Chanel Nuit Magique

I can't remember when I first heard about Chanel Nuit Magique, this year's (kind of?) Fashion Night Out or rather, "Vogue Fashion Night"—or maybe neither of those things—special edition polishes. In the past I've looked forward to these special editions and this was no exception.

And then the trouble began.

In years past I'd ordered the Fashion Night Out polishes directly from Chanel's website, but then Fashion Night Out was cancelled and no one was sure what would become of the polishes. Would they be released in the US? Would they be a boutique exclusive or available online? No one knew for sure.

Around this time my fiance went to Las Vegas for his brother's bachelor weekend and I asked him if he would please please find his way to the Chanel boutique in the Bellagio and order the polishes for me. I wrote the names of the collection down and sent it off with him.

The sales associate at Chanel did let him place the order but told him they couldn't guarantee if they'd ever get them or not. She said it might be as late as November when they showed up (he was there at the end of August). All of September came and went without hearing anything.

But then! My well-connected nail friend Janice told me the polishes would be available after all! And sure enough my fiance received a text from Chanel in Las Vegas, saying they'd be sending them along.

Hooray!

Chanel Cosmic is very beautiful. It's a dark smoky charcoal, not a true black, with silver and blue microglitter. The effect is kind of stars-in-the-night-sky, with the little bits of glitter winking from within the polish. It's subtle, as Chanel shimmers (though this is truly a glitter, not a shimmer) tend to be, but very interesting and a really nice surprise from Chanel. The formula's good and easy to control. I should note this finishes smooth, not gritty like some glitters.

Chanel Cosmic—Nuit Magique collection

 Chanel Magic is a medium blue creme, and it's very reminiscent of Chanel Blue Rebel, a polish I owned and loved but passed along as part of a complete set with Blue Boy and Coco Blue (also FNO polishes). It's a beautiful, work appropriate (in all but very conservative environments) polish though probably quite easily duped. I'm happy to have it, though, because I somewhat regret having got rid of Blue Rebel and Blue Boy.

Chanel Magic—Nuit Magique collection

I'm not sure where to tell you to get these polishes if you're interested in paying retail ($27) for them. It might be worth a try to call a Chanel boutique to see if they've got any and will ship them to you. They don't seem to be available online, although—curiouser and curiouser—they do turn up on the website if you search for them on Google and click through that way. Going through Chanel.com I could not get to them. So who knows. My guess is that they may have planned to offer them online and then didn't.

Because these are spendy and somewhat of a hassle to get, I know people will want to know if they are worth the trouble/cash. If you're choosy, skip Magic (particularly if you already own Blue Rebel) but Cosmic I must recommend. It's not a glitter bomb by any means but pretty special for Chanel and very beautiful in any case!

Some oldies-but-goodies

I had some extra time this weekend and gave myself a much more careful manicure than I usually do.

I need to remember what a difference it makes to do this every now and again...for my cuticles, primarily. Even with the warmer weather my cuticles have been pretty bedraggled lately.

This manicure was pre-cuticle cleanup: Orly Cashmere Cardigan.

You can see the dry bits here but let's talk about the polish. I bought it at the very beginning of my nail polish collecting obsession, in early 2009-ish. Cashmere Cardigan was part of the Prepster collection along with Country Club Khaki, Tennis Anyone and Polo Princess to name a few.

Here is the kind-of psycho thing about nail polish collecting: I've owned this polish for more than four years and this is the first time I've worn it. That's kind of crazy, no? This is before I knew better than to just buy stuff willy nilly. I actually have a lot of polishes that I bought early on and wasn't really crazy about...most of them I've sold and passed along, but some are still sitting in my Helmers.

ANYWAY. The polish is a dusty, muted purple. I think it would be considered work appropriate in all but the most conservative offices anymore. Orly's formula is great, no complaints. It wore very well with my usual base and top coats.

For Memorial Day weekend I gave myself the aforementioned full manicure and then pulled out one of my long-time favorites, OPI Dutch Tulips (old formula!).

I've worn this one so often and so far as I know haven't shown a picture here. It's a vibrant deep pink creme. The formula is nice if a bit on the thin side, and of course, this old formula version is full of those lovely bad chemicals that make the polish so easy to control. Old formula means old brush, unfortch, but I manage.

What are you wearing on your nails for the long weekend (if you're in the US)? If you're outside the US, what are you wearing for the regular-size weekend? :)

OPI Did It On 'Em

I pulled this out a few weeks ago when the weather started to get more determinedly summery (of course at the moment it's about 40 degrees outside but at the time it seemed like a good move).

I can wear pretty much any polish I want at work, which is fortunate because this is a pretty shocking color. A couple of people remarked upon it...remarks along the lines of "Boy that's...really green." I don't exactly think that was a compliment, but you know, whatever.

This picture is a little misleading, because the polish isn't neon in the truest sense of the word. It is greener than it appears here, but it is very vivid.

Colors like these are very polarizing, and it didn't do much for me as a manicure. I think it would look great as a summer pedicure, though.

Chanel Azuré

I got very excited about the summer Chanel nail lacquers when I heard a vibrant teal duochrome and electric blue shimmer would be part of the collection. The L'Ete Papillon de Chanel collection includes three nail colors: Azure, Bel-Argus and Lilis. I skipped Lilis, the coral, but picked up the other two.

 I'm wearing Azure as a full manicure right now, and to just get this out of the way: Yes, it's beautiful; no, it's not 100% unique. That should be all it takes for the Chanel haters to feel justified in sitting this one out.

But really...there are few polishes that are 100% unique these days, which is why small indie producers are having such a field day at the moment. Nail polish hoarders like myself are always interested in something they haven't seen before, and I'm not sure Azure qualifies.

That said. It is gorgeous. The duochrome blue-to-purple shift isn't as strong as the color shift in, say, Chanel Peridot, but it does show up in certain lights; and regardless of the duochrome the color is super vibrant. In the sun, the color really dazzles. It's a beautiful, summery, oceanic blue. It would be a very fun summer pedicure color.

I used two coats for opacity. The formula is excellent and wore well with Palladio Fuse base coat (RIP) and Seche Vite fast-dry top coat.

Whether it's worth $27 or not is entirely up to you. This is among the more unusual colors Chanel has produced, particularly of late, so people who collect Chanel will definitely want to get this one.

NOTD: Estee Lauder Smashed

When I chose this polish to put on tonight, I couldn't believe I hadn't featured it as an NOTD before. Released as part of the Metal Mania collection in 2012, Smashed is a vibrant red-purple jelly with magenta, purple and blue flecks. They're not fine enough to be a straight shimmer, but they are very small, and irregularly shaped.

I bought Smashed along with Tempestuous—the first full-size Estee Lauder polishes I'd laid my hands on. In recent years, EL's nail color selection has gotten much more interesting as more women get adventurous with nail polish, even EL's traditionally more mature, conservative customer. Smashed still falls on the "safe" side and would be work appropriate in all but the most straitlaced workplaces, but it's still a beautiful polish.

The formula was very good—an easy-to-control jelly. The brush is short, on the stiff side and somewhat flat, but not wide like an OPI ProWide. All in all it was very easy to apply.

Also, it must be said, the Estee Lauder nail lacquer bottles are a thing of beauty. The polish is contained in a spherical void within a glass cube. Yes, you're only getting 0.3 ounces, but the bottle has a nice heft and it certainly connotes luxury as is appropriate for the brand.

The good news is that Smashed is still available. The somewhat less good news is that it's $20.

L.A. Girls 3D Effects Teal Dimension

Listen, there are a number of nail trends that either don't interest me or that I actively dislike. I am sure this applies to everyone. Luckily for every trend that emerges that we don't like, another will soon come along that we just can't get enough of.

I know that a lot of people got real tired of holos, and I understand that, because I got real tired of them for a while too. At this point I don't understand why a company would even go to the trouble of producing another black or HEAVEN HELP ME pastel holo. I'm interested in more holos—linear, scattered, whatever ya got—but I want some new and interesting colors.

Another holo wish I had was availability. I don't mind paying more for holos but I also don't especially want to have to send away to Italy or Brazil to get them. And I find a lot of US resellers very frustrating in this regard, because things are constantly out of stock. This isn't anyone's fault exactly but if I have a list of six polishes I want and only three are in stock NOW but if I wait four weeks, two others will be in stock but one of the original three won't be—well it just gets to be exhausting. And nail polish shouldn't be exhausting.

So I was very exciting when a couple of scattered holos popped up in the Zoya holiday 2012 collection. I also picked up a few of the China Glaze Hologlam collection. And you might have noticed the L.A. Girls 3D Effects collection, which is both very available (RiteAid!) and quite affordable.

L.A. Girls Teal Dimension

I picked up Teal Dimension recently because I don't have another holo that's similar, and boy was I ever thrilled with it. It's SUPER blingy. Lots of nice depth. And a beautiful base color too.

Application on this was fairly average. No special base coat is needed, and top coat did not dull it. I have two coats on in the pictures.

A widely available, inexpensive holo? Highly recommend!

China Glaze Hologlam Collection—When Stars Collide

China Glaze When Stars Collide

By the time I got around to buying a couple of the Hologlam colors, I had almost forgotten they existed. I was at Sally for something else and took a cruise by the nail polish section—as is my way—and saw some of the Hologlams all the way down on the bottom shelf. There was a buy-two-get-one sale going on, so I picked up When Stars Collide, Infra-Red and OMG a UFO. When I saw the swatches on Fashion Polish I'd also wanted Strap on Your Moon Boots, but I guess everyone else did too because it was nowhere to be found.

I bought these in spite of the fact that many people were disappointed in their holographic quality. To be sure, they are not strong holos. They're linear as opposed to scattered, but very very subtle. I didn't find the colors I bought to be too frosty, but I did have some issues with application—they have the typical holographic issues, so you might want to use Aqua Base.

I don't often buy China Glaze anymore because I find them to be a pain to apply and just not great quality overall. Were these worth it? Well, I'm glad they were on sale. But I like the colors and the application isn't so challenging that they aren't worth wearing. Nothing a little Aqua Base won't take care of.

Frankly, finicky holos kind of annoy me, because I've bought plenty of holos that aren't total pains to apply. But if you're looking for easily accessible holographic polishes that you could also wear to work (particularly the pinks, purple and gray) the Hologlam collection might work for you.

A humble request

Now that the light is lasting longer during the day, I've been taking more nail pictures and working up some lipstick/lipgloss posts. I'll get those sorted as soon as I can, but I have a random question.

Is anyone in the UK (or Ireland, or anywhere else for that matter) have access to L'Oreal Elvive royal jelly conditioner? Specifically, this one. I was able to buy a big bottle at a pharmacy when I was in Dublin three months ago but I'm going to run out soon and...well, I don't want to run out.

It's possible to find it here but it's very expensive, even considering converting the cost from euro and accounting for shipping. If there's anyone out there wanting to do a swap or CP (I will CP for you, if there's anything you want), let me know. And thanks!

Cobbling together a gel manicure: Fails and near-fails

Like any nail fiend, I am naturally drawn to almost any new nail trend or technique. Some work out, some don't (for instance, my experience with stamping and most other forms of nail art) but all of it interests me, however briefly.

I've been unable to shake my curiosity in at-home gel manicures, even though it seems silly for someone like me to want a manicure to last as long as two weeks. Convenient, fuss-free...sure, but I like changing my nail color frequently. I'm happy when a manicure lasts and looks good the entire time I have it on, but I usually get a little impatient with a color at the 4-5 day mark.

Late last year I went on a ten-day trip overseas and I did think about what I would do with my nails during that time. I wouldn't need a pedicure but I'd want my nails done and I didn't want to pack a bunch of polishes and implements to take with me. I scheduled an appointment for a gel manicure but cancelled when I realized the timing wasn't going to work out—I would have been getting the manicure almost a week before we left, so it would be half grown out by the time vacation started. I ended up giving myself a manicure with OPI Casino Royale and just taking that bottle, a bottle of Seche Vite and some remover wipes with me. I fixed small chips and redid nails with big chips. And as I suspected, I was too busy and having too much fun to really have my nails be a huge priority. (I know...bad nail fanatic, bad.)

Anyway, I've been weighing whether or not to try at-home gel manicures, but every time I was ready to pull the trigger on buying all the things to do it, I balked. I tried the Nutra Nail UV-free kit, which was horrible and wrecked my nails. Then I started seeing Nailene's Sensationail kits (about $50-$60) at CVS and other stores, and hearing good things about them. Sally Hansen now offers a gel kit ($60-$70) and a gel strips kit ($30).

This weekend I had some Extra Bucks and other coupons, so I got the SH gel strips kit for about $20. I'm glad I didn't pay full price because the strips were a huge fail. I've done fine with strips in the past but these were thick and wouldn't conform to the shape of my nail. So I ditched them and began a grand experiment in gel manicures.

First I tried curing the SH gel top coat over regular polish. Someone I know gets this done at a salon and it works for her but I think you would have to let the polish get pretty dry before you do the gel coat and cure, because while the gel coat was dry, the polish wasn't, and my nails wrinkled. Fail!

Next I used a Sensational gel polish that I got on clearance at Rite Aid. I used the SH gel coat as a base and top coat and cured my nails tediously, one by one, with the tiny gel strip light. This worked fine, but would work better with a proper gel base coat and primer. The polish on my right thumb peeled completely off in one sheet because it hadn't adhered properly.

My other nails look great, though. I love how shiny the gel stays, and that it dries so quickly. Pardon the Instagram, but here's a quick snap:

I'll definitely be going to pick up the primer and base coat to give this another try very soon.

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.

OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest

I wasn't initially jazzed when OPI released the Germany collection for fall 2012. I didn't see a whole lot that intrigued me...and then I started seeing swatches of two of the vampy shimmers, Every Month is Oktoberfest and Germani-cure by OPI. I ended up getting both of those, along with Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! (oy what a name), the blue-based murky gray creme.

EMiO is a dark purple with red, purple and gold shimmer. The purple base is really purple, and not as blackened as it appears. This polish is much more interesting that you might think at first glance.

 So perfect for fall! The gold shimmer really catches the light and add a lot more interest to this polish than I was expecting.

Formula was perfect. Super easy to control. I know some people aren't fans, but I adore OPI's ProWide brush. It works with my nail shape and I end up doing very little cleanup.

This is two coats of EDiO with Palladio Fuse base coat and one coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Fast Dry Top Coat.

OPI Every Day is Oktoberfest

Zoya Codie

I've ordered rather a lot of Zoyas over the past several months. They just kept having sales or promos that appealed to me (BOGO and free ship? SOLD).

One Zoya that I've hemmed and hawed over for months and finally bought is Codie, which is described on the Zoya site as a "blackened espresso brown creme with subtle olive undertones." Now, I must confess: I normally steer clear of brown polish. As in...I never buy it. Ever. It's the one category of color that just doesn't do it for me at all. I've owned exactly two brown polishes - Essie Little Brown Dress, because it came in a set with three other colors, and Dr.'s REMEDY Desire Dark Brown, which was sent to me for review. I virtually never reach for them (and in fact I think I may have passed Desire Dark Brown on to someone else).

But Codie intrigued me, with those "subtle olive undertones." So, I finally pulled the trigger. Can't beat half price, after all!

There was a little bit of drama with Codie. I opened my bottle to do a manicure last week and found...a mess. The polish was stringy like whoa. These fine, wispy hairs of polish would float all over the place when I pulled the brush out of the bottle. Huge clumps of polish were clinging to the brush and brush stem. It was just...really bad. Ordinarily if a polish is slightly thick I just suck it up and get out my trusty Seche Restore but this seemed very far gone. Happily, when I wrote the company they responded quickly. After sending a picture of the compromised bottle Zoya sent out a replacement right away.

So here I am with my new, formulaically perfect bottle of Codie and what can I say? I really quite like it. It's dark and chic without screaming BROWN or BLACK. Must be those olive undertones. Perhaps you can get a better sense of them here:

There's a certain murky quality to it that I really like.

The formula for Codie was great. A bit thin, maybe even watery on the first coat but the second coat makes it perfection. I've been so impressed with Zoya's formula in the last several collections, particularly their cremes. Wonderful and opaque, even self-leveling in some cases (this is a quality I prize above almost all others in nail polish).

I bought this on Zoya.com. The price is $8 but I used a promotion code and got it for half price. Whee! Codie was part of the fall 2011 Smoke & Mirrors collection.

Zoya Codie

Jade Vermelho Surreal

Confession: I'm more picky and fussy about buying polish than I've ever been before. I barely throw it a glance when I walk into a drugstore. This morning in CVS I didn't even look. I've been wearing a lot of my older favorites lately (today: Misa Cherry Topping).

But that's not to say I'm immune to a charming stranger, like Jade Vermelho Surreal. This is a dark red linear holo, and it just so happens that "dark red linear holo" is music to my ears. I have plenty of red linear holos and holo sparkles in my collection but I can almost always find room for another (you can see a comparison post of other red holos here).

Anyway: Jade Vermelho Surreal.

It's a nice, dark red. I haven't compared it on the nail to Hits Ares, but in the bottle Ares is just a bit brighter.

Mmmmm, holo.

I liked it on the nail a lot.

I have about enough holos in my collection at this point...I think I'm burned out on all the pastel holos, and the deep colors I like (red, purple, green) I have pretty much covered, though I'd still like a nice deep green linear holo, swoon. But I'm glad I picked up Vermelho Surreal. It's a good strong holo, and the formula is really nice. I found Hits Ares to be a little on the sheer side (maybe "jelly" is a better way to describe it) and it needs at least three coats. This is not really uncommon with holos, but Vermelho Surreal would probably be good at two coats with careful application. The brush and formula are both good enough to make this possible.

I did not use an aqua base with this and it didn't seem to need it. I used it over my usual Palladio base coat and finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite, with no dulling. (Incidentally, I recently bought a bottle of Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Fast-Dry Topcoat, which is rumored not to dull holos, but I haven't tried it with any of my pickier holo lacquers just yet.)

This polish has a distinctive odor that whispers "not B3F" but I'm not 100% positive about that. Just keep that in mind if it's something you are concerned about.

I bought my bottle from shop.llarowe.com for $10 plus very reasonable shipping; in checking the website just now I see the price has dropped to $7. It is also available on Ninja Polish for $7.50. Both sites are out of stock at the moment. The bottle size is 8ml. For reference, a bottle of Zoya is 15ml.

Jade Vermelho Surreal

Okay okay okay I PROMISE to try and do better. I'm still polishing, still buying, still loving all things nails but truth to tell I have been a little lax with some things. For instance I am at work right now with polish peeling off half of my nails. NOT COOL.

I still Instagram most of my manicures and while I realize that's not the best way to photograph polish for accuracy and attractiveness, I'm going to use it as a basis to touch on some things and preview some others.

First off I've somehow, through sales and well-connected friends, managed to get hold of a lot of the Zoya Beach and Surf collection. This is Kimber.

The sparkly shades from this collection are really pretty. I am wearing Carly on my toes right now and I've worn it as a manicure a couple of times as well.

I also ordered a couple of shades from Zoya's fall release, FeiFei and Evvie. Here's FeiFei.

This is a really gorgeous color and I can't wait to try and photograph it with a real camera to try and capture all the little colors within it. Part of my nail polish issue right now is that nothing I'm seeing feels very unique, and while I'm certainly open to buying similar colors or even dupes to get a superior formula or that slightly different shade that makes me fall in love, I'm more likely to be picky about it. FeiFei is the first thing I've seen in a while that seemed to me personally to be unique.

In a similar vein (and a similarly terrible picture), here is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri In A Flurry.

This is also quite beautiful. It's a fall release and it represents the first time in forever that I've felt driven to hunt down a drugstore unicorn. As you know these particular creatures can be very elusive, but I eventually ran across this one in—as usually happens—a drugstore not on my usual beat, where I hadn't planned to be. I'm really sorry for the horrible quality of this photo but again, I can't wait to take real pictures of it. (In the meantime, Google Scrangie's swatch and you will be the amaze.)

I also want to tell you about the polishes I recently ordered from Cirque. This is what you might term an "indie" brand and what I've seen so far is super awesome and impressive. I ordered Tibetan Nights, a deep blue jelly with teeny tiny silver/holo glitter, and Never Nude, a nude-toned linear holo.

The purple holo from this line is also outta sight, and the packaging and service when you order are nothing short of top notch.

What else have I unearthed? Well, through the kindness of a long-distance nail polish friend I finally laid my hands on OPI Tucumcari Boys 'n' Berry. I also want to tell you about Chanel Frenzy, which may be the perfect neutral.

More to come soon!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily

Wayyyyy back on March 24 I pre-ordered my choice from the Rescue Beauty Lounge Fan Collection: Aqua Lily. I finally received it this week, so I wanted to share some pictures.

Aqua Lily is an opaque turquoise with a pink/lavender shimmer.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily

It's difficult to see the shimmer in the picture above, but it really looks beautiful when you throw a little light on the subject.

This type of shimmer is, in my opinion, very typical for an RBL polish. It's more like a vein of color through the polish than straight-up shimmer. It's subtle, like a Chanel shimmer. This isn't always something that makes people happy...including me, in the case of Piu Mosso. If you click that link, you'll see that the picture of that gorgeous copper shimmer looks incredibly similar to the picture above.

My experience with Aqua Lily was much better than my experience with Piu Mosso, however. For one thing, the formula is much better. It's very pigmented, and I didn't experience any of the dragging that I did with Piu Mosso.

Plus, the shimmer shows up a lot better.

In some lights, it looks practically duochrome, though I was hard-pressed to capture that on camera.

I did very, very little clean-up with this manicure. In that respect, it's worlds apart from Piu Mosso.

A couple things: I'm still getting the dull-ish finish that I got with PM. And it's not Seche Vite's fault, either, because for a while now I've been exclusively using Cult Nails' Wicked Fast quick dry top coat (which is amazing and warrants an entire post of its own, but I'll get to that another day). I also got a huge chip about six hours after putting this on, but I fixed it and since then I've just had minor tip wear/miniscule chips. Definitely more chippy than most polishes on me, though.

Overall, this is a beautiful color with gorgeous pink/purple shimmer that I find delightful. The subtlety of it doesn't bother me, though it wouldn't hurt, of course, if it was more prominent.

Did you buy any of the fan collection colors? What's your take?

Quick NOTD: OPI Don't Touch My Tutu!

Here's a quick phone cam shot of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu from the New York City Ballet collection. I reviewed some of the other polishes in this collection here. To reiterate, this collection is fantastic and I consider most of these colors must-haves. They're classic, and almost more important, the formula is beautiful.

This is three coats. There was some very, very faint streaking after two coats but it was so negligible I almost hate to mention it. I'm wearing it over one coat of nail strengthener with Cult Nails Wicked Fast top coat.

I may eventually end up with this entire collection. I just ordered Care to Danse, the soft lavender shade. OPI really hit a home run with this!

NOTD & OPI New York City Ballet Collection

I've been excited about the OPI NYCB collection for months. When I had the opportunity, I purchased four shades: Pirouette My Whistle, My Pointe Exactly, Don't Touch My Tutu and Barre My Soul.

Pirouette My Whistle

My Pointe Exactly, Don't Touch My Tutu, Barre My Soul

I did a manicure with Barre My Soul almost immediately. What strikes me about these polishes is that they are not streaky, a rare quality in these kinds of sheers.

For today's manicure, I chose to pair My Pointe Exactly with the glitter, Pirouette My Whistle.

Here's some closeups of Pirouette, which is gorgeous just in the bottle.

I did a base coat and then began with Pirouette, followed by My Pointe, another layer of Pirouette and another layer of My Pointe.

I love love love this. I think Pirouette would look fantastic with any of the shades from this collection, as well as any number of other sheers/jellies.

Have you purchased any of these? What are some layering combos you have done/want to do?

Cult Nails Divas & Drama collection - photos & swatches

Back in March I preordered the Cult Nails Divas & Drama collection, which consists of four lacquers: Scandalous, a coral/salmon jelly; Enticing, a delicate shell-pink shimmer; Manipulative, a buttery turquoise creme with a silvery micro-glitter/shimmer; and Seduction, a sheer reddish purple jelly with red and blue multichromatic flakes. Seduction is available as a limited edition shade; the rest are listed with the core colors on Cult's website.

Scandalous, Enticing, Seduction, Manipulative

Before I show you these quick swatches - all were swatched over a a quick coat of ridge filler, with no top coat - please understand that my hands/cuticles are dry and, it must be said, kinda gross in these pictures. I Photoshopped away the worst of it (not the polish though, just my own skin) but honestly they are just so dry. Blame the acetone or blame not wearing gloves for the last couple weeks (I refuse!) but anyway, blech and I am SO SORRY. Someone's been very bad about her Lanisoh of late.

Anyway.

Scandalous

I'm wearing Scandalous as a full manicure right now and it's super pretty.

This swatch actually does have topcoat - Cult's Wicked Fast, which I am just now trying for the first time. This is two coats of Scandalous. You can still see some visible nail line, but it's honestly so faint and right now I'm really having a moment for sheers and jellies. This is a fruity, fun, summer candy color although in real life it is slightly pinker (and less orange) than it appears here. Gorgeous formula, which was true for all of these and an improvement over the Cult colors I have tried before.

Enticing

Enticing was the surprise hit of this collection for me.

AIEEEE CUTICLES. Ahem, sorry. Typically these delicate ballerina pinks make my hands look dirty or weird but this is a real beauty. It reminds me of the inside of a seashell, plus there's a subtle shimmer that softens the overall effect (you can see it in the nail on your left). This is three coats. It's sheer-ish, but very buildable. Any streaks that I noticed while I applied it leveled themselves out. It's an impressive formula.

Manipulative

Manipulative is a dusty turquoise opaque cream that has a lot in common with Chanel Nouvelle Vague. NV's shimmer is more of a silvery pearlescent one and Manipulative's is beautiful little micro-glitter or micro-shimmer.

This is two perfect coats. Gorgeous formula, better than NV's hands-down. If you wanted Nouvelle Vague and never got it, save yourself the money and the headache and pick up this instead. NV is maybe the tiniest, tiniest bit more green, but it's worth it for the beautiful formula.

Seduction

Some of you won't be mad for Seduction because it's a flake and you're over flakes, or they're not your cup of tea or whatever. But these are really, really good flakes. They lie nice and flat and just look at the rainbow in that bottle!

I layered Seduction over OPI Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not (a polish I happen to love that never gets any love on MUA or anywhere else that I've ever seen).

This is two layers of LMLMN and one layer of Seduction. For a full manicure I would probably do at least one more layer of Seduction, but here you can see that the colors really do flash and flare nicely. The base of Seduction is a reddish purple, but it's quite sheer so you probably wouldn't want to wear it alone, though of course you could!

Overall, I'm extremely happy I preordered and got this collection for $30. It's currently priced at $40, or you can buy the individual lacquers for $10 each. It's certainly worth $40 but I feel like I got a great deal by preordering. Honestly it's difficult for me to say which of these are my favorite - I'm fascinated by Enticing just because I've tried and rejected so many colors like it. I'm in love with jellies right now, so loving Scandalous is a given, and the formula on Manipulative is to die for. The only negative thing I can say about Seduction is that it does bear a lot of similarities to Nfu-Oh 51, but they're not twins.

Will you be ordering any of these?