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.

Our hearts go out to families in Newtown grieving the loss of their loved ones. I wish I had more meaningful words in the face of such meaningless violence.

United Way has set up a Support Fund to help the community in Newtown, here’s a link with more information if you would like to donate. If you would like to find out about other ways to help, here’s a helpful article: CNN – Help For Victims of Sandy Hook Shooting.

If you are wearing (or wore) white for Newtown - feel free to post a link or a photo in the comments.

The forces of the universe have been conspiring to prevent me from posting this collection. First, a while back, I decided to take a new approach to swatching. Instead of just painting my nails for a quick photo and just writing about my brief opinions, I decided to actually wear all the colors in collections I review. The result was a copious amount of notes on each color, similar to what I usually write for posts on manicures. But then, to my chagrin, the evil google virus did away with all my efforts. As far as nail polish goes, the notes lost, are the equivalent of the Library of Alexandria burning down. Sadly, here are my briefer impressions based on what I remember from wearing this colors.

Color Club had an interesting concept for this spring collection, these colors were intended to be mixed and matched to create various funky frenches. I can totally see where they were going with that idea, these colors (a mixture of shimmery sheers and opaques) do compliment each other well in the french format. However, this collection also lends itself to amazing layering combinations. I would have loved to have shown you guys the sheers from both Catwalk Queen and Femme Fatale over black and white but I’ve been so busy I just haven’t had the time. But, fear not, Scrangie has some great swatches of these shades over black.

Color Club Femme Fatale consists of ultra sparkly pink and yellow toned micro-glitter suspended in a gel like whitish polish that applies clear. This is 4 coats, it’s simply gorgeous over black. (Please excuse the perpetual yellowness of my nails.)

Color Club Oooooo La La is a stunning, wearable white with a pearl finish. I usually don’t like pearl finishes but I absolutely loved this color. This is 3 coats. The application was a bit off – the coats applied unevenly so you have to be careful to be apply as evenly as possible. While I would consider this color a PITA, it’s not impossible to work with and I think the pay off is worth the extra effort. This color is perfect as a base on which to layer the sheer colors in this collection.

Color Club Oui! Oui! Oui! consists of a very fine green shimmer in a sheer whitish base. My picture isn’t very accurate as far the shimmer, the green is way more obvious in real life. This one is also stunning over black. I believe this swatch is 4 coats.

Color Club Revvvolution is just, wow. WOW. I guess I might be biased because I love all holos – but this one is particularly brilliant. It’s a dark charcoal, pretty much black for all purposes, medium grain holo. The holo has a predominately greenish cast to it. Revvvoltion is very well pigmented. For me, it was essentially perfect in one coat but I applied two for good measure. I haven’t done a side by side swatch, but from memory, I can tell you that this is darker and more opaque than OPI My Private Jet. MPJ is one of my favorite polishes of all time, but I actually think that Revvvolution might take it’s place.

I’ve gotten a lot of complaints about the quality of my images of holographics so I’ve been trying to find alternative forms of lighting that are better suited to showing the holographic effect of these polishes. This picture isn’t as vivid as Revvvolution is in real life but I think you get the idea.

Color Club Where’s the Soiree? is a black creme that doesn’t dry glossy. It’s not exactly matte, but closer to a satin finish. It applies well in 2 to 3 coats. I would want to maintain the unique finish so I would probably either use no top coat or a matte top coat. Where’s the Soiree? is also perfect as a base for layering the other colors in this collection.

Color Club Worth the Risque is a medium grain holographic silver with a bluish cast. Like Revvvolution, the holo has a greenish cast to it. It’s a 2 to 3 coater. LOVE it.

Here it is in different lighting… *drool/dies*.

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Disclosure: This collection was sent to me for review by Color Club.

There are a million whites with gold shimmer (just to name a few: Essie Amalfi, Essie Tennis Corset, OPI She’s Golden, OPI Oh So Glam!, Icing’s Goddess, and Orly Meringue). And I love every single one. To me each one is unique in its own way. Rescue Beauty Lounge Moxie is no exception. It’s an off-white with iridescent gold shimmer that occasionally flashes a very subtle goldish-green. The amount of gold shimmer in relation to the off-white is somewhere between that of Essie Amalfi (which is almost completely gold with very little white) and the OPIs from the Beyond Chic Collection (that have a more subtle gold shimmer). When Moxie isn’t glimmering gold, the combination of the white and the gold together creates a sort of white platinum shade, very chic. This color is transitionally work appropriate, meaning no one at the office is going to bat an eye at it but it’s in no way boring.

Moxie’s formula is thin. I needed 4 coats to get full coverage. The first time I wore this color, several months ago, I had a lot of trouble with the application. We’re talking some major issues with bubbling, so bad, that I didn’t take a picture that time. As you can see from the image this time, I didn’t have that problem, so what changed? There are a lot of things that can contribute to bubbling. The usual culprits are drafts (like an overhead ceiling fan), oil on the nail bed (which can be avoided by wiping with a nail prep or vinegar) and applying coats of color too thickly. I think my problem last time might have been my own application shortcomings. The first time I wore this color I was still applying very thick coats of color. Even with very think coats, I do still get bubbling sometimes with some polishes but a coat of Seche Vite usually takes care of it. Seriously, it just makes bubbles disappear. (If you have yet to experience the miracle that is Seche Vite – go buy it now). The other factor that may have contributed to my more successful application this time is Rescue Beauty Lounge’s ridge filling base coat which I used for this manicure but not the previous one.

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Disclosure: The Rescuse Beauty Lounge Ridge Filler was sent to me for review by Rescue Beauty Lounge, but I believe I purchased Moxie.

A lot of you asked me for a good alternative to the white version of OPI Bubble Bath so I figured now would be a good time to pick up the count down again. OPI Time-less is More is whiter than Bubble Bath and it doesn’t lean towards pink but I passionately love this color. In my endless search for the perfect off-white, I’ve tried many, many polishes and, to me, this is absolutely the most perfect one. It should be everyone’s go to off-white. You can read my original post on this color here[1. You can see the progression in my photography skills by looking at this picture and comparing it to my more recent photography. I think I've come a pretty long way. :)].

I also have an announcement unrelated to nail polish. Some of you may remember that I’ve been on the job hunt. I’ve received an offer from the State Attorney’s Office (Florida’s equivalent of a District Attorney’s Office) in which I’ve been interning and I’ve decided to take the position! I’m so excited that I’ll have the opportunity to continue working with them as an Assistant State Attorney upon my graduation. This is truly a dream come true. Annnnnd since this is my final semester of law school and I won’t be interviewing any longer, I don’t have any professional obligations so I can wear ridiculously unprofessional colors! For those of you that like to see professional colors, I’ll still be posting those too but now there will a good mix that should make everyone happy.

When my obsession with nail polish first sprouted, I really wanted to find the perfect soft shade (a mission that continues to this day.) Everyone recommended the quintessential soft color, OPI Bubble Bath. Soon thereafter I conned my roommate into placing an order for my birthday, I asked for Bubble Bath. I had never seen pictures of it so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, I just knew it was a flattering soft very light milky color . I received a bottle of very light, milky pink nail polish.

Since I didn’t know what to expect, I took my pink, wore it, liked it, threw it in with the rest of the stash and moved on to other colors. A little while after that, someone posted on MUA requesting suggestions for a milky off-white. Another person suggested Bubble Bath. I thought it was a weird suggestion because Bubble Bath was clearly pink, not white. So I said something to that effect in the thread. We argued back and forth a while, both of us utterly baffled at how the other could mistake what was so clearly one color for another color. Eventually another member clued us in that we were both right. The more recent version of Bubble Bath was pink. The original Bubble Bath was, in fact, white.

I hunted around for this version for a really long time and couldn’t find anywhere. I had just about given up when Dami of Perfectly Polished Tips hooked me up with a bottle. I love this soft off-white milky color way more than the subsequent pink version. However, to my major shock, the pink version which is OPI’s new formula, applied better than the the white version which is OPI’s old formula. The common belief is that OPI’s older formula is vastly superior to the newer big 3 free formula but that’s definitely not the case with this color. I had to use something like 5 coats of color with the white version and it was fairly streaky. The pink version was perfect in 3 coats, very easy to apply.

Here they are, the sneaky polishes together. The original version does seem to have a slightly pinkish tinge. This leads me to believe (and this is all conjecture) that it is possible that the new version is a mistake, too much pink pigment in the batch. However, the color is so different that I wonder whether OPI purposefully changed the color of Bubble Bath. I’d email them and ask but I have a feeling the answer would be “we didn’t change the color.” *cues X-files music*

(Sorry, I’m watching the final disc of entire X-files series right now. I have been unduly influenced. haha.)