OPI Mermaid's Tears

Last week, I sullied the beautiful OPI Mermaid's Tears by using it in a truly awful excuse for nail art. So I thought I'd try to redeem Mermaid's Tears by showing off how cute it is on its own--minus my "artistry." ;) Mermaid's Tears is a grimey pastel green and one of my all-time favorite OPI cremes. Plus I think it has one of OPI's coolest names!

This is three coats of Mermaid's Tears. The formula is nice and smooth. This polish, along with its collection-mate Stranger Tides, was what started my love affair with grungy pastels. I think it's a total classic!

OPI Thanks A Windmillion! is similar, but not a dupe. It's darker and a little grimier. I haven't done an official comparison of the two, but I have used them side-by-side in an ombre manicure, so you can check that out HERE if you want to get an idea of how they differ.

What are some of your favorite pastel polishes?

Hare Heat Plague

I'm super excited to share my first-ever Hare Polish with you all today! I landed this baby off of Copious a while back. Heat Plague is a green jelly base filled with various sizes of orange, purple and magenta glitter. I absolutely love the color combo this polish has. It's very Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-esque--and I mean that in the best possible way! After all, I am a child of the 90s, so you know I loved the TMNT cartoon and video games back in the day. Anyways, back to the pretty nail polish!

At the first coat, the green base looked really sheer, so I was concerned with opacity. I hate VNL! But I was pleasantly surprised that everything was covered very nicely at three coats. If you want a layered look, I think Heat Plague would go perfectly with Zoya Shawn or something similar. Although the base is filled with glitter, Heat Plague is still a very easy polish to apply.

You can order Hare from the brand's Etsy shop or Llarowe. What do you think of Heat Plague? What are some of your favorite Hare polishes?

Get Michelle Obama's Nail Color & A Zoya Promo!

It seems like everyone and their sister is talking about Michelle Obama's greige nails from her DNC speech last night. The First Lady paired her greige mani with a Tracy Reese dress and J Crew shoes.

Photo Credit: Fashionista

Photo Credit: TresSugar

 

Photo Credit: The Atlantic Wire

As a nod to Mrs. O's manicure, Zoya is even offering a free bottle of their famous greige, Caitlin, with any purchase of $10 or more from now until 11:59 tomorrow night! Just use the code FIRSTPOLISH.

But what exact shade was the First Lady sporting last night? Well after much speculation, the Obama Campaign has revealed that her polish of choice was Artistic Color Gloss Soak-off Gel in the color Vogue.

You can purchase Vogue HERE or HERE (I'm not affiliated in any way with either site) but make sure you either have a UV light or a good salon on-call, since it is a special gel polish. Or if you're willing to wait a bit longer, I'm sure plenty of brands already have dupes in the works to jump on all the buzz!

Darling Diva Raspberry Kami

I've got another beauty from indie brand Darling Diva to share with you all today! Darling Diva Raspberry Kami has a berry microshimmer base filled with various shapes and sizes of silver holographic glitter. Take a look at all this glittering holographic goodness!

This is two coats of Raspberry Kami over Pixi Very Violet. I went with a red-based purple to compliment the shimmer in Raspberry Kami itself, but I think it would look great over just about anything. Raspberry Kami's formula is excellent and all of the glitter applies evenly. I didn't have to place any of the pieces or fish for certain shapes. This is one of those "party in a bottle" polishes that instantly kicks any mani up a notch. I got several compliments on it at work today, which is always a fun bonus. :)

You can purchase Darling Diva at the brand's Etsy shop and follow Darling Diva on Facebook to get all the latest updates and your daily dose of indie pr0n. The owner, Carrie, is a total sweetheart and I had a great experience with her and Darling Diva! Raspberry Kami and the other Darling Diva polish I showed you on Monday, Diabla, aren't available for sale quite yet but hopefully will be soon!

Disclosure: This polish was sent to me for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Twinsie Tuesday: China Glaze Trendsetter

Ready to face the real world again after a long holiday weekend? I'm still in "do nothing" mode, myself. But what better way to kickstart the day then with another installment of Twinsie Tuesday? This week's theme is fugly polish. We had a bit of a debate over whether this should be a polish we hate or a "fugly" color that we actually like. We decided it should be left open to interpretation, so I went with the latter.

I am a big fan of ugly/pretty colors and in my mind, there's no better example than China Glaze Trendsetter. I have a feeling at least one of my fellow Twinsies will also choose this color, as it's become an inamously divisive polish. There really isn't another polish out there like Trendsetter, a mustard glassfleck. Personally, I love it but I know others will disagree.

The formula is great and covers in two coats. The glassfleck in Trendsetter provides the "pretty," while the mustard base is...well, I won't say it's "ugly" so much as "unique." It's not a color I would normally gravitate towards--I'm not going to be painting my room this color anytime soon--but it's fun to step outside the box every now and again. Plus I got Trendsetter on clearance, so you can't beat that!

What do you think of Trendsetter? What's your favorite "fugly" color? I'm curious to see how my fellow Twinsies interpreted this theme. Be sure to check out the other Twinsie Tuesday blogs for your daily dose of fugly. ;)

Amanda at Amandalandish
Anna at Going to the Showing
Anne at Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail
ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Jenn at All That Is Gorgeous
Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...
Katherine at Haul of Fame
Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite!
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Meredith at Polish and Charms
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Top Coat It
Sarah at See Sarah Swatch
Tara at Polishy of Truth

Darling Diva Diabla

I've got another awesome indie brand to share with you today: Darling Diva! Darling Diva Diabla is a clear base with small and large black hex glitter, large red hex glitter and red microshimmer. I wore this polish two ways: over a white base (Sally Hansen White On) and a dark base (OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!). This is three coats of Diabla over each.

I love how Diabla looks completely different over each base. I like it best over white but I think it looks great either way. This is one of those polishes that can transform any manicure and I love the dramatic contrast you can create with the black glitter and your base color. Diabla is a perfect representation of its name ("she-devil") and would work especially well for Halloween or anytime you want to add some extra edge to your mani.

In addition to Diabla, Darling Diva has a huge variety of polishes, so there's something for just about everybody with this brand. You can purchase Darling Diva at the brand's Etsy shop.


Disclosure: This polish was sent to me for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Dollish Polish The Koopa King

I can almost guarantee you that you've never seen another glitter like Dollish Polish The Koopa King from the Super Mario Brothers Collection. The Koopa King, named for Mario's arch-nemesis Bowser, features red, yellow, white and green glitter in various sizes, black bar glitter and diamond-shaped holographic glitter. I was instantly drawn to this polish when I first saw it on my friend Brandi's blog The Collegiate Nail. It's such an unusual, fun glitter! This is two coats of The Koopa King over China Glaze Kalahari Kiss.

I. Love. This. The color combination is absolutely perfect for fall and the mix of different shapes and sizes of glitter give this polish a lot of visual interest. The glitter distributes evenly and doesn't require any placing, other than guiding it away from the edge of the nail.

I only got two of Dollish Polish's Super Mario Brothers polishes, but between The Koopa King and Toad-ally Awesome, I definitely want more! You can purchase Dollish Polish at Dolly's official website or Llarowe.