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.