Duri Red Carpet Collection

Okay, I have finally finished up editing photos of the nine polishes in Duri's Red Carpet Collection - this is going to be a bit long! I'll just go ahead and jump right in with photos and details.
As I suspected, Addicted To Fame, the orange I saw in the press release is hot! It's a bright orange loaded with gold shimmer and would look great in the summer as a pedi. I used two coats here for opacity.

Behind The Scenes is a deep vampy reddish toned purple. It looks a bit dark here in the low light photo, but trust me, you can still tell it's purple. Perfect opacity, I could almost have done one coat here.

Celebrity Scandal is a silver foil. It's very fine, though - it could almost be considered a chrome, since it's not very textured! Gorgeous. We have proof here that you need to baby these bad boys when you're applying, because I must have had SOMETHING on my middle finger that didn't agree with the polish! It shows right up on these metallics. If you don't have a nice silver foil, this is a good one - the application was easy, it dried in a snap, and any brush strokes disappear when it's dry. I love that!

Fashion Police is a gorgeous, gorgeous cornflower blue jelly with strong silver shimmer. It's more sheer than the other polishes, but that's to be expected since it's a jelly. I used three coats here. This is as gorgeous as I thought it was going to be from the press release!

Limo Ride is probably my only nemesis in this whole collection. Colors like this are just not me, it might be pretty on summer toes as one of my lovely twitter followers suggested, or topped with a darker stamped polish? It's a copper frost/pearl (maybe someone can identify, I can never QUITE tell the difference) that shows up brushstrokes pretty easily. I used two coats here.

Okay, we've come to the surprise of the collection, for me. Oscar Party is a bright, celery green shimmer. I had to do several photos for you guys and I'm going to ask you to click to enlarge these - it's a duochrome! It shifts from that celery green to a strong orange gold - stunning! I cannot get over how cool this is. I used three coats here, it's a little bit thin. This is going to be hot in the summer especially on your toes.

Whew, that was cool, huh? This next one is Paparazzi, an emerald green shimmer. I don't think I have a polish quite this shade and it is VERY pretty. Two coats here.

Tabloid Rumors is a very nice dark charcoal gray shimmer. Two coats here.

And last, but definitely not least: VIP Lounge. This bright red stole my heart - I don't even like bright reds and I fell head over heels for it! This has more of a berry/blue undertone so that's probably why I like it so much. Two coats here.

So, that's a pretty well rounded collection, huh? My favorites are VIP Lounge, Fashion Police, and Oscar Party, but I think it's a very good collection. What are your favorites?

Disclaimer: Product(s) featured in this post were provided by the PR company in return for an honest review.

China Glaze Tinsel Town

Another one of this year's holiday collection, I think this will be my last one - I do have Twinkle Lights but I don't think I have time to do an individual post on it. Tinsel Town is a bit reminiscent of Nina Ultra Pro Glam Rock, only lighter. You can see that there are big and small pieces of glitter in the macro I've done. The base jelly is a much lighter color, a light blueish grey.
I used three coats here to build up opacity, and this is such a pretty color!

I got a lot of compliments on this one too.

Orly Dazzle and NOPI Bring On The Tinsel

Bling bling for the holidays! Orly Dazzle is a gorgeous metallic silver, very pigmented. It shines like whoa in the sun! Dazzle came out with the Back To School collection. Nicole By OPI Bring On The Tinsel is from last year's holiday collection, it is a fine multicolored glitter. There's silver, green, blue, gold, and red. It's so fine you could wear it by itself, but I've chosen to layer it over Orly Dazzle for some extra bling - and it's so much fun together!
I used two coats of Orly Dazzle - probably could have gotten away with one, it's very pigmented. I had no problems with brushstrokes, either. I used two coats of Bring On The Tinsel in order to get a lot of glitter on my nails - I couldn't seem to pick up enough on the brush on the first coat.

No top coat on either of these - look at that sparkle! Mmmm. Fun!

ManGlaze Fuck Off & Dye

There's a little backstory on why I wanted this polish - I could have gotten it with the "safe" name, but I wanted it as it was originally intended.
Here's the thing. I read somewhere over the summer an article on a beauty blog that said that if you wear glitter and you're 40 - or older - you won't be taken seriously.
Are you kidding me? WHO MADE THIS RULE AND WHY DO I HAVE TO FOLLOW IT?
So, I had been stewing over it. Obviously. And it pissed me off, quite frankly.
I'm gonna keep on wearing glitter. And you know what, my mom is 57 and she's wearing it too. Actually, she quite loves my Fuck Off & Dye with Hot Mess on top, if you please.
So anyway, I already wanted this ManGlaze for the name, but then, as I mentioned, I was stewing over this ridiculous statement and I wanted to wear this. So I jumped on this and ordered it - thank you Marc for the super quick shipping! He had previously sent me Hot Mess for review (last year), so I decided what could be more perfect than to top it with glitter? Nothing!
Photos, ahoy:

Well, I just freaking love this to bits. As you can see, Fuck Off & Dye is a beautiful hot pink with an amazing microshimmer. I used two coats here, and could have gotten away with one. I then patted Hot Mess on top for a bit of a gradient - both of these are fully dry after a few minutes, and matte.
A word about application and longevity - ManGlaze mattes are some of the best mattes you will ever use. They last FOREVER. I mean, not a chip in sight. Hubby actually begrudgingly let me polish one nail and then went out to tear a car apart, and he could not get that stuff off. Hah! And, although it dries quickly, it's not too fussy to fix up when you're applying it. You don't have to work really fast, just use your regular pace.
Well, I'm done ranting and raving. I'll be showing off my official birthday manicure tomorrow!
PS, before I forget, two things: You can purchase ManGlaze here. You can also purchase through their FaceBook page. Also, if the name offends you, but you love the polish, you can buy it under the name of "Blue".
And I just HAD to share the description with you:

ManGlaze brings you our exclusive matte finish now in fucking pink! We decided to release it early because of all the nonsense in the news about nail polish turning little boys into little girls. The name of this color pretty much sums up our opinion on the matter. Use with a base coat or it'll dye your nails pink. 

Yeah, you guys remember that? I sure do. Ridiculous. Makes me love the name even more. Anyway, have a great night!

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

Focus On Holographic: Gosh Holographic

Ahhh the pinnacle of my holographic week, the much loved Gosh Holographic. This was actually sent to me from Maria of rijah.dk quite a while back - and boy am I glad I kept my hands on this bad boy. I cannot believe the Bay of Evil folks are selling this for around $50 a pop! *gulps*
Man, this is such a stunner though. It is easily the most holographic polish I own, and if you wear this, they should give out warning labels - you have to make sure when you're driving to watch the road and not stare at your pretty nails!
This is a bit fussy, but not as bad as the Nfu Oh holos are. I had some balding, but I did a bit of the "glooping" trick I mentioned in my post about Nfu Oh 065 and it smoothed all my bald spots out and settled down nicely. This had thickened since I first tried it out a couple of years ago, so I added a bit of thinner the day before I swatched it. I used three coats for coverage.

LOOK at that! Guh. If it's amazing in my photos, it's easily ten times as amazing in person. Did you manage to nab this before it was discontinued or are you still on the hunt for it?
I was going to put up voting for next month's Focus On topic, but you know what? It's a new year, so I think I will do a "best of" in the opinion of me, of course for 2011. I think this will actually be the first time I do one of these posts! I sure hope you guys enjoyed my Focus On Holographic series.
Next up will be some birthday week manis!

China Glaze Cheers to You and Ring In The Red

So I decided to do a truly holiday-esque mani with this combination! I used Cheers To You, which is a perfect silver foil from last year's holiday collection, for all of my fingers except the ring finger. Then I used Ring In The Red from this year's China Glaze holiday collection as my accent nail. So, so perfect together! Ring In The Red is what I would consider to be a sister to the very famous Ruby Slippers. It's a red jelly base, with multiple sized red glitters that absolutely glows on the nail. I got this opaque in three coats, surprisingly - I thought it would be more sheer, but I'm pleased that it covered well in three coats. Cheers To You is a perfectly well behaved foil that self levels and I only needed two coats to get complete coverage.

Clicky to enlarge if you want a better look at how yummy Ring In The Red is, I really like it! I ended up with a lot more of this China Glaze collection than I thought I would, so you'll be seeing me using these up soon. It's a good collection!

China Glaze Spellbound Top Coat

Okay. I'm going to show you a polish that is VHTF (very hard to find)! China Glaze Spellbound top coat came out for Halloween of 2009, and it was L/E. I think those of us who managed to nab this are probably hoarding it!
Mind you, I've had to baby mine. I mean, it's ridiculous how much I've had to baby it - about a year after I bought it, I was checking out my stash and saw that this was completely dried up. I mean, it was down to about a quarter of a bottle, and when I went to open it and pull out the brush - bam. Dried up glitter. I went to work on it, and it took me forever. Lots and lots of polish thinner, along with some clear polish. Seemed to work, and then a couple months later I noticed it drying again, so back with the polish thinner. I've had to do this several times but now, it seems to be just fine. I've got a little gunked up glitter in the neck of the bottle, but had no troubles with this application.
So, this is a clear based glitter - small and large orange hex glitter and large silver hex glitter. It's fun to place over different colors, as it is billed as a top coat, but I once saw this over the top of a silver and that's how I like it best. You could use China Glaze Millenium, or another chrome, but this time I used a silver foil - China Glaze Cheers To You from last year's Christmas collection. Divine! I used two layers of Spellbound on top of Cheers To You.

Now, let's be honest - this was a pain to remove. I did soak it down for about ten minutes, but still - I ended up with little silver glitters everywhere. Was it worth it? Heck yeah, I LOVE this pairing. It's so awesome!
So that's the first of my Halloween features. Do you have Spellbound or are you desperately lemming it?

Focus On Black: China Glaze Haunting

Okay, continuing on with this month's Focus On series - you didn't think I was done yet, did you? - tonight I've got one of the China Glaze Halloween 2011 polishes! I've done an admirable job waiting until October to feature all of my Halloween polishes, I think.
China Glaze makes probably my favorite Halloween collections. I swear they do.
So. Let's just say it, and get it over with. Haunting is exactly what I wanted Orly Goth to be. I've held on to Orly Goth for almost three years now, and every time I wear it I feel...meh. It looks so much better in the bottle than on the nails, no matter how much I shook the damned bottle. Haunted is much, much better!
It's a black jelly (are you tired of that yet? I hope not!) jam packed with square silver glitter that just floats in the jelly. It's perfect!
I'll quit my raving. Here ya go!

Yeah. Not much else to swoon over here!

Focus On Black: Nina Ultra Pro Glamrock

The last time I popped into Sally Beauty Supply, I had a look at the core line of Nina Ultra Pros, because I always feel like I need to nab more of these little beauties - they just don't get as much love as they should from me, and there's so many cool colors. Lo and behold, there was a new nugget of greatness hovering in the bottom row - it had one of those little circular papers around the neck that said so! And for sure, I've never seen it before. I immediately snatched it up.
Turns out, Nina Ultra Pro Glamrock is perfect for Focus On Black. It's a black jelly jam freaking packed with two sizes of silver glitter - small squares, and larger hexagons. Jeez. Your nails look positively encrusted with glitter, and it just screams rock and roll. I love this. If you like glitter and silver at all, you need it. Seriously. And it's in the core section! I used three coats, and I let each one dry a bit in between to prevent balding patches - you know, where you squish on another layer of glitter and it seems to make a bald spot on your nail? That happens when your first layer isn't dry enough and you're dealing with chunky glitter.
So. This is sexy, yes! I just adore everything about it. The black jelly base gives it the depth it needs.

As you can see, it's so shiny and sparkly it almost knocked my camera for a loop trying to get a good macro, but there you go. Click to enlarge the other two photos, seriously! Have you spied this in your Sally's yet?

Zoya Nimue

Okay, I'll be honest. Three of the polishes from the Smoke set of Zoya's fall offering have been neglected - on purpose. I knew I'd like all of the cremes and three of the shimmers, but Nimue, Marina and Tao just did not appeal to me. I hadn't seen any swatches that just made me swoon, I guess.
So the other day, I thought let me just go ahead and try this - because Nathalie had requested to see it. I am in love with Nimue! I did not expect to like it, but I have done a complete turnaround. Okay, we all know that Zoya has become a master with gold shimmer, right? They've got a metric ton of beautiful polish shades with stunning gold shimmer. I think what they're trying to create with Nimue, Marina and Tao is the same effect, with silver shimmer. It's not quite the same, but it's very beautiful. I can imagine if they keep going, they'll really master this. I do hope so, because they've got a good start!
Nimue is a slightly reddish mid toned purple, shot through with silver shimmer. It gives the polish an ethereal quality. I used two coats here. I keep repeating myself, but you might want to click these to see that pretty shimmer.

Guh. So beautiful.

Gosh Black Passion

I recently won a giveaway from my friend Solveig, who runs a drool inducing blog called Nailin' It! I received some amazing goodies from her including Gosh Black Passion. I LOVE this. I'd probably go broke on Gosh polish if they sold here, there are so many I like and want. Black Passion is a black based creme jam packed with silver shimmer. It's so full of shimmer, the base almost appears to be a charcoal grey. I got this to apply in two coats! You'll want to click to enlarge this photo, to see that gorgeous shimmer.

Isn't that stunning? I have a few Gosh polishes, but not nearly as many as I want. How about you?

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.