Orly Ingenue and Alabaster Verve

I recently posted a swatch of Orly's Alabaster Verve.  I don't have a lot of Orly polish in my collection, so when I was at the store I went ahead and got myself three bottles.  I also purchased Ingenue, when was labelled with a little "new" ring around it but really isn't new- it's from the winter/holiday collection.  It is a pink based loaded up with tiny, shimmery gold glitter.  It is also basically identical to a bunch of other polishes floating around, but I don't own any of those and this was on sale so into my bin it went, and onto my fingers.  I love it layered over Alabaster Verve.  This is two coasts AV and one coat of Ingenue with Seche Vite as a top coat.

I'm really not a fan of gold.  I'm much more of a silver/white gold person as far as personal taste goes.  However, my skin tone disagrees- gold looks pretty great on me (if I do say so myself, heeey!).  I love this color with my skin tone!  

I'm back! And on East Coast time!

Our adventure is over, we are all moved in.  My nails are little nubbins (surprise surprise) after a whole ton of stressful events but I'm trying to get myself back on track.  Once my crafting space is all set up, I'll be able to get some nail polish racks up and going and then we will really be in business.  For now, just a quick swatch of a new (to me) color.

This is Orly's Alabaster Verve.  It's a perfect dusty pink and it has a hint of silvery shimmer.  It's perfect for work without being boring.

My ridges are pretty bad, huh?

Lovely!  

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple (pic heavy, I was a little overzealous)

Oh man.  OH MAN.  I have been waiting for this day.  I have been drooling over the Kleancolor chunky holos for what feels like a million years, and when they finally came in the mail the other day I nearly had an aneurysm trying to decide just where to start!  Which one did I want to try?  What should my base color be?  Should I layer them or just stick with one?

I finally decided to use the Purple, and I dug through my boxes of polish to find what I thought might be an appropriate base color- Sally Hansen's Pronto Purple (which you can see here on the zebra maniand here).  It's a royal purple and kind of metallic, and I thought it would be great for the glitter.

Oh man.  I don't know where to start, really.  It's gorgeous!  It sparkles red, green, gold, copper, orange!  I'm obsessed.  I can't wait to try the rest of them.  

There's no way I bite my nails with a manicure this gorgeous!

Swatch: Revlon Glitz & Glam

Wow!  This one sure suprised me.  I found it randomly in the store mixed in a basket of random colors, and I thought what the heck.  Microglitter in shades of pink, why not?  Then I got home, tried it on and wow!  I wasn't expecting it to be set in a raspberry base!  But it is, and it's very lovely.

Forgive these pictures.  The polish looks lumpy and goopy almost- that's my fault entirely, not the formula.  This is three coats over a coat of white- like I said, I wasn't expecting it to be set in a colored base- so it's on there pretty thick and sloppy.

See the different shades of pink glitter?

Swatch: Essie Pure Pearlfection

The last one from LuxEffects (I didn't buy the gold one- As Good as it Gets) is Pure Pearlfection.  This is beautiful!  It's this wonderful shimmery color with these itsy bitsy microscopic glitters.  It looks so good on this black base- it reminds me of gunmetal, it makes my plain black polish look metallic.  I can't wait to use this all the time, I rarely layer plain colors with topcoats like this.  I wish I could've captured all of the colors in this polish- it looks primarily silver, but in the bottle and close up, there were little flecks of pink and green and blue!

Gorgeous!

Swatch: Essie Set in Stones

Another one from Essie's LuxEffects!  Here's Set in Stones, a silver sister to A Cut Above.  Here is is over a black base.

This is just perfect for New Years!!

Swatch: Essie A Cut Above

I hooked myself up with Essie's LuxEffects the other day.  Here's A Cute Above.  It's a pretty glitter with big chunky hex glitter, and little micro glitter as well.  Here is is over a white base:

Pointer/Middle: one coat.  Ring/Pinky: two coats

Thoughts???  Where would you wear this?

Swatch: Essie Shine of the Times (Pic Heavy)

I think I know why you're here.  But first let me do my swatch spiel.

This is Essie's Shine of the Times, which is part of their new Luxe Effects collection and the much sought after flakie.  And it does not disappoint!  It is a gorgeous iridescent rainbow flakie that reflects all sorts of pretty colors.  It's a dupe for Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (which I don't have) and Nubar 2010 (which I do!)  Check it out!!!

Here it is layered over Revlon's Hot for Chocolate.  This is one layer of Shine of the Times and SV topcoat.

Ugggggggggh I love it.  

Swatch: Essie Cocktail Bling

Essie's Cocktail Bling is part of their Winter 2011 collection.  It's a very pretty grey with blue-ish tones, and I think it's great for all year round, not just winter!  And, best of all for me, it's work appropriate.  I'm loving everything that Essie is putting out lately.  All winners!