NOTD: Revlon Fierce

FIERCE!!

It's appropriate that I've bought this polish the same week the new season of America's Next Top Model starts up again. I'm not watching it this season ("All-Stars"...too crazy) but if you are, or if you have ever seen it in the past, or know anything about Tyra Banks whatsoever, then you know that the show and the word "fierce" are inextricably linked.

Anyhow. It was during a random trip to Rite Aid that I finally found the new Revlon Edgy Elegance display. I've been cruising the drugstores lately looking for the Wet 'n' Wild Halloween release, along with new stuff from L'Oreal and Revlon, and coming up with nada for the most part.

(My CVS in particular is useless for this right now. All the cosmetics special display space is taken up by Burt's Bees products, Garnier hair color (??) and the woefully boring WnW "Go With The Flow-er" display from early summer. GAH!)

Revlon nail products are BOGO 1/2 off at the moment, so I scrounged another Just Tinted topcoat (not in love with it...more on this in a minute) and picked Fierce from the Edgy Elegance collection.

Revlon Fierce

Fierce can best be described as a violet-leaning silvery purple foil. The formula on this was thick thick thick but easy to control. It could possibly be a one-coater.

With flash, indoors

In natural light

So I mentioned the Just Tinted topcoat. I heard that this was akin to Seche Vite but without the shrinkage issues, so last time I was in a Walgreens I took a peek and found one hanging around. I picked up another bottle at Rite Aid because of the 1/2 off sale. I figured the likelihood of this playing well with another Revlon product was high, so I gave it a try with Fierce.

Well. First of all, a lot of color came up on the brush. I'm not sure if that's the fault of the topcoat or the polish (or me). Otherwise it applied very well, but it took forever to dry. (It doesn't claim to be a quick dry top coat anywhere on the bottle, I just thought that was worth noting.) It's shiny, but not as shiny as SV or Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. My nails were tacky for a very long time and in fact were still dentable this morning - although now the dent has disappeared...which is strange yet sort of awesome.

I'll definitely try the Just Tinted topcoat with another polish and see how that goes. It's not horrible by any means but I suspect it wasn't at its best over Fierce. And I do love Fierce, so I want to wear it with an awesome top coat.

Incidentally, the stickers on the caps of the Edgy Elegance polishes say "New Shade" rather than "Limited Edition." So perhaps they will become core, which is good news for those whose local drugstores are a bit slow on the uptake. (Ahem, northeast Ohio.)

Missha Purple Glitter

You guys, I can't even...

This polish is so cuckoo bananas.

I just thought it was like...regular size glitter in an extremely pretty color combo. I didn't know it was pieces of glitter big enough to boogie board on.

So the thing about Missha polishes is that they have this horrible brush.

It barely comes out of the neck of the bottle, it's so wide. I had to trim several stray bristles off the brush in my Missha HGR01 (the reputed Chanel Peridot dupe which is not a dupe but might appeal more to certain people based on color preference...post to come, obviously) before using it. But this was another story because of the HUGE glitter pieces.

I glopped it on a nail wheel to see what I was dealing with.

Well.

Because this glitter is in a clear base, I started with two coats of Milani Hi-Res. Although not overwhelmingly holo, I do like this polish a lot. Very pretty and sparkly and spring-like due to the lilac tones.

Then I plastered on two coats of the Insane Purple Glitter From Korea.

In this picture the polish looks better but you can see all my acetone dryness. Sorry.

It's very sparkly and really fun in you're into sequins. It's a little much for me though. It reminds me of the time I glopped on many, many coats of a Street Wear bar glitter for a New Year's Eve party and snagged my nails on everything.

I need to take it off soon though because my Glitter Gal holos are arriving in my mailbox today!

Change of address; SPARKLE!

Here's my little bit of news: You can now point your browsers directly to www.nailpolishnonsense.com, no "blogspot" required. It only took me one million Internet years to do this, so, hooray! *throws confetti*

To celebrate, I present to you an appropriately happy nail polish, Milani Hi-Res. This was from the 3-D Holographic collection that appears to be offered with the core Milani line in most stores, along with the neon lacquers in the opaque bottles. (It's funny...we like our polish opaque and our bottles see-through.)

This is a beautiful polish, shown here with two layers. It took me a while to warm up to holos, but this is absolutely mesmerizing on the nail.

Milani's formula always works very well for me and this was no exception. By the way, this has been sitting in my untrieds for months and months. Why did I wait so long?!

Now I'm quite eager to use the other Milani 3-D Holographic polish I have, Digital. It's the light pink holo from the collection. I skipped the green in that collection on the basis of already owning China Glaze DV8, which is one of my favorite polishes ever.

Ah, I love that one. Sigh. I should wear it again soon.

Here's a bottle pic of the Milani holos, for your shopping pleasure.

Quick Hits

So....I've been kind of bad about taking pictures of my nails lately. I know, I know, bad addict. Bad addict! I think I forgot to photograph Nina Ultra Pro Brandywine, which I picked up on clearance at Sally. I wasn't even there for nail polish! But as always, the siren song was too strong to ignore. The display of China Glaze's Wizard collection was largely decimated (not that I was terribly hot for it to begin with), but they had a full display of the Nina Velvet collection, so I also grabbed Velvet Seas. I really like these Nina polishes -- very affordable and they apply nicely. The color selection doesn't offer an overwhelming amount to write home about, but if Purple-Xing and this Velvet collection are any indication, maybe there are more fun surprises in store.

I also didn't photograph Sally Hansen American Beauty. A Canadian exclusive! Sorry about that one.

So, here is where I was going to show you a picture of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Purple Pizzazz, but all my pictures were super bad. But! This is a really, really cool polish and it's so purple. Like grape popsicle purple. So it's this vibrant purple jelly base with either red or dark pink glitter (sometimes it looks red to me...sometimes more magenta/pink), and it applies very well. For whatever reason, it also stinks to high heaven, but then again so does all nail polish to some degree. This is the only new Xtreme Wear I bought, although Wet Cement, The Real Teal and Pacific Blue all looked interesting to me. I guess I felt they were too dupey or potentially dupey (especially the grey).

Wow...think of how many way more important things happened in the world in the time it took me to write that. Sorry.

Here is Zoya Astra, and I just have to say, holy wow.

So this is light pink and dark pink glitter in a slightly pink jelly base, which, I'm guessing, is part of what allows these UltraGlitters to be opaque in two coats. I knew when this was going on that it would be a terrible pain to remove but, I just have to say, WORTH IT. After wearing this, I've decided I would really like a purple glitter just like it, with dark and light purple glitter in a light purple jelly base. (Perhaps the new Sparkles from Nubar will fit the bill). The effect is just stunning, way more stunning (in my opinion) than one single color of glitter. RECOMMEND.

Aaaaand that brings me to yet another color I didn't photograph: China Glaze Flying Dragon. I hated this polish: gloopy, muddy, gritty, gross. It's beautiful in the bottle and hopeless on the nail. I've heard other people say they have problems with this one, but, ugh. If you've ever eyed it, skip it.

Ugh -- I want to talk about Orly Nail Rescue, and Illamasqua and Rescue Beauty Lounge but that will all have to wait. More soon!

More Happy Holiday Colors

I promised to share a few more holiday colors with you, so here you go.

On Christmas Day I wore Zoya Ginessa, a subtly shimmery silver white that looks like snow.

My mom let me do her nails with this one. I offered to do them, thinking she'd prefer clear (I've never actually known my mom to wear colored nail polish...even when we went for pedicures together, she chose sheer pink). But she surprised me by unearthing FOUR bottles of nail polish, though I vetoed them all on the grounds of being too frosty and a bit dated. So she asked for this one, which I was wearing at the time. The finish of this one is weird, it looks almost pitted though it's very smooth with a top coat.

Currently I'm wearing this:

This is part of an effort to get some of my more obnoxious colors out of the way for a while because I'm starting a new job and want to test the waters with neutrals, pinks and reds before beginning the parade of greens, blues and glitters that I will inevitably want to wear. I don't see it being a problem but I don't want my first impression to be Blue Glitter Fingernail Girl, so I'll take it easy at first and share those colors with you as well. Anyway, this color is called "Purple-Xing," which I don't mind telling you drives me nuts. Is it purple ex-ing? Purple Crossing? Purple Zing? And why is that hyphen there, it doesn't even make any sense. Ultimately it doesn't matter I suppose because the polish is amazeballs -- purple jelly loaded with large and small silver holo glitter. This would be great for New Year's, I think.

Or really any time of year...as long as you're not starting a new job.

Nail Party, Christmas Edition

So I don't really condone Christmas sweaters or candy cane-shaped earrings, but I do like decorating myself for the holidays. Nail polish is ideal for this because of the variety of colors and the extent of the "bling" factor -- and since the glitter/color is confined to a very small area, you can really go all out. (By the way Bridget Callahan, I am waiting to hear how those fancy Zoya glitters worked out for you.)

Below are some Christmasy polishes I have in my vast stash. I'll post more as I change my own nail polish over the next couple of weeks. What colors are you wearing for the holidays?

A deep, dark holiday green reminiscent of evergreen. Slight shimmer. You can buy Butter London at Beauty.com. If you use Drugstore.com or VisionDirect.com, you can earn discounts and rebates that are applicable on Beauty.com. This is good if spending $14 on nail polish -- plus shipping -- is not appealing.

Known on MUA as "The Jesus," Illamasqua Rampage is truly one of the most stunningly beautiful polishes I own. It looks like green glass on the nail. You can get Illamasqua at Sephora or direct from Illamasqua. This is another pricey polish, but WORTH IT. Practically applies itself.

This gal is harder to lay hands on because it is a Sally Hansen product exclusive to Canada (at this time, anyway). But very festive and Christmasy with the dark green jelly and twinkly gold glitter.

Here's one that's inexpensive and easy to find: China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, available at Sally Beauty stores and many, many e-tailers.

Mattified, this polish looks even more exceptional with a matte topcoat from Essie. There are other matte top coats from Orly, China Glaze and other companies; I like Essie and it's widely available. Try Ulta if you must have it.

So far as I know, Zip is still available, though it is part of a limited edition fall release from the ever-elusive Sally Hansen. Anyway, it's a great, glistening holiday red, with that molten glass look I like so much.

Applies beautifully, does Misa. These are great, great polishes -- high quality, fashionable colors, fantastic application, and typically less than $3. This is a beautiful and sexy bright red, perfect for a holiday date, if you do such things.

If you like a more retro, Joan Holloway-type red, this Dior fits the bill. May be hard to find at this point, but you can find a similar one in almost any polish range.

This is a holiday OPI exclusive to Ulta stores. Just a very pretty, sparkly purple. It would probably look killer with a matte topcoat, so maybe I'll try this color again before the end of the year and mattify it.

Another holiday OPI, but this one should be available anywhere OPI is sold, including e-tailers. This is a purple jelly, so it looks better over a red, purple or black creme base coat. In my opinion, anyway.

More to come, I'm sure...ho ho ho.

Theme Week: Sally Hansen Salon

So, this is one of my favorite brands of widely available drugstore polish and now I hear it's being discontinued? *cries*

Oh well. In celebration of these lovely square glass bottles with their sturdy rubberized caps, I present to you: Sally Hansen Salon Week! What follows are pictures of all the polishes I wore during the week, plus a couple of bonus pics of colors I'd worn previously. What do you think? Do you like this line, are you sad to see it go? Or are you too eager to use the new Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure line to care?

This is from the Tracy Reese collection from Spring 2008. I had to find it on eBay because it pre-dated my most recent love affair with nail polish, but I didn't really pay much more for it than if I had bought it at CVS or Walgreens. I really like this polish, and it looks really sharp with a matte topcoat, too.

From Tracy Reese, Spring 2009.

Also Tracy Reese Spring 2009.

This is the first Salon polish I bought, and I think perhaps they haven't made it in a couple of years? It's my very favorite neutral/sheer polish, although when I pulled it out again last week after not wearing it in a while, it was much more stark and almost mod-looking than I remembered. I really like polishes that are seemingly neutral but still have a fashiony edge to them...OPI Tickle My France-y is another one that's good like that. Essie Chinchilly, too, though that's more pigmented, not a sheer at all.

This is a Canadian exclusive that I only recently got my hands on. They are not sold in the US (yet, anyway...one never knows), but I managed to get four of them through a fellow (Canadian) nail polish buff. I thought Project Runway would be the green version of Arabian Night, but to my surprise it is a deep green jelly with lots of fine gold glitter. Very pretty.

I'll be sad to see these polishes go, but of course, I'm looking forward to trying the new line. I haven't seen it yet around northeast Ohio. What about you? Have you seen it? Going to try it? Or does the price tag put you off?