Zoya polishes: adina and angella- review and NOTD

Zoya polishes really need no introduction. They're quite simply fabulous ok. I spotted these at blab.co.in and immediately ordered a couple. I got 2 shades- Adina and Angella. Both are duo chromes and very very pretty. These retail for Rs.405 each for 15mL.

Zoya Adina

Zoya Angella

Adina: this is a brilliant purple and green duo chrome. Very pretty and surprisingly easy to photograph. Goes opaque in 3 coats

Angella: This is a pearly white shade which flashes hot pink. Again very pretty. Can also be used in a French manicure or by itself. Pretty sheer.

Adina - 2 coats

Adina - 2 coats

Angella- one coat

Angella- 2 coats

Angella - 3 coats

I don't think I really need to review these polishes since they're from Zoya but anyway here's my 2 cents

Yay for:

• Very good formula, doesn't streak or get blotchy
• Quick drying
• Stays on my nails for a good one week without chipping. With top coat may last even longer.
• Brush is of a very good quality and is quite dense so you don't have to dip twice for a single nail.
• Very unusual and pretty shades
• Bottle is very sturdy. I dropped it once but nothing happened. :)

Boo for:

• Slightly expensive
• These shades don't get hard that fast and if you happen to accidentally press your nails against fabric or any other surface you get that indentation on your nails. Annoying!
• Not easily available in India.

I would highly recommend this brand and especially these 2 shades. They're mesmerizing. I can stare at my nails all day long! I recommend the duo chromes from this brand, they have quite a wide selection.
You can buy this here.

My rating:***1/2

Inglot crackle nail polish: NOTD and review

I know I'm extremely late to the party but at least I'm here now. Got a crackle nail polish finally. Was at inglot store recently when the MUA there told me they had just launched their Cracked polishes and that there was a promotional offer on it. What! Offer? Discounts? Yes yes show me. They have some 6 basic shades- black, red, blue, white, green and yellow I think and the MRP on these is 750 but I got it for 490. Picked up the black.

Pics below are clickable.

Inglot Crackle Nailpolish

Base colour-Lakme Orange Color Crush

So this dries very quickly and to a matte finish and as it dries it separates and cracks. In fact it dries so fast that the minute you take the brush out of the bottle it begins to dry- on the brush itself. So you have to be really quick in application. One good thing is you don't have to worry about a neat uniform finish coz it's gonna crack anyway. It's like watching a film develop. Not that I've seen a film develop in person but kinda know what it's like. :p
You could put a top coat over this if you like an all glossy finish.
Oh and I've been wondering- what happens if this dries a little? You know how you add acetone to other nail paints if they dry a little.. I wonder if the same could be done here or if it'll alter the composition or something. There's 15mL in the bottle and it would take a looong time to finish it up, since you can't wear more than one coat at a time anyway.
I've layered it over the orange polish from lakme's colour crush range.

Overall, this is fun to try and gives you an interesting manicure without much effort. But I don't think I'd buy this again coz the novelty wears off pretty soon. There's so much other stuff that's tempting me now like hex glitters, duo chromes and holographic nail paints.

Rating: ****

NYX nailpolishes in "The Taupe", "Chocolate Taupe" and "Golden Lavender"

This was a part of my BeautyJoint haul and the quality of these nail polishes is just great! The brush is dense enough to allow application in a single dip and it doesn't streak or clump and dries pretty fast too. They last for a week without a top coat. And they have an amazing shade selection- from creams to metallic to shimmer. The best part? Insanely cheap at just $1.99 (Rs.100) for a bottle. Too good to be true, right? Yeah baby!

The Taupe, 2 coats, natural light

The Taupe, 2 coats, with flash

Chocolate Taupe-2 coats, in natural light

Chocolate Taupe-2 coats, in natural light

Golden Lavender, 3 coats, natural light

Golden Lavender, 3 coats, bright sunlight

The shades:

The Taupe: a grayish mauve shade. Perfect taupe. Cream finish. Goes perfectly opaque in 2 coats.

Chocolate Taupe: Greyish brown shade. Cream finish. Goes opaque in 2 coats.

Golden Lavender: A pretty lavender shade shot with golden micro glitter. Thinner than the other 2. Goes opaque in 3 coats.

I love these nailpolishes and will definitely buy more. 
You can buy these here.

My rating: *****

Faces nail enamel in shade 15 "Shimmer Puce": Review, swatches, NOTD

I have ugly boy feet. Really. My feet are wide and flat. I've always admired women with pretty, dainty feet. Women who don't need a pedicure to make their feet feel pretty, unlike me. I cannot not paint my toenails. I have to keep em neat and painted colourful to make them look quirky atleast, if not pretty. Sigh. Which is why I always look out for funky, unconventional colours. But sometimes I find a pretty, girly shade that makes me go weak in the err..toes and tricks me into thinking that if I wear such shades my feet would also look delicate and pretty (gosh, I really must find a synonym for pretty. That adjective is over used and abused in this post. Dayum)

Ugly boy foot

Annywaaayyy, one such beyoootiful, delicate yet unconventional shade is the Faces "Shimmer Puce". it's a Mauvish grey shade which is shot with coppery red shimmer. The final effect is really nice. It's a little like the onion peel colour but more lavender. The photos don't really do proper justice to it. The colour is much in real life. I got this from Cosmetix.in for Rs.155. It's MRP is 199 though.

With flash

Indoors-in natural light

Indoors-in natural light

Outdoors-in bright sunlight

It comes in a square bottle and has 12ml of the nail paint. The brush is soft and applies well. The consistency of the paint itself is quite easy to work with and goes on opaque in just 2 coats. It dries pretty fast too after application. I would suggest applying the first coat very thin and then layering the next one after it has dried completely. This started chipping after 3 days on my fingers but would probably last a couple of days longer with a top coat. Also I find my paints last longer on my toes than on my fingers so it would probably last about a week to 10 days on my toes. This has a shelf life of 2 years. It looks subtle yet attractive and works with formal wear as well. Love it!

You can buy this online here. You can also check out other Faces nail polishes here and here.

Rating: ***

Latest Obsession: NYX , NYX lust list

This sitting at home business is getting a little boring. I keep buying all these yummy goods online but I don't have the opportunity to show them off and be admired by girls and chatted up by guys. Sigh! What I miss most about working is having to put on make up in the morning. Oh and also the free internet and A/C of course. Tee hee. I think I might go back to work once the baby hits 6th month. Don't think I'll be at home for a full year, like I initially intended.

Anyhoo, so what am I doing at home besides stuffing my face and looking at random blogs between baby-jobs? Right now I'm totally crushing on NYX cosmetics. They are perfect- great shade selection, very inexpensive and are of decent quality too. Whats not to love? If I did anymore research and looked at swatches and videos of these, I'd be arrested for stalking. I've put together some links of the sites with the best swatches and the videos with live swatches here.

This very cute site has all the swatches of the 144 shades of the round lipsticks and also some shades of lipglosses and lip liners and lip creams.

This awesome site has all swatches of NYX nail polishes.

Some live-swatch videos for reference:

NYX's best products IMHO are the round lipsticks, the round lip glosses, the slim lip pencils, matte finish lip creams and the nail paints. Erm.. I think I've covered most of the items anyway. Let's looks at the round lipsticks first- these are available in 144+24 new shades, if I'm not wrong and come in 3 major finishes: cream, frost and shimmer. I personally like only cream shades coz frost and glitter make me look beyond fugly. My favorite shades (from what I can tell from the swatches) are:
MLBB type shades: B52, Milan, Perfect, Cocoa, Heather
Nude shades: Frappuccino, Mars, Hermes, Taupe
Blue based reds: Snow white, Black cherry
Deep berry: Expresso, Decadent, Hestia, Very berry
Dark brown: Brown sweet, Walnut
Bright pink: Louisiana, Hot pink, Shiva
I also liked this shade called Mauve which is a deep mauve (surprise?) with brown and pink undertones but quite dark.

I can't seem to find a nice muted pink that'd suit me! Most seem frosty or too light or too dark. But that's ok coz I have many neutral pinks from other brands anyway and my lips are pigmented so mauve colours suit me better.

So I'm ordering my first NYX package from BeautyJoint.com, which seems to have the lowest rates for the products as well as shipping.

BeautyJoint- My cart

Some Indian sites that stock NYX are UrbanTouch.com and Cosmetix.in but they have very limited stuff and not the whole range and the stuff is priced at almost double of the international ones.
Other international sites are Cherryculture.com and Porkdaisy.com

Will upload pics of haul with swatches and reviews once I can get my paws on em.
Yay! Can't wait! But I'm gonna pretend to be cool coz the universe delays stuff if you appear over eager, didn't you know? :)