Zoya Freja

Did you know it's been almost TEN months since I posted a Zoya polish!? Well, prior to posting Rica. Not that I have a ton of them, but I haven't even posted half of what I have! (In my defense, I've posted 4... I have 9). So after reorganizing my Helmer this week, I decided it's definitely time I posted another Zoya! So I picked Freja.













2 coats Zoya Freja
1 coat Poshe

Freja is a beautiful charcoal grey metallic-y polish with a faint shimmer and almost a lilac/blue undertone (which is why I have so many photos). It's not metallic in a chrome sort of sense, but more of a metallic shimmer. I'm going with that. Metallic shimmer. I feel like if this weren't grey, it'd just be a shimmer and not necessarily metallic. Does that make sense?

Holy gosh I would put this polish on every day... if it would change colors =P. This polish was actually FUN to apply. The combination of Zoya's brush and the formula of this polish made it just amazing and easy. If you're a beginner with polishes or you need something easy to apply to help practice your technique, I HIGHLY suggest this polish. Like I said, not only have I not posted a Zoya polish in close to a year, I also haven't worn one. I don't remember if they all apply is great or if Freja is a stand out.

Here's why it was awesome. The brush is a perfect width for my nails. It is not perfectly round, but not flat. It's obvious which was the brush should be turned to allow the bristles to fan out properly. The tip of the brush is straight, not rounded or curved. The bristles were perfectly soft and flexible so they spread evenly but were stiff enough that you still had complete control of how the bristles fanned out depending on the pressure you used. The density of the bristles was also perfect in that it hid brush strokes very well, and each individual bristle was the right size so this also helped.

The formula could have gone two ways. Opaque in 1 thicker coat or opaque in 2 thinner coats. I chose the latter. This really was an amazingly friendly polish to work with. Formula alone should make you pick this up!!

Sally Hansen Gilty Pleasure

Can someone tell me why this is spelled gilty and not guilty? I'm not getting the reference. Luckily, that's the only thing that bothers me about this polish! I think it's lovely...















2 coats Sally Hansen (Complete Salon Manicure) Gilty Pleasure
1 coat Poshe

This is a VERY nice shade of gold. It's very "real" looking. Instead of being an "artificial" yellow gold, it's more of a brassy gold. Like an old brass, not with a ton of luster or shininess, but an aged, antiqued brass while still holding true to it being gold. It's metallic as opposed to a shimmery or glitter gold. I don't know how it'd be on different skin tones, but I imagine it won't clash too badly with anyone.

The formula was lovely. It does show some brush strokes, but only when you look closely and concentrate. This was a very forgiving polish. It stayed where I put it despite my numerous brush strokes I used on each nail. No streaking, was opaque in 2 coats. Very nice to work with.

Rage At A Wedding

Today I'm off to the forth of five weddings I'll be attending this year. All very different from each other, which is so interesting. Today's wedding is a backyard, casual wedding. I'll be wearing a cotton halter dress with a taupe, pink, and cream design. I almost went with pink nails, but decided I didn't want to do the matching thing, I wanted something complimentary. So I went with Orly Rage.











2 coats Rage
1 coat Poshe

The formula was amazing to work with. Just perfect, non-streaky, and totally opaque in 2 coats. The other awesome thing was dry time. I still used Poshe, just because of habit. But when I went to do the second coat of Rage, I realized the first coat was COMPLETELY dry. And by the time I put on Poshe, the second coat was dry, too!! Oddly enough, I didn't have problems with the polish drying on the brush and then pulling. It went on great. So this is an AWESOME polish if you're in a rush. Literally, the best polish I can think of for that.

Rage is a bronze "foil" polish that definitely looks like a super awesome metallic finish. It's super shiny and doesn't really look like polish at all. It looks like Minx or something. Some of my photos make the polish look kinda grainy, like you can see the particles on their own. But when you look at your hand as a whole, you can't see those particles, so it really looks like a metallic foil. It has shimmer, but it's definitely overpowered by the overall foil smoothness, which makes it look amazing.

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Golden Cinnabar

I was initially planning on wearing a holo, but because I was doing my nails before bed, I didn't want to take the chance of it being overcast the next day (By the way, it was amazingly sunny today). So I was going through some of my older, "not salon brand" polishes, and I came across Golden Cinnabar. I bought this about a year ago from Dollar Tree and it came packaged with Sally Hansen Reddy to Mingle. So technically, this cost me 50 cents!! Yay for cheap polish!! And for the record, when it comes to polish, expensive does not equal good quality and cheap does not equal bad quality. You should never assume that because you're paying $8.50... or $14... or even $25, you're getting the best quality polish you can find. You can easily find polishes for $1 that are amazing all around, and you can also buy $25 polishes that are awful in every way. So keep that in mind when you're choosing a polish.

And for the record, despite that I've had this polish for about a year, this is my first time wearing it!! One of the things I love about duochromes is that means I get to take a ton of photos!! Woooooo!!















Closeup


2 coats Golden Cinnabar
1 coat Poshe

The Nail Prisms were probably some of the most awesome polishes put out by Sally Hansen. To some, they're probably some of the most awesome polishes put out by ANY nail polish brand. Nail Prisms have since been discontinued :( but you can still find them randomly at discount stores, dollar stores, or online. Some were more holo, some were more duochrome, but regardless they are all gorgeous in their own right.

Golden Cinnabar is a bronze-y/copper-y gold, coral-y rose duochome. The description I give it makes it sound pretty ugly. Haha. But I think it's super intriguing. I'm generally lucky in that I rarely come across a polish that really looks awful with my skintone. Either that or 1. I don't buy colors that clash with my skintone or 2. I just pretend all nail polish looks good on me. Regardless, I can see that this polish may not work with all skintones. I do think, however, that it is a polish that can be easily worn in all seasons.

The formula was great. It seems very thin, but it's totally opaque in 2 coats with no brush streaks. Absolutely no complaints with the formula and application. I'm satisfied :)

Also, I don't have it to compare, but it looks very similar to Nubar Stardust. Maybe a dupe or at least dupe-ish?

Zoya Crystal

I got this back when Zoya did their three free polishes promo, along with Mimi and Veruschka. I had no idea what I wanted to put on, so I just opened my Helmer and grabbed the first polish I saw that was untried. It was Crystal. And here it is:













And here's a close up of the polish:


3 coats Crystal (opaque and fine in 2, I'm just ridiculous)
1 coat Poshe

First coat looked sheer-ish, but very easily and quickly buildable and went on smooth. I have no idea why I picked this, because I'm not fond of it for spring. It's a silvery metallic blue with scattered teeny tiny flakes of yellow gold. Despite the gold, it still gives an overall silvery blue metallic look to me rather than a gold-ish blue. I really wish it could pull the yellow gold out a little more. This would be a gorgeous wintery color. I don't know what it is, but I just really don't like it for spring.

On a side note, I actually know what I want to do for my Wednesday nails. I can't see myself doing anything else with this polish other than taking it off and storing it away for winter!! And I feel a water marble coming on. It won't be done this week or I wouldn't be able to wear my planned Wednesday nails, or I'd only be able to wear the water marble for one day (Thursday). The process is laborious, so when I water marble, it will stay on for at least 2 days. So possibly Sunday or Monday. We will see!!

Song:
Nickelback - Rockstar