Saturday, May 31, 2014

Swatch Saturday- Bliss Polish Charming and Zoya Maria Luisa

First off, I am super sorry guys that this post is coming out on Sunday, and not on Saturday.  It was my little sister's baby shower and every time I sat down to write this up my mom would yell at me to stop being lazy and help them set up.  -.-  But I do have some super cute nail art for tomorrow, I promise!

It is always difficult for me to get into a show.  Popular shows are always hit and miss with me.  I love Supernatural, Arrow, and Sherlock, but could not get into Doctor Who or Breaking Bad.  I know, I'm a horrible terrible person.  

I did recently get addicted to Sons of Anarchy and Yvette from Bliss Polish totally caused it.  She is one of my San Diego nail girls and I am so glad we got to hang out at our last meet up.  

I managed to get my hands on Charming a little while ago right before she moved, and the shop got temporarily closed.  I fell in love with how delicate and pretty this polish is.


It is a sheer white polish with sparse gold flakes that dries to a waxy finish.  Even with my usual HK Girl top coat, it still looked kind of matte.  As we all know, one of my biggest pet peeves is VNL.  I do work with money all day, so my hands get really dirty and I always feel like my nail always look dirty unless they're coated in an opaque color.  

I wore three coats of this polish, and still had VNL.  If you look on her listing the swatch is completely opaque.  I get the feeling that I just need to fiddle with the application and I should be perfectly happy with it.  It's not quite stark white and has a little bit of omph with the gold flakes.  


In an effort to distract me from the VNL, I topped Charming with one coat Zoya's Maria Luisa which is an almost tarnished gold flake that came out in their 2013 Winter collection.  It is my go to gold flake at the moment.  I kind of like Charming better without the topper.  

Bliss Polish is up and running again and Yvette has come out with some new holographic neon polishes that I am super excited for.  I totally did not already make an order.  If you're interested  you can find her shop here.  

As the usual side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)  Though, if Yvette wants to give me free polishes that would be cool.  


Friday, May 30, 2014

Hard to Find Friday- OPI The One That Got Away

If you were to look in my Helmer at all my different polishes that I own, you would notice that the brand I own the most of is OPI.  The brand may be known for recycling colors, but there are some polishes that are amazing.  In every new collection, there is usually at least one fantastic new color.  In their 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man collection, it was Just Spotted the Lizard.  In the 2013 San Francisco Line there was Alcatraz Rocks!  Finally in their Katy Perry collection from 2010, I fell in love with The One That Got Away.

I had owned Not Like the Movies at one point and didn't love it, so I passed it along to a new home.  Part of me has the hugest polish hard on for Teenage Dream, but I already own the Milani dupe, so I find myself pacified for the time being.  I am so very glad that I managed to find The One That Got Away randomly at TJ Maxx.  The first time I wore this polish I fell in love.  I always say Just Spotted the Lizard started my polish obsession, The One That Got Away drilled it into my brain and made it permanent.


Looking at this polish leaves me just in shock.  It is a raspberry jelly with glass flecks in it.  This picture is after three coats.  Looking up close, the flecks are almost slightly different shades of raspberry from the different layers. It has so much dimension that I am at a loss for words, just that I adore this polish.

Random side fact.   This is the first polish that someone has recognized on my nails.  I had a customer ask if this was the color I was wearing because it was her favorite.  Her bathroom tiles are this same color!

As the usual side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Untried Wednesday- Deborah Lippmann Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Guys, I love Deborah Lippmann polishes, like so much.   I own fifteen, which if you think about that fact that they retail for $18-$22, is kind of crazy.  In my defense, I've only paid full price for one of them, which was Mermaid's Dream and I still regret nothing.  The rest I got cheap or as gifts from the Boytoy or Mama LacquerVixen.  I love all of my Deborah Lippmann polishes... except for this one.


This picture is three coats of Hit Me With Your Best Shot.  Now looking at it right off the bat, the color looks fine, just not particularly impressive.  It's a dark gray with the slightest bit of blue shimmer in the sunlight.  I kept trying to capture the blue, but my camera just would not capture it.  The very meh color could have been saved with a good formula, you know considering it is a high end brand and retails for $18.  This was three coats, and if you look closely at the right corner of my pointer finger there is a bald patch.  My right hand is worse.  I would have liked the polish a whole lot better if the formula was actually good.  Lucky for me, I bought this polish on clearance from Beauty Brands for $4 when they were discontinuing their Deborah Lippmann polishes.  If I had boughten this at full price I would have been very upset.  I was so disappointed I couldn't make myself even clean up the edges, I just wanted to move on to the next color as soon as possible.

As the usual side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)

Friday, May 23, 2014

Hard to Find Friday: OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service

I love going to small, mom and pop beauty supply shops.  You can always find some really cool stuff.  Sometimes I find older collections, or rare nail polish brands.  Other times the polishes are just really cheap.

On the same trip that I found my bottle of OPI Stranger Tides, I picked up On Her Majesty's Secret Service.  When the Skyfall collection came out in 2012, I was not particularly interested in the polishes.  I bought one of the Liquid Sand polishes and was not impressed.  Now I know I picked up the wrong bottle that day.  I kind of love On Her Majesty's Secret Service.


I know that this picture makes it seem unimpressive.  It just kind of looks like a gray shimmer, but in person the also has bits of purple, green, and gold shimmer.  The whole thing is in a blue base, and if you weren't so crazy OCD about visible nail line like me, you would actually be able to see the blue.  I enjoyed this polish so much that I am not very upset about the touch of VNL on my pinkie there.  I used three coats in the picture for opacity.

As a side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Untried Wednesday: LynBDesigns Nightmare Revisted

Hey guys!  Sorry for disappearing for a few days, but I've been caught up with other stuff that by the time I can blog, I'm passing out.  So last Sunday, the darling boytoy proposed, eight days after our five year anniversary.  *gasp* *shocker* *finally* :-P  We're thinking of getting married Fall 2015, so I have time, but it's just so exciting that I want to just hit the ground running and start planning stuff.  I may be just a little crazy and a bit excitable.  Stay tuned for a picture of the ring.  I have a polish I'm planning on matching it to, because that's totally a nail junkie thing to do.

So moving on to today!  It's Untried Wednesday, so I bring you LynBDesigns' Nightmare Revisited.  I made an order almost two weeks ago with her during one of her 50% off sales and this was one of the polishes I got.  It looks like she does sales like these a lot, so if you're interested, just follow her here and keep an eye out.  With the sale they end up being $4-$5 a piece, which is a steal.

Nightmare Revisted is from her Nightmare Before Christmas collection.  It is a fuchsia, raspberry jelly holo, which took three coats for me.  I would chalk up the third coat to the fact that my nails are pretty long.  At two coats it was opaque and smooth, but I could still see a fair bit of visible nail line.  If you're nails were shorter or you weren't so crazy about VNL like I am, you probably would have been fine.  Three coats though was good.  I do find that this is usually the case with jellies though, and not the polish itself.


Please ignore my small chip on my index finger.  I've been wearing the polish for a day before taking the picture because it's been so overcast.  :-/

Isn't this color amazing though?  Jelly, linear holo, and raspberry are some of my favorite polish things ever.  Every time I'm outside in the sun, I'm constantly being dazzled by it.  The color is gorgeous, and really next time there's a sale, this is a color that you need to own.  You can see her shop here.  She has quite a few collections inspired by different nerdy things.  I did get a polish from her Alice in Wonderland collection and one from her Sherlock collection, so stay tuned for reviews on those.  I do have a list of others I need to go back for during a future sale.

Maybe this is me being oblivious, but what exactly would this color have to do with Nightmare Before Christmas?  LynB describes this color as "a killer", but I'm still a little confused.  Maybe I'm missing something?

As the usual side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Swatch Saturday: A England Briar Rose

I love holo glitter.  It makes my heart sing and just makes me so happy!  So as a result, I bring you guys one of my favorite holos of all time. *drumroll* This is A England's Briar Rose!  How exciting!


I had been lusting after A England's holos for a long while and my boytoy gave me my first one last Christmas.  While I am not a huge Sleeping Beauty fan, he does know that I love fairy tales in general.  I was very proud of him for making this choice himself.

This is a rose red polish with a linear holo.  It painted on in one perfect coat and it is so gorgeous.  Whenever I wear it, I can't stop staring at my hands.  It's one of those polishes that are really bad because I end up very distracted.  This polish can be purchased on Llarowe, which we know I love.  Do it.  Buy it.  You NEED it.

As a side note, while this polish was not purchased by me, my boytoy did, so it was not sent to me for review purposes.  I am still not that cool. ;-)

Friday, May 16, 2014

Hard to Find Friday: Deborah Lippmann Wicked Collection

Woooo!  It's Friday once again and here I bring you Hard to Find Friday.  My pick for today is Deborah Lippmann's Wicked collection.  It came out late last fall, I believe exclusively to Sephora and the Deborah Lippmann website, in celebration of Wicked's ten year anniversary on Broadway.

I got to see Wicked when it was playing at the Pantages Theater a long while ago and I adored it.  It is probably one of my favorite musicals of all time, second to Phantom of the Opera.  It gave such a different spin on the original story of Wizard of Oz that you walk out of the theater having completely different feelings for the characters.  And the music was amazing.  Seriously, Idina Menzel has the most amazing voice ever.  Like when I'm driving in my car blasting to the soundtrack and belting out the songs, I die a little.  Partially because my voice cracks and I can't do it too, but mostly because she's amazing.

As much as I know that people love listening to me ramble like a crazy fangirl, let's get to the important stuff, nail polish.  This collection includes three mini sized bottles with the names One Short Day, Defying Gravity, and Popular.  I feel each of the polishes do a good job of referencing their songs.


First off, wow I'm sorry how blurry my nails look in this picture.  Also I look a lot tanner than I really am.  If I had seen this before I would have taken a new picture.  Unfortunately, my index finger is already chipping, which is not against the polish but my own body chemistry.  Polish never lasts on that finger.  :-(  Let's see if I can do a good enough job of describing my opinions on this collection.  

One Short Day is a dark emerald jelly polish with green glitters in in.  The formula was pretty thick and went on opaquely in one coat.  Pretty awesome I think.  I think it does a pretty decent job of capturing the glitz that is the famed Emerald City.  Defying Gravity is a slightly dusty, emerald cream.  It was opaque in two careful coats.  I had to go over one nail with a third coat to cover up a little patch.  Now, Popular was the polish I had the highest hopes for and the one that disappointed me the most.  It is a bright pink polish with a hint of blue shimmer, which I love.  Unfortunately, the picture is the polish after FOUR COATS.  There is still a ton of visible nail line and I hate me some VNL.  That and sinking glitters are probably the two things I hate the most with polishes.  If it had been just a little more opaque, I would have loved it.  It would have been an awesome jelly polish, but it's just so sheer.  

All the other reviews that I have seen of this polish set have been very positive, so it makes me wonder if I got a dud when it came to Popular.  I hope that is the case because if it is, this is a very solid collection I think.  Both greens were pretty and had good formulas.  Popular would have been amazing if it was not so sheer.  

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Untried Wednesday- Revlon Super-Powered

I love superheroes, it's just a thing for me.  It has always been a thing.  If this somehow comes as a shock to you, let me point you in the direction of my Captain America mani.  When I was little, I used to play Batman, Robin, and Catwoman with my cousins and run around the backyard.  Saturday mornings I was up early to watch Spiderman cartoons.  It's just always been a thing for me.

So whenever I see polish collections themed after superheroes I am all over that.  I saw a display at my Rite Aid and had to pick up Super-Powered.  It reminded me of Butter London's Scouse, which I LOVE, but can't wear because the Butter London formula peels off of my nails in sheets.  So I exercised self control and only picked this one up.



Super-Powered is cobalt blue polish with a purple shimmer running through it.  It paints opaque in two coats, maybe one careful coat.  It is a vibrant color and I love wearing it, unfortunately the shimmer does not well translate onto the nail.  In certain angles you can see a hint of purple, but it's very faint.  It is still very pretty, but it's not what I had been hoping for.  Also it smeared all over my fingers when I removed it and stained my nails a little.

As a side note, this polish was purchased with my own money. I am not cool enough to be sent polish for review purposes.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Mani Monday: Delightfully Tacky

Hey guys! Greetings from fabulous Las Vegas!  We got in yesterday and have done so much already. Most of it involved adult beverages, but hey it's Vegas right? Today we're going to watch a comedy, musical show and hit the buffets, maybe do some polish shopping. ;) 

For today's Mani Monday, I bring to you my Vegas mani. Keep in mind that this was my second attempt.  Originally I had a huge, elaborate design involving large, holo, hex glitters and nail shields, but they kept popping off.  So I got annoyed and moved on.  I'm a firm believer that nail art should not cause stress. If it doesn't work the first time, try again a lot later when you're not annoyed.  

My Vegas mani involved one of my favorite red polishes, China Glaze in Ruby Pumps and some Sally Hansen Salon Effects Strips in Misbehaved.  Now I know that there are some people who would call a foul on this being my own nail art because I used the nail wraps, and I am fine with that. After my first failed attempt, I could not bring myself to start my trip off on the bad note that a subpar mani would have caused. So I will wear my nail wraps with pride.



On my pointer and ring finger I wore 3 coats of Ruby Pumps.  It is a gorgeous red jelly with red glitter in it, but does leave a touch of visible nail line, so I had to cover it up. On my other fingers I used the Misbehaved nail wraps. They are a champagne color with a print reminiscent of fishnet stockings.  I felt the combination of both was sexy (scandalous right?) and totally appropriate.  At the base of my nails I alternated black and red rhinestones to add a touch of bling.  

I am very happy with my mani and so far it has managed to hold up pretty well considering I am on vacation.  No chipping here! 

As a kind reminder, all of these products have been purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough for people to send me free stuff just to review it. ;)

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Swatch Saturday: ORLY Rage

I am not going to lie, I tend to fall behind on the trends when it comes to jewelry.  I enjoy my same old rings I've been wearing for the past ten years and my ridiculous earrings.  Also I tend to only wear silver.  So when a few years ago a coworker told me that rose gold was the new "it color", I was intrigued.  I'm not a huge fan of gold, but I do love pink.  So I thought that maybe combining the two would make it more appealing to me.  When EleventhGorgeous started raving about ORLY's Rage and how it was the perfect rose gold metallic color I needed to have it.



Rage paints on like any good metallic, kind of shimmery and almost sparkly.  It is opaque in two coats and dries relatively quickly with no brush strokes or other annoying things that tends to come with some metallic polishes.  Overall, I am happy with this color.  It has a nice subtle pink tone to it.  I love the formula and the color, to the point that I do not feel the need to go looking for a better one.  It is also great to wear with a good glitter bomb topper.  I am a huge fan of tacky, glitter bomb manicures.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Hard to Find Friday: China Glaze Cast a Spell

So I love Halloween.  Or maybe I just love dressing up.  Or maybe I love the free candy?  Whatever the reason is, I know I also love the dark, murky, burnt polishes that China Glaze comes out with in their Halloween collections.  I love them so much that I'm wearing them during the not Halloween season, like May. :-P



Today I am showing you guys Cast a Spell, which is from the 2012 Halloween collection.  It is a fantastic color, let me just tell you that right off the bat.  (Ha! Bat! Halloween! Get it??)  Cast a Spell is a blackened green polish with green and gold shimmers.  With every movement, the colors change on the nail and I cannot stop staring at it.  Also, It was a ONE COATER.  Whaaaaat?  Seriously I adore this polish and I am so glad I bought it on Amazon on a whim to complete free shipping.  If you can get your hands on this polish, do it.  The formula was a good even consistency and it is just so pretty.  

Okay, I should stop rambling.  Hope you guys are at least a little intrigued by this polish.

As a side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Untried Wednesday: Emily de Molly Candy Coated

Happy Hump Day guys!  The week is half way over and then this weekend I get to go on vacation!  The boytoy and I are going to Vegas for our FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY.  Holy shit.  We've been together a really long time, it's kind of daunting, but the trip will be fun so I'm excited.  There will be lots of eating, drinking, and sightseeing.  Also I found a discount beauty supply shop in Las Vegas, so I am totally going to be dragging the boytoy there.  Stay tuned for an inevitable haul post.

Like I mentioned before, I have four new themed days here on LacquerVixen and this is going to be the last one.  Wednesdays will now be known as Untried Wednesdays!  What I classify as an "untried polish" for the purposes of this blog, is one of my many polishes that I have not worn yet, but is still readily available.  If you can go out to your usual polish store, be it Sally's, Target, Ulta, Sephora, or whatever and find it on the shelves, then I would show it here.  Same goes for the mom and pop beauty supply shops or indie sellers online.  Now if the only way you can get this polish is going to be from a discount beauty supply or eBay/Amazon, it will come up in Hard to Find Friday.  Makes sense?  I hope so and that I did not just ramble for a paragraph.  :-)

Today's polish will be my one and only Emily de Molly polish in Candy Coated.  Emily de Molly is an Australian brand, and while that may make it a little difficult to get, it is available on Llarowe, which is my favorite indie polish vendor for "exotic polishes from around the world".  It is currently out of stock, but it has not been discontinued.


According to Llarowe, Candy Coated is a light blue cream with a blue shimmer and pink glitter.  looking at it on my nails, I'd have to disagree.  First off, the polish looks almost aqua in real life, not light blue.  Also, in the bottle you do see some pretty blue shimmer, but it doesn't translate onto the nail at all.  Pretty disappointing I'd say.  I do love the pink glitter though.  I don't know if I just got a weird bottle, but it didn't really fit the description.  Don't get me wrong, I do love the color and I don't regret having it at all.  

As a side note, while I did not pay for these polishes myself, they were gifted to me by a friend and not sent to me by any company for reviewing purposes.  I'm not that cool to be getting free stuff.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Random Post: Essie's Summer 2014 Collection Too Taboo

Greetings my fellow polish junkies!  I hope you all are having a good week so far.  I know mine has been pretty awesome so far, and a large part of it has been because of the darling love of my life, CinnamonKandy.  We did a hometown swap and how could we not send each other more polishes?

So because we lack self control, she sent me four of the new polishes from Essie's new summer 2014 collection, Too Taboo.


Aren't they so pretty??  Just looking at the picture though, Too Taboo looks awfully like DJ Play That Song and Vices Versa looks like The More the Merrier from last year's summer collection.  But we all know that the big brands are always recycling the same colors.  Kandy ended up sending me Too Taboo, Chills & Thrills, I'm Addicted, and Sitting Pretty.   



I pulled out my own bottle of DJ Play that Song and placed it next to Too Taboo.  Too Taboo is on the left and DJ Play that Song is on the left.  Lucky for my poor junkie heart, Too Taboo is pinker version. I used to call DJ Play that Song a radiant orchid color, but looking at both of them side by side, I would say that Too Taboo is a good version of Pantone's Color of the Year.  I can totally justify having both.  ;-)


To start things off, I am not a fan of spending a day swatching different polishes, painting on one color then taking it off as soon as you've taken pictures to start on another.  That's not my thing.  I much prefer to either do just one color, or do a skittle mani.  Which is what I did.  From left to right I am wearing Sittin' Pretty, Too Taboo, Chills & Thrills, and I'm Addicted.  The above picture is of the polishes with two coats and no top coat.  They were all opaque and painted on relatively easily.  Most of the reviews I've seen of this collection says that they were difficult polishes and required three or more coats.  I did not have any issues with these polishes.  Sure, there is maybe the barest hint of VNL with Sittin' Pretty (the lilac cream), but it didn't bother me at all and VNL is one of the things that bug me the most with polishes.  Too Taboo dries to a waxy finish, unlike the rest of the polishes which dry glossy.

Would I call these polishes neon?  No.  I know summertime is when all the make up brands bring out their neon colors, but I've never been a huge fan of neons.  I would call these colors "brights" and I do enjoy them.  :-)

As a side note, while I did not pay for these polishes myself, they were gifted to me by a friend and not sent to me by any company for reviewing purposes.  I'm not that cool to be getting free stuff.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Mani Monday- Strange Mermaid

Welcome to Mani Monday!  As I explained before, in an effort to make myself blog more I am having themed days.  So for today, I used a fancy new-to-me MoYou plate.  These things are gorgeous and so well made, if not a little intimidating.  Maybe I'll review it here for you guys, but know already that I love them.  Let's get this started!  I hope you guys enjoy my first successful attempt at stamping.  I am actually pretty proud of myself.


For my base I used OPIs Stranger Tides, which I just swatched the other day.  Before I started, I put two layers of Sally Hansen's Insta Dry Top Coat.  Apparently multiple coats of top coat before stamping helps protect your base color incase you need to take some acetone to your nail to erase an attempt.  It makes perfect sense, but it never would have occurred to me.  The plate I used was MoYou London's Fairytale Collection 06.  Isn't it just gorgeous?  I am a sucker for fantasy anything, especially mermaids!  This is what it looks like.


To stamp I used Cult Nail's Fetish, which is a one coat black cream with a waxy finish.  It is my current go to black polish.  To scrape away the excess polish I used just a basic plastic membership card (I think it was my Body Shop card) and to pick up the design I used the Konad spongey thing.  :P  On my index finger I placed the starfish in the mermaid's hair, my middle finger was her seashell bra, and my ring finger was the curl of her tail.  On my thumb and pinkie I swiped one good coat of Sea Lore Polish's Ariel (because really, how could I NOT use this polish in a mermaid themed mani?) and voila complete!  

I hope you guys enjoyed my nail art.  

As a side note, these polishes and stamping plate were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me stuff just to review them. ;-)

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Swatch Saturday- Essie Chinchilly

Woah, look at me!  Two posts in two days? It's madness!

As I said before, in an effort to force myself to blog on a regular basis I've given myself a weekly schedule of themed days.  So henceforth, Saturdays will be swatch days!  I'm only counting polishes that I have already tried and that are readily available as eligible for this category.   My eventual goal is that when you look at my collection page, every polish I own will have a matching page with their own swatch.  The likely hood that I will actually get there, considering how often I buy polish, is minuscule, but let's try anyways.  ;-)

For today I picked a classic, Essie's Chinchilly.  It is a cool toned gray/beige (so greige I guess) cream with a hint of purple.  I actually keep this polish with my purple polishes, so amongst them it looks more purple than it does on the nail.  The formula is pretty good.  If I'm careful it is perfectly opaque in two coats, sometimes three.



Chinchilly is a good, universal color that is appropriate for most things.  I can wear it to work and still look professional or I can wear it on days off when I'm relaxing and still look trendy.  It is a good color to grab for an easy manicure when you just cannot decide.

As a side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)

Friday, May 2, 2014

Hard to Find Friday: OPI Stranger Tides

Hey guys!  Long time no blog.  Sorry about the disappearance, but I've been having some life issues that had been effecting me to such a large extreme that I could not find the motivation to really do ANYTHING other than work, sleep, and eat.  I had a wake up call the other day and told myself that I needed to get back into the habit of doing the things that I enjoy, if for no other reason than to cheer me up.  So in an effort to get back into blogging and finally swatch all the polishes I own, I've decided to have four themed days a week along with random stuff that don't necessarily fit on any day, but is still super important to share.  ;-)

My first new idea is "Hard to Find Friday".  What I classify as "hard to find" is limited editions or discontinued polishes that are no longer in most stores or indie polishes that you cannot directly get from the maker's storefront.  It's still possible to find them, it'll just take some digging in smaller beauty shops, randomly in CVS, or spending a bit more money for them online.  Ebay, Amazon, and Storenvy are good places to look.

So the other day one of my fellow polish junkies asked if I knew any place that sold Morgan Taylor polishes.  The place I managed to find not only had a pretty impressive stock, but also had a fair amount of OPIs from older collections.  I found a couple of polishes from the 2010 Katy Perry collection, the 2012 James Bond collection, and one from the 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides collection.  Of course when I saw Stranger Tides, I had to suppress my squealing.


Stranger Tides is a murky, dusty, pale green cream.  I adore this kind of color and I love it for Spring more than most pastels.  It's not girly, but still looks pretty.  At least it does in my opinion.  

Now to the downside.  This polish a bit finicky.  This was three coats and was kind of gloopy.  The only reason it looks so smooth is my two coats of top coat.  (If you want to find out WHY I used two coats of top coat, come back Monday to find out!)  According to all the reviews I've seen from 2011, no one else really had this issue.  I suspect that the formula was difficult because it is three years old by now.  A couple of drops of thinner though and it should be perfect!  This polish makes me want to visit my local CVS and see if they still have the bottle of Planks a Lot that I had been eyeballing, even though I have two purples that are already pretty close of a color to it.  

As a side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)