20% off of $50 or more at Nubar!

Nubar's having another great sale, but only until Friday!

Use code MAY092050 at checkout to receive 20% off your order of $50 or more.

This code is good today through Friday, May 8th.  (Edit: I have confirmation that it does end on Friday and not Saturday, sorry guys!)

Shop here at ByNubar.com.

Need a little inspiration?

Purple Beach

Pasadena Purple

Burgundy Velvet

Hot Green

Green Silver Glitter


Teal Glitter

Another French Manicure Kit from Nailene

This second french manicure kit from Nailene is a little more adventurous. It includes the standard bright white tip polish, but also a sheer pink shimmer with strong green duochrome.

Like the first kit that I reviewed, this comes with everything you need to complete your look. Base and tip polish, sealant top coat and 42 tip guides.

Since tip guides were included with the kit, I used them for these looks.

Here's one coat of white with one coat of the pink and green shimmer polish on top. Wow, my nails are stained... Oops!


Here's the same, but with two coats of the pink and green shimmer polish instead of one. Two coats gives you a lot more coverage. That's good, that way you can't see how bad my stained nails look!

Since the base polish has more tint to it than your traditional sheer nude french manicure color, it discolors the white tips. If you prefer a bright white tip, apply the white tip polish last. This is what it will look like:

Can you see all the pretty green shimmer? This polish seems like it would be great for layering. I think it would look pretty cool over a hot pink or coral, and it would be amazing over black.


You can also add a little flair to it with Nailene's Bedazzle Nail Art Decals. I chose a swooshy one from the kit. I think it would also be pretty with one of the snowflake designs as well.



Overall, this is another great kit for people who love french manicures. It's not the same plain pink-and-white french because this one has a little duochrome green shimmer added to it. It's extremely easy to use and there's no confusion because everything you need is right in the kit. It's an inexpensive and easy way to achieve a french manicure look without having to go to a salon. I'm all for being able to do your nails at home!

This kit is available at any drugstore and can be found in the nail art section near the decals and artificial nails.

SuperStar Nail Lacquer Spring 2009 Collection: Rising Star Couture

I recently got a chance to try a few polishes from SuperStar's Spring 2009 collection, Rising Star, and I'm very pleased with them!

SuperStar is a small polish company that has some really great unique polish colors. I've previously reviewed some really nice neons from SuperStar, and these new spring colors are just as bright and flashy, but with some added oomph!

As you all know I'm a huge fan of duochrome/iridescent polishes, so as soon as I saw these colors I knew we were meant to be.


Orangeu An A-Lister? A super-bright neon coral-orange with an overlay of silvery iridescence. Bright and cheerful but with a kick! The silvery pink flash makes this a really unique neon. This color is very difficult to capture on camera because it's so bright. It's a little darker and a whole lot brighter in real life. This picture I took indoors shows just how much it glows:







Park Avenue Purple. A bright, shimmery purple with blue overlay. Really, really gorgeous. Not quite a true duochrome, more of a purple with blue iridescence. The base of this is a nearly-neon purple, and the blue shimmer adds a cheerful punch to it. Another very bright, attention-grabbing shade.

These colors are very welcome during this season of boring, drab pastels. All of SuperStar's shades are a little bit glam, a little bit edgy and above all, fun. They have duochromes, glitters, neons, greens, metallics, not the usual lifeless pink-red-white-beige shades that we're constantly being bombarded with from polish companies. I'm especially digging the neon-duochrome and neon-holo glitter combinations released in the spring collection.

The formula and brushes are excellent. I had no problems at all with application, the texture of the polish is very smooth and it dries quickly. Quick drying polishes earn big points with me!

I really appreciate SuperStar's love of color and their willingness to release fun, funky and fascinating shades instead of the stereotypical spring-summer-fall-winter 'required' polish shades. Neon raspberry with glitter in spring? Hell yeah! Metallic silver in fall? Right on!!

Another thing worth noting about SuperStar: they listen! When I had originally reviewed my first polishes from this company, a lot of people voiced their opinions about the SuperStar website being difficult to navigate and not being the most user-friendly site in general. SuperStar listened, and has completely re-designed their website with a colorful, spunky look and an easy to navigate format!

So just a reminder to all of the lovely people who read my blog: Your opinion matters! If you want something from a polish company, ask! You never know who might see your comments, and you could inspire wonderful things.

Anyway, SuperStar nail lacquer is available at the brand new SuperStar website. They currently have 24 shades which retail for $8.50 each, but if you pick five colors you can get them all for $35 with promo code 5for35.

Color Club Spring 2009 Collection: Femme Fatale

Part two of Color Club's spring collections for 2009! In case you missed the previous post, Catwalk Queen is part one.

(Also, be sure to check out The Nailphile's swatches of Catwalk Queen and Femme Fatale and The Polish Addict's promo pictures for Catwalk Queen and Femme Fatale. )

Femme Fatale is meant to be a racy, seductive and freakin' sweet collection of French manicure shades. Here's what they say about it:

"The French Manicure gets revolutionized with dark to light duo-tones from Color Club."

Now, if you know me at all or you've read this blog for five minutes, you'll know that I am not a fan of the French manicure. However, when it's done with fun colors or different finishes, I'm all for it. I've heard this referred to as a "Funky French."

This collection would be perfect for that. It's also perfect to wear each color alone, which is what I did.


Femme Fatale. This is really nice. A sheer polish with pink/red crystals. It's different than just a plain shimmer, and while it looks similar to Ready To Wear from the Catwalk Queen collection, it's quite different. The shimmer particles are what make this polish really special. They're like... little... balls? Shimmer balls. Tee hee!


Oooooo La La. Beautiful, clean, crisp white pearl. A white that's opaque without being chalky, it's softened by the pretty pearl finish. Very wearable even by itself.


Oui! Oui! Oui! A sheer, shimmery silvery/green/blue duochrome. Another seashell type color that looks incredible over black. Like its Catwalk Queen Cousin, Runway Muse, Oui! Oui! Oui! reminds me of OPI Think It's Pink?/Sea The Change?.




Revvvolution. Yes, three V's. I like saying it... Revvvvvvvvvolution. Hehe. This is a stunner. A heart-stopper! A true black holo, like OPI My Private Jet but BETTER! It's so dense and smooth that you can get away with one coat, whereas My Private Jet needs three or four. I have a feeling this is going to be a huge hit. It's too beautiful to ignore. Color Club did an amazing job on this shade.



Where's the Soiree? The only disappointment in this collection. From the Polish Addict's promo pictures, this color looks like it was supposed to be a black with shimmer or glitter, somewhere along the lines of Misa Wishing On A Star. But, unfortunately, Where's The Soiree? is just a plain black creme. It's a nice black creme, but not what I was hoping for based on the promotional images. Maybe they had to change it at the last minute. Ironically, this is the only one that gave me trouble with application- it was rather runny and watery and kept pooling at my cuticles. Had to redo it three times.





Worth The Risque. Gorgeous. It seems like I'm repeating myself a lot with these collections: gorgeous, beautiful, stunning, spectacular, sexy, fantastic, wonderful. All of the above are true for any polish in both Catwalk Queen and Femme Fatale, so it bears repeating. This is a perfect silver holographic polish that's much, much more dense than any holographic polish I own. It's perfect and beautiful, and like the other Color Club holos, blinding.


And, because they were just begging to be layered, here's the sheers from Catwalk Queen and Femme Fatale layered over Where's The Soiree?





Index: Runway Muse
Middle: Ready To Wear
Ring: Femme Fatale
Pinkie: Oui! Oui! Oui!

See how spectacular they are layered? It really brings out all the colors of the duochrome polishes and makes the shimmer in the sheers stand out.


I can not even express to you how positively thrilled I am with the new Color Club holos. This is the first time I've ever seen them do a holographic polish and they totally nailed it. Perfect in every way. I hope there are more Color Club holos in the future! They rock!!

Application on all of these was perfect, with the exception of Where's The Soiree?, which was watery.

I haven't used the holos with Konad yet, but they seem like they would be perfect. I'm going to try it as soon as I can find where I left my stamper....


Overall, both Catwalk Queen and Femme Fatal are awesome. Amazing. Breathtaking. Color Club saves spring! They've delivered us from the usual blah colors and given us something new and interesting. I think it's my top spring collection. Zoya Twist and Misa Living On The Fast Lane are tied for a close second. But, it's hard to compare this collection to the other spring collections because it's so different. I love different.

If you've never tried Color Club before, you really must. They're such high-quality polishes and they have some of the most unique and amazing colors (Glitter Vixen, Dance To The Musique, Neons, remember those??) but they are extremely affordable. High-end quality for a low-end price. You can't beat that.


*sigh* So pretty....

(With a spring collection this amazing, I'm dying to see what they have planned for summer!)

Color Club Spring 2009: Catwalk Queen

All of these spring pastels are really depressing. Year after year after year we get the same old boring, lifeless pastels for spring...

Luckily, we have Color Club to save us!

They've released two collections for spring that literally made me jump for joy. Sure, there's some pastels, but they're different. Different and awesome.

Take a look for yourself, you'll see what I mean!



Catwalk Queen. Good gravy, this is one of the hottest purples ever! It's a rich, dark, vampy purple with dense particle shimmer. Super sexy, not at all spring-like and right up my alley! I'd say this is a must have for purple lovers- it's a dark purple that still looks purple and not black!



Fashion Addict. Different lighting and angles to show just how insanely holographic it is. HOLO!! FOR SPRING!!!!!! HOLY CRAP!!!! Fashion Addict is an amazing light purple holo. It's extremely dense and blindingly prismatic.



Front Row Diva. A lovely, unique light grey with a tiny touch of purple and a beautiful pearl finish. For those of you confused about the difference between frost and pearl finishes, this is a perfect example of a pearl finish. It looks like expensive grey pearls on your nails!




Ready To Wear. A sheer, pearlescent pink/grey near-duochrome. Very dreamy and romantic. This picture is three coats, and you can tell that it's nearly opaque. One more coat might have made it totally opaque, but I actually like the sheer look of this. It even looks nice with just one coat.


Runway Muse. It's not really obvious from my picture, but this is a strong aqua/pink/silvery duochrome. Very seashell-like. Gorgeous. Reminds me a lot of the rare, discontinued OPI Think It's Pink?. It gives me the impression of a layer of sheer, dreamy fabric. Fairy colored. This is extremely pretty on it's own, but it's even better over black. I'll get to that in part two.



Vintage Couture. A mod lilac-baby-pink creme. Very pretty and delicate, but kinda 'edgy' at the same time. It's so stark and strong that it's very unusual compared to the types of pinks you usually see.


This collection is amazing. I'm floored by it!! I'm so utterly impressed with Color Club- they tend to be more daring, more fun and definitely not afraid to take a chance with their colors. I love them for that. And this is only one half of what they've released for spring!

Application was perfect. Great formula on all of them. The only one that gave me a little trouble was Vintage Couture, because after I applied the second coat, it kept wiping away a spot of polish at the cuticle and leaving a little bald spot. This was fixed with a third coat. A little annoying, but not a deal-breaker for me.

Fantastic collection, I love every single color.

Aren't you curious about part two? The second Color Club spring collection? Stay tuned :)

A true drugstore gem: Tropez Aqua Pearl.

This polish took me by complete surprise. I wasn't looking for it at all- it sort of jumped out and grabbed me! And I wasn't even completely impressed with it at first- sure, it's nice in the bottle, worth buying on color alone, but the magic happens when you apply it.


Tropez Super Pearl Aqua Pearl.

You may not be able to tell from this angle, but it's a pretty strong blue/turquoise/greenish duochrome type color. It changes depending on the light, but it's not as dramatic as your standard duochrome (Nubar Peacock Feathers, for example).

So, the color alone is fantastic, but the formula.... Oh, the formula. It is the most perfect, smooth, pigmented, flawless formula I have ever used in my entire life.

Tropez is manufactured by Markwins, who also makes a lot of other drugstore type products including Wet N Wild and Black Radiance. I guess I wasn't really expecting much from the company who makes that The Color Workshop garbage, and Wet N Wild wasn't always known for its quality, either (though that has definitely changed in recent years!).

The quality of this polish is out of this world. On the very first brushstroke you can see the difference. The polish doesn't go anywhere you don't want it to go. It doesn't run and it doesn't drip despite the very thin texture. It is so amazingly smooth, it practically applies itself. The brush is perfect, and the polish only goes where you put it. The texture of the polish is very thin, but it's also ridiculously pigmented. It's opaque in one coat! A thin drugstore polish that's perfect in one coat. Am I dreaming? Is this real? This picture is two coats, but I could have gotten away with one. It was dry, shiny and bubble free in under 5 minutes.

I am used to using polishes that are more expensive, your standard OPI, Essie, Orly, stuff like that. To have a $2 drugstore nail polish totally annihilate them in the formula department is truly shocking and wonderful. It just goes to show you that price doesn't always indicate quality.

I haven't tried any of the other polishes from this brand, this is the only color that really got my attention, but I'm definitely going to pick up a couple more now to find out if this is just a fluke. I mean, I am seriously impressed by this little hidden gem of a polish.


And, on a totally unrelated note, I am slowly working through my emails and comments. I really appreciate your emails, and I hope no one thinks I am ignoring them! I am normally glued to my laptop for most of the day, and that hasn't been the case for the last month or so, but I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can :)

Random Zoya Swatches (Warning: Very Picture Heavy.)

These are for the lovely Phyrra, but since I know that a lot of you are planning on doing the Zoya Polish Exchange, I thought I'd post them on here :)

If I had to pick favorites, these are my favorite Zoya polishes (in the order they appear on the website, for handy browsing!):

Gaia
Sparkle Gloss
Snowsicle
Angella
Glimmer
Shimmer
Pasha
Vegas Freeze
Zara
Malia
Venus
Areetha
Kylie2
Manhattan Mixer
Creamy
OC Cooler
Gabrielle
Ginger
Lianne
Sienna
Annie
Elke
Soho Punch
Kiki
Whitney
Audrina
Jinx
Richelle
Colette
Shivon
Kaufda
Beyonnce
Anastasia
Pru
Kalista
Evangeline
Ivy
Jade
Delilah
Jacy
Colby
Mikka
Rihana
Blair
Sloane
Kierra
Rea
Lael
Roxy
Ki
Hope
Yasmeen
Tangy
Irene
Suvi
Southbeach Ice
Yummy
Jo
Kotori
Tart
Indigo
Trixie
Harley
Freja
Angelina
Casey
Raven

Most of those I've posted on here at some time or another, use the search function to find past swatches. Here are a bunch of swatches I'm pretty sure I haven't posted:

Beyonnce. Duochrome.

Blyss

Paris

Ginger

Eve

Evangeline

Delilah (View full size!)

Aria

Angella

Gabrielle

Harmonie

Ivy

Jade (View Full Size!)

Lindsay
Lillith

Kiki

Kaufda



Juno. Slight duochrome.

Sienna. (Incredibly stunning.)

Pasha

Milla


Marry / Marry J (Bottle says Marry, website lists it is Marry J)

Roxy

Venus

Tama

Vegas Freeze

*whew* That's a lot of swatches!

Now go forth, be conquered.....