Sally Hansen Polar Purple

Surprise! Another Sally Hansen Magnetic, this time it's Polar Purple. It was a surprise to me too. My boyfriend had it waiting for me when I got home from a baby shower on Sunday. The man knows his way to this girls heart! So this was still a learning experience for me. I definitely had to re-do a couple nails because either I didn't get the design all the way across the nail or I didn't leave the magnet on long enough. Basically, I discovered the longer you hold the magnet over the nail the more defined the design is. This was probably 10-15 seconds per nail. I still did manage to touch the magnet to the nail a couple times. You can see it there on my pinkie. Overall, it was a little more frustrating the second time trying this. It's probably because I was over thinking it. Oh well. It still came out nicely. And I've decided that I'm going to go ahead and finish swatching the rest of my Sally Hansens so stay tuned for that!

20/53

33 days until Sam gets here!

Sally Hansen Electric Emerald

Yay! My first magnetic polish! This is Sally Hansen Electric Emerald. It is a beautiful emerald with a kelly green pattern. It was a little bit of a learning curve but not difficult at all. I only had issues with my thumb. Apparently my thumb is more curved than most and I had to do the magnet in to separate parts. Base coat, two coats of polish and OPI top coat. I definitely want to pick up some more of these when Sam gets here...except maybe I need to find a coupon.
I'm so excited! Just about a month and a half until she gets here! This is polish 19 out of 53 in my quest to swatch half my stash before she gets here. I'm still working hard to at least get pretty damn close to that number.

OPI Just Spotted the Lizard

Let's take a break from China Glaze, shall we? I love them and everything but it feels so nice to use an OPI again. This is Just Spotted the Lizard from the Amazing Spiderman collection. Other bloggers have confirmed that this is a dupe for Chanel Peridot, but I don't have that so I can't really say. This is an AMAZING color. It's slightly duochrome, definitely less so than Orly Space Cadet. It's metallic but almost in the sense of liquid metal. It's incredibly smooth and so gorgeous. This swatch is very accurate, greenish gold with a hint of brassiness to it. Two coats with OPI top coat and base coat. One bubble that you can see there on my pinkie but overall incredible. It might have been difficult to find when it first came out but you should be able to find it now! Go! You won't be disappointed!
And this is making me wonder something. The OPI top coat and base coat worked fantastically with the OPI polish, would this hold true with other polish brands? I have no idea since I don't own any other base coats. Maybe one day I will test this theory.

China Glaze Prism

 

 This has turned out to be my favorite polish I have ever worn, hands down. China Glaze Prism came out with the Prismatics collection and yet again, swatches online will never do this justice. Even the best swatchers can't capture this level of awesomeness. It flashes blue and purple but it's always so multidimensional and sparkly. Three coats, with base coat and seche vite. It did eat my top coat but I really didn't care. Removal can be a pain. I used the tinfoil method and it came off easily and mess free. Not that you are going to want to take it off. Overall, if you can get your hands on these, do it. You will not be disappointed.

China Glaze Stone Cold

Lateness AND nasty cuticles...Ah well, this is China Glaze Stone Cold and my last pick from the Hunger Games collection. It's a matte, kind of metallic gray color. Formula is typical matte, easy and fast drying but sucks in the wear time department. I experimented with my Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love and that just made it a million times worse. UGH is it too much to ask for a long wearing truly matte polish?! This is 2 coats, no base coat or top coat. It stained.
I'm getting so behind in this swatching thing. I wanted to get half my collection (52) swatched before Sam came to visit at the end of July. Considering this is #16...I'm not sure if that's going to happen. After her visit, I will go back to swatching half my collection but it's going to be a much much bigger collection!

China Glaze Heli-Yum

My last random project polish! This mini polish project was fun and everything but it made me want to make my own picks. And no pinks or reds for a while. So this is Heli-Yum! It's a deep fuchsia color, a lot darker in real life than what's coming across in this picture. I'm enjoying this color. It's pretty basic but it feels summery and looks so glam. Two coats with two coats of OPI top coat. I hadn't been enjoying my OPI topcoat so I took it upon myself to do a little experiment. I cleaned the neck of the bottle very well, because that was bugging the crap out of me and then I added at least two full droppers of Seche Restore to it. It made it much thinner but I feel like it's much easier to work with and two coats are like armor over my polish. Not as glossy as Seche Vite but oh well.

China Glaze Cherry Pie

So I put this on more than a week ago, took pictures exactly a week ago and took it off at least a couple days ago. And it's just going up now? Yeah, I have no explanation. The is China Glaze Cherry Pie. It was my sister's pick from this mini project I'm doing. 3 coats and definitely VNL. Fine with me. It's an orange based red but this color is fairly accurate. This is a glass fleck, which means a jelly with teeny tiny pieces of sparkle and shimmer. It's not a jelly like what I'm used to but definitely falls into that category, if that makes sense. Overall, I'm in love and can't wait to try more of these China Glaze glass flecks. ALU's description and swatches made me buy them all so look out for more swatches from this collection (Summer Days 2009). One more polish left in my mini project!