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!