My big beef with duo-chromes is that they generally look ridiculously amazing in the bottle but are much, much less impressive once applied on the nail. Purple Beach is what a duo-chrome should be when applied. It’s a gorgeous high intensity duo-chrome that transforms from purple to ash to green. The duo-chrome is very easily seen all the time, not just in special lighting while your fingers are twister tilted in strange directions. It’s perfect in two coats and the application was not fussy. I rarely say this, but Purple Beach is a *must* own color. It’s the type of polish that causes constant distraction and careless driving. Colors like this keep my passion for polish alive.  Also, I think this color finally cured me of my recent bout with idon’tlikepurple-itis. Whew. It’s about time too. All my poor neglected purples are overflowing from their storage container. Poor little guys.

The picture above gives a slightly better depiction of the duo-chrome quality of this polish but, frankly, these pictures just don’t do this color sufficient justice. It’s much more duo-chrome-y in real life.

Now with all that said, the name baffles me a bit. Purple Beach…? What? I don’t get it. What does purple have to do with beaches? And how is this color in any way reminiscent of beaches?

Nubar can be purchased online at www.bynubar.com.

Nubar is quickly becoming my go-to brand for duo/multi-chrome polishes. Nubar Peacock Feathers is a particularly popular multi-chrome among polish addicts, with good reason. It’s a pretty impressive shade. A lot of duo-chromes are duds, very flashy in the bottle but they lack the same intensity and variation of color on the nail. Peacock Feathers is the exact opposite of a dud. I actually got flashes of frosty purple, blue, and green, constantly. It’s purple in most lighting. When it’s not purple, it’s green – the blue comes out mostly in-doors but it is there. Sometimes between the blue and purple flash I got a very pretty greenish, gray ashy shade. My picture doesn’t do this color justice but you can see some of the variation of color reflected in the bottle. The only downside is that I’m currently going through an evil weird “ugh purple” phase that just came out of no where. Purples are the roots of my addiction. I *love* purple but lately I just can’t stand the sight of the color. I hope I get back to my purple loving self soon because it seriously comprises 35% of my collection. As an aside, my bottle of Seche is reaching the dead zone, the stage at which even an ocean thinner cannot revive it – that’s why the gap area looks so weird.

(And since I know girls are going to ask… Nubar is available from www.bynubar.com.)

After my Essie Starry Starry Night post many of you suggested in the comments section that I should try out Nubar Purple Rain Glitter since it’s the purple more blingy cousin of SSN. Purple Rain Glitter, a recent acquisition along with several other unique Nubars, was freshly sitting in my “untried box”. These are the last few days that I’ll be able to wear blingy nail polish for a very long time so I decided to give it a whirl. Man. I. Love. It.

My love for Purple Rain Glitter is no shocker. Ever since seeing Nubar on the lovely girls on MUA and most recently featured on Sminkan, One Inch Nails, and Scrangie, I have been harboring crazy jump off the cliff lemmings for their polish. Scrangie’s blog is the origin of my specific lemming for Purple Rain Glitter. It’s a deep purple jelly with holographic glitter. Enough said.

The color is more violet-purple in real life than in my image, as usual. Purple Rain Glitter reminded me of the ink from an exploded blue bic pen. It’s extremely unique, I don’t own anything else even remotely similar to it. I’m really glad you guys coaxed me into trying it, or else who knows how long this beauty would have gone untried since I seem to habitually neglect awesome polish.

With all that said, this manicure was my first time using a Nubar polish. I’m very pleased with the results. I used 1 coat of Nubar Foundation Base Coat, 3 coats of Nubar Purple Rain Glitter, and 1 coat of Seche Vite. I got pretty good wear even though I did get some tip pull. My bottle of Seche is too blame, it’s reaching the dump out stage of thickness that causes tip pull. I was very pleased with the application, which is surprising because Nubar is Big 3 free. They bill themselves as ‘the healthy alternative for beautiful nails.’

I could not possibly care less about buying nail polish that is free of toxins. I like my toxins just fine, thank you very much, but I know some people really do care. Nubar is a good company to look into if you want to exclusively buy Big 3 Free. The one thing that really sold me, personally, on Nubar is that their collection has an excellent range of unique colors. We’re talking glitters, duochromes, and mutlichromes – you guys know how I feel about those. Their site is a little difficult to navigate but if you poke around you’ll see what I’m talking about.

That was a nice break, now back to the madness. I know everyone is loving the extravagant shimmers this fall, but I’m a creme girl at heart, so I’m not necessarily bored by collections featuring vampy cremes. The Vineyard Collection consists of 8 vampy creme shades inspired by wine. *Homer sounds* Mmm… vampy cremes.

*Correction* Michelle from All Lacquered Up has informed me that this collection was actually released last spring, Nubar says it’s for this fall. I trust that Michelle knows her stuff, so I’m guessing Nubar is re-promoting these for this fall.