Now, after all that, there’s really not alot to say about these two colors. They’re black. One is matte. One is shiny. Both applied in two coats. That’s pretty much all there is to the two colors.

With that said, let me expound upon another matter. For this particular collection, Yves St. Laurent (hereafter referred to as YSL, because I’m too lazy to type all that out more than once) decided that these two bottles of black polish should sport a very angled brush. I have no idea why. There was no nifty insert to tell me who’s brilliant idea this was and why it would revolutionize the nail polish industry. None of my other YSL colors have this brush. And in fact, unless I’ve been painting my nail incorrectly for 20+ years, this brush is in fact very un-brilliant. It made for a very awkward application. The left side of the nail went on beautifully and the right… well I had a hard time getting near the cuticle. I will be checking all bottles of YSL before I purchase them from now on for brushes that are sharply angled for no apparent reason.

One of the things I did like about the bottles is that the matte black actually has a matte cap. Awww! Gotta love attention to detail.

With the holidays approaching us, this will be my last post of the year. On schedule, my nails have been shattering with the winter weather. So I’ll be back in January with short, but colorful stubs.

There has been a lot of foils that have hit the shelves lately. Happy dance for me as this is my favorite finish. But it leaves quite a few very similar colors on the table.

I like Pop polishes. I love foil finishes. So getting these was a no brainer for me. But…. While these three colors are gorgeous, I don’t think any of them is truly a unique foil.

Color Club recently came out with their Foiled Collection and each of the Pop collections seems to have a very similar Color Club color. Ruby Metal is somewhat like Hot Like Lava, Jade Metal is very like Perfect Mol-ten and Denim is very like Cold Metal. Perfect dupes? I’d say no, but the later two are pretty darn close.

Pop also had a few other colors in this collection: a gold, silver, nude…. I think that was it. At this rate, I have more than enough silver and gold foils, so I abstained. And for as much as I love foils, I think I can live without a band aid but better (babb) foil. If I have to wear a nude, I’d rather it have great pecs.

So which ones to get? Depends on price range and personal preference. Pop polishes generally go for $10 and you can pick up Color Club for $4. I think the Pop colors are just a bit more vibrant and shiny probably because the Pop colors are a bit more speckled with the foil particles than the Color Club colors. My personal preference is for the Pop colors. But for a $6 a bottle difference, Color Club really has the biggest bang for the buck. Both took two coats and both where smooth applications.

This was an interesting batch of NYX Advanced Salon Formula polishes to swatch. With two of them, Magnolia and Sumptuous being so similar in color, I actually had to redo swatches because I kept getting them mixed up.

I continue to be impressed with this line just for the pigmentation alone. Although not quite a one coat color, they comes close. Some of them are just a touch thick, but nothing extreme. If it really bothers you, it’s nothing a drop or two of thinner won’t take care of.

The first two colors shown are the two I had troubles differentiating. Although they look pretty different in the individual swatches, the bottles are so incredibly similar that I had to repaint to make sure I had the right swatch to the right bottle – something that becomes pretty important when you’re labeling the swatches. Magnolia is a bit more mauve than Sumptuous but the biggest difference is that Sumptuous has a blue iridescence that Magnolia doesn’t.

At first, English Rose struck me as a mediocre pink that leaned to coral. But once it was on my nails, I loved the pink iridescence that showed up. This raised its ranking for me. Acid Pink is my favorite of this crowd. While the others have a quiet beauty going on, this one is a bit more obvious. Acid Pink (and so aptly named) is a hot pink neon with glass flecks. Can it get any better than that?

There are certain types of polishes that I’ve stopped purchasing a great deal of. I’ve really pulled back on the glitters because in the last year, I’ve worn zero. Wait, I do wear Ruby Pumps on my toes, but I’m not going to count that as I change my pedicure once a month (yeah, I hate doing pedicures) and don’t have to struggle with the pain of removal all that often (yeah, I hate removing glitter). Silver foils are another type because, really, how can you come out with a really unique silver foil?

Nars Space Odyssey either came out later than the other companies Fashion Night Out offerings or I totally missed it. When I first saw it, my reaction was “Ooooooh!”. Once I realized it was a silver foil, my reaction was, “oh no”. But I bought it anyways. Why? Because I have a compulsion with Nars (and Chanel, Dior and Givenchy… but let’s not get into that, shall we?).

So is Nars Space Odyssey unique? No. It’s a classic silver foil. But I will say this: it sparkles better and is shinier than any other silver foil that I have. So am I glad I bought it? Definitely yes. Do I recommend it? Only if you have mad money to burn or for some unknown reason, you find you have no foils in your collection (is that even possible?). Shown is two coats.

MAC Unconditionally Fabulous came out with the Glitter and Ice Holiday collection. The other polishes two were cremes, which, if you you follow this blog, you’ll know is not my particularly favorite polish finish.

Large hexagonal, holographic glitter particles have taken the polish world by storm in the last year. Every other color seems to have them and they work to varying degrees. This time, I can say that MAC hit it on the bull’s eye. I layered Unconditionally Fabulous over black so that you can get the full effect of its beauty. What really impressed me with this color is how well the glitter went on in one coat.

I applied each coat in about five thin strokes and the glitter built up pretty densely without wallowing in a flood of clear polish. Too many of these types of polishes have you digging for the glitter and to strategically place it on the nail. No worries here. For the one nail that the it went on thin, I shook the bottle to disperse the glitter in the clear base polish and I was good again. I don’t normally suggest shaking the bottle as this has a tendency to create bubbles in the manicure. However, with a glitter this chunky, even if you do get bubbles, you’ll never really see them.

As I said earlier, this type of glitter is becoming pretty common place. If you’re looking for some more economical substitutes, look at the swatches below Unconditionally Fabulous. Jade’s Diamond Dust contains glitters that are a bit smaller but contain the same holographic look. China Glaze’s Snow Globe is a pretty good dupe, the glitter is just not as dense.

MAC Inert is a putty creme (yes creme, not a shimmer like their swatch indicates) which pretty much went on like putty. I ended up putting on three coats as the self leveling was not fantastic. I will say that in my experience that these light putty grey colors are rather like white cremes that always seem to take three coats to achieve a non-streaky finish. So let’s let that slide. But it’s still a freaking creme!

MAC Hyper is probably the only color out of this trio that I liked. Sort of. The MAC website describes this color as “deep blue with a violet pearl”. Try as I might, I’ve yet to catch that violet. It’s hiding. And damn well. The good news is this was a two coater. The bad news – we’ve seen this color before, haven’t we? A few years ago, polish companies didn’t put out enough non-standard colors so simply introducing a blue or green sent us polish collectors into a titter. No longer the case. Companies have caught up with our need for renegade shades and throwing a standard blue out there is no longer enough to warrant a $7 hike in price. So while I like the color… already have it, already done it.

MAC Ascension is a light lilac/grey base with mild green duochrome. From what you can see of the color through the black squares on the bottle, the color is breath taking. Vivid purple, blue and green. None of that awesomeness transfers to the nails. Now while I adore a good duochrome, this one is a fairly tired color. It’s been done. Much cheaper. Too many times. This was three coats.

This post may sound harsh. And perhaps it is. But if a company is going to put out something that is 50% more than their regular price, damn it, I want something that’s 50% better than their regular product.

Jill Stuart 38 is a dark blue base with blue and green shimmer. It’s a beautiful color. However, while it might have been superbly unique when it came out, multi-color shimmer has become more and more popular lately and this combination is no longer uncommon. Jill Stuart 18 has a mild pink base with a shimmer that’s almost holographic with all the colors they’ve packed into it.