Cupcake Polish American Beauty Collection Swatches and Review

*Press Sample*

Cupcake Polish is coming out with a super holo collection called American Beauty. Each Polish is named after a city here in the United States and all of them are gorgeous strong linear holos!

I was sent three of these for review:

Cupcake Polish - Chicago

Chicago is an amazing, unique, stunning light purple. I have a TON of purple holos, but this one is totally different from all of them. It's kind of between pink and purple... maybe orchid? The pictures portray it way more blue-toned purple than it is in person. It's much brighter and pinker. And freaking awesome.

Cupcake Polish - Dallas

Dallas is a bright coral red base with amazing holo flame. I now have over 200 holo polishes and this is absolutely unique in my collection. Most of the red holos I have lean very pink/fuchsia, but this one has a little bit of both pink and orange which gives it the overall coral color. I'm not usually a huge fan of reds, but I think this is my favorite of these three.

Cupcake Polish - New York

New York is a vibrant teal blue. Although I have quite a few teal holos, this is one of the most saturated ones, and the holo is super strong without making it look greyed out.


All three polishes had perfect, easy to work with formulas. They were all almost opaque in one thin coat, and completely opaque in two. They have none of the dragging, patchy issues that some holos have and don't require any special base coat. I actually swatched all of these with no base coat because I'd been warned that they might stain some and I wanted to test. Honestly, I had very minor staining with both Dallas (red) and New York (teal) (none with Chicago), but all it took was an extra clean cotton ball and it all came right off. I think a single coat of regular base coat would probably help with that too.

I have to say, I'm incredibly impressed with these. I've been on a huge holo kick lately, and I've been scouting out all of the very best brands. Cupcake Polish is definitely one of them. There are three more polishes in the American Beauty collection:

Los Angeles - Pink
Denver - Green
Miami - Orange

(Swatches for these can be seen in the shop)

The American Beauty collection is going to be available (in somewhat limited quantities) in the Cupcake Polish shop on September 29th at 12pm Central time. They will be $12 for a full size bottle.

What do you think of these Beauties?? Are you as enamored as I am? Seeing as I only got mini bottles to review I will be in line for some full size bottles.  I'm dying for Dallas, Miami, Denver, and Chicago!!

(These products were sent for review.)

Pixi Polishes: Swatches and Review

This is the first I'd heard of Pixi polishes. Here are three that are perfect summer colors:

(no topcoat)

(with topcoat)

Pixi - Vivid Coral

Vivid Coral is my favorite of the three. It's bright neon watermelon red-coral jelly that is mostly opaque in three coats and dries with a satin finish. The formula is nice and easy to work with, but it IS a jelly so it still shows a bit of VNL at three coats. But isn't it just SOO juicy? It makes me crave a watermelon Jolly Rancher!

Pixi - Very Violet

Very Violet is bright magenta purple creme that's completely opaque in two coats. A typical neon purple, but I actually don't have any in my collection to compare it to! It's extremely vibrant - much more that the photo shows.

Pixi Very Violet with one coat Max Factor Fantasy Fire

This makes an excellent base for Fantasy Fire that varies from the typical dark blues and purples. It is really glowy in person; you'll have to try it to see what I mean.

Pixi - Paradise Pink

The last one is Paradise Pink, a bubblegum pink creme. This one is quite cool toned and therefore doesn't really flatter my skin. The formula is wonderful: two easy coats and fully opaque. Nice color and application, just not my type.

Overall, I liked two of the three Pixi polishes I tried. I'd really like to see Pixi come out with a wider range of colors, though (greens, golds, and glitters please!).

Pixi polishes are available for $8 each on Target.com but they appear to be on backorder at the moment. Zappos has Pixi polishes as well, but none of the names seem to match, so I'm not sure if they carry these colors.

Zoya Rica and Tanzy: Swatches and Review

One of my favorite things lately is to paint the nails on each hand a different color. I usually try to pick colors that are similar enough so that it's not obvious at first glance that it's actually two different colors. My favorite combo so far has been Zoya Rica and Tanzy from the Sunshine collection.

Zoya - Tanzy and Zoya - Rica

Tanzy is an amazing light orange base that's absolutely packed with sparkly golden glass flecks. Rica is the same formula except with a coral pink base, and both are absolutely amazing. Zoya's Sparkle (summer 2010) and Sunshine (summer 2011) are two of my favorite collections of all time from any company, which is why I was a little disappointed in the 2012 summer collection. Oh well, maybe next year they'll come out with something even more spectacular!

It started out as one of those "I can't decide which one I want to wear!" days, and since I never actually made a decision, I just ended up painting one hand with Tanzy and one with Rica. Turns out, the crazy gold sparkles in both pulled them together into an awesome mismatched manicure, and I ended up loving the rebel feeling of having two different colors. I will certainly be doing this again!

Both of these are shown at two easy coats, but for some reason these have a longer-than-normal dry time.  They were still slightly dentable after a couple hours even with Cult Nail Wicked Fast (quick dry) topcoat.

Zoya Rica and Tanzy are both available on Zoya's website for $8 each, but if you love gold sparkles, I highly recommend picking up the whole Sunshine set. Every single one is a stunner.

Some fun Valentine's Day colors from Del Sol

Let me start by saying that I'm a BIG fan of Del Sol polishes, and it's probably because there is SO much sun in Arizona. Since many of the polishes change to a pink, red, or maroon in the sun, they make great Valentine's Day colors.

The first one up is Heartbreaker. It's a pretty red glitter indoors - more cool, berry-toned than China Glaze Ruby Pumps (which I actually do not own... can you believe it?! Probably 500+ polishes and I don't even have this cult favorite). In the sun, the color really deepens to a dark berry maroon or burgundy. I would almost call it a dark red grape, but it's not QUITE that purple. Either way it's stunning!

Del Sol - Heartbreaker (shade)

Del Sol - Heartbreaker (sun)

The next one is called Girls Night Out. It starts out as a rosy bright pink with gold shimmer. In the sun it gets very purple, but keeps the gold shimmer.

Del Sol - Girls Night Out (shade)

Del Sol - Girls Night Out (sun)

Next is Pretty in Pink. Indoors it's a white base with HEAVY pink flash. The pink flash really dominates this one, and makes it appear like a pearly cool-toned baby pink. This is three coats, and there is still VNL, but I don't really mind it. Outside it all turns to a soft mid-toned pink. VERY girly!

Del Sol - Pretty in Pink (shade)

Del Sol - Pretty in Pink (sun)

Last but not least, is Secret Crush. It's not really a traditional Valentine's Day polish, but it's my favorite Del Sol polish, so I had to include it. It's such a pretty soft orange coral with a strong blue pearl to it (yes, up close and in the pictures you can see brushstrokes, but I assure you they are not at all noticeable in person - doing three thin coats instead of two thick coats keeps the brushstrokes at bay). Then outside... WOW. It changes to a dusty purple base with that same electric blue pearl, and it's absolutely amazing. I love how much the color changes in this one, and I just adore both "versions" (inside and outside).

Del Sol - Secret Crush (shade)

Del Sol - Secret Crush (sun)

Like I said, I just LOVE Del Sol polishes, but I do have one thing to say about them...

I've heard rumors of "bottles that didn't change color much." I think that this is actually due to the sun available, not the formulation itself. In Arizona, these are wonderful - they change almost instantly and very drastically. However, if you live in a place that's mostly cloudy, you may see little to no change whatsoever. Another thing to note is that if you use any sort of sunscreen (even putting moisturizer with SPF 15 in it on your face using your fingers), there will be NO color change at all. The polishes rely on the UV rays from the sun to change the color, so be sure to try them on days with a high UV index for maximum change.

Also, what do you think of the new larger picture size?