Revlon Whimsical

We've finally reached an end to my holiday manicures. Who's cheering? *grin* I do have something I want to whip up for New Year's Eve, but not today!
Today I've got for you the Deborah Lippmann Glitter In The Air dupe, Revlon Whimsical, that everyone has been frantically hunting for and posting! I'm no exception, when I heard there was a dupe I was immediately lemming it, because it looked perfect. Well, I'd looked in my area and no luck, so Jacqui of The Scholarly Nail very kindly scooped up a bunch for some of us and mailed them out - thank you so much Jacqui! It was really kind of her.
So Whimsical is a very sheer, greyed out blue - I tried it alone, and I got it mostly opaque at four coats, but I really wasn't happy with that, so I decided to layer it. I had made a baby blue jelly franken a while back, using Hard Candy Sky and some clear polish, so my unnamed franken became the base for this manicure. I used two coats of that, and then I just patted on Whimsical - using the brush in swipes was pretty unsuccessful for distributing the glitter. I did two coats of Whimsical like this, and ended up with much better luck for glitter distribution.  The franken base lightened and brightened up Whimsical quite a bit - you can see that from the bottle shot I've included here. As you can see, Whimsical has blue and pink metallic glitter in two sizes. Over my franken, this reminds me of a robin's egg - so pretty!

So, did you manage to nab Whimsical? What have you layered it over? Or are you not even interested?

China Glaze Blue Year's Eve

This is another of my picks from the China Glaze holiday collection this year, Let It Snow. Blue Year's Eve is the darker sister of Blue Iguana from this summer's collection - they're not dupes, but if you're not a collector, you probably don't need both.
That said, this is a hothothot color! It's a bright, electric blue glass fleck. I love China Glaze glass fleck polishes, I swear I do. I used three coats here for this level of opacity - at two, I still had VNL. I don't think that I need to rave about this more - I'll just let the photos do the work here, because these are pretty darned color accurate.

I think in that last photo you can see a bit of the purpley duochrome flash this has. It's subtle, but it's definitely there. Boy, does this sparkle in bright sunlight!

Retro Polka Dots

One of my very best friends, Tuli, recently sent me a care package. Seriously, I now have my holy grail hand lotion - I'm so sad, because it's Israeli! She sent me all kinds of goodies, amazing food, and some really pretty polish. Two of the bottles are a brand called Apple, Tuli tells me that they had a great line of nail care products and now they are making polish. The two she sent me were Jungle Green and Blue Sky. I was looking at them side by side and I thought how cute they would be paired together in a polka dot scheme - and I was right. This has a retro color feel to me, and I loved it. I used Blue Sky on all my nails but the ring finger, with coordinating Jungle Green dots. On the ring I reversed it. I want to mention that these polishes have a really nice brush! It's probably the perfect size, not as wide as the Pro Wide by OPI, just a little smaller. Blue Sky turned out to be a perfect jelly creme, and Jungle Green was straight creme. I used three coats for Blue Sky and two coats for Jungle Green.
Ugh. I don't even know why my fingers are such a weird tone in these photos - I know I'm yellow toned, but this was just strange. Oh well, the polish colors are accurate! You'll probably note that I didn't wait long enough for my polka dots to dry before I applied top coat, there's a bit of drag.

Aren't these cute together? I loved it. I'm not the world's best at polka dots, but I keep trying them, because they're so much fun.

Focus On Purple: Orly Royal Velvet

Orly Royal Velvet is another lurker in my untrieds. I had posted most everything I had picked up from Orly's spring release, but never got around to posting Royal Velvet. Really, does it no good to be hiding away when it's as gorgeous as this.
Royal Velvet is a deep plummy purple with a strong blue shimmer. The shimmer just floats in the polish, which made capturing the base of this pretty tricky! Hence the strange angles of these photos - you can see the blue at the tip in the weird angle photos, and the purple at the base of my nails. It covered perfectly, another two coater.
The first photo is front on, in direct sunlight. You can kind of see the base, with the blue shimmer just floating on it, making it almost look blue from this angle.

The last three at odder angles, to show the purple base. I adore this, and got a lot of compliments wearing it.

Focus On Duochrome: OPI Glacier Bay Blues

Okay, let's start duochrome week out with a bang! OPI Glacier Bay Blues is from OPI's 2004 Canadian Collection. I found this at a dusty for $4, lucky me! It looks like an oil slick in the bottle. It's...amazing. Seriously, no words to describe how awesome this polish is. It's definitely a multichrome, but hard to capture.
I have heard this looks great layered, but it isn't necessary to layer it - I used it strictly by itself for these photos. Three coats made this perfection. This flashes turquoise, blue, and purple. I can see a weird flash of green even but no way did that even make it on camera. It's absolutely luscious - it almost looks like a jelly shimmer.
I took an inordinate amount of pictures and could not manage to scale them down much, so you get spam tonight for dinner. All of these are in low light, which seems to make for better duo/multichrome photographing.

You can click to enlarge these. Look at that bottle shot! It's amazing, right? Utterly gorgeous.

China Glaze Skyscraper

You know, when I first saw swatches of Skyscraper, I had a feeling it would be a sibling to both Mrs. Claus and Mistletoe Kisses from the China Glaze holiday collection last year. I was right! I absolutely, utterly loved both of those, so I had to have this. It's as stunning as I hoped it would be, too. I think they need to do a set of glitters just like these in all the other colors - purple in particular, I'm thinking, would be awesome!
So, this is a denim blue jelly base, with lighter blue and silver square glitter. My formula was in between medium and thin - but I've heard rumour that some folks have a thick formula, anyone experience this? I used three thin coats, I like to layer up a bit when it comes to glitters like these to see the depth the layering achieves. Does that make sense? I hope so. I could have used two thicker layers, but I preferred the three thinner layers. This dries relatively quickly, and the grit factor on this is lower than a more chunky glitter, so it dries smoother. I did add a top coat to this before taking photos. I don't mind the gritty texture of a glitter, but often it will dry to a duller finish and I like them to sparkle.
Anyway, enough discussion, here are my photos - my camera had a hard time focusing with all that bling, so the macro is a little blown out. I think you can see the square shape of glitter best on the edge of the macro shot, my apologies!

Oh, I love this. I love it as much as I thought I would, and that's a good thing! I've got one more pick from China Glaze Metro to show you - Westside Warrior. I loved all the olive greens that have come out with this fall's collections, so go figure I picked that up. I decided to wait until I saw the collection in person before I made a decision to buy any more - I do have a few "holes" in my collection that need to be filled, in terms of color, so I may end up getting a few more of the Metro collection.
Did you nab this and adore it?

Color Club Total Mystery

Total Mystery is from the Color Club spring Alter Ego collection - the Keep It Undercover half! I picked four shades from this half of the collection. I have not picked up any of the other half of the collection, but if you're looking for good neutral shades with excellent formulas, Color Club always wows me. They make some of the best neutral creme formulas I've used.
Anyway! Total Mystery is stunning. It's a bright, royal blue base with blue, pink and purple shimmer. Naturally this doesn't want to photograph right, you probably already figured that out just from the description! It's more vivid and purple-toned in real life, and the pink sparkles show up a bit more, although I was able to marginally capture those in the macro shot.
I used two coats for this, the formula was fabulous.

Now, when I had Focus On Blue week, I had swatched Orly's Lunar Eclipse. Loodie mentioned that she thought it looked quite a bit like Total Mystery - so I have a side by side bottle shot for her! The base blue is very similar. I don't think Total Mystery is a true duochrome, though - but Lunar Eclipse is a multichrome, as you can see from the bottle, it flashes blue, purple and pink - sometimes all at once! They are both startlingly beautiful shades.

I'm a huge fan of Color Club and I've started picking up the shades I feel like are essential for my collection. They're highly underrated outside of the blogging world, rarely when I'm wearing one and people ask me what brand it is do they know what I'm talking about! Do you have any Color Club favorites?

Focus On Blue: Orly Lunar Eclipse

I do believe this is my last blue for the Focus On Blue series. Also, it was the most difficult to photograph - I couldn't seem to capture the duochrome effect at all! I took almost 200 photos of this, and I did two different sessions. My second session was much more successful, but I do ask that you click to enlarge these photos to truly see the purple/pink flash.
Okay. So Lunar Eclipse is a searing bright royal blue, when you look at it dead on. The Cosmic FX collection is jam packed with very rich shimmer, and Lunar Eclipse is no exception.
Ahh, this is a bit pic heavy. I couldn't help myself - the last shot I decided to show you guys because the bottle shot is AMAZING. *swoon*

Ahhh, isn't this gorgeous? Now, if you don't have any of the Cosmic FX, you should stalk your local Sally's Beauty Supply. I've been seeing these pop up in the clearance display!
I loved Focus On Blue week. Thank you all for participating with me, and I'll have the next Focus On vote up tonight! I hope you enjoyed this month's color choices.

Focus On Blue: Essie Smooth Sailing

Okay, I'm sure everyone has seen this beauty seven ways from Sunday. Back up, I have to ask an irrelevant question - just where did that expression come from? I'm dying to know! Anyway, back on topic. Essie Smooth Sailing is a must have nail polish, in my opinion. If you remotely like blue you need this polish. Smooth Sailing is a medium, dusty blue with pink and blue shimmer. In low light, the shimmer looks purely silver, but out in the sunlight, it's stunning! This goes on like butter, the formula for this is absolutely divine. Two coats here - this is the jelly creme formula I've been seeing a lot from Essie and loving.

Hopefully you can see the blue and pink sparkle a bit in that macro. Hello, gorgeous!

Focus On Blue: BB Couture For Men Blue Christmas

You know, I don't think it would be a proper focus on blue if I didn't feature at least one of the sublime blues that BB Couture offers. Since I've already shown you a couple blues that I have from them, I thought I'd pick one I haven't shown on this blog, Blue Christmas. This came out with the men's collection for Christmas 2010, and it's one of my favorites! It's a sublime cornflower blue jelly with that signature BB Couture glitter that sparkles iridescent green in brighter lights, and silver in lower lights. I used three coats here, only slight VNL.
It's funny, I'm sitting at my desk writing this post, and it looks like it's getting ready to storm. My bottle of Blue Christmas is just glowing in the weird storm light with little green sparkles! If you've got or have seen Diamond Dust, it's that same glowy glitter.

Yum! What are your favorite BB Couture blues? This one is a beauty!

Focus On Blue: H&M Blue My Mind

H&M Blue My Mind is another beauty I got from Solveig. This is a bright cornflower blue creme, and I used two coats for this swatch. It's divine! So bright and so pretty. I couldn't resist layering this, so I pulled out Pure Ice Oh Baby!, which is a fantastic layering polish - it's a sheer white jelly with microshimmer that flashes aqua and pink. I tried to capture the pink shimmer, but I had a hard time doing it - you can see it best on that last photo, but it's kind of fuzzy.

If you want a closer look at the shimmer in Oh Baby!, you can click to enlarge those last two photos. I think this polish would look fantastic with flakies, too.

Focus On Blue: China Glaze Midnight Mission

Last fall, China Glaze released their Vintage Vixen collection. In the press release, they billed many of the shades as frosts. I was cringing inside - I do not like the frost finish. Let me just say that these were a pleasant surprise and like no other frosts I'd ever seen! So I fell in love with these, and in particular, Midnight Mission.
Midnight Mission is a navy blue frost - that doesn't look like a streaky, frosty mess. It's heavenly. To me, the finish reminds me a bit of a foil, only not - there's this silvery shimmer running through it. And this is completely opaque in two coats! If I were more careful, I could have probably used one coat.

YUM. Seriously, I was so impressed with this collection. I wish all frosts were like this! Do you have Midnight Mission?

Focus On Blue: Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings The Blues

I guess I could have chosen to show you Across the Universe for Focus On Blue, and it is indeed an awesome polish. But I absolutely ADORE this deep navy glitter from the All That Jazz trio, and I think it deserves a spotlight.
Lady Sings The Blues is a jelly creme. It's very pigmented, but it's just jelly enough to allow all that luscious glitter to float to the surface. I have a macro to show you with this one that came out well! I used two coats here.

What do you think, stunning?
I'm having a heck of a time getting my camera to pick up on my bright blues and showcase their shade correctly. It's almost as bad as purples, and I am about ready to throw my camera out the window!

Disclosure: This polish was sent to me by the PR firm in return for an honest review when I had my previous blog, Magic Maid. 

Focus On Blue: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Deep Blue Sea

This is from the new display of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes recently spotted in drugstores. A denim blue foil? Yes please! This is such a stunning color. It's a bit of a chameleon, in lower lights it looks more silvery, and in bright light it looks more denim blue. If you've been eying this, I'd highly recommend you snag it.
I used two coats for this, and I could have used a third, looking at my photos I see a tiny bit of VNL but I didn't notice it outside of the photos. I find foils to be a bit like glitters, in that it's best to let them dry a bit before going to the next coat to avoid displacement or streaks - but foils dry pretty quickly, so that shouldn't be a problem!

The first shot is outside in low sunlight (a little bit of cloud cover) and the second shot is actually taken in shade, in natural light. See the more silvery side of this polish in that second shot? *swoon* Love this. What do you think?

Focus On Blue: Nina Ultra Pro Sailor

Let's kick of Focus On Blue week with a little featured brand, Nina Ultra Pro. I find these at Sally's Beauty Supply - I've never seen them anywhere else. Sailor is a gorgeous deep royal blue. It's a jelly creme, at first I thought it was going to be very jelly but I got it opaque in two coats. It's squishy and shiny even without top coat and application was divine - the perfect in between thin and medium formula. I really need to pick up some more of this brand, I do love it.

Yum. I just love blue, and to me, this kind of shade is just classy looking. I know not everyone will wear blue nails, but it's my second favorite shade of nail polish! I'm glad there are so many options for blue lovers like me. I actually have ten polishes to show off for Focus On Blue, I just couldn't narrow it down to seven - hopefully no one has an objection?

H&M Bella's Choice

Okay, so if you missed Friday night's post, then you won't know that I recently won a giveaway from the always lovely and amazing Solveig. I mean seriously. Go have a look at Nailin' It, if you've never been there. *swoon*
I received a number of goodies in my package, and this is the second one I have to show you - H&M Bella's Choice. I've heard of this one before and swooned over it. Now, it's mine. (Okay, I totally did a cheesy tone of voice in my head when I wrote that line!)
Bella's Choice (no literary commentary or ranting from me on the name, I'll keep that separate) is a beautiful cool turquoise creme. I used two coats here. You may see my middle finger looks...messed, and I don't even know why.

Ahh, and you see? It's super shiny! I love this shade. It's a stunner.

BB Couture Eye Candy: GUYS!

Phew. I haven't done swatches for a review in - well, forever! This will be my first collection swatch post on Nightly Nails.
BB Couture recently came out with a collection of polishes called Eye Candy, and as with the Infamous Lovers collection, it comes in two sets - ladies and guys. Today I have for you the guys! You can snag these at Overall Beauty.
I'll show individual shades off, and then I'll tell you my overall thoughts.

First up I've got Rustic Romance. This is the one Kim said she didn't like - but I knew I'd love it. The color description they've got is honey orange. I can see this, but I call it a dirty, grungy toned down orange. LOVE. Very unusual, and I don't have a single orange like this. This photo was in direct sunlight. I used two coats here and there is very subtle shimmer - you wouldn't notice it on the nail but when I was going through photos, my shade shots showed it. Unfortunately they weren't the correct color, so I chose the full sunlight.

Dirty Blond. Can I just say the name of this is perfect for this polish? Tan creme is the shade description, and I'd say that's dead on. This was the only one I wasn't sure I'd like, but I do - I love a good neutral shade and this is different from the ones I have. Slightly yellowy tan.

Heavenly Hunk. This is a light blue creme with BB Couture's famous fine silver and black glitter. I LOVE this. It's sort of like last Christmas' Blue Christmas, but much paler. Gorgeous. Two coats here.

Silver Fox. Shimmery silver gray, says the description - dead on. This is a silver grey creme with fine, lighter silver shimmer. I had to use three coats. Go slow with this and you won't see many brush strokes, although it has the potential. I love it!

This is my second favorite of this collection - Sexy Centerfold. Why, yes, you are sexy, sir! Muted light green creme with that silver and grey fine glitter. NOT mint at all. This was two coats. See, BB Couture has the most AMAZING greens ever and this is no exception.

BAM. Hellooooo, Playboy. You sexy beast. Oh em GEE is this freaking gorgeous or what? Hands down my favorite from the whole collection. This is a deep blue teal base with silvery blue and pinky purple fine glitter. Wow, that's a heck of a description. The glitter looks mainly silver on the nail, as you can see. Two coats here. My most color accurate photos were, again, in direct sunlight. 

Overall, what an interesting collection! I love all of these. Even Dirty Blond, I think it's an interesting shade for a nude. These are all unusual shades, nothing in my collection compares to them. The formula is standard across the board, very smooth and well pigmented. I had to be a bit careful with Silver Fox, as I mentioned, because it could have been prone to brush strokes, so I used thinner coats and three instead of two. I've always loved the BB Couture formula. 

These polishes are more pricey than a drugstore polish, but they do include BB Couture's formula of a base and top coat all in one bottle. I would, however, highly recommend doing a base coat under both Playboy and Sexy Centerfold, since they both left a bit of stain when I was swatching them. 

Of all of them, if I could only pick out one for you, I'd say you have to get Playboy. 

So what do you all think of these? Are you as in love with them as I am?

Disclosure: These were sent to me for review by the retailer in return for an honest review.