June 25, 2015

ALL the Zoya Pixie Dusts!

**This is another incredibly old post, which I wrote mostly in January.  It's just been sitting around for ages!**

Okay, not all of them.  I can't afford that.  But, in the last few months, I've been accumulating as many of the Pixie Dusts as possible, because as you may have heard, Zoya is discontinuing Pixie Dusts.  All of them.  They're selling out the rest of their stock, but they won't be making any more once they sell out.  They'd better have some amazing plans to replace those beauties!

So, while Pixie Dusts may still be easily attainable for now, pretty soon they're going to be super rare.  Naturally, I just had to buy up all the colors I care about (and then some!) before they end up costing $50 on eBay or Amazon. 

I'll be sure to check the website and note any that are already sold out at the time of publishing (and maybe I'll even update it as the colors disappear). **Somehow, six months after Zoya announced the end of the Pixie Dust line, every single color is still available in the store.  I guess they made an insanely huge batch of each color before announcing their discontinuation.  Suddenly I feel a bit silly for buying up so many Pixie Dusts right away!**

Liberty



I've already written a full review of Liberty, which you can find here.  But I just wanted to throw a few pictures of it in here, since I have all of my Pixie Dusts in this post!


Liberty was the first Pixie Dust I ever got; it was even one of my first few Zoya polishes! 

I think this is the most insanely long my nails ever got!  I keep them much shorter now.

Godiva


Godiva is one of the colors that I bought way back when Zoya was selling 3 minis for $15 in November/December.  I wasn't super crazy about it online, but I ended up falling in love once I put it on!


A creamy, beige-y neutral color that almost leans peach, Godiva is absolutely beautiful in the Classic Pixie Dust formula.  Two coats yields full coverage, though looking at my photos there is still a tiiiiiny bit of VNL showing through.  Many people have compared Godiva to Tomoko as they're insanely similar, but I don't own Tomoko and don't plan to buy it.  From what I've seen and read online, Godiva is a warmer neutral while Tomoko is more cool-toned.

Nyx


Nyx is a soft, periwinkle-lavender with silver shimmer.  The silver actually surprised me - most of the Pixie Dusts I've seen have been more... I don't want to say flat, because the sparkles are anything but flat - but color-wise, I guess they've been more uniform.  If you look at Liberty and Godiva, there isn't a ton of color variation, just sparkle.


Nyx was mostly opaque at two coats, but I could still see a bit of the whites of my nails at certain angles.  Shown is two coats.  I did three coats on my right hand, and I was surprised by the difference in color!  At two coats, Nyx is definitely a softer periwinkle, but at three coats it leans more to a stormy lavender.


Beatrix


Beatrix is a great, bright, sunny orange with yellow-gold sparkles.  The yellow-gold definitely doesn't stand out from the orange base as much as the silver stands out in Nyx, which I like.


Two coats was, like Nyx, pretty opaque, but if I stared at my nails long enough I could kind of see the whites of my nails.  I tested out a third coat on my thumb, and it's definitely fully opaque; what's also nice is that the color didn't change very much, as it did with Nyx.


Just for fun, I threw on one coat of China Glaze's Fairy Dust over top of two coats of Beatrix, because hell, there can never be enough sparkle!  Even though you lose the texture of the Pixie Dust a little bit, the holographic sparkle from Fairy Dust makes it super awesome.  If you want your nails to be show-stoppers, I'd highly recommend Fairy Dust-ing that shit. ;)


P.S. don't mind my lack of pinkie in some of  these photos.  Two days before swatching Beatrix, my pinkie got in a nasty fight with a cheese grater and lost.  Right above my cuticle.  That nail was out-of-commission for nail polish for a while. :(

Carter


For some reason, I found myself much less able to look away from Carter than any other Pixie Dust so far.  I honestly can't really say why, except that its formula is just so flawless.  And I don't just mean that two coats was perfectly opaque, nor do I just mean that it applies super smoothly (as do all of the 'Dusts).  I think Carter is just more perfectly dense with glitter than those I've shown so far; it's also the most uniform color so far.  Liberty is also pretty uniform, but something about Carter made me really, really glad that I didn't have to drive anywhere while I was wearing it, because I probably would not have looked at the road very much.


Carter is a perfect shade of purple, too; it really doesn't lean reddish or blueish or lavenderish or any other -ish.  It's really a true, royal purple.

Dahlia


Dahlia is the last of the Classic Pixie Dusts that I own.  Like Nyx, Dahlia has a lot of very prominent silver sparkle to it.  But since the main color is black, it doesn't really stand out as that different.


Two coats was perfectly opaque, but it still looked a tad charcoal-grey to me, so I put a third coat onto my middle finger.  There is a slight difference to the color, but it was so minimal that I decided to leave the rest of my nails at two coats.

Out-of-focus because I realized when swatching this one that I didn't take any out-of-focus photos
to show off the crazy sparkle of Pixie Dusts!

Unfortunately, Dahlia fell a little bit flat on its own.  The sparkle didn't photograph that well, as you can see, because of how dark it is; but it doesn't really sparkle THAT much more in person.  While most Pixie Dusts have a stunning sparkle, Dahlia is just kind of... sparkly black.  I probably won't be wearing this one on its own very much.  But Dahlia, Carter, and Beatrix would look amazing together for a Halloween-y mani.  I know what I'll be doing to my nails in a few months!

I also own a few of the Ultra Pixie Dusts, but since this post is already getting pretty long, I'm going to go ahead and give those their own separate post.

Which of the Pixie Dusts is your favorite?  Do you prefer the Classic or the Ultra finishes?  Let me know in the comments!

June 16, 2015

Ellagee: Glimmering Sapphire

Oh my gosh, this post has been sitting around in my Drafts section for months!  I think I need to start double-checking my drafts section more often!

Ever since I got a new car back in October, I've been on a quest to find a nail polish that matches it.  Because, why not?  It's a beautiful sparkly dark blue and, since I'm a nerd, I named it the TARDIS.  (My previous two cars were silver and light blue, so they were the Millennium Falcon and R2D2, respectively.)

On my quest to find a matching polish, I've come across a few that look pretty close, but Glimmering Sapphire by Ellagee looked the best online!  It's a bit more sparkly and glossy than my car (although she might just need a wash), but it's a pretty darned close match.


The formula of Glimmering Sapphire was kind of on the goopy side.  It was thick, and I found that shaking it after every couple of nails made it easier to work with.  But my polishes sit in my Helmer, which is a metal unit that sits underneath a drafty basement window, and it's winter (well, it was when I wrote this post, anyway).  It could be that the polish was too cold, and cold polish is almost always going to be thick.  Perhaps I should sit on my nail polishes for a few minutes before using them in the winter...

 

So, aside from the thickness which could well be my fault, I really like this polish!  It definitely needs two coats - I had guessed that its deep color would allow it to be almost, if not entirely, a one-coater, but the base is somewhat sheer at one coat.  Totally not a problem as I usually prefer to use two coats of polish anyway!  And two coats is perfect opacity.  It definitely wouldn't need three.

The color is truly gorgeous.  In dim light it's a pretty sparkly blue, but in brighter lighting the sparkle is absolutely stunning, and the overall color looks brighter!

Out of focus to better show its sparkle!

Ellagee actually makes a polish that's inspired by The TARDIS - called Sexy Old Girl - and at first I thought I'd get that one to match my car, but that one is definitely brighter and more glittery than my car.  I did, however, buy the TARDIS pendant that Ellagee sells, and it hangs from my rear view mirror! :)


Glimmering Sapphire is from Ellagee's Sparkling Gemstones collection and has a glittery partner, called Crushed Sapphire.

Do any of you name your cars after nerdy things?  Anyone else have a polish that matches their car?  Let me know in the comments!

PS - if you have a few minutes, I would really appreciate it if you took my survey!  I want to know what you think of the blog, how you interact with it on social media, and some other various details.  It should only take about 5-8 minutes, and who knows, your responses may lead to more of your favorite types of posts on the blog!