Christmas in July: the finale

Since July is ending and I won't have any more excuse to do Christmas in July as a theme, here's most of the things I see in my unposted file that are what I think of as legitimate holiday colors. By that I mean, somewhere close to a true red or a dark foliage green, or a gold or silver metallic. That's the Christmas color-scheme of my childhood, anyway. (I don't really even do Christmas to speak of any more - for me it's mostly a fond memory of Santa Claus, etc., back in the day.)

Most of these are polishes I've had for a while now, and they're probably all discontinued. (You can't even buy Illamasqua in the US any more, can you?)

This is Illamasqua Viridian, and it actually came from a holiday gift set, along with Glitterati - they're the only Illamasqua polishes I own. It's very pretty but I haven't worn it much.

This is Sephora by OPI Ruby Without A Cause - it's a red with... well, something a little off about it. I can't quite put my finger on what it is. It almost looks blackened, but I feel like there's something more complex than that about it. - Oh, huh, I just googled and this blogger says it has some shift, and some green shimmer. So yeah, that's enough to account for my feeling like it was a bit off. Especially from a polish that's probably five years old or a bit more, that's pretty out-there, really.

This bottle is a mess and I'm sort of embarrassed to show it to you, but it's definitely a Christmas polish, so here you go:

This is an old Ulta mini from a Christmas set, called Bad Santa. The bottle caps were that rubberized stuff and this one got really sticky, to the point where I couldn't stand to touch it. So I painted it with god-knows-what polish that I didn't care about - actually probably a couple of different polishes. Hey, it did stop it from being sticky! Anyway, cap aside, the polish is a nice red metallic, slightly on the pink side.

And finally, here's old gold:

It's Cover Girl Boundless Color in Gold Rush, - just a gold topper, over black, here. This is one I think of an old-school line of polish, but I think they actually made it up until maybe 2010 or so, so it's not as old as it seems to me, looking at that bottle style.

Target box #2: masks

I showed "Target Box #1" back in May, and both of these actually are boxes from April, but somehow I stuck the second one back in the shadows on the floor where I kept forgetting about it. So here's Target Box #2, finally, called All the Masks:

and it's just that, 5 different masks:

1. Masque Bar Charcoal Peel-Off Mask (detoxifies and purifies)
2. Yes to Carrots vitamin-enriched kale paper mask
3. Neutrogena Hydroboost Hydrating Gel Mask (with hyaluronic acid)
4. St. Ives Soothing Sheet Mask - Oatmeal
5. Que Bella multi mask trio - repair (zone area), perfect (cheeks), nourish (under eyes) - separate patches for each area

I had written the items in this down ages ago, and at the time I was being all detail oriented and they all said "one mask" and the ounces on most of them, but when I copied this, I figured "one mask" is the default, on a mask, so I took that part out again - except for #5 since it actually is more than one mask. (Or rather it's a bunch of separate pieces which if you put them all on at once, make more or less the equivalent of a full mask.) And I didn't think the weights here were really very informative - is that the weight of the whole mask, or just the gunk on it? - so I took them out too; it's not like you can't google it or blow the picture up to a big size, if you really want to know.

Anyway, so this was $7 for 5 masks - even assuming these are cheaper masks than the ones I've used that came from Sephora, that's still a good deal. (It also had some coupons in there, you can see one hanging off the edge on the right.) I feel like I will try all of these except probably the charcoal one. I don't much like peel-off masks and I don't feel like charcoal doesn't really do that much for my older skin.

Brushes & brush cleaners

This was a Sephora order that I did maybe a month or two ago - and the main item that I actually paid cash for is brush cleaner.

I bought two different bottles of Cinema Secrets brush cleaner, one with a sprayer and one with a little tin to keep the liquid cleaner in (which apparently is how the professionals use it). I wanted the one with the sprayer and I wanted the tin, too, and it wasn't expensive so what the heck, I got both. Nouveau Cheap talked about this brush cleaner ages ago - here - and it's supposed to be amazing and dry almost instantly. But then when it came, I put it in my "stuff to photograph" pile and forgot to ever try it. I'll try to report back when I finally do. (Here's the set. You can also buy a separate tin but the one in the set is smaller and I wanted the small one first to see if I'll actually use it.)

And then the little Bumble and Bumble tube was a 100-point bonus, 'cause I love that stuff (by which I mean Don't Blow it specifically, not just Bb in general) and I wanted a purse-size one, and the rest of it is just regular foil-pack samples and a perfume sample (which is Stella although it's hard to see here).

It occurs to me that I never have taken a picture of the brushes that I bought around the same time that I bought the above (although I have used those, at least). I think I mentioned them, but that was it. Here is the picture from Sephora's website, though. I found this set because I was looking at the Tarte mermaid brush set, and this doesn't have fish-tails but it does have the ocean-theme and it's brushes that I actually wanted - fan brushes in an assortment of sizes. I really like them.

I wish I hadn't looked because the set is marked down, now. $25 (I think it was $39 to start with!), that's a deal.

Added: I did try cleaning my mini multitasker - which I only have been using for my MAC powder blush for probably a year or so. I never have cleaned it because it's just not a messy thing that I use it for, but I figured it had to be built up down in the brush, and it was. I followed the directions and I put 1/4' of cleaner in the tin and dipped the brush in it. It said to take the brush out right away and I wasn't quite fast enough - the year of built-up blush from up inside the brush came pouring out the instant the liquid cleaner touched it. It was very interesting. But it does dry pretty fast. Even that larger, dense brush was dry within an hour or so. It's amazing stuff, really.

Basilisk

I had a Live Love Polish coupon, and I wanted to use it before I lost my code or something (because I'm known to do things like that), and so I bought Basilisk:

It's a top-coat. You can't see anything but white in the picture above, so I also wanted to show you the one below, which is from a different angle and has a bit more personality!

I don't really think the swatch below shows much personality, either, really:

I think this has several colors of shifty stuff, really - in my favorite cool colors, blue, green & purple - but you can't much see that here. It looked gorgeous in my living room but the camera just didn't pick it up. It's sold out on LLP right now but here's the page for it. As always, their pictures are lovely.

(Added: I had been wearing Zoya Liberty for several days and I felt like it needed refreshing, so I put Basilisk on top of it, and it really looks beautiful - since Liberty is bright blue you can't really see all the shifty stuff, of course, but it still is gorgeous and shimmery. I tried taking a picture but can't get anything that comes near doing it justice.)

For the record, in case you didn't notice from the packaging pictures, this is a smaller-than-average bottle - it's 0.33 oz. rather than 0.5. Smaller bottles are becoming more and more the norm, I think, though. I don't like super-itty-bitty bottles - things like 0.17 oz (like some minis I've seen lately), but .33 or .4 is okay, as long as you realize what you're buying. (I actually didn't, in this case, but I didn't really look so it's my own fault.)

The other note I have about Live Love Polish is that they seem to be following in Llarowe's path, in that they started out carrying many brands and now mostly seem to be selling their own brands. I remember hearing about some... unpleasantness, shall we say, about that with Llarowe back in the day. I think when you start making your own polishes but are also selling others that's naturally going to cause some conflict. But hey, it seems to have worked out in the end for Llarowe - at least, the brand is still around - and LLP's brand seems to be doing well as well.

Kiko 493

This is Kiko 493, "Vino Perlato":

They didn't bother to translate that phrase, but I'm assuming that means the obvious: "Pearly Wine" or something to that effect (it sounds better in Italian, really). But it goes on more like a pink-leaning red than a real wine-color. It's definitely pearly and shimmery, though. It's pretty, but I haven't worn it yet, even though I've had it for a year and more. I should. (I need to start a new "untried" project and wear some of this stuff I've never gotten around to!)

Casino Night

Here is KL Polish Casino Night:

Continuing with my Christmas in July theme - this polish was actually from the last winter collection (Winter Glamourland), so it came out in time for the holidays last year. This is a thick gold glitter - no problem getting it opaque, in my experience. (I also have Kathleen's Das Esspensive XXV, which is similar but paler. There's also Das Esspensive XXVI, which I didn't buy but is supposed to be more of a top-coat.)


So far I don't think KL Polish has discontinued anything except for the handful of polishes (like the Das Esspensives) that were released as limited-edition. So Casino Night is still available.

Topic Tuesday: collabs? + misc

I don't think I have a very definite opinion about today's #topictues question:  If you had the chance, what brand would you collab with? What finish and color would you pick? (1 indie, 1 mainstream) 

I think this may be something that a lot of polish junkies would have a ready answer to, but I really don't. I've just never thought about it. There are a lot of brands that I love and would be shocked and thrilled to collaborate with, but from what I understand, it works the other way around, doesn't it? I think either the brand contacts the blogger, or else - I know RBL used to do this - they do a call for submissions. The thing is, I can't imagine what I'd do for a polish because I can't imagine offhand what I could come up with that hasn't already been done. Plus I'm about as under-the-radar a blogger as you can imagine, so I would really be blown away if I was asked. (There's also the fact that I am not good about checking the e-mail account that is nominally attached to this blog so even if I was asked I might not see it!)


I've never linked from here to the Pinterest account where I have the bulk of my pins (an ungodly number of them, most of which are not nail polish) because it has my real name on it, but I finally got around to making a new account and that's what I've been fooling around with tonight. I don't think I'm ready to link to it yet, though. Added: here it is. I found pictures (I used pictures that were already up on Pinterest, mostly) for every polish I've bought this year. I think it'd be overkill to try to do all 700-odd of my polishes though!

I said I wasn't going to say more about Pretty Serious, but I will say that I checked and as of a couple of hours ago, it looked like most of the same stuff was still there, but a few things had been discounted further. Maybe Kaz is checking to see where her stock stands. I did do one more small order - I just ordered Cherry Bomb. I went back and forth between that and The Pink One, and Cherry Bomb finally won. They're both pinks but they're not much alike. I just didn't feel like I really needed two more pinks - or one more, when it really comes down to it. I think I was going to second-guess myself whatever I did.

Nuke The Fridge

The only Pretty Serious polish in my unposted file seems to be Nuke The Fridge, so that's what I'll show you today:

It was in the clearance group last I looked.  (Note that a bunch of the clearance stuff is supposed to come down by the end of the day, more or less, for those of us in the US. I got that info from the Facebook group just now, but I also got an e-mail about it. I am trying to resist the temptation to do just one more order. I've already done three - one bigger and two smaller ones. Also, if you're ordering be sure you read the FAQ. She's combining orders and the discount code is also there. I have already got my refunds through Paypal on the combined shipping.)

Actually this fits into not only my Pretty Serious theme of the last few days, but also the Christmas in July theme that I said I was going to do but keep forgetting about. At least, it fits, more or less. It's one of those "funky greens" - as I like to call them - that I love so much. It's shifty, and it looks gray in this swatch but I think it reads more green than it looks there.

(I'll probably mostly shut up about Pretty Serious after this, unless there's something new to talk about. It was all the previously-discontinued polishes showing up on the website that got me excited over the weekend, and those appear to be the ones that are going away again tonight. It's possible you won't hear much more from me about them until my order shows up, and since that includes presale items, that may be a while.)

Pretty Serious recommendations

Note!!! Kaz has now posted on the Facebook group that a lot of these will be disappearing in 24 hours or so, so I assume that means roughly very late Monday the 23rd, US time. In other words, if you want something, grab it now!


I talked about Pretty Serious going on hiatus yesterday, and Kaz continues to add polishes to what's already on sale, so I thought I would show you, or at least link to, some of my favorites that are currently still available. I'm just going to go through the list (on the US website, "all items," here) and pick out ones I have and particularly like. Note: I'm not getting freebies for this or anything, I just thought this would make a good entry!

Ooh, VT-100 is on the front page right now, although they seem to keep moving, so it may not be by the time this goes up in the morning. It's just a nice green microglitter. I also like its collection-mate BSOD a whole lot, enough that I bought myself a back-up bottle yesterday. (They were both in the very first PS collection, which I believe was called Hello World!)

My favorite polish of 2016 was Poltergeist Puddle:

(entry here) (I bought a back-up of this one too.)

My Immortal, which I just got lately and think is really awesome:

(my entry here) (actually the finish on it seems a little similar to Poltergeist Puddle, now that I put these two pictures near each other!)

This bunch is not linked in any other way than being beautiful shimmers, as far as I know:

• Ichi Hanami - beautiful bright-pink shimmer
• Generally Hazzardous - orange
• Elliott:

Great bright-blue shimmer.

Also Cybernetic, which is like a two-color texture - my entry here.

Those are the ones that grabbed me as I paged through. I have a lot of PS polishes, so I could go on a long while more. But this is eight of my favorites.

(Hmm, one more thing, because there are a couple I didn't talk about above in my top 5 PS polishes from 2017.)

Another Enchanted mani + misc notes

I'm still in "try Enchanted on top of anything and everything" mode, so here is Zuza + Enchanted:

You can't really see the depth of color that Enchanted has here, so you're not getting the full effect. But I like.


I said (back in late spring) that I would probably be due for another big polish binge about the time of the Nordstrom sale this summer, and, well, it's that time, and so far I haven't poked around at Nordstrom and I probably shouldn't, because there is (another) Pretty Serious clearance sale and I did a big presale order and then went back and added a couple more things on top of that. And also I ordered some of that Korres Golden Crocus stuff. I had a sample and I loved it, but I couldn't see paying $98, which is the price at Sephora (for ONE OUNCE - yikes). But I poked around and comparison shopped and found a Groupon deal for $71.99. I'm still not sure it's worth it but I thought I'd try a full-size one once and see if I still love it as much. I suspect it's one of those things I'll only buy once.

About Pretty Serious - Kaz has announced that she's taking a break but will be back early next year. So everything is on clearance including the presales. (Although there is a code - it's listed on that page I linked above.) And so of course I can't resist that. She says she is not sure what polishes she will be bringing back after that, so I actually bought backups for a couple of my favorites - BSOD, for one, and Poltergeist Puddle. And I bought some things that I've always meant to get, like Toxic Tiara. Since several things are presale it'll be a while before that comes in, I imagine.

(And I shouldn't have looked, because she's added more stuff since last night - now Morning Java is there and I've always wanted that. I'mna end up with one more order, just watch me.)

NOTD: Zuza

Here is Zoya Zuza on my nails:

I like this polish a lot - I believe I put it in my top 5 Zoyas the last time I did a list like that - but I think it really is not "the perfect balance between blue and green" as Zoya's description says (see below). I think it reads pretty blue-green in the bottle but on the nail it seems to be more of a jade-green to me. (And it's certainly not what I think of as turquoise!)

Collection: Surf (originally released in summer 2012)
Zoya's description: "Zuza by Zoya can be best described as a deep, saturated, oceanic turquoise with gold and silver metallic shimmer and a foil-like finish. A beachy, colorful, foil-like shade with the perfect balance between blue and green."

Color Family - Blue, Green, Teal
Finish - Metallic
Intensity - 5 (1 = Sheer - 5 = Opaque)
Tone - Cool

Gold Glitz

Here is another gold glitter that's discontinued, Milani Gold Glitz:

I like this one a lot. If you look at the gold polishes below it on the wheel (which are the ones that I showed on Monday) it looks like it's on the brassier side, more like Goldeneye, the bottom one. And I also like the more textured surface of it. It's different sizes and colors of glitter, near as I can tell. (This bottle is not labeled as a One Coat Glitter but Scrangie's swatches back in the day were labeled that way.)

Topic Tuesday: Worth the hype?

For today's #topictues we are talking about polishes worth the hype. First I thought I didn't have opinions about this - I certainly have opinions about things that aren't worth it, which I've expressed on many occasions - and then polishes started popping up in my head.

Let's see - how about Elle's Spell:

This is one coat on the swatch above, it looks like. Below it's two coats, and it's deepened up some. I love this polish. (Another much-hyped polish with a similar formula is Nfu Oh 51, but that one's more purple.)

(The other polish above is Zoya Kierra, if you're wondering. A nice polish, but not one that ever got much hype, as far as I recall.)

Turn On The Northern Lights was last year's much-hyped fall polish, and it's totally worth it:

I think Are You Jelly? was hyped a lot when it first came out, as I recall, and it's definitely worth it:

The original Zoya Matte Velvets were hyped a lot - this is Verushka:

and here's Harlow:

(I usually wear these with top-coat, because they have a strong shimmer to them, and if you leave them matte, you can't see it.) I have more of these - I have Posh (red), and Dovima (almost-black), and Savita (royal purple). I like 'em all.

I could come up with more - Ruby Pumps, maybe? - but I'll stop here.  Added: Nearer and dearer to my heart than Ruby Pumps: I also meant to put in Alcatraz...Rocks, but I forgot. I like Ruby Pumps a lot but when it comes right down to it I could live without it.

 (Added: I made a worth the hype tag, and added a bunch of polishes I've talked about in the past that seemed much-hyped to me.)

Goldeneye, Pyrite

I was showing reds last week and I wore a couple of different metallic polishes and showed those too, so I'm thinking I might as well just declare this Christmas in July and keep going with that theme. Here are two more golden(ish) things, the one I'm wearing now, which is OPI Goldeneye, and Pahlish Pyrite:

They seem to have pretty similar formulas, the only difference is the color. Goldeneye is brassier and Pyrite is a more neutral gold. They both seem to be flakie-type glitters because they lay flat.

Neither of these is a current color, although Goldeneye might be findable - at least, I found it a year or so ago on eBay for a not-unreasonable price. It's from the Skyfall collection, so that was a while ago now. Pyrite was one of those monthly LE polishes that they used to do (may still do - I haven't checked lately) so I don't think it's easily findable. (And Pahlish's website is down - hopefully that's just a summer break thing.) Note also that Zoya's new Astrid is said to be a very close dupe of Goldeneye.

Here's Pyrite only:

Added: here is an older entry where I talk about Pyrite.

Fairy Dust over black

I showed Khroma Fairy Dust back in April, but here it is over black:

It looks much less opaque over black (it's Wet n Wild Black Creme, for the record) than it did over the light background, but that's only to be expected, I guess. As I said back when I looked at it before, I think you can get it opaque or at least something awfully close to it - at least without the black base - but I really like it better as a top-coat, anyway.

NOTD: Goldeneye, matte

This is OPI Goldeneye (this time with Pretty Serious Matte All The Things), and it's actually on top of the previous Princess Penny manicure.

It's much more brassy-gold than Princess Penny, and it seems opaque at this angle, although I think you can see the copper shining through at others. I like both of these. With the matte top-coat, at least, this one is much more showy than Princess Penny.

Leisel

This is Zoya Leisel, which is a sheer top-coat:

I was thinking I was going to have trouble figuring out what to say about this, and it actually turns out that Zoya doesn't have a lot to say about it either, really. This is their entire blurb about it:

Leisel by Zoya can be best described as a sheer, sparkling topper.
Color Family - Purple
Finish - Metallic
Intensity - 3 (1 = Sheer - 5 = Opaque)
Tone - Cool

I think it's pretty but I can't say that I have really figured out how to show it to advantage. I've tried it a couple of different ways and haven't much liked the results. I need to try some more, I guess!

Also, I noted back in the first post when I got this polish that nobody seems to know how to pronounce it, and that includes me. My inclination is to say "LEE-zel" but actually in German (as best I can remember after all these years) it should be "LIE-zel" with a long i. (The rule I learned was simply "IE says E and EI says I.") Anybody else got opinions about this name? Honestly, in the absence of evidence that Zoya intended it to pronounced some other way, I think I'm going to keep saying the way I have been because I don't really like it the other way - it just sounds wrong to me.

NOTD: Princess Penny, matte

This is KL Polish Princess Penny, with Lucky 13's matte top coat:

I really love this. You can see how ridgy my nails are in this picture, but in person I didn't feel like that showed up much. The above picture is under fluorescent lights, and then here's indirect sunlight:

This is pretty without the matte topcoat, too, but I love it more this way. It's an unusually pale copper color, and it almost reads like a nude. (I'mna wear this one more day like it is, and then I'm likely to try something layered over it. I haven't decided what.)

Reds (+ stuff I've ordered)

I was trying not to order much, but I do have a couple of single polishes on the way. One is a Polish Pickup polish, the one from Great Lakes Lacquer. Here - it says it's available til the 21st. Since Polish Pickup is doing "favorites" rather than their normal thing this month, the polishes may still be around on each brand's website. I know I saw somebody say that theirs was going to be available all month, but obviously everybody isn't doing it the same way!) And the other thing I ordered was from Live Love Polish, because I had a coupon that I got from doing a survey. The polish I bought was Basilisk. So naturally I'll have more to say about those when they arrive. (These are both new brands to me. I'd ordered from LLP before, but it was before they had their own brand.)

I have a bunch of reds swatched and it's a little late for the 4th of July, but reds are seasonless, in theory, right? So I'm going to show a few of those.

This one is long-discontinued, I think - Milani Bet On Red - but it's an awesome one:

It's just a fire-engine red metallic, very basic but really well-done. (I tried to find other swatches of this and there just aren't many around, other than on Pinterest. I did see a bottle up for sale on eBay, but I didn't stop to look at the price.)

Then this is Square Hue so it was always limited-edition. And again, there's not anything unusual about this, but it's a beautiful red creme - Bird Fling:

(It's an Angry Birds reference!)

This isn't actually red, but I'll go ahead & put it here because it has red in the name - Santa Red My List:

It's pretty clearly a fuchsia/magenta foil rather than a true red. I don't know what happened there. This came from that big "Holiglaze" collection several years ago, which was the one that I got as a giveaway from a blog, and there was also a metallic red that was actually a red in there, but it was called something else. You gotta wonder if they got the labels mixed up and just decided to run with it, or something.

(Here is my original post about that collection. China Glaze really went all out with the blogger promos on this one, so if you google Holiglaze you'll probably also find a ton of swatches. Also here is the red one, Just Be-Claws. There were like 5 foils in the collection, including an orange red, the red-red, and the pink-leaning red. It's really kind of an odd choice to put all three of those in the same collection, to me.)

Topic Tuesday: other hobbies

The #topictues question today is: What are your hobbies besides polish? 

I have a lot of interests but I'm not sure what you'd say rises to the level of a hobby. I'm interested in fashion - in sort of an academic way, really, I can't afford the kind of clothes I like to look at, and while I know how to sew, I find sewing clothes frustrating. (Plus I don't have the kind of body that's good for showing off clothes, anyway. I just wear jeans and an assortment of tops.) And then I'm interested in baseball, as you know already if you've been reading here a while. I spend a lot of time at night watching Astros games. I'm interested in politics, but spending too much time on that just makes me stressed. And I like movies - I'm very into the Marvel movies, and I've been catching up with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. lately. Really, I just spend most of my free time messing around on the computer, looking at things related to these various interests - including nail polish, of course. We go to lots of movies, when there's something we want to see. (Naturally, we went to see Ant-Man & the Wasp this weekend, which was very funny and enjoyable, but I'm starting to really look forward to the time when Sunday will be a school-night again and the movies will be a more peaceful place on Sunday nights, because that's when we usually like to go to movies. And I feel like a grouchy old person just for saying that.)

I used to make quilts, back when my mom was around to keep me working on them. So here's an example of something I made:

These wonky teacup blocks are based on a technique by Jan Mullen. I bought a pattern from her but she wrote a book later - here. These were a lot of fun to make.

Stop, Razzmatazz

This is two minis that I've had for some years, Orly Razzmatazz and Hard Candy Stop:

I bought both of these in sets. The Hard Candy one I got over 10 years ago, I know; and the Orly somewhat later - maybe five years ago, or a little more, shortly before I started this blog. I ordered both of them online. The Orlys were a set of four - you can see them here. The Hard Candys were a set of five - there were two very dark ones, a black and a purple, and a silver - which was a mini of Trailer Trash; I also have it in a regular size. The fifth one is Scam, which is a bright pink microglitter. (I really love it and wish I had gotten it in a full-size bottle.)

These two colors are very similar but you can see (I hope!) that they aren't identical. Razzmatazz is pinker, and the glitter in it is smaller and has more of a tendency to sink down into the polish and vanish, on the nail. Stop is more obviously glittery, in person, and on the nail it has a slight texture. (I think one coat of top-coat would get rid of it, though. And Razzmatazz reads as more pink. Stop is more neutral-colored: just a plain fire-engine/stop-sign red.

I thought I had pictures of both separately, but I can only find Stop:

(I guess I swatched it twice, because you can see that the wheel is different.) I do have pictures of the labels on both bottles, for what that's worth:

Jordana's Skinny Jeans

This is Barielle Jordana's Skinny Jeans:

I was talking about liking blues in the summer, and I really meant more the light-to-medium kind of watery blues and blue-greens. This is considerably darker. However, blue-jean colors are not a bad summer thing, either. This is a dark denim-blue with a silver shimmer, very pretty.

It is still available but apparently only as part of the Proscina line, which I think is like a strengthening or treatment formula of some kind.

Witch Way?

This is KBShimmer Witch Way? - which I think may have faded.

This is still available from KBS - I thought it was discontinued. You can see how much brighter it looks in their picture. It is a jelly so of course it gets darker as you layer it, but I feel like this used to be brighter than this.** (scroll down for more on this) (Search for this polish and click on the images and you'll see a pretty big range, but nothing quite as faded-looking as my swatches.)

So I re-swatched it alone and also tried it over black:

It pretty much looks the same as the swatch above when it's alone, and over black you can't tell anything except that there's glitter. Actually I always thought it was best over another purple, anyway (which I didn't think to try when I was swatching, of course), so I guess all this doesn't make that much difference! (If I remember to try it over purple, I will be sure to report back.)

**I was thinking I might have gotten this from a blog sale, but apparently I just got it from KBS, back in 2015 - and then once I knew it existed, I was able to unearth an old mani pic, and... wow. Uh, yeah, it's faded. (Probably my own fault, I used to think the indirect sunlight in my bedroom wasn't strong enough to fade polishes. Pretty sure I was very wrong about that.)

Basically it's a top-coat now! which is ok, really, I love top-coats.

NOTD: Santa's Sunburn

Here is Pretty Serious Santa's Sunburn, which I bought on clearance recently:

It's a nice shiny almost-Christmas red. It leans just a little bit orange (maybe that's supposed to be the sunburn part!) This is from the holiday 2015 collection, which was called Ghosts of Christmas Future, (Other polishes in that collection included Joy To The Overlords, Eat Drink & Assimilate, and the only one I already had, which was A Christmas Time Paradox.)

I checked the PS website and it's still listed there but it now says it's unavailable.

So I wore it alone for one day and then I decided to see what Enchanted looked like on top of it:

I'm not sure you can tell much here. It's not as spectacularly beautiful as it is over some other things I've tried, but I still like it. (Expect to see a lot of Enchanted-enhanced manicures for a while, 'cause I'm in love.)

Lucky 13 Welcome to the Void

I ordered this "grab-bag" from Lucky 13, consisting of a polish, scented top-coat, scented cuticle lotion, and some stickers featuring their new (shape-shifting!) mascot. This set has already sold out and been restocked at least once; as I write this it's available, but who knows how long that will last. You can buy the polish by itself, also, but I figured I can always stand to try out another brand of cuticle lotion and another top-coat. (And the stickers have already been added to the big collage on the wall above my computer.)

Lucky 13's cuticle lotion is called Lotion of Immortality and the top-coat is called Elemental Ward - I swatched the top-coat over black polish as a test and it's very shiny and quick-drying. It seems really stinky in the bottle, quite frankly, but it dies down very quickly. I assume it's the quick-drying formula in the top-coat that's the stinky part, because the lotion, by contrast, smells really good and I also like the feel of it. It only takes a tiny bit to do all your cuticles.

The polish (Void Sweet Void) is a really dark, blackened thing:

Official description: "Black base with shifting aurora pigment and clear holo space dust" - I would say it basically reads as purple, but it's so dark that it's hard to tell on the wheel.

More stuff I noticed while looking around on Lucky 13: Free shipping in the US during July! (I think that must be a Polish Pickup thing, because I've seen it several places that normally participate. Polish Pickup has polishes up on their site, like normal, but this time they are "favorites" and you buy them on each brand's website.) Kokiri Emerald is the July Polish Pickup polish, and it will be available on the brand's website for all of July. Plus I was watching the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie in the middle of the night last night, and I noted on Twitter that L13 has a polish called Pelvic Sorcery (and also Not 100% A Dick). Also I noticed that that green holo I loved so much lately, Always Be a Dragon, is still available.

The War Doctor

This is Lucky 13 The War Doctor:

This is a 10ml bottle, I believe. I did an order from Lucky 13 - I'll show you the rest of it tomorrow - and I added on a mystery polish. It was only $3 for the 10ml ones, which seemed like a pretty good deal. This is shifty multicolor stuff that's hard to pin down: heavy on red-orange and maybe some holo? I keep thinking I see purple but maybe that's just the shift, or my imagination. "Hard to pin down" may be an understatement, actually. (Oh - it's still on L13's website - it says "Last chance!" and their description is "Rusty red/orange/gold/black color shifting linear holo." Huh. I'm not seeing linear but maybe in another light.)

The mystery polishes still show up on the website too but they're sold out. I think I was really hoping for another infinity stone, but I'm happy with this one. This probably isn't a polish I would've picked to buy at regular price, but I like it and it's cool to have - I have a little collection of Doctor Who stuff going, anyway.