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!

L'Oreal Owl's Night

Ahh, the elusive Owl's Night. It's much sought after, but sadly, when it did finally show up in my area, it was sold out immediately. Literally I had been stalking the drugstores for this, and going almost every day - but when I did finally find the Project Runway L'Oreal displays, there was every color of nail polish BUT Owl's Night.
Luckily, I have fantastic readers. One of them, Kim, offered to send me her second bottle! Thank you Kim, you're a sweetie. And, I love this. Of course I do!
This is an unusual polish. In the bottle, you can kind of see the deep plum base peeking through all of that greenish gold shimmer - but on the nail, the shimmer is so strongly represented the base looks olive. However, when I was taking the polish off, I could see the base color on my cotton ball - I've even got a picture of that, if you're interested! Hah. Hopefully between that and the bottle shot, you'll get an idea of it.
This. Is. Gorgeous. I used two coats for this manicure, and I adore it. I haven't used a L'Oreal polish in...quite a while, I think. I don't usually actively hunt for them, they're not really on my radar. But I love the square bottles, and although the brush is a bit shorter than I'm used to, I didn't have any trouble working with it.

You can click to enlarge any of these. Look at all that gorgeous shimmer in the macro, though! Mmm. Can you see that deep plum on the cotton ball? So, who managed to snag this and who is still hunting for Owl's Night??

Pink Wednesday: China Glaze 108 Degrees

Oh, hello loverrrr. You are SO aptly named. HOTHOTHOT. Hot pink jelly glass fleck with blue flash? China Glaze, THIS IS PINK.
I know, everyone has already seen swatches of this. The collection just got to my Sally's, so I've decided that I need all of them except Cha Cha Cha. Now, that's weird because I'm obsessed with green - but seeing it in person it just doesn't appeal to me. Pass.
I picked up 108 Degrees immediately. Kellie suggested in my recent post on L'Oreal Pink Shells that they might be dupes, so since I wanted this anyway, I'd go ahead and swatch this and do a comparison.
A couple of things I'd heard before I bought this, and I thought I'd comment on my experience: It's thin. This one is a little thin, but it's a jelly so I've come to expect that. I used three thicker coats on this and got the opacity you see here. In these photos, my visible nail line (VNL) is more obvious than it is in real life. I've often found that if you prefer opacity in your jellies, that thicker coats are the way to go. Also, it's dupe-y to other polishes. It may be, but I haven't found one yet. I hadn't seen this comparted to No Way Jose, but to me it looks like it might be close - and if THAT is the case, well GOOD because I haven't been able to get my hands on it yet!

Pretty good macro, you can see the blue flash!  Okay, now the comparison shot:

Okay, so you can see they're not dupes - they're like, sisters in that they're both hot pink with a blue flash. Considering they're at a similar price point, I'd go with the China Glaze - it's just got a better formula. NO BUBBLES OR LUMPS! The finish on Pink Shells is different, and it's lighter altogether than 108 Degrees. 

So anyway, an awesome hot pink for Wednesday, and a little comparison as well. 

Pink Wednesday: L'Oreal Pink Shells

It's Wednesday, so we wear pink!
Okay, so this is from the new summer display. I spied out an orange, yellow, and a Charla dupe in the same display. This seemed to have the same finish as Charla, and it was hot pink - so I snagged it. WHY DO I HATE THIS ON ME SO MUCH?? *cough* I really frigging despise this on me.
The name, what's up with that? I rarely question names, but this doesn't seem apt at all.
And, this is sheer. This is three coats, and I still had VNL (visible nail line). VNL is okay on a jelly, or a glitter even - in my book, anyway! But on something with this sort of foil finish? Nahhh, pass. It took me over a year to get over my VNL phobia. In some finishes, it's still not acceptable.
Plus, it bubbles. I thought the first time I tried it, I had applied it too fast. No, I waited until each layer was dry and STILL bubbling.
Well, the pictures make it look good, though. So I'll give it some credit for that. But you can still see the bubbling. To be fair, I gave you guys several shots of this to look at, including a direct sunlight and a macro.

Sneaky she devil, this. Looks fantastic in photos, right? Anyone else picked this up yet?