Orly Purple Velvet

I have worn a lot of both of my matte Man Glazes - so I was really happy to find out that my local department store had stocked the new Orly mattes. The local prices are very high compared to Internet store prices, so I opted for just this one shade: Purple velvet.

This is gorgeous! The texture is not as interesting as shimmer packed Man Glazes, but it is not as flat as Opi mattes. This shade has a slight amount of silvery shimmer and although it's not too noticeable it still contributes to the velvety look somehow. The purple is absolutely beautiful, darkish, slightly to the red side and beautifully muted down with gray. Very easy to wear. Does not dry as quickly as Man Glaze, but still pretty fast. Lasts quite well for a matte polish. This is two coats.

Mavala Violet Diamond

I decided to give a chance to the glitter! This is one of the Mavala autumn shades, there are six pure glitters in clear base available. The shades are quite beautiful, I took this mauve and another, flesh toned pink one for test drive. Unfortunately the glitter is not too dense in these, this is four coats and could use one more. On the other hand that property makes them very usable in layering - and the application is not too difficult, you just can't see small mistakes in this kind of polish. The surface is bit bumpy, but nothing that one coat of Seche could not handle. Removing - total PITA.

But the glitter is extremely sparkly, it reflects light insanely. I will definitely use these for some special occassions.

Zoya Zara

Mixture of light purple and rich gold is surprisingly flattering. The downside of Zoya Zara is the sheerness, these two coats are still quite see through. I was in a hurry, just covering the Entourage disaster and did not have time to do more. Application was ok, bit runny, but nicely settling. In real life this polish is much more stunning, the golden shimmer is very deep and perhaps has a hint of multicolour in it.

But my Seche Vite starts to be bit goopy - and the bottle is not even halfway. Not impossible to work with, but bit difficult to apply near the cuticle. I'm slightly disappointed.

Color Club Catwalk Queen

This is one of my older nail pics - and the polish is one of my favorites: Color Club Catwalk Queen. A beautiful shimmery dark red purple with absolutely perfect application. This is two coats with Mavala Mavadry.

Zoya Casey - a beauty with issues

For me these almost blacks are the safety blanket of manicures an they have been that for a long time. I guess that I was lured by some woman's magazines ages ago and bought one of Chanel's outrageously priced polishes: Rouge Noir - and was hooked. When some girls reach for their favorite nude I grab my trusted nearly black and feel instantly good about my manicure.

I've been looking for a reasonably priced alternative for Rouge Noir for a while and Casey really delivers. When speaking just about the color Casey does an excellent job. It is not an exact twin for Chanel polish - Casey is more purple and very dark, Rouge Noir is more red and tad lighter (will dig an older pic of Rouge Noir later for comparison). But there is that same dramatic outlook that I adore. As an added plus Casey is extremely shiny. With Mavala topcoat I can almost fix my lipstick using the reflection from my nail. And see those bluish higlights! This image shows the colour very black, but the red purple flashes beautifully in bright light.

I have to say that I have some issues with Zoya. All cream polishes and light shimmers bubble really badly - I guess that they are not compatible with Mavala Mavadry topcoat. Casey was also chipping on the next day after application. I have zero interest to try Zoyas color lock system. First, I think that it is expensive. Second, my nails don't stain and they are quite smooth - so for me the basecoat feels like totally unnecessary extra step in the manicure. Third, I hate fast dry drops.

So I really need to find a fast drying topcoat that works with Zoyas. I'm open to all suggestions!

Rimmel Pompous - a glistening true purple

Rimmel is probably my favorite supermarket brand. They have some excellent mascaras and I do like their nail polish. Formula is good - I like especially the 60 seconds version. It keeps the promise and dries fast - and covers with two coats. I could use more shades, though. For some reason they are not importing all colors to Finland. And that's really a shame, the palette is quite adventurous for a supermarket brand.

This beauty is Pompous. A sophisticated, shimmery shade of purple, more mysterious or regal than vampy. Blue and red tones are quite well balanced in this shade, I'm quite tempted to call this a true purple. Also the shimmer is a mix of blue and magenta shimmer, slightly accented with crystal coloured twinkle. It might have a wintery feel on it, but this shade of purple looks really good with slightly tanned skin, too. So I won't bury it on the bottom of the stash for the summer. I might get that feel for purple nails, anyway.

Color Club Power Play: neon can be so good for you!

Color Club has two neon collections, and this bright purple Power Play is from the older Flower Power collection, so this is really old news. I really dig the colour, it is very lively in different lighting conditions, the colour changes from deep fuchsia to unbelievably bright purple, it almost vibrates with the light. Being a neon color it is also surprisingly wearable.

I had to do some photoshop magic for the image to show off the nature of this color - so please don't mind about the slightly weird skin color in this pic. "Slightly weird", well, my hand could pass for a hand of undead in some slightly nail fetishist horror flick...

This polish dries almost matte, so a layer of shiny topcoat is really necessary for this manicure. The color is not easiest to work with, the consistency is bit stringy and goopy, but fortunately two coats were enough for perfect coverage.