A England St. George Review

I've never understood the hype for A England.  I purchased Ascalon, but it ended up looking drastically different than it did on the website.  It's pretty and I like it, but it isn't breathtaking or astounding like everyone claims A England is.

I nearly wrote off A England, but decided to give it one more try.  So I purchased St. George from Color 4 Nails.  St. George a green-leaning dark teal with a subtle holographic glitter running through it.  It is so pretty!

The holo is super subtle-barely showing in sunlight.  However, the glitter reflects light really well turning the polish into a shimmery teal color that glistens green.  It looks like velvet.  To top it off, St. George is a 1-coater!  I keep looking at my nails astounded that it's so complex looking and only 1-coat.

I've officially boarded the A England bandwagon.  I'm already planning my next order.

Zoya Sailor Review

I made the mistake of wearing a frosty baby pink last week.  Ick!  The color washed me out bad.  I was so disappointed in the color that I couldn't even bring myself to photograph it for a review.  To top it off, the frosty shimmer would not come off of my nails!  So I chose a really dark color to cover it.

Zoya's Sailor is a dusty navy cream that borders on being a blurple.  It's really dark, but is obviously blue in all lighting.  I love that about this polish.  I really hate colors that aren't black, but look like it anywhere except in direct sun.  Sailor had a great formula.  It could probably be a 1-coater, but since I was covering some lumpy shimmer, it took two.

I've been trying to find a perfect navy cream, and I think that Sailor might be it.  It's purple-toned enough that it doesn't wash me out and has a nice dusty quality to the color.

Dance Legend Roz Review

Here's the second polish review from Dance Legend's Chameleon collection.  I purchased all 6 from the collection.  You can see my review of Sulley HERE.

Roz, like its fellow polishes, is stunning!

 Roz is mostly a fuschia to gold to green multichrome.  It nears turquoise and purple at extreme angles.  I wore two coats over black.

I forgot to get an underwater shot of this.  However, the swatch above shows what Roz looks like most of the time.

I am addicted to these multichromes.  All of my other duochromes pale in comparison.  This collection is so vibrant and shifty.  They're a lot of fun to wear!

I purchased these from Color 4 Nails.

Essie Starry Starry Night Revival Review

Like most people in the polish community, I was super excited for Essie's revival of Starry Starry Night.  The polish has so much hype, I couldn't wait to see what it was all about.

Unfortunately, SSN is not a dupe of the original (or even close).  I don't have the original to compare (Can't possibly justify the $200+ price tag) but you can view other bloggers' comparisons HERE and HERE.

I've heard a lot of people complaining about how different the polishes are.  Their disappointment is justified; Essie surely could've made the polish closer to the original.  However, I think that the Retro Revival of Starry Starry Night is really pretty.

SSN is a dark blue jelly packed with silver hex glitters.  The glitters are medium sized.  They're a bit too big to make the polish look overly like the night sky.  However, the polish is very elegant and even ritzy looking. The coats of polish tints the glitters to a pretty vibrant blue color.  I've heard a lot of various thoughts on formula-some claim it's a one-coat wonder and some claim that it's a 3-4 coat gloopy mess.  My bottle was an easy 2-coater.  The glitter distributed nicely and it was very smooth to apply and remove.

Here's a comparison of SSN with KBShimmer Carpe Denim, Zoya Dream, and Zoya Yves:

As you can see, SSN is darker than both Carpe Denim and Dream.  The glitters are not holographic like either of the other two.  The glitter is smaller and more dense in SSN that Carpe Denim but is larger and less dense than Dream.  SSN is closest in color to Yves, but even with top coat, the shimmer is Yves is too faint to even come close to comparing to SSN.

Hope this post helps!  Are you planning on purchasing SSN?

Top 15 of 2015

I wanted to share my top 15 polishes of 2015.  I had this post planned for New Year's Eve, but then my hubby and I both got really sick and were down for days.  Then it was back to work and life was crazy.  Sorry that this is a little late.

It was so hard to narrow my picks down to 15.  I ultimately only chose polishes that I purchased in 2015 (though a few were released earlier) and tried to choose the polishes I wore the most.

Here they are in rainbow order:

Zoya Perrie

Perrie is a gorgeous orchid cream.  It is smooth and buttery-opaque in 2 coats.  In the spring I went for nearly 3 weeks wearing this.  I'd take it off and then immediately reapply it.

Whim In Love With Love

I found this gem in the clearance bin at Ulta.  Whim's formulas are hit or miss, but ILWL's formula is a grand slam.  It's nearly a 1-coater rose polish and is super holographic in the sunlight.  Indoors, it looks like it has a subtle silver shimmer.

Orly Fireball

This summer I wasn't crazy about the neons, except with Orly's Fireball.  It's a neon red with a subtle pinkish shimmer.  It's a hot and wild color, but is stunning both indoors and out.

OPI Go With the Lava Flow

I was pretty disappointed in OPI's Hawaii collection.  All the colors seemed too pastel to represent the tropical islands.  However, I did fall in love with Go With the Lava Flow.  It is a reddish coral color with subtle gold shimmer.  It is so pretty.

Hare Polish Flesh World

I tried to limit my Hare Polish choices, but still 3 made it on this list.  I love Flesh World from the original Twin Peaks collection.  It's a yellow-toned nude crelly with peach, gold, and black glitters.  Definitely the oddest and most unique polish in my collection.  The combo seems so weird, but the result works so well.

Superchic Lacquer Figmint of My Imagination

Figmint of My Imagination is a minty green shimmer with a violet flash.  It is so pretty and the flash adds a lot of interest to it.  It is very thin though-requires 3-4 coats.

Zoya Cecilia

I probably could've listed the entire Island Fun collection on this list.  Cecilia is probably my favorite from the collection though.  It is a gorgeous 1-coat green-leaning teal.  I love how bright and vibrant it is, but it has a slight dusty quality that keeps the color from being obnoxious.

Butter London Stag Do

Stag Do was a major lemming of mine that I stumbled upon in TJ Maxx.  I couldn't believe that I found it there.  It's a very dark teal with a super subtle green shimmer.  In nearly every lighting, it looks like a cream, but in direct sunlight, the shimmer peeks through.  It's dark and vampy, yet doesn't look black in any lighting.

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

I feel a little bit like a cheater by putting this on my yearly favorites list.  I received Carpe Denim as a Christmas present and have only worn it once.  But once is all it took-I couldn't get this polish out of my mind.  It's a dark navy blue jelly that's packed with holographic silver glitter.  It's almost a night sky polish except the glitter is super holographic in all lighting.

Zoya Serenity

Serenity is my other pick from the Island Fun collection.  It's a medium-hued dusty purple.  Just like Cecilia, it is simultaneously bright and subdued.  It has fantastic formula too, nearly a 1-coater.

Hare Polish Regency Miss

The base of Regency miss is the same dusty purple color as Serenity.  It also has pink circle glitters and square copper glitters and copper shimmer in it.  Another of Hare's unexpectedly stunning glitter mixes.

OPI Cosmo With a Twist

This was my go to polish color for the holiday season.  I wore it 3 times in the month of December.  It's a dark purple jelly with purple and blue glass fleck in it.

Zoya Caitlin

Caitlin is a lavender-grey polish.  It's super chic and classy.

 Hare Polish Lost on Abalone Shores

LOAS was from June's A Box Indied.  It's a taupe-grey with green holographic flakies and pink shimmer.  This is so pretty and is probably my favorite polish of the entire year.

Crows Toes Even Sugar Melts in the Devil's Mouth 

My final favorite is from February's A Box Indied.  ESMITDM has a black jelly base with silver flakies and red shimmer.  It looks really edgy and the red shimmer makes it a bit vampy too.

So those are my favorite polishes from last year!  What are yours?  I'm so excited to see what 2016 brings to the polish world.  The spring collections look like they are going to be great.