Nail Polish Wishes

I have been thinking a lot lately about new nail polish collections. Wondering what types of colors the polish companies are creating and why. What influences them? Is it fashion? Art? Or is it just the numbers, new creations based only on what sells?

I fully understand that I (we) are a different type of nail polish consumer. The main difference between me (us) and your average salon consumer is a big one: Volume. While the average salon patron or nail polish customer may purchase one or two polishes every couple of months, perhaps spending up to $20, we, the nail polish connoisseur, are no strangers to purchasing twelve polishes at a time, usually more, spending more on one polish purchase than the average polish consumer will in her lifetime.

Polish connoisseurs like you and I buy polish because we love color, and we love being able to have a little fun with our nails. We don't buy polish because we have to maintain our perpetually sheer-pink tips and our only bottle of Essie Ballet Slippers is running out. We buy it because we love it.

In my opinion, that should give us more pull with polish companies when they consider the colors for their collections. I feel like the only look at what the salon consumer is likely to purchase, but us polish junkies need some love too!

Please don't think I am being ungrateful and whiny- I know that polish companies have been very good to us. They've been listening to what the nail polish connoisseur wants, and giving us a little something every season. I mean, even Essie, the queen of sheer pinks, gave us Mesmerize this season. China Glaze gave us two unique collections, Romantique and Summer Days. Zoya's spring collection rocked my socks, and do I even have to mention Barielle and Color Club? I know they've been good to me, but I still can't help but feel like some things are missing.

Here are my nail polish wishes for this year.

I want....



GREENS!!! Specifically, Mazoo's 'Bahama Greens'. But really, I'll take all the greens I can get. Please skip the light golden-shimmer greens, please! We need a variety of greens in all tones and finishes. The world is severely lacking in dark to medium greens. We have a reasonable amount of light greens with gold shimmer, as well as pale pastel green cremes and chromes. We need more Zulus, more Recycles, more Evergreens, more Date Nights, more Rainforests, more, more more! And we need creme, yes, but frosts, shimmers, glitters, duochromes, jellies and holos! May this be the year of the greens.


I also want....






Camouflage colors! Drab green, olive, dusty grey, dirty brown. Not enough of these colors exist in the world, and I don't want to have to resort to 'frankening' my own. They are chic ad much as they are edgy, and I think people would be open to them if they had the option to buy them. And not just the traditional Woodland camouflage, either! How about desert camo, snow camo, urban camo, heck, even pink camouflage pattern themed colors? You could sell them in sets of three or six. It would be awesome.


I want....



More holo colors! Not just duplications of the holographic colors we already have, I want entirely new shades of mesmerizing holographic goodness! We don't really have a true red holo, nor do we have a dark blue or green holo. We don't have a yellow holo that isn't gold, and we don't have an orange holo that isn't pink. I want darker hologrpahic shades to contrast with all of the very light bordering on pastel holo shades we already have. And I wand more smooth holo like this Nfu Oh- it's extra awesome.


Also,







I want more unique glitters!! We have plenty of gold glitter, plenty of silver glitter, heck, even plenty of plain holographic glitter. I want more funky shades! Dark colors are especially rare. I bet people would love a dark blue glitter, and just look at the frenzy that China Glaze Emerald Sparkle caused! I know that a few people were even hoping for black glitter, and I think it could work. How about darker shades with a handful of holo glitter? Think about the Massini glitters and how much they rock. And don't be afraid to mix shades together, like these mind-blowingly awesome gems in a bottle:





I also NEED....





More Magnetiques! We only have a blue and a brown, think of the possibilities! And don't make them country-exclusive and don't make them limited edition. Does Lancome hold the patent on these? If not, why hasn't anyone else created these?! I have never gotten more compliments on my nails than when I wear Bordeaux Esmee.


I want...



More Mattes! I have both ManGlaze shades, and two Knockouts, but all together that's only six matte shades available for purchase. Two blacks, a grey, a white and a pink. You can do better than that. Matte is cool, we just need more variety. How about a matte red, a matte blue, a matte olive or a matte green? I think the green should look like moss, and maybe even be named moss.


And last but not least, we need more...







FLAKIES!!! The polish finish that magically transforms a plain polish into something special. There's nothing like flakies. And really, outside of Nfu Oh, there are no flakies that are easy to find. There are maybe one or two readily available shades from CND and Nubar, but other than that they have all been discontinued. Flaky polishes are truly unique and the possibilities for creating opal-like shades are endless. Please give us more.


There are a ton more things I'd like to see created by polish companies, but I could really go on all day. This post is long enough with my demands :) Maybe I will do a part two?

I hope that one day I get to see some of these things come to life. Every time a polish company releases yet another red or sheer pink (on top of the thousands and thousands in existence), I feel a little bit sad and wonder if it could have been something awesome instead.

More Nail Art with Art Club polishes.

First things first, I want to apologize for being so slow in responding to your comments. I'm not ignoring you and I will respond to each and every comment! I have been trying to spend less time on the internet... I love reading blogs and commenting and posting about nail polish and reading all your comments, but I can easily spend the ENTIRE DAY doing it... Addictive!


Now it's time for pics!

I've been playing around with some Art Club nail art polishes lately and trying to come up with interesting designs, but I keep coming back to the same type of design.




The past couple of month, I've been in the habit of wearing a different color or design on each hand. It gives me a chance to 'wear' more stuff. Is that weird? I have serious nail polish ADD.

In these two pictures, it's China Glaze Calypso Blue with Art Club Gold Hologram and Hologram Glitter. The thumbs have a little Pure Ice Heartbreaker. Heartbreaker is one of the best polishes in the entire world- it can make anything look better. It'd consider it a must-have for sure.



Here's the silver blurred a little to show you how cool the hologram glitter is. For some reason, only blurry pictures show the awesomeness of glitter. Hmm.


Here's a little closeup of Heartbreaker over Calypso Blue.




Here's me playing around with a bunch of Art Club polishes... Malmsy, Orchistra, Aquarius, Titania Gold. I'm not sure if I like any of these designs, but they were fun to do! I guess the stripes and polka dots are pretty cute...

And here's the mani I ruined to play with nail art:




I love this one. It's so cool, I think I'll do it again, but I can't remember the polishes I used! I know the orange is OPI Osaka To Me Orange, but I don't remember what the rest are. Oops!

I think I'm going to keep playing with nail art- Art Club polishes are perfect for creating designs and it makes it really fun and easy to experiment.

Random Swatches: OPI, Zoya, Misa and Urban Decay

Following up on a couple requests, here's OPI Mod About You for Tabe-Chan:


As you can see, it's a milky "white out" pink, very stark but also very cool. I like the way this stands out.

For Kittylamour, here's Misa Passion 4 Fashion:

It's a deep dark espresso shade that looks super rich. It also doesn't make my hands look red! Bonus.

And, here's some random swatches just because.


Following the brown trend, here's Borghese Espresso Brown F. I love the brush in this, it's the perfect shape! Maybe if the OPI Pro Wide brushes were shaped more like this they'd be easier to use. It's apparently two small brushes next to each other, but it's slightly rounded on the ends. It fans out perfectly at the cuticle and makes just the right shape.



Misa Moody Model. Like melted milk chocolate, right?



Zoya Pasha. I'm not sure what color this is, but I love it! Is it grey? Taupe? I have no idea. Whatever it is, it has this fine silver frost running though it that in certain lights gives the illusion of a blue reflection. Extremely unique, in my opinion.


Here's Pasha with a thin coat of Zoya Sparkle Gloss topcoat. Sparkle gloss is really interesting, it has very fine flat flecks of shimmer that look white. It's really sparkly but it doesn't look glittery at all. It almost reminds me of the edible glitter I used to use when making cakes.




Urban Decay Id. I tried to capture the green reflection in this, but I don't think I did a very good job. This color is amazing, it changes from gold reflection to green reflection depending on the light. Lots of pretty gold shimmer, and it has a "jelly" finish to it. Why on earth did they discontinue these?!?! They were awesome!


Petites Dare. This is another polish that has those flat glitter flecks. They look like tiny pieces of chopped up cellophane or something. I'm growing fond of these flaky-looking glitters.

What other brands have some good "flaky" glitter polishes? I have CND Limelight, but I need MORE!! What are your favorites?

Nfu Oh Shiny Opal Swatches

At last, Yasmeen is gone and I have the astonishingly beautiful Nfu Oh polishes I've been dreaming about since I first saw them.

The formula is not without flaws; it's thick and goopy (must be 3-free!) and smells kinda weird. Otherwise, these polishes are perfect. They have depth, iridescence, glow, fire, shimmer, all that good stuff.

Here are the ones I chose:


49. Very blah on its own. A subtle yellow/gold/green/red opal shimmer. Looks much better over black.


44. Very nice deep orange opal with green reflection.


45. The fire polish! It's a rich, vibrant red/orange with incredible orange flake shimmer that looks like burning, glowing embers.




51. It has many faces- blue, purple, red, green, gold. It's mesmerizing and truly stunning. My pictures do not do this polish justice.




52. Dark blue/green/purple opal. Again, my pictures can not accurately convey how beautiful this is.



53. Blue with purple/red/gold opal flakes. Reminds me of mermaids.


55. Bleh. This color looks dull, flat and lifeless. Green with gold flakes.


56. This is a deep green with blue reflection and complex shimmer.


57. Another blah color. Pale green with red and gold flakes.




60. A masterpiece of polish. My pictures can't capture it, but this is a rainbow in a bottle. It shimmers and reflects every color of the rainbow, as you can see in the bottle. It has an oil-slick look to it.


66. Seafoam green holographic polish. Dries matte. I don't think I like this one.



Various colors over black. The black just makes the opal glitter flakes POP. It's a really cool effect.

I'm so happy to be able to swatch again! I have plenty coming up, including the Ulta Exclusive Essies!