Zoya Pixie Dusts in Godiva and Vespa

I'm loving the textured trend lately, particularly Zoya's rendition of it, the Pixie Dusts. Today I've got Godiva and Vespa to share with you. 

Godiva is a light sandy beige with lots of silver sparkles- these really are best witnessed in person in order to appreciate how much sparkle these pack. They especially come to life in the sunlight. 

Vespa is a dusty light sage green with silver sparkle. Gorgeous, and again even better in person.

While I'm loving the textured trend, I have to say one thing about it- I hate wearing textured polish while flossing my teeth! It just... feels wrong. It gives me the creeps! What do you think of the textured trend? Are you loving it?

Julie G Gumdrops Collection

Today I've got swatches of the Julie G Gumdrops collection- a set of six gorgeous sugar-texture (or "liquid sand" texture) polishes. I've got a skittles manicure that shows off the first five shades. Thumb to pinkie, these are: Blueberry Fizz (pale blue with bigger silver-y shimmer particles), Hot Cinnamon (intense, vibrant red with subtle gold glitter), Rock Candy (teal with different sizes of sparkly glitter particles), Crushed Candy (grape-y purple with silver glitter accents in different sizes), Tangerine Dream (bright citrus orange packed with golden sparkle). 

I've also got swatches of the final shade, Sugar Rush (a vibrant red-orange with tiny gold glitter):

I ordered this whole set as part of the pre-order for $20 from the Jesse's Girl Cosmetics website, and I can't say enough in terms of quality for the price- these are all gorgeous, and I'm not sure my skittles swatches quite do them justice. My favourites are Hot Cinnamon, Rock Candy, and Crushed Candy. I highly recommend these if you're into the textured look- they're inexpensive and really fantastic!

Do you have any plans to pick up some of the Julie G Gumdrops polishes? And while I'm asking, what do you think of my new nail shape? I recently filed them into more of a rounded/almond shape, and have been loving them! 

OPI Stay The Night (Liquid Sand)

I couldn't resist picking up the four new OPI liquid sand minis- I'm always intrigued by a new texture/effect in nail polish, and I haven't seen anything quite like this before. Today I've got "Stay The Night" to show you- this is a black with red glitter combination. It makes me think of asphalt with glowing red embers. I found application to be easy, and this covered in two coats. In reality, the red glitter in this sparkles like crazy- definitely worth checking out in person!

This last picture was taken shortly after application, and it looks a little bit glossy yet. I did find that in order to maximize the fully matte "liquid sand" look, it is best to let this one dry completely. I've noticed that with some swatches of Stay The Night other bloggers have mentioned that they wish it was less glossy and more matte- I think this may be partly because Stay The Night was swatched, but not allowed to fully dry. Just a hunch, anyways.

Overall, I really like the liquid sand effect. It's not terribly gritty, although if you're sensitive to texture you might not like it. The best way I could think to describe it was that it feels kind of like a cat's tongue. Okay, that sounds like a weird comparison to make, but it's strangely accurate. It's not so gritty that it will snag on anything, but it does feel kind of rough. 

The other interesting thing I noticed about this polish is that when first applied, it looks like a normal non-glitter polish. Then it kind of granulized into this grittier finish. Pretty cool. Removal was also a breeze- not at all like removing an all-glitter polish. 

What do you you think of the liquid sand finish? Have you, or will you, be trying these out? I'd love to hear your thoughts on these!