L'Oreal Feeling Kilty

Hey look, it's 2016!! I hope everyone had a merry Christmas (or whichever holiday you celebrate) and very happy New Year! Today I have a polish that's a little more current, though I'm still behind-- I have Feeling Kilty from L'Oreal's holiday collection. I initially planned to post this before Christmas, but we went out of town for almost two weeks and blogging took a back seat to all the packing and family time! So I got a little bit of a hiatus and got some down time and now I can get back to blogging more regularly. So let's talk about the polish! This was the only one that really caught my eye, though the whole collection was nice and colorful, this was the only one I really felt motivated to buy. Feeling Kilty is a gorgeous slightly rose-toned gold polish. It's really a bit of a chameleon-- in some lights it looks more good and in others a bit more platinum. Either way, very pretty!

The formula was pretty good-- it's a metallic and a bit on the thick side and also a bit prone to brushstrokes if you're not careful. It also dries pretty quickly, so you need to be careful when applying it. I didn't have any issues, though it did drag a bit towards the tips of my nails as I applied additional coats. I *think* I used three coats here, because I remember thinking I should have stopped one coat earlier, though really, it looked just fine.

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I certainly don't feel guilty wearing Feeling Kilty! (I'll be here all week, hardy har har!) This is a gorgeous metallic-- perfect for the holiday season (and beyond)! I don't know if this is the most unique color in the world, but I like it a lot.

L'Oreal Vintage Rose

Quick post because I am feeling very tired as I write this. It's almost the weekend-- just a couple more days to get through! Today I have a polish from last summer to show you-- Vintage Rose from the L'Oreal Miss Denim collection. This was the lone pink in a collection of blues and greens and it's such a gorgeous rose pink color that I couldn't resist it. There's something so attractive and feminine about this polish, I just love the color-- and I don't usually gravitate towards pink (though I do appreciate it).

Vintage Rose had a good formula, from what I recall-- two coats gave nice, opaque coverage and due to the textured finish, it dries quickly. No top coat needed! Easy peasy!

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This is such a pretty color! I wish they had this color in a non-textured finished as well. But I really do like this polish as it is; this color and texture combination are unique to my collection. It's such a gorgeous pink, I love it!

L'Oreal Aux Chandelles

Here we are at hump day already! How did that happen?! Anyway, tonight I have another polish from the L'Oreal Dark Sides of Grey (yes, based on that book). Aux Chandelles, which is French for candlelight, is a pale grey polish that dries to a shiny wax finish. Aside from Masked Affair this was the only other polish that really attracted my attention, because I'm such a fiend for these satin/matte polishes.

Now, after reading a few reviews, I was afraid of Aux Chandelles, because I had read the formula was iffy. Fortunately, having mentally prepared for this, I was able to apply it without any issues! The formula is a little on the thin side and a bit watery, so the first coat was a bit patchy. I used a very light hand and ended up using three coats just to make sure I had complete coverage. Because of the wax finish, it does dry down quickly, but not so quickly that I couldn't work with it!

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Despite my initial fears about the formula, I ended up really liking this polish and am glad I picked it up. It's such a lovely light grey-- perfect for winter, or really any time of year! I'm very happy with this.

L'Oreal Skinny Jeans

Hope everyone enjoyed their Cinco de Mayo celebrations-- we whipped up quite the little Mexican insprired feast and I am currently pleasantly buzzed on margaritas. Sounds like a good Tuesday! Tonight I have a polish that has been kicking around since last summer-- whoops! I honestly meant for it to get on the blog a lot sooner than now, but... life. What can I say? This is Skinny Jeans, from last summer's Denim Collection, which consisted of six textured polishes. You've seen a few of them already on the blog. I got the whole collection, but it was this polish that made me want them in the first place!

Skinny Jeans is a periwinkle creme texture. This color is so pretty! I don't recall any issues when I applied it and I'm believe I used two coats here. Like most textures, this dried quickly and had a slightly scratchy finish but that wore down the longer I wore it.

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When texture polishes started coming out, I used to dislike the creme ones (meaning, the ones without glitter) but these cremes have really grown on me. Plus, periwinkle is a great summer color so these hits all the right notes for me! 

L'Oreal Masked Affair

Ok, you've probably seen this polish a million times already, but now I've got it! L'Oreal Masked Affair has already become a hard to find polish as of all the polishaholics are snatching up this little gem! Masked Affair is a limited edition polish that is part of the L'Oreal Dark Sides of Grey collection-- based, if you can't guess, on the book/movie 50 Shades of Grey. Here's my quick aside: haven't read the book nor do I plan on seeing the movie; I certainly don't begrudge anyone enjoying it, but there are definitely better books in the same genre if you are looking for them!

Anyway, back to Masked Affair. This polish is a drugstore holographic, which is a mythical beast akin to the unicorn, which is why this polish is flying off the shelves. Masked Affair is a lavender tinged silver holographic and very soft and pretty. The formula on this was decent-- not the best I've ever seen but not terrible; just ok. It was a little sheer on the first coat and a bit prone to dragging. But three thin coats covered well. I do think that my top coat dulled the holo effect a bit, but it is a softer holographic flair in general, not a strong linear effect. Personally, I find this to be very pretty and flattering! It's not the most original polish ever made, but it's definitely nice to see something like this from a drugstore brand.

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So what's your take on Masked Affair? Have you made an effort to find it or are you passing on it? I'm glad I picked it up and I hope L'Oreal (and other brands) continue to try new things with their drugstore polish lines.

Two-fer Tuesday! L'Oreal Jean & Tonic and Distressed Turquoise

Hey all! I am hoping that this will become a regular (or at least sem-regular) feature on the blog where I will show you two polishes that are either the same color, same brand/collection, or same finish (and potentially all three!). I thought this could be a way to combine a few of my swatching photos and hopefully inject some life into my blog! We'll see if I can keep it up!

 For my first Two-fer Tuesday I am bringing you two L'Oreal polishes, both from the Miss Denim textured collection that was released this spring. First up is Jean & Tonic, a teal textured polish. Personally, I love the name, mainly because gin & tonics (or any drink with gin, if I'm honest) is my favorite libation. This applied really well and I used two coats here:

And then we have Distressed Turquoise-- which you'd think, from the name, would be... I don't know, turquoise, right?! Hahaha! You would be fooled, then. This is a light, sky blue polish that doesn't have any turquoise that I can see. This also had a good formula and applied easily. I used two coats here.

I actually grabbed this whole collection (and do have the other polishes to show you at some point) but overall, given that I'm a big fan of textured polishes, I really loved this collection. These are great colors, for any time of year, really, and they have a great formula. I can't say anything bad about them! The only thing is that Jean & Tonic does want to stain if you are not careful, so I would definitely double up on base coat.

L'Oreal I Like It Chunky

Ok, first of all... WTH is up with the nail of this polish?! Are they referring to peanut butter? Because that's the only thing I prefer chunky. Even though the name is terrible, this is such a pretty polish. I Like It Chunky is a another textured polish from L'Oreal-- now part of their permanent collection. It's an orange texture with gold and pink glitter.

Like The Statement Piece, this polish was extremely easy to apply. The brush was a touch stiff, but not difficult to work with. Here I have used two coats and that gave nice opaque coverage.

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I really like this. On the nail, this polish isn't super orange; it has a strong brown tone to it. It's a pumpkin orange. In my opinion, this color is pretty unique for textured polishes-- I don't think there's another company that has a textured polish this color. I could definitely see myself wearing this during the fall-- this polish definitely has an autumnal feeling to me.

L'Oreal The Statement Piece

Textured polish is still having a moment in the nail world, which may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your personal preferences and pretty much all the brands, drugstore and high end, are jumping on the trend. When I saw the promo pictures for L'Oreal's textured collection, Gold Dust, featuring nine textured polishes I immediately wanted all of them. When I finally came across a display in a local store I exercised great restraint and only snatched up five. Now of course I wish I had the other four, but oh well. Today I have The Statement Piece to show you-- this is a pale champagne gold texture polish with larger glitter pieces throughout.

One thing I noticed when applying this polish is that the brush was rather stiff. I'm not sure if this is all L'Oreal brushes (I don't have many of their polishes) or if it's just the textured polishes. I didn't mind it, but it did tend to drag polish I already laid down on the nail if I wasn't careful. I used two coats of The Statement Piece and even though there might have been a hint of visible nail line, it didn't bother me. In fact, if I hadn't had some drag marks on the first coats I might have left it at that. Of course, I left off the top coat and the textured feeling was slightly gritty but not too rough and did smooth down as I wore it.

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Personally, I love textured polishes. They are easy to use and dry quickly-- you don't really need to use a base or top coat. And even though they start out gritty they tend to smooth down the longer you wear them. Now that I'm mom (wow, cliche time!) I really appreciate every spare minute I have, and with the twins on a schedule I actually have a few spare moments (hooray!) and textured polishes make for a super easy manicure when time is precious and limited.

You'll notice that I have four fingers in these pictures-- I am trying something different. I am not a fan of my pinky and think it looks weird when I hold the polish bottle, which is why I usually do three fingers. But the vast majority of bloggers seem to use four fingers so I've decided to give it on try on new swatches. What do you think: yay or nay?

L'Oreal The Mystic's Future

Today have another shade from the L'Oreal/Project Runway collaboration that was released this fall. I swatched this awhile ago and was saving it for a Football Friday post, but we're past football season now (at least for me) and I wanted to share this with you! The Mystic's Future is a gorgeous shimmery dark purple with strong blue tones.

I had some issues applying this (mainly the formula seemed to get thin as I reached my tips) but it could have been much worse.  I only needed to two coats to get complete coverage. It does dry a bit on the flat side-- I wish I had added a top coat to make it a bit shinier here. In the bottle this seems very close to Wet n Wild Toxic Apple, but The Mystic's Future is definitely more purple on the nail, rather than blue.

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This shade isn't all that original, but I love these shimmery purples and can't seem to get enough of them!

I have to say, I've been pretty impressed with all the L'Oreal polishes I have tried so far. I only have four of them (all from the Project Runway collaborations), but I like the ones I have and they have been easy to work with. In the last year L'Oreal revamped and released a very large core line of nail polishes and I look forward to trying some of those in the future. I've definitely been enjoying their limited edition releases, so I would say this is a drugstore brand to keep an eye on.

L'Oreal The Muse's Attitude

I have a gorgeous polish for you tonight! This is A Muse's Attitude from L'Oreal. This is one of the limited edition polishes that is part of the Project Runway collection. I saw this in a local drugstore (along with all the others) but initially passed them all up, even though I'm a huge Project Runway fan. The next day I was overwhelmed by the urge to go back and rectify that mistake-- I got two polishes, two lip glosses and a lipstick! Whoops. A Muse's Attitude, one of the polishes I got, is a blackened shimmery teal polish with a slight blue duocrhome shift.  Honestly, this isn't usually I color I grab but it was just so pretty in the bottle that I could resist.

A Muse's Attitude had a decent formula but was a little on the sheer side-- it seemed to thin out as I spread it out towards the tips of my fingers. Here I has used three coats and no top coat. To me this looked a little more emerald on the nails (and more teal in the bottle) but definitely is teal in tone. This has a very luminous, glowy quality to it and looks great on the nail. There is a fairly strong blue duochrome shift when this is in the bottle. You can see it a little bit in some of my picture, but it's not very obvious on the nail. 

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So gorgeous! I love how glowy this is. Well played, L'Oreal!

Football Friday: L'Oreal Amazon's Flash and China Glaze Fault Line

Time for Football Friday!! Tomorrow we play Colorado, the other Pac-12 newcomer! We're coming off a bye week and theoretically rested and healed, so this should be a game we win easily. Colorado is struggling and is a little beat up. However, given how the Huskies like to play, I'm not counting this as an easy win yet-- we'll see what tomorrow brings.

This week I decided to change it up a little bit and use gold as my primary color instead of purple. Something different! I decided to use L'Oreal Amazon's Flash, which is part of the L'Oreal's Project Runway collection. Aside from Owl's Night, this is the only polish from the collection that I was really drawn to, mainly because I figured it was something I could use for my Husky inspired manicures. Amazon's Flash is a really warm, bright gold sparkly polish. It's a little sheer-- I used three coats here and there is still visible nail line as the glitter spreads out from the cuticle towards the nail line. I think using either slightly thicker coats (ensuring that they are dry before putting on the next layer) or using more thin layers is necessary to get this polish opaque. Anyway, despite its sheerness, Amazon's Flash has a very luminous and glowy quality to it-- plus in high/bright light it's extremely bling-tastic.

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Pretty, right? It is! But, I was feeling like I needed something else and so I decided to pull out a crackle polish I haven't used yet-- China Glaze Fault Line. In fact, I pretty much bought Fault Line because it was purple and I figured I could use it for exactly an occasion such as this. I know the polish world is so over crackle/shatter polish right now... but what the hell! I don't wear crackle polish on a regular basis, so I figure pulling it out for a football game isn't really "unhip" or anything. Plus, the color combination is awesome! I waited about an hour before applying Fault Line over Amazon's Flash to make sure the base color was completely dry so Fault Line would crackle correctly. As you will see from the pictures below-- two of my nails look good and the other (index) is just ok. I applied medium thick coats on my ring/middle fingers and a fairly thick coat on my index finger, which didn't shatter as well, probably due to the thickness. Just a note in case you plan on using Fault Line yourself.
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One thing that I do like about the crackle polish is that it's kind of like lazy nail art-- lets you combine colors without needing to have a lot of skill or experience with nail art, something I definitely have none of.  So here I can have purple and gold nails! Awesome! Even though crackle polish isn't really "the thing" anymore, I do love this combination. Let's go Dawgs!