Zoya Zara & Black Shatter

I'm kinda short on time today, so here's a quick post featuring Zoya Zara and OPI's Black Shatter.

Zara was one of the free polishes I picked from Zoya during their recent promotion.  I had decided to pick up polishes that I liked, but wasn't sure I $7.00 liked them, know what I mean?  So I got Zara. Colbie, and Sloane.  I'll talk about those more soon.  Anyway, Zara was my favorite of the three and the first I wore.

As you can see, it's a light warm purple with heavy amounts of gold shimmer.  It's a great polish to make you feel a little flashy, but still "normal" enough looking that you don't get weird looks at work meetings - trust me, I tried it!  :)

Zara isn't the most opaque polish in the world, I think this was around 4 coats?  It applied very smoothly though and I didn't have trouble with dry time after I topcoated it.  It even held up pretty well, at least for a Zoya... I still haven't found the right combo to get them to last more than a couple of days.  I think I had this one on for at least 4 with only tip wear, no chips.

It was starting to look pretty rough though and I was going to a family function and didn't want to show up with so much tip wear, so I decided to try out Black Shatter.  I wasn't totally sold on the crackle idea, but I wanted Serena Williams' Simply Smashing and Black Shatter comes with it, so I have it.

I really liked it once it was on!  The shatter effect was perfect on my index and middle finger - I didn't get the coat thick enough on my ring finger and you can tell by the brushy-looking part on the left edge.  I loved how the shimmer from Zara just peeks through a bit to warm it up.  Application on Shatter wasn't as difficult as I had heard - a medium-to-thick coat gave the perfect look.  If you apply too thin, it will just look like you messed up something.  Apply too thick and it won't shatter.  It dried in about 2 seconds too.  That's what I think I love the most!

So I got Black Shatter thinking I probably wouldn't use it much, but after trying it out, I think I'll be using it on those manis that are past their prime, but I don't have the time to redo.  It will give them a totally fresh look without me spending any time!

I haven't totally jumped on the crackle bandwagon - I didn't (and don't plan on) buying any of the China Glaze ones, but I will continue to pick up the Serena Williams' sets, so I will get the White Shatter and Red Shatter for sure.  I also have seen that there is a Silver Shatter coming out with the Pirates of the Caribbean collection, so I'll be getting that one - who can resist Silver Shatter?!

Basecoat: Instant Artificials

Topcoat: Poshe

Number of coats: 4 of Zara, 1 of Black Shatter

OPI - Gift of Gold (Ulta Exclusive)

I don't have an Ulta in my town, so when I saw pics of the OPI Holiday Ulta Exclusives, I began to plot how I was going to get my hands on them.  There are only 3 Ultas in downstate Illinois and the closest is over an hour away (and they never have anything good!), so I don't really have a lot of choices.  Fortunately for me, my mom went shopping in the Chicago area and just happened to find an Ulta next door to the scrapbooking store she was visiting!  She called me, I told her what I wanted, and she came home with all 3 exclusives, buy 2 get 1 free!  :D

The only one I've worn so far is Gift of Gold and it is an absolute stunner.  Let me preface this by saying I don't really like gold.  I don't own any gold jewelry and after I started swatching my stash, I realized this was the only gold polish I owned!  (I have since rectified this situation by purchasing OPI's Glitzerland and China Glaze's Midnight Kisses)  Something about this one just blew me away.  Would you like to see?

It's so blingy!  Your nails WILL be noticed in this one!  Can you see the tiny red glitter peeking out between the gold?

It's really hard to capture Gift of Gold's allure in pics.  It looks amazing.  It sparkles and catches every bit of light so you are always getting noticed.  I had so many compliments on this one, and I usually don't hear a peep about my nails, except from the other obsessed gals at work.

As for the formula... this one is THICK, but in a good way!  I think it's supposed to be a 1 coater, but I did two here to make sure there were no gaps.  It likes to eat top coat, so I am wearing a couple of coats of Gelous over it to make it smooth and shiny!

The best part for me was how long this lasted!  I was able to get a full week out of it, only touching up a couple of chips after 5 days.

I know China Glaze's Party Hearty was most people's choice for best 2010 holiday color, but I think Gift of Gold definitely gives it a run for its money.  I don't even like gold and I was absolutely smitten with this one!

If you love it and don't have it, you better get to Ulta quick - it *might* be on clearance there.  Don't fret though, I think the new Milani One Coat Glitter in Gold Glitz is a pretty close dupe.  I don't have it, but I have seen it and it looks pretty similar - it's also core, so it will be easy to find!

Number of coats: 2

Basecoat: Beauty Secrets Moisturizing Basecoat

Topcoat: Gelous + Essie Good to Go 

OPI - Dating a Royal

For some strange reason, this has been in my untrieds for far too long.  I pulled out a blue sweater to wear to work, thought about matching nail polish and instantly thought of Dating a Royal.  I can't believe I waited so long - I love it!!

Like so many colors, it photographs a little differently than it really looks.  It seems a really intense almost neon blue in every picture I took, but it is slightly dustier than it looks.  Still a nice bright blueberry candy blue, but just not quite *this* blue!

Application was good - it started off a tady streaky, but by the time I was done, it had completely self-leveled and looked great.  It's somewhere between a cream and a jelly.  I have seen a lot of people say this is a straight-up jelly, but it doesn't seem quite as squishy to me.  *shrug*  Beautiful color, easy to apply - love it!  Typical OPI Pro-Wide brush, which I like... but I've realized on my pinkies it's almost too big.  It seems like I get a lot on my cuticles and I can't seem to get it off... which you can clearly see in the pics, and this is day two!  Sorry about that tipwear too...I did it Friday night, worked Saturday and took pics on Sunday... so I had plenty of time to mess them up!

I also got those nasty little bubbles I mentioned in my previous post with OPI Pamplona Purple... I have been using my topcoat combo for awhile without troubles, but I guess it must react with the OPIs?  I'm going to switch it up for my next mani and see what happens...

Dating a Royal retails for $8.50 and is still widely available.

Number of coats: 3

Basecoat: Instant Artificials

Topcoat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dry + Seche Vite

OPI - Pamplona Purple

Ok, so my NOTD is something by OPI, so you've probably seen it before.  I'm wearing a shirt that is the exact same shade and this was in my untrieds, so I figured now was the time.

So here we have OPI's Pamplona Purple from the Espana Collection... which I believe was the fall collection for 2009.  I hadn't heard much about this one - actually, nothing at all.  A friend and I were going together to buy some polish online and so I was browsing through the offerings and when I came across this one, I started searching for swatches.  I have several shirts this same shade and haven't found a nail polish to match.  I thought I'd found it in Milani's Rad Purple (I'll swatch that one soon to compare), but alas, the polish is not the same color as the bottle (damned you colored bottles!) and my search continued.  I was proud of myself - this is the only polish I ordered (yes, I have a bit of a problem...) and it did not disappoint.

Pamplona Purple has been described as "plush plum", but I think that's a little off.  When I think of plum, I think of dark vampy purples.  This is most certainly not vampy!  To me, it's more like fushia... mixed with a little purple.  Maybe a dark magenta?  A medium red violet?  Hard to describe in words, but the pictures are pretty color accurate... though I definitely could have used better lighting.  Sorry about that... didn't have a chance to take pics before the sun started going down.

I like that the color is what you'd expect more from a neon, but it has a cream finish - I don't really like the neon finish.  I'm drawn to many of the colors, but once it's on, I have to start loading up on the Seche Vite to like it.  Pamplona Purple did seem kinda streaky on the first coat.  It evened out on the second, but the tips of my nails where I didn't get the second coat on as well is still a little meh.  I suppose that's my fault, not the polish's, but for the first time I noticed little tiny bubbles on my thumbnail.  I've never had that happen before!  It's really only noticeable to me, but still...

The bottle and brush are typical OPI, which you've probably worked with before.  I have pretty small hands, so the lid is a little long for me, but I do like the Pro-Wide brush.  I know a lot of people think it's too big and hate it, but I like that I can almost cover my entire nail with one stroke - makes application a snap!

Pamplona Purple retails for $8.50 and is still widely available.

Number of Coats: 2
Basecoat: Instant Artificials
Topcoat:  Sally Hansen Insta-Dry + Seche Vite