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??)

1st 2019 mani - Dirty Baby

On New Year's Eve, I was still wearing the red glitter that I put on at Christmas. But on New Year's Day I washed my hair (because we had to go back to work on the 2nd) and then the red started looking worn enough that I did that over too.

What I did for my first 2019 manicure was Smith & Cult Dirty Baby:

S&C calls it "ultra fine glitter suspended in obsidian base." It reads a lot to me like an almost-black glass-fleck. I hadn't worn it before and I really liked it. I did end up putting matte top-coat on it to tamp that glitter down some. It's beautiful either way.

Top 13 for 2018, ranked

Yesterday I showed my top twenty, and they I pulled out the ones that are no longer widely available from that. There were seven of those, so that left me with a top 13, which I divided into three tiers - two sets of three, and then all the rest. This was hard to decide - I loved a bunch of these. I waffled around and moved things up and down between the tiers several times. (Note that while I always talk about loving greens, I think this is the most greens I've ever had get this far - four, if I'm counting right - Always Be A Dragon, Cactus If You Can, Bitter Buddhist, and Grinchworthy. More greens than purples, for once!)

Top three in alpha order, and I'll come back to these tomorrow!

• Always Be A Dragon (Lucky 13)
• Cassiopeia (KL Polish)
• Galaxy Gang (Starrily)

Second three:

• Cactus If You Can (KBShimmer)
• Feel The Chemis-tree (OPI)
• Princess Penny (KL Polish)

and the rest:

• Aggie (Zoya)
• Bitter Buddhist (Smith & Cult)
• Enchanted (Starrily)
• Pisces (KL Polish)
• Grinchworthy (China Glaze)
• Rustling Leaves (Night Owl)
• You're A Mean One (China Glaze)

I was going to put new swatches of the top 3 in this post, but I'm going to put that off until later. Instead, here's selections from the now-eliminated contestants:

Feel The Chemis-tree

You're A Mean One

(Wow, I thought these were pretty close, but they're awfully near being dupes, from what I can see here. I'm going to have to do a comparison!

Bitter Buddhist

Grinchworthy

(note that two of these are from the Grinch collection! I'm going to be sorry later I didn't buy more of those.)

Various grays and blacks

I'm piling all of these into one post so I can go on and talk about something else next week. I don't seem to have a lot to say about grays and blacks, generally.

First we have Essence Beauty Beats As Long As You Love Me, which apparently is tied to Justin Bieber somehow. I am the wrong generation for Mr. Bieber, but I believe this is one of his song titles, and I seem to remember that he was actually involved in the making of this polish line in some way, as well.

As you can see on the wheel, it's very similar to Wet Cement - maybe a little darker - but it's a shimmer.

This is Black In Mirrors, which is from the famous (or actually sort of infamous) Maybelline Brocades collection. There were other colors in this collection that got a lot more buzz, but this one is my favorite out of the couple that I have.

There was a year or two when all the mainstream companies were making polishes like this - 2013 is when my spreadsheet says I bought this. I think they were trying to compete with indies, it seemed like. Now all the drugstore brands and even the brands like OPI and Zoya seem to have decided they are better off sticking with the tried and true things - red and pink cremes, for example - and have mostly given up on doing this kind of crazy thing. (Although just when I really think that's true they do something interesting again.) Anyway, all that aside, this is antique-ish gold and silver in a jelly base, it's really fun.

I showed Dirty Baby earlier this year when I bought it, and I'm throwing it in here just because it seems to go with this bunch. I still haven't worn it. But it seems like a fall-to-winter color so I imagine I'll get around to it sometime in what's left of this year.

(It seems like a slightly-toned-down version of Black In Mirrors, really - except I don't think it has gold in there, just silver.)

And then, because I actually used it as a base for this whole wheel, and I don't think I've ever actually done a swatch post for it, here is Wild Shine Black Creme:

This is my go-to black for swatching. I have this old bottle, which is maybe on its last legs (the label certainly is), and I also have a couple of the newer bottles. But I don't really wear it on my nails much.

NOTD: The Pie Hole

I showed a mani with this same polish some time ago, but that time there was something under it and this time there's not:

This is Fanchromatic Nails The Pie Hole. This is not especially surprising, but if you look at the entry I linked above, this polish is considerably more neutral-looking by itself than it was over Bitter Buddhist. Actually, let's put that right here where we can compare:

Hmm. Wow. Actually I think what I'm seeing is considerably more extreme than what I saw in real life. These are both daylight pictures, but the top one is in direct sunlight and I'm guessing it washed it out some. I still have this on and it doesn't look nearly as pale as the top picture. And honestly I'm not sure that the greener version below was quite that green, either. I like this polish both ways, but I think I did like it better with Bitter Buddhist underneath. (Just don't expect anything quite this bright.)

(Try saying "a bit better with Bitter Buddhist" five times fast.)

Dirty Baby

Here's the last of my new S&C polishes, Dirty Baby:

Metallic bits in a sort of a grunged-out black-gray base? Can't really go wrong with that. (Note that I haven't worn it yet, though, so I'll report back when I do.)

Stockholm Syndrome

This is Smith & Cult Stockholm Syndrome:   

I've got several things similar to this but these grayish-purple colors always fascinate me. If this has as good a formula as the other S&C I tried (that would be Bitter Buddhist) then I will be really happy to have this.

Added: my intention is to find the other things I have that I think are similar to this and compare. But I'm not sure when that will happen!

Bitter Buddhist

Well, the only pale thing left in my swatch file is Bitter Buddhist from Smith & Cult, so we'll go with that for the Friday before Easter:

I showed the bottle before, and I showed it on my nails, but I still had this picture left. (You can see the two other S&Cs that I bought below that - I'll make sure I get to those soon.) This is a sort of a jade green with maybe a hint of blue in it. It's not exactly a traditional Easter-bunny color - but then you wouldn't expect it, with that name, would you?

Goodies from Smith & Cult

I think I mentioned before (if not here, it was on Twitter, or possibly both) that I had gotten some polishes from Smith & Cult. Their polishes are normally $18, which is generally more than I'm willing to pay, but I got a coupon in my e-mail from Neiman Marcus for $25 off a $50 purchase. I'm only on their e-mail list because my sister used to work there, because they don't sell a lot that's in my price-range, but I looked at that and nail polish was basically my first thought, and Smith & Cult has been on my mental want-to-try list from the moment that I first saw a picture of one of their polishes. I poked around looking at other brands, but I ended up back at Smith & Cult.

Then I had to decide on colors. I was really tempted to get Gay Ponies Dancing In The Snow because that's a great and hilarious name, and because, hey, pink glitter! but I looked at some people's swatches and decided maybe not. And sometimes my love of pink glitter in theory exceeds my love for it in real life, I've noticed that before. I did buy a glitter, but it ended up being Dirty Baby instead. And then besides that I got Bitter Buddhist, which you've already seen here, and Stockholm Syndrome, one of those cool purple-taupe colors. There are several more colors which I'm still eyeing. (I googled "best Smith & Cult polishes" and kept getting recommendations for the red, which is all well and good - I like red a whole lot - but I'm well aware that I own many red polishes and hardly ever wear them. I even wrote a blog entry about that not long ago. So I ignored those recommendations, in the end.)

Anyway, three S&C colors, with the coupon, ended up being $29 plus tax, which is not at all bad. And here are the polishes:

(R-L: Stockholm Syndrome, Dirty Baby, Bitter Buddhist)
Note that the artfully-banged-up cap is removable - and quite heavy. The inner cap has a short brush which I find really easy to use. I guess actually the short brush-length was mandated when they went with these shallow bottles, but I like it.

For the record, these bottles hold 14ml of polish, or just under the standard 0.5 oz bottle size. That's not enough difference that I particularly care about that.

(Added: I googled and 14ml equals 0.47 ounces, if you want to know.)

NOTD: Bitter Buddhist

This is Smith & Cult Bitter Buddhist:

This is my first-ever Smith & Cult manicure, and I have to say I'm really favorably impressed. I didn't buy their base & top-coats, although I was tempted to, so I just used what I had handy, which was Cuccio base-coat and NailsInc top-coat. Both of those seemed to work fine with this polish, and I really like the results. This is a minty-jade that's more glossy than it appears here, and two coats seemed like plenty. (It looked kind of cool with just one coat - interestingly sheer.) So far the wear is great, too.