I have to be honest... when I received my Zoya package last week I was very excited about receiving it, but not so excited about the collection.  I mean when you put out a collection like Zoya Sparkle, it's really hard to follow up after that.  But when I pulled the Wicked Collection out of it's box my eyes immediately fixated on Edyta. In my opinion she's the "star" of this bunch and if I could only get my hands on one I'd choose her.

Edyta is a gorgeous "oil slick" looking polish that's actually a very pretty metallic fern green, but when you put it on it goes through a color change effect, going from metallic gold, to black, back to green.  It's gorgeous!  I'm a definite lover of all things sparkly and this polish had me looking down all day.

Julieanne is this very regal and rich metallic purple, mixed in a nice black base.  It reminds me of Wet-n-Wild's Night Prowl nail polish, but packed with more metallic glitter that's finer and sparklier which allowed the black to remain just that.... a base.  It doesn't take away from from the gorgeous bling of Julieanne, but compliments her nicely in the background.

Now, Karina made me want to throw on a nice little dress and enjoy a nice night on the town with the hubs.  She's classy, she's eye catching, and the most perfect shade of garnet I think I've ever encountered in a polish.  I love how glossy and shiny she looked on the nails, but has this slight look of foil due to the metallic particles.  This is one me and my mom would be fighting over.  Definitely a polish that can be worn by both the old and new school.

xOx0Xo,

polishSWATCHES

Meet

Essie Nail Color in Funships

"An oldie, but goodie!"

Applied in two coats

I realized as I was going through my collection that I have a lot of old Essie polishes that are on the rare or discontinued list and it made me want to pull a few of them out and give them a little spotlight.  So, for the next couple of days I'll be featuring some of my Essie "throwbacks" to see if they still fair well with the newly released colors of late.

I tried to take pictures under every possible lighting source that was available to me.  And since the sun was shining bright today, I thought I'd take advantage of that because who knows what tomorrow will bring?!  Especially as finicky as this weather is here.  The 5th picture seems to show the color the best to me and looks more like how the color actually does on my nails.

Funships is a very pretty coral that seems as though it would look good on pretty much anyone, but that's always subject for debate.  The formula was the perfect consistency and the drying time was really quick!  This was a nice surprise for an older polish that has really never even been used.

polishSWATCHES: Scherer Chameleon Duo Chrome in Calypso

Due to the crummy dreary weather here it was kind of hard for me to get the pictures that I wanted of this duo chrome color changing polish.  This line of nail polish is only available at Rite Aid pharmacy and fortunately they're always seemingly on a BOGO special every time I visit the store.  I also have this polish in Blue Sky as well  and I get tons of compliments when I wear it.

The picture consists of three coats of polish and I neglected to put on a topcoat due to swatching.  This formula is somewhat runny and it can tend to be on the streaky side to me, but application is fairly easy.  You can easily manipulate this polish with out fear of it drying up too quickly on you.  These run around $3 and must definitely be used with a quality topcoat.

If not, your polish won't last and you'll be prone to chips and specks in it before the day is complete.  Since my polish changes are frequent anyway the longevity of this nail polish doesn't really bother me that much.  I plan to experiment with it and see if combining use with my CND Stickey basecoat and Seche Vite topcoat can get me through a weeks worth of wear (5 days) with this polish.  I'll keep you posted on how my little experiment goes.

Is Scherer Chameleon Duo Chrome Polish available where you live?

So, these were my first beauty purchases of 2010!

From L-R:

NailTek Mini Crystal File ( I also bought the full size one as well)

China Glaze Polish in For Audrey

NailTek Protection Plus Nail Strengthener

Protection Plus provides extra conditioning for nails that are hard and brittle. This special formulation replenishes the natural moisture content of the nail. Applied daily, Protection Plus helps nails regain the healthy balance necessary to resist stress and enhance survivability.

CND (Creative Nail Design) Stickey Basecoat

A soft, sticky base coat designed to anchor color to the nail. Acts as a gripping agent for color to prevent peeling and chipping.

OPI Designer Diamond Series in DS Extravagance

I'm dying to try them all out!  Only a couple more days left of this Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure test drive, which is going well by the way, and it's SWATCHing time!

The week before Christmas I had the opportunity to do a review of Rimmel Play Fast Nail Color in Killer Queen and I thought I'd share with you my two cents on what I liked, and yes disliked about this particular polish.  First, let me start off by saying that this was my first time ever using or should I say swatching this particular brand of polish.  I have used Rimmel Play Fast Scene Stealer as a color for a design, but have never actually swatched this particular brand before.

I believe this polish costs me around $3 and I purchased this color (Killer Queen) and Scene Stealer as well from my local Target store when I was actually suppose to be on a polish buying strike... Go figure!

What I liked about this polish was the color and the overall look of it once it was applied.  The formula wasn't watery and didn't seem inconsistent, but when applying you should do exactly as the name implies... Play Fast! You have very little time to manipulate or play around with the polish when applying due to it's quick drying nature.

I don't really consider myself a packaging girl, but I do seem to like this bottle.  The name of the polish is clearly displayed on the front  and it's not your average round or square bottle.  What I didn't really like about this polish, in all actuality, really had nothing to do with the polish itself, but the brush.  I'm not really a fan of the brush... at all!

I don't know if it was me, but it did not go along my edges very well and it left them looking somewhat choppy.  I'm the type that likes an easy application and little to no cleanup once done and with this brush I would have to go back and really clean up along my edges.  So, I've decided that when using this polish I'll use an artist paint brush instead.

Overall I would rate this polish 4.0 out of 5.0 strictly based off my issues with the brush, but the polish itself is of very good quality.

With one topcoat of Seche Vite this particular polish lasted around 5 days without any additional touchups.