China Glaze did it first with the Ink Collection. Nubar has the Get Hot collection, Color Club has the Flower Power collection, even Essie ventured away from nudes and pinks to do a mini collection, Neon Shorts, this summer.

Neon is definitely not in everyone’s nail polish comfort zone. If you want to ease yourself into this trend, try wearing a neon orange or red similar to the one Rihanna is wearing in this picture. (look for Color Club – Sexsea or China Glaze – Japanese Koi)

Those of you who want to go all out neon, like Rihanna’s nails in picture below, try China Glaze – Celtic Sun.

If having neon nails is something you want to look into but you aren’t sure whether you’ll like it, don’t pour tons of money into it by purchasing expensive brands. Instead, take a trip to your local drug store. This trend has already been picked up by the less expensive brands. Sinful Colors, a mainstay at Walgreens and a very excellent inexpensive brand, has just released their neon collection. If you have a Claire’s Icing at your local mall, go pick up their recently released neon five pack.

I love neon. Were it not for my summer internship with the State Attorney’s Office, I would never take these colors off – but I know it’s not for everyone. What do you guys think about it, are you going to rock the neon this summer? If yes, what are your favorite colors?

It’s no surprise that OPI is late to the party yet again. Blues were the thing last season, but for those of us who don’t care about strictly following seasonal trends, OPI Dating a Royal from the new Mod Brights Collection is pretty amazing.

Originally, I was going to compare all of these colors but once I got the bottles together it was pretty clear that the only real contenders for comparison were Lippmann Collection – Rehab and Rescue Beauty Lounge – Dead Calm. China Glaze – Shower Together (twin of China Glaze – Aqua Baby), L.A. Girl Flare – Twinkling, and OPI Just Groovy don’t look anything like Dating a Royal, or each other for that matter. There was some concern arising on the nail board that all these colors might be too similar to justify owning all of them, but as you can see from the bottle picture, that’s not the case.

2 Coats Rescue Beauty Lounge – Dead Clam, 3 Coats OPI – Dating a Royal, and a whopping 4 coats for Lippmann Collection – Rehab

I apologize for the quality of this image. For some reason I just could not get these colors to photograph well. This was the clearest image of the bunch, but even with the lack of focus, this image is an accurate depiction of what these colors look like in person. The online teaser images of Dating a Royal made it seem like it would be more dupish to the aqua blues. As it turns out, it’s a much darker blue, but not as dark as the blues that were popular last season. Its comparative lightness makes it more relevant to the trends of this spring and summer but since it’s not technically a light blue it will be wearable in the fall. I’ll give everyone the skinny on the application and wear when I do the full swatches.

If there are any colors you guys want compared drop me an email or comment with your request. : )

In other news, I am now a member of Alltop.com. Yeay! Alltop condenses the best blogs on the net by category so you can read about your favorite topics all in one place. Their beauty section is pretty comprehensive, you guys should check them out if you haven’t already.

I hate to say this because I think the idea of an 18 dollar nail polish is absolutely ridiculous, but I’m a fan of Rescue Beauty Lounge. Their application and wear is amazing but more importantly, at least to me, they have really unique colors. I’m not a shimmer girl. In a world where most unique colors have shimmer, finding unique cremes is an almost impossible task… then I found Rescue Beauty Lounge and to this day my wallet and bank account quietly sob in unison.

First, the *MOST* prized of the Rescue Beauty Bunch:

Rescue Beauty Lounge – Recycle

Ooooh, I obsessed over whether to buy this one or not for weeks. I was still recovering from the psychological trauma of having neglected to buy Zulu, so I said to hell with being frugal and took the plunge. I felt really guilty about it for a while because it was so expensive ($18 + Ridiculous Shipping Charges = Guilt). I got over it, I just loved the color so much. It’s the perfect true green. Recycle was the gateway that facilitated my future RBL purchases.

My second Rescue Beauty Lounge splurge was for Dead Calm:

I wanted a true blue creme so badly. My first brush with blue cremes was Lippmann Rehab. It’s a great polish, the only problem is that it has a jelly finish and requires 4 coats to achieve a pretty navy color. It also took forever to dry, sometimes it didn’t dry at all. I would end up with horrendous sheet marks (back then I had yet to discover the gloriousness that is Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat). Dead Calm is opaque in one coat, amazing wear and application. It’s also really unique, not quite like anything else on the market. So at least for me, Dead Calm was definitely worth the money. As a side note, ‘Dead Calm’ is an awesome name for a polish.

I got Purple Haze, Stormy, and Concrete Jungle all in one haul – the day I lost my mind.

Purple Haze is a beautiful color but I didn’t love it on myself. Again, it is undoubtedly a unique color. As you can see from my purple comparison swatches there is nothing else quite like it in my collection.

I mauled over getting Stormy and Concrete Jungle for a long time.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy is probably not worth the money unless you really really *really* want it. I developed my obsession for this polish back when no other company had a gray polish on the market. That’s not the case anymore, every brand has their own version of a chic gray. If you want to go gray without denting your funds try OPI Moon Over Mumbai, Essie Body Language, Carolyn New York Handball Courts or Hangin’ on the Stoop, China Glaze Recycle or frankening your own gray instead. If, in the end, you are so inclined to spend the money, rest assured it’s an excellent polish.

Finally, Rescue Beauty Lounge Concrete Jungle:

This is my current NOTD. It’s a great color. I had a little trouble with the application when I used Barielle Nail Camouflage. For some reason, it made the polish really thick and difficult to apply. I switched to a non-ridge filling base coat and the application problems disappeared. Like with Stormy, Concrete Jungle, color-wise, is probably not worth the cold hard cash.

My nail polish philosophy is that expensive brands are only worth it if either a.) the color is really unique and there is nothing else anywhere that is like it, or b.) you just can’t help yourself and splurging will make you happy. You won’t see me buying a pink or a red from Chanel or RBL. Do you guys feel the same way? What’s your philosophy on expensive polish?

*Disclaimer* The Polish Addict is in not liable for any lemmings this post may have created.

In the end, I couldn’t pick between Zoya – Yummy and OPI – Just Groovy. Surprisingly, both had excellent wear. I removed them after five days of wear with no chips or tip pull. (However, I’m starting to wonder whether it’s something that I’m doing differently to make my polish stay on for so long.) In any case, I love them both, so I decided to keep them even though they look exactly the same.

I now officially hate Zoya a little less, my love for OPI remains true.

Coming up next week:

+ A swatch review of the Color Club Flower Power Neon Collection, courtesy of Color Club.

+ A Rescue Beauty Lounge pic spam with swatches of Dead Calm, Recycle, Concrete Jungle, Stormy, and Purple Haze.

+ A swatch review of 3 colors from the new OPI Mod Brights Collection: Dating a Royal, The ‘It’ Color, and Green -wich Village.

+ Comparison swatches of the most recent blues including OPI Dating a Royal, China Glaze Shower Together and Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm.

+ The cure for nothavingzuluitis – recipes for Zulu frankens (making your own Zulu).

+ My attempt at using China Glaze Ink to make my nails look like prison tats . . .

My favorite Links this week:

Ballz and Thinner debunks myths about nail polish and tells InStyle to get with it.

Casual Lavish gives us some at home remedies for whiter nails.

Scrangie swatches the new limited edition (*rolls eyes*) Nars Orgasm.

All Lacquered Up goes green and breaks down the chemical components in nail polish by brand .

Blogdorf Goodman gives a sneakpeek at Mac Naughty Nauticals and more importantly their two new polishes.

A Touch of Blusher teases us with a preview of the beautiful new Jill Stuart collection, exclusive to Japan (of course).

In the end, I couldn’t pick between Zoya – Yummy and OPI – Just Groovy. Surprisingly, both had excellent wear. I removed them after five days of wear with no chips or tip pull. (However, I’m starting to wonder whether it’s something that I’m doing differently to make my polish stay on for so long.) In any case, I love them both, so I decided to keep them even though they look exactly the same.

I now officially hate Zoya a little less, my love for OPI remains true.

Coming up next week:

+ A swatch review of the Color Club Flower Power Neon Collection, courtesy of Color Club.

+ A Rescue Beauty Lounge pic spam with swatches of Dead Calm, Recycle, Concrete Jungle, Stormy, and Purple Haze.

+ A swatch review of 3 colors from the new OPI Mod Brights Collection: Dating a Royal, The ‘It’ Color, and Green -wich Village.

+ Comparison swatches of the most recent blues including OPI Dating a Royal, China Glaze Shower Together and Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm.

+ The cure for nothavingzuluitis – recipes for Zulu frankens (making your own Zulu).

+ My attempt at using China Glaze Ink to make my nails look like prison tats . . .

My favorite Links this week:

Ballz and Thinner debunks myths about nail polish and tells InStyle to get with it.

Casual Lavish gives us some at home remedies for whiter nails.

Scrangie swatches the new limited edition (*rolls eyes*) Nars Orgasm.

All Lacquered Up goes green and breaks down the chemical components in nail polish by brand .

Blogdorf Goodman gives a sneakpeek at Mac Naughty Nauticals and more importantly their two new polishes.

A Touch of Blusher teases us with a preview of the beautiful new Jill Stuart collection, exclusive to Japan (of course).

My obsession with Zulu started when I saw it in Sephora’s catalog ad last Fall. Nars, like many nail polish companies, decided to switch their formula to Big-3 free. In doing so, they discontinued several polishes from their line, one of which was Zulu. A frenzy ensued. Immediately after Zulu was discontinued, the ebay scalping began. Zulu was selling for $70.00 to $80.00. Nearly a year later, it is still consistently scalped on ebay for $50.00 or more.

My question is, why would a corporation, that by definition is an entity that operates solely for the purpose of producing profit and accumulating capital, discontinue a product that clearly still has a viable market? Zulu is one of the 3 most sought after rare nail polishes, the others being Clarins 230 and OPI Jasper Jade. The same is true for Clarins and OPI as well, why would any corporation allow a third party to profit so greatly and unconscionably from its work product and loyal consumers. Why don’t these companies nix the nail polish black market by simply re-releasing these colors? It’s not that it can’t be done, Essie picked up the ball by re-releasing their two biggie hard-to-finds, Viva La Vespa and Starry Starry Night. Why won’t Nars, OPI, and Clarins do the same?

I asked Nars. Shockingly, I got back a real answer instead of the typical form answer I usually get when I send berating emails to nail polish companies (I berate nail polish companies fairly often so I’ve gotten plenty of really useless replies – I applaud Nars for their excellent customer service in that regard). Kym Davis, Senior Marketing Manager at Nars, says that the issue of re-releasing discontinued highly sought after nail polishes has been coming up a lot lately. She explained that they are considering re-releasing Zulu and a few others but at the moment there are no set plans to do so.

She also said that she would continue to forward consumer feedback about discontinued colors to the big-wigs. There are a ton of people out there that missed the Zulu train (and now suffer from ‘Nothavingzuluitis’, more on that at a later date) but don’t want to blow an exorbitant amount of money buying Zulu from an evilbay scalper.

I present this solution: Email Nars and tell them that they should re-release the colors you want. If it’s really true that Nars is considering re-releasing Zulu, then maybe a few hundred emails will convince them that they should.

Email Nars at customerservice@narscosmetics.com, ask that they forward your email to Kym Davis.

Purple and lilac have been pretty popular this spring. I made these swatches originally to help the girls at MUA find a cheaper alternative to the ever prohibitively expensive but wildly popular Rescue Beauty Lounge – Purple Haze. We were all pretty sad to find that there really isn’t a cheaper alternative to that particular color. No other brand has a shade of purple that even comes close. That is not to say these other colors aren’t worth it, all these purples and lilacs are beautiful in their own right. The only one missing that I really feel should have been included for comparison is Essie – Looking for Love. In the bottle, it’s a really beautiful vivid lilac – but – I had to decide against purchasing it because of its notorious and irreparable streakiness.

3 Coats China Glaze – Spontaneous (The Flirt Collection), 2 coats Rescue Beauty Lounge – Purple Haze (The Spring ‘08 Collection), 3 Coats OPI – Do You Lilac It? (The Original Brights Collection)

4 coats each for these: Zoya Miley (4 coats required for bottle color with a Zoya? No…… you don’t say? – This one is from the Blissful Collection), Orly Bon Bon (Sugar Coated Collection), Essie St. Lucia Lilac (Permanent Collection).

Purple Haze is the fan favorite. I can’t say I was really impressed with the color on myself. The application and wear-time were flawless as always but I just didn’t LOVE it. I’m going to give it one more go, and perhaps let it go if I still don’t love it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKXABrnyFWI&hl=en]

Nail Polish the Movie Official Website

Hmm… teenage angst + cheesy romance + nail polish = must see.

(I’m hounding Greencine to pick it up for me right now.)

Color Club is getting ready to launch mini sets! I personally love minis because buying minis means I can hoard different colors without hurting my wallet too badly. They have 4 mini sets planned.

The Natural Nail Kit which will include mini nail treatments for healthy and long-lasting manis and pedis.

The Mighty Brights will include their 4 best selling colors from the Flower Power collection. This is perfect since the trend right now is bright vibrant neons. This mini set will be perfect for people that express reservations about taking the plunge into the awesome, yet flashy, world of neon colors.

The Frenchies mini set will include 2 best selling french mani colors, Milky White, the base coat that was released with the Sweet Seduction collection, and Vivid, a brand new top coat with optical brighteners that is supposed give life to dull and fading manis, as well as, add a higher level of color intensity to fresh manis. I’m pretty excited to try out this top coat.

Finally, the Best Sellers mini set will include 4 of Color Club’s most popular polishes.

The MOST exciting news of all is that Color Club’s new fall collection is due out really soon! I’ll post more about this collection as soon as I find out more information!

Ah. I’m so excited, I can hardly contain myself. Color Club is probably one of the only nail polish brands of which I have nothing negative to say. Love the formula, love the colors, LOVE the price.

Source: Color Club

My biggest nail polish pet peeve is accidentally buying a color that is similar to another color I already have. I can’t even say that these colors are similar. They are EXACT DUPLICATES of each other.

My initial reaction was frustration. I was warned by the ladies at MUA that these were close to each other but I didn’t listen. I just didn’t think they would be this close. For several reasons, my next thought was to swap the Zoya and keep the OPI. One reason being that I passionately hate Zoya. My hatred began the day I hauled from Zoya. I bought 8 or so colors. Of those, Zoya Suvi and Kotori from the Downtown Collection, I hated so much I had to swap them. Both colors took 4 coats and they looked cheap with my skin tone. The other color was Zoya Stephanie, as my namesake, I felt I had to buy it. I love the color. It’s a very light pink, almost white but it too took four coats to be even and opaque. It was an ungodly streak-fest to apply. After that disappointment I put myself on a Zoya no-buy and constantly preach the anti-Zoya gospel to anyone who will listen. The running joke on MUA is that Zoya killed my family and I became Catwoman. (Polish fumes kill brain cells. : D)

OPI, on the other hand, is my love. I mean really, OPI is my bread and butter. I spend my nights and days dreaming little OPI dreams – jonesing for the next collection, scouring the depths of the internet nail polish underworld and hole-in-the-wall beauty shops for coveted discontinueds. (Just Groovy was recently discontinued, more reason to keep it.) At least that’s how I felt until recently. Lately, OPI has been dropping the ball. Since OPI changed their formula to big 3 free, quality has been all over the place. The India collection is bleh, same colors – different names, nothing new or exciting.

But still my loyalty is with OPI so I thought for sure I would be keeping Just Groovy, no contest…

then I did the swatches. Wow, was I surprised. These swatches are without basecoat and topcoat. Both polishes were streaky, Zoya slightly less so. Both needed 3 coats to even out. OPI was really chalky, really tough to apply. I also prefer Zoya’s brush to OPI’s pro-wide. The finish on Yummy was a little more glossy than Just Groovy. Both polishes separate easily in the bottle. There is a very very slight difference in color – but it’s not in any way noticeable even to the MUA nail-board eye.

What now?… I’ve heard horror stories about Zoya’s wear, like chips within hours of application (I don’t know first hand because I always end up removing Zoyas almost immediately) but I had a really tough time with Just Groovy’s application.

So I decided to wear Yummy on my left hand and Just Groovy on my right hand to see what’s what. For the actual mani, I used Barielle Camo as the base which completely fixed Yummy’s streakiness but seemed to actually make Just Groovy *more* streaky. Seche Vite fixed the unevenness that I got with both colors after applying 3 coats. I’ll post in a few days with the results.

Here are the Contenders.

My initial thought was the Orly is just a glitter top coat that is slightly more reflective than normal glitter. INM is pretty much the same as the Orly with smaller glitter and more density. INM (both the silver and gold versions) is the only brand of glitter top coat I own that completely settles at the bottom. The bottle has a sticker on it that says, “shake it up” which, of course, is blasphemous – one should never shake a bottle of nail polish. To get all the glitter to evenly disperse throughout the bottle using the correct method (i.e. rolling the bottle inbetween your fingers) is incredibly time consuming and irritating. Finally, the fan favorite, Wireless, from the OMG collection, is the densest of all with the finest glitter. Let’s Do it in 3-D, from the Kaleidoscope Collection, is not a topcoat, it’s only here for comparison because it looked so much like Wireless to me that I initially mistook one for the other when I was taking these pictures. Wireless is probably just a more diluted version of Let’s Do it in 3-D.

This is 2 coats OPI – Black Onyx and 1 Coat for each Top Coat.

-Now for the real bling-

Clearly, Let’s Do it in 3-D brings the most *bling*. However, it’s not actually a top coat – it can’t win this contest. China Glaze – Wireless Top Coat is my pick. Owning both Wireless and INM is justifiable. They aren’t duplicates and the effect is clearly different. INM is basically a really nice (although run of the mill) glitter top coat while Wireless is more unique, I’m hesitant to call it glitter top coat at all. There is nothing really wrong with Orly, but if you own INM – no point in picking up a version with bigger and sparser glitter (unless you’re looking for something like that.)

Man, I love this song – and the little finger dancing thing. : D

Kid Sister – Pro Nails
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeCp6nLPQ8Q&hl=en]

I haven’t worn China Glaze – Recycle yet, but the wear can’t possibly be as awesome as the wear time I had with Rescue Beauty Lounge – Stormy. Today was the 6th day wearing it with no chips, hardly any tip wear. It was almost kind of creepy in a weird voodoo undead nail polish kind of way. I just couldn’t take it anymore, I had to change my color. Although, I was tempted to leave it on just to see how long it would take to chip. I know most people would be really thrilled with 6+ days of perfect wear. Normally, I would be too but I’m trying to plow through my untrieds, a daunting task.

This image was taken without top coat. China Glaze – Recycle is glossy. I think the secret to the wear on Rescue Beauty Lounge – Stormy is the non-glossy formula. The application of China Glaze looks like a traditional polish while Rescue Beauty Lounge looks as if you are coating your nail with powder or pigment. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for the voodoo wear exhibited by Stormy. I should add, I have a lot of nail ridges, RBL has a tendency to show nail imperfections when applied without a ridge-filler. However, it’s not too bad with a base coat, two coats, and a top coat.

As far as the color, the picture is very accurate – Stormy and Recycle aren’t exactly the same but really it’s close enough…. well it’s close enough for the 16 dollar price tag difference. The normal, non-nail polish-obsessed eye probably wouldn’t notice the difference in the color anyway. I’m not going to tell anyone not to buy it because I, too, lost all sanity and took the RBL plunge. Fifty-four dollars later, I’m in no position to tell others what to do with their money. However, I think that unless you REALLY have this uncontrollable urge to spend 18 dollars on one bottle of nail polish – skip Rescue Beauty Lounge’s grays, and just get Recycle.

The other option is to franken your own gray. I frankened my own grays before I got these 3 colors. I did it because I saw Concrete Jungle and Stormy before the height of my addiction, back when I thought it was absolutely ridiculous to spend 18 dollars on a bottle of nail polish (that was before Rescue Beauty Lounge set up their Amazon store so in addition to the exorbitant price tag, they gouged you on shipping too.) The great irony was that I loved my frankens, so much so that I thought I would love these manufactured ones more, but I don’t. I actually like my versions a little better.

This franken is about 3/4s OPI – Black Onyx and 1/4 OPI – Apline Snow. (I named it Steel Angel after my other fanatical hobby, anime.) Really easy to make, this method has the additional benefit of allowing you to tweak the color to compliment your skin tone. Gray is a difficult color to wear, it’s definitely not one size fits all. Compare my Franken to the image of Stormy next to it – it’s pretty similar and a hell of a lot cheaper.

Also I should mention, Carolyn New York sells two grays (Handball Courts and Hanin’ on the Stoop) that a lot of girls on MUA believe are dupish to the two RBLs. I don’t have them but it’s definitely worth looking into if you absolutely don’t want to Franken or shell out the mad cash.