Cirque Colors - The Metropolis Collection for April 2015

Hello April!

Press Sample

Today, I have two lovely creme polishes being released by Cirque Colors this month.  Cirque started releasing creme shades of polishes every month as part of their Metropolis Collection.  Each of the polishes are inspired by places around New York City.  For April, we have two brightly colored cremes that are perfect for not only spring, but transitioning into summer too!  The polishes released each month as part of the Metropolis Collection are not limited edition.  You will be able to get these polishes at any time until they retire the shade.  I really enjoy this type of monthly release.  We are always looking forward to new colors and our pocket books are not severely damaged but the release of a big collection all at once.  Want to see the pretty polishes!?!?

Takko Lacquer - Aphrodisiac

Press Sample

More Takkitos for you!

Today I have another gorgeous shimmer from Takko Lacquers to share with you all.  Takko Lacquers have some of the greatest shimmers out there and this polish is no exception.  So here is Aphrodisiac!  It's a gorgeous salmon coral with a golden shimmer throughout.  An extra bonus is a scattering of delicate gold flakies!  So pretty and delicate!  I used two coats with top coat for this manicure.  

You can get your Takko Lacquer fix at www.takkolacquer.com or www.llarowe.com
There is a restock happening later this month, so be sure to keep an eye out for the date and get your trigger finger ready!  Yummy Takkitos!

Amy McG aka McPolish


*This polish was provided by the maker for honest review*

My Revlon Parfumerie Picks

I am sucker for a sale.  So when Walgreens had a Revlon sale last month, I chose a few of the new Parfumerie polishes to play with.  Typically, I try to stay away from scented polishes, but I had read some good reviews of this collection.  Overall, these polishes had a pleasant scent and was not overpowering in the slightest.  Some reviews stated that the scent was lost once a top coat was applied, but that was not the case for me.  I will be sharing my three picks from this collection with you today: Italian Leather, Apricot Nectar and Autumn Spice.

This post is picture heavy, so be sure to click on through for all the swatch goodness.  (And some awesome macro shots!)

Deborah Lippmann Girls Just Want To Have Fun Swatches!

I spent most of the summer searching for the perfect tangerine coral. I've stared at page after page of swatches, and by now I've purchased 4 or 5 of these colors trying to find the shade I'm imagining in my head. The trick with these colors is that they are very difficult to photograph. Some corals look pink in photos while others look orange. I end up purchasing polishes because I love the look of the swatches, then don't care for the color in person. Girls Just Want To Have Fun was just another polish on my quest to find this color. It just so happens that I can't get color accurate photos of this one either!

Deborah Lippmann Girls Just Want To Have Fun looks more orange in photographs than it does in person, but try as I might I couldn't get the color just right! In person this polish has a bit of a bubblegum pink hue to it (but it's still very clearly coral). The color I'm searching for is the color that this looks like in photographs, perhaps one day I will find it!

Girls Just Want To Have Fun is a crelly/jelly formula. It doesn't apply like a jelly or dry semi-transparent, but it required far too many coats to be a true creme. I used 4 coats for the photos below because I had some issues getting a smooth flawless finish.

This bottle shot with flash captures the color a bit more accurately, although it still isn't quite pink enough.



Overall this is a gorgeous polish, even if it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for!



Are you ever disappointed in a polish after falling in love with the swatches?

ManGlaze Butt Taco

Hi everyone! I'm back from my vacation and ready to blog like crazy! I have so many new polishes to show you, and I'm so very excited for the next month.

Since I haven't had much time for swatching lately, today I have the mani that I wore to my friend's wedding last weekend. This is ManGlaze Butt Taco. Butt Taco is a gorgeous coral-orange suede. The base color is much more coral than it looks because the silvery shimmer really brightens the color to an orange.

The formula was perfect for a suede, like other ManGlaze matte polishes. It dries quickly enough to be fast and convenient, but slowly enough that application is a breeze. This is three coats, although it was opaque in two. I added the third coat to add durability since I wore this mani for 4 or 5 days (which it lasted chip-free). Unfortunately I was in a hurry so the only picture I grabbed was one with top coat, I'll have to re-swatch this one later. :)

I love this color! It looked gorgeous with my mint lace dress, hot coral shoes and belt.

Julep It Girl Intro Box Review

What a horrible blogger I have been this week! I have been finish up my graduate classes and trying to get organized for summer research and I ran out of backup posts. Well I'm back now and I have plenty to show you. I've purchased quite a few wonderful indie polishes from Etsy and purchased supplies to do my own frankening.

Today I'm going to show you my Julep Maven It Girl Intro box. I decided after much debate to try out Julep nail polish. I've seen Julep all over the place but never wanted to fork out the cash ($14 + shipping for one bottle of nail polish?). While browsing the internet, I saw the penny deal: get a Julep Maven intro subscription for just $0.01. Seems too good to be true right? Well it's not. I checked my credit card statement and I was charged for $0.01 exactly! There doesn't seem to be any catch to this awesome deal. They shipped it to me fast and here are the results!

The Julep Maven It Girl intro box came in this cute little packaging

With a nail file and three bottles of nail polish, Heather, Mandy, and Helena.

Heather	Helena	Mandy

First up is Heather, described as: "chic platinum greige with a metallic glow." I'd say this one is a graphite grey metallic shimmer. The finish has obvious brushstrokes, but with careful application that wouldn't be a problem. Two coats + base coat for this photo. Heather really isn't a "me" color but it is pretty and the application was great.

Mandy is my favorite of the three, described as: "fresh, bright, deep coral-pink." This color is absolutely amazing. It's such a pretty color and just says SUMMER to me. It looks beautiful and bright on my fingers and I can imagine it would be a great pedicure color. It's a bit more pink than some corals (such as OPI's On Collins Ave) and did I mention absolutely gorgeous? The formula was perfect, thick and pigmented, this is two coats and top coat with no base coat.

Helena is equally gorgeous, described as "ultra-saturated fuchsia. Looks great on all skin tones." It's a great fuchsia, and it didn't significantly darker than the bottle color. In my experience most polishes this color dry matte and much more red than the bottle color, but Helena is pretty bottle accurate. This photo, on the other hand is not color accurate. I tried it outside, inside, fluorescent lighting.. but my camera can't seem to capture this color.

This is the color of Helena:

I used to think that Julep bottles looked a bit awkward because they are long, narrow, and square. After having some they are really quite nice! They have thick glass, so they are really nice and solid. The bottles nest together nicely because of the square sides and the narrow squared lid has the perfect grip for manipulating the brush. Aren't they nice?

I'm quite impressed with these three Julep polishes. The bottles are nice, the brush is great, the formula was near perfect: two coats that self-leveled and dried smooth. One quick coat of top coat and they were a shiny perfect dream. I might just have to wait and see what next month's box is like...

Essie Poppy-Razzi Collection Swatches and Review

Today I have a whole collection to share with you! Yes I know I said I wasn't buying any new polishes this month... but I really couldn't help it!

This is Essie's Summer 2012 collection of neons called Poppy-Razzi. The four shades are Lights, Camera, Action, and Bazooka. This collection seems to stick to the fashion colors this summer with coral-pinks and oranges.

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Direct Sunlight

Indoor lighting

Lights is a bright fuchsia pink. It reminds me of a neon version of "barbie pink" because it has that slight blue hue. The closest pink I own is China Glaze Pool Party, but Pool Party is a much brighter highlighter pink and leans more towards orange than Lights (and has a streaky formula). I almost didn't buy this color and it might be my favorite!

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Camera is a neon pink coral - sort of an orangish-pink color. This one is the most neon of the bunch and the picture doesn't do it justice. On the nail it just glows, and I'm sure it would look awesome over white.

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Direct Sunlight

Indirect Sunlight

Action is a bright tangerine orange, much warmer and more peachy than the pictures show. It dries significantly darker than bottle color, which kind of disapponts me. I was looking forward to this one the most, as a pale yet neon pigment-packed orange, it was unique. The bright orange is still very pretty but not as unique as the bottle color, and doesn't work with my skin-tone very well but it's a fabulous orange I will be wearing again.

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Bazooka is neon orange. It is easily a 2-coater and the most opaque of the bunch. I don't really have much to say about this one, it is a nice medium orange with a lot of pigment. Very bright and quite pretty.

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Overall I am really impressed with these polishes. Although the colors aren't terribly unique I think they will be quite popular. The formula was quite fantastic for neon polish. I used 3 coats of each, but I easily could have gotten away with just two coats for most of them if I was more careful with application. The polish wasn't streaky and was self-leveling, even with my horribly impatient application.

All of them dried to a semi-gloss finish rather than matte as neons typically are. They all had more of a jelly finish than a neon finish. I haven't seen the official Essie description as to whether they are supposed to be jelly-like. Either way I hope that this means better wear times than matte neon polish. They all looked incredibly gorgeous and shiny with a coat of Seche Vite. Action had the worst formula compared to the rest, but was still very easy to work with.

*Aren't my changing backgrounds obnoxious? I spent all day yesterday chasing the sun on a "mostly cloudy" day!*

Quick Swatch! Sally Hansen Fast Dri Snappy Sorbet.

Today I tried to do a fancy Easter mani, with pastels, egg patterns, or even stamping. Every single thing I tried was a complete and utter failure. So with about 20 minutes left before my Easter party I slapped on two coats of Sally Hansen Fast Dri Snappy Sorbet, topped it off with seche vite and was out the door with dry nails. I have a rather large collection of Sally Hansen Fast Dri, but they don't get used very often since I now have Seche Vite for quick manis.

Snappy Sorbet is a medium-pastel-orange creme. Although it is a pretty color, it's nothing spectacular to me... but every time I wear it I get tons of compliments. The world loves Snappy Sorbet. :)

The picture is REALLY bad, because I did a quick job of the mani (didn't even bother with a base coat) and my patch of sun was almost gone this evening when I got back from my party.

Nail Update and NOTD OPI On Collins Ave

I have officially decided that next month needs to be no-buy April. I neeeeed to take a break from spending so much money on polish! I just ordered 7 more China Glaze polishes from head2toebeauty.com (who can say no to $3 polish?). I don't need more polish (who ever really needs more?) but I got two polishes from my wishlist: Harvest Moon that was back in stock and China Glaze prismatic Glitters just went on sale ($3.50!). I also picked up CG Poolside collection (with the exception of Flip Flop Fantasy that was sold out, but that was my least favorite. :) I've been eyeing this collection for some summer manis for a while now.

Can't wait for my nail mail!

Now for my NOTD. I was feeling cheerful and bright so I went for OPI On Collins Ave from the South Beach Collection. On Collins Ave appears to be a bright coral pink although it looks more red or orange depending on the lighting. 2 coats in the photos below and flawless. The finish on this one is really pretty. It's a creme, but looks a bit like a soft jelly. Kind of a crelly finish. :)