Knackered,  extremely tired or a horse that is no longer able to work being rendered into glue or dog food, is a lovely polish. It looks like neither of those things to me. You can be assured that I will not be sending my bottle off to be made into glue! The Butter London website describes it as, “a sheer, twinkling oyster shade flecked with micro glitter particles.” I have no clue why they would describe the color as oyster. To my eye it is a silvery duochrome that shifts from purple to a greyish-green. It is also infused with very fine holographic glitter. Me like!!

Butter London Knackered in natural light

Butter London Knackered in sunlight

Butter London Knackered in sunlight

This polish is quite sheer. I used five coats , and I still have some VNL. Other than being sheer, the application was very good. Five coats really is a lot though. It might be a good bet for layering. Five coats and a top coat shown.

Butter London Disco Biscuit, Butter London Slapper & Butter London Knackered

Ahhh, flakie glitter. Fun! I think it looks like magic fish food, although my brother who works with fish disagrees. Regardless, with its green, orange and blue duochrome glitter flakes this is cool top coat!

piCture pOlish hypnotic layered over Zoya Ibiza in natural light

Application was very good. Two coats of Zoya’s Ibiza with two coats of hypnotic.

piCture pOlish hypnotic

Androgynie is from Orly’s Holiday Soireé collection. The combination of the sheer black base and the gold and multi-colored glitter make me think of New Year’s Eve. This is a fun color, and I got a lot of compliments while wearing it.

Orly Androgogynie in natural light

Application was ok. I would have liked the hex glitter pieces to have distributed more evenly (some nails got more pieces than others).  Three coats and a top coat shown.

Orly Androgogynie

This year for Christmas my husband gave me a number of goodies from my wish list, but he also surprised me with some fun nail stuff. I recently organized my nail polish and labeled items that were “swatched,” “untried,” etc. He checked my nail polish bins and blog to determine what I didn’t already have, so he could decided what to get. He was right I didn’t have them, and I was so touched. I loved the research and thought that went into the gift! I managed to break my thumbnail pretty badly yesterday (and attempted a repair), so hopefully I will still have have length to my nails. However even if I end up trimming my nails all the way down, my sappy self is cheered by my sweet husband. I still wish I was a bit less clumsy though!

I am hoping to try my hand at a bit of frankening in the coming year. It seems like the glitter is going to make a huge mess, but it sounds like fun!

My Christmas nail goodies

Recently I tried to rescue a bad manicure by applying a glitter polish on top. Maybe I was just in a bad mood that day, but even with the addition of Color Club’s Sugar Plum Yum I still hated it. Every time I ran my fingers through my hair the chunky glitter  pulled my hair. Uggh! I had to get it off right away, and boy was it a pain to remove! I was a bad blogger though, and did not even snap a picture. After the fact I realized that I should have at least gotten a picture. I decided I should try it again, but I did not want to remove the Sugar Plum Yum from 10 fingers. I decided to try a different base color and just do glitter on an accent nail. For the base I used Color Club’s Lumin-Icecent which is an icy blue foil finish polish. Sugar Plum Yum is a scented polish for the holidays. It is a clear base with green glitter, and larger bluish-purple hex glitter. I thought this combo was pretty cute, and the chunky glitter looked a bit like bubbles I have to say I did not like the smell though. Scented polish sounds like a fun idea, but to me Sugar Plum Yum smells like one of those scented markers gone bad. The scent was barely noticeable after a while, but I would have liked the polish much better without it.

Color Club Lumin Icecent and Color Club Sugar Plum Yum in sunlight

Application on Lumin-Icecent was excellent, and Sugar Plum Yum applied very well for such a chunky glitter. I would rate its application as good to very good.  Two coats of  Lumin-Icecent with a top coat and two coats of Sugar Plum Yum on the accent nail (I also used top coat over the Sugar Plum Yum).

Color Club Lumin Icecent and Color Club Sugar Plum Yum

Izzy is a deep pink shimmer from Zoya’s holiday Gems & Jewels collection. It is such a happy, festive color. Looking at it on my nails really brought a smile to my face. Since I seem to have been infected with holiday glitter this year, I decided to add Kissy on my ring fingers as an accent. I figured that if I only use glitter on accent nails my pain will be greatly reduced when it is time to take it off! First I tried Kissy over Izzy. It looked good, but I noticed that in addition to pink and holographic bar glitter, Kissy was also full of fine red glitter. I tried it over Butter London Knees Up, and boy did they work nicely together! When it came time to take my polish off, my plan worked and I was rewarded with a fairly easy removal Please note that because  Izzy was so shimmery it was difficult to find lighting that equally flattered it and Kissy. Izzy looks much better in person!

Zoya Izzy in sunlight (with Butter London Knees Up and Zoya Kissy on accent nail)

Application was excellent. Two coats with a top coat shown (two coats of Butter London Knees Up and one coat of Kissy on accent nail).

Are you loving any of this year’s holiday glitters? Which ones?

Butter London Knees Up, Zoya Izzy, and Kissy

Foil Me Once is a pretty color, and after wearing it around a bit I decided to freshen it up with a glitter top coat. Although it is still a total PITA to remove (I do hold remover soaked cotton balls on each nail for at least 30 seconds, but still…), I am warming to glitter polish a bit. Mmmm, holo sparkly! It reminds me of a tasty treat sprinkled with sugar crystals. Yummy!

Color Club: Sugar Plum Fairy, Foil Me Once, and Candy Cane in sunlight

Application was good. The picture shows two coats of Foil Me Once with one coat each of Sugar Plum Fairy and Candy Cane (no top coat).

Color Club: Sugar Plum Fairy, Foil Me Once, and Candy Cane

Ziggy is a very sparkly gold and blue glitter polish from Urban Decay’s holiday kit. Although it is probably dense enough to stand on its own, I decided to use it as a top coat over other colors. I feel like it is not that unique, but it is fun and festive.

Urban Decay Ziggy in sunlight

Application was good. One coat shown over two coats Urban Decay’s Hot Mess (no top coat).

Urban Decay: Barlust, Mars, Wrecked, Ziggy,Gunmetal, and Hot Mess

Rock Solid is one of the new polishes from Orly’s Mineral FX collection. It is a dark charcoal with s bit of silver shimmer and holographic glitter. Even with a top coat the polish has a textured finish. It reminds me of asphalt  with little bits twinkling in the sun. I mean it in the best possible way  That may not sound pretty, but it is!

Orly Rock Solid in sunlight

Application was very good. Two coats and a top coat shown.

Orly Rock Solid

September means it is time to go back to school! Lots of kids are already back, and my classes start in one and a half weeks. To celebrate I am giving away:

• Glitter Gal’s Marine Blue 3D Holo polish
• Glitter Gal’s Lizard Belly 3D Holo polish
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
• Halloween nail decals
• Christmas nail decals
• Glamour Puss nail decals (2 sheets with a variation on the design)
• Overall Beauty Mineral Eye Shadow sample sizes in Night Wisp and Mink

Please note that all products are brand new and in their original packaging (some of the products in this giveaway were kindly furnished by Kim at Overall Beauty and the rest were purchased by me – with the exception of the China Glaze all are available for purchase at Overall Beauty).

Back to School Giveaway

Glitter Gal Marine Blue and Lizard Belly

Joby nail decals in Glamour Puss, Halloween and Christmas designs

To Enter:

There are several ways to enter.

1. Follow me on Twitter and retweet the following: Follow @PlayWithPolish and RT to win Glitter Gal holographic nail polish!  http://tinyurl.com/5rmmxp6

2. Follow my blog using Google Friend Connect

3. Follow my blog using NetworkedBlogs (at the bottom right side)

4. Be a friend on Facebook (Playing W. Polish)

5. Blog about my giveaway, or put in on your blog’s sidebar

6. Put www.PlayingWithPolish on your blogroll

Each counts as one entry, with a total of six possible entries per person. Please comment and tell me which method(s) you used, and the name(s) you follow under. I also need an email address to contact you if you are the winner.

The deadline is September the 21st at 5:00 PM Pacific time.

I will choose one randomly selected winner on September the 22nd and notify them via email. Please respond within 72 hours, or I will select another winner. My contest is open to anyone (except my family of course).

Good luck!