The “Nail Polish ABC” tag is out there, folks! It’s making the rounds of YouTube at the moment, and I’ve enjoyed watching videos of this tag from several of my favorite YouTube nail ladies. I believe this tag originated with Lisa Hendy’s channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/lisahendy7/videos). She is a great nail YouTuber, and I love watching her videos. They always pick me up when I’m having a bad day, or just when I want to see some beautiful polish and nail art. I love her positive and fun attitude.
So, I decided to jump on the tag bandwagon. No one actually tagged me. I’m just an avid YouTube watcher and occasional commenter; no one actually knows my blog exists — ha, ha! But this seemed fun and a little silly. I also thought it would be a good way to shop my stash a little bit. I’m always up for a chance to do that.
For this challenge, I went through my stash and picked out one polish for each letter of the alphabet. I tried to do a mix of mainstream and indies, although there might be a few more indie polishes in here. More and more, it seems I turn to the indie polish world to satisfy my obsession. I tried to get a mixture of new, kind of new, and oldies in here. And let me just say: This was HARD! It took me a whole day to go through all my swatch pictures and pick my favorite for each letter. I realize typing that out loud makes me sound a bit pathetic. But, you know … polish life! Woo Hoo!
I decided to break this into 2 posts in the interest of keeping things more manageable. Aaaand, because I tend to get chatty.
A is for …
Zoya, Alicia!
Alicia is from the Fall/Winter 2016 Urban Grunge Collection. It is a silver holographic with hints of gold. I don’t feel like the gold shows up all that much in the bottle, but you can see it on the nail. It’s not a completely obvious, in-your-face sort of thing, but that gold shift shows up as light hits the nail from different angles. I feel the holo in this polish is more subtle than in Zoya’s other scattered holographics. But the delicate holo combined with the gentle color shift is just … wowza. It’s pretty good in 2 coats, but 3 gives you even more coverage and shift.
Initially, I was going to pick China Glaze, Ahoy for the letter A. Ahoy is a fabulous polish, and it was the first one I thought of for this letter. But then, I remembered beautiful Alicia. And I knew this was The One. I remember when the Urban Grunge Collection came out, this was the polish I wanted right away. I wanted Merida, too, but Alicia is the one who immediately stole my heart. I was obsessed with this polish when I first got it. It is so delicate, like something out of a fairy tale.
B is for …
CrowsToes, Buck Yoooouu!
Buck Yoooouu! is one of my newest indie acquisitions. If you’ve been hanging out in this blog at all, you already know that. So, of course, picking it for the letter B was an absolute no-brainer. I love everything about this polish, from the name all the way to how it sparkles off my nails. And that golden-orange! Argh! Love it!!
C is for …
LePolish, Candyland Cathedral!
Candyland Cathedral is a gorgeous, light blue crelly with copper glitters and flakes of different shapes and sizes. This is another newish polish to my stash. I chatted it up fairly recently, so I won’t go into a lot of detail here. But I will say this: It is GORGEOUS! I love this color combination. It’s magical.
D is for …
Colores de Carol, Demeter!
Demeter is from the Fall 2016 Harvest Goddess Collection. It is a dark, navy-leaning blue jelly base with silver glitter and scattered holographic. It’s beautiful in 2 easy coats.
This is one of my favorite polishes of life. I adore everything about it, from the jelly finish to the beautiful, twinkling holo to the amazing formula. And it wears so well for me. I once traveled with this polish. It was an emergency trip, and I had to pack quickly. I already had Demeter on, so I just grabbed this bottle in case I needed to touch up or redo my mani. I was out of town for a week. And I didn’t have to touch up or redo my manicure even once. A whole week! That is amazing! I really wish I had a second bottle of this. Or that Colores de Carol would bring it back. *sigh*
E is for …
OPI, Espresso Your Style!
Espresso Your Style is from the Holiday 2006 Kick Up Your Heels Collection. It is a reddish brown with slight purple undertones and gold shimmer. It’s got a great formula and is opaque in 2 fabulous coats.
This is one of my “wanna wear it for Fall” polishes, so that’s probably why it immediately stuck in my mind for the letter E. It’s also one of my very favorite browns. And, I think, one of my oldest polishes. I love, love, love the combination of this base color and that gold shimmer. It seems to glow on the nail.
F is for …
A.England, Fotheringhay Castle!
Fotheringhay Castle is from the Elizabeth & Mary Collection. It is the most spectacular light green with gold shimmer and a subtle holographic. It has a perfect formula. It could probably be a 1-coater, although I generally do 2.
This green! I love how golden and lush it is. It reminds me of trees in the late spring, when the lighter greens are just starting to deepen down into their darker summer colors. I think it’s one of those colors that will work for any season. It’s perfect for Spring and Summer, but it also has a definite Fall feeling to it. I can see it working for Winter, too — maybe as part of holiday nail art.
G is for …
Native War Paints, Gum Would Be Perfection!
Gum Would Be Perfection is from the 2016 I’ll Be There For You Collection. It is a bubble gum pink base with linear holographic and gold shimmer. It has a beautiful formula that is opaque in 2 coats. There are some brush strokes with this polish, but they are fairly subtle.
Can you believe I would have a pink on my ABC list? I know!! It’s kinda crazy. But this pink is so spectacular. This was an unexpected favorite of mine from this collection. I love the color tone and that gold shimmer. It’s so beautiful.
H is for …
Ever After, Hey There, Delilah!
This is a grayed-out sea foam green with red, blue, and darker green flakes and a scattering of linear holographic. This was part of my very first Polish Pickup order, which was in August. It’s part of the Old Hollywood theme for that month, and based on the movie Samson and Delilah.
I talked about this one recently, so I won’t go too chatty about it here. It is really fabulous. I love the serene and calm color tone in the base. And the colors of the flakes contrast with it so perfectly. On a side note, I kind of also miss my much longer nails. They were so pretty in pictures. But not terribly workable for real life. Sigh.
I is for …
Zoya, Ibiza!
Ibiza is from the Fall 2009 Dare Collection. It is a dark and moody blue that lies somewhere between navy and indigo with blue shimmer. The shimmer lightens up the base color and gives the polish a beautiful glow on the nail. It has a fabulous formula that is easily opaque in 2 coats.
I love me some dark, vampy, and moody blues! And this beauty is one of the best in my collection. Fabulous formula, beautiful color tone, and it wears really well. What’s not to love? It’s great on the toes, too.
J is for …
OPI, Jade is the New Black!
Jade is the New Black is from the 2010 Hong Kong Collection. It is a mid-tone, creamy green. Perhaps it could qualify as a dark jade. The formula is great. It is smooth and creamy and opaque in 2 easy coats.
This was a total no-brainer for the letter J. Because it is my absolute favorite, most perfect OPI green! It looks like heck in the bottle, but it’s fabulous on the nail.
K is for …
Pretty Serious, Khepri’s Amulet!
Khepri’s Amulet is part of the Museum of Nailentology Collection. It is green and shimmery with just a touch of gold under the surface. And it has a fantastic formula. It’s nicely opaque in 2 coats. But I sometimes use 3 to deepen the color as much as possible.
So this is fairly new to my collection. It was part of my large Pretty Serious purchase during their rebranding clearance sale. Oh my gosh, but I was obsessed with this polish! Am obsessed with this polish! I wore it two times in a row when I first got it. It’s like jewels and beetle wings. It’s so beautiful and endlessly fascinating on its own, and it looks deep and gorgeous over a black base.
L is for …
A. England, Let Me In!
Let Me In is part of the Emily Bronte Collection. It is a rich berry base with holographic. It has that gorgeously wonderful A. England formula, too. It’s pretty much good in 1 coat. With 2, you would get a deeper color.
This is the most perfect berry. Ever. I love it oh-so-much, and it’s one of those polishes I could wear again and again. I don’t think I would ever get tired of it. I think it’s great for pretty much any season.
M is for …
Nvr Enuff Polish, Murder at the Marquee!
Murder at the Marquee is part of the Fall 2017 Copper Carnival Collection. It is a rusty-red base with silver galaxy chrome chameleon glitters, gold holo shift, copper spark, and linear holo. It has a fantastic formula. It’s nearly opaque in 1 coat, and 2 coats brings it to absolute perfection on the nail.
This is one of the newest polishes in my stash. But I had to feature it in here because it’s just so perfect. That red. Those glitters. That coppery beautifulness. There is so much packed into this polish, and all of it is fan-freaking-tastic. I love it!
Whoo!! That was a lot of polish gorgeousness and fun! There were some old favorites and some new favorites in here. Sometimes, I feel like I talk about the same polishes over and over again — you know, too much. Or too often. But it seems my old favorites never change. I just add new ones into the mix as I move along the road in my journey toward polish happiness.
Hopefully, I will get the second part of this fun little tag up sometime next week.
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