Sally Hansen Lustre Shine - Scarab

After looking high and low, I finally managed to get my hands on some of the Sally Hansen Lustre Shines (it always seems to take forever for these displays to show up in Canada). Today I've got Scarab to show you; this is a lovely blue-green metallic shimmer with a modest duochrome shift. My photos don't quite convey how intensely bright and eye-catching this was in person. It might not be the most unique polish, but there's no need to mess with a good thing, right? 

Did you pick up any of the Sally Hansen Lustre Shines?

Enchanted Polish - Vampire's Dessert

Today I have a lovely Enchanted Polish to share with you- this is Vampire's Dessert, a gorgeous deep brown linear holographic polish. I love how this looks like molten dark chocolate, with a bit of velvety red/brown shimmer thrown in just to top it off. The holographic effect in this is apparent indoors, but really lights up in direct sunlight. The formula was perfect, and what you see below is two coats. 

Just looking at this makes me hungry for chocolate cake! Delicious. And it has such an awesome (and fitting!) name. What do you think of Vampire's Dessert?

Zoya FeiFei

After yesterday's post about Gosh Galaxy, I thought Zoya Fei Fei might be an appropriate polish to share. It has the same dense shimmery metallic finish, but has a steely blue base instead of brown. It also has a tremendous amount of gold (and purpley-pink) shimmery flecks in it. Very pretty. 

What do you think of Zoya FeiFei? Given the choice, would you opt for FeiFei or Gosh Galaxy?

Gosh Galaxy

I've got a short and sweet post for you today- this is Gosh Galaxy, a sparkly and complex mixture of pewter-y taupe with multicoloured shimmer (including particles of blue and pink and flashes of gold). It has a similar finish to Zoya Fei Fei and other related colours. In fact, it reminds me a little bit of The World Is Not Enough from the OPI Skyfall collection, except more brown in tone. 

What do you think?

Essie Spring 2013 Swatches (Go Ginza and Maximillian Strasse Her)

Tonight I've got a couple swatches from the Essie Spring 2013 Madison Ave-Hue Collection: Go Ginza, a pale pink/lavender, and Maximillian Strasse Her, a faded light grey/green.

Go Ginza reminds me a little bit of OPI Steady As She Rose, or maybe OPI Panda-monium Pink. It has the same dusty/greyed out finish as Steady As She Rose has (one of my all-time favourite polishes, by the way), and straddles the line between pale pink and lavender. Very pretty! The formula was a little runny and hard to work with, but covered in two coats.

Maximillian Strasse Her is a light greyed out pale green creme; the formula on this was better than Go Ginza, easy to work with and perfect in two coats. While this reminds me a bit of Essie Absolutely Shore, this is definitely a deeper and murkier shade; more in the army green category than the pastel one.

This collection kind of popped up out of nowhere- I hadn't even heard of it, then happened to see it at a Walgreen's. Which, by the way, you might be surprised to hear seeing as how there are no Walgreen's in Canada. How, then? Because for the last week I've been here: 

It's been awesome, and I'm fully prepared to leave my heart in San Francisco. 

What do you think of these shades from the Essie Spring 2013 Collection? Are you planning on picking any of them up? 

Butter London Cuppa (plus a comparison!)

Because I have an insatiable urge to buy ALL the putty/taupe cremes I see, I've got Butter London Cuppa to share with you today! This is from the recent Butter London spring collection release, and it is (surprise, surprise) a milky/almond beige creme. Lovely formula, perfect in two coats. This first picture is taken under artificial light, which typically makes the colour appear more yellow-toned; the following two are taken in natural light, which shows Cuppa to be a lovely milky beige.

I also thought a comparison might be in order, seeing how close SpaRitual Quietness looks to Butter London Cuppa in the bottle:

Left to Right: SpaRitual Quietness, Butter London Cuppa, Quietness, Cuppa.

As you can see, SpaRitual Quietness is actually quite a bit more yellow in tone; Butter London Cuppa is more of a cool, almond shade. While I like both of these, I think Cuppa is the more flattering option. What do you think?

Rescue Beauty Lounge Piu Mosso with Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Rescue Beauty Lounge's Piu Mosso is a deep navy blue with barely-perceptable golden shimmer (easy to see in the bottle, very hard to see on the nail). I've tried my best to catch the shimmer in these photos, but in reality, it mostly looks like a deep navy blue creme. 

Directly under artificial lighting- the most shimmer I could coax out of this polish:

Piu Mosso is the very first Rescue Beauty Lounge lacquer I've ever tried- and I have to admit, it didn't quite live up to expectations. While gorgeous in the bottle, that pretty golden shimmer doesn't really translate on the nail. And it certainly didn't look anything like it does in these swatches. Formula-wise, it can't be faulted (practically a one-coater, easy to control), but it was something of a let down. Especially with the high price tag (even higher once you factor in international shipping). 

Thankfully, I have a super awesome friend who is also into lacquer, and presented me with Max Factor's fabled Fantasy Fire for my birthday back in November! Amazing, right? Even better, she gifted me TWO bottles of Fantasy Fire. It's like she could see the dilemma coming- if you've only got one small bottle, you can only use it sparingly. But with a back-up, I can awesome-ize any boring manicure I want. Case in point: Piu Mosso gets taken from "meh" to "zomg!!1".

In the sun:

In the shade:

Utterly drool-worthy. And to think, I'd never expected to get my hands on this one. Fantastic birthday present, from an amazing friend. You know who you are!