum-purple creme. It’s slightly sheer, especially at the tips so this one looks best with three coats.

Skyfall. A medium brown toned maroon-burgundy creme. Probably my least favorite from the collection. It’s not bad, it’s just kinda boring. This is two coats.

Goldeneye. My hands down favorite from the collection… it’s not hard to see why. Goldeneye is a bright, metallic gold fleck polish. It’s hard to describe. It’s like flecks of golden amazeballs. Yeah, bad description. But seriously, this might just take Dazzled By Gold’s place as my favorite gold polish. Just maybe. You need this. No joke. I mean, I love gold polishes so I’m biased… but still. Even if you don’t like gold polish, you still need this one. You’ll thank me later. You’re welcome.

This collection is available now and retails for $8.50 a bottle. Go get em!!!

(These products were sent to me for review.)

Dori

Let me just start off by saying that Zoya’s Ornate holiday collection is not only, in my opinion, the best holiday collection of the season but also my favorite collection that’s been released in quite some time. Maybe it’s because they’re so much holo glitter. Maybe it’s because it’s holo glitter inside a jelly! Maybe it’s because there’s holo glitter inside of jelly polishes and it’s Zoya’s first ever release of holo polish and they hit the nail on the head!! Okay, okay, enough rambling and onto the swatches!

Ziv. (not holographic, but just wait…) A light gold foil polish with different sizes and shapes of foil flakes in light gold, silver-gold and darker warm-gold. I am such a huge fan of gold polishes and this one is really, really pretty. The variation in colors and shapes of the flecks is really pretty. Of you’re a fan of gold, you need this polish. I promise. And actually, you need this whole collection. Just saying. ….This is two coats.

Logan. A dark and vibrant evergreen base filled with gold foil flakes that shift from gold to green to even blue (at an extreme angles). This one is really, really, really pretty. It’s going on this list of my favorite greens. It reminds me a lot of Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe… but better. This is two coats.

Blaze. A rich red-berry jelly filled with holo glitter. HOLO GLITTER! RED HOLO GLITTER!!! This polish is really pretty. Like, really, really pretty. The red jelly base tints the holo flecks of glitter to make them appear mostly red and iridescent purple. It reminds me of ULTA Bombshell (which is clearly pretty different yet the most similar polish in my collection) but with a deeper base that leans more berry, and smaller flecks of holo glitter compared to Bombshell’s larger pieces of square holo glitter. Out of the two, I prefer Blaze. This is two coats.

Aurora. Let me start off by saying that for these pictures I only applied two coats. It looked fine in real life but according to the pictures, this polish would clearly look better having applied three coats. Don’t hold the slight sheerness and streaky-ness against the polish. It was my fault, not hte polish’s. Aurora is a fuchsia-purple jelly filled with tons of holo flecks of glitter. I think the holo glitter in this is more dense than it is in the other two holo polishes, making for a more intense holo. It’s really very pretty.

Storm. My hands down favorite from the collection. I’ve been wanting a black holo polish for basically forever and for a long time Color Club Revvvolution was the closest I had. Then while I was in London over the summer, I picked up Barry M Black Multi Glitter which is also a black jelly base filled with holo glitter. However, Barry M Black Multi Glitter was a let down. The holo barely showed through the black base. Fortunately, Zoya Storm is everything and more than I hoped Black Mutli Glitter Would be. Storm is a dense black jelly base filled with holo flecks of glitter. Out of the three holo polishes, Storm seems to have the least amount of holo glitter. Honestly, there is still a ton of holo glitter in this baby though so my no means is this polish lacking or on the dull side of holo. This is two coats. If you’re only going to pick up one polish from this collection, my suggestion is, let it be this.

Electra. A clear base densely packed with smaller thinner and bigger thicker silver holo bar glitter. It can be worn alone or used for layering but in my opinion, ever=n with one coat it’s a little too dense for layering for my liking. This here is three coats. And though I don’t have any similar polishes in my collection this this reminds me, the name does remind me of something…

I haven’t posted a music video in a while and since I just posted Electra, I figured it’s a good enough excuse to share my favorite song from Marina and the Diamonds’ album Electra Heart. Ayye, ayyye, see what I did there? ;]

(These products were sent to me for review.)

Dori

Sooo late on posting these but.. whatever. Here’s the second half of the China Glaze Fall 2012 Collection… the Tourist set:

Desert Sun. A butterscotch creme. This is one of those ugly- pretty colors. You either love it or you hate it. And I love it. This is two coats.

Kalahari Kiss. Another ugly-pretty color. I like this one too, but not as much as I like Desert Sun. Kalahari Kiss is a light sandy-tanish-yellow creme. This is two coats.

Adventure Red-y. A slightly cool toned medium red creme. As far as red cremes go, this isn’t unique by any means but the formula is nice and unlike most red cremes/jellys (which need minimum 3 coats), this one only needed two coats.

I’m Not Lion. Probably my favorite from the collection. It’s a light gold glitter with light gold, champagne, silver, taupe and hologram glitter in it. Not all the glitter in this polish are hologram, only some.. it’s interesting and very different from any other gold holo polishes in my collection. This is three coats for full coverage.

Call of the Wild. A dark, vampy burgandy-brown creme. This is two coats.

I Herd That. My second favorite of the collection and very similar to I’m Not Lion. I Herd That has gold, copper and hologram glitter in it. It looks much more warm and fall-esque than I’m Not Lion. This is three coats for full coverage.

Dori

Christmas is officially in the air. Today I went to the mall and Christmas trees are already up, lights are strung and lit and the sweet sounds of Christmas music fill the crisp, cool air. So to get in the Christmas spirit, I bring you red glitter. This is two coats of Zoya Rehka topped with one coat of OPI Getting Miss Piggy With It. Unlike how I handled my Halloween manis (or lack thereof), holiday manis (Thanksgiving and Christmas) start now. Well, don’t fully quote me on that… I do have a few polishes I’ve been wanting to share which are holo, and by no means fall/winter colors . But besides those, I’m all fall/winter manis and hopefully this holiday around I’ll actually get around to doing a good amount of nail art.

Dori