BB Couture, Vampy Varnish (take 2)

This is one of my favorite polishes ever (it made the top 20 twice), but I've never ever ever been able to capture a good picture of this one.  It is a black jelly with BBC's famous micro gold/green glitter, and it looks like the universe. 

What you see here are three coats to get rid of any less pigmented spots on the nails.  The polish is a little thicker than average and you may want to thin it for better control--I just work with it. Despite the glitter it's smooth as glass with one good coat of topcoat. I'm currently using Essie's Good to Go!. 

Some bright bottle love (oh, look, there's a crack! Oh no! I'm sorry, Vampy Varnish. D:) 

 And here's how I've been wearing this polish lately...

Nars, Zulu

Ah, Nars Zulu. My first giant lemming.  Started by perusing innocently through a bunch of blogs before finding my blackened-green jelly love that also happened to be ridiculously expensive and impossible to find without forking an untold amount of money on eBay. 

I blame my addiction to true, deep greens entirely on Nars Zulu. I even blame my need for jellies as dark and moody in color on Nars Zulu.  I used to want to attempt frankens, I considered buying Anna Sui's 915 (just as hard to find and elusive). I didn't believe all the hushed and frantic rumors that Zulu would be re-released. Why would such a thing come so easily? Who, besides np collectors like myself, would desire such a thing? It was a hopeless cause.

Except that Nars did re-release Zulu. And imagine my  surprise when a little box filled with deep green jelly goodness showed up on my doorstep!

Zulu is two coats, with perfect application--like all jellies of its kind, it initially applies streakily and eases and levels with the second coat. It is lovely--deep near black in indoors light and shade, a true emerald in sunlight.

Oh, Zulu. We are meant to be.

Orly, Galaxy Girl

Okay.

I do say this quite often, but this time it is imperative:  click on the images to see the polish better. My pictures are generally very large. That will help.

I can't decide whether or not I like Galaxy Girl or Space Cadet better.  They're so different, and both so awesome! Space Cadet reminds me of the shift of color in autumn leaves and the amount of colors that it shifts into is... just great. Galaxy Girl goes on the color of dried blood and then picks up this teal to magenta shimmer that's so strange and moody and complex. I mean, look below:

(Bottle pictures here show a lot of the color shift as well.)  You know what, I'm just going to stop talking. Here. It's pretty. It's two coats for opacity. I adore this. Get it when you can. It's worth it. CVS is cheaper than e-tailers. It's also worth the quest.

Oh, has anybody missed my distance shots? Here:

Orly, Space Cadet

Orly's fall collection--that is, the Cosmix Fx--was a giant hit on the nail board even before the swatches came out. It sounded so promising, so complex, that we just couldn't wait for them to come out.  Now that they are pretty much out for the general public... they've lived up (mostly) to their hype. These are gorgeous, and Space Cadet is my clear winner.

Space Cadet is a polish whose finish is very similar to, say, Hard Candy's Mr. Wrong:  a colored sheer finish with a ridiculous amount of irregularly-shaped flakes/glitter pieces. The difference is that Space Cadet has a teal base and is filled with glitter that flashes alternately green, gold, rose, deep violet, etc.--depending on the light.  I've tried to take pictures that showcase this, but pictures do it no justice. This polish is gorgeous.

This is three coats of Space Cadet--I believe that layering this polish over another color will preserve it a little, although I can't say for certain. (Check out that bit of blue peeking through the polish color. Gah.)

So I took a video:

Wow. The quality is a little bad, but it is my camera video, so... I hope you can forgive me for that! > <

Illamasqua Rampage

I humbly introduce to you Illamasqua Rampage, which I have worn for ages but haven't shown you guys because of my inability to take a decent picture of it. This is still not decent--the gloss keeps getting in the way of all of the color's translucence and purity of pigment, but for now I think this will do. 

I think the reasons as to why I like it should be both obvious and maybe a little embarrassing in consistency. I like dark green. Rampage is dark green. I like jellies. Rampage is a jelly. I also like sleek, square bottles that ooze pretentious class, and, well, Illamasqua's bottles are laser-cut on the inside to make it even squarer and more compact and there's a pop-off square lid with its brand symbol on it and it comes in a glossy black box and--well, the brand's British. (I have the impression that the The-British-Are-So-Much-Cooler-Than-We-Are thing only applies to Americans. More on that another time.)

Heh.

On a more purely polish-related level, though, jelly greens allow for the viewer to experience looking through green glass bottles as a child and marveling at color and translucency, but on your nails. Like this:

So... yes, that's that. :)

Do you see how Rampage just changes in the light? It's gorgeous.

By the way, this is two coats, perfect application.  I have no other words.

RBL Grunge, Take Two

I wear polishes over and over again, and I'd taken a picture of this one early on in my blogging history.  I figured it was about time to try to do this one justice--it's top five for me, for certain, and my work appropriate color of choice due to application, wear, and the way it just looks so dang good on my hands.

This is two easy coats.

I took this on a gray morning, but in the sun it has a flash of secret golden shimmer. Yes, it's awesome. :)

Zoya, Veruschka

I wore this polish for last Christmas, in lieu of all the people wearing ChG Emerald Sparkle/Ruby Pumps/things that are red, green, gold, silver, and shiny. I liked the velvety look of Veruschka, like expensive wrapping paper or like warm comforter. It suited my favorite part of Christmas more--less about the glitz and the parties and the wrapping paper, more about the fireplace glow of the holiday.

Anyway, it's September now (already) and Veruschka still seems appropriate for heralding in crisp mornings and red leaves and gray skies. It's a deep, blue-based forest green with a velvety sheen and little tiny silver shimmer particles interspersed within the polish to give it more depth than a flat, creme-like matte base would usually allow. I'm under the impression that it also helps with the overall smoothness of the polish--matte may normally allow for a lot of mistakes to show, but I could be wrong. Veruschka is my only matte polish.

Like any other matte (so far as I know), Veruschka dries extremely quickly, so there is little time to paint a nail completely. I still found application fairly easy and applied two coats just in case--if I were faster and more careful, one would probably have been enough. Of course, one should wait until the base coat is completely dry or not wear it at all--this rule also applies to topcoat.

:3

And, of course, this is what it looks like without topcoat--kind of like a finish between the scattered and distinctly-particled glitter/glassfleck, and also the fineness and easily-removeable shimmer. I liked it a lot--it looked like it had tons of depth, although I can't really speak much for the sparkle. The gray days continue. :)

On to other news:  I've recently purged and reorganized my stash in a drawer underneath my desk and I've discovered that I'm a lot less of a brand collector than I thought I was. Also, that I had a ton more OPIs than any other brand. I'd somehow assumed that the list would be dominated by either Essie or China Glaze, but I have one Essie (that is, Jelly Apple:  I gave away the others to people who would've appreciated and used them more) and four China Glazes. My dominant finish of choice is creme or glitter, and there's hardly any other sort in sight. I have never not been on low-buy, and due to my nonexistent budget--I need every single coin I have--I have been on super-low-buy for months.

I know the must-haves for every single upcomming/recent collection, lately, and quite a huge lemming list of my own. But now I'm curious:  what are your top used/nostalgic/signature polishes that you can't live without, regardless of the new trends and the crazy lemmings? What brings you back to all of this, again and again?
 What have you noticed about your own collecting habits, if you collect at all?  :)

Deborah Lippmann, Across the Universe

Holy Cow.

I've worn a lot of Lippmanns by now--four of them, actually--and I think this one is by far my favorite. I tried taking tons of pictures, but there is nothing that I've taken that can capture its incredible depth. The effect of looking at Across the Universe is like... looking at jewels underwater. It catches light in a glossy way that first reflects off the blue before the hex glitter catches a gleam. Fascinating.

Anyway, Across the Universe is one of two that Deborah Lippmann has released for her fall collection. It is a deep blue jelly base, filled with blue and green hexagonal glitter as well as blue square glitter. It took three coats--which I think is necessary--to reach this opacity, and it was also somewhat difficult to apply.  I can imagine that this polish would get thick easily; I recommend a few drops of thinner. Beyond its gloopiness and the issue about glitter placement, I had little problems on application.

But can we take a few moments and just talk about the sheer awesome of this polish?

No?

I couldn't really stop staring at this while I had it on. If I've done my research right, this polish is supposed to encapsulate entire galaxies in a single bottle, but I don't think of the sky when I look at this. (In some ways, I do with Lady Sings the Blues, but whatever.) I think of the ocean, and in that way I can't find a polish more appropriate in the summer than this one. I love this.

Have a great weekend, guys! I'll be moving out in the time that you're all reading this--I'm finally, finally a college graduate!

Things will get hectic and crazy in the next month, but I'll let you all know later--for now, it's a secret! ;)

Piggy Polish, Poet-Tree

While everybody's out there in search of the perfect mint green, why has nobody talked about Poet-Tree yet? I'll confess:  I bought it for the name, but it's just about trumped all the pastels that I own.  I love the color--it reminds me of that avocado kitchen color in the 60s. It reminds me of Jadeite.  It reminds me of vintage stuff in general. 

Jeebus, I love this color. It even made me bust out my long-shelved, favorite glitter-toppings, Chanel Illusion D'or and Pa A125:

Still one of my favorite NOTDs yet.

RBL, Orbis Non Sufficit

Um, I love this color.  For many reasons:
1)  The Polish Addict was the first np blog that I read and really, really enjoyed.
2)  I studied Latin (am still, actually) as my language requirement in college and enjoyed it.  This was the color I wore for my last Latin final. It reminds me very cohesively of good and horrible times there.
3) Uh, it's green.

There is something very special about this murky green color, however.  It goes with nearly everything, in an understated and chic sort of way. At the same time, it's green, so it has a tendency to still attract attention. It's RBL and therefore the formula and application process is perfect, almost a hedonistic pleasure.  I applied ONS in one coat. It lasts for quite a while. It's lovely.

And, lastly, because I can't help myself:

Heehee. :)

China Glaze, Emerald Sparkle

Say hello to one of the nail polishes that started it all.

Admittedly, I think it was RBL Recycle that really started the madness (you can tell, since I think I have about three posts of it on this here blog), but Emerald Sparkle is noteworthy for being the one that made me sit there and think, "Hmm, it just might be a good idea for me to own every single green polish that ever existed, probably."  This was exacerbated by the fact that dark green is my favorite color and that a lot of prominent nail bloggers like green polish as much as I do.

Still, I wasn't a glitter person and I wasn't sure if I ever wanted to pull the haul for this one, and I dilly-dallied around it for a while.   But when I was dragging my brother around Sally's for a tub of Mango Mend on my birthday, I found this little pretty. On sale.

For 99 cents.

Uh, yes, I bought it.

I think I might legitimately say that Emerald Sparkle is my first lemming and for that reason is one of my favorite polishes that I own--not to mention that it's dark and sparkly and deep and wonderful in every possible way. (I didn't think this when I first put it on.  It was on a cloudy day and I thought, 'ew'. This is a more recent picture and I love it--this is two coats, and, as you can see, has slight VNL. The nail line is not actually visible in real life, but I recommend three thin coats of Emerald Sparkle anyway.

One last sentimental picture before I go back to studying for finals:
 

Awww yeah.

A Comprehensive Illusion D'or Swatch Post, Pt. 2

The madness continues.

Illudo over Essie Ballet Slippers.

Over ChG Emerald Sparkle.  My second-favorite combination!

Excuse the frazzle.  Over Color Club Uptown Girl.

Aaand my current NOTD:  Illudo over Sally Hansen's Green with Envy.

Final notes: Illusion D'or is pretty over cremes, but I like it over particle-d polish:  Emerald Sparkle, Groupie, Vampy Varnish.  It lends a foil-like texture to the layer under it, which I like.  It tends to be somewhat lackluster (as one coat) over cremes. Also, the color has a tendency to lighten and warm up with a coat of Illudo.

I know, I know, I know that I haven't covered well-roundedly a bunch of colors. What about metallics? Duochromes? Blues? straight-up glitter? But do not tempt me.  I had to put this polish away so I could stop compulsively layering it over everything I wore.  Given time and self-control, more swatches may come up!