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."

Butter London- Fizzy Pop

Fizzy Pop is one of the 3 (DBP, Toluene, Formaldehyde) free nail polishes by Butter London, which I believe is the only nail line they have. They recently switched from doing exclusively polish to color cosmetics too, which are really cool. I have to say purple mascara is not my thing, but I digress.
Fizzy Pop caught my eye at first because of the beautiful color visible in the bottle. It is a mixture of very fine gold and hologram glitters in a clear base. Because it is so sheer, I thought it needed a base that wouldn't detract from the color, such as black or white. Because a radically different (unless it is glitter) accent nail is so tacky, I chose to do a base layer nail in both black and white and layered fizzy pop on top of both polishes. I personally think it looks best over black. What do you think?

taken before I added Fizzy Pop.

After Fizzy Pop.

Orly FX- Space Cadet

This polish was originally from the cosmic FX line that Orly released in early 2010. Since, this one has made it into the lineup of Orly FX that are sold at retailers like Ulta today. There have been many iterations of the bottle and cap, and mine is the 2013 version.
Orly's FX polishes are at an elevated price from the regular collections, about $12 USD per bottle. Orly explains this difference as adding muscovite micas and finely ground glass to achieve the unique optical properties of these polishes. The finished product is not really a duochrome, but a ceramic-like finish that flashes a few different colors using the glass, mica and colored base.
Space Cadet is a gray-green base with (we'll call them particles) that flash pink and gold in the light. The overall effect is not exactly like a duochrome, but is pretty cool nonetheless. The formula is just the right viscosity, which makes application very smooth and even. My biggest gripe with the polish, however, is the long dry time involved. Anyways, this is a very unique polish that would be a great compliment to any collection.

Ulta- High Roller

Normally, I am skeptical about store brand polishes (except for Formula X), so I was a little bit apprehensive when I got this as a free gift with some Tweezerman tweezers I bought in August. Today, I thought I might give it a try. Here Goes:
The first thing I noticed was how different the polish looked on my nails than in the bottle. In the bottle, it looked like a very fine small silver glitter polish, but on the nail I noticed that it was in fact a mixture of silver, gold and holo glitters in a gold base. Very interesting. One downside to the polish is that the glitters are not very dense and the gold base is very sheer, so I could still see the boundary between my nail and free edge after 4 coats. All the pictures show 5 coats.
However, one thing that this polish beats its competitors with is its smoothness. Normally, glitter polishes apply very coarsely and require at least two coats of a topcoat to get a satisfactory finish. This little guy, however, did not. It reminds me a little of the silver (like the element) particles used in some higher end polishes like CHI, or the ceramic effects line of Layla polishes. The finish seems very strong and like it will last some time without much wear.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri- Mint Sprint

Let me preface this by saying that I know this isn't the highest quality polish, but I got a bunch of Sparitual and Butter London colors for my birthday, so higher quality stuff coming up soon. Also, this polish is sentimental to me because it is the seminal shade that got me hooked on the approximately 50 shades (more like 5) that I own.
Anyways, Insta Dri polishes from Sally Hansen can be anywhere from $3-5 USD per bottle. There were only about a dozen shades when they first came out, but because of their popularity, there are many more than that now. One thing I really like about this shade is how pigmented it is. In all honesty, if you were in a hurry, you could apply one coat of this and a fast drying topcoat, wait three minutes, put your coat on and be good for the rest of the day. However, the polish will last another 24 hours or so without tip wear if you apply a second coat and a basecoat.
One thing I am not a big fan of is the wide brush that makes a nice little polish puddle to clean up on the sides of your nail. Also, for some weird reason, this polish looks bluish with a camera flash, so none of the pictures below use that to try and get it truer to its actual color.

Nicole by OPI- Miss-Magenta Me?

This is one of the more difficult to find polishes in the Nicole core collection, especially now that Modern Family and Selena Gomez are causing some retailers to start phasing out the classics. Nicole's polishes are $7 USD per bottle and should for the time being still be available at ULTA and most other beauty and drugstore type retailers.
Miss-Magenta Me? Is a true metallic, meaning it uses finely ground glass or muscovite mica instead of small glitters to achieve the texture and finish. The color is a beautiful purply pink which is thin and easy to control and is quite nearly opaque in one thin coat.
That being said, a fundamental problem with metallic polishes is that they exhibit a lot of brushstroking and definitely need a good coat of a trusted topcoat to finish the look and smooth things out. Another general thing about the Nicole by OPI brushes is that they tend to flare out over time, making the widest point during application wider than your nail, requiring some minimal cleanup afterwards. However, I really like this color for fall and winter, and the fact that it flatters a wide variety of skin tones is another plus.

Spoiled by Wet n' Wild- Plenty of Fish in the Sea

This color is another one from the spoiled collection, which to my knowledge is only available at CVS and CVS.com. They are $2 USD each, and have really dumb names. However, I think a lot of the colors are very unique, and so I have picked up three of them to date.
This was my first time using this polish. In the bottle, it looked very thin and liquidy, so I was a little apprehensive about the potential mess. However, it spread very nicely, good control around the cuticle area. The color is also really cool, a unique blue green shimmer. I don't really own a dupe of this color.
The cons of this polish are that the brush is far too wide, leaving a nice mess to clean up on the sides of the nail, and the dry time is less than satisfactory. On a couple of nails that I dinged a little when I found this out, I applied a little glitter accent in Essie's A Cut Above. The nice thing about A Cut Above is that it universally looks good with any color of polish beneath it, so it can be an accent with just about anything you want.

NYC- Luxury Lime

This polish is from the core collection of NYC polishes, not the "Color in a New York Minute" line. It is a light Tinkerbell green shimmer that is very sheer indeed. All NYC core polishes are $1 USD per bottle. They are available at drugstores and mass retailers. Of all the cheap polishes, these might be my favorite.
The formula is a nice, thin consistency that spreads evenly on the nail, is easy to control and doesn't make a mess on the cuticle or growth channel. I suppose you could add a white base to make the color less subtle, but I wanted to show what it looked like without.
To add a little more interest, I added a coat of OPI Navy Shatter on a couple of nails I know crackle polishes are no longer really in vogue, so to keep it tasteful I never apply them to all of my nails, just one or two, maybe three at the most.

Nicole by OPI- Enchantress

This is a color from the core Nicole collection, not a Modern Family or Selena Gomez color. Nicole by OPI runs about $7 USD per bottle, and is available at drugstores, beauty stores, and mass retailers like T.J. Maxx. The color is a sheer pink duochrome, with flashes of blue and purple depending on the light.
As pretty as the color looks in the bottle, you are going to spend several fruitless hours painting tons of coats on your nail and waiting for that to dry. To get a more satisfactory result, I would recommend putting down a coat of white and two thin coats of Enchantress. I bet it would look really cool over black, too!
Excuse the messiness of the pictures below. My white polish was really acting up and got everywhere it was not supposed to go. You can't see it in the pictures, but the white polish also bubbled a lot. Enchantress is the high quality polish here, so get an equally high quality black or white base to match.

NYC- Times Square Tangerine

This polish is from the line of standard NYC polishes, which I actually think are great value for a dollar. You can find them at just about every drugstore and massive retailer and cost only $1 USD.  They're great if you need a color and you're out of town, and they are also great gifts for the younger girls in your life.
Times Square Tangerine is a creme finish orange that is not a neon. It is a bright orange, but not the type you would see a deer hunter wearing. The formula is a bit thick and messy, but I do like how it is not streaky like other similar price point polishes.
To do my spider webs, I drew a few straight lines with a black nail art pen on each nail, then went back and drew a few curvy lines horizontally through them.

OPI- Grand Canyon Sunset

This polish is another of the permanent canon of OPI polishes. I'd describe it as a few shades pinker than a true terra cotta with a slight silvery shimmer to it.
The formula is as always, the right balance of thickness and opacity, showing no brushstokes and opaque in one coat, but two are always recommended for wear and integrity. The formula is easy to control, stops where it ought to stop on the nail and dries in a reasonable amount of time.
That being said, I don't think the color is for everyone. Because it is a darker pink and because of the silvery shimmer, I think it would look best on someone paler than me. There would be a greater contrast between their skin and nails, making it stand out. It looks like nothing special on olive skin, but of course it is a good color if you are going for something professional and not flashy.
The OPI permanent lineup runs about $9 USD a bottle, but, Ulta beauty is having a deal where if you buy 2 of them, you get a free topcoat.

Sally Hansen HD- Cyber

This polish is from the HD line of Sally Hansen polishes, originally appearing on shelves in July 2009 and to my knowledge is still available. There are seven colors, all the colors of the rainbow, and the idea is to use liquid crystals (like those used in LCD displays) to create an effect and finish that is difficult to describe. Not really a duochrome, yet not just a shimmery color.
Cyber is the only polish I own from the collection. It is a lovely purple with sort of warmer undertones. I do really like the formula because it is easy to control and relatively thin. However, this means that the opacity is a little less than optimal, requiring several thin coats before your nails are the color in the bottle.
I actually have not seen this collection around lately, but I certainly hope they rotate this one back in again, because let's face it, we're all really tired of the texture topcoats.

Sally Hansen Gem Crush- Glitz Gal

This polish is #8 of 8 in the Gem Crush collection. and definitely my favorite of the ones I own. It consists of small gray glitters in a base of the same color and larger circular holographic glitters that reflect all the colors of the rainbow. The effect is like a dense cluster of stars in a galaxy far, far away...
One thing I think really helps with a glitter nail polish is to put down a coat of a similarly colored non-glitter polish so that you don't have to apply so much glitter to get it to look opaque. However, I don't have a good polish that would match this one, so everything on my nails is glitter. Too much polish on the nail can result in peeling and chipping more quickly than normal, but since this glitter is tough as nails (the hardware variety, not the finger type) this really was not a problem.

Revlon- Posh Pink

This polish is from Revlon's main nail enamel collection. They are normally about $5 USD per bottle. The price is unremarkable, as well as the color. It is a sheer, shimmery pink, which is opaque in about 3 coats. I would really like this color if it were a creme finish, but as a shimmer, it is about as ordinary as a pink nail polish can be.
However, I would like to commend the formula. It is not too thick, not too thin, not messy, easy to control and does not chip easily on the nail. The tip wear is minimal, especially with a topcoat.
Ultimately, I own about 5 or 6 Revlon polishes, and while the formula is really great, the colors are nothing special. In the future, I will look over the colors thoroughly and find something cool before I make a selection.

Sally Hansen- Royal Romance

This polish is from the Diamond Strength line of SH, available at most drugstores and places like Ulta. I have one other from the line, Black Diamonds, which is black with small silver glitters. This color is sort of a muted magenta color, one of those "Fall shades" that men find extremely unsexy but is appropriate and not flashy for the unconfident nail polish wearer.
This is the end of the positive things I have to say about the polish. Several minutes after I applied it, when most polishes are at least dry enough to open bags of cough drops, I ruined four nails trying to open a bag and unwrap one of the cough drops inside. Because I work part time as a prep chef, by the end of the work day most polishes I apply will start to show some minimal tip wear. However, this one just peeled off the nails entirely- basecoat, topcoat and all in places, making me really wonder how much I want another Diamond Strength polish. I really like my other one, Black Diamonds, so I hope that this is just a fluke. It's a very pretty color, just an extremely bad value for the money and the formula.