And now, for something completely different...

As we are in the midst of holiday gift giving season, I would like to deviate from nail polish a little bit and talk about some other cosmetic products that some of us may be giving/getting/thinking about for others this year. This year, I found the Stila color me glossy lip glaze set at Sephora for only $28 USD, which is a pretty phenomenal price for nine of their full sized lip glazes. The glazes come packaged in 3 packs of 3, so you can keep them all, give them all or do both.
I decided to keep one trio, and give one to my mom and one to my best friend, so I'll only be talking about the ones I am keeping.
The theme of my trio is berries. There are 3 shades progressing from light to dark: Strawberry Cream, a sheer light pink, Wildberry, a sheer dark pink bordering on red, and Dazzle Berry, a shimmery magenta shade. All three smell like berries and are beautiful colors.
My only concern is that they are a tad bit sticky, and I am a little skeptical about the click pen packaging. Lots of people seem to really like it, and it is a neat idea, but I'm just afraid of them drying or clumping on the brush.
I think I will get the most wear out of Strawberry Cream, but the other two are just as beautiful. Also, they make a really lovely color when they are all mixed together, which is good for the indecisive.

Butter London- Shag

This is the third and final Butter London polish I got for my birthday last year. It is part of the core collection (3-free) of Butter London, not the Rock Your Colour expansions they have been doing with color cosmetics lately.
The color is a warm copper tone with a metallic foil finish. I currently do not have any close dupes for this color.
The finish is absolutely beautiful. The glitter or glass particulates (probably glass) don't leave any topography on the nail, drying completely flat and smooth before topcoat application. The formula is thin and easy to control, becoming opaque in two coats.
My only con with this polish is also with the line in general; the package quality is not what one would expect from a "prestige" cosmetics brand. The cap is in two parts and come apart without much effort and the brush is very small and a little bit flimsy. Maybe they make the bottles a little cheaply to allocate more budget to the quality of the formula. That is my best guess because the quality of these formulas is definitely worth the price.

Sparitual- Lustress

Lustress is from the summer 2010 "Kaleidoscope" collection. It is a shimmery pink coral, much more vibrant than the "hidden reef" shade I did a while ago. They are kind of similar, same color family and same finish, but this one has a little bit more orange, and has a slightly different finish, more of a foil or metallic than a shimmer.
I have to say, the polish is a lot more appealing on the nail than in the bottle. The formula is really nice and thin, easy to apply, and is opaque in two coats. I didn't feel like a topcoat, so I guess tipwear was pretty good, but a topcoat would have helped. I'm not sure if I recommend the color, though, because it is very similar to a lot of polishes out there, such as the now discontinued "It's All Greek to me" by OPI just to name one. Sparitual polishes are also quite pricey. However, if you want a non animal tested, made in America polish that is free of anything really harmful to inhale, pick this one!

Color Workshop- ???

I bought a set of three of these colors last year on ebay, just to try out the brand. I believe it was $7.50 USD for the set of three. The set came with a blue, gold and pink shimmer polish. This entry is about the pink polish. It is a sheer pink shimmer with some very finely milled gold glitter in it.
Overall, it is one of the most disappointing purchases of polish I have ever made. At least the pink is wearable. The pigmentation is very weak, however, so lots of coats had to be applied. Another word I would use to describe this polish is boring. Once all the coats are applied, you're left with a very unspecial pink shimmer polish. To spice things up a bit, I added a glitter gradient (Nicole by OPI- A Million Sparkles) to give my nails some interest. Pictures of the before and after glitter are below.

Essie- Mint Candy Apple

Essie claims that this color started a "revolution" when this shade was introduced in 2008. I was in high school and only buying cheap drugstore makeup at the time, so I only recently got into the mint/pastel trend about two years ago. This color is not seasonal, and can be purchased for about $8 USD wherever Essie is sold. It is a pale blue-green creme polish.
I love the color, but getting it on to the nail and making it stay on the nail is a bit of an issue. The formula is really sheer, so some nails required a third coat to look opaque. Also, chipping an tipwear is not as good as it could be for a supposedly "high end" polish. However, I like to wear this polish because it makes skin look more tan and because it is more blue than other similar "mint" polishes.
I went out for a friend's birthday last night, so I added some stripes to the polish so it would be more special. The other colors I used were Wet n' Wild in Plenty of Fish in the Sea and China Glaze in Modify Me.

NYC- Big Apple Red

Revlon nail appliques were still going strong at the time I took this picture, so I left them on because the red was a good compliment to them. Big Apple Red is one of the core NYC polishes, and retails for $ .99 USD. They are available at drugstores and most retailers with drugstores in them.
The formula on this guy is a little thick, which left pools of color on the sides of my smaller nails. This caused the color to be darker in some places on the nail. However, the polish is a really nice bright red that is a good staple for any collection.
with the right topcoat and basecoat, the wear is pretty long without fading and tipwear is pretty minimal. Since they are so inexpensive, I would recommend getting a few in some basic colors if you like doing nail art. They would be perfect to add little dots and stripes to a manicure.

Essie- Smokin' Hot (Ft. Revlon by Marchesa)

As you may or may not know, the house of Marchesa has teamed up with Revlon to design a collection of nail strips inspired by Marchesa couture dresses. As baroque style is very big this fall, the collection is selling very well at CVS, which is the only place I know of that the strips are being sold. Each package contains 18 strips with various designs and sizes and they retail for $10 USD each.
To go with my strips, I also picked up a bottle of Smokin' Hot by Essie. This one is not a seasonal polish, but I think it goes well with fall and winter clothes. It was a good compliment to the strips I used on a few nails. The color is a dark gray with just a little bit of brown, but somehow it worked well with my black "jeweled noir" nail appliques.
Essie formulas have a tendency to be too thick. This results in minimal tipwear, but if the formula starts pooling, (especially on smaller nails), all the laquer can peel off at once on your nail, leaving an awkward gap in your design.
The nail strips are quite strong and high quality, similar to Essie's SleekSticks nail stickers. Unlike lower quality ones, they are actually quite flexible and conform to the nail without problems. Tipwear is pretty minimal, but be sure to place them correctly when putting them on as they do not like to move once they make contact with your nail.

Nicole by OPI- Love Your Life

This is a pretty unusual polish and an interesting addition to the Nicole by OPI core collection. This polish features large, flat heart glitters and very fine pink, purple and holo glitters in a clear base. This is the first heart glitter I have seen in stores, and if I did not have a few other Nicole polishes, this would definitely make me curious enough to try the brand.
Like all the other Nicole polishes I own, the quality really impresses me. For the "cheaper" OPI line ($7.50 USD each), they have a lovely, strong formula and not one but two little marbles rolling around in there preventing it from drying. The fine glitters are a sure fire way to girlify any polish, because it is a glitter polish in a clear base, so it wouldn't make a big impact on its own. The only potential drawback to the polish is that the heart glitters are much heavier than the fine glitters and therefore, you are not guaranteed a heart in each coat.
This is fine if your taste level is a little bit more refined and subtle. However, if you wanted to do a special manicure for Valentine's day or something, I recommend using an orange stick to pick up individual hearts from the bottle and placing them on your nails.

 

Pixi- Wakeup Wisteria

I believe Pixi is a British cosmetic brand that is slowly making its way to America. I have only seen this brand retail at Target so far. The brand is of a higher price point than most of the other cosmetics it carries, with these polishes retailing for $8 USD each. Wakeup Wisteria is a light purple, but not a pale purple creme polish.
For the most part, application was very easy. The formula is just the right consistency to become opaque in two coats without spilling over onto the cuticle and making a mess. Tip wear and chipping have yet to happen. Also, the color is absolutely beautiful. I got lots of compliments on it when I went out on Friday.
My only gripe about it is that the bottle design isn't the most intelligent. It's a very narrow cylinder, almost like a nail striper bottle, so rolling and shaking the bottle to avoid formula separation is not as easy as it could be.
Overall, I do really like this polish, and I am curious to try more colors from this brand.

Nicole By OPI- A Million Sparkles and Nabi- Purple II

A million Sparkles is a glitter polish that is part of the Nicole by OPI core collection. I do not believe it is a seasonal polish. The polish retails for $7.50 USD each, and is available at most drugstores, Ulta, and even Marshall's/T.J. Maxx/Ross! It is a mixture of red, yellow and blue glitters of various sizes and densities in a clear base, so definitely lay down a coat of a similar color before proceeding with glitter. Mine is "Plenty of Fish in the Sea" by Wet n' Wild.
Overall, I really like the versatility of this polish. Because it is mostly blue with gold and a bit of red, it looks cool with a lot of different colors underneath. Wear was pretty long, but since I messed up my ring finger on day 1, I did an accent nail the next day I wore it.
Nabi has approximately 30-something shades of magnetic polishes, which when they were released retailed for about $USD, but now are about $2 USD. The nice thing about them is the variety of different magnets they come with, so you do not have to use the one on the cap, which is often frustrating. I used the one on the cap for reviewing purposes here and because I only did one nail. Purple II comes with a concentric circle magnet.
Once you get over the weird color, the polish is pretty great. It dries fast, wears for a long time, and the magnet is easy to use. However, I just don't think it is the prettiest color out there. It's one of those shades of purple that kind of borders on dark brown. However, I recommend giving the whole Nabi selection of cheap magnetic polishes a try, and get them while you still can!

Revlon- Cherries in the Snow

This is another shade from Revlon's core collection, which retails for about $5-6 USD and is available at Drugstores, retailers like Target, and Ulta. The polish is a red with a little softness, not a traditional red, but just as useful.
This formula is a little different from some of my other Revlon polishes in that it is very pigmented, and only required about a coat and a half to get opaque. Another really great thing is the fast dry time, which means that I didn't have to be patient before I drew my little bow detail on my ring finger. The color is I guess pink, or red with a tiny bit of white. It's a lovely color for wintertime that is less dramatic than a lot of the seasonal reds out there. The only real downside is the wear was not fantastic, but that may also be because I chewed the hell out of my nails the day before, and no amount of topcoat and basecoat can make a polish adhere well to an uneven surface. Overall, however, I think the polish is unique enough to merit a place in a large polish collection.

Essie- Naughty Nautical

Naughty Nautical is one of the polishes from Essie's summer 2013 collection. It should still be available at some places, although it might be on sale. It is a minty green color with just a hint of sparkle, achieved by a few very fine sparse glitters.
The color is very bright and pigmented, becoming opaque really only in one coat. The glitter really isn't noticeable on the nail, it just makes the formula seem shinier when applied.
The downsides to the formula are that the wear is not fantastic, starting with the tip wear, but also some pretty significant chips for me after a few minutes of doing dishes on some of my nails. Another downside is that there are a lot of different polishes out there right now that are very similar to this one. Without the glitter, I think the color would be exactly the same as Sally Hansen's "Mint Sprint."

Butter London- Fairy Lights

Here is the second of the three 3-free polishes I got from Butter London for my birthday. This one is a true metallic, using glass or mica instead of glitter to create the texture. It is a light pink, similar to Essie's mirror metallics, but Fairy Lights is a very unique color, so it is not a dupe for anything in that collection.
The formula is thin, but extremely pigmented, so the formula is almost opaque in one coat. Unlike many metallics, this one is almost like a duochrome, flashing a little bit gold in some light. Wear is perhaps not the best, but I also work a lot with my hands and perhaps other activities would be more polish-friendly.

L'Oreal- How Romantic

This is my first and only L'Oreal polish. It retails at most places where nail polish is sold at about $4-5 USD. I do like the colors offered, but I was skeptical because L'Oreal products are so very hit or miss for me. I needed a new YNBB (your nails but better) color to replace my dying Revlon one, and this is what I got.
There are aspects to the formula I like, and aspects of the formula I do not like. First, the most immediate thing I noticed was the streaking and brushstrokes. No matter how many coats I applied, application was not even and smooth. However, the color is very pretty and true to nail color, and the formula is quite long lasting with no chips or tip wear.
Because a previous post featured white french tips, I decided to do purple on this one to keep things a little bit different. The purple is Kleancolor in Neon Purple.

Love and Beauty by Forever 21- ???

Love and Beauty is the cosmetic and cosmetic accessories line from Forever 21. The polishes retail for $2.80 USD each, and come in a variety of colors and finishes. The bottle shape changes quite a bit, and this season's is more cylindrical than mine, the 2009 model. The thing is, I have no idea what the color is called, as the colors aren't labeled on the bottom, and this drives me crazy!
The polish is a nice thin dark blue creme that applies without running and is easy to control. It is opaque in two to three coats. The photos make it look like more of a jelly polish, but in natural light is a deep blue.
Dry time was satisfactorily quickly, but the most disappointing aspect is the short lifespan on the nails. Even with a high quality top and basecoat, I had actual chips, not just tip wear on a few fingers two hours into the work day.
For the price, I think it's an okay polish, but there are so many higher quality dupes available, so it is not like you are missing an opportunity to buy a unique color if you pass this by. It is a lovely color, but the integrity is less than desirable.

Urban Outfitters- Afterhours

Yes, Urban Outfitters has their clothing house brands like BCG and Miss Sixty, and now instead of just carrying Stila and the occasional glittery Nyx palette, have their own polishes. The polishes retail for $5 USD each, but they often have 2/ $8 sales. I bought two of them to round out a gift card I was given for Christmas last year.
Afterhours is a mixture of silver and rainbow/holo glitters in a clear base. As with all glitters in a clear base, apply a coat of a similar creme or shimmer polish beforehand so get more opacity more quickly. The base layer I used was one thin coat of Ulta brand polish in "High Roller." The effect is extremely pretty, but just blurs with a camera flash, so I really had to experiment with exposures to get this polish to look like the color of my nails in the pictures.
The texture is very similar to OPI/Nicole's "liquid sand" polishes. If you like that effect, you can leave this polish as is, but if you want a lot of shine, you are going to have to apply 4 or 5 coats of a topcoat because this finely milled glitter is a topcoat eater.

Maybelline Color Show- Tenacious Teal

And here is another one of these little Color Show Polishes. For $2 USD you would think they could get the label on the cap applied straight... meh.
Anyways, one thing I like about the polish is the color. It's really more of a dusty green than a teal, which is good because there are so many mint/teal colors circulating around right now.
That being said, unless you don't feel like spending more than two dollars on a bottle of polish, I recommend something with a different formula. This one has a really thin, watery formula and a really long dry time. Because it is so thin, it requires a few coats for opacity, and this means that there will be unevenness in tint and shade across the nail once it has been applied. Take a look at the first picture for an example.

If you feel like spending a little bit more for a similar color, try Sally Hansen's "Mint Sprint" or Essie's "Naughty Nautical."