Football Friday: a-england Avalon and Sally Hansen Set the Stage

We're nearing the end of September, though for some reason, Seattle has decided that it's summer again and it's incredibly humid here right now. Ewww. I'm sticky and heat and gross. However, this does means that I might be able to wear shorts to the game tomorrow!

As we start conference play tomorrow, I decided to pull out a really great, true purple: Avalon by a-england. In Arthurian legend, Avalon is mysterious, hidden island where Morgan le Fey or Morgaine lived and the place where King Arthur is said to be buried. The polish Avalon is described as an "incandescent regal and royal purple". It's a simple description, but it pretty much sums up this polish in a nutshell. Avalon is extremely gorgeous, a brilliant royal purple. In some light, it just glows. There were times when I could not stop staring at my nails. I received so many compliments on this polish.

Warning: this polish did not photograph color accurately at all! Avalon has tons of little red and blue shimmer particles in there and the polish is predominantly a red-leaning purple, but for some reason my camera picked it up as a blue-leaning purple. I'm not sure why purples are the most difficult polish colors to capture accurately, but they are. Bummer for me, since I have a lot of them!

Artificial light. These pictures are probably the most color accurate ones I have. Still not quite accurate to what my eyes see, but these look realistic than some of the other ones do.

Artificial light with flash: this is extremely color inaccurate. Way too blue.

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If you look at the bottom of the bottle in this picture, you can see a little but more what the true color of the polish is. It's a much more reddish than these pictures would lead you to believe.

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I apologize for the grossness of my tips. Yuck! I had been wearing this for two days when I took that last picture. The following pictures aren't much better, unfortunately. My sincere apologies!!

For reference, here's a picture of Avalon from the a-england website. I'd say this photo is pretty color accurate-- you can really see the red in the polish, as opposed to my pictures, where the blue comes out.

Even though Avalon is a beautiful polish, I decided to get a little creative and layer Sally Hansen's Set the Stage over it.

Set the Stage is a medium gold glitter suspended in a clear base. There are very small circular particles in addition to larger hexagonal pieces. It's very pretty, but a pain in the butt to work with. It was extremely difficult to get the larger pieces onto the brush and get them placed on the nail. Very frustrating. I managed to do it, but it was a little sloppy. I used two careful coats to get some sparkle on my nails without overwhelming the Avalon.

 Natural light - shade: this picture doesn't have a top coat on it-- you can see the polish lines from Set the Stage.

Blurry picture you can see the sparkle! This has a top coat on it.

Pretty, huh? I wish the glitter was easier to work with, but I think the combination is really pretty. I can't stop staring at my nails.

OPI Glitter-ally the Best Silver Ever

The next (and last, for me... more on that later) polish from Ulta's Shimmer into Summer Exclusive OPI polishes is Glitter-ally the Best Silver Ever. The name is extremely literal, but in this case, it's also accurate. Well, ok, I'm not sure if it's the best silver glitter ever (this is pretty much the only one I own, I think), but it is indeed a very shiny, very pretty polish.

The pictures below are all three coats, though I still had some issues with patchiness. You can definitely get this polish to full opacity, if you're so inclined. The polish is a little thick, and I think it was due to dragging that I ended up with some bare patches on my nails. A light touch is definitely necessary here. I also think this polish is sheer enough that it could be used with other base colors, as long as you don't use a very thick coat. I will have to try it and let you guys know.

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I will post a review tomorrow or Friday which will also include a little something extra!

OPI How You Blue-in?

The next polish from the Ulta's "Shimmer into Summer" Collection is How You Blue-in? This is a teal shimmer in a black base. Like I'm An Aqua-holic, this is also a sheer polish in one coat, but evens out nicely in two coats. When I went back and looked, I still had some patchy spots, so three coats might have been better. However, it wasn't terribly noticeable unless I was looking really closely. I also think this color is a little dark for summer, but it's really gorgeous. I will definitely be wearing it this winter.

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OPI I'm An Aqua-holic

The next set of polishes I am reviewing are part of an Ulta exclusive collection called "Shimmer into Summer." Unfortunately, these polishes are not readily available anymore, which I hate, but I'm going to show them to you anyway.

The first polish is I'm An Aqua-holic, which is a metallic, blackened green-blue polish. I think this polish is a lot more blue (to my eyes, anyway) but in certain lights you can see some green. It starts off a little sheer, but covers very well in just two coats. Personally I find this polish to be a little dark for a summer polish, even though it's super pretty. I suppose it's unexpected, because it is so dark, but I like bright colors for summer so this polish feels more fall or winter-ish to me. Still, it's a really pretty polish.

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Football Friday: Zoya Dannii

Football Friday is here! After an emotional second week (UW beat Hawaii and Michigan beat Notre Dame in the last 8 seconds of the game) we are entering the third week of college football season. This week UW is on the road, facing a big test against Nebraska-- for the third time in a year! Last September UW got their butts handed to them in Seattle and then beat Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl in December. I am hoping that no matter what the outcome, UW at least plays a good game.

I am not feeling well at all this week, so this isn't going to be the most amazing manicure you've ever seen, unfortunately. I've been feeling too bad to even think about polishing my nails.

For this week I picked Zoya Dannii. This is a polish from Zoya's Spring 2011 Intimate Collection. I was swatching this collection a few weeks ago and honestly, I wasn't all that thrilled about Dannii just sitting there in the bottle. But once I put it on my nail, I loved it, so I decided I needed to use it for a Football Friday manicure at some point. Zoya describes Dannii as a "medium orchid purple with pink and champagne highlights and flecks of silver metallic shimmer. A unique metallic with a pop of fun color to keep your look fresh." This is a really gorgeous color and I used three coats here, though I probably could have gotten away with two. Here I used Essie's First Base base coat and Good to Go top coat-- no bubbling issues! I am even more convinced that my previous issues with Zoya were not due to the polish at all, but definitely their treatment system.

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Love the shimmer! 

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Pretty gorgeous, huh?

Essie 2011 Wedding Collection Review

Essie's 2011 Wedding Collection is a nice mix of traditional bridal shades and some fun, more non-traditional shades.

First up we have Better Together, a sheer bridal pink:

Borrowed & Blue, an opaque baby blue creme:

Made to Honor, a sheer pinky beige:

First Dance, a cherry red jelly:

While all the shades are very nice, my favorites were definitely Borrowed & Blue and First Dance, which while they are not so original, represent a slight departure from more traditional wedding manicures. The sheers aren't really anything original, though, and I feel like you unless you like sheer polishes, you can find opaque polishes in similar colors that are easier to work with in terms of coverage.

Personally, I'm kind of glad it's becoming more commonplace to jazz up your nails for your wedding. When I got married four years ago I was pretty boring-- French manicure (which many polish fanatics have strong feelings about). Of course, I wasn't really into polish then, so who knows what I would do if I was getting married now.

All in all, a small but nice collection. Some good shades to have in your core collection, though none of them is particularly unique. Of all the shades in the collection. I would say Borrowed & Blue is the "must buy."

Essie First Dance

The final polish from Essie's 2011 Wedding Collection is First Dance. This one definitely stands out from the crowd in this collection, since First Dance is a bright cherry red jelly polish. I think red is definitely more popular in weddings these days, and this definitely marks a departure from "traditional" wedding colors-- at least in terms of nail polish. First Dance is a fantastic polish-- highly pigmented and almost a one-coater. I used two coats and because it's a jelly polish there is a little bit of visible nail line, but the polish is so nice that I didn't really care and didn't bother applying a third coat. It's so nice to wear a polish that goes on smoothly in two coats!

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A seriously fabulous shade of red, no matter what the occasion. If First Dance is a little too bold for your wedding day fingers, you could try it on your toes for a fun pop of color.

Essie Made to Honor

The third polish from Essie's 2011 Wedding Collection is Made to Honor. Similar to Better Together, this is a sheer polish, but instead of a sheer pink, Made to Honor is a sheer pinky beige color. I believe this is generally referred to as "your nails, but better", or alternately, it's something close to "mannequin hands". I used four coats to make this mostly opaque. Like Better Together, I had issues with bubbling with Made to Honor, though thankfully it's difficult to see in these pictures. If you look closely, you can also see I had some issues with bubbles in the top coat-- again, I'm not quite sure why that happened. This isn't a terrible polish, and honestly, it's probably a good basic to have in any collection, should you find yourself needing something clean and simple. However, there are other similar colors out there that require less work (mainly fewer coats) that you can find, so it probably just depends on whether you prefer sheer polishes or opaque polishes. Personally, I prefer opaque polish, unless the color is unique enough to warrant using as many coats as you can stand-- and even sometimes I don't mind a little bit of sheerness.

So while this isn't necessarily my cup of tea, Made to Honor is a simple, pretty polish that is great either for a bride or just for a nice neutral for a work environment where loud/bright polish is discouraged.

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I apologize for these pictures-- I feel like they're not as good as they could be, which is disappointing to me, because I'm working on trying to improve my photography. Back to the drawing board!

Essie Borrowed & Blue

Sorry for the delay in postings. Had a very busy, emotional weekend and just haven't had time to post. 

The second polish from Essie's Wedding 2011 Collection is a departure from the "traditional" bridal nail colors, even though blue (something borrowed, something blue)  has it's place in wedding lore. Borrowed & Blue is a soft pastel blue; a shade that's quiet enough to wear on your fingers or toes to give just a tiny pop of color without calling too much attention to itself. For a pastel shade, I find Borrowed & Blue to be very luminous-- it has a glowy quality about it.

Borrowed & Blue was a little streaky on the first coat, but with a light touch it looked great with just two coats.

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A beautiful blue, great for any time of the year!

Football Friday: a-england Tristam

Second week of Football Friday! This week we are doing something a bit different. Under normal circumstances I would be at the UW-Hawaii game but as I mentioned last week, I grew up in a Michigan household and still root for them (as long as they're not playing UW). This week marks a historic event for Michigan-- they are having their first night game ever in the Big House. Originally we wanted to actually go to Ann Arbor and go to the game, but unfortunately, tickets were not released to the general public and the ones that people were selling online started around $300. Yikes! So instead, my sister and I are heading down to Portland and watch this historic game with our parents and the Michigan alumni group down there.

In honor of the fact that is a historic night game, I decided to go with a-england's Tristam. This is a new-to-me brand, created by Adina Bodana and based in England (if you couldn't guess). Her current line is called "The Mythicals" and all the polishes are named after various persons, places, or artifacts that are associated with English myths and legends. So Tristam is named after the hero from the legend of Tristan and Isolde. Tristam is a navy blue holo polish, or as the site describes it: a "night blue sky with starlight glimmer and glow"-- and my very first holo polish! Polishes with holographic glitter are highly coveted among many polish bloggers and there are several older collections which are very hard to find (and expensive) due to the fact that not many companies make holo polishes these days.

Let's take a look at Tristam!

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Since Michigan's colors are navy blue and maize, I decided to go with an accent nail to compliment the blue on my nails. Traditionally, "maize" is a more golden yellow color, though I feel in recent years it has moved towards becoming a bright, more highlighter-like yellow, which looks good on precisely no one. I also wanted to be careful to avoid anything too gold in color, because Notre Dame's colors are blue and gold and I didn't want it stray into that territory! So I ended up pulling out American Apparel's Manila, which satisfied my color requirements of 1) not being highlighter yellow and 2) not being too gold. Manila is also a creme polish, which adds a nice bit of contrast to the sparkly blue of Tristam.

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And there you have it! Let's Go Blue! Beat the Irish!