Saturday 18 January 2014

Swatch-It-Up-Saturday Jan 18

Good morning!!  I have a pile of swatches for you guys this morning that I have been stashing since the end of November...  Yeah...  *sheepish grin*  Anyways, let's get to it, shall we?


This is 2 coats of a England Galahad.  This is my first and only a England polish, and I wanted it because of the name, not going to lie.  While the polish may be named for something else entirely, I wanted it because it is the name of the household cat in my favourite book series, the In Death series by J.D. Robb.  This polish applied great, and while a lot of people say it has an extraordinary formula, for me, this applied like most other polishes I own.  Not that that is a bad thing, I just didn't notice anything different from other creme polishes application-wise.  I know the picture is kind of dark, but this is the closest I could get to what the polish colour looks like in person.  In brighter lights it looks a little brighter, but it a beautiful blue-toned teal.  If I could only have one teal in my collection, I would pick this one because it's my favourite one of all that I own.

This is 2 coats of butter LONDON Pillar Box Red.  This is my favourite red, it's a very true-red!  It applies great, I have never had any issues with the application.

This is 2 coats of China Glaze Twinkle Lights.  This is a mix of gold, red and green glitters that really get you in the Christmas spirit!  I really love this polish, and again, not application issues to report.  As with any glitter polish, I recommend removal via the foil method because all those little glitters are such a pain to deal with otherwise! 
This is 2 coats of Essie Butler Please.  This is a gorgeous vibrant blue polish, and I think it will be one that stays in my collection for a while!  I wore this a while ago, but I think I did have a little bit of staining when I removed it, so just be careful of that.  Otherwise, application was great.  I know some people have hit-and-miss with the Essie formula, but personally I haven't had any issues.

This is 3 coats of Essie Merino Cool.  Again, another favourite in my collection - is it grey?  Is it purple?  Is it brown?  These are questions I constantly ask myself when I wear this polish because the answer changes with different lighting.  This polish is a little sheer and streaky with the first coat, but everything evens out with the 2nd and 3rd.  This very unique colour will remain a staple in my polish collection :)

 This is 2 coats of Gel II Metro.  I wore this over Christmas, even when Tyler was like "that's all you're doing?  You're just going to wear a red polish, no nail art?"  He told me I was boring.  LOL!  I love the Gel II gel polishes, they have great staying power, and are really simple to remove with the foil method.  However, I don't know if it's just my application or if I do something wrong, but it always looks like I have tip wear on the ends of my nails even while I am still polishing/curing.  I haven't figured out how to prevent it yet.  I have tried sealing the free edge with the gel polish and the gel top coat, but nothing seems to stop it.  I'm not sure what to do, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them!

This is 3 coats of Julep Blake.  I just put this on this morning.  I have already swatched this polish, but when I look back on my original swatch, I cringe and think "man, I have to redo that one!"  This polish is thinner than most of my other Julep polishes, but their formula seems to have become thicker in the last year or so.  This went on really streaky with the first coat, and was still kind of streaky with the 2nd coat, but the 3rd coat mostly evened everything out.  There are still some spots that could have had better coverage, but that's what you get with a) a thinner formula, b) a yellow polish and c) a pastel.  I thought about doing a coat of matte top coat between the coats of colour to see if that would work because it works with white polishes, but I decided against it to give you guys "true" swatches.  I hate nothing more than looking at swatches of polishes online, then getting the polish and it doesn't apply as nicely or as I saw it in the pictures online.

This is 2 coats of Julep Missy.  It's a great silver foil polish with no issues in application.  One thing to note though, it looks like you beat up a fairy when you go to take it off because the super fine glitters get EVERY WHERE!  Another polish that is best left to be removed with the foil method, in my opinion.

This is 2 coats of Julep Petra.  This is one gorgeous polish, and was perfect for the Christmas season!  It's a berry red with a magenta flash throughout, and what looks like flakies, but I don't think they are.  I decided to matte it and see what it looked like, and the matte top coat made it that much more beautiful!  It almost looks like a suede polish when it has a matte top coat on it.

This is 1 coat of Lush Lacquer over Sally Hanen Xtreme Wear White On.  I got this polish from a friend, I have been eyeing it for a while, but when I put it on the base seemed to have a slightly pink tint to it.  I don't know if that is normal for this polish, or if the colours from the glitters have been bleeding into the base or not.  Either way, it's a great polish, but I was just surprised by the slightly pink-tinted base.  The glitters in this lay flat on the nail.  A couple of the bigger ones did have a corner sticking up a little bit, but definitely not the worst I have dealt with for a glitter polish.  I didn't have to fish for any glitters when I was applying it, not that it would be easy to fish them out of the bottle anyways, they all look the same :)

This is 2 coats of Michael Marcus Blood Red.  I got this polish in a Wantable box a couple months ago.  When I swatched it on a nail stick, I thought it was going to be a jelly polish, but I was pleasantly surprised when it was more of a creme when applied to the actual nail.  It does have a squishy appearance like a jelly polish though.  The application of this polish was super easy, and the bottle is an interesting shape too, which I like.  It's not your "typical" round bottle.

This is 2 coats of Zoya Storm.  Ah, this is definitely my baby!  I'm not huge on black polishes, but this is definitely another favourite in my collection.  There is just something about the scattered holo that turns it from "blah-ck" to "bl-ahhhhh-ck" :D  The application of this is easy, and removal is easy too, which is a bonus in my books.  If you don't have this already, I highly recommend it, even if you aren't a black polish person :D

This is 2 coats of Zoya Tomoko, from the Fall 2013 Pixie Dust line.  Can I just say "WOW!"  I really love the Pixie Dust textured polishes, they are my favourites right behind the Julie G Gumdrops textured polishes.  The texture is great, and uniform, unlike the Liquid Sands from OPI.  I don't like the OPIs because they have the multi-sized glitters in them, I prefer the textures that have all the same sized granules, if that's what you want to call them.  I definitely recommend he Pixie Dusts if you are looking to try a textured polish.  Plus, they have lots of different colours to suit different tastes :D

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