LA Girl METAL Metallic Nail Polish Collection

This review has been a long time coming. I've had these since summer and for some reason could never finish swatching all of them. Same thing happened when I bought all those LA Girl Rock Star polishes last year.

Anyway, I did finally finish them so here they are! This is the new-ish LA Girl Metal metallic nail polish collection. I am missing one color- Pink Steel. I know I'm not much of a pink wearer, but I'm actually kinda bummed out that I didn't get to swatch that one.


Alkaline Blue. Bold blue foil. Very dense silver-based foil finish.


Antique Gold. This is almost more green than gold! Completely gorgeous. Many different shimmering iridescent particles combine to create this golden tarnished olive color.


Brass. Not so much brass as it is dirty rust. Very odd and unique color- silver-based foil with heavy brown creme type pigment... Definitely don't see many like this.


Bronze Medal. Little bronze glass fleck type particles in a sheer base. This is one of the more sheer colors in the collection and you're seeing five coats in this picture. Nice end result but took a lot of work to get there.


Chromium Green. This color appears more blue in my pictures than it looks in real life. Though, in real life, it is actually more of an aqua/turquoise than a true green. Very pretty shiny dense foil finish.


Copper Alloy. Ugh, I can't even stand how pretty this is. Look at how rich and Autumn-y that color is! It's copper and red and rust with gold highlights. So much depth and sparkle. Looks like it's on fire. Total surprise love for me.


Deep Sea Mica. Deep blue/green duochrome shimmer. I don't know if I'd really call this metallic, it has a bit of a glass fleck look to it but the particles are very small. This one is also a bit sheer, it needed four coats, but it's easily layered over another blue or green.


Gold Plated. Warm gold sheer foil. Sheer foil is an unusual description, I know, but it's right in between a true foil finish and a glass fleck metallic like the Milani metals.


Graphite. Great name for this color. Dusty charcoal grey foil. Silver based. Very opaque.


Iron Red. This one is crazy. I wouldn't call it red as much as I'd call it magenta or deep pink. It has so much color for a foil. Yes, it's silver based and foil finished, but it's so freakin' bright! Weird and awesome.


Metallic Olive. If you like green, you need this. I don't know if 'olive' matches this color. I'd call it evergreen. Leafy. Not really olive-y. Many different tones and colors- tiny iridescent green particles. Sooooooooooo pretty.


Millennium. Deep purple foil. Another color you don't see that often! I don't have another polish in my collection that matches this. Very dense and opaque. Very purple. I'd definitely recommend this one, too, if you're looking for unique colorful metallics. I bet this would Konad well.


Obsidian. Black with silver metallic flecks.


Sterling Silver. Silver foil. Not much else to say about it...


Trilogy. This collection is full of weird colors. This is a mauve-mulberry-purple foil. Kinda funky, definitely unique. Seems to have a bit of warm chestnut tint to it as well.

The formula on these is very hit-or-miss. Some are super opaque in one coat, others need 4 or five coats, while the rest look fine at two or three coats. There doesn't appear to be any consistency in the formula. Some are quite thick and almost gel-like in texture. The drying time is long, but they seem to wear pretty well once they're dried.

Some really gorgeous colors in this collection. The greens and the purple Millennium shade are especially nice. Silver and gold foils are rather common, but they do have their place in this set. Copper Alloy was a nice surprise, too.

At $4 a piece they're quite an inexpensive polish. The formula isn't perfect but some of the shades are totally worth getting. I've heard that you can find this brand in some dollar stores, but I've never seen this particular collection anywhere but LA Girl's website. I have ordered from them before and everything arrived safely and fairly quickly. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to order some of those Disco Brites that I keep forgetting about... They glow under blacklight!

(These were sent to me for review.)

Nubar Night Sky Collection Spring 2010

The Nubar Night Sky collection is a set of three mattes and a bottle of Diamont Seal and Shine topcoat (which is pretty awesome topcoat, I'm a Diamont fan) so you can do a mixed-finish manicure like a matte french with shiny tips or whatever creative idea you can think of. Pics first, my thoughts second.


Midnight Matte. I'm not sure if the name is Midnight Matte or Midnight (matte). The label says Midnight Matte, but I wasn't sure if it was like Borghese's letters (like Espresso Brown F) or Sally Hansen's finish declarations (Trendy Creme!). Anyway. Charcoal matte with lots and lots of silver sparkle. Little bit like Orly Iron Butterfly, but lighter.


Sunset Matte. Medium orange-brown gold with lots of shimmer. Maybe it's just my skintone skewing it, but sometimes it looks like an antique brass shade on me, while in other lights it's definitely gold.


Twilight Matte. Medium silver-grey matte with lots of sparkles. Lighter than Zoya Loredana.


And of course, with topcoat:

Midnight Matte with Diamont

Sunset Matte with Diamont

Twilight Matte with Diamont

With topcoat they transform into super-sparkly foil like shades. Kind of a cross between OPI Suedes and Orly Matte Metals. Lots and lots of shimmer.

And since I had my bottle of 2010 (which is Nubar's 10th anniversary special polish- a flaky opal topcoat) next to me on the table, how about with 2010?

Midnight Matte with 2010

Sunset Matte with 2010

Twilight Matte with 2010

I must say, 2010 looks incredible over these. Instead of being super flashy and obvious like it is over cremes (especially dark ones), it lends a subtle yet fascinating iridescence on the top of the polish without changing the color. I actually wore each of these as a full manicure with 2010 over them and I couldn't stop looking at my nails. It's just really interesting, it looks magical and you just kinda want to look at it for a while to figure it all out.

The formula on these was awesome. These are the best formula mattes I've used. They don't dry while you're applying them so they are very forgiving. They're thin like normal polish, not super thick like some mattes. They dry very quickly and the matte finish is a true matte, none of that sorta-matte satiny rubbery halfway stuff. Opacity is good- I did two coats but if you're careful you can probably do only one coat with Midnight and Sunset.

My first impression of the set was, "More mattes? And not even unique colors. Gold, silver and black. You can already get a gold, silver and black matte from other brands!" And that's when it dawned on me. You can get them from other brands. Lots of people have been getting into the matte thing lately. It's only natural for brands to want to secure a place for themselves. While I would have liked to see more interesting and unique matte colors, I understand why they did these. The formula is at least better than average. And I'm not even sure why I complain about mattes not being unique shades when I have at least six different brands of matte topcoat to mattify any color I want.... I'm rambling now. Deep thoughts about matte polish.


(These were sent to me for review.)

Nubar Fortress Collection Spring 2010

These have been out for a little while now so there's nothing brand new to see, but more pictures of polish are better than fewer, right? Hehe.

A surprising and unexpected set, if I do say so myself. I love the names of these!


Barricade. A medium-light grey creme. Not as much of a blue undertone in this one. I think this is the one that looks best against my skintone as well. Also reminds me of trying to get the Lantern Shield to drop.



Citadel. A light grey creme. Little bit blue toned. All these fortress-themed names... love them. This one reminds me of accidentally killing half the people in Garlaige Citadel while waiting for the gate to open. Oops.


Dark Castle. Nice black shimmer! Looks like black leather to me. Also a little bit of a blueish undertone.



Knight's Armor. Black base with silver glitter. This is the one I was most interested in from the promo pics but it's not as cool as I'd anticipated. I mean, it looks cool, but it's kinda... dull? The glitter doesn't sparkle. It's a little hard to apply smoothly and looks kinda lumpy when it dries. It looks much better matte than shiny, but I forgot to snap a picture of it with matte topcoat.

Marble Tower. Very light grey with strong blue undertone. It is somewhat similar to Citadel but Citadel is more neutral and this is more cool. Different light greys for different skin tones.



Palisade. Medium grey creme with strong blue undertone. This is a little bit like Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy, if I recall correctly. I haven't compared them side-by-side, I'm just basing that on memory. This is a good alternative if you don't want to shell out $18 for a grey creme, the formula on this is actually pretty damn good despite it being half the price.


Silver Sword. A metallic charcoal-silver frost. Be careful with your brush strokes when applying this because they do stay fairly visible after the polish has dried. As long as you do straight, even sweeps with the brush you shouldn't have a problem.


Stronghold. Once they win, once they drop their guard, we will hit them, we will hit them hard... Totally one of my favorite songs for working out. Anyway. Dark grey creme with slight blue undertone. This one most reminds me of Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Dangerous, but this is a little lighter. Shark grey! Very nice, this one is my second favorite.

The formula on these was mostly excellent. The cremes were all very opaque and dense and applied flawlessly. The only ones that gave me trouble were Knight's Armor because it's so thick and kinda lumpy and Silver Sword which had a kinda strange airy texture. Silver Sword didn't apply badly, really, it' s just that it has such an odd texture, like... whipped polish or maybe like syrup? The other thing about these is that the cremes dry pretty dull. You will need a topcoat if you want them to be nice and shiny. Drying time was great, everything else was super. Nubar's new formula is really nice to use, it seems like they've made their shades lots more opaque then when I first started using Nubar.

This is a really weird collection if you think about it in the 'new seasonal collection' sense- I mean... eight greys for spring? But I see this less as a seasonal collection and more as filling out the gaps in their permanent collection. Cause... they didn't have many greys at all in their line... And now they have a grey for everyone. Lots of choices. Looks like they're really broadening their color variety this year! They've also done the same thing with reds, which I'll review shortly.

Overall, I dig this collection. I adore grey cremes even though I know they rarely look good on me. They're just so effortlessly cool and put-together looking. Grey creme is powerful. The formula on these was great, so I think I'll be putting a lot of these into my regular rotation. The only thing this collection seems like it's missing to me is the rare grey-tinged white. You know, that sort of super light grey shade? Like white with a little smoke to it. I would have liked one of those.

I'm noticing a trend now- Nubar frequently does monochrome collections. Purples, corals, greens, browns, greys, reds.... I'm dying to know what's next. Blues? I hope it's blues!!

(These were sent to me for review)

Color Club Wild At Heart Collection Fall 2009

Color Club always has something awesome for us every season and this Fall is no exception. Pure awesomeness.


On The Wild Side. Blue-ish gunmetal grey frost. Okay, this is the only one I'm not crazy about. I like the shade, but it's really frosty and I'm not wild about frosty finishes. It's not a dupe of BB Couture For Men Blue Steel- it's lighter and more frosty. On the other hand, it does remind me of a Motley Crue song.

Love 'Em, Leave 'Em. Light warm gold with subtle holographic effect. Another holo from Color Club! Yay!! This shade, however, is a subtle holo. It isn't as holographic as previous Color Club holo shades like Revvvolution. It's a very dense, very warm toned light brown gold shimmer.

Rule Breaker. Deep teal-green shimmer. Oooooh pretty. I don't normally think of fall when I see teal, but this one says fall to me! Power of suggestion? Who knows. Either way I love it. This has a shimmer finish that almost verges on frosty, but it's not frosty- just a really fine metallic shimmer.


Wild And Willing. Gold-coral-orange-green-pink multichromatic pearl shimmer. This one needed three pictures because it's so cool. It flickers! It's mainly pink and gold and on the edges you can see this really cool greenish gold duochrome. And this isn't your average shimmer, either- it's made of little round crystal pearls of shimmer.

Wild At Heart. DEEP PURPLE HOLOGRAPHIC. Yes, I said purple holo! It's about time, woooohooo!! Anyway, this is a great deep purple, I'd say that it's a little more red-toned than it looks in this picture. This is also subtle as far as holos go, but not as subtle as Love 'Em, Leave 'Em. The holographic effect is also not as colorful as a regular holo, as you can see by the picture. That doesn't make it any less gorgeous, I can see myself going through a whole bottle of this. I need backups.


With Abandon. Black creme base with flecks of brownish gold shimmer. This is pretty unique- I don't own any polishes that look like this. Maybe it looks like one of those Chanels? Something de Russie? I don't have them to compare, but it does strike me as being somewhat similar. Anyway, this is pretty cool- very dark with little flecks and flakes and pearls of shimmer, a vampy with just a touch of sparkle.

The formula on these is great as usual. Color Club formula is usually very consistent and smooth and this is no exception. The holos are so dense you could get away with one coat, but I did two of everything for these pictures. Actually, I did three coats of Wild and Willing. Anyway, thin, smooth but not watery. Very easy to apply. Drying time is average except for the holos which dry very quickly. The wear on these is fantastic- I wore Wild at Heart for almost a week and it looked like I had just applied it.

The set comes with a 0-60 Speedy Top Coat, which is supposed to be a quick dry topcoat, but... It isn't... I didn't have any luck with it, but I figured I'd mention it. It stays sticky and dentable for a long time.

Oh, Color Club. You are so wonderful. You always give us something cool. And what's cooler than holo? Not much, that's what! The only thing I don't love about the Wild At Heart collection is the frost finish on On The Wild Side. Other than that, awesome. It rocks.

I have some more cool seasonal Color Clubs to post soon (and there is glitter involved). Woohoo!

Sparitual Forbidden Collection Fall 2009

Here's SpaRitual's collection for fall: Forbidden.

Edit: Siobhan has really good swatches of these as well- we must be on the same wavelength lately!


Hush. Warm milk chocolate creme. I broke a nail in the middle of swatching this color and I didn't feel like taking off all the polish, fixing the nail and re-photographing it so... hehehe... sorry... Anyway... This is a very warm medium 'milk chocolate' creme shade. Outside the sunlight picks up more of the red tones, indoors it looks a little richer and darker.



Hypnotic. Warm charcoal frost. This is an odd color- it seems charcoal grey but it also has brown in it- brown-grey? In the bottle it looks more brown, on the nail it looks more grey. It's a shimmery frost, and for a frost it doesn't look so bad on my hands. I really like this.

Intrigue. Rich red-orange creme. This looks pretty red here, but it leans way orange in real life. Very orange-toned red. It seems to be nearly identical to Orly Poison Apple (I'll have the Orly fall collection posted soon so you can see the similarity).


Inner Sanctum. Warm peach creme. I say peach because I'm not sure how else to describe this.... It's warm, it's kinda red but kinda brown, natural and flesh-toned looking... I think it falls into the peach category. Again, the sunlight picks up the warm tones in it and in the shade it looks less warm/red.


Mystic. Neutral putty creme. My favorite from this collection. It's so normal but so strange! It's not a loud color, it's not green or purple or neon pink, yet still, I love it. It's sandy, creamy, mushroomy, putty-like. It has that same kind of 'edgy' look that Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge has.

Regal. Warm purple creme. This is a really pretty purple. Again, warmer in the sunlight than in the shade. It looks darker on my nails than it seems in the bottle.


The formula on these is decent. I did three coats on all the colors, some were more sheer than others. It wasn't particularly thick or particularly thin- in fact, it seemed just like Orly's formula to me. No problems with application- if you're used to Orly's formula you should have no trouble with these. Drying time is long, even with quick dry topcoat. Again, just like Orly. I also love the rubberized handle (noticing a trend? Haha!).

Overall, a very reserved, mature collection. Nothing wacky, nothing uber-fun, but not bad at all. I like all the colors except Inner Sanctum. I especially love Mystic, I'll be wearing this one often. They're calm earth tones. Very spa-like, and I think that's probably what this line goes for- a spa-like feel to the colors.

I believe the release date for these is September. I'm not sure which retail stores carry these, but I know you can get them from Sparkling*Nails on ebay.