Purple Friday: Zoya Iris

The Huskies managed to pull out a win over a top-25 ranked Utah... really I feel like we could have run away with the game, except for an early turnover helped give Utah momentum AND points and we had to do some catch up! But luckily we swung the momentum back in our favor and ended up with the W! I was getting very anxious and ended up almost finishing a puzzle in an effort to avoid watching the game, hah. This week we have another away game, the Cal Bears, and my husband and I are actually headed down to the Bay Area to watch the game in person! We're trying to hit at least one away game a year and we were initially also going to go to Arizona in September, but it didn't end up working out (aka we got lazy and didn't our shizz together). But we're going this weekend! I'm worried about this game too, but really all of UW's games in November are killer. Hopefully the Dawgs come out strong and it's a good game! 

Traveling has thrown me off and I'm pretty unprepared for blogging in general right now! I got back from my trip to Wisconsin and hadn't even changed my polish, let alone picked out a new purple for Purple Friday... I was casting around to think of what purple polishes when I remembered that I had Zoya Iris lurking in one of my boxes and I thought "aha! A brand I haven't worn in awhile... I'll use that!" Iris is described as a "deep amethyst with a fuchsia pearl fleck in the traditional MatteVelvet finish." I was a little concerned when I applied my first coat and it looked more red (or perhaps magenta) than purple. I would say that Iris leans a lot more red than I expected but as you layer it, it deepens and takes on a more purple tone. I ended up using three coats, though two probably would have been sufficient. I liked the depth that three coats had. The formula was smooth and not too thick! 

Because Iris is a matte, I also decided I needed to show it to you guys with a top coat:

I'm not sure if I would have chosen Iris if I had more time, solely for the fact that it leans a little more red than I was anticipating-- the color itself is gorgeous and flattering. The formula was good and it looks good either matte or with a top coat! 

Go Dawgs! Beat the Bears!

Sinful Colors King Size

CI should probably be saving this polish for a week when I am too tired or sick to come up with something new for Purple Friday, but... I didn't want to wait! Sinful Colors King Size is from one of the Kylie (I think, I can't keep them all straight) collaborations. I saw a display and was seriosuly tempted to buy all of them, but resisted. A few weeks later I saw the display again, and this time it was a bit more picked over so I grabbed the three shades I liked best. King Size is one of those! 

King Size is described as a "royal purple and gold pearl shade" and that's pretty accurate! It dries to a matte finish, but I've added a top coat in all of my photos. The formula was good! It was a little on the thick side but applied easily. I used three coats here but I think you could get away with two if you are so inclined. It dries quickly but not so fast that it caused any problems with application. 

This was a huge hit with me! I absolutely love how strong the shimmer is and frankly, it's quite beautiful. I got a lot of compliments on this color. Purple and gold is one of my favorite combinations so it shouldn't come as a surprise that this is going on my list of favorite polishes this year. Gorgeous color, good formula, and great price tag! I call that a win win win! Happy hump day everyone! 

Sinful Colors We're All Matte Here

Today I have another Sinful Colors "porcelain matte" to share with you, We're All Matte Here. Personally, the name cracks me up; it's the perfect nail polish twist on "we're all mad here" line from Alice in Wonderland. We're All Matte Here is described as a "sugary melon" and while I'm not quite sure what that means, but it is a red leaning coral matte that is pretty much my ultimate summer color.

I used three coats here. The formula was a tad thick, so I did up using maybe thicker coats than I should have and I did end up with some bubbles/bumps. Not terrible, but it could be better. The color really carries this for me; it's just so perfect for summer that I find it hard to dislike even if I wasn't thrilled with the formula.

These types of shades are my favorite for summer and never fail to make me happy. I'm a little disappointed I had some bubbles with this, but I'm not sure if it was my fault or the polish. Probably mine but I'll need to wear it again to make sure. I did end up wearing a top coat with this, which seemed to eliminate them so it looked nice regardless. I probably needed to use slightly thinner coats and wait a bit longer in between coats. But I still really like this and will definitely be reaching for it as a pedicure color this summer!

Sinful Colors Glazy Sunday

Switching gears a little, today I have Glazy Sunday from a recent Sinful Colors collection (an Alice in Wonderland themed collection featuring a "porcelain matte" finishes). Recent being a relative term-- this is a spring collection that was released back in March, and I probably grabbed this about that time and used it as a base in my Hobby Polish Bloggers monthly nail art challenge back in April! (You can see that manicure here!)

Glazy Sunday is described as a "delicate dusty rose" and I think that's a fairly accurate description. As I mentioned earlier, this polish has a porcelain matte finish, which in practice means it dries to a satin-like matte finish; it does have a slight sheen to it and is not completely flat. Glazy Sunday definitely has a thicker formula; not unworkable and it seems pretty standard for polishes like these, but I did have to work a bit carefully to make sure I didn't drag it or make it too thick in places. Honestly, it wasn't all that bad and I love how it looks.

I'm a huge sucker for mattes, so with words like "limited edition" and "matte" on the bottle, there was no way I was going to pass these up. While not it's not a perfect formula, it's still decent and the price point goes a long way in terms of making up for a few formula flaws. Glazy Sunday is such a pretty, soft color and I love the matte (er, really satin) finish, so I'm calling this a winner!

Love Angeline Cosmo

Blue nail polish is my true love. I'm serious. Blue is my favorite color and my personal philosophy is that blue nail polish goes with everything. It does, I refuse to listen to anyone who says otherwise! The amount of swatches of blue polishes I have waiting to be published is a little obscene. It's obvious where my heart lies. And along those lines, today I have Love Angeline Cosmo to share with you. This was originally released as part of the Fall 2015 Let's Grab a Drink collection.

Cosmo is described as a "darkened royal blue matte polish with an intense flash of blue and purple shimmer." I'm not really sure what the color has to do with the drink (Cosmos are usually red in my experience) but I can roll with it because it's such a gorgeous color. Fair warning, I did wear this awhile ago so my memory is a bit fuzzy on the details. I don't recall having any major issues, though I think the formula was just ok. I can't remember the number of coats I used, probably 2 or 3! 

(Ugh, apologies for the lack of clean-up! Looks terrible but I remember being too tired to deal with it at the time.)

Here's a quick shot with top coat (still a bit messy-- I think I had trimmed my nails and then painted on an additional coat) so you can see how shimmery it is!

Gorgeous! My biggest issue with Cosmo is that oh boy, it wants to stain. Not necessarily your nails, but even with careful removal I felt like there was blue everywhere! This polish is also discontinued, along with the rest of the collection, but maybe it'll make a reappearance someday! I love these shimmery mattes, though-- they are so versatile! 

Zoya Aspen

Ahhh, a new week and a fresh start after my month of Star Wars themed polishes. What better way to start than with the equivalent of a clean slate on my nails-- and to that end I have Zoya Aspen to share with you today. Originally released as part of the 2015 Holiday MatteVelvet collection, Aspen is a shimmery, snowy white. Or, as Zoya describes it, as a "sparkling arctic white with a micronized diamond pearl fleck in the traditional MatteVelvet finish." I personally find white nails to be really chic, but don't love a straight up white creme-- it's too reminiscent of painting white out on my nails in middle school. So I love how Aspen has a nice shimmer to it, which softens the look.

Aspen had an okay formula... not amazing but it certainly could have been worse. It was a bit thick and didn't really want to self level, but if you used a light touch it wasn't terrible to apply. It's pretty opaque, though there was definitely a bit of visible nail line with the first coat. After two coats, it was still a but uneven for my taste, so I used a third coat and felt that was perfect. If you are careful, you could probably get away with two!

I don't think Aspen could be more perfectly named. It's such a perfect snowy white and even though the formula isn't perfect, this is still looks wonderful on the nail. It looks really luminous here and I think it freaked out my camera a bit; I don't think it was quite this right in real life. Unfortunately, the matte finish, while it looks dry, does not dry completely through very quickly-- I ended up smudging a couple nails during an unfortunate late night diaper change and had to do a quick fill-in/repaint and then top coat to make sure it dried. It was pretty in the matte finish or with a top coat! I can't wait to try the others I have from this collection!

HPB Present Dusty Pastel Gradient

Hey hey hey! It's a Saturday and while I normally don't post on Saturdays, I need to squeak one more post in-- for the monthly Hobby Polish Bloggers monthly nail art round up! The theme for this month is Dusty Colors and for awhile I was stumped, mainly because no polishes sprang to mind and I was dreading having to search through my stash for something to use. And then I stumbled across a display of the new Sinful Colors Porcelain Mattes and grabbed them all (of course!) and I thought these fit the bill. I would call them dusty pastels-- they certainly aren't bright and have a certain muted quality to them that I associate with the term "dusty."

First I applied two coats of Glazy Sunday, which is a "delicate dusty rose." (Look, even has dusty in the description!). Then I applied a liquid latex barrier-- this is seriously a game changer when it comes to doing gradients. Then I sponged on Glazy Sunday, Cheshire China (a light lavender) and 
She's Gone Matte (a mint green). Because they were mattes, they were thicker which meant they were easy to sponge and not too sheer. I was worried the polish might dry too quickly but that wasn't a problem! Here's the finished product:

I am so proud of this gradient! I know I have done gradients before, but I feel like this is my best one yet. Practice makes perfect!I wore this for probably four days, which is really unusual for me (usually every mani is 2 days) and it was hard to remove it. Couldn't have turned out better if I had wanted it too! This is the first time I've used the latex barrier and will definitely do so every time I do a gradient in the future. Hope you enjoyed this manicure!

An InLinkz Link-up

Love Angeline Champagne

Today I have another polish I picked up from Love Angeline, also from the Let's Grab a Drink collection-- today we're breaking out the bubbly and having some Champagne! (Or as Zapp Brannigan would say "cham-pagan"!) Champagne is a gorgeous deep pink with a very strong blue shimmer, and bonus, it dries to a matte finish!

Unlike Shandy, sadly, I found the formula on Champagne to be a bit more difficult to work with. It was a little on the thicker side, but also had an almost jelly-like feel to it, so when I was applying it there was some patchiness and I didn't get it completely even looking. I used three coats in my photos below. I feel like I almost could have used a fourth coat, because I felt it was still a bit patchy, but three was enough to make me feel okay.

The finished product is definitely gorgeous, though even at three coats Champagne was still a bit uneven and could have used a fourth one. The next time I wear this I will probably also apply my first coat(s) a little more carefully, which might help. I think this color is currently retired from the Love Angeline line up, so sorry about that if you really love it!

Love Angeline Ammacarre

Today I have a cheerful little yellow polish called Ammacarre from Love Angeline to share with you! I actually bought this bottle months ago (it was on sale) but due to the pastel nature of the shade, I didn't wear it right away because it felt out of season. And while I don't consider myself to be a slave to trends, I due tend to theme my polishes to the season (darker colors in fall/winter, bright colors in spring/summer-- but there are always exceptions!) and it felt weird wearing this color out of season. But last week we were scheduled to have the nicest day of the year so far (and we did!) so I decided it was time to take the plunge and wear Ammacarre. In the bottle, Ammacarre has a pastel yellow appearance, but on the nail it's a bit more of a sunny yellow with yellow, pink, and blue shimmer in it. Without top coat, it dries to a matte satin finish.

The formula of Ammacarre is about what I expected. It's on the sheerer side, and while it does build up, you do need to be careful of dragging the polish and creating bald spots. Honestly, I was expecting the formula to be a lot worse given how light this yellow looks in the bottle but it applies fairly easily as long as you are careful. I've certainly had a lot worse experiences! That said, here's mine: I put on the first coat and was horrified. It was super sheer and looked very orange-yellow on my nails and looked terrible and for a minute I honestly considered whether I should plunge ahead and just scrap the manicure altogether. I decided to stay the course, and it worked out (whew). I did need four coats to get my nails to a level of opacity that I liked, and the polish does look a little thick on my nails. There is still some visible nail line, but with four coats it's not too bad. 

Here's what Ammacare looks like without a top coat:

While I was taking the pictures above I managed to dent my ring finger so I decided to slap on a top coat to help it dry down, because four coats meant I would probably have sheet marks on my nails the next morning. So here it what it looks like shiny:

I do have to say, I'm a bit disappointed with Ammacarre. I actually really love the way it looks without top coat, but I wish I hadn't needed four coats to get it looking the way I wanted it too. It looks much lighter in the bottle, and so I had a bit of a shock when it applied darker (aka not pastel) and also brighter than I anticipated. Due to the number of coats I needed and the extended dry time, I added a top coat, but I don't look the finished product quite as much.

I definitely don't hate this polish, it just wasn't quite what I was expecting! But the shimmer is quite lovely and I even got a compliment so I guess it was worth it in the end!

Two-fer Tuesday: Sinful Colors Hazed and Truth or Lavendare

These two polishes have been kicking around for awhile (since last summer/early fall, I think) and it's time to get them on the blog before they fall off the cliff into ancient history. As it's been awhile since I wore them, my notes are nonexistent so I'm throwing in the same post rather than making two separate ones because honestly, I don't know how  much I have to say about them individually! Hazed and Truth or Lavendare are both from the Chalkboard Diaries collection, which featured a rainbow of polishes that dried to a demi-matte finish. I love mattes, so I scooped up all the ones I could find them! As the two purples of the collection, I was of course immediately intrigued by these and was not disappointed!

Hazed is a red toned magenta, I would say. These colors are hard to describe! Maybe a vibrant red-toned plum? I've seen a lot of other people calling it violet, though that's definitely not the word that springs to my mind. In any case, no matter how you describe, it's a pretty freaking beautiful polish. The formula was good and easy to apply (aka not too thick). I can't remember how many coats I applied, but it was 2-3 and I don't remember having any issues.

Truth or Lavendare is, you guessed it, a lavender purple! This had a good formula and went on pretty smoothly, though was probably just a touch thick (as you can imagine, I don't actually remember how many coats I used, but it was probably three). I apologize for the awful paint job-- yikes! My clean up has gotten a little better recently

Sorry it's taken ages to get these polishes on the blog-- I shouldn't have waited so long! I guess I could have made this a Throwback Thursday post, haha! In the end, I really like both of these polishes and they were definitely standouts in this collection (I technically still have two more to wear from this collection... I should really dig those out asap! Both Hazed and Truth or Lavendare were easy to apply and wear and I liked both of them a lot! I am also a big fan of the demi/satin matte finish, though it doesn't tend to last very long because I beat my hands up. I consider both of these to be winners! 

Love Angeline Shandy

Today I have a more recent, "new to me" brand to share with you. I was introduced to Love Angeline thanks to Amanda aka Fashion Footing and decided I needed to give them a try myself! Love Angeline had a Black Friday sale so I snagged a few polishes on the cheap as my first foray into the brand. Today I have Shandy to share with you, which is one of her shimmer matte polishes from the Let's Grab a Drink collection. If you don't know, a shandy is a beer that is mixed with a soft drink or juice, usually carbonated lemonade, ginger ale, or orange juice. Shandy is described as a "golden yellow matte polish with an intense flash of gold shimmer."

The formula on Shandy was a dream; exactly what I want from a matte polish. It wasn't too thick or too thin; it flowed nicely on the nail and built up easily  without getting thick and gloopy. The first coat covers nicely, though is a bit sheer. Two coats gave pretty good coverage, but I ended up using a third just to make sure there were no patches, though quite honestly you could get away with two if you have smaller nail beds than I do-- I tend to use three as my standard unless it's definitely opaque enough for two. 

Artificial light (flash): 

In summary, I love Shandy! (Plus shandy is delicious to drink-- perfect for summer!). This color is kind of funky and can lean green in some lights, so it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I love it. The formula was great and for a matte, it wore very well on me. I generally don't mention wear time because I change my nails so frequently, but I got three days of wear out of this manicure, with no top coat and only a few minimal chips. Bonus!!

In short, this polish really impressed me-- I have a couple other to show you soon, but I am definitely becoming a fan of Love Angeline polishes! 

Sinful Colors A-Crush

IWednesday, hump day! Woo! Today I have another polish from the Sinful Colors Chalkboard Matte collection to share with you! This is A-Crush (which I guess is supposed to be a spin on A-plus?! Not sure about that.) and I would call A-Crush a periwinkle satin matte (as opposed to yesterday with Zoya Nyx, which was definitely not periwinkle, despite being described as such).

Ok, real talk: these photos are from August. It's now January. Safe to say, I don't remember a whole lot about this one. I don't think the formula was terrible, but I did see some bubbling when this dried. It's possible I applied the polish too thickly or didn't let it dry. Because I wore this in August, it was also very hot, and that may have affected A-Crush as well. This is at least two coats, possibly three. A-Crush dries to satin matte finish (as opposed to a true flat matte)-- it looks a bit more shiny in my photos than it does in real life, but I did not use a top coat here.

Artificial light (flash):

I think this color is gorgeous, but the bubbling is annoying. Again, with all the heat we had this summer, it may have affected the formula-- or perhaps my coats were just too thick, because I don't think I've seen bubbling in other swatches. Next time I wear this, I will try to apply thinner coats (or potentially add some thinner) to prevent bubbling. 

Virtuous Polish Temperance

Am I the only person who sometimes finds it easier to write a negative review than a positive one? That probably says more about me than anything else, though I generally think of myself as pretty even keel. I suspect it's because when a polish doesn't perform like I hope, it elicits a lot of visceral emotions, especially when I had high hopes. Today I have one such polish to share with you.

I picked up Virtuous Polish Temperance on whim because she was going out of business and I had never tried any of her polishes so I thought, why not? I had seen some gorgeous pictures on IG and Temperance is a deep cobalt blue polish with a matte finish, so basically, it hits all my buttons in one fell swoop. However, the reality was a bit more disappointing. Temperance, as a matte, was extremely thick, to the point of being gloppy. It started to dry the minute it came out of the bottle, and while I could paint it on my nail without it drying too quickly, it was very thick and hard to control. Due to the thickness of the coats, even though it was quick drying over all, the coats didn't dry all the way through before I applied the next one-- leading to air bubbles. Due to the thickness, I did try to apply this carefully, but I did have a some streaks. I ended up using three coats to make it as even as possible, though it still wasn't perfect.

Artificial light (flash):

See those lighter blue spots? Air bubbles. UGH. Actually, it does look kind of cool but definitely not what I was looking for.

I took a photo with my phone to show you what it looked like in a closer to "real life" situation aka not super up close. 

Some of the flaws that you see clearly in my camera photos are less visible here.   

Overall I am hugely bummed out by this polish. I have seen some gorgeous swatches of this color and had very high hopes for it. The reality is that while the color remains absolutely gorgeous, the actual polish is a hot mess. Virtuous Polish is no longer in operation, and given that this is one of the last bottles, it's possible that perhaps this just thickened up over time. I also probably didn't wait long enough in between coats (and shook the bottle several times) which probably lead to the bubbles. That said, this was still a very difficult to work with. I may try adding some thinner to see if that could help, but I'm not sure I'll ever be coming back to this one, unfortunately. I wish this had a better formula because I would wear it all the time-- I love this color! I guess I'll just have to keep searching.

Sinful Colors Blue Sensation

Let's get Monday off to a great start by starting with a polish I absolutely fell in love with: Sinful Colors Blue Sensation. This is a polish from one of the three (!) collections Sinful Colors put out this fall. I didn't see a display with this polish at first, but when I saw it on other blogs, I knew that I had to have it and had to comb a few drugstores in the area to find it (no one store received all the fall polishes).

Blue Sensation is a shimmery steel blue that dries to a satin matte finish. It has a very good formula and goes on smoothly and I only needed two coats for opaque, even coverage. It dries in good time and not so fast that it's prone to dragging. My photos (without top coat) are making the satin matte finish invisible, but it's there. Nice and smooth! My photos also make this seem icier and lighter than it is in real life-- there is a strong silver shimmer in the polish but it translate to a more steely grey than icy silver in real life.

Artificial light (flash):

I have to say, this is probably one of my favorite polishes this fall! I'm not really good about picking up (or wearing) polishes as they come out, but this has a gorgeous color, great formula, and the satin matte finish I love. So this is a huge win for me and I would definitely encourage you to run out and grab this if you see it!

Happy Monday all!

Illamasqua Optimist

Hey all! Today I have another one of the Illamasqua Rubber Brights to share with you-- this time it's Optimist, which is described as a "warm orange/yellow". Spot on, really. To me, it looks slightly more yellow in the bottle, but has a very strong orange tone. This does dry to the rubber finish, which is a slightly shiny satin finish, instead of a true, flat matte.

I have to be honest, I struggled with this polish. I found it to be streaky and on the thick side. Now, I did apply this during the summer, which was pretty darn hot and I might have had the fan on, which might have contributed to my issues, but I was really frustrated. I felt like I couldn't get it even, despite using a very light touch and thickness made it difficult to spread evenly and avoid leaving streaks in the finish. Argh! I have loved all the other rubber polishes Illasmaqua has made, so it was too bad this didn't work for me. Perhaps if I try again in the future, it will work better! I ended up using three coats here and wasn't completely satisfied-- but I also lacked the energy to try and make it absolutely perfect.

Artificial light (flash):

Unfortunately, with all the other highs I've experienced with Illamasqua polishes so far, I'm a little let down by Optimist. I think the color is fun (though I wish it were more yellow as opposed to yellow-orange [or orange-yellow]-- I feel like this has a very Crayola feel it, haha) but I do wish the formula had been better!

Essence Make Life a Festival

I'll be honest-- I generally ignore Essence releases. They seem to be released fairly sporadically here and are hard to find. However, I stumbled on to an untouched Love & Sound display (inspired by summer music festivals) and because the polishes were all billed as matte textures, I decided to pick them all up. They are also cheap, which helped motivate me. Today I have the first shade from the collection (there are four) that I have worn: Make Life a Festival.

Side note: it drives me batshit that Essence calls them 'desert matt.' Are you kidding me?! I guess that technically, a mat is flat, but matte (with the 'e') is the word the describes a flat color and finish! Argh.

Seriously?! I can't, Essence, I can't.

Anyway, annoyance about their description aside, Make Life a Festival is a peachy shade that is supposed to dry down to a matte, textured finish. I had issues applying this. The formula was a little on the streaky side and I had to apply three coats to even it out-- and I still wasn't completely happy with it. I don't think you can really tell from my pictures, though!

Artificial light (flash):

This polish was a disappointment, honestly. It was slow drying, applied unevenly, and didn't dry to a very textured finish. So frustrating! Now, it was pretty warm when I applied this, which might have contributed to some of my issues. I found it be very slow drying, which was surprising for a textured finish (for example, I applied this in the evening, after my kids went to bed and then went to bed probably 1-2 hours later-- and I woke up with sheet marks. Sadly, I actually liked the way it looked witih the sheet marks more than I liked the actual finish). It also didn't dry nearly as textured as I would have liked-- kind of a weird half texture/half matte that I didn't love. I think the next time I wear one of these polishes I will try to apply thin coats and see if that helps both the dry time and the actual texture finish. So overall I'm not in love this polish but I will try to improve my application with the next one I try in hopes that I get a better result!

Sinful Colors VIPeach

Hey all, Happy Monday! Just a quick post today. I have one of the polishes from the new Sinful Colors Fall Collection. There are BUNCH of different polishes, but one part of the collection features all demi-mattes, inspired by classroom chalkboards. Demi-matte is basically the same as a satin finish-- there is a slight shine to the finish, but it is not glossy. VIPeach is, surprisingly, not peach. That's a little funny, right? In any case, VIPeach is pastel yellow.

Aside from the confusing name, I was sadly disappointed with VIPeach. The formula was a bit thick and also streaky. I did try and use a light hand while applying it, but even that didn't fix everything. I also had what looks to be like some bubbling with this, which is highly annoying! I like the color and am a fan of the demi matte finish, but sadly the formula frustrations make this just meh in my book.

Artificial light (flash):

And that's all from me today! I feel a bit bad for starting the week out on a downer-- VIPeach is a nice color, but the formula frustrations didn't impress me. I bought the whole collection of demi-mattes (and am searching for the black, white, and pink Walgreens exclusive ones) so I hope the others are better!

Illamasqua Nurture

 Let's kick off the week with a Matte Monday post! Remember when I went on an Illamasqua kick? I haven't forgotten about them! Today I have another polish from the Rubber Brights collection to share with you, Nurture. Nuture is described as a "candy apple green" with a rubber finish, which is not quite a flat matte-- there is a slight shine to it, but not the high gloss you would get from a creme. I find "candy apple green" to be a slightly amusing descriptor-- Nuture IS reminiscent of those green apple Jolly Ranchers. Traditionally not one of my favorite candies, but this is still a fun color!

Nuture had a decent formula. Mattes tend to be thick, and it was a bit on the thicker side, though not unworkable in any way. All this hot weather hasn't helped either! I did find Nuture to just the teensiest bit streaky and I ultimately used three coats to make sure I had completely even coverage. And really, that's not a probably, though these polishes do tend to get thicker as you use them, which can sometimes be frustrating. This wasn't terrible, but next time I might try to use two more careful coats to avoid a third one! The drying time is pretty typical of these mattes-- quickly, but not too quickly (which is a very important distinction when applying nail polish, hah).

Artificial light (flash):

Bright is right! My photos make this seem almost neon-- Nuture is definitely borderline neon, though not what I would call a true neon green. I don't wear a lot of greens, so this is a little outside my wheelhouse, but I did like wearing this! I love brights for summer, no matter the color.

Hope you all have a good Monday! I can't believe we are already halfway through August!

Julep Marcy

Today I have a polish that I love to share with you, Julep Marcy. This polish was originally released in the March Maven boxes, but I received it as an extra in one of my recent boxes when I bought 3+ add-ons. Marcy is described a "prosecco silk with a semi-matte opalescent" finish. This is a pretty good description-- to me Marcy is very reminiscent of ivory silk and has a very bridal feel to it; it also has a gorgeous pink/blue opalescent shimmer to it.

At first, I was afraid this polish was going to give me flashbacks to Deborah Lippman Pseudo Silk Kimono. They share similar characteristics-- silk matte finish and a light color. I was afraid it was going to be the same mess all over again. Despite my fears, I was rewarded with a much better experience with Marcy. Because of the light color, I did use a lighter hand to try and prevent streaking. And yes, this did want to streak. I used three carefully applied coats to even out the coverage. This is a matte, er, silk, finish, so it does dry down more quickly than most polishes, though not so quickly as to make it difficult to work with.

Artificial light (flash):

No apologies here, I love this polish! I think it would have been perfect for my wedding day and was very wearable and chic. I felt very elegant while wearing this. So Marcy is definitely a winner in my book and I'm glad it snuck into my Maven box when I passed on it the first time around.

Illamasqua Serenity

Just a quick post to slide in here before Monday is over-- I was totally lame this weekend with all the heat and didn't get anything done. We'll call this "Matte Monday" because I have a fun matte polish to share with you today. Today I have Illamasqua Serenity, which is described as a "bright turquoise" and has a matte rubber finish. It was part of the Rubber Brights collection, which was released back in 2012. I picked this beautiful baby up off Hautelook!

Serenity has a good formula-- it wasn't too thick and applied easily (though along with most matte polishes, it will want to thicken up as you use it). I think I used two coats here, though it's possible I used three. With the rubber finish it did dry down quickly, so I waited until each coat was completely dry before adding the next coat. But you can see that it self levels and doesn't look streaky or lumpy.

Artificial light (flash):

Perhaps not surprisingly, I love Serenity. It's blue and it has the rubber finish, which I think is awesome. So this checks all the right boxes in my book! Looking forward to trying the other rubber finish polishes I picked up; hopefully sooner rather than later!