Birthday Haul--Nail Polish!

So my amazing boyfriend picked out a bunch of nail polish for me for my birthday. I drive him absolutely crazy, because when we go shopping I always end up spending at least 20 minutes in the nail polish aisle, looking at the new colors or trying to match a specific color up. The fact that he even set foot in the aisle is kinda brave :) But I'm pretty stoked about all of the new colors I have!

Top, left to right: Maybelline Color Show in Pedal to the Metal, Revlon Crackle in So Over It, Nicole by OPI texture coat in Turquoise Texture, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Rockstar Pink, and L'Oreal in The Mystic's Fortune. Bottom, left to right: Studio M in Gel-ous, L'Oreal in The Temptress' Power, Sally Hansen Diamond Shine Topcoat, and Essie in No Place Like Chrome.

Rockstar Pink is a glittery pink jellylike polish. It's a little less hot pink than it looks in this picture, and is packed with multicolored micro glitter. In the bottle, it's a lot more pink than on the nail:

This is only one coat. The coverage is awesome! On the nail, though, the multicolored glitter definitely overpowers the pink color of the formula. It is a pretty rockstar color though, I can't wait to wear it out!

 I've been looking for a good chrome-y nail polish FOREVER, which is why I have so many silvers in my birthday haul. I've spent hours looking in beauty supply stores, pharmacies, and grocery stores to find one that fits what I want. No Place Like Chrome is one of the best formulas I've found, and Essie is an amazing brand. This is a silvery polish with an almost mirrorlike finish. It looks like a normal silvery polish in the bottle, maybe with a little bit less glitter and a metallic tone to the color.

No Place Like Chrome is the one on the left. As you can see, it has a very different formula from other metallic silver polishes, and has better coverage. It has a very shiny, reflective sheen to it. The only complaint I have is that brush strokes are really obvious when it is applied to the nail, but that is pretty typical of most metallic chrome-y polishes.

L'Oreal's The Temptress' Power is such a crazy color! It's a duochrome polish that looks orange in some lights, and greenish in others. The picture above is without flash, and you can see the orange properties, but when the light hits it just right:

It definitely appears green!! I can't wait to wear this polish. I feel like it is perfect for fall, and for some reason it reminds me of a caramel apple.

On the nail, polish appears more orange. Even with light hitting it (excuse the crappy picture), it appears to be orange with green flecks. The pictures don't do it justice though, it definitely looks like more of a duochrome polish in person. The application is a little streaky, and the coats are pretty sheer--I had to do two or three coats before I was happy with the coverage.

Studio M's Gel-ous is a green, glittery gel polish. I have other glitter polishes from this brand, and while I like them, the application is extremely watery. This is not the case with Gel-ous, however. This polish goes on perfectly.

I was amazed that it was an almost opaque, glittery green after only one coat! This polish is absolutely packed with glitter, and the application is even and not streaky.

Revlon Crackle in So Over It is a silver crackle with tiny metallic glitter. For whatever reason, Revlon polishes don't last long on my nail. The formula is always awesome going on, but the color needs to constantly be touched up. I do, however, love their color selection--and I always find myself buying them! Hopefully this crackle polish restores my faith in their brand, because I sincerely do love it. This would look awesome over Essie in Fiesta, or OPI's Russian Navy.

Yet another Crackle Polish: Nicole by OPI in Turquoise Texture. It is a gorgeous, shimmery peacock blue with a metallic sheen to it. I didn't swatch the crackle polishes because they never turn out right on the swatches, but I am stoked to try this one.

L'Oreal's The Mystic's Fortune is a gorgeous, metallic indigo. The formula in the bottle reminds me a lot of OPI's Russian Navy, albeit a little bit lighter and with more of a royal blue than a purple hue.

On the nail, the coverage is amazing. It took only one coat to get a gorgeous, streak-free color. I've been extremely impressed with all of L'Oreal's polishes! Definitely a brand I will be buying from now on.

Finally, we have Maybelline Color Show in Pedal to the Metal. I have been wanting to try this line for a while, and I was amped to finally get my hands on one. Compared to the other polishes, though, I wasn't as impressed with this. The packaging is much cooler and more modern, but the application left a lot to be desired.

Pedal to the Metal is closer to the bottom. It came out of the bottle very watery. As I applied it to the nail, it took a lot of strokes to get it even close to being visible, and it took a few coats to get opaque coverage. Maybe I got a bad batch, but compared to other silvers that I've tried, I wasn't impressed.

So, that's it! Let me know what you think, especially if you've used any of these polishes before.