My Picture Polish!

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Today is a special day: it's My Picture Polish day!

Zoya Spring 2015 Delight Collection

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The sun is shining and it's trying to be a tiny bit warm where I live, so I think that makes it an especially apropos day to share these fresh & colorful swatches from Zoya's Spring 2015 Delight Collection.

piCture pOlish Fool's Gold Swatches and Review

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I don't do straight-up swatch posts too often, so when I do, you know they're going to be pretty special! Today's swatches feature a polish collaboratively designed by one of my favorite brands and one of my favorite nail bloggers—that's about as special as it gets, in my book.

SUPER BLACK Lacquers Fall 2014 Collection: Swatches and Review

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I'm so excited for today's post! I've been a huge fan of SUPER BLACK Lacquers since the brand launched back in 2012—in fact, I think I can definitively trace my indie polish obsession back to my first SUPER BLACK purchase—so it's a pretty big deal for me to be swatching and reviewing the fall 2014 polishes on my very own blog now. Natalie has always put together the most amazing, unique collections, and this one is no exception.

Christian Louboutin Daffodile Swatches and Review

At the urging of my nail polish enabler husband (he's the best!), I recently picked up a bottle of the Christian Louboutin nail polish I've been seeing all over the Internet lately. It felt a little reckless to spend THAT MUCH on a single bottle of polish, but after trying it out, I have to say: I really do think it's worth the splurge if you're in the market for a special treat.

piCture pOlish Blog/Insta Fest 2014

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I'm beyond excited to be sharing today's post: it's piCture pOlish's Blog/Insta Fest day, and I have the great honor of participating this year!

If you haven't heard of the Blog/Insta Fest before, it's a yearly event sponsored by Australian nail polish brand piCture pOlish where selected bloggers share swatches and nail art featuring the company's amazing products. And, this year, we're all featuring Nail Vinyls, too!

This is a long and picture-heavy post, so all the details are behind the cut. Please read on to see my contributions to this year's fest!

Easiest Gradient Ever

Gradient manicures are one of my absolute favorite things, but sometimes they're just a little too much work, y'know? Waiting for the base layer to dry, painstakingly sponging on layers, dealing with cleanup—it can take forever! That's why all the thermal polishes popping up these days are so great: if your nails are long enough, you can (sometimes) get that gradient look without all the hassle.

Swatch: Tenoverten Maiden

I'll admit it: I ordered tenoverten Maiden because I liked the look of the bottle. I'd never heard of the brand (which is actually a luxury salon in New York, I've come to learn!) and had no real reason to gravitate toward it, but the bottle seemed nice, so I went for it. I'm impulsive like that when it comes to nail polish—what can I say!

It doesn't really matter now why I bought this polish, because the bottom line is that I'm SO glad I did! Maiden is a beautiful plummy purple and I'm totally in love with it. Tenoverten's formula is perfect: easy to apply, stays right where you put it, and the coverage is excellent. This is two coats with a topcoat.

I really can't praise this polish enough—it's pricey, but well worth it, in my opinion. If you're in the mood to try a new high-end polish brand, definitely consider tenoverten!

Formula X for Sephora: Hyped and Blast Off

I've been eyeing the new Formula X for Sephora line with great interest lately, so I finally decided to take the plunge and pick up a couple bottles. Today I have swatches of Hyped and Blast Off to show you.

First up is Hyped, part of the Formula X Electrics line. This is a bright magenta with some very subtle blue shimmer.

I was surprised to see so many negative reviews for this line on Sephora's site—I thought the application was very good, and I didn't have any chipping for the few days I wore it. My only complaint is that the color itself is much brighter than what I really prefer, so I grew tired of it a little faster than normal. But that's all on me!

These pictures don't show it as well as they could, but the slight blue shimmer in this polish makes the color really interesting and very different from anything else I've seen.

I also picked up Blast Off, part of the Formula X Xplosives Top Coats line. This is an all black confetti glitter topper that I REALLY liked. The glitters are all different shapes and sizes, and it went on super easily—just painted right on, with hardly any dabbing or placement. I did fish around for a couple of the largest black glitters, but that was really it.

I'm in LOVE with the splattered black paint effect of this. I see myself using it a lot when I'm in the mood to ad a little something to a plain color with minimal effort. My only caveat for this one is that it almost stayed on TOO well: I felt like I needed a sandblaster to get it off! Those glitters were very committed to staying put. That might be a good thing, though, if you want something that's not going to go anywhere for several days.

What do you think—have you tried the Formula X for Sephora line yet? What colors look most intriguing to you?

Thanks for reading!

Swatch: A-England Saint George

Today I have swatches of what turned out to be probably my absolute favorite nail polish that I've tried to date. It's been in my collection for a while, but I (foolishly!) didn't get around trying it until recently, and I'm kicking myself for that now because it's just. so. GORGEOUS.

This is a-england Saint George, a deep, jewel-toned green, and I pretty much want to have it on my fingers all the time now. I know that most nail bloggers are very aware of a-england polishes, and a quick search reveals that this one has been swatched all over the place already, but I just couldn't resist posting my own pictures of it here.

The polish itself went on beautifully—two very easy coats, and it stayed right where I put it. (I could have easily gone with just one coat, but I like at least two coats on my nails because they're on the thin side.) The holographic elements are also beautiful: I couldn't stop staring at my own nails, especially in full-spectrum light.

The other cool thing about a-england polishes is that they're all inspired by amazing stories: check out Sam's amazing write-up over on Fashion Polish if you're interested in reading about what inspired Saint George and the other shades in this line. She did a much better job with it than I ever could!

Swatch: Shocking by Marc Jacobs

Today I've got some swatches of one of my new favorite polishes: the color is called Shocking and it's from the new Marc Jacobs Enamored Hi-Shine Nail Lacquer line.

Swatch: Sugar Coat in Red Velvet by Sally Hansen

I think textured polishes can be really fun on occasion, so when I saw Sally Hansen's Sugar Coat polish in this gorgeous Red Velvet color on the store shelf, I just had to have it.

Swatch: Day Trippin' by Pretty & Polished

Thermal/color-changing polishes seem to be a big trend right now, so of course I had to get in on that!

Swatch: Galithée by NARS

For my first real post here, I thought I'd start things off simply with a little swatching action!