Zoya Fleck Effects

In conjunction with the True collection for spring, Zoya released a mini collection of three polish toppers: flakies ahoy! I love flakies. They're probably my favorite finish, after jellies. They can really spice up a creme polish.
With that in mind, I picked out three Zoya cremes that I thought might be good "backdrops" for the Fleck Effect collection.
So first up, we have Chloe, which is a lightly tinted pink jelly base shot through with flakies. The predominant color is the gold to orange flakie, but there are also sparse bits of blue to green flakies - changes it up a bit and makes things interesting! These flakies are not uniform in size and shape at all. One thing I did notice is that these are really well distributed. I only needed one coat for a good amount of flakies. I used Chloe over the top of Zoya Petra, from the fall 2011 collection. I've included a photo of how this looks matte as well, since I love mattified flakies!

I've decided to pair the next two together. Both Maisie and Opal are flakies that shift strongly from green to blue. The difference between the two is the tinted base - Maisie is in a translucent aqua jelly base, and Opal is in a translucent lime green jelly base. I used Maisie over Zoya Cynthia, which is from the fall 2011 collection, and I put Opal over Bevin for a completely different, very soft result. I've included photos of both mattified, as well!

I think with all three of these, you'd have to use a white or very light colored polish to notice the color of the tinting, because they're very translucent. I loved all three pairings that I chose, though - I think these are all really pretty combinations. All of these have quite a strong shift that was easy to capture on camera, as you can see.

Disclaimer: Products in this post provided in return for an honest review.

Finger Paints Special Effects Collection

Good afternoon everyone! This is a break in my regular posting schedule because today...I HAVE FLAKIES TO SHOW YOU! Also. This is a very, very picture heavy post.
I called up every Sally's Beauty Supply in the area, on the hunt for the Finger Paints Special Effects collection. I'm a bit of a fiend for flakies - they're probably my favorite finish, because they can make every boring creme polish lots of fun. So, I found a manager who didn't mind setting aside two sets of these, since my mom wanted one also! Shout out to Nikki of Sally's Beauty Supply for your help.
There are five flakie polishes in the Special Effects collection - Asylum, Flashy, Flecked, Motley and Twisted. They might all look very similar in the bottle, but they're quite different on.
I decided, rather than to do individual swatches, I'd do flakie skittles.  So from pinkie fingernail to thumbnail I have Asylum, Flashy, Flecked, Motley, and Twisted. I used a base of Savvy (by Femme Couture) Garland, from last year's holiday collection - it's a shimmery deep, dark vampy emerald green.

It looks pretty dark in low lights, but it's nice and glowy in the sunlight. So, I thought this would be a nice, festive base for the flakies.
First off, there's a bottle shot of all five bottles. I've labeled them.

I tried to do bottle shots, but it was impossible to get my four fingers and my thumb with the bottle in the picture, so I have a few varied shots with the bottle. Again, pinkie is Asylum, ring is Flashy, middle is Flecked,  index is Motley, and thumb is Twisted.

I gave up the bottle shots, and have decided the best thing to do with this is the claw.

Hopefully you can see the color changing going on here! What's interesting to me is that Motley is primarily blue, but shifts from aqua to blue to almost a violet. Flecked is mostly an emerald but shifts from aqua to emerald to blue. Flashy is basically a Hidden Treasure/2010 dupe, which goes from orange to yellow to green. The two others, Asylum and Twisted, are multicolored flakies that are NOT identical, but have a really good amount of color shifting!
Just a quick word, if you're unfamiliar with flakies. These are best layered, I guess you could wear them alone but I don't think you'd ever see the effects, and they'd be pretty sheer! The magic comes out over darker colors. You can also use a matte top coat for a really neat effect. The more you shift your hand, the more you'll see the color shift.
So, I hope you enjoyed this post - are you on the hunt for these? Don't forget to click to enlarge any of the photos!

Duri Cosmetics Black Diamond, Angels And Demons

Hello, everyone! I know I'm behind on replying to comments, hopefully will get caught up with that tomorrow.
Tonight I have a review of two of the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo nail polishes from Duri Cosmetics.
Black Diamond is described as a black with shimmer. The shimmer is so fine, it's absolutely not noticeable on the nail unless you're in bright sunlight, but it adds a beautiful depth to the polish. This is one of the smoothest applying blacks I've dealt with - maybe because of the subtle shimmer? I'm not sure, but some black polishes that are straight cremes can be difficult and gloopy. This was easy to control. I really like the Duri bottle shape as well - it's neat that the brand name is engraved right into the glass bottles, and I've always like square bottles. The brushes, if you've never used one of these, remind me of an Essie brush, only the handle is longer - bonus! I actually tried out all four polishes from this collection and I noticed that the formula is nice across the board - all of these were two coat nail polishes.
So I do have a picture out in the sunlight of Black Diamond, and shade pictures so that you can hopefully see the pretty depth this has in low lights. I recently picked up some layering polishes, so I tried out Essie's As Gold As It Gets over Black Diamond - perfection! This is a gorgeous gold flakie, perfect for the holidays. I've been wanting a nice gold flakie, too. The flakies are smaller than say, Hidden Treasure, but you get great distribution with one coat.

So, the second polish I have to show you tonight from this collection is Angels and Demons. This is described as a dark grey with silver glitter. I adore this shade, but go figure - I always like these. This applied exceptionally well! It even settled on its own when I thought I would have strokes, because of a sloppy application. Again, two coats.

This is just gorgeous. I really liked both of these! I have two more to show you tomorrow night, and I did some more layering with those as well.

Disclaimer: Product(s) featured in this post were sent to me in return for an honest review.

China Glaze Near Dark

This polish will not appeal to everyone. But those of you that love the dark, sexy polishes like I do? You'll LOVE this. Near Dark is one of this year's Halloween polishes from China Glaze, and it's a deep, dark murky swampy green. It's got a tinge of yellow to it, which is perfect for a Halloween shade, right? I only needed two coats for the level of opacity you'll see in my pictures. Super shiny and easy to control, too.
Okay, so I really wanted to show you what the base color of this looks like. The first picture is only one coat, so ignore the streaky and uneven look.

This photo is what it looks like in normal lighting.

This is in bright sunshine, you can really see the green here.

And because I can't ever resist a little layering, I decided to play up this sexy polish with a layer of Color Club Covered In Diamonds, which was recently gifted to me from Amanda of Nail Polish Enthusiast! Thanks girlie, I love it.

So, what's your stance on those deep dark sexy polishes? I've still got Crimson to show you from this collection, that will be tomorrow night's feature!