Untrieds #54: Nars Zulu

Green and I have always been somewhat at odds with each other. I often find myself unsure if I truly enjoy wearing green, but sometimes a green really draws me in. One of these magical greens is Nars Zulu. I was never acquainted with the original incarnation of Zulu. My experience is limited to its recent rerelease. When I saw swatches of this green beauty, I instantly fell in love. However, I had to internally flirt with the concept of actually making the purchase. I moved it in and out of my cart, unsure of what I actually wanted. Finally, I took the plunge, and soon Nars Zulu dropped into my hot little hands.

It took me quite awhile to wear Zulu. As you might have noticed, I have quite a few untried polishes, so it takes an eternity for me to finally slip on a lemming. I’m pleased to say that Zulu was worth the wait. She slid on in three perfect coats. I had a bit of streakiness and patchiness, but no more than I expected from a jelly. Zulu is perfect, though. An amazing, delicious, juicy dark green jelly. In person, you can really see the yummy depth of this polish. She never looks black – just a lovely, luscious green.

Nars polishes can be purchased on the Nars website.

Untrieds 52 and 53: Zoya Kimber and Lynnderella Sweets to the Sweet

Zoya Kimber is part of Zoya’s recent Surf collection for Summer 2012. As with the majority of the polish from this collection, Kimber has a fairly opaque base loaded with silver shimmer. Initially, I thought Kimber was more red, but on the nail it reads as dark pink. The pictures below show one coat. Application with Kimber was fabulous. It flowed onto the nail perfectly and went exactly where I wanted it. I was very impressed with the application.

Over Kimber, I layered Lynnderella Sweets to the Sweet. Sweets to the Sweet is a gorgeous combination of white glitters in various shapes with scattered glitters in various colors and sizes. The polish is absolutely packed with lovely white shimmer. When I look at the bottle, it makes me think of candy scattered in a snow bank. Or floating in clouds. Or mixed with cotton candy. Or something else equally dreamy, magic, and delicious.

My only qualm with this polish was that it contained my number one nemesis: bar glitter. Luckily for me, the bar glitter didn’t cause any issues during application. The pictures below show two coats over Zoya Kimber. Overall, I think the combination looks super yummy. Glitter placement was a little rough, but a bit of dabbing resolved that.

Lynnderella polishes can be purchased through Lynnderella’s eBay account.

Zoya can be purchased at Zoya’s website. 

Untrieds #42-51: Custom Spam

Can you guess what today’s post is about? Can you? Can you? Here’s a clue…

Awhile back, I asked around on one of my nail polish Facebook groups if anyone had a collection of Pokemon-themed nail polish. Sadly, no existing collections seemed to exist, but I ordered “a few” customs from Nails by Laura. She was super fast about it! I am pretty sure that those polishes were in my grubby little hands within a week. Just a warning, this post is ridiculously picture heavy. I definitely think I’m going to be showing my age with this one, so don’t judge too harshly.

First, I have Suicune to show you. Suicune is one of those white-based polishes filled with little purple glitter, pale blue squares, and medium-sized light blue hexes. Out of all my customs, Suicune is the only polish I wore alone, as I could see that the base was quite opaque. It went on easily in two coats. I could have even left it at one, but I wanted more glitter on the nail.

What do you think?

Next, I have Entei to show you. I thought the base didn’t seem very opaque from the bottle, so I layered it over China Glaze Pelican Gray. Entei has a shimmery silver base filled with medium red, brown, and gold medium hex glitter. If I could change anything about the polish, I would include more variety in the glitter sizes. I love how the colors coordinate well with the Pokemon. I must confess that I’ve never actually caught an Entei (or any of the elemental dogs) in the games. In my old Gold version, Entei always showed up at the most awkward times. I hate how it would always run away instantly. Not fun.

Application with this one was tricky. I got a wonky brush with it. I think the big issue with it was that there was too much glitter. The glitter wanted to stick together and pile up on the nail. I think I will definitely add some thinner before wearing this again. The size of the glitter also makes me want to reserve this particular polish for when I have longer nails. Sadly, larger glitter does not really cooperate well with my nubbins. I also hope that the thinner will reduce the opacity a little because the glitter seemed to want to hide under the base :(

One of my favorites of the bunch was Espeon. I wore it over A England Avalon. Avalon is a lovely purple shot through with a nice shimmer. I used two coats for the pictures below. As with all A England polishes, the formula was absolutely flawless. It was a little thin, but incredibly opaque. I had to wipe a lot of the polish off the brush to prevent it from running, but it still covered incredibly well.

Espeon is more of a glitter topcoat than Entei was. The base is tinted a nice purple, but I don’t think it would come out well if I tried to build it on its own. Espeon is absolutely packed with glitter, mostly small light purple and dark purple hexes with medium light and dark purple hexes and larger red hexes. I love how Laura included a nice variety of sizes in this one. My favorite part is the sparse red hexes as representations of the jewel on Espeon’s head. Espeon comes across as a very regal Pokemon, and I think this polish represents Espeon well. I must confess that I’ve never used an Espeon in the games, but I love how adorable she is.

D'aww, it is like a little alien.

The formula on this was spectacular. The glitter spread out nicely in one coat. No dabbing or fishing required – even for the large glitters.

The third polish I have to show you is Leafeon. I recently purchased all of the Thakoon by Nars polishes, so I decided to layer it over Amchoor. Amchoor is the most perfect yellow crème I have ever worn. It is fabulous. This was three coats, and it went on like butter. I think this might be my favorite yellow.

Leafeon has a similar composition to Entei and suffers from similar problems application-wise as well. It has a shimmery, sheer yellow base absolutely packed with green, brown, and yellow hexes. It makes me think monkeys and bananas and coconuts. Yummy.

I’ve never played with a Leafeon before, but aren’t they just so goshdarn cute?

My fourth custom was Raikou. I layered Raikou over A England Elaine. Elaine is a perfect, dusty dark purple. It seems familiar, so I feel like I own a polish similar to it, but I doubt I have an exact dupe in my stash. It is true to A England’s typical, perfect formula. This was one coat of absolute perfection. I am in awe of how pigmented A England polishes are. Nothing else I have worn even compares. Most of their polishes easily cover in one coat. It is very impressive.

Raikou has a lovely purple-tint and is loaded with little blue and purple hexes and medium black and yellow hexes. The complexity of this polish is wonderful, and I must say that it is one of my absolute favorites. I think, out of all the polishes I ordered, it captures what I wanted from the collection the most. I can see the resemblance between the polish and the Pokemon, and it stands alone nicely as well.

Application with this one was phenomenal. Two coats over Elaine, and I had perfect glitter coverage. No dabbing required.

Last, but not least, is my favorite of the order – Glaceon. I layered Glaceon over two perfect coats of A England Galahad – one might have even been sufficient for this polish. When I wore Galahad, I felt like I had found the most perfect teal crème ever. I think, if I ever need a teal palette cleanser, this is what I will reach for.

When I ordered Glaceon, I knew it would be easy to adore. I’ve already spoken of my love affair with blue, and Glaceon is composed of a fantastic array of blues. The polish itself has a sheer blue base filled with little holo blue hexes, silvery white squares, and medium blue hexes. The combination is absolutely stunning – especially over Galahad.

I did two coats of the polish – it probably could have used one more, but I don’t like my glitter too crowded. Application was easy enough. I had to do a bit of dabbing since the glitter was a bit sparser, but it wasn’t horrific.

Overall, I love all of these. If you want any custom polishes done, I would definitely approach Laura. She’s very professional and efficient. I have definitely ordered more already!

This is her etsy shop.

And this is her Facebook.

Also, don't forget to 'like' The Squish Untrieds Project on Facebook!

Untrieds #41: Nerd Lacquer No Medal for Chewie

This is an important post for me. Why? It involves a fulfilled lemming. As a disclaimer for all of you, I want every single Nerd Lacquer. I kick myself constantly for not buying Amanda’s full Color Library when I had the chance. Kick-ing. I love every single one of them. Something about Amanda’s polish formula is amazing to me. I have no idea what it is, other than the combination of an opaque base, dense micro shimmer, gorgeous coordinating colors, and lots of different sizes of hex glitter. Can someone please fill this void in my soul? PLEASE? I’m absolutely desperate for something that compares.

Side Note: My ultimate lemming is Batcave, and I will trade my soul for it. Literally.

With that said, I have No Medal for Chewie to show you today. I know this is a Star Wars reference, as I forced myself to watch all of the movies. As you can probably tell, I kind of disliked them. The new trilogy made me want to knife Hayden Christiansen for being a god-awful actor. Anyway, No Medal for Chewie is a yellow-leaning green packed with micro shimmer and hexes of varying sizes in green and yellow. Somehow, this color compliments my skin tone almost perfectly, which says a lot to me about what color I am.

The formula for this was perfect, as is typical for Nerd Lacquers, and she went on in two easy coats. I had issues with the larger hex glitters because they seemed to want to sit on one side of the bottle (as you can kind of see in the pictures). With normal application, I didn’t get very many on my nails on my left hand. They all seemed to want to jump onto my right hand, though. I think it might be because my application with my left hand is slightly more heavy-handed (redundant, yes?). Next time, I will probably do slightly thicker coats of this polish. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this polish. I wasn’t in love with the base color when I first bought it, but now I see how lovely olive can be.