My Perfect Polish: Smoke and Mirrors

A few weeks back, Cult Nails held its $5 sale. I'd seen a few great swatches of their colors, and thought at $5, I had to give them a try. I LOVE the colors I purchased. I went with In A Trance and Vicious. I know it is spring (with summer weather around these parts), but I chose dark colors anyway. I like what I like.

(l) In A Trance & (r) Vicious

In A Trance

One reason I love this color is because it looks like what I thought Essie's Armed and Ready (Spring 2012, Go Overboard) would look like on the nail. I was a little disappointed with Armed and Ready because I felt you could only see the shimmer in bright light, and it was much darker in person than it appeared in the many swatches I'd seen of it. Although bright light enhances the beauty of In A Trance, you can see the gold shimmer in other light settings as well.

Here's a cell phone pic I took and posted on my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/myperfectpolish.

Polish Notes:

Description: Olive green-gold with gold shimmer
Base coat: none
Coats of polish used: Two coats (note the difference between 1 and 2 coats, below)
Comments about application: Formula seemed to be just the right consistency
Top coat: None, but I'll add CND Shiney to it next time. By now, you should know I love that stuff.
Where to buy: www.cultnails.com, $10

Cult Nails In A Trance. Isn't it gorgeous??

Vicious

Vicious is simply a "me" color. I own way too many in this color family, but Vicious may just be my favorite of them all. I was afraid my Zoya Anja (Fall 2011, Smoke & Mirrors) was too close in color to justify having both, but upon closer investigation by the D.A.C. -- Dupe Advisory Committee -- a.k.a. me, they have proven NOT to be dupes or near dupes because Anja has a much redder base than Vicious.

Polish Notes:

Description: Purple creme polish
Base coat: none used in the photos (but you will need one to avoid excessive staining)
Coats of polish used: I used two coats in the photos, but once I got outside in the sunlight, I saw some uneven areas. Two should be fine, but three may be preferable.
Comments about application: No complaints here!
Top coat: I wore it without a top coat, but would recommend using CND Shiney for extra nail bling.
Where to buy: www.cultnails.com, $10

Cult Nails Vicious

Ahh, I love it :)

There will definitely be more Cult Nails in my future. I can't wait until they have their next $5 sale. There should be one coming up for the polishes that were out of stock during the last $5 sale. Even if you can't catch them on sale, they are worth the $10 they normally cost.

Which color(s) should I purchase from Cult Nails next?

Nails of the Day

Today I chose to wear the very pretty Zoya Jana. Jana comes from Zoya's Smoke and Mirrors collection (Fall 2011). I have to say, summer and fall collections are my favorite and I think Smoke and Mirrors hit it out the park. I like this collection because so many of the colors are flattering on my skin tone. In addition to Jana, I have Petra, Anja, Nimue, Yara, Neeka and Jem.

Now, back to Jana. This is a "medium nude putty creme with grey, mauve and purple tones." You have to be careful with any polish that can be described as "putty" in color, because putty done incorrectly can be boring and unflattering. Zoya got it right this time, and it was my choice for the day.

The Mani:

For this mani, I started with a base of Zoya Get Even, 2 coats of Jana, and kicked up the shine with CND Super Shiney.

CND Super Shiney doesn't like to photograph in direct sunlight. I had to take these pictures several times because my camera wasn't happy with the incredible gloss.