Darling Diva Polish Spam

It's the first day of fall break and I'm sitting here sipping a cup of coffee with the windows open. The weather is beautiful today.
Anywho, today I have a little bit of spam for you all from the indie line Darling Diva Polish.

First up, Darling Diva Apple Crisp over Sally Hansen Rapid Red
Perfect for fall! The color combo I chose makes it look a bit Christmas-y. I didn't have any problems with application. The formula on this one was great. The first two pictures show one coat of Apple Crisp and the second two pictures show two coats.

Darling Diva Soft Kitty (By itself and then over Sinful Colors Verbena)
The name of this polish makes me smile and I always find myself singing "Soft Kitty" from the Big Bang Theory whenever I look at the bottle. This one is very soft and feminine when you wear it alone. I used three coats by itself to reach opaqueness. The glitters are very soft looking. There are also some iridescent glitters in the mix! Then I decided to layer it to see how that would look. I think it would have looked better layered over a light pink but I didn't have a good one with me. My photos of it over Verbena make it look a bit frosty. I promise it isn't that frosty in real life, my camera just has a hard time photographing polishes like this.

Darling Diva Pendragon over Zoya Avery
This one was a bit trickier to apply. There are a lot of larger hexes in it so you'll have to apply it with the 'dabbing' method rather than painting it on like a regular polish. The color combo reminds me of dragon scales. Very cool! I do wish there were a few more of the smaller glitters in this. But I'm a sucker for small glitters, so that might just be me! Shown is 2 "coats"

Lastly, Darling Diva Walk on the Ocean over Butter London Big Smoke
This one is gorgeous! Absolutely perfect! I noticed that there were some iridescent glitters in it when I was looking at the bottle so I decided to layer it over a darker color to make them shine. Shown is one coat of glitters over the base polish. Application was easy. It has the perfect amount of glitters.

For more information on Darling Diva Polish, check out her Etsy shop here or go like her Facebook page here.

Zoya Charla

I love Zoya's brush. Like so much that I want to take it behind the bleachers and make out with it. Then run around and profess my love for it. I just can't get over how good they are. I wish all brushes were as good as Zoyas.

Pretend those last sentences weren't as creepy as they sounded.

Today I've got Zoya Charla to show you. This is an oldie but a goodie and I don't think I've ever taken pictures of it, so it's about time that I get around to that! I used three thin coats for this polish. You could be okay with two coats. Dry time was fast.

Then I thought, "Hey let's get a bit crazy!" and I added a matte topcoat to it (Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love, if you're wondering).

Then I realized I liked it better glossy, so I re-topcoated it. Oh well. So much for being crazy. 

Zoya Avery with Stamping

I'm on a glitter overload right now so I decided to wear one of my favorite nude polishes, Zoya Avery, as a palette cleanser. But I can't leave well enough alone so I decided to stamp over it. I used Sally Hansen Wined Up and the new Bundle Monster stamping plates. I did get a little bit of dragging because I was impatient and didn't wait long enough to put on my topcoat. It's not that noticeable in real life but macro shots bring out all the flaws. Not gonna lie... I'm already itching to put on some glitter again!

Crowstoes Halloween 2012 Collection

Lauri sent me these polishes to swatch for her and so I thought I would do a review of them for you guys as well.
Sorry if some of these color combos don't strike you as particularly "Halloween-y". I'm at school right now and only bring a few polishes with me at a time.

I've got seven polishes to show you today so it's going to be a pretty long post. Enjoy!

Hell Hath No Fury over Barry M Coral

Red, orange, and iridescent glitters in a clear base. This also has some really nice golden shimmer to it. 

Purple People Eater over Essie Boxer Shorts

Gorgeous! One of my favorites from the collection! Small purple, blue, and green glitters in a clear base.

Bone Daddy over Zoya Dove

A mix of white and iridescent glitters in a milky, grey base. This is the only polish in the collection that has a tinted base. Application was a bit difficult with this one because there are a lot of the large, white hexes. You need a bit of skill in applying polish to get an even look with this one but I think it's worth it in the end. 

Tangled Web over China Glaze Electric Beat

A mix of black and duochrome (blue to green) glitters in a clear base. This one is really fun! I love black glitters! 

I had a hard time capturing the color shift of the glitters in my picture but in real life they're much more obvious. When I was first looking at the bottle I thought it included blue and green glitters but then I realized that they were actually duochrome!

Last Call at the Crowbar over China Glaze Elephant Walk

Multicolored glitters in a clear base. The primary color is a gunmetal, silver glitter. It reminds me of a dark version of all the Happy Birthday dupes. The darker colors make it even more appropriate for fall. 

Voodoo over Sally Hansen Crushed
I know what you're thinking. Why am I showing you Voodoo again? It's because Lauri informed me that the version I showed you a few days ago was an earlier version and the one that was going to be for sale was slightly different. There are purple, shredded glitters in the updated version.
Purple, orange, and green glitters in a clear base. Since I already showed you what it looked like over a purple, I wanted to show a different combo today.

Frog's Breath over Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime

A mix of green and gold glitters in a clear base. This one was a surprise favorite. I'm not normally a green person (unless it's mint green, then I'm all over it) but Frog's Breath is really phenomenal! 

My overall impressions of this collection is that they're all really great! Application was very easy on all of them besides Bone Daddy, which was a bit trickier. I've done one coat of glitter over their base color in all of these pictures. 

What's nice about these polishes is that they all have a Halloween vibe to them but they don't scream Halloween so they'll still look nice all year long. I find that glitters generally dry very fast and these were no exception. 

It's really hard to pick a favorite but I think the most stand-out polishes from this collection are: Voodoo, Purple People Eater, and Frog's Breath. 

Polishes can be purchased from Llarowe and Overall Beauty.
For more information on Crowstoes polishes (including swatches of the rest of her Halloween polishes), check out Lauri's blog The Polished Crow.
For updates on stock regarding Crowstoes polishes, make sure to follow Llarowe's Facebook page.

Shimmer Polish Spam!

About a week ago I purchased three polishes from Shimmer Polish: Stephanie, Caroline, and Gerry.

I liked that these mainly consisted of smaller glitters. A lot of indies seem to mostly be creating polishes with larger and multi-shaped glitters and while I love those, it's always nice to see someone doing something a bit different.
The packaging is really cute! They all have a heart on the label that corresponds to the color of the polish.
All three of the ones I own (and I believe her other polishes are this way as well) are glitters in a clear base so you could layer them over any polish.

These are very dense, I think they could be opaque in 2-3 coats but I decided to layer them over a base color because I prefer that look. They're all shown with 1 coat over a base color.


Shimmer Polish Stephanie over Zoya Robyn.
I really liked this one! The primary glitter color is blue.

Zoya Robyn. 

Application was wonderful. Zoya knows how to make a great creme polish, that's for sure. 2 coats.

Shimmer Polish Caroline over Model's Own Magenta Pearl.

My camera had a hard time taking pictures of this one. I think it was the base color that was causing problems with my camera. 

The primary glitter color is a dark magenta.

Model's Own Magenta Pearl.

Absolutely gorgeous! This polish really glows once it's on your nails. 2 coats.

Shimmer Polish Gerry over Illamasqua Jo'Mina.

This one was my favorite out of the three that I ordered! The primary glitter color is purple but there also seems to be a fair amount of blue glitters in there as well. 

Illamasqua Jo'Mina.

Every time I wear this polish I'm always amazed at how amazing the formula is. It practically applies itself and the color is one of my favorite shades of purple. 2 coats.

The creator of Shimmer Polish is also starting to create custom polishes! I'm already planning my next order!