Top Picks for 2011, Part Four

Oooh, this is gonna be a good one!
First up, the much hunted Owl's Night, by L'Oreal. Some folks were not in love with this, but many of us absolutely swooned over it, myself included.

And the stunning Cult Nails Unicorn Puke. I chose to layer this multicolored flakie wonder over Revlon Royal.

Kiko 237, the traveling polish. Also known as homg, loooook at how awesome this is! You know I love to layer, right? This is one of my favorite layering polishes, ever. This is over Ulta Devious, a luscious purple creme.

Maybelline Express Finish Cool Couture. The gorgeous grey with a hidden turquoise shimmer came out this fall in drugstores and had me hunting everywhere for it. LOVE.

Essie As Gold As It Gets, from the Luxeffects collection. I thought I'd be springing for the flakie, but since I have SH HT and Nubar 2010, I totally passed and nabbed this stunning gold flakie instead. Here, I've got it over Duri Black Diamond.

As Gold As It Gets is actually tied for me with Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Glass Slipper, which is a silvery flakie set in a milky, ethereal sheer base. Silver and gold, go figure they're tied! I'm showing this one off over Duri Fallen Angel.

Phew. That's quite a large amount of awesomeness for one post, even in this series! Next up is the last post of favorites, which will be pulled from my holiday collections!

Happy New Year's Eve!

I hope you have a fantastic (and safe!) holiday. I decided to re-create my glitterbomb manicure for New Year's Eve. I went a little nuts this time - I used a full eleven layers this time around, not including base/top coat or a little bit of brightening.
So. I can't exactly remember what order I went in, but I started with a base of China Glaze Frostbite. I used China Glaze Meteor Shower, Essie As Gold As It Gets, Kiko 261, China Glaze Snow Globe, Confetti Ice Ice Baby, Finger Paints Asylum, and Island Girl Island Volcano. Whew. Then around the bottom, in a kind of U shape, I added an "accent" of BeYu 209. I then topped everything off with China Glaze Fairy Dust.
Although it didn't come out really thick - I did use thin layers - even with a fast dry top coat, it took forever for this baby to dry.
I have pictures in full sun for you to get an idea of the bling, and the last shot is in low light. It's probably nowhere near as awesome as it looks to me, but you'll get an idea of it anyway. I really, really love how this turned out.

Is that crazy nuts or what? Hahaha, I love it. Have a great evening!

Ulta Devious and Kiko 237 (or, The Traveling Polish!)

A while ago, Allison of Alli McBally and I arranged a swap - she was still living in Switzerland with access to a lot of the European brands we US girls regularly drool over, and I was able to nab her some seasonal stuff that she couldn't get before they disappeared. I got a big box of some really AMAZING polishes. Thank you Alli! So awesome.
Anyway, a couple of days after I got my box, she found a polish rolling around in her car that she had meant to send me - so, instead of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, we have the Traveling Polish. Kiko doesn't name their polishes that I can see, so it's actually number 237.
I picked up Ulta's Devious polish because it looks like the perfect polish for layering - it's a nice deep purple that's dark, but still very obviously purple. It does indeed make for a great layering base, and it fills a color hole in my stash. The only thing I'd complain about is the stumpy brush, which I have a picture of here for you, if you've never seen them. I wish the brushes were just a tad longer, it would make application a bit easier to control, less likelihood of a mess. I love the bottle shape and design, though. Not a big complaint, but something to bear in mind if you use them. The polish itself is a nice creme, well pigmented.

Sometimes purples can be a bit of a pain to capture on camera. That's probably pretty true to life though, maybe a tad less blue than it's leaning there.
Anyway, so I decided to use Devious as a base to layer Kiko 237 (The Traveling Polish!) over, and this was drool inducing. Seriously. 237 looks like a bright, shimmery sheer pink in the bottle, but put it on your nails over an existing base, like Devious, and it's almost impossible to describe.

Gold and pink shimmers, for sure, but there's a lot going on there, right? It's completely stunning! I could not love this any more than I do, but I'm going to try it over some other colors, too. Go ahead and click to enlarge these. *hands around bibs for drooling* I just LOVE to layer stuff!
Tomorrow we'll officially start off with the Focus On Purple series!