Illamasqua Mottle

So this was the second Illamasqua polish I just had to have! Mottle is a minty green base with three kind of black glitter in it. I used two coats, a thin one and then a thick one but I feel like three thin coats probably would've looked nicer. I was just being lazy. Lovely formula and like I said before my biggest complaint is that the cap doesn't come off. I could also add to the list of complaints how difficult removal is. Taking off Fragile was HORRIBLE. Still I'm super happy I picked this one up!
I'll probably go back to swatching my Zoyas for now. Does anyone have any requests for polishes you'd like to see? You can see a really up to date listing of what's in my collection in the link underneath the header!

Zoya Charla

My sister requested that I swatch all my Zoyas so I figured we could start with Charla. Charla is a sheer blue base with greenish/yellowy shimmery flakes. On the nail, it looks like a foiled turquoise. This picture is indirect sunlight and it looks so shimmery and turquoise but in artificial lighting it looks like a richer deeper bluish green. Definitely a color a mermaid would wear! I'm undecided on how much I like this color. It's one of the colors I had built up in my head to be mind blowingly beautiful and I don't think it could ever live up to my expectations. The Zoya formula is one lots of people love but I find it tricky to work with. It's just a bit too thin for my taste. This was three coats and it's still a little sheer near the tips. It chipped majorly at about 24 hours when I was trying to install a new car seat in our car. Not something I would usually note but this came off in HUGE pieces.
Please tell me I'm the only one who has problems with Zoya? I'll keep trying, as I have 7 more to show you and I really want to love them. They come out with the prettiest colors and the bottle is one of my favorites.

China Glaze Starboard

Continuing on with Anchors Away, this is Starboard. Starboard is a grassy green. I really really love this color but I don't know how to describe why I love it so much. It's bright but not in your face and feels so springy and Easter-y. This was two coats, but I probably should've done three. It looks fine but three would look awesome. It's not a jelly but the cream finish with a glossy top coat looks like jellybeans to me. This would be a great polish if you are looking to show a little Michigan State spirit. I also struggled with this one on drying. I use a fast dry top coat because I'm impatient but it seems with these patience is necessary. I'll try to give myself plenty of dry time on the next one and let you know how that goes.
Anyone else as impatient as I am when it comes to polish drying? 

OPI Live and Let Die

Another Bond polish! This was my Christmas mani. Live and Let Die is a deep forest green with yellow green shimmers. It was absolutely perfect in two coats. It did take forever to dry, even with a fast drying top coat. I like this color and it is very unique in my collection but it just doesn't WOW me. From an arm's length it looks almost black.
As usual, we watched Live and Let Die when I put this on. It was Sir Roger Moore's first Bond film and we all know he's my favorite Bond. Live and Let Die is the MOST ridiculous Bond movie I've watched so far. Don't get me wrong, they can all be just a little silly but this one was just crazy. I still enjoyed it and would totally recommend it if you are a Roger Moore/Jane Seymour/70's movie fan like I am. Plus I already knew the theme and love it!

China Glaze Aquadelic

 

I was in such a hurry to get this picture taken, I really didn't bother with cleanup. I decided to swatch all of the polishes from China Glaze's Electropop collection. I've already done Make Some Noise and Gothic Lolita so I decided to try Aquadelic next. Slightly more green in real life, it's a lovely aqua/seafoam color.  Two coats and slightly difficult to work with. Really I should have done more cleanup with this before taking pictures. Can you tell it's bugging me? But I have so many chores to do and I know that if I wait to take pics tomorrow I risk it looking duller because I spent so much time working with my hands. Oh well.

This month is feeling exceptionally long...I'm hoping that changing my polish more often will make it feel much much shorter :)

24/55 polishes swatched

23 more days

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.

Orly Space Cadet

My first ever Orly! I got this on a whim at Ulta when I was accidentally buying the China Glaze Prismatics. I'm not overly impressed by this color. It's very unique but it doesn't really fit my personality. Formula was nice and smooth and so so easy to work with. Two coats, topped with Seche Vite.
As you can see, minimal tip wear. I put this on last night and then did a ton of dishes today. I'm really happy with how well it wears. For as much as I did to it today, no chips! I'm definitely excited to pick up more Orlys in the future!

China Glaze Optical Illusion

That crack in my pinkie is finally gone! I finally broke down and picked up 3 of the new China Glaze Prismatics. I wasn't sure I was going to like them when I saw swatches online but I figured there had to be a good reason everyone was going gaga over these. And oh yes, the mayhem is totally justified. This is Optical Illusion. It kind of shifts from blue to green to silver. I wish I could have captured the green. It makes me think of mermaids! I'm so in love with this color. I can't see the holo China Glaze claims is in this but it's so intense, I don't really think I need to notice the holo.
In a side note, I was trying to no buy but clearly, this polish (and three others) was the end of that. I'm still trying to be conservative with my polish buying. I have so many untrieds, it's ridiculous.

China Glaze Agro

 

Out of all of my new China Glaze polishes, this is the one I was most excited for. This is China Glaze Agro. It's a metallic olive green with a VERY slight gold shimmer. I could not properly capture the color. I need some help with pictures. I'm struggling to get pictures to really depict what the color is. It's so flat here and on my hands it has so much depth. Anyways, I'm completely in love. This was two coats, with OPI Natural Nails base coat and Seche Vite top coat. And yet again, my cuticles look like crap here. If I'm going to keep this up, I really should work on my cuticles and photography skills.

I now have a google doc listing all of my polishes. Check it out, the link is over on the right. If there's something you want to see, feel free to make a suggestion!