LuxeCoat Nail Polish

"LuxeCoat is a new personalized, exclusive nail care collection and membership service that delivers the ultimate DIY manicure and pedicure experience. For the first month, members receive a personalized LuxeCoat starter kit complete with everything needed to give oneself a flawless set of salon-quality nails. Every month thereafter, members get three of the hottest (vegan and cruelty-free) polish colors selected by the top beauty and celebrity trendsetters delivered directly to their door."

 

You can visit this page to sign up and find out pricing information. I was sent 3 colors to review for you guys.

 

Purple Rain

I can't find it on their website for sale individually. But all of their other polishes are listed as $15/each. Pictured is 3 coats of Purple Rain. It went on pretty smoothly, but I had to add a 3rd coat because of my own impatience. If I had been careful and slower, 2 coats would have been enough.

Medium toned purple creme finish.

 

Winter in Paris

Can be found here for $15

I don't know where they got the color swatch for their picture, but it looks nothing like the polish I got or their own description. Winter in Paris is a mauvey/rose tone of pink, creme finish. Pictured is 2 easy coats. I had no issues whatsoever.



Bordeaux

Can be found here for $15

Vampy oxblood/wine color. Creme finish. Pictured is 2 coats. I did have some dragging at my cuticles, but it was less visible in person.



If the bottle and cap looks familiar it's because it is. LuxeCoat is in a partnership with Orly, so these bottles are the same as Orly Instant Artist, but with a regular polish brush, not a striper brush.

My final thoughts:

• The colors aren't all that original, but they aren't terrible either. 
• The bottles are only 9mL but $15? I think that's too steep for me.
• I love the bottle design, because I've always loved the rubberized caps from Orly.
 

 



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Tammy Taylor - Dazzle Rocks Nail Polish

These are her Dazzle Rocks Nail Polishes, various color glitters suspended in a clear polish base.

I can't find them on the painful Tammy Taylor Website, so I don't have a link or prices... Sorry.

They are each labeled with "Dazzle Me Up" red, blue, or black. The silver one is different, it's Dazzle Me Up Stardust and my gold bottle is missing a label, so I don't know if it's called gold, or something fancier.

 

For each of these swatches I used one coat over the colored nail polishes so you could see the opacity. The ring finger nail shows 3 coats of the Dazzle Rocks nail polish over my natural nail.

 

Stardust over China Glaze Laced Up

 

Mystery gold color over Sinful Colors Endless Blue

Blue over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green With Envy

Black over Sally Hansen CSM Lavender Cloud

(I really like how it's a mix of black and silver)

Red over theBalm Mellow Yellow

The glitter polishes were easy to apply and the glitter seems to disperse evenly without any extra effort. Each of them are pretty topcoat hungry in that it looked best with 2 coats of Seche Vite topcoat.



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Dazzle Dry - Frozen Lemonade, Fast Track Cherry, & Grape Lollipop

Dazzle Dry was kind enough to send me some polishes to review, and I was intrigued by not only their color selection, but also their claims to dry fast & be chip free for up to 4 weeks.

Each polish can be purchased for $9 each, and the Trinity Kit can be purchased for $28.50.

They are fast-drying, nitrocellulose-free, "5-free," hypoallergenic. Made in the U.S.A, and sold in Asia, Australia, and most recently, the United Kingdom.

"Dries in 5 minutes or less, has a gel-like, rock-hard finish, and is even safe for pregnant and nursing moms! And, unlike many conventional nail polishes, also free of  nitrocellulose. That's why they guarantee their polish is NON-yellowing and completely safe on your nails."

First up is their "Trinity Kit" which has the Nail Prep (which nourishes, strengthens your nails and promotes adhesion), Base Coat & Top Coat.

Their base coat dries to a matte finish and the top coat is quite THICK. Thicker than the bottom dregs of a Seche Vite bottle. It does dry within 5 minutes like they claim, and has a very glossy gel like shine.

"

*The polish colors themselves are each very thick and gloopy. I worried they would never dry, but that wasn't the case. They just applied differently compared to other polish brands in my stash.

Frozen Lemonade - creamy yellow.

For each swatch I used the Trinity Kit to prep, base coat, 2 coats of polish, then top coat.

2 coats was all that was needed to get complete coverage. No streaks or uneven patches. Very impressive for a yellow!

Fast Track Cherry - standard red creme. Very glossy finish. Even coverage with just 2 coats.

Grape Lollipop - neon purple creme finish. This one was the only one that was a bit patchy and uneven. Pictured is 2 coats, but even after a third, it still seemed darker in some areas. :(

I wanted to do a wear test and my sister volunteered to be the guinea pig. She can wear one color of polish a lot longer than I can. Here she is after I applied Grape Lollipop to her nails and followed to exact instructions contained in the Trinity Kit packaging.

Within 13 hours she already had a few corners chipping. This picture was taken after 4 days (with her cell phone, so excuse the color inaccuracy and fuzziness) you can see it had some pretty funky chipping and wear after that amount of time. She doesn't do anything extreme with her hands either. She has a toddler and works as a nurse like me, so I felt she provided a pretty neutral wear test. I'm not sure how one could manage to get 4 weeks chip free with this polish, but I feel it wears about the same as any polish in my stash. Usually after a few days, I have chips show up no matter the brand.

*These products were provided for review*

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The One That Copied Lexi From FingerPainted

Sometimes something comes along that just really intrigues you.... This has been the case for me and Lexi's baby stiletto nail shape. I just adore them. I think it looks so cute on her, and besides I LOVE pretty much all the nail art she has ever done. The girl has some mad skills. ;) 

My nails were getting too long and to the point where I wanted to give them a big chop.... So it struck me to do an experiment. I wondered if my nails could do a baby stiletto too? Lexi mentioned once that she does a thin layer of gel polish over hers to reinforce them and help prevent breaking the tips. I thought that mine cut to this shape without gel might just last a day or two, but enough to tribute some nail art to one I admire. Surprisingly, as I type this, I'm 4 days in and several polish changes later, still with intact tips! I guess it's the Duri Rejuvacote I have to thank for that. The stuff makes my nails rock solid.

 I copied this simple bow nail art she did because I had the same base polish, Shimmer Alessandra. Acrylic paints for the bow.

 First impression: I'm not too fond of this nail shape on myself. I think it's more flattering on Lexi's nail bed shape. HOWEVER, I've vowed to give it a good run and not just rush to that decision. I'm going to leave them this shape for at least a week or two to really feel it out. Wish me luck!

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China Glaze - Passion for Petals

I bought 3 polishes from the Avant Garden spring collection the other day. Sally's Beauty was having a sale where if you bought 2 polishes, you could got 1 free. So this is what happened....

Passion for Petals
This has a slightly dusty creme finish. It's a unique shade somewhere between coral and raspberry.

 2 easy coats, the formula is fabulous. No problems what-so-ever. :)

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Shimmer Polish - Alessandra & Katie

More Shimmers!

 Check out Cindy's Etsy shop, website, or facebook for more information on purchasing. Or you can always email her directly with your paypal address and the colors you would like to purchase:

shimmer484(at)gmail(dot)com

 

Alessandra is described as a coral red. It has a finer mix of glitters with mostly red, but some turquoise bits.

Here I layered 1 coat of Alessandra over Orly Haute Red.

Katie gave me a bit of trouble. I think it's just not my favorite color combination. Or maybe a bad pairing for base polish? It was a bit thicker, and one coat wouldn't spread evenly, so I just built up 2 coats for (close to) full opacity. I applied it over Orly Decades of Dysfunction. It's difficult to describe the color too.... Overall drab, like an old penny or something.... a lot of light copper & some light green bits.

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OPI - HTF - Plymouth Lox

I hit pay dirt at my local Goodwill.  I normally just randomly pass through but never find anything. Last week I found 3 OPI's under the glass counter top by the registers for 99 cents each. It turns out that they're black labels! Which is a sign of an older OPI. 

My research found that OPI Plymouth Lox if from the New England Collection in 1998.

 The bottle has been barely used. The fill line hits right at the upper rim of the glass above the OPI lettering.

Pictured is 2 coats, despite it smelling of toxic fumes like old nail polish does.... It applied perfectly easy. Didn't even require any thinner. It's a beautiful tomato red with shimmer.

Stay tuned to see the other scores!

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Herbie The Love Bug Inspired

Anybody else love these movies as a kid? I loved watching the ones from the 60s, I wasn't as big a fan of the Lindsay Lohan versions.

These nails were inspired by his racing stripes and number.

 

 

Tutorial:

I used 3 coats of Lime Crime Milky Ways and then I topped it with a coat of Seche Vite to speed things along. I waited about 10 minutes before applying the striping tape. I started along the middle of my nail and applied one piece. Then a second piece touching along the side of the first piece. Place the next piece with enough spacing to accommodate another imaginary piece of tape between them. And repeat again with skipping another imaginary space.

Then I used a small nail art brush to apply Sally Hansen Insta Dri Rapid Red & Sinful Colors Rainstorm. 

Then I removed all of the strips of tape EXCEPT for the very first strip. That one I trimmed with some cuticle nippers to the edges of my nail. Top with Seche Vite topcoat.

 Voila!

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