Zoya Dannii, Faye & Fern

I am so behind on posting stuff - part of me is tempted just to skip it all, but no, I'm determined to get the bulk of this posted here, if nothing else just so *I* have an easier time keeping track of what I bought when later on.

So, I ordered these Zoyas from a promo... I don't know how long ago, maybe last summer? I've completely lost track. It might even have been for Earth Day. But I do remember poking around and looking for colors I'd like to have, and I came up with Dannii, Faye, and Fern. Looking at Zoya's "ZP" numbers, which are sequential, the first two are older polishes but Fern is much more recent.

I'm not sure I've even worn any of these yet.

I looked it up, and Dannii is from spring 2011 - the Intimate collection. Zoya calls it a "metallic shimmer" in medium purple.

Faye is also from 2011, but from the summer Sunshine collection, which one of the ones with all the glass-flecks, I believe. Zoya calls it a "bronzed mauve metallic" - it's sort of in grandma-color territory, but that's not always a bad thing.

And then Fern is from last spring's Innocence collection, "a balanced sage with a beautiful warm pearl accent."

Favorites!! for 2019

I went through the polish I wore last year - the first half of the year I was doing really good at keeping a list, and the second half of the year I fell off on the list-keeping but I started posting everything on Instagram instead - and I cut really severely and came up with a shortlist of only eight polishes. That's a very low number, for me. I usually have trouble getting down past twenty.

So here's what I've got - it's three purples, three fuchsias, a steel-gray and a blue-green. (I haven't been this much into fuchsia in a long time! I've always liked it, but I over-did it on fuchsia polish for a couple of years and then didn't have the urge to wear it much for several years after that.)

I put these in order by brand, since so far I haven't settled on one particular favorite:

• China Glaze Since 1969 (from the Sesame Street holiday collection)
• China Glaze Who Wonder (from the Grinch collection last year) 
• Heather's Hues Think Pink (the only indie here, surprisingly)
• Morgan Taylor Sarong But So Right
• Nails Inc Holler-Graphic Get Out Of My Space
• SH Insta-Dri Metallic Seaweed (one of the Crayola Colors)
• SH Insta-Dri Matte Violet Velvet
• SH Mega Strength Sorry Not Sorry

The Grinch polish reminds me to say that my rule has always been that anything that I first wore in a particular year is eligible - it doesn't matter to me if it's actually a new polish or not. The Nails Inc Holler-Graphics must go back to late 2018 as well, and I don't have any idea when Sarong But So Right came out.

Let's see if I can produce pictures for all of them.

This is Since 1969, probably with matte top-coat:

 I've seen people say they hated this one, but I loved it. Particularly with matte top-coat, but really I enjoyed it both ways!

This is Who Wonder after I'd had it on for a week - pretty good!

There are more NOTD pictures and a swatch picture here. It's interesting to see there that at the time, I was just kind of, "meh, another pretty bright pink" - I guess it's grown on me!

Here's Think Pink:

The wheel swatch is here. This has a pink base but it leans more lilac to look at, to my mind.

I think I had had Sarong But So Right on for several days before this picture was taken:

It's tempting to lump it in with that "oh, another fuchsia" thing that I was talking about above, but this one is noticeably more purple - more on the raspberry side, really. (Swatch here.)

Here's Get Out Of My Space, which as you can see is a medium-purple holo:

I like these - they seem to be an interesting mix of linear and scattered holo. The polishes labeled "Holler-graphic" come in a variety of colors, but they all seem to have this same formula, as far as I can tell. (I looked on NailsInc's website and these are mostly gone from there, but that doesn't mean you can't find them around if you're so inclined.)

This is Violet Velvet, from the Insta-Dri Matte collection:

I really liked all of these I've tried, but this one stood out to me the most. (I can't find a picture of the other Insta-Dri on this list, which was Metallic Seaweed from the Crayola Metallic collection. I may have to do something to rectify that!)

And last we have Sorry Not Sorry, from the new-ish Mega Strength line:

So far I haven't decided on one single favorite, which I've done the last several years - if I manage to pick one I'll let y'all know!!

Kleancolor Metallics

I found the pictures I took of the Kleancolor metallics swatches and I know I never posted most of them, so here goes that. I don't usually like to put this many pictures in a post, but for these I think I'll make an exception. These are pretty nice metallics if you're on a budget, though.

I've already shown Metallic White - here it is on my nails and here is a swatch (at the bottom of that page)

But I don't think that I ever showed the swatch for the only other one I've ever actually worn, which was Metallic Fuchsia:

I liked this a lot, but then this is totally my color. (I would have called this "violet" myself, maybe - the pink one is closer to what I think of as fuchsia.)

Metallic Aqua:

This is super-pretty, too - I should dig this one out and wear it, it's a good summer color. Then we have the darker blue, Metallic Sapphire:

I thought I had pictures of all of these, but I can't find the picture of the purple one. If I find it I'll add it back in later.

Metallic Red is pretty, but it's not really a true red. (I don't really think they put a lot of thought into these names, really, do you?)

Here's Metallic Pink:

Metallic Orange:

(Also MIA, the picture of the "mango" one.)

Metallic Yellow:

Metallic Green:

And last but not least, Metallic Black:

Insta-Dri x Crayola metallics

I've been trying not to buy a lot of nail polish lately, and so apparently I missed hearing about this set when they first came out at the beginning of the year - more Insta-Dri/Crayola polishes, this time in metallics:

Apparently they make metallic crayons now? I had no idea. (I am so old that my mother wouldn't even buy us the 64-color box of crayons when my sister & I were kids, she thought that was too exotic, or something. My mother was kind of weird about stuff like that, though.) So now they're mostly sold out, but I did manage to find a couple of colors - one from Amazon, one from Walmart. There are more of them around but this is about all that I could find at something resembling a normal retail price, anyway.

Anyway, I do really like these, and if I come across more of them at a reasonable price I'll buy some more colors.

Metallic Seaweed came last and I haven't worn it yet, but it looks pretty cool.

I have worn Shimmering Blush and I like it:

I used two coats for both swatches above, and I believe that's how many coats of Shimmering Blush I wore on the nail. I also ended up putting matte top-coat on it, on the nail:

Celia & To The Stars

These are last two KL Polishes I have that I haven't shown swatches of already:

To The Stars:

Metallic dark blue, very pretty. It may be a while before I get around to wearing this one but I'm sure I will, eventually. (It's from the winter collection last year, and that seems like the time of year I typically feel like wearing this kind of color!)

and Celia:

a deep hot pink creme. I'm a fan of hot pinks, so can't go too wrong with those.

NOTD: Mother of Dragons

I'd had this on for a couple of days before I remembered to take a picture, so that's why there's noticeable wear, but this is KL Polish Mother Of Dragons:

As I'd already mentioned, KL Polish is in the process of shutting down, but they seem to be taking their time about it, and this polish is still available (for $6, so it's a bargain). It falls into my old favorite "funky green" wheelhouse - I'd call it a green-gold metallic. KLP calls it "brassy green" (which comes to the same thing, really).

(After this I'm sort of intending to veer off into spring mode and do pastels.)

Mother Of Dragons/Winter Is Coming

It's Game of Thrones Day, I guess! KL Polish's "Winter Reign" collection wasn't all GoT-themed but the two I bought were.

First we have Mother of Dragons:

KLP calls it "a metallic brassy green polish with gold glitter." I'm inclined to put it into that category I've always called "funky greens" but it's different from anything else I have.


Then for Winter Is Coming, I did my pictures somewhat differently than I usually do, because I have a comparison.

I didn't think when I ordered Winter Is Coming about Kleancolor White Metallic, which I bought back before the holidays. Here is the swatch comparison:

I don't really think they are dead-on dupes, but they are close enough that I don't think most people would be able to tell the difference. (I haven't tried Winter Is Coming on my nails, yet, though.) The other side of the coin is that KL Polish has always prided themselves on being 12-free, and Kleancolor, despite its name, has a reputation for being anything but. I checked their website and they're not representing themselves as being anything-free. (They do say they strive to have "the Kleanest quality products at wallet friendly prices.")

January Zoya promo

Zoya usually has some good promo at the beginning of each year, and this year it was you pay $15 S&H and you get four polishes, four wide brushes, and I believe it also included a "big flipper" bottle of Zoya Remove. (I've done several Zoya orders recently and they're all blending together in my mind at this point.) I picked out one newer polish, and several older ones, this time around. My four polishes:

Arielle

Zoya's description: "dusty plum, rose and mauve fusion with a delicate sheen of frosty, silvery shimmer. A Victorian rose shade for an antique aristocratic look." My description: dusty rose shimmer. (I do see a hint of mauve there, but not the plum.)

Devin

Zoya: "steel blue with hints of multicolored shimmer in a dense foil finish." Me: this is like a silvery version of FeiFei (which is steel blue with gold).

Selene

Zoya: " a true teal with a micronized metallic pearl finish. A unique shade with an aqua fleck that resembles deeper layers of ocean water." Me: I'm withholding judgment on this one, but in my living room it looks green. (The lighting in my living room has sometimes turned out to be, um, quirky, when it comes to identifying nail polish colors.)

and Troy

Zoya: "Troy is a liquid pewter with a foil finish and an edgy touch of black and gold. Densely pigmented, smooth application." Me: "pewter foil" is pretty much right on the money. This is the one I was most interested in right off the bat.

Last favorites installment

I've dragged out the favorites re-swatch long enough, so here are all the ones I hadn't already posted. Here is ILNP Black Orchid:

You can see from the bottle that it's full of holo stuff. It's very pretty in this darker base.

Essence Space Glam:

I've mostly worn this with something underneath. It looks pretty on the wheel but it's bound to have visible nail-line issues no matter how many coats you do, I'm guessing.

Smith & Cult Bitter Buddhist is the rare cream that makes my favorites:

I like it cause it's different. It's green, which I reliably love, but it's a different green. Much more subdued than what I usually wear. (Also S&C comes up with great names.)

I've talked about Cigars On Ice pretty recently - I think it was from the November Polish Pickup.

It's really beautiful. I thought about putting it in the top three, actually.

And I think I've covered everything now except the two Grinch polishes, which I've also talked about pretty recently, but I bothered to do new swatches so I feel like I have to show them. this is You're A Mean One:

It's kind of in that shifty unicorn-pee-like territory along with those OPIs like Turn On The Northern Lights, which is something I always like.

And then Grinchworthy, which is another one that I liked a whole lot:

It's various green microglitters in a clear base. It's awesome. (Wonder what it would be like layered with Always Be A Dragon??)

NOTD: Fuchsia Metallic

This is a terrible picture, but you can at least see the color of this - Kleancolor Fuchsia Metallic:

I wouldn't really call this fuchsia, myself, but that's what it's named. It's more of a berry color, I guess - a red-violet. To me fuchsia is more pink-leaning than this. But anyway, it's quite a lovely color, whatever you call it - very striking. And I was kind of worried about the wear on this, but it lasted better than I expected.

(I finally found my missing wheel where I had swatched this - it wasn't under the couch at all, instead it apparently bounced up and leaped into a bin of polishes - so I will have the swatches for all of these at some point soon!)

2018 favorites: Princess Penny, Pisces

Here are two KL polishes that were in my top 20 for 2018, Princess Penny and Pisces:

Princess Penny is a copper pearl:

(Here's the original post, which was written during the 2017 baseball playoffs and stops in the middle to talk about the Astros.)

and then Pisces, from the LE Zodiac collection, is a water color, naturally:

It's a metallic aqua.

2018 favorites: Aggie (and new Zoya brushes!)

I already had a swatch picture of Zoya Aggie that I never had gotten around to posting, so here are two of them, the original one:

Zoya's description: "a gold holo flip liquid metal with bronze micro glitter."

...and the one from my 2018 favorites wheel:

They look somewhat different. I think I had just changed out the brush when I did the second one, so maybe that's why.

Which reminds me, I took a picture of the brushes, old on the left and new on the right:

Note that as of now, you still have to buy the wide ones separately. They are priced at $2 each but I have gotten them more than once for a dollar, so keep your eyes peeled for specials if you want them. The impression I got is that nail pros like the old brush because they're so used to using them. The rest of us all pretty much like the wider one, unless you have super-skinny nail beds, I think!

These are repeat photos but I thought I would put them here for reference: