Lacquer Lundi

I want to begin by thanking Biba, of Biba's Beauty Corner, for bestowing the "I Love Your Blog Award" upon me.  Biba posts wonderful nail polish swatch pictures on her blog.  Not only does she use brands that are familiar to North Americans, but she also has some wonderful brands that seem to be available only in her part of the world (Slovenia).  It's always interesting to see what is being sold around the globe.

I am supposed to pass the award on to fifteen other worthy blogs.  But how to choose from all the amazing choices on my side bar?   If your blog is listed, I love it, simple as that.  So, for today, if your blog is on my sidebar and it starts with the letter "B" (there just happen to be fifteen of them), then I nominate you for this fab award!


Now, on to the pretties:

Orly - Fantasea
- purchased at Sally Beauty Supply for $6.49 CDN

The last time I was in Sally Beauty Supply, spending an enjoyable few minutes browsing the polish racks, Fantasea literally reached out, grabbed me by the collar and demanded to come home with me.  How could I say no to such an interesting polish?  Fantasea is a gorgeous reddish purple base with copper shimmer.  It is absolutely stunning on the nail.  One of my colleagues at school was mesmerized by this polish and kept staring at my hands all day.

Fantasea applied wonderfully (as have pretty much every single Orly I have ever used), because of the excellent formula.  My only suggestion to Orly to make their product perfect would be to widen the brush slightly.  This polish is a bit sheer however, so I needed four thin coats to achieve complete opacity, but for something this pretty, I don't mind.  It wore well - only minor tip wear after one day.


Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Thinking of Blue & Wet n Wild Wild Shine - Wild Orchid
- SH purchased at Zellers (chain discount store) for $7.49 CDN
- WnW purchased at Zellers (chain discount store) for $1.97 CDN 

Sally Hansen recently came out with the new product line, SH Complete Salon Manicure, presumably to replace the SH Salon line.  I had heard good things about this product and after using Thinking of Blue, I heartily concur.  Thinking of Blue is a purple tinged navy blue creme that is a unique blue in my collection, as I don't have anything else quite like it.

Thinking of Blue applied wonderfully.  The formula is a smidgen thick, but it still flows on easily and covers well - this polish is very pigmented and only required two thin coats (if I had applied the first coat thicker, I think I could have gotten away with just one coat).  The wide brush, which some will dislike, but I adore, places polish on the nail quickly and easily.  It also dries very quickly.  The wear was phenomenal - only very, very minor tip wear after two days.

Not wanting to remove my lovely blue mani, I decided to sexy it up a bit with some glitter.  I have had Wild Orchid in my stash for ages, but never used it because I have always had such lousy luck with Wet n Wild in the past.  It is by far the crappiest polish brand that I have ever used - I have always had it chip off in huge flakes in less than 12 hours (I don't think my body chemistry plays well with WnW).  I know there are some new ones out now, but I'm not sure I want to throw more money at this company just to see if they are no longer craptastic.  All that said, Wild Orchid applied easily and provided a pretty sparkle to my manicure.  It did however result in major tip wear over the day that I wore it and it was a bit of a pain to remove (which is typical with glitter polishes).


 Zoya - Harlow
- purchased at spaboutique.ca for $9.00 CDN

Harlow is a beautiful rich fuchsia polish that is stunning whether worn matte (as it applies from the bottle - as seen in the photo to the left) or shiny (with the application of a top coat - I inadvertently forgot to get a picture of Harlow with the top coat, but trust me that it is super pretty).  It looks like crushed velvet in its original matte form. 

Harlow was, unfortunately, a pain to apply.  The formula is rather thick and it dries very quickly.  This combination of characteristics results in a first coat of polish that is lumpy and streaky.  The second coat, when applied quickly, did fix up most of the mess though.  It took two coats to obtain opacity.  The wear on this polish was good, with only minor tip wear after two days (although the top coat was probably the major reason it didn't wear more at the tips, as other matte polishes in my collection are rather delicate).