KBShimmer: A Selection of Winter 2012 Swatches and Review!

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers!  Happy Sunday to you all and Happy Hanukkah to my fellow readers who began to celebrate last night!  Today, I have a wonderful indie collection to share with you!

KB Shimmer released their Winter collection last month and I have five of these glitter beauties to share with you today!  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

Above:  1 coat of KBShimmer Candy Cane Crush over 2 coats LCN Tokyo Expression

First up is Candy Cane Crush.  Since this is a glitter topper, I put it over a dark grey.  Candy Cane Crush is multiple sized glitter from tiny to large in a bright red and pure white in a clear base.  It's adorable and really does look like a crushed Candy Cane!  Also, it's scented like peppermint!  This polish was pretty easy to use, some of the really large glitters required a bit of fishing out but they went on smooth and evened out with top coat!

Above:  2 coats of Cocoa Nut

Cocoa Nut is a gorgeous milk brown chocolate base full of multi colored pink glitter in different sizes and shapes, including irregular flakes.  It's also full of a gold micro shimmer that really adds a lot of depth.  It reminds me of truffles or hot cocoa with raspberries!  I love how rich this color looks on the nails.  The formula was great, opaque in two coats and evened out with one coat of top coat!

Above:  3 coats of Hex Appeal

I think Hex Appeal is my new favorite glitter nail polish!  Hex Appeal is a navy almost jelly like base full of magenta, blue and silver hex glitter in different sizes with tiny bar glitters as well.  I LOVE it!  I used three thin coats since the base is fairly sheer but with three coats, I had full opacity.  The glitters came out really easily and evened out with one coat of top coat!

Above:  3 coats of Snow Way!

Snow Way! is an adorable polish that actually looks like falling snow to me!  The base is a light milky blue full of multi sized hexagonal white matte glitters.  I love it!  The formula was a bit thick so I found that 3 thin coats worked best for full coverage.

Above:  2 coats of Sugar Plum Faerie

Sugar Plum Faerie is a pink toned plum milky jelly base full of purple, bright green an pink glitters in different sizes and shapes.  I really love how the green is so contrasting!  This polish is really rich and fun for winter time!  This polish was really easy to use, no fishing for glitter is necessary and it was opaque in 2 coats!

All in all, I LOVED this collection!  Really great showing from KBShimmer for Winter!  The glitters are fun and different and all of the formulas were really easy to use.  All of these polishes and the rest of the Winter collection are available now at the KBShimmer Website for $8.75 each!

What did you think of this polish?  Must have? Any Dupes?

The products in this post were sent to me for my unbiased review. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Dior Garden Party Spring 2012 - Vernis Featuring Forget Me Not and Waterlily Swatches and Review

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers!  For this afternoon's post, I have the latest polishes released by the House of Dior.  Dior's entire Spring 2012 makeup line is called Garden Party and is full of pastels and floral themes.  One of the biggest themes for the nail polish is the fact that they are scented!

Ah look at those beauties!  But scented?  I personally am not a fan of ANYTHING scented.  I am very sensitive to smells and don't even use scented hand lotion, so I wasn't sure how I would feel about these polishes.  But now, without further ado, on to the polish!

Above:  2 coats of Forget Me Not

Forget Me Not is a gorgeous, red based grape purple shade.  It has a hint of dustiness to it that really makes it beautiful and it's a bit darker than a lot of the purple popping up this spring so it's fairly unique in that sense!  As usual with Dior, the formula was perfect, it had a ton of pigment and was fully opaque in 2 coats.

Above:  2 coats of Waterlily

I am in love with Waterlily!  It's a gorgeous, minty green that has a blue base so it doesn't make me look yellow and it's packed with a fine shimmer that almost looks pearly!  It's stunning.  Fully opaque in 2 coats, tons of pigment, great formula, this is one of the best mint green polishes I have ever seen!

So, we all know that I think Dior makes a spectacular product, but here is why I can't keep these polishes.  I find that the "scent" which is supposed to be roses is simply overpowering.  At first, I thought it was just when it was wet that the smell would be so strong so I swatched these both on a nail wheel, put top coat on them, and let them sit overnight.  The smell was still so strong the next day I had to throw the nail wheel out.  Now, keep in mind that I know I am very sensitive to scented products and that I always smell things very strongly, but the boyfriend, who has no issue with scents, thought it was fairly strong as well.  So, if you don't mind getting a strong whiff of a very perfume scented flower every time you have your hands near your face, then these colors are absolutely stunning and a dream to apply.  However if you are someone who is not into scents, flowers or perfume, I'd recommend skipping these and buying one of the other amazing Diors that isn't scented.  Since these polishes are Limited Edition, they are being sold for $23 and are available at Nordstrom, Dior's website and most Dior counters.

What do you think of these polishes?  Any dupes?  Any must haves?  What do you think of scented polishes?