I started writing this post during that week that my site went on the fritz. I gave up after I banged my head against my computer and had to go outside to burn a WordPress effigy. Last week, I finally figured out what caused the issue in the first place. As it turns out my website does not like the WordPress Jetpack Plug-in. I deactivated it, along with everything else, when I was trying to fix the problem originally. It didn’t help instantly, but after being deactivated for a couple of days, I logged back in to find that everything was working perfectly. Fast forward to a few days ago, I tried to check my stats and I realized that that function is dependent on Jetpack so I reactivated the plug-in. Instantly, the site stopped working again and it took about 24 hours after deactivation for the site to function normally. At the very least, I finally know what happened but I’m flying completely blind in terms of site stats. Haha.

In any case, back to the post, I got an email recently from a newly minted nail polish collector who was interested in layering techniques. I don’t layer often because my nail polish OCD compels me to wear a color in its unaltered form the first time I wear it. But when I do layer, I love it. And some colors scream “layer me!” despite my obsessive tendencies.

Hits Moonbow, from the Phenomena collection, is precisely that type of color. This polish is ridiculous. Just ridiculous. It’s a color-shifting multichrone glitter suspended in a cloudy base.  The glitter shifts from green and fuchsia to purple and occasionally it flashes gold. When I first saw photos of this color I was instantly obsessed, I had to have it, stat! However, from the swatches I saw, it didn’t look like a glitter polish, it looked like… well… magic. So I was a little disappointed when I received it and discovered that while it was still quite magical, it didn’t really look the way it looked online. (This is the second time this has happened recently *makes Mikayla is not impressed face*). My next hope was that it would be a buildable glitter, meaning the whole surface of the nail would be completely covered within a few coats. It is buildable, sort of. The glitter will cover the surface of your nail but it takes about 4 coats. That would be fine, except that, for whatever reason, the glitter does not coat the tip of the nail very well. The end result looks a bit like tip pull. You can definitely see what I’m talking about in the photo above – needless to say, it’s not very flattering.

Because of that issue, I don’t recommend wearing this color on its own. It is gorgeous for sure and it definitely has a crash-inducing-stare-at-my-nails-while-driving quality to it but it looks infinitely better layered over another color.

Case in point, Hits Moonbow over oldschool Essie Grape Crush. Looks much better, right? Grape Crush, a sheer purple glaze, is from an older Essie collection that consisted of all sheer glazes (as opposed to more modern jellies). For reference and comparison Essie Cherry Pop, which is still widely available, is from the same collection and has the same look and consistency. The beloved Essie Night Cap is also from that collection. I somehow neglected to photograph Grape Crush on its own – bad nail blogger, bad. I’ll make that up to you, I do plan to post the whole collection soon. I’m only missing one more polish, Essie Apricot Fizz, to complete the set of 6 from the original collection! In any case, this NOTD is 3 coats of GC and 3 coats of Moonbow. I know, I know that’s too many coats. But I liked the end result and I didn’t have any drying issues after a coat of Seche.

Hits is a new brand to me. I’m a little biased because it hails from the mother country, Brazil. The Phenomena collection is my first experience with this brand and I was pretty wowed by it even though it wasn’t what I expected. There are a few more Hits polishes on my lemming list, including pretty much ALL OF THE HOLOS. My one gripe is that the bottle is pretty small so you end up with that noticeable, and uber distressing, dip in the bottle after just one mani. It gave me some serious angst, another aspect of my nail polish OCD, so I do plan to get a back up bottle.  These bad boys retail for approximately $6.50 to $7.00.

When I was on the hunt for Moonbow and company, all the e-tailers had it listed as out of stock. That day, I placed orders with both Llarowe and Ninja Polish for several other colors. I included a note in the comments section of my order for both e-tailers that I really needed this color and asked that if they happened to have a bottle laying around in the stock room to please add it to my order and charge me for it. Ninja Polish did just that (excellent customer service on their part), meanwhile Llarowe very kindly included a bottle of it in my order without charging me. Even though I do want a back up bottle of this color and I was very grateful, I felt badly because I like to support small nail polish related businesses whenever I can. I figured that the best way to repay that kindness was to gift the bottle that I bought to another blogger and keep the gifted bottle. I did that in hopes of spreading the awesome around because more swatches = a better world, right? In any case, I don’t say this often but I highly recommend both e-tailers. They are both great so you can’t go wrong with either one. 

 Thoughts on Hits or Moonbow? What about nail polish OCD? Do you have it? If yes, how does it manifest for you?

Originally, I was going to split this collection into two posts but, to make up for my absenteeism, I decided to photo-bomb you all. The China Glaze Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away Collection is, I believe, China Glaze’s first foray into the indie glitter aesthetic. Out of 12, 3 polishes fit into that category. Since the indie glitter phenomenon happened while I was gone, my experience with them is limited. I don’t really feel qualified to pass judgment on how China Glaze’s interpretation of the trend stacks up in comparison to the originals. However, as far as the rest of the collection - overall, I liked it. My one criticism is that the collection isn’t as thematically cohesive as I usually prefer, but there’s something in it for everyone.

China Glaze Escaping Reality is a vibrant, bright hot pink creme that borders on neon. It dries a bit matte as neon-ish colors tend to do. This swatch is 3 coats. It applied pretty well, especially considering that neons typically do not. This is 3 coats, but it would have been good at 2. This photo is a bit inaccurate – in real life, the color leans blue.

China Glaze Whirled Away is 1 of the 3 indie glitter-esque polishes in this collection. It’s thin black bar glitter, black medium hex glitter, and very large white hex glitter suspended in a clear base. Like I explained before, I’m not very experienced with these types of polishes. A few more learned bloggers have noted that the fish & dab method is best with these larger hex glitter polishes. That’s what I did for this photo and it worked pretty well for me. Once I had all the glitter placed the way I wanted, I topped it with a very thick coat of Gelous to fill the crevasses left by the dabbing. In this swatch, I layered Whirled Away over Escaping Reality.

China Glaze Water You Waiting For is probably my favorite from this collection. It’s composed of blue micro glitter, very small green hex glitter, and medium blue hex glitter in a blue tinted base. The glitter is buildable - this is what it looks like at 4 coats with absolutely no undie. I used 3 coats of Gelous to smooth it out.

China Glaze It’s A Trap-eze is packed densely with a ton of glitter – I spotted aqua, green, purple, silver, yellow, red, and white. The sizes seem to be either medium hex and very small hex. All of that glitter is suspended in a bluish white base – not quite jelly but definitely translucent. This swatch is 4 coats of It’s A Trap-eze topped with 3 coats of Gelous. I didn’t like the look of this at 4 coats – it looked busy and clumpy. With polishes like this, I always think, the more coats, the better – and I always, always regret it. It was really lovely at 2 coats and I should have left well-enough alone. When I wear it again, I plan to layer a single coat over a light blue.

China Glaze Surreal Appeal is a vivid salmon-ish, coral pink creme. This is 3 coats. The application was finicky, thick but patchy at the same time. It all evened out at 3 coats.

China Glaze Running in Circles is a dazzling, glow-y grass-green glass-fleck glitter (woot! alliteration!) with a transparent grass-green tinted base. The shade leans a bit yellow and the flecks give it a foil-like finish. The photo simply does not do this color justice. This is 3 coats of color with 3 coats of Gelous. Running in Circles is a topcoat cannibal for sure.

China Glaze Igniting Love is a mango toned red crelly. I wore it as an NOTD. The color applied exceptionally well, glided on with minimal effort. I did 3 coats because I had VPL at 2. Although this color isn’t exactly unique, I really liked it. Orange based reds tend to be flattering on darker skin tones like my own. I go ages without wearing red but every time I wear a good red, I totally get why it is such a beloved nail color.  I know I rag on companies for releasing reds all the time, but I’ll eat my words and stop hating for a minute (but just one minute).

China Glaze Hanging in the Balance is a very well pigmented bright medium sky blue crème. Gorgeous, but definitely a stainer so beware. This is 3 coats - because it’s so pigmented, it would have been perfect at 2. This photo is a bit inaccurate - it’s a more saturated blue in person.

China Glaze Bend Over Backwards is a glowy orange toned shimmery red. The brushstrokes disappear once it’s dry. This is 3 coats but it was good at 2. This color was my least favorite in the set and I felt like it didn’t fit the collection’s wacky, whimsical theme.

China Glaze Get Carried Away is very small black and silver hex glitter, black bar glitter, and large black, copper, and silver hex glitter suspended in a black tinted base. It was tough to apply without using the dabbing method. This swatch is 1 coat of Carried Away over Bend Over Backwards and two coats of Gelous to smooth it out. Ommorphia put this over Def Defying which turned out to be a waaaaaaay better color combo.

China Glaze Def Defying is a yellowed based Shrek green creme. For me, the application was finicky – it took about 4 coats to even out the patchiness.

And, finally, China Glaze Creative Fantasy a bright neon-ish purple crelly. LOVED the color - very flattering. The formula is thin so it took about 4 coats to get to this level of opacity.

*whew* *wipes sweat of brow* I have a huge swatching back log from the recent lack of posting so stay tuned for a lot of great stuff coming up soon. : )

What do you guys think about this collection? Which shades made it in to your stash and why?

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Disclaimer: This collection was sent for review by China Glaze.

What’s the saying? – “A day late and a dollar short.” That adage is true here at the Polish Addict, especially the part about being a dollar short. *ba-dum-chish – Thanks, Folks. I’m here all week. Make sure to tip your waitress.*

This post would have been only a day late when I started writing it but I was overcome with exhaustion and decided to go to bed early. I’ve been buried at work; between that and holiday stuff, it’s been tough to find any extra time. The blog languished a bit. The good news is I’m finally over the hump and work will be less stressful for the next few weeks. This means I can get back to blogging and other nail polish related endeavors (like…updating my collection spreadsheet, hello?) Sadly though, for the past few weeks, I didn’t get to do anything exciting nail-wise. Oh, did I have big plans – we’re talking candy canes, snowman, googly-eyed reindeer, the works. Despite my best intentions, I only had time for the standard glitter fare. So, here it is, my abstract work of art entitled: Christmas NOTD for the Lazy Procrastinating Busy Nail Enthusiast.

I started off with Rescue Beauty Lounge Bella as an undie. Bella is a beige toned non-stark white crelly. By comparison OPI Don’t Touch My Tutu! is a more translucent/jelly-like, pure white. This is a finicky polish – not exactly hard to apply but required roughly 4 coats to even out. When Bella was sent to me for review, Ji told me that this polish is self-leveling, consequently fewer strokes would be key to flawless application. I’m sure that’s true, but I’m a habitual multiple-stroker. I basically use additional strokes to smooth everything out. If you watch a nail tech, usually they do one stroke down the middle, then one on either side of the nail bed. Three strokes tops, that’s it. I usually do about 5. It’s a bad habit, I know, but I can’t help it after all this time.

I topped Bella with Sephora by OPI Good Tidings We Bling! which consists of small green and red glitter, large green and red hex glitter, and smaller, darker green hex glitter suspended in clear polish. I definitely over-blinged this mani. It was really pretty at one coat so I thought, “Well, gee, if I love one coat so much, two coats will be amazing.” Nope, two coats just looked clutter-y. I topped it off with two coats of Gelous and one coat of Seche Vite. I bought Good Tidings We Bling! on sale at Sephora for 7 bucks a few weeks ago (only after a good bit of encouragement from my husband who thought it would be fun for Christmas. Really, what more can I ask for?) If you love it, check your local Sephora – it’s surely a lot cheaper now.

With all that said, even with the soul crushing work stress, I had a really great holiday. We did a lot of eating and a lot of laughing. And gift-wise, totally made out like a bandit. *puts on green & red Zorro mask : P* I hope everyone had a really wonderful holiday season, filled with joy, family, friends, laughter, delicious food and thoughtful gifts. <3

How were your holidays? Did you do a festive mani? Did you get any nail polish from Santa? : )

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Disclosure: Bella was sent for review by Rescue Beauty Lounge. Good Tidings We Bling was purchased by me.

Pretty Serious Cosmetics is the beauty brainchild of long time friend and fellow nail blogger Kaz, of Pretty Random. I still remember reading on Facebook while I was on hiatus that Kaz was launching her own brand of cosmetics. She’s living the dream with pretty amazing results. Overall, I’m very impressed with the quality of these polishes as well as the gorgeous, vivid colors. Application was perfect with most of these. PSC polishes retail for 9.95 AUD, which right now equals roughly 10.40 USD. Also, a 10% discount is available if you purchase full collection sets. Although Pretty Serious is based in Australia, they do ship to the US and a few other countries.  I have several PSC lemmings to fulfill and, hopefully, I’ll be able to do a mini-haul soon. Of course, I’ll (slowly) post my spoils for you all. Until then though, here are a few pretties for your consideration:

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Morning Java – so, so complex. I’m not even sure how to begin to describe this color. The base is a sort-of milk chocolate-y brown, booming with gold shimmer and fine glitter. It sparkles gold, copper, and a hint of green. The application was awesome, perfect at 2 coats.

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Dream Delight is multisize irregularly shaped silver glitter suspended in a grey tinted transparent base. If you look closely, you’ll also see some very sparse holo glitter and hex glitter. The hexes are very sparse, in this whole swatch I only spotted one. The glitter is completely opaque at two coats, very cool. I used two coats of Gelous to smooth-out the surface.

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Nightopia is bluish green with fine shimmer and a tiny touch of gold shimmer. Wooweee. This color reminds me of Bloom Bianca and Rimmel Mania (both of which are hiding somewhere in my stash!!!). Rimmel Mania is from my original nail polish stash, circa 1999-2002! I do hope I find these soon and I will post comparisons when I do. For now, you can check out Polish Insomniac’s comparison of the two shades.

Without being able to look at my bottles and from looking at swatches online, I believe Nightopia might be a bit deeper than Mania and Bianca. Either way, Nightopia might be a lemming quencher as Mania is long discontinued and Bloom polishes retail for 19.95 AUD (Whoa… were they that expensive 3 years ago? I have so many of them in my collection but I can’t imagine I would have bought so many at that price). Application was easy, this is 3 coats.

And, finally, last but definitely not least – the ridiculously beautiful BSOD (Blue Screen of Death):

Pretty Serious Cosmetics BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)… HOLY $#!+. This photo does this color no justice, no justice at all. No matter how I set up the lighting, I just couldn’t capture the true beauty of this color – suffice it to say that this photo is sadly inaccurate. It does not even begin to capture to the gorgeousness of this color, not even a little. It is so much more than a night sky polish - it’s really in a league of its own. It was absolutely breath-taking, I couldn’t stop staring at it the entire time I wore it. And that’s not to mention the compliments – this one is definitely a show stopper. Even my beloved Essie Starry Starry Nights pales in comparison. In fact, I think BSOD may either bump SSN from the top 20 or take a spot of its own. That is how much I truly LOVE this color.

Okay, let me stop gushing and start describing. BSOD looks like fine blue glitter suspended in blue jelly, and, boy, does it glow. To me, it looked less like the night sky and more like a blue version of the green scrolling text from The Matrix. This mani was 4 coats. BSOD dries non-glossy, so I used 1 coat of Gelous under 1 coat of Seche Vite.

My only criticism of this other-worldly color is that the application was not as great as the other polishes. It was a bit thick, not horrible, but my bottle could definitely benefit from a few drops of thinner. The wear was pretty impressive – 4 days, no chips or tip wear.

Have you tried Pretty Serious? If so, any other colors I need to pick up when I haul?

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Disclaimer: These polishes were sent to me for review by Pretty Serious Cosmetics.

I meant to post these during all the Cultober festivities, but the last two weeks at work have been hellish. The upside is that I was so distracted by work that I managed to go nearly two full weeks without buying anything (woo hoo for small victories); the down side is that I neglected the blog big time. I also nervously picked at my nails the whole time such that they are now injured, little nubbins. The nubbins were also accompanied by peeling, oh the horrible peeling. My nails are in such bad shape, they have never been like this before. I can’t figure out whether the peeling is a result of my nervous picking (both from using my nails to pick and from the damage to the nail bed caused by peeling off nail polish) or whether it’s the new base coat I’ve been using, Nail Tek Foundation III. To combat these issues, I picked up some Biotin today. The next couple of weeks will be stressful too, but they shouldn’t be as bad as the last two. I’m making a conscious effort to stop picking. Hopefully, we’ll see some improvement too.

In any case, the polishes in this post were my biggest Cult lemmings. And, oh boy, they are every bit as amazing as I hoped they would be. All four polishes were worn as manis. I was very impressed with the quality, good consistency, perfect application and wear. The bottle style is standard and sturdy. I liked the brush style too. These retail for $10.00 on the Cult Nails website. All in all, I’m pretty impressed with this brand.

Cult Nails Awakening… LOVE IT. I first saw this color on twitter, instant lemming. Subsequently, I went into a panic when Maria tweeted that this color was being discontinued and that supplies were running low. I’m so glad I was able to get my hands on this before it was gone. (Hopefully, Maria will bring it back some day). Awakening is a very deep, dark muted teal that leans toward blue as opposed to green.  I would say this is a crelly, definitely more creme than jelly. This is 3 coats, excellent application. I wore this one to work. Not exactly work appropriate but I thought it was subtle enough that it wouldn’t offend anyone. The wear was outstanding: 5 days, no chips.

Cult Nails Vicious, another beauty, is a dark, red-leaning plum creme. The color is very well pigmented, great formula and application. Perfectly opaque at two coats. I used Vicious as the base for an evolving mani that I will post soon.

Cult Nails I Got Distracted is fine holographic glitter and small green hexagonal glitter suspended in a blackened green base. This was another twitter-initiated lemming and it’s pretty amazing. Totally not work appropriate but I wore it to work anyway because I’m a sneaky-sneak. My husband said it was okay because even though it’s blingtastic-like-whoa, the darkness of the base makes it as subtle as something this blingy can be. This mani was 3 coats, but it was good at 2. IGD is a top coat eater for sure, I used 3 coats of Gelous and 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Cult Nails Living Water is blue and green micro glitter suspended in a dark blue jelly base. I love colors like this, dark and sparkly without being ‘in your face.’ It dries a bit matte so I used a coat of Gelous under Wicked Fast. People are constantly raving about Wicked Fast – the jury is still out for me but my initial impressions were good. It was ultra glossy and it dried very quickly to the touch.

Here’s a side shot to exhibit the gorgeous glitter. Finally, like the others, the application and wear was awesome.

I’m really looking forward to picking up some polishes by Cult. Do you have any Cult favorites that I need to own?

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Disclaimer: These were sent for review by Cult Nails.

This is another strange collection like the Essie Yogaga collection. There’s been some coverage online, but most sites (like mine) only have a few colors from the collection. And it seems that at least some of the colors belonging to this collection are possibly re-promotes from another collection, Bohemian Brights. As far as I can tell from the Sephora website, there are six shades in this collection – four are shown here – the other two are What Aura You Gonna Where and It’s Totally Karma. Some sites are treating other shades as belonging to this collection too, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’ll try to get some clarification on this.

These photos are all swatches and not NOTDs – I try my best to wear the colors I review but none of these are even mildly work apropos, not even a little. And since I can really only wear one ridic color per week during the weekend, I haven’t had a chance to wear these yet. There were some potential dupes in my stash for two of these colors – I will post comparisons soon but for now I’ve included links to other fab blogs for your viewing pleasure.

Sephora by OPI Paisley Attention to Me! is a bright, vibrant tangerine creamy crelly. It’s way brighter on the nail than in the bottle, shockingly so. This swatch is 3 coats. It applied well but the consistency was a bit strange, almost water-like. I didn’t quite get the name so I googled “paisley,” apparently it’s originally a Persian fabric pattern, made popular along with some Indian fabric patterns during the 1800s by the East Indian Trading Company. *shrugs* Learn something new every day? If I can get my hands of Cirque Neko (sadly sold out), Cirque Debris, or some other awesome black glitter, I might attempt a Halloween jelly sandwich with this one. As far as dupes, it’s tough to tell from bottle shade alone because of PATM’s crelly texture. Bottle-wise China Glaze Style Wars looks very similar but maybe a smidgen deeper. The other similar color in my stash is an older pre-2009 OPI that… HAS NO LABEL – OOOOH HOHOHOTHE HORROR!!!!!

I took it to the nail board, sadly we weren’t able to come to a consensus. I believe it’s OPI Atomic Orange. It’s definitely not Tangerine Scene or Osaka to me Orange – I have those and they both still have labels. : ( In any case, I’ll post comparison swatches soon (which will be totally not helpful to anyone since I have no idea what color this is, haha).

Sephora by OPI I’m So Sari is really complex. The base color is turquoise, the shimmer is very dense glass fleck, and the whole thing is topped off with small hexagonal holographic glitter. The glass fleck shimmer gives it a textured and somewhat foiled finish. It’s not a jelly, but the consistency is sheer-ish during application. Even so, application was issue-free. This polish was fine at 3 coats, but I was going for glitter-bomb-ultra-bling so the swatch is 4 coats. This polish eats top coat – this is two coats of Gelous and one coat of Seche. Overall, this one is pretty unique, the concept seems similar to Deborah Lippmann Mermaid’s Dream. Clearly, not dupes in anyway but maybe a suitable lemming place-holder.

Sephora by OPI Henna-Thing is Possible is a deep fuchsia with purple flash microshimmer that gives it a somewhat frosty finish that Sephora calls “metallic.” The application was excellent. This shade looks so familiar to me but I couldn’t find anything exactly like it in my stash. Even so, I feel like I’ve seen it before. In terms of base shade, the closest polishes in my stash were Zoya Tama, Zoya Anaka, and the coveted China Glaze It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere. Obviously IFOS has that bluish glow and glass fleckies that make it so special – but the base shade is pretty close.

Annnnd my favorite one from this collection, Sephora by OPI Seriously, It’s a Naan-Issue, a deep, gorgeous, dark purple. This is as dark as purple can get and still be purple. This was great at 2 coats, but I did 3 per usu. I’m pretty impressed with this color – I had no dupes for it. It was a shade between Rescue Beauty Lounge Mismas and China Glaze VIII. When I say I’m mostly indifferent to purple, I mean purple shimmers… purple creme, however, gets me every time. Love it.

I do apologize for not having the whole collection to show you. I’ll probably skip buying What Are You Gonna Wear, but the lime-y-ness of It’s Totally Karma is calling my name. What do you think? Pick it up or leave it be?

Sooo… any idea what my mystery old OPI might be?

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Disclosure: This collection was sent to me for review by Sephora’s PR.