China Glaze Bend Over Backwards

I discovered this year that I really love red oranges. I was super pumped when I came across this polish at TJ Maxx, because at the time I didn't have any red metallic shimmers at all, and then I just never got around to wearing it. This summer, though, Nine Zero Lacquer had a sale and I picked up Volcanic, which is a beautiful red-orange creme packed with coarse gold shimmer. I wore it until it chipped. I've always liked red polish, but cool-toned reds just don't look as good on me as orangey ones, and I owe this realization to Nine Zero Volcanic.

Bend Over Backwards is from the Cirque du Soleil collection, which I just looked up and wow it's from 2012. This is kind of interesting, because in indies, it really seems like 2016 has been the year of the red-orange. Last year, I wanted an orange holo and ended up hunting down Different Dimension on Storenvy. This year, I could buy an orange or red-orange holo from Cupcake (actually they have a couple), Vapid, Different Dimension, Potion Polish, KBShimmer, Colores De Carole, Dreamland Lacquer, Nine Zero, Picture Polish (Autumn is actually from 2015), Powder Perfect, Pahlish, Tonic, Celestial, Polish M, and probably more. I have a mystery polish from Baroness X called Demeter that is an incredible red-orange, and one of September's Hella Holo Customs was an orange holo from Crow's Toes. Part of this surge stems from indie makers producing Halloween collections, because a lot of people love Halloween polish and mainstream brands seem to not really care about making them anymore. Part of it is probably because orange polish is awesome.

Bend Over Backwards is a nice shimmery metallic. It's got a good formula, thin but not runny, and it's opaque in two coats. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of brushstrokes. I feel like this is a very fine fall polish, definitely worth the $3.99 or whatever I paid for it. Both my local TJ Maxx stores used to have a lot of China Glaze polish; it's how I first tried the brand, and I have always been impressed with them. Unfortunately, the TJ Maxx by my work has mostly OPIs and Essies right now, and the TJ Maxx by the train station closer to my apartment just doesn't have nail polish at all anymore that I can see. Last holiday season, they had a ton and I cleaned up, but since then it's been dry as a bone. Geez, this was a wordy post! Check back tomorrow for less words and more nail art!

Wet N Wild Be More Pacific

OK, so my nails look wrecked in this post. Because I don't wear a base coat when I swatch, cremes show every flaw in my nails. Later in the week, you'll see a change in my nail shape, and these pics are part of the reason why.

As for the polish itself, I actually really like this one. It's a nice thick two-coat creme, and the color is right between green and blue. Also it was like seventy-five cents or whatever. Cupcake Polish also has a polish called Be More Pacific, but this one came first. I think this is a beautiful color and perfect for summer. I don't have a lot to say about this one, come back Friday for something shinier.

Cupcake Polish Bat-chelor Pad

So you might notice something about today's polish: alphabetically, it comes before Zoya Bay. I had both of these when I started this blog, so it's not a matter of getting added late; I plan these posts out weeks in advance using Google calendar, and I had them on there in the correct order. Why did Bay appear last week? Well, remember the weird nail art I did using Balinese Bay and Regular Bay after I'd peeled them off? I guess I thought that was such a good and natural idea that I put Bay into the wrong week just so I could create it. I only bring it up to reassure everyone that yes, I am sticking to my loose, mostly alphabetical structure, and I do indeed know the alphabet. Anyway, here's Bat-chelor Pad.

 Bat-chelor Pad is from Cupcake's Fall 2015 Modern Vampire collection along with Bloodhound, which will be making an appearance here soon. This is a very dark navy blue linear holo. Like all of the Cupcakes I have, this polish has a super thick but very workable formula and dries rapidly.

This is a really beautiful polish! This tone of blue is not my absolute favorite to wear, but this is such a sparkly rainbow-fest on the nail that I love it. These pictures are with base and top coat (unlike Wednesday's polish...you'll be able to tell the difference, trust me) because I wore this as a full mani, but I don't remember how long I had it on for or what the wear was like. I'm assuming it was good. Come back Wednesday to see...Actually, if you want to skip Wednesday's post, that's probably for the best. Definitely come back Saturday to check out the nail art, though! It turned out pretty well this week!

Saturday Nail Art - In 3D

This week's nail art is either my greatest triumph, or my most abject failure. You be the judge, hypothetical reader.

OK, so I forgot to take step by step pictures of this nail art. I'll just describe what I did. For my base coat, I'm wearing 2 or 3 coats of Sinful Colors Bali Mist. For the...uh, let's call them "sculptural elements," I took my peelies of Revlon Balinese Bay and Zoya Bay and cut them up with a pair of scissors. I then used an old, gooey bottle of NYC Grand Central Station to stick them onto my nails in a random arrangement. So there you go.

The peel-off base coat I used was NYC Strip Me Off (two coats), and the pieces were fairly stiff. Still, it was possible to shape them to the contour of my nail, and they stayed on fine. I've never seen this style of nail art before, and I surely don't expect it to catch on because it's sort of gross, but if you want to try it out and put it on Instagram please let me know if you're able to come up with a clever hashtag, because it's just not happening for me tonight.

Zoya Bay

Oh boy, Zoya Bay! Remember a while back when Zoya said they were discontinuing the pixie dusts? They didn't! Summer 2016 saw the release of six pixie dusts (the "seashells" portion of the Sunsets & Seashells collection), and I have all of them. Bay is one of my favorites.

Zoya Bay has a regular pixie dust finish, so it's slightly gritty and very, very sparkly. Contrasting shimmer has been a big trend this year, and I think Bay falls into this category with its golden sparkle. It stands out brilliantly in the sun. I think this is three coats of Bay; like a lot of the pixie dusts, it's a touch sheer and dries rapidly.

I have all six of the seashells because of a Good Morning America sales code, so that's awesome. I thought it was so cool that I had a whole collection (well, half of one), and these were the first polishes I ever swatched. If you want to see the original swatches, many of which were taken with flash because I am such a pro, you can check out my Instagram. I loved Bay when I swatched it the first time, kind of forgot about it, then got to swatch and love it all over again.

One thick coat of Seche gives a glassy finish and makes the sparkle just explode. I absolutely adore this shade of sky blue, and the golden glitter in it gives me a Cinderella feel. This is a summer polish, but I really think it's delicate and pretty enough for spring, and icy enough for winter.

Even though pixie dusts aren't super awful to remove, I did wear a peel-off base coat under this and Balinese Bay earlier in the week. Come back tomorrow to see how peel-off base coat inspired some avant garde nail art.

Revlon - Balinese Bay

Boy, Revlon. This was one of my go-to brands just earlier this year, as I was getting really into collecting polish. Their Spring 2016 collection actually had a lot of good stuff in it, then nothing for summer and two polishes for fall - just like last year, actually, except last year we got Untamed, while this year there's like a hot pink with blue shimmer and some purple-blue glittery fake duochrome thing. I won't touch those, sorry Revlon. I do have a lot from this brand that I love, but I guess they must come later in the alphabet, because...

Today's polish is Balinese Bay. In all fairness, I do like this polish for what it is, which is an insane pink and black texture with scattered holo glitter. I mean, my god. I'm simultaneously delighted and appalled by this polish. I bought it at the Dollar Tree, along with a lot of Moon Candies and some Colorstays, and its collection mate Mayan Riviera. If you've heard that rumor that Seche Restore melts glitters, this is my evidence to the contrary. The same consistency as left over Nesquick at the bottom of a glass of chocolate milk, Balinese Bay has required a lot of thinning since I've had it. 

While I appreciate it as a matte texture, Balinese Bay can also be top coated with a couple thick coats of Seche Vite. You can see the little holo glitters popping.

For $1, I've actually gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this polish, and I've worn it a couple of times. I'm really not a fan of pink, but for some reason, this combo just makes me happy. While scraping Balinese Bay out of the neck of the bottle and trying to spread it on my nails is an ordeal, and the result is an extremely busy polish, I do really like the results. I used NYC Strip Me Off peel off base coat underneath, because this polish is currently 92% glitter, 7% Seche Restore, and the rest is actual suspension base. Join me Friday for another texture!

Sinful Colors - Bali Mist

Today's polish is as mysterious and shifting as the mists of Bali, I guess? It is a duochrome...no, really...

Even though it's a pretty well-known nail polish trick to wear sheer duochromes over a black base, I figured I would judge Sinful Colors Bali Mist on its own merits and try it out alone. In the bottle, it's a pale pink with an oily green sheen; on the nail, it's basically just pink, A lovely, pearly pink, if that's what you're into. But just pink, Over black undies, though, Bali Mist looks very different.

This is one coat over Wet N Wild Black Creme, and ok, in this shot it basically is still just pink. Bad example. Let's try again.

So in the shade, at certain angles, Bali Mist is, indeed, a duochrome. In direct lighting, it's a brushstrokey sheer metallic pink. When you make decals out of it, they look like cellophane wrapping paper and it's pretty cool, I messed with that a little bit while swatching this polish and want to revisit it later. Check back on Wednesday to see a polish that is also pink, but is anything but sheer.