Still here!

Well it's been a very long time.

I'm still polishing away over here, though I haven't been buying very frequently lately. For most of the summer and fall I was trying to avoid splurges and impulse buys to save for a trip to Ireland. Hence there has not been a lot of high-end nail polish finding its way into my claws.

Speaking of our trip, I didn't end up buying a lot of nail polish or makeup while I was over there. It wasn't for lack of trying, but by the time I figured out I needed to hit up smaller pharmacies rather than just Boots and department stores we didn't have a whole lot of time left. So I picked up a few bottles of Catrice and pretty much left it at that. And I didn't buy any makeup. I was tempted to buy the MAC Primped Out Lip Look Bag in Brown Thomas just to buy something there, but I waited until I got home.

Anyway. I missed a lot of holiday collections but I did get some of the OPI Skyfall collection. I've been wearing Casino Royale, the reddish purple creme, a lot. I'm wearing it on my toes right now, and it's the only polish I took to Ireland with me. It's a very flattering color and the formula is super solid so it's just an easy, quick manicure when I can't make up my mind. I also loved Live and Let Die, which is a dark green-based jellyish polish full of gold flecks. I say jellyish because you won't need a ton of layers to build to bottle color with this one. It's very pigmented.

OPI Live and Let Die

Recently—today in fact—I received three colors from the Zoya Ornate holiday collection: Logan, Aurora and Blaze.

Zoya Logan, Aurora, Blaze

Aurora and Blaze are scattered holos, which is very exciting to me, but it was Logan that I chose to wear first. Can't help it, I'm addicted to green.

Zoya Logan

Logan isn't a holo, it's a medium green with gold foil shimmer. It's extraordinarily sparkly but the finish is smooth, not gritty or chunky. It's very pigmented and this (admittedly blurry, Instagram photo) shows two coats under one coat of Seche Vite.

Which brings me to one of the new trends in polish..."textured" finishes such as OPI's "Liquid Sand" and Zoya's "Pixie Dust" polishes. I don't know about you, but I have tried and passed along any number of gross, gritty glitters that won't behave under a coat of top coat. I try so hard to get my polish NOT to look like that, I'm not sure why anyone would do it on purpose.

But, that's the great thing about nail polish...something for everyone!

Happy polishing.