a-England - Galahad

You know you love colorful polish when you raid your stash in search of a palate cleanser and you wind up with a-England Galahad on your nails! Cremes are palate cleansers for me because I think they're boring in terms of finish. I mean, give me a hidden shimmer at the very least! So in spite of the bright color, I'd say this manicure is relatively tame for my taste.

Galahad is from a-England's The Mythicals collection, Adina's first collection inspired by Arthurian myths. It's a bright Tiffany blue that leans teal in some lighting and a true blue in others. I'm wearing two coats in these pictures. This is a great polish for Spring and Summer, but also a nice choice to cheer you up in the Winter. Application was nice, as is the case with all my a-Englands. My one complaint is that they don't come with steel mixing balls.

I did have a lot of bubbling with this manicure, but I suspect it had more to do with the poor condition of my nails that day and the heat in my room, rather than the polish itself. But that is one reason I seldom wear cremes - they show every flaw, dent and bubble. And as a perfectionist I can't stand it.

I love a-England polishes, especially the scattered holos. They can be purchased directly from Adina's site (free worldwide shipping), Llarowe, Ninja Polish, and Nail Polish Canada.

Nabi Magnetic - Dark Purple

You're probably looking at that photo and thinking I put the wrong polish name in the title. But this *brown* polish really did used to be dark purple. It's just brown now... which is totally fine by me! I bought a couple of Nabi polishes from Urban Behavior last summer and the other two haven't seemed to change color, only Dark Purple.

 

Magnetic polishes were a short-lived trend last year. While I wasn't a huge fan of most of the colors and finishes, I really like the look of a select few. Nabi Dark Purple (brown version) is one of those cases. I'm wearing two coats in these photos.

What I like best about magnetic polishes is that they look like cat's eye stones on your fingertips. When you move your hand about, the lines actually shift up and down, creating an interesting visual effect. Nabi Dark Purple is a perfect brown to replicate the look of cat's eye or even tortoise shell. 

The polish was extremely easy to apply. Each coat dried quickly, meaning the pattern didn't diffuse much after removing the magnet and there was minimal topcoat drag. The polish and magnet worked very well together, making a strong pattern that could cover the whole nail if applied with a practiced hand. I found that rolling the magnet around the curve of my nail in one steady motion gave a perfect pattern on the whole nail, which I learned by the time I did my final index nails.

Overall I like this polish very much. It's fun to explain how magnetic polishes work when someone asks you how you did your nails.

A wide selection of Nabi nail polish is available at Urban Behavior, although I'm not sure if the magnetic line is still available.

Darling Diva Polish - Ringer

Darling Diva Polish Ringer is one of the more popular shades from this prolific indie polish line. It is a dupe, or "ringer" for the elusive Clarins 230 and more recently Max Factor Fantasy Fire. It contains red-to-green shifting pigments in a sheer purple base. In these photos I'm wearing a very common pairing, two coats of Ringer over two coats Revlon Royal.

This combination is extremely pretty. It glows under almost every lighting condition. I love the squishy, translucent look the jelly finish gives. Application wise, Ringer is a bit annoying to work with. The consistency is almost sticky, like glue. It also takes forever to dry. However, I think the end result is nice enough to spend the extra effort. Just don't try doing a manicure with this if you're in a hurry.

Ringer is available from the Darling Diva Polish Etsy shop. Nfu Oh 51 is a more opaque version with color-shifting flakies. The Nfu Oh is one of my favorite polishes ever so fans of this type of polish should definitely check it out.