Zoya Kotori, Crystal, Charla Comparison

I did this at someone's request but I thought I'd post it. I don't have Charla, so I used Orly Halley's Comet instead.

L to R: Kotori, Crystal, Halley's Comet

One coat:


Two coats:


Three coats:

At this point Halley's Comet was opaque so I didn't add any more.

Four coats (three coats of Halley's Comet):

At this point Crystal was opaque, so I didn't add any more.

Five coats of Kotori, four coats of Crystal, three coats of Halley's Comet:


With top coat:


As you can see, they are very different. Kotori, the sheerest, is a dark charcoal base with lots of blue microglitter. Crystal is a metallic light blue with lots of gold flecks. Halley's Comet is teal with yellow-green sparkle. From what I have read, Charla is slightly more blue and more sparkly, but they are very close. All of these formulas were very easy to work with and dried fairly quickly.

In conclusion, these three colors really aren't similar at all and it's worth having all three!

Essie One Day Without Blues

A couple of weeks ago Toms shoes had a sweepstakes to win a free bottle of Essie polish to push their "One Day Without Shoes" event. It's a special color made especially for the collaboration, One Day Without Blues. I guess I was one of the 5,000 winners! I received my bottle today.


It looks like Coat Azure to me (perhaps a bit less green-toned), but I don't have it to compare. It's a dusty cornflower blue cream with subtle silvery shimmer, a bit brighter than in the picture. Formula was great, very easy to work with, on par with high-end brands. I am wearing two coats, but you might be able to get away with one. Very pretty color, but not particularly unique. Still, I'll never complain about free polish!

Color Club Volt of Light

I haven't seen many swatches for the Zoya Mod Mattes, so I was a bit hesitant to buy them. I love the idea of matte brights, though, so I thought I'd do a little experimenting with a matte top coat.


This is Color Club Volt of Light with Essie Matte About You on top. VoL is a neon yellow with green flash. I've read other reviews that said the formula on this was great, but I am wearing five or six coats and there's still some visible nail line. I still love the color, though, bright highlighter yellow. The green shimmer gives it a bit more depth but I think it looks a bit shinier than intended under Matte About You.

It's rainy and cloudy out so the neon yellow feels a bit out of place, but I love my neons!

BIG Zoya Promo!

Be sure to have or make a Zoya account by 5 p.m. EST TODAY to qualify for their big promo coming up! To sign up, just go to zoya.com and click "CREATE AN ACCOUNT" at the top, near the center of the page. I wonder what it is? I'm excited!

Full details here.

Handwriting Tag

I saw this on various blogs and I thought it looked so fun! I wanted to use some fun stationery so I used some that is star-shaped (from Morning Glory, a gift from a friend) and my ramen-cup pen, hehe. (Please click to enlarge.)

This was a lot of fun and I'd love to see everyone's posts!

St. Patrick's Day Mani

I actually forgot that St. Patrick's Day was coming up, I just wanted to wear a green polish. Once I pulled the polish out, though, it occurred to me that I could finally try an idea that I'd been wanting to do for some time.


My first 3D acrylic sculpture! This was inspired by one of Asami's pictures. Mine didn't come out quite as perfect, but I'm proud of it anyway (my right hand did not fare as well...). I know the heart is kind of random, haha. I just really wanted to do a heart! I originally had this over just green polish, but it looked so plain and the color of the shamrock was too close to the color of the polish:

I added a little glitter to make the shamrock stand out more and to make it more interesting overall.

The green polish is Diamond Cosmetics Froggy, a bright grass green. This is actually a neon. I was so excited about this, but ended up being kind of annoyed with it. I think the color is nice, but it's really sheer! In the last picture you can see that after four coats there was still visible nail line, and it took a pretty long time to dry. I added one very thin coat of Color Club Under The Mistletoe and it made it all better! Helps to hide VNL. It's one of my favorite glitters out of the many that I own! The glitter is actually made of small gold flakes so it covers well and isn't gritty (full review here). Next time I wear Froggy I am definitely using something opaque underneath it.

China Glaze GR8

I'm sure most nail polish lovers mourn the loss of the China Glaze OMG collection and I'm no exception. I wasn't into nail polish at the time and I had no idea about holos. I did acquire one a while back, though, without even realizing it was from the collection. GR8 is probably the least popular color, but that means it's easily available on ebay for a reasonable price (around $8 shipped) and there's even still available on head2toebeauty.com (that's where I got mine). Here it is:

It may not be super popular, but I still love it! It's pretty unique, a gold holo, a linear holo at that. I didn't capture the holo effect too well in this photo, it's stronger IRL. This is two coats, no base or top coat. It's pretty watery, but dries quickly. I need more linear holos in my life! Hopefully I will be able to buy lots of Nfu-ohs soon, but they don't make a gold holo so I'm glad to have this one. I might have to look for a few more polishes from the OMG collection now! China Glaze, PLEASE bring these back!

China Glaze Cracked Concrete

Today I'm wearing CG Cracked Concrete (gray cracked polish) over Nicole One Less Lonely Glitter (hate the name-lavender glitter):


I used pretty thick coats of Cracked Concrete so the pieces are large but you can use a thin coat for finer cracks. Underneath is three coats of OLLG, but it's not opaque. I think I didn't apply as much to the tips as I did to the rest of the nail, though. I hate the name of OLLG but it's a very pretty color, super sparkly small hex and fine lavender glitter.

I love wearing these Crackle polishes over glitters! The glitter kind of peeks through without being overwhelmingly sparkly (not that there's anything wrong with that!). I really like this combo, it's edgy but spring-y at the same time. I have to admit that I wasn't crazy about the cracked polishes at first, but they're really growing on me! I guess it's just about finding the right combinations.

Cover Girl AntiFreeze Over MAC Spirit of Truth

I saw AntiFreeze on Scrangie and I thought it was pretty, but it runs about $12 shipped on ebay. I couldn't bring myself to spend that much on drugstore polish. I know it's available at some Dollar Tree locations but I couldn't find it here. I finally saw it on ebay for around $5 so I jumped on it. I received it in the mail and I was excited, but it looks pretty unassuming--ugly bottle, weird green base, just kinda blah. I was so wrong!


I truly think this could be my best polish purchase ever. I can't stop looking at my nails! I know Essie Starry Starry Night is the big lemming for everyone and I've never seen it IRL, but I really think this is better. SSN is kind of like what the night sky looks like from earth but AntiFreeze (over a dark color) is what the sky looks like in space! This is two coats over Spirit of Truth, obviously you can use more for more glitter. AntiFreeze is a mix of silvery-green iridescent glitter and electric blue(!) iridescent glitter. The electric blue is what really makes it amazing. I really adds a lot of depth, making it look almost 3D over darker polishes. Over Spirit of Truth, it definitely looks like the glitter is in the polish, not just on top. I couldn't capture its true beauty in my pictures, but this could be my favorite polish out of all the ones I own. I normally think back-ups are kind of silly, but I NEED a back-up of this (or two, or three).

As amazing as it is, there were some cons. It took quite a long time to dry, though it wasn't much worse than many others I've tried. I waited a good 20-30 minutes for it to dry by itself before I decided to just add some Seche Vite. It was still soft underneath, but it's pretty much dry now, ten hours later. I can still make some dents if I press hard enough. Also, the smell was terrible! I'm guessing it's not 3-free and I was smelling one of those big 3 chemicals? The smell has dissipated, though.

Spirit of Truth I had no real complaints about. It was very easy to work with and offered great coverage; you could probably get away with one coat but I did two just in case there were any bald spots. Not the most unique color, but if you are looking for a true navy cream that doesn't look black, this is a good one! Plus, the packaging is so freaking cute!

Go out to your local Dollar Tree and hunt this one down!

Chanel Pastel Skittles

I knew I wanted to try one of the Chanel pastel colors I have but I couldn't decide which, so I did all of them!


I thought the combination of colors by itself looked a little random, so I added some square rhinestones and little beads to pull it together a bit more. I think it's a nice, subtle way to add a little something without getting too complicated. The colors I used were Riva, Lilac Sky, and Pêche Nacrée.

Riva is a light blue cream with blue "hidden shimmer." The shimmer really isn't very noticeable. I found the polish to be rather sheer, but not too streaky. I am wearing four thin coats.

Lilac Sky is a lilac cream with a white shimmer finish. I found this one to be a bit sheer and also rather streaky. I am wearing three coats.

Pêche Nacrée is a peach frost. I found this one to be sheer, streaky, and you can kind of see the brushstrokes. Four thin coats.

I'm surprised at the formulas of these colors because the Khaki collection colors went on like butter! In any case, I'm sure these colors have lots of dupes out there and the money might be better spent on those. They certainly are pretty, though.