Zoya Song

Continuing with Zoya's Fall 2012 Diva Collection, I have another beautiful polish to show you today. Song is a vibrant dark blue polish with tons of sparkles in a metallic finish.

Two things will immediately hit you about this polish. One is how intensely blue it is. Although it appears dark in the bottle, it is pure blue color on the nails without a hint of blackness. The other is the oodles of silver and blue sparkles, winking from within the deep blue base. These sparkles look to be either micro glitters or small foil pieces and do not leave behind any gritty feel on the nails.

Song is so saturated with color that you can almost get away with just one coat, though I did two to even everything out. One thing to note is that it stained my nails just a bit during swatching, and I only had it on for 15 minutes. So base coat is a must unless you want smurf nails. :-)

You can find Song on Zoya.com for $8 for 0.5 fl oz. If you are new to Zoya, you can get your first two bottles of Zoya for $8 total and free shipping! Info is HERE.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Zoya Suri

I was watching the women's synchronized diving yesterday, and I realized there are some sports I just can't figure out how you would train for it. There are so many twists in just a second or two, and you have to match it with someone else doing the same, all without a mirror. Kudos to all the athletes who work so hard at something that I can't even begin to understand, but I can definitely admire. :-)

Today, I have another polish from Zoya's Diva Collection to show you. Suri is a dark purple with a metallic finish.

This is a cooler-toned purple that looks to be more blue than red on my warmer skintone. It has fine shimmers that seem purple at first glance, but upon closer inspection, you can see that they are red and blue. This is another dark jewel color from the collection with an inner glow that keeps it from looking dim.

The consistency is just about right, not too thick or too thin. It flows nicely onto the nails, without gooping or clumping. Like the other metallics in the collection, Suri dries without the streaks and brush marks that sometimes can plague other polishes with this type of finish.

You can find Suri on Zoya.com for $8 for 0.5 fl oz. If you are new to Zoya, you can get your first two bottles of Zoya for $8 total and free shipping! Info is HERE.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Zoya Elisa

Zoya released three collections for Fall 2012 earlier this month: Designer, Diva, and Gloss. This week, I will show you the collection that I am most excited about, the Diva Fall 2012 Collection, comprised of six dark shimmering metallics. Today, I'll start off the Diva Collection with Elisa, a vibrant red with a metallic finish.

This is one gorgeous red. It is an intense medium red that is relatively balanced, leaning only slightly blue, making it overall a bit cooler in tone. Although it is part of a fall collection, this red makes me think of the holidays and its ubiquitous shiny red wrapping paper.

The formula is thicker that I am used to with a Zoya polish and could definitely benefit from a few drops of thinner. The first coat on the nails looks pinker than what you see in the bottle, but the second coat fixes that and achieves the same vibrant red as in the bottle.

You can find Elisa on Zoya.com for $8 for 0.5 fl oz. If you are new to Zoya, you can get your first two bottles of Zoya for $8 total and free shipping! Info is HERE.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Butter London The Full Monty

Woo hoo! The Olympics is starting! I've been looking forward to this for the last four years. I love that tv stations broadcast sports I normally don't get to see on tv. My favorites are diving (especially synchro), gymnastics, and track and field. Are you guys excited? Any favorite sport or athlete that you will be cheering for?

Today, I have an appropriate color in the spirit of the Olympics. Butter London's The Full Monty is a yellow gold foil, reminiscent of the Olympic gold medal.

Unlike the smooth metallic finish of The Old Bill that gives it its copper sheen, The Full Monty's finish is considerably more foil-y. Up close, you can discern the individuality of The Full Monty's foil particles and their respective shimmers. I love a classy gold, and The Full Monty is exactly that. It looks light and elegant on the nails, but it definitely does not blend in.

The formula is wonderful, as is usual for Butter London. The only thing of note is that two thin coats did not disperse the foil particles with enough density onto the nails. leaving some bald spots. So I ended up using a third coat for fuller coverage.

You can find The Full Monty on butterlondon.com for $14 for 0.4 fl oz, or as part of the Heavy Medal Collection of three polishes for $36.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Butter London The Old Bill

Ah, work has me really stressed out this week. I have so much to do and my progress has been so slow that it's discouraging, which makes it even harder for me to concentrate and continue to make progress. Have you ever felt like that? *sigh*

Thank goodness I have a new pretty polish to cheer me up! Butter London's The Old Bill is a copper bronze with a smooth metallic finish.

Sometimes when you think of bronze, there is a rose influence that goes with it, but I can't detect much rose tint at all in The Old Bill. It is a burnished copper, more brown than pink. Depending on your skin tone, this color can blend into your skin, but in a good way. It comes across subtle and elegant, but still with a flash of color.

The formula on this is amazing! So smooth and buttery, it flows onto the nails without any issues. It has great color payoff and is opaque in two coats. Often with metallics, you will see brush strokes, but not so much here. Once it dries, almost all the brush strokes are gone, and all that is left is the perfect copper sheen. This really is just liquid metal-on-nails perfection! :-)

You can find The Old Bill on butterlondon.com for $14 for 0.4 fl oz, or as part of the Heavy Medal Collection of three polishes for $36.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Butter London Dosh

Hello, everyone! Hope you are in the middle of a great week! :-)

I have a few Butter London polishes to show you, and I'm starting with Dosh today. Dosh is a golden-green with tons of chunky shimmers in a metallic finish.

The gold influence is quite heavy in the green base, so much so that you could almost think of it as a greenish gold instead of a golden green. On the nails, the shimmers really stand out. They are larger than typical shimmers, and flash green, blue, copper, and gold. Dosh is so striking and unique with its apple-green color and its large multi-colored shimmers. I can't think of another polish quite like this. :-)

It has just the right consistency to make application smooth and easy. It is not too thick, not too thin. It spreads out easily onto the nail, without any inclination to pool or clump. It is still a little sheer with only two coats, so I ended up using three coats for the swatches. Since Dosh dries quite fast, wait time between coats is nice and short.

You can find Dosh on butterlondon.com for $14 for 0.4 fl oz. Just for today, choose any three polishes for only $30; promo code is CHAMPION.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Viva La Diva Giveaway!

Hi, lovely readers! <3

I hope you guys have been enjoying a look at the Viva La Diva polishes I picked up while I was in Stockholm. They are such bright, happy summer colors, and I think they are perfect for this time of the year. Since there is no place to buy Viva La Diva here in the US, I brought back an extra pair of the polishes, in the hopes that you guys would enjoy them as a giveaway prize. So up for grabs are brand new bottles of Viva La Diva polishes in #48 and #112 (linked are my swatches of them). 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
This giveaway is open to US and international residents, so everyone can participate! :D The only requirement is that you are a follower of this blog. There will be one winner who will receive both polishes. I am super excited to be able to bring you this giveaway, and I hope you enjoy the prizes! <3

Please allow the widget to load in full; it may take a moment. Feel free to email me if you have any questions: thepolishhideout@gmail.com.

Viva La Diva #112

Every once in a while, I get bored of the pedestrian reds, pinks, and oranges, and I crave something more objectionable and attention-grabbing. When I saw Viva La Diva's 112 in Stockholm, I knew I had to have it. It is exactly the sort of loud, obnoxious color perfect for days when I want to stand out and be annoying. :D

112 is a yellow-toned bright green neon with fine shimmers in a metallic finish. Like most neons, it dries slightly matte, which can be changed by applying a top coat. The formula is thin and easily controllable, and most of the brush strokes disappear once the polish is dry. I can't stare at this color for too long before bright spots appear in my field of vision. It's like wearing green highlighter or kryptonite on my nails! :-)

Viva la Diva is a Swedish brand, and can be found in the Swedish Åhléns department store, as well as online at Vivaladiva.se.

Viva La Diva #48

When I was in Sweden on vacation recently, I could not let the opportunity to find some awesome Swedish polish pass me by. I dragged my husband into pretty much every single department store and drug store we came across in Stockholm (poor hubby!). I found a 3-free brand called Viva La Diva. They have some lovely and interesting colors and the cutest bottles, so I could not resist picking up a few. :-)

Today, I have Viva La Diva's number 48 to show you. Most Viva La Diva polishes are unnamed and are only marked by a number. 48 is a bright summery pink with a subtle blue shimmer in a metallic finish.

I love pinks, and this one is going straight to my favorite pinks pile! It's so bright and cheerful, and I peek at my nails constantly when I am wearing it. I find the blue shimmers against the pink base fascinating, and I can't stop turning my hand this way and that way to see the them flash. The formula is thin and easy to apply, and there are no brush strokes visible once the polish is dry.

Viva la Diva is a Swedish brand, and can be found in the Swedish Åhléns department store, as well as online at Vivaladiva.se.

China Glaze I'm Not Lion

Hi everyone! Today, I have one of the two glitters and in my opinion one of the prettiest polishes from the China Glaze On Safari Collection to show you. I'm Not Lion is densely packed with small sparkly glitters in a sheer neutral base.

The glitters are silver, gold, and holographic, and are all uniformly small in size. When the light hits the glitters, they sparkle like crazy, with the holographic glitters shining in a variety of colors. The colors given off by the glitters remind me of a spinning disco ball. When light is not directly reflecting off of the glitters, the polish looks to be a neutral taupe color.

Because the glitters are so densely packed and are all small in size, application is quite easy. The polish distributes evenly, so you do not need to worry about careful placement of the glitters as you would some other glitter polishes. I'm showing two coats in my swatches, which is opaque enough for me. I also did not use a top coat in my swatches, so that you can see the interesting sandy texture of the polish.

You can find I'm Not Lion at your local nail salons and at beauty stores such as Ulta and Sally Beauty for a retail price of $7 for 0.5 fl oz.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.