Sparkly Zoya's: "Storm"

Hello Ladies!  The sparkly-themed Zoya posts continue....this time with the final polish I own from the "Ornate" collection - the lovely "Storm"...Storm is a true black jelly with the same micro-fine diamond holographic particle finish found in collection mates Aurora and Blaze.  The depth of this polish is fabulous, it's a galaxy in a bottle. 


Zoya Storm - artificial light

I've been looking for a true black (not a crumby charcoal-y black) holo for a looooong time. There are many out there, but I want the one.  My mind was finally made up by this fantastic post from Jen at the PolishAholic...in it she compares Zoya 'Storm', A England 'Bridal Veil', Butter London 'The Black Knight' and Girly Bits 'Into the Night' (scroll to the bottom of her post to find the swatch).  For my money, "Storm" is the clear winner from this bunch....Also checkout this great comparison on Globe & Nail of Storm with "Starry Night" by Picture Polish.  It shows that while the particles are similar, Storm is a much truer black base.  That's right ladies, I've done the legwork so you don't have to...ain't I kind? Seriously though, I give big props to all those lovely blogger gals out there that have made my shopping easier (and my bank balance significantly less....).

Zoya Storm - artificial light

As with its collection-mates I have nothing but praise for the quality, wear-time and formula on this.  It's fantastic and I'm so pleased to finally be able to add it to my stash.  This is what I had hoped to find in OPI's "My Private Jet" (which was controversially reformulated, see this archive post from the PolishAddict) but sadly I got the crappy reformulated version, which just looks like speckly charcoal with virtually no holo at all.  The disappointment with 'MPJ' is what started my long-term lemming for the true black sparkle-fest polish that is finally satisfied by Storm :)

Zoya Storm - artificial light

In all these swatches I'm wearing my habitual two coats of colour with a single coat each of NE and HK girl topcoat.  I bought my bottle from the Nail and Beauty Link (link in the supplier's page) for a bargain £6.

Zoya Storm - artificial light

So what about you ladies? Have you got a polish lemming that you've been chasing down all these years?  For me there's nothing quite like that feeling of swiping on the first stripe and thinking 'Yes!! this is exactly what I was looking for!"

That rounds out my "Ornate" collection polishes...next up will be a couple from the more recent "Zenith" collection: Peyton and Dream...

Until then :)

New York State of Mind

Today's NOTD is a new brand to me, and a fairly new brand to the UK - Morgan Taylor.  Morgan Taylor polishes are owned by the same company that make Gelish polishes, and as far as I know the brand was released in the US earlier this year.  It was only available in the UK to trade customers until really recently, but I'm now happy to report that Sally Salon supplies is now stocking a wide range (63!) of these polishes on the high street!



New York State of Mind by Morgan Taylor - Artificial Light

New York State of Mind is a black jelly polish packed with micro glitters in a range of colours - predominantly pink and blue hexes and squares.  I'm wearing two coats here, with NE base and SV top coat.  I couldn't photograph this until a day later, so there's some tip wear on show too (sorry).  Coverage was good, no VNL, and the finish was fairly smooth for a glitter of this density.



New York State of Mind by Morgan Taylor - Artificial Light

Formula was not brilliant to be honest, I had some issues with drag, but in this case I think its the result of being such a dense glitter.  What bothered me about this one was that overall I found the effect of this polish on the nail rather underwhelming.  I really wanted to be whelmed by it, but it just doesn't quite live up to the promise in the bottle.  Is there anything more disappointing than a polish that looks better in the bottle than on the nail?



Ooooh sparkly!

I mean look at it! Isn't that soooo pretty! It's a sparkle bomb but on the nail it doesn't have the same POP! factor.  In the spirit of fairness, perhaps this polish suffered a bit by being the mani I replaced the stonking Klaatu Barada Nikto with, frankly any polish isn't going to compete with that one for sparkle-factor.  All in all though, this polish left me feeling 'meh', which isn't a good thing.  My collection is large enough that even my favourites only get used a handful of times so I suspect it'll be a long while before this one gets another go around.

That being said, there is a really wide range of colours out there, so perhaps I'd be more excited by one of those.  I'll certainly give MT another go.  I particularly want to try Under the Stars but sadly it doesn't look like this is currently one of the shades Sallys stocks.





 

New York State of Mind - Macro

The price point for these is £10.99, so around OPI/Nails Inc prices, and that seems fair.  The quality was good, wear time was similar (if a little less than OPI, but with a glitter polish that's not a fair comparison), and I really like the bottle design.  The brush was good too, not as great as the OPI pro-wide (but then what is?).  I really want to like this brand, it's got a good look and a good range of shades.  Have you tried any Morgan Taylor polishes? Do you have a shade you'd recommend? I'm always on the hunt for good tips :)

CrowsToes Shoot the Butterfly

Dipping my toes (and fingers) into the pool of great Indie polishes out there with Crowstoes "Shoot the Butterfly" - this is just the second Indie I've tried and I'm impressed! I was unsure what to expect really, in comparison to the big brands, but so far I'm very pleased!

First a quick apology on the swatches - I had significant tip shrinkage here and it's due to my elderly bottle of Seche top coat and nothing to do with the Crowstoes.

 



Crows Toes Shoot the Butterfly - Sunlight

Shoot the Butterfly is a charcoal black jelly base with shiny orange hex glitters, teeny tiny matt white hex particles and microscopic round holo glitters.  Shown here are two coats atop black undies (No7 "Just Black") with NE base and Seche topcoat.  From swatches I've seen online (and even these pics actually) I was expecting that in real life it would have more of a jelly look than it seemed to have.  I think that next time I'll use a paler undie - perhaps a charcoal grey for a smoky look...

Crows Toes Shoot the Butterfly - Artificial Light

This polish is just so so pretty, and perfect for Autumn.  I know that it's meant to be inspired by monarch butterflies, but for me the orange and black reminds me of Halloween, of pumpkins and bonfires and fancy dress.  It's enchanting, and this is officially the polish that I have received the most compliments on.  I have fancy nails all the time, but this polish really caught everyone's attention and even garnered compliments from MEN! Can you imagine? Boys that notice nail polish? Miraculous!

Crows Toes Shoot the Butterfly - Artificial Light - Macro

I bought this lovely from Rainbow Connection for £10.25.   It won't be my last Crowstoes polish that's for sure (now I want Boat Drinks, My Favourite Amazon.....sigh, how long till payday?)