Orly Emberstone

Orly Emberstone is an orange-leaning red foil with gold shimmer from last year's Mineral FX Collection. I've mentioned on here multiple times that I am a huge fan of Orly's FX collections. All of the polishes from those lines are really exceptional and Emberstone is no exception. This is easily one of the prettiest reds I own.

Emberstone's formula is excellent and covers in two coats. It goes on smoothly and opaquely. Emberstone really is the perfect name for this polish because it positively glows. The shimmer is really phenomenal and catches the light beautifully. This may be a red but it's far from boring. The base color is very vibrant and the foil finish only serves to amplify that.


I hope Orly releases another FX collection soon. Their last couple releases haven't really been doing it for me. In the meantime, it's definitely worth it to track out some past FX gems like Emberstone. I was lucky enough to land this on clearance at Sally not too long after the Mineral FX Collection originally came out, but I've noticed that several of the Ultas around me still regularly stock both the Mineral and Cosmic FX Collections, so that might be the place to start if you're looking to add Emberstone or any of the other FX polishes to your collection.

Wet N Wild Light With Caution

UPDATE: Sorry for the technical issues with this post earlier. Anytime I publish a post from my phone lately, Blogger seems to always delete my post and only put up a blank post instead. Ugh... But I've got everything fixed now!

Today I've got a brand new glitter from Wet N Wild's latest collection, Sparks & Stripes, to show you: Light With Caution. There's a lot going on in this polish and it's all good. Light With Caution has a clear base packed with four types of glitter: small and large pink hex, large gold hex and small iridescent square. The overall effect is very blingy and festive. I love it! I layered two coats of Light With Caution over my Sally Hansen Black Tie I showed you the other day.

The formula on Light With Caution is good, albeit a touch thick for my tastes. Still, the glitter distributes evenly and you don't have to place the larger pieces individually. The dry time is also obscenely fast, so much so that I (gasp) didn't use topcoat since it felt totally dry and dent-proof within just a few minutes.


This is an absolute steal at $1.99. You gotta love Wet N Wild for consistenly putting out budget-friendly polish that doesn't skimp on quality. Unfortunately, their seasonal collections tend to be notoriously hard to find, but keep your eyes peeled for Light With Caution. I love this polish. It's unique, fun and super sparkly! This could instantly spruce up any mani.

Review: Essie Feed Me

Recently I've been having major trouble with nail peeling on my right hand. My nails are normally pretty sturdy but all of the sudden my right index nail began peeling uncontrollably and feeling very brittle. I tried moisturizing, filing, cutting, everything! But the peeling kept coming back and seemed to get increasingly worse, no matter what I did. I wasn't sure why it suddenly appeared, but when the same thing started happening to the nails on my right middle and ring fingers, I decided it was time for an intervention. I did a little shopping around for nail treatments and wound up giving Essie Feed Me a go, since it claims to help moisturize and strengthen dry, brittle nails.


I threw out the original box it came in, but for reference, this is a stock photo to show you how it comes:

The package said my nails would be 50% more moisturized within five days, but I've gotta say I noticed an impressive improvement even before that. I painted my nails with the adorable Revlon Mint Gelato on Saturday night, using Feed Me as my basecoat. The sole basecoat I'd used before was Seche Clear and I tend to only use a basecoat with potentially staining colors (I'm bad, I know). But I vowed to use Feed Me with every single manicure in hopes of seeing solid, quick results. Feed Me went on silky smooth and dried about as quickly as Seche Clear. Although Feed Me has a blue tint in the bottle, it goes on completely clear.

When I took my Mint Gelato mani off Monday night, my nails already looked and felt stronger. The peeling seemed to have been sealed back into my nail and I could feel that my problem nails were becoming less brittle. I debated taking some before and after shots, but...ick, naked nails!

Anyways, as I continued to use Feed Me, it not only stopped my peeling but appeared to repair it as well--no more icky flakes or jagged texture! I still have some unevenness on my index finger, where the peeling was at its worst, but it's visibly smoother and I expect before too long it will be nice and even again.


It's been a week so far and I feel it's really turned my nails around already. They feel so much healthier now and much more moisturized. At $8 (the same price as an Essie polish), I think the price on this is extremely reasonable. Many other brands make nail treatments that cost considerably more than their polishes but I didn't want to drop a lot of cash on a treatment that I wasn't sure would work. Thankfully, Feed Me was the perfect solution and affordable, to boot!

This stuff is like magic in a bottle for dry nails! I am thoroughly impressed with the results Feed Me gave and plan to continue using it to keep my nails in tip-top shape. Of course, your mileage may vary, but for me, this was a real life-saver! Now I just have to fix my staining... An addict's work is never done!

Sally Hansen Black Tie

Sally Hansen Black Tie is one of the most beautiful polishes I've tried in a long time. It's a black duochrome with the most fabulously gorgeous purple and green color shift to it. This is not one of those almost-black duochromes that just has a hint of color to it. Even from far away, it has a pearly, gunmetal look to it. The color shift here is very complex as well and you can often see multiple colors at once. Pictures don't do this polish any justice because it's tough to capture the duochrome on camera. But it's so ridiculously pretty!

I took pictures in a variety of lighting situations and I'm still not happy with how this polish shows up on camera. I think this is just one of those shades you need to see in person to fully appreciate.


Admittedly the formula here is not the best. It covers in two coats so opacity is not an issue, but this polish feels thick and goopy and drags considerably when applying. I think a lot of the formula problems stemmed from the fact that the brush kept picking up way too much polish and unless I scraped it off each time, I wound up with a big dollop of polish.

But honestly? Look at her, you guys! It makes me forget all about the not-so-hot formula. Black Tie is what I wanted Chanel Black Pearl to be. I feel like a supervillainess with this polish on; for some reason it stikes me as very Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Black Tie is utterly badass.

I'd say Black Tie is a total must-have for all my fellow duochrome lovers out there. I can already tell I'm going to be staring at my nails all day today while I have this on!

Bettina Champagne

Champagne is my first and only Bettina polish. It was a gift from the wonderful Nory of Fierce Makeup And Nails. Thank you so much, Nory! :)


Champagne is a rosy copper chrome. Unlike a lot of chromes, this one isn't overly frosty or brushstroke-y. It looks like pure liquid metal.

Since Champagne is a chrome, you do have to be mindful of where you place your strokes, but as I mentioned above, the formula is not brushstroke-y overall. In fact, it's extremely nice. It had just the right consistency to it and almost covered completely in one coat, although I did two just to even everything out. It dries ridiculously fast, even without topcoat! (Speaking of topcoat, I need a new bottle of Seche... Mine is on its last legs and is becoming both thick and a little bubbly.)

This polish has a lovely shine to it and I like how smooth it looks. Chromes seem to be coming back lately and Essie is set to release a whole collection of them sometime soon, so it seemed especially appropriate to bust out Champagne. I can see this color working year-round and I like how it can look modern or antiqued all at the same time. I wish I had more access to Bettina polishes since it looks like they make some marvelous colors. Particularly the Disco Collection... *swoon*

Have you ever tried any Bettina? If so, what did you think?

OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?

Yesterday I showed you one of the polishes from OPI's Holland Collection that I hated. But this is one of my very favorite polishes from that same set: Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI? It's a gorgeous red-leaning purple with stunning reddish gold shimmer. It definitely has that coveted "lit from within" look.

Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI? was a total homerun for me. It's one of the prettiest purples I own and has a fabulous formula, to boot. It covered in two smooth, simple coats.

I think the shimmer is what makes this polish really special. It has a lot of depth to it and looks very lively and sparkly on the nail. It kind of reminds me of the effect you get with the similarly complex shimmer in another beautiful purple, Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine. (For the record though, Catherine is much more blue than Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?) This is simply a perfect purple. If you passed this one up the first time around, I feel it's worth a second look. I love it!

Twinsie Tuesday: OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes

We've got an interesting theme for this week's Twinsie Tuesday: most hated/unflattering polish. For me, this was a pretty easy one to choose. It's actually a polish I showed you on here already about two months ago: OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes from the Holland Collection. It's a dusty rose with gold shimmer and it looks like all kinds of ass on me.

I tried to salvage this as a pedi color (I'm wearing it on my toes right now, in fact) but I honestly can't get into it at all. I think the only reason I still have it is I've got the entire Holland Collection--complete with adorable windmill display!--and the completionist in me just won't let it go. But I've debated swapping it away though to someone who would use and appreciate it much more than I do.

For the record, the formula isn't bad at all. This was two coats. However, I hate how the tone of this color clashes with my skin and it just looks very old lady-ish to me overall. I like ugly pretty polishes but to me this is plain ol' ugly. Maybe someone else could rock it, but for me, it's apparently not meant to be.

Am I wrong about Gouda Gouda Two Shoes? What's your least favorite polish in your stash? Are you hanging onto it for your own twisted reasons or searching for a new home for it?


There'll be plenty of polish hatred to go around on the other Twinsie Tuesday blogs today, so you'll definitely get your fill of polish horror stories. And be sure to give a big welcome to new twinsies Cordia and Tara!

Amanda: http://amandalandish.blogspot.com/
Anna: http://goingtotheshowing.blogspot.com/
Anne: http://grapefizz.blogspot.com/
Ashley: http://artevolve.blogspot.com/
Brandi: http://thecollegiatenail.blogspot.com/
ChiChi: http://beautystarr1009.blogspot.com/
Cordia: http://srslyswatched.blogspot.com
Jenn: http://allthatisgorgeous.blogspot.com/
Jenna: http://www.jennafroggy.com/
Katherine: http://hauloffame.blogspot.com/
Marisa: http://marijonails.blogspot.com/
Meredith: http://polishandcharms.blogspot.com/
Nory: http://fiercemakeupandnails.blogspot.com/
Rachel: http://topcoatit.com/
Sarah: http://seesarahswatch.blogspot.com/
Tara: http://polishyoftruth.com/