Zoya - Faye

Hello everyone! Here's another swatch for you. This polish should have gone up the other day but I just couldn't get enough sunshine to show it off properly until now. Faye is a new summer release from Zoya and it is GOOOORGEOUS. So sparkly! It's a pretty grape-ish purple base loaded with gold flecks of shimmer. Zoya always does these kinds of finishes the best. It went on really nicely in 3 coats and is perfect for summer because it has to be seen in the sun to be fully appreciated. Sometimes I'm wary of micro-glittery polishes like these because they can be tough to remove but Faye came off easily with my normal non-acetone remover. It did leave my fingers covered in gold glitter though, but that can be washed off.

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A look at the base color.

Orly Nail Rescue Saves The Day!

Hi everyone! Sorry for the late post, Florida is still being all soggy and cloudy so I decided to do a post that doesn't need sunshine to be shown off. Orly Nail Rescue is a simple but tremendously useful system that will save your cracked, broken nails. I can directly credit this with letting me keep my long nails for as long as I did. Without it I'd have had to trim down much earlier. Here's what you get in the box (minus the instruction sheet):

On the left is the nail glue. As far as I know it's the same as any other nail glue you'd get off the shelf, the bottle says you can use it for applying fake nails too so it's not limited to just fixing your nails. The key component here is on the right in the little round container. It's full of a very fine, white powder that, when combined with the nail glue, hardens into a resin that holds together the broken part of your nail and protects it. It's easy to use. All you do is brush the glue onto the broken section and then dip the entire glue-covered part into the powder. Then you can lightly dust off the excess powder and use the included file to smooth out the repair. I usually buff it with a finer file just to make it extra smooth. I've tried using tea bags and silk wraps in the past to repair cracks and tears but nothing has worked as well for me as Nail Rescue. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that to take it off you will need pure acetone to dissolve the glue-powder mixture so you might want to avoid using acetone-based remover to keep from weakening the patch. I use non-acetone remover all the time anyways so it's not a problem for me, but just a heads up. I hope this review is helpful to any of you who have fragile nails like me!

Orly - Lemonade

I am SO VERY HAPPY to bring you this post today! This color satisfies a long-time desire of mine: an opaque and easily applied pastel yellow. Both pastels and yellows are noted for being difficult, so when you combine the two you generally get disaster. This was true for the first pastel yellow I tried, Sinful Colors' Unicorn. Streaky mess. I looked around on the internet for a good while and found some contenders. I picked this polish up at the store the other day and came home to put it on with some trepidation. Heck, I was even getting angry in advance expecting it to apply awfully. The first, very thin, coat was somewhat streaky but not too terrible. I decided to do a rather thick second coat after waiting about 5 minutes to prevent the first layer from dragging and SUCCESS! That's what you see here, pure buttery sunshine perfection. I really sort of don't want to take it off but I will, of course. At least I know I have a little bottle of pretty pastel yellow waiting for me. :)

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China Glaze - Towel Boy Toy

Hi everyone! Today's update is a great summery color. Towel Boy Toy is a bright aqua-ish neon with pretty blue shimmer. Looking at this polish makes me think it would taste like blue raspberry. It's a really pretty color but I was sort of dismayed when the first coat went on streaky and thin and dried matte. Why? It clued me in to it being a neon! Neons are notorious for being thin, streaky, and drying to a matte finish. This was definitely thin, requiring 4 coats to get what you see here, and somewhat streaky, and it did dry to a semi-matte finish. However, it wasn't terrible, just unexpected! Overall this is a good polish, it definitely feels bright, summery, and fresh. Please note that this is slightly greener in real life, my camera didn't quite pick that up.

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Zoya - Harley

 Hey, look at that, I'm on time! Harley is a real winner and I love it so very much. I wanted a nice neutral but something cool so I grabbed Harley.. with a little trepidation. I tried out Marley from Zoya a few weeks ago and took it off almost immediately because it was streaky and dragging and just applied like a mess. It's similar to Harley in that they're both light colors with shimmer so I was concerned about how Harley would behave. So before the polish even touched my nails, I thinned the heck out of it! It applied PERFECTLY. Smooth, even, pigmented, no dragging, no problems. 2 quick coats and I'm done. It's not just grey, either. The shimmer seems to be a mix of silver and teeny bits of pink and blue that make it pull ever so sliiiiightly lavender. It's like pretty shimmery fresh concrete to me and I'm a big fan.

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Sally Hansen - Coral Fever

Hi everybody! Sorry again about the late posting, it's been tough getting sunshine to snap pictures in lately. This is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Coral Fever, part of the limited edition Spring collection. I wasn't particularly excited about any of the shades from swatches I saw but I ended up getting this, Model Behavior, and Delphinium when I saw the display at a local store. I generally like the SH CSM polishes, they go on smoothly and have a BIG WIDE BRUSH which is great for my wide nails. Coral Fever was a good example of SH CSM quality, pretty well pigmented and went on nicely in 2 coats. The drying time on its own is pretty fantastic, too! Just maybe 5 minutes after I painted my last nail and finished cleanup but hadn't applied topcoat yet, my mom wanted me to help her take out and play with my rats. I had her open the cage so I wouldn't dent anything and stood there playing the 'my fingers are made of lava, don't touch anything' game until one of the girls went tumbling onto the floor! I scooped her up quickly and I know my nails brushed against her, the carpet, and a wooden bed in the process but when I went to examine the damage.. there was none! My nails were perfectly glossy and unblemished. High-five, Sally Hansen.

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Essie - Smooth Sailing

Hello everyone! Sorry for the late update, there hasn't been much sun here the past few days so I couldn't take any photos. Florida went from the Sunshine State to the Torrential Downpour State this week. I finally got some sun while I was out running errands so here you go. This photo unfortunately doesn't show off the veeeery subtle pink and blue shimmer in Smooth Sailing but it does show the pretty, almost speckled finish it has. It kind of reminds me of light wash denim. This was a real joy to put on, it covered evenly and fully in 2 coats.

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I have a question about my photos for you all. I see other bloggers taking their photos while holding the polish bottle in their hand to show you the bottle color and color on the nail simultaneously. What do you think of that? Would it benefit you if I took my photos in that manner? Please let me know!